Author Archives: Jim Motavalli

Six New Cars Show That Hybrids Rule

I’m firmly convinced that, despite rollbacks on the federal level and sluggish sales at the dealerships, the car industry is going electric, and I mean globally. In the first half of 2025, plug ins were between nine and 11.8 percent of U.S. new vehicle sales, depending on criteria. It’s a start, and those numbers are much higher in Europe and China (where they’re half of all new sales), and freakishly high in countries like Iceland and especially Norway (way over 90 percent of sales).

The timeline is going to be longer than initially believed, but the changeover is inevitable—dictated both by superior technology and climate imperatives. In the meantime, we are still seeing plenty of old-school internal-combustion cars and trucks hit the market, and here’s a sampling of vehicles I’ve recently sampled.

2025 Toyota 4Runner TrailHunter. Wow, going off road can get costly. My test 4Runner TrailHunter came in at $69,578 with such niceties as a digital key and a tow ball added to the $66,900 base price. And here’s the issue in a nutshell, via Car and Driver, “The 4Runner is tall and ungainly. It is inefficient in packaging and fuel economy, not quick, and expensive for its size. Toyota can’t build enough of them.”

I’ve driven both 2025 and 2026 versions of this vehicle, and it’s not the best ride around town. It’s bouncy and relatively rough riding, and you have to climb into it. The snorkel (excuse me, the High Mount Air Intake) might look cool, but c’mon—who’s fording streams? The bright side of this version of the 4Runner is the 2.4-liter turbo four-cylinder hybrid engine that gets a heavy, non-aerodynamic vehicle to 23 mpg city/24 highway. Still terrible, though, considering that Toyota also makes the Prius that gets up to 57 mpg in 2026 guise. The automaker has gussied up this off-roader with a comfortable interior, heated seats and wheel, but you’ll still be roughing it, whether you go off road or not. The same things that make it good on mountain treks are what makes it difficult on pavement—body on frame construction (expect squeaks down the road) a live rear axle, huge knobby tires on 18-inch wheels.

2025 Toyota Grand Highlander Hybrid Max Platinum. This Highlander (another ultra-popular platform from Toyota) is available with two entirely different hybrid engines, a base 245-horsepower unit and a 362-horsepower Hybrid Max in the Platinum trim you probably don’t need. In LE and XLE you get the base engine, but especially in XLE it’s very well equipped (heated front seats, 12.3-inch touchscreen, power tailgate, wireless charging pad)—and gets 36 mpg combined. With the big engine as tested you get a 5.6-second zero to 60 time (instead of 7.8 seconds) but, really, is that important to your daily life or self-esteem? The thing was snappy, but not exactly a sports car. More relevant is the fuel economy loss with Hybrid Max—from 36/32 to 26/27. The non-hybrid Grand Highlander actually did better in some tests, at 29 combined. Plus, the Platinum ($60,270) is hugely more expensive than the XLE ($46,875). I hope all this is convincing.

2025 Audi S5 Coupe Prestige. Prestige is definitely the word here, and you pay for it, in this case a bottom line of $73,345. That buys a very, very capable and sophisticated car, powered by a three-liter 362-horsepower turbocharged V-6 engine with a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic and quattro AWD.

This is more car than I actually need or could possibly justify buying, but that’s not to say I didn’t love my week in it. What’s not to like? It’s attractive, fast, comfortable and (amazingly enough after all the SUVs) a grand touring car! That means it’s set up for long hauls and smooths out the highway for you. At 60 mph and above it’s an effortless drive. The standard Sportback rear gives lots of luggage space under the hatch.

The central 14.5-inch infotainment screen is visually appealing. The Prestige line gets you the quite nice upgraded digital gauge cluster, a head-up display, a 360-degree camera, and also confusing and unnecessary on-screen climate controls. Philistine that I am I get excited when I see a Bang & Olufsen audio system, and I think I actually can tell they sound better than, say, a boombox from Walmart.

2025 Volkswagen Golf GTI 2.0T SE. The big news about the “pocket rocket” GTI is that VW has gotten rid of the manual transmission option, perhaps an inevitability as manuals are even disappearing at Porsche and Ferrari. Honestly, half the fun of owning these cars is shifting them, but VW is bowing the sheer inability of the driving public to drive stick.

This version is an update of the GTI, not a major model change. In place of the manual is a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic, with an “S” mode for faster shifts. You’re stirring a two-liter, four-cylinder turbo engine with 241 horsepower and 273 pound-feet of torque, held over from previous model years. Fuel economy at 27 mpg combined could be better, but a 5.6-second zero to 60 time is impressive. There are some new colors and badges and new 19-inch wheels. The GTI is still fun to drive but, for me, not quite as much fun. Prices range from $33 to $42,000. The SE tested is $38,645.

2025 Mazda MX-5 Miata RF Grand Touring. As a Miata owner myself, I (and many of my auto journalist colleagues) don’t have to be sold on the model’s virtues. It is, still, the only real choice for a fun to drive, inexpensive, easy to maintain two-seat convertible. But it’s gotten more sophisticated. Mine’s a 1999, and even that one has far more creature comforts than the NA first seen in 1989.

The RF has a power retractable top, that works very well in practice. That’s a Miata tradition. The early ones have a top that you just throw back, compared to the complicated, leaky Cub Scout tents seen on the British sports cars the Miata blew out of the water.

The Miata still starts around $30,000, and the engine in all Miata is still a modest four-cylinder than in two-liter four here produces 181 horsepower. Yes, you can still go manual with a six-speed box. These new ones are even more responsive and good handling than my ’99, thanks to very direct steering.

The well-appointed RF Grand Touring is near the top of the line, and costs $38,785. Fuel economy at 29 combined isn’t bad, but requiring premium gas is a negative. The Miata may not be the best car for 60-mile commutes—it’s a bit small for that—but as a weekend car it’s peerless. It’s too bad more people don’t think so. Mazda sold just 8,103 Miatas in the U.S. in 2024, a minor downward trend from 2023.

2025 Toyota Crown Nightshade Edition. I’d like to think that cars like the long-Japan-only Crown can find a place in the American market. Toyota loves hybrids, makes great ones, and in this case stuffs its 2.5-liter driveline (236 combined horsepower) into a well-equipped sedan that retails, in this case, for $48,765. Leave the options list alone—the test car had a $165 “side puddle lamp” you probably don’t need.

In some ways the Crown is like an entry-level Lexus, which may have you scratching your head about the need for it, but under either badge it’s a nice car. The eCVT transmission takes a little getting used to, but it’s a factor in the 41 mpg combined (42 city/41 highway) fuel economy.

I liked the 11-speaker JBL sound system, the leather-trimmed heated seats (front and rear), the matte black 21-inch wheels, and the panoramic glass roof. Really, it’s a good example of the state-of-the-art sedan in 2025. The trick is getting the public to care about sedans again.

The New EVs are Great, but we Need More Long-Range, Affordable Choices

It’s wonderful to be receiving more and more EVs as test cars, so let’s start with looking at a few of those that ended up being parked in my driveway. But EVs are still only about 10 percent of the U.S. market, so we’ll go on the internal-combustion pathways in the upcoming Part Two of this Territorial Imperatives posting.

2025 Hyundai IONIQ 5 XRT. Americans eat a lot of junk food, make a bunch of bad financial decisions, go down conspiracy rabbit holes…and really, really like to think they will be heading off-road. That means even EVs have to at least put on a good show in that department, despite the fact that most of the cars never leave pavement.

The 5 is a truly great entry, and now well-established as one of the more popular non-Tesla EVs. In this trim it has a whopping 320 horsepower and AWD from two motors. The off-road is manifest in a slightly higher ground clearance and 18-inch all-terrain tires. The interior and the bumpers are ruggedized. The driver can choose from snow, mud or sand modes. All of this starts at $56,965. If you really go off the road, you may want to pay that hefty price, but for most of us there are better and cheaper iterations of this car, including with one motor. This version’s range is slightly down to 259 miles, compared to the more on-pavement SEL AWD with 266.

The more affordable 2025 5s start at $35,000 for the SE Standard Range model, increase to $37,500 for the SE RWD and continue with the SEL RWD at $39,800. Let me be clear, this is an excellent selection for actually selling EVs in America right now. Hyundai sold 19,092 Ioniq 5s in the U.S. in the first half of 2025. And it’s working. The Ioniq 5 is one of the five non-Tesla EV bestsellers in the U.S. right now.

The top seller is one of my favorites, the Chevy Equinox EV, which is affordable and long-range. More than 50,000 have been sold this year so far. Next is the Ford F-150 Lightning at 33,510, followed by the Ioniq 5, (another good one) the Mustang Mach-E with 21,785 sold, and the Chevy Blazer at 12,736.

2025 Volkswagen ID.Buzz Pro S Plus. $66,040. That was the price as-equipped for this long-awaited electric minivan. VW could have had a home run with the ID.Buzz if it a) released it about four years earlier (the design was done); and b) offered it with two rows and a much more modest price. Instead, the model was long-delayed and offered stateside as a three-row only. The thinking is plain—Americans do like three-row SUVs—but if there’s one thing this vehicle isn’t, it’s an SUV. Unlike most of our citizenry, I love minivans, and I really liked this car. But I found myself apologizing for it being both too big and too expensive. Ah well. VW can make it right by bringing over some of the models it already offers in Europe.

2025 Audi Q6 e-tron Prestige. The Q6 I drove in the northern California wine country is a fast and stylish electric EV, offering 322 horsepower and a 6.3-second zero to 60 time in just the base single-motor rear-drive form. Even that one is pricey at $63,800. If you want the Q6 e-tron quattro, the price goes up (not a huge amount) to $65,800. You get 456 peak horsepower, and zero to 60 in 4.9 seconds. Again, there’s a range penalty. The base version offers a best-ever from Audi of 321 miles, and the quattro runs out of juice after 307. Audi has the luxury EV base covered. It would be great if the company developed a capable EV they could sell in the low $40s. Right now, the cheapest Audi EV is the Q4 e-tron, starting at $49,800 and going up from there.

2025 Volvo EX30 Twin Motor Performance AWD Ultra and EX40 Twin Motor Ultra. Volvo and Polestar (both owned by Chinese automaker Geely) are all-in when it comes to EVs, and the cars tend to share platforms if not styling. Volvo’s EVs are stylish in a Scandinavian modern way, and also a bit pricey. The Ultra tested here has a 422-horsepower, 400-pound-foot dual motor setup, and it’s quite sprightly at 3.4 seconds to 60. There are a ton of nice features, including built-in Google infotainment, a killer Harmon Kardon infotainment system, sustainable materials used throughout (including flax and recycled plastics), and a very capable automated parking system. The range is up to 253 miles, and it can fast charge in 26.5 minutes. You can tow 2,000 pounds.

I could definitely live, every day, with this Volvo, but I don’t need that kind of acceleration or that much weight, and I want the maximum available range. The Twin Motor Performance starts at $46,195, despite plans for a cheaper single-motor version that was dropped for the American market. That EX30 would have been in the mid-$30s, and I’d have definitely considered buying one. Ah well.

The New Kia Telluride is Designed and Built in America, for Americans

Considering it has been around since 2019 (as a 2020) model, the Kia Telluride did remarkably well in 2024, selling 115,504 units in the U.S. Sure, Kia is a Korean brand, but the Telluride was conceived and designed for the U.S. market, and is built in Georgia, so it’s fitting that the second-generation model was styled in California, where Kia has its American design center. 

The Telluride has been a bestseller, and it’s betting big on the update. (Jim Motavalli photo)

On October 28, Kia brought journalists to the Irvine, California center for a closeup look at the evolution of the new model. “The first Telluride had the right combination of elements to turn it into a very in-demand SUV,” said Sean Yoon, president and CEO of Kia North America. Details of the powertrain, price and other rather important details won’t be divulged until the Los Angeles Auto Show November 20.

When automakers sell huge numbers of a boxy SUV, they don’t want to mess with the formula all that much. “How do you follow up on a vehicle that meant so much to so many people,” said Tom Kearns, senior chief designer and head of the center. “It was daunting.” The box is still there, but the new Telluride has some design elements you’ll notice.

The Telluride has a big presence. Note new design element on the top of the wheel wells! (Jim Motavalli photo)

Kearns said one of the key elements was to “do something that makes you nervous.” Maybe on the Telluride that’s the bold, black, high-gloss grille with raised squares where you’d expect the headlights to be (they’re actually almost hidden at the sides), or the notches on top of each wheelarch that are intended to look like an attachment point (they’re not). And then there’s the wavy, non-wrap-around taillights with body color between the two elements. Flush door handles offer some aerodynamic benefit, but a lot of companies are doing those now.

Tom Kearns says a design inspiration was to “do something that makes you nervous.” (Jim Motavalli photo)

Kia showed the Telluride in top-of-the-line X-Pro form, with an aggressive off-road theme. There are four prominent tow hooks. The new Telluride is bigger, two inches so in length, and three in the wheelbase, with the aim of delivering a roomier three-row interior. The rear two rows seemed comfortable enough, with adequate head and legroom, though that was an impression from a static sit.

“The challenge was we had a very popular product we wanted to improve,” said Kurt Kahl, a chief designer on the Telluride. “We had a formula, but felt there were improvements to be made. And the result was a modern design that, particularly on the X-Pro, keeps the rugged attributes that our customers have loved.” He said California won the competition to deliver the new Telluride design, but Kia design studios around the world contributed to it. A guide, he said, was Kia’s “Opposites United” design philosophy,

The Telluride as a clay model in the design center. (Jim Motavalli photo)

Kia is betting big on the new Telluride. James Bell, head of communications for Kia North America, said the original model’s sales “grew every year since the launch,” unusual as cars age. And, he added, Kia is increasing capacity at its Georgia plant to meet the demand that it’s sure will be there.

Inside the Telluride. (Jim Motavalli photo)

In the room with the new Telluride were some small-scale models and full-sized clays that showed the design evolving. And a reveal of color combinations that include Deep Navy with Tuscan Umber, Blackberry and Sand Beige, and Deep Khaki with Saddle Brown. Or you can just black everything out.

A Telluride test car, with a camouflage design showing past design sketches. (Jim Motavalli photo)

Also on display was a camouflaged test car that, on closer examination, bore a design created from older Kia design sketches. And there was also an electric PV5 that looked to have been inspired by the Tesla Cybertruck. This PV5 was a SEMA exhibit in camper form, but Kia is actually selling a PV5 in Europe as a passenger and cargo van. According to spokesman Jim Hope, Kia is contemplating possible PV5 sales in the U.S.

Book Review: Spent: A Comic Novel by Alison Bechdel

Alison Bechdel, Spent: A Comic Novel (Mariner Books)

This review is the first in a series being written to be read aloud on the Book Corner of my WPKN-FM radio show. Tune in at 89.5 FM or via the app on the website.

From 1980 to approximately 1994, I ran the Fairfield County Advocate, part of a Connecticut-Massachusetts chain that included the Valley edition for Northampton and Springfield. The Valley was the only edition hip enough to run “Dykes to Watch Out For,” the lesbian-themed comic strip written by Alison Bechdel. The Advocates also ran “Life in Hell,” written and drawn by a pre-fame Matt Groening of Simpsons fame. But that’s another story. I would seek out the Valley edition just to ready “Dykes” because it was so well done.

Bechdel probably made a pittance from “Dykes,” as Groening likely did from “Hell,” but they both hit it big, in the former’s case with Fun Home, a graphic memoir about her closeted father that became a bestselling book and then a successful play.

Spent is Bechdel’s fourth memoir (not including a “Dykes” compilation) and. as always, it’s autobiographical. But Bechdel’s moved beyond the nuclear clan to fictionalize her marriage and her friends in and around Burlington, Vermont. If Spent is accurate, Burlington is one of the crunchiest, most politically aware communities in America—rivaling Berkeley, California.

Bechdel’s circle, almost all women except for one skirt-wearing male, are entirely vegan, passionate about every cause, and dedicated to farming the land sustainably. Does Bechdel really run a pygmy goat rescue sanctuary? Probably not, and her work was not made into a TV show starring Aubrey Plaza and Benedict Cumberbach, nor does she likely have commune-dwelling friends named Lois, Stuart, Ginger and Sparrow. But my guess is that reality is pretty close to all of this.

The Spent version of Alison, while being driven nuts by Trump’s first term, is constantly trying to do the right thing ethically, while also keeping her wife and goats in the style to which they’ve become accustomed. Does this mean hooking up with rapacious corporate studios and publishers in bed with big capitalism? Is it OK that the TV show of her life is legally able to take wild liberties—such as her character giving up the vegan life and eating a Big Mac?

Alison’s editor says things to her like “I’d like to see you on at least five platforms, including TikTok, posting a couple times a week. Cat videos are great, but you’re already trending well with introverts. You should post about the goats.”

Meanwhile, Alison’s friends are trying to sell non-binary menstrual kits, Free Palestine, assemble hygiene kits to send to Ukraine, splash paint on a polar bear display at the natural history museum, and keep on working for Planned Parenthood in a post-Roe dystopia. And, front and center, embracing polyamory and non-gender identification at several generational layers.

The folks of this comfortable, woke enclave seem a bit in a self-satisfied bubble as they serve up the barbecued seitan with kombucha and attend talks with titles like “shifting age demographics and implications for civic power.” Did I mention there are a lot of cats?

The brilliant thing about Alison Bechdel, and especially her work on Spent, is how she can embrace non-mainstream characters and situations and turn them into popular entertainment. With brilliant artwork and always clever dialogue, she manages to treat serious business and potentially alienating lifestyles in a very entertaining, mainstream way.  

The Alison in the book wants to create an anti-capitalist TV show that—in the mode of the British group Gang of Four, perhaps—wraps the bitter pills in a sweet candy wrapping. And that’s exactly what she also did in her real-life latest work, Spent. By the way, the book’s TV show based on Fun Home gets canceled after its third season.

The obvious corollary to all this is Ben & Jerry selling their enlightened ice cream company to Unilever for $326 million, then, with all that money safely banked, grousing about the London-based corporation not being enthusiastic about making big political statements. Maybe Ben and Jerry should write a graphic novel.

Caravan of Thieves Go to Church

The ceiling of the Unitarian Church in Westport, Connecticut looks a bit like an inverted wooden ship. It is a landmark modernist design, by architect Victor A. Lundy, and completed in 1965. While listening to Caravan of Thieves perform at the church October 4, I occasionally glanced up and watched the music soaring into the rafters.

The Bridgeport, Connecticut-based Caravan has been led by “Fuzz” Sangiovanni on guitar and vocals, along with his former wife, Carrie Linsky (rhythm guitar and vocals) since 2008. There’s always a virtuosic fiddle player, originally Ben Dean but now the Britain-born Dan Foster. Dan Asher is on bass.  

The music crosses all kinds of borders. The basis, Fuzz explains, is gypsy jazz. He says he was taking a walk in a Bridgeport park and listening to gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt when it occurred to him that the idea of combining that high, wild sound with the acoustic pop he’d been making as Fuzz and Carrie might make sense. And, of course, he’d need his very own Stephane Grappelli.

Caravan songs are far from ordinary. They combine the essence of European art song with Tin Pan Alley, “These Boots are Made for Walking” Nancy and Lee, and a touch of Dark Shadows. Fuzz told me he also likes the classical composers, including Mozart and Debussy, and that’s in there too.

In Westport, the Caravan music stopped on a dime, with rapid tempo changes, complex vocal arrangements and mad guitar/violin exchanges. Both Fuzz and Dan played jaw-dropping runs, which the other caught and twisted into knots.

Covers? Caravan included Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” and Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer.” They like the darker stuff. An original they did is called “Eat You”:

Cause you’re my chocolate-covered strawberry
Cause you’re my piping hot pastry
Dreaming about the moment that I own you
Love you to the bone

… Cause you’re my vicious but delicious cheat
A heart attack lip smacking sweet
I don’t deserve you either way I’ll serve you
Finally I got the nerve

… I go hungry every night
Not this time around

… I’m gonna eat you, you’re my desire
I’m gonna sharpen all my teeth and build a fire
I’m gonna eat you, cook and defeat you
I’m gonna breathe you in my lungs and make you mine

“Monster” mixes the agonies of love with the creation of Frankenstein in the good doctor’s lab. And “Raise the Dead” offers this:

Let’s all raise the dead
And ask them to come to feast
A big celebration of past consummations and grand conceits
Let’s all break some bread
And merry down the boulevard
Give medals of honor to all of the goners and deceased

Caravan fans are called, in a friendly way, “freaks.” The band still has a strong following, though it doesn’t play as often as it did 10 years ago. But seen live, the instrumentally spectacular, highly theatrical treat is totally intact.

Caravan of Thieves plays Trinity Stage’s Music on Main in Middletown, Connecticut October 24, and the Fairfield Theater Company Stage One December 20. They do a lot of holiday shows.

The Turtle Invitational 2025

At the fifth running of the Turtle Invitational September 21 in the back country of Bedford, New York, Nancy Tanner stood near her decidedly unconventional ride: An ultra-cute 1991 Nissan Figaro, a decidedly retro Japanese car powered by a one-liter turbo four. They were never sold in the U.S. (and just 20,073 were made), but now these oddballs can be imported as used cars that are more than 25 years old.

Nancy Tanner with her rare-in-America Nissan Figaro. (Jim Motavalli photo)

“My husband and I saw one outside London’s Claridge’s in 2004,” said Tanner, a resident of Tuxedo, New York. “We were very taken with the car. As soon as we could, we bought three and sold two.” The family owns six cars, which is probably not atypical for the people exhibiting at the Invitational, which is growing rapidly and now rivals (or exceeds) the nearby Greenwich Concours in size. 

The Invitational, the brainchild and labor of love of money manager Philip Richter (on whose horse-country property it resides), has room for all branches of the collector car hobby. “To make it unique, we’re just giving awards to cars with interesting and meaningful histories,” Richter said.

Chuck Schoendorf with his latest acquisition, a 1953 Chrysler New Yorker T&C. (Jim Motavalli photo)

Chuck Schoendorf, who owns no less than three original Cunningham cars (of the 27 made), brought his latest acquisition, a two-tone 1953 Chrysler New Yorker Town & Country station wagon.

“It’s powered by a Chrysler ‘Fireball’ Hemi, which is the link to the Cunninghams,” Schoendorf said. “An interesting feature is the reptile-pattern vinyl upholstery. By 1953 Chrysler was no longer using wood bodies for the T&C, but the wagons had wood paneling in the beds. Just 1,399 New Yorker T&C wagons were built in 1953.”

Yes, that’s nine Ferrari Dinos. (Jim Motavalli photo)

Good things came in multiples at the Turtle. There were nine Ferrari Dinos, and only 2,295 were built. “It’s a choose-your-color situation,” said one bemused observer.

The only Saab was this very clean 1974 99 EMS. (Jim Motavalli photo)

How often do you see not one but two 1965 Ferrari 275 GTBs in yellow (one had gray leather, the other black)? Next to them was a similar Daytona. A father said to his two pre-pubescent sons, “What kind of car is this, boys? That’s right, a Daytona—they came with special Daytona seats.” Was that three Jaguar SS 100s, one of them quite beat-up with Australian New South Wales registration?

This Jaguar Mark VII is much traveled, Florida, Rhode Island and New York recently. (Jim Motavalli photo)

American cars were in a minority, though Parker Rouf’s 1955 Packard Caribbean convertible was spectacular. Of course, there were lots of stand-alones. A 1953 Jaguar Mark VII in muted gray with an engine upgrade to XK120 M spec is owned by Rick Doucette, but before that it was the property of former Audrain Auto Museum CEO Donald Osborne, who’d bought it for a bargain price at the Amelia Island auction in Florida.

The BMW 507, one of the most beautiful cars ever, owned since 1977. Why would he sell it? (Jim Motavalli photo)

BMW powered several cars with its early 1950s V-8, and two of them were on display—a gorgeous red 507 convertible (one of 252) owned by Jeff McAllister of nearby Ridgefield, Connecticut since 1977; and a more pedestrian (but still lovely) 503 coupe. Also from BMW were a row of 2002/1600 models, including a rare Cabriolet. The sole Saab was a 1974 99 EMS, orange with brown/orange cloth seats.

A Ford 289 V-8 squeezed into a tiny British TVR. The Cobra wasn’t alone. (Jim Motavalli photo)

There was an orange McLaren F1—how many of those can there be?—and a potent 1966 Sunbeam Tiger, stolen and stripped in Denver, whose current owner said he’d “decked the head, twice.” Honored guest and TV barn finder Tom Connor brought his much-traveled Shelby Cobra CSX 490. It survived a bear attack at one point (according to its license plate frame).

Tom Connor’s long-owned Cobra is no garage queen. (Jim Motavalli photo)

Kin to these was a supposedly hard-to-handle 289-Ford-powered 1965 TVR Griffith, and a Chrysler-powered 1964 Bristol 408 with lots of British wood-and-leather ambience.

The very British Bristol 408 had Chrysler power. (Jim Motavalli photo)

Lucky Turtle attendees also enjoyed a free box lunch, free coffee and cider, tubs of apples and boxes of donuts. This was a nice touch to a low-key, friendly event.

New Products in the Territorial Garage

I am occasionally sent products for review, and some of them are really cool and innovative. I’m leaving out the units that turned out to be flimsy or not worthy of your time, but here are some I quite liked.

CoverSeal Car Cover. I now own three collector-class cars, with the purchase of a 2006 Saab 9-5 SportCombi station wagon with an ultra-rare stick shift. It replaces my Mercedes 300TE wagon, which was similarly forced to sit outside because my 1993 Saab 900 Turbo convertible and 1999 Mazda Miata (both also manuals) have pride of place in the two-car garage.

I bought a cover for the Benz, but it was always getting blown off by the hefty winds we have around my part of Connecticut. But now I’m using a CoverSeal ($305) that should defeat that problem. It has a 360-degree weighted bottom that allows it to stay in place even when the winds are at 40 mph. Forget about tying the cover down with bungee cords or trying to secure it with cinder blocks.

The cover is also designed to guard against rodent damage, which is something else I’ve experienced. My Saab 900 had its old dash wiring completely stripped away by the little rodents, despite several traps and alleged mouse-repelling products. The idea is that the mice “will travel around the cover, realize there is no entry point, and move on in search of a more convenient shelter.”

We’ll see long-term if these notably smart so-and-sos are deterred. The bottom edge of the cover sits on the ground, but that’s OK because the 10-mil tarp is waterproof and doesn’t mind communing with the earth. The covers are loose fitting, which allows them to be blown around by the wind, displacing pooling water. Because they’re loose, they don’t need the mirror pockets that can be annoying to fit. The only color is silver, because it reflects 90 percent of sunlight.

The cover, which comes with a carrying bag, is a bit pricey, starting at $305. But if it keeps out water and rodents—and doesn’t blow off—it should prove its worth. CoverSeal was designed by collector Ken Huening, who tried garlic oil, dryer sheets and peppermint spray to keep out the little beasts. Huening was nonetheless hit with rat damage twice, to the tune of $20,000—they didn’t care about my little bag of rat-repellent seeds, either.

Etenwolf Vortex S6 Tire Inflator/Air Compressor. I wouldn’t use it to paint a car, but the Vortex S6 (there’s also an S7 model) is very handy to have around. I just used it to inflate tires on two bicycles, an e-bike, a plethora of pool rafts and floats, and a Saab that’s been sitting around. The 15,600-milliamp-hour unit is easily adjustable between car, bike, inflatables. It can be used as a portable charger for electronics, though you may have smaller power banks for that.

The S6 is best if you prize portability. The S7 has more power, with a faster inflation time and a bigger battery. Got a truck with oversized tires? The S7 is best for that duty.

On the S6, the two included hoses (one detachable) covered all the use cases I needed. There’s a built-in 1,000-lumen LED light, and on-board storage for the tips you’d otherwise lose. The Etenwolf seems solidly constructed. There’s a 90-day guarantee.

This small, not heavy unit is much easier to use and more efficient than the portable compressor I bought at the hardware store. I see it for $89.99.

TOPDON TopScan OBD2 Scanner Bluetooth. Versions of this product have been around for a while, but now it is more capable, and marked down as low as $51.29 at Amazon. The unit does quite a lot, considering its tiny size (like a cigarette pack). Just plug it into the OBD2 port and, after easy 5.0 Bluetooth pairing, the car owner can send commands from his or her cellphone directly to the car’s ECU to track down pesky problems. It also provides guidance for fixing what ails the vehicle. For some of the premium features, you need a subscription, which is a bit pricey.

Obviously, the scanner can read fault codes that are otherwise mysterious, and it can clear them, too. It can also, a mind blower for me, access factory technical bulletins. And measure speed performance before it breaks into a sweat. There are multiple display modes for the data, including charts, dials and just the raw numbers. The software will get regular updates. The unit is compatible with Android and IOS.

Mothers California Gold Ceramic line. I’m not really the concours type—if you see a dusty classic driving past, it’s probably me. I like one-step processes. This set came in a big white bucket with three products in it: Ceramic Wash and Wax. Ceramic Paint Correction, and Ceramic Spray Wax, each $17.99. The sudsy wash & wax is very hydrophobic, which means that it results in a finish that beads water. It’s easy to use and good at getting a shine out of faded paint. The product simply sprays on and then gets carefully wiped out, leaving a long-lasting ceramic layer. I applied it to three cars: a 2014 Toyota Prius V, a 1999 Mazda Miata and a 1993 Saab 900 Turbo. The results were quite pleasing, with not a lot of elbow grease.

The paint correction product goes after small scratches and scrapes, water spots, swirling, and other minor flaws. I applied it by hand to the Prius V and KOed a lot of minor imperfections. Little pock marks that looked permanent whisked away. The spray wax is for aprés-wash. Again, it just sprays on and gets wiped off, leaving a shiny ceramic surface that beads water. The package also included yellow microfiber towels and a wash mitt that proved useful.

Fender x Teufel Rockster Air 2 Portable Bluetooth Speaker. Whoa, yes, this big Fender, offered in partnership with German company Teufel, is portable—it has three handles, doesn’t it? But the 31-pound unit is on the heavy side of what can be reasonably carried.

But all was forgiven when I hooked it up to both a CD player and the music on my phone. It’s got deep bass, crisp trebles and tons of volume. It runs on house current, 12-volt power supplies or for 58 hours on batteries.

The Fender x Teufel is incredibly versatile. You can attach a guitar through the instrument input and blow the neighbor’s minds. You can play phone music, or attach any old-school music-making component (CD player, turntable, cassette, eight-track player) through the quarter-inch aux stereo jack. Need a PA system? There’s a microphone input.

While the Fender x Teufel isn’t strictly a car product, it can run on your car’s 12-volt system and sit on the front seat with you. Or just use those long-life batteries. If you own a classic and don’t want to replace the tinny AM radio that came with it, this Fender can be used and leave no marks.

Terry Waldo and the Gotham City Band at Zinc Bar

I told a friend I was going to hear some ragtime, and he said, “What, banjos and straw hats? Why would you want to listen to that corny stuff?” I tried to explain that ragtime is in at the foundation of jazz, and you need to understand the musical roots. But I wasn’t getting through.

Terry Waldo and the Gotham City Band play ragtime and nothing but, and they’ve made it work in New York with regular gigs at Zinc Bar (where I saw them August 7, part of an ongoing first Wednesday gig) and quite frequently at Arthur’s Tavern, both downtown. It’s possible for the music to sound remote when heard on a scratchy recording from 1915, but live it’s an absolute delight.

Waldo, a protégé of the great Eubie Blake, is an historian as well as a ragtime pianist. He is the author of This is Ragtime, the definitive treatment, most recently republished in a 2009 Jazz at Lincoln Center Library Edition. In addition to making 70 albums of ragtime and traditional jazz, he hosted an NPR show that is now available in podcast form on Waldo’s website.

At Zinc, the band was Jim Fryer on trombone, Daniel Glass on drums, Dan Pearson on clarinet and alto sax, and Konstantin Gevondyan on trumpet. All of them are master ragtime players, and both Pearson and Govindan (as well as Waldo) did some singing. They work together a lot, and finished each other’s sentences.

I asked for—and got—an opening of “Maple Leaf Rag.” A cliched choice, I know, but I wanted to hear it. It opened with Terry solo, and he played it with a lot of flourishes that I don’t always hear in renditions of this classic Scott Joplin tune. Then the band kicked in, expanding the palette. I didn’t realize, until Terry told me, that Joplin taught banjo and that early versions of his rags were often heard that way. But no banjo on stage, and no bass either. Acoustic basses were tough to record with early sound equipment, so sometimes a tuba replaced it.

Ragtime, at least the way these guys perform it, has plenty of hot solos, but the other horns feel free to chime in as support. “Oh By Jingo” is from 1919 (Albert Von Tilzer and Lew Brown, featured in the show Linger Longer Letty, and was a big Tin Pan Alley hit. David Bowie was inspired by it, and Hugh Laurie did a version. Waldo sang the novelty song with some vigor. Here, on video, is a Jelly Roll Morton song they did, called “Froggy Moore Rag”:

Next was W.C. Handy’s “Memphis Blues” from 1910, with Fryer singing. It has a great line about the trombone player moaning like “a sinner on Revival Day.” Fryer recalls the great Jack Teagarden, but the latter was bluesier.  

Gevondyan was wonderful, chasing Louis Armstrong on trumpet and masterfully employing his cup mute. He sang “Sugar Blues” from 1919 (Clarence Williams/Lucy Fletcher) and didn’t sound anything like Louis, but still very nice. Glass should be cited, too, for his mastery of the snare.

Pearson sounded more in-period on his clarinet, but he was vastly entertaining on his more modern alto, too.

“Let’s Pray Against Somebody” is a Waldo original targeting religious hypocrisy, and reminiscent of the Fugs’ “Kill for Peace.” Or maybe Mark Twain’s “War Prayer,” which also points out the flip side of our heartfelt entreaties: “Help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead.”

And so it went, through Jelly Roll Morton’s “Why?,” Kid Ory’s “Ory’s Creole Trombone,” a headlong “Shake it and Break It” via Kid Oliver, “My Melancholy Baby,” and more. They dredged up a crazy old song called “Minnie the Mermaid,” written by Bud DeSylvia in 1923. It wasn’t all that bad, containing the line, “Down among the corals, I lost my morals.”  

It was a great night out in New York City. Don’t judge a whole genre until you hear it live, I say.

On the Road in Aston’s Flagship V-12 Convertible

The Vanquish Volante complements the coupe in driving dynamics, but adds wind in the driver’s hair

The price for the 2026 Vanquish Volante convertible was kind of an afterthought during the presentation at Aston Martin’s New York Q showroom July 15, but it certainly woke up the assembled media—$483,000 plus $5,000 destination. It will be on sale in early 2026.

Supercar buyers pay for the stats, and the very pretty new flagship V-12 convertible certainly has them—a top speed of 214 miles per hour, zero to 60 mph in 3.3 seconds, an all-new in-house twin-turbo 5.2-liter V-12 engine offering 824 brake horsepower and 738 pound-feet of torque. The company has some superlatives to offer: The Vanquish Volante is “the world’s most powerful front-engine convertible” and “the fastest, most powerful, open top series production Aston Martin to date.”

According to Simon Newton, director of vehicle performance at Aston Martin Lagonda, the new Vanquish Volante (which was developed alongside the similarly powered Vanquish coupe in the lineup) is 15 percent more powerful than its predecessor, the DBS Volante, and offers 11 percent more torque. The power of the new V-12 (developed without Mercedes/AMG input) reaches the ground through an eight-speed ZF gearbox with paddle shifters and five drive modes, GT, Sport, Sport+, Wet and Individual.

Carbon ceramic brakes are standard on the Vanquish Volante, and help with weight reduction. They should be powerful, but on the highway stopping distances seemed longer than expected.  

The aim in developing the convertible, Newton said, was “to ensure that the driving experience was in no way diluted—it had to drive just like the coupe.” And that included adding lateral stiffness to the bonded aluminum structure, which is complemented by carbon-fiber body panels. The structural stiffness is the same for the open or closed Vanquish. The convertible weighs 4,144 pounds, just 200 more than the coupe.

The Vanquish Volante is also both bigger and wider than the DBS, with an especially wide grin from that traditional Aston DB-style shark grille (cue as far back as the DBR1 racer of 1956). Newton emphasized that a great deal of engineering went into getting the soft top to fold flat, without an unsightly hump on the rear deck. The downside is that the folded top eats into trunk space.

The top goes down in 14 seconds and closes in 16. With the top up, rear vision isn’t all it could be—the rear window is small. The car’s low-profile top makes it look like headroom would be an issue, but this did not prove to be the case on the road. It’s an attractive car, top up or down.

Inside the Volante feels roomy, with a very similar interior layout to the Vanquish coupe. The driver looks at a digital 10.25-inch display, which is complemented by a similarly sized center-stack touchscreen. Bowers & Wilkins does the audio, with 15 speakers. Sports seats are standard, but carbon-fiber performance variants are available (though these are certainly not race cars). A fair amount of customization is, of course, available—and saddle leather fitted luggage sets can be added. Asked about options, Morgan Theys Carrasco, the company’s Americas spokeswoman, said the possibilities are practically unlimited. Because of this, the one you buy may pencil out at more than the aforementioned $483,000. Some of the test cars had bottom lines above $600,000.

Driving a powerful more-than-$400,000 Sage Green sports car on the streets of New York is always an adventure. Other supercars have proven a handful in such situations but the Volante is docile at low speeds. Once the George Washington Bridge was crossed and the Palisades Parkway entered in New Jersey, the car came into its own, offering effortless surges of power while remaining surprisingly quiet and squeak-free in GT mode. Wind noise wasn’t bad with the top down, either. Switching up to Sport and Sport+ increased the urgency of the engine note and stiffened the suspension.

Open roads gave an opportunity to open the car up, and it remained eager to any speed that was desired. The best thing about driving the Volante was the very direct, precisely weighted steering. The driver soon learns that the most minute adjustments are possible. The suspension was expectedly stiff, making the horrible city roads a bit bouncy, but glass smooth on the rural byways.

The job of a car writer inevitably sounds glamorous, especially when you inform your interlocutor that the day included driving an Aston Martin convertible and eating a gourmet lunch. The appeal is undeniable, causing many to exclaim, “That’s the greatest job in the world!” And maybe it is. It also sounds fairly easy to most people, and they often add, “I could do that job!” And maybe they could. But like telling jokes on stage or conducting an orchestra, it’s harder than it looks. At least I tell myself that.

The Volante was delivered safely back to base, complementing the cleaner example on the showroom floor. The estimate is that 40 percent of Vanquish production will be Volante convertibles.

Theys Carrasco said that CEO Adrian Hallmark is keen on growing Aston Martin as a performance brand and returning the company to profitability by the end of 2025. Part of the strategy is opening new Q outlets around the world, with a new location in Japan and one in London by the end of the year.

The over-1,000-horsepower Valhalla plug-in hybrid supercar (zero to 62 in 2.5 seconds) is coming in the second half of this year, which could help the Aston Martin bottom line. Production is limited to 999 units.

New Models Enter the Car Market at a Pivot Point

We are at a pivot point in the auto industry, with both the electric and self-driving revolutions somewhat stalled, and Trump tariffs making it difficult for consumers to know what they should do. There’s a brief window when it’s still possible to get the $7,500 federal income tax credit when buying a made-in-U.S.A. EV, but it’s going away September 30. In the meantime, automakers are still churning out new EV models—I’m at a Subaru EV rollout as I write this

So, let’s delve into what’s new in my garage, electric or otherwise.

2025 Audi Q4 e-tron Prestige and 2025 Audi SQ6 e-tron Prestige. Audi’s electrics didn’t do well in the second quarter of 2025, and the Q4 e-tron was down 48.7 percent year over year, from 2,430 in 2024 to 1,247 in 2025. But it sure sold better than the A6 e-tron, with just 179 sold.

The Q4 in this guise is a compact electric SUV with 335 horsepower from its electric motor and up to 332 miles of range. The starting price in this Prestige edition of $63,095. It’s fairly pricey, and even the cheapest Q4 is over $51,000. I suspect it’s price that’s holding this model back, because it’s a quite decent small EV otherwise, with quality materials (leather and wood are standard) and a nice driving experience. There is 26 cubic feet behind the rear seats, and 54 feet with those seats down.

The SQ6 e-tron is built on the same platform as the Q6 e-tron (3,716 sold in the second quarter) but with a dual-motor set-up that offers as much as 510 horsepower. While the car was great fun to drive (with 3.8 seconds to 60), the added pep sacrifices range—up to 46 miles. The Prestige is $80,595. The range is 275 miles, not exceptional, but it is somewhat mitigated by fast 270-kilowatt charging.

2025 Lexus LX 700h Overtrail. Lexus is on a roll among the Japanese luxury brands, especially compared to Nissan’s Infiniti. But the LX 700h isn’t set up to float my boat. It’s a hybrid from the leader in that technology, but fuel economy in this big boat isn’t the goal. It has a combined EPA rating of only 20 mph, which is just marginally better than its non-hybrid counterpart. Hybrid tech belongs in light, aerodynamic cars—it’s kind of wasted in this luxurious 6,283-pound seven-passenger SUV.

It’s impossible to hate cars like this, because they’re so cosseting to drive. But they don’t pass a lot of gas stations. The car as tested was $118,010, which buys a powerful 457 horsepower from a 3.4-liter twin-turbo V-6 coupled to a 10-speed automatic. It can tow 8,000 pounds.

Every possible luxury feature was present, all of them standard, from leather-trimmed seating to heated steering wheel, a cool box and an auto door closer. It’s kind of the equivalent of an off-road 1959 Cadillac. Which does have its appeal.

2025 Toyota Land Cruiser and 2025 Toyota 4Runner TRD Sport. More Toyotas. The company covers every possible American niche, even those that must be mystifying in the home market.

The Land Cruiser starts at $58,195, and Toyota is to be commended to making it a hybrid instead of a gas-guzzling V-8. The turbo 2.4-liter four gets two electric motors, which combine to make an impressive 326 horsepower. The setup is shared with the popular Tacoma truck. The two motors yield all-wheel drive, and the car has an eight-speed automatic.

Again, this is a hybrid that’s far from a fuel champ, making 23 mpg combined. If you like rugged 4WD vehicles then the Land Cruiser has always been a sensible choice, and it bristles with trail gear. But if you really don’t go off-road much you shuld consider something more oriented to pavement.

The Tacoma is also parent to the sixth-generation 2025 4Runner TRD Sport I tested in Wind Chill Pearl. It has a similar 2.4-liter turbo engine, but makes 278 horsepower with 317 pound-feet of torque. An eight-speed automatic is attached. With this combination, fuel economy is even worse than the Land Cruiser, at 21 mpg combined.

As tested, the 4Runner TRD Sport was $49,725 (barely up from its $49,250 MSRP). The only option was premium paint. The 4Runner has been generally reliable.

2025 Volkswagen Atlas SEL Premium R-Line. The Atlas as tested (and built in Mexico) was $55,325. This is the highest trim, and it comes with all-wheel drive. The powertrain in all versions is a 269-horsepower in-line four with an eight-speed automatic. The 7.3-second zero to 60 time is not impressive. The three-row Atlas offers very good cargo space, though, and it feels well-built. But despite the four-cylinder engine, fuel economy is nothing to write home about, coming in at 20 mpg I the city and 27 on the highway, and with the AWD that everyone seems to want it drops to 19 city and 24 highway.  At this price, any number of other automakers’ models are competitive.

2025 Hyundai Tucson Limited AWD. The Tucson is Hyundai’s bestseller, and it’s offered with a 2.5-liter direct-injected four-cylinder engine with 187 horsepower and 178 pound-feet of torque, coupled to an eight-speed automatic.

Go hybrid and the 1.6-liter turbo gas engine produces 178 horsepower and 195 pound-feet, but the hybrid system takes it up to 231 total horsepower. The hybrid has a 47.7-kilowatt electric motor and a 1.49-kilowatt-hour battery, with a six-speed transmission. And then there’s a plug-in hybrid variant, with a more powerful 72-kilowatt motor, 268 horsepower and 258 pound-feet. The hybrid battery is 13.8 kilowatt-hours.

All this choice is very welcome, and it’s what smart automakers do, along with frequent upgrades. The current generation of Tucson was introduced in 2024. Prices start at $28,075.

2025 Toyota Corolla FX. This is the gold standard of Toyotas for me, as my first job was preparing Corollas for sale at a Toyota dealer. The outlet’s big brand was Dodge, but today it’s an all-Toyota enterprise. That’s progress! As tested, it was $29,289, a very reasonable price for an automobile in 2025. It’s a hot hatch, with 169 horsepower and stellar 31.39 mpg fuel economy. The two-liter four offered plenty of passing power. I was actually quite taken with the latest incarnation of the Corolla, and would gladly have kept this one over in the Motavalli garage.