Indholdsfortegnelse for February 2021 i MotorTrend

@markrechtin Life is awash in sports metaphors. A struggling automaker might be behind the eight ball and throw a Hail Mary with a desperate product launch—which can result in a home run or getting put down for the count. (And yes, I know I’m mixing billiards, football, baseball, and boxing metaphors here.) These clichés are thrown about with such abandon that people may not even realize that sport is being referenced anymore. But there is one sports reference that never loses its impact: three-peat. Only true dynasties can declare such a trio of title triumphs: The Shaq and Kobe L.A. Lakers, the Lombardi-era Green Bay Packers, and the Air Jordan Chicago Bulls (who did it twice). Not even the Ruth and Gehrig New York Yankees took three in a row.…

There is no diesel-powered Defender in the U.S. lineup, so the Land Rover Defender 110 D240 is forbidden fruit for Americans. It’s also a rare beast: You can’t order one anymore, even in its home market. After less than a year on the market, the Defender’s 2.0-liter turbodiesel I-4 powertrain—available in both 197-hp and 237-hp tune—has been replaced by a new 3.0-liter twin-turbodiesel mild hybrid inline-six tuned to deliver 197 hp, 247 hp, or 296 hp, depending on how much you want to spend. Until it hits the market, though, the Defender 110 D240 is all we have to answer the question: Does a diesel engine make the new Defender even more desirable? Torque and fuel efficiency are a diesel engine’s strong points, and both are desirable characteristics in an…

Don’t worry—it looks better in person. The styling isn’t the only big change for the 2022 Hyundai Tucson, though. It’s longer, wider, and taller than the current SUV, and it will be available as a hybrid and plug-in hybrid for the first time. The change in proportions means more space inside. The 2022 Tucson is 5.9 inches longer, 0.6 inch wider, and 0.6 inch taller than the model it replaces, with its wheelbase also increasing by 3.4 inches, making it roughly the same size as the Honda CR-V or Toyota RAV4. The Tucson Limited model we saw in person was equipped with a 10.3-inch touchscreen, capacitive HVAC controls, ambient lighting, and another 10.3-inch screen for the instrument cluster. Lower trims get an 8.0-inch touchscreen with a 4.2-inch LCD display on…

Character and heritage are as much Jeep’s stock in trade as off-road capability. “It’s a Jeep thing” can be as much praise as it can be damnation, though, depending on who’s saying it and why. The Gladiator has improved at being a Jeep, but it’s hardly better at being a truck. The Gladiator’s repeat invitation to Truck of the Year hinged on a pair of important new options: a 260-hp, 442-lb-ft 3.0-liter turbodiesel V-6 and a desert-bashing suspension. Although not offered together, the EcoDiesel engine and Mojave trim level each add impressive capability. Both, however, come with compromises. The diesel engine brings much-needed low-end torque to the Gladiator’s repertoire, making the truck not only empirically quicker but also more comfortable to drive. It gets up and moves off the line…

The least interesting thing about our 2021 MotorTrend Truck of the Year is that it’s powered by a 702-hp supercharged V-8. The 2021 Ram 1500 TRX is a truck that resets the standard of what’s possible. It is a game-changer, both on- and off-road: a truck equally capable towing and hauling as it is ripping donuts in a field or whipping sports cars in drag races. The TRX is not just the 2021 MotorTrend Truck of the Year—the unprecedented third consecutive time Ram has won—but the new benchmark that all supertrucks must beat. At its core, the Ram 1500 TRX is an engineering exercise, and a remarkably impressive one, at that. Although the TRX shares its 1500 badge with our 2019 Truck of the Year, truthfully it’s easier to point…

Remember all the pundits who said drivers are losing that loving feeling for cars? How no one drives for pleasure anymore, that spending hours commuting was sucking the joy of ownership and fueling the migration to mass transit and ride hailing? How we were all going to be riding in autonomous drones by the middle of the decade? Then a pandemic hit. The world got off its regular treadmill as people across every country began to isolate. It was no longer safe to go to the office, board a plane or train, or hail a taxi. Events were canceled. The immediate result: In April, as the pandemic spread, total driving decreased by 40 percent compared to 2019, according to the Federal Highway Administration. Destination travel plummeted. Memorial Day had its…

America’s Army infantry soldiers have mostly been getting around on foot, but they’re about to get a radical upgrade in the form of the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2–based Infantry Squad Vehicle. The ISV’s mission is to airdrop into a safe zone then drive infantry through low-threat areas at speed, the soldiers walking the rest of the way where the threat is greater. This way the troops should arrive at their destination much less fatigued than they would be if they had walked the whole way or been carried in a Humvee or JLTV. Let’s dive right into what might just become a great recruiting tool for the Army’s 35 Infantry Brigade Combat Teams. 275 Horsepower, 420 Pound-Feet The military generally runs on diesel fuel and the chemically similar JP-8 and F-24…

In a time when the future of the sedan is in doubt, the 2022 Honda Civic doubles down with a more mature design, a promise of additional features, and all the sporty charm enthusiasts love. For the uninitiated, Honda typically produces prototypes such as this rather than concept cars. Rather than an unrestrained vision of the future, they’re essentially the final production cars with a few flourishes that’ll get toned down a bit by the time you can actually buy one. This new Civic prototype is no different. What you see here is basically what’ll be at the dealer this spring, though Honda says it incorporates exclusive styling cues from both the sedan and hatchback body styles. At first look, it strikes you as a more mature and fully realized…

Two hours into wheeling the 2021 Ford Bronco Sport up a reasonably tough trail and already seriously impressed with what the little rig could do, I still wouldn’t have bothered attempting that stair-step obstacle. Eyeballing it, I figured I’d run the bumper into the hillside before I got the tires up to the edge. I was wrong. Oh, and did I mention this was the only vehicle in the entire group on the standard Pirelli Scorpion ATR tires? Everything else had the optional Falken Wildpeak A/Ts with a much more aggressive tread pattern. It was, however, still a Badlands trim like the rest, and that matters. The Badlands (and the First Edition, which is a limited run based on the Badlands) is endowed with serious off-roading hardware. Right up front,…

With a new chassis and four powertrains available, including a hybrid and two performance-oriented models, the 2021 Elantra is stepping up its game. There will be three Elantras to choose from at launch—the regular Elantra, a sportier N Line, and a hybrid. The track-ready Elantra N is coming next year. The Elantra that most customers will buy is powered by a 2.0-liter Atkinson-cycle I-4 that delivers 147 hp and 132 lb-ft of torque. A continuously variable transmission sends the power to the front wheels. The engine is a carryover from the previous generation but has been updated to improve fuel efficiency. It remains slightly less powerful than the competition, but as we found out during our drive in Los Angeles, it feels adequate. The CVT takes a lot of the…

Look out, the emissions police may soon be coming for your tires and brakes. Now that most noxious fumes and hazardous particulate matter have been cleansed from exhaust pipes, global regulatory agencies that monitor those nasty 2.5–10.0-micron particles that can lodge in your lungs and irritate your eyes, nose, and throat are zeroing in on brake dust and tire emissions. Not even electric vehicles and other “clean” vehicles can escape these measures. But non-exhaust PM emissions will prove devilishly difficult to measure, let alone regulate. Happily, there’s already a solution to the brake dust problem that pays handsome aesthetic dividends: clean wheels and mirror-finish rotors. Our fuel economy and emissions-measuring partners Emissions Analytics first drew my attention to this problem in a report last year, in which its testing revealed…

THE CONTENDERS FORD F-250 SUPER DUTY • FORD F-350 SUPER DUTY JEEP GLADIATOR DIESEL • JEEP GLADIATOR MOJAVE NISSAN FRONTIER • NISSAN TITAN • NISSAN TITAN XD • RAM 1500 TRX TESTERS/JUDGES SCOTT EVANS Project Leader/Features Editor JONNY LIEBERMAN Senior Features Editor KIM REYNOLDS Testing Director CHRIS WALTON Road Test Editor ERICK AYAPANA Associate Road Test Editor CHRISTIAN SEABAUGH Features Editor MIGUEL CORTINA MotorTrend en Español…

Enter the 2020 Nissan Frontier, and you’ll feel like you’re traveling back a decade. That was when it last received an upgrade. The platform itself hasn’t seen any major overhauls since it launched in 2004. It’s almost old enough to vote. But instead of retiring the current generation, Nissan is giving us a taste of what the next truck will be like, as the 2020 Frontier got the new engine and transmission that will be the heart of the new truck coming next year. Powered by a 3.8-liter naturally aspirated V-6, the 2020 Frontier produces 310 hp and 281 lb-ft of torque. This is the only engine available in the Frontier, which means the four-cylinder mill has finally been retired. Nissan says the new V-6 was developed with the U.S.…

Not many products actually deserve the label “iconic,” but Airstream travel trailers have earned it. Most people can’t tell a matte-white Starcraft from a Chinook or Gulf Stream being towed behind a truck. But catch a glimpse of one of those big aluminum Twinkies going by, and you know exactly what it is. Airstreams are so associated with the golden era of RVing that boutique “glamping” resorts have popped up around the country consisting entirely of refurbished Airstreams. With the constraints of life in 2020 bringing a desire for socially distant, self-directed escapes, RVs and travel trailers are as popular as ever. What better time, then, to test an Airstream Flying Cloud. We used it as our dead weight in our towing tests for Truck of the Year. We also…

Even though almost 30 models make up today’s Mercedes-Benz portfolio in the U.S., the launch of an all-new S-Class is still a defining moment for Germany’s most successful premium automaker. Mercedes SUVs, particularly the GLE and GLC families, have become the brand’s volume sellers, but an S-Class is still meant to be nothing less than a statement of engineering excellence and technical expertise that underpins the very credibility of the three-pointed star. The mission statement for the 2021 S-Class is thus crystal clear. The 2021 S-Class, code-named W223, is built on a new platform known internally as MRA2. Effectively an evolution of the current car’s underpinnings, MRA2 has been reworked to package a new rear-steer axle and a larger battery for plug-in hybrid versions of the car. Compared with the…

We hit the road the hour before dawn, the Aston Martin DB11 V8 limbering up nicely as we cruised toward the coast and EuroTunnel train that would take us under the English Channel. Ahead, a nice, easy run through France, wafting along at a relaxed 85 mph on the quiet and beautifully maintained autoroutes, before jinking up and over the Jura Mountains and dropping into Switzerland and our overnight stop in Geneva. Tomorrow, we’d amble down through the Mont Blanc Tunnel and into Italy, picking up the pace in the Aosta Valley before skirting around Turin to reach our hotel in the heart of the fabled Langhe wine region. We’ve always loved a road trip, Mrs. MacKenzie and I. But this one was special, I thought, as the DB11 loafed…

General Motors has pulled the wraps off the 2022 GMC Hummer EV, an electric full-size pickup with crazy power, a removable top, moonscape-themed details, and a price of $112,595 for the high-end Edition 1 trim that’s set to go on sale before the end of 2021. Although GMC will offer the Hummer EV in a number of trims, the brand will initially sell the vehicle solely in Edition 1 guise. As such, all 2022 Hummer EVs are painted white with a black-painted upper. As the highest performing variant of the Hummer EV, the Edition 1 comes standard with three electric motors, two of which power the rear axle; the third provides grunt to the front. As such, the truck features standard four-wheel drive and a torque-vectoring rear end—a setup GMC…

This Gator XUV835R is the flagship, full-size model that tops John Deere’s range of Gator side-by-side ATVs—or, more accurately, UTVs (utility task vehicles). That distinction is important, as the side-by-side market subdivides into those designed for work and those trying to be mini fun machines. Gators are mostly the former, and the lineup opens on the smaller end with the Work Series, followed by the midsize crossover XUV. Deere’s full-size crossover XUVs like our test vehicle are billed as “built to work like a truck in places that a truck can’t,” and they boast a 2,000-pound towing capacity, low-range gearing, and locking differentials, with full weather protection and climate control available. Base pricing starts at $14,699 and climbs to $27,399 with diesel power. My well-equipped XUV835R rang the register at…

Mike Koval Jr. is now king of the three-peat. The Ram 1500 TRX is the 2021 MotorTrend Truck of the Year, following the Ram Heavy Duty win in 2020 and Ram 1500 starting the roll as the 2019 Truck of the Year. Talk about being in the right job at the right time. Koval Jr. has been with FCA since 2002, the last five years with the Ram brand, and he was made head of the brand in July 2020. What is your secret for success? Since Ram became a stand-alone brand in 2009, we’ve had the competitive advantage of clarity in our mission as the only dedicated truck and commercial van brand, entirely committed to understanding and delivering on the needs of our customers. What's next? We’re not going…

Going into to this year’s Truck of the Year competition, the refreshed Super Duty was the odds-on favorite. In 2017, the then-new Super Duty took home the Golden Calipers; this year’s edition just went through a particularly thorough refresh. Even though the honey-do list was short, much has been updated. The big news is the most torque in the segment—a muscular 1,050 lb-ft from the 450-hp 6.7-liter turbodiesel V-8. Even bigger, a pushrod 7.3-liter gasoline V-8 replaces the ancient 6.8-liter Modular V-10. Then there’s the new 10-speed automatic transmission. Also cool: a new harder-core off-road package called Tremor, which is available on several trim levels. Let’s see how the new Super Duties fared against our six key criteria. THE BIG NEWS IS THE MOST TORQUE IN THE SEGMENT—A MUSCULAR 1,050…

With the revamped Titan and Titan XD pickups, Nissan appears to have embraced the principles of Marie Kondo by keeping what sparks joy and eliminating the rest. But the trucks’ missions remain the same. The Titan goes to battle in the half-ton segment dominated by the Ford F-150, Ram 1500, Chevrolet Silverado, and GMC Sierra, while the Titan XD takes on the heavy-duties. To that end, the 5.6-liter V-8 stays and serves as the sole engine for both Titan and Titan XD, which means the eight-cylinder turbodiesel has been cut. Not only does the gas V-8 carry over, but it’s also slightly more powerful than before, making 400 hp and 413 lb-ft of torque, a jump of 10 hp and 19 lb-ft. Better yet, it’s now mated to a new…

I’m running wide. Real wide. I’m ripping up Pikes Peak, tickling 13,000 feet, entering a corner they call Bottomless Pit at 113 mph in my Tesla Model 3 race car. Up to this point, everything had gone smoother than a warm chocolate fondue. It’s my sixth shot answering the siren’s call from the fourteener boulders of America’s Mountain—the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. The thrills and challenge of open-road racing are irresistible to me. But things have just taken a bad turn. Just three months before, I was on a Third Row Tesla podcast with Ben Schaffer of Unplugged Performance, the noted Tesla tuner. I needed a ride, so I threw it out there: Say, why don’t we ask if we can borrow the Model S Plaid for Pikes Peak?…

General Motors reconstituted its GM Defense business in October 2017, largely to promote its Colorado–based ZH2 and subsequent Silverado ZH2 fuel cell electric vehicles, which promised to provide 80 kilowatts of clean, silent power “in theater” while emitting 2 gallons per hour of potable water, potentially running on hydrogen produced by reforming JP-8 fuel on site. The Army has yet to bite on that one, but it was in the market for an “Infantry Squad Vehicle.” This go-anywhere vehicle does not replace any current vehicle; rather, it is intended to be dropped behind lines and transport Army infantry troops closer to the hot zone. Up until now they’ve been walking. As such, it must be able to carry nine troops and their gear, be compact enough to fit inside a…