Domestic sticker shock absorber

“Definitely frustrating” and “nearly impossible” are how Brady Jonasson and Savannah Blandford describe the first six months they spent shopping for a used vehicle last year.

The Gimli-based newlyweds searched for something reliable with low mileage and no rust selling for under $20,000, but nothing met those requirements.

In July, the couple contacted JDM Rush Imports Inc. in Winnipeg, which specializes in importing vehicles from the Japanese domestic market. Less than four months later, they were the proud owners of a 2008 Honda CR-V that had just 2,500 kilometres on the odometer.

The total price, including shipping and the company’s fee, was just over $16,000.

We spoke, Mazda listened

The 2025 Mazda CX-70 epitomizes automotive journalism that makes a difference.

Now, I’m not saying it was my reporting that did it, but there’s been a clear shift in how well the company’s latest hybrid, the CX-70, responds to accelerator input since myself and plenty of other journalists sharply criticized how the CX-90, in both mild hybrid and plug-in hybrid form, handled transitions between deceleration and acceleration.

You’d come out of a turn and ease into the accelerator pedal and … wait.

The transmission would go, “Oh, no. He wants to go … we better find the right gear,” and a second later you’d start to feel motion again.

Not your grandfather’s Corolla

This is the Corolla we’ve been missing.

Yes, Toyota has rightly earned a reputation for delivering high-quality, reliable vehicles built like tanks. If people asked me for recommendations for a solid compact car, I’d have no qualms about telling them to put the current Corolla, in either sedan or hatchback form, at or near the top of their shopping lists.

When driving enthusiasts think Corolla, however, their thoughts don’t turn to hybrids and automatic transmissions. The 1980s was the heyday of Corolla performance, with AE86 models with available high-revving twin-cam engines and slick-shifting five-speed manuals inspiring dreams of autocross glory.

Or, at least, that was then…

Among hybrids, Toyota Prius content to let its name speak for itself

While some carmakers are diving head first into battery electric vehicles, Toyota seems content to merely dip its toes.

The company continues to offer just one fully electric vehicle in Canada — the joint-venture vehicle Toyota calls the BZ4X and Subaru calls Solterra — but offers partial electrification in every segment it plays.

The full-size Tundra, the returning off-road icon Land Cruiser, the compact Corolla and almost every vehicle in between is offered with some form of a hybrid powertrain. Some models, such as the RAV4 Prime and Prius Prime, are plug-in hybrids that for some drivers may never burn a single molecule of gasoline. (While that may be true for driving, plug-in hybrids are programmed to fire up the gas engine periodically just to keep everything lubed, primed and ready to run.)

The only vehicles that don’t have some form of electrification available are the Supra, 4Runner, Corolla Hatchback GR Corolla and GR86. That may just be a case of “watch this space,” but Toyota doesn’t comment on future models.

Motoring right along

CAMBRIDGE, Ont. — In the early days of Toyota’s entrance to the Canadian market, Japanese executives would visit facilities in Toronto and wonder why staff weren’t running through the parking lot to get to work and why employees would leave at quitting time.

It’s a story the late F. David Stone, who worked in public relations from those first days until his retirement in the early 2000s, would tell to illustrate the growing pains of two corporate cultures that merged in 1964. Sixty years later, the company is Canada’s largest automotive manufacturer and third best seller.

Lester B. Pearson was prime minister and Mary Poppins topped the movie charts when a group of Canadian and American investors founded Canadian Motor Industries (CMI) and secured a distribution agreement with Toyota Motor Corp. It was a humble beginning for a company that would go on to become Canada’s largest automotive manufacturer.

In 1965, the company’s first year of sales, it sold only 755 vehicles. Today, 60 years later, it sells almost that many every business day. Toyota in Canada is the No. 3 selling carmaker (227,460 sales in 2023 according to the Automotive News Data Center) and produces more than 500,000 vehicles a year at three assembly plants in Cambridge, Ont., and Woodbridge, Ont.

Used car prices, sector inventory stabilizing

There’s a little relief starting to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic-era high-priced used car market. However, the days of patiently waiting it out for a steal of a price on the exact car you’ve been looking for appear likely over.

The good news for consumers is average used car prices in Canada have gone down by 8.3 per cent over the past 12 months and, on some dealers lots, the used inventory is significantly higher.

Average prices for both new and used cars in Canada, however, remain significantly higher than they were before the pandemic — and Baris Akyurek, vice-president of insights and intelligence at AutoTrader.ca, does not believe they will be crashing back down.

In AutoTrader’s most recent quarterly price index report, Akyurek notes both used and new inventory availability is much better – up 28.2 per cent and 70.4 per cent, respectively, since a year ago. He points out that since 2019 — “the last normal year” — prices of new vehicles are up 48 per cent (to $66,807 from $45,204) and used cars are up 40 per cent (to $36,342 from $26,042).

capital idea

HALF MOON BAY, B.C. — Do you know the way to Santa Fe? Does Hyundai?

It certainly seems as though the South Korean company does, considering the surprisingly bold fifth generation of its oldest nameplate.

When it arrived in Canada in 2001, it arguably sold more on price than on looks, though the styling, which resembled an outdoorsy boot, was oddly compelling, if a bit derivative.

Through its variations since, it’s tended to blend in more than stand out, taking safe cues from other crossovers and trying hard not to offend. That all is changing with the 2024 model, a marked departure from bland that is seemingly trying to out-Defender Land Rover, at least in styling.

Sticks like glue

There are not many automatic transmission cars that would make me want to give up my manual-transmission 2020 Mazda3 Sport.

The 2024 Mazda3 Sport AWD Suna edition is one of them.

Since the current generation Mazda3 began, in 2019 as a 2020 model, all-wheel drive has been offered with automatic transmissions only. If you want a stick, you’re driving front-drive only. (And for 2024, sticks are only available in GT trim.)

That’s worked out for me, since I get decent traction in winter from my Michelin X-Ice2 winter tires, but adding all-wheel drive to the Mazda3 is a game-changer in winter. I got to experience that, and compare the vehicles, during what little winter Winnipeg has had so far.

Back to the future

The current generation of the Mazda CX-5 crossover debuted in 2016 as a 2017 model, and with the arrival of the 2024 CX-5 Suna Edition, logic suggests that seven years later, this model is overdue for a replacement.

There have been some changes over those seven years, as Mazda worked to keep the model going with versions such as the Signature and Kuro models that added uplevel trim and features. The Suna is the latest, and comes with a handsome Zircon Sand paint scheme, 2.5-litre turbo and all the available creature comforts, from heated seats and steering wheel to dual-zone climate control, sunroof and keyless entry.

One thing that stands out with the CX-5 is how, even six years later, the design remains contemporary, with its striking snout and clean lines.

I’ve written enough about the CX-5, and have owned one since 2018, so it seems with this story, the tack to take is to predict what the next CX-5, should there be one, will look like.

This is your Pilot speaking

‘In off-road parlance, we call that articulation.”

I’m joking as Haney Louka, former Free Press correspondent, is mentioning how the 2023 Honda Pilot Trailsport has a bit more body roll than we’ve come to expect from Honda.

As the name implies, this particular version of Honda’s largest crossover is designed to go slightly more off the road than its non-Trailsport siblings. Emphasis on the word slightly.

It has an extra 25 millimetres (about 1 in.) of ground clearance, thanks partly to larger tires and a retuned suspension.

Honda HR-V worthy competitor in compact crossover segment

The 2024 Honda HR-V is an updated model in a crowded segment, where Mazdas, Toyotas, Nissans, Chevrolets, Jeeps and Subarus all compete for buyers desperate for fuel economy at a time the car is dead and the crossover is king.

For its latest model, Honda has given the compact crossover a spiffy new body, tidy interior design — complete with a honeycomb mesh hiding the air vents — and decent fuel economy that even a car struggled to achieve just a few years ago.

Available with one engine, a 2.0-litre four-cylinder, and offered only with a continuously variable transmission, the HR-V starts at $31,080, incl. $2,120 delivery.

For that price, Honda is doing its best Henry Ford impersonation: you can have it in any colour you want, as long as that colour is modern steel metallic. Black and pearl white are extra and sexier colours are simply not available for the base model. A move up to the Sport B trim brings red and a couple silvers into play. The topline EX-L Navi loses red but adds a blue.

More than just a pretty face

There are plenty of reasons to like the 2023 Honda CR-V Hybrid.

Fuel economy isn’t one of them.

Which is weird to say for a hybrid, given the formula has typically been to pay more for better fuel economy.

All of which is unfortunate, because for the most part, the 2023 CR-V is a wonderful compact crossover. It’s possibly the prettiest CR-V since the model began, with a cool interior design, great on-road driving characteristics, comfortable seating and a pleasant set of amenities.

Much progress made, more to go

The financial industry is no longer the old boys’ club it once was decades ago.