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What’s The Lexus Replacement Consensus?

Posted on Dec 20, 2020 in Editorials | 2 comments

Sobro writes: Bark, Insert friendly greeting and small talk here. I was lucky that Sajeev is a sunroof enthusiast as well as a Ford fanboi when he promptly answered my question about the clunking roof in my wife’s 2003 Lexus ES300. At 170,000 miles, her glorified Camry is nearly as grounded to the ground as it ever was. However, she is starting to get antsy...

GM Failing Recall Test?

Posted on Dec 17, 2020 in Safety | Comments Off on GM Failing Recall Test?

Multiple-choice question: When there’s a safety problem with a car, it’s best to fix it: A) As cheaply and easily as possible. B) As thoroughly as possible to make sure the faulty part performs as required. The answer will be revealed later in this blog. First, keep in mind that General Motors has had an extraordinarily tough year as it has dealt with the...

Cyntur JumperPack Mini Brings Old Truck To Life

Posted on Dec 13, 2020 in Technology | 1 comment

So, disclaimer up front: Cyntur wanted us to review their product (Cyntur JumperPack Mini) so they sent me one. Now that this is out of the way, let me say that this thing is awesome! It is very similar to all those cell phone back up batteries that have been out for a few years, except it can also jump start your car too! I say “too” because Cyntur was smart...

Subaru BRZ May Revive the Lightweight, Affordable Sports Car

Posted on Dec 11, 2020 in Racing | Comments Off on Subaru BRZ May Revive the Lightweight, Affordable Sports Car

The BRZ was shown in Tokyo last month, and a bunch of reviewers got to drive it at Subaru’s test track. There were very few niggling comments; most everyone loved the handling of the car and its broad power band. After so many years of idiotic horsepower wars, muscle-car wars, 0-60 mph wars, maybe it’s finally time to look at what a sports car should be—light,...

Mrs. Chrysler’s Chrysler Takes Best in Show at Hemmings Concours

Posted on Dec 5, 2020 in Featured | 2 comments

Howard Kroplick with his chauffeur-driven 1937 Chrysler Imperial C-15 Town Car. Judging at the annual Hemmings Concours d’Elegance is no easy task. With more than 150 exclusive cars on the show field spread across 17 classes, it is easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer quality, rarity and overall condition of the show entrants. The difficulty comes when you need...

Personal Vendetta: Red Light Cameras

Posted on Nov 14, 2020 in Safety | 1 comment

I never thought it would happen to me. I’ve seen the bright flashes of light when people run red lights and chuckled to myself as I silently mocked them for being dumb enough to run a red light at an intersection monitored by cameras. I never saw the flash. Other schmucks run red lights. Not me. How hard is it to stop when the light turns red at an intersection...

Cars Coming Soon: Audi A4 Allroad and a $100,000 Ford Focus

Posted on Nov 14, 2020 in Racing | 3 comments

A Focus by any other name is still a Focus. Right? We see them every day in shopping-mall parking lots across America. We rent them during trips to Dallas. We see them advertised by dealers for low, low monthly payments. We have friends who drive a Focus. We’ve considered buying a Focus. But a Focus for almost $100,000? That’s just crazy talk. Or is it the...

Starting Small: 1971 Honda Z600 Coupe and N600 Sedan brochure

Posted on Nov 8, 2020 in Featured | 2 comments

Everybody has to start somewhere. And although the Honda Motor Company‘s first four-wheeled products were the brilliantly designed S(port)500/S600/S800 roadsters of the mid-1960s, American buyers weren’t able to purchase those through official channels. The first Honda cars that we could—and did—buy in those pre-Civic days were the Z600 Coupe and S600 Sedan,...

How Many Human-driven Years Remain?

Posted on Nov 1, 2020 in Editorials | 1 comment

Autonomous vehicles and shared mobility are invoked in our contemporary discourse as an inevitable fate. There is an unsettling undercurrent rippling around a not altogether desirable future for the automobile as we know it. I am not anti-progress, anti-technology, or otherwise prone to romanticizing yesteryear. I welcome the convenience and safety of new...

Most Beautiful Cars: Jaguar E-Type

Posted on Oct 24, 2020 in Antique | 2 comments

The most beautiful car ever made – Enzo Ferrari There you have it, from the man whose company has created more incredibly beautiful car designs than anyone on the planet. The Jaguar E-Type (XKE in the US) is probably THE most beautiful design ever for a production car. It is a car so striking that it was included as a permanent part of the collection at New...

GM’s Solution to Recall: Just Buy a New Car

Posted on Oct 21, 2020 in Safety | 1 comment

Sorry for the trouble. Buy one of these as compensation! Let’s say you bought a car only to find out later it has a defect that could potentially kill you. Would your first response be heading to your nearest dealer and buying a new version of the same brand to replace your defective car? Of course not. That’s a silly question, right? Most people would simply...

Too Much Junk in the Trunk (and Everywhere Else)

Posted on Oct 16, 2020 in Editorials | 1 comment

Ben writes: Hey Bark, I have a brother with a mechanically-healthy 2001 Toyota Camry LE four-cylinder automatic. I’m estimating it has about 180,000 miles now. He uses that car everyday — extensively on the job, and for visits to family members out of state. Mileage is piling up fast. He does have the car regularly maintained — mechanically — through a local...

Bronco, Ford’s first SUV, turns 50

Posted on Oct 9, 2020 in Featured | 2 comments

Photos courtesy Ford Motor Company, except where noted. Other manufacturers had pioneered the format before the Bronco. Others had even applied the “sport utility” name to their products before the Bronco. But Ford’s Bronco, when it hit the scene in late 1965, was the first to combine the two and open wide the four-wheeling market—and then later take that...