suv

Compared with the aggressive looks of the Hyundai Sonata and Tucson, the Santa Fe appears a bit dull and anonymous. It's not an unattractive vehicle by any means, but it also doesn't challenge our sensibilities or push the design envelope. In a parking lot full of Volkswagen Touaregs and Toyota Highlanders, it's content to merely blend in.

On the inside, the Santa Fe's interior appears equally dull at first, but thanks to a good assortment of standard cabin technologies behind its blue, backlit, monochrome displays and a pretty good level of fit and finish, we can'… Read more

Earlier this year at the Chicago Auto Show, Ford unveiled its production-ready 2011 Edge. So what's new for this year's model? The folks at Kelley Blue Book are here to give you the low down on the newest addition to the Ford family of utility vehicles.

By looking at the 2011 Ford Edge you know that something's different about it--its design and appearance have undergone an obvious transformation. Some of the updates include 22-inch premium aluminum wheels, lower hood, new fenders, vertical daytime running lights, and--perhaps most the "edgy" physical change--get a tuxedo black chrome … Read more

Hummer has been fairly newsworthy lately as General Motors has announced its plans to discontinue the SUV line and sell it off to a Chinese machinery manufacturer, and lately I've been dedicating a few blogs to the Hummer as GM plans to pull the plug on the Hummer brand. And as you may know I've become quite the fan of the popular BBC TV program "Top Gear." So I thought we'd have a little more fun with the blog with today's video featuring sharp-tongued host Jeremy Clarkson taking a spin in not one but … Read more

I'm sure by now most of you readers know that the Hummer brand was taken off of General Motors' hands by a heavy industrial machinery company in China, and that means that Hummer will no longer be produced by GM here in the United States. I suspect that a majority of readers here probably think that Hummer shouldn't let its ass hit the door on the way out, but there are a select few of us who appreciate the famous box on wheels for not just its easily recognizable style, but also for its ability to be styled … Read more

I was reading an Associated Press article recently about all the soon-to-be-defunct product lines produced by General Motors: Pontiac, Saab, and Saturn. But another brand that's been on the way out for a while now was making headlines again, as GM looks all set in its selling off the Hummer brand to China-based Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Corporation. While it's not official yet, unless something goes awry it looks to be a done deal and GM will have washed their hands of the tanking SUV line.

With General Motors metaphorically taking its Hummer brand out to the … Read more

I've focused this week's blogs on the newest hybrid vehicles on the market for the 2010 automotive year, and today is no exception. Today's Web clip features the 2010 Mercedes-Benz ML 450 Hybrid; but fear not, as there are no boring narrators or bad techno music on this video to pull attention away from the car. In fact, the only sounds you'll hear are those of the vehicle against the wind.

The M-class rocks a 3.5-liter V-6 engine that produces 335 horsepower and starts about $55,000. The 450 ML gets about 22.5 miles … Read more

This week, we've been taking a look at some of 2010's biggest gas-guzzlers. Not surprisingly, this list has been chock full of utility vehicles, and today's blog chalks up yet another entry for Land Rover. Yesterday, we got a look-see at the 2010 LR4, and our newest inductee into the Low Mileage Hall of Fame is the Land Rover Range Rover Sport (which also wins another award for the most redundant vehicle name ever). The LRRRS boasts average gas mileage of 12 mpg in the city and 17 mpg on the highway--not god awful, but certainly nothing … Read more

When we last discussed Toyota's 2010 4Runner, I was nitpicking a very silly gimmick called "Party Mode." Since then, the new model has been released and is available.

Starting with the basic SR5 model, the 4Runner's upper trim levels (Limited and Trail) head in two very different directions with two very different sets of suspension technologies.

The Limited features X-REAS, a sort of pneumatic sway bar system that links the dampers of each front wheel with the rear wheel on the opposite side of the vehicle. When the left side of the vehicle is compressed during, … Read more

So here we go with another Web video clip of a Class A gas guzzler for the year 2010, the Land Rover LR4, which by all accounts is supposed to take the place of the LR3. This 2010 SUV with a 5-liter V8 engine averages 14 mpg between city and highway driving and sells for nearly 50 grand.

This video is a little different than what I've been presenting here lately; it demonstrates how the surround-vision (my own terminology, thank you very much) cameras in the LR4 can aid the driver of this big ol' SUV. It shows all … Read more