Reviewing the Hyundai Azera

March 16, 2012, 5:35 pm By THE NEW YORK TIMES In Sunday’s Automobiles section, Lawrence Ulrich reviews the Hyundai Azera, which sits between the Sonata and Genesis in the ascendant Korean automaker’s sedan firmament. Redesigned for 2012, the Azera is more expensive, but no longer the indifferently styled Lexus wannabe that its predecessor was when it began sales in 2006. As Mr. Ulrich writes, part of the Azera’s appeal lies in its lack of pretension or benchmarking of vehicles that ...

Submited at Saturday, March 17th, 2012 at 7:00 am by sofia

Reviewing the Mazda 3

March 9, 2012, 6:33 pm By THE NEW YORK TIMES As Mr. Ulrich writes, vehicles like the Ford Focus, Honda Civic, Hyundai Elantra and Nissan Versa were treated to full redesigns in the past two years. The Mazda 3received no such luxury, but attention was lavished on its powertrain and transmission, and to remarkable effect: Long the sportiest, most rewarding automobile to drive in its class, the 3 is now the only one that effortlessly tops 40 miles per gallon ...

Submited at Saturday, March 10th, 2012 at 7:00 am by admin

Howard handles Nova Scotia in Brier playoff tune-up

Ontario’s Glenn Howard keeps winning at the Canadian men’s curling championship. A playoff berth already secured, Howard defeated Nova Scotia’s Jamie Murphy 8-3 Thursday morning at the Brier in Saskatoon. Ontario is 9-1 with one game remaining in the preliminary round against Alberta’s Kevin Koe. Alberta is 7-2 with two games to play. The top four teams in the round-robin advance to the Page playoff and ties for fourth are solved by tiebreaker games. Howard will finish no worse than ...

Submited at Thursday, March 8th, 2012 at 6:00 pm by chuck

US Newspaper Says Quran Burning Followed a Chain of Mishaps

A prominent American newspaper states a series of events that led to the burning of Qurans at a NATO base in Afghanistan last month could have been stopped at several points “along a chain of mishaps, poor judgements and ignored procedures.” The February 20 book burning at Bagram Air Base sparked days of violent anti-American protests across Afghanistan that left at least 30 people dead and frayed relations between the U.S. and Afghanistan.   The New York Times quotes a ...

Submited at Saturday, March 3rd, 2012 at 4:00 pm by sofia

Reviewing the Buick Regal GS

March 2, 2012, 8:39 pm By THE NEW YORK TIMES In Sunday’s Automobiles section, Lawrence Ulrich drives the 2012 Buick Regal GS, the sportiest version of a sedan that began life as a European corporate relation, the Opel Insignia. Mr. Ulrich regards the GS as a nod to Buick’s earlier dalliances with performance models, including the Grand Sport models of the late 1960s and ’70s, as well as the Regal Grand Nationals of the ’80s. Unlike its forbears, however, the ...

Submited at Saturday, March 3rd, 2012 at 7:00 am by jessica

Driving the Fisker Karma

February 24, 2012, 7:05 pm By THE NEW YORK TIMES In Sunday’s Automobiles section, Jerry Garrett takes a first drive in the Karma sedan, the first automobile from Fisker Automotive, a start-up company founded by Henrik Fisker, a former designer for Aston Martin, BMW and Ford. The road to market for the Karma, a luxury plug-in hybrid, has not been without its bumps and detours, as Mr. Garrett writes. A $20,000 increase over the company’s initial price projection, a rather ...

Submited at Saturday, February 25th, 2012 at 7:00 am by samantha

Surveying the Plug-In Landscape

February 17, 2012, 8:09 pm By THE NEW YORK TIMES Sunday’s Automobiles section takes the measure of purely electric and hybrid vehicles that are currently on sale or coming to market in the next couple of years. Bradley Berman spent a week with the BMW ActiveE, a purely electric version of the 1 Series coupe that serves as a test platform for BMW’s electric car program. By gutting the internal-combustion innards and packing the vacated spaces with 192 battery cells, ...

Submited at Saturday, February 18th, 2012 at 7:00 am by jessica

Reviewing the Range Rover Evoque

February 3, 2012, 7:15 pm By THE NEW YORK TIMES In Sunday’s Automobiles section, Christopher Jensen reviews the Range Rover Evoque, a relatively lithe sport utility car from a marque traditionally associated with chunky, if plush, utility machines. The Evoque is aimed at a style-conscious driver who wants access to the Range Rover mystique without the dear prices and profligate thirst of the company’s other vehicles. As Mr. Jensen writes: The least costly four-door model is $43,995 and the least-expensive ...

Submited at Saturday, February 4th, 2012 at 7:00 am by samantha

Have a Question About Fuel Cells? Ask Peter Hoffmann

February 2, 2012, 5:10 pm By THE NEW YORK TIMES In Thursday’s Times, Jim Motavalli interviews Peter Hoffmann, who has written extensively about hydrogen fuel cells and their application in passenger cars. Mr. Hoffmann is taking questions from Wheels readers about the technology and its prospects for wide adoption. Do you think Hyundai, Toyota, General Motors, Honda and other automakers will deliver on their promises to produce fuel-cell vehicles for American automobile buyers by 2015? Submit your questions for Mr. ...

Submited at Friday, February 3rd, 2012 at 7:00 am by hilman

Reviewing the 2012 Honda CR-V

January 27, 2012, 7:59 pm By THE NEW YORK TIMES In his first automobile evaluation for The Times, Csaba Csere (pronounced CHUB-uh CHED-uh) reviews the 2012 Honda CR-V in Sunday’s Automobiles Section. Mr. Csere, an M.I.T.-trained automotive engineer, was on the staff of Car and Driver magazine for 28 years and served as editor in chief from 1993 to 2008. He previously wrote for the Automobiles section about the search for a fast-charger plug that would be compatible with all ...

Submited at Saturday, January 28th, 2012 at 7:00 am by madison