New Car Review: 2012 Infiniti QX56

The 2012 Infiniti QX56.



You are looking at a thing of beauty.

It's just behind that hulking SUV.

It's the Eastern High Sierra of California, where I was fortunate enough to grow up between the ages of 9 and 18. Some of those mountain peaks top 14,000 feet...especially dramatic since the Owens Valley floor is only about 4,000.

I have fond memories.

Now, about the hulking SUV.

It is the Infiniti QX56. It spent years as simply a gussied-up version of the Nissan Armada but has, in its latest iteration taken things well beyond that. It's as though Infiniti got caught in a time warp and decided an '02 Lincoln Navigator was its benchmark.



First Look: McLaren P1 Supercar

McLaren P1 (Photo courtesy McLaren)

You now have a whole new reason to become wealthy beyond all reason. Behold the successor to the million-dollar McLaren F1...the McLaren P1. Unveiled today, debuting at the Paris Auto Show next week. Full story from The New York Times Wheels Blog here.

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 Lexus CT 200h Premium F Sport




The 2012 Lexus CT 200h Premium F Sport.

Regular TireKicker readers will recall that just 13 months ago we were puzzling over the place of the CT 200h in the universe...or at least in Lexus' lineup.

Our questions revolved around whether Lexus needed another small car (question since answered...they've killed off the over-priced HS 250h, the closest Lexus has ever come to the Cadillac Cimarron or Lincoln Versailles).

Well, sales are up 500% so far this year over last, so apparently, there is a market for a small Lexus hybrid hatchback.

Now...how about a performance model?

TireKicker's 4th Anniversary!

  

There's only one thing more intimidating to a writer than a blank sheet of paper. And that's day one of an online venture. It's not just a single page with not a mark on it...it's infinity. And that's where yours truly was four years ago today, August 24, 2008, when I sat down to begin writing the first review for TireKicker.

11 years of reviewing automobiles in other media (radio and TV) still didn't erase the apprehension of the unknown...of dipping that toe into the water. It has turned out more than fine. 48 months, more than 600 reviews and articles and an ever-growing number of readers in all 50 states and many countries around the globe.

As we enter year five, we're as always looking for ways to make TireKicker better, smarter, and most important...more useful to you. If you have a suggestion, by all means, use the comment button below or drop us an email at tirekickerblog@gmail.com .

Most of all, thank you for your readership. Please support our advertisers (don't miss Zipcar's $25 off special in the right-hand column). And if you're a business owner, why not consider what TireKicker can do for you?

New Car Review: 2013 Ford Flex




The 2013 Ford Flex.

I parked the new, mildly facelifted 2013 Ford Flex next to a 2012 in a shopping center parking lot a few days ago. By coincidence, the woman who owned the '12 and I came out of the store at the same time. She saw me opening the '13 and asked:

"Where did you go to get your Flex customized like that? I LOVE it!"

That, my friends, is the sign of a successful freshening. Most of the time, you still can't tell last year's model from this years. With a shape as distinctive as the Flex's, that risk is increased. But the new grille and "I didn't know you could make them like that" headlamps transform the Flex.

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 Jeep Compass Latitude 4X4




The 2012 Jeep Compass Latitude.

As that great poet, philosopher and automotive journalist Jim Morrison of the Doors once said, "Been down so G-----n long, looks like up to me."

Jim died 41 years ago, and he was never one during his four short years of stardom to sell his songs for ad campaigns, but in the case of the Jeep Compass, he just might have made an exception. For in six years on the market, the Compass has largely been reviled as cheap, crude and worst of all...not really a Jeep.