A14 December 21, 2012 The Richmond News
DriveTıme T H E
0
%
On Select Models
R I C H M O N D
The best cars in a great year BY BRENDAN MCALEER
Limited Offer*
Special to the News
13800 Smallwood Place, Richmond Auto Mall
This was a fairly exceptional year for cars - lucky me, I got to drive most of the good stuff. Things kicked off on-stage at the Barrett-Jackson auction
604.278.3185
2013
2013
TL
WITH
WITH
Give yourself the gift of traction with Acura SH-AWD® and get up to a $3,500* Holiday Bonus too.
0.9
%
LEASE FROM NOMINAL INTEREST RATE FOR 36 MONTHS
MODEL YD2H2DJN
678
MDX $
†
†
0
$
† DOWN
PAYMENT SECURITY DEPOSIT
MODELS YD2H6DKN, YD2H8DKN MONTHLY LEASE PAYMENT
INCLUDES $3,500* HOLIDAY BONUS
$
8,500
3,500
$
UP TO
*
MODELS UA8F2DJ, UA8F5DK, UA9E5DK, UA9F5DK, UA9F7DK
MODEL UA9F2DJ
Δ CASH PURCHASE INCENTIVE
INCLUDES $3,500* HOLIDAY BONUS
TL $
568
†
HOLIDAY BONUS
MONTHLY LEASE PAYMENT
INCLUDES $2,000* HOLIDAY BONUS
5,000
$
Δ CASH
PURCHASE INCENTIVE
INCLUDES $2,000* HOLIDAY BONUS
acurabc.ca
RICHMOND ACURA 4211 NO. 3 RD., RICHMOND 604-278-8999 D8255
Lease offer is available through Acura Financial Services Inc. on approved credit. 2013 MDX 6-speed automatic (model YD2H2DJN)/2013 TL SH-AWD 6-speed automatic (model UA9F2DJ) leased at 0.9% APR for 36 months. Monthly payment is $678/$568 (includes $1,945 freight & PDI), with $0/$0 ($3,500/$2,000 less $3,500/$2,000 Holiday Bonus to retailer) down payment. First monthly payment and $0 security deposit due at lease inception. Taxes, license, insurance and registration are extra. Total lease obligation is $24,408/$20,448. Option to purchase at lease end for $28,190.70/$24,139.50 plus taxes. 60,000/60,000 kilometre allowance; charge of $0.15/km for excess kilometres. *Holiday Bonus is available on select new 2013 Acura models and will be deducted from the negotiated price before taxes and can be combined with special finance or lease offers. Example: $3,500/$2,000 Holiday Bonus available on all new 2013 Acura MDX/TL models. !$8,500/$5,000 ($5,000/$3,000 manufacturer-to-retailer cash purchase incentive plus $3,500/$2,000 Holiday Bonus) Acura cash purchase incentive is available on select new 2013 MDX/TL models (modelsYD2H6DKN,YD2H8DKN)/(models UA8F2DJ, UA8F5DK, UA9E5DK, UA9F5DK, UA9F7DK). Savings will be deducted from the negotiated price before taxes. $5,000/$3,000 manufacturer-to-retailer cash purchase incentive cannot be combined with special lease or finance offers. Retailer may lease/sell for less. Retailer order/ trade may be necessary. Offers are only valid for BC residents until January 2, 2013. See your BC Acura retailer for full details. †
Editorial enquiries? Please contact The Richmond News 5731 No.3 Road V6X 2C9 Phone: 604-270-8031 Fax: 604-270-2248 Email: editor@richmond-news.com
YEAR IN REVIEW
Interest
MDX
N E W S
in Arizona, a pretty nice place to be rather than the wet and wintry wonderland that is Vancouver in January. As a stream of gleaming sheet metal rolled past - American muscle cars, 1960’s arcana like the Amphicar, and faithful replicars - I watched the auctioneer semaphore with his gavel and mused internally on the automobile as cultural icon. Then I went and drove a Kia around. What a lovely little machine the entry-level car has become. The new Rio is attractive, reasonably peppy, and crammed with features that you’d have been paying luxury prices for only five years ago. It’s no rocketship, that’s for sure, but surely a measure of this golden age of motoring must be found in the niceties afforded even the impecunious motorist. Winging back to the pre-spring snow and sleet, an email arrived from Porsche: would I like to drive their track-special Cayman R: a lowered, loudened, lightened, Kermit-green speed-pod? Oh, and they’d put snow tires on it. Certainly bloody would, thank you very much. A fun week, it has to be said, spent mostly going sideways, whether I wanted to or not. With the iconic 911 getting a little mission-creep towards the Grand Touring designation, the Cayman remains a proper Porsche sports car. On the other hand, strapping Blizzaks to it makes it flop around like Ussain Bolt wearing snowshoes. Spring came and an unexpected invitation to come drive a reader’s car, the unicorn-grade rarity of a Cadillac CTSPHOTO SUBMITTED V wagon. This black Mazda MX-5 built for winding roads. beast was every inch the Tyrannosaur I had expected, a furiously bellowing rear-drive battlewagon with room for the grandkid’s stroller. Darth Vader, your family car has arrived. The CTS-V is a fairly famous (or, more properly, notorious) sled, but there were also hidden charms to be found in the everyday machinery that filled the summer. The Volkswagen GLI, for instance, is probably the best conventional sporting sedan I’ve driven all year; it’s conservative to look at, but dearly loves to kick up its heels - and emits a burbling growl that’s more V8 than 4-pot turbo. Late summer and the appearance of that perennial favourite, the Mazda MX-5 (pictured above). I love this little car so much it’s embarrassing. My friends sure don’t miss an opportunity to rib me mercilessly when I start waxing poetic about its elemental nature and sheer joy to drive. James May, of the BBC’s Top Gear, remarked once that he felt like the car was smiling as he drove it. As tease-worthy a thing like that is to say, it’s pretty much what the MX-5 feels like to drive. We ran the little red convertible up past Whistler in convoy with a 2010 model, out past the traffic snarling the Sea-toSky on a long weekend. For those that have driven the road, you know that life begins on the road that runs to Pemberton, where the traffic thins and the curving sections stack up, one after another. Grins and a fizzing four-cylinder racket, and the buffeting of warm air around our heads, and then a scurrying home in a sudden and unexpected downpour as the weather turned foul. Even so, my UK genes had me leaving the top down the whole way - crack 80km/h in an MX-5 and the rain simply goes right over top of the car in the slipstream. see Best page 16