Before there was Driving, before National Post and all, there was a Driver’s Edge section in your local newspaper. Driving is multi-media now though, ‘ya hear? Management wants videos, and since those don’t typeset to newsprint all that well, we’ve made them available to you here, internauts, on this world-wide web! What a time to be alive.
Recommended Videos
It’s been another vibrant year for video on Driving, our award-winning team of journalists serving up a nutritious diet of consumer-ready car reviews and just a few enthusiast indulgences for good measure. From everyday hybrids to alien curios you’ve perhaps never even heard of, here are five of our most-watched videos from 2024 — plus a bonus five we’re just really pleased with.
2024 Kia Carnival
What better day for a minivan review than Bring Your Kid to Work Day? Starting us off with 2024’s biggest, Driving Managing Editor Jonathan Yarkony brought his eldest along to test the family-friendly Kia Carnival.
The Kia Carnival starts rather affordably for such a large vehicle, not to mention one that can come so generously equipped. Kitted with the full spread of modern advanced driver assistance technologies and configurable with passenger-pleasing lounge seats, there’s something for everyone. Steady on the road, handsome in the driveway, spacious at the rink, the ‘Yarks finds a lot to love in this rig — and just a few disappointments. Thanks to young Emily too, viewers get some rear-seat perspective on how the Carnival stacks up against longer-established peers like the Toyota Sienna.
2024 Toyota RAV4 vs Mazda CX-50
Driving Video Manager Clayton Seams and contributor Jay Kana always make a warm pair on screen, and here they bring a sweet bit of life to two everyday-runabout crossovers: the Toyota RAV4 and the Mazda CX-50.
More than just a decision between turbo power and hybrid efficiency, our reviewers dig into the different spirits these like-sized comparos bring to the mainstream crossover market — particularly the Toyota’s hardy utility versus the Mazda’s heftier, more premium cabin impression. Finally, the pair dig into questions of value in new-purchase satisfaction, fuel economy, reputational reliability, and resale. It’s an important matchup, and one that Canadians clearly wanted to hear their verdicts on.
2024 Buick Envista vs Chevrolet Trax
“It’s no longer a penalty-box segment, is it,” opens this next comparo, again hosted by our Clayton Seams and Jay Kana. Lining up two flavours of the same General Motors platform, Seams and Kana take on two truly unexpected value delights: the Chinese-built Buick Envista and Chevy Trax.
The Trax and Envista are twins in ever so slightly different skins. Both front-drive and running the same 1.2-litre three-cylinder on the same underpinnings, the Envista lightly polishes the economical Trax into a more stylish, premium-feeling entry-bracket crossover. Driving reviewers Elle Alder and Jil McIntosh are both quite positive on these models as well.
Made in China is a plus here too, for the Trax and Envista at times exceeding the quality and overall impression of many domestically assembled GM products. Better still, their strong value propositions and growing suite of standard safety technologies make these a refreshingly competitive entry from an automaker that doesn’t always impress.
2025 Porsche Panamera Turbo E-Hybrid
Graeme Fletcher’s years at Motoring TV have sculpted him into a slick presenter. Here he wags about the newly hybridized Porsche Panamera Turbo E-Hybrid, a major technical step for the line into 400-volt augmentation. More power from that V8, sure, but there’s even more new kit under the skin here.
Cooler than at-the-wheels twist is this first experience of Porsche’s new ‘Porsche Active Ride’ suspension system which omits traditional anti-roll bars in favour of enormously powerful hydraulic pumps running off that 400-volt system. This allows the car to pitch and roll itself opposite whatever forces the road throws at passengers, minimizing the Gs felt inside for an easy, luxurious ride. Fletcher shows handheld footage of the Panamera riding incredibly steadily across shallow alternating moguls, capping off a truly interesting generational step for the Panamera line.
2024 Toyota Corolla Cross
One of the cars of all time, the 2024 Toyota Corolla Cross is a straightforward, functional, and frankly overdue answer to Canadians’ beloved Crosstrek compact crossover. It isn’t sexy, but it doesn’t need to be. Instead, this is the smallest and cheapest Toyota crossover you can get, priced from the high $20s and typically landing in the low $30k range. Cheap cars may not be truly cheap anymore, but at least units like the Corolla Cross land solid.
In this video, our seasoned pro Jil McIntosh runs you through the Corolla Cross, where it fits, and what a thrifty spend will get you. She also frames it up with some perspective from Driving’s comparisons with other segment competitors, squaring up a no-nonsense overview of this important bread-and-butter model.
Honourable mention: 2025 Porsche 992.2 911 Carrera T
This drive just landed at the very end of the year, but the video so surged in views that our Managing Editor insisted on its inclusion. What’s interesting about this video’s popularity is that the 2025 Porsche 911 T isn’t really a new model, but rather a facelift. So ravenous are the Porsche crowd, however, that many clearly needed to know just what was up with the 991.1 Porsche 911 Carrera T’s replacement with a 992.2 Porsche 911 Carrera T.
Essentially a walnut gear knob with a car (and some silly stickers) filled in around it, the 992.2 T proportions the sportscar formula well, if predictably. That’s certainly what many Porsche folks want — but as this video discusses, so too does that refinement fall short for others.
Our favourite videos of 2024
Writers often joke that it’s the pieces they care the most about that the fewest people read. Though there’s a sad truth to this, we at Driving are lucky to have an audience that just as readily flocks to the special projects we pursue as well.
The Mazda Cosmo is the brand’s breakthrough album
Clayton Seams met one of his icons this year, an original 1968 Mazda Cosmo still powered by its original twin-rotor engine — the first of its kind. A tremendous rarity, let alone in Canada, this iconic Japanese sports car showed the world that postwar Japan was ready to deliver both beauty and driving excellence.
Framed up with an accompanying written article, Seams likens the Cosmo to Supertramp’s Breakfast in America: a landmark work that suddenly bumped a quietly established name onto the world’s radar. In the decades to follow, the Mazda Cosmo laid the groundwork for the rotary-powered RX-7 and RX-8 models that so captured enthusiast imaginations. The Cosmo wasn’t the first Mazda, but it was the first that mattered.
TVR’s outlandish Tuscan wasn’t built for this dimension
A heroic drive for Elle Alder, the bluster-backed brilliance of this imported TVR Tuscan Speed Six is as 1960s as you can get this side of Y2K. Powered by an absurd engine that the makers could barely afford to develop, this alien-eyed creature offered no modern safety equipment — no traction control, no ABS, no airbags — and just relied on the driver to keep themselves out of the trees.
Elle called in a number of favours to produce this video, which along with a feature-length article offer a love letter to one of the gnarliest modern classic sports cars of our time. She also brings viewers through many of the strange quirks and curiosities that make this shed-built beast so unique and so special to spend time with. Whatever you think a sports car can be, we promise this shows that those horizons can be expanded.
How to repair faded paint
In this instructional video, longtime friend of Driving ‘Freddy B’ takes viewers through the process of cutting and polishing time-weathered paint. Using Driving videographer Clayton Seams’ personal Ford Maverick, Freddy demonstrates how good light, the right supplies, and a measure of patience can bring a shine out of even the dullest of UV-burnt single-stage finishes. Keep an eye out for Clayton, who Freddy puts to work in front of the camera as well — after all, it’s a lot of car to cover!
Behind the Scenes: Setting up the 2024 Motorama custom car show
You’ve probably attended a car show, but have you ever stepped back and wondered what it takes to put these big events on? Driving’s Jil McIntosh is an active member of the custom classic scene, and as a participant in this year’s ‘Motorama’ custom car show, she takes us for a behind-the-scenes look at the show set up for its 2024 exhibition.
Polished chrome, metal fleck, hydraulics, and more Bettie Page than your uncle has enough drool for, there’s a whole lot of metal to appreciate in this video — but also a whole lot of unseen love and labour. From organizers to exhibitors, there’s some perspective from everyone in this must-watch for any local showgoer.
Ineos Grenadier is this generation’s 4×4 salvation
We were excited when we tested the Ineos Grenadier in Scotland earlier this year, so it was a blast to have a Grenadier Trialmaster on our home turf to cap off the year. Taken to task on our go-to stretch of trails, dunes, and autumnal mud, the Grenadier continued to impress with its off-road prowess.
Even more exciting was just how liveable this retro rig proved itself in more than a week of testing. Built in the spirit of the classic Land Rover Defender, the Ineos Grenadier is and drives like an old-school off-road 4×4, but with surprising refinement. That Ineos managed to get a new automotive brand off the ground and tool an all-new design for production at a price competitive with the Lexus GX and more serious Land Rover L663 Defenders is a miracle and a blessing to the off-road community.
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