Special Cars

All too often, advertising is better than the product. The advertising is great. I love the whole "Swagger Wagon", "Mommy Like" and "Daddy Like" thing. The product is better. You see, to me, minivan haters have it wrong. At least from a standpoint of timing. 15 years ago, minivans were dreadful. The original Chrysler, Dodge and Plymouth vans were expanding...and not gracefully. GM and Ford didnt have a clue and the Japanese were trying to be unique...and succeeding all too well. That would have been the time to rebel against them. But now? There are some very, very good minivans out there. And the new Sienna is at the top of the list. I had three different trim levels of Sienna over the summer. There are five. But the Swagger Wagons on loan to TireKicker were the one-step-up-from-base LE, the next-step SE and the top-of-the-line Limited. The Limited? Well, lets just say that exposure to it caused one die-hard minivan-hater I know to go into a spasm of ...

To put an automotive spin on an old axiom, 40 really is the new 30—in miles per gallon. What’s particularly remarkable is that this impressive highway-mileage figure is increasingly being achieved not only by hybrids and other alt-fuel cars—which post their best numbers in the city—but by regular gasoline-powered vehicles with relatively low price tags. A look at eleven current and forthcoming cars that deliver 40 mpg highway reveals MSRPs ranging from $12,490 (for a two-door Smart car) to around $20,000 (for a four-door Ford Focus SE). With global turmoil continuing to push pump prices higher, it’s clear manufacturers understand they can boost sales by focusing on a statistic that for most of the past few decades was a non-issue for the American automotive consumer. In fact, Ford recently started running ads that specifically boast about reaching the 40 mpg mark. “Even five years ago, consumers wanted horsepower and driving dynamics, but now we have rising gas prices,” ...