Articles by Dan Neil Page 2

At every news conference for every new car or truck introduction since the days of, say, Watson and Crick, an eager and sweaty brand manager has stood up and said something to the effect of: “The Durango 95 Mark III is a reflection of who we are as a company, our brand DNA.” This assertion is generally nonsense, a dump truck of smelly marketing sardines poured at our feet and called caviar. Read more

YOU’RE an evil genius, bent on world domination. Read more

Honda is the guy selling umbrellas on the corner when it starts to rain. Read more

Given Barack Obama’s bracing summons to civic duty this week, telling the masses to keep their tires properly inflated to save gas, I was surprised and a little disappointed that the tire maintenance section of my local AutoZone was so uninhabited. Read more

Volkswagen often invokes the climes and cultures of North Africa for its products’ names: Toureg – the name of VW’s goodly sized off-roader – is borrowed from the aboriginal people of the Sahel. Read more

Utility is not luxurious. Read more

The Aston Martin V8 Vantage and the Maserati GranTurismo S are beautiful, irrelevant cars – an evenly matched set of luxury-performance cuff links. Read more

The Aston Martin V8 Vantage and the Maserati GranTurismo S are beautiful, irrelevant cars – an evenly matched set of luxury-performance cuff links. Read more

Where are the hot-cool small cars, the drive-all-night cars, the panties-on-the-mirror cars? Read more