Indholdsfortegnelse for January 2020 i MotorTrend

We’ve always been a big-tent operation at MotorTrend, particularly for our longest-running, most important editorial programs: Car, Truck, and SUV of the Year. In the ’70s, it wasn’t uncommon to find non-staffers on the jury that decided Car of the Year. Famous interlopers included Dan Gurney, Peter Brock, and even the big boss, Robert Petersen (owner of Petersen Publishing and founder of MotorTrend), took part in selecting COTY. More than a dozen years ago, my predecessor, Angus MacKenzie, renewed the tradition of involving outsiders in our signature program. The first guest judge of our modern era was Jim Hall: a human encyclopedia, automotive expert, and veteran of the auto industry wars. Hall was with us for three COTY programs, during which time we added our second guest judge, Tom Gale,…

Audi Q3 PRO Futuristic IP and console • Nimble handling • Big rear seat for its class CON Lots of interior plastic • Bouncy ride • Merely adequate powertrain Following industry trends, Audi has allowed its subcompact Q3 crossover to grow into something that can fit standard-sized Americans. The first impression is strong. Familiar Audi exterior styling is smartly tailored to the small package, so much so that it was often mistaken for the identically hued and decidedly more expensive E-Tron. Similarly, the dashboard—with its standard digital instrument cluster and wide, frameless touchscreen infotainment system—will make prospective buyers feel like they’ve stepped into a much more expensive model. Our top-shelf Prestige S-Line tester was well equipped with a premium stereo, adaptive cruise control, and a 360-degree camera, justifying its $8,200…

JUDGES ALISA PRIDDLE Detroit editor SCOTT EVANS Features editor CHRISTIAN SEABAUGH Features editor FRANK MARKUS Technical director KIM REYNOLDS Testing director JONNY LIEBERMAN Senior features editor CHRIS WALTON Road test editor MIGUEL CORTINA MotorTrend en Español managing editor MARK WILLIAMS Former Truck Trend editor-in-chief VEHICLES: CHEVROLET SILVERADO 1500 • CHEVROLET SILVERADO HD FORD RANGER • GMC SIERRA 1500 • GMC SIERRA HD JEEP GLADIATOR • RAM 1500 • RAM HEAVY DUTY…

Maurizio Reggiani Chief Technical Officer, Automobili Lamborghini 2019 Rank: 19 His latest is the $2 million, 808-hp Sián hybrid supercar with a V-12 and a supercapacitor (instead of a traditional battery pack), allowing it to store more power, discharge it faster, and require less cooldown time so it’s ready to squirt out of the next corner. Albert Biermann Head of Research and Development, Hyundai Motor Group 2019 Rank: 17 Biermann injected performance as head of Hyundai N, and now, as global R&D boss, he spreads his engineering prowess across all Hyundai Group brands. We anticipate a Ranger Raptor competitor for Hyundai, more N models, and a limited-production halo car in partnership with Rimac. Jim Hackett CEO, Ford 2019 Rank: Unranked It has taken a couple of years for Hackett’s ideas…

Audi A8L PRO Quiet, plush ride • Executive rear seats • Crisp infotainment CON Engine needs more power • Light, numb steering • Screens show fingerprints The Audi A8L is a grande dame of a flagship sedan in a shrinking segment, but it knows how to treat its declining cohort of customers right. Audi is known for its sharp, tech-forward interiors, and this elegant cabin doesn’t disappoint. The A8L has a mix of rich and soft materials, open-pore wood, glossy trim, black perforated-leather seats, and Alcantara in the doors and headliner, all beautifully finished. Wood panels slide up dramatically to reveal hidden air vents, and the steering wheel squares off at the bottom with a place to rest your thumbs on a long drive. On the telematics side, surround-view camera…

How we test our Car, Truck, and SUV of the Year contenders has changed as much as we have over the past seven decades. Although dynamic testing can give a sense of the limits of these cars, we also test in real-world situations a typical driver would encounter. Our Of The Year testing methods are well established, but we’re never above trying new things to improve our process in the blazing summer heat of these desert proving grounds. Here’s how we tested and evaluated our 2020 field: Car of the Year Our 33 cars were delivered to the Hyundai Motor Group California Proving Ground in California City, where our test team conducted the usual 0–60, 60–0, quarter-mile, figure-eight, and accident-avoidance maneuvers over the course of a week. Then our judges…

PRO Car-of-the-future interior • Clever regen braking system • Gotta-have-it looks CON Less range than a 2013 Tesla • Jittery ride • It’s just plain heavy Audi E-Tron Although electric vehicles have twice won our coveted Car of the Year award, electric SUVs continue to come tantalizingly close while falling just short. This year’s heartbreaker is the beautifully rendered and impressively engineered Audi E-Tron. To the last, every judge struggled to reconcile their fondness for the E-Tron’s style, technology, and driving experience with its one fatal flaw. Several judges fawned over its restrained yet upscale appearance, with Priddle describing it as “Tony Stark, but mellowed out and subdued to fit in instead of stand out.” Loh fretted it might fit in a little too well, but Zach Gale found it…

Chevrolet Silverado 1500 PRO Phenomenal powertrains • Responsive steering • Good pulling power CON Boring interior • Seats not comfortable • Horrible backup camera The powertrain is the heart of a full-size pickup. A functional bed, interior accoutrements, and ease of pairing a phone all impact how livable a truck is. But if the key criteria are how the truck accelerates, sounds, shifts, and tows, you can’t go wrong with the 2020 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 with a gas or diesel engine and 8- or 10-speed automatic transmission smartly tuned to take advantage of the torque. It’s hard to believe the 2.7-liter is a four-cylinder; most judges said they would take it over any other gas engine in the Silverado lineup. This compelling engine, which generates 310 hp and 348 lb-ft,…

JUDGES EDWARD LOH Editor-in-chief MARK RECHTIN Executive editor ANGUS MACKENZIE International bureau chief ALISA PRIDDLE Detroit editor JONNY LIEBERMAN Senior features editor FRANK MARKUS Technical director CHRIS WALTON Road test editor ALEX NISHIMOTO News editor MIGUEL CORTINA MotorTrend en Español managing editor CHRIS THEODORE Former VP of Chrysler platform engineering, former VP of Ford product development IAN CALLUM Former head of Jaguar design VEHICLES AUDI A8 BMW 3 SERIES BMW 7 SERIES BMW 8 SERIES BMW Z4 CADILLAC CT5 CHEVROLET CORVETTE KIA K900 KIA NIRO EV KIA SOUL MAZDA3 MERCEDES-AMG GT 4-DOOR MERCEDES-BENZ A-CLASS NISSAN LEAF NISSAN VERSA PORSCHE 911 SUBARU LEGACY TESLA MODEL 3 TOYOTA COROLLA TOYOTA SUPRA VOLKSWAGEN ARTEON…

Sometimes, a car comes along that leaves the automotive landscape different than before. In Silicon Valley parlance, we’d be tempted to term such a car a “disrupter.” The last car to so shift the world was the Tesla Model S, our 2013 Car of the Year. This time around, our 2020 Car of the Year, the Chevrolet Corvette, fully scrambles the order of things. Never before has so much four-wheeled exoticism been attainable for so little money. Or so much good exoticism. Chevrolet Performance did not phone in the first-ever production mid-engine Corvette. It dialed it, massaged it, honed it, crafted the new ’Vette to the point of the nearly impossible. The eighth-generation car will bring people into dealerships who previously would never have come in. The mid-engine Corvette is…

JUDGES EDWARD LOH Editor-in-chief MARK RECHTIN Executive editor ANGUS MACKENZIE International bureau chief ALISA PRIDDLE Detroit editor SCOTT EVANS Features editor CHRISTIAN SEABAUGH Features editor CHRIS WALTON Road test editor ZACH GALE Senior production editor MIGUEL CORTINA MotorTrend en Español managing editor TOM GALE Former head of Chrysler design JOHAN DE NYSSCHEN Former president of Cadillac VEHICLES AUDI E-TRON AUDI Q3 AUDI Q8 BMW X3 M BMW X5 BMW X7 CADILLAC XT6 CHEVROLET BLAZER FORD ESCAPE FORD EXPLORER HONDA PASSPORT HYUNDAI PALISADE JAGUAR F-PACE SVR JEEP RENEGADE KIA TELLURIDE LAND ROVER RANGE ROVER EVOQUE LEXUS UX LINCOLN AVIATOR LINCOLN CORSAIR LINCOLN NAUTILUS MERCEDES-BENZ GLE-CLASS MERCEDES-BENZ GLS-CLASS PORSCHE CAYENNE SUBARU OUTBACK VOLVO V60 CROSS COUNTRY…

The Kia Telluride’s achievement as winner of MotorTrend’s 2020 SUV of the Year award is more inevitability than incongruity. It’s been a long time coming for a company that was founded in 1944 and for decades has lived with the backhanded compliment of building “cheap and cheerful” transportation for buyers on a budget. But this award is the deserved recognition that today’s Korean auto industry has evolved to possess the skill and talent to design, engineer, and manufacture world-class vehicles—ones able to best their mainstream Japanese, European, and American rivals in terms of style, dynamics, refinement, and build quality. Manufactured in West Point, Georgia, the Telluride is a Kia built in America for Americans: a comfortable and roomy three-row SUV that’s perfectly pitched at the heart of a highly competitive…

The easiest job in the automotive industry has to be marketing pickup trucks. We’re all familiar with the ads: An oversized dually slams through a concrete wall, a voice actor in his best movie trailer baritone introduces the “all-new, more capable” Brodozer 4500 as the camera pans back showing the truck towing the U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet. This approach to advertising has trapped pickup engineers into a vicious cycle of chasing max tow and payload numbers—frankly, to the point that the added performance and capability is of little use to the average buyer. After all, once your combined truck and trailer weighs more than 26,001 pounds, legally you should be carrying a commercial driver’s license. So what happens if you take the mad men out of the driver’s seat and…

BMW 3 Series PRO Fantastic transmission • I-6 engine rips • Decent back seat CON Rough M Sport suspension • Unimaginative interior • Distant steering Although the new 3 Series was supposed to show BMW has its mojo back, it’s now merely competitive—a long fall for an icon that once defined the compact sport sedan segment. BMW sent a 330i model with a jarring, unsettled M Sport suspension; at least that meant sharp, precise handling that is only let down by a slightly overboosted, artificial steering feel. Walton called the BMW’s 2.0-liter mill “all torque and no horsepower”—saved only by the well-executed ZF eight-speed transmission. When mated to the 340i’s zingy 3.0-liter turbocharged inline-six, the eight-speed’s tuning is even more superb. The higher-horsepower engine also provides a more balanced driving…

Imitation, they say, is the sincerest form of flattery. Well, Bob Petersen would have been pretty flattered to see how often the Big Idea he came up with 70 years ago—the MotorTrend Car of the Year—has been imitated. In the United States and around the world, variants of our Of The Year awards are now legion. But, I’d argue, nobody does it better than we do. Why? An evaluation process that’s transparent, considered, and consistent, combined with a ton of hard work by an awful lot of people. It starts and finishes with our six criteria—advancement in design, engineering excellence, efficiency, safety, value, and performance of intended function. In between is a rigorous process. Every contender was put through a full battery of performance tests by our road test team—this…