The Buick Encore GX is now in its fourth model year and has been updated for 2024 with new looks, features, and trim lines. Our tester is the new 2024 Encore Avenir trim, which replaces the Essence trim at the top of the Encore food chain. The 2024 Encore starts at $25,600 for the Preferred trim before the $1,295 destination charge, while the Avenir starts at $31,900 before the destination charge. That’s a lot of money for a subcompact crossover and puts the Encore Avenir in the middle of a very crowded segment, with the likes of the Volkswagen Taos and the BMW X1. We spent a week with the Encore Avenir to see how it fares against said competition.

We’ve always loved the Kia Soul for being the feature-packed, quirky, boxy, fun hatchback that it is. Kia has refreshed the Soul for the 2023 model year and reduced the trim lineup from six trims to four by dropping the X-Line and GT-Line Turbo trims. Kia has also simplified the powertrain offerings for 2023 by only offering a naturally -aspirated four-cylinder engine across the model lineup.

Murphy’s tenth law states that “Mother nature is a …” with the three dots being a word I won’t put in print. Unfortunately, that tenth law always seems to kick in here on the Texas Gulf Coast whenever I have a fun vehicle booked to review for the week.

In this case, I was absolutely excited to drive the 2023 Dodge Challenger R/T Shakedown Edition, part of Dodge’s “Final Call” series of special editions to send these cars off into the sunset. The week I had this car, I had *ONE* afternoon with it that it wasn’t pouring down rain to the point of nearly flooding. You know what? One afternoon of driving the Challenger is better than a week with some vehicles.

Ram has updated the 2500 Heavy Duty lineup for 2023 with the introduction of the Heavy Duty Rebel model. The 2023 Ram 2500 Heavy Duty Rebel is positioned between the Laramie and the famously capable 2500 Power Wagon. The 2500 Rebel is an off-road focused truck that blends rugged off-road capability with towing and hauling capability.