The 2019 MINI Cooper may look the same as its predecessor, but beauty is certainly more than skin deep. With the proliferation of MINI variants these days from the 5-door hatchback, to the Clubman wagon, to the successful MINI Countryman SUV, it’s easy to forget that what started off this back to retro craze for the brand was the basic Cooper three door hatchback. Although the outside may seem similar to the 2014-18 MINI Cooper, the new car is underpinned by parent company BMW’s new UKL platform which has already spawned the second-generation BMW X1, X2, and the latest Clubman and Countryman. Moreover, UKL has also allowed MINI to develop its first plug-in-hybrid, the Countryman Cooper S E ALL4 plug-in hybrid. With MINI’s extraordinarily complicated product launch strategy taking years to completely unroll, the core focus of this review is to evaluate whether the centre of the MINI universe, the...

A 1994 Chrysler all-wheel-drive minivan transported my parents, their friends, and my friends for almost 10 years. For a young immigrant family new to Canada, the Town & Country was ideal, ferrying lumber for the backyard fence, skis for the weekend, or us kids on field trips. When it came time for me to learn how to drive, the van also served as the first vehicle I learnt to drive on. In fact, I even took my driving test in the van. Sure, the Town and Country wasn’t perfect. The driving position was slightly askew, and after the warranty ended, the centre console plastic trim unceremoniously started flaking. Fortunately, my parents were spared from any of the common transmission woes, and the all-wheel-drive system performed flawlessly even towards the end of the vehicle’s life. Minivan travel today Chrysler invented the minivan category over 30 years ago, setting the standard in...

Getting pickup truck owners to convert brands is an immensely difficult task. Even General Motors has somewhat of that issue between its Chevy and GMC offerings, the Silverado and Sierra. Therefore you can imagine how much more of a hill it is to climb for other competing manufacturers. Pickup truck owners continue to wage bragging rights over stats such as towing capacity, horsepower, torque, and more. Often for many buyers, the final purchase decision still comes down to brand loyalty. Therefore, for manufacturers, it’s an all-out war as the designers crack their heads to conjure up the latest innovative storage solution, increasingly more luxurious interiors, and new technological toys to improve not only ride and handling, but day-to-day safety and usability as a work vehicle. What’s new? The second, third, and forth generation Rams all featured a front-end design inspired by a big-rig with its oversized front grille. Although this...

The Q60 is Infiniti’s stab at the premium sports coupe market. Based on the Infiniti Q50 sedan, it has only one Japanese rival, the Lexus RC coupe. However, the field is currently crowded by European rivals such as the Audi A5 coupe, the Mercedes-Benz C-Class Coupe, as well as the venerable BMW 4-Series. Infiniti has an uphill battle as these brands currently own the lion's share of the market partly due to their upscale reputations for heritage, quality, and sportiness. What’s the appeal? These days, increasing number of luxury auto manufacturers are offering their formerly rear-wheel-drive only coupes with all-wheel-drive variants. No longer does owning a sports coupe have to be an oxymoron to the word “winter”. Just swap out the all-season or summer tires for a set of good snow tires, and you are set to go for a Canadian winter. However, two door coupes still fall into the...

BMW has been relentless focusing on the SUV/coupe sector for the last few years. The X4 is just one of the products of this focus. When it was first introduced in 2014, many people, auto journalists included, were perplexed by its purpose. More expensive than the X3 it was based on, almost as costly as the larger X5, but less practical, one wondered why it even existed. However, it’s obvious now that BMW knew what it was doing as the old X4 sold like hotcakes moving more than 200,000 units globally in the four years since its introduction. In Canada alone, over 4,400 units have been sold to date. It’s no surprise then, that Munich’s finest engineers and marketers have followed up with an all-new second generation X4, based on the new-for-2018 G01 BMW X3. Following the same basic recipe as the original, the X4 now sits neatly between the...

A few years ago, Jaguar was still playing to its old-world aesthetics. The S-Type sedan played on the lavish chrome, the quad circular headlamps, and the traditional leaping Jaguar hood ornament that recalled the British firm’s heyday in the 1960’s. There was no doubt that driving it could make you feel like you borrowed your great uncle’s car. Exterior When the XF made it debut in late 2007, its utter rejection of retro design was something fresh, something new, and something the world hadn’t seen before from Jaguar. It was this shake up of some of the design vestiges of the 1950s and 1960s that arguably allowed the firm to move forward with its design language. The XF has now been in its second-generation platform since 2016. For model year 2019, it gets some improvements in exterior and interior trim, as well as technology, in order to keep it competitive...

The US is Canada’s biggest trading partner, and conversely, Canada is the US’s second biggest trading partner (behind China). Sharing the world’s longest land border at 8,893 kms, both our countries are literally joined at the hip physically, economically, and often politically. Generally speaking, Canadians have often taken the lead of our American friends when it comes to many matters. However when it comes to the next level of car shopping experience, GM Canada has chosen Canada, and specifically their Cadillac portfolio of luxury vehicles, to pilot an all new way to bring the showroom to consumers’ personal spaces where they can relax and ask questions in a low pressure situation. What is it Cadillac Live? Recent data from Google shows that most car buyers start their research online versus through a dealership visit. Moreover, in the retail sector, 74 per cent of people will likely switch brands if they...

South Korea is among the most advanced automobile-producing countries in the world today. Did you know that the automotive industry in South Korea is the 5th largest in the world when measured by automobile unit production and automobile export volume? Established in 1967, Hyundai Motor Co. has grown into the Hyundai Motor Group, with more than two dozen auto-related subsidiaries and affiliates. Hyundai Motors − which employs 900,000 worldwide, has seven manufacturing bases outside of South Korea including Brazil, China, the Czech Republic, India, Russia, Turkey and the U.S. They sold a staggering 4.4 million vehicles globally in 2012. Their latest effort, the totally redesigned 2019 Hyundai Santa Fe, signals the South Korean auto industry’s coming of age stronger and clearer than ever. State of the Union The forth generation Santa Fe competes squarely in a marketplace now filled with other midsized crossover vehicles. These crossovers blur the line between...

The “Continental” nameplate has long been associated with the best that Lincoln has to offer, but is it still the company's flagship? Introduced in 1939 as a personal vehicle of Edsel Ford, the only child of Henry Ford, the “Continental” name referred to the exterior of the coach-built convertible having been given European “continental” styling elements such as a rear-mounted spare tire. Produced for over 55 years across nearly eight decades, as of 2019, there have been ten generations of vehicles with the “Lincoln Continental” moniker. Within the company model line itself, the Continental hasn’t always been the flagship model having served several roles from its base model sedan to flagship sedan. There was even a short-lived Continental Division back in the mid-1950s. After 2002, Lincoln withdrew the Continental, replacing it with the MKS in 2009. But in 2017, after a 14 year absence, the nameplate was revived again, this...

The Acura RDX is among the most affordable compact-luxury crossovers. Mildly sporty and all-new for the 2019 model year, the RDX is a lot more stylized than its predecessor which was often overlooked in the world of compact SUVs. As much as Honda would like to admit it, the Acura nameplate still lacks the respect that Audi, BMW, Mercedes, and even Lexus have. Arguably, the company has to have its products stand out even more so than its rivals, which means ensuring superb build quality and advanced technology at more affordable prices. Is the latest RDX worthy of consideration? Does it have more charisma? That’s what we’re here to find out. Third time’s the charm? This third-generation RDX is all-new from the ground up. Based on an Acura-specific platform, the RDX is the first to be designed and engineered in America, with styling design conducted in Los Angeles, California at...

The new Navigator is big news for Lincoln, the luxury brand best known for warmed-over Fords until just a couple of years ago. For much of the 20th century, it was Ford versus GM, or Lincoln versus Cadillac. This Detroit rivalry was a big deal. It was not just about bragging rights, but it was also about national pride in and for the US of A. America was the leader of the free world, and therefore was also supposed to be the best of the best at building luxury cars. Today, things are a bit different. After a few years of stagnation, Lincoln is mounting its strongest offensive yet as the traditional luxury car segment evolves. The Navigator is not just the largest, most opulent, and most powerful Lincoln ever; it delivers what an American luxury vehicle arguably has to be in this day and age. And Lincoln has chosen...

BMW has been a major player in the SUV sector ever since the company introduced the car-like X5 back in 1999. The X5 was one of the first SUVs to blend in the practicality of an SUV, the look and feel of a premium luxury vehicle, and handling of not just any car but one worthy of being associated with the “Ultimate Driving Machine”. The X5 was one of the gold standards that helped to redefine the SUV market over the last two decades or so, but will the X2 do the same? Probably not. Nonetheless,  it does help to broaden BMW’s offerings as consumers become more discerning, and the competition continues to be more plentiful and stiffer than ever. What is it? Yes, the X2 is a new name and yet another addition in the BMW range. The X2 is an interesting addition to BMW’s lineup in that it...

Since its debut in 2002, the Mazda6 has been the plucky alternative family sedan. Offered with a performance turbocharged engine, all-wheel-drive, and a manual gearbox as the sole transmission offering, the Mazda6 has been the hot-handling counterpoint to stalwarts like the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord. But fast forward to 2019. These days, virtually any sedan you can name off the top of your head is being overwhelmed in the marketplace by crossovers and SUVs. So what happens when you become the alternative to the alternative? Third time’s the charm Credit where it’s deserved to Mazda Canada for not giving up even though it has three successful SUVs in the form of the CX-3, CX-5, and CX-9. Yet if Mazda isn't giving up on the family sedan market, it is giving in somewhat to the desires of sedan consumers. For the third time in five model years, the Mazda 6...

Can you remember when the iPhone 4S was released by Apple? It was shipped with iOS 5, which was the first introduction of a new automated voice control system called Siri. It was also the first introduction of iCloud. Why am I writing about the iPhone 4S and the introduction of Siri and iCloud? Because the year was 2011 and that was when Infiniti first introduced their full-sized body-on-frame QX56 luxo-SUV. Yup, it was actually that long ago...when Siri was first introduced to the world. Amazing! In 2016, the outgoing model actually accounted for about nine per cent of Infiniti’s global sales, with more than 20,708 units sold globally. Rebadged as the QX80 a few years ago, Infiniti’s largest vehicle rumbled along relatively unchanged. However, it received an exterior refresh for 2018 and yes is still one of the few big luxurious yachts still available to two up to 8,500...

Fun fact. Did you know that the Jetta was originally created due to the tastes of North American customers? When the Volkswagen Golf was launched North America markets in 1979, it enjoyed considerable success. However, the company noticed that the hatchback design of the Golf didn’t appeal to American customers who still preferred the traditional three-box configuration of the sedan. Therefore, the solution was to have the Volkswagen stylists essentially graft a trunk onto the Golf’s tail so as to produce a larger saloon/sedan. In not too long of a duration, the Jetta became one of the best-selling European cars in the USA, Canada, and Mexico, and still remains popular in Europe. Sharing is Caring Volkswagen spent much of the (previous) sixth-generation Jetta’s era undoing the harm it did by decontenting the model back when it was last redesigned in 2011. Yes, prices were slashed, but it was done as...