First Tests
2021 Mazda MX-5 Miata RF First Test: More Exotic Than Most Supercars
Mazda Miata Full Overview A hidden cost of living our lives inextricably intertwined with technology is that most of us are perpetually tense. So, put your phone down—unless you’re reading this article on it, of course—and close that spreadsheet on your laptop. Relax your jaw, drop your shoulders, and breathe in; it’s time to bask in one of autodom’s few remaining singular experiences, the 2021 Mazda MX-5 RF, a four-wheeled convertible manifestation of unplugging from the grid. An Affordable Exotic Indeed, in 2021, a genuinely simple performance car with under 250 horsepower is a rare thing. And although the friendly MX-5 Miata is still kicking after more than three decades, it’s become a bit of an iconoclast, its simple, analog experience standing in stark contrast...
2021 Mercedes-AMG A35 First Test: Subcompact Sleeper
Mercedes-Benz A-Class Full Overview It makes all the right noises when you want it to, it can hustle like some of the top sport sedans on the market, and its chassis delivers at the test track. It had better, because it wears an AMG badge. The 2021 Mercedes-AMG A35 4Matic isn’t what you’d call a traditional model from the go-fast division of Mercedes-Benz, but the AMG team has done its best to bring its amplified aesthetic to the entry-level A-Class sedan. This isn’t exactly foreign territory for AMG, given it has already worked its technical mastery on versions of the related CLA- and GLA-Class. But this is the first AMG-tuned version of the latest-generation A-Class, the automaker’s front-drive-based, four-cylinder subcompact sedan introduced to the U.S. market fo...
2021 Chevrolet Camaro Turbo 1LE First Test: Its Own Thing
Chevrolet Camaro Full Overview It seems that nearly every review of the Chevrolet Camaro compares it to the Ford Mustang and Dodge Challenger, and with good reason—these three nameplates are historic foes going back 50 years. Well, Constant Reader, that won’t happen today, because the subject of this test is the four-cylinder 2021 Chevrolet Camaro Turbo 1LE, an endangered species that combines the Camaro’s smallest engine with the SS model’s suspension. Truth be told, a read of the spec sheet had us thinking that this Camaro’s natural enemies might be sport compacts like the Hyundai Veloster N and Volkswagen Golf R. Its 275-hp 2.0-liter turbo I-4, six-speed manual, and emphasis on handling over tire-smoking power would put it in the ballpark, we thought, but a coupl...
2021 Mercedes-AMG GLS63 First Test: Big, Bold, and Unrepentantly Quick
Mercedes-Benz GLS-Class Full Overview The Mercedes-AMG GLS63 is the kind of vehicle nobody asked for, but Mercedes built it anyway because it can. The rationale for this thinking: Who needs another three-row luxury SUV from Mercedes when we already have the GLS450 and GLS580? Maybe the cool moms and dads who want sports car performance in a Clifford the Big Red Dog-size SUV. Or the millennial investor who is trying to impress his entourage by showing them what a nearly 3-ton sport utility can do on back roads. In any case, we put a 2021 Mercedes-AMG GLS63 through our battery of track testing, drove it on the intense streets of Los Angeles, and had some fun with it on scenic roads in Santa Clarita and Pasadena for a complete evaluation. We w...
2021 Hyundai Veloster N DCT First Test: Somehow Even Better
Hyundai Veloster Full Overview What’s new for 2021? Although the Veloster N has only been on sale since the 2019 model year, the changes for 2021 are fairly significant. Aside from the new eight-speed automatic (effectively a $1,500 option) joining the standard six-speed manual transmission, there’s a power boost for 2021. Starting this year, the Performance Package that was available on 2019 and 2020 Veloster Ns becomes standard. This not only boosts the 2.0-liter turbocharged I-4’s power from 250 hp to 275 hp (torque remains flat at 260 lb-ft), but it also includes a limited-slip differential, electronically-adjustable dampers, bigger brakes with better cooling capacity, an active exhaust system, and stickier summer tires on 19-inch wheels. Other changes include new per...
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...
2021 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 392 V-8 First Test: From Moab to L.A. in 4.2 Seconds
Jeep Wrangler Full Overview “Good luck driving that Jeep Wrangler for 13 hours,” my editor told me in a sarcastic tone. Considering the time I’ve spent behind the wheel of the Wrangler Rubicon and its Gladiator pickup truck sibling, I knew what he was referring to. The loud, bouncy Jeep Wrangler is not the most comfortable SUV—and driving from Moab, Utah, to Los Angeles is something not everyone is up for. Well, maybe not everyone at MotorTrend. You see, not only do we get to drive all sorts of cars during the year, we also get to choose the vehicles we’d like to take on a road trip. Most of the time, we pick those that are comfortable, ride nice, and are roomy. And while the Wrangler Rubicon doesn’t really fit that criteria, anything that gets me out of the h...
2022 Acura MDX SH-AWD A-Spec First Test: Gets the Job Done
Acura MDX Full Overview None of us wants to believe we’d fall for a marketing pitch or an advertising line. We’re all sophisticated, modern consumers who’ve seen it all. We’re jaded, and too smart to be sold, anyway. But there’s a reason you remember commercial jingles years or even decades later. There’s a reason you prefer one brand over the other, even if you can’t really explain why. None of this is by accident; it’s the work of teams of professional marketers with untold budgets saturating the world with carefully crafted messaging based on decades of psychological and behavioral research. It’s also the reason you should keep being jaded and skeptical of the messages you’re bombarded with, because they’re designed to se...
2021 BMW M3 Competition First Test: Facing the Facts
BMW M3 Full Overview Any new BMW M3 is a big deal to the enthusiast car community. Forget for a moment what the car actually is and focus instead on understanding what it represents. The M3 is the souped-up, hot-rodded, better-to-drive version of the traditional Ultimate Driving Machine, the BMW 3 Series. The 3 Series is supposed to be a driver’s car right out of the box; the 3 Series after BMW’s M Division performance gurus have fiddled with it? We’re talking hopes and dreams here, people. While it will never be cheap, this level of M performance should be somewhat attainable. M3s tend to look pretty good, too, going all the way back to the swole-fendered, deep-chinned, bewinged OG E30 version of the 1980s. I don’t think I’ll ruffle too many feathers by sayin...
2021 Toyota RAV4 Prime First Test: Toyota’s Best Hybrid Ever
Toyota RAV4 Full Overview Toyota’s hybrids have been called many things, but “interesting,” “fun,” or “fast,” likely hasn’t been on that list. The 2021 Toyota RAV4 Prime plug-in hybrid SUV changes all that. Not only is it arguably the best hybrid Toyota has built to date, but it’s also the quickest non-Supra Toyota we’ve tested in the past five years, and the most-efficient Toyota on sale today not wearing a Prius badge. What’s a RAV4 Prime and What Makes It So Quick and Efficient? The new RAV4 Prime is the plug-in hybrid version of the RAV4. Like the RAV4 Hybrid, the RAV4 Prime sports a 177-hp and 165-lb-ft 2.5-liter I-4 engine mated to electric motors and an e-CVT up front, another electric motor at the rear axle, and a ba...
2022 Volkswagen GTI First Test: They Still Make ’Em Like They Used To
Volkswagen GTI Full Overview Can a car have a panic attack? No? Okay, good. For a second there, we wanted to throw a weighted car cover over our white 2022 Volkswagen GTI and slip some sort of vehicular benzodiazepine in its gas tank. If it could gain sentience, this shapely little hatch might incessantly blare its horn and idle at 4,000 rpm out of pure existential angst. Could you blame the poor thing? First and foremost, it’s a new gas-powered compact hatch from an automaker that has made it very clear that its future is both electric and filled mostly with SUVs. It killed the regular Golf hatch in the States, leaving the new MkVIII GTI and forthcoming Golf R as the only America-bound fruit from that once bountiful branch. As part of this Golf goodbye, our GTIs will come from ...
1969 Icon BR Ford Bronco New School First Drive: Icon Builds The Bronco Ford Won’t
It’s the wheels and tires that really give it away. Even the casual car fan will recognize they’re not even close to original. Serious car fans will notice a bunch of other tells, like the modern LED headlights, the blocky painted steel bumpers, and the “Icon” badging in place of the iconic Ford lettering and Bronco badge on the grille and fenders. It takes a serious Ford Bronco fan to notice the front turn signals are the wrong shape, the spare tire is on the wrong side, and all the chrome is gone. Spotting all of Icon CEO and chief designer Jonathan Ward’s changes is half the fun of an Icon vehicle. Even when he isn’t trying to be particularly subtle, his style tends toward enhancing the original design, not throwing it out. When it comes to the Icon B...
