Want a sporty car with seating for four and great rear access? Hyundai has a Veloster with your name on it. Today we review one in SE trim featuring 132-hp, a 6-speed dual-clutch automatic with paddles,…

2016 Hyundai Veloster SE DCT Road Test Review

Every now and again you hear naysayers claiming that Hyundai is giving up on its Veloster, mid-2014 being particularly busy with such talk, but not only is it here again for 2016 in all of its wonderfully unorthodox glory, it's actually better than ever.

To be fair with these prognosticators, the UK gave up on the car after 2013 and sales have been steadily falling here and in the US, our market's 2012 high of 5,741 units having fallen to 4,704 in 2013, 3,444 in 2014 and so far during the first 11 months of the 2015 calendar year Hyundai Canada has only sold 2,875, while south of the 49th the sporty four-door model enjoyed a high of 34,862 deliveries in 2012, slightly less at 30,711 in 2013, a still smaller 27,598 last year and only 21,999 up until the end of last month, so kudos to Hyundai for putting yet more money behind a car that's obviously waning in interest and fingers crossed that they'll soon give it the full redesign its hardcore fans want to see.

Even though Read Full Story
Take one look at the Toyota Tundra 4x4 CrewMax Platinum 1794 Edition and you’ll know it’s special. On top of the Tundra Platinum’s usual features such as power-folding mirrors, an auto-dimming rearview…

2016 Toyota Tundra 4×4 CrewMax Platinum 1794 Edition Road Test Review

Who makes the boldest, toughest looking pickup trucks on earth? That depends on personal taste of course, but Toyota makes a good argument for being on top of that list with its latest Tundra.

There's as much chrome on this truck's grille as a big-rig Freightliner. It wraps right overtop the front of the hood and all the way over to each combination headlamp before diving down to where the front bumper begins, a light metallic matte grey centre cap the only chrome relief, although it's bookended by circular fog lamp-enhanced chromed corners at both sides. Of course there are plenty of engine vents sliced horizontally across the brightwork monstrosity, even a thick, broad one at top that's too close to the grille to be a hood scoop albeit fulfills the same purpose and looks plenty assertive doing so, while those headlamps are filled with metal brightwork and de rigueur LEDs.

It's pretty obvious this truck isn't base, that mostly fleet-purchased model featuring more matte Read Full Story
Lexus has gone radical with its new 2016 EX, endowing it with a full spindle grille plus more styling changes all-round. While powertrains and most of the cabin stay the same, the latter gets new a 4.2-inch…

2016 Lexus ES 350 Executive Road Test Review

Long, lean and now endowed with a much more committed take on Lexus' brand-wide spindle-shaped grille and accompanying front fascia, the refreshed 2016 ES 350 is an altogether more stylish and attractive mid-size sedan, or at least that's this journo's opinion. Lexus has given its once conservative mid-size front-driver the RC treatment, and I'm not talking Royal Commission or remote control but rather the Japanese brand's gorgeous new two-door sports coupe.

I don't know about you, but I find it difficult to turn away from the ES' broader, deeper, polished nickel-rimmed and glossy black multi-angled front latticework, and not only because of this most noticeable upgrade, but also due to needle-sharp scalloped LED headlamp clusters with LED DRLs, similarly pointy chrome-bezeled LED fog lamps at each lower corner, beautiful multi-spoke 18-inch alloys rounding out a sleek profile highlighted by polished nickel brightwork surrounding the side windows, elegantly elongated and reshaped Read Full Story
Is the modern-day BMW super coupe too big and heavy to be sporty? Today on CarCostCanada we review the large and weighty M6 Coupe, a car that dwarfs the old 850CSi! How does it measure up to old and new…

2016 BMW M6 Coupe Road Test Review

When I was a kid of 13 years the original 6 Series arrived at our local auto show where my dad and I ogled over it like two school kids checking out the pretty new girl that was way out of our league. Ok, creepily weird to contemplate a 'tweenager and 46-year old white-hair sizing up the same young woman, but you get my analogy. After spending too much time on the BMW show stand we wandered over to Porsche's section to learn more about the 924 we'd been reading about in PM and other buff mags, which believe it or not was more within my dad's financial reach, and finally ended up getting serious with a then-new VW Scirocco, after driving (of course with me riding shotgun) the Ingolstadt-powered Zuffenhausen creation first. How we both would've loved to have had time in the 630CSi, but my dad's machine/welding/fab shop foreman salary wouldn't allow such extravagance. As it was, I learned to drive manual behind the wheel of that '76 VeeDub.

I've since driven both an old E24 635CSi Read Full Story
For 15 years the Lexus IS has been vying to be compared with BMW’s 3 Series, and the most recent 2016 IS 350 AWD F Sport does the most credible job of this yet. Rather than load it with luxuries the…

2016 Lexus IS 350 AWD F Sport Road Test Review

I remember the first IS I drove almost exactly 15 years ago. That was way back in December of 2000, the car a first-year, first-generation 2001 IS 300 that I was particularly taken by. It wasn't the optional brownish orange, or bright yellow that was all the rage back then, electric blue, or any other notice-me hue, but rather a mild shade of metallic silver, yet it was brilliantly fun to drive, had one of the coolest chronograph watch-style primary gauge packages I'd seen to date, and was a bold new step for what was at that time a staid and conservative Lexus brand.

I've reviewed six IS sedans since, including the then-new second-generation 2006 model at its national press launch held slightly more than 10 years ago in November of 2005, the absolutely brilliant 416 horsepower 2008 IS F with its then state-of-the-art eight-speed automatic, a superb looking 2010 IS F Sport, a then-new third-generation 2013 Lexus IS 250 AWD Special Edition, a 2014 Lexus IS 350 AWD F Sport, and Read Full Story
It might be an oldie but Audi’s Q5 is still a goodie, heading into 2016 with few changes yet few needed as sales continue to soar. Today’s review covers a Q5 2.0 TFSI Quattro in well-equipped Technik…

2016 Audi Q5 2.0 TFSI Quattro Technik Road Test Review

The Q5 is mostly unchanged for 2016, but that certainly won't get in the way of this models popularity. It remains North America's most popular compact crossover SUV, not to mention the only four-ringed vehicle that leads its segment in sales.

That's right, the Q5's record-breaking 7,862 Canadian deliveries in calendar year 2014 beat Acura's RDX by 1,305 units, Mercedes' GLK by 2,263 sales, BMW's X3 by 2,643, Infiniti's QX50 by 5,965, and Volvo's XC60 by 6,320 (the Q5 also sold 6,156 more units than the Range Rover Evoque, but the stylish Brit is a smaller vehicle that competes more directly against the Audi Q3). It's been open season this year, however, as 2015 will be the first full year for a staggering number of new entries that have truly shaken up the compact luxury SUV market, including the Lexus NX, Lincoln MKC and Porsche Macan in order of popularity, the NX already ranked third for year-to-date 2015 sales as of October, ahead of the GLK and X3, the MKC in fifth and Read Full Story