Innehållsförteckning för July/August 2024 från Car and Driver

SOMETIMES YOU GO LOOKING for a car, and sometimes a car finds you. While I am prone to oddball searches just for entertainment’s sake—Facebook Marketplace is basically my Tinder for the Merkur XR4Ti—I wasn’t in the market for a 1990 Daihatsu Rocky. Until very recently, I was barely aware of the Rocky’s existence. But then I happened upon a neighborhood estate sale, and there in the garage was the most pristine Rocky I’d ever seen. It was also the only Rocky I’d ever seen. My weird-car antenna went up like the telescoping one on a Daihatsu Rocky A-pillar, which you can reach with your left hand from the driver’s seat. If you’re ready for more Daihatsu Rocky facts, buckle up—just not with the center rear belt of a Rocky, because…

Our road-test subject wore the Pirelli Scorpion All Terrain Plus tires developed specifically for the Dakar. They feature reinforced construction and a knobby look. But that isn’t the only OE tire; we borrowed a second Dakar with summer shoes. Also developed just for the Dakar, these Pirelli P Zero PZ4s offer way more grip on dry pavement, which is where most Dakars will live, right? There’s some added bite at launch, which shrinks both the 60-mph and quarter-mile times by 0.2 second, to 2.7 and 10.9 seconds. Skidpad stick increases to 1.04 g’s from 0.96. Stopping from 70 mph comes 18 feet sooner, at 144 feet. But the real shocker is that stopping from 100 mph shrinks by 48 feet (!) to 284 feet. And surprisingly, there’s a 76-decibel hum…

AS MUCH AS WE LOVE the Ford F-150 Raptor and its undeniable off-road prowess, it’s just too big for trails blazed by narrow four-by-fours such as Jeep CJs, Suzuki Sidekicks, or your author’s Toyota 4Runner. Two-tracks are the skinny jeans of automotive lanes, and “trail pinstriping” is a common F-150 Raptor accessory. But the Ranger Raptor is the right fit for combating this peril to resale value. The same twin-turbo 3.0-liter V-6 that powers the Bronco Raptor motivates the Ranger Raptor. Because of its longer exhaust piping, the Ranger Raptor makes a little less power and torque: 405 horsepower and 430 pound-feet instead of 418 horsepower and 440 pound-feet. That’s nothing to fret over because the Ranger Raptor’s 5498-pound curb weight is 266 pounds lighter than a Bronco Raptor’s. As…

THE DEFINITION OF AN SUV has changed, but the classic two-box profile hasn’t gone out of style. Hyundai designers say they arrived at the new Santa Fe’s radically rectangular new look by penning it from the rear forward. The design focus was on the liftgate and cargo area, and it paid off: The new model is far more capacious than before, even though its footprint stretches by only a couple of inches. The silhouette has hints of Ford Flex, but its lighting elements and sharp creases make it wholly distinctive. The most controversial styling piece is the taillight bar, which is mounted low, as Hyundai says it otherwise would have gotten in the way of the larger struts needed to hold up the heavier liftgate. Open that hatch and you’ll…

GENERAL MOTORS’ FULL-SIZE SUVs are so successful that Chevy is borrowing from the Tahoe design on the latest Traverse. This mid-size three-row was already larger than many of its peers, and the blunt new front end and square shoulders may conjure some of that Tahoe sales magic. The Traverse lineup also now includes a Z71 trim with all-terrain tires, adaptive dampers, a torque-vectoring rear differential, and a 1.2-inch lift. The sporty-looking RS is at the top end. For $55,595, it gets 22-inch wheels and blackout trim, plus standard Super Cruise. The more basic LS and LT trims target the heart of the three-row-SUV market, and the Traverse’s core mission hasn’t changed much. Above all, this remains a utilitarian family bus. The engine room is the one area where GM has…

MORIZO’S MOJO Toyota designed the limited-run Morizo trim of the GR Corolla to be a true apex predator, giving it stickier tires, swapping in shorter transmission and differential gearing, and even ditching the back seat. So you’d think it’d be the clear performance champ of all the GR Corollas, right? Well, think again. In our testing, a 2024 GR Corolla Premium matched the Morizo’s 4.4-second sprint to 60 mph. The Premium, despite carrying an additional 88 pounds, also reached the quarter-mile mark 0.1 second earlier and 1 mph faster than its lithe sibling. And in lateral grip, the Premium (wearing a set of Michelin Pilot Sport 4 summer tires) mustered a solid 1.00 g of stick, nearly matching the Morizo’s 1.02 g’s on grippier Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 rubber.…

Kia EV9 Land AWD MILES: 2450 OBSERVED MPGe: 76 Don’t look now, but our long-term stable is filling up with electron-fed steeds. The latest is Kia’s excellent EV9, which won a 10Best award for 2024. We ordered one for a 40,000-mile test to see if the initial love would last. The EV9 is our first three-row electric long-termer, that is if you don’t count the 2015 Tesla Model S P85’s third row. And you shouldn’t because the Tesla’s rear-facing seats weren’t suitable for anything larger than a small child. The EV9’s can fit full-size humans. Practical and perfect for road trips, three-row SUVs typically get to 40,000 miles faster than other long-termers. We’re interested to see if that holds true when it’s an EV. Our adopted EV9 is the nearly…

PUSHING 93 MPH ON A BROKEN and battered trail through a northern Michigan forest should be a terrifying experience. Trees flash by. Wildlife peers through the dense growth. One midcorner miscalculation could trigger an epic rally-style barrel roll. Yet blurring the scenery in a 2024 Can-Am Maverick R isn’t a big deal. The Maverick R’s high-speed off-road capability starts with beefy suspension arms and links. Big suspension packages aren’t uncommon in this high-strung segment, but what sets the Maverick R apart are the extra-tall front knuckles and spider-leg upper control arms that meet above the tire. With the upper and lower ball joints in line, considerable deviations in the scrub radius during vertical motions are virtually removed. The setup also eliminates massive camber changes during full compression, keeping the tires…

EVERYONE IS NAKED. Just putting that out in the open. After all, everything else is. We’re in Cambridge, Wisconsin, at the Valley View Recreation Club for its Annual Nude Car Show, which started about 35 years ago, and the only bras in sight are on the noses of Corvettes. There really shouldn’t be questions left unanswered by the event name, but you might be wondering why, exactly, anyone would throw a nude car show and maybe what it’s like to attend one. Well, that’s what we’re here to cover. Er, uncover. While humans have been joining this world naked since day one, nudism (or naturism) as a lifestyle philosophy migrated to the U.S. from Europe in the late 1920s. Since then, naturist societies have founded beaches, campgrounds, hotels, and resorts…

IT’S NO COMPLAINT TO SAY that given the slow visual evolution of the Mercedes-Benz E-class, many wouldn’t notice that the stately three-box sedan has entered a new generation this year. The only gauche elements that might have a design referee reaching for a flag are the numerous three-pointed-star logos crammed into the grille and taillights. Otherwise, the E’s silhouette carries forward as much as its dynamic sophistication, and the latter is precisely what landed the previous E-class on our 10Best Cars list two years in a row. By the numbers, it’s much the same. The wheelbase grows by 0.9 inch, and rear-seat space is adult luxurious. A 255-hp turbo 2.0-liter four powers the E350, and a 375-hp turbo inline-six motivates the E450. The base price is up by $5450, although…

IT WAS BIG NEWS when Nissan revealed the latest Z. After years of seemingly ignoring its iconic sports car, Nissan brought it back with a 400-hp twin-turbo V-6. The excitement didn’t last, and the redesigned Z finished last in its first C/D comparison test. The “new” Z simply felt like a reskinned version of the old car but with a bit more power. Enter the Z NISMO. A thorough redo by Nissan’s performance division, the Z NISMO impressed us at our Lightning Lap competition at Virginia International Raceway. With 420 horses and 384 pound-feet of torque—gains of 20 and 34, respectively—as well as wider tires on forged wheels, stiffer anti-roll bars, larger front brakes, and bigger dampers with firmer springs, the NISMO felt in its element racing against the clock.…

IN THE LINCOLN NAUTILUS, the loudest sound you hear at highway speeds is the rhythmic respiration of the massaging seats. With just 66 decibels of interior noise at 70 mph, this slick-looking new Lincoln is on a mission of zen. Facilitating your chill, the front chairs have five massage programs and individually extendable left and right thigh support. They also feel cushy and plump, like a Barcalounger. The ride quality and the standard hands-free highway-driving assist, BlueCruise, aren’t quite as blissful. The Nautilus no longer suffers from the woozy motions of its forebears, but sharp bumps send a jolt through the cabin that spooks BlueCruise into tossing steering duties back to the driver. Even when it’s engaged, BlueCruise isn’t as smooth as a human or GM’s Super Cruise. A four-foot,…

TOYOTA LAND CRUISER FIRST EDITION (2024) Off-road can mean racing across open terrain, crawling to a remote campsite, or, in the case of 1990s Buick buyers, driving into a parking lot. The world is thick with off-road-oriented vehicles, and the redesigned and resurrected Land Cruiser is one of the latest. To better understand the immense diversity among off-roaders, we’ve assembled data on a range of vehicles for which no pavement is no problem. To compare suspension articulation, a key factor in traction, we’ve included a ramp travel index (RTI) score [see “No Easy On-Ramps,” page 105]. NO EASY ON-RAMPS To measure how well an off-roader’s chassis can articulate while still maintaining traction, we use a 20-degree ramp and a tape measure to determine a vehicle’s ramp travel index, or RTI.…

ROUGHLY HALF A DECADE after unveiling the limited-production 1 coupe and the mass-market 2 hatchback, Polestar is dipping its toes into the SUV space with the also uninspiringly named 3 and 4. Both models bring a new sense of style to the Swedish EV brand, but the lower-slung 4 is sure to drum up controversy. Besides ditching the wagon body style of the 3 for a sleeker fastback form, the 4 forgoes a rear window entirely. Instead, a camera serves the role previously assumed by a big piece of glass. We chatted with Polestar exterior-design manager Steve Potter to learn more about the overall design of the 4 and the rationale for nixing the rear window. C/D: From a design perspective, what makes the 4 an SUV? POTTER: It has…

GREED IS GOOD, Gordon Gekko said in the 1980s. Maybe he was talking about horsepower. It was in that decade when Porsche engineers, readying a new 911 Turbo, began questioning how much power they could funnel through two wheels. Porsche president and CEO Peter Schutz responded, “Why not four?” and painstakingly created a test-bed prototype called the 959. Schutz knew he could hasten the engineering if a competition program depended on it. Thus did Porsche venture on tippy-toes into Group B rallying—the “killer Bs,” a series then injuring drivers and spectators alike. Whereupon former Formula 1 driver Jacques Bernard Edmon Martin Henri “Jacky” Ickx suggested, “Forget Group B. With the 959, we can contest the Paris–Dakar,” a rally Mr. Many Names had recently won in a Mercedes 280GE. More than…

HANKSVILLE (POPULATION 170 OR SO) IS A tiny crossroads town in south-central Utah that looms large for area visitors. That’s been the case for some time, as it was a lonely supply outpost used by Butch Cassidy and his notorious Wild Bunch in the late 1800s. Cassidy, a local miscreant, established a well-concealed hideout to the east in what is now called Robbers Roost, a steeply walled canyon off the aptly named Dirty Devil River. Today handfuls of hardy tourists venture to those same impossibly sinuous canyons looking for extreme off-grid adventure, oftentimes involving rappelling but always supported by a four-by-four. Others stock supplies before they head farther east into Canyonlands National Park’s Maze district or south toward the waters of Lake Powell. It’s the perfect place to see what…

USUALLY WHEN YOU HEAR ABOUT a “jacked-up Lambo,” the conversation is centered on a telephone pole or a wet curb just tall enough to high-center a late-model Gallardo. But this Huracán LP610-4 Sterrato, or simply Sterrato, is lifted 1.7 inches to make it as close to an off-road-ready Italian supercar as we have ever seen. And much to our surprise, it is the finest example of the baby Lambo. Like the many versions of the Huracán that came before it, the Sterrato looks good and goes like stink. But unlike its brethren intended for buttery-smooth roads or racetracks, it’s fitted with run-flat Bridgestone Dueler All-Terrain AT002 tires, a suspension lift, and roof rails to attach a rack, should you want to take with you anything more than the four cubic…

THE SUBARU FORESTER is now 27 years old. All grown up. Or at least no longer living in Fuji Heavy Industries’ furnished basement, where it served as a stepping stone for wannabe Outback buyers. In that subservient role, the frumpy but friendly Forester should have withered. Instead, Subaru sold 2.7 million of them. It’s tough to start messing around with a product whose value hovers near Grand Cayman’s, especially if your buyers’ median age is 62. An all-new Forester every few years? Unnecessary. Except that it was. The compact-SUV category is now the largest and most competitive in the U.S. In Car and Driver comparison tests in 2013 and 2020, the Forester finished last. No Forester was included in our recent eight-SUV test [“SUVs for the Real World,” May/June 2024]…

JUST HOW BADLY DOES Porsche want to one-up the 1020-hp Tesla Model S Plaid and the 1234-hp Lucid Air Sapphire with its new Taycan Turbo GT? Enough to ditch the rear seat (and 49 pounds with it) and the driver’s-side charge-port door with its associated circuitry, requiring a whole new fender stamping, all to save weight. We can’t help but respect the commitment. The most extreme measures come by selecting the Weissach package. Besides deleting the rear seats, it brings a large fixed wing in the back, front and rear splitters, and underbody changes, helping create 175 pounds of front and 310 pounds of rear downforce at 190 mph. Weissach cars can be had with gummy Pirelli P Zero Trofeo RS Elect track-oriented tires. We drove Europe-spec cars with fixed-back…

ALTHOUGH THE CAMRY has been usurped by the RAV4 SUV as Toyota’s bestselling vehicle in the U.S., nearly 300,000 of the sedans found homes here last year. Radically altering the Camry’s formula is something Toyota doesn’t take lightly, so cautious evolution led the way for the car’s ninth-generation redesign. If you don’t first glimpse the 2025 Camry’s chiseled front end and gaping maw, you could easily mistake the car for the outgoing model. The big changes are under the surface, where all variants, including the sportier SE and XSE trims, feature Toyota’s fifth-gen hybrid powertrain. An Atkinson-cycle 2.5-liter inline-four continues to be the hybrid’s gas drinker, gaining eight horsepower for a total of 184, bolstered by 163 pound-feet of torque. A more powerful traction motor (134 horsepower, up from 118)…

MAX LUMEN Broncos have openings in the front bumper, so we filled the voids with lights. Baja Designs supplied us with its Ford Squadron Sport/S2 Sport Fog Pocket Light Kit ($980), which comes prewired for the Bronco’s accessory switches. The installation process is a little finicky because the units have to come out to adjust the aim. But using the built-in switches allowed us to split the fog lamps across two toggles for bright and superbright. We also added the Ford XL80 A-Pillar Light Kit ($1034), which is powerful enough to turn night into day. The Baja lights fit like they came from Ford, and our staffers loved the increased visibility. Sorry if we inadvertently blinded you. MIN SONITUS To address the most common complaint about our Bronco, we ordered…

TOYOTA SUMMONED THE SPIRIT of the 1960–83 FJ40-series Land Cruiser and channeled it into the 2007–14 FJ Cruiser. The SUV is underpinned by an altered version of the contemporary 4Runner’s frame and sits on a wheelbase 3.9 inches shorter than its mid-size sibling’s. Approach and departure angles of up to 34.0 and 31.0 degrees better those of the 4Runner and Land Cruiser of the era. A stubby 183.9-inch-long body and up to 9.6 inches of ground clearance make the FJ a nimble and sure-footed companion on unbeaten paths. The upright windshield, massive C-pillars, elephant-ear side mirrors, and small rear window work against outward vision on- and off-road. Even so, there’s a charm to the design and decor of the FJ, which has three windshield wipers and a pair of rear-hinged…