The Crank: Will Honda follow Toyota with its own annus horribilis?

By John LeBlanc While the manufacturing crisis in Japan has affected almost every automaker on the planet to some degree, the disaster seems to have particularly hit hard for Honda. And, seemingly, the crisis couldn’t have come at a worse time for the struggling Japanese automaker. Just as rival Toyota was measurably hurt last year as it […]

Comparo: Canada’s Top 6 Selling Cars

[svgallery name=”2011_Cdn_Topsellers”] By John LeBlanc If you’re in the market to buy a new car, one easy check is to look at the top of the sales charts. There, you’ll find that the top-selling passenger cars in Canada are all compact front-wheel-drive, five-passenger, four-door sedans. But which of these best-sellers is the best value? For […]

First Drive: 2011 Chrysler 300/C

Rehabilitated Chrysler sends its gangsta’ sedan off to finishing school By John LeBlanc SAN DIEGO, California – Between the rap star videos and all-too-frequent appearances on television custom car programs, no other recent vehicle in Chrysler’s long history has struck a cord as an icon of American cool as the last 300 and sportier 300C: […]

First Drive: 2011 Kia Optima

Optima Prime Kia continues its product renaissance with a family sedan for drivers By John LeBlanc Key West, Fla. – On average, Canadian new car buyers return to purchase new again about every seven or eight years. If you happen to be one of those buyers today, you may feel like Rumpelstiltskin if you haven’t […]

The Crank: Which are “dumber”?: Newly Americanized VWs, or the people buying them…

By John LeBlanc Recently, over at Automotive News, my colleague Diana T. Kurylko, asked the question that fans of inexpensive German wheels have been pondering for some time now: Is Volkswagen of America cheapening its cars to boost volume at the cost of its German engineering image? Based on the evidence, the answer is a […]

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