Kia, now with more "The Power to Surprise!"

In the eyes of many consumers, companies like Loius Vuitton, Maserati and Apple stand at the top of their respective industries.  Besides building premium products, their names seem to roll off the tongue, connoting more to buyers than the sum of their products’ parts.  Kia is not one of these brands.  Its name is more akin to a tribal battle shriek than something that brings to mind luxury and exclusivity.  Nonetheless, the South Korean upstart has come unimaginably far in the past decade and is poised for serious growth in the next.

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It's what's inside that counts. No, really.

“What the hell is that smell?!” I thought to myself as I fired up the Transit Connect for the first time.  Looking over my shoulder, I scanned the cargo bay to make sure nobody left anything in the back that would account for the odor, but no, the metric ton of Kibbles ‘n Bits I expected to see wasn’t there. 

Ford has finally decided to bring this versatile and compact cargo van – henceforth referred to as the Trani – to its home market, complete with what has to be the most unappealing “new car smell” of all time.  I don’t know what they’re doing over in Kocaeli (kō-chel-E), Turkey, where it’s built, but it REEKS of dog food, and not the good kind.

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The 2010 Mercedes-Benz E-550 is a good-looking car.

There’s no denying it, the 2010 E-Class is sharp like good cheddar.  Its form-fitting coachwork brings to mind a custom suit, especially when compared to the previous generation, which looks like it’s wearing Salvation Army sweat pants three sizes too big.  With this redesign, the E-Class is now the best looking of the middleweight German luxury cars, beating Audi’s graceful but aging A6, and BMW’s robot-inspired 5 Series.

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