Month: April 2025

Cancelled Heavy-Duty Ram EV Leads To Legal Battle

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EV pickups have made waves in recent years thanks to their combination of functionality, styling, and electrification with their large platforms being perfect rolling test beds for EV technology. However, while they look stylish cruising down your local road and can haul a good amount of payload in their beds, towing has never been a strong suit for them and when you combine that with the task of lugging heavy payloads, EVs see their range and battery power drain away with every single EV truck on the market being beaten in towing and payload by gas-powered trucks. This has caused …

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2025 Toyota GR86 Hakone Edition review by Ben Lewis

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We love cars. Actually, we love all kinds of cars. But ones that makes us smile the most are small, rear-wheel drive coupes and convertibles designed for the purpose of driving fun. And we don’t mind a bargain, either. Throw those altogether in the mix, and you get a surprisingly small list. 1. The Mazda Miata. And 2 (or 2-3) the Toyota GR86/Subaru BRZ twins. And another thing we love – the manufacturers here could pretty much sit back on their laurels and sell these great cars without bothering to touch ‘em. But they don’t. Mazda and Toyota/Subaru (Toybaru?) consistently …

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Road Test Review – 2024 Toyota Corolla FX – Compact Style

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The Toyota Corolla and the art of expressive styling have not exactly had a good relationship. The Corolla was always known as a function-focused vehicle with styling often being cast aside for conformity and practicality. Toyota is out to change that and while the GR Corolla is a recent exception to this rule, the rest of the Corolla lineup still didn’t have a true style package to appeal to younger buyers. The company is out to change that with the all-new FX package which adds bigger wheels and other minor styling touches to the Corolla sedan in an attempt to …

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Road Test Review – 2025 Mazda CX-5 Carbon Edition

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The Mazda CX-5 might feel like it’s being pushed out of the spotlight with the CX-50 and the bigger CX-90 filling the niches that it was once asked to fill by itself. However, the CX-5 is still a strong seller for Mazda and the CUV even has a strong following of customers who have stuck with the model despite broader changes in Mazda’s lineup. Mazda has decided to reward this loyalty with the 2025 Mazda CX-5 2.5 S Carbon Edition. Carbon models are typically known for injecting more style into a Mazda model but with the CX-5 potentially facing the …

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Review: The Chevrolet Blazer EV RS AWD Goes Big on Style, and Bigger on Mainstream Appeal

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Those of us old enough to remember the ‘90s might remember Recycle Rex and his hit song: “Recycle, Reduce, Reuse, and Close the Loop.” It’s an earworm, to be sure, and it, alongside programs like Captain Planet, taught us it was cool to care about the environment. In the case of the song, though, it did so in the wrong way. Kind of. In later years—once recycling was no longer a novel concept—we’d learn that while the ideas are good, they’re presented in the wrong order. To be a good friend of the Earth, you first reduce what you consume, …

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Road Test Review – 2024 Lexus NX 350h Luxury AWD

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The venerable Lexus NX has been through its fair share of ups and downs but ultimately, it always manages to come up with a good run of good fortune with the compact CUV meant to give Lexus a middle-rung player slotted between the smaller UX and the iconic RX. Some would say that the NX is starting to lose its edge and that it’s starting to get soft around the edges. But is that the case? We wanted to find out. Lexus NX is still the sharpest member of the family The Lexus NX was designed to be stylish and …

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2025 Mazda CX-50 Hybrid Premium Plus review by Ben Lewis

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In the world of auto manufacturers, Mazda remains an independent voice. And you gotta love ‘em, they have stayed true to their vision of driving enjoyment – hey this is the Miata company! – and also have been moving the brand upscale at the same time. The only problem is, developing tech like EV, hybrid, and more is expensive and time consuming. And while EV’s seem to be on the back burner now, hybrid models are still hot, hot, hot. So Mazda did a very smart thing, they partnered with Toyota to add a hybrid powertrain to the already-sweet Mazda …

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Road Test Review – 2024 Mazda CX-50 Turbo Meridian Edition

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The Mazda CX-50 has rapidly emerged as a key player in Mazda’s SUV strategy. While the bigger CX-90 often steals the spotlight due to its bigger size and segment-blurring luxury, the smaller CX-50 stands out for its strong value game which allows it to be a near-perfect balance of luxury, value, and capability.  Mazda is hoping the CX-50 Turbo Meridian Edition will be able to deliver some of the flagship luxury that’s missing from the model but is it still missing something that prevents it from being truly perfect? We were eager to find out. Meridian Edition adds flash to …

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Road Test Update – 2025 Toyota GR Corolla Premium – It’s Still Fun

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The Toyota GR Corolla was the answer to a question that many asked, what would happen if you took an average Corolla hatchback and threw everything at it in an attempt to make it faster, sharper, and rowdier than any Corolla that came before it? The answer is the GR Corolla a spunky three-cylinder powered monster designed to slay track days and make the art of driving fun again. Toyota had a strong start in sales with the Corolla proving to be popular with the first wave of buyers who pre-ordered the hot-to-trot Toyota for their garage. However, the company …

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2025 Volkswagen Taos SE review by Ben Lewis

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We’ve always been fans of VW’s Taos, their smallest SUV/Crossover, and the de-facto replacement for the VW Golf that we always liked as well. Despite being their most affordable offering, for 2025 VW has given the Taos updated looks, enhanced technology and more power. Sounds like a great reason for a road test! Clean and Modern You’ll really notice the update on the front, which reminds us of VW ID4, one of the manufacturer’s popular EV models. There’s a new larger grille with an aggressive pattern, a light bar that spans the width of the hood and brackets the familiar …

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Road Test Review – 2025 Toyota Tundra TRD Rally

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Toyota’s Tundra pickup is striving to be like the smaller Tacoma when it comes to offering more for its buyers. The Tundra has an impressive roster of trims at its disposal and like the Tacoma, the Tundra is attempting to appeal to many niches of the pickup market as it attempts to stay relevant against established rivals from Ram, Ford, and Chevrolet. For 2025, Toyota is bringing a number of new updates to the rig including an all-new TRD Rally package for buyers who want a pinch of something special in their Toyota purchase and want more performance in their …

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Road Test Review – 2025 Toyota Sienna Platinum

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Toyota’s Sienna minivan has always been a favorite among family buyers. While the van’s exterior styling continues to be controversial, there’s no denying that it still continues to offer an impressive amount of practicality to go along with its all-hybrid powertrain lineup. However, what if you’re looking to add more luxury to your family vehicle experience but don’t want to move up into a big SUV to do it? Toyota thinks it might have the answer with the 2025 Sienna Platinum which is attempting to push the envelope of luxury while maintaining the Sienna’s universal appeal. Is it all enough …

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2024 VW Golf GTI 380 S review by Ben Lewis

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There are few great driver’s cars for the hard-earned dollar than the VW GTI. But the carmaker has announced that 2024 will be the last year for the manual transmission model. OK, the DSG automatic is a great transmission, but still, there’s something special about driving a stick. So, when VW offered us one last dance with a three-pedal GTI, we jumped at the chance. Kicking “S” With a refreshed model due in 2025, our ’24 tester has few changes but it’s still a great looking car. At front, the look is aggressive, with frowny LED headlights, a horizontal red …

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Fatal Xiaomi SU7 Crash Shines Spotlight on The Safety of Self-Driving Tech

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Chinese firm Xiaomi is riding a wave of momentum and praise with the company’s EVs bringing the fight to Tesla in the Chinese market. Self-driving technology and other innovations have become two key pillars for the company but a fatal crash involving a key EV model is raising questions about some of these innovations and how the danger they could put customers in might overshadow these benefits. Crash raises troubling concerns for Xiaomi The crash in question took place back on March 29th and involved Xiamoi’s SU7 EV. The four-door was reportedly traveling on the Dezhou–Shangrao Expressway in Anhui Province …

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