Mini John Cooper Works Convertible

Cute only goes so far. Fast and cute goes a lot farther (comments posted about girls you knew in college will be deleted upon reciept).But fast and cute will cost you money, just like that girl in college (I'm invoking one-time editor/founder privilege). This is the story of the Mini John Cooper Works Convertible. Its base price is $10,000 and change more than a base Mini Cooper Convertible, but that ten grand buys you the difference between 118 horsepower and 208....between a top speed of 123 and a top speed of 146...while giving up only 3 miles per gallon in both city and highway fuel economy (the EPA says 25 city/33 highway).                       ...

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Toyota Highlander 4 Cylinder and Hybrid Review

A four-cylinder Highlander would have been considered a great leap backwards just a couple of years ago. Now it looks like an inspired move.187 horsepower turns out to be adequate to move this mid-size SUV, and the resulting gas mileage (20 city/27 highway) is nearly identical to the much smaller 6-cylinder RAV4, which gets 21 city/27 highway.Not only that, but the 4-cylinder Highlander I drove for a week was optioned sensibly (upgraded audio system, cold weather package, convenience package, manual rear air conditioning, the third row seat package, the towing prep package, cargo and floor mats and a tow hitch with wiring harness added less than...

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Volvo S60 Pedestrian Detection

I have mixed feelings on this one....part of me thinking that the driver should determine when to brake (having assessed what's around him) and the other part acknowledging the intent and likely reduction of car-pedestrian accidents.Your thoughts and comments are welcome.Volvo S60 Pedestrian Detection (1:...

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Honda Crosstour 4WD EX-L NAV Review

Companies don't have ideas. The people that work for them do. People retire, die and are replaced by other people with other ideas.Nothing lasts forever.Nobody's perfect.No, TireKicker has not become the official journal of the obvious. I'm reminding myself how we can go from a 25-year string of absolutely brilliant products (virutally everything Honda built from the 1976 Accord onward) to the Honda Crosstour.                        I'll usually recall my dad's car dealer friend Jim Ellis' words ("there's an ass for every seat")...

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L.A. City Council Exempts Red Light Cams From Arizona Boycott

A few weeks ago, the city where I was born and lived until age 9, Los Angeles,  made a great big hairy deal about boycotting the state where I live now, Arizona, over its passage of SB1070, which requires police to enforce laws on illegal immigration identical to those in both California and federal law.  The boycott meant the city of L.A. refused to do business with Arizona, its cities and businesses based in the state.But that's not important now. At least when it comes to the city's red-light cameras, supplied and operated by American Traffic Solutions of....Scottsdale, Arizona.Standing by the boycott would have meant shutting down...

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2011 Ford Mustang V6 Convertible Review

Blue was, for most of my life, my favorite color. Three of my cars were blue. But there is something about Ford's Grabber Blue that really doesn't work for me. It's hard to explain...it photographs better (see above) than it looks in person. At least to me. And, apparently, to several other people who've mentioned "that hideous, cheap shade of blue they're painting Mustangs in now" to me.That's probably sacrilege in Dearborn, where Ford is headquartered. In fact, I understand what it is they like about Grabber Blue. They identify it with this:                        ...

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Mazda MX-5 Miata PRHT Grand Touring Review

This may be the first car I've driven where the name, if put on a badge, would be longer than the car itself. It is the heaviest and most expensive Miata I've driven in 13 years of professional TireKicking, but I can't say I love it any less (for just how much that is, see last year's review here). And that's because Mazda is now doing the kind of magic that used to be solely the province of Honda.Retractable hardtops, while offering security from knife-wielding thieves and a lower level of cockpit noise, usually add weight and cost and steal a large chunk of what little trunk space the ragtop version of a car has in the first...

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L.A..'s Arizona Boycott Could Mean End Of Red Light Cams

Los Angeles is among the cities boycotting Arizona's new immigration enforcement law. But where does that leave the city in its dealings with the Arizona-based supplier of its red-light cameras? The story from KABC-...

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California License Plates May Go Digital, Display Advertising

California is considering a digital license plate. Yes, digital. Stop for four seconds or more and the letters and numbers disappear, replaced by....advertising (and Amber Alerts).The revenues (higher plate fees, plus ad dollars) would supposedly help the Golden State dig out of its financial hole.  The full story from KABC-...

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Chrysler Recalls 700,000 Vehicles

Ouch.And bad timing, too...just after the first uptick in sales in what seems like forever.Troubles? Two years worth of minivans where the sliding door wiring harness was improperly routed and could cause a fire and sticking or binding accelerator pedals on Dodge Caliber and Jeep Compass models.&nb...

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Mercury Dies So That Lincoln May Live

We pretty much did our post-mortem of Mercury five days early...running down the cause(s) of the impending death. So what happens now? Well, Ford says they're going to devote their energies into revitalizing their Lincoln brand.On paper, this makes a bunch of sense. The successful model for car sales is one mainstream brand, one luxury (think Toyota/Lexus)...with no definable space for a "middle" brand (GM is bucking that wisdom by keeping Buick).But where exactly is Ford taking Lincoln? Part of the problem is that for all the talk of how Mercury was done in by being nothing more than some re-badged Fords, it's hard to say Lincoln's in much better...

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Mercury Deathwatch: News Conference at 3PM, Eastern Time

The Detroit News is reporting that Ford has called a news conference for 3PM EST to discuss "brand and product strategy".Expectation is that means the official announcement that Mercury is joining the scrap heap of once-prominent American car brands, and that a new compact Merc will end up a Lincoln.Details as they're availab...

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Feds Probing Floormats In Ford Fusion/Mercury Milan

Doesn't matter what the brand, a poorly installed or wrong-sized floormat can trap accelerator pedals.NHTSA says it's recieved three complaints that Ford's "All Weather" floormat can trap the gas pedal when laid on top of the standard floor mat.Read the full consumer advisory he...

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Elderly Driver Hits Gas Instead Of Brake, One Dead

A tragic accident in Peoria, Arizona (suburban Phoenix). An 87 year old driver parking at a Walgreens hits the gas instead of the brake, jumps the curb, hits and kills a store employee on break.Two remarkable things...the car was a Honda, and there was no discussion of unintended acceleration...just an admission from driver and police that it was a case of standing on the wrong pedal.This incident has a lot of similarities to all the Toyota incidents that have fueled the unintended acceleration frenzy the past few months. And when properly investigated, the end result is the same. If floormats aren't trapping the gas pedal, it's usually driver err...

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