By Jim Meachen and Ted Biederman

A new era of hybrid vehicles has arrived in North America thanks to Toyota, the world’s leader in hybrid technology. We see 2007 as the beginning of the third chapter in U.S. hybrid history and a turning point that may make the gas engine/electric motor automobile more mainstream than most experts now envision.

By Jim Meachen and Ted Biederman

The white over blue 2007 Toyota FJ Cruiser spoke to us during a week’s involvement.

It deftly said, ‘buy me only if off-road driving is in your blood. If you never leave the pavement, put your cash in one of my crossover relatives, perhaps a Toyota RAV4 or even a Highlander.’

Not many new offerings in today’s “on pavement” world are created with the primary purpose of hitting the dirt trail, taking on fallen trees, climbing over instead of around rocks and fording shallow streams.

By Jim Meachen and Ted Biederman

The shrinking minivan segment has been boiled down to three major players and a handful of minor participants.

The market is now dominated by Chrysler/Dodge, Honda and Toyota. More than 700,000 minivans were sold by those three companies in 2006 representing about 72 percent of a market that has shrunk from 1.37 million sales in 2000 to about 970,000 last year.
Six other companies shared the remaining 270,000 sales.

By Jim Meachen and Ted Biederman

All-wheel drive is becoming increasingly popular, now found on many vehicles including sedans and sports cars. New, sophisticated systems that drive all four wheels are better than two-wheel drive in nearly all applications.

But if you want all-wheel drive you’ll probably have to pay extra even in big, high-end sport utility vehicles and the new breed of crossover utilities.

Standard-equipment all-wheel drive is rare, usually reserved for high-dollar models.

By Jim Meachen and Ted Biederman

We were in Atlanta earlier in the year at a press event driving a series of new cars, some with price tags approaching the ridiculous.

There were the usual stars, some sports cars, a couple of new hardtop convertibles, a handful of top-line luxury sedans. So later we thought it was interesting that one of the standout experiences of the six-hour driving smorgasbord was the 2007 Suzuki XL7.

By Jim Meachen and Ted Biederman

Crossover utility vehicles are the rage with sales expected to double by the end of the decade.

They are the station wagons of the 21st Century, the new people haulers replacing truck-based sport utilities. Although they’re built on a car platform, they retain the high ride and bad-weather capability of the traditional SUV. And they usually come with a car-like ride and gas mileage closer to a sedan than a truck.

By Jim Meachen and Ted Biederman

Saturn started life more than 20 years ago as a small, unique car company that offered American drivers a choice.

It made vehicles at a new plant in Spring Hill, Tenn., designed to give buyers of small, fuel-efficient cars an alternative to the Japanese invasion. And for the most part those initial cars offered value with ding-resistant door panels and peppy fuel-efficient 4-cylinder engines; maybe not the best, but as adequate as most.

By Jim Meachen and Ted Biederman

It wasn’t so long ago that the Saturn division of General Motors was on the ropes with an inferior small car, a less-than-stellar minivan, and a mid-sized sedan that was selling so slowly it was terminated.

What was left was a decent, but slow-selling compact sport utility vehicle, the VUE. Not much to carry an entire division.

By Jim Meachen and Ted Biederman

The Saturn Sky among other things is a chick magnet – in more ways than one.

We learned this the first night we drove the new roadster. Word quickly spread about the cool car in the parking lot. A parade of waitresses at one of our favorite local eateries filed out and around the car at various times during our meal. It was hard getting refills for our ice teas.

By Jim Meachen and Ted Biederman

Excitement has been the Pontiac calling card since engineer John De Lorean put a monster big-block V-8 in a nondescript Tempest in the mid 1960s and called it the GTO.

More excitement followed through the decades with tire-smoking GTOs, Firebirds and Trans-Ams. The Trans-Am was immortalized in the Burt Reynolds’ “Smoky and the Bandit” flicks. GTOs were immortalized on drag strips across the nation.