This redesigned 2015 Ford Expedition has been a long time in the making, but now that it’s arrived it brings nice fresh styling and an efficient yet powerful new EcoBoost V6, while the model featured…

2015 Ford Expedition Platinum Road Test Review

There's no better example of change in today's automotive segment than within the full-size sport utility segment, and I'm not referring to the vehicles themselves, per se, but rather the lack of them on our roads. Some look at vehicles like Ford's Expedition as throwbacks to a distant era, and as far as upwardly mobile moms using them for shuttling kids to and from school or dance classes and hockey practices, or lone drivers behind the wheel commuting to work, they're a rarer sight these days than they were from the late '80s through to the early '00s. Their full-size family hauling and trailer pulling capability still serves a very real and important purpose, however, and therefore big SUVs remain important components of many mainstream volume brands' ever-expanding product portfolios.

Ford has been producing its Expedition since 1997, and through three generations it's morphed considerably in shape and styling yet remained spot on target regarding its comfortably utile mission. Read Full Story
Buy an Audi for style or performance, reasons enough to consider the Q7, but there’s so much more to the popular luxury CUV. Today on CarCostCanada we review a Q7 3.0 V6 TFSI Quattro in mid-level Vorsprung…

2015 Audi Q7 3.0 V6 TFSI Quattro Vorsprung Road Test Review

Talk about staying power, the Audi Q7 is now in its 10th year without a major update yet sales are still strong. In 2007, the first full year the Q7 was sold into the North American markets, Canadians bought a total of 1,235 examples, but that number has steadily grown over the past eight years to 1,959 unit sales in 2014, whereas the first six months of 2015 have already seen 1,084 Q7s drive away from dealer showrooms. If Q7 sales could continue, and they won't because the last remaining examples will soon be sold before the model awaits a completely redesigned 2016 Q7 arriving early next next year, they'd likely set another record despite its aging design.

Aging yes, but there are still plenty of reasons to choose a Q7 over one of its competitors. It was given a thorough facelift in 2009 for the 2010 model year, the revised version introduced at the prestigious Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in Monterey, California. I was there, and while I took in the unveiling and enjoyed Read Full Story
There’s always been a lot to like about Audi’s A6, but now for 2016 there’s even more to appreciate. A mid-cycle refresh brings new life to the aging model, with edgier styling, a more powerful…

2016 Audi A6 2.0 TFSI Quattro Progressiv S Line Road Test Review

Just one look at the Audi A6 and it's easy to see why it's become one of the most popular mid-size models in its premium class. It's not all that different in design from other Audi sedans, but for some reason the larger its cars get the more proportionally attractive they become.

That's not to say its A3 or A4 aren't good looking in their own rights, they are and their sales reflect this, but the longer and wider A6, which has just been given a subtle yet effectively edgy facelift for 2016, allows a sharper version of Audi's trademark horizontally-ribbed hexagonal horseshoe-shaped Singleframe grille more space to stretch out and a more upright presence that meets tougher European pedestrian safety standards (and therefore protects ours better too), gives its beautifully reshaped multi-angle headlamp clusters slightly longer and narrower appeal, helps the more crisply chiseled lower fascia greater width to cut through the air, which it does quite effectively, followed up with Read Full Story
If there’s a better deal for a premium sports coupe than Infiniti’s Q60 we don’t know what it is. Now, for $9,000 below retail at just $40,300 cash plus fees, you can get into a fabulous handling…

2015 Infiniti Q60 Coupe AWD Sport Road Test Review

Remaining unbiased in the automotive journalism profession is at times difficult, but it's paramount to delivering reviews that are credible and therefore useful to one's readers. Then again, our enthusiasm and personal perspective is what makes these reviews particularly helpful to new car buyers, not to mention occasionally entertaining, so there seems to be some allowance for opinionated lauding and diatribes alike, as long as we take into consideration that there's a butt for every seat as an old sales manager would constantly remind me way back in the '80s when I was selling cars. Another way of stating this ideology is: just because I might not like something doesn't mean someone else won't love it, or alternatively, everyone is entitled to their own point of view. Therefore, I think it's safe to admit that I've long been an Infiniti sport coupe fan, yet on that note it's equally important to add that more updates sooner would make me an even bigger Infiniti sport coupe fan.
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If you’re thinking of buying a rugged off-road capable SUV like Toyota’s 4Runner, you’re not alone. Sales of this 4x4 are at a 10-year high with no signs of slowing, and there are a lot of good…

2015 Toyota 4Runner Limited Road Test Review

Are SUV sales slowing? That depends on how you look at it. Compared to a couple of decades ago the sales of traditional sport utilities are now much lower, the 4Runner reviewed here one of just a handful of body-on-frame 4x4s still available, yet the 4,022 Canadian-spec models sold last year represented the model's best volume in more than a decade, while Toyota's US division enjoyed even better per capita sales of 76,906 units during the same 12 months. What's more, this more than decent volume appears to be on an upswing for the first half of 2015 with 2,440 4Runners already down the road.

Comparing such numbers to the sale of crossover SUVs, the 4Runner certainly doesn't come close to the 36,639 RAV4s Toyota Canada sold in 2014 or even the 9,749 Highlanders, but it's not too far away from Honda's tally of 6,113 Pilots, easily beats out the 3,886 Traverse CUVs Chevy managed to peddle let alone the 1,779 Tahoes bowtie buyers bought, slaughters Mazda's similarly sized CX-9 that Read Full Story
BMW’s success in the SUV sector didn’t happen by accident. Since 1999 it’s been building one of the most competent crossover utilities in the industry, combining family usefulness with a level of…

2015 BMW X5 xDrive50i Road Test Review

The X5 hasn't changed since I reviewed it last year, which is a very good thing as far as I'm concerned. Its completely reworked frontal design with its beefier twin kidney grille, larger more unique 3 Series-inspired headlamp clusters and cleaner, uncluttered lower valance still looks fresh and particularly attractive, while its athletic profile appears longer and leaner thanks to matte black rocker cladding with unique body-colour inserts that visually thins out the design from front to back. Beautiful multi-spoke 19-inch alloys shod in Pirelli Scorpion rubber were fitted to my tester, only upstaged by large functional engine vents just behind the front wheel cutouts. A tastefully applied rooftop spoiler leads into stylish rear quarters highlighted by a classic set of LED-enhanced L-shaped taillights hovering above a nicely sculpted two-tone body-colour and black bumper cap bisected by a thin strip of chrome brightwork and rectangular chrome exhaust tips. I loved the X5 last year when Read Full Story
If you love your 3 Series sedan yet need more versatility, but CUVs just aren’t your thing, look no further than BMW’s stylish 3 Series Touring sport wagon. Today on CarCostCanada we review a 2015…

2015 BMW 328i xDrive Touring Road Test Review

I know I'm a bit weird. Maybe it's the pragmatically realistic yet passionately performance oriented DNA passed down from my Viennese father or possibly the fact that much of my formative years were spent in the back of a 1960 Pontiac Safari "Strato Chief" wagon that my dad personally spray painted avocado green, a car that for some misguided concept of awesomeness I thought was cool (at the time totally unaware that he'd traded in a '56 Chevy Belair to get it), but for some deep-rooted emotionally disfigured reason I have a penchant for station wagons. It's just the way my brain works (or doesn't). Maybe it was too many loud buzzing mono-speaker AM radio moments of "Hey there Georgy girl…" being thrummed into my basal ganglia, but I'm forever a fan of elongated five-door estates.

Yes, I realize the wagon is the classic mommy mobile, what soccer parents drove even before it was politically incorrect to utter the words soccer mom (or mommy mobile for that matter). Yes, Read Full Story