Cars in movies: Tower Heist and The Descendants

I watched 2 movies this weekend: Tower Heist and The Descendants, both of which I enjoyed for very different reasons. Tower Heist was an extremely predictable but fun movie starring Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy doing exactly what the title suggests - stealing from a tower, which in this case belonged to Alan Alda's character. The Descendants was a very moving story about George Clooney's character grieving over his wife's boating accident.

I've always believed that cars represent implicit characters in movies and help cinematic storytellers succinctly divulge important information and traits of characters. I wanted to show how these two movies used cars in an effective manner. Click through for more.

10 "hidden gem" cars I don't see enough of on the road

Cadillac CTS Coupe

I saw a Cadillac CTS Coupe in town the other day, which reminded me how well-designed it is. The wedge shape is distinct, aerodynamic, and downright sinister...love it! But I don't see enough of these cars on the road for some reason. Click through for some other examples of great cars that people should buy more of.

10 boring cars: neither attractive nor ugly

Acura RL / RLX

When Acura released images of the new RLX, I was disappointed. I think the swoopy character line on the sides is homely, and the rest of car is undifferentiated from a lot of the other midsize luxury cars on the market. The RLX made me think of some other cars that are neither good looking or unattractive, but rather boring. Click through for 10 examples.

Is the 2013 Nissan Altima attractive enough to compete?

2013 Nissan Altima

The Nissan Altima has always been third fiddle to the perennial favorites in the segment, the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord. The Altima is perfect for someone who wants a reliable, safe family car, but wants a little more sportiness and personality than the bland Camry or Accord. However, when Nissan unveiled the new 2013 Altima at the New York Auto Show, I was, frankly, disappointed. With new beautiful designs from Ford, Hyundai, and Kia, why would anyone looking for "sportiness" and "pizzazz" go with this Altima? Click through for my reasoning...

Review: Toyota Prius - the king of hybrids

 
I recently had a chance to drive the Toyota Prius through Zipcar, and it's not all bad. Here is the review, which I wrote as a guest contributor for RawAutos, an interesting car blog you should also check out. The blog owner, Josh Lewis, is a great writer, has fresh opinions, and is an all-around good guy. So do yourself a favor and check out his blog as well!

Now on with the review...

The Toyota Prius is the world’s best-selling hybrid and one of Toyota’s best selling cars…and all for good reason. It offers awesome fuel economy, a high-quality interior, and tons of trunk space. Having recently driven and reviewed the comparatively downmarket Honda Insight through Zipcar on my blog a few weeks ago, I can conclude that while the Insight is good yet slightly underrated, the Prius is rather deservedly highly rated. While I didn’t intend to make this article a battle royale between Honda and Toyota’s similar-looking 5-door hybrids, one can’t help but draw comparisons. Bottom line – the Prius is more pricey, but the driving experience is also more satisfying. Click through to see the rest of the review:

Why does Suzuki still sell cars in the US?

Suzuki Equator

I like to think that I keep up with the car industry, but I had NO idea Suzuki sold the Equator pickup...let alone the fact that they have been selling the truck since 2009! I have never EVER seen one on the road. This lazy excuse of a Nissan Frontier rebadge is exactly why Suzuki has had trouble gaining traction in the US in the last 20 years. Most of Suzuki's cars have been sourced from other automakers, notably through its partnership with GM/Daewoo. Unless it changes its strategy, I give the Suzuki US brand another 5-10 years before going the way of Isuzu -- that is, extinct. Click through to read why...

Honda Insight review: why does it get such a bad rap?

The car I was driving in my previous post on the Ferrari 458 was the Honda Insight, one of my favorite Zipcars because of its lower hourly cost compared to gas-powered cars. While the Prius is overall a better car than the Insight, there are many things I actually like about the Insight. Contrary to just about every review out there, I actually don't mind driving the Insight. Click through to see my impressions:

Volvo S40 review...an interesting, yet odd car

A few months ago, Volvo announced that the S40 sedan and V50 wagon will soon be discontinued. After I had a chance to flog a Zipcar S40 this weekend, I understand why...sort of. The S40 has a number of lovable quirks, but I don't think it ever found its place amongst the sea of other entry luxury sedans. Click through to see my impressions.

Ugly door handles can RUIN a car

BMW Z4

Door handles, while small and seemingly unnoticeable, are a crucial part of car design. In my opinion, European-style handles (think Mercedes) are most attractive, and have made their way onto most cars by now. However, quite a few car designs have been harmed by ugly door handles, like this BMW Z4. This awkward looking coupe/convertible could've been slightly improved with the handles seen on any other car in BMW's lineup. Click through to see some more examples:

Top 10 ugliest SUVs of all time

Pontiac Aztek

SUVs are a relatively modern phenomenon, rising in popularity in the mid-90s and losing steam in the late-00s when gas prices rose. In this short amount of time, we've gotten some great designs (which I will save for a subsequent post) and some scary designs. I want to spend time discussing the latter. I've ranked the top 10 ugliest SUVs, in order of bad to worst. Click through to see:

My take on the Honda CR-V...past, present, and future

Honda CR-V Concept

If you read any popular car news blogs, you've probably already come across this picture "leaked" by Honda (probably on purpose) a couple days ago. This is the only picture released so far, so we haven't seen the taillights or interior. In a nutshell, I think this "concept" - which, by the way, will probably be ~95% identical to the eventual showroom model - is a huge improvement over the outgoing model, but the grille bothers me. Click through to read my impressions.

Japanese cars even a non-JDM-enthusiast can appreciate

As you can probably tell so far, I am not a huge Japanese car enthusiast. I don't hate Japanese cars, but for a variety of reasons, European cars excite me more. IMHO, European cars are more elegantly designed and appeal more to the senses than Japanese cars. Yes, Toyotas and Hondas will certainly be more reliable and perhaps technologically sound than their German and Italian counterparts, but Camrys and Accords do not excite car enthusiasts as much as Passats and S40s - plain and simple.

That being said, there are a handful of Japanese cars that do excite me. I'm limiting the list to vehicles under $100k, and sold some time within the last 25 years (1986-2011). I'm also leaving out some of the obvious ones like the Subaru WRX, Mitsubishi Evo, Mazda Miata, because they are too overexposed. I'd much rather write about some of the unlikely favorites. Click through to see which ones made the cut:

Pointless red plastic

I passed the '11 Accord on the way from work yesterday and I realized Honda added unattractive red taillight extensions on the trunk itself. I think they are for reflective safety purposes, but they just don't look good. I wanted to point out some other examples of excessive red glass in recent history:

Favorite Car Lists #1: Sedans

Anyway, to start things off and provide some background on my predisposed tastes and biases, here are some car lists. Today I'm covering sedans, and will do sports cars and SUVs in subsequent posts. Click through for my choices - do you agree / disagree?