How The 2014 Nissan Altima 3.5 SL Makes Family Sedan Buying Hard

Yes, you will actually want to drive the 2014 Nissan Altima 3.5 SL on roads like this.

Attention new car shoppers....especially mid-size family sedan shoppers.

Do you know how good you have it?

Do you have any idea?

Five years ago this was one of the most bland and boring segments in the industry.  Camry, Accord, Malibu, Fusion, Altima, Mazda 6...some were better than others, but none were inspiring, none were aspirational.
But now, every one of those cars has been re-designed and choosing has become very hard.

In January, we drove the 2.5-liter four-cylinder version of the 2013 Altima...and it landed immediately on TireKicker's Best Cars (see the list in the right-hand column).  In June, the 2013 Honda Accord Touring landed one notch ahead of it. Not really a fair fight, given that the Accord had the V6 (enthusiasts should note that the 2014 Mazda 6, with almost 100 horsepower less and a four-cylinder engine, landed squarely at #5...several slots ahead of both the Altima and Accord).

New Car Review: 2013 Scion FR-S




The 2013 Scion FR-S.

For eight years now, Scion has been plugging away (or flailing about, depending on how you look at it) trying to finally be what Toyota intended it to be...the first truly hip youth brand in cars. The formula: Keep prices low, make the styling a bit out of the box, and make sure it's got a killer audio system.

The first-generation xB (aka "The Toaster") was a mild success, but the second generation xB....not so much. The xD sedan is virtually a synonym for "meh" (would anyone really buy an xD over the new Toyota Yaris...or even the old Toyota Yaris, for that matter?).

About the only sense that Scion has a groove to find has been in the tC coupe.

Until now.

New Car Review: 2012 Acura TSX




The 2012 Acura TSX.

If your age begins with the numbers "3", "2" or "1", you might wonder why people whose ages begin with "4", "5" or "6" seem to think so highly of Honda. And you probably wonder just what the heck Acura is supposed to be.

It was not always thus.

As we noted in our review of the CR-V, Honda's not building bad cars, they're just not meeting the incredibly high expectations of people whose first Honda experiences were in the 80s and early 90s, when just about everything they did was a revelation in terms of engineering, efficiency and ergonomics.

So...wanna know what all the fuss was about, Milennials and late-Gen Xers?

New Car Review: 2012 Honda CR-V





The 2012 Honda CR-V.

Expectations.

That's the problem Honda has at the moment. I've read a few mediocre to bad reviews of the 2012 Honda CR-V, and after a week and 500 miles at the wheel, I can tell you, they're wrong. And it stems from expectations.

Those of us of a certain age watched as Honda went from building underpowered motorbikes to two-door rollerskates like the Honda 600 to world-beating sedans like the 1980s Accords and Civics in what seemed like the blink of an eye...and maintained the edge in quality, reliability and even innovation.

For the past decade or so, Honda's been operating with different priorities, and it shows. Their cars are no longer cutting edge. The simplicity and flawless ergonomics have given way to a fascination with electronics and buttons in the cabin. I've even said it...in a lot of ways, Kia is now building what we (of a certain age) expected from Honda.

But that doesn't mean that their cars are bad...or even less competitive in their categories.

New Car Review: 2012 BMW Z4 2.8i




The 2012 BMW Z4 2.8i.

Pundits have been predicting the end of our second golden age of performance for quite a while now...and reason tells you they're probably right...that a combination of increasing mandated Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards and just plain old pain at the pump will someday result in liters and horsepower taking a back seat to efficiency and economy.

That being the case, the news that BMW, maker of the sweetest six-cylinders on this or any other planet, was shifting to four-cylinders in some variants of some of its models, was especially worrying.

Well, stop it. Now. The BMW Z4 2.8i, the four-cylinder that this year replaces the 3.0-liter 6, is soooo good.

Remember how much we loved the Z4 3.5i last year?  We love the 2.8i more.

New Car Review: 2012 Volkswagen Beetle




The 2012 Volkswagen Beetle.

13 years ago, a local Volkswagen dealer tossed me the keys to one of the first New Beetles. It wasn't set to go on sale for about a month. To say I got attention would be an understatement. People raced up behind, beside and in front of me to get a look. People stopped me to talk about it. People leaned out of the windows of moving cars to snap pictures with their disposable film cameras and 1 megapixel digitals.

Every last one of them was female. From that moment on, the New Beetle and the pejorative "chick car" were inextricably linked.




The 2012 Volkswagen Beetle roof, spoiler and taillamp.

In re-doing the car, VW had to somehow make the car more appealing to male drivers. They were also fighting the fact that most people, including some fans, had gotten mighty bored. The New Beetle was....very, very old, with only the most superficial of freshenings in its 13-year run.




The 2012 Volkswagen Beetle side view.

They did it.