The point of a luxury vehicle is to shelter passengers from life’s harsh realities. Smooth and quiet. That’s the ticket. But modern luxury sedans are also expected to possess superior driving dynamics. Credit the rise of imported European sedans in the 1950s. They were smaller,…
Volkswagen’s Tiguan crossover entered the world with a decidedly European cast. It was among the smallest compact CUVs, and one of the most vibrant. With Its modest foot print and responsive dynamics, it became Europe’s best-selling crossover. But an extensive 2018 redesign moved Tiguan onto…
Honda wants this to be a watershed year for its Ridgeline midsize pickup. Ridgeline is Honda’s truck/crossover hybrid. Like a crossover, it’s built using unibody construction instead of a truck’s body-on-frame chassis. Its fully independent suspension swaps a truck’s traditional solid rear axle for a…
It’s tempting to regard Mazda’s MX-5 Miata as a throwback to bygone times, but that would be to miss the point. True, the Miata’s two-passenger cockpit, front-engine/rear-drive architecture and folding canvas roof are borrowed directly from classic European sports cars. Unlike them, though, the Miata…
Toyota’s compact Corolla is a little car with a big footprint. It’s the world’s best-selling vehicle. It’s built in plants located around the world and sold almost everywhere. It’s so popular in Japan that it’s sold there in Corolla-only showrooms. Corolla is a front-wheel-drive compact…
Last year, we welcomed the all-new, eighth-generation Hyundai Sonata. The remade Sonata, a midsize, front-wheel drive sedan, made a giant leap forward. It carried itself with a low-slung, wide-track swagger. Its roomy cabin was nicely finished, with fresh tech and clever storage solutions. Power came…
Almost certainly, if Evel Knievel were still with us he’d be tooling town in a 2021 Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat. The motorcycle-jumping daredevil and the Hellcat were made for each other. The Hellcat is the most powerful crossover built, a 710-horsepower three-row rocket ship that…
The 2021 Infiniti Q50 is quick and beautiful. Its four-person cabin flirts with luxury and bristles with tech. The Q50 is a compact luxury sport sedan, a segment dominated by high-profile Germans. Expectations run high here. The Infiniti has the requisite trappings: terrific street appeal,…
Apparently, Honda hasn’t received the memo announcing the death of sedans. For 2021, it fields a variety of four-doors, with a strong focus on fuel-efficiency and clean-burning engines. Its flagship sedan, the midsize Accord, is one of the country’s most enduringly popular cars. It’s known…
Not so long ago, we had a word for a car like Volkswagen’s Arteon. The midsize Arteon is Volkswagen’s halo car, the designated exemplar of all things VW. That includes engineering, of course, and technology. But it’s also an expression of Volkswagen design. Outside, Arteon…
Well, that didn’t take long. Hyundai’s three-row Palisade crossover turned one not long ago and already Hyundai is gilding its latest lily. The 2020 Palisade and its Kia cousin, the Telluride, landed with a bang in early 2019. Lauded for their roomy and well-appointed cabin…
Last year, Mazda surprised the world when it dropped a small crossover called the CX-30. Lending the element of surprise was the fact that Mazda already had a subcompact crossover in the similarly named CX-3. Mazda’s fourth crossover, the CX-30 ($22,050) slips into the lineup…
Since their inception, minivans have been the most efficient way to transport people and their stuff. Like other remnants of the 1980s — read: parachute pants, Cyndi Lauper and Beverly Hills Cops — their luster has faded. But they survive due to sheer practicality. This…
Acura faced an interesting challenge when it set out to create the fourth-generation, 2022 MDX. In 2001, the midsize MDX CUV pioneered the three-row crossover. Soon enough, the market was flooded with competitors and Acura was having to fend off the upstarts. Over time, the…
Lexus debuted in 1989 with two sedans in its portfolio, the full-size LS 400 flagship and the midsize ES. For its first decade, the ES was Lexus’s only front-wheel-drive sedan. Historically, it has been powered by V-6es or, more recently, hybrids. Over the years, the…
Hyundai figures if one new Elantra is a good thing, four would be better. Elantra is Hyundai’s compact four-door sedan. It’s fully made-over this year — new platform, new sheet metal, redesigned cabin, updated electronics … the works. Elantra, which recently was named North American…
There’s a lot that’s familiar about Toyota’s latest, a midsize crossover called Venza. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because Toyota campaigned a car called Venza from 2008 to 2015. That Venza was based on the Camry sedan and seemed more Camry wagon than crossover…
Last year, Genesis sharpened its assault on the luxury classes with two impressive new vehicles. In January, the Korean newcomer revealed its first crossover, the midsize 2021 GV80. Shortly thereafter, it dropped the GV80’s sedan sibling, the G80. We recently drove the G80, a midsize…
Three rows are the new holy grail for mass-market automakers. The logic is unassailable: If five seats are good; seven must be better. Well, yes and no. But either way, mainstream makers have a choice: add a three-row crossover to your fleet or watch customers…
Buyers shopping three-row crossovers face a staggering number of choices, but not a lot of variety. Most CUVs are cut from the same cloth. There’s always room for an outlier, though. Especially in the luxury classes where makers get to stretch out and show their…
Over the years, Chevrolet has gotten plenty of mileage from the Blazer nameplate. Blazer debuted in 1969 as a full-size, truck-based SUV. It has been shrinking ever since: That first large SUV was followed by a compact/midsize version before leaving the market in 2005. Two…
If you’re looking for signs of the time, look no further than your nearby Ford store. Ford has fully redesigned its full-size, light-duty F-150 pickup. The F-150 is the best-selling vehicle in the land and as times change, it must change, too. This year, it…
It seems that some variant of the word “refined” has been showing up in this space with increasing frequency. Manufacturers of all stripes are looking to impress with signifiers of refinement. High-end cabin materials and a focus on fit-and-finish. Elaborate infotainment systems. Quieter cars that…
It’s a year of reinvention for General Motors’ full-size sport-utility vehicles. For 2021, GM creates a new architecture for its big SUVs. It has an independent rear suspension — like those found on cars and crossovers — and a longer wheelbase. We tested a 2021…
This year, Subaru beefs up its entry-level Crosstrek hatchback with more power, a new trim and updated safety tech. The compact Crosstrek reprises the lifted-wagon format that birthed the Outback and set Subaru on its off-roading-lite path. Based on the Impreza five-door hatchback, it debuted…
