Category: On The Road: Driving Impressions

Lexus GS 450h combines powerful V6 with hybrid power to make a high performance Lexus that feels like it has an "electric turbocharger." And all for less than $60,000.

Pontiac's Solstice makes you pay for the experience of top-down driving and its good looks with exceptionally poor visibility and a difficult-to-use package.

If you get a chance to drive an Audi RS4 - jump at it.

Orange County to Malibu on The Day Without an Immigrant in a Dodge Durango

After driving the Quest from Nashville to Lynchburg, I came away with a renewed appreciation for how great a minivan really is. Easy to get into and out of. Great visibility. Flexible interior. The Quest is very pleasant to drive and the major interior upgrade for 2007 should help Quest achieve better sales performance against Honda and Toyota competition.

Versa challenges other new B-Segment entries from Japanese car makers. It might just be the best of the bunch.

The Mazda CX-7 has very distinctive styling. Mazda describes it as a combination of sports car and SUV. They say it has the image and driving performance of a sports car - or maybe a sports coupe - and the utilty and capability of an SUV. CX-7 certainly looks different from SUVs and sedans. And it is a useful piece - functional.

Ford updates Explorer Sport Trac with strength, safety, and utility from siblings Explorer and F-150.

We were all prepared to tout the new Buick Lucerne as one of the products that will revitalize Buick and help the brand regain its position as the thinking man's Cadillac. In many ways, the Lucerne delivers, but it is held back by some fundamentals and too-obvious cost reductions.

The Saab 9-5 is a car that you really do want to like. It is a noble attempt to make a modern car that is competitive with European competition, but it falls way short. Likely it suffers from age - a 2006MY facelift modernizes the front end appearance of the car, but that is all - and it is getting creaky even in the face of what Ford's Volvo brand is offering today. General Motors' resource scarcity and inability to keep Saab fresh and competitive really shows in the 9-5. An old Swede not aging well.