Author Archive: George Peterson

While the upcoming Buick Lacrosse failed to induce any excitement within the automotive enthusiast in me, I was more than a bit impressed by its new fuel-saving powertrain technology: eAssist.

Here I am, snaking through the famed Ortega Highway in Southern California in a Mazda, attacking every apex and rowing through the crisp six-speed manual's gears with an ear-to-ear grin. In a friggin' minivan.

For 2012 the Dodge Challenger SRT8 is joined by new versions of the Dodge Charger SRT8, Chrysler 300 SRT8 and the Grand Cherokee SRT8.

The 2011 BMW 750Li ActiveHybrid is an intriguing vehicle and I'm about to make a claim that may surprise just about anyone. The ActiveHybrid 7 is the best bang for your buck 7 Series.

For 2011 AutoPacific set a new record for responses to its New Vehicle Satisfaction Survey from new car and light truck owners. A total of 73,000 responses were received - over 16,000 by mail and 57,000 using the VehicleVoice internet survey tool.

Of all the vehicles I have tried out over the past two months since joining the VehicleVoice staff, the 2012 Fiat 500 Sport was by far the biggest attention grabber.

The new V-Platform Nissan Versa is poised to be launched for the 2012 model year as the lowest price new car available in the USA. You wonder if a new car priced so low is a bad car? The answer is a resounding no.

The all new Hyundai Accent has just been introduced and it may be part three of Hyundai's grand slam in sedans.

The Audi A3 is conclusive proof that green vehicles need not be boring or uninvolving transportation.  Frankly, it’s amazing that it has taken as long as it has to get fun yet extremely frugal vehicles into the marketplace.  Years of having to maneuver around hybrids like Prius driven by hypermilers have led so many people to simply assume that fuel sipping vehicles are incapable of possessing any excitement.

Fortunately, our European friends across the pond have never felt that way.  Much higher fuel taxes have resulted in fuel economy being a big priority in Europe, but that has never justified boring cars there.  Quite the opposite, actually.

The fourth generation Nissan Quest launched for the 2011 model year, marking a dramatic departure from the prior model.  The last Quest was developed and conceived specifically for North America (and built here too), riding on a version of the Altima sedan’s platform.  While a very able minivan, it never truly caught on.  Perhaps its was styling, both inside and out, that was too aggressive or avant garde for traditional minivan customers.

With the latest Quest, Nissan stepped away from the traditional American minivan template and moved production back to Japan, commonizing it with the Japanese-market Elgrand people mover, albeit with revised front and rear styling more in line with American tastes.