New Silverado quieter, more refined and plenty strong A pickup is a pickup, there’s no two ways about it. Pickup trucks are tall and boxy and, well, originally intended for work, primarily in farm fields and on construction sites. That’s why they ride higher and even the new – nose to tail – Chevrolet Silverado has an... Continue Reading →
2014 Land Rover Range Rover 5.0 V8 SC
Supercharged Rover strong on power, luxury, off-road ability Dating myself here, but imagine a Crocodile Dundee type character intoning, Luxury Ute? Now this is a Luxury Ute as he points to a large, muscular Range Rover SC. The Aussie accent may seem appropriate too as Land Rover, the firm that makes Range Rovers, was for years... Continue Reading →
2014 KIA Sorento SX Ltd. AWD
Sorento handling, performance make it more fun than Santa Fe KIA has raised the bar with its revamped 2014 Sorento crossover, making it a much more enjoyable drive than the 2012 model I tested roughly 18 months ago. This is the smaller cousin of last week’s Hyundai Santa Fe, which wins on value and size,... Continue Reading →
2013 Hyundai Santa Fe GLS AWD
Santa Fe grows into large crossover with third row seat Korean automaker Hyundai’s market share is growing in the U.S. market and its vehicles are getting larger too. It appears Hyundai has adopted the age-old American car strategy of not only expanding its offerings, but its vehicles’ dimensions. Case in point, the new Santa Fe,... Continue Reading →
2013 Nissan Armada Platinum Reserve 4×4
Armada beastly big with soft luxury interior With a name that promises size as well as exclusivity, the Nissan Armada Platinum Reserve delivers on both while coming in at what has become a mid-luxury large SUV price. The Armada, made in Mississippi along with Nissan’s luxury make Infiniti Q56, is a beastly big vehicle with... Continue Reading →
2013 Land Rover LR2
Land Rover's LR2 modest in price, but boasts off-roading capability Land Rover’s proud and adept off-roading history assures you that you’ll be getting a terrain crunching vehicle with any model, but the expectation of luxury is surely just as great. So it is with its entry-level sport-ute, the LR2. With a modest starting price of... Continue Reading →
2014 Jeep Patriot Latitude 4×4
Inexpensive new Patriot fills roll as soft-roader I like the Jeep Patriot for what it is, an inexpensive sport-utility truck that’s available with four-wheel-drive. In that, it’s simple and straight forward and has a much Jeepier look than its twin, the Jeep Compass. Let’s get this out of the way up front. Compass and Patriot are the... Continue Reading →
2014 Subaru Forester 2.0XT Premium
Subaru adds some macho to its 2014 Forester Simply put, I have a new favorite small sport-utility vehicle, the 2014 Subaru Forester. While the rest of the small ute world is going toward crossover status and swoopy designs, the Forester, one of the early crossover/utes with AWD, is going away from that. It’s going all... Continue Reading →
2013 Infiniti FX37 AWD
FX37, a love-hate relationshipInfiniti’s racy FX37 sport-ute is a classic case for a love-hate relationship.If you enjoy performance, and don’t really expect such from a sport-ute, you’ve got to love how the FX37 responds. It feels like a tall Porsche, with oodles of power from its new 3.7-liter V6. In fact, Infiniti rates it a... Continue Reading →
2013 RAM 2500 SLT Crew Cab
CNG powered RAM aims at farms and fleets There are big trucks and Monster trucks, no not those with the giant wheels that crush cars in arenas around the Midwest all winter, but Really Big trucks, like the RAM heavy-duty beast I just drove.I’ve been on the commercial test truck list for Chrysler Corp. of late. So... Continue Reading →