While spending over 40,000 miles a year on New England’s roads, I have often found it easier, more relaxing, and frequently much quicker, to take the road less traveled to reach my intended destination.

The newcomer to the compact crossover/SUV segment is Volkswagen’s Tiguan. A car-based wagon with front- or full-time all-wheel drive, the Tiguan uses a turbocharged four-cylinder engine to make 200 hp, the most standard power in the class.

OXFORD — On a rare weekend away from competition at the New England Dragway, Whitney Saunders of Ellsworth raced at Maine’s Oxford Dragway where she finished as runner-up in the eight-car field.

It doesn’t seem possible, but Toyota’s revolutionary Prius parallel hybrid car has been on sale in America for exactly 10 years.