Autos
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What Bronco? Jeep Wrangler Previews Factory V-8 Engine on Eve of Ford Launch
The hardcore factory 4×4 competition may be heating up, but Jeep isn’t ceding anything to those other guys across town. Today, Jeep revealed the Wrangler Rubicon 392 Concept, serving up its idea of what a factory V-8-powered Jeep Wrangler could look like. This bombshell landed just hours before Ford is set to pull the sheets off its new Bronco. A Factory V-8 Wrangler? That’s a First Believe it or not, Jeep has never offered a Wrangler with a V-8 from the factory. Ever since the Wrangler launched as a 1987 model (the codenamed YJ generation), power-hungry enthusiasts and aftermarket outfits such as AEV have taken matters into their own hands, swapping all sorts of V-8s into their off-roaders. The last time Jeep’s famous utility vehicle, the pre-Wrangler CJ, was a...
2021 Chevrolet Trailblazer First Drive: Some Small Misses, But Big Wins
One of my oldest friends had bid farewell to her husband just weeks prior as he deployed overseas. They’d packed up the apartment in Miami and shipped most of it back to our hometown on California’s Central Coast with the help of the Air Force, but her, the kids, and her car needed to get across the country in the middle of the pandemic. They’d considered flying, but between the health risks and the cost of both plane tickets and shipping the car, she elected to drive. Two kids under seven, a 7-year-old Ford Escape, and 2,500 miles: What could go wrong? “You’re gonna laugh, but we busted another hose,” read the Facebook Messenger notification on my lock screen. Uh oh. Time to mount a rescue expedition. I hope the 2021 Chevrolet Trailblazer in my driveway...
How Reliable Is the Volvo S60? Here’s Our Report After More Than 20,000 Miles
Over the course of a year, we’ve driven our 2019 Volvo S60 over 20,000 miles. The S60 has touched 10 states, been on a couple cross-country trips, and gone on multiple weekend trips. Although it hasn’t seen much activity these past few months, our beloved Volvo has traveled a long way. And it hasn’t disappointed us. Its looks and comfort continue to please us, and we’re satisfied with its technology and the way it handles. The S60 is not the best sport sedan, but it’s also not trying to be that. Instead, it focuses more on delivering an enjoyable experience. But after 20,000, how reliable is the Volvo S60? Can We Trust the Volvo S60 After 20,000 Miles? The short answer is yes, but we’ve had a couple of hiccups along the way. The first one was replacing t...
Can the 2021 Chevrolet Trailblazer Activ Actually Blaze a Trail?
“Trailblazer” doesn’t have to be a literal term. We talk about figurative trailblazers all the time, people or products that do things differently or break a glass ceiling. Although the 2021 Chevrolet Trailblazer may be an new product for the brand, it competes in an established segment, and both the marketing around our “Activ” trim level tester and the history behind the Trailblazer name suggest Chevrolet meant the literal definition. Let’s put it to the test, then. The original Trailblazer (and the Trailblazer trim level for the compact S-10 Blazer that preceded it) was a truck-based, body-on-frame SUV with proper four-wheel drive and a six- or eight-cylinder engine. The all-new model is a car-based, unibody crossover with two different turbocharged t...
Kia Releases 2022 Sedona Minivan Exterior and Interior Images
Minivans aren’t exactly huge business in America anymore—of 3.5 million new vehicles sold in the first quarter of the year, just 81,000 or so were of the sliding-door variety—but nevertheless Kia has just dropped a few official images of its next-generation Carnival, which you know better as the Sedona. Kia calls the new Sedona minivan a “grand utility vehicle,” for whatever that’s worth. It’s not clear if that description indicates that the van will be moving up in specification or if it’s simply marketing hyperbole. Kia says the design is “SUV-inspired” because minivans are vehicle non grata these days, and that influence can be seen in a rear three-quarters view that shows a whiff of—of all things—Ford Expedition to the surface intera...
The Lincoln Corsair, Nautilus, and Aviator Catch Mono for 2020 and 2021
Lincoln brings the stylish Monochromatic package to its smaller Corsair, Nautilus, and Aviator crossover and SUV models for 2021—2020, in the Nautilus’s case—after originally introducing the kit on its flagship Navigator. As its name implies, the Mono package gives these American luxury vehicles a noir-appropriate look courtesy of black-painted wheels and body-color-painted exterior trim pieces, including the side mirror housings. See all 37 photos The color these exterior items can take on, however, is limited. Lincoln offers the Monochromatic package with only a handful of paint options. For example, the 2021 Corsair and Aviator models are available in black, white, and gray, while Lincoln restricts the Monochromatic package-equipped 2020 Nautilus to black. (The previous...
Hyundai Introduces Manual Transmission Without a Clutch Pedal—Is It Really a Stick Shift?
It’s hard to put a finger on exactly why driving a car with a manual transmission is so much fun. Is it the control you feel selecting your own gears, that visceral connection formed between human and machine? Is it the satisfaction of knowing you’re doing more work than 90 percent of other drivers on the road? Is it the challenge of gently feathering the clutch with your left foot and modulating the throttle as you creep uphill in bumper-to-bumper traffic with your right, knowing one slip-up could stall your engine and invite ridicule and embarrassment? For the enthusiast, maybe—but for non-enthusiasts wary of the work involved, that last scenario is perhaps most triggering. And Hyundai knows it. The folks at Hyundai Motor India have come up with a solution to the clutch-pedal...
How Roadkill Happened, and Why It’s Must-See TV
I know. I was there. When Google threw us some money in 2011 to help make YouTube more than just a platform for shaky lo-fi user-generated videos about laughing babies and dancing cats, I decided the MotorTrend Channel would be like a proper automotive TV channel, something I’d dreamed about doing for decades. It would have TV-length, TV-style shows covering everything from new vehicles to hot rods to four-wheel drives to motorcycles. Some shows would be weekly, some monthly, but to keep the channel relevant and interesting, a fresh show would be uploaded every day, five days a week. I came up with a complete slate of programs, outlining the show formats, who the on-screen personalities should be (no pretty-boy TV talking heads reading scripts, but staffers who’d actually know ...
Does the Dodge Brand Have a Future?
The Dodge brand is a bit of a conundrum, and it doesn’t help that for 2021 it has been reduced to three vehicles: Two aging muscle cars and a large three-row SUV. (The Grand Caravan minivan kinda-sorta lives on—or at least keeps getting stays of execution, but is slated to die.) As FCA heads into a merger with PSA Group, creating the fourth-largest automaker in the world made, the chances of the new entity culling brands from its extensive portfolio seem rather high. It ultimately begs the question: Will Dodge survive in the long-term? Or even the medium-term? We talked to Tim Kuniskis, who oversees Dodge as part of his role as head of passenger cars for FCA North America, about the future of the American mark. While Dodge is adding ever more trims and high-output variations to...
Lamborghini Discusses Its Post-Sián Roadster Electrification Plans
The Lamborghini Sián Roadster, like its hardtop predecessor, is the sort of Lamborghini that the company describes as coming out of its “laboratory of the future”—experimenting with electrification techniques to figure out how to move the company into its next era of performance. We know some of the broad strokes of this plan, especially that the next Aventador will be a hybrid. But Lamborghini continues to drop hints about the specifics of its plans. Why electrification at all? For one, emissions and noise regulations are forcing the change. That’s nothing new and shouldn’t come as a surprise. It’s clear that Lamborghini probably would not electrify its cars if regulations didn’t require it. But the company is making the most of the situation, working c...
New Toyota Corolla Cross Looks Like the Illegitimate Child of a RAV4 and a Corolla
Toyota is capitalizing on the growing popularity of crossovers by expanding the global Corolla lineup to include such a model. Meet the Corolla Cross, which Toyota unveiled in Thailand. While the automaker remains mum on the model’s future in the U.S., we see great potential for the Corolla Cross on our shores. In terms of size, the small crossover slots between the subcompact C-HR and the compact RAV4. Oddly enough, it bears little resemblance to the rest of the Corolla family. With sharp headlights and more rounded proportions than the RAV4, the design is pleasing, albeit conventional. See all 16 photos Like the RAV4, the Corolla Cross is designed with practicality in mind. The automaker promises large door openings for easy entry and exit, an elevated driving position, and a ...
Cancel Culture Comes For Ferrari’s 250 GTO Trademark
Fun fact: You can trademark a shape. Ferrari did so in 2008 for its then-44-year-old 250 GTO sports car. And, now, Ferrari lost that trademark in a dispute with Ares Design, a custom-car shop located right down the street in Modena, Italy. The decision could pave the way for outside companies to build and sell GTO lookalikes. Ares, which wanted to build its own take on the rare 250 GTO, took Ferrari to the mat in the European Union Intellectual Protection Office’s Cancellation Division, arguing that the company filed its original trademark in bad faith—essentially, to block efforts at recreation models. It also noted that Ferrari had not used the GTO mark in at least five years, which under EU intellectual property law makes it eligible for cancellation. As Ares stated in its ca...
