You look fat in that. Of course I'll be late. Your baby reminds me of Gollum's uncle.

Jerry Seinfeld once said, "There's no such thing as fun for the whole family." Ask anyone who has tried cramming himself or his kin into the...

In a quiet, forgotten corner of the automotive landscape there is a segment of vehicle called the large sedan. These cars tilt toward luxury...

If there's an ideal vehicle for every buyer, consider matching Mazda's 2013 CX-5 with Zeus or better yet, his kids' baby sitter.

The Verano is a new compact sedan from that near-luxury nameplate, Buick. It's an impressive, competitively priced car; a stellar cut from...

One hundred years from now, when auto historians go all Charles Darwin dissecting the evolution of Porsche's 911 sports car, they may notice...

Imagine if Orson Welles was expected to improve on "Citizen Kane" every six years, or if Kobe Bryant's contract demanded that every time...

Like first-timers at a key party or a cheesehead's trek to Lambeau, Lexus is on a quest for passion and it couldn't come at a more...

The recipe for Subaru's compact Impreza is getting a rewrite for 2012.

If one of your New Year's resolutions was to be more honest and you just bought Honda's new 2012 CR-V, you may be up a creek without a spark...

If the parking lot were high school, the all-new Range Rover Evoque would throw the best parties, vacation in places we mispronounce and...

This may come as a surprise to some motorists, but Chevrolet, a brand celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, has only now figured...

Hyundai Motor Co. recently put on sale its all-new Veloster three-door coupe, and without pledging any affinity for their music, the car...

You have to hand it to Volkswagen.

When thinking about the all-new iQ microcar's origins, imagine engineers at Scion and parent company Toyota Motor Corp. grabbing a shrink...

If a mid-size luxury SUV is in your fall wardrobe, the 2012 Mercedes-Benz ML350 may be the cable-knit sweater.

Keats has his "Ode to a Nightingale." Pope has his "Ode on Solitude." And Porsche now has its "Ode to the Sports Car."

Say you wake up tomorrow and decide you want to learn to play tennis. Maybe you like Serena Williams' method of anger management, or perhaps...

Poke around a little into the biographies of history's well-known names and you'll find a few who had siblings whose own successes were...

When electric car maker Coda Automotive Inc. introduces its first model this year, the independent Southern California manufacturer will...

An earthquake recently cracked the Washington Monument. Billionaire Warren Buffett wants to pay more taxes. Volkswagen is building a big-ol'...

As the world's first mass-produced gasoline-electric car, the Toyota Prius has become the iPod of hybrids. More than 2 million of these...

Apologies and all due respect are in order to a certain German automaker, but it seems the term "the people's car" has been appropriated...

Never underestimate the significance of doors. More specifically, the significance of sliding side doors on a type of vehicle that doesn't...

The Mercedes Benz SLK is and always has been the pied-a-terre of the company's lineup.

There will always be a segment of the driving public that feels an undeniable need for speed.

Imagine Batman and the Joker are interested in fractional ownership of the same pickup truck. The caped crusader would want it all-black,...

Shuddering in anticipation of increasing federal fuel economy standards, luxury car manufacturers that traditionally paid little attention...

Flex. To you and me, it's just a harmless word. To the engineering team charged with producing a convertible, the very mention of flex,...

In its prior incarnation, the grille was hideously toy-like. And the car, as a whole, lacked the sort of styling panache buyers of luxury...

Five years ago, Chrysler's then-new 300 sedan walked into the ring and delivered a knockout blow to the rest of the full-size car market....

The relative rarity of Mitsubishi cars these days confirms the company's status as an underdog automaker. Mitsubishi ranks sixth out of...

Nissan nails unconventional. One has only to spend some time driving the all-electric Leaf, the spunky Juke crossover or the anomalous...

Lotus' faster variant of its Evora sportscar adds some weight and even more excitement.

Back in the day, vintage Minis were so narrow they could drive on sidewalks. They were so short, the only view out the driver's side...

A businesswoman in the parking garage was the first. The next day it was a landscaper at the gas station. Then the balding guy in the...

It depends perhaps upon one's affection for cars, but the biggest compliment to be paid to the 2012 Honda Civic is its utter lack of flash.

Saying it became a chore to drive a particular car probably wouldn't catch your attention. Telling you that car was the 2011 Bentley...

As gas prices escalate toward $5 a gallon, one novel fuel saver is generally overlooked: the street-legal golf cart.

Your life is about to change, and your sports car is terrified.

The only Mercedes hatchback on the U.S. market, the 2011 B-Class F-Cell, wouldn't be recognizable as a Benz if it weren't for its premium...

Convertibles aren't known for their utility. Cars that can be driven as open-air vehicles or hermetically sealed at the push of a button...

Lexus recently introduced an all-new car, the CT 200h, and it's a hybrid in more ways than one.

My first reaction upon seeing the new Fiat 500 was "Ciao bello!" It's about time a little Italian style entered the subcompact...

Before Chrysler's new 200, the company's mid-size car was on its deathbed.

Shopping for a compact car is typically an exercise for your left brain. This hemisphere of your mind where logic resides delights in how...

It's a rare car that can lose its top. Only the most iconic, and sporty, of vehicles are typically selected for the retractable roof...

So you're in the market for a 2011 Dodge Durango SUV. Congratulations. After amassing nearly 500 miles on a top-end Citadel model recently,...

In the hullaballoo surrounding last year's debuts of the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf, one new electric vehicle was mostly overlooked: The...

With all due respect to your bald neighbor in the sports car, the 2011 Lincoln MKX knows how to deal with a midlife crisis.

When Ford Motor Co. set out to redesign its Focus, it did so with a laserlike intensity. Improved fuel economy was the No. 1 priority in...

Volkswagen recently put on sale the second generation of its mid-size sport utility vehicle, the 2011 Touareg. Sitting at the top of the...

When it comes to luxury sport cars, efficiency and performance have been terminally at odds. Twinning the two ideas is akin to pulling...

In the supermarket of automobiles, minivans occupy the fruit and vegetable section. Their vehicular nutrition comes from gobs of...

Wagons are typically a practical purchase — an investment often dictated by a change in life circumstance. In other words, babies.

Awards season is at hand, so it's only fitting to salute top performers in one of L.A.'s favorite categories: autos. Our work as Times car...

A decade in the automotive industry is like the passing of the Mesozoic era; a lot changes. In 2001, Hyundais were questionable and Toyota...

Confronted with rock-strewn hills, or pavement that is flat, straight and most likely located in Illinois, drivers of vehicles that easily...

No one loves lofty rhetoric and prosaic hyperbole more than car manufacturers. With a dollar for every time a mundane car was described as...

It's long been said there are only seven basic story lines in all of literature. Increasingly, the same might be said about cars, whose...

You know you like a car when the only thing you would change is the hard, uncomfortable seats.

As the economy stumbles along in recovery, bargains continue to define the marketplace, whether it's dinner at McDonald's, refreshing a...

Though you may not think of aluminum as a precious metal as you would gold, silver or platinum, the metal certainly had its heyday. Once...

Driving eco is often equated with sacrifice — smaller cars with higher price tags that trumpet under-the-hood efficiencies and skimp...

With Halloween around the corner, imagine for a moment Volkswagen's Jetta as a piece of candy. For decades it was the rich German...

With most cars, idling at the arrival curb of a major metropolitan airport results in an instantaneous visit from the parking police:...

Like the Boy Scouts, the waiting line for a midnight release of Halo or tractor trailer-pulling contests, Scion's new 2011 tC is pretty much...

There's something wrong about a pair of 7-year-olds lounging like sultans in the back of a $60,000 luxury vehicle, downing Go-Gurt from an...

It appears Cadillac's design studio has finally found a remedy to U.S. automakers' inferiority complex. For decades, the neurosis has...

"I love that car," sighed the rookie valet at the Huntley Hotel in Santa Monica.

Kia should check the security cameras at its offices.

There's just something about speed that makes a person feel omnipotent. Youthful. Alive. If you have any doubt, check out the 2011...

The good, the bad and the ugly. It's cliche, it's trite — and it's exactly how to describe Infiniti's 2011 QX56.

Drafting is an auto racing art, the trick being to follow another car closely enough to take advantage of reduced air resistance, but not so...

God bless the Democrats.

Cars typically force drivers to make a choice: sporty but piggish on fuel or efficient and underwhelming.

Before she became President John F. Kennedy's favorite blond birthday singer, Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson. Rapper Diddy...

A thought crossed my mind as I rolled the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee over what appeared to be the edge of a cliff: "Why am I doing this?"

In 1923, famed British climber George Mallory was asked by a reporter why he wanted to climb the yet-to-be-conquered Mt. Everest. His answer...

This new arrival to the M line is aggressive and shapely at the front and much more tidy in the rear than the outgoing model. And it's a...

Aston Martin makes time stand still with the dazzling Rapide, its first sedan in more than 20 years.

On the outside, the 2010 Outback is a ho-hum wagon. But climb inside and -- presto, change-o -- it's a roomy and rugged SUV.

This new, youth-targeted take on an old car seems to have hit the sweet spot of fuel economy and up-to-the-minute technology, wrapping it...

Even forgetting it's a minivan (which you can't), the new Toyota Sienna is fun to drive.

The one thing you can be sure of when you walk out of a BMW news conference is that you'll have plenty of information. Your head aches...

Every time I write about a high-performance sports car, I'm guaranteed to get letters from readers to this effect: "How can you possibly...

James Cameron's film "Avatar" dreams a world where humans can telepathically plug into beautiful blue creatures of extraordinary power and...