I occasionally write for publications outside of the automotive realm and as a big foodie and fitness fanatic, I like to stretch my skills a bit and see what I can do. Recently I did a short trial with Eater Austin and put together a […]
Author: Abigail Bassett
First Drive: Mercedes-Benz C300 Coupe
The hipsters are dead. Long live the hipsters … or the yuccies. Or whatever you want to call them. Portland, Maine, is a city that’s grown more in the past 10 years than it has in the last 50. Though still peppered with lobstermen […]
Flying High, And Upside Down, With The Breitling Jet Team
The man they call Douky is humming along happily right after he’s checked on me for the second time since we took off. “You ok, Abby?” he says into his microphone a smile in his voice. I’m sitting second seat of an L-39C Albatros, a […]
First Drive: 2017 Kia Sportage
It’s hard to get excited about most mainstream crossovers, but the truth is this is one of the hottest segments of the market right now. The automotive space is saturated with a glut of these profit-making, two-box, semi-practical, soft-roading vehicles, and the tide isn’t likely […]
Did BMW Get its Mojo Backwith the 2016 M2?
Few car fans talk about their favorites the way BMW acolytes speak of BMW’s E line—the code name for cars BMW designed up until around 2012. The styling, the performance, and the driving characteristics defined BMW for an entire generation. Since the change over to […]
How to Get Out of a Speeding Ticket…Or At Least, How I Did
This time last year, I was anxious to put as much pavement between me and the twisted scene I’d left at my house a few hours earlier. I had returned to pick up my dog and a few vital items, not intending to encounter […]
First Drive: 2017 Smart ForTwo Cabrio in Valencia, Spain
I’m zooming around Valencia, Spain in 60-degree weather, topless, in January. Did I mention that I’m also participating in a scavenger hunt around the 2,000 year-old city, ticking off landmarks like the 14th Century city walls and the Cat Hotel on a smart phone, and […]
What Would a Car Designer Sketch if There Were No Rules
Think all cars look more or less alike? Thank government for that, and then show a little gratitude, because that aesthetic uniformity has saved hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lives. The same regulations that helped automotive-related deaths on American roads drop 40 percent […]
First Drive: Audi Q7
My first car review of 2016–the Audi Q7. Outside it’s pure sports cars, Audi isn’t known for excitement. Most of the sedans are a bit boring; good looking, beautifully made cars quietly carrying passengers to and from their destinations with nary a notice being taken. […]
Driving a 1957 Volvo Sport with Volvo’s CEO
It’s been said that everyone has a Volvo story, whether it was growing up in the jumpseats of a 240 station wagon or learning to drive in a friend’s sedan. But Volvo’s own story has been largely silent of late. Delays with announced vehicles and […]
Mercedes-Benz gets a brand new dash
Automakers keep talking about our “buttonless” future–one complete with touch screens, gesture tracking and voice control. Yet up to this point, they have roundly failed at making the most basic things like simple navigation as user friendly as possible. Mercedes is the latest to make […]
First Drive: Mercedes-Benz GLS
Time takes its pound of flesh from everyone. Butts sag, jowls wobble, bellies bubble over their beltlines, and while we are all flesh and bone, sometimes we feel compelled for help in fighting gravity’s pull. It’s as true for humans as it is for […]