Innholdsfortegnelse for July/August 2023 i Car and Driver

At age 14, Thatcher Keast opened an automotive-detailing business in central Kansas. His top client was a local collector who’d bought and sold cars through RM Auctions. Keast accompanied the collector to sales and found himself mesmerized by the auctioneer. After college, Keast joined RM as a car specialist. Through eight years with the company, he took on many auction-related roles, but the lure of the stage persisted. In 2022, Keast pursued his dream by enrolling in a special certification course at the World Wide College of Auctioneering in Des Moines, Iowa. “The first thing they teach you is tongue twisters,” he says. Once students have mastered their repetitions of “Susie Sells Seashells,” they learn to count. “I know that sounds crazy, because we all know how to count,” Keast…

This is only our third EV of the Year contest, and we’re already getting a bit jaded. Oh, your car offers 300 miles of range? Okay, but that’s no longer a big deal. Ditto with sub-five-second 60-mph times and crazy-fast DC charging speeds. While internal-combustion engines continue to evolve gradually after more than a century of incremental improvement, EVs make technological leaps annually—in battery chemistry, motor design, and charging capabilities. The tech is changing so fast that what’s groundbreaking one year is normal the next and outdated two years later. There are more players in the game, but lest you think the relatively simple EV powertrain—one moving part in the motor, no transmission—is the cheap avenue to develop a car, it isn’t. Billions are spent on ground-up projects, and every…

To say we like the GMC Hummer EV SUV more than the pickup because there’s less of it sounds flippant, but it’s true. At “just” 4.3 tons, the SUV weighs 980 pounds less than the SUT, considerably improving its lot. Its three-motor propulsion system makes 830 horsepower instead of the pickup’s cool 1000 due to the less massive battery (170.0 kilowatt-hours instead of 205.0) imposed by its 8.9-inch-stubbier wheelbase. It’s just as quick, though, achieving 100 mph in a frightening 8.8 seconds. Less tonnage also means it (eventually) stops shorter and cuts a slightly less pitiful arc around the skidpad. But the squishy suspension exhibits more dive and squat than the Summer Olympics. The consumption meter regularly pegs at an alarmingly high figure, and there’s a drift meter. Dear God,…

If you’re a powerful international conglomerate that wants to sell cars in the U.S., the easiest approach is to buy a company that already does that. Think Tata with Jaguar and Land Rover, Geely with Volvo, or whoever controls Lotus these days. It’s much more difficult, and smacks of a certain hubris, to forgo all incumbent brand awareness and institutional knowledge and just start building cars. But if any country loves blithe confidence, it’s America, so let’s give a warm welcome to the VinFast VF8, the latest answer to the question, “How hard can it be to build a car?” VinFast—which at least 30 percent of the U.S. population will initially hear as “SlimFast”—is part of Vingroup Joint Stock Company, otherwise known simply as Vingroup, a sprawling Vietnamese company with…

A driving range of 120 miles in our 75-mph highway test (196 miles according to the EPA) doesn’t bode well for a $60K SUV with a name as mellifluous as a two-step verification code. It’s almost cruel for Lexus to make the pleasantly smooth RZ450e so enjoyable but only good for a short distance. The RZ is slightly smaller than the familiar RX and roughly the size of a Tesla Model Y. It shares its platform with the Subaru Solterra and the Toyota bZ4X, both of which are more than $13,000 less than the Lexus. Here’s why: The RZ’s interior is like upgrading to first class. There’s plenty of room, and the cabin materials are beautiful. The dash has a 14.0-inch touchscreen with text big enough for rear passengers to…

Stepping into the EQE350 is like slipping on a set of noise-canceling headphones.—Tony Quiroga The ride is glassy and smooth, and the cabin is well isolated from road and wind noise. Interior materials are high quality too.—Caleb Miller Without the Mercedes-Benz emblems on its front and rump, the EQE350 sedan could be a Jelly Belly Candy Company product. While its lozenge-like design defines anonymous, it delivers an incredibly low drag coefficient of 0.20. That and a conservative range estimate are reasons the EQE350 4Matic+ is among the few EVs to exceed its EPA figure in our 75-mph highway range test, traveling 10 miles past its 260-mile estimate. Hooked up to a DC fast-charger, the dual-motor EQE350’s 90.6-kWh battery goes from 10 to 90 percent in 42 minutes. Beyond that, the…

Price As Tested …………………. $168,395 Base ……………………………………………………….. $159,995 Vehicle Type: front-engine, front-motor, all-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door wagon Options: Bowers & Wilkins stereo, $3400; M Driver’s package, $2500; Silverstone and Vintage Coffee leather interior, $2500 Infotainment: 14.9-inch touchscreen with rotary controller; wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay; satellite radio (12 months included); 1 USB, 3 USB-C (for power only), and Bluetooth inputs; Wi-Fi hotspot; Bowers & Wilkins, 20 speakers Engine twin-turbocharged and intercooled V-8, aluminum block and heads Bore x Stroke …… 3.50 x 3.48 in, 89.0 x 88.3 mm Displacement ……………………….. 268in3, 4395 cm3 Compression Ratio ……………………………………. 10.5:1 Fuel Delivery: direct injection Turbochargers: Garrett MGT2260 Maximum Boost Pressure …………………… 14.5 psi Valve Gear: double overhead cams, 4 valves per cylinder, variable intake-and exhaust-valve timing and variable intake-valve lift Redline/Fuel Cutoff ………………..…

Farewell tours are gold mines. Nearly every part of the Chrysler 300C is a decade old or more, but before the 300 goes away for good, parent company Stellantis is putting it all back out there for one last blowout. The 1998 Chronos show car gave us a very early preview, but more production-ready concept, badged 300C, appeared in 2003. When the first generation went on sale in early 2004, Ralph Gilles’s styling efforts gave this long, low sedan so much presence that many folks likened it to a baby Bentley. It rode atop Chrysler’s LX platform, which cribbed a lot from then-partner Mercedes-Benz. The 300’s lower trims came with a 2.7-or 3.5-liter V-6, the 300C picked up a 340-hp 5.7-liter V-8, and the range-topping SRT-8 that arrived the following…

The new Grand Highlander is more than just a stretched version of Toyota’s popular three-row SUV. Bigger in all directions, it’s a completely new vehicle conceived to take on the Kia Telluride, the Honda Pilot, the Volkswagen Atlas, and others in what Toyota calls the “long-haul three-row SUV” segment. The derivative name is intentional, as Toyota freely admits to “drafting off the success” of the Highlander by tacking “Grand” onto the front. And why not? The Grand Highlander shares its namesake’s core mission but is better at it—particularly if you use the third row often or for longer trips. The nowspacious back bench is easy to enter, and our six-foot-two tester could sit there comfortably, even with the second row set to account for his own adjusted driving position. At…

In 2016, we started measuring vehicles’ real-world highway fuel economy with a 200-mile out-and-back route driven at a steady 75 mph. As more EVs joined the party, this also became our highway range test, with the distance lengthened or shortened to use all the battery’s juice. A clear trend has emerged: Most EVs fall significantly short of their label’s range figure, while gas-powered vehicles tend to meet or exceed their EPA fuel-economy values. We used these results in a paper we coauthored for SAE International outlining EVs’ window-sticker-range shortfalls. And even the range from our test is ambitious, as that’s using 100 percent of the battery’s energy, which is all but impossible to do without stranding yourself. Also, charging speeds slow dramatically above about an 80 percent state of charge,…

The lounge seating is a must for charging. Kick back, relax, get a massage, and watch TV.—David Beard The word “luxury” gets thrown around like a backyard football in automotive reviews, but if any car earns that descriptor, it’s the BMW i7 xDrive60. There are faceted-diamond details in the headlights, self-opening and-closing doors, rainbows in the cabin, and a cashmere interior so soft and plush that sinking into it feels like a hug from a Mongolian textile artist. The logbook for the i7 reads like a librarian’s admonishment: “Quiet, quiet, quiet.” It’s so hushed that one staffer complained it made his thoughts too loud. Flooring the accelerator won’t drown out those thoughts, as the i7’s two motors deliver their combined 536 horsepower without even a whine, and the big body…

I daresay the Lyriq doesn’t need dual motors. Like a sloth doesn’t need a jet pack. This car is laid back, and that’s fine. A mellow pace suits it.—Ezra Dyer The two-motor Cadillac Lyriq is the double cheeseburger to the single-motor version’s cheeseburger. Like adding a patty, that second motor transforms things from good to yum. Horsepower jumps from 340 to 500. Sprints to 60 mph fall from 5.7 seconds to a droolworthy 4.6. Best of all, this double cheeseburger of a Cadillac remains on the value menu: The upgrade is a mere $2000. The second motor adds all-wheel drive to the Lyriq’s lengthy list of standard equipment. For $65,615, our test car came loaded with toppings—a 19-speaker stereo, huge screens, a head-up display, leather—although GM’s excellent hands-free driver-assist system…

To add real-world context to our 75-mph highway range and DC fastcharging test results, we’ve calculated how much distance each EV of the Year entry could cover in 10 hours. Okay, so our figures are highly theoretical, as we assumed there is a functioning and available charger capable of delivering the maximum juice the car can handle at optimal stopping points, which is currently far from the norm. We also assumed each vehicle starts with a 100 percent charge and drives until the battery reaches 10 percent—figuring no reasonable driver will push all the way to zero—then pauses for the time required to charge from 10 to 80 percent. Charging higher is typically unproductive, as the pumping rate tends to slow dramatically in the battery’s upper reaches. Subsequent driving legs…

In 2021, roughly 250 million cars, vans, pickups, and SUVs cruised American roads, collectively discharging nearly 1.05 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases that year. Compare that with about 22.8 million medium-and heavy-duty vehicles hauling commodities, construction equipment, and Chobani to and fro, emitting 417.1 million metric tons of greenhouse gases in the same 365 days. That means 8.4 percent of the vehicles produced 28.5 percent of those greenhouse gases. If we’re going to win the climate game, it’s imperative to convert medium-and heavy-duty vehicles to run on different fuels. Battery-electric Class 8 trucks have a toehold. This year’s Advanced Clean Transportation Expo showed change is in the air, arriving on breezes of pure hydrogen. We drove two hydrogen fuel-cell electric Class 8 rigs. The Hyundai Xcient FCEV converts a…

Winnebago’s eRV2 prototype is a glimpse of what’s to come for recreational vehicles in an electrified future. Based on the Ford E-Transit, the eRV2 uses a 68.0-kWh battery that sends electrons to a rear-mounted 266-hp electric motor. Despite its considerable size, the eRV2 is peppy enough to keep up with traffic thanks to 317 pound-feet of torque. The ride, however, is trucklike, and bumps produce rattles from the well-trimmed cabin. The high seating position, expansive windshield, and large mirrors make seeing out easy, while the accurate steering and tight turning radius help when navigating narrow campsites. It cruises easily at highway speeds and offers a cozy home on wheels. A separate 15.0-kWh battery, which has its own J1772 plug but can also charge off the main battery in a pinch,…

EV makers throw around all kinds of numbers regarding charging times, but they don’t tell you much about how long it will take to juice up your battery. Two main factors contribute to the speed at which a vehicle charges from an AC power source: the vehicle’s onboard charger and the power coming to the plug. Knowing how they relate is important if you’re considering purchasing an electric car. Despite the common practice of calling the J1772 plug a charger, it isn’t. The charger that converts AC power from the grid to DC for a battery is on the vehicle. If a car has an onboard charger capable of 7.4 kilowatts, as the Jaguar I-Pace did at launch, it will take more than 11.4 hours to charge its 84.7-kWh battery…

NO ONE COULD HAVE PREDICTED THIS, that Chevrolet would birth a 670-hp 5.5-liter V-8 that goes hard all the way to 8600 rpm, stepping into the void Ferrari left as it walked away from naturally aspirated, flat-plane-crank V-8s that rev to the moon. Almost as surprising: Roughly 20 years after Chevy and Porsche launched the Z06 and GT3 as distinct models to appeal to hardcore buyers of Corvettes and 911s, the latest versions are among the last keepers of the screaming, naturally aspirated flame. The GT3’s gestation is as predictable and measured as the 911 it’s based on, two decades of honing an inspired idea. Its high-revving flat-six has grown from 3.6 to 3.8 to now 4.0 liters, with a steady rise in output. This latest 992 generation switches to a…

From sweeping roads lined with orange-hued deciduous trees to thrilling hot laps at one of the most iconic race tracks in the United States, there’s no better time to visit the North East than the autumnal months. Here’s how we are going to spend a few unforgettable days in some of our favorite cars. DRIVE. Lime Rock Park Lime Rock Park is a short, but challenging stretch of tarmac and on Hudson Quattrocento, you’ll take your car on the track for hot laps and autocross—plus, ride along with editors and special guests in Performance Car of the Year favorites. Perkins Memorial Drive Snaked atop Bear Mountain State Park, from here you’ll take in resplendent, 360-degree views of the Catskill Mountains to the north and the Manhattan skyline to the south.…

The Alfa Romeo Tonale makes a good first impression. Its styling oozes italianità, and its cabin is a tasty mix of old-school dials and clever Uconnect 5 tech. But summon the 1.3-liter four-cylinder engine and hit the throttle, and sober reality sets in. This is not a junior version of the vivacious, sharp-driving Stelvio. The Tonale is related to the Dodge Hornet and the Jeep Compass (welcome to the world of Stellantis) but offered only as a plug-in hybrid. A 180-hp turbo four and two electric motors combine for 285 horsepower and 347 pound-feet of torque. All-wheel drive is standard, with the rear wheels powered solely by a 121-hp motor. A 14.8-kWh battery can cover a claimed 33 miles at up to 84 mph. Alfa’s petite SUV is primarily a…

If you don’t know to look for the closed-off grille, the Electrified GV70 could pass for one of the gas-burning models. They share the same design—a great one that helped earn the regular GV70 a 10Best spot this year—so the Electrified GV70 gets off to a good start. With the EV version of the GV70, you don’t give up anything except a little cash. Both variants share the same tight body control, coddling interior, and smooth ride. But the EV offers shenanigans in the form of Boost mode. Click the oddly placed button—about the only odd thing in the car—on the 6 o’clock steering-wheel spoke, and you’ll experience a 483-hp shot for up to 10 seconds (429 horses otherwise), provided the battery is charged up enough. Deactivate stability control, and…

Of this year’s contestants, Kia’s 10Best-winning EV6 GT is easily the most entertaining. Sure, the GMC Hummer SUV has a CrabWalk mode, and the BMW i7 has a Theatre Screen to rival your local cineplex, but those are mere parlor tricks. Gimmicks get the likes on TikTok, but to reach the top pedestal in this competition, a vehicle must sidestep viral temptations and deliver an emotional driving experience. Kia’s hot-rotor GT has just that. It starts with dual motors and their ability to blur the surrounding landscape. With a nearly instantaneous arrival of 545 pound-feet of torque at the bottom end and 576 horsepower at the top, the GT blitzes to 60 mph in just 3.1 seconds and demolishes the quartermile in 11.4 seconds at 120 mph. Stick with…

There should be more EVs like the Kia Niro. It’s small outside with a surprising amount of room inside, both for passengers and their stuff. We’re easily pleased by hidden dash shelves and underhood storage—even if the Niro’s front trunk is more suitable for a tool kit or a granola bar than any major cargo—so the Kia gets cred for compartments. With so many EVs crushing the scale and stuffing garages, the Niro stands out as the perfect size for a city car or college runabout, just the sort of low-mileage commuting that suits an electric vehicle. The Niro won’t be competing in the electric-car drags. It makes a sensible but not over-the-top 201 horsepower via a lone electric motor feeding the front wheels. It’s not winning the recharge races,…

I’d always loved the floating dash but bemoaned the infotainment’s lack of features. Now that CarPlay is here, I’m good.—Eric Stafford Lucid Motors continues to broaden its lineup at both ends, introducing more affordable, less powerful versions of the Air sedan that come in under six figures while also rolling out the wild, performance-oriented Sapphire, which tops $250K. After testing the Air Grand Touring for last year’s EV of the Year evaluation, we included the “base” Air Pure model this year. It starts under $90,000 in its 430-hp single-motor, rear-wheel-drive configuration, which puts it on even footing with the lowest-priced Tesla Model S. But that configuration isn’t quite ready yet, and our test car came equipped with the upgraded 480-hp dual-motor setup that tacks an extra $5500 onto the bottom…

As a follow-up to the Leaf, the Nissan Ariya seemed primed for success, given Nissan’s years of experience building and marketing an affordable EV. Unfortunately, the Ariya has proved to be a somewhat middling choice in the electric-SUV segment, particularly when driven back to back with similarly priced EVs such as the Cadillac Lyriq. Granted, the recently introduced 389-hp dual-motor all-wheel-drive powertrain adds a noticeable punch to the Ariya’s performance, zipping the car to 60 mph in 5.0 seconds versus 7.5 seconds for the 238-hp singlemotor front-wheel-drive model. The Ariya also rides smoothly and offers a cabin that’s luxury-car quiet during cruising. But its handling is forgettable, and the brake-pedal modulation is poor—an unfortunate failing given that the Ariya’s e-Pedal mode falls short of true one-pedal driving. The top-spec model…

The bZ4X has three issues: range, range, and range. But like many a Toyota, it places competence above all else.—Rich Ceppos Toyota has not been shy about its begrudging migration to EVs, saying limited raw materials for batteries should be used in smaller chunks in hybrids or plug-in hybrids. It’s clear the company isn’t looking to sell many bZ4Xs, as it took the same approach it did with the low-volume GR86 sports coupe, sharing development costs with Subaru, whose Solterra is a twin to this mid-size SUV. The bZ4X is unremarkable in every way, as though Toyota is architecting a self-fulfilling prophecy, proving that hybrids are better by delivering a mediocre EV. So-so applies equally to the bZ4X’s range and acceleration. Adding the optional second motor, as in our Limited…

let’s pretend the letter M doesn’t exist. In some alternate universe, where the alphabet skips right from L to N, this confounding new SUV would simply be called the X. That would be a pretty good name. With X, you’ve got some intrigue: X-Men, X-Files, X Games. Whereas, for BMW, the letter M is freighted with expectation. When you see that rakish M flanked by tricolor stripes, you expect scalding performance, restrained but sporty styling, and visceral responses. You might not always get all of that, but it’s what the badge promises. So what do we make of an M-branded 6054-pound SUV with fat black billboard stripes and standard throw pillows on the rear seats? The last time we saw an XM this bizarre, it had hydropneumatic dampers and was…

An expert look at the newest and most important vehicles this month. Off-roading in a Lamborghini Huracán isn’t anything new to us. We’ve mowed the lawn at triple-digit speeds through Virginia International Raceway’s daunting uphill esses. On another occasion, we ended up behind the guardrail and in the woods of VIR’s Patriot Course. Don’t ask; those excursions were unintentional. The thought of willingly exiting the tarmac and throwing a Huracán into the dirt is insane. But nothing about the dual-purpose Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato is rational. Just look at the bulging fenders, the optional rally-inspired light pods grafted onto the angular nose, the roof-mounted snorkel and standard rack rails on top, and the oddest-looking tires ever fitted to a Huracán. Think Huracán Outback, but they’re not calling it that. It’s the…

We’re all getting by with less these days, even Porsche Cayenne customers. For 2024, Porsche is reducing its nine Cayenne trim levels to four. At the top is the Cayenne Turbo GT, a 650-hp beast that puts the sport in sport-utility vehicle. It’s exclusive to the U.S. market and comes only in the Coupe body style. Compared with the previous Turbo GT, the 2024 model gains 19 horsepower. Porsche claims it will reach 60 mph in 3.1 seconds on its way to a 189-mph top speed—a conservative estimate, considering we got the previous model to 60 in 2.8 seconds. Stomp on the accelerator in Sport Plus mode, and the Cayenne Turbo GT snarls ferociously through its titanium exhaust, with pops and crackles on throttle overrun. Clearly, this isn’t a typical errand…