Innehållsförteckning för January 2016 från MotorTrend

The Lohdown In between the execution of our annual Car of the Year and Truck of the Year programs, I spent a weekend at Rennsport V, the fifth installment of all things Porsche, up at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Throughout the event, I bumped into legendary Porsche racers, guys like Jacky Ickx, Vic Elford, Derek Bell, Hans Stuck, and Jochen Mass, along with a few of the newer endurance racing studs: Mark Webber, Earl Bamber, and Patrick Long. Porsche even arranged for a ride with Brendon Hartley, factory driver of the second-place finisher at Le Mans, in the new turbocharged 911 Carrera S. The next day, I took a side trip to nearby Mountain View, California, for the polar opposite of Rennsport, a press conference on Google’s self-driving car (SDC)…

Ferrari has built a limited-edition F12 supercar that pays homage to its success in the Tour de France automobile race in the 1950s and ’60s. The Ferrari F12 TDF marries road-going capabilities with track-level upgrades, and only 799 copies will be built. Under the sheetmetal, the Ferrari F12 TDF has the same naturally aspirated, 6.3-liter V-12 engine as the standard F12 Berlinetta, but it’s been tuned to produce 770 hp and 520 lb-ft of torque. It has also shed nearly 250 pounds thanks to the abundant use of carbon fiber and redesigned bodywork. The F12 TDF hits 62 mph in 2.9 seconds, Ferrari says. That’s quicker than the (gasp) 488 GTB, which Ferrari says can hit 62 mph in 3 seconds flat. Of course, it’s also quicker than the standard…

50 Guy Melville-Brown Honda EXTERIOR DESIGNER, HONDA R & D 2015 Rank: Unranked Melville-Brown is one of the people responsible for the new exterior design of the revolutionary 2016 Honda Civic. The topselling compact is one of Honda’s defining vehicles, and with Melville-Brown’s work, it will remain so. 49 John Krafcik Google CEO, GOOGLE’S SELFDRIVING CAR PROJECT 2015 Rank: Unranked Krafcik’s range, experience, and media savvy make him the perfect fit at Google. It needs someone with car sense and a passion for technology to move Google’s autonomous car from shuttling journalists around parking lots to transporting people on public roads. Krafcik, who has worked at Ford, Hyundai, and TrueCar, has the résumé to help Google build, manage, and sell those cars in the near future. 48 Tadge Juechter GM…

Words Motor Trend Editors Photographs Motor Trend Staff Variety Show Our diverse group of performers includes the bestselling roadster of all time, a Best Driver’s Car, a carbon-core luxury liner, a Bauhaus beauty, a Honda without VTEC but with a turbo, a muscle car riding on a Cadillac chassis, and one hydrogen-powered Vader mobile. Audi TT We Like Its superb styling, great powertrain, virtual cockpit. We Don’t Like The price, the noise on certain roads. The Audi TT has always been all about style. And the third-generation model, built on VW Group’s versatile MQB architecture, delivers, inside and out. The exterior is a beautifully executed evolution of TT form and graphics. And as Gale pointed out during our design walkaround, the unbelievably crisp and sophisticated surfacing is as much an…

The Model X includes a few huge engineering feats that Tesla admits it might not have done had it known the challenge. After several lengthy delays, Tesla’s third vehicle and first crossover, the Model X, is here. It shares its basic architecture and powertrain with the Model S but is a true seven-seater. In the middle of boasting about all of the Model X’s new features at the reveal event, Tesla had to admit that if it knew at the start how difficult the whole project would be, it might not have blazed so many new trails. Their engineers’ gray hair is the consumer’s gain. The Model X is a rolling tech showcase that should do a far better job of appealing to moms than the S sedan does. Falcon-wing…

Audi has sold more than 12 million A4s worldwide going back to 1972, when the car was called the 80/Fox. That’s a remarkable number of cars. To give you some perspective, Toyota has “only” sold around 11 million Camrys in the U.S. Any way you slice it up, and despite the recent global SUV-buying trend, the A4 is the most important car Audi builds, the brand’s Brot und Butter if you will, so introducing a ninth-generation A4 is a major undertaking. The competition is of course stronger than ever. You have the ever-present and always potent BMW 3 Series, the resurgent Mercedes-Benz C-Class, the spectacular new Jaguar XE, and the incredibly great-driving Cadillac ATS, among others. Long story short, a new A4 had better be pretty dang exceptional. News flash:…

Google hosted an update on its self-driving car (SDC) project in early October that included ride-alongs in two test mules. Motor Trend podcaster-inchief Charlie Vogelheim and I ventured to Google headquarters in Mountain View, California, for the event, which started with rides and concluded with a presentation by the SDC team. Our first ride was in a modified Lexus RX450h, one of three apparently identical SDCs Google made available for our junket. Google started with Toyota Priuses when it began experimenting with self-driving technologies, and the Lexus SUVs appear to host Google’s latest self-driving hardware and software alongside traditional driver controls, namely a logically redundant steering wheel and gas and brake pedals. Our Lexus came with two co-drivers, one behind the wheel, the other in the front passenger seat, monitoring…

Words Motor Trend Editors Photographs Motor Trend Staff THE CRITERIA • Advancement in Design . Engineering Excellence . Performance of Intended Function . Efficiency . Safety . Value THE LINEUP Chevrolet Colorado . Chevrolet Silverado . GMC Canyon . GMC Sierra . Nissan Titan XD . Toyota Tacoma Trucks. For today’s shopper, the selection has never been more fascinating. Pickups are better built, use finer interior materials, have more space for occupants to luxuriate in, and can comfortably haul and tow more than ever before, all while consuming less fuel. And, perhaps most important, they drive pretty darn decently. It’s a sensational time for trucks, as our latest harvest of Truck of the Year aspirants establishes. Representing Toyota, the new Tacoma seeks to sustain the strong sales leadership it’s established…

Words Motor Trend Editors Photographs Motor Trend Staff *Honda Civic (manual), Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid not shown THE LINEUP Audi A6 . Audi TT . BMW 340i . BMW 7 Series . Chevrolet Camaro . Chevrolet Malibu . Honda Civic . Kia Optima Mazda MX-5 . Mercedes-AMG GT S . Nissan Maxima . Scion iA . Scion iM . Toyota Mirai . Volkswagen Jeta THE CRITERIA . Advancement in Design . Engineering Excellence . Performance of Intended Function . Efficiency . Safety . Value For the first time in recent memory, SUV of the Year had more new models than any other of our Of the Year competitions. But that doesn’t make Car of the Year any less important. This year we gathered up 15 all-new or significantly revised vehicles (plus…

Before we started, had you asked any of us nine judges if the 2016 Chevrolet Camaro had a snowball’s chance in Hyundai’s desert proving grounds of winning our 2016 Car of the Year honors, almost all of us would have said no. Most of us would have been surprised to even see the Camaro as a finalist. Except for Angus MacKenzie, who told me: “On paper it looked strong against a number of the criteria. If it drove well, it was in with a real shot.” May we all be as wise. Still, it’s a flippin’ Camaro, man, forever destined to live in the shadow of the horsey from Dearborn, the Ford Mustang. The other ponycar as our Car of the Year? Fat chance. Had we stopped and thought about…

The GS F marks an interesting balance between luxury cruiser and track toy. It’s a brisk 9:30 a.m. in Madrid, Spain, and I’m pressing deep into the loud pedal as I familiarize myself with the Jarama Circuit’s 13 sinuous turns. But after just one warm-up lap, Pedro, my chaperone, snaps from calm to beast mode. “Pass them! Pass them!” Pedro yells. “We are faster than them!” I hesitate then do as I’m told—but I feel a tad guilty. Guilty because I’m in a Lexus RC F coupe overtaking the 2016 Lexus GS F, today’s shiny new guest of honor. How is this going to look? When it arrives in showrooms, the Lexus GS F will sit a whole step above the swift GS 350 F Sport. And that car has…

Here’s a sentence I never thought I’d write: The Chevrolet Camaro is a better, more entertaining car to drive than a BMW 3 Series. In more than 30 years of testing cars I have experienced several moments of dazzling, crystalline revelation: that the original Mazda Miata was the most sublimely, delicately, intuitively tactile sports car ever built; that underneath the seductive scarlet curves of a Ferrari 348 lurked a sulky, evil-tempered bunnyboiler; and that the Ford Raptor was one of the most original performance vehicle concepts from a mainstream automaker, an entertaining and engaging ride that was also uniquely and uncompromisingly American. This one, though, was totally unexpected. That’s partly because I’d have never thought of driving Chevy’s ponycar and BMW’s iconic sport sedan back-to-back, over the same roads. It…

Knowing the rumors swirling that Ferrari is working on a “new Dino,” a mid-engine V-6 sports car, we sought clarification from CEO Amedeo Felisa at the Frankfurt auto show. “There is probably a V-6 in our future,” he said. Would it be a smaller car? He grinned. “You wouldn’t do a bigger one with a V-6.” This was in the context of the new 488 Spider, which he pointed out is the result of an “incredible evolution of power and performance” with lower consumption and emissions. “For sure we will have to downsize displacement again in the future.” And not, he said, through hybrids. At least not for several years on the “mainstream” models. The LaFerrari program was difficult and costly in order to achieve weight targets. “Anyway, we have…

Words Motor Trend Editors Photographs Motor Trend Staff THE CRITERIA • Advancement in Design . Engineering Excellence . Performance of Intended Function . Efficiency . Safety . Value THE LINEUP BMW X6 . Chevrolet Trax . Fiat 500X . Ford Edge . Ford Explorer . Honda HR-V . Honda Pilot . Hyundai Tucson . Jeep Renegade Kia Sorento . Land Rover Discovery Sport . Lincoln MKX . Mazda CX-3 . Mercedes-Benz GLE-Class . Nissan Murano . Volvo XC90 It’s a changing world, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the rapidly evolving field of sport/utility vehicles. … While SUVs have typically been rugged, truck-based vehicles, this is no longer a prerequisite. SUVs that are more car than truck are proving immensely popular, and their buyers want to hear more…

In case you’re not a frequent reader of this magazine or have fast-forwarded through every commercial break over the past dozen months, the new-for-2015 Colorado midsize pickup was the well-deserved recipient of our 2015 Truck of the Year award. Chevy took a swing at building the ultimate midsize truck from the ground up, and lo and behold, it connected. At this point, you might be wondering, how’d it get back in contention just one year later? How the heck did it win … again? For the former, the answer is simple. For 2016, the Colorado is available with a 181-horsepower, 2.8-liter inline-four Duramax diesel, making it the only midsize truck to offer such an engine (along with its GMC Canyon cousin). That’s a significant powertrain addition, enough to warrant a…

Phase 1 Testing, limit handling, and the high-speed oval This Car of the Year marks the 10th year we’ve had the good fortune to utilize the Hyundai Motor Group California Proving Grounds. We’re lucky and thankful to have their support. The stateof-the-art facility near Mojave, California, covers 4,300 acres and has 10 test courses. Here, we run all the cars through the complete set of Motor Trend tests—acceleration, braking, figure eight—and focus on such qualities as handling, ride quality, and refinement. The closed environment enables consistent and repeatable testing at high limits. The aim of this first phase is to eliminate vehicles that do not measure up to the six COTY criteria. A. Vehicle Dynamics Area 43 acres; length: 2,950 feet; width: 1,200 feet. Low elapsed time and high lateral…

Like the automotive industry itself, Motor Trend’s Of the Year program has evolved to reflect the changing transportation landscape. So, too, has the trophy, from a mere mention in an article to a medallion to a plaque to an extruded aluminum rod and finally to the familiar Golden Calipers. We’ve handed out 65 official Car of the Year awards alone. Since the seed was planted in 1949, we added Truck of the Year in 1978, and SUV of the Year in 1999, incidentally coinciding with our 50th anniversary. Let’s track the tides of the award, the trophy, and what it all says about what we drive. 1949 The initial mention of a Car of the Year in the November 1949 issue wasn’t an award. Rather, it was the headline of…

It began with data points that didn’t add up. Since 2008 Volkswagen’s 2.0-liter TDI diesel engine had routinely delivered significantly better mileage numbers under real-world driving conditions than its official EPA rating. What’s more, the engine, code-named EA189, had achieved this while meeting stringent U.S. NOx (nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide) emissions standards with a lean NOx trap (LNT) exhaust after-treatment system rather than the more complex and expensive urea-injection system used by rivals. Rival engineers couldn't figure out how VW was doing it: Acura and Mazda dropped plans for LNT-equipped, diesel-powered TSX and Mazda6 models when neither could meet U.S. emissions and efficiency targets. On September 18, 2015, however, the world found out how. Volkswagen cheated. After researchers at West Virginia University confirmed EA189-powered cars were producing up to…

Words Motor Trend Editors ARRIVAL 2016 Nissan Maxima SR Emiliana Sandoval First impression is fabulous. I love the feature-filled interior. The goofy grille, not so much.” @Emiliana505 EPA CITY/HWY/COMB FUEL ECON 22/30/25 MPG BASE PRICE $38,495 PRICE AS TESTED $38,750 Nissan’s current flagship sedan was touted as a “four-door sports car” when it came into the automotive world for the 1981 model year, riding 145 horses and with rear-wheel drive. (For comparison, the 2015 Altima’s least powerful engine has 182 horses.) Like anyone aging from age 0 to 35, the Maxima has grown up and out; in its eighth generation the car is a full-fledged, front-wheel-drive full-size sedan that’s stretched 2.2 inches since its last go-round. (It’s now 192.8 inches long.) Like the Honda Accord, the Maxima offers trim…