Teenage girls, take note: an all-new Volkswagen Jetta is here.  Actually, it was here a couple of years ago, but this blog wasn’t.  Not that it matters, because there aren’t any teenage girls reading this.  Actually, no one is reading this except my mother, who occasionally sends hate mail. Anyway, the new Jetta is here, and – as a highly qualified automotive blogger who has seen a few of them on the road, or at Avis lots – I’ve decided I’m more than capable on providing a full and honest review. Exterior When I was younger, Jettas were really cool.  Well, no, come to think of...

The Subaru BRAT is unique to this segment because, while it was named in Japan, it was also sold in America.  Most of the names featured here would never pass muster in the States, where we don’t hang squid in store windows.  But in Japan – where they hang squid in restaurants, bars, doctor’s offices and private homes, presumably to ward off Godzilla – it seems anything goes. Let’s start off with what the BRAT is: crap.  It’s also a pickup truck, but not if you ask Subaru.  You see, to circumvent the famous “Chicken Tax,” which decrees that all imported trucks be subject to...

While several automakers sell hybrid versions of their traditional models, the Minutiae of the Minute team (i.e. me and the neighbors who unknowingly supply me with Internet) especially likes the 2004-2009 Lexus RX. In an attempt to distinguish the RX 400h hybrid from the standard RX, Lexus made many subtle exterior revisions to help owners show off their hybrid status – but nearly all were minor, tiny, and virtually invisible to most consumers.  So if you’ve ever wanted to know if your Limousine Liberal neighbor is actually saving the environment or just driving a gas-guzzling SUV, here are...

The Strangely Named Japanese Car segment is actually among the most difficult to write here at PlaysWithCars, because there are so many bizarre names to weed through it’s challenging to pick just one.  But I’ve decided to give the Honda Life Dunk its place in the (rising) sun as the inaugural entry. In Japan, there’s a segment called “kei” cars, which are basically tiny cars with small engines that sneak around various tax and insurance requirements that are based on engine and vehicle size.  Honda sells one such car called the Life, which is actually a pretty reasonable name.  The car has...

Volkswagen is desperately trying to go mainstream.  I know that because their US market CEO is constantly announcing new volume targets, which primarily involves adding zeroes to earlier ones. In its quest for more sales, Volkswagen decided to enter the minivan segment, which leads to our latest Ridiculous Rebadge: the Volkswagen Routan, which is little more than a rebadged Chrysler minivan.  Very little more. You see, while the Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna vie for hard-earned cash from American consumers, the Chrysler Town & Country is primarily sold by the dozen to Hertz fleet buyers at 6pm...

The Infiniti G37 is a great car.  It’s attractive, it’s luxurious, it’s sporty, it’s loaded, and it’s quick.  Being Japanese, it’s also bought exclusively by people who are risk averse.  I don’t recommend risk aversion, because it will lead you to make poor decisions like investing when you could instead buy a wallaby. For those who share my viewpoint, I present to you the 2001-2005 Maserati Coupe, which is basically the wallaby of cars: none of your friends have it, but they all want to play with it.  And how can you blame them?  It has more power (385 horses) than the G and it’s...

In America, we’re fortunate to get just one Toyota minivan – the Sienna – which faces off against the Honda Odyssey and some trash from Chrysler that yuppie families look at just to be patriotic.  No one, you’ll note, looks at the Nissan Quest, which is now shaped like a Japanese dustbuster and can only be regarded as cruel payback for Iwo Jima. But in Japan, one minivan isn’t enough – probably because they have to transport all those tentacled creatures to porn shoots.   As a result, Toyota has about eleven different models, all of which look exactly the same.  And one is...

First, there was the Mini Cooper.  Then, came a four-seat convertible called, predictably, the Mini Cooper convertible.  Next up was the Mini Clubman, whose major selling point was a rather dangerous three-inch vertical post directly in the center of its rear window.  There’s also a Mini Coupe, and now a convertible version of that which is called the Mini Cooper Coupe Convertible.  Or something.  And apparently they will soon do yet another version called – I swear this is true – the Mini Rocketman.  Yes, named for the Elton John song. But the latest New Car Review Without Actually...

A lot of people like full-size pickup trucks.  I’m not one of those people, of course, because I have all my teeth.  But I saw several Ford F-150s today, and they looked pretty sharp, so I’m going to make it the next New Car Review Without Actually Driving It. Let’s get one thing straight right away: the Ford F-150 isn’t the most popular vehicle in America.  That honor goes to the entire Ford F-series, which includes everything from the crew cab pickup driven by your heavily tattooed neighbor to the ambulance that shows up when his wife shoots him in self-defense.  It also includes the...

There are two conversations where car enthusiasts always bring up Mitsubishi.  One is a discussion of the best turbocharged, all-wheel drive sport compacts.  The other relates to which car company will be the next to leave the US market.  In both cases, Mitsubishi is the big winner. But let’s say you’re into cars, you’re looking for a hot AWD sedan, and you don’t want to buy a car from a brand that had to issue a press release after the Japanese tsunami announcing that they weren’t pulling out of the United States.  Oh, and let’s also say you have eyes, which eliminates the Impreza...

Canadians are polite.  So polite, in fact, that there’s a popular YouTube video of a Canadian road rage fistfight that ends with the fighters shaking hands, watching hockey, and prank calling Americans from Tim Hortons to brag about free healthcare. OK, only part of that is true. Canadian manners are the only rational explanation for the latest Ridiculous Rebadge, which is a warmed over version of the Honda Civic sold in Canada – and only in Canada – as the Acura EL.  My theory is that everyone in Canada knew it was badge engineered crap, but no one wanted to hurt Honda’s feelings by...

Imagine a Land Rover with Honda reliability.  That would be pretty cool, wouldn’t it?  Each morning, wealthy trophy wives could drive their children to private school then go directly to Pilates without making their daily stop at the Land Rover dealership to check for rust.  Or replace a differential. Now imagine the exact opposite: coupling Honda’s image for bland, mass-produced cars with Land Rover engineering, which annually leads the JD Power surveys if you read them upside down.  If you’re anything like me – and you aren’t, because you don’t write a car blog from your...