Innholdsfortegnelse for February/March 2023 i Car and Driver

The Great Smoky Mountains are a driver’s paradise. The tarmac is superb and the views at every stop are absolutely breathtaking. On SMOKY 600 you’ll drive Appalachia’s renowned roadways, stay at its finest luxurious hotels, enjoy delicious southern hospitality at our meals, and sample the region’s most famous export—bourbon! Stretch your cars’ legs to the fullest at the iconic NCM Motorsports Park and explore the National Corvette Museum, home to iconic examples of the marque’s history and the world-famous “sinkhole” exhibit. Rally through Tennessee and Kentucky’s best backroads and wander their charming town squares. While this region’s roads are all overwhelmingly excellent, it wouldn’t be a trip to the Smokies without an early morning run down the Tail of The Dragon to Cherohala Skyway, perhaps some of America’s most famous and…

→ A lack of reliable public charging is a major problem for shoppers considering an electric vehicle. The currently superior Tesla charging network aside, you’re much more likely to run into a malfunctioning charging station while out and about than be stymied by a taped-off gas pump. It wasn’t always so easy to fuel up, though. Gas stations have had 118 years to develop into the wonderment that is a Buc-ee’s travel center. Electric cars started in the 19th century (and shorted out multiple times since), but modern EV charging is still in its infancy. What’s the Problem? Compared with a gas pump, EV charging components are delicate. Most stations don’t have roofs to protect them from the elements, or shelter from wild drivers or errant sprinklers. Then, of course,…

For the first three days, we just stared at each other. Me, suspicious, resentful, concerned I had committed to something I no longer wanted to do. The Arcimoto FUV, dopey and expectant, a wolf spider on benzos, insectile but goofy. I’d agreed to a month-long loan of Arcimoto’s reverse-trike electric runabout to see whether the “Fun Utility Vehicle” delivers on the promise of its name. There are plenty of three-wheelers in automotive history, all wobbling along on the line between motorcycle and car. Morgan, Isetta, Reliant, Campagna—heck, the first Benz was a delta-style trike. The goal has always been to create a smaller, more efficient means of transport while maintaining affordability and stability—and, for an EV, usable range. Arcimoto is an Oregon manufacturer hoping to achieve those goals and overcome…

We expected Honda’s latest CR-V to be competent—they always are in an anonymous sort of way—but this new sixth-generation model is far more impressive than that. It’s a well-rounded package that punches way above its weight on multiple levels. That impression starts as soon as you close the door and start rolling, as the structure of the new CR-V immediately feels tight, hushed, and substantial. The body shell is more rigid, and there’s more sound insulation in the cowl, firewall, and instrument-panel areas. Hybrid versions take things a step further with thicker front-side glass and an acoustically treated windshield. Once you’re underway, the new CR-V delivers the kind of smoothness you expect from a more upmarket vehicle. The steering is willing and pairs with a chassis that cuts a steady…

It just so happens that we elected three pickups to our 10Best Trucks list, in sizes small, medium, and large. When you take out the typical truck negatives of a jarring ride, a noisy cabin, and wallet-busting fuel economy, you’re left with a practical package consumers want. In the same way that the ’90s popularized SUVs as a cool vehicle choice, the 2010s normalized the pickup. And the medium-size R1T is the best-driving pickup we’ve encountered. With 835 horsepower, the Rivian R1T is also the most powerful vehicle—pickup or not—to make 10Best. Four motors, one per wheel, move this sleek machine’s 7150 pounds to 60 mph in as little as 3.0 seconds. One reason the R1T is so heavy is its 128.9-kWh battery pack. That power source nets a 75-mph…

Lucid’s Air Dream is no more, but our test team’s memories of its other-worldly power and range live on. Its dual-motor powertrain cranked out a reality-bending 1111 horsepower in Performance guise, while the range-oriented variant dialed that back to a mere 933 horsepower to be a certified 520-mile bladder killer. Impressive? Absolutely. But does anyone really require that much, especially when you consider the cost? For 2023, the 1050-hp Grand Touring Performance commands over $180,000, while the 516-mile range-specialist variant hovers north of $155K. The bigger gotcha is an unwelcome side effect of the 112.0-kWh battery that unlocks all of that power and range: It occupies the rear footwells, creating a knees-up seating position that’s exacerbated by zero toeroom under the front seats. The Touring, which looks identical at 10…

The Toyota Prius driver has long sacrificed everything at the altar of fuel economy: power, performance, styling, handling, ergonomics, dignity. The Prius has been a one-trick pony that lacked actual ponies. That ends now. Only the stellar fuel economy remains, with Toyota estimating 57 mpg combined for the new front-wheel-drive LE and 52 mpg for the XLE and Limited with front-wheel drive. At a glance, the first thing that stands out about the 2023 Prius is its handsome design, words we’ve never typed before. Chief engineer Satoki Oya allowed the designers “the freedom to do what they want,” in contrast to the “relentless pursuit of aerodynamic efficiency” that produced the previous weird-mobiles. The resulting car is longer (1.1 inches), lower (1.6 inches), and wider (0.9 inch). A 2.0-inch-longer wheelbase…

Many of America’s oldest and most established car brands are popular in China—but not necessarily the ones you’d expect. Buick is huge, and Lincoln sold more cars in China than in the U.S. in 2021. Here are the most interesting China-market exclusives from U.S. automakers. BUICK GL8 CENTURY Vans are big business in China, especially high-end models meant for chauffeuring the well-to-do. Buick has had a stranglehold on the market with its GL8, and the latest iteration adopts the Century name. Niceties include heated footrests, a fridge, and a 32-inch entertainment screen for rear passengers. BUICK VELITE 6/CHEVROLET MENLO These wagonoid twins have flown the EV flag for GM’s Chinese joint venture, and the Buick also comes as a plug-in hybrid. More electric models are in the pipeline. LINCOLN ZEPHYR…

→ When engaging enemy aircraft, it’s best to keep them—and important flight information—in view at all times. During World War II, military-plane designers experimented with ways to augment reality with gun sights and gauge displays reflected onto glass panels in front of the pilots. Eventually, their projected horizon lines and target reticles became the Spotify selections and directions to the nearest Del Taco in your Chevrolet’s windshield. CUTTING-EDGE CUTLASS General Motors teased the idea of a head-up display (HUD) in 1960s concept cars. The first production car to offer the tech was the 1988 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Indianapolis 500 Pace Car edition. The Olds showed speed in an ’80s digital font along with turn signals and other indicators. Appropriately, Chuck Yeager drove the pace car in that year’s Indy 500. GOING…

VIRGINIA INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY 36°33’43”N 79°12’22”W GRAND COURSE 4.1 MILES When it comes to evaluating cars, no single metric better sums up vehicle dynamics than a lap time. No other test incorporates cornering, acceleration, and braking, plus reveals insights on at-the-limit behavior. And no North American track offers the variety and challenges of Virginia International Raceway’s 4.1-mile Grand Course, which is why we’ve held Lightning Lap here since 2006. This year’s crop of cars doesn’t look too different from that first event’s, when we ran a Corvette Z06 but not one with a mid-engine 670-hp V-8. A Cayman appeared on the first roster, although it was not nearly as track focused as this year’s Cayman GT4 RS. There have been massive performance increases in the past 17 years, and not just…

No category of vehicles has embraced the bigger-is-better ethos more than pickup trucks. Today’s euphemistically described “full-size” trucks have become towering, steroidal machines. Pulled along in their wake, the next-tier-down mid-size pickups have also grown larger, leaving a vacuum at the base of the market. For a long time, however, the conventional wisdom was that buyers wouldn’t be interested in a small pickup. Ford, with its F-series, certainly embraces the one-upmanship that has spurred ever-larger pickups. Yet the company determined there was indeed a case for a true compact truck. And sure enough, when the Maverick appeared, the buying public went absolutely nuts for it. The first year’s production sold out in a matter of months, and when the order window for the 2023 model opened at the end of…

If winning EV of the Year is akin to taking home the Grammy for Best Album in a given genre, then nabbing a 10Best award is like walking away with Album of the Year. The former celebrates the winner’s place among its peers, while the latter honors a recipient’s performance across the greater industry. The Hyundai Ioniq 5 has claims to both prizes, with the 2022 EV of the Year winner also earning a spot on our 10Best Trucks and SUVs of 2023. Much of what makes the Ioniq 5 such a standout SUV stems from the fact that Hyundai developed it as a dedicated battery-electric vehicle. Built on the automaker’s EV-specific E-GMP platform, the Ioniq 5 takes advantage of the underfloor position of its battery pack and compact electric…

The Porsche Macan returns as a 10Best winner after a year off. Part of the reason it’s back is that it drives as though it belongs in our 10Best Cars competition, with a nimbleness rarely found among the higher-riding breed of vehicles. In GTS guise, where a twin-turbo V-6 engine cranks out a serious 434 horsepower, the Macan acts like an enlarged hot hatch, with ultrasharp steering complemented by a willing chassis. You’re up higher than you are in Porsche’s iconic sports cars, but you quickly forget you’re piloting a roughly 4300-pound crossover when the 2.9-liter engine emits a raucous growl as the Macan scythes through corners with fleet-footed finesse. The seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox executes rapid, snappy shifts with a click of the cool metal paddles or responds seemingly…

An expert look at the newest and most important vehicles this month. The giant MegaRexx MegaRaptor on page 77 is so big that it made us feel like a kid again. The charismatic V-8 engines that long made the Mercedes-AMG C63 a rowdy sports sedan will be missed. In their stead comes an elaborate four-cylinder plug-in-hybrid system good for 671 horsepower in the 2024 C63 S E-Performance. Traditionalists may not like it, but this is as close as mere mortals can get to experiencing a Formula 1–style powertrain on the street. A turbo 2.0-liter four makes 469 horse-power, an astounding 235.6 per liter, running 23.2 psi of max boost. There’s no discernible lag because an electric motor on the shaft connecting the turbocharger’s compressor and turbine wheels spins the turbo…

When introduced in 1984, the Pontiac Fiero wasn’t marketed as a sports car. Though it was General Motors’ first mid-engine production vehicle, the automaker designed the Fiero to “drive back and forth to work and be efficient,” says John Schinella, chief designer on the project. But over its five-year run, the Fiero became sportier, adding V-6 power, more aggressive styling, and a redesigned suspension. It was a hit, selling nearly 300,000 units in the first three years, allowing Schinella—a veteran designer of the 1965 Cadillacs, the first-gen Camaro, and the third-generation Corvette—to start on a successor. The Fiero used an innovative metal unibody skeleton with a plastic skin. Chosen mainly for its cost, the structure had a side benefit. “It was like an erector set. You build the frame and…

All of us, from the moment we grasp the key to our first car, face a decision: to tune or not to tune. Are you content with what the manufacturer hath wrought? Or do you suffer the hubris of believing that you, an individual owner, could effect some notable improvements? Of course you do. All of us think that. And often enough, we suffer the consequences. I pondered this when driving the Cadillac Escalade-V. Because I have a weakness for ill-advised shortcuts, I wondered if you could just bolt a supercharger to a 6.2-liter Escalade and get nearly the same result without spending $152,590. So I asked some GM engineers. If you want to skip the next two paragraphs, the short answer was no. The V’s exhaust system alone is…

Your eyes aren’t deceiving you. Reality isn’t buffering. This isn’t a mistake—you are in fact looking at a second 10Best list. Last month we awarded the 10Best Cars, and in this issue, we’re picking our favorite trucks, SUVs, and basically anything that isn’t a car. With the market shift away from cars and the explosion of SUV and truck offerings, we decided to give them their due and award a second 10Best. We invited trucks, SUVs, and vans priced from below $110,000, a number selected based on the assumption that anything that costs more better be pretty damn great. For a week, the Car and Driver staff left the office to shake down the vehicles on our 10Best loop. After a few note-comparing discussions around the dinner table, we sat…

Despite a name shared with a rocket-powered aircraft, there’s little chance of mixing up BMW’s X1 with Bell’s. We’re sure Chuck Yeager would have appreciated such luxuries as interior mood lighting and the option of a bangin’ Harman/Kardon 12-speaker stereo. But unlike his radical experimental plane, the BMW X1 isn’t breaking barriers or speed records, even if dropped from the belly of a B-29. Still BMW’s smallest SUV, the X1 has grown since its 2009 introduction. Now nearly the size of the first-generation BMW X3, the ute is 1.7 inches longer and taller, and it’s almost an inch wider than last year’s all-wheel-drive equivalent. The wheelbase is 0.9 inch longer, and the track width gains 0.8 inch. The result is more interior room and a hint of bulldog stance. Under…

Ask anyone changing their name at a court-house why they’re doing it, and they’ll tell you it brings a new chance, a new path, maybe even a new life. Audi is hoping for that effect with its renaming of the e-tron SUV and Sportback for 2024. To help communicate their place in the lineup, the electric SUVs will now be known as the Q8 e-tron and the SQ8 e-tron, with both coming in Sportback versions. New badges aren’t the only changes. The previous 86.5-kWh battery pack is jettisoned in favor of a 106.0-kWh setup. It occupies the same space under the floor thanks to cells with greater energy density. Audi expects the highest-range Q8 e-tron to hit 300 miles, far more than the outgoing model’s maximum of 226 miles. To…

The MegaRaptor, a mutant Ford Super Duty pickup from MegaRexx, is big. How big? It’s so big, it disrupted international shipping for weeks after it got stuck in the Suez Canal. It’s so big, there’s snow on the roof that never melts. It’s so big, you can’t even leave a message with its assistant. It needs rear-axle steering or a hinge in the middle. The turnkey base price is $135,000, and you’ll also want to budget for a pilot vehicle to drive a quarter-mile ahead and verify clearance for overpasses. Lifted diesel trucks, meet your god. The MegaRaptor conversion recipe calls for a heavy-duty Ford pickup, a 4.0-or 4.5-inch suspension lift, trophy-truck-style bodywork, military MRAP wheels, and 46-inch tires. The resulting creation is surprisingly proportional. Like mountains and skyscrapers, the…