DC Car Examiner

Fit sales have dwindled lately in the face of fresher competition, but it's been one of the best-selling subcompacts most of the time since its introduction. Odyssey and Pilot are clear mainstream models. But yeah, for all the others Honda has just insisted on trying to segment-bust rather than copy, and all the niches it's pursuing seem to have few buyers. In the Crosstour's case, Honda can't possibly think that tweaking the grille and front bumper will make any difference. (It's just being done to match the new Accord anyway, for a family resemblance, at the standard mid-cycle point.) Not only is it a minor change, but the car's problem was its practicality at least as much as its styling. The Crosstour is an expensive and very large vehicle without a lot of space. If Honda had made itself something shaped like an Edge or Murano, for someone who wanted something less utilitarian than the Pilot, it would have sold tons of them.

It's an Insight front end on a midsection that's pretty much the same as the old Accord's. I'm not sure it's anything to get excited over, positive or negative.

I didn't say that you can't, I said that they aren't necessarily easy to use. My mistake. That's not such a great design either. For everyone saying they've found ways to work their controls without using the touch-sensitive buttons, the essential question is why you care whether the center stack uses electronic buttons that many people -- not just journalists -- find difficult to use and which sometimes simply fail to work. You also have to question why it would be in Ford's interest to try and sell cars to people with the promise that they'll eventually get used to them. This is undoubtedly the reason for the improved design on the new F-150 compared to past MFT executions, which there seems to be an inexplicable opposition to in this thread. People have explained why touch-sensitive controls are okay by saying they never have to use them anyway, which doesn't seem to be a terribly convincing argument for sticking with them.

Voice controls are not quick. Nor are steering wheel buttons necessarily easy to use without looking. Those items are good to have, but not a reason to not also have real buttons and knobs. The F-150 is presumably not giving up voice activation or steering wheel controls, so those options are still available. It doesn't? It looked like there were some in the photo. I've never been in an MFT Focus. The problem is that they're ridiculously finicky -- you have to put your finger in just the right place while the car is moving. They're not "terrifying," it's just a terrible idea for a moving, jostling car. They'd make sense if you desperately needed to save space, but every other car manages to find room for buttons or knobs.

Sure they are. If you don't have to use the complicated system for anything but complicated tasks, it doesn't have to be as easy to use. Plus it means that people who like different setups all get what they want - if you like a big shiny screen, you've got it, and if you want the easiest way to make a quick adjustment without looking, you've got that too.

Yes, obviously that's what I meant, good thinking. Clearly the Focus setup is a model of technological perfection and the F-150 setup is like a 20-year-old Escort with missing pieces.

Well, no, not like those, seeing as those are touch-sensitive sliders. I was actually thinking more like the ones farther down the center stack, or the sort included on the new F-150.

Best-sellers by class: (asterisks denote a new winner compared to the previous month) Subcompact cars: Kia Soul Compact cars: Honda Civic* Midsize cars: Toyota Camry Large cars: Chevrolet Impala Entry-luxury cars: Mercedes-Benz C-Class* Luxury cars: BMW 5-Series* Compact crossovers/SUVs: Honda CR-V Midsize crossovers/SUVs: Chevrolet Equinox Large crossovers: Ford Explorer Large SUVs: Chevrolet Tahoe/Suburban Entry-luxury crossovers/SUVs: Lexus RX Luxury crossovers/SUVs: BMW X5 Vans: Toyota Sienna* Pickups: Ford F-Series Full top-10 sales charts for each class at link: http://www.examiner.com/article/best-selling-cars-of-may-2012-by-class

Hallelujah, actual buttons! Any problem with MFT is nearly eliminated by having a simple backup way of controlling everyday functions

One advantage I can see is that it makes the driver look better to his passengers. This dude just KNOWS when there's no traffic.

I used to do the charts in HTML, but they took away that capability. And their current site format also allows only a really narrow space for text that wouldn't fit anything like this anyway. The only way to do a PDF would be to host it elsewhere and post the link, but then they wouldn't pay for any pageviews. So yeah, this isn't ideal, but it's the best I can do. And I think I'm -- for now -- winning the battle against their ongoing attempts to run ads overtop photos. When I put extra white space at the top, they moved the ads to the bottom, so now I have white space in both places.

This time last year, none of the top 10 best-sellers was a Honda or Toyota. Now, half are. Full sales charts for the month and YTD at link: http://www.examiner....ars-of-may-2012 And the best-sellers by class: http://www.examiner.com/article/best-selling-cars-of-may-2012-by-class .

At the start of the new year, I moved a bunch of cars around. The biggest change was creating separate categories for large SUVs and large crossovers, which left me with more flexibility to include smaller three-row crossovers as "large."

Best-sellers by class (asterisks denote a new winner compared to the previous month): Subcompact cars: Kia Soul* Compact cars: Toyota Prius/Prius v/Prius c Midsize cars: Toyota Camry Large cars: Chevrolet Impala Entry-luxury cars: BMW 3-Series Luxury cars: Mercedes-Benz E-Class Compact crossovers/SUVs: Honda CR-V Midsize crossovers/SUVs: Chevrolet Equinox Large crossovers: Ford Explorer Large SUVs: Chevrolet Tahoe/Suburban Entry-luxury crossovers/SUVs: Lexus RX Luxury crossovers/SUVs: BMW X5* Vans: Ford E-Series* Pickups: Ford F-Series Full sales charts (top-10 for each class) at link: http://www.examiner.com/article/best-selling-cars-of-april-2012-by-class

I guess I'll post my own lists of best-sellers in this thread instead of starting another. Top 20 for the month and YTD: http://www.examiner....s-of-april-2012 Top 10 in each class: http://www.examiner.com/article/best-selling-cars-of-april-2012-by-class

It reduced the cost of the AWD option, and I think it was Car and Driver that said the conventional system is lighter. So there are clear benefits to doing without it.

They didn't say "there's not much room in the back of the Escape." They said the CR-V -- which is one of the roomiest cars in its class -- had even more. And seeing as they had the test Escape on their private test track, where they may still own a CR-V for back-to-back comparison, I'd say they had grounds to make that statement. This was no one-hour preview in an unfamiliar area.

Full review at link: http://www.examiner.com/article/review-2013-acura-rdx

That's one interpretation. The other is that the CR-V has better rear passenger space.

That's how it works in the Toyota Prius, which also uses an electronic gear selector. You can either press a button for Park, or you get it automatically upon turning off the car.

The article doesn't include what would really be the most interesting/useful data: how the Focus compares to other compact cars, not to the market in general. How does a 10 percent take rate compare to Civic, Mazda3, Cruze and so on?

"Cadillac, Buick, GMC and, especially Chevrolet are also excellent examples of ever-evolving, yet visually consistent, front-end themes. (In the case of Chevrolet, it only got religion on this about 10 years ago)." I guess he missed the new Impala and Traverse. Chevrolet is now a lapsed "facialist."

Here's the production door panel:

All-wheel-drive takes a bite out of fuel efficiency and raises prices, and there are parts of the country where there isn't much need for it. I'm all for letting people choose their own options.