Autos
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Prerunner Spec-Sheet Showdown! 2022 Nissan Frontier Pro-X vs. Ford Ranger FX2
The new Nissan Frontier is finally here. Even though it rides on the old model’s underpinnings, it benefits from a thorough makeover that was so long overdue we’re just happy Nissan finally got around to it. Among all the Fronty’s newness, a surprise stood out: A new Pro-X trim level, a two-wheel-drive, off-road-focused model spun off the continued Pro-4X 4×4 iteration. Such two-wheel-drive, butched-up models used to be more of a “thing” in the ’90s, but they’re making a comeback, most notably with Ford’s introduction of the Ranger FX2 package. Seeing how it is a natural foe for Nissan’s Frontier Pro-X, let’s see how the two stack up. Frontier Pro-X vs. Ranger FX2: The Basics Both are mid-size trucks that send power to the re...
Ford Nearly Doubles Its Investment in Electric Vehicles
Ford announced it plans to invest $29 billion toward electric and autonomous vehicles through 2025. The bulk of the spending—$22 billion—is for electric vehicles; almost doubling the Blue Oval’s original plans. See all 28 photos Ford vs. Tesla Ford is “all in and will not cede ground to anyone” in developing and delivering connected electric vehicles and services, Farley said. The automaker is accelerating its plans for more electric vehicles, batteries with better capacity, and reducing overall costs. See all 28 photos Two EV Platforms Farley said Ford has two dedicated electric vehicle platforms, which the company plans to use to underpin high-volume passenger cars, as well as crossover SUVs, trucks, and commercial vehicles. Conversely, GM has a single flexible pla...
Guessing the Classic Car Market’s Future on Top Gear America
Picking future classic cars is tough, and Top Gear America host Rob Corddry tells us about this episode’s challenge—which is all about predicting which cars’ values might go up in the future. Car collecting as an investment is much more complicated than it seems. The value of the most desirable classic cars are at all-time highs, but there are still fluctuations in the market. Buying low and selling high is always the way to go with any investment, but how does a savvy collector know what car, today, will become a future classic, worth more than it ever was when new? The Top Gear America hosts think they have this car-collecting conundrum figured out. The producers challenged Dax Shepard, Rob Corddry, and Jethro Bovingdon with finding a car that’s not currently considered...
2022 Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing First Look: So Long, ATS-V—Hello BMW M3
The Cadillac ATS-V is back! Well, spiritually at least—the all-new 2022 Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing picks up right where Caddy’s hi-po compact sports sedan and coupe models left off in 2019 with the same BMW M3/M4-baiting performance and capability. An identical powertrain package, standard manual transmission, and a suite of upgraded go-fast hardware means that if you liked the ATS-V, the CT4-V Blackwing is sure to hit the same spot just as sweetly. Like the preceding ATS-V, the CT4-V Blackwing represents the zenith of its lineup—in this case, the CT4 family, rather than the old ATS family. The Blackwing also smokes the rears and squishes straights with an upgraded version of the ATS-V’s 3.6-liter twin-turbo LF4 V-6, now rated to 472 hp and 445 lb-ft. This is only a slight upgrad...
2021 Volkswagen Atlas Basecamp First Test Review: Off-Road Testing VW’s Off-Road Atlas
Volkswagen Atlas Full Overview Americans may be chomping at the bit for Ford Broncos, Jeep Wranglers, and Toyota 4Runners, but I’ve long had the theory that an all-wheel-drive crossover SUV on all-terrain tires could go 95 percent of the places that the average Wrangler or 4Runner (and eventual Bronco) owner goes off-road. I’m not talking about anything wild, like rock crawling in Moab or overlanding on the Mojave Road, but instead stuff like high-clearance 4×4 trails that dot national parks around the country, which are usually little more than a glorified forest road or hardpacked sand. While a legion of Subaru owners (including my wife) have been proving me right for years by fitting their Outbacks, Foresters, and Crosstreks with all-terrain tires, VW thought it’d...
Elon’s Talking Shift: Tesla CEO Says New, Shifterless Model S Selects Drive and Reverse Itself
Tesla no longer has a public-relations department, so when the automaker’s chief executive officer, Elon Musk, tweets vehicle-related information (as opposed to stuff such as “Bitcoin is my safe word” or “420 is ten times better than 42”), the automotive media treats it as the de facto company line. Musk’s latest eye-opening Tesla-related tweet was sent in reply to a reaction to the new Model S‘s yoke-style steering wheel: Yep, the refreshed Tesla Model S and Model X lack physical controls for operating each vehicles’ direct-drive transmissions. Instead, per Musk, the function now lives within the models’ touchscreens. That said, users may never need to fiddle with the on-screen buttons to switch between reverse and drive, as Musk ...
GM’s X-Cars: Anatomy of a Miserable Failure
How bad does your car have to be before it attracts a lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice? Welcome to the story of General Motors‘ X-body project, started in the late 1970s as a response to the onslaught of front-wheel-drive imports that were making inroads thanks to a combination of affordability, reliability, and high fuel economy. Initially, there was a lot of internal excitement at America’s largest automaker for what promised to be the light that would lead GM into the future. Yet right from their 1979 on-sale date, and all the way through their ignominious retreat from the market by the middle of the next decade, GM’s X-car family provided a master class in how not to engineer, build, or handle defects for brand-new automobiles. This was the peak of the Gene...
How Randy Pobst Saved This Record-Setting Porsche 911 GT2 RS From the Crusher
But seriously, why crush cars? Well, in the case of those Vipers, they were pre-production models that can never be sold. Why not? Because if they ever somehow “get loose” and are involved in a road crash, the manufacturer is hosed—just ask your nearest lawyer, any lawyer. Fact is, it makes great economic sense for automakers to destroy certain cars. They would hurt themselves, shareholders, and future crash victims if they didn’t make sure certain cars were good and dead. Even cars you really like. But what about special cars? Or even really special cars? Like, say, the 2018 Porsche 991-series 911 GT2 RS Weissach Edition that set the production car lap record in July 2018 on the big track at Willow Springs International Raceway? The very car driven by our own Randy Pobst...
2021 Lexus UX200 F Sport First Test: Experience or Appliance?
Lexus UX Full Overview Your phone, laptop, smartwatch, heck, even your smart speakers are all a massive pain in the neck. Not for you, but for the people who made them. User experience and interface designers agonize over products for months or even years to deliver an intuitive user experience, and you always notice when they haven’t. It’s the same story for cars like the 2021 Lexus UX200 F Sport. Engineers spend countless hours working through endless permutations of designs so they can get the little things like the detent on that volume knob just right. It’s all part of an endless quest to satisfy the user. So when we see the letters “U” and “X” arrive emblazoned on the rump of a small subcompact luxury Lexus SUV, the expectation is a satisfyin...
Conquer the Dakar Rally With This Collection of Bowler Land Rover Defenders
In nearly every single parameter, the new Land Rover Defender improves over the old warhorse Defender it replaced. While Land Rover’s O.G. Defender’s capability as an expeditionary lance and an agrarian implement is undeniable, the British brand worked extraordinarily hard to develop a new Defender that drives and performs like something from the 21st century, and not the 19th. However, with unibody construction and a suite of tech aimed at improving on-road manners, the new Defender isn’t quite the boulder-basher it used to be—especially if your needs include bombing through the Dakar dunes on a rally raid. For that, you turn to the mad minds at Bowler. The U.K.-based manufacturing workshop established itself as the premier name in making Defenders rally-raid-ready ...
Overlanding in Supercars? What Has Top Gear America Done Now!?
Don’t worry, things have not gone completely off the rails at the MotorTrend offices, despite last year’s best efforts. As fun as it would be to watch, supercars are not built for overlanding (but maybe they are nowadays?), and even the Top Gear America hosts wouldn’t subject those rolling pinnacles of art and engineering to the rigors of the great outdoors. But what is a “supercar,” really, and how exactly are you supposed to drive one? And overlanding? Aren’t we all over land in some way or another all the time? We got to chat with Top Gear America co-host Jethro Bovingdon about these questions, meeting Dax Shepard and Rob Corddry for the first time, and generally living up to the legacy of the one of the greatest franchises in automotive m...
All-New 2022 Nissan Pathfinder Is Coming Soon—Here’s a Peek at It
The Nissan Pathfinder skips the 2021 model year as the Japanese brand prepares to release an all-new iteration of its mid-size three-row SUV for 2022. Details about the next-gen Pathfinder are scarce at the moment. That changes come February 4, 2021, when Nissan officially unveils the latest generation of Pathfinder. Nissan officially announced the news in a teaser video it uploaded to the web. The six-second long clip shows very little of the new SUV as it motors through mud and dirt. Still, we are able to see the basic details of its front and rear ends, the former of which appears to sport a set of 2021 Nissan Rogue-like LED daytime-running lights. Meanwhile, the back end appears to feature an upright and boxy tailgate with Pathfinder script running its width, as well as a pair of ...
