You’ve heard this one before. It doesn’t matter how good or bad your equipment is. It’s how well you can use it. Alternatively, it’s a poor craftsman who blames his tools. Tires are tools of a type, and the heavily updated 2018 Mazda6 uses them as best it can.
Admittedly, Mazda is asking a lot of the 225/45R19 Falken Ziex ZE001 all-seasons it’s fitted to all four corners of the latest Mazda6. This one tire has to live up to Mazda’s acclaimed handling brand value while also returning competitive fuel economy and good wet- and cold-weather performance. Nearly all of those requirements are in direct opposition to one another when it comes to the chemistry and physics of tire design and engineering. For automotive product planners, balancing these priorities and realities is a full-time job.
Given all that, it’s remarkable what the Mazda6 can do with what it [...]
We’re almost at the end of our long-term test of the 2017 Hyundai Tucson, and so far it’s been on a road trip to Texas, carried way too much luggage, and seen most of Los Angeles a couple times over. Production editor Erika Pizano recently took the bright orange crossover to Yosemite National Park for a week of camping and found it a great road trip companion.
The Tucson proved itself to be a good hauler that carried three people and all of their gear without issue. Pizano was impressed with the Tucson’s ability to haul her multiple bags, including a large one filled with food, and felt it works well as a family vehicle. She also liked the Tucson’s comfortable ride, but did notice the laggy throttle in Normal mode and wished the Tucson were more responsive, especially for highway passing and merging.
It’s been a weird turnabout in branding. Performance brand BMW now builds cars more attuned to luxury while luxury automaker Mercedes-Benz creates dynamic beasts that more than steal the fun-to-drive crown from BMW.
Over the course of our year with a BMW 530i midsize sedan, we found that it perfectly fulfilled its luxury promise.
Living up to its heritage as an Ultimate Driving Machine? Not as much.
In acquiring a 2.0-liter family sedan, most buyers won’t expect the 530i to be a weekend racer. But shoppers might be a bit dismayed upon discovering their Bimmer is a bit, well, sedate. Sure, its 0–60 sprint in 6.2 seconds is fair for its class, but in crawling beach city traffic, the transmission kickdowns take too long, and you never feel like you’re in the powerband’s sweet spot. Sport mode is essential.
“The four-cylinder turbo is reasonably efficient on a long-distance [...]
Consumers are clamoring for Mazda’s small crossover. In the first four months of the year, Mazda sold more CX-5 crossovers than all other vehicles in its lineup combined. Although it stands out for its balance between interior space and on-the-road maneuverability, the CX-5 isn’t the only vehicle buyers should consider from the brand. Newly refreshed, the Mazda6 is another strong contender, particularly now that it offers a 2.5-liter turbo engine. So which one should you pick: the chart-topping crossover or the often-overlooked sedan?
Acceleration Advantage: Mazda6
This probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise, but the newly updated sedan dominates this category. In our tests, the turbocharged Mazda6 2.5T in Signature form took 6.4 seconds to reach 60 mph. It took 8.3 seconds for an all-wheel-drive CX-5 to hit the same mark. When the Grand Touring trim of the Mazda6 was offered with a 184-hp, naturally aspirated [...]
To many, especially those that grew up playing the excellent Nintendo 64 game of the same name, Goldeneye was the best of the four James Bond films that starred Pierce Brosnan. Now, well-heeled Bond fans that feel the same way will have the rare opportunity to add the 1965 Aston Martin DB5 the British secret agent drove in the movie’s opening scene—the first DB5 driven by Bond since the Sean Connery era.
Presented by Bonhams and set for the auction house’s 2018 Goodwood Festival of Speed sale, the car is expected to go for somewhere between 1.2 million and 1.6 million British pounds—roughly between $1.6 million and $2.1 million at today’s exchange rates. Considering that the current owner purchased it for a mere $200,000 in 2001, then the most valuable piece of Bond memorabilia ever sold, that’s quite the return.
Yet, that’s a bargain compared to the price the DB5 used by Connery in Goldfinger [...]
