Summer is usually a slow time for auto news, but we’ve stumbled across several noteworthy items in the past couple of days. Take a minute to look ’em over while you’re dreaming about the weekend — and hopefully, some fun-filled Pride activities.
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I joined Buick during the glory days of the turbo 3.8-litre (the Grand National was announced the year I started). Every male under 30 and quite a few of the women at Home Office bought one — myself included — and proceeded to spend a Michigan winter going diagonally, coping with the awesome power and serious lack of traction that black beauty provided. We loved it dearly, but it was hardly a balanced automobile. The motoring press loved it as much as we did. Tony Assenza from Car and Driver Magazine road-tested the legendary GNX in April of 1987 and wrote of it, “In a world of sleek shapes and refined manners, the GNX is an ax-wielding barbarian laying waste to everything in its path.”
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There are so many ways for The Gays to celebrate Father’s Day. Obviously, we celebrate our own fathers, but an increasing number of us are fathers ourselves, putting us on the receiving end of the gift cycle. And even if our own fathers have passed away, many of us still have daddies.
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What the hell is a Juke? It’s jacked up like a crossover, but it doesn’t look much like a crossover. My neighbor tried to get his 50-something self into the rear seat and nearly required three young men to yank him back out. You could forgive the rear seat if it was a sport coupe, which it definitely is not. It is, however, a whole box of funky coolness. Throw in a quarter, kick the big pedal, and go for a spin.
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By now, it seems like we’d be jaded at the sight of automakers expressing support for the LGBT community. After all, of the dozens of car companies doing business in the U.S., only four have failed to protect their LGBT employees from discrimination and put them on equal footing with their straight peers.
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Jaguar has been making news of late, developing a mid-sized luxury SUV, and I admit I have been amused by the notion. From my Jaguar days, I know that an astronomically high percentage of Jaguar customers also own a Land Rover, so that would seem to take up the slack. But further reading reveals that Jaguar has a different flavor in mind — a crossover utility with both a very sporty character and a very richly detailed interior.
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If you’re old enough to remember the gas crisis of the 1970s, you’re probably old enough to remember some of the econo-boxes it inspired — dinky, rattly little things that offered solid fuel economy at the expense of physical and mental comfort. Getting one up to highway speed took Herculean effort, not to mention nerves of steel.
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I’m just going to come out and say the idea of combining Fender audio technology with a Volkswagen is about the smartest thing to happen to in-car tunes since GM dropped Bose on the C4 Corvette. It’s like listening to your favorite acoustic music in a coffee house that just happens to have a turbocharged engine, heated seats, and the most identifiable shape ever.
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Driving the Land Rover Range Rover puts you among queens of all hair heights, but the big gal’s size can make you wince at the idea of hustling her through curves and tight city streets — even if the SUV’s off-road capability and all-road luxury are legendary. What Land Rover needed was a vehicle that combined all of the Range Rover’s excellence in a slightly compressed package. Shimmy up to the Range Rover Sport.
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