#silviocalabi

opinionated at any speed

In other English-speaking countries, a full-size SUV is a Range Rover, which fills many British country roads from hedgerow to hedgerow. But here in XXL-land, it takes something like this Lincoln…

opinionated at any speed

The Corsair is the smallest-but-one of Lincoln’s newly extended family of four SUVs. In descending size order, they are the Navigator, Aviator, Corsair and Nautilus. The three smaller ones are…

opinionated at any speed

“That’s a Toyota?”

Yes, it really is a Toyota. It’s the latest Supra, the two-seat sports/grand touring car that Toyota has produced, off and on, since Jimmy Carter was President.…

Opinionated at any speed

Thumbs up to Lincoln for offering us a gas-electric hybrid Aviator able to cover about 15 miles on electrons when conditions are just so. But here’s the rest of the story: second-tier hybrid…

Opinionated at any speed

The license-plate holder on the car reads, “Feel Alive”—evidently the latest take on  Zoom-Zoom, Mazda’s tagline from its “What Do You Drive?” campaign.…

opinionated at any speed

Knowing that Acura is Honda’s upmarket brand, you might expect its re-designed and re-engineered new TLX to be a plush and whisper-quiet “mature” sedan—a Lexus by another name, perhaps. But you’d…

Opinionated at any speed

At 159.1 inches long—just 131/4 feet—this subcompact Hyundai crossover is nearly a foot shorter than a Mini Countryman.

The Venue is the smallest ute I’ve ever driven…

Opinionated at any speed

“G” in Mercedes-speak is for geländewagen, which means “off-road vehicle” in German. At 41 years of age, the original G-Class is the second-oldest model in M-B’s lineup—a boxy, body-on-…

opinionated at any speed

The CT5 is a new Cadillac, aimed directly at the BMW 3-Series, the C-Class Mercedes-Benz, the Alfa Romeo Giulia, Acura TLX and the many others of that ilk. It was conceived as Cadillac’s sports…

opinionated at any speed

Compared to last week’s hybrid SUV from an up-market home-grown brand, this gas-electric Honda is a paragon of civility, and for much less money. It exhibits none of the dysfunction of that…

opinionated at any speed

Sheer presence on the road is worth something, certainly—status expressed in acres of gleaming sheet metal set off by polished accents of metal and glass. Although the new Genesis G90 is a couple…

opinionated at any speedted at any speed

Let’s imagine that Honda has a minivan-design team of young parents who meet (or used to, anyway) in a well-lit, pastel-hued room where the electrical outlets are plugged and the floor is littered…

opinionated at any speed

The action in pickup trucks these days seems to be in the bed, with tougher liners, 5th-wheel trailer hookups, tie-downs, storage boxes, lights, power outlets and tailgates that open gently…

Silvio CALABI: OPINIONATED AT ANY SPEED

The sedan is dead, they say, killed off by the SUV. But no one told Hyundai, so they upsized their Sonata into a big, sleek car with four doors and a trunk. A modern, grown-up sedan, that is.…

Silvio CALABI: OPINIONATED AT ANY SPEED

When you drive a Volvo, no one ever asks, “How fast is it?” or “How much horsepower has this got?” 

It isn’t that no one cares; it’s that we care…

Silvio CALABI: OPINIONATED AT ANY SPEED

This is Mercedes-Benz’s newest and most spectacular SUV—a full-size luxury war wagon with a 603-horsepower chip on its tailored shoulder and a toothy, Killjoy-the-clown grille that will alarm…

SILVIO CALABI: OPINIONATED AT ANY SPEED

“That’s a Toyota?”

Yep. It’s the latest Supra, the two-seat sports/grand touring car that Toyota has made, off and on, since Jimmy Carter was President. The last Supra, 1993 to ‘98, was the…

Silvio CALABI: OPINIONATED AT ANY SPEED

The sedan is dead, they say, killed off by the SUV. But no one told Hyundai, so they upsized their Sonata into a big, sleek car with four doors and a trunk. A modern, grown-up sedan, that is.…

SILVIO CALABI: OPINIONATED AT ANY SPEED

The new Jeep Wrangler may be “little” next to an SUV, but it is still an outsize vehicle. Modernizing it with seat heaters, LEDs and a Web-linked computer is putting lipstick on a pig. A rutted…

SILVIO CALABI: OPINIONATED AT ANY SPEED

One of the pleasant “little things” in the Subaru Outback is the switch for the e-brake, which is near the shift lever on the console.

E-brake means emergency brake or electronic brake. To…

Silvio Calabi: Opinionated at Any Speed
The Black Edition Pilot’s cabin is, if not outright sumptuous, tasteful, spacious and highly functional as well as all-day comfortable. Everything (including the e-brake switch) is where it should be, and we are finally becoming accustomed to Honda’s unique low-profile push/pull-button gear selector. Features range from a driver’s head-up display to a panoramic sunroof and a rear defroster that shuts itself off, as well as connectivity, charging plugs and apps galore.

 To anyone who enjoys cars, the Si—the sporting Honda Civic—strikes the right balance between old-fashioned, involved, three-pedal driving and creeping digitalis, the blight of beeps, chimes, LEDs…