Chris Tonn
The Truth About Cars
Columbus, OH, United States
Contact Chris
Discover and connect with journalists and influencers around the world, save time on email research, monitor the news, and more.
| Recent: |
|
| Past: |
|
Past articles by Chris:
2022 Genesis G80 Review
Try as I might, I don’t review cars on a full-time basis. Blame two kids and a mortgage. That means that my rather unusual hobby is a natural subject of discussion whilst engaged in my usual nine-to-five, where I’m interacting with customers all day long. Those of you who are “out” to acquaintances as a “car guy” - ignoring gender/sex identity here, as being a car guy relates only to the measure… → Read More
Editorial: This Isn’t The Time For Biden’s ‘Buy American’
Two weeks ago, President Joe Biden announced during the State of the Union that federal infrastructure projects will, going forward, be required to use all American-made construction materials. Applause resounded throughout the divided chamber.And why not? Nobody ever wins an election - especially when it’s not an election year - by promising to buy more foreign-made goods. But the thinkpieces… → Read More
Monday Morning Commercial Quarterback: Automotive Spots From Last Night’s Game
Over the past few years, I’ve made a point of live-blogging the Super Bowl automotive commercials on these pages. As it appeared, however, that very few automakers were spending the cash this year to hawk their wares - especially since the ongoing supply chain issues have made selling virtually anything as easy as doinking a field goal attempt off an upright - it was determined that it wasn’t… → Read More
2023 Mini Cooper S Clubman ALL4 Review
Those who have suffered through reading my works here and elsewhere over the past seven years likely have suspected - I’m merely using this second career as an automotive reviewer and journalist as an extended test-drive opportunity while I sort out what the next car that I purchase for my own use might be. It’s a happy accident, of course, but a financially-prudent one considering the drastic… → Read More
2023 Chevrolet Bolt EUV Review
As goes General Motors, so goes the nation. Apocryphal or not, the above statement dates to the Eisenhower era when The General was indeed one of the largest influences on American lives. From Dinah Shore to the shores of wherever a GM-built military vehicle might be carrying a GI, Chevrolet and the other divisions once played an outsized part in our world. Even in the Nineties as the… → Read More
2023 Nissan Titan PRO-4X Review
It’s the beginning of the new year as I write this, and we are being bombarded by easy-to-pen yearly listicles in the “hey, remember this B-list celebrity that died in February?” Like most, I’ll read one or two of these in my downtime out of sheer boredom, and will occasionally notice a critical reappraisal of someone’s supposed genius that wasn’t properly appreciated until they had passed. Like… → Read More
2022 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro Review
Making a massive brick-shaped object fuel efficient is a hell of an exercise in engineering, I’m certain. There are certain laws of physics that must be accommodated - mass, friction, and aerodynamics all factor in the equation of turning energy into propulsion. Reducing mass, improving aero, and limiting resistance losses from the tires are all ways one might make a truck use fuel more… → Read More
2022 Mazda CX-30 Turbo Review
Yeah, I know. That title is clickbait. Especially as we’ve told you time and again that there are no self-driving cars, and there likely will not be any self-driving cars for quite some time. Every vehicle on our roads today needs a driver.But not all of them want to be driven. Many a car merely trudges along, asking little of the occupant of the leftmost seat other than to turn a wheel or press… → Read More
2022 Lexus IS 350 AWD Review
There may come a time when this fine publication will need a name change lest we fall behind the times. News articles dutifully report that automakers continue to research autonomous driving technologies designed to keep people safer by entrusting the speed and direction of our personal mobility devices to fallible sensors and algorithms designed by the lowest bidding mathematician. The past two… → Read More
2022 Infiniti QX60 Review
Like it or not, the big crossover is here to stay. Three rows of seating that would really be better suited to a minivan or - dare I say it - a wagon shall be jacked up slightly so drivers can feel somewhat at ease when surrounded by all of the other tall wagons, pickups, and eighteen-wheelers clogging our roads. Just because the words Sports and Utility are theoretically in the definition of… → Read More
2022 Ram 1500 Rebel Review
Step back in time with me to the Seventies, and imagine being in a boardroom in Highland Park, Michigan. The marketers and advertising copywriters of Chrysler were, at the time, reacting to the personal luxury vehicle trend with the Cordoba. Ricardo Montalbán had worked everyone up into a rich Corinthian lather, all but assuring buyers that good times and sexytime were simply a signature away at… → Read More
2022 Kia Seltos Review
I suppose I can be an occasional automotive Luddite. I’m mentally throwing wrenches at the twenty-year-old German project car in my garage since it’s not nearly as straightforward to repair as the thirty-year-old Japanese project car right next to it. More than once I’ve pondered the possibility of adapting carburetors to both. But progress marches forth. Automotively, we’ve progressed over the… → Read More
2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E GT Review
In the beginning, God created the dinosaurs. He saw that they would eventually decompose into petroleum, and said this is good. And God said let there be bitchin’ V8 engines.And God said Oh Crap, I didn’t kill off enough dinosaurs to feed these hungry V8 engines. So on the seventh day, he left it to someone else to create EV charging stations way too far apart in sketchy parts of everything that… → Read More
2022 Audi Q3 Review
Ever since the late David E. spaketh his missive and/or advertorial on behalf of a sports sedan, a pair of German brands have been the symbols of having made it...or at least being on a clear path to making it. Audi, on the other hand, was the third wheel - occasionally gaining respectability, but too often finding itself fighting against the memory of a vengeful Sunday evening “news”… → Read More
2023 Hyundai Palisade First Drive: Almost As Good As A Minivan
Those who have known me for a while - or have been reading the words I’ve been spewing on this and other sites - know that I’m a minivangelist. I’ve owned several (I’ve lost count) of these unrestrained vehicular symbols of virility and/or fertility, and have appreciated their presence in my driveway every time I had to bring home a dishwasher from the big-box store, or shuttle a few stray… → Read More
2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee L Review
Jeeps are meant to do Jeep things. Forgetting the unforgivable first-generation Compass - which offered an optional Rallye package with more plastic lower-body cladding than a Pontiac parts department circa 1993 - and a few others, a Jeep had better be able to live up to the stories being told by that seven-slot grille. Perhaps by being rated somehow - for trails?Indeed, I have no doubts that… → Read More
2022 Mazda MX-5 Miata Review
They’re coming for our cars. It may not be tomorrow, but indicators point toward a future where personal transportation options may be severely restricted. Gleaming alloy air-cars two lanes wide may be our transportation solution going forward.From my stringback-gloved hands, I proclaim. While I’ll take the train should my commute dictate, I still find both solace and pleasure in engaging with a… → Read More
2023 Mazda CX-50 Review
2022 Mazda CX-50 2.5 Turbo Premium Plus AWD 2.5-liter turbocharged four (227hp @ 5,000 rpm, 310lb-ft @ 2,000 rpm on regular unleaded, 256hp @ 5,000 rpm, 320lb-ft @ 2,500 rpm on 93 octane) Six-speed automatic transmission, all-wheel drive 23 city / 29 highway / 25 combined (EPA Rating, MPG) 10.4 city / 8.1 highway / 9.4 combined. (NRCan Rating, L/100km) Base Price: $42,775 US / $47,431 CAN As… → Read More
2022 Kia Forte GT Review
I’ll grant that I’m not a university-trained linguist, but I will forever cringe when I encounter egregious misapplications of the English language. Examples include the otherwise-excellent Alanis Morissette applying the term “ironic” to simple coincidence, and the ever-present misuse of “literally” by my kids when describing a figurative. In the realm with which I’m more … → Read More
2022 BMW M8 Competition Gran Coupe Review
Is it possible to be both overwhelmed and underwhelmed? Does the whelming up and down cancel itself out, leaving one with just the right amount of whelm? Or is there some sort of exponential curve, resulting in either a surplus or deficit of whelmification? The red squiggly lines provided by the good people behind Microsoft … → Read More