On The Road

Mike Hagerty/Special to the Town Crier
The Lexus LC500h costs nearly $100,000, but it’s well equipped.

Meet my current dream machine. It’s the “If I had all the money in the world, I’d buy …” car. As I wrote in May when I reviewed the gasoline version of this car, I’m a beauty addict. It’s why I love living in Northern California. Beauty surrounds us.

And for my money, the Lexus LC500h is the most beautiful car on the market. It’s the kind of car that people stop and stare at. I walked outside on a recent Monday to find a neighbor I had never met before standing in my driveway in alternating states of awe and bliss. I have a new friend now. We bonded over the LC500h.

On a recent family ski trip to Kirkwood, I pulled out my smartphone to take a video of my son on the slopes. The temperature was 25 degrees, however, and my phone died.

That situation reminded me of how cars can do the same thing in cold weather.

In the hope of encouraging similar proactive projects, I will address three recent ones – two of which were in response to tragic accidents – aimed at making our local roads safer.

Page Mill-Interstate 280

The first is the Page Mill Road-Interstate 280 interchange, where cyclists had to cross two lanes of traffic to continue straight on Page Mill. It is a complicated intersection, designed years ago when traffic was much lighter, but the improvements significantly improve bicycle routing and safety through the intersection. My congratulations to all the jurisdictions involved for finally getting it approved. I hope both motorists and cyclists can appreciate the effort and respect each other as they cross paths.

There are plenty of technical things I could write about, but this month I decided to instead just focus on cars I like and like to work on.

Because I have been immersed in the automobile industry for most of my life, I look at cars differently than most people. I look at reliability first, then safety and finally comfort. I’ve learned over the years that comfort and reliability do not always go hand in hand.

Mike Hagerty/Special to the Town Crier
The Cadillac XT6, above, and BMW M340i, below, include plenty of high-end features and offer an array of options.

Cadillac XT6 Sport AWD offers power & elegance

Cadillac buyers who wanted a three-row SUV but didn’t want the super-sized Escalade have had to look elsewhere. There was a big gap in size and perceived prestige between the Escalade and the XT5.

That’s over now.

Mike Hagerty/Special to the Town Crier
The 2019 BMW X2 M35i features a twin-turbo 2-liter four-cylinder engine with 302 horsepower.

Small crossover SUVs are a thing right now – and most of them lean to the “utility” part of “sport utility vehicle.” There’s a cure for that, and it’s the 2019 BMW X2 M35i.