Automobile Magazine Blog

Even as I approach my sixth anniversary with Automobile Magazine, there are times I feel the need to pinch myself as quick reminder that I’m actually experiencing something in real life. In the first person. I’ve had pinch moments in cars from practically every continent. Like when I hit 8000 ...    Read more

I love the Germans, I really do. I spent half my professional life working with them, and I have the David Hasselhoff CDs to prove it. Most of my cars are German, and I even went to high school in the Vaterland. And so I feel I’m uniquely qualified to ...    Read more

It was a nice try. Those logical German engineers at BMW and Mercedes came up with logical naming strategies that would help those logical German car buyers immediately identify a car’s model and engine displacement just by the badge on the back. Show Chris Cardork a Mercedes C280 and he’ll explain ...    Read more

It doesn’t matter if you supported the New York Giants or the New England Patriots Sunday night, because there were a few winners at this year’s Super Bowl who never clutched a pigskin, rushed a passer, or performed at halftime. We’ve rounded up what we think are the winners (and, ...    Read more

The final EPA fuel economy numbers are in for the new 2012 F30-chassis BMW 328i, and they’re mighty impressive: 24 mpg city, 36 mpg highway, when equipped with an automatic transmission. The 240-hp 2.0-liter four-cylinder isn’t just a miser, it’s powerful enough to catapult the sport sedan to 60 mph ...    Read more

After a year of driving lots of different cars, I’ve decided to cobble together a list of highs and lows. Rather than sticking just with new models, which would likely create a roster much like other Best lists, I thought of this instead as a recounting of cars that surprised ...    Read more

We received our first serious snow dump in Ann Arbor last week, but the Automobile Magazine fleet of Four Seasons test vehicles was ready for the cold, since we had fitted each car with a set of winter tires from various manufacturers well before Thanksgiving with the assistance of the ...    Read more

Honda EV-STER After far too many years of clumsily styled cars, Honda popped up with a really agreeable concept car in the all-electric EV-Ster. It has a nice looking, if totally unneeded, grille shape, makes nice use of blue plastic around the headlamps integrated into that grille, and has a space ...    Read more

For only the third time in my life, Mercedes-Benz is debuting a new SL roadster. Three times in almost four decades isn’t much. In fact, the R107 SL went on sale before I was born, and by the time it was replaced, I owned a car myself. The car that replaced ...    Read more

I have distinct memories of our Four Seasons 2009 Jaguar XF Supercharged, from the good, to the bad, to the ugly. The leader in the good camp was no doubt the class leading steering and chassis. The XF had a magnificent (and rare) balance of body control, ride quality, and ...    Read more