Category: Lifestyle - Transportation - Automotive - Reviews - Hot Hatches

2015 FIAT 500C Abarth - Single-Footed Stomping the Scorpion - Short Review, Video

"The Tiny Terror from Toluca" (Mexico): 2014 FIAT 500C Abarth. Colored Granito Lucente (Granite Crystal to us Anglo's). All it takes to thoroughly enjoy this rambunctious, raucous rag-top Wild Child is genuine driver involvement and $26,195.<br> <br> Our fully loaded 5-speed manual tester, with leather seats, Beats audio, automatic climate control and TomTom pod-mount SD navigation topped out at $31,645. <br>
Scorpions have one nasty sting! Just  like Godzilla did to Bambi, humans can dispatch that venomous insect with one “swift, single-footed stomp.” FIAT, maker of insect-sized cars, recently cajoled “Drive…He Said” into taking a quick spin in their “Scorpion”, the 2015 FIAT 500C Abarth. The “C” represents nature’s free air conditioning via a clever, pillar-full... Read more »
By George Straton,
November 7, 2014 at 8:41 am • 

2013 Mini Cooper Paceman S - Pac-Man Spelled With an "E" - Review

The new-for-2013 Mini Cooper Paceman S ALL4. It's for purists who thought jacking up and adding two side-doors to create the near CUV Countryman went too far.<br> <br> This more intimate of Maxi-sized Mini Coopers starts at $28,900. Options like Steptronic automatic transmission, ALL4 all-wheel drive, xenon headlights, heated leather seats, power folding mirrors, Mini Connected with HDD navigation, 19" wheels, dual pane glass moon-roof, comfort keyless entry, HK premium sound, etc. etc takes this near-luxury compact SAV to the premium price of $39,800.<br>
“Drive…He Said” has found a  new use for Duct Tape: Turning a car into a carnivorous video game character. Pull the tape off the letter “E” and there’s the eighth model in the Mini car brand: The 2013 MINI Cooper Paceman. Excluding the MINI Cooper E [for limited market Electric] and the John Cooper Works... Read more »
By George Straton,
October 20, 2013 at 10:40 am • 

2013 Nissan Juke NISMO AWD - Frog Hopping the Gridiron - Review

Call it "Godzilla...extra,extra-light." New-for-2013 is Nissan's sportiest-for-the-masses personal crossover-ute. The Juke NISMO. Good for the Gridiron.<br> <br>Starting at $22,900 for the front-drive 6-speed manual version. The fully optioned CVT all-wheel drive model tops out at $27,200, which, coincidentally is just undercuts the base price of the Mini Cooper Countryman S All4.<br>
You wouldn’t normally describe the amphibian Rana temporaria, aka the “Frog”, as particularly “Cute.” Unless you happen to be a 21-year-old to 30 something urban gal in search of a squatting, bug-eyed sub-compact crossover-utility vehicle. For the boys, whose interest in amphibians leans to more menacing creatures, for 2013 Nissan introduces a [mild] factory tuner... Read more »
By George Straton,
October 5, 2013 at 11:53 am • 
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2012 Volkswagen Golf R - An "Uber Heiss" Hatch, Indeed - Review

The 2012 Volkswagen Golf R in Rising Blue Metallic rising against the cool blue yonder. Yet it's a "Uber Heiss" (Exceptionally Hot) Hatch.
* * * * * * * * * * * * Hatches are Un-Loved in America Unless They Happen to Be “Hot” Around the globe the Volkswagen Golf is regarded as the “Papa” of family compact cars with liftgates. The GTI version has few peers for the “benchmark of all hot hatches” title. Americans’... Read more »
By George Straton,
December 20, 2012 at 10:42 am • 

2012 Toyota Yaris SE Hatchback - Breaking an Egg

2012 Toyota Yaris SE sizzling in "Blazing Blue"
* * * * * * * * * * * * When the Toyota Yaris subcompact was first dropped on Americans in 2006, eighties TV fans must have thought they found “Mork’s Orkan” space orb. Talk about laying an egg. A generation later Toyota has finally cracked the Yaris orb into the frying pan... Read more »
By George Straton,
August 29, 2012 at 3:54 pm • 

2012 Fiat 500 Abarth - Don't you dare call it "Cute"

This Scorpion can sting...
* * * * * * * * * * * * A week with the 2012 Fiat 500 Abarth here at “Drive…He Said,” was replete with proclamations of  “How cute it looks.” Not even the $350 Rosso stripes or four Scorpion emblems affixed to our tester in the traditional launch Bianco color could ward... Read more »
By George Straton,
August 17, 2012 at 9:59 pm • 
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