For the last couple of days I have been driving the Chevy Malibu as my rental car. I last rented a Chevy Malibu back in 2018 and reviewed it. The car hasn’t fundamentally changed since 2018, but has gone through a facelift and some minor updates. It is scheduled to go out of production in November. The Malibu in its various generations has...
My wife owns a 2007 E350 wagon. This car has been in the shop the last couple of weeks having the balancer shaft replacement done. This car was outside the known affected engine numbers, but still required a balancer shaft. We’ve had a 2005 W164 ML350 W164 as our loaner for the last few weeks. Its an interesting comparison as the ML...
I’m a big fan of the Mercedes-Benz W126. While it might not have the grandeur of the 60’s models, they make a really usable classic. The W126 can even be used as a daily driver. It still has the feel of a classic Mercedes-Benz but you get safety features like ABS, good air conditioning and reasonable fuel economy. When they are looked after they...
The rental car I had for my recent trip to Texas was a 2017 Ford Fusion Hybrid. Like with my recent Challenger rental, I had the opportunity to choose any car in a certain section. Unlike the last choice, the choices were not nearly as appetizing. I had only rented an intermediate class car, so most of what was available was particularly unpleasant looking...
Driving should be fun, despite what the proponents of the nanny state might say. No car is perfect, but a car that has character, and a sense of fun will make the little annoyances seem insignificant. This is what is missing in many current cars – no character, no fun, just like an appliance. The 2018 Dodge Challenger R/T has loads of character...
My latest rental car was the 2018 Chevy Malibu. It is probably the best rental car I’ve had for a couple of years, but that is not really saying much. The Malibu is the latest in a line of cheap ‘full size’ cars that used to be the mainstay of the big 3. With buyer preferences moving to SUVs and raised hatchbacks,...
I recently rented a Mitsubishi Pajero Sport for a family holiday. It is an interesting contrast with the Toyota Fortuner, which I reviewed earlier in the year. Overall the Pajero Sport is the better car, although not by much. The Pajero Sport is actually the 3rd generation Mitsubishi Challenger. As far as I know, the only relationship with the full size Pajero is...
My latest rental car was the Toyota Fortuner. I’m not sure the exact year, but it was the previous generation model. I needed a seven seater for a holiday in Thailand and the Fortuner was the largest car offered by Thai rent-a-car. The Fortuner is based on the Hilux with the SUV body instead of the pickup truck. The name sounds like it...
Ford announced recently they were discontinuing sedan sales in the United States. While sedan sales have been on the decline for many years, this was still a very bold move. Presumably this left a few gaps in their model range. Given the market will buy pretty much any SUV car companies offer, the company has added the Ford EcoSport compact SUV to their line...
I am a fan of the Rover P5, but I don’t have the time, room or funds to purchase one. So the solution is to buy a book! I purchased this book: Rover P5 & P5B: The Complete Story by James Taylor and overall I am happy with the purchase. The book does a good job of covering the events that led up...
October 18, 1953 The Citroen is as stable as it appears possible to make a car under our present design technique. Un-doubtedly the out-standing characteristic of the car is the way it holds on to the road surface, particularly on corners and bends. Although the Citroen was designed in France about 19 years ago, it has persisted essentially in its original form, with the...
The Citroen Car club had its monthly meeting at the Tesla showroom this month. Tesla were offering short test drives to club members as part of the meeting. The Tesla Model S is one of the few modern cars that interest me, so I jumped at the opportunity. In my view, the Tesla is the first ‘green’ car that is a great...
This is the second in a series about interesting cars that have not had their prices driven up so much they become trailer queens. While Volvo is still known for it’s boxy and unbreakable 240 series from the 70s and 80s, in the late 50s, Volvo was still looking to add a sports car to their range, despite the failure of the P1900. ...
It is hard to find somebody who prefers four door cars on aesthetic grounds. Sure, four door cars may be more practical, often cheaper to insure and easier to live with, but when buying a classic car, those considerations are not nearly as important. Mercedes Benz have always provided a range of handsome coupes in their range, which are still even years...
I had wanted to buy this book for a while, as the author, Bernd S. Koehling had written some interesting blog articles on his website, so I figured I would try a couple of his books too (I also purchased Volume 2 which will be the subject of a later review). Added to that, he obviously has great taste in cars, and I would...
The Citroen DS, being such an iconic car, has inspired a plethora of books on it’s design, history, restoration, models etc. The one that is the most recommended is ‘The Original Citroen DS – The restorers guide” by John Reynolds, mostly because of it’s excellent set of pictures; but this book is currently out of print and quite expensive. (You can get it...
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