Today on CarCostCanada, automotive journalist Trevor Hofmann reviews the 2014 Mini Countryman in Cooper S ALL4 trim. Stylish, efficient, well featured and fun to drive, the Countryman is a CUV for folks…

2014 Mini Cooper S ALL4 Countryman Road Test Review

If you want to know what it's like to drive Mini's new Countryman crossover utility, contemplate this: Does your compact CUV have racing stripes?

Of course, racing stripes won't make a car go faster, but in today's market it takes a fair bit of gall to decal up your CUV's hood with classic Monte Carlo Rally-bred #177 livery if it won't go as well as it shows. As you might expect from Mini, the Countryman moves along quite nicely, especially in Cooper S ALL4 guise, as was the case for my very pretty True Blue Metallic tester.

Well, the colour was pretty; I wouldn't call the car pretty. It's more handsome, being that its big frowning grille looks a lot steelier than the brand's cute and playful car lineup. The bigger crossover's headlight clusters are larger and more ovoid than round, front spoiler deeper and more rugged looking, fenders a bit more muscular and made more attractive at their rearmost edge by a thick chrome engine vent/trim garnish slash, while at the very Read Full Story
Lighter, more powerful with gobs more torque, the BMW M3 is entirely new for 2015. Auto journalist Trevor Hofmann drives it and reports on it while photographer Karen Tuggay shoots it. Blisteringly fast…

2015 BMW M3 Road Test Review

No longer a series, the M3 is a lone four-door sedan for 2015, the coupe and convertible taking on the M4 designation like their non-M 4 Series brethren. For Bimmer purists, this is sacrilege. For performance enthusiasts who will just be glad a compact four-door variant is back in the M fold since its departure at the end of the 2011 model year, this is a moot point that matters about as much as whether 400-plus horsepower is made from a V8 or turbocharged six.

Well, that last point might matter a bit more. For 2015 BMW has taken its M3 and M4 models back to their classic straight-six configuration, no doubt satisfying many of those purists. The previous generation's 4.0-litre V8, while a sonorous jewel that so loved lofty revs, couldn't muster up anywhere near the torque of the M division's latest twin mono-scroll turbocharged monster. The numbers compare old to new as follows: 414 horsepower at 8,300 rpm to 425 at 5,500 rpm; 295 lb-ft of torque at 3,900 rpm to 406 at 1,850 Read Full Story
Today on CarCostCanada, Trevor Hofmann reports on the new TT Sportback Concept, just revealed at the Mondial de l'Automobile in Paris this week. The new prototype, looking extremely production-ready,…

Audi unveils edgy TT Sportback four-door coupe

With BMW having just introduced its 2015 4 Series Gran Coupe, it only makes sense that Audi would want to fight back with another four-door coupe of its own. After all, it was in the unique sport sedan segment before BMW was, having introduced its A7 Sportback two years before BMW showed up with its 6 Series Gran Coupe. Hence, the TT Sportback Concept just introduced at the Paris motor show: an even more compact four-door fastback based on Audi's iconic TT theme.

The oddity in this particular choice of underpinnings is the "potential TT family" that the new concept belongs to, so announced by Audi Board Member for Technical Development, Prof. Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg.

"With the TT, Audi created one of the automotive design icons of the last 20 years," says Hackenberg. "In the years since, we have designed our sporty and elegant five‑door Audi A5 Sportback and Audi A7 Sportback. In our Audi TT Sportback concept show car, we are now fusing both concepts Read Full Story
Today on CarCostCanada, read Simon Hill’s review of the all-new 2015 Hyundai Sonata in top-tier Ultimate 2.0T trim. The new mid-size sedan sports a new top-line engine, but it’s less powerful than…

2015 Hyundai Sonata Ultimate 2.0T Road Test Review

Crossovers may seem to rule the roads these days, but sedans are still the bread and butter for many automakers. Hyundai's mid-size Sonata sedan accounts for over 25 percent of the Korean-based company's North American sales, with the compact Elantra selling an even greater share over the past couple of years. That means over half the company's sales here have four doors and a trunk, before you even count the subcompact Accent sedan, U.S.-only Azera, premium-level Genesis sedan, and top-tier Equus.

It therefore wouldn't have been be surprising if Hyundai had played it safe when redesigning its popular Sonata mid-size sedan. After all, when you're the current number-three seller in Canada, and are competing on a crowded playing field that includes the likes of the Ford Fusion, Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, Chevrolet Malibu, Nissan Altima, Chrysler 200, Kia Optima and Volkswagen Passat, why take risks?

The answer, it seems, is that Hyundai isn't content to be number three Read Full Story
The TT has gone from the almost completely ovoid original to crisp and edgy in its third generation, a look that should go over very well with Audi’s many fans. With the TT Coupe revealed already, it’s…

Audi unveils new TT and TTS Roadster before Paris show

Almost as long as the two-seat TT has been in existence, a drop-top Roadster has been part of its sporty equation. The first arrived in 1999; a year after the groundbreaking Freeman Thomas and Peter Schreyer-designed TT Coupe hit production. The more aggressively penned Walter de'Silva-designed second-generation model is still with us today, but will soon be replaced by the ultimately edgy third-generation TT, a model based on Volkswagen Group's flexible new MQB platform architecture.

Like the outgoing car, the new model will be available in sporty TT Roadster and sportiest TTS Roadster guises, but unlike many in this class that have eschewed fabric for retractable hardtops, Audi continues to remain loyal to the traditional folding cloth roof. One of the reasons is weight. The new roof mechanism, made from magnesium, aluminum, steel and plastic components, is three kilos lighter than its predecessor's design, which reduces the car's centre of gravity for better handling.
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Which automaker makes the most plug-in hybrid models? It might surprise you to learn that Porsche is the number one builder of PHEVs, and the only brand to offer a plug-in luxury SUV when the new 2015…

Porsche builds on plug-in lineup with 416-hp Cayenne S E-Hybrid

Think of Porsche and most will inevitably envision the iconic 911 sports coupe, although it should be noted that the German premium performance brand builds six other models as well, not to mention many different body styles of some plus numerous trim levels of each.

More recently Porsche has become something of an alternative fuels purveyor too, with turbo-diesels in the mix as well as a number of hybrid electrics, the latter boasting plug-in capability for two of its 2014 models and now a third for this upcoming model year, the 2015 Cayenne S E-Hybrid.

Consider for a moment that this new addition makes Porsche the only manufacturer in the world to offer three unique plug-in models, plus the only automaker (so far) offering one in the premium sport utility segment. Currently the brand's flagship 918 Spyder "ultracar" waves the plug-in hybrid banner very proudly, whereas the Panamera S E-Hybrid offers plug-in technology at a slightly more approachable price point ($837,232 Read Full Story
Why be normal? Every time a manufacturer dreams up another new market niche this question has to be on the mind, and in the case of the three-door coupe-cum-crossover Mini has dubbed Paceman, it certainly…

2014 Mini Cooper S All4 Paceman Road Test Review

Remember when the Mini brand re-launched under BMW's ownership way back in 2001? The sole model was the three-door hatchback now referred to as the Cooper Hardtop. It took another four years before the Cooper Convertible was added to the mix, and then another three before the elongated Clubman model with its cool Dutch-oven rear doors entered the lineup. These three happily filled out Mini's arsenal until just three years ago when the Countryman crossover SUV upped the size and versatility of the Mini equation, quickly followed by the smallest modern Minis to date, the two-seat Coupe and Roadster fraternal twins that zipped, zigged and zagged onto the scene a year later. The latest addition to what has now grown into a seven-model Mini lineup (not including the brand's S and John Cooper Works trims, or the five-door Hardtop that's on its way next year) is the Paceman, a unique three-door sport coupe crossover introduced last year.

To wrap your mind around the Paceman, think of Read Full Story
Today on CarCostCanada, Trevor Hofmann reports on the Golf Alltrack, a compact crossover based on the new updated Golf Wagon. Will it come to Canada? Only those on the inside of VW Canada’s operations…

VW shows off Golf Alltrack CUV-styled wagon ahead of Paris motor show

The reality that other markets get vehicles not accessible to Canadians is nothing new to automotive enthusiasts in our part of the world, and if it's any consolation there are many cars, crossovers, sport utes and trucks available for us to purchase that can't be had overseas. One of the former is the Passat Alltrack, a jacked up Subaru Outback-style crossover based on the Passat Wagon that's no longer sold on our shores (our larger American-built Passat sedan isn't related to any Passat model sold in Europe). Volkswagen has just released photos of a similar car based on the new Golf Wagon, however, which just might make the trek across the Atlantic and into a VW showroom near you.

The reason why the Passat Alltrack won't be heading here and this Golf Alltrack might is that the latter is based on the Golf Wagon that's already sold in North America, so Volkswagen doesn't need to certify an entirely new model in order to make it available to the U.S. and Canadian markets. If the Read Full Story