Road Test & Video: 2013 Audi A4 Allroad Quattro

Story, photos and video by John LeBlanc

Fire up the time machine, and you have go all the way back to the 1980s’ AMC Eagle for the new Audi A4 Allroad Quattro’s automotive roots. Just like AMC then, Audi in the 1990s had no true sports-utility-vehicle. And just as the Eagle was a Hornet wagon in SUV-drag, so was the original Audi Allroad. In 1999, the German automaker took a perfectly fine A6 Avant (Audi-speak for wagon), then added SUV-like features such as two-tone fender flares, skid-plates to protect its expensive underside, height-adjustable suspension and — of course — Audi’s sophisticated Quattro all-wheel-drive system. It was just the thing for SUV-starved Audi dealers until the German automaker’s first utility vehicle, the Q7, arrived in 2005. Read more

Road Test: 2013 Scion FR-S

Story and photo by John LeBlanc

CALABOGIE, ONT. — It’s been four years since we first saw it at the Tokyo Motor Show as the Toyota FT-86 concept. But Toyota’s back-to-basics sports car — sold around the world as the GT-86 and in North America as the Subaru BRZ and my Scion FR-S tester — is finally on sale. Read more

First Drive: 2014 Audi R8

By John LeBlanc

RIMINI, Italy – Messing with success can be a scary ordeal for designers. Imagine an architect asked to do a makeover of Toronto’s iconic CN Tower or the industrial designer given the job of designing the next Apple iPhone? Egad. Talk about pressure. Read more

First Drive: 2013 Ford C-Max Energi

Story and photos by John LeBlanc

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. –  Each time Ford launches a new electrified vehicle of some kind, inevitably, rival Toyota takes a licking. Two months ago, Ford launched its new 2013 Fusion Hybrid sedan. And the American automaker’s media presentation was chock-a-block with references to how much better its hybrid sedan was over its rival Japanese automaker’s Camry Hybrid sedan — especially in Toyota’s wheelhouse, fuel economy. Read more

Preview: 2014 Chevrolet Spark Electric Vehicle

Story and photos by John LeBlanc

SAUSALITO, Calif. — Toyota has become synonymous for them. Ford is launching a bunch of them. And Honda is working on getting some. No, I’m not talking about product recalls. I’m speaking of gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles — the best known of which is Toyota’s iconic Prius. Read more

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