The 2017 Ford Escape Sport has arrived and we took it up on a trip to Whistler to enjoy the food, drinks and the beautiful backdrop of the mountains in and around Whistler. After racking up 300kms during the trip, I got a good feel for the SUV along the curvy sea to sky highway.

Exterior

The Sport Appearance Package gives the Ford Escape an edgier look. It comes with:

• 19-inch Black premium-painted aluminum wheels
• Black-bezel halogen projector headlights
• LED signature daytime running lights
• Black-tinted taillights
• Unique black front fender grilles
• Gloss-black painted upper grille with chrome accents
• Black roof rails
• Leather-wrapped steering wheel and gear shifter
• Sporty V-shaped partial leather-trimmed seats
• Gloss-black fog light bezels

These are some good aesthetic features to substitute the Ebony black for the silver trims.

The look of the exterior overall is pretty nice. The black trim and the black wheels give it a nicer look than the silver. It’s a pretty good size for a small SUV. I didn’t have many issues parking either especially when there is the rear view camera to help with parking.

Interior

The interior was roomy and had ample trunk space. With all our luggage piled up in the trunk, we still had lots of room left. The seats were comfortable and no one had issues with leg room. Fitting 5 people inside is no problem at all. The leather trimmed seats made the interior look a lot nicer.

One thing about a car that I love to focus on is the technology. As a person that like to misplace keys frequently, the SYNC Connect allows you to start, lock, unlock and locate your vehicle from virtually anywhere using your smartphone. I rely on my iPhone for a lot of things and if it can find my keys or unlock the car, it’s seriously a blessing so I don’t have remember where I put my keys.

SYNC 3 has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto to integrate a limited number of apps from your phone, and displays them on the touchscreen for easy access. Google Maps and Spotify make your driving experience a lot better.

Drive

Driving along the Sea to Sky is quite curvy when traveling along the highway. I found that the Escape has firm ride with responsive handling when merging in and out of lanes. Plus, the blind spot indicator is awesome so you know if there is anything in your blind spot before merging.

Good acceleration and when travelling over 100+ km, it wasn’t too loud.

A unique feature of the 2017 Ford Escape is the Lane-Keeping System. If you start drifting closer to the lane markings, it can apply torque to the steering wheel if it senses your vehicle drifting unintentionally out of its lane. If needed, the system can also send gentle vibration pulses to the wheel to prompt you to steer back toward centre.

Their new centre instrument panel has a front-mounted USB port with a pocket for devices, redesigned climate controls and refreshed, user-friendly design.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I thought the 2017 Ford Escape was pretty awesome on the highway, in the city, and off road. The price point is pretty good and great for those who have a lot to carry in their car.

Website: http://www.ford.ca/suvs/escape

The 2016 Acura TLX Elite is a mid-sided sedan with sporty handling, a roomy interior and luxury features. We tried the car for the week to see how it handles in the busy city and in the quiet suburbs.

Exterior

The exterior with the black colour speaks sophistication and class in this luxury sedan. Good smooth lines along the sides of the car, but nothing too stunning.

There is a good amount of trunk space especially if you’re putting luggage in the back or larger items.

The wheels look ok, but its missing a bit of pop to have it stand out. The overall look kinda blends in on the road. If you are getting a higher end car, you want people to notice.

Interior

The auto-dimming rearview mirror is great for when you’re in a parking garage and need a better view of your surroundings.

The metal and the wooden finishes in the interior clashes a little bit.

The Acura Navigation System and touch screen is decent, but I wish they had Apple Car Pay or Android Auto built-in. The other technology packed into this car is pretty standard, but still above other car companies.

The gear box and the parking break has become more sleek and replaced with buttons. At first, this seemed a bit strange and hard to get used to. It does take a while to get a handle on this, but it will come.

My husband and I share a car and we always had different setting when driving in the car. I’m a tad shorter, so I needed to be a little bit closer to the steering wheel and I prefer to sit more upright compared to him. Once thing I liked about this car is that you can pre-program 2 seat settings so it can save your sitting preferences.

There is a good amount of leg room in the back compared to other cars.

In a hidden compartment, you will find the USB port and the power outlet.

The rear view camera is great for backing up into parking spots confidently. The blind spot indicator by the side mirror is great for helping you merge successfully. These 2 features are great for those who aren’t too confident in their driving abilities. It helps give you more eyes around your car so you don’t get into an accident.

Drive

The engine is 2.4-litre, 16-valve, Direct Injection DOHC, i-VTEC 4-cylinder, and has 206 hp @ 6800 rpm. A pretty strong engine and accelerates quite well. The smart all-wheel-drive system that helps keep you safe on both wet and dry roads.

One touch engine start is a nice feature so you don’t have to dig the keys out of your bag.

One feature that I found annoying was the idle stop, even if I was stopped at a stop sign for a few seconds, the engine would turn off. It doesn’t feel smooth and at first its very jarring. The function is intended for you to save fuel when you are stopped for some time, but most of the time I had to end up turning this feature off since I wasn’t stuck in traffic for a long time.

Final Thoughts

The 2016 Acura TLX Elite performs well, but the exterior is modest looking and doesn’t stand out too much from the crowd. It kinda blends in. If you are looking for a classy car that doesn’t break your wallet, the Acura TLX is a good choice at $35, 490.

Website: http://www.acura.ca/tlx/2016

The 2016 Honda Civic Coupe Touring is the sporty version of the reliable Honda Civic. I have a 4-door Honda Civic, so it was a fun week trying out the Civic Coupe Touring in bright green. At first, the Energy Green Pearl colour seemed a bit jarring as it is a colour I’m not used to. I thought I would get a few looks, but after driving it, no one really noticed the colour at all.

Exterior

The exterior has nice lines that give it the sporty feel. With the Touring, you’ll notice that the handles are chrome instead of the same colour as the body. It definitely has an aggressive look ready too zoom around town.

The shark fin shaped antenna works well with the car.

The LED headlights in the front and rear are bright.

Also the side mirrors have integrated LED for your turn signals. A good was to let others on the road know your intentions so your don’t get into an accident.

The right side also has a camera to make checking your blind spot on the right side easy to bikers or other things that pop up. The rear facing camera is awesome too especially when parallel parking or backing up into a spot.

The 17″ Aluminum Alloy Wheels look pretty good and hold up the car up, but you can still see that the car is still low to the ground. Try not to be too aggressive over high speed bumps.

The capless fueling system is pretty awesome too. No more need to remember screwing on the cap.

Interior

The front seats are lowered, so you get a sporty feel by sitting lower to the ground. The front seats are heated, so in the winter time, you rear can be nice and toasty.

The seats have leather-trimmed seating surfaces.

The back seat seats 3 people, it might be a bit crammed if you have 3 tall adults in the back seats. They have to enter and exit through the driver side or passenger side door.

The technology packed into this car is pretty awesome, wireless charging, Apple Car Play, Android Auto, and WiFi teathering are a few things I enjoy in this car to better integrate your smartphone with the car.

Since I have an iPhone, I really utilized the Maps function so I can use Google Maps. Google Maps is by far superior to the standard map that’s part of the navigation system.

The USB port is a bit hidden, but can be found closer to where you knees are.

Drive

The engine is 1.5-litre, 16-valve, Direct Injection, DOHC, and turbocharged 4-cylinder. There is 174 horsepower at 6000 RPM. The civic coupe also has ECON mode to increase fuel economy.

The parking break has been replaces with a electronic parking break, so it is turned by by a push of a button. It saves room near the gear box and creates a sleeker look.

The glowing electronic dashboard is nice to look at. The car a good amount of power and performs well on hills and on the highway.

Final Thoughts

At $27,555 for the 2016 Honda Civic Coupe Touring, it’s a good price. The Civic Coupe appeals more to those who are younger and looking for a sleek car to impress friends without braking the bank. It was fun to drive this along the highway at faster speeds.

Website: https://www.honda.ca/civic_coupe

It’s M, yet again with another car review! However, unlike all of my other reviews, this one is a Ford! A 2016 Ford Focus Electric to be exact.

Exterior

The Focus line from Ford has always been a mixed bag. I love the hatchback mini style of the Ford ST, which is similar to my love of the older Honda Si-Rs. However, for the rest of the Focus trims, it does look a bit bland. Although it’s a sedan with four doors, it doesn’t feel much bigger inside than a Fit, although it looks a bit bigger than the fit on the outside.

I wanted the Focus Electric to have the over the top “Eco” look that other hybrids and electric cars have adopted to distance itself from the base models.

However, looking at the Ford Electric, nothing really stands out to a by passer that this Focus is nothing more than it’s base trim model, other than the modest “Electric” on the sides and on the back.

Interior

The interior of the Ford Focus is rather tame as well. I do enjoy the plastic/cloth stylings of most North American manufactured cars go for, and the Ford Focus Electric was no exception. The leather seats were really nice and definitely were a step up from the normal leather seats you come to expect in previous generation cars.

The gratuitous amount of plastic usually found in these American vehicles is a bit toned down here, but you can see remnants of it with the center vent on and off dials and the massive monstrosity of steering wheel controls.

I really liked the all LCD display of the speedometer. The left hand side with all the information of your battery and misc. information was really helpful albeit no over the top animations.

I found the GPS screen to be a tad small, but otherwise, having your phone’s playlist available to you without Apple CarPlay was a great experience. SYNC 1 was in the model I was driving which unfortunately did not come with Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. You have to pay a bit more for SYNC 3, which enables those smart phone syncs. Otherwise, all of the middle components (climate control, sound control) felt top notch. The Sony powered audio speakers sounded great with deep bass and no distortion.

Ford definitely just took a Focus and fitted it with an Electric Vehicle and battery.

Opening the front, looks exactly like any other normal car. The trunk however, suffers because that’s where the battery lives. This massive block limits the size of the trunk quite a bit. You can probably barely fit a weeks worth of groceries for 2 people.

The small size is also a problem with the back seats. There isn’t a lot of room for the passengers as found in normal sedan cars so keep that in mind.

The push start button was a bit confusing to use at first because the radio doesn’t turn off like other cars. It’s only when you open the door, all the power goes off.

Drive

Being an all electric vehicle, the Ford Focus Electric accelerates fast! There are no gears, so there is no gear changes and the drive feels like you’re driving a glorified golf cart, with a ton of power. Pressing down on the drive pedal, feels stiff at first, but you get used to it. If you keep pressing down though, you’ll notice the batteries draining faster than an iPhone.

I’ve never had to worry about range, but the official range is a 120km, but it seems closer to the 90-100 km range if you drive perfectly. Even less if you’re a speed hog. Therefore this car is great for commuting, but little else. The already announced 2017 model is reported to have 160km, which is a great boost and probably worth waiting for.

The silent motor is great as you quickly realize how you’ve grown accustomed to noisy normal engines. Fun fact, going down hills and keeping your wheels spinning without pressing down on the pedal generates battery power as well as braking. Getting 100% energy returned on my brakes is a great mini-game during driving.

Final Thoughts

The 2016 Ford Focus Electric is an achievement of progress. 2006 me would’ve never guessed Ford would be selling a mainstream EV 10 years down the line. However, there are a lot of compromises to be made by skipping the fossil fuels. Low range and little trunk space. The starting price is high for a car this size that I’d just buy the Focus ST outright instead. There are government rebates that will lower the $29k starting price, but there’s so many other great cars at that price today.

The Focus Electric feels like a good effort by Ford to convert their Focus into an EV, but it suffers from the lack of optimization it could ultimately achieve from starting from scratch. I hope Ford comes out with their own BMW i3s or Tesla Model 3s in the near future!

Website: 
http://www.ford.ca/

Hello! M here yet again with another Honda review, this time a week with the 2016 Honda Accord Coupe Touring V6. This monster of a car had me scratching my head for answers!

Exterior

The Accord looks as stylish as the new Civics and the Coupe part of it makes the car feel very sporty. The back of the V6 version of the trim sports a very handsome chrome dual exhaust, which looks very handsome.

Unfortunately, I felt the Chrome borders around the side windows made the overall luxurious look of the car fall a little towards the tacky side. I still love the front grills and LED headlights, but it is a bit more Chromey than the Civic.

Interior

The luxurious car flavour continues on the inside with all leather and dark wood (plastic) finishes. The Accord Coupe Touring V6 ditches the all digital speedometer/HUD for a manual one, that made me miss the Civic all that more. There is a bit of a digital display in the middle of it that can display gas mileage and other tidbits of information, but it felt dated compared to the Civic.

The Accord however comes with a secondary screen above the main GPS that is used for music and other misc. information. I used it mostly for music and a clock.

The GPS system is the same as the one in the Civic and thankfully comes with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. I did run into some performance issues with my Apple CarPlay, which I did not encounter at all with the Civic, which could mean the hardware isn’t as up to date, or it was purely my USB wires fault. Nonetheless, it wasn’t as flawless as the Civic’s CarPlay.

There is a plastic compartment right under the GPS screen that was mostly useless space and a USB port. It felt oddly unrefined. There was no Electronic Parking Brake which was odd as the Civic Touring came with one.

There was also no push open gas lid and instead a normal one. All of these signs leads to my suspicion that the 2016 Accord Coupe Touring was produced and pushed out before the 2016 Civic, lacking in some features.

It is incredibly easy moving the front seats for passengers to ride in the back. The back was surprisingly spacious but obviously not as comfortable as a Sedan. You don’t buy a Coupe to bring 3-4 people around usually.

There are also 2 seat settings by the drivers side door, so you can have your adjustments every time you get in the car.

Drive

The 2016 Honda Accord Coupe Touring V6, is a beast of a machine. This 278 horsepower 3.6-litre i-VTEC engine accelerates incredibly fast and can leave skid marks easily with the back sticking out. There is a joy in driving this car, and I hoped it would’ve had a full on Sport Mode option, but it does not. It does have the CVT flappy gear shift, which the Civic lacked and increases the fun factor of driving this car.

I would say it was the most fun and responsive Honda I’ve tested so far!

Final Thoughts

The 2016 Honda Accord Coupe Touring V6 is a head scratcher for me. At $37,000 I don’t think you’re getting the great features the $27,000 2016 Civic Touring has. You are spending money to get a great engine, but if you’re the type of person who dishes out money for a more powerful engine, I’m pretty sure you can spend the same amount on another prestigious engine car brand.

The Accord is definitely not a race car, but tries to be a normal person’s race car with it’s fun torque. It was a thrill to drive, but I would really wonder what type of person will buy this car. The Accord doesn’t have the brand name recognition for gear heads than the Honda Si-R’s or Hyundai Genesis does, which starts from $29,000.

Website: http://www.honda.ca/

M here, and for 1 week I got to drive the new 2016 Honda Fit EX-L Navi. This car taught me that I’m way older than I thought I was. Although it’s fun to drive, I wanted more features and ultimately a bigger car.

Exterior

The Honda Fit didn’t really change all the much between generations. In fact, in some angles while it may seem sleek and sporty, other angles made it seem too round and soccer mom car-ish. The red definitely screamed domestic, instead of sporty. Unfortunately there is no option to put in stock LED headlights.

I still love the proximity key entry system, which means I don’t have to take out my key fob to open the car while entering!

Interior

The Honda Fit is incredibly spacious inside. There’s plenty of trunk space and space for back seat riders. I was surprised on how the driver seat was even when put in it’s lowest setting. The EX-L Navi is the highest trim of the Fit you can buy, so I was very disappointed by the lack of a power seat. The adjustment of the seat was finicky at best.

There was also a lack of any space to place your smart phone while it’s connected to the USB. The small space next to the gear shift could barely hold my iPhone 6+ in place, and would fall off easily. This gear shift area was my biggest grievance of the Fit’s interior. The heated seat buttons were placed in such way, that I would always accidentally press one when placing my phone down. It was frustrating. Speaking of frustrating, the parking brake was also very finicky. Whenever I released the parking brake, it would catch on one of the bottom clicks, not fully going down without another effort.

The best thing about the interior is the cupholder on the left side of the steering wheel. This cupholder could hold a Venti sized drink comfortably, and I found myself using it a lot more than I initially thought.

The navigation system is the same that is found in the Civic, but lacks Apple Carplay or Android Auto. The system seemed to be slower too. The navigation software found in the 2016 Fit definitely is a lighter and less fleshed out system than what is found in the Civic. I found it annoying to work with overall.

The Fit EX-L Navi does have Honda’s nifty LaneWatch blind spot display, which helps you merge right and parallel park. It also comes with a rear camera, but I did find it slow to start with the Fit’s Navi hardware.

All the seats are foldable into various configurations, so if you need to move any large cargo or make an IKEA trip, it’s possible.

Drive

The highlight of the Honda Fit EX-L Navi is the way it drives! This model is fitted with an all new engine that Honda touts is more powerful, yet more efficient that previous ones. The engine is very zippy and driving it with the paddle shifts was incredibly fun.

This small but powerful engine comes with some drawbacks though. The engine is loud when revving, and even in idle, the engine clicks can be noticeably heard in the car. The Econ mode found in all Hondas is completely useless here, as lowering the revs of the engine makes the engine shift unbearably slow, which causes the driver to push harder (which defeats the purpose of keeping L/100km low). Turning Econ mode off is suggested as the fuel efficient engine does it’s job without it.

The steering of this car is surprisingly light, showing off how much of the power-steering the car gives you.

Final Thoughts

At $22,000, I don’t know why anyone would buy a Fit EX-L Navi, when they can get the 2016 Honda Civic EX for $1,000 more. The Civic EX has all the major features of the Fit, but adds in a more powerful engine and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

The Fit is a fun car to drive and I think you can justify getting the lower trims if you’re on a budget or if it’s your first car of university. It’s fun and easy to drive and I think car modders can mod the car for impressive results. My wife and I had a Fit in university, but now I can’t imagine myself owning one, as gadgets and space become more of a concern.

Website: http://www.honda.ca/

M here, and for 1 week I got to drive the new 2016 Honda Civic Touring. This is the best Civic made ever!

Exterior

This is the best looking Civic sedan ever made. I’m still partial to the Hatchback Si-Rs of old, but for the first time I think the Civic looks a tad better than it’s Acura counterparts.

My favourite part of the exterior is definitely the back headlights. It feels futuristic without being too corny. I felt like a mid 30s, suave man, driving this thing around, which is harder to imagine while driving Civic’s previous models.

LED Headlights feel like a necessity for all modern cars after driving the Civic Touring. Anything else feels like a car from the 80s-90s.

Interior

The mature, sophisticated, luxury sedan feel from the exterior continues on inside. The leather trimmings and shiny dark (what I assume plastic) wood, is a great accent.

The speedometer and accelerometer are both fully digitally realized in a LCD display. They’ve taken the dual screens from previous Civic models and combined them all into one screen behind the steering wheel. I remember Audi touting this feature for their new A8s and seeing this here was awesome! You can customize what you see in the bottom center of the display, such as audio, gas consumption, etc.

The GPS display is finally button free, instead going for touch screen buttons. The best thing about the GPS is the integration of Apple Car Play and Android Auto.

A specific smart phone USB slot is provided to sync seamlessly with your device.

I love Apple Car Play, something I don’t think I can ever drive without. Honda’s new GPS software is snappy and great looking, but Apple Car Play let’s you use Apple Maps (Not as great as Google Maps, but a step above car GPS).

Not only that, you essentially have iTunes in your car, letting you access your music playlists, Apple Music, Spotify, and Apple Radio. Podcast and Audiobook listeners can rejoice having their own buttons and menus, you never have to look down on your phone in your car ever again. You can call and check text messages from your phone straight from the screen as well.

The inclusion of an Electronic parking break is a great touch in accentuating the luxury in luxury sedan.

The blind spot and rear camera display is great for those who have problems merging right and reverse parking.

However, there’s a severe lack of simple blind spot indicators for both sides, which is a head-scratcher omission.

There is nothing special going on in the trunk either.

Filling the Civic Touring with gas was confusing as I couldn’t find the fuel door button, but the new Civics have a simple push mechanism on the fuel door. It opens up to a cap-less fuel tank. I never knew these existed, but now I have another “must-have standard feature” to add to my list.

The steering wheel buttons were a major step down from previous models. These plastic-y clicky buttons felt cheap and out of place in an otherwise luxurious interior. The volume control on the steering wheel was especially atrocious, having you glide your finger across a ridged plastic tab.

Drive

The handling and drive feel of the Civic has now been honed to perfection. When I was test-driving my Honda Civic 2012, I knew I couldn’t switch over to the better equipped, better looking Hyundai’s at that time.

The turbocharged Civic Touring engine was a joy to rev! Although there’s no explicit Sport Mode button, you can shift the Automatic gearbox to S mode, which basically does the same thing.

Econ mode is still relevant here, helping keep the revs low in high traffic conditions. The Civic Touring felt like it could both be a responsible daily driver, saving gas at 7L/100KM, but can change to a monster whenever you felt like it. If you haven’t driven a Civic yet, run to a dealership to find out what you’re missing.

Final Thoughts

Driving the 2016 Honda Civic Touring was immensely satisfying. I thought I was driving a mid $30k car, but in reality, this car costs $27k. That to me was a huge shock and it’s definitely a steal. I can forgive the omissions of a power trunk and forward facing camera at that price, but I still would’ve liked to see a simple blind spot indicator for both sides. The right side merging camera is definitely helpful, but I also merge left! The digital screens in the car steal the show for sure. My actual car is a Honda Civic 2012 highest trim and it’s amazing how far mid $20k-$30k sedans have come along.