Only a couple days ago I was asked by a car salesman which I liked better, the Kia Soul or the Nissan Cube. Problem number one arises with his affiliation: his company sells both new Nissans and new Kias. Problem number two ignites after he discovers GoodCarBadCar.net was in a competition to win a Nissan Cube and lost, thus inciting impressions of bitterness. Unfounded impressions.Presenting further evidence that your knowledge of Sales Stats should never be based on your local area but on co... Read Full Story
"It takes a long time to turn a big country around. Just be of good cheer and keep working on it," the 42nd President of the United States once said. If Bill Clinton were comforting me these last few days instead of the whole of America, he'd have used the word "car" instead of "country". Because my fellow Ameri... er, auto enthusiasts, living with the new Ford Taurus is an adventure inherently related to the size of this car, first and foremost.GoodCarBadCar.net has already gone over the Tau... Read Full Story
Suffice it to say that The Good Car Guy's experience with the Ford Taurus has been a lesson in geometry, mainly of the length x width variety. Ford's 2010 Taurus, in SEL trim with all-wheel drive, is a large car by anyone's standards. There are advantages to its stature, most notably in its style and interior dimensions. Naturally, there are distinct disadvantages which come as a result of the Taurus's dimensions. I drove around the block (a large block with two cemeteries in its borders) fou... Read Full Story
The performance of Toyota's luxury brand, Lexus, is something to behold. Ignoring the history of established luxury players from Germany, Lexus has taken two decades on the Marketplace to become the foreordained leader of the luxury pack every single freakin' month. In October of '09 - last month - Lexus even cracked the top 10 best-selling automakers overall; only about 113,000 sales behind parent Toyota.October's Sales Stats from the positions 4-8. And although they never make it onto the G... Read Full Story
No surprises here. BMW's October Sales Stats show 3-Series sales to be way up from September back to the state of doubling up its nearest competitor. Although in very few instances does BMW still rightfully claim to be the builder of the "Ultimate Driving Machine", the company still flogs so many different varieties of the fun-to-drive 3-Series that other automakers building excellent cars stand little chance of catching up to BMW anytime soon. In truth, cars 2-7 in the Graph below sell at ra... Read Full Story
Our smart fortwo was used sparingly these last two weeks as S had the H1N1 virus and struggled with that for a week. To add further insult to our smart (which even suffered a change in parking spot down in the garage), T was given a 2010 Ford Taurus to use for a little while, and in the end, our '09 fortwo drove just 191.9 kilometres (119 miles). In that time period our smart achieved its third-worst fuel economy stint of its four-month lifespan. 7.26L/100km equals just 32.4 miles per U.S. ga... Read Full Story
For me, spending a few days with a 2010 Ford Taurus is akin to spending a few days camping. Follow? It's so pleasant, so unusual, so outside my own norm. Yet, it's not something I'd want to do all the time. I like my bed a little more comfortable, my food more perfectly timed, and the shower a lot less public. And I like my cars a mite smaller than the gargantuan Taurus, the insulation quite a bit thinner, the image a little less aged. Even so, camping is a wonderfully exotic experience. Camp... Read Full Story
And some people still buy the Porsche 911 Carrera cabriolet? When they can have this? Porsche has upped the Boxster ante with the new Spyder. Slightly differentiated bodywork makes far more than a passing impression. The double-bubble rear deck harks back to the lovely Porsche Carrera GT, and even if it harked back to the ark it would still be beautiful. No less important is what's found under the hood.... er, rather, underneath the rear deck in a place you can't see. The 3.4L flat-six is ten... Read Full Story
Toyota doesn't flaunt it. A quick changeover from its status as the number two automaker on the planet to the dominant player didn't see Toyota thrusting itself into the spotlight with an overload of TV commercials highlighting the Japanese brand as the best and brightest. Yet last month in America, Toyota didn't just sell more vehicles than any other brand competing in the country but its luxury brand out-sold at least ten mainstream brands. Yes, Lexus sold more expensive cars than many bran... Read Full Story
Far more interesting than the fact that Toyota's Camry continues its reign atop the Top 5 Best-Selling Cars In America list is the October dominance of the Toyota Corolla. Whither art thou, Honda Civic? Some 10,000 sales beneath, that's where. Civic sales were quite a bit lower in October than in the same period of '08. Close contenders for this Top 5 includes the Toyota Prius at 13,496 and the Ford Fusion at 13,445. Check out September's Top 5 Best-Selling Cars In America right here.Represen... Read Full Story
