2010 in Review: My Best Driving Experiences

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By John LeBlanc

Out of the hundreds of cars and thousands of kilometres I drove in 2010, two cars separated by four decades provided my two best experiences. Read more

2010 in Review: My Worst Driving Experience

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By John LeBlanc

Range anxiety. It’s a term you’ve probably heard about if you’ve been reading Wheels recently. It’s the stress electric-vehicles owners experience due to the lack of real-car range from their EV’s batteries, and the lack of proper recharging stations. Read more

2010 in Review: Winners and losers of the past year

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By John LeBlanc

Between rapidly changing customer demographics, the global shift of economic power from the West to the East, and stricter fuel economy regulations on the horizon — to say the least — it’s been a challenging time if you’re in the business of making cars. As such, there’s been a real culling of the herd over the past couple of years, with the industry becoming split between the Haves and the Have-nots. So here is my list of automakers that are on the way up, and the ones on the way down: Read more

2010 in Review: Worst Discontinued Car/2010 Chrysler PT Cruiser

By John LeBlanc

The PT Cruiser was like a Mexican cockroach: you couldn’t kill the thing. On sale since the 2000 model year, how the compact wagon managed to survive four owners (Chrysler, Mercedes-Benz, Cerberus, and Fiat) with such poor build quality, wobbly handling, and a generally low-rent driving experience has always been a mystery to me. Read more

2010 in Review: Best Discontinued Car/2010 Volkswagen Passat Wagon 2.0T

By John LeBlanc

The canceling of the current-generation, German-made Passat sedan and wagon in lieu of a new U.S.-made Volkswagen midsize sedan coming in 2011 (and more than likely a platform-sharing crossover) sets off two alarm bells for yours truly: first, expect the same low-cost over refinement strategy as in the new 2011 Jetta for the Passat’s replacement; second, say good-bye to yet another sports wagon: one of the most versatile automotive genres you can buy. Read more

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