Autos
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Is the Toyota Crown Headed for America? Tantalizing Trademark Raises Possibility
Toyota hasn’t sold a car wearing a Crown badge in the U.S. for decades, and certainly never the current-generation luxurious Crown sedan. Could that be changing? A trademark application was recently filed on Toyota’s behalf with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for the Crown name for “automobiles and structural parts thereof.” While historically the Crown name was applied to a sedan (and its coupe or wagon variants, if applicable), recently the name has been migrating to other vehicles coming out of the FAW Toyota joint venture in China as a sub-brand, like the Chinese-market version of the Highlander—the FAW Toyota Crown Kluger—and a version of the Alphard van called the Crown Vellfire. Toyota’s trademark filing in the U.S. for the Crown name...
Lamborghini Reveals Sinister Huracán Super Trofeo Evo2 Racer
The Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo Evo was already a Pro-Am monster; a true production-based race car purpose-built to race in Lamborghini’s own globe-trotting one-make series. An ultimate track toy, you might say, although toy doesn’t do the beautiful violence of a Huracán Super Trofeo in action justice. Yes, it’s not as intense as the Huracán GT3, but Lamborghini thinks of it as a stepping stone for some amateur drivers to graduate to. But it’s a race car, and race cars evolve. Thus we have the new Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo Evo2, featuring advanced aerodynamic changes and revised styling, along with a few other tweaks. See all 19 photos Like its Evo (and pre-Evo) predecessor, the Super Trofeo Evo2 is motivated by a naturally aspirated 5.2-liter V-10, whic...
Rolls-Royce Boat Tail First Look: A Real Land Yacht
As the coronavirus pandemic shut everything down and everyone in, we believe Rolls-Royce designers were sheltered in their mood rooms, bored out of their tweed suits, with nothing to do but draw excessively. “Excuse me, designer Gordon. I think I have an idea our billionaire clientele would die for,” designer Alfred motioned to the thin, loafer-clad man at the desk to his right. “I’m listening,” designer Gordon said, not looking up from his sketch of an electric Rolls-Royce pickup truck. “What if, good sir, we made a picnic basket … out of a Dawn … and then we put an umbrella on the back?” Designer Gordon was so struck by this bit of genius he fell backward out of his chair and into a daze. Once he got up, several minutes later, the two design...
Cadillac Escalade-V Performance SUV-hemoth Is on Its Way
A track-capable Cadillac Escalade? Are these words that belong together? GM has apparently decided they do, because the company is on the cusp of launching a sporty variant of its plus-sized luxury SUV, as these spy photos of camouflaged prototypes reveal. An Escalade-V model has been rumored for years, and now these shots lend those rumors some muscle. While we don’t know for sure whether these test vehicles represent a Cadillac Escalade-V or something else, but there’s no denying the trucks pictured here are set up for spicier performance than regular Escalades. There are the quad exhaust outlets where normal Escalades wear a pair of faux openings; the bodywork is new and apparently quite grille-heavy in front; and the wheel designs resemble the webby, thin-spo...
2021 Honda Odyssey vs. 2021 Toyota Sienna: Familiar Foes, Clear Winner
Toyota Sienna Full Overview When the new 2021 Toyota Sienna minivan debuted last year, it was a bit of a shock that the lineup was hybrid-only. But the move makes sense: In order to differentiate itself from the rest of the minivan pack, Toyota left the traditional powertrain behind while still offering a competitive price. The Sienna is also the only minivan to offer all-wheel drive with a hybrid setup. And although the nameplate has spent most of its life aligned closely with the Honda Odyssey and Chrysler’s vans (currently the Pacifica), the hybrid-only move and bold styling set this generation farther apart. Meanwhile, the 2021 Honda Odyssey doesn’t feel as avant garde as the Sienna, but it continues to deliver on the basics that make a minivan great. The Odyssey...
2022 Toyota Prius Nightshade Edition: For the Eco-Friendly Sith Lord
The Nightshade appearance package adds blacked-out wheels, headlight accents, mirror caps, door handles, and badges. The special edition package is available on standard front-wheel-drive or AWD-e Prius grades with a choice of three exterior colors: Midnight Black Metallic, Super White, and Silver Metallica. Front-drive models ride on 17-inch wheels, while the all-wheel-drive Prius sits on teeny 15-inch wheels. See all 6 photos On the inside, black SofTex upholstered seats are power-adjustable and come heated; in the FWD Prius, they are eight-way adjustable, while the AWD-e layout gets six-way units. The SofTex-trimmed (think faux leather) steering wheel is also heated, and other interior touches include a semi-gloss black center console and chrome door handles. With the rea...
As Electrified Future Looms, Jaguar Land Rover Tries to Reimagine Itself
Jaguar has a new name for its global strategy that encompasses big changes to the Jaguar Land Rover vehicle lineup as the brands reposition themselves and transition to an electric future: Reimagine. The changes, announced in February, will result in a smaller, more focused portfolio in the interim. No new Jaguars will be added to the current lineup until 2025, when the luxury car brand will go fully electric. Land Rover will take a longer path to electrification. The goal of 1 million global sales annually has been abandoned for a more realistic 400,000-450,000 units. That means the company’s U.S. product lineup will be forced to maintain the status quo for the next few years. What will the impact be in the near-term, and how will Jaguar and Land Rover customers adjust to the new of...
2021 Mercedes-AMG GLA35 First Test: The Hot Hatch of SUVs
Mercedes-Benz GLA-Class Full Overview Fast forward a few months and I found myself rolling out in the 2021 Mercedes-AMG GLA35. Once again, I could feel it within seconds. Except now, it was different: This sporty subcompact crossover drives nothing like the GLA250—or much like an SUV. Familiar sights remain, like the curvaceous body and swanky, spacious cabin. Yet from behind the wheel, there’s no comparison. Even in this diet-AMG form, one level below the full-fat GLA45, the engineers in Affalterbach banished the GLA250’s slightly tippy handling and easygoing powertrain calibration. Rather, the GLA35 drives like a true performance car. As we found on the road and at the test track, it’s a seriously capable machine. But it’s so rough and aggressive that it cou...
2022 Volkswagen Taos First Drive: Bigger Isn’t Necessarily Better
Volkswagen Taos Full Overview When Volkswagen first announced it would bring a subcompact SUV to the U.S., we harbored hopes we’d get the nifty little T-Roc, a cool crossover from the automaker’s European lineup. Instead of the T-Roc, though—or at least something derived from its bones—we were surprised and perhaps a little disappointed to learn the 2022 Volkswagen Taos is based on the same platform as the larger Tiguan. The Tiguan is not exactly a favorite of ours; we rank it number 12 out of 13 compact SUVs. But now that we’ve had our first drive in a production-spec Taos, we see why VW did what it did. Basing the Taos on the Tiguan pays dividends in space and practicality, but it also extracts a penalty in driver appeal and value. The Taos Is Bigger and Nicer Than You ...
2021 Mazda CX-30 Turbo First Test: Power Can’t Solve Everything
Mazda CX-30 Full Overview We’ve called the Mazda CX-30 lots of nice things. Stylish. Upscale. Agile. But quick? Not quite. Over thousands of miles behind the wheel, the standard CX-30’s acceleration has left us wanting more. That changes for 2021, as a turbocharged engine is added to the options list. In our first drive of the 2021 CX-30 Turbo, we found it to make the small crossover feel much swifter. It packs a punch that’s missing from the naturally aspirated engine. Now we’ve had a chance to track test the CX-30 Turbo and find out exactly how much swifter it is. The results confirm that it’s far quicker than the standard model when you stomp the go pedal. And on the road, forced induction alters the everyday experience. Yet we’re still not convinced ...
Ford Spending Big for More Electric and Commercial Vehicles
To hit this target, Ford announced today that it is increasing spending on electric vehicles to more than $30 billion by 2025, up from past pledges to spend $22 billion. The money will go to new electric models and development of its own IonBoost batteries—akin to General Motors, which developed its Ultium battery system. In both cases the automakers are partnered with established battery cell makers. Ford Ion Park is a facility being created to develop and test better battery cells and BlueOvalSK is a joint venture with SK Innovation to manufacture battery cells at two U.S. plants in the future. See all 30 photos Ford Prioritizing Commercial Vehicle Customers “This is our biggest opportunity for growth and value creation since Henry Ford started to scale the Model T, and we’re...
Doge Doge What Now? GM’s Going to the Moon With NASA
See all 15 photos Like its Apollo 15, 16, and 17 missions of 1971 and ’72, which included the deployment of specially designed rovers for traveling about the moon, NASA wants Artemis astronauts to explore far beyond the lunar surface surrounding the landing site of their spacecraft. While the Apollo program’s Boeing-built Lunar Roving Vehicles’ (LRV) two 36-volt silver-zinc batteries provided enough juice to journey a cumulative distance of up to 57 miles, per the manufacturer, the missions’ trio of two-passenger vehicles ultimately never traveled more than 4.7 miles from the landing site of the lunar modules that brought the astronauts and rovers to the surface of Earth’s lone satellite. GM and Lockheed Martin, however, are determined to create a vehicl...
