Car reviews
A brace of Audis makes a play for American hearts and wallets
April 8, 2011: 2:07 PM ETAudi's A4 and A6 exemplify the automaker's best qualities: sophisticated design, excellent craftsmanship, and superb road manners. But the company has some catching up to do if it wants to win more American customers.
A pair of Audis showed up on my test drive schedule as winter morphed into spring in the Northeast. They weren't the newest models in the line -- the 2011 A6 is being replaced by the redesigned 2012 model as this is written, and the all-new A7 arrives this month. But they reminded me why I like Audis so much -- and helped me to gauge how close Audi has come to reaching top tier status in the U.S.
2011 Audi A4
Audi is the late arrival to the American market compared with Mercedes-Benz and BMW, and has been trying hard to catch up. So far this year, import luxury car sales have trailed the overall market, but Audi has been outperforming its German rivals, as well as Lexus. It takes more than velocity to compete in this arena, as we shall see.
Revamped a year ago, the compact A4 remains the core of the Audi lineup. Along with its sportier sibling, the S4, it accounts for nearly half of Audi's car sales. Audi has had less success establishing the larger A6 as a second core model; Audi sells only a quarter as many of this model as it sells A4s. That contrasts with Mercedes, where sales of its E-class nearly equal those of the smaller C-class, and BMW, where sales of the 5-series run at about half the rate of the 3-series. More
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2011 Toyota Avalon: No respect
It's the Rodney Dangerfield of passenger cars.
That's right, Toyota's Avalon gets no respect. Ever since it was introduced in 1994, it has been derided as a "Japanese Buick" -- and that was long before Buicks became fashionable.
Many auto writers, perhaps subconsciously recalling their pre-teen years as Go-Kart racers, joked about the obvious efforts made to appeal to mature buyers, like simplified, oversized controls and a suspension more tuned for comfort MORE
Feb 14, 2011 12:27 PM ETPosted in: Car reviews, Toyota -
2011 Ford Explorer LTD: Smooth sailing at a cost
Ford's latest Explorer leaves behind its predecessor's somewhat unsteady platform and delivers superior handling . But is the top-of-the-line LTD model really worth its $50K price tag?
The rise of online car shopping has thankfully given customers the ability to investigate exactly what vehicles a local dealer has in stock along with the window stickers for each offering.
That reduces the opportunity for the ancient bait-and-switch scam of a dealer who advertises MORE
Jan 4, 2011 1:52 PM ETPosted in: Car reviews, Ford, Ford Explorer, Ford Motor Company, MyFord Touch, Sport utility vehicle -
2011 Hyundai Sonata: A late arrival to the hybrid party
Despite a steep price tag and less than stellar drivability, the 2011 Sonata puts Hyundai in the hybrid game, giving shoppers another reason to consider a brand they might have snubbed a few years ago.
In 2010, the Hyundai Sonata came out of nowhere to break into the ranks of the 10-best selling vehicles for the first time. Don't be surprised to see it challenge for the top five in MORE
Dec 30, 2010 10:31 AM ET -
2011 Ford Edge: The popular crossover gets airborne
Sporting a glass cockpit with programmable touch screens, the Ford Edge offers space-age theatricality to the driving experience. But it may face some stiff internal competition when the Explorer is relaunched.
As CEO of Ford since 2006, aeronautical engineer Alan Mulally has adapted some airplane design ideas for automobiles. One of his first was standardizing the placement of controls on all Ford vehicles. You can find the windshield wiper switch in the MORE
Dec 28, 2010 3:01 PM ETPosted in: Alan Mulally, Car reviews, Ford, Ford Edge, Ford Motor Company, MyFord Touch, Sport utility vehicle -
2011 Dodge Durango: Recipe for a comeback?
With a revised look and feel, the handsome 2011 Dodge Durango could be the harbinger of a very big year for Dodge, and for Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne.
For the past 18 months, CEO Sergio Marchionne has been holding Chrysler together with spit, baling wire, and a lot of airy promises about the future while he hurries through a reworking of the product line.
This month, the promises begin to be replaced MORE
Dec 7, 2010 11:47 AM ET -
Porsche Cayenne ups its game
The 2011 Cayenne looks better, specs out better, and drives better than its disappointing forbear.
When the first Cayenne SUV came out in 2002, unlike most Porsche purists, I was immediately attracted by the idea of a Porsche with four doors. It was the family man's Porsche; the addition of the usable back seat meant it wouldn't be restricted to drives on Sunday afternoon.
But I, along with the purists, was MORE
Nov 30, 2010 12:27 PM ET -
2011 Kia Sportage: Worth the price?
Kia has graduated from upstart to established commodity in the American auto market, but are consumers ready to pay close to $30,000 for one of its vehicles?
At this late date, nobody should be surprised when Kia lands in a popular segment like compact crossovers that is dominated by towering competitors like Toyota and Honda -- and immediately delivers a credible competitor.
So the merits of the 2011 Sportage when stacked up MORE
Oct 27, 2010 1:01 PM ET -
2011 Ford Explorer: Makeover for an aging star
Amid declining sales and a shifting auto market, it looked like Ford had lost faith in the Explorer, one of the company's most successful models. But Ford has given the Explorer a revise and a new lease on life, perhaps at the expense of another member of its family.
Ford doesn't do everything right. Back in the day when SUVs were the hot thing going, the Explorer was the hottest of MORE
Oct 18, 2010 1:22 PM ET -
The 2011 R-class: The Mercedes of Minivans
What's the most disrespected vehicle in Mercedes-Benz's lineup? The R-class -- by a mile.
The R-class has seemed like an orphan since its inception. Spawned by the ill-fated merger of Daimler-Benz and Chrysler, it is built in Mercedes' Alabama plant, where the spirit of Carl Benz is seldom seen. Even Mercedes didn't seem to know what to do with the R-class when it arrived; marketers defined the R as MORE
Sep 21, 2010 12:20 PM ET
