Long Term Reviews

Toyota Supra Full Overview As travel restrictions lifted, we hit the road in our 2020 Toyota Supra, and we’ve added more than 5,000 city and highway miles since the first update. As a result, our once-empty-road fuel economy (27 mpg average) is now more representative of real-world driving at 25 mpg. The EPA estimates 26 combined, so we’re close. A couple long drives that nearly drained the tank proved the Supra can be quite miserly, returning 30 to 31 mpg. Supra at the Track Not only are we driving more, we had an opportunity to run to our test facility to see how this 3.0 Premium measures up against two “Launch Editions” we tested last year. There’s no difference in hardware, only a 21-pound weight difference, so we didn’t expect a difference in perfor...

Subaru Outback Full Overview Subaru has built its reputation on safety, reliability, and the convenience of standard all-wheel drive on every vehicle it makes. Well, almost everything. But how safe is the 2020 and 2021 Subaru Outback? We’ve spent months with a 2020 Outback Onyx and can explain its NHTSA and IIHS crash test results as well as how its active safety systems work. Oh, and before we dive in, here’s the story on a new issue affecting our power liftgate. About Our Subaru Outback’s Power Liftgate… Compared to its midsize SUV competition—see our rankings here—the Subaru Outback makes a power liftgate affordable. Although the feature isn’t available on the base trim, the next higher trim offers it in a package. For $31,495, your 2021 Outback Premium or higher...

Kia Telluride Full Overview Although the Calipers have been passed to the Defender, the Telluride is still tops in its segment. Unsuccessfully competing alongside the Defender for this year’s honors was the 2021 Toyota Highlander. The Highlander not only fell short of winning our annual award, it also fell short of dethroning the Telluride as the top three-row SUV. Don’t take my word for it. Head over to our newly launched Buyer’s Guide and check out the rankings! Unsurprising to me, the Telluride leads the three-row SUV pack with score of 8.4/10. Not only does the Telluride beat its main competitors, only one other SUV, the luxurious Lincoln Navigator, matches the Telluride’s score! Again, none of this surprises me. After lending the Telluride to a coworker with tw...

Toyota RAV4 Full Overview As America’s best-selling SUV, you can’t get any more bread-and-butter than the Toyota RAV4. Toyota sold more than 448,000 copies in the U.S. last year, far surpassing sales of the Honda CR-V and other rivals. We knew it wouldn’t be the most exciting vehicle to grace the MotorTrend Garage, but we had high expectations for our year with Toyota’s small SUV. Will its competency match its popularity? It won’t be an easy feat. Our RAV4 exuded a certain charm when it arrived at our headquarters in El Segundo, California. It showed up on our doorstep with an enigmatic Lunar Rock paint color. Is it blue, green, or gray? We’ll never be quite sure. While other small crossovers have comically rounded features, the RAV4 has a chiseled front...

Honda Civic Full Overview A lot of folks who aren’t car enthusiasts tend to believe you’re making a lot of compromises when you buy the sporty version of a car. Miserable ride quality, useless rear seats (if any), equally useless trunk, terrible fuel economy, and more. In some rather extreme cases, that’s true. It’s not true at all for the Honda Civic Si. I grew up in a rural area on the other side of the mountain from Silicon Valley, but it was plenty close enough to see the wealth that lived high in those hills. Back then, though, it was stealth wealth. At least to me. Sure, these people owned Ferraris and such, but they only took them out on weekends for a quick drive, a wash, and then back in the garage for the rest of the week while the BMW or Mercedes did comm...

Can a car get pudgy? That was the question I asked myself every time I saw our long-term 2020 Nissan Sentra languishing in my driveway. Without a commute to MotorTrend headquarters, for the time being, the Nissan had been making jaunts no more demanding than the half mile trip to the supermarket and the mile drive to my favorite Mexican drive-through joint. It brought to mind images of a bored, cooped-up dog in desperate need of a change of scenery and a good, long, vigorous walk. Or, wait, was that me? After its first couple of months’ service as strictly an around-town car, the Sentra finally had a chance to stretch its legs on the open road. Piloted by MotorTrend SEO guru Thomas Rosquin, our Nissan made the round trip from Southern California to Arizona and back again, p...

Like the relationship of Jim and Pam on The Office, an automaker evolving from a mainstream to a luxury brand is compelling to watch. There’s a will-they-won’t-they tension as the product and marketing teams fight customer perception as they attempt to get from A to B. Some brands have been successful. Hyundai, which went from selling Excels to Equuses (eventually spinning that off as the Genesis luxury brand)—springs to mind. Others, such as Chrysler’s mid-’00s pivot, fell flat. The latest automaker to attempt the transition is Mazda, and we’ll be spending the next 12 months with the 2020 Mazda CX-30 Premium AWD to see how this brand in transition is faring. Why the CX-30 instead of something like a Mazda 6 or CX-5 Signature, you ask? Simple: ItR...

Since arriving to our fleet six months ago, the 2020 BMW 228i Gran Coupe has been a faithful daily driver. From weekend food hunting to serving as my ride to (distanced) martial arts practice, the 228i has been up to the task. Recently, I did a 284-mile round trip to and from Thermal, California, to attend the BMW Performance Center’s car control class. The drive gave me a sense of what the 228i is like on road trips—and if you’re considering a 228i with the M Sport package, and you like long drives, you’ll want to read on. Just a few minutes into the trip, I realized that I was in for a bumpy two hours. The M Sport suspension, which is part of the M Sport package on the 228i and standard on the M235i, improves handling slightly but sacrifices comfort significantly. You f...

Infotainment designers have a tough job these days. Drivers will no doubt compare the responsiveness, resolution, graphic design, and ease of use to their touchscreen pocket computers—er, phones, and few automotive systems compare favorably to that high standard. Mazda takes at least one step to avoid such comparisons; unlike the touchscreen interfaces offered in every other compact sedan and compact hatch, the Mazda 3‘s infotainment system is controlled primarily by a rotary dial and volume knob located between the front seats. (This kind of setup is more common in luxury cars, contributing to the 3’s premium feel.) Useful hard buttons for navigation, media, home screen, and back are positioned around the primary dial. Additional controls can be found on the steering wheel. Sk...

The departure of our long-term 2019 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon just a few weeks ago was bittersweet. A lot has changed in my life—all of our lives, really—since the firetruck-red, black-topped four-door Wrangler long-termer showed up at MotorTrend‘s offices in July of 2019. Like the long-term Ram Power Wagon before it, I had big plans for our Wrangler; aside from driving and living with it everyday, I was going to take our Wrangler on epic, Jeep-appropriate overland expeditions across the American Southwest, with my wife and our two dogs, Brooklyn and Rex, in tow. For many reasons that didn’t happen. An endless stream of test vehicles (the very definition of a first-world problem, I know) from summer through fall delayed plans to go exploring Death Valley, o...

“Oh my God, do you love it?” We are stuck at a red light waiting for it to turn. For a short distance on the west side of San Francisco, just south of the Golden Gate Bridge, California Highway 1 ends and turns into busy 19th Avenue. This is my least favorite part of driving to the coastal areas north of the city. It’s always busy, and the lanes are narrow. “I had to get up next to you so I could take a picture! What is it? It’s just so happy! I love it so much!” The woman in the car next to us trying to get our attention isn’t talking about our long-term 2020 Kia Telluride. She’s talking about the ultra-cool, super-cute, vintage-looking travel trailer we have hitched behind us. The travel trailer, a Mammoth White HC1, is built by Los Angeles...