The Number One Reason To Buy A 2013 Toyota Corolla

The 2013 Toyota Corolla might be the bargain you're looking for.

It's not exactly sleek (even in S trim, its sportiest form).

It's very familiar.  You see them everywhere, every day.

So why should you run down to your Toyota dealer and buy a 2013 Toyota Corolla?

Because the 2014 is sleek and shiny.

That may seem like contradictory logic, but stick with me here.

New Car Review: 2013 Mini John Cooper Works Roadster

Two of the things we focus on rather regularly here at TireKicker are practicality and value.

But when a vehicle starts out with limited practicality to begin with, why not go all the way?  That appears to be the thinking at Mini, which is expanding its lineup with an ever-increasing number of variants on the basic Mini Cooper.

Mini hasn't sent many our way, so as much as I'd love to tell you about the Clubman, Paceman and Countryman, I can't.  I can, however tell you about the latest, the John Cooper Works Roadster, close cousin to the John Cooper Works Coupe and a more distant relative of the John Cooper Works Convertible.

New Car Review: 2013 Honda Accord Touring V6

Mojo is a horrible thing to lose. And for much of the last decade or so, it appeared Honda had lost it.  The products became too big, too plastic, too...boring.  And the Accord became all those things.  It was as though Honda decided to out-geezer the 1999 Avalon. I expected to find coupons for the Early Bird Special at Hometown Buffet in the glove box.

Well, forget all that.  The company that won Boomers over 30 years ago by showing that jewel-like quality, advanced engineering and just plain fun could co-exist in an affordable automobile (four of them, actually...Accord, Prelude, Civic and CRX) is back with the 2013 Honda Accord.

New Car Review: 2013 BMW X1

Comes a point when a crossover becomes so carlike that the term "crossover", much less "small SUV", no longer really fits.

The BMW X1 is at that point. With low ground clearance, this really is more a station wagon than anything else, though BMW likely won't be happy I said that.

New Car Review: 2013 Lexus GS450h

The 2013 Lexus GS450h.

Regular TireKicker readers know we consider the 2013 Lexus GS a big step forward...especially in F-Sport trim. So, how does it do with most sporting intentions swapped for eco-friendliness?

Well, we've always been a fan of big hybrids. For the technology to really work, it needed to move upmarket from small people-movers, and Lexus gets big points for diving in and applying it to everthing up to and including its flagship LS model.

But...tech costs money. Most hybrids are significantly more expensive than the conventionally-powered versions of the same model, and that's certainly the case for the GS450h, which is $12,050 pricier than the GS350 (there is no non-hybrid 450 this year).

New Car Review: 2012 Fiat 500 Abarth

The 2012 Fiat 500 Abarth.

For a bit over a year now, Fiat 500s have been making us smile whenever we see one on the street (increasingly common near TireKicker World Headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona, where they seem to be selling well). Regular TireKicker readers will recall that we liked the first 500 we drove...the 500C...last fall.

All well and good...but no preparation whatsoever for the ear-to-ear grin and maniacal laughter produced by the Fiat 500 Abarth.

What's an Abarth? Well, it's an Italian racing company founded by the late Karl Abarth in 1949, and which began building hot versions of Fiats in 1952. Fiat bought Abarth outright in 1971, but allowed the name to descend to trim level packages and not much else by the 90s.

But Abarth is back, and a great way to make a statement that Abarth means fast is to take a 2,533 pound Fiat 500 and swap the 101 horsepower 1.4-liter four-cylinder with a turbo version making 160 horsepower.

Or as Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson called the Abarth, "A small, cuddly pet mouse that can be used for killing burglars."

New Car Review: 2012 BMW 328i

The 2012 BMW 328i.

Automotive history is littered with small cars that packed on the inches and pounds until they were no longer small. In a sense, it's already happened with the 3-Series BMW, or else we wouldn't have had a 1-Series going on five years now.

So further enlargement of the 3 in its latest generation might not seem like such a good thing on paper. But this is not The Ultimate Reading Machine. So we drive.

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.