With 550-hp from a supercharged V8, an 8-speed auto with paddles, AWD, 20-inch alloys and more the F-Type R Coupe hits 100km/h in 4 seconds before a 300km/h top speed while looking fabulous along the…

2017 Jaguar F-Type R Coupe Road Test Review

Just look at it. The F-Type Coupe might be the most beautiful car of its kind currently available today, or at least if the Aston Martin Vantage didn't exist it would be. That of course is a personal opinion, and in most other respects, if any at all, it gives up nothing to the much pricier Brit.

The F-Type Coupe starts at a reasonable $78,500 plus freight and fees, although add options to any car in this class and the price can quickly escalate. The R Coupe you're looking at starts at $118,500, yet with all extras included it hits the road at a considerable $126,000. Still, price out similar options on an equally quick 911 Carrera 4 GTS or Mercedes AMG GT and you'll spend tens of thousands more, or alternatively the sky is the limit if you choose the aforementioned Aston.

Due to its relative affordability the F-Type has been high on my list of modern-day favourites since it debuted as the C-X16 concept at the Frankfurt auto show in September 2011, which ended up being Read Full Story
What are the chances that Infiniti’s American-born head of design is of Cuban descent, that he had a great uncle who was a famous Cuban architect, and that Cuba would become open to U.S. nationals just…

Infiniti drives first registered US-spec car through Cuban streets in 58 years

You can't make stuff like this up. Alfonso Albaisa, Infiniti's executive design director, is the great-nephew of mid-century modern architect Max Borges-Recio, renowned for designing Havana, Cuba's fabulous and world famous Cabaret Tropicana, as well as Club Náutico. Now that the U.S. has reopened its embassy and is allowing trade and tourism between the two countries, could there be a better opportunity for a family reunion?

For a bit of background, the Tropicana Club, which came to life in 1939 at Villa Mina, a large suburban estate in Havana's Marianao neighborhood, helped spread Cuba's rich, vibrant culture internationally, and of course was the inspiration for the fictional Manhattan nightclub of the same name in "I Love Lucy", where Lucy's (Lucille Ball) husband Ricky Ricardo (played by Cuban-born Desi Arnaz) was a singer and bandleader. The TV venue has since been recreated in real-life, not to mention the Tropicana name has also been used for hotel casinos in Atlantic Read Full Story
Hyundai has refreshed its bestselling Santa Fe for 2017, so we tested the long-wheelbase XL in Luxury trim to find out if it’s still up to snuff. First off it drives great value at just over $32k thanks…

2017 Hyundai Santa Fe XL AWD Road Test Review

The Santa Fe is far and away the bestselling mid-size SUV in Canada, which is a sizeable feat considering it sells into one of the most profitable segments in the mainstream volume-branded auto sector. The only other model Hyundai achieves number one status with is the lowly subcompact Accent that totally blows its competitors off the sales chart by selling more than twice as many units as its next closest rival, but this is a category that most would normally expect the value-oriented brand to do well in.

Like the Accent, Hyundai makes the Santa Fe in two unique body styles. The most popular is the smaller five-passenger version that goes by the name of Santa Fe Sport, its sales reaching 22,967 units over the first 11 months of 2016, and 26,685 for the previous full year. That's pretty impressive considering it's continued forward more or less unchanged since its last complete redesign in 2012 for the 2013 model year. Its sales have actually been remarkably steady with 27,580 Read Full Story
It’s not too often that a sequel is better than the original, but in the case of Infiniti’s new subcompact luxury SUV, the QX30 makes a strong argument for being more appealing than the Mercedes GLA…

2017 Infiniti QX30 Premium AWD Road Test Review

By now you may have heard that the QX30 looks for all parts an Infiniti, but is in fact mostly a Mercedes GLA 250 4Matic under the skin. For most this shouldn't be a problem, because Mercedes makes superb vehicles and the GLA is certainly high on that list.

When first learning of this I questioned why Infiniti didn't just use Nissan's B platform that underpins the Juke, as it's a great little crossover SUV with excellent handling and many other admirable qualities, but no doubt it would've been difficult to adapt Infiniti's definitive design language to the little SUV's unorthodox styling, while it's probably a bit small for this application too. Therefore we have an Infiniti-ized Mercedes, the end result being a subcompact SUV that I truly enjoyed spending time with.

First off I like the way it looks, Infiniti pulling off the design very well. Its front end is 100 percent Infiniti as is its kinked C-pillar, while the LED enhanced headlight and taillight designs are Read Full Story
With a 300-hp V6, 8-speed auto and AWD the base Cayenne packs in a lot of performance for just $69k, while the new $75k Platinum Edition builds on that with Power Steering Plus, exclusive 20-inch alloys,…

2017 Porsche Cayenne Platinum Edition Road Test Review

Just how much does the Cayenne matter to Porsche? To the storied Stuttgart-based premium brand it's worth its weight in gold, or at least platinum.

So far this year Porsche has sold 1,810 two- and four-door sports cars, but Cayenne sales alone add up to 2,115 over the same 11 months. Factor the brand's rising star, the Macan compact SUV into the mix and Porsche's 2016 calendar year sport utility sales have already broken 4,700 units, which means its two SUVs account for almost 77 percent of the brand's 6,100-plus year-to-date sales. In other words, without the Cayenne and new Macan, Porsche would likely cease to exist in Canada. Being that the results are similar in the U.S. and other markets around the world, let's just be glad the powers that be at the helm of this storied brand had the smarts to enter the luxury SUV sector when they did way back in 2002.

After all, the Cayenne is not only a superb family hauler that actually lives up to the first initial in SUV, Read Full Story
If your car consistently sits in 9th out of 11 competitors you’ve got to ask the tough questions, which is what our review of the 2017 VW Passat does. Is its styling not provocative enough to lure would-be…

2017 Volkswagen Passat 1.8 TSI Highline Road Test Review

The mid-size family sedan segment doesn't play fair, or so it seems. There's a total of 11 mainstream volume branded players on the Canadian market and most offer sizeable proportions, decent performance, good fuel economy, ample standard and optional features, impressive safety, and reasonable style, but the most successful is nearly 10 times more popular than the bottom feeder.

The oddity here is the poorest selling Mazda6 is one of the more accommodating, best to drive, most efficient, safest, and arguably nicest looking, while the bestselling Toyota Camry is certainly some of the above albeit comparatively boring and bland, so obviously looks don't play as big a role in sales results as other factors. After 11 months of the 2016 calendar year the sales chart shows the following results in Canada: 14,848 Toyota Camrys, 13,513 Ford Fusions, 12,952 Honda Accords (sedan and coupe), 10,868 Chevrolet Malibus, 9,647 Hyundai Sonatas, 7,458 Nissan Altimas, 6,680 Chrysler 200s, 4,615 Read Full Story
Now in the last year of its 1st generation, the 2017 XC60 drops its 5- and 6-cylinder for a single turbo 2.0L four making 240-hp in T5 trim and 302-hp when hooked up to a supercharger for the T6. An 8-speed…

2017 Volvo XC60 T5 Drive-E AWD Special Edition Road Test Review

With an entirely new 2018 XC60 waiting in the wings one would expect this 2017 model to be purely carryover, how most automakers deal with final years of a given generation, but the compact luxury SUV is much too important for Volvo, so therefore changes have been made. Still, it's more about what isn't available this year than what is.

Gone are the old inline five- and six-cylinder powerplants, the latter an engine we saw disappear from the fabulously successful second-generation XC90 SUV and stylish new mid-size S90 when these models went on sale in late 2014 for the former and mid-2016 for the latter. Offering three completely different powertrains in any relatively low volume vehicle (the XC60 has once again been Volvo's second-bestselling model over the first 11 months of 2016 but it only accounted for 1,430 sales compared to the competitive Audi Q5's and Acura RDX' 7,677 and 7,446 sales respectively) doesn't make a lot of sense from a business perspective anyway, so slimming Read Full Story
Mercedes is just updating its awesome little CLA so we took opportunity to let you know about key 2017 improvements while putting the already upgraded 2016 CLA45 AMG 4Matic through its paces. Wickedly…

2016 Mercedes-Benz CLA45 AMG 4Matic Coupe Road Test Review

If you need a visceral explanation as to why Mercedes-Benz whips every other premium brands' behind when it comes to subcompact luxury segment sales performance, spend some time with a CLA45 AMG 4Matic Coupe.

The word Coupe is used roughly with this car, a misnomer that I happen to think is a good thing. Like the German luxury brand's CLS that ushered in the four-door coupe phenomenon, the CLA is more along the lines of a sleek, low-slung sport sedan, which means it's a lot more practical than a coupe, but it's not as staid and conventional as a more upright sedan. Hence why this best-of-both-world's model has been tearing up the sales charts since inception with 3,653 sold throughout Canada over the first 11 months of this year, 3,870 during all 12 months of 2015 and 3,851 in 2014, or at least that's half the story.

It's always looked great to my eyes, and the top-tier CLA45 AMG version all the better. It boasts more aggressive bodywork, more expressive lighting elements, Read Full Story