By Peter A. Hubbard


MotorwayAmerica.com

(April 4, 2018) Believe it or not, the Lexus GS mid-level performance sedan is celebrating its 25th anniversary in the American market. It arrived in 1993, one year after the launch of the remarkable full-size LS sedan and smaller ES Camry-clone sedan — the first two models Toyota offered as part of its premium brand. 

By Peter A. Hubbard

 


MotorwayAmerica.com

(March 29, 2018) For the past 10 years or so, entry-level car buyers have been flocking to Kia dealerships. And it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why.  Price, price, price!  Sorry for adapting your slogan, Realtor friends, but that’s the bottom line.  Kia currently offers 7, count them, 7 different models with a starting MSRP under $26,000. The list includes nearly the entire line: Optima, Sportage, Sorrento, Soul, Rio, Niro and Forte. 

By Peter Hubbard


MotorwayAmerica.com

(March 27, 2018) In  2003-04, Toyota spent untold millions launching a new entry-level brand called Scion, specifically targeting young “hipster” Gen Y and Millennial customers with what they saw as edgy compacts and crossovers designed to lure them into Scion showrooms and turn them into loyal, lifelong Toyota/Lexus car buyers. So in an effort to appear “with it” and equally hip, Toyota used rather unconventional (for an automaker) guerrilla and viral Internet marketing campaign tactics.



By Peter Hubbard
MotorwayAmerica.com

(March 21, 2018) With apologies to Oldsmobile for “borrowing” their ad slogan from 1988, but – this is NOT your father’s Volvo! The premier Volvo sedan from 30 years ago was the 760 Turbo.  Its 2.4-liter turbocharged four-cylinder delivered a muscular (for typical death-grip-on-the-steering wheel, safety-obsessed Volvo owners) 182 horsepower, and according to reports from the time, propelled the boxy sedan from 0-60 in under 8 seconds. 

By Peter A.  Hubbard


MotorwayAmerica.com

(March 13, 2018) When your vehicle actually invented its classification, it typically has a target on its back — and it's the one every other automaker benchmarks.  So you have no choice but to keep moving and keep improving. 

Such is the case for the cuddly little Honda CR-V, which first burst onto the automotive landscape some 20 years ago — way back in February 1997 — becoming the first compact SUV. 

By Peter A. Hubbard


MotorwayAmerica.com

(March 4, 2018) Unless you’ve just crawled out from under an Afghan, you’re probably aware that the roadways and parking lots are jam-packed with crossovers these day — of every brand, color, size and description. 

If you had asked someone 20 years ago to define “crossover,” they would have either given you a blank stare, or started babbling some basketball jargon about a certain kind of play.  

Back then you had sedans, coupes, convertibles, station wagons, trucks and SUVs. Period. 

By Peter A. Hubbard


MotorwayAmerica,com

(October 29, 2017) AUSTIN, Texas — Once the dust had settled after two days of hard driving on pastures and hillside gravel  at the Longhorn River Ranch west of Austin, the 2018 F150 emerged as the 2018 Truck of Texas, as voted on by some 75 members of the Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA). 



By Peter Hubbard


MotorwayAmerica.com

(August 4, 2017) Step into the “Way Back” time machine with me, and return if you will to 1990.  It’s a wild and crazy time for the Japanese automakers, as Toyota, Honda and Nissan have all decided that in order to keep the aging and increasingly affluent Baby Boomers coming back for more, they need to start new luxury channels.