Category: On The Road: Driving Impressions

I drove Ford’s New Maverick in late September in Nashville, Tennessee. Ford describes Maverick as “Unibody SuperCrew Pickup”. This means it has four doors and a spacious interior capable of carrying 5-adults. The cargo bed is a short 4.5 foot affair, but Ford has designed the bed with great flexibility.

The new Maverick is the latest vehicle to be spun off of Ford’s excellent and flexible C2 unit body platform. Others on the platform include the Ford Escape, Lincoln Corsair, Ford Bronco Sport and now the Ford Maverick. This platform gives Ford “go-fast” product development capability and also helps with cost efficiencies.

People will call the Maverick a small pickup, but it is not. It rides on a 119-inch wheelbase and has an overall length of almost 200-inches. A typical mid-size car has a 110-112-inch wheelbase and overall length of between 180 and 185-inches.  The Maverick is about a foot shorter than Ford’s Ranger mid-size [...]

The all new 2021 Ford Bronco Sport is an impressive, and affordable, small crossover SUV with Bronco styling cues. It is very capable off road. It is easy to drive and live with off-road, on city streets and cruising on the freeway. It turns heads and gets smiles.

AutoPacific attended the press preview for the 2022 Hyundai Tucson in Tucson, Arizona in April 2021. The 4th generation Tuscon proves to be ust the right size. It is easy to drive, quiet, smooth riding and distinctively styled. Hyundai continues its string of well-done new models giving it one of the strongest vehicle line-ups in the market today.

AutoPacific had a recent opportunity to spens some time in a 2021 Lincoln Nautilus Reserve.  Does the 2021 Lincoln Nautilus achieve Lincoln’s objective of “Quiet Flight” and “Sanctuary”.  Pretty darn close.

Lincoln Motor Company, the luxury brand for Ford Motor Company is now an all SUV brand:  Navigator, Aviator, Nautilus, Corsair.  The Lincoln lineup is a demonstration of strong group of products.  Even though the 2021 Nautilus is its latest update, in reality it is the oldest vehicle in the lineup.  Back in the bad old days when Lincoln thought alphanumeric naming was “the bomb”, the Nautilus was the MKX (the Corsair was the MKC).  (Funny, they never changed the Navigator’s name because it is “too strong” – Cadillac made the same decision with Escalade).  But I digress, back to the [...]

The all new 2021 Hyundai Elantra is an excellent example of a car maker still making great cars. With many automakers now concentrating on crossover SUVs (XSUVs), Hyundai continues to design and develop outstanding cars. While Hyundai's XSUVs are very competitive too, Hyundai understands the car business remains very important.

The 2020 Ford Transit van has become the ubiquitous delivery vehicle across America. AutoPacific was given the opportunity to drive one for a week. Here is a brief review of this outstanding commercial vehicle.

The 2020 Lincoln Corsair is an excellent compact luxury crossover SUV. It is the right size. It looks good. It goes fast. It is very quiet. It's not perfect. Getting ALL THE OPTIONS turns out not to be a good move. Some extra features are not as good as standard features.

They used to call them "ASAP Running Changes". That is what the all new 2020 Ford Explorer needs in relation to its high volume base 2.3L EcoBoost 4-cylinder engine. While the powertrain, mated to a 10-speed automatic transmission, feels pretty good. All of the goodness is dampened by engine noise. This needs to get handled before word gets out that the high volume XLT is a noisy alternative in the competitive SUV wars.

The all new 2020 Lincoln Corsair is based on an entirely new front wheel drive platform shared with the Ford Escape compact crossover SUV.  While Corsair is based on the Escape, there is now significant differentiation between the two vehicles.  The Corsair is much more upscale than the Escape.  Its design is elegant and materials are top notch.  It’s powertrain choices are a significant step up.  At-a-glance, Corsair has design DNA from the all new 2020 Lincoln Aviator.

Lincoln tops AutoPacific's 2019 Vehicle Satisfaction Research winning top brand, Navigator top luxury SUV, Nautilus luxury crossover SUV. More coming with all new Aviator and Corsair by the end of 2019.