Autos

One of the best-known vehicles in the world is getting a long-awaited replacement with the debut of the 2022 Toyota Land Cruiser. Unfortunately for Americans, we won’t be getting it. The new model, known internally and to Land Cruiser enthusiasts as the 300 Series, is a melding of the tried-and-true 200 Series that’s been around since 2007 and the GA-F derivative of Toyota’s newer TNGA platform. Although it’s still a body-on-frame truck-based vehicle, the Land Cruiser’s frame has been redesigned in an effort to reduce weight and increase rigidity. Toyota claims the 2022 Land Cruiser is 441 pounds lighter than the old model, which we weighed at 5,774 pounds in five-seat configuration and 5,874 pounds in standard seven-seat configuration. Toyota claims to have a...

Ever wonder if that crazy car jump in the latest blockbuster action movie is really possible? Or if a regular human being could propel the Flintstones mobile with nothing but their Chevro-legs? The Motor MythBusters team—Tory Belleci, Faye Hadley, and Bisi Ezerioha—has the same curiosity about all things car and are setting out to debunk (or maybe confirm) all of the urban legends, viral videos, and pop-culture stunts we love—using real science. Sound familiar? It should! Motor MythBusters—coming only to the MotorTrend App, August 4, 2021—picks up where the Discovery Channel classic left off, but tackles each myth with a gearhead-minded focus and a more in-depth look at the process—not only the carnage at the end. They’re still going to blow stuff up, though. MythBusters covered many...

Ahead of its global premiere, the all-new 2022 Honda Civic hatchback is being dangled in front of us. Honda released a teaser image of the five-door version of the 11th-generation Civic sedan, and the latest iteration of the popular compact hatchback will officially debut during a virtual concert event later this month. Based on the partially concealed side profile photo, in which the new Honda Civic hatchback is backlit by a sunset or sunrise, we can make out its more refined body. It now has a straight beltline that stretches from the rear quarter panel all the way into the nose, much like the sedan. There is no roof spoiler; the backside appears less inflated and more slender compared to the rather clunky outgoing model. See all 25 photos The Civic hatchback will be manufactured in...

Interestingly, the 2021 Ford Raptor isn’t the truck that’s been breaking the internet for Dearborn lately. That’s been the job of the new F-150 Lightning and the new Maverick compact pickup truck. It’s still a beloved member of Ford’s truck lineup, and it (along with the rest of the F-150 range) received some major updates for 2021. More aggressive bodywork, 37-inch tires, and a new five-link rear end were among the improvements, but it turns out that extra power won’t be. The 2021 Ford Raptor will make 450 horsepower at 5,850 rpm and 510 lb-ft of torque at 3,000 rpm from a twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V-6. Those figures are identical to the previous generation Raptor that ditched the old 6.2-liter V-8 in favor of the EcoBoost V-6. That might come as a sl...

Lost amid the hoopla surrounding the launch of America’s cheapest hybrid and its only pickup truck to boast a full hybrid powertrain as standard: The 2022 Ford Maverick boasts an entirely new electric traction motor that is the first one developed and manufactured fully in-house at Ford. Its form factor isn’t terribly different from the motor used in the Ford Escape Hybrid, but it renders the e-CVT transmission a unique new part number from that used in the Escape Hybrid.  So although there is no packaging or technological impediment to modifying the Escape Hybrid AWD model’s e-CVT to accommodate the Maverick’s new motor, Ford decided not to bite off more than it could chew by developing and launching both front- and all-wheel-drive Maverick hybrid variants in ...

The cars of the future are coming sooner than you think, and the world’s top automotive industry executives are wrestling with change that is as revolutionary as the switch from the horse to the car more than 120 years ago. From gas power to electrification, from driving yourself to being driven, these are the monumental challenges that will be tackled head on during the Reuters Events: Car of the Future Summit 2021, where global leaders from major automakers and automotive suppliers will share how they are planning to transform their companies to meet the new reality. Chief among them is the switch to electric-powered vehicles. Many of the world’s top automakers have committed to electrifying their fleets in as little as a decade from now and are spending billions to do so. Bu...

We promise, we won’t mention the updated BMW X4’s bigger grille. The time for that is dead and gone. The upsized nostrils aren’t even that bad here—they’re certainly not as garish as those on the 4 Series, M3, or X7, which ushered in the new schnoz design in Bavaria. Besides, the grille isn’t the only update that BMW has made to the 2022 X4 and X4 M, even if it might be easiest to spot. Freshened up, Inside and Out Beyond the new grille, there are some new taillights and other styling tweaks that help differentiate this facelifted compact BMW SUV from the previous model. The high-performance X4 M and its competition-badged sibling receives similar updates to the head- and tail lights, as well as even more aggressive front and rear bumpers. Similar changes...

With every BMW variant released with a plus-sized grille, the brand seems to be asserting that its new styling direction is no momentary aberration. The 2022 BMW 4 Series stays the new course set by its two-door 4 Series siblings, which is to be expected. After all, the hatchback remains most notable for the differences around its sides and back, not its face. Otherwise, the 4 Series Gran Coupe mostly resembles its coupe and convertible siblings in terms of overall size, powertrain options, and features. This is the second generation of the 4 Series Gran Coupe, and this time around it’s less difficult to tell at a glance what it is. The previous car, to an untrained eye, looked quite sedan-ish unless the power rear hatch was opened. This changes for 2022. See all 68 photos The 4 Seri...

The days of BMWs with separate kidney grilles are coming to a close, with the 2022 BMW X3 and X3 M adopting the conjoined nostrils that mark the mugs of many modern Bimmers. It’s not just the X3’s grille that gets an update, as BMW also tinkered with the small luxury SUV’s front and rear fascias, headlight decor, and taillights, the latter of which are far more visually interesting than the red blobs that grace the rear end of the current X3. See all 73 photos Sub-M 2022 X3 Welcomes Available Mild-Hybrid Setup BMW pares down the X3’s powertrain lineup for 2022. Despite its appearance in the images accompanying this piece, the X3 xDrive30e plug-in gasoline-electric hybrid is no more for the United States, per BMW. Instead, the automaker plans to offer the 2022 X...