Base Camp: 2021 Acura TLX

Despite what we may witness with our own two eyes, there are a number of shoppers who prefer four-door sedans over crossovers and SUVs. Sure, a quick walk through the condo parking garage or suburban neighbourhood seems to confirm these high-riding wagons are the dominant strain of automobile, but there’s still a case to be made for the modern family sedan.

Which is why, of course, Acura still makes one. The TLX has recently been redesigned, adopting a style befitting the dearly departed TSX and an interior that finally aligns it with the rest of the Acura lineup. The entry-level trim is priced at $44,605 and is powered by a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine making 272 horsepower and roughly a like amount of torque. This is backed by a 10-speed automatic and, in Canada, standard all-wheel drive. It’s worth noting this is the same powertrain in all TLX sedans save for the $60,000 Type S.

The base TLX shares much in the way of its exterior jewelry with the more expensive Tech trim, which is to say it is devoid of fog lamps and interesting paint choices. Why the House of Honda chooses to saddle many of its least expensive trims with colours from the greyscale is beyond our comprehension. The jewel-eye LED headlamps look great, however, and the heated side mirrors are handy. A power moonroof is also part of the deal.

Infotainment is handled by a 10.2-inch colour centre display that’s controlled by Acura’s unique spin on a touchpad interface. No fewer than ten speakers belt out your favourite tunes (or the news, if you’re into that type of thing) and has all the typical features such as satellite radio capability and smartphone integration. There’s also a split subwoofer for extra thump but this base trim does without a nav system and wireless device charging.

Comfort and convenience features are markedly similar to more expensive TLX trims, thanks to economies of scale which is Base Camp’s best friend. Adaptive cruise control is on board, along with dual-zone climate control and 12-way adjustable front heated leatherette seats. Oddly, a heated steering wheel is absent. Typical active safety kit like lane keeping and road departure mitigation tools are expected and present at this price.

What We’d Choose

While the sum of $5,300 isn’t exactly chump change, we’d take a hard look at the more expensive A-Spec package before driving away in a new TLX. It has more visual appeal thanks to better wheel selection and entertaining paint options, and a pert rear spoiler caps the rear end of this car very nicely. A-Spec also fills in some of the feature gaps – nav, ventilated front seats – along with packing a dandy 17-speaker ELS Studio 3D Premium audio system.

Nevertheless, it does retain the base car’s powertrain, which is no small consideration when one is adding nearly 12 per cent to the bottom line of a vehicle – more, actually, once taxes and interest are applied. If you’re cool with a dour paint choice, the entry-level TLX could be a consideration – which is good news to the remaining few of us who appreciate a nicely-styled four-door sedan.

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Audi A8L Adds Ultra-Luxury Horch Treatment for China

This rival to the Mercedes-Maybach S-class has a sumptuous rear-seat setup and a stately exterior.

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Racing Roundup: 12 NASCAR drivers qualify for championships

These columns are getting shorter and shorter but that’s because there is really no racing going on. Only NASCAR (for another week), NHRA (ditto) and Formula One (till mid-December) are still going.

At the peak in mid-summer. I would write 3,000 words (or more) every Sunday night because of everything happening. When F1 is finished, I will take a vacation till late January, when the Daytona 24 takes place.

And that’s when I will have a big surprise for you.

NASCAR 

Poor Joe Gibbs, He’s a deeply religious man who prays before, during and after NASCAR races and you would think that would be worth something. But regardless of what he does spiritually, he’s had two drivers who have been very difficult to handle – Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin (who’s bought into the car he’s driving).

Stewart is retired and respected in the sport after a rough beginning (and Gibbs’ sending him for anger management counselling). Hamlin is another matter. After he was beaten by Alex Bowman in the second-last race of the Cup season Sunday at Martinsville, he lost his temper and then said some not-so-classy things during a past-race interview on NBC.

(Bowman had spun him out late in the race and Hamlin responded by driving in front of Bowman, preventing the winner from executing the traditional donut celebration. He stopped when his crew reminded him of “the big picture.”

“He’s just a hack,” Hamlin said of Bowman in an interview on NBC. “Just an absolute hack. He gets his ass kicked by his teammates every week. He’s (expletive) terrible. He’s just terrible. He sees one opportunity, he takes it.”

Shortly after, Bowman was selling T-shirts with “HACK” written on them. Then he told his side of the story. He started by noting that Hamlin wrecked him last year at Texas.

“Texted me and apologized,” Bowman said. “Said he’d give me a ride on his jet. I don’t know. We’re even, I guess, after that. He crashed the heck out of me there. He got loose underneath me, exact same thing – just on a bigger racetrack.

“Yeah, sarcasm there, obviously. Just my point is the shoe has been on the other foot. Like we’ve been on both sides of it.”

Kyle Busch, meantime, had sharp words for Brad Keselowski. Busch was not happy with Keselowski’s final move as they raced for second place. Keselowski had been aggressive late in the race, needing to win. Instead, he finished third and didn’t advance to the Championship Four in his final season with car owner Roger Penske.

Said Busch: “He drills my ass coming out of (Turn) 4 for no reason,” Busch said. “Where was he going? What was he going to do? Spin me out?

“He was trying to do a Harvick is what he was trying to do (Kevin Harvick spun Busch on the last lap of last year’s Martinsville playoff race, the AP explained). For what? For second place? To do what? He wasn’t going to transfer through with that. Freaking (R-word). So stupid. I don’t understand these guys.

“I should beat the shit out of him right now is what I should do, but that doesn’t do me any good either.”

Why not (in answer to a question)?

“I’ve already had to pay enough fines in my lifetime,” Busch added. “I’m sure I’ll get another one.”

He might – but to be on the safe side he tweeted out an apology for using the R-word.

Martinsville is a “paper clip” short track of a half-mile in length. NASCAR usually has 40 cars starting, which means there is lots of beating and banging. The drivers love to run their mouths after racing at that speedway because there is rarely anybody hurt and it’s more fun to say all sorts of outrageous things afterward. You can bet that everybody will be watching the season finale at Phoenix next Sunday afternoon.

Four drivers qualified to race for the championship – Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr., Chase Elliott and Hamlin, who was booed when he said what he said over the PA system.

Sunday at Martinsville, Bowman won the race, Kyle Busch was second, Keselowski finished third, Truex was fourth and Hamlin fifth. Next Sunday’s race gets the green flag at 3 p.m., about the same time as the F1 Grand Prix of Mexico.

The Xfinity Series race on Saturday was also a brawl. In the end, Noah Gragson was the winner, just nipping defending champion Austin Condric with Daniel Hemrick third. The final four next week at Phoenix will feature Gragson, Cindric, Hemrick and A.J. Allmendinger.

Zane Smith won the Camping World Trucks Series race at Martinsville to qualify for the championship race at Phoenix. He’ll be up against John Hunter Nemechek, Ben Rhodes and Matt Crafton.

OTHER RACING

Steve Torrence won the Top Fuel class Sunday at the Dodge/SRT Nationals at Las Vegas. Cruz Pedregon was first in Funny Car. Interestingly, the two top qualifiers were Brittany Force and Alexis DeJoria but both were eliminated early.  

Jacques Villeneuve, 1995 Indy 500 winner, ’95 CART champion and 1997 world driving champion, won a NASCAR Whelen Euro Series race in Italy at the weekend. “It’s been a long time coming,” said the Canadian.

World of Outlaws runner Logan Schuchart won his 30^th career victory Saturday night at the Devil’s Bowl Speedway in Texas to tie his grandfather, original Outlaw Bobby (Scruffy) Allen. Schuchart joined Sammy Swindell and Mark Kinser as the only drivers to win three straight features at that Speedway.

Ed Carpenter Racing has four American-born drivers in the mix for the 2022 NTT IndyCar Season: Ryan Hunter-Reay, Conor Daly, Kyle Kirkwood and Oliver Askew. I suggest Hunter-Reay has an edge because of his record of a national championship, an Indy 500 victory and 16 wins plus six poles. Conor Daly, who’s had the seat for a half-dozen years, has none of RHR’s numbers. In fact, he has scored just one podium. Kirkwood, the 2021 Indy Lights champion, will deliver more than a million dollars to the owner that hires him. Askew is marvelously talented but hasn’t been able to catch on, or hold on, to a ride.

If a name could guarantee success, this guy would be a shoo-in. Named to Andretti Autosport’s Indy Lights team for 2022 is – wait for it – Sting Ray Robb. Whoa!

More racetracks are facing uncertain futures. The Stockton, Calif., Dirt Track and Delta Speedway, both located inside the San Joaquin County Fairgrounds, are under the gun because the fairgrounds has been designated by the State of California for low-income housing.

Although the season is over, TSN is going to show the deciding race in the Canadian National Superbike Road Racing Championship that was held at Calabogie Motorsport Park. It will air this week on Tuesday on TSN2 at 3:30 in the afternoon. It will be repeated on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. on TSN and TSN3, Thursday at 12:30 p.m. and Friday at noon, both times on TSN4.

Speaking of TV, REV TV, Canada’s motorsports and automotive destination 24/7 and Performance Auto & Sound Magazine (PASMAG) will be bringing viewers in Canada live coverage of the 2021 SEMA Show (Specialty Equipment Market Association) taking place in Las Vegas. That will happen this Wednesday (Nov. 3) and Thursday, both at 9 p.m. If you don’t get REV (I don’t; it’s not on Rogers) call your provider and ask for it. I do, ad nauseum. One of these days, Alice . . . .

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Whatcha gonna do with all that junk?

That car or crossover with a big trunk and plenty of space is great, right until your two-litre bottle of pop rolls across at high speeds and bursts open, spraying carbonated stickiness over every surface. There’s a solution to make your trunk space more user-friendly, called a trunk organizer. We’re here with what you should look for and some of our favourite solutions to your cargo needs.

The point of a trunk organizer is to give you a defined space inside your trunk for small cargo like grocery bags, items like tire pressure gauges, and stuff like water bottles and snacks that you don’t want bouncing around every time you turn or stop. Equally important is the ability to get the organizer out of the way when it’s time to make that trunk-filling run to the big box store.

Features you want:

Security: Not how well it stops potential thieves, this is more like “stay-in-placeity.” How well it will stay in one spot in your trunk while it’s loaded up with everything you don’t want moving around? A non-skid base works well for this but can be a challenge on a slippery trunk carpet. For that reason, secure tie-down straps and hook and loop fasteners are an even better alternative to keep things where you left them. On the other hand, if you can’t find an organizer with the straps you want built in, a set of bungee cords or ratchet straps is a cost-effective and versatile way to hold things in place yourself.

Versatility: Compartments are great, right up to the point where they aren’t. That’s why a trunk organizer with multiple-sized (or, even better, adjustable) storage spaces is a great solution. Hold your items securely in place, with each compartment made just the right size for your needs.

Foldability: Though organizers are available in rigid plastic or softer fabric, it’s important that they are easy to stow when you suddenly want to bring home a 600-pack of toilet paper, or a new table. An organizer that collapses takes up almost no trunk space when you’re not using it, so you don’t need to stop at home first before buying big things.

Carry handles: Want the ultimate in trunk organization? Find an organizer with handles and you can use it as a reusable bag at the grocery store. Load up on all your essentials, place it securely in the trunk, then carry everything inside for quick and easy unpacking.

Auto Trends Trunk Tote

This large trunk cargo organizer is actually two totes in one. They attach using hook and loop fasteners to each other — as well as to the floor and sides of your trunk — to stay securely in place. Large main storage openings and a large number of mesh pockets on the outside give you more places to put tools and other trunk items, as well as your groceries and other cargo. Sized to fit nearly all vehicle trunks, this organizer collapses when not in use.

Thule Go Box Large

The Thule Go Box is available in large and medium sizes, but with the two priced nearly the same, we’d suggest the larger box for most vehicles. This trunk organizer is designed for van life, but it checks all the boxes for trunk storage. It features built-in handles to carry your shopping from vehicle to house or back, it has divided compartments and exterior pockets, and it folds for easy storage. The Go Box is also made from water-resistant material and is easy to clean.

CleverMade CleverCrate

CleverMade makes a wide range of collapsible storage containers for your trunk, including tub-style containers with lids and milk-crate style containers like this one. The Pro-Grade Collapsible Crate is offered in 15.8 and 46-litre sizes and can hold up to 79.8 kilograms of whatever cargo you’re hauling around. The crate design makes it easy to secure to your vehicle using adjustable straps or bungee cords, and handles on each end make it easy to carry the crate to your door. The crates also collapse fully, taking up a tiny amount of trunk space when not in use.

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Ride-hail alternatives designed with safety in mind

Women have always faced the threat of gender-based violence in public spaces—and that includes transportation, whether public transit or ride-hailing services. While technology is being used to boost safety, technology alone isn’t the answer.

Women—as well as queer, non-binary, femme-presenting and racialized people—experience more harassment, threats and violence in public spaces and on public transit, says Anna Kramer, assistant professor of urban planning at McGill University. Public transit and ride-hailing services, however, present unique challenges because they’re moving spaces and it’s not always possible to exit in the moment.

“But often women understandably avoid more dangerous times of day or modes of transportation, where possible. This curtails our freedom of movement,” said Kramer. “More women than men take public transit, because incomes are lower on average and access to cars is sometimes less.”

And they may think ride-hailing is a safer alternative than the bus. But is it?

In 2019, Uber released a safety report for the U.S., with data from 2018 and part of 2017 (averaging 3.1 million trips per day during that period). The results? Uber reported 3,045 sexual assaults (ranging from unwanted groping to rape) and nine murders.

Also in 2019, 19 women filed a joint lawsuit against Lyft, who claimed the ride-hailing company didn’t do enough to keep them safe from sexual assault—and either didn’t followup on their complaints or played down what happened.

“The notion that ride-hailing can provide a safer environment for women is one that the firms themselves have certainly marketed and promoted as a way to encourage and drive ridership,” said Shauna Brail, associate professor with the Institute for Management & Innovation at the University of Toronto Mississauga.

Shauna Brail is a Senior Lecturer in Urban Studies and the Director of the Urban Studies Experiential Learning Program. Her research interests lie broadly in the area of economic geography with a focus on the social, cultural and economic changes associated with shifting industrial strengths of cities and with a particular focus on the cultural / creative economy.

Despite some of the benefits of technology, several studies show that Black passengers face longer wait times and have more frequent cancellations than white passengers. A study from Indiana University Bloomington’s Kelley School of Business also found that racial and anti-LGBTQ+ bias persists in ride-hailing services, despite attempts to reduce it.

It’s why in the latter half of the past decade we saw the emergence of alternative ride-hailing services that cater to women or other marginalized groups—though many have suspended their operations during the pandemic. Larger ride-hailing companies have the resources to weather the storm. Alternatives have struggled.

Safr, a ride-hailing service for women based out of New York, is still temporarily on hold. Toronto’s DriveHER, for women and those who identify as female, also put its operations on hold, but the founder is looking to relaunch as the city slowly emerges from months of lockdowns.

“The safety of women and girls is something as an individual I’m really passionate about,” said Aisha Addo. “That’s what led me to start DriveHER.”

Prior to the pandemic, she turned to Toronto’s startup scene for funding, “but it was very challenging raising capital to be able to scale.” Investors would ask what’s stopping Uber or Lyft from getting into this space.

For its part, Uber says it provides 24-7 support in its app from a specialized team of Uber agents trained to handle sensitive reports. Lyft has also launched safety features, including in-app emergency assistance and continuous criminal background monitoring of drivers. But it’s still not possible for a passenger to request a female driver.

The difference, Addo says, is that ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft are technology companies.

“When it came to women’s safety, it was more of an afterthought for a majority of these companies—it wasn’t something that was part of the planning process,” she said.

On the other hand, DriveHER was designed from the ground-up with safety in mind—not just for passengers, but also for drivers.

After all, safety isn’t just about assault, rape and murder—the types of incidents that tend to make headlines. It could involve anything that makes a passenger feel uncomfortable, like suggestive comments about a woman’s appearance.

Other people may tell those women that they’re overreacting, that the driver was just being nice, said Addo, “but it’s so easy for those conversations to turn south.”

The responsibility for keeping women safe typically falls to the ride-hailing companies, but Brail says government should also have more oversight into the industry, setting rules and enforcing those rules—and ensuring there are consequences for those who don’t.

“There’s a lot to be said for education programs, building knowledge and supporting shifts in culture,” said Brail. Ride-hailing apps could also offer a private survey—separate from the rating system—where passengers can feel free to detail these “minor” issues that often go unreported, to help build up those data points.

Addo, for her part, recognizes that a female-centred ride-hailing service isn’t going to solve all of these problems, but it’s a start.

“We are working on ways to reinvent DriveHER, and reinvent it in a way that makes sure that our drivers are taken care of and our users feel that sense of safety.”

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Published on YouTube: 2022 Hyundai Accent Review, Pricing, and Specs

2022 Hyundai Accent Review, Pricing, and Specs
2022 Hyundai Accent Review, Pricing, and Specs：Just because a car is cheap doesn't mean it needs to look cheap, and the 2022 Hyundai Accent offers ...
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Tested: 2022 Hyundai Kona N Line Puts Show Ahead of Go

If Hyundai wants us to take the letter N seriously, it has to get serious about it too.

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