The Crank: Is Fiat (literally) stretching its 500 brand too far?

By John LeBlanc Let’s be honest: if BMW’s modern Mini had been a sales flop, we would never have seen the modern Fiat 500. Like the new Mini, the teeny Fiat is cute, cuddly, and fun-to-drive, with styling that harkens back to an original post-World War Two city car. And just as Fiat has copied […]

Top 10s: Collectible Cars of 2012

By John LeBlanc Let’s make this clear: no one buys a new car as an immediate investment. That age-old bugaboo called depreciation ensures that a couple of years down the road (let alone a couple of decades) your new set of wheels won’t be worth what you paid for it when it was driven off […]

Top 10s: 2012 Montreal show must-sees

By John LeBlanc MONTREAL—The Detroit auto show gets all the attention this time of year. But for Canadian new car buyers, the Montréal International Auto Show is a more relevant event. First on the Canadian auto show calendar, automakers use the Québec show to prep for the spring selling season. Held over at the Palais […]

2011 Frankfurt: Worst in Show

By John LeBlanc It’s one thing to put up with the lack of air conditioning, long lineups for the food, seas of bleach blonde dealer wives, and obnoxious videographers pushing and elbowing to get the best angles (you know who you are, Mr. Tripod!). These are all expected at the bi-annual Frankfurt motor show, one […]

Top 10s: New Retro-mobiles

By John LeBlanc You can’t bring back the past. But with some new cars these days, you can certainly try and buy it. Volkswagen’s 1999 New Beetle started the modern retro-mobile (old-fashioned clothes over modern mechanicals) trend. Using an existing front-engine Golf chassis, it was styled to look like the rear-engine “Bug” that became a […]

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