Autos
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2021 Aston Martin DBX First Drive: A True All-Weather Gran Turismo
The 2021 Aston Martin DBX is the first SUV in the storied British automaker’s 107-year history. Daimler supplied the engine, the transmission, and the electrical architecture, but the rest of the DBX—the all-aluminum body structure, the anti-roll air suspension, the roomy and practical interior—has all been engineered and executed in-house. Now here’s the thing: This off-road Aston isn’t just a great first-time effort for an automaker that’s never designed and developed an SUV before. It’s great, period. The Aston Martin DBX sets a new benchmark for luxury performance SUVs right out of the box. Range Rover, Porsche, Bentley, even Lamborghini: You’re on notice. This $192,986 Aston Martin SUV delivers a bewitching blend of performance, luxury, capability, and sheer driving enjoyment. How Fas...
Hyundai Bringing Rad EV Concept Cars to Life for New Electric-Car Brand
In the increasingly competitive green-car space, the Hyundai Ioniq lineup hasn’t gained much traction. Many consumers haven’t even heard of the trio—it offers hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and electric powertrains—of Ioniq hatchbacks currently available, and the EV variant isn’t at all competitive when it comes to range. Now Hyundai is seeking to changing the narrative by turning Ioniq into its own EV brand. Under the new label, the automaker will launch three electric vehicles in the next four years: a midsize crossover, a sedan, and a large SUV. The midsize crossover, dubbed Ioniq 5, arrives in early 2021 with what promises to be a compelling exterior design. It will be based on the super-cool 45 concept Hyundai debuted at the 2019 Frankfurt Motor Show. This concept car featured sleek fa...
2021 Bentley Bentayga Speed Is Nigh, Will Stack Horsepower 627 High
We’ve already seen the facelifted 2021 Bentley Bentayga, and the new look takes an SUV that’s no stranger to aesthetic controversy and gives it a lower, more planted mien. Only the roof and door skins were untouched, which makes for a more effective overhaul, but the outrageous Speed version might bring the most substantive reinvention. Powered by the Volkswagen Group’s fascinating and power-dense W-12 engine, we now have our first, semi-disguised look at the speedy SUV in its updated duds. These aren’t spy shots; they come to us from Bentley itself. Think of them more as a few promotional shots to build buzz ahead of a full reveal we expect next week. But we’ve already heard a bit about what to expect from this 12-cylinder bruiser. For one, the Speed will be the only way to get a W-...
Could the Next BMW M5 Be an 1,000-HP Electric Super Sedan?
BMW just took the wraps off the refreshed 2021 M5, but rumors are already swirling about what the next one will be powered by. BMW’s future, whether we like it or not, is going to be electric, and the company recently confirmed all-electric versions of the next 7-series and 5-series. But what about the king-of-the-hill M5? Unlike the normal 5-series, the M5 has never been powered by anything but a classic internal combustion engine—heck, the current M5 isn’t even hybridized. A recent report form Car Magazine, however, suggests that the next M5 may leapfrog hybridization altogether for an even more electrified state. <!– –> Car says the 2024 BMW M5 will be all-electric. BMW is alleged to already be testing what it calls a “powerBEV,” using a 5-serie...
The MotorTrend App’s Summer Deal Is Too Hot to Handle
For less than the cost of an extra-large supreme pizza you would have bought at the local pizzeria that’s now delivery-only, you can subscribe to the MotorTrend App for an entire year and stream 3,200+ hours of the best in automotive entertainment, including HOT ROD Garage, Wheeler Dealers, and 25+ seasons of Top Gear. Get this offer now! Sign up to the MotorTrend App for just $2 per month! If that’s not enough, crank up the A/C and check out the entire Roadkill Universe: Roadkill, Roadkill Garage, Engine Masters, Faster With Finnegan, and Roadkill’s Junkyard Gold. And coming soon—drumroll please—the brand-new season of Top Gear America, featuring Dax Shepard, Rob Corddry, and Jethro Bovingdon. Who said you need to go stir crazy during quarantine this summer? You can tota...
The 2021 Chevy Corvette C8 Stingray R Special Edition? This Is Probably It
It sure seems like the oft-rumored 2021 Chevrolet Corvette C8 Stingray R Special Edition graphics package is going to make its debut very soon. These shots show a couple of Corvette C8.R racers and a white street-spec C8 with a distinctive, motorsport-inspired graphics package, sitting under a bridge at the iconic Wisconsin road course near Elkhart Lake ahead of this past weekend’s race. While a Chevrolet spokesperson we spoke to said there were no announcements at this time and that they couldn’t confirm whether this would show up on road-going C8s anytime soon, lining up the evidence before us (and leaked elsewhere) means we think the Stingray R is more of matter of when than if. One #Corvette will lead the field at #RoadAmerica. The other two lead the #IMSA #GTLM Championship for @TeamC...
How Cabot Coach Builders and Lincoln Collaborated to Create the 2020 Continental Coach Door Edition
The first thing to know about the Lincoln Continental Coach Door Edition and how it’s made is that the process shares next to nothing with stretching a Lincoln MKT for bachelor party duty. This factory stretch was completely designed and engineered in-house at Lincoln with input and collaboration from Cabot Coach Builders, a firm certified by Lincoln as a Qualified Vehicle Modifier more than 30 years ago. And most of the parts used in its construction are produced by Lincoln and shipped to Haverhill, Massachusetts, where Cabot performs the “operation.” Making the Cut Fully assembled Continental Black Label cars are shipped to Cabot, where the cut and slice are performed. The roof gets cut just about 5 inches aft of where the B-pillar structure meets the roof rails—right about where you see...
2020 Hyundai Sonata Review: Appealing to Your Emotions
Remember sedans? They’re not dead yet, though you’d be forgiven for thinking so considering what’s parked on your street. With more people making the switch to SUVs every year, some automakers have given up on sedans entirely. Hyundai isn’t one of them, and it’s betting that making the 2020 Hyundai Sonata sexy, comfortable, and effortless will convince you not to defect. The way Hyundai tells it, the last Sonata was great but dull. This is, Hyundai says, because they were chasing best- in-class interior space at the expense of design. Believe that if you want, but now they say that’s not enough. SUVs of equal footprint have more space by nature, so they need something else to pull you in. The new strategy embraces the fact that a car purchase is more often an emotional one than a coldly lo...
2020 Maserati Levante Trofeo First Drive: The GT Car of Super SUVs
As the number of SUV derivatives continues to explode, we find ourselves considering new models that slice the segment ever thinner. High-performance SUVs have been a thing for years now, and sloped-roof SUV “coupes” are becoming a thing, whether we like it or not. Now, the Italians have—inadvertently, I fear—invented yet another SUV subclass with the 2020 Maserati Levante Trofeo: the SUV GT. Readers will be familiar with grand touring cars, or GTs, which are big, comfortable coupes and sedans with equally big engines designed to transport the well-heeled owner across continents as quickly as decorum allows. Fast as they may be, they’re not sports cars per se (though they do generally handle well). Their suspensions are softer, all the better to soak up rough roads and float down the high...
2021 Subaru Outback, Legacy Receive More Stuff Standard, Cost a Little More
Coming off full redesigns last year, the Subaru Outback wagon and Legacy sedan return for the 2021 model year with minor changes, including a new paint color and a few new standard safety features. The 2021 Subaru Outback and Legacy reach dealerships this October, and prices have increased slightly for both models. To improve nighttime visibility, steering-responsive LED headlights are now standard across all trim levels on the Outback and Legacy. Rear seat reminder, which prompts drivers to check the rear seat area before exiting the vehicle (for dogs or kids sitting on the seat), is also newly standard, as is a seat belt reminder for front and rear passengers. Finally, both models receive a new Brilliant Bronze Metallic paint color option. The base 2021 Subaru Outback now goes for $27,84...
2021 Kia Sonet First Look: A Tiny, Stylish SUV for (Most of) the World
A Kia what now? Meet the Sonet, a new tiny crossover being introduced for India that Kia says will soon be available in other global markets. It isn’t entirely clear if the U.S. is among those markets, but it seems unlikely given Kia’s well-fleshed-out small-SUV lineup here. The Sonet is more or less the same size as Hyundai’s Venue—which is sold in America—meaning it’d overlap heavily with the Kia Soul and, to some extent, the recently introduced Seltos that sneaks in between the subcompact Soul and the compact Sportage. What Is the Kia Sonet? The Sonet is a sub-subcompact SUV that looks sort of like a squished mashup of a Sportage and a Seltos, with dinky little wheels and a bubbly roof. It’s cute in the way most small things are cute, and interesting detail...
The Ultra-Rare Porsche 916 Is a Hot 911 Engine in a Big, Beefy 914 Body
You’re looking at a vehicle that represents two absolute extremes of Porsche in the early 1970s. On one hand, the Porsche 914 was a polarizing “junior” Porsche, derided for its Volkswagen roots and unusual styling. On the other hand, the 916 is a vision of a different future, in which the little mid-engined sports car received a huge dose of adrenaline in the form of big flat-six engines pulled straight from hotter 911s—much more extreme than the 914/6 cars upgraded with a mild 110-hp 2.0-liter flat-six. Even packing a big six displacing between 2.4 and 2.7 liters, the 914-based 916 was a small car. And the kind of performance brought by the engines in so small a package would have threatened the 911 substantially. That wasn’t the reason the 916 project was cancelled, but it was surely a c...
