Auto News 5

The road trip is a right of passage for every Four Seasons vehicle. It's those long, lonely hours on the highway when we find out whether we really love a vehicle. The Evoque has been no exception. In a little more than six months, the small crossover has traversed much of the eastern half of the United States and ventured as far west as Jackson Hole, Wyoming, piling on nearly 20,000 miles.

The wagon will come with two four-cylinder engines, a 2.5-liter or a turbocharged 1.6-liter, both paired with a six-speed automatic. The latter engine should achieve better than 30 mpg on the highway, beating vehicles like the Honda Odyssey. Ford thinks the Transit Connect's efficiency, along with a base price promised to be cheaper than any other seven-seater, will attract buyers turned off by ever larger and more powerful minivans.

The RDX, Acura's compact crossover, was previously an outlier in its category. It seemed to have been developed by a bunch of engineers who were trying to channel the Integra Type R. As intriguing as that sounds, the RDX's buckboard ride and high-strung four-cylinder turbo just didn't work in a compact, premium-brand crossover.