Volkswagen Golf Review

35 years ago, Volkswagen revolutionized the concept of the small car with the original Golf (sold here for many years as the Rabbit). The basic shape and proportions are still recognizable, but the changes have been evolutionary, and it's easy to write off each generation as not having changed that much from the one before.

Big mistake.

It's impossible to overstate the refinements the 2010 Golf brings to the game....the leap forward it represents from last year's model, and how much better it is than virtually everything in its size and price class.

                       

The first impression of change comes when you sit behind the wheel. VW has upped its game for the Golf's interior. Even in basic black rather than the contrasting tones shown above, it's a nicer place to do business...switchgear now more elegant, yet still purposeful and feeling built to last.

The 2.5 liter, 5-cylinder, 170 horsepower engine more than gets the job done, and returns an EPA estimated 23 miles per gallon city, 30 highway.

Our tester's base price was $17,490 and it had only three options (none of which I'd order): A 6-speed automatic transmission ($1,100), a power sunroof ($1,000) and a Cold Weather Package consisting of heated seats and washer nozzles ($225).  Bottom line, with $750 destination charge, is $20,565. But passing on those options and taking it straight would get the price down to $18,240.

Yes, you can get less expensive compact sedans from the U.S., Japan and especially Korea. But drive the Golf first and I'm betting you'll be justifying the additional outlay.

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Honda Expands Airbag Recall; More Than 800,000 Cars In U.S., Total

Honda says driver's-side airbags in many of its 2001 and 2002 Honda and Acura vehicles could deploy with too much force, resulting in injury or death.

Tough guys will say "Hey, I can take a punch"...but that's not what Honda's talking about here. The force involved could shatter the inflator casing and send metal fragments flying through the airbag cushion material and into...well, you and your passengers.

Same basic principle as a grenade.

Honda says it's aware of a total of 14 incidents, with one fatality.

This is phase three of this recall. It began sixteen months ago with 4,000 cars, had 436,000 added to it in July 2009 and today 378,758 cars join the list.

Full details are in the official Honda news release.

Even when working properly, airbags are, as now-retired (damn!) Car and Driver Editor at Large Patrick Bedard once noted, the only safety device in our history that comes with a label warning that you could be killed using it properly. A decade ago, he wrote a series of columns about them before finally giving up. Here's the one that's been preserved online. If you have both children and a car with airbags, please...please read it.

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Toyota Recalls Prius, Lexus HS250 h Hybrids

It's official. Toyota is recalling a total of 148,500 hybrid vehicles in the U.S...133,000 2010 Toyota Prius models and 14,500 of the new Lexus HS250h...to update software in the cars' anti-lock brake systems.

Given the prickly retaliatory mood at least one Toyota dealer group is in about "excessive" reporting of Toyota's current issues, we'll let Toyota itself fill in the details of the recall with its official press release. Read it all...there's also a recall of 7,300 4-cylinder Camrys for an unrelated brake problem mentioned in the final paragraph.

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Buick LaCrosse Review

Attitude is not an attribute one has associated with Buick for more than 20 years...since the hot Grand National models.

But Buick has decided to get in your face with its message about the new LaCrosse...with billboards and TV ads calling it "Something else for Lexus to relentlessly pursue."

Really?

   

Is this the view that ES 350 drivers will be seeing, choking on some good old Detroit (well, close, our tester was built in Kansas City) dust?

The fact that we're even entertaining that question says something, doesn't it?

Clearly, the exterior design of the LaCrosse leaves no doubt that they consider Lexus the target. And at first glance, so does the interior.

              

Where it falls down is the touch test. Everything's a grade slimmer...not as substantial when your fingers glide across it. Make no mistake: It's a quantum leap beyond the Fisher-Price plastics GM was using in the bad old days, but there's a way to go before we get into blindfolded taste tests with Lexus.

So what's the Buick got going for it? Well, style certainly...it's a beautiful-looking car. And there's content. Our tester had a 255 horsepower V6 with a six-speed automatic transmission...and in the CXL trim level, so much standard equipment that there were only two options...an upgrade to a 384-watt, 11 speaker Harmon-Kardon sound system, and chrome plated instead of straight alloy wheels (18 inchers, just as they come standard on the CXL).

The ES has more power...272 horses...the same number of gears...and gets better mileage than the Buick (19 city/27 highway to 17/26 for the LaCrosse).

A rout? No. Because the LaCrosse gets close in all the categories....and costs less. A lot less. $29,645 base is almost 5 grand below the starting price for the ES 350...and optioned out as our two testers were, the bottom-line price difference is just shy of $10,000...the Buick at $31,695 and the ES at $41,340.

So, as most things have the past year and a half, it comes down to price. If you've got the money and are willing to spend it for the extra quality of materials in the Lexus, it's still a great buy. If you've got other uses for the extra $10K and won't miss what you don't have, the Buick makes the strongest case for itself that any product wearing that nameplate has in decades.

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Toyota Dealers Pull Ads From ABC Affiliates

(Disclosure: My full-time job is with an ABC television affiliate not affected by the story below. If the target had been CBS, NBC, FOX or any other network, group or individual station, this post would still be here, just with different network or station call letters)

Just as the news began to turn good for Toyota ( the resumption of sales of models sidelined since the gas pedal recall was announced, the company's cooperation with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak on his Prius, six North  American plants getting back to work building Toyotas for sale), Southeast Toyota, a group representing 173 Toyota dealers in five southeastern states, has pulled its advertising from ABC television affiliates in that region.

At issue, investigative reporter Brian Ross' coverage of Toyota's recalls and complaints from Toyota owners and consumer safety advocates.

What's especially troubling is that Southeast Toyota gives its reason as "excessive stories on the Toyota issues".

Note that they didn't say inaccurate, biased, false, or misleading stories. Just that there were too many of them. 

At a time when transparency and openness are the only road out of this mess for Toyota, that's exactly the wrong approach. Hopefully Toyota Motor Sales (Toyota's North American sales and distribution arm) is already explaining to Southeast Toyota, which says its dealers sell 20 percent of all Toyotas sold in the U.S., that this is the least helpful thing they could do.

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Mazda 3 Sport Review

If we're all headed for compact cars (um...Mr. President, a follow-up question?), then this is the way to go.

Early and/or thorough TireKicker readers will remember I gave the last-gen Mazda 3 a glowing review in one of the first TireKicker posts. Every word still applies, but the 2010 Mazda 3 is a game-changer.

I get the same feeling from the new 3 that I got when I got behind the wheel of my 1984 Honda Civic...and I wasn't alone then. Jean Lindamood of Car and Driver (now Jean Jennings of Automobile) ended her review thusly:

"Damn, she's a fine one. Our orders are in."

It inspired me to take a test drive that led to a 14-year ownership of said Civic.

Well, I sat right down in the driver's seat of the new Mazda 3 4-door Sport and felt the same way. While Honda's gone too techno for its own good, the 2010 Mazda 3 keeps it simple and direct...everything is where it should be, falls easily to hand, performs its function and never...never...distracts the driver from...well, driving.

And yes, there's driving to be done in the 3. It almost feels like the Mazda engineers passed on the Corolla, Civic and Sentra and rustled up an old BMW 2002 tii to benchmark for handling and sheer fun to drive.

The incredibly low price of $18,740 gets you a 2.5 liter DOHC 16-valve four, a six-speed manual, dynamic stability control, traction control and and independent front and rear suspension.

17-inch alloy wheels come standard with the sport, as do supportive and comfortable cloth seats, an AM/FM/CD/WMA/MP3 audio system, bluetooth, air, power locks and windows and a bunch more.

The tester had Sirius Satellite Radio and the Moonroof/Bose package...which ups the audio ante to a 242 watt Bose Centerpoint 10-speaker audio system and an in-dash 6-CD changer...and a moonroof.

Total price, including destination charges; $21,235.

EPA estimates: 21 city/29 highway.

I would absolutely buy one if I were in the market. If you are, you owe yourself at least a test drive.

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Ford Taurus Review

If there's a feeling I hate as much as any other, it's being too late. Getting to the party after all the fun's been had.

When I was a kid, a big Ford, optioned properly, was a cool grownup's car (think red Galaxie 500 XL hardtop or convertible with knock-offs and a big V8...or better yet, just look at the picture above).

By the time I got my license (a mere decade later), big Fords were grandma's cars. In fact, the only person I knew who owned one was my friend Sara's grandma.



And from there, they devolved into service animals. If you've hailed a cab or been pulled over by the police in the last 25 years, odds are it was a big Ford Crown Victoria.

So what, you ask? Well, the Crown Vic is on its way out. Available only as a fleet vehicle now, it'll be unavailable, period in a year or less. And it's here that paths of opportunity cross.

Ford's been trying to rehabilitate the Taurus nameplate since Alan Mullaly took over a few years ago and ordered the well-built, competent but bland Five Hundred rebadged as a Taurus. Here's the chance. Make the Taurus a little bigger and a lot better, and there's a vehicle worthy of being considered Ford's flagship.

Fully cognizant of what happened to the last guy who said this out loud: Mission Acccomplished.

The 2010 Taurus is a surprise and a delight. Big, roomy, powerful, carefully assembled of higher quality materials than the Blue Oval has been known for in quite some time. Yes, Virginia, this is a Ford interior:



The tester I drove for a week was the top-of-the line SEL model (base price $27,170)...with a 3.5 liter V6 and six-speed automatic transmission. Loaded with the rapid spec package that includes SYNC, reverse sensors, ambient lighting and 19 inch wheels as well as a separate leather package, the sticker stopped at $31,890.

The EPA says 18 city/28 highway.

The only downer I could find is the agressively angled headrests...which hit me exactly at a point where I had to tilt my head down slightly in order to drive. If I were shorter or taller (I'm six feet even), it probably wouldn't be a problem, but still.

The Taurus is a triumph for Ford...the first truly relevant family sedan that company's made since the first Taurus in 1986...and the first desirable big grownup's car since...well, probably the '63.

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