New Car Review: 2013 Lexus IS350 C

If you want proof positive that Lexus is serious about building more exciting, involving automobiles for enthusiasts, this is a good place to start.  See the picture above? That's the 2013 Lexus IS350C, a retractable hardtop.

What's so great about it? Well, Lexus chose to make its retractable hardtop using perhaps its best drivers' car...the IS.  And that's an improvement because last time around, Lexus gave us the SC430.  Go ahead, click that link. You'll get a visual reminder of the car that found its way onto Top Gear's "Worst Car In The World DVD", along with a list of the areas in which the long-running SC missed just about every target.

No such worries for the IS, though.  A car that already is so good that non-believers say "This is a Lexus?", the ability to take the top down and enjoy some open-air motoring is just icing on the cake.

$46,790, while not cheap, is a reasonable starting price for a four-seat convertible from a premium manufacturer. Especially when you factor in the 306 horsepower 3.5 liter V6, six-speed transmission, 17-inch wheels...oh, and rear-wheel drive.  

The engine/tranny combo not only delivers some sport, it keeps the fuel economy in good shape too, with the EPA estimateing 19 city, 27 highway, numbers that seem right in line with what we saw in our week with one.

The interior is beautifully done....with perforated leather trim, 10-way power adjustable driver and front passenger seats, dual-zone climate control, a three-spoke leather-trimmed steering wheel, a premium audio system and power everything.

No one would blame you for just taking one stock, but Lexus, as with most manufacturers, is more than happy to upsell.  Our tester added the F-Sport package, getting us 18-inch wheels and summer tires, a revised suspension, heated and ventilated front seats, and some nifty cosmetics ($2,550). High intensity headlamps with LED DRLs added $875. Headlamp washers were another $100, Intuitive Parking Assist $500, satellite navigation with an upgraded audio system $3,520, plus $105 for a trunk mat and $64 for a cargo net. With delivery fee ($895), the bottom line comes to $55,399.

Regular TireKicker readers know I often advise ditching unnecessary options and, again, the IS350 C is great stone cold stock. But...F-Sport makes a sweet ride sweeter. If nothing else, popping the extra $2,550 for that is a good idea.  And if you bought one loaded like our tester, you'd get no arguments from me.  There's nothing in that $7800 worth of options that strikes me as money wasted.

Bravo, Lexus for making the leap from SC to IS for your retractable. 

New Car Review: 2013 Honda Accord Touring V6

Mojo is a horrible thing to lose. And for much of the last decade or so, it appeared Honda had lost it.  The products became too big, too plastic, too...boring.  And the Accord became all those things.  It was as though Honda decided to out-geezer the 1999 Avalon. I expected to find coupons for the Early Bird Special at Hometown Buffet in the glove box.

Well, forget all that.  The company that won Boomers over 30 years ago by showing that jewel-like quality, advanced engineering and just plain fun could co-exist in an affordable automobile (four of them, actually...Accord, Prelude, Civic and CRX) is back with the 2013 Honda Accord.

First things first: They cleaned up the styling. While the Accord is still a large-ish sedan by contemporary standards, it is leaner than last time, and looks it.  The stylists have worked in all the right lines and creases in all the right places to reduce the impression of mass. It looks lean, muscular (within the bounds of the segment) and purposeful.

We haven't had the four-cylinder yet. or the coupe (space available, Honda press fleet folks!), but the four-door V6 Touring model we drove was a revelation.  The 276 horsepower engine gets up and runs. The six-speed automatic transmission makes sure it doesn't guzzle fuel while doing it (EPA estimates 21 city/34 highway), the smaller, better designed body means easier visibility, improved sightlines that give you more confidence behind the wheel...all  the better to explore the handling that benefits from front and rear stabilizer bars.  It's not tossable to the degree our favorite Acura, the TSX is, but that would be asking a lot from this bigger, more commodious family sedan.

And then, there's the interior...where Honda seems to have re-found its old-time religion: Keep the dash as low as you can, improving visibility ahead. Put things where they naturally fall to hand. And simplify wherever possible.  They've got a way to go with that last, but the number of buttons is finally starting to drop to a reasonable number (probably because there are now two screens).

About the little screen.  That's where HondaLink lives.  The promise is a great one. It's a cloud-based system that gets your phone and the car together, giving you access to Aha by Harman, Pandora, and a bunch more.  In fact, just take two minutes and watch how Honda pitches it:



Sounds pretty great, huh?

It would be...if it worked.

The app crashes like a moth....um...a lot.

I thought it was me. I went to the iTunes store to re-load the app. That's when I saw the reviews: 2 stars out of 5. And six months without an update despite the complaints.

Here's the problem:  In the 80s and 90s, Honda WAS Apple. Here's what I mean by that. In the same way that Apple has come to mean cool technology and good design that functions in a trouble-free way today...that's what Honda stood for in the 80s and 90s.  They'd be the company most likely to get something new and cutting-edge right.

But GM's got MyChevy and MyBuick and Toyota has Entune and Lexus has Enform and....they all work.  So it's not just that Honda uncharacteristically blew it on something where no one has feared to tread. They've failed to keep up with the other guys.

Truth be told, both the nav and audio functionality are hopelessly out-of-date. Honda needs to spend the money, hire the people, whatever, and get about three steps ahead of the rest of the industry. Right now, the interface looks very 2003-ish.

But...that's it. The only thing wrong. Everything else about this car simply wowed me in the same way the '84 Civic won me over enough to pull out the checkbook after a 10-minute test drive.

The Touring V6 starts and stops at $33,430. Everything (a long, long, long list...just go here) is standard. Add $790 destination and handling and the tab is $34,220.  Not cheap, but it's a lot of car with a lot of features for the money.

HondaLink? If they can get the car this good, they can fix the app (if they don't they're going to have to deal with some very angry owners of $34,220 Accords, and Honda's always had the public relations/customer service thing down).  So, betting that they'll do that, it's thumbs up on this one...as Honda returns to glory, and knocks our favorite family sedan, the Nissan Altima down a peg on the TireKicker's Top Ten Cars (so far).

New Car Review: 2013 Volkswagen Beetle Convertible 70s Edition

I have one question regarding the 2013 Volkswagen Beetle Convertible 70s Edition:

Did they actually ever make them in this color, or anything close to it in the 70s?  I was around for the last decade of the Beetle soft-top, and I remember orange, and yellow and by the final two or three years, very nearly every one was triple-white.  But Toffee Brown Metallic with beige top and beige interior?  Not ringing any bells. Maybe it's an earth tones reference. We were big into those back in the day.

Anyway, despite having no idea what makes this a 70s Edition (where are the Coco Mats?), I have to say the Beetle Convertible is a very nice ride.



Let's face it.  The "New Beetle" from 13 years ago was through. Everyone who wanted one had one.  And the Beetle that replaced it a couple of years ago isn't exactly setting the sales charts on fire. Where to find some charm and some fun?  By making the top go down.

Of course, making the top go down makes the price of a car go up, and the Beetle Convertible is no exception. A standard droptop Bug (am I the only one referring to this Beetle as that?) starts at $24,995, but the 70s Edition with its color-coordination and 18-inch wheels begins at $28,595. So you'll be crowding $30,000.  But unless you go for little add-ons like cargo organizing blocks, custom floormats and the like, the 70s Edition comes as one-price, one-spec package. The only added cost then is destination charges. And that keeps you on this side of $30K (not including tax).

You've got the same basic setup as the base Convertible...a 2.5-liter, 170 horsepower five (yes, five) cylinder engine and a six-speed automatic transmission.  For more than that, you have to skip the base and decade models (there's also a 50s Edition, and a 60s Edition) and go for the Turbo Convertible,  which gets you 200 horsepower and starts at $28,470.

But all the stuff you'd imagine as optional are part of the standard 70s package: Cruise control, trip computer, keyless entry, multi-colored ambient lighting, satellite radio, navigation, a killer Fender audio system with 400 watts...the list goes on and on. In the interests of space, just go here for the whole thing.

And as you can see from the photo above (which depicts a Euro-spec version and a manual transmission we can't have), it's a lovely environment in which to take a drive. The interior of the current Beetle is a huge leap over what came before...and the 70s Edition Beetle Convertible's inside is filled with things that delight the eye. I'm struggling to remember anything from the 1970s that was ever this tasteful.

It won't punish you at the gas pump, either, with an EPA estimate of 21 city/27 highway that we had no problem equaling during our week at the wheel.

So despite some struggles with the concept of this being a 70s Edition, let's just say this: It's a fine one. If I were in the market for a Beetle, this would be the one calling my name the loudest on the showroom floor.

New Car Review: 2013 Lexus GS450h Hybrid

A lot of people think “hybrid” and see a small car. Let’s face it, the Toyota Prius has had a lot to do with that over the past 15 years. But small cars generally get pretty good mileage to begin with. If you’re looking to make a difference in fuel consumption, bigger is the way to go…and Lexus has gone there with the new GS450h.

The GS is all new after a lengthy run (so long, in fact, that until three years ago, they were still equipped with cassette decks in the dashboard as standard equipment)…it’s lower, wider, much more aggressive looking…and now, it’s capable of startling mileage for its size and class. The gasoline-powered version, the GS350, has an EPA estimate of 19 city and 28 highway. Step up to the GS450h hybrid and the highway number goes up by 6 miles per gallon to 34…but there’s a whopping 10 MPG improvement in the city estimate.

That’s because the car shuts off at stop lights and benefits from a pure electric mode that covers a lot of city driving. Use a light throttle foot pulling away from a red light in traffic and you can get up to 40 miles per hour before the gasoline engine kicks in. That’s 10 to 15 miles per hour faster without burning a drop of gas than most hybrids.

But the step up in price…that’s worrisome. There’s only a $2,750 difference between the smaller Lexus ES350 and the ES Hybrid.  The gap between the gasoline and hybrid versions of the GS is a startling $12,050. That’s money you won’t get back from savings at the pump anytime soon (the Orlando Sentinel has a nifty hybrid cost calculator…http://www.orlandosentinel.com/orl-hybridcalculator-fl,0,2196084.flash…and it estimates the GS hybrid will take 21 years and 8 months to pay for itself).

That shoots down one of the big rationales many hybrid buyers use for the added expense of the technology. So what else does the GS450h have that makes it worth consideration even at the added cost?

Well, it may seem contradictory, but the GS450h is actually more powerful than the gasoline-powered ES350…packing 32 more horses. And the list of standard features is much more extensive and features items that are extra-cost luxury options in the gasoline model. Of course, it has a menu of extra-cost options of its own, which is how the as-tested price ($69,827) ended up more than $10,000 higher than the base price ($58,950).

 Near as I can tell, the GS450h is for the driver who doesn’t want to compromise speed or luxury, and wants to do his or her part for the planet, both in terms of consumption and emissions, without worrying about whether the money comes back to them or not. The car may be about to prompt a new term…”Eco-philanthropist”. There are certainly worse things.