Modern vehicles’ emissions are quite low and vehicles are designed today to be quite ‘clean,’ environmentally-speaking. In fact, the main reason why vehicles become a concern for the environment is due to lack of maintenance by owners! Not only that, the footprint to build a new vehicle is quite large – so for those of you switching into new cars every few years, you’re not exactly helping the environment.
In an age where simple and clean lines are emphasized in design, there are a lot of cars with displays that seem crowded, giving too much information and too many options. It’s distracting! I road test different cars, different manufacturers, and I only have one week with each vehicle. If I can’t figure out how to use the information panel in less than 60 minutes, I won’t have time to mess with it later.
In my opinion, there’s only so much you can do to make a minivan exciting. A minivan, according to Google, is quite simply a “small van, a people carrier.” The 2014 Honda Odyssey is positioned as a minivan with all the bells and whistles—and a built-in vacuum cleaner. Yep, built-in. So our Odyssey clients with this feature have no excuse for driving around in a dirty minivan!
I grew up in a typical Chinese home, the Canadian-born daughter of Chinese immigrants. From a young age, I knew I had high expectations to live up to; academics were incredibly important (I remember my dad asking me what happened to the last 4% when I brought home a science test that I scored 96% on). After school and on weekends, I had math tutoring. My mom wanted me to be a well-rounded kid, so I had dance, art, swimming, and skating lessons (thankfully not all at the same time). I sang with the Toronto Children’s Choir for a few years.
Here’s how the 2013 Hyundai Sonata is billed: it’s a car for owners that “…look for quality and the features they want at a good price, and even a design that expresses their sense of style.” That’s quite the standard for me to live up to, driving that car!
Just to be clear.. let's look at the transformation. Here's a 1988 Hyundai Sonata:
When I first began speaking with Hyundai about road testing their cars, I mentioned that my husband and I are always looking out for our next car in case his reliable 2004 Toyota Corolla needs to be replaced. It has almost 400,000kms on it so we’ve gotten some good use out of it. We need a smaller car and my husband commutes a lot so he wants something fun to drive. I typically have the kids in my car so they’d only be with him every now and then.
It’s the first time I’m road testing a car similar to the one I currently drive (Buick Rendezvous). We love the versatility of our SUV as it’s a 7-seater and can lug a bunch of things around. I was curious about the 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe – it’s 7 years younger than my Rendezvous and I wanted to know how much has changed in terms of new car offerings. It also won the 2013 Canadian Utility Vehicle Of The Year Award. I tested the family-friendly Santa Fe Limited edition over one week and put on about 2,000kms.
