Innehållsförteckning för October 2019 från MotorTrend

If MotorTrend.com had headers, they’d be glowing cherry red right now. If it had brakes, they’d be sizzling and billowing smoke. In fact, we should all take a cooldown lap while singing along to Prince’s “Little Red Corvette.” I tap out this monthly screed five days after the long awaited, much anticipated debut of the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette nearly broke our website. But let’s rewind. Back in April, in a PR stunt involving GM president Mary Barra, the New York Stock Exchange, and a heavily camouflaged vehicle of distinctly supercar proportions, Chevrolet finally, formally acknowledged what legions of petrol heads knew to be true from countless spy photos and internet posts: The next-generation Corvette was coming, fast. Prior to its announced 7-18-19 reveal, we racked our brains to extract the…

Buying a three-row family vehicle doesn’t mean surrendering your enthusiast card at the door. That’s the message Ford is sending with the 2020 Explorer ST, a 400-hp crossover. And if you like your SUVs set to Eco rather than Sport, the sixth-generation Explorer family also expands to include its first hybrid variant. Previously front-drive-based, Explorers now ride on Ford’s new rear-drive architecture with available all-wheel drive. Rear drive makes the Explorer, especially the ST, more exciting. It still feels like a large vehicle, but on the roads outside Portland, Oregon, it showed an agility its predecessor didn’t possess. Off-road, it benefits from short overhangs, as we discovered on a course with an 18-degree grade. Base trims have Ford’s 300-hp, 310-lb-ft 2.3-liter turbo I-4 with a 10-speed auto. The ST and…

Since Andy Palmer took over as CEO of Aston Martin in 2014, he has led the charge toward a new, more diverse generation of Aston Martin vehicles—from massively capable track weapons to Lagonda electric SUVs—exploring new territory away from the grand touring segment where Aston Martin had resided. Let’s talk about the future of Aston Martin. You guys have some very exciting plans coming up. Is the hope still to match Ferrari and Lamborghini? To exist in that space? The problem we had was [our products] were clustered and cannibalizing each other. You saw a Vantage and said, “Is that a DB9, or is that a Vantage, or is it a Vanquish?” [The new Vantage] is the hardest car we’ve ever done because it’s got to be as good as…

When I was 18, the keys to my freedom belonged to a Saturn Ion. Hey, stop laughing. I no longer had to depend on my dad’s CR-V or my mom’s Odyssey; I could go where I wanted without asking for permission to borrow a parental vehicle. And when you’re 18, that’s important. My Motorola Razr was considered ancient with the recent release of the iPhone, but I didn’t care about connectivity. My Saturn and its four wheels gave me all the liberty I wanted as a young adult in Houston, the city that mass transit forgot. Read past those trend-spotting articles that say millennials would rather stare at a phone while Ubering toward some avocado toast than actually own a car. I am part of that sizable psychographic that still…

It’s one of the most common questions we’re asked from friends, family, and complete strangers. “I need a new vehicle. What should I buy?” The answer, of course, isn’t simple. Do you want something fun or something practical? What is practical, anyway? Do you have kids? Dogs? Is your next vehicle a tool or a toy? The list of factors to consider can be endless. Often, then, the easiest way to answer that common question is to speak for ourselves and let inquiring parties decide what part of that is relevant to them. Our staff ranges from the tail end of the baby boomer generation all the way down to Gen Y. We have young parents and some still chauffeuring teenagers. Single millennials mingle with double-income, no-kids Gen Xers. We…

Sterrato. It’s one of those wonderful, not totally translatable Italian words. Similar to countach, a Piedmontese expression that’s a cross between “holy cow” and something a bit more blue. Sterrato, in the broadest sense, means “dirt road.” But a sterrato is more like an unplowed field. It’s untamed, unconquered. Ferruccio Lamborghini made his first fortune building tractors. Most of the roads around Sant’Agata are sterrati. What this has to do with a 630-horsepower Mars attack rover I will leave up to you. If nothing else, it’s a fun word to say. So what is this thing? A Huracán Evo that’s been raised nearly 2 inches and had its track widened by over an inch. The Sterrato’s wheel arches are both wider and 3-D-printed to accommodate the wider balloon tires, 235/45R20…

Whispers out of Gaydon suggest the Aston Martin DBX is one of the most challenging projects the automaker has ever undertaken. SUVs are a new world for one of Britain’s most storied sports car makers, and everything from the wheels up has to be designed, engineered, and developed. The DBX will initially be available with a 550-hp version of the Daimler-sourced 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8. A plug-in hybrid version due in 2021 will use Daimler’s new 3.0-liter I-6 and powertrain electronics. The suspension will feature three-chamber height-adjustable air springs and active anti-roll bars. The all-wheel-drive system will include an active center differential and locking rear diff. To get the best dynamic performance (Porsche’s latest Cayenne has been the car’s benchmark), the DBX will also have rear tires that are wider than…

The theory behind one person being the caretaker of a single engine as it rolls down the assembly line is not new. Performance-machine makers have experimented with it from time to time. But at AMG’s factory tucked into Affalterbach’s rolling hills northeast of Stuttgart, the philosophy is more than just an experiment—it’s the company’s core DNA. Not to say you can’t modify DNA, as I saw in a tour of the performance tuner’s factory. Those familiar with AMG’s existing V-8 assembly line know it to be a controlled riot of overhead cables, parts bins, and old-school engine manufacturing processes. Yes, one person is in charge of each engine, but where the new M139 turbo-four will be built, it may as well be a semiconductor clean room. The new M139 cranks…

In January, we Big Tested eight compact SUVs and ranked the rugged but aging Jeep Cherokee seventh, adding this caveat: “If you’re planning to take your compact CUV off-roading, bump the Cherokee to the top of your list.” But then we wondered, with so many new entrants, is the Cherokee still the king of the hill among soft-roaders? The Toyota RAV4 Adventure trim level now gets a Jeep-ish Multi-Terrain Select dial, Mud & Sand and Rock & Dirt settings, hill descent control (HDC), a new torque-vectoring all-wheel-drive system, and increased ground clearance (8.6 inches versus other RAV4s’ 8.4). Despite their car-based platforms, the upgrades to these two crossovers could make them capable of handling some tough conditions. But is this enough for Toyota to dethrone Jeep? We ordered up one…

Colored seat belts. That’s what caught my eye in the avalanche of C8 Corvette coverage we rolled out on MotorTrend.com back in July. Depending on which interior theme you select for your new C8, you can choose seat belts in one of six colors, from basic black to red, yellow, orange, blue, and tan. Hallelujah! I thought. GM is thinking like Porsche. And this is a good thing. “To boost profit, GM can take another page out of the Porsche playbook by offering a huge range of options and accessories,” Todd Lassa and I wrote in a 2007 story in which we discussed potential design and development strategies for the C7, then still years away from launch. More than a decade later, GM seems to have finally figured this out.…

I had no choice. I couldn’t reverse; behind me was a line of Outbacks like mine, ready to proceed. Ahead, the trail vanished over a crest. What lay beyond was unknown, but given the angle of the tree line, steepness was certain. I exhaled, pulled the shifter into drive, and released the brake. The Outback is Subaru’s best-seller, so it had to get this sixth generation right. Complete re-engineering of its steel unibody resulted in a 70 percent increase in overall torsional stiffness. It also enhanced safety with driver-side knee airbags and crumple zones designed around future NHTSA tests. In idyllic Mendocino, California, Highway 1’s sweepers, hairpins, and rolling elevation changes demonstrated the improved rigidity, though the suspension allowed a good amount of roll. That said, it was free of…

“Worldwide Prosecco Shortage” sounds melodramatic, but it was a real headline a few years back. The world, apparently, had figured out Italian sparkling wine was as good as the French stuff at a better price. I’ve reached that age when all my friends are on their second or third babies, and they’re not afraid to tell the world that wine is how they’re dealing with it. The next time one of those moms pours herself the bubbly stuff, it’ll likely be after she’s finished unloading the kids from her new 2020 Hyundai Palisade, which she bought for the same reason as the prosecco. Mom might’ve had her eye on a pricey Mercedes-Benz GLS-Class or Lincoln Navigator as her high-clearance minivan alternative, but Hyundai can approximate that luxury for less than…

Perhaps ironically, one of the dumbest remaining parts of a modern, electronically controlled combustion engine is the cylinder head. Sure, many of them can alter valve timing and lift, but not infinitely, not very quickly, and never on a per-cylinder, per-combustion-event basis. Great engineering minds at Lotus, Ricardo, Valeo, and others have endeavored to replace dumb steel camshafts with smart air- or oil-operated valves, but either they drew too much power or lacked the necessary computing power. These barriers are falling. Back in April 2018, I covered a hydropneumatic camless valve solution from Koenigsegg called Freevalve that might hit production in a Chinese Qoros vehicle within a year. Then I discovered Intelligent Valve Technology from British tech company Camcon Auto, which strikes me as simpler and therefore better. IVT is…

It should’ve been easy. The Baltimore Colts, led by MVP quarterback Earl Morrall with Johnny U. in reserve, were 18-point favorites going into Super Bowl III against the New York Jets of the upstart American Football League. Spoiler alert, 50 years late: It wasn’t easy. It’s also easy to cast the new Toyota Supra, playing for Toyota City after graduating from college in Munich, as an underdog. Toyota City’s sports car history is patchy, and with its shared German and Japanese DNA, the latest Supra makes a natural rival for a pair of league stalwarts with many championships: the Porsche Cayman and BMW M2 Competition. And the Germans aren’t about to let the new guy show them up. But after getting a feel for how the Supra moves, we wouldn’t…

When we first drove the Kia brand’s boxy-chic new entrant in the emperor’s-new-minivan class, we declared the 2020 Telluride’s chief competitors to be the Honda Pilot, the Toyota Highlander, and the new Ford Explorer. There are enough other rivals to warrant a MotorTrend-certified Big Test of the class, but it takes a while to round up all those opponents. Patience, please. Besides, it just so happens that we currently have a really close competitor conveniently parked in our Detroit office long-term garage: the 2019 Subaru Ascent. Sizing Them Up By the tape measure, these two are darned close peers, measuring within a tenth of an inch in length and four-tenths of an inch in wheelbase. The Telluride is, however, a significant 2.3 inches wider and 2.7 inches lower (0.7 inch…

Arrival: 2019 Ram 1500 Laramie Sport EPA CITY/HWY/COMB Fuel Econ: 17/22/19 mpg Full-time access to the Truck of the Year? My garden won’t know what hit it.Scott Evans Base price $47,835 As tested $62,020 “How can the other guys even compete with this?” associate online editor Stefan Ogbac asked after he borrowed our new Ram 1500 for the weekend. The Ford and Chevy fans reading this will no doubt have thoughts, but I got his meaning. Ogbac was referring to our truck’s ride quality, infotainment system, and powertrain—though only one of those is standard. Every Ram 1500 comes with coil springs all the way around, with the rear set replacing the less forgiving leaf springs found on other trucks. We could’ve upgraded our Laramie to the optional air suspension, but…