Indholdsfortegnelse for February 2019 i Car and Driver

We no longer travel great distances in the name of exploration. Today, our frontier is all around us. For those seeking this new frontier, the first-ever Lexus UX is a new frontier for crossovers. Crafted purposefully for the city. To nimbly handle corners with a best-in-class 17.1-ft turning radius.1 To easily navigate cluttered roads with Apple CarPlay®2 while connected to your iPhone.®3 And to inspire a sense of freedom with a class-leading estimated 33 MPG.1,4 Introducing the Lexus UX and UX Hybrid AWD,5 both available as F SPORT models. Crafted for those who believe there is always something new to explore. lexus.com/UX | #LexusUX Options shown. 1. 2019 UX vs. 2018/2019 competitors. Information from manufacturers’ websites as of 9/17/2018. 2. Apple CarPlay is a trademark of Apple Inc. All rights…

WHEN WE STARTED LIGHTNING Lap at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) back in 2006, the idea of a manufacturer using our lap data as a development objective was as preposterous as the pony-car war boiling over the 750-hp mark or Magna Steyr building the next Toyota Supra. Of course, both of those once-improbable things (plus a great many more) have come to pass, and on a recent trip to VIR, Subaru confirmed another: Our 2:59.8 lap of a 2016 Cadillac ATS-V was one of the development targets for the WRX STI–based S209. The 2019 S209 comes from Subaru Tecnica International (STI), the in-house motorsports arm and hot-rod shop responsible for manufacturing legends such as the 22B, the Spec C, and the S204 (ask someone fluent in Forza if those models don’t…

THE FUTURE IS BLEAK for the traditional rent-a-car business. Rental firms’ stock prices have been tumbling as the industry faces competition from the thriving ride-sharing sector, where companies are investing heavily in the race for the driverless taxi. But the competition doesn’t yet have the infrastructure needed to maintain their growing fleets of automated test vehicles, which still require regular service such as oil changes and tire-pressure checks. Rental companies do. So even as their stock prices slip, three of the biggest traditional car-rental firms are experimenting with a new path forward: maintenance. For now, these partnerships are limited. In June 2017, Waymo announced that Avis would manage the routine service needs of its automated fleet, beginning with 600 Level 4 vehicles that are currently operating in the Phoenix metro…

IF YOU NEED A THREE-ROW SUV, YOU WILL NOT FIND A BETTER DRIVING, MORE SATISFYING ONE THAN THE MAZDA CX-9. PERIOD. Friends, countrymen, Americans, you have been fed a bill of goods by the host of candidates in this race for best mid-size SUV. They’ll tell you that size is what matters. That performance and comfort and confidence don’t. They’ll tell you that if you are voting in this class, you’ve already given up on driving pleasure. But there is another way, people. A vote for the Mazda CX-9 is a vote for a new way. A different way. A better way. We’re here to tell you that, as Americans, you can have everything, all the time. You want good looks? Of course you do. Take a gander at the…

WHICH IS THE REAL TRUCK? THE BRODOZERS THAT GOT STUCK IN THE MUDDY FIELD OR THE RIDGE LINE THAT DROVE RIGHT THROUGH? A unibody pickup based on the same platform that underpins Honda’s Odyssey and Pilot, the Ridgeline is an anomaly. It’s the only pickup on the market with a transverse-mounted engine (a 280-hp 3.5-liter V-6), and in its base configuration, it drives the front wheels. Scandalous! While the Ridgeline’s towing and payload ratings are lower than some of the competition’s, this mid-sizer makes a populist play with a roomy and comfortable cabin and road manners befitting a sedan. Most important, its unique features—a lockable in-bed trunk, a dual-hinged tailgate, and a composite bed that can double as a big speaker—make it something more than merely a shrunken version of…

Light rain is to Southern California what a hurricane is to Florida or a blizzard is to upstate New York. Highways close, semis jackknife, mountains slide away as mud, and houses of worship fill with those seeking God’s mercy. It’s not the end of civilization, but it’s close. Into this apocalyptic nightmare we drove the new-for-2019 Audi A7 and Mercedes-Benz CLS450 4MATIC, boldly risking nature’s wrath to discover which of these squished-roof four-doors would best overcome it all with grace and confidence. And which may be good enough to thrive in a world gone mad for crossovers and SUVs. Our route took us through Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo counties along the superlative State Routes 33, 166, and 58, with a quick blitz to the Mojave Desert for…

May 10, 2017 92 miles: Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 begins its long-term test. June 26, 2017 4031 miles: Damage from a raccoon strike requires a new front fascia, splitter, and trim. Dealer also replaces a bent oil cooler. Four subsequent visits are needed to install the stripes and clear protective wrap, $3684 August 7, 2017 7751 miles: Dealer performs an oil change and routine inspections, $150 October 2, 2017 11,530 miles: The local tire shop patches a tire puncture, $20 November 1, 2017 13,990 miles: An off-road incident sends the GT350 back to the body shop for passenger-door repairs and paint, $832 November 8, 2017 14,001 miles: Dealer replaces the outer-right amber turn-signal bulb under warranty, $0 November 10, 2017 14,070 miles: We add 3.0 quarts of 5W-50 synthetic oil.…

[+] Four-wheeled thrills don’t come more visceral. [-] The need to wear rubber pants. YOU LEARN LOTS OF THINGS in an Ariel Atom, the most minimal of minimalistic sports cars. But perhaps the greatest revelation is that it is indeed possible to suffer from vertigo in a car that you are piloting yourself. Glance through the tubular steel chassis as the road rushes past and the instinct to step back from a precipice fires somewhere deep inside your lizard brain. Of course, you should be looking considerably farther down the road while driving an Atom, especially given the enormous speeds it can generate in even the shortest straights, but it is hard not to be distracted by the novelty of a car that leaves so much of its inner workings…

FINE WHINES I just read the “Appalachian Outlaws” comparison test in the November issue. Here comes the flood of Porsche-bias letters. —John Grant Campbell Chatsworth, GA Well, actually…—Ed. I finished reading “Appalachian Outlaws,” and while I didn’t need to read it to know that the Porsche would be the winner, I still thought it was an enjoyable article. It seemed to me, though, that a 911 Turbo might have been a better fit than the GT3, due to forced induction and a less hard-core demeanor more similar to the Aston’s and AMG’s. I think a lot of people accuse you of having biases toward certain automakers, mostly those from Stuttgart and Bavaria, and though I myself am somewhat partial to AMG, there’s one thing I think a lot of people…

All politics is self-interested. That’s why you don’t often see corporations clamoring for stricter environmental regulations or megawealthy people arguing for a tax increase in the top bracket (exceptions noted; no angry letters please, Mr. Buffett). So when we tell you that the Mazda CX-5 is the best compact crossover for sale today, it’s not only because we believe it to be true. It’s also because we hope that by rewarding this particular brand of excellence, we’ll encourage more of it. There are other strong contenders in the CX-5’s class this year. The Jeep Wrangler, for instance, is a superlative vehicle but so committed to its particular mission that we can’t recommend it for everyone. The Subaru Forester is new for 2019 and competent in every way, engineered for the…

THE DRIVING AGE IN SWEDEN IS 18, and as that magical number approached, Nicklas Holmgren accepted that his first car would be a Volvo, because of course it would be. But he pined for something big and bad and born in Detroit, preferably before he was. So in 1990, at 19, as soon as he’d saved enough money, he drove 210 miles from his home in Kiruna to the nearest big city, Luleå, and bought a 1970 Oldsmobile Cutlass. Now 47, Holmgren says his attraction to the car hit him “like a bolt of lightning on a clear day.” Holmgren’s obsession with American cars may not be normal, but neither is it uncommon. On a summer afternoon in the center of most any working-class town in Sweden, parades of Cadillacs…

Arrival: Sep/2018 Miles: 4080 Observed mpg: 22 OKAY, LET’S TRY THIS AGAIN: The last time we checked in on our new long-term E-class wagon, it had just been ravaged by a box van driven by two mesomorphs at our local fried wingery. We were devastated to learn that the car-length scar left by said box van rendered our E400 a total loss. Keen eyes will notice that the E wagon featured here is a 450 series. That’s because Mercedes-Benz took pity on our wagonlessness and supplied us with a newer version of the all-conquering estate. This time, little expense was spared in outfitting your humble narrators. Whereas the prematurely dead E400 was restrained in display and amenities, ringing in at a value-conscious (!) $77,635, this E450 nearly kisses 90 grand.…

[+] Typical Audi experience, solid build quality, reasonable price. [-] Typical Audi experience, unexceptional range. EVEN THE OIL-SOAKED MIDDLE EAST can’t avoid the clean-energy future. The United Arab Emirates (UAE), smaller than Maine and sitting atop 6 percent of the world’s oil reserves, currently produces 98 percent of its energy with fossil fuels. It is also in the midst of building the world’s largest solar power plant. The Emiratis know a day will come when their near-bottomless oil will be as useful as a basement full of AOL free-hours floppy disks. This creates a fitting parallel with the SUV we’re driving here, Audi’s first mass-produced electric vehicle, the 2019 e-tron. Audi’s parent, the Volkswagen Group, is the world’s largest automaker and virtually all 10 million passenger vehicles it sold in…

TOYOTA’S FOURTH-GENERATION (chassis code A80) Supra Turbo, sold here from 1993 to 1998, has fronted movie franchises, shredded drag strips in as little as six seconds, and—if we recall correctly—conducted the London Philharmonic at the request of Queen Elizabeth II. The iron-strong 2JZ straight-six under its hood has worn turbochargers big enough to sleep in and swims like a shark in a nitrous-oxide ocean. And yet, Toyota has left us Supraless for 20 years, sitting idly by as the car accumulated a mountain of pop-culture street cred. Now the Big T is finally leveraging that mighty reputation in the form of the new (A90) Supra, which will blast out of a Magna Steyr assembly plant in Graz, Austria, alongside its brother, the BMW Z4. Yes, under a skin based on the…

IF CAR AND DRIVER EXISTS at the intersection of the automobile and the clever manipulation of the English language, then we’re sharing that corner with a huge cadre of rap and hip-hop artists for whom writing about vehicles they admire, own, or have owned (and dissing the cars their rivals drive) is an art. We’ve combed through more than four decades of data from Genius.com, an online database of song lyrics, to get a look at how our musical comrades see the car world. Spoiler alert: Things aren’t looking good for Smart. THE PLASTICS These are the most popular brands in our data set and the models most paired with each brand. Plus a few cases (Lexus Land Cruiser?) where the MCs needed a fact-checker. DESPER ATE WANNABES Some of…

EVEN WITH AN UPDATED MODEL ON THE HORIZON, THE MACAN STILL TAKES DOWN THE BEST FROM ALFA, BMW, AND MERCEDES. There’s a simple reason Porsche’s incumbent Macan continues to win the compact-luxury-SUV race: It presents the best set of compromises, and we think that’s a good thing. The foundation of this position is that we will always, on some level, see SUVs as utility vehicles and not as wanton driving partners. So it’s the Macan’s provocative fusion of capability, control feel, and sensible comfort that wins our hearts—even in the presence of Alfa’s gonzo 505-hp Stelvio Quadrifoglio. Chief among Porsche’s strengths is that it avoids the common mistake many manufacturers make when engineering an SUV that can turn: neck-snapping stiffness. Driving most Macan competitors with purpose is a violent exercise…

[+] Steering feel is back (in Sport mode), strong ride-handling balance, class-leading chassis tech. [-] Another manual bites the dust, personal assistant not without bugs, ho-hum interior materials. TURN 16, THE LAST, LONGEST, AND FASTEST on the Algarve International Circuit in Portimão, Portugal, is a chassis engineer’s nightmare and an exercise in commitment in the new BMW M340i xDrive. The apex is hidden just beyond a blind crest that is doubly useful for turning the car and taking its measure at the limit. Commit to the throttle before the crest and the all-wheel-drive sedan rotates confidently as it lightens. Keep your right foot pinned and the car holds a neutral attitude down the hill before settling into the compression at corner exit and ripping down the front straight. It’s a…

[+] Optional air springs flatten and smooth, the base Cayenne is no longer a poseur. [-] At Porsche, “base” doesn’t mean cheap—wait, that could also be a plus. THE ROUTE FROM LOS ANGELES to our desert testing grounds climbs over the San Gabriel Mountains through 40 miles of corners and clouds that test handling, braking, and power. Pick the right time and traffic is rarer than the smell of fresh-cut grass in L.A., and by the time the road spits you out onto the freeway, your understanding of a vehicle is fully formed. Of our dozens of commutes over these mountains this year, there are a few memorable standouts: the traffic-free run in a Mustang GT, the 911 GT3’s 9000-rpm shriek bouncing off the rock walls, a paradigm-busting drive in…