Randy Lioz, Editor, Car-ED.com

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So far Randy Lioz, Editor, Car-ED.com has created 36 blog entries.

Compared: The New EV Hotness

Compared: The New EV Hotness We take a look at the two major debuts of electric crossovers at the LA Auto Show By Randy Lioz, Editor, Car-ED.com | November 2019 This week's Los Angeles Auto Show saw the debut of two vehicles that portent a big future for a new segment, the all-electric crossover. While one was a production vehicle and the other a concept, both help to illustrate the respective visions of each of their brands of what the electrified future of the auto industry will look like. One of the most hotly anticipated debuts of the week was the Ford Mustang Mach-E, a new vehicle that combines the sportiness of its namesake with the utility of a crossover, and the Mach-E's electric drivetrain actually supports both of these missions. While there's a flurry of current activity among luxury EV crossovers, especially from Europe, when the Mach-E hits the market in late 2020 it will likely be the first entry of decent size from a mainstream brand—the Hyundai Kona being too small for many buyers. That likelihood depends on the timing of Volkswagen's ID.4, another all-electric SUV from a brand that wants to own the EV space in the U.S. market. But the ID.4 will likely be positioned at the lower end of the market, a bit above the company's Tiguan compact crossover, which starts in the mid-$20,000 range. [...]

2019-11-28T13:46:24-05:00Nov 2019|Car Reviews|

2019 Buick Envision AWD Premium II

2019 Buick Envision AWD Premium II For a taste of the premium life, without as much of the price By Randy Lioz, Editor, Car-ED.com | June 2019 The 2019 Buick Envision presents a solid value for someone who wants a decent number of bells and whistles, but who would rather not pay the full price of entry to the world of luxury brands. You may give up a small measure of premium feel, but the value that the Envision presents is undeniable. What is this vehicle? The Envision filled the gaping hole in Buick's lineup between the tiny Encore crossover and the Enclave 3-row utility. It occupies a sweet spot in the market, competing with the wide array of small-to-medium CUVs from both luxury brands and mainstream ones. It's a two-row crossover that has plenty of room inside for most types of people, or for a bored dog on a road trip. The Envision has lots of luxury features available, and for less than you'd have to pay for them on an Acura or a Lexus, but it does show some more humble roots sometimes. Who is this vehicle for? The Envision is for families who need room for all their members and their accompanying stuff, and would like to haul them in style. By now crossovers have taken over the bulk of the market for several reasons, including their cargo flexibility [...]

2019-06-11T20:02:11-04:00Jun 2019|Car Reviews|

LA Auto Show: White Space Crossovers

LA Auto Show: White Space Crossovers Brands are eager to fill out their CUV lineups. By Randy Lioz, Editor, Car-ED.com | December 2018 Sport utilities, particularly crossover vehicles on car-based platforms (as opposed to rugged truck-based SUVs), have continued to take over the passenger car market. By the end of October of last year, automakers had sold 15% more utilities than cars. Over that same period this year that advantage has grown to 42%! There's no sign of this trend abating, which means that the industry continues to pour resources into developing new utilities to fill every possible niche. But good ideas are contagious, so there are definitely plenty of commonalities in the vehicles that are hitting the market. At the 2018 Los Angeles Auto Show there were several brand new utilities on display that buyers should check out. The first two that we'll highlight have similar missions for their brands. The Chevrolet Blazer and Honda Passport each revive names from the past that recall the era in which SUVs first started to gain prominence. The original Blazer and Passport were 5-seater midsized truck-based SUVs, competitors to the popular Ford Explorer and Nissan Pathfinder from the '90s. These new-for-'19 models follow a similar formula, in that they're midsized and ready for the dirt trails, though both are car-based, which allows for better space and fuel efficiency. The third vehicle that deserves attention in this [...]

2018-12-20T14:08:35-05:00Dec 2018|Car Reviews|

Compare and Contrast: 2019 Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra

Compare and Contrast: 2019 Chevrolet Silverado & GMC Sierra There's more to set these trucks apart then ever. By Randy Lioz, Editor, Car-ED.com | October 2018 What are these vehicles? The Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra are General Motors' two full-sized pickup entries, the combination of which allows GM to challenge its crosstown rival Ford in this segment. These two trucks are capable of reporting for duty for full-scale work tasks, like hauling huge payloads and serious trailering, but like the rest of the full-sized truck segment they've become luxurious and feature-packed enough to serve as daily drivers. If you spend any time in the great state of Texas, you'll quickly realize how many people are actually doing this. While these two trucks are quite similar overall, GM has focused a lot in recent years on differentiation among its brands, and with their debut for the 2019 model year, these all-new trucks are as distinct from one another as they've ever been. While they continue to over differences in terms of styling and interior materials, GMC is now focusing on packing the Sierra full of innovative tech, much of which isn't available in the Silverado, to appeal to a different set of buyers. Who are these vehicles for? Any full-sized pickup now needs to appeal to personal-use buyers just as much as commercial customers, so these trucks focus on both [...]

2018-11-05T14:20:04-05:00Oct 2018|Car Reviews|

Autocross: 2018 Chevrolet Bolt EV

Autocross: 2018 Chevrolet Bolt EV Chevy sets out to prove the Bolt can be a jolt of high-voltage fun...and puts a smile on our face. By Randy Lioz, Editor, Car-ED.com | October 2018 Sales of the Chevy Bolt EV have been building steadily, as more Americans discover the benefits of EV ownership. While there are still challenges to overcome in terms of charging infrastructure, Chevy is eager to make the case that electric vehicles are not only just as much driving fun as internal combustion rides, they can be even more of a hoot! The Event Chevy invited journalists to drive an autocross course in the Bolt, to show that it can handle itself during aggressive driving. There were four Bolts there, two each with both all-season tires and much grippier summer rubber. The team also brought one of the industry benchmarks for front-wheel drive hatch fun, the Volkswagen GTI, so we could see how GM's EV stacks up against a gas-powered rival. For those who haven't yet experienced the joy of autocrossing, it's generally a parking lot—find one without many light poles if you can swing it—with a bunch of cones set up in the form of a road course. The course configurators will throw in some slaloms to weave through, some tighter turns and some high-speed sweepers, so you can get a feel for all of a car's handling characteristics...and of [...]

2018-10-03T00:27:01-04:00Oct 2018|Car Reviews|

The Art of the Sub-Brand: Eco-Friendly

The Art of the Sub-Brand: Eco-Friendly Eco sub-brands may be the new competitive battlefield By Randy Lioz, Editor, Car-ED.com | September 2018 When Toyota built the Prius into an entire sub-brand unto itself, it cast a green glow over the mothership. Now others are trying similar, yet distinctive, strategies in the alternative powertrain market. They range from creating different variants of a single model to planning the build-out of entire lineups. Here we'll take a look at what's out there right now and how things may develop in the future. Where did the trend start? 1st-generation Prius The Honda Insight may have beaten the Toyota Prius to the punch, as the first hybrid vehicle introduced in the United States, by seven months. But the Prius, particularly in its second incarnation, went on to become not just the most successful electrified vehicle in history, but one of the most successful single models of any type, selling over four million copies so far. Toyota realized the gold it had on its hands, not just as a financial success, but as a green halo for the entire brand. So it took the Prius nameplate and expanded it to a larger lineup, from the compact Prius c hatch to the Prius V tall wagon. It has since renamed its plug-in model the Prius Prime, seeking to further differentiate it from the plug-less hybrid, but still [...]

2018-09-12T17:00:17-04:00Sep 2018|News, Research|

2018 Tesla Model 3

2018 Tesla Model 3 The claimed "Car of the Future" is finally here By Randy Lioz, Editor, Car-ED.com | August 2018 The Tesla Model 3 has been one of the most eagerly anticipated cars in recent memory. After steadily building demand (and excitement) for its high-dollar electric vehicles, like the Model S and Model X, Tesla is attempting to put into place the next step of Elon Musk's grand plan to electrify the automotive world, an "affordable" EV that can be had for less than the average transaction price for a new car in the U.S. market. That day has finally arrived...sort of. What is this vehicle? The 2018 Tesla Model 3 is the car that, in theory, finally gets us to the holy grail of EVs: an attractive, feature-filled car with long battery range and at a price accessible to the proletariat. The Model 3 takes many of the aspects that Model S and X owners love about their cars and packages them in a smaller wrapper, with innovations aimed at making it cheaper to build, but that still please most customers. The size and price of the Model 3 puts it in class with such compact luxury sedan stalwarts as the BMW 3 Series and Audi A4, stiff competition that has perfected the formula over several decades. But it also goes up against an array of electrified vehicles already on the [...]

2018-08-10T23:00:02-04:00Aug 2018|Car Reviews|

Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles: What You Need To Know

Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles: What You Need To Know By Randy Lioz, Editor, Car-ED.com | July 2018 2011 Chevy Volt, photo credit: GM General Motors introduced a radical new idea into the marketplace with the debut of the 2011 Chevrolet Volt. While some brands, like Nissan and Tesla, wanted to move forward with an all-electric future as quickly as possible, GM recognized that few consumers had full confidence that a pure EV would fit their lifestyles well. Electric vehicle range was still well below that of the typical gas car, and the charging infrastructure wasn't built out to support a fleet of electric cars, giving rise to the phenomenon termed "range anxiety." The solution for this was a car that would combine the advantages of both EVs and gas-powered cars: the plug-in hybrid. The idea behind the Volt was that it would act as a pure EV for the first 40 miles—GM's research had told them that nearly four out of five commuters had a round trip of under 40 miles—but then rely on a small gas engine, dubbed a "range extender," to allow the owner to keep driving even when there was no place to recharge. The final electric range turned out to be 38 miles, however. With the Volt's launch, GM created an entirely new sales category. The company had hoped to replicate the runaway success of the Toyota Prius, which [...]

2018-07-22T18:12:29-04:00Jul 2018|News, Research|

The Art of the Sub-Brand: Performance

The Art of the Sub-Brand: Performance Performance sub-brands give buyers something special By Randy Lioz, Editor, Car-ED.com | July 2018 Carmakers love to produce "special" cars that appeal to an enthusiast audience. The market abounds with models that display a certain letter that indicates they're ready to take on some of the most high-performance machines out there, and come out a winner. Many of these vehicles have four doors, or even an SUV body, yet underneath lurks the equipment that can enable a super-fast lap time at one of the world's premier racetracks. Here we'll take a look at the history of this trend, and what's out there for enthusiasts in today's market. Where did the trend start? M535i, photo credit: BMW Most enthusiasts credit BMW with kicking off the trend with its Motorsport division, which was shortened to just M. While its origins were in racing, in the late-1970s M started developing cars for the road, the first being its famous M1 supercar. But the first car that really set the template for the models that abound today was the 1979 M535i, a pumped-up version of the first-generation 5 Series. The car pictured at right displays the M division's tri-color striping. E30 M3, photo credit: Rudolf Stricker From there BMW began tuning an increasing number of its models, with some particular versions achieving legendary status, like the M3 [...]

2018-07-14T01:30:24-04:00Jul 2018|News, Research|

Brand Deep Dive: Alfa Romeo

Brand Deep Dive: Alfa Romeo Alfa's back, and they're ready to rumble By Randy Lioz, Editor, Car-ED.com | June 2018 The Alfa Romeo brand—say “Alfa Ro-MAY-o”—has over 100 years of history, with a strong heritage of racing and sports cars. It’s the marque that gave Enzo Ferrari his big break before he started his own company. Jeremy Clarkson, the prominent BBC and Amazon automotive TV host, said, “you can’t be a true petrolhead until you’ve owned an Alfa Romeo.” And its badge was affixed to the hood of the flashy red convertible that Dustin Hoffman drove in The Graduate, cementing its identity in the minds of American consumers. What does this brand stand for? Image credit: FCA Alfa Romeo has always been about sportiness. From nearly the beginning, ALFA, which stands for Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili, was involved in auto racing, which helped to set its course through history. For most of that time it hewed to the performance car standard of rear-wheel drive, though more recently the brand’s offerings had been built with the more cost-effective front-wheel drive layout, particularly for its small hatchbacks. These were never sold in the U.S., however. Alfa has been owned by Fiat since 1986, being positioned as a step up from that more affordable Italian brand. The company’s Maserati marque competes in the higher reaches of the luxury market, while Ferrari represents the ultimate [...]

2018-08-23T18:21:55-04:00Jun 2018|News, Research|
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