Car season sucks in winter some days. When it’s blizzarding or minus 45 you can’t do anything. Auto enthusiasts throughout the prairies are yearning for the days where they can cruise with the windows down with our friends. Luckily it looks like spring is on its way. I’m not into the winter car scene much. Even so, there has been some great ice racing happening with the Winnipeg Sports Car Club out in Gimli, MB the past several months which I have been following on their Instagram page. Even as the first day of spring has just passed, there is still snow and ice on the ground. Warm weather is…

As I’ve mentioned before, I drive a 2016 Kia Sedona minivan as my daily driver. Not because I want to, but because it’s practical with kids, hockey equipment, etc. I love my van. It’s great for getting my kids to school and hockey practice, it has pretty nice finishings in it (WAAAAAY nicer than the vans of my childhood in the 90s) and the build quality it great. Every vehicle has issues so I’m not bashing Kia or Kia of Saskatoon. I have had great experiences every time I have dealt with them and their Service department has amazing customer service. This is a story of how it can be…

I attended Driven 2019 at Prairieland Park in Saskatoon this year and it did not disappoint. This was the first year I have been able to make it to the Driven show and I had high expectations based on what I had heard from others who had attended before. For those who are not familiar with what Driven is, it’s a car show that travels across Canada and puts on one of the best modern car shows. For more information about Driven, check out their website at http://drivenshow.ca. After parking my 2016 Kia Sedona in the far reaches of the parking lot I was able to spend several minutes wandering…

Many new vehicles on sale today have 8 or 9 speed transmissions. Manufacturers are doing this in the name of fuel economy in order to meet the ever increasingly stringent fuel economy and emissions standards across the globe. However, I’m starting to wonder when will enough be enough. How many gears is too many? A huge proportion of the new cars being sold in 2019 have the ZF 8-speed gearbox in it, including the new Toyota Supra, many BMWs, the Jeep Trackhawk and many others. The transmission behaves differently in the various applications only because each manufacturer is applying their own unique programming in its computer, otherwise it is an…

Recently, my 2016 Kia Sedona was in for some warranty repairs and was not done in time for the August long weekend. Kia of Saskatoon had my back and let me borrow a 2019 Kia Sorento EX in Blaze Blue with 11,000 km on it and a list price of $40,460. I got picked up from work by the Kia shuttle driver and when I returned to the dealership I noticed that my van wasn’t sitting out in the lot like it usually is after a service. When I walked into the service area I was immediately greeted by Sarah from the service team and informed that my van wasn’t…

A couple of weekends ago was spent attending an event in Gimli, MB at Gimli Motorsport Park. The event was hosted by the Winnipeg Sports Car Club, who owns the Gimli Motorsport Park, and took place on July 27-28, 2019. And it was one of the greatest weekends of my life. I went with a good friend of mine, and co-contributor to At the Apex, Reece Digney. I drove from Saskatoon to Regina and met him before driving all the way to Gimli, MB with only a few short breaks in his Toyota 86. The 86 was packed full with his extra set of tires, floor jack, tools, racing helmet,…

After waiting for almost 3 years after the first images of the heavily camouflaged C8 Corvette mule were leaked we finally get to see the production model in the flesh. GM unveiled the 2020 C8 Corvette Stingray tonight in Tustin, CA ahead of the Monterey Car Week. And it didn’t disappoint. The idea of a mid-engined corvette goes back nearly 60 years and has had several false starts throughout history. The closest it ever came to becoming a reality prior to 2019 was back in the 1980’s, although GM decided not to pursue it as a production model at the time. Since the excitement has been building for so many…

I recently had the chance to stop by the local Infiniti dealership and try out the 2019 Infiniti Q50. The thought in my head going into this was, is it really worth $50,000? The answer may surprise you. The model I wanted to try was the Q50 Red Sport, however the only one they had in stock was inside of the showroom, so instead we went to another model, the Q50 Signature with a list price of $48,540. The Q50 Red Sport comes with an uprated version of the 3.0l twin turbo V6 that puts out 400 hp, while all other variants of the Q50 come with the same motor…

Ahhh, that feeling when you clean all of the winter grime off of your car for the first time after the snow has melted. When you wash the floormats and realize that they’re actually black and not some weird greyish, browish colour. That is one of the most satisfying feelings I have all year – when I can look at my car and see the actual paint colour for the first time in months. But it never lasts. Or at least not for me. I love cleaning my vehicle. I find it relaxing and something that I can take pride in. Currently I’m driving a 2016 Kia Sedona minivan, and…

There are a lot of people who are buying compact and subcompact SUVs these days, mostly so they can get the practicality of the hatch and All wheel drive (AWD). Up until now most auto makers only put AWD into their SUVs or large sedans. Luckily Mazda has come up with a solution to this problem – adding AWD to the Mazda3. Honda, take note. Not only has Mazda been killing it lately in the styling department, but the Mazda3 has been a perennial hit among Canadians, selling 26,728 units in 2018. While that is down 4.1% from 2017 (27,862 units) it is still a healthy number when compared to…