First Drive: 2013 Lexus ES

By John LeBlanc

NEWBERG, Oregon – Stop me if you’ve heard this story before: A once dominant Japanese luxury brand falls on hard times. Primarily due to decidedly conservative product development and a loyal-but-aging customer base. Said brand retrenches. Then comes back with a new, more aggressive design language (illustrated via a halo concept car), and a promise that its reliable-but-boring-to-drive production cars will offer more athletic driving characteristics, mainly to attract younger buyers leaning towards rival German luxury automakers. Read more

First Drive & Video: 2013 Mercedes-Benz G 63 AMG

By John LeBlanc

GENEVA—What is it about the guilty appeal of a stereotypical bad boy or bad girl? The kind of partner your parents and friends would never approve of. The type of relationship you secretly, deep down inside, lust after. That’s the problem I have with the updated 2013 Mercedes-Benz G-Class: it’s the bad boy of luxury sports-utility vehicles. And I want one. Read more

The Crank: Toyota’s Prius no longer niche

By John LeBlanc

Remember when the original Prius went on sale in the late 1990s? As one of the first, mass-produced gasoline-electric hybrid cars, the quirky Toyota was considered a cult car at best. Today, 15 years later, the Prius family—consisting now of four models, the original Prius hatchback, the Prius plug-in hybrid, the larger Prius V, and smaller Prius C—is the third best-selling car in the world. Read more

First Drive & Video: 2013 Acura ILX

By John LeBlanc

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona – Honda’s premium Acura brand is in the midst of one of its largest product makeovers ever. And one of Acura’s most important new vehicles for the Canadian market is the new 2013 Acura ILX compact sedan, the brand’s latest entry in a segment it virtually created almost two decades ago. Read more

The Crank: Can the French build a true super car?

By John LeBlanc

We’ll be getting more, official details later on today, but earlier this week, images of a new super car from France’s Renault were splashed all over the Interweb. Called the Alpine A110-50, seen above, the mid-engine super car is a 50th-anniversary hommage to the original A110 that first appeared in 1961. Read more

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