2014 Mazda6

Were you among the many who started watching Breaking Bad or The Sopranos years after everybody gushed? If so, your expectations were likely crazy high. So you may have been impressed, sure, but also left wondering whether all that extoling was truly warranted. So it is with the Mazda6, AJAC’s … Read More

First Drive: 2012 Kia Rio

I’m sitting in Miner’s Old-Fashioned Diner in sunny Yakima, WA state, staring exhaustedly at a half-finished hamburger the size of a hubcap. “Y’want fries with that?” Well, I thought I did, but no longer: There’s no way I can finish this obscene amount of food. Outside in the parking lot, … Read More

James Bond Would Approve: The Lexus 2009 350 GS AWD

Like Sean Connery sporting a tuxedo in the early Bond films, the 2009 Lexus GS 350 is classically handsome, powerful, and can take a punch. Power and Efficiency It’s quiet inside this hermetically sealed pill. When a power-start button launches a bum-wobbling growl, it’s cleverly attenuated but not fully tamed. … Read More

Blinded By Silence: The Toyota Camry Hybrid

Last year there was talk in the U.S. about legislating noise into hybrid cars specifically for the blind to hear them (like those birdsong traffic lights you find downtown) – but anyone could benefit. The Toyota Camry Hybrid is so eerily quiet that my cat, resting beneath, didn’t realize the … Read More

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