first drive

A Genuinely Good Idea That's Compromised By Design Fisker is a company driven by design. I can't tell you how often I heard that line from the company's namesake, its PR people and engineers during my brief trip to Los Angeles to drive the production version of the 2012 Fisker Karma. And it's ...

Baby Of The Family Will Play A Big Role Toyota's new 2012 Prius C doesn't look like a math problem, but that's what it is. Hidden behind its attractive hatchback body and Toyota Synergy Drive hybrid powertrain, the Prius C is just a bunch of numbers. Numbers like the car's miles per gallon ...

Lexus' Best Compromise Yet Ever since the Prius unexpectedly became the Xerox of hybrids and a greenie icon, Toyota has been trying to figure out how to apply the technology to its other models. Its results have been decidedly mixed, nowhere more so than with its luxury lineup. But with the 2013 ...

VW Finally Rediscovers Its (Very) Small Car Roots Big old Volkswagen is back to thinking small, and it's finally doing it right. After two frankly awful attempts at supplying the rest of the world with cheap tin boxes called Fox and Lupo, company bosses have done some soul searching and this is ...

Meeting The Next-Generation Chevrolet Mid-Size It's been a very long time since the midsize market went easy on American automakers, and recent years have conspired to make an uphill sales slog even steeper with a rash of new and redesigned models. Kia and Hyundai have taken up arms by offering ...

A Flywheel-Equipped Race Car Leaves Us Whirring for More Spinning at 36,000 revolutions per minute just two feet from my right thigh, a 31-pound flywheel is screaming like a five-horsepower Shop-Vac with the filter removed. The sound pierces the composite shell of my racing helmet and drills ...

Light Weight, Rear-Wheel Drive And Instant Torque Bubble Up There are two simple truths about the Mitsubishi i that should help this funky little electric car sell well in the U.S. once it goes on sale later this year. First, it looks like absolutely nothing else on the road today. Second, the ...

How does one make the decision to put $2,250 down and then pay $499 a month for a 24-month lease of an all-electric BMW? Autoblog's Damon Lavrinc is currently working out his personal answer to this exact question about the 2012 BMW ActiveE and recently got the chance to test out the all-electric 1 ...

The fuel-efficient technology inside the new 2012 Mazda3 Skyactiv is something we know a little something about. By shunning expensive electric additions to the powertrain (for now), Mazda expects to be able to compete with its competitors on both fuel economy and price. With some driving flair ...

You say you want an evolution? Well, look no further than the 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid. It's not game-changing like the Nissan Leaf. It's no Chevrolet Volt. But it's truly the most advanced Prius ever to hit the streets. From behind the wheel, the Prius Plug-in Hybrid drives much the ...