Timothy Cain
The Truth About Cars
Margate, PE, Canada
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Past articles by Timothy:
The Auto Enthusiast's Realistic Christmas Wish List for the North American Auto Industry in 2020
French hot hatches. Affordable full-size wagons. Manual-shift rear-wheel-drive sports sedans under $30,000. Production versions of the Chevrolet Code 130R, Dodge Hornet, and Ford Start. The reincarnation of Isuzu’s VehiCROSS and Trooper. Standard-of-the-world Cadillac sedans and ordinary BMWs that drive as well as modern Cadillacs. A hiatus on coupe funerals. My unrealistic auto writer’s… → Read More
After Driving Two Turbocharged Mazdas for Two Weeks, Mazdaspeed is Actually Kind of Alive
We all asked Mazda for more power. It was a cry rising up from virtually every corner of the automotive industry – enthusiasts, observers, analysts, insiders, owners, fans – largely due to the fact that Mazda marketed an entire lineup of vehicles as machines for keen drivers, and none of those machines offered meaningful horsepower. … → Read More
We've Heard this Incorrect Forecast Before: Honda Believes in 2022 Civic Because "Passenger Cars are Going to Stabilize"
As Toyota approached the launch of the all-new, 2018 Toyota Camry in mid-2017, the automaker telegraphed its intentions very plainly. “I think you’re going to see the entire sedan market pick up,” then vice-president Jack Hollis said. “We want the new Camry to rehabilitate the segment,” Toyota’s Moritaka Yoshida said at the time. Toyota wasn’t alone. … → Read More
Killer Instinct: The Toyota Camry's positive post-shutdown pandemic performance in a segment that's still dying a little bit on the inside
The Toyota Camry may well go down as one of the ultimate soldiers in the American automotive marketplace: shooting straight despite distractions, marching forward undeterred by the terrain, somehow finding small victories when the losses are mounting, always ready to carry new recruits on its shoulders. Somehow, amidst all of the recent economic turmoil and … → Read More
Honda Truly Believes Sales Of The Facelifted 2021 Honda Ridgeline Will Jump More Than 50 Percent
In 2006, the first-generation Honda Ridgeline’s first full model year, Americans acquired 50,193 Ridgelines. Honda believes 2021’s refreshed Ridgeline will mark a return to those glory days. The first Ridgeline’s tenure was marked by an impressive beginning, albeit impressive only by the most modest of standards. But that Ridgeline’s performance in the U.S. marketplace rapidly … → Read More
America's 10 best-selling cars and 10 best-selling SUVs in 2020 Q3: Guess who?
Strong results from its best performers pushed a pair of Toyotas to familiar positions atop 2020’s third-quarter best-seller lists. Q3 was a rollercoaster ride for automobile manufacturers as low inventory plagued dealers who enjoyed better-than-expected demand. Following COVID-19’s late-Q1/early-Q2 outbreak across the United States, mass shutdowns and severe economic hardship produced… → Read More
The State Of America's Pickup Truck Market: 2020 Q3
Better than 16 percent of the new vehicles sold in the United States in the third quarter of 2020 were full-size pickup trucks, an increase created by relatively steady truck sales in an unsteady world. And who’s to thank? Ford, primarily. Following a COVID-inflicted 33 percent nosedive in auto sales in the second quarter of … → Read More
2019 Honda Ridgeline Long-Term Update: 4 months and 5,000 miles
Auto high beams were not the feature I thought I’d miss when our family switched from a 2018 Honda Odyssey to a 2019 Honda Ridgeline. I spent more than three decades living in urban environments. High beam use was limited to vacations or weekend getaways in country idylls. Even after three years of rural life, … → Read More
The Six Vehicles That Wildly Outdid Reasonable Sales Expectations in America in August 2020
Gauging economic health during the latter stages of 2020 is proving remarkably challenging. On the one hand, there’s grievous unemployment caused by COVID-19 shutdowns; on the other hand, bicycle sales are booming and backyard pool installations skyrocketed. Contrast the fact that the Dow Jones isn’t far from its six-month high with a 32 percent U.S. … → Read More
The 2021 Mazda CX-30 Turbo: Great Hot Hatch, Or The Greatest Hot Hatch?
Is the 2021 Mazzda CX-30 Turbo a hot hatch or something else? Is it just another crossover or is it more like the Mazda 3? → Read More
Wondering Why the Honda Civic Coupe Has to Die? Coupe Market Share Is Down 60 Percent Over the Last Decade
Tucked inside America's car sector are a handful of fun cars – intentionally impractical two-doors – that muster a mere fraction of the market share they produced just 10 years ago. → Read More
Joining the 1 Percent: I Bought a Honda Ridgeline
What else are you going to buy when your vehicular wish list includes exterior and interior cargo space, four driven wheels, reasonable fuel economy, comfortable seating for five, high safety ratings, killer resale value, and a ton of standard equipment? → Read More
Minivan Market Share Plunged During America's Pandemic-induced Second-quarter Auto Sales Collapse
As quarantines and shutdowns caused new vehicle demand to shrink, the previously beloved minivan segment saw its share of the U.S. market absolutely crater. → Read More
Subaru USA CEO Tom Doll Gets Specific About COVID and Post-COVID U.S. Sales Goals
Subaru's year-over-year losses in 2020, a year torn to shreds by COVID-19, have not been as severe as anticipated. Moreover, bright spots have been more numerous than expected. → Read More
Mazda's U.S. Sales Situation Finally Starts Coming Together, in the Middle of a Pandemic? And Because of the Miata?
U.S. auto sales in the first quarter of 2020 tumbled by more than 12 percent, yet Mazda sales during the same period were off by just 4 percent. → Read More
Midsize Car Sales Weren't Actually That Bad in the First Quarter; Toyota Camry Market Share Is Rising
At the top of the midsize heap, the Toyota Camry continued to improve its market share, expanding the size of its slice in a shrinking pie. → Read More
Toyota Was Way Off-target With Its Sales Forecast for the Fifth-generation Lexus LS
Over the course of three decades, Lexus has accomplished remarkable feats in the U.S. marketplace. While the modern luxury landscape proves how challenging it is for a (non-Tesla) upstart such as Genesis to garner even an ounce of market share, Toyota’s premium brand generated relatively high volume levels from the get-go. By 1991, only the … → Read More
The Mazda CX-5 Diesel Is Still AWOL
And after one model year and just enough demand to help (in some small way) propel the CX-5 to yet another record sales year, the Mazda CX-5 diesel is missing. → Read More
Minivan Market Share Is Now at 2 Percent In America, and It's Rapidly Getting Worse
After volume showed signs of recuperation through the middle half of the last decade, the segment's 2019 collapse suggests we haven't reached bottom yet. → Read More
2019 Was the Worst Year for the Mazda 3 Since 1990 – Won't the CX-30 Make 2020 Even Worse?
The Mazda 3 can't compete with the Civic and Corolla. It can't compete with its own memory. What if it can't compete with its own sibling? → Read More