Priced from about the $10,000 range right up to the low $20,000s
Like its upscale brethren – the Acura MDX – the 2011 edition of the Honda Pilot was a candidate for one of the homeliest models in the SUV market. Offered in four trim levels, it bore a strong resemblance to the Ridgeline pickup and featured a chunky body style with one of the least appealing…
The year's version of this mid-size pickup truck has plenty of bells and whistles, but can it live up to the reputation of its predecessor?
A few lifetimes ago, I decided to bring in the new year by taking a long hike up a well-known trail near Harrison, B.C. The Clear Creek trailhead is on the road to Port Douglas on Harrison Lake, and makes its way northeast, until it kind of peters out somewhere just west of the Fraser…
Standard equipment level was high: air conditioning, cruise control, power door locks, steering-wheel-mounted audio controls
Overhauled, restyled and re-engineered in 2009, the 2010 edition of the Mazda6 was also on the receiving end of refinements and various upgrade of a comparatively minor nature. Some models got a push-button start feature, while others featured a blind spot monitoring system. But for all intents and purposes, the 2010 and 2009 Mazda6s were…
More greenhouse gases are released when making an EV than a comparable internal combustion engine
I’m not a climate skeptic. As an environmental scientist/engineer by training, I think climate change is real. But it’s like every other environmental issue: a more-or-less routine engineering challenge, rather than a world-altering disaster justifying the fever-dreams of the radical greens. I am, however, an electric vehicle skeptic. Or, more broadly, I’m skeptical that electric…
The Kicks, despite its odd moniker, is actually a decent little SUV
Of all the car manufacturers, Nissan seems to display the most imagination when it comes to naming its products. Who can forget the Qashqai, Juke, Armada and, going back, the Fairlady and Pulsar. They also had a model in Japan called the Leopard J. Furie, not to mention the Big Thumb delivery truck. More recently,…
Why mess with success?
Reintroduced with sliding side doors and a new body style in 1999, Honda’s Odyssey has been a success story ever since. Over the years, this minivan has become more powerful, with a host of upgrades and engineering goodies. But its basic dimensions have remained about the same. Why mess with success? In 2010, it came…
One of the most unrelaxing vehicles I’ve ever driven
When the Japanese automobile industry was just getting on its feet in the 1950s and 1960s, one of the ways it accomplished its goals was by emulating other manufacturers. For example, the concept of assembly-line production, using just-in-time technology, was taken from General Motors, which introduced it during the Second World War. Similarly, when companies…
Plenty of power, almost completely silent and no worse on gas than most of the competition
Kissing cousin to the 4Runner, the Lexus GX 460 is the upscale version of Toyota’s popular SUV. It has a body-on-frame design and more stuff and a higher price tag, but features the same basic body style, wheelbase, seating capacity and driving experience. In 2011, it was powered by a 4.6-litre V8 engine that delivered…
Last year, Ford produced its last car. And if there was any doubt about Ford’s plans to be a company synonymous with pickup trucks – and hybrid drivetrain technology – the new Maverick should confirm its desire to move even further away from conventional passenger sedans. Not to be confused with the unremarkable Maverick sedan…
It costs about $50 extra in taxes to fill up a minivan in Metro Vancouver, not including the cost of the fuel
As we see the light at the end of the COVID Tunnel of Hell, many families hope to hit the roads to explore beautiful British Columbia this summer. Safe road trips will be essential after the strain many have been under during the pandemic. But, because B.C. drivers are being burned by the highest gas…