Dear John: Winter-friendly small SUVs

Story by John LeBlanc If there’s one defining season that our country is known for, it’s winter. And for some new car buyers, getting from A to B in the snow, slush and freezing rain of a typical Canadian winter can be challenging at the best of times, but especially if the majority of your […]

Road Test: 2012 Toyota FJ Cruiser

Story and photos by John LeBlanc Six years ago, when its retro-styled FJ Cruiser first went on sale, Japan’s Toyota was the best-selling import automaker here in Canada. The majority of those Toyota and luxury Lexus vehicles sold, though, were achingly conservative in nature, whether to look at or drive. It was almost like Toyota […]

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 […]