Indholdsfortegnelse for Summer 2025 i MotorTrend

Buying a car in the late 1800s was an act of faith. Optimistic, irrational, mostly blind faith. To buy such an expensive and unproven technology in the age of the horse, you had to believe in a world that didn’t yet exist—one where drivable roads and gas stations connected the country. Car ownership was also a bet against the odds: that your automobile wouldn’t break down and that when something did break down, the company you bought it from would still be in business. Most of all, buying into the idea of the automobile required believing that the present headaches and hardships wouldn’t last forever. Think of those first drivers as time travelers. In return for gambling on an automobile, they experienced the future years or even decades before the…

Welcome to the era of downloadable horsepower and steering wheels with no mechanical connection to the front tires. Whether this intrigues you or infuriates you, don’t get hung up on the state of technology today, because one thing’s for sure in this reality: Tomorrow’s cars will be different. Change, of course, is constant. Humans have dreamed of faster, more capable, more efficient, more comfortable, or more reliable vehicles from the moment Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot hung a boiler on a three-wheeled horse cart in 1770. The only difference today is how furiously the pace of progress accelerates. Fueled by cheap batteries, powerful software tools, and advanced electronic controls, the car as we know it is experiencing an evolutionary leap. Change on this scale brings hope and hype, and the inaugural MotorTrend Best…

It’s rare when a new car comes along that offers a feature we universally point to as the future. A game-changer, a technology that alters how we think about (and drive) cars. A tech we expect all automakers to eventually copy. The high-performance 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 N’s unique dual-motor technology is one of those advancements, earning it a well-deserved inaugural MotorTrend Best Tech win in the powertrain category. At first glance, there’s nothing particularly unconventional about the Ioniq 5 N’s powertrain. It uses a typical setup for all-wheel-drive EVs: permanent-magnet motors at both axles, packaged in a relatively lightweight, high-performance 800-volt system, with power supplied by an 84-kWh battery pack. The front motor produces 273 hp and 273 lb-ft of torque, while the rear makes 406 hp and 295…

Electric vehicle adoption in America has included plenty of ups and downs, especially when it comes to charging your big battery on wheels. Juicing up at home is easy, but venturing to another part of town or taking a road trip can quickly make you feel like you’re in The Hunger Games. You end up wondering, “Where will I charge? And will that charger even work when I get there?” Back in 2009, the PlugShare app entered the scene to answer those questions. And it has since become one of the most complete and accurate public charger databases, serving as a valuable tool for EV owners old and new. The fact our staff full of EV superusers chose it as the best aftermarket app should tell you exactly how valuable…

If anyone could make a heptagon roll smoothly, the Tesla Cybertruck would probably have seven-sided tires to match its wheel covers. Tesla is so quick to question the status quo, we wouldn’t be surprised if the company tried to literally reinvent the wheel. Cybertruck engineers did exactly that with their steer-by-wire system, our 2025 Best Tech winner for chassis technology. By completely removing the mechanical connection between the steering wheel and the front tires, Tesla fundamentally reimagined the rack-and-pinion steering the auto industry has spent nearly 100 years refining. That change unlocks real, tangible benefits. Thanks to steer-by-wire, Tesla’s 6,900-pound, stainless-steel megalith moves with uncanny agility. You pilot the Cybertruck with a yoke that sweeps through its full range of motion in just 340 degrees. That’s possible because the relationship…

Driving the Cadillac Celestiq is one thing; crafting one to suit your personal taste is another. This process kicks off through conversations with one of four in-house concierges to get to know your personal likes and dislikes and introduce you to the broad spectrum of trim, color, and material options. These design sessions are typically done via one or more video calls, and the options are narrowed down to a small number of favorites. The next step is for the buyer to visit Cadillac House at the fabulously midcentury modern, Eero Saarinen–designed GM Tech Center. We went through an abbreviated session at Cadillac House and were blown away by the attention to detail, the building itself, and the skill of the concierges, who come from the worlds of fine art,…

Fans of racing and especially the 24 Hours of Le Mans were disappointed by Wendelin Wiedeking’s decision to pull the plug on the LMP2000, but it’s difficult to disappointed by it in hindsight when viewed through the lens of time. As Porsche built just 1,270 examples of the Carrera GT at a starting price of $440,000 (approximately $745,000 today), the result was a creation destined to live forever in automotive culture from the moment of its public unveiling in concept form during the 2000 Paris Motor Show. Known internally as the 980 and despite never racing, you might view the Carrera GT as a kind of “reverse” homologation special compared to something like the streetlegal 911 GT1s Porsche created not long before. The latter were done mostly to comply with GT1-class…

There’s a new Toyota 4Runner in town, fully 15 years after we first sampled its predecessor. That’s a long time for any vehicle to stay in production, but it didn’t hurt sales. In fact, 2021 was the 4Runner’s best year ever, and Toyota USA moved more than 100,000 units per year from 2016 through 2023. The number sold in 2024 only sagged to 94,180 because production stopped toward the end of the year. Americans like Toyota 4Runners. We like Jeep Wranglers, too. We snatched up more than 100,000 of them per year (and often more than 200,000) from 2011 to 2022. Sales have fallen just shy of 100,000 the past two years largely due to the Ford Bronco, which outsold the Wrangler in 2023 and 2024. We don’t have all…

When Genesis unveiled the newest G90 full-size luxury sedan, we were stunned—where previous models blended scale and Mercedes-like features in bland wrappers, the 2023 G90 was the first to slather the budget-Benz project in gotta-have-it appeal. We added a G90 3.3T E-Supercharger AWD to our yearlong test fleet on the strength of its 2023 MotorTrend Car of the Year win. The G90 performed well at tasks few owners will ask of it. Will it baby? Sure—the Genesis arrived in this author’s hands after its transfer from our Los Angeles headquarters delayed by the birth of my son. Parents today seem fixated on ever-larger SUVs as the go-to vehicle for their families. A four-door sedan with a trunk like this? Suggesting one for their garage would be akin to declaring their…

Oh, the timing. The man who recently oversaw the development of the most powerful rear-wheel-drive car Ferrari has ever created, the 869-hp 296 Speciale, reckons the horsepower war is pretty much over. “We are near the limit for a rear-wheel-drive car,” said Ferrari chief product development officer Gianmaria Fulgenzi of the hybrid 296 Speciale’s power output. He was speaking during the reveal of the extra-high-performance version of Ferrari’s entry-level mid-engine sports car in Maranello in April when he acknowledged, “We can push the boundaries a little bit more, but probably not with the same gradient of the last 10 years.” Still, Ferrari admits there might be a little more to come from the 3.0-liter twin-turbo V-6 combustion engine at the heart of the 296 lineup’s PHEV powertrain that in Speciale…

Take a beat to think about how long it takes the websites you visit to load. Your favorite social media sites take about 3.5 seconds. In the amount of time it takes your “socials” to load, the quickest car we’ve ever tested in our 76-year history is already doing north of 90 mph. From a standstill. Impressive doesn’t even begin to describe the sensational 2025 Porsche Taycan Turbo GT Weissach, MotorTrend’s new undisputed 0–60-mph champ. The Taycan Turbo GT Weissach hits 60 mph in just 1.89 seconds. That’s 0.05 second quicker than the second-quickest car we’ve ever tested, a slightly heavier non-Weissach Taycan Turbo GT, and 0.18 second quicker than our previous 0–60 champ, a Tesla Model S Plaid, which hit the mark in only 2.07 seconds. Our top five…

Lighter, cheaper, fully active—can Domin’s suspension outperform McLaren’s and Ferrari’s setups? It’s tough to beat the power of a hydraulic suspension, as TikTok reelz of chrome-bedecked lowriders bouncing up and over onto their roofs can attest. But hydraulic technology hasn’t progressed much since the 1950s. It still relies mostly on a central pressure source feeding a network of steel tubes that remain vulnerable to pinching, crimping, corrosion, and leaks. British firm Domin Limited reckons it has a better approach. What if hydraulic pressure was generated and managed right where it was needed, using tiny, high-precision electric pumps, valves, and accumulators? (Kind of the opposite of what’s happening to onboard computing, where cars are transitioning away from dozens or hundreds of tiny computers to a centralized computer model.) Electrons are lighter…

Every so often there comes an automotive interior so striking, it stops you dead in your tracks. This was the effect the new 2025 Lincoln Nautilus had on us as soon as we opened the driver’s door. The poking, prodding, and driving that soon followed reinforced our first impressions so firmly that we’ve given Lincoln a 2025 MotorTrend Best Tech award for infotainment to go along with the Nautilus’ 2025 SUV of the Year trophy. Putting giant screens in cars isn’t a new development, and it definitely doesn’t guarantee an infotainment system will be good. Too much digital real estate is often corny looking at best or dangerously distracting at worst. But it turns out what we’ve really been railing against is oversaturation of poorly implemented screens. The Nautilus’ 48-inch…

What makes an app so special? It’s easy to take the low road and say car apps on your phone are superfluous, have nothing to do with driving, and hey, get the hell off our lawn. Take a few minutes to mess around with most automotive apps, and you’d be justified to think that. As a rule, automaker apps just don’t do very much and don’t look very good. The Rivian app, on the other hand, looks and feels like it was designed by someone with a passion for programming. More important, it’s packed with functionality that makes the Rivian experience even better. That’s why it wins our new big prize, a 2025 MotorTrend Best Tech award in the Auto-maker App category. Begin with one of our criteria: usefulness. Rivian’s…

As if the sight of a stealthy-looking EV clad in whirring sensors wasn’t otherworldly enough, realizing there isn’t a driver behind the wheel might be enough to convince you you’ve just had a close encounter of the third kind with a roadgoing UFO. It’s a valid reaction for anyone happening upon a Waymo One vehicle for the first time, but denizens of the cities where these robotaxis now roam hardly bat an eye anymore. That’s because Waymo One provides reliable, practical, user-friendly, and dare we say, increasingly normal transportation. It’s a combination of trustworthy technology and ever-increasing capabilities that earn Waymo One our 2025 Best Tech award in the Robotaxi category. Waymo is Google’s autonomous driving subsidiary, and Waymo One is the name of its commercial robotaxi service. Offering Level…

Additive manufacturing, the engineer’s version of what everyone else calls 3D printing, is too slow and expensive to mass-produce car parts, but the calculus flips for an ultralow-volume car like the Celestiq. GM engineers turned to additive manufacturing for more than 150 parts made from aluminum, stainless steel, and various plastics. Engineers aren’t just creating CAD files and pressing Ctrl+P, though. Before graduating to production, all of the Celestiq’s 3D-printed parts passed through the Additive Industrialization Center on GM’s Warren, Michigan, tech campus. The 16,000-square-foot lab is filled with 3D printers, some the size of small sheds, that turn powdered metals, powdered polymers, and polymer filaments into car parts, but GM doesn’t make production components here. Instead, the AIC team validates the design before passing off production, usually to a…

Car enthusiasts love classifying and categorizing. Every vehicle is defined by segment, body style, performance, price, and more. This way, we can make comparisons and assure ourselves everything is apples-to-apples. So what the hell are we doing comparing a 2025 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray to a 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 N? While enthusiasts can tell you how a Ferrari 296 GTB stacks up against a Lamborghini Huracán or a McLaren 720S in terms of performance, most of the world (outside of Reddit and Discord participants) ranks budget as a much more important factor in most car purchases. The question, especially for non-enthusiasts less beholden to unofficial rules about what competes with what, often then becomes: How much can I get for my money? The answer leads to unusual comparisons such as…

Aston Martin would love it if you forgot, or at least revised, a few things you think you know about it. Yep—that James Bond scene that just popped into your mind, and images of grand touring, too. Today’s Aston Martin wants to be more than that. It wants to be known for its sports cars. It wants to move into rarefied competition on the streets with the McLarens and Ferraris of the world, just like it does on the Formula 1 circuit. The new 2025 Aston Martin Vantage is proof positive of this new philosophy. “Engineered for real drivers,” (emphasis added) as the company puts it. This heavily revised Vantage is stiffer and more powerful than before and retains the classic beauty and comfort Aston Martin is known for. To…

I had stints in all sorts of vehicles during our year-long test of a 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 5. Whether I got time with a track-ready sports car or opulent luxury SUV, returning to our Hyundai was a delight. Often, it was even more delightful driving the Ioniq 5 again after another EV crossover. Those other electric rivals typically demonstrate why our 2023 SUV of the Year remains a benchmark—the rest still have catching up to do. Our Hyundai’s deceptively long wheelbase contributed to those aspects. This length put distance between bumps in the road and added to the confident, settled way the Ioniq 5 cruised along. Even if the wheelbase somewhat dulled agility, it enhanced stability, as I found running with sports cars in spirited driving excursions. The stretch also…

Now that we’ve filled you in on the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT Weissach’s otherwordly test results, it’s logical to ask how other electric cars stack up in the blistering-acceleration category. Rocketing from a standstill to 60 mph in 3.0 seconds or less creates forces approaching those created by the Earth’s gravity, tricking your inner ear into thinking forward is down. But this sort of sensory illusion is just the beginning in EV Land. With the Taycan Turbo GT Weissach and standard Turbo GT now claiming the top two spots, here are the other quickest-accelerating electric vehicles we’ve ever tested, comprising the rest of our top 10 EV performers in descending order. 10. 2022 GMC Hummer EV (Edition 1): 0–60 MPH in 3.0 Seconds One of the quickest-accelerating electric trucks from…

Of the Years I congratulate you for selecting the Lincoln Nautilus as your SUV of the Year (Winter 2024) and congratulate myself for purchasing one a few weeks before your announcement. I have about 3,000 miles on the odometer and agree with almost all your positive statements about the vehicle; the hybrid in particular has provided unexpectedly great mileage. You wrote at length about the Black Label trim, but except for interior color options, some external trim, and a few perks, the Reserve III trim is virtually the same and many thousands less. I think it’s the sweet spot for maximum comfort and luxury. That said, Lincoln still has a way to go. It would be nice if the Nautilus’ cargo area had four, not just two, tie-downs and mesh…

Let’s be clear: We’d rather drive ourselves. Except … we wouldn’t always rather drive ourselves. Twisty mountain road? Of course. Long, straight, boring cruise on the superslab? Not so much. Several automakers offer advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) that lend an invisible hand on the steering wheel, but we think none works as well as General Motors’ Super Cruise, which is why it’s the 2025 MotorTrend Best Tech winner for driver assistance. Super Cruise allows the driver to take their hands off the wheel and feet off the pedals on certain mapped roads. Super Cruise is not a free-for-all like Tesla’s Full Self Driving, but neither has GM restricted it to a few interstates around Detroit. Super Cruise, available on 20 Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC models, will work on…

Public charging of electric vehicles got off to a rocky start as non-Tesla EVs first began proliferating. Given that no competitor decided to expend the effort to develop its own bespoke charging network as Tesla had, third parties were left to fill in the gaps with networks that have largely lagged in customer satisfaction. This is changing at last, with other automakers switching to Tesla’s network and various automakers and consortia opening new, elevated charging centers—all of which we considered for our Best Public Charging Experience award. Of these, the recently rebranded and now SAE-blessed North American Charging System (NACS) was the clear winner, pointing the way forward for all public charging. The simple user experience of manipulating and attaching the slimmer, smarter NACS connector has always been vastly superior…

Rivian’s Gear Guard security system is not unique on the market, but thanks to its latest updates, it offers an unmatched set of both software and hardware features designed to bring Rivian owners comfort and peace of mind—regardless of whether they’re parked or on the go. The total package’s impressive combination of digital and physical security earns it the 2025 Motor-Trend Best Tech award in the General Excellence category. Gear Guard has been a standard feature on every Rivian product built to date, and its feature set has evolved over the years thanks to over-the-air software updates. New features pushed this past year to both first- and new second-generation vehicles include Road Cam, which acts as a built-in 360-degree dashcam, and Gear Guard Live Cam, which allows owners with a…

Cadillac adopted its “Standard of the World” slogan just after the turn of the 20th century, and it used it in advertisements for decades. This was while General Motors was at the height of its power and its leading brand’s cars indeed set the standards for luxury, style, and technology. By the 1970s, however, Cadillac’s unquestioned leadership had faded, and the slogan was retired from public use. Today, few remember when it was true, much less when the coachbuilt 16-cylinder cars of the 1930s rolled off Detroit assembly lines or when Cadillac hand-assembled the 1957 Eldorado Brougham (then the world’s most expensive car). Maybe that isn’t so bad, if only to make Cadillac’s all-new, all-electric, hand-built, ultra-rare, carbon-fiber-bodied, totally custom $340,000 stunner even more shocking to the naïfs. In the…

June is 24 Hours of Le Mans time, and this year’s edition of the unrivaled sports car contest—the 93rd running of the endurance classic—inspired us to look back nearly 26 years on an oft-forgotten factory-built Porsche contender that didn’t get its chance to claim an overall win at France’s Circuit de la Sarthe. And while racing fans were robbed of the chance to witness a then-new piece of Porsche motorsports history, performance car enthusiasts benefited from the company’s decision to kill the project. The thing was “going to be a flier,” Bob Wollek reckoned. The grizzled Porsche veteran, who was still looking for his first overall Le Mans win at the age of 56, had high hopes for the German manufacturer’s latest contender. But along with Allan McNish, who followed…

Luxury SUVs have evolved into more than just upscale people movers—they’ve become rolling expressions of status and sophistication. For drivers who crave more than mere mobility, these machines offer an experience that merges everyday versatility with refined indulgence. Whether carving through crowded urban corridors or gliding toward a weekend hideaway, a true luxury SUV delivers commanding presence, an interior crafted with attention to detail, and the latest in intuitive technology, all designed to captivate, comfort, and elevate every moment behind the wheel. But which to choose? We assembled four of the most popular midsize luxury SUVs to see which one best lives up to this goal. The 2025 Lincoln Nautilus Hybrid ushers in a new chapter for American luxury, pairing a punchy hybrid powertrain with an elegant design rooted in…

Thousands of miles behind the wheel of our long-term 2022 Lucid Air Grand Touring Performance made me appreciate how multitalented this machine is. The Air is so much more than transportation; it’s something special. Daily driving MotorTrend’s 2022 Car of the Year is an experience that excites me to my core. When everything works, that is. There was a lot to like about our Air. I’d remark frequently how incredible it is that a single vehicle can offer more than 1,000 horsepower yet still be one of the most efficient cars available today, with more range than any other EV on the market. Plus, Lucid achieves these stats while also delivering a luxurious cabin and entertaining driving dynamics. Especially with the Grand Touring Performance trim, you learn quickly this is…

Our 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning XLT test truck might just have landed a year or two early here in the nation’s midsection. As it was, Tesla’s Supercharger network opened to Ford vehicles just before this Lightning left us. Perhaps having access to up to 15,000 additional chargers might have eased the substantial pain of road-tripping. Our odometer read just 14,386 miles on the morning of our last top-up. That’s low for a Detroit-area long-term pickup—we drove our 2020 Ram 2500 Cummins twice as far. Blame energy density and ease of refueling. With the Ford, despite its 320-mile EPA range rating, we only topped 200 miles 11 times, and doing this on a highway meant capping speeds at 70 mph, while the Ram was always flowing with traffic at 80 mph.…