Innehållsförteckning för October 2020 från Car and Driver

The huge cost of developing the new $192,986 DBX nearly bankrupted Aston, but the company has been almost entirely vindicated by how the SUV looks and drives. On the demanding roads that cross the bleak emptiness of the U.K.’s Exmoor National Park, the DBX shows remarkable body control over rollercoaster dips and compressions. The gentle springing is perfectly matched by the no-nonsense adaptive dampers. The suspension refuses to be caught out by anything we throw at it, and the steering proves accurate enough to keep the DBX on a chosen line at speeds we are sure none of the company’s sports cars could match over such tough terrain. The AMG-sourced 4.0-liter V-8 isn’t at the top of the list of highlights, though. The 542-hp twin-turbo engine actually impresses more when asked…

Bentley had the ultraluxe-SUV market to itself for years, but the field is growing crowded with the Rolls-Royce Cullinan and Lamborghini Urus on sale and the Aston Martin DBX and Mercedes-Maybach GLS600 about to launch. To underscore its identity in that pod of six-figure utes, the Bentayga has been facelifted to provide a stylistic link to the Flying Spur and Continental. An increase of 0.5 inch in the rear track is meant to improve the linearity of the Bentayga’s steering responses, although there’s no obvious difference in the way it drives. The 542-hp V-8 remains as impressive as we remember, with the shove of big-cube muscularity at low revs and a commendable lack of turbo lag when driven gently. Yet it’s equally willing to work hard, delivering plenty of snarl…

If you’re shaken by the photo you’re seeing of the 2021 Chevrolet Tahoe, we can relate. We suggest you reserve judgment until you’ve seen it in person, though. Photos of the Tahoe, particularly those of the Z71 model with its gaping maw, don’t quite do the SUV justice. However you feel about the new look, the big news is hidden away in the back and beneath the skin. Chevy engineers finally put an independent rear suspension into their large three-row human haulers. That suspension—a trailing-arm design—requires less space than the old live axle, which meant they could lower the floor. Chevy also extended the truck’s wheelbase by 4.9 inches and the overall length by 6.8 inches. The accompanying legroom increase of 10-plus inches in the third row is a real…

Following in the footsteps of the mid-size Sonata, the compact Elantra makes a bold visual statement. “Don’t be caught dead in an anonymous crossover,” it says. Preach, little Hyundai. Preach. You’ll see the massive grille first, but the Elantra also benefits from improved proportions. It is lower and wider than before and has a longer wheelbase. The standard 147-hp 2.0-liter inline-four comes paired with a CVT. A hybrid version promises more than 50 mpg and couples a 1.6-liter inline-four with a 43-hp electric motor for a total system output of 139 horsepower and 195 pound-feet of torque. The hybrid gets a multilink rear suspension (instead of the base car’s torsion beam) and a six-speed dual-clutch automatic, which will likely be more compelling than the CVT in the regular car and…

It sometimes seems as if Maserati has been waiting longer for a renaissance than the artisans of medieval Italy did. Multiple attempts to return the brand to the glories of its early years have fallen short of Maserati’s lofty ambitions, but the company is undeterred. Its latest rebirth strategy—with plans for 10 new or heavily revised models by 2023—launches with a stunning flagship: the MC20. The “20” marks the year and the “MC” stands for “Maserati Corse” (translation: “Maserati Racing”), referencing both the 2004 MC12 and confirming the brand will return to top-flight motorsports with this car. Much about the MC20 sticks closely to the supercar playbook. It is built around a central carbon-fiber tub created in collaboration with Dallara, the motorsports engineering company that also developed the carbon structures…

The most obvious thing about the Polestar 2 is that it’s not obvious. To anyone. You’d think that an electric car no one’s seen before from a brand that almost no one’s heard of might elicit some curiosity on the part of the general public. But no. Not in grocery store parking lots. Not at stoplights. Not anywhere. The 2 we drove for 10 days blended in with the horde of chunky SUVs clogging our roads just like any Toyota, Ford, or Honda. This is probably not the reaction that Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath was expecting when he touted the new car’s minimalistic design at its global reveal early last year. Polestar, Volvo’s former AMG-like hot-rod division, has pivoted to electric-vehicle manufacturing. The all-electric 2 follows the stunning limited-run Polestar…

If you had told us a decade ago that the rebooted Toyota Supra would be built by BMW and that a RAV4 using Prius technology would be one of the quickest vehicles in Toyota’s portfolio, we would have called you crazy. Who could have predicted that sanity would be in such short supply in 2020? At least the plug-in-hybrid RAV4 Prime is the good kind of nuts. Combining a 2.5-liter inline-four with three electric motors, the all-wheel-drive Prime blasts to 60 mph in 5.4 seconds. Astoundingly, this 4400-pound crossover is quicker than the 2.0-liter Supra from five to 60 mph and in our 30-to-50-mph and 50-to-70-mph passing tests. The Prime’s rational side hinges on an 18.1-kWh lithium-ion battery pack that’s good for 42 miles of pure electric driving, according to…

The novel coronavirus has compelled novel approaches to almost everything we do, including buying and leasing cars. As dealers minimize in-person contact, buyers are benefiting. When Billy Huys needed to replace his leased Toyota Highlander earlier this year, he found a dealer in Gladstone, Oregon, not far from his home in Portland, that combined the best of the brick-and-mortar and online experiences. Huys had searched intermittently since last fall for another Highlander or something similar, eventually extending his lease for six months when he couldn’t find a payment he was happy with. As states began imposing lockdowns, many car shoppers wondered if prices would decline as the economy stuttered. But according to Huys, “[Even] with the quarantine, I was not seeing pricing any better than back in November. In fact,…

Word on the Straße is that BMW’s M division is toying with plug-in-hybrid technology and a battery-electric powertrain that could make more than 1000 horsepower in the next-generation M5. If those rumors bear fruit, the new M3 and M4, which we just drove in Euro-market prototype form, may indeed be the last of their unelectrified kind. Powered by BMW’s S58 twin-turbo 3.0-liter inline-six, the next-generation M3 and M4 will initially be offered in two forms in Europe: Entry-level versions will have 473 horsepower and a six-speed manual gearbox, while Competition models will get an extra 30 horsepower and a mandatory ZF-sourced eight-speed automatic transmission. We expect U.S. dealers to sell the same lineup, although possibly with a few tweaks to output ratings. All M3s and M4s will power the rear…

You can Sasquatch any trim to get the HOSS with the Bilsteins, but you only get the creeper on the four. What are we talking about? Oh, just Bronco stuff. You gotta know the lingo, and Ford is introducing plenty of it. The 2021 Ford Bronco is here—or will be, arriving at dealerships in the spring—and with it comes a torrent of jargon. We’ll explain all the details. But the first thing to know is that you’re gonna want that Sasquatch package, which brings with it an upgraded HOSS, or High-Performance Off-Road Stability Suspension. The Bronco starts at $29,995 for a two-door and $34,695 for the four-door. The base setup comes with an EcoBoost 2.3-liter inline-four engine projected to make 270 horsepower and 310 pound-feet of torque and a seven-speed…

Don’t get hung up on the name change for Kia’s shapely mid-size sedan. Sure, we’re sad to see the perfectly good Optima name fall to alphanumeric nonsense, but for what it’s worth, this car has been known as the K5 in South Korea for years. Besides, the badge on the trunklid takes nothing away from the car’s goodness. The K5 upholds Kia’s increasingly impressive ability to balance upscale execution, design, and value. The Optima has long been a looker, and the K5 is no different, with strong character lines, balanced proportions, and intricate detailing. Don’t expect much under the hood until the top-spec GT model arrives with a 290-hp turbocharged 2.5-liter inline-four and an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic. The front-wheel-drive GT-Line and EX models that we drove had the standard 180-hp…

Mini botched the GP’s box-flare job by giving each carbon-fiber molding a fin edge. While you can’t see the awkward fenders or the bilevel wing when you are behind the wheel of this 301-hp front-driver, the stares from passersby are a constant reminder that they exist. At least it’s easy to escape those stares, as this hot hatch does 60 mph in 4.7 seconds and blazes a quarter-mile in 13.1 seconds at 110 mph. It is the quickest front-wheel-drive vehicle this magazine has ever tested. The price for this speed: an eight-speed automatic transmission. No manual is available. If this quick John Cooper Works Mini with no back seat is your bag, you’ll have to fill Mini’s with $45,750.…

In addition to deciding if they’d like their rear-engine jelly bean to be the color of an actual jelly bean, Porsche 911 buyers have to pick between an automatic and a manual, rear- and all-wheel drive, three body styles, multiple engine outputs, and a library of options. Will that be paldao wood or carbon fiber? The latest thing to tempt the six-figure sports-car buyer is the Targa, the middle ground between the cabriolet and the coupe. Porsche charges as much for the Targa as it does the convertible, which makes sense considering the amount of engineering that went into the one-touch roof operation that opens, retracts, cantilevers, folds, lifts, slices, dices, and juliennes the top to hide it away in just 19 seconds. In design and complexity, a Targa looks…

The new Venza is one of the best-looking (read: least offensive) Toyotas in recent memory. Its clean design does without the contorted grilles, busy lines, and bulbous add-ons that are prevalent in Toyota showrooms these days. But that handsome styling is the Venza’s only real selling point. Toyota is pitching this hybrid-only model as a mid-size competitor to the Ford Edge and Honda Passport, but it’s far too similar mechanically and dimensionally to the compact RAV4, with which it shares a platform, to really go up against those vehicles. We would have called it the RAV4 Hybrid Outer Beauty Edition because does anyone have fond memories of the first-gen Venza? Though this new crossover is a few inches longer than the RAV4, it’s less spacious inside. We fit just seven carryon…

We added up your numerous responses and suggestions to our GOAT list and present the 10Best Cars that readers accused us of missing. If you’re wondering: The Lexus LS400 didn’t make it because we made ourselves choose only one car per model year, and we opted for the Miata for 1990. As for the Datsun 240Z and Acura Integra Type R omissions: To be sure that we weren’t looking at these cars through rose-colored lenses, we went back and read the magazine’s initial responses to the cars and found that while the reviews were positive, they stopped short of deeming these machines great achievements. Here are the 10Best Cars we omitted, as chosen by you (well, 11Best Cars because of a four-way tie for eighth place)—Ed.…

Many people eagerly await the self-driving car. I am not one of them. “But you can check emails, watch TV, be alone with your thoughts,” they say, as if I don’t go out driving for the sole purpose of not checking emails or being alone with my thoughts. Though, that’s not totally true. I do enjoy the particular kind of thinking that happens while driving, but it happens because the part of my brain that would normally be rehashing the many ways I have humiliated myself over the years is busy scanning for obstacles and controlling limbs, which allows the tiny remainder not dedicated to self-loathing to—hopefully—come up with some good ideas. Different cars prompt different kinds of thinking. Supercars, and really all performance cars, take almost all your processing…

2021 Acura TLX Can a 355-hp turbo V-6 return Acura to the sports-sedan fray? During the 2021 TLX’s development, Acura engineers nicknamed the car “the Seven-Second Knockout” because the goal of the brand’s new sports sedan is to knock you flat on your ass. Penned by the Acura Design Studio in Southern California, the TLX is lower and wider than before, two things that make enthusiasts smile. The engine remains transversely mounted, but designers and engineers lengthened the distance between the base of the A-pillar and the front axle line—the so-called dash-to-axle proportion—to give the TLX the appearance of a rear-drive sedan. A turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four lifted from the RDX SUV bolts into the regular TLX and delivers 272 horsepower and 280 pound-feet of torque. A 10-speed automatic transmission performs…

Audi’s boss in the ’70s and ’80s, Ferdinand Piëch, realigned the company to compete with Mercedes-Benz and BMW, setting in motion a close competition between the German marques. If one of the brands enters a segment, the other two follow shortly. If one updates a vehicle, so do the others. The latest onslaught in this anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-better rivalry is the redesigned A3. Audi was the first German brand to sell a vehicle in this segment in the U.S., and the new iteration of this sedan comes in the wake of the second-generation Mercedes-Benz CLA and the new BMW 2-series Gran Coupe. We recently spent a day behind the wheel of a Euro-spec A3 packing a 148-hp turbocharged 1.5-liter four-banger. When the car comes stateside next year as a 2022 model, it…

“Is that the one with the Corvette engine?” The guy admiring the candy-red Cadillac wants to know if he’s in the presence of the mighty 640-hp CTS-V. Not quite, friend. This is the one with the four-cylinder truck engine. “Oh. Well, I’m sure it’s still fast.” That passing interaction perfectly captures why the Cadillac CT4-V, the BMW M235i Gran Coupe, and the Mercedes-AMG A35 exist. A decade ago, each of these cars might have been the forgotten middle child in a three-powertrain lineup. Today, they wear the coveted V, M, and AMG badges to run in the draft of legends like the Cadillac CTS-V, the BMW M3, and the Mercedes-AMG E63 S. If the casual observer thinks these entry-performance vehicles have twice as many cylinders and twice as much power…

What began as the modest Hyundai Genesis back in 2008 became the luxury-oriented Genesis G80 in 2016. Now this mid-size sedan undergoes its first full makeover in that brand’s hands while retaining its primary mission: affordable richness. An all-new platform supports an elegantly sculpted body with more aluminum than before, reducing the car’s weight by a claimed 243 pounds. The wheelbase remains the same, but the sweeping roofline is lower and the stance is wider. Genesis promises improved driving dynamics, and on V-6 models, adaptive dampers are standard. The G80’s design elements—a massive crest-shaped grille flanked by stacked headlights with marker lamps that span the fenders—are poised to become the family face across the Genesis line. The striking profile is reminiscent of the Audi A7’s, and that’s fine by us. The…

Up until this May, the Lexus flagship was a literal ship. The Lexus LY650 yacht measured 65 feet long, made up to 2700 horsepower, and cost nearly $4 million. The current economic uncertainty torpedoed that project. The $102,025 LC500 convertible is no yacht, but its fabric top folds in 15 seconds, and that’s kind of the same thing. The sun on your face and the wind in your hair feel just as fresh whether you’re a billionaire sunbathing on the French Riviera or a mere millionaire headed to the lake for the weekend. Although it weighs a major 4476 pounds, we wouldn’t call the LC500 a barge. It’s more like a Chris-Craft for the road, with a tight four-seat cockpit that looks out over a long and graceful prow. Pin the…

As part of a plan to release 10 refreshed or all-new models over a 20-month span, Nissan is turning over a new—ahem—leaf with its EV strategy. While it takes an engineering or accounting degree to find beauty in the Leaf, it’s not hard to appreciate the appeal of the shapely Ariya. The compact crossover will ride on a new platform designed specifically for electrics and offer front-or all-wheel drive. On the base model, a 215-hp motor will drive the front axle. The 389-hp dual-motor configuration is set to compete with the Ford Mustang Mach-E, Polestar 2, Tesla Model Y, and Volkswagen ID.4. Two battery packs will be available: a 63.0-kWh unit, which will power the entry-level ute, and an 87.0-kWh pack that, in front-drive models, will deliver an estimated 300…

Although the name of this first 700-plus-hp production pickup is generally pronounced as its three constituent letters, the people who built it like to call it “T. rex” to tee up the rivalry with the obvious competitor, Ford’s F-150 Raptor. “T. rex destroys raptors,” says the head of the Ram brand, Mike Koval, referring both to the Jurassic period and, Ram hopes, the fourth quarter of this year when the Hellcat-powered TRX goes on sale. All TRXs are a crew-cab short-bed configuration, and with a base price of $71,790—that’s $13,655 more than a crew-cab Raptor—it had better be impressive. Loaded TRXs will be pushing $90,000. The goal was to create the most megalomaniacal pickup, starting with 702 horsepower and 650 pound-feet of torque from the supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 that’s finding…

If it feels as if cars are going extinct, that’s because they are. By our count, 16 more will be gone by the end of the year. And like any extinction event, there’s an environmental change and a selection process at play. In this case, death comes not from an asteroid impact like the one that weeded out the T. rex; it’s all about what buyers want. And what they want are SUVs. Just 10 years ago, buyers would stride into a place like Walt Lazar Chevrolet with visions of Impalas dancing in their heads, but today, they’re there to haggle on an Equinox. This movement from dull cars to dull crossovers has knocked several dullards out of our market. But is it such a loss? Are you really going…