Jeremy Clarkson is a lucky bastard…

[Please don’t take offense, Mr. Clarkson. We love Top Gear]

Unlike Jeremy, We haven’t got a clue how exotic cars drive, how they sound, how they feel, how they smell… sigh. I digress.

But hey, we’re in the majority! This site is for the rest of us. We will only blog about the cars that the average person has a good shot at experiencing – even owning. These are cars you’ll be able to relate to. Here’s our stance: In a week of average driving, if you don’t see one of these cars on the road, you won’t find it on our site.

Each day of the week, we’ll feature a car we’ve been thinking about. These could either be good, or bad, or maybe even about how little we care. We write our takes on cars we know, cars we like and don’t like,, and our opinions on the way they look and feel.

Also, let us take a moment to apologize in advance for saying something potentially nasty about a car you happen to own and care for. It will happen.

Lastly, we welcome your comments, suggestions, rants and raves, so let us know what’s on your mind. Go ahead, embrace your inner car nut. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and visit us frequently.

Welcome, dear fellow non-lucky bastards, to Middle Class Motoring. Enjoy.

Meet Our Editors

Harvey Xiao: Founder, Editor.
Specialization: Being nostalgic about the 80’s, Japanese cars

This website is the result of my obsession. It will serve as the place to unload my automotive anxiety. As you will find, I am not loyal to brands / specific types of cars. I will speak highly about any and all cars I like, and readily criticize ones I don’t.

Cars I’ve owned: 

• 1992 Mazda MX-6 5-speed manual: ‘02-04 
• 1992 Toyota Corolla 3-speed automatic: ‘03 
• 1979 Mercedes-Benz 240d 4-speed manual: ’04-05 
• 1995 Toyota Camry 5-speed manual: ’05-08 
• 1999 Honda Accord Coupe 5-speed manual: ’08-09 
• 1992 Volvo 740 Wagon 4-speed automatic: ’08-09 (gave this to my parents - still in family)
• 1982 Mercedes-Benz 240d 4-speed manual: ‘09-present
• 1999 Volvo S70 5-speed manual: ‘09-'10

John Shen: Technology Editor
Specialization: Dashboards, Explaining how torque works, German cars

Cars and adventure go hand in hand for me. In college I spent four years building 2 Solar Cars, and raced one of them all the way across the Australian Outback, which actually meant driving either a Subaru Forester doing lead escort (this meant that I actually drove a Subaru across the Outback) or a manual Toyota HiAce eurobox carrying a trailer (the engine was literally under your seat, and there wasn’t a tachometer, so you shifted when you felt your butt vibrating at about 4000rpm). I backpacked across New Zealand in a 1997 Nissan Bluebird manual, sleeping in it at times when I had to. I spent a few months in Germany and road-tripped across central Europe in a 2005 VW Touran (basically a Golf), taking it up to 140mph on the Autobahn.

I’m a sucker for details, I appreciate little things in cars: buttons having the right feel and sound when you click them, matching springiness of the plastic on the dash with the door handle, the sound doors make when you close them. I can also tell you the difference between a McPherson strut setup and a double A-arm, and what effect caster angle has on handling (having built and tuned the suspension on the solar car). So I’m going to try and provide a more detailed, technical look at some of the cars we review, hopefully without making you too bored.

Cars I’ve owned:

• 1992 Geo Prizm i.e. Toyota Corolla 3-speed automatic ’00-‘03
• 2005 Scion xA 5-speed manual ’07-‘08
• 2009 VW GTI 2 door 6-speed manual ’08-present (that’s my car you see going around the bend in the banner pic)
• 1996 Mazda Miata 5-speed manual

Nick Hsu: Lifestyle/Contributing Editor
Specialization: Lifestyle, Culture, Being Nick Hsu, Collectables & European cars

In addition, I have an armada of cars in my driveway and garage. In my heyday (a few months ago), I took up both garage spaces and the driveway with my cars. I believe it’s appropriate to have one car for each day of the week. Hell, I have 90 dress shirts, what’s wrong with a 7 or 8 cars?

Scholars worldwide are perplexed with my taste for cars, so I obviously won’t attempt to explain it to you in this short bio. I like what I like. Period. My motto: “For $20k, I can have a new Camry. However, I can also have an old Camry, an old Mercedes, an old Miata, and a couple thousand dollars to maintain the Mercedes. Isn’t it an obvious decision?”

I will write reviews when I please.

Cars I’ve Owned:

• 1998 Nissan Sentra 5-speed manual
• 1985 Mercedes-Benz 300d turbodiesel 4-speed automatic
• 2001 Infiniti I30 4-speed automatic
• 1991 Mercedes-Benz 560sel 4-speed automatic
• 1993 Volvo 240 Wagon 4-speed automatic 
• 1991 Mazda Miata 5-speed manual

possibly more.

Sicheng Su: Contributing Editor/Special Correspondent on Merlion Affairs
Specialization: Being from Singapore, Avoiding obstacles with his Outback, Possibly Durians

I grew up in Singapore, a strange land where the Honda Accord is a large car, Toyota Corollas come with leather and wood trim, and turn signals are always yellow. Despite that, I’ve  been fascinated with the American car market for at least a decade or more. Whenever my dad would go on a business trip to the States, he’d come back with a copy of the Consumer Auto Reports, and I’d pour over it for weeks, maybe even months, reading every single entry over and over again and imagining what car I’d own if I could. (It was always a stick-shift.)

I’m one of those guys who relishes the chance to drive any car I haven’t before, no matter how good or crappy it is. I have a slight obsession with large vehicles (renting U-Hauls is fun to me) and really old cars (my friend let me drive his 1960s VW bus once. It was glorious). My dream job is to be a WRC driver. Also, I hate eating vegetables.

Cars I’ve owned: 

• 2007 Ford Focus SE 4-Door, 5-speed manual (’07-’08)
• 2001 Subaru Outback Limited, 5-speed manual (’08 – present)

Other family cars I’ve driven but haven’t owned (cars are expensive in Singapore!):

• 1999 Saab 9-5 (2.0 liter turbo), 4-speed auto (’04 – ‘07)
• 2005 Honda Civic, 4-speed auto (’05 – present)
• 2007 Mazda RX-8, 6-speed manual (’07 – present)