Autos
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What’s the Best 2021 Subaru Ascent Trim? Here’s Our Guide
Subaru is famous for building durable, go-anywhere vehicles, and the Ascent brings that capability to a larger size. With room for up to eight passengers, the 2021 Subaru Ascent is an AWD three-row crossover that competes in a highly crowded and competitive field. If you’re wondering which Ascent has the best balance of features and value, keep reading for our trim review. 2021 Subaru Ascent Base Trim Pros and Cons The base Ascent trim level features Subaru’s excellent 2.4-liter turbocharged flat-four, producing 260 hp and 277 lb-ft of torque. We’ve found this engine to be decidedly punchy, beating the Toyota Highlander’s V-6 in the quarter mile, and delivering performance numbers similar to a V-8-powered Dodge Durango. Naturally, straight-line performance isn’...
Obscure, Futuristic ’70s Mazda RX500 Concept Was Immortalized in Die-Cast Form
It’s late 1970. Mazda has been at the rotary engine game for almost a decade, developing the problematic Felix Wankel/NSU design into a formidable, powerful, and futuristic little powerplant. It was the highlight of the forward-looking production 1967 Mazda Cosmo Sport 110S. While beautiful, and interesting, the Cosmo Sport merely (albeit expertly) epitomized the now. The RX500 Concept, which took the stage at the 17th Tokyo Motor Show, envisioned a rotary-powered future straight out of a Syd Mead sketchbook. The RX500’s aesthetic is pure ’70s sci-fi, with a wrap-around windshield that makes it look like a starfighter for the road. The ports on the engine cover and fenders look like exhausts for some sort of fusion reactor, the mirrors look like sensor pods, the large inl...
2021 Jaguar F-Pace First Drive: Way Better Than the “Cats” Movie
Jaguar F-PACE Full Overview The bestselling vehicle for Jaguar, the British marque long known for its luxury cars, is now an SUV: the F-Pace. And while “F-Pace” might not be a household name, most people would immediately recognize one as a Jaguar—and feel a pang of envy as it drove by. That’s because the F-Pace is quite the looker, and has been since its launch for 2017. Unfortunately, any excitement you felt usually faded when you climbed inside the cabin, where the quality of the materials and overall ambiance didn’t live up to the luxurious promise of the sheetmetal. Time spent fighting with a glitchy infotainment system only added to the disappointment. None of this is news to Jaguar Land Rover, which was very aware of the F-Pace’s shortcomings. So while ...
How Artificial Intelligence Is Cutting Wait Time at Red Lights
Who hasn’t been stuck seething at an interminable red light with zero cross traffic? When this happened one time too many to Uriel Katz, he co-founded Israel-based, Palo Alto, California-headquartered tech startup NoTraffic in 2017. The company claims its cloud- and artificial-intelligence-based traffic control system can halve rush-hour times in dense urban areas, reduce annual CO2 emissions by a half-billion tons in places like Phoenix/Maricopa County, and slash transportation budgets by 70 percent. That sounded mighty free-lunchy, so I got NoTraffic’s VP of strategic partnerships, Tom Cooper, on the phone. Here’s how it works: Sensors perceive, identify, and analyze all traffic approaching each intersection, sharing data to the cloud. Here light timing and traffic flow...
Land Rover to New Bronco: Welcome to the Party
So we asked Joe Eberhardt, president and CEO of Land Rover North America, what impact the return of the Bronco will have on the new Defender 90. The longer Defender 110 was reintroduced to North America in June 2020 after a 23-year hiatus. The smaller Defender 90 was supposed to follow last fall with 500 units of the 2020 First Edition but when the pandemic impacted production, it was delayed to February and pushed into the 2021 model year. The Bronco has seen repeated delays, as well, due to supply issues related to the pandemic. The spring launch was delayed to late summer but models with the Sasquatch package, manual transmission, and some hardtop roof options are being pushed into the 2022 model year. See all 40 photos Heritage SUVs Are Back Strictly speaking, there is no clearly defin...
2021 Ferrari SF90 Stradale First Drive: We Didn’t See (or Hear) It Coming
Ferrari SF90 Stradale Full Overview When I first learned Ferrari was offering up a plug-in hybrid supercar with hypercar aspirations, I didn’t think much of it. I knew a bit about the sausage-making, and in some ways the SF90 Stradale is yet another update of the F8 Tributo platform, which dates back to the decade-old 458 Italia—and truthfully there’s some circa-2004 F430 marrow and sinew to be found within the new car’s anatomy. I assumed it would be nothing more than a heavier iteration of the same old, Maranello-flavored, mid-engine V-8 supercar with much too much power for anybody’s good. Boy, was I wrong. How It All Works Our own European bureau chief, Angus Mackenzie, wrote up an incredibly detailed first look of the SF90 Stradale, which you can read here. I&#...
2021 Ford Bronco Spied With Roush Decals
It seems as though the aftermarket is already putting its mark on the 2021 Ford Bronco, as evidenced by this four-door model wearing Roush graphics. Spotted by Reddit user 1lkylstsol and used here with permission, this Bronco Big Bend looks seemingly stock save for a couple of giveaways: the Roush-branded red stripe streaking down the SUV’s body sides, and a white decal affixed to the windshield header . See all 12 photos While there’s always a chance Ford engineers added these decals as a red herring, it’s more likely the Blue Oval is giving certain performance shops early access to the Bronco in order to ensure there’s healthy aftermarket support for the off-road-ready SUV. After all, the Bronco has its sights set on the Jeep Wrangler, a model that seemingly ...
Top Gear America Tries to Find the Best Pickup Truck in America
Every country has it’s national vehicle: Roadsters are quintessentially British, Italians have their exotic sports cars, the Japanese perfected the compact sedan, but America is all about the pickup truck. Americans buy more pickup trucks than anywhere else in the world, and the best-selling and most capable pickups are made right here. The Ford F-150, Chevy Silverado, and RAM 1500 have been the volume leaders in America for a considerable number of years, but which is the best out of the three? Performance and sales figures mean nothing to Top Gear America, though, so finding out which of these full-size pickup trucks comes out on top should be interesting. When Dax Shepard, Rob Corddry, and Jethro Bovingdon get together for a vehicle shootout, you can be assured they aren’t g...
2022 Kia Seltos Becomes One With the Dark Side
We’ll stop saying good things about Kia as soon as the brand stops making fantastic vehicles. Until then, the South Korean automaker is the juggernaut that seemingly cannot be stopped. The Telluride, Sorento, K5, Stinger, and Soul are all great to drive, easy to live with, and solid values. Predictably, the Seltos follows that trend. Despite arriving on our shores last year, Kia’s little SUV gets a number of small but noteworthy updates for 2022. See all 12 photos Of note, all 2022 Seltos models now come standard with forward collision avoidance with pedestrian detection, lane keep assist, lane departure warning, and automatic high beam headlights. When we tested the Seltos against the Mazda CX-30 and Chevy Trailblazer, we were surprised at just how smart Kia’s lane keep ...
Previously Windshield-less $1.7 Million McLaren Elva Gets a Windshield
McLaren is offering a windshield on the exclusive Elva roadster for customers who prefer a physical screen. Keep in mind, the Elva’s core appeal was tied up in the fact it lacked a windshield in the first place, so consider this a weird development. This newly windscreened version of the Elva eliminates McLaren’s clever Active Air Management System (AAMS, which redirected air up and over the open cockpit) and adds 44 pounds but does not hinder performance. The $1.7 million hypercar will still be roofless, without side windows or a rear window. Some states in the U.S. require a windshield, and this option would make the Elva street legal. See all 7 photos The windshield comes equipped with rain-sensing wipers, washer jets, sun visors, and a rearview mirror. It has a carbon fiber...
Breathe In the Lucid Air’s Futuristic, Big-Screen Infotainment System
Lucid is poised to take on Tesla head-on in a way few other EV automakers have. The company’s first car, the upcoming Lucid Air, promises blistering performance, impressive range figures, and now, it looks like the in-car UX is up to par, too. Thanks to a recent release from Lucid (accompanied by a video that looks like it’s straight out of another Silicon Valley tech company’s studio, included below), we finally have a close-up look at just how Lucid plans to match the wow factor of Tesla’s massive center touchscreen. The company is calling the infotainment system Lucid UX, and it’s made up of two displays. You can watch all of the functionality described in the video above, but here’s our rundown: The primary screen is a curved 34-inch display in ...
Next-Gen Range Rover Sport Spied In Electric Form
Land Rover plans to introduce a half-dozen electric vehicles within the next five years, with the first such model launching in 2024. While the British brand’s announcement of its electrification plans failed to disclose the specific model it intends to debut its battery electric powertrain in, Land Rover seems likely to initially bring this tech to market in its next-generation Range Rover and Range Rover Sport models, the latter of which MotorTrend reader Michael Stumpf recently caught testing. See all 3 photos Clues indicating this camouflaged Range Rover Sport runs on battery-electric power include its lack of exhaust pipes, as well as its bulky, near-center-mounted underbody protection that surely safeguards the midsize luxury SUV‘s battery pack. Like its larger Range Rove...
