2010 Chevrolet Malibu

By Edward R. Noble

Almost lost in all of the bad news for General Motors in the past couple of years is a bright spot in the Chevrolet Malibu sedan.

General Motors still can design and build world class family type sedans. While Toyota and Honda have almost dominated the mid-size sedan market, Chevrolet’s Malibu has dug into their one time safe customer base. The Malibu beats the offshore cars in every category. And, you can identify a Malibu from blocks away unlike a Toyota and the rest of the Asian copycats.

Click to read more ...

2010 Maserati Gran Turismo

By Arv Voss

All of Maserati’s Trident-badged models are graceful works of art, with alluring, curvaceous and smoothly flowing lines, and all are powered by a 4.7-liter, DOHC, 32-valve V8 with electronic fuel injection that generates 433 horsepower @ 7,000 rpm and delivers 361 pound feet of torque. The engine is mounted up front, low, behind the front axle in a longitudinal orientation, and transfers motive force to the rear wheels via an electronic “drive-by-wire” throttle and a ZF 6-speed automatic with four modes: Auto Normal, Auto Sport, Auto ICE, and manual shift capability with steering column-mounted paddle shifters

Click to read more ...

1979 International Scout

By Vern Parker

Back in his teenage years Tim Smolinski became hooked on International Scouts. Before he had a license to drive young Smolinski had saved enough money from his newspaper route to purchase a used vehicle.

The 15-year-old convinced his parents that a used 1980 Scout he had located would be an ideal first vehicle for him. He must have done a good sales job for he was soon driving the vehicle up and down the driveway.

That first Scout is now history. Since then, however, a succession of other Scouts have come and gone and Smolinski has become more knowledgeable about Scouts. He has learned that the rarest of the rare Scouts were the 25 Baja Scout SSII models with the special Midas option. Smolinski says International Harvester built the vehicles in a Ft. Wayne, Ind., plant and then they were taken to an Elkhart, Ind., facility where Midas completed the vehicle.

One of those 25 Scouts was manufactured April 19, 1979 and eventually was shipped to California where it reportedly was sold to a customer in Palm Desert, Calif. That is where it stayed until 2009 when a broker offered it for sale on the internet in October.

Click to read more ...

2010 Lexus GX460

By Nick Yost

The 2010 Lexus GX460 is a muscular, truck-based sport-utility vehicle—a close cousin to the Toyota 4Runner—that can veer off the main road and take the shortcut through the heavy brambles, sticker bushes, muddy streams, ruts and rocky inclines to reach its destination.

But, instead of dressing for the occasion, it shows up wearing a tuxedo.

And, therein lies the conundrum.

Click to read more ...

2011 Chevrolet Cruze

The goal is not to be “as good as” but to be “best-in-class.”

By Ted Orme

Ever since Dinah Shore urged me to see the USA in a Chevrolet during its heyday in the 1950’s I’ve been a loyal rooter for the home team. That’s not always been easy in the case of modern day Chevrolet, like the first drive in a low rent Cobalt that left me muttering about justified bankruptcy. Why couldn’t a mammoth, global carmaker produce a competitive small car, I pondered?

Well, after a scoot through D.C. traffic into the scenic Virginia countryside as part of a recent day-and-a-half 2011 Chevrolet Cruze National Drive Program,  I’m happy to report that Chevy, yes Chevy, will take a giant stride toward that achievement when Cruze hits showrooms in September.

Click to read more ...