Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2018 i Car and Driver

REMEMBER “CASH FOR CLUNKERS,” the quasi-green, federal government–backed stimulus of new-car sales in 2009? Well, the idea is back with a twist in Great Britain: scrappage programs sponsored by carmakers themselves. When Vauxhall announced the first privately run scrappage scheme in 2015, few noticed, but the company reintroduced the plan in May last year and set off a flood of copycats. Within months, the U.K. arms of BMW, Fiat Chrysler, Groupe PSA, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi, Toyota, and the VW Group all announced programs of their own. There are variations—the German brands will accept only diesels, for example—but most plans work similarly: Vehicles from any automaker and of a particular age are eligible and earn buyers a discount, usually £2000–£8000 (about $2750–$11,000), on a new model. The trade-ins then head to…

THERE’S A NEW KIND OF ENGINE under the hood of Infiniti’s redesigned QX50 crossover. It may look like a regular turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four, but what goes on inside is radically different from anything that’s come before it. Here, for the first time in a production vehicle, is an engine that can alter its compression ratio, an accomplishment that has taken Infiniti over 20 years to achieve. Why bother? Because varying the compression ratio promises to maximize efficiency whether you’re cruising at part throttle or running toward redline on 23.2 psi of boost. Infiniti’s engine can alter its stroke (how far the piston travels) by 0.05 inch, which changes engine displacement and thus the compression ratio, two things that have been, up till now, fixed. The change modifies the compression ratio…

HOW YOU FEEL in the brief pause between switching off the engine and opening the door tells you nearly everything about a car. In most good ones, there’s a warm afterglow of emotions and contemplation reminiscent of the finest psychotropics. Shutting off a Porsche 911 GT3’s flat-six leaves you suspended in silence, a brief respite before the stale adrenaline and paranoia hit. Was that a police car behind me? No way of knowing since the GT3’s spoiler hides anything in your rear view. Did I just get away with putting on a canyon-road clinic at 1.11 g’s, howling through the tunnels and passing everything I encountered? Someone must have called the cops. Quick, close the garage door! And then the thoughts of the new addict arrive: When can I do…

MERCEDES-AMG E63 S 4MATIC Price: $134,600 Power: 603 hp Torque: 627 lb-ft Weight: 4579 lb 0–60 mph: 2.9 sec BMW M5 Price: $127,295 Power: 600 hp Torque: 553 lb-ft Weight: 4288 lb 0–60 mph: 2.8 sec CADILLAC CTS-V Price: $102,935 Power: 640 hp Torque: 630 lb-ft Weight: 4168 lb 0–60 mph: 3.8 sec PORSCHE PANAMERA TURBO Price: $173,325 Power: 550 hp Torque: 567 lb-ft Weight: 4682 lb 0–60 mph: 3.0 sec Our test of 600-hp cars nine years ago looked very different from this one. Fenders bulged. Eight-, 10-, and 12-cylinder engines boomed. Hoods stretched to the horizon—except for that of the Italian, which carried its engine behind the cockpit. Because nine years ago, rounding up four cars with 600 horsepower meant coming face to face with rare and exotic…

THE AUDI A7 wasn’t the first “four-door coupe,” but it is perhaps the most successful. It outsells its BMW and Mercedes-Benz counterparts with a winning combination of luxurious refinement and sporting character wrapped in fetching sheetmetal. For its follow-up, the A7 arguably grows more handsome, and there are even greater changes underneath its freshly pressed skin. Dimensions closely mimic those of the outgoing car, but the styling employs more crisp lines and sharp angles. The A7 is again a hatchback, and at the trailing edge of the liftgate is a spoiler that deploys at 75 mph. Flanking the hexagonal grille are standard bixenon headlamps. European A7s will offer LED lowbeams and laser high-beams—neither of which are confirmed for the U.S. The taillights span the width of the car, and the…

AT RAILROAD CROSSINGS, freight trains stop for it out of professional courtesy. It’s called Max because if it were any larger, it wouldn’t fit through the Panama Canal. Though its body is made from aluminum, it’s a Platinum because Ford is ironic. And it has 10 forward gears like an old Schwinn Varsity. Everything about the 2018 Expedition Max Platinum 4x4 tested here emphasizes the SUV’s size. The switch to aluminum reduces mass (a bit), but as with the F-150, Ford doesn’t want anyone thinking the Expedition is wimpy. As if anyone ever could. This isn’t just a fullsize SUV, it’s a 6047-pound psychological distortion event. The Max is the Suburban to the regular Expedition’s Tahoe—the 131.6-inch wheelbase and 221.9-inch overall length outstretch the not-a-Max’s by 9.1 and 11.9 inches,…

THE FORD F-150 RAPTOR is one of the most entertaining vehicles on the market today, as much giddy fun in its element as a sports car is on a track. But it’s also surprisingly well rounded. It is simultaneously a toy, an effective tool for hauling as much as 1200 pounds or towing up to 8000, and, with its spacious cabin and cushy ride, a perfectly comfortable—albeit enormous—vehicle for daily use. Given the breadth of its skill set, the Raptor is also something of a bargain, starting at just $51,415. Now imagine it at a slightly smaller scale. Actually, you don’t have to. The Ranger, Ford’s dormant mid-size pickup, will relaunch in the U.S. next year, but ahead of the start of sales, Ford introduced the Ranger Raptor in Bangkok,…

PHYSICS TENDS TO GET ITS WAY. And when it comes to cars going around corners, physics says this: They should lean. The tires grip, the outside suspension compresses, and the body lists. Reducing that list is what roll-stabilization systems aim to do. During cornering, conventional anti-roll bars—steel rods that act as torsion springs connecting the left and right suspension members—transfer some of the force compressing the outside suspension members to the inside ones, which limits droop and decreases body roll. But because the sides are mechanically linked, a single-wheel bump encountered while traveling straight affects both sides, reducing ride comfort. Innovations in roll-stabilization systems have tried to balance the competing priorities of flat cornering and optimal ride comfort by redistributing load between the outside and inside tires during cornering, and…

Buick last fielded a wagon 22 years ago: the V-8–powered, reardrive Roadmaster Estate. Such models can usually be identified by the wood-grain vinyl covering most of their 18-foot-long sides and by the octogenarian behind the wheel. When GM quit building them, the land-yacht class of station wagons went extinct—right around the same time Subaru was inventing a new, modern kind of wagon. A suspension lift and some cladding fitted to the mid-size, all-wheel-drive Legacy produced the Outback, which has since evolved to become the long-roof sales champion. No wonder, then, that Buick’s comeback bid adheres to a somewhat similar plan. Like other Buicks of late, the Regal TourX is a rebadged Opel, specifically an Insignia Country Tourer, a mid-sizer that’s been encircled by many square centimeters of black plastic and…

KEEPING UP WITH the increasingly powerful and computerassisted automobile is serious work. It can dazzle our senses one minute and numb them the next. We’re not complaining; we just sometimes need to unwind with a hot soak in frivolity. Such as driving a custom 1981 Toyota Land Cruiser that costs as much as a new Lamborghini Huracán. You read that correctly: The restored and lightly modernized FJ43 rig on these pages—the top-spec Signature model from the Miami, Florida–based FJ Company—stickers for $210,900 with a handful of options. A rational purchase it is not. But iconic vehicles can captivate their fan base to the point of obsession, and the classic FJ Land Cruiser—most notably those built from 1954 to 1984—is nothing less than an off-road folk hero. Starting this year, the…

THE REDESIGNED Volvo XC60 T6 scoots to 60 mph in 6.1 seconds and hangs on to a cloverleaf at a very carlike 0.87 g, but it’s not built for those feats. A less expensive, base-engine BMW X3 will easily keep up while a similarly priced Porsche Macan S will embarrass the Volvo on a winding two-lane. Buying an XC60 for its performance is like purchasing a Rolex for the way it keeps time. No, you get the XC60 to salve the right part of your brain: You buy it for its quiet, comfortable, and allaround stunning interior. Inside, it seems as though Volvo spared no expense. From the tiny Swedish flag on the front passenger’s seat to the pale-gray open-pore wood trim, the stitched dash, and the vertical orientation of…