Car Reviews
2021 Ford Ranger Tremor Fast Facts: Shaking Loose This Pickup’s Appeal
Ford Ranger Full Overview We’ve just spent a week with a Ford Ranger Tremor, the off-roadiest version of Ford’s midsize Ranger pickup. We came away with these seven takeaways that every off-road-curious truck buyer considering a Tremor should stuff in their pocket. 1. Ranger Raptor? More Like Ranger ZR2 See all 8 photos We’ve seen the Ford Ranger Tremor compared to the larger Ford F-150 Raptor (we’ve even made some ourselves), but that’s not quite fair, as a key ingredient in the Raptor formula—extra horsepower—just isn’t on the Tremor menu. Really, the Tremor’s closest analogue is the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2, a direct competitor which has been impressing us for years with its insanely good off-road ability. 2. …or Ranger Gladiator See all 8 photos ...
What’s the Best 2021 Toyota Camry Trim? Here’s Our Guide
Toyota Camry Full Overview The Toyota Camry is a bona fide legend when it comes to affordable, reliable, drama-free transportation, and especially in the case of the current model, even the base trim comes well equipped. But what if you want a more stylish exterior, a few luxury touches, and the best driver assist features Toyota has to offer? The Japanese automaker provides five basic trims to choose from, and we’re here to spell out exactly what those trims get you. Shall we? 2021 Toyota Camry LE At around $26,000, the base Camry LE provides few frills but just about everything you need. Notably, Toyota includes all of its essential driver assist features—limited speed range adaptive cruise control, automated emergency braking, lane keep assist with lane tracing, automatic high-bea...
2021 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid XSE Drive: When Sporty Meets Efficiency
Toyota RAV4 Hybrid Full Overview The 2021 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid delivers more power and better fuel economy than its gas-powered stablemate. It also drives better, is a bit quicker, and doesn’t compromise interior space. The hybrid-exclusive XSE displays more aggressive styling compared to the other trims, and it delivers decent value. We recently spent a week driving a 2021 RAV4 Hybrid XSE during a recent visit to Houston, and although there are points where it can improve, this particular RAV4 checks many of the boxes customers are looking for in a compact SUV, making it an attractive option in a competitive segment. 2021 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid XSE: The Good The most attractive aspect of the RAV4 Hybrid is its fuel economy: 41/38/40 mpg city/highway/combined. Those numbers are the be...
2022 Honda Civic Sedan Interior Review: The Civic Goes Understated
Honda Civic Full Overview If it wasn’t painfully obvious from our glowing breakdown of the all-new 2022 Honda Civic, we’re stoked about Honda’s new compact superstar. The 11th-generation Civic’s conscious stylistic shift away from the origami edges of the outgoing car to this new, sleekened profile is a welcome move, particularly on the inside. We crawled around in the new Civic as part of the debut proceedings, and we reckon the fresh threads will be one of the redesigned car’s strongest selling points; based on how fabulous the outgoing car was to drive, that’s saying a lot. Here’s what to expect when you get your first in-person peek of the cabin. We suspect ardent Honda nerds may find the new horizontal, pared-down environment vaguely familiar....
2022 Porsche Taycan Turbo Cross Turismo First Drive: The Electric Wagon You’ve Been Waiting For
Porsche Taycan Full Overview Credit Subaru for unlocking the secret to selling station wagons to Americans in 1995. Faced with slumping sales at the start of the SUV boom, Subaru added plastic body cladding (and a suspension lift a year later) to the Legacy wagon, called it “Outback” and, as other manufacturers such as Volvo can confirm, the formula worked. With the new 2022 Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo, the German marque hopes the tactic will yield similar results for its performance-oriented all-electric station wagon. See all 33 photos How Separates the Cross Turismo From the Regular Taycan? Similar to how the Tesla Model Y is basically a Model 3 with a minor suspension lift and a different roofline, Taycan Turbo Cross Turismo is pretty much a dual-motor all-wheel-drive...
2021 Jeep Wrangler 4xe Plug-In Hybrid First Drive: Electrifying and Stupefying
Jeep Wrangler Full Overview A Jeep Wrangler with a plug and an electric motor is finally here. The Wrangler 4xe—pronounced “four-by-e,” like “four-by-four”—mixes a battery, electric motor, and turbocharged gas I-4 engine to deliver up to 49 MPGe (miles per gallon equivalent) and 21 miles of electric-only driving range. These plug-in hybrid specs likely are as foreign to the off-roaders and sun-lovers who typically shop Wranglers as the usual Wrangler figures covering ground clearance, breakover angles, and water fording depth are to everyone else. In theory, plug-in hybrids combine the most useful elements of electric and gas vehicles, offering silent, engine-off motoring for shorter commutes and cross-country travel fueled by readily available gasoline. Their real-...
2021 BMW M2 CS Manual First Test: More Than Just a Sporty Car
BMW M2 Full Overview If you’re washing the dishes while daydreaming about laying on a beach in Cabo sipping a piña colada, are you really washing the dishes? It might be laborious tedium, but if you aren’t conscious of your presence, thoughts, and actions, are you really there? The 2021 BMW M2 CS with the six-speed manual asks that exact question, but of the act of driving, not dishwashing. We’ve already lauded the DCT-equipped M2 CS as one of the best driver’s cars to ever wear the famed roundel—it might even be the GOAT. Sure, there are Bimmers with a sweeter soundtrack, and there are certainly M cars with more power. But none of them have been as thrilling, as focused, and as complete, as the Misano Blue M2 CS we tested earlier this year. This Alpine White e...
2003 Acura MDX Rewind Review: When Luxury Meant Simplicity
I am tugging on the door handle of a classic first-generation Acura MDX, and it is refusing to let me in. This, I will soon realize, is what makes this old MDX such a fantastic SUV. All of which is irrelevant to my current problem: Why won’t the damn door open? And then I have my forehead-smacking moment: This MDX predates the proximity key, and is completely oblivious to my presence. I can’t unlock it by merely touching the handle, as I can in most new cars; instead I have to tell it I’m here by pushing a button on the key fob. (I suppose I could also put the key in the lock, but what are we, Neanderthals?) The MDX, I realize, is a portal to a not-too-distant past, a time before luxury cars started trying to figure out what we want and just did what we asked. Despite bei...
Acura’s Type S History Driven: CL, TL, RSX (Plus One Type R)
Acura TLX Full Overview Welcome to a role reversal no mid-2000s Honda enthusiast ever predicted. While U.S. customers rip around happily in the indomitable and long-forbidden Civic Type R, Acura‘s sharp-edged U.S.-friendly Type S sub-brand has been dormant on our shores for close to 13 years. It’s quite the bummer: While not as focused and deliciously hardcore as Type R models, Acura’s various Type S variants occupied a performance niche matched over the years only by a handful of German and Swedish rivals. They went a long way toward establishing Acura as the driver’s choice among Japanese luxury and premium brands. At least, Type S was dormant. Now, the sporty treatment is back for 2021. Acura’s new TLX Type S is a serious entrant into the ultra-competi...
2022 Porsche 911 GT3 First Drive: Diminishing Returns, Dynamite Results
Porsche 911 Full Overview “Point of diminishing returns” best defines the new 2022 Porsche 911 GT3. It’s a description Porsche GT chief Andreas “Andy” Preuninger mentioned more than a half-dozen times in reference to the new 911 GT3 during his media briefing about the new car. Why? Emissions regulations constrained the GT3’s engine development, and the 911’s existing suspension architecture limited the model’s grip and handling performance. But where most automakers might say, “good enough,” and continue printing money, Preuninger said he and his team worked within their constraints to somehow once again build one of the best Porsche 911s we’ve ever driven. What Makes the New 911 GT3 Tick? On paper, when comparing the new 99...
2022 Hyundai Tucson First Drive Review: Style, Space, and Serenity
Hyundai Tucson Full Overview The all-new 2022 Hyundai Tucson makes finding its central theme impossible: With its polarizing exterior styling, relaxing cabin, and unexpected driving character, this compact SUV embodies contrasts that somehow blend into a pleasantly cohesive whole. And the takeaway from that whole? If you work for Honda or Toyota, you might want to pay serious attention to the new Tucson. It’s Less Shocking in Person We’ll begin with the obvious: the 2022 Tucson‘s exterior styling. With aerodynamic concerns turning most SUVs into look-alike blobs, designers at most automakers use sheetmetal surfacing to manipulate reflections into forming the vehicle’s “lines.” Hyundai has done the opposite with its compact SUV, using sharply creased pane...
Audi A6 E-Tron Concept First Look: A Luxury Sedan Goes EV
Audi A6 E-Tron Full Overview Very Close to Production While the A6 E-Tron currently enjoys status as a concept, Audi reports what you see is “95 percent” production intent. The sleek new sheetmetal shows off the latest evolution of Audi’s design language; that includes the new “inverted face” front end, so named because it inverts the traditional dark grille area and body-color front bumper treatment of internal-combustion vehicles. This signature will make its way to all of its future electric models, we’re told. The A6 E-Tron also features headlights with customizable rows of LEDs that Audi says customers can configure to display a personal daytime-running-light signature—local regulations permitting, of course. In profile, the most striking aspect of ...
