Indholdsfortegnelse for March 2016 i MotorTrend

Since you’ve opted for the analog version of Motor Trend, you might not be a regular visitor to motortrend.com. If you haven’t been in a while, please grab your favorite Web-enabled device and take us for a spin. You should notice immediately that the site looks very different thanks to a top-down overhaul of its design and functionality. The sheet met—er, pixels are totally new and sculpted with familiar cues lifted from these pages. We updated the font package (to include Oswald and Open Sans, if you’re a design head) for a more contemporary look and better legibility. And because we know a huge reason people come to motortrend.com is for our award-winning pictures, we made our photos bigger, better, and quicker to load with a clever new gallery format.…

Hyundai Motor Company has announced it is turning its Genesis line into a standalone global luxury brand. The company is targeting “new luxury, echo-boomer” customers with six new Genesis vehicles globally by 2020. Hyundai spokespeople confirmed all six vehicles will be available in the U.S. by 2021. Hyundai is aiming at traditional European luxury brands with Genesis and plans to build all of its vehicles on rear-wheeldrive platforms. The latter is a distinct departure from the approach taken by current Japanese and U.S. luxury brands. The Genesis brand will also have its own unique design language, a distinct winged emblem based on the current Genesis logo, and a separate naming convention to differentiate it from Hyundai. Genesis vehicles will have an alphanumeric naming convention based on the letter “G” followed…

A $300 billion highway bill signed in December by President Barack Obama will inject some muchneeded TLC into America’s crumbling highway infrastructure. Other provisions in the bill will raise the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s budget, triple the maximum manufacturer fine for safety violations, keep defective rental cars off the roads, and even give a boost to kit car manufacturers. The five-year measure, called the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, would be the first long-term highway plan in 10 years. Roughly $300 billion will be spent on roads, bridges, and masstransit projects. The bill also raises NHTSA’s budget for defect investigations from $10 million a year to $30 million, but only after the agency carries out the reforms recommended by the Transportation Department’s inspector general in its extremely critical…

3 .16 TREND Mitsubishi sold 20,253 Mirages through November 2015. Mitsubishi has gotten a lot of flak from enthusiasts in the past few years. The automaker made its name selling performance cars and tough, rugged pickup trucks, but product lagged and sales fell. Two years of 20 percent sales increases have Mitsubishi back in the game, though. We asked executive VP Don Swearingen to tell us what happened. You guys have had a surprising amount of success with the Mirage. When we first launched, it was interesting because the true buff books just killed it because it wasn’t the Evo. What we found is that a clear, simple message to our consumers —starting price of $13,805, 44 mpg highway, and one of the best warranties in the industry— resonated with…

ARRIVAL 2016 Kia Sedona SX Robin Trajano “Room for eight, dual sliding doors, rear entertainment system, 12 cupholders. Perfect for a single, 26-year-old male.” EPA CITY/HWY/COMB FUEL ECON 18/25/21 MPG BASE PRICE $37,295 PRICE AS TESTED $42,090 Until my sister and I headed off to college, our family’s main vehicle was always a van. First was a mid-’90s Toyota LiteAce, followed by a Mercedes-Benz MB100 diesel and then a 2002 Honda Odyssey after we moved from the Philippines to the U.S. Our family of five has been on countless road trips and made many memories on the road with our vans thanks to their ability to swallow people and all our gear. So I understand the appeal of minivans to families, but I couldn’t picture myself actually buying and…

Hot on the heels of the long-awaited XC90 crossover becoming our 2016 SUV of the Year, Volvo has revealed the equally longawaited replacement for its S80 flagship sedan, now dubbed S90. Built on Volvo’s new Scalable Product Architecture (SPA), which also underpins the XC90, the new 2017 S90’s design is heavily influenced by Volvo’s Concept Coupe. The base S90 T5’s 2.0-liter, turbocharged I-4 will make “around 250 hp,” according to Volvo U.S. president Lex Kerssemakers. That’s about what the turbo-four is good for in the smaller S60 T5 Drive-E. The S90 T6 and S90 T8 powertrains will mimic those in the related XC90, meaning T6 buyers can expect the supercharged and turbocharged, 2.0-liter I-4 to make 316 hp and 295 lb-ft of torque, and the hybrid T8 will make 400…

The U.S. Department of Transportation has announced proposed changes for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s 5-Star Safety Ratings. Among the revisions are new tests that evaluate advanced safety tech and pedestrian protection, as well as more humanlike crash dummies that will provide more accurate data. A decision on whether to implement the changes will be made by the end of 2016. Currently, the 5-Star Safety Ratings system, also called the New Car Assessment Program, awards stars based on how well a vehicle protects occupants in three crash tests. The program also includes a checklist of recommended technology features, including rearview cameras and lane departure and forward collision warning systems. Under the new program, such advanced safety features would be evaluated and assigned a star rating that would contribute to…

Although the Mercedes-AMG GT S was recently named our Best Driver’s Car, the team from Affalterbach isn’t resting on its laurels. A hotter version, called the AMG GT R, is in the works, and it’s expected to be even more potent than the S. It’s unknown whether Nissan will raise a stink about AMG using those three letters, but the AMG GT R will be the next high-performance variant of Mercedes’ new sports car. Aside from gobs more power, massive rear tires, four-wheel steering, and active aerodynamics, look for the first-ever electronically adjustable Multimatic DSSV shocks. What it won’t have: electric motors. We expect it to arrive toward the end of 2016…Been hearing whispers of a supercharged Viper? They’re true, but it’s not the car you think it is. Prepare…

WRITE US AT 831 S. Douglas St. El Segundo, CA 90245 Email us online at motortrend.com or send an email direct to motortrend@motortrend.com You Again, Again Enjoyed your Head 2 Head article in the December 2015 issue (“You Again”). Looking at the picture on page 42, it looks like the driver in the Ford Mustang weighs about 150 pounds more than the Chevrolet Camaro driver. If you would have switched drivers, there would have only been about a 2-pound difference in the weight. Wouldn’t this have made a difference in the performance numbers? LARRY VANEMELEN DOUGLASVILLE, GEORGIA That’s not very nice; our driver prefers being called husky. And no, swapping bodies would have made zero difference because the real test driver for both cars was the same. We promise…

Volkswagen’s situation has taken another turn for the worse as the company has admitted its 3.0-liter TDI V-6 engine also employs an emissions cheating device. The admission came 18 days after Volkswagen issued an explicit denial of EPA allegations that the V-6 diesels are also cheating on emissions. The admission adds another 85,000 vehicles to the total, a number 8.5 times larger than the EPA had alleged. The original complaint fingered 10,000 vehicles from the 2014 and 2015 model years, as well as an unknown number of 2016 models. Volkswagen admitted 75,000 additional vehicles from the 2009 to 2013 model years also employed cheat software. In response to the initial allegation, Volkswagen put a stop-sale on all affected new and used Audi, Porsche, and Volkswagen cars and SUVs. The stop-sale…

Thanks to the popularity of the McLaren 675LT, the sports car maker is introducing a new model in the 675LT range: the drop-top 675LT Spider. The car is virtually identical to the coupe save for a three-piece retractable roof and unique color and wheel options. Like the coupe, the McLaren 675LT Spider is limited to just 500 copies. The 675LT Spider uses a revised version of McLaren’s twin-turbo, 3.8-liter V-8 to produce the same devilish 666 hp and 516 lb-ft of torque as the coupe. That engine makes the extra power thanks to new, more efficient turbochargers, revised cylinder heads and exhaust manifolds, lightweight connecting rods, a new camshaft, and a high-flow fuel system, among other upgrades. The traction-control system limits torque to 443 lb-ft in first gear to minimize…

“There is nothing more you could want or need in an SUV,” our former road test editor Scott Mortara said about the outgoing Mercedes-Benz GL when it won our 2013 Sport/Utility of the Year award. But is there room for improvement? The renamed 2017 Mercedes-Benz GLS receives a retuned air suspension, a new ninespeed automatic, an 8-inch COMAND screen, and a redesigned interior. The midrange GLS550—other models include the GLS350d, GLS450, and range-topping AMG GLS63—has 449 hp, 20 more hp than its predecessor. Drivers can select up to six modes, including Comfort, Slippery, Sport, Individual, Off-Road, and Off-Road + for further customization. Other than these changes, the GLS is a conservative update. Sure, you’ll find vestiges of the GL, including the numerical pad and the hodgepodge of buttons cluttering the…

TRACK DAY @MT_TheGoods The intersection of priceless and worthless knowledge Alpinestars Driving Gloves Tech 1-ZX • $180 • alpinestars.com • sizes S-2XL Alpinestars has minimized the seam stitching required on this Nomex FIA-compliant glove, improving comfort, and newly designed Pittards leather on the palm and fingers improves feel, grip, and vibration dissipation. HJC Motorsports Helmets HJC SI-12R • $676 • hjc-motorsports.com sizes XS-XXL HJC’s 2010 Snell-approved helmet features advanced channeling ventilation, a polycarbonate anti-fog shield, and a fire-resistant, moisture-wicking interior. It comes with a high-quality hard-shell bag and is pre-drilled for HANS device tether straps. Autosport Labs Telemetry System RaceCapture/Pro • $430 and up • autosportlabs.com This data logging system has been designed from the ground up for racers and has the ability to produce predictive lap times, stream…