Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2022 i MotorTrend

Back in the early 1970s, MotorTrend spilled a lot of ink railing against federally mandated emissions and fuel economy standards. We argued government mandates would drive up car prices, strain our infrastructure, and force people to buy vehicles they didn’t want—and that they wouldn’t solve the air pollution problem anyway. We were wrong. Sure, emissions standards did make cars worse—for a while. Anyone of age in the 1970s remembers engines encumbered by vines of smog equipment that made them hard to start and difficult to tune. No question, the Clean Air Act led us into the Malaise Era. But the Clean Air Act also led us out of the Malaise Era. Automakers knew buyers wouldn’t stand for ill-running engines, and it certainly didn’t help Detroit that new Japanese competitors—like Honda,…

The BMW X3 M40i is practical, upscale, and—most of all—sporty. Our recent test drive confirmed the enthusiastic character we know and love remains intact. But is that enough to balance out its foibles and keep the refreshed-for-2022 model competitive? Abstract art seems to have a strong influence on BMW’s styling approach, and changes made to the X3’s exterior better align it with the strange forms that permeate the marque’s portfolio. The headlights are slightly slimmer, and the signature kidney grille grows, now outlined by a single frame. The taillights also got a redesign, with a look BMW describes as having “a three-dimensional-modeled pincer-claw contour.” Right. A multitude of M badges remain, and side mirrors with tiny winglets are a new detail cribbed from the full-fledged X3 M. Under the hood,…

When Acura showed the Integra Prototype last year (MT, December 2021), the reaction was overwhelming. Some applauded the famous sport compact’s return; others gave its styling a thumbs-down. And now Acura has revealed the production version. Maintaining Honda/Acura’s tradition of presenting near-production-ready vehicles as “concepts” or “prototypes” before revealing the final renditions, the 2023 Acura Integra looks nearly identical to the prototype. The only things missing are the latter’s graphics package, yellow paint, and cool-looking dual exhausts also painted yellow. The swoopy roofline, liftback tailgate, and overall shape pay homage to original 1980s Integra hatchbacks, and the powertrain and chassis are lifted straight from the latest Honda Civic. The 2023 Integra takes over from the outgoing Acura ILX as the brand’s gateway model, and it’s a smart strategy. Some Integra…

Compact sedans have long been a common vehicle choice for recent college graduates, young parents, and empty nesters, and their popularity endures despite the marketplace rise of crossover SUVs. For many, a compact sedan represents a first new car buy; for others, it signifies downsizing from a bigger rig after the kids grow up. However, buyers still want a lot, even from an affordable car. From style and technology to interior refinement and a comfortable ride, modern compact sedans must deliver in ways they couldn’t even a half-dozen years ago. Full digital instrument clusters? Wireless Apple CarPlay? Features like these not long ago came only in fancy luxury cars. “Compact” sedans have also grown larger and benefited from packaging upgrades and roomy cabins, along with providing more safety than ever…

From our very first drive last year, the 2022 Porsche 911 Carrera GTS impressed us with its blend of performance and civility—the perfect middle ground between the entry-level Carrera and the high-end Turbo and GT3 models. At least, that’s what we said before we took it to the test track. Now that we’ve seen the numbers, we stand corrected: The word “middle” does a disservice to a car that performs like this. Before we dive into the numbers, a quick refresher: Porsche offers five 911 GTS models, situated right in the middle—whoops, sorry—of the 22-model-strong 911 lineup. All share a 473-hp, 420-lb-ft version of the company’s 3.0-liter horizontally opposed twin-turbo six-cylinder, with an eight-speed PDK dual-clutch automatic as standard equipment or a seven-speed stick as a no-cost option. The version…

The Lamborghini Huracán STO is the best-driving car in the marque’s 59-year history, full stop. Yeah, I have a soft spot for the mega-awesome Aventador SV, but the STO—which got the second-most votes in our Performance Vehicle of the Year shootout in the April issue—is the king of bulls. What’s so great about the way it drives? No compromises. Features editor Scott Evans referred repeatedly to the STO as “a race car for the road.” He acknowledged the phrase as being cliché but swore it applied in this case. Remember the O in STO stands for omologata, Italian for homologation—there’s that racing thing again. One example: The car’s nose is dedicated almost entirely to aero, so much so that you can maybe fit a solitary helmet in the frunk. Maybe.…

Gran Turismo 7, the new installment of the revered racing video game franchise, launched on PlayStation on March 4. GT7 features more than 400 cars, but the new 718 Cayman GT4 RS we drove just a few days prior isn’t among the 20 Porsches available to players. Why is that notable? If there’s any new car coming to market that carries the “tuner” spirit that’s been a Gran Turismo staple since the game first appeared in 1997, the GT4 RS is it. Of course, every GT-designated Porsche sports car fits that bill. But whereas the GT3 has been around for years and represents perpetual 911-performance evolution, the first-ever Cayman GT4 RS is the same beast, different animal. It arrives carrying plenty of upgrades compared to lesser Caymans, but its 911…

The MotorTrend Car of the Year award stretches back some 70 years, and we’ve taken flak for a few winners, such as the 1974 Ford Mustang II (which we still say was the right car for its time) and the 1991 Chevrolet Caprice (Chevy sent us an LTZ with the police suspension, so it aced the ride-and-handling route). However, few of our winners have drawn as much scorn as our 1983 Car of the Year, the Renault-AMC Alliance. Honestly, we can’t help but wince when people bring up the Alliance, as one auto exec did recently. Still, going back and reviewing the history, we think our early-’80s forebears made the right choice. Step into the MT time machine, and let’s take a dive into the circumstances behind the Alliance’s 1983…

A lot of people resist electric cars because our power grid isn’t green enough, with 60 percent of our electricity generated by fossil fuels. The remainder is roughly split between renewable energy (wind and hydro, primarily) and nuclear fission. The latter has been on a steady decline since the 2011 Fukushima disaster, but in February there was good news on the vastly more earth-friendly and renewable nuclear fusion energy front. In late 2021, the U.K.-based Joint European Torus (JET) lab broke the world record it set in 1997 for energy extracted by fusing isotopes of hydrogen to form helium—16.4 kWh of energy in 5 seconds. That’s only enough to drive about 50 miles in an EV, and even ignoring energy expended initiating the reaction, the device invested triple the energy…

We like our comparison tests to come to definitive conclusions. This time, though, in pitting the all-new 2022 Toyota Tundra against the bestselling Ford F-150, it came down to the details. One of these pickup trucks has a better engine, the other a better transmission. One has a better-looking interior; the other offers better functionality. Even the back seat factors into the equation: One has a better seat, the other smarter floor storage. We did manage to pick a winner, but only by the slimmest of margins. If you were to purchase the truck we deemed the lesser of the two, we certainly wouldn’t say you bought the wrong one. But enough preamble, let’s meet our players. We decided to sample workaday, lower-trim versions of these full-size trucks. Both featured…

Throughout the past two years, a fair number of people eagerly ditched their masks to head outdoors and get away from it all. Many sought refuge in the wilderness when everything else shut down, with some national parks experiencing record visitor numbers in 2021. Along with that increased interest in outdoor activities, Ford internal research shows an increase in off-road driving—up 56 percent among Explorer owners during the past three years. As we head into our third pandemic summer, we don’t expect the trend to change. That’s why Ford launched the Timberline trim. It delivers slightly more off-pavement capability for those who want to hit an occasional trail and look cool as they do it. The 2022 Explorer is the first model with this package; Ford has also announced an…

UPDATE: 2021 Mercedes-Benz E 450 Service Life 6 mo/6,637 mi Average Fuel Econ 21.7 mpg “The E 450 offers interior practicality, but one flaw reveals its age.”Zach Gale Unresolved problems None Maintenance cost $0 Normal wear $0 Base price $63,050 As tested $72,770 EPA City/Hwy/Comb fuel econ 23/30/26 mpg Mercedes-Benz has a surprisingly expansive fleet of sedans, perfect for those not swayed by the popular appeal of SUVs. With not one but two entry-level four-doors, as well as a compact option below the E-Class and full-size S-Class flagship, Mercedes offers something for every luxury sedan buyer. The E is the “just right” midsize entry, striving to deliver a key mix of luxury, dynamic excellence, and practicality in a convenient size. Unless your garage looks like a tiny museum, you’ll probably…

Efficiency is easy. Take your output and divide by your input to get output per input. Anyone who has ever calculated fuel economy from a trip odometer and a gas station fill-up can tell you that for an internal combustion car, you take the miles driven (output) divided by the gallons of gasoline (input) the vehicle requires to drive those miles, and you get miles per gallon (mpg). Simple, right? But as more and more people turn to cars that don’t burn gasoline, the equation changes, and it’s not so simple anymore. It’s even less simple when you need a metric to compare EVs to gas-powered vehicles. That was the task faced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The Energy Independence and Security Act…

PVOTY Feedback This is by no means to criticize either your conclusion for Performance Vehicle of the Year or Porsche for continuing to separate itself from every other car on the planet by light-years. But the problem is, the suspense isn’t killing me. I didn’t have to peek forward five pages to know what the results were—they were the same as every other car mag that hosted a similar competition. It’s Porsche and everyone else. Here’s an idea—how about having a separate PPOTY competition: Performance Porsche of the Year. Round up a half dozen of the “in a class by themselves” and have the playing field somewhat level instead of the Rams playing the greater Los Angeles high school football league? Just a thought. Gary Durrett Glendale, California You kid,…

“Hey,” we said to the MT test team as they pulled their instruments off the 2022 Kia EV6. “You guys all have something on your face. Something really odd-looking. Goodness gracious, are those … smiles?” Sure enough, the EV6 had elicited that rare sign of positive emotion among our jaded testers, and for much the same reason its platform-mate, the Hyundai Ioniq 5, earned that same infrequent accolade. Given free rein from its electronic nannies, it turns out the EV6 likes to go sideways—earlier and even more so than the Hyundai does. “Wow, I was not expecting this,” road test editor Chris Walton said. “Well, I was halfway expecting it because we noticed the rear weight bias—49/51 front/rear. But I wasn’t expecting entry and midcorner oversteer.” Whereas the Ioniq 5…

When you need to know what the best cars are, you can trust us. Here’s a taste of the rankings we provide online in 36 segments (at last count). Rankings are updated regularly—for the most up-to-date listings, point your phone’s camera at the QR code on the facing page or head to MotorTrend.com/cars. With our hands-on experience with every model, we rank vehicles using the same factors you do, including how they drive, interior space, efficiency, tech, value, and safety. Subcompact SUVs 1 2022 Subaru Crosstrek 2 2022 Kia Soul 3 2022 Kia Seltos 4 2022 Hyundai Kona 5 2022 Ford Bronco Sport Midsize SUVs 1 2022 Subaru Outback 2 2022 Hyundai Santa Fe 3 2022 Toyota Venza 4 2022 Kia Sorento 5 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee Luxury Subcompact SUVs…

We’ve learned nothing, apparently. The GMC Hummer EV pickup might have clean and silent electric motors instead of a dirty old diesel under the hood, but it’s as irrelevant to the modern automotive mainstream as the original Hummer H1, as vainglorious a piece of automotive braggadocio as GM has ever built. Underneath the EV greenwash is a gargantuan 9,000-pound vehicle that only has room for five people and can’t carry or tow much more than a regular midsize pickup. Yeah, it has 1,000 hp and 1,200 lb-ft of torque and will damn near wheelstand its way to 60 mph in just 3.0 seconds. But in the automotive scheme of things, the Hummer pickup is utterly pointless. As pointless, in fact, as a Ferrari 812 Superfast or Lamborghini Aventador. But what’s…