I’ve noticed over the past several months a certain shift in my attitudes toward driving. It’s a disconnect. I simply can’t find that groove these days. If you’re any kind of enthusiast (and you must be if you put up with our nonsense) then you know what I’m getting at. Every auto writer has waxed philosophical at one time or another about the connection between man and machine and how, from time to time, the elements come together to form a rare moment of perfect automotive bliss. Sometimes it’s triggered by the perfect road; sometimes it comes from having the perfect car. Hell, sometimes it happens when you’re stuck in traffic on a beautiful evening with the breeze coming through the windows of your ‘94 Caravan while one of your favorite songs crackles from the half-shot factory speakers. It’s in that confluence of events that we remember why we love what we do and why we’re willing to make sacrifices for it.

But those moments are few and far between for me these days and more and more I’ve come to realize it’s a product of my living situation. I have a super convenient apartment and a catered commute. I don’t need to drive at all during the week. Hell, I don’t want to either, because you can’t go more than ten miles in any direction before sunset without hitting traffic. Weekday or weekend, driving anywhere around here is a chore. When you’re at least 40 minutes from the closest two-lane that isn’t littered with cops or traffic signals (or both), just getting to the open roads sucks most of the joy out of driving them.

And any icebreaker conversation inevitably leads to the same question: “Wait a second, you live in an apartment in Alexandria and you own four cars?”

Yep. Four cars. And last week, when we hosted Mazda’s latest 3, it was five.

Continue reading Lord Byron — Driven: A Speed:Sport:Life Road Test of the 2010 Mazda3

That’s what Fox News calls it. And while we could debate the validity of any mainstream news outlet’s claim to objectivity interminably, it’s the sentiment that I’m interested in. For the longest time we’ve been told that the media’s obligation is to remain impartial and objective – to report the news as it happens and let us do the rest. That seems legit, right? After all, the underlying motives won’t change the fact that something took place. Are they newsworthy in their own right? Of course, but those motives should be the subject of news, not the gift-wrap in which it is delivered.

Now that’s all well and good if you’re talking about news. In the world of automotive journalism, however, we don’t really deal in hard news. Sure, there are times when all we deal in is hard news. Take the auto shows, for example — nothing but product announcements and unveilings. That’s news. Something happens and the press scrambles to be the first to scoop it. It’s in those brief moments that the motoring press acts most like its big brother, the media at large. The catch? We spend the other 45 weeks of the year being something entirely different.

Continue reading Lord Byron: Fair and Balanced