The Crank: Driving in P.E.I.—great roads, shame about the drivers

By John LeBlanc Just got back from a couple of week’s en famille on Prince Edward Island. Let’s just say, that as a family vacation spot, it’s hard to beat Canada’s smallest province. The waters of the beaches of the North Shore near where we were hunkered down, just east of Cavendish, were remarkably warm. […]

The Crank: Are manual transmissions worth saving?

American buff book Car & Driver editor and Targa Newfoundland veteran, “Fast” Eddie Alterman, has gone all Jerry-Lewis-for-the-Kids-like and has made a YouTube plea to save the apparently soon-to-die manual gearbox. Now, Alterman says only about 1 in 10 new cars in the States are bought with three pedals. Why? Alterman doesn’t get into the […]

The Crank: Ford’s New Age 2011 Explorer not all that new

By John LeBlanc After a series of unmitigated sales flops (2005 Freestyle; 2008 Taurus X; 2009 Flex,) the “all-new” 2011 Explorer will be Ford’s fourth crack in the last decade at a midsize crossover based on the old Volvo S80 chassis from the last millennium.

The Crank: Honda ditches diesels for hybrids

By John LeBlanc So much for going its own way. A report has Japan’s Honda canceling plans to build a new minicar and diesel engine plant north of Tokyo. Apparently, the dreaded new fuel economy and tailpipe emissions regs, that will peak in 2016, have scared the Honda folks enough to go over to the […]

The Crank: Buick needs to believe in its own brand

By John LeBlanc So there I was in Vancouver, recent home of some world class winter athletes, and without a bit of irony hanging in the air, General Motors Canada was pitching its new 2011 Buick Regal, the latest in a lineup that now has to live up to the brand’s “A new class of […]

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