Car Reviews
2022 Genesis GV70 Interior Review: World-Class Luxury
Genesis GV70 Full Overview We just had our first chance to climb in and poke around the all-new 2022 Genesis GV70 compact luxury SUV, and goodness—it has quite the interior. It appears moving down a segment in size and price from the South Korean luxury brand’s first ever SUV, the mid-size GV80, didn’t have much if any effect on the quality and presentation of the GV70‘s cabin. We’ll put extra emphasis on presentation here, as, unlike some contenders’ in this segment, the GV70’s interior is an aesthetic triumph. Depending on how you spec it, the cabin is awash in Nappa leather, wood, metal, carbon fiber, and/or microsuede, with the leather and microsuede available in a range of interesting shades, some of which you might be surprised to find paired—like ...
2021 Honda Accord vs. Toyota Camry and Nissan Altima: Midsize Sedan Madness
Honda Accord Full Overview When I was a kid, the term “the Big Three” was synonymous with General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler. To be accurate, I’m old enough to remember the Big Four, but let’s not go there. If one says the phrase “the Big Three” these days, they might very well be talking about the three best-selling vehicles in America: the Ford F-Series, Chevrolet Silverado, and Ram 1500. As for cars, the time when the Honda Accord, Nissan Altima, and Toyota Camry were the three best-selling cars in America is long gone. These days, SUVs have taken over, and only Toyota’s Camry remains as a top 10 best–seller. Still, the Honda, Toyota, and Nissan midsize sedans remain hugely important (both the Accord and Altima are among the top-selling 25...
2023 Canoo Pickup First Look: Fauxward Control
Some shapes are just intoxicatingly cool. They inspire irrational behavior like signing up to buy, lease, or “subscribe to” a vehicle you have no legitimate need for. This all-electric 2023 Canoo Pickup will be that vehicle for devotees of the pickup variants of vintage forward-control vans like the Chevy Corvair Greenbriar (Rampside), Dodge A100, Ford Econoline, Jeep FC, and Volkswagen Transporter. It’s not quite Dodge Deora cool, but it’s close. Like the Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine, those vintage vehicles placed their front seats on top of the front axle, placing ankles out in the crush zone. This rendered them deathtraps in a frontal wreck. Rest assured that—like Volkswagen’s ID Buzz riff on the microbus—the Canoo “Lifestyle Vehicle” van and Pick...
2022 Jeep Wagoneer First Look: A Slightly Less Grand Full-Size Three-Row SUV
Jeep Wagoneer Full Overview The big mic drop is the 2022 Jeep Grand Wagoneer that will reach dealers this summer with top-notch materials and features and a price tag that can quickly grow to six figures. But for those who want a large three-row family SUV from Jeep at a lower price point, there is the 2022 Jeep Wagoneer. Dropping “Grand” from that luxury hauler’s name drops the starting price by almost thirty of a different sort of grand—as in thousands. The Wagoneer family is entirely made up of full-size three-row SUVs, augmenting the Jeep brand with its largest vehicles to date. These new models mark the return of the Wagoneer nameplate after 30 years out of the market and represent a modern reinterpretation of the original Wagoneer that came out in 1962 as a ’6...
Bugatti Chiron Sport vs. Chiron Pur Sport: This Changes Everything
Bugatti Chiron Full Overview Some emails are better than others. Case in point, when the Bugatti public relations person asks if you’d like to compare and contrast the Bugatti Chiron Sport against the new Chiron Pur Sport (pronounced “pure sport”), well folks, that’s a pretty good email. Yes, I spent a day driving two cars that between them have 3,000 hp, 32 cylinders, eight turbochargers, 128 valves, 20 radiators, and cost north of $7,800,000. That’s $3,757,150 for the exposed blue carbon-fiber Chiron Sport and $3,959,000 for the Jet Grey Pur Sport, so you know. We’ll get to the difference between them in good time, but first I’d like to tell you a little story about the first time I drove a Bugatti. A Veyron Affair In 2010, Bugatti unveiled the V...
2021 Honda Accord EX-L 1.5T First Test: Honda Knows Best
Honda Accord Full Overview Returning to the trailhead exhausted and faint-brained after a 12-mile hike through the canyons and across the creeks surrounding Mount Baldy, there was no car I’d rather be greeted by than the 2021 Honda Accord. Like an old friend, I knew the Japanese midsizer would welcome me without judgement for my foot stink or quivering quads, and that I wouldn’t have to dedicate an ounce of my depleted energy reserves to frustrations like clunky CVT tuning or inconsistent steering. I approached the car and popped its trunk to pile in my damp boots and dusty backpack, but upon closing the trunklid, the Accord uttered three polite beeps and popped it back open. Closing it again brought the same result. Only after I mindlessly tried a few more times expecting some...
How Do You Remove the Ford Bronco’s Doors?
Ford Bronco Full Overview How do you remove the doors of a new 2021 Ford Bronco? Undo a couple of bolts and an electric plug, and yank. It’s almost that easy, but backing up, the very first step really should be acquiring the Ford accessory bags that protect the doors. These protective sleeves will greatly increase your comfort level in handling these 43-54-pound doors when they’re loose. So how do you remove the 2021 Bronco’s doors? Read on. Removal Step one: Lower the power windows, push the body-mounted side-view mirror forward and out of the way, and if you have the accessory door bags, slide them on. Step two: Disconnect the electrical connector that controls the power window and lock by simply pulling it out. As soon as it’s disconnected, a spring-loaded and w...
How Do You Remove the 2021 Ford Bronco’s Hard Top?
Ford Bronco Full Overview Ford Bronco tops come off almost as easily as Mardis Gras blouses. The Ford Bronco removable hardtop allows you (and a friend) to transform your trail buster from completely weatherproof to totally alfresco in a matter of minutes. Here are the four easy steps to complete freedom. Note that these instructions apply to the 2021 Ford Bronco‘s standard molded-in-color or optional Shadow Black-painted hard tops (we’ll have to report again once we’ve tinkered with the four-door’s soft top). So how do you remove the Bronco’s hard top? Easy: Removal Step one: Sit in the driver’s seat, release the outboard over-center latch, then release the three other quarter-turn latches retaining the “T-top” type panel. Lift the 12-pound ...
How Do You Remove the 2021 Ford Bronco’s Fenders?
Ford Bronco Full Overview Unlike removing the 2021 Ford Bronco’s hard top or doors, this procedure is not for everyone. Removing the Bronco’s fenders is not trivially easy, and it shouldn’t be done frequently. You could take the top and doors off every time you drive your Bronco, replacing them when you park it, but removing these panels is a much bigger deal. And please don’t plan on four-wheeling with these panels off, as this leaves sensitive parts vulnerable to damage. The best reason to remove these body panels is to replace them with ruggedized Ford accessory or aftermarket panels to preserve your pretty factory-painted ones while dicing with Jeep Wranglers at Moab or along the Rubicon Trail. (Originality fetishists take note: Many of the fender and quarter pa...
The Five-O’s 5.0: 1991 Ford Mustang SSP Police Car Rewind Review
In the annals of Fox Body Mustang history, the SSP police models—that’s for Special Service Package—certainly stood out as notable when new but now, some three decades later, they’re positively legendary. They’ve taken on mythical status, with whispers of how they’d been modified from the factory with performance engines and gearboxes with specific calibrations, but this was often not the case. And while the rumor mill also said each were hand-built by a skunkworks team in Ford’s plant, this is also untrue. In reality, these were built alongside all other Fox Body Mustangs on the exact same assembly line, with the vast majority having the same components as the street-spec, regular cars normal folks plucked from showroom floors. See all 6 photosAs one of ...
2021 Nissan Altima or Maxima: An Intra-Brand Sedan Battle
Nissan Altima Full Overview Although the Nissan Altima and Maxima are nearly identical in length, the two sedans are more different than you might think. Both sedans have been a part of Nissan’s lineup for decades, serving customers who don’t want another Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, or Toyota Avalon. So if your search has narrowed to the 2021 Nissan Altima and 2021 Nissan Maxima sedans, which one is the better buy? Let’s break down their differences. Altima Over Maxima: Efficiency and Range See all 10 photos Thanks to its lighter weight and all-four-cylinder lineup, the Nissan Altima is more efficient than the Maxima, and it’ll take you farther on one tank of fuel. That’s true regardless of whether you’re comparing the six-cylinder 300-hp Maxima to the 1...
Honda Put a 248K-Mile ’97 CR-V in Its Museum? Yes, and We Drove It
Honda CR-V Full Overview Joy, then puzzlement: That was my reaction when Honda asked if I’d like to drive a vehicle from their semi-secret museum in southern California—and then told me that museum piece was a 1997 Honda CR-V. Okay, I realize it’s been nearly 25 years (cripes, where does the time go?) since the Honda CR-V first hit these shores, and what a seminal game-changer it was. But … a CR-V? In a museum? “Does not compute,” buzzes the 1970s-era computer that is my brain. And that brings me to the present day, with me trying to keep an open mind as I cruise down to Torrance in a latest-and-greatest 2021 Honda CR-V. I pull into the faceless industrial park that conceals Honda’s museum, and there it is: An anonymous ’97 CR-V DX with all-wheel-drive—s...
