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 world class” tagline. Read more

The Crank: Do drive-thrus need a Timmy Tax?

By John LeBlanc

You may have read last Saturday’s front page article in the Star about the GTA’s impending transit meltdown: “To avoid transit disaster, GTA needs road tolls and taxes now.” The article describes a report advising that to raise $1 billion to $2 billion annually for transit improvements, new streams of revenue (like a regional gas tax, commercial parking tax levies, a regional sales tax, or charging drivers to enter the Toronto downtown core) are being looked at. Now look, I’m no transportation expert. And all of those ideas may be needed. But there’s one obvious area of revenue that seems to have been overlooked: the ubiquitous drive-thru. Read more

The Trouble with Toyotas: Silver lining found in latest round of recalls

By John LeBlanc

Ho-hum. Another week, another batch of troubles with Toyotas found. I don’t know about you, but I’m becoming a bit desensitized to all these Toyota recalls. This week its stalling engines. The week before that, it was post-crash-test fuel spillage issues. Previoulsy, it was luxury sedans that couldn’t steer straight. And before that, it was luxury SUVs that had a tendency to flip in emergency avoidance situations, etcetera, etctera… Man, if Toyota was the girl that cried Wolf!, she’d probably have lost her voice by now. Read more

First Drive: 2011 Mercedes-Benz R Class

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R Class gets schooled

Does new looks and calling it a “crossover,” change your opinion about Mercedes’ former Grand Tourer?

By John LeBlanc

HOBOKEN, N.J. – You might know this New Jersey city from the classic 1950 cartoon short that matched Bugs Bunny with Hoboken Penguin, the top-hat-wearing penguin from the Brooklyn Ice Palace. Or as the site of the first recorded baseball game in the U.S., in 1846. Another bit of information, though, we learned here on the shores of the Hudson River, is that Mercedes-Benz still makes its R-Class three-row crossover. Read more

The Crank: Will ‘Benz GLC answer a question no one is asking?

By John LeBlanc

At the same time U.S. Automobile magazine’s Jamie Kitman accurately points the finger at German automakers for the demise of the more enjoyable to drive and environmentally-friendly station wagon in North America, word out of Germany suggests Mercedes-Benz is copycatting BMW again in the never-ending game called Fill That SUV Niche! Read more

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