Virtue Ignored: The 2016 Acura RLX Sport Hybrid

The 2016 Acura RLX Sport Hybrid.

I may have said this before (as TireKicker closes in on 1,000 posts, it's hard to be sure), but some cars seem to show up in the press fleet at about the same time every year.  And, sure enough...51 weeks ago, I was in the 2016 Acura RLX Sport Hybrid.

Golden: The 2017 Toyota Corolla 50th Anniversary Special Edition

The 2017 Toyota Corolla 50th Anniversary Special Edition.

There are not many 2017 cars whose names and essential missions have remained unchanged for 50 years.  Mustang, maybe.  Camaro and Impala had years between 1967 and now where they were out of production.  But the Toyota Corolla has been with us continuously for that half-century, providing reliable, fairly high-content compact sedans all along.

Reports Of Its Death Are Greatly Exaggerated, Or At Least Premature: The 2017 Mitsubishi Lancer 2.4 SEL AWC

The 2017 Mitsubishi Lancer 2.4 SEL AWC.

I'm tempted to call this my third annual fond farewell to the Mitsubishi Lancer.  The car...and for a while, its maker...were on life support for the better part of a decade, and the smart money was that the 2014 Lancer would be the last.

And then came the 2015, and the 2016 and now the 2017.

King of the Hill: The 2017 Lexus LX570

The 2017 Lexus LX570.

The Dow Jones cracked 19,000 just before Thanksgiving.  Gasoline---at least here in Phoenix---is $1.90 or so a gallon. Those are ideal conditions for the people who are the intended buyers of the Lexus LX570.

Solid Contender: The 2017 Kia Forte EX

The 2017 Kia Forte EX.

We've been charting the rise of the Kia Forte among subcompact sedans for seven years now.  The 2010 model was the moment you could pinpoint when any doubt about Kia being serious went away. It put the Koreans within striking distance of the then-and-now leaders from the Japanese, the Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic.

With the 2014 model, the Forte closed the gap.  And the new 2017, a mid-cycle refresh,  cements the Forte's position as a solid contender in a competitive segment.

The Unassailable Choice: The 2017 Lexus ES350

The 2017 Lexus ES350

There are very few cars that one can buy and not take some criticism from one person or another. The Lexus ES350 is one of that very small group.

Hello, Handsome: The 2017 Acura MDX AWD Advance

The 2017 Acura MDX AWD Advance.

All it needed was a shave.

For years, the Acura MDX has been wearing an awkward chrome mustache across the top of its grille...the last vestige of an ill-conceived beak that it sprouted for the 2010 model year.  Well, that's gone for 2017...the grille (actually a new stretched pentagon design) now nicely opened up, with a rather large....okay, gargantuan...Acura emblem in the middle.  The headlights, hood and fenders have gotten tweaks to accomodate the grille change. And it's all a major improvement.

What's In A Name? The 2016 Infiniti Q50 2.0t Premium

The 2016 Infiniti Q50 2.0t Premium.

About three years ago, Infiniti, under a leader who had just arrived from Audi and would within months depart for Cadillac, changed its naming convention.  The vehicles were largely unchanged, but none had the same name.  What had been for many years the G37 series of sedans became the Q50.

It is hard to tell whether the name change had any effect on sales, good or bad, as Infiniti, contrary to the original plan 25 years ago to match Lexus step for step, has always been just big enough not to be considered a truly niche player.  The Infiniti Q50 is Infiniti's best-seller, but it is the 109th best-selling vehicle in the U.S. so far this year, with a shade under 35,000 sold.  Infiniti might, but probably won't, sell 40,000 G50s by December 31st.

A Work In Progress: The 2017 Genesis G90 RWD 3.3T Premium

The 2017 Genesis G90 RWD 3.3T Premium.

Two and a half years ago, I wrote about the Genesis G90's predecessor, the 2015 Hyundai Eqqus, saying that it wasn't quite there yet ("there" being a no-excuses luxury sedan that Lexus' flagship LS 460 should fear), but that it was, in a vacuum, a remarkable achievement and that I might well be writing about how the 2019 model had well and truly arrived.

We may need to adjust that to 2021.