KITT: First Drive

As a child of the 80s and former member of the Knight Rider faithful (I happily toted the Rider lunchbox until third grade) it was nearly impossible to stifle my internal yelp of anticipation when to the for an exclusive first drive. It's irrational, because I knew the car sitting...

Nov 15, 2024

Nice Price Or Crack Pipe: The $39,975 Iran Khodro Paykan Deluxe 1600!

77% of readers thought the falls on the Crack Pipe side of the NPOCP Scale. That might be a bit harsh, but the K Car underpinnings of the Chrysler TC By Maserati may have seemed too common. That's why today's car is something that we're pretty sure nobody has ever...

Nov 15, 2024

2008 BMW 750Li, Part One

Since 1977, the BMW 7-series has represented the thinking man’s luxury car. A vehicle that was, on paper, neither as gargantuan as American competitors like the Lincoln Town Car or Chrysler New Yorker (closer actually in size to the two-door Cordoba), nor as austere as its main Deutschland domestic rival,...

Nov 15, 2024

10K Mile '81 Cadillac Cimarron For $8,995: Nice Price Or Crack Pipe?

A decisive 85% of you felt that the required a major helping of Hubba Rocks to look like a wise investment, but today's choice might be more of a dilemma. Yes, the Cimarron was a total disaster for Cadillac, diluting its brand at the worst possible time, but that makes...

Nov 15, 2024

2009 Dodge Ram 1500 Laramie: First Drive

The folks at Chrysler have been making a lot of waves on the sea of trucks with their non-traditional approach to the . Instead of leaving well-enough alone, for 2009 Dodge has re-done quite a bit — revamping the rear end with coil (rather than leaf) springs, rethought what a...

Nov 15, 2024

2008 BMW 750Li, Part Two

Toned down since 2006, the nevertheless remains polarizing. It is distinctive, it is strangely attractive and it does look sophisticated. It isn't what you'd call traditionally good looking. Here, in extended wheelbase form, there's an added degree of awkwardness that does the already challenging lines no favors. Some people will...

Nov 15, 2024

2009 BMW 135i, Part One

Perhaps more than any other car in its range, the carries the weight of customer expectation on its shoulders. Supposedly the antithesis to the soft, the bloated and overcomplicated cars dominating BMW's range for the majority of this decade, people want the 135i to herald a return to the simple,...

Nov 15, 2024

2008 BMW 750Li, Part Three

You're a pop star, Eastern European mobster, an NBA player or a 40-year-old lawyer that hits on college girls. You want a status symbol. You have no idea what an is. The only thing you use your computer for is checking your e-mail. You have a bad hip. You signed...

Nov 15, 2024

2009 BMW 135i, Part Two

Easily the best-looking Bangle BMW, the excels in proportion, if not in detail. Straight from the front, there’s little indication of the 135i’s purpose, but from there back it’s classic BMW two-door updated for the 21st century. Restraint and simplicity do the 135i’s interior many favors. Still, it would have...

Nov 15, 2024

2009 Chevrolet Silverado 1500: First Drive

When the chief (at the time, chief-in-training) took a close up look at the then-new , the major improvements made in the areas of ride-and-handling, body control and interior design were fairly evident. We got to wondering, given the Silverado is now competing against the new Tundra and two new...

Nov 15, 2024

2009 BMW 135i, Part Three

You like the idea of a driver’s car, but you don’t really like driving that much. You heard the 135i was the car to drive this fall. You’re a life-long BMW fan and you have a penchant for blinders. You’re a badge snob. You’re all of the above and you...

Nov 15, 2024

2008 Saturn Vue Green Line Hybrid, Part One

"That's a hybrid but you can't drive it on all-electric power?" No, you can't. And I got pretty good at explaining why not by the time the sixth person asked. The least enjoyable part of spending a week with the was telling inquisitive folks how it worked. And how it...

Nov 15, 2024

2009 Jaguar XF, Part One

If the Jeremy Clarkson School of Automotive Journalism has taught me one thing, it’s that any good car review needs a metaphor. They serve to add a tangible anchor to a story, they add humor, they add relevance and, more importantly, they create an easy formula with which us car...

Nov 15, 2024

2008 Saturn Vue Green Line Hybrid, Part Two

It may still be a straightforward compact SUV, but thanks to the Opelization of Saturn, the looks far better than its predecessor — with a more refined, European styling direction than its competitors, particularly the block-like Ford Escape. The rubber fits the wheel wells, all the handles feel solid and...

Nov 15, 2024

2009 Jaguar XF, Part Two

It all depends on when you catch the . Sometimes it’s stunning; sometimes it’s stunningly bland. Sometimes it resembles a four-door Aston Martin; sometimes it looks like either a Dodge Intrepid or a Chrysler LHS. One thing’s for certain, even though it’s occasionally good-looking, it isn’t the coupe in a...

Nov 15, 2024