It wasn’t so long ago that options in the subcompact range were relegated to sedans and hatchbacks, with a smattering of two-door Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press coupes left to spice…

2014 Chevrolet Trax LS Road Test Review

It wasn't so long ago that options in the subcompact range were relegated to sedans and hatchbacks, with a smattering of two-door coupes left to spice things up in between. Today's small car market offers a lot more, from these mainstream mainstays to tiny two-seat misfits, tall and boxy whatchamacallits and sportier five-door crossover utilities like this wonderfully unique Chevrolet Trax.

One look will tell you the Trax is like no other CUV on the market. First off its subcompact city car proportions make it ultra-easy to slot in and out of busy urban traffic, let alone those tiny "Small Car" parking spots always placed closest to shopping mall entrances. Yet while small, its tall profile means that interior headroom is plentiful, allowing much more accommodating seating for taller folk than many midsize or large cars. Likewise the Trax' cargo hold is bigger than any vehicle so small should logically provide, measuring the size of a large sedan's trunk behind the 60/40-split Read Full Story
Despite frigid temperatures and blowing snow, the North American International Auto Show closed out its final weekend with   the best turnout in over a decade. In all, organizers said that 803,451…

Chevy reveals its 2015 Corvette Z06 at Detroit auto show

Despite frigid temperatures and blowing snow, the North American International Auto Show closed out its final weekend with the best turnout in over a decade. In all, organizers said that 803,451 paid visitors attended the show at Detroit's Cobo Center, as well as 5,169 journalists and hundreds of senior industry officials.

The show saw over 50 major automotive debuts, including Ford's new aluminum-intensive F-150, the new Chrysler 200, Toyota's FT-1 sports car concept, Kia's GT4 Stinger Concept, and BMW's new M3 and M4, plus many others. Among all these debuts, the new Chevrolet Corvette Z06 stood out as a definite highlight.

Chevrolet is calling the 2015 Corvette Z06 "the most track capable Corvette in the brand's history." It features a supercharged 6.2-litre engine that is expected to deliver a whopping 625 horsepower and 635 lb-ft of torque, and is the first supercharged engine offered in a Z06. It can be matched to either a seven-speed manual transmission with Read Full Story
The new small overlap front crash test instituted by the IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety) is proving to be challenging 2014 Honda Fit (Photo: IIHS) for small city cars to pass, with only…

New IIHS frontal offset crash test fails most subcompacts

The new small overlap front crash test instituted by the IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety) is proving to be challenging for small city cars to pass, with only the Chevrolet Spark taking home an "Acceptable" overall rating out of the 11 cars tested, earning it a nod for Top Safety Pick.

Honda's Fit fared worst of all, scoring "Poor" ratings for structure, hip/thigh injury measures, and lower leg/foot injury measures, which garnered it a "Poor" overall rating. As a result, Consumer reports removed the Fit from its list of recommended cars. The silver lining for Honda is that a new generation 2015 Fit just debuted in Detroit and is due out later this year, and because it was engineered with the new test in mind it is expected to perform much better than the outgoing model.

Owners and potential buyers of small cars can also take heart from the fact that all of the cars tested, including the Fit, got "Good" or "Acceptable" scores in the critical head/neck and Read Full Story
Prior to the entirely new 2014 model, the last time I drove an Impala was more than a decade ago. It was the old General’s version Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press of a mid-to-full-size…

2014 Chevrolet Impala LT Road Test Review

Prior to the entirely new 2014 model, the last time I drove an Impala was more than a decade ago. It was the old General's version of a mid-to-full-size "ahem-cough" luxury car, and a good indication of why the automaker that once was the world's largest slid to second in command and soon after almost went belly up in the global auto sales battlefield.

That was then, this is now, and the 2014 Impala is as clear an indication that a new, better-trained General has taken control of the Detroit-based company. What's good for Detroit is also good for Canada, or at least Oshawa Car Assembly with respect to the Impala, where the big sedan is manufactured alongside the Camaro and Equinox. That it looks a bit like the Camaro from the front is hardly a coincidence, Chevrolet doing its darnedest to add excitement to its large car division so as to pull customers back from Chrysler's 300, Dodge's Charger, Ford's Taurus, Hyundai's Genesis, Kia's Cadenza, Nissan's Maxima, and Toyota's Avalon, Read Full Story
Led by the Chevrolet Volt and Toyota Prius Plug-in, and with as many as 16 offerings in total to choose from, plug-based cars 2014 Tesla Model S (Photo: Tesla) recorded a major sales surge in 2013, jumping…

Plug-in electric car sales grow in 2013

Led by the Chevrolet Volt and Toyota Prius Plug-in, and with as many as 16 offerings in total to choose from, plug-based cars recorded a major sales surge in 2013, jumping by 84 percent in the US to almost 100,000 units total. While the Volt and Prius Plug-in led in volume, the Tesla and Nissan Leaf posted the biggest year-over-year gains, selling 18,800 and 22,610 vehicles respectively in the US last year - a gain of 130 percent for the Leaf. Conventional hybrids also saw a modest 15 percent increase in sales, reaching an all-time record of just under half a million vehicles sold. To put things in perspective these are still relatively modest numbers, with all battery-based vehicles together representing less than four percent of the total US new vehicle market. That's less market share than the Ford F-Series truck holds on its own. But the numbers show a growing acceptance of plug-in and hybrid vehicles by the motoring public, indicating that these vehicles are here to stay. The numbers Read Full Story