Pfaff Automotive Reviews Blog Post

Review: Mini Countryman SE It sounds almost too obvious to say, but Mini is a pretty unique car brand. Since the first Mini was launched in 1959, drivers have bought and loved them for their unique mix of qualities: a tiny exterior footprint, surprisingly spacious interior, and entertaining driving characteristics. Great qualities, to be sure, but limiting once youve reached saturation with a certain...

Review: BMW M5 Introduced almost 40 years ago, the original BMW M5 arguably set the template for the modern performance sedan. It combined a comfortable, spacious four-door with a sophisticated suspension and a race-car engine to create something the world hadnt yet seen. It was a luxury car that could accelerate, brake, and handle like a sports car a car, basically, that did it all. Every successive...

Review: Porsche Macan EV Porsches midsize Macan SUV is the companys best-selling model. It combines the space and features many drivers need with the design and the brand that high-end buyers are willing to pay a significant premium for, and as such has been both a huge sales success and a global cash cow for Porsche. Now, the Macan, which has previously only been available with internal combustion...

Review: Acura ZDX 2024 and 2025 are proving to be watershed years in the market for electric vehicles. With supply chains easing and dealer inventories increasing, EVs are finally becoming more affordable and easier to obtain. More importantly, theres so much more choice this year than in prior years. While in the past you would have limited choices in each vehicle class if you wanted to go electric,...

Review: 2025 Volkswagen ID. Buzz Minivans, generally, arent very cool. The most utilitarian and arguably most practical form of family transport, minivans are generally painted in anonymous colors, often wear the marks of hard use in the form of dirt and grime, and usually blend into the background of our roadscapes. Yet, here is a minivan that attracts more attention than most supercars, or even that...

Review 2023 Honda HR-V In case you havent noticed, SUVs are taking over the world. A vehicle class that was once for outdoor, off-road adventurers is now the vehicle of choice for more families than the four-door sedan. We all seem to love the raised ride height which makes getting in and out of these vehicles easier; the ease of accessing cargo areas through a big hatch instead of a trunk; and the...

Review 2023 Honda Civic Type R   Widened fenders extend over a wider track; as is todays fashion, the wheels are matte black instead of white, with spindly spokes, wrapped in wide 265-section Michelin Pilot Sport 4S rubber. The blacked-out rear wing is big, but it sits on top of delicate supports, and disappears visually thanks to its black paint; down below, there are three centrally-mounted exhaust...

Review 2023 Subaru Solterra The Best of Subaru in Electric Form The great outdoors, all-wheel drive, and a green thumb have always been part of Subarus DNA. Its popular Outback, Forester, and Crosstrek models combine off-road ability with practical packaging and much better fuel economy than conventional SUVs, meaning they tread a lot more lightly in the wilderness than bigger, heavier vehicles. Now,...

Review Audi Q8-E Tron Upgrading The Original Premium EV SUV Outside of Tesla, Audi has been the most aggressive of the premium car brands to embrace mainstream electrification. While BMW dabbled with electric power with its i3 city car and plug-in hybrid i8 sports car, it was Audi that was first to market with a mainstream electric SUV, 2018s e-tron. Since then, the e-tron and its sleeker e-tron sportback...

Review 2023 Acura MDX A-Spec Just who, exactly, is the Acura MDX for? A glance at its starting MSRP, its feature list, and its performance might suggest that its a competitor for European luxury SUVs like the Audi Q7, BMW X5, and Mercedes-Benz GLE. But a glance at its sharp exterior, its interior design, and its slightly old-school naturally-aspirated powertrain suggest something different. To behold,...

Review: 2023 Honda CR-V Hybrid A Best-Sellers Makeover The Honda CR-V is the best-selling crossover in North America over the last 25 years. Thats a remarkable record, fueled by a core set of attributes that hasnt changed over the past quarter-century. The CR-V has always offered buyers an amazing balance of space, versatility, features, handling, and economy all wrapped up in a compact package and...

Review 2022 Honda Pilot Black Edition Putting the utility in sport utility Many of us think of sport-utility vehicles as the ultimate in family transportation: spacious, versatile, with enough ground clearance for rough roads or cottage trails, and often the traction and stability benefits of all-wheel drive. It doesnt hurt that theyre also stylish and offer a more rugged, outdoorsy image than a minivan...

Review Audi Q4 E-Tron Audi is all-in on electric. The company has announced publicly that it is ending development of gasoline and diesel engines by 2026, and plans to be an all-electric brand by 2032. All-electric Audi models such as the original e-tron and swift e-tron GT sedan, have been rolling out since 2019, but the new Q4 e-tron, now arriving on our shores, is by far the most important. A pure-electric...

Review 2023 McLaren Artura So here we are. The Artura, McLarens first hybrid sports car. A car that, I have to say, Ive been eagerly awaiting since they announced it, with an all-new powertrain. My inner engineer has been hungry for an all-new powertrain from McLaren since the 4.0-litre unit found in the 720S. A lot of people give McLaren a hard time for the lack of newly-developed powertrains but...

Review Porsche Taycan GTS GTS. For Porsche fans, these three letters mean a lot. Whichever model you are looking at the Cayenne and Macan SUVs, the Panamera sedan, or the 718 and 911 sports cars the GTS models are often the sweet spot. They are an enticing combination of extra performance, sporty styling details, upgraded interiors, and a more emotional driving experience a useful and worthwhile upgrade...

BMW-S-i4 Is An Electric Game Changer Sometimes, I think BMW doesnt get enough credit for how forward-thinking it is. The brand has often courted controversy with out-there styling that broke classical moulds only to have the rest of the industry follow in its footsteps in subsequent years. BMW was the first to bring a big screen to vehicle dashboards, unifying the ever-multiplying entertainment and...

The BMW iX Is The Most Desirable Electric Luxury SUV Initial coverage of the all-electric BMW iX was concentrated around its controversial looks. Built on the same styling elements as the somewhat more compact iNext concept car, the iX definitely doesnt look like any BMW youve ever seen on the road. Its one-box shape, giant grille elements and skinny lights make it a very different kind of BMW, one...

Audi S E-Tron Sportback Really Feels Like Something Special Audis e-tron, one of the original premium German electric vehicles, has a new sibling called sportback. Substituting a sleek, teardrop-shaped side profile for the more practical boxy SUV shape, the e-tron sportback sure is a looker, especially in S Line trim, with a blacked-out front grille, giant 22-inch wheels, and orange brake calipers....

The ID-4 Is The Tipping Point For Volkswagen and For Mainstream SUVs Volkswagen isnt new to electric cars. In fact, as far back as 2014, the German brand was selling an electric Golf in Europe, with the E-Golf launching in North America in 2017. But, given that cars relatively limited range, and the fact that it was a car when most new-vehicle buyers want an SUV, the E-Golf has always been a niche...

Volkswagen S New GTI Is More Relevant Than Ever Introduced in 1976, Volkswagens Golf GTI is (sigh) about the same age as I am. A nameplate doesnt stick around that long without a rock-solid formula, and the GTIs formula is one of the best. Take an already exceptionally well-rounded hatchback; add some extra power, poise, and driving fun; add some red pinstriping; and you end up with almost the perfect...

Review Mini Cooper S Electric Of all the gasoline cars on the market that seemed natural to go electric, the Mini Cooper has to be at the top of the list. Small, zippy, and so at home in urban environments, a typical Mini has a short radius from home base, its life composed of short cut-and-thrust trips for which electric driving is perfect. Yet, other than an experimental test fleet the brand ran...

Review Porsche Taycan 4s Cross Turismo When Porsche first introduced the Taycan, I was prepared, as an old-school fan of the brand, to dislike it. From its electric power to its weight, inset and hooded headlights, and its lack of sound, the Taycan was nothing like any Porsche Id driven and loved before. But after just a couple of minutes behind the wheel, I was instantly in love. Despite everything...

BMW S New M4 Is One Car To Do It All Im a little conflicted by the new BMW M4. On the one hand, it is a magnificently capable automobile, with power, speed, handling, and comfort that give it one of the broadest and deepest operating envelopes of any car on sale today. On the other, for those of us that are enthusiasts of what Id call old-school BMW M cars, it feels a little big, very technological,...