first drive

2013 Chevy Spark First Test Drive

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A media drive event on the streets of New York City? We’re game! Earlier this year, I took part in the Ford Focus Electric first drive, traveling over a relatively short route in Midtown Manhattan. Yesterday’s 2013 Chevy Spark media drive took it to a whole new level, as we ventured out of Manhattan into Brooklyn in a fleet of tiny Sparks on a scavenger hunt for scents, sights, and sounds.

Some bloggers would rather tell you about the way that Chevy is marketing the Spark or go ga-ga about the cool places we visited. I’ll forgo the millennial-bashing and simply lay out the route.

2013 Chevy Sparks at Momofuku Milk Bar in Brooklyn

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2013 Acura ILX First Test Drive

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The 2013 Acura ILX is positioned as the new entry to the Acura brand, and is priced under the TSX. I was able to spend a day driving all three ILX variants – the Hybrid, the 2.4-liter manual, and the 2.0-liter base – at the ILX launch event in New York state.

I started off with a run up the Saw Mill Parkway in an ILX Hybrid, which is EPA rated at 39 city / 38 highway miles per gallon (MPG) and had no problem easing through the mid forty MPG range within the first half an hour of driving.

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Ford Focus Electric Test Drive – NYC

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Fifteen months after first showing the Focus Electric in New York City, Ford brought a trailer-load of the battery-powered beasts to the Big Apple for a media drive. I let the mass media journalists and well-funded bloggers take their turns first, before I covered a Focus Electric with cameras and took a ride through mid-town Manhattan in late-morning traffic with Ford Engineer, Gil Portalatin.

The Focus Electric pulled into traffic effortlessly and I instantly felt at home in the urban environment. The first application of brakes felt a little grabby, but not overly so. This is to be expected with a vehicle that aggressively regenerates energy.

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2012 Ford Focus First Drive

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2012 Ford Focus - side view

Los Angeles, CA – The 2012 Focus is a very important car for Ford. If fuel prices once again return to north of $4 per gallon as many predict, having a front-runner in the competitive compact segment is critical to the company’s continued success.

The new design has a very bold look with what Ford describes as its “kinetic design language” in both hatchback and sedan form. The five door is the most visually striking, with a high level of design detail all the way to the rear of the car. The new Focus is not a car that will be mistaken for anything else on the market today. While it’s not in your face aggressive, you won’t blend into the background like you might in a Corolla or Civic. The part of the design that seems to draw the most love-it-or-hate-it reaction is the trapezoidal front grille. Although the grille does give the car a catfish snout of sorts, it allows the aggressive lines to flow through the design.

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