What exactly is that thing? it’s a Nissan Juke, thank you very much for asking.

I got quite a bit of that recently, when I spent a week testing the supremely unique 2015 Nissan Juke NISMO RS, which makes no effort to blend in with the crowd.

The Juke has always been somewhat of an odd duck, and the NISMO package I tested only furthers that.  Here’s my full report on the vehicle and how it measures up against other compact crossovers.

The history of Nissan’s Z-Car lineup is deep, going back nearly 50 years to the late 1960s, but the goal has always been the same -- to build fast, fun sporty cars.

While it’s a small piece of Nissan’s overall stamp on the market, it’s a piece worth maintaining, and I recently got a chance to take the wheel of a 2016 Nissan 370Z NISMO.

From the moment you see the BMW i3 -- the plug-in electric-powered hatchback from the luxury automaker -- and you know you’re looking at something evolutionary (or perhaps revolutionary). From its spaceship-esque bubbly shape, to the unique and attractive interior design, this is clearly unlike any other vehicle you’ll ever see.

Beyond looks and design, this is a vehicle that tells the future. No, it’s not what everyone will drive now -- honestly, they will probably sell very few of them compared to gas-powered vehicles due to the “range anxiety” that electric vehicles tend to give potential buyers -- but years down the road we’ll look back at vehicles like the i3 and remember that this was a trailblazer.

My week behind the wheel of an i3 was unlike my usual vehicle testing periods, mostly in a good way, and I’m back with a full report on this visitor from the future.

Some vehicles come and go and are barely remembered. You could say the opposite is true for the Dodge Grand Caravan. Around for decades, this minivan staple was already supposed to be dead and gone, but has again returned for the 2016 model year.

It’s the cat with nine lives, and I recently got a chance to test the 2016 Grand Caravan to see what it still had to offer as it drives off into the sunset and Chrysler’s more upscale Town and Country becomes the flagship minivan for FCA.

Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. executive vice president and North America chairman José Muñoz has pulled the wraps off the extensively redesigned 2016 Nissan Altima. It is scheduled to go on sale in November at Nissan dealers nationwide with a starting MSRP of $22,500 USD.

"The new 2016 Altima has been transformed in one of the most extensive mid-cycle product makeovers in Nissan history – outside, inside and under the skin," said Muñoz. "The new Altima offers class-leading standard fuel economy of 39 miles per gallon highway for Altima 2.5-liter engine equipped models. No other mid-size sedan has shown consistent fuel economy gains over the last decade like Altima has, including a 26 percent increase since 2006."

Already unique among V-6 engines for its refinement, power, efficiency and adaptability, the formidable 3.6-liter Pentastar is remade for model-year 2016. 

Depending on the application, the redesigned V-6 delivers fuel-economy improvements of more than six percent while increasing torque more than 14.9 percent. This occurs at engine speeds below 3,000 rpm, where elevated torque has its most profound impact on the driving experience.

Enhancements such as two-step variable valve lift (VVL), cooled exhaust-gas recirculation (EGR) and innovative weight-reduction strategies boost the engine’s efficiency and performance, all while preserving the smoothness that remains a hallmark of the Pentastar brand.