Autos

Sure, there are plenty of relatively affordable camper vans out there. But if you’re looking to take your midsize pickup truck on an extended adventure, Scout is offering a cool solution that sleeps up to four people. Not bad for something that weighs under 1,000 pounds. The new Scout Yoho is a lightweight camper with a reconfigurable interior. The floor is just under 70 inches long, providing just enough room for the essentials. In the day, it’s a seating and dining area, and at night, you can convert the space into two separate beds. Since midsize trucks don’t always have the best payload capacities, it’s important that the camper is light. The Yoho comes in with a dry weight of 913 pounds, making it considerably lighter than the company’s bigger Olympic cam...

A quarter of a million bucks is a bunch of Benjamins for what looks like an old Land Rover Defender that’s been to the custom shop. But the Twisted NA-V8 is a bit more than that. Under its familiar shape is a 6.2-liter Chevy V-8, a strengthened driveline, a fully revised suspension, and upgraded brakes. Inside is a completely refurbished interior that includes heated and cooled Recaro seats, a touchscreen infotainment and nav system, and a bespoke eight-channel audio setup. Texas-based Twisted North America is a subsidiary of the British company that’s been selling highly specified high-performance Defenders under the Twisted brand for more than 20 years. It plans to sell just 200 hand-built, individually numbered Twisted NA-V8s in the U.S over the next five years. See all 15 p...

Bentley created the ultra-luxury SUV segment when it debuted the Bentayga five years ago, paving the way for rivals like Aston Martin, Lamborghini, and Rolls-Royce. While we admire the stately SUV for its strong performance on and off the road, we’re somewhat disappointed with its lean list of standard features, especially given its six-figure price tag. Now, Bentley is updating the Bentayga with a more modern cabin. These are the eight biggest improvements Bentley has made to the interior. Larger Touchscreen One thing that revealed the Bentayga’s old age is its 8-inch touchscreen. Considering rivals like Mercedes and Cadillac are offering much larger units, it was time for Bentley to upgrade. Now, the 2021 Bentley Bentayga gets a respectably sized 10.9-inch touchscreen with ne...

Model-year 2020 marks the end of the line for the Dodge Journey crossover SUV and the Dodge Grand Caravan minivan, which means the aging Dodge Durango must serve the role as the brand’s sole people mover come next year. Fortunately, a thorough update for 2021 ought to help the SUV attract Journey and Grand Caravan buyers in search of a Dodge-badged three-row family hauler. The most noteworthy exterior changes are made to the Durango’s front end, which features a new front fascia that mimics the look of the Dodge Charger sedan’s. Slimmer headlights and new grille designs (Dodge offers three grille options throughout the line) give the SUV a more modern look. A more driver-centric dashboard breathes fresh life into the Durango’s cabin. A newly available 10.1...

The craziest moment during BMW’s virtual-reality Connected Car press event was briefly sensing that zoned-out, mental blue-screen feeling that’s the hallmark of jet lag. We’re familiar, thanks to those many annual European press trips we (usually) attend to log miles in the newest cars on the Continent’s best roads. Too many old triggers were piling up—I notice that Munich looks overcast again outside the stopped 5 Series‘s windshield in which I’m twisted to my left in the passenger seat, glancing back and forth between the car’s info screen and the monotone-voiced BMW rep behind the wheel who’s virtually explaining everything to me. There’s been no nine-hour time change, or endless, hissing 37,000-ft flight, or waking up at 2:45 a.m. t...

The electric vehicle segment is very competitive in China. Local offerings are strong from manufacturers such as BYD, NIO, and Xpeng, and that’s before accounting for outside EV automakers such as Tesla (which itself now produces some of its vehicles in China). With such a strong market for these vehicles, it’s no surprise that Porsche is debuting its entry-level Taycan in China. Despite serving as the lowliest model on the Taycan totem pole, the rear-drive model is still a well-equipped luxury sedan that rides on a set of stylish—and standard—19-inch wheels. Like the Taycan 4S, the base Taycan comes standard with a 79-kWh battery pack. A 93-kWh pack is optionally available. With the smaller battery, the Taycan’s lone electric motor puts out as much as 402 hp and is capab...

After initially reviewing the new-to-U.S. Ford Ranger upon the nameplate’s return to the American market for 2019, we were unimpressed with its already-old styling, so-so ride and handling, and low-rent cabin. To be fair, the Ranger had already been on sale for some time globally before it was modified for American customers, and we nonetheless deem it a capable truck with a solid (and segment-unique) turbocharged four-cylinder gas engine. Now Ford is injecting a bit more appeal into its mid-size pickup by upping the Ranger’s off-road capability with a new Ford Performance line of off-road accessory packs. Will these Performance packages change any of our baseline complaints about the Ranger? No, but they offer a compelling distraction from them. Available in three gr...

Crossovers and SUVs are the bread and butter of Volkswagen’s product line. In fact, more than half of all VWs sold in the United States in 2019 were such models. Predictably, the German automaker wants more of this sales action, and it’s leaning into it by adding a new, smaller model to its lineup.  Earmarked for production at the company’s Puebla, Mexico plant, the latest Volkswagen crossover aims to take on the Jeep Compass, Kia Seltos, and Nissan Rogue Sport. As we previously reported, VW is not simply building a variant of its European-market T-Roc subcompact crossover for North American consumption. Instead, we expect the brand to build an iteration of the Tharu crossover it sells in China, albeit sold on our shores under a different name. Recent filings by...

Bentley’s Bentayga has long polarized opinion. The EXP 9F concept that teased Bentley’s first-ever SUV, unveiled at the 2012 Geneva Auto Show, was panned for its ostentatious detailing and oversized design cues shoehorned onto a platform that didn’t allow the graceful proportions expected from the iconic British luxury brand. The ostentation was toned down by the time the production Bentayga hit the streets in 2016, but the decision to build the car on VW Group’s MLB architecture meant it remained proportionally challenged. The facelifted 2021 Bentley Bentayga is still no shrinking violet. The proportions haven’t changed, but a host of styling tweaks are designed to make the 2021 Bentayga look lower and wider and more confidently planted on the road. And Bentl...