Innehållsförteckning för January 2018 från Car and Driver

THREE-CAR MONTE A proposed line for your September 2017 cover: The Super Good, the Big, and the Fugly. —John Bryans Fontaine Westport, CT HER NAME IS RIO Don’t ask why this happened, given the sheer volume of waggish comments in an average issue of your publication, but here it is: The Kia Rio’s silly grin being wiped off sent me into uncontrollable gales of laughter [“New Cars for 2018: The List,” September 2017]. Alone. In my garage. And for a long time. —Keith Bonnecarrere Auburndale, FL ART HISTORY Ferrari has finally made it [“Super Fast,” September 2017]! Paste a prancing horse emblem on the grille and the rear of the Corvette Grand Sport and many would believe it to be the Ferrari shown in your issue. —John Everett Fairfield, CT…

RECALLS Through November. 10 LARGEST HONDA Battery sensor may be exposed to water, shorting electrical system and causing a fire. 1,148,550 VEHICLES RECALLED HONDA Front-passenger airbag inflator may rupture. 977,708 FORD Door latches may not fully engage. 1,101,107 FORD Frontpassenger airbag inflator may rupture. 654,695 FIAT CHRYSLER Occupant-restraint controller may not function properly in a rollover crash. 1,021,279 FIAT CHRYSLER Brake-booster shield issue. 646,394 BMW Electrical short may cause a fire, even when vehicle is not in use. 740,561 BMW Blower-motor wiring may cause a fire, even when vehicle is not in use. 672,775 HYUNDAI Front seatbelt linkages may detach. 977,778 GENERAL MOTORS Vehicle may lose powersteering assist at low speed. 690,685 10 SMALLEST 1 VEHICLE RECALLED 2013 MERCEDES-BENZ R320 CDI 4MATIC: If communication unit is damaged in a crash,…

“Electric Hyundai hatchback” might not be a terribly tantalizing descriptor, but the Koreans are zeroing in on small-car excellence and this is one of the better-realized products in the portfolio. A peek behind the curtain of our 10Best machinations: The Hyundai Elantra has been earnestly debated as a Week One winner for two years running. Last year, we argued about the sedan lineup; this year, the VW GTI–aping GT Sport hatchback had us picking sides and hurling regrettable personal insults. The Ioniq isn’t exactly an Elantra hatchback, but the resemblance is fraternal inside and out, and the front-suspension designs are similar. If you also see a lot of Toyota Prius in the profile, that’s because the Prius looks the way a car does when it rolls over and dies in…

Even before it was called the E-class, the mid-size Mercedes has always been a sensible choice. While there have been some truly exciting versions over the years—the 1992 500E was a Porsche-built autobahn Hoover and the 2003 E55 AMG was once the quickest passenger sedan in the world—the majority have been calm and rational to the point of dullness. These cars were not chosen by thrill seekers, unless they got off on simply demonstrating good taste and fortune. The current E-class changes that and, in doing so, upsets the balance of its part of the market. Like its predecessors, it is good at all the things you expect from a Mercedes: pliancy of ride, comfort of cabin, and an ability to make the neighbors jealous. But it’s also become the…

No other vehicle so aptly embodies Scandinavian design—unpretentious and pragmatic—as does the station wagon. And no wagons so wholly represent Volvo as do the V90 and its lightly ruggedized twin, the V90 Cross Country. A new high-water mark in Volvo’s Chinese-funded product renaissance, the V90 makes the case that every Volvo should be a wagon. We are so smitten by the V90’s design, inside and out, that we’ve even begun to wonder if every wagon should be a Volvo. The Swedes penned a car of righteous proportions, a long and low sculpture with an assertive linearity in the Volvo tradition of wagons. It literally defines the term “two-box car.” This one, though, is honed and polished into a contemporary beauty. Taken in profile, the V90’s hood seems as long as…

It’s not that the Shelby GT350 is a bad car. It’s one of our favorites. And yet it’s been usurped by a new challenger, this funky little five-cylinder sedan. What happened? Well, in the battle of badass engines, one of them simply has a better car wrapped around it. You could argue that Ford’s 8250-rpm Voodoo, the only domestic V-8 with a flat-plane crank, is a more compelling engine than Audi’s blown five. And we’d agree. Running the GT350 through the gears—manual only, carbon-bronze synchros, best shift action since the Honda S2000—takes you to a place no other American car can go. You’re on the grid at Indy or attacking the Mulsanne straight at Le Mans. Except that the Voodoo’s bassy howl sounds way more exotic than the tune played…

Automakers have long believed that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. Yet an etymological investigation into the origins of this well-worn phrase reveals that the literal translation is even more apt. What the poet Ovid actually wrote in The Art of Love—basically a how-to guide for putative Roman pickup artists—was “fertilior seges est alienis semper in agris,” or, “the crop is always greater in the lands of another.” Which neatly summarizes the financial motivation behind the me-too mentality that has sent Audi, BMW, and Mercedes chasing one another’s tails—and sometimes sniffing one another’s butts It hasn’t been long since the three luxury automakers’ portfolios were as distinct from one another as the numerous different types of German sausage. BMW produced the archetypal sports sedan, keen…

[A] ASTON MARTIN VALKYRIE It’s a shriek expressed in carbon fiber and powered by a mid-mounted, Cosworthengineered 6.5-liter V-12 supplemented by an F1-style kinetic energy recovery system. All that is supposed to be good for somewhere north of 1100 horsepower. The shrinkwrapped body covers only those parts that need covering, with the rest dedicated to downforce or airflow management. A conspiracy between Red Bull Racing and Aston, the Valkyrie should be sucking a reported $2.6 million from each of 150 flamboyant billionaires’ offshore accounts by 2018. Maybe 2019. [B] BMW 8 - SERIES The upcoming replacement for the current 6-series, the 8-series will be BMW’s play to regain its spot among big, high-style, high-performance coupes. Sculpted to within an inch of pornographic, the 8-series concept puts the kink into Hofmeister.…

We’re losing the special engines. They don’t make sense. Used to be, when you bought a dedicated performance model, there was a whole different animal under the hood—a V-10 in a 5-series or a 7000-rpm 7.0-liter in a Corvette. Nowadays, you just slap on a supercharger or dial up the boost on your turbos and call it a day. The cars are faster, sure, but it’s hard to brag to your friends about your modelspecific intake manifold. Remember when the M3 had a V-8? That was awesome. By all rights, the RS3 should have a boosted-to-bejesus 2.0-liter inline-four, an uprated version of the powerplant that moves the Volkswagen Golf R. Audi could’ve done that. Given the low-volume nature of performance sedans, it would’ve been the rational route. But, to our…

Selling inexpensive cars usually requires a distraction: an eyecatching color, a clever ad campaign, a long list of standard features, or a ridiculously low monthly payment with lots of fine print. Each of these tactics serves to overcompensate for the fact that, in most cases, you get what you pay for. The Kia Rio is an expert at playing these games. It arrived in 2000 as sub-$10,000 bargain-basement transportation, the least expensive new car in America at the time. Kia launched it in a hideous puke-green color, perhaps hoping that the outrageous hue would keep people from noticing the shoddy build quality. Successive generations have brought improved fit and finish and more appealing styling, but the littlest Kia was never a great small car. The new-for-2018, fourth-generation Rio hatch arrived…

As you’ve probably noticed by now, life is not fair. Like when that jerk in the BMW cuts you off just before the traffic signal. So the turn arrow isn’t so green anymore when you speed through the intersection, and a month later you’ve got a $500 traffic-camera ticket in your mailbox. Or when the promotion you’ve earned at work gets delayed because of a corporate hiring freeze, and in the meantime, you decide to tell your boss exactly what you think of him. At the holiday party. After you’ve had a few drinks. And then several more. Yes, sometimes you get screwed, but most of the time, you get exactly what you deserve. Which brings us to the new-for-2018 Toyota Camry. Had it been at last year’s 10Best, where…

The Honda Civic and the Chevrolet Camaro might fit into a single camera frame, but they exist in completely different worlds. Perhaps there are guys who have both a Civic Type R and a Camaro SS on their shopping lists. But we sure haven’t met them. We have, however, met plenty of Camaro partisans who wonder aloud why anyone would buy a Civic, throw $20,000 of performance parts at it, and still end up with a car that’s not as quick as a stock V-8 Camaro. And you can imagine what sort of questions Civic guys ask about a Camaro owner’s lineage. Sporty Civics and Camaros are magnets aligned so that the north side of each faces the other. They repel each other as a force of nature. But on…

Size doesn’t have to determine refinement, driving dynamics, or fit and finish. Cars like the new Kia Rio prove it Kia’s redesigned Rio earned its chance in the second week with carefully considered design and execution. Now in its fourth generation, the Rio has transformed from an average B-segment car to a clear standout. It starts with the exterior styling. Clean and Germanic in its shape and detailing, even on 15-inch wheels, the Rio would look at home in an Audi store. The smallest Kia’s appearance is no accident. Audi’s former design boss Peter Schreyer has directed the look of Kia’s vehicles for more than a decade and has turned the Kia showroom into a haven for buyers put off by the clumsy proportions and mauled sheetmetal that befalls Toyota’s…

“When you pull into camp with a big grin on your face and a wind-mauled coif, another editor will be standing there, eager to grab the keys.” Here’s something to make you feel old and maybe kind of sad: The whispering kid who starred in Mazda’s original “Zoom-Zoom” ad campaign has grown up, graduated from college, and become a lawyer. Meanwhile, the slogan still features prominently in the company’s marketing, to say nothing of its self-image. Because, yes, every Mazda has a little bit of Miata in it. But as we decided after this year’s driving, maybe some of them should have a little more. The fourth-generation MX-5 Miata has been on the market for over two years now, and it’s been a success with customers and critics alike. Sales…

▴ WINNER: NEW DRIVERS Saudi Arabia, the only country on earth where women were not allowed to drive, announced this past fall that it would lift its ban on women behind the wheel. In a show of solidarity, children—whose driving rights are still restricted in 195 countries— took to the roads in droves. In East Palestine— the one in Ohio—a resourceful eightyearold loaded his fouryearold sister into the minivan after their parents had fallen asleep and drove to McDonald’s for a cheeseburger and McNuggets. Witnesses reported that he obeyed all traffic laws. He had learned to drive by watching YouTube videos, which will henceforth replace the bankrupt Skip Barber Racing School as our preferred means of educating new staffers. In Australia, which is bigger than Ohio, a 12yearold made it…

Acura In theory, an Acura is a better Honda, one with enough additional technology, prestige, and capability to warrant luxurybrand pricing. In practice, Acura fields a single great halo car—the megahybrid NSX—trying to cast its glow over a fleet of only mildly deluxe sedans and SUVs. Honda’s new Accord and Civic lineups certainly aren’t helping matters. Acura’s single entry in this year’s 10Best competition is the TLX V-6 SH-AWD A-Spec, an all-thegoodies version of the TLX sedan that replaced both the TL and TSX for 2015. The TLX failed to impress at 10Best that year, but pairing its 290-hp naturally aspirated V-6 and torque-vectoring rear differential with the A-spec suspension and tire upgrades gives it a second shot. Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo’s U.S. return became real with the arrival of…

Into a sea of cars with indifferent, feedback-free steering systems at 10Best sailed two Alfas tethered securely to the tarmac via rubber, aluminum, and verve. They came from Italy, but their steering was from the empyrean realm. We tested two Giulias: the stealsyour- heart Ti and the steals-your- license Quadrifoglio. Markedly different points on the sanity meter, each car nonetheless exhibits sparkling steering fidelity and faithfully transmits chassis motions to its driver’s fingertips, guts, and soul. Our lesser Giulia, the 280-hp Ti, was an all-wheel-drive model lacking both the adaptive suspension and the limited-slip rear differential that come with the Performance package, yet it navigated the cratered, off-camber 10Best roads with compliance and composure. The 505-hp Quadrifoglio simply ignored the pavement irregularities with a combination of speed and magic befitting…

“When sports-sedan makers in this world disappoint the car rags they should fear, and abandon enthusiasts who see or hear, the cry goes up both far and near for … Stinger!” Okay, so maybe nobody depended on Kia to save the sports-sedan market. Yet here it is, 10Best’s very own underdog, barking its tires right into the second week. Surely the establishment ain’t what it used to be. BMW’s latest 3-series is the first we’ve liked less than its predecessor, and in 2015, it succumbed to strong-enough competition to fall off our 10Best list. Audi’s near-faultless A4 also missed the award last year for being perfectly devoid of personality, and this year, the brand’s best effort is the oddball quasi-sedan A5/S5 Sportback. Heroes in the compact-sports-sedan—or hatchback—realm are increasingly rare,…

“We’re not trying to be a General Motors,” Honda’s then foreign sales manager told the New York Times in 1977, the year after the Accord went on sale. “Our modest goal is simply to become the No. 1–selling foreign car in the United States.” When C/D first sampled the new 1983 Toyota Camry, the car hardly felt Japanese. “What we have here is the American car according to Japan,” we wrote, “in its purest form ever.” The Accord and Camry assimilated into American culture so thoroughly that they have long ceased being foreign at all. They’re largely engineered here, built here, and have topped the sales charts here for so long that millennials, post-millennials, and post-post-millennials don’t consider them anything but America’s most ubiquitous cars. Forget all the other minnows…

In a field of hurried, me-too entries based on existing internal-combustion vehicles and struggling to add a third digit to their range estimates, Chevrolet’s Bolt was a bombshell. It came last year boasting an EPA-rated 238-mile range that, in one of our first outings with the car, we handily surpassed. Combine that with a price that starts out as affordable and drops into the meat of the market once federal and state tax credits are accounted for, and you’ve got the first no-compromises mass-market electric vehicle, and the first widely affordable EV to make 10Best. Well, on paper there are no compromises. But in the real world, cars are bought by people, most of whom can see. The Bolt is a gawky, goofy-looking thing that appears to be decidedly unwell.…

No, it’s not Camaro versus Mustang, but as we cycled through the cars during the second week, many of us couldn’t resist staging our own mini comparo between two of the best station wagons on the market. We’ve explained why the V-6 E-class lineup earned its spot in Week Two, but what if the E400 wagon had to stand on its own? It could’ve gone up against no more formidable a challenger than the Volvo V90 R-Design T6 AWD, which desperately wants to be taken seriously as a sporting device. On its surface, the V90 seems more overtly performance oriented than the E-class, what with its optional carbon-fiber interior trim and 20-inch wheels shod with Pirelli P Zeros. Volvo’s supercharged and turbocharged 2.0-liter four is good for 316 high-strung horsepower…

Rolling boldly into this year’s second week of 10Best are two four-doors entering what, for their makers, is wildly uncharted territory. Alfa hasn’t sold a sports sedan in the States since the 164. That was in 1995. And its overall profile has been lowdespite, or perhaps because of, a 2014 U.S. relaunch that came on the back of the 4C, amid-engined, carbon-chassis driving tool that was not exactly well suited to the carpool lane. The Giulia, a sedan worthy of both sales and praise, changes that, bringing the Italian carmaker closer to the mainstream. But Alfa’s ethos prioritizes the merits of driving first and volume-selling second, which is a respectable, if dangerous, approach for a brand trying to move metal in a country that largely thinks of cars as toasters.…