Autos: Interesting Stories from Car and Driver Magazine

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Here is the latest Auto News from Car and Driver Magazine.

2017 Mercedes-AMG GLS63 – First Drive Review

2017 Porsche 718 Cayman / Cayman S – Official Photos and Info

2017 Audi A4L Debuts for China: Extra Inches Included
Stretched versions of compact and midsize sedans are largely a consequence of China’s protectionist trade policy. Exorbitant import taxes on the real deals, like an A8, make owning a flagship sedan out of the question. A genuine Audi A8L costs $135,000 before any options, some 65 percent more than we pay in America. So, even […]

Acura’s Tiny CDX: A Honda HR-V Dressed Up for Prom (in China)

Acura’s Tiny CDX: A Honda HR-V Dressed Up for Prom (in China)
If the Honda HR-V subcompact crossover is the dorky, lanky-limbed teenager in Honda’s tall-wagon lineup, where does it leave the Acura CDX, which certainly rides on the same platform? Based on the CDX’s somewhat awkwardly applied Acura styling cues—LED headlights, angular taillights, and the brand’s all-new pentagonal grille—the little luxo-crossover resembles an HR-V wearing an ill-fitting […]

Jaguar XF Goes Through the Taffy Puller to Create the China-Only XFL

Jaguar XF Goes Through the Taffy Puller to Create the China-Only XFL
Jaguar is no stranger to long-wheelbase models, but up until now only the big-cat XJ sedan has received the stretched-out treatment. Now, with China’s insatiable appetite for sedans with big back seats continuing to grow, Jaguar put the mid-size XF sedan through the taffy-puller to create the XFL. (We wonder how Vince McMahon feels about the name.) […]

Fancier than Ektorp: Volvo Previews New S90 Excellence Interior

Fancier than Ektorp: Volvo Previews New S90 Excellence Interior
Chinese-market cars are legendarily all about the back seat, making Beijing the perfect show at which to flaunt a passenger-oriented interior. A year ago, Volvo showed us the XC90 with its Lounge Console Concept interior, a setup which deletes front passenger seat in favor of a desk and footrest for the right rear occupant. This […]

Adventures in Moab: We Tackle the Easter Jeep Safari
As fans of the Chevrolet Corvette, Dodge Viper, and Ford GT, we obviously disagree with Enzo Ferrari’s old quip that, “The Jeep is America’s only true sports car.” Yet the rugged off-roader that evolved into the modern Jeep Wrangler has earned its place among those other American icons, even if its most-pertinent measurables are ground […]

All-Terrain, For Real: 16 of the World’s Most Capable Adventure Vehicles

The World’s First Autonomous-Car Track Day Is Next Month
Got a hot little self-driving number that you’re just dying to take to the track? Thunderhill Raceway is hosting the track day for you. Jonathan Gitlin over at Ars Technica brings us the news of the world’s first autonomous-car track day, which takes place at Thunderhill Raceway on May 28 and 29 in Willows, California. […]

20 Old-School Off-Road Rigs for Backcountry Adventure
Vintage 4x4s make the best companions when it’s time to escape.

Journey to the Bottom of the World: Driving in South America’s Patagonia Region
You could be alone here. Beautifully alone. Patagonia is the continental Atlantis that humanity forgot to populate, where jagged mountain peaks shoot into the sky unbowed by millions of years of gale-force winds, and glaciers get bigger with time. This southernmost stretch of South America is one of few places left on earth that offers […]

Destination Adventure: Driving the Mojave in a Land Rover Series IIA, Part 2

Destination Adventure: Driving the Mojave in a Land Rover Series IIA, Part 1

Mercedes-AMG May Be Considering an F1-Inspired Supercar
It’s no secret that Mercedes-Benz’s AMG division is churning out some great stuff. Sure, you could argue the brand is diluting itself by making more and more models, but it’s selling more cars than ever, and it has a fantastic sports car in the AMG GT S pictured above. Now it seems to want another stand-alone car like […]

Instant Want: Lego Releases 2704-Piece Porsche 911 GT3 RS Kit
When photos of a Porsche 911 “prototype” Lego kit leaked out of a German toy show earlier this year, we figured the swirly camouflaged sports car rendered from everybody’s favorite building blocks was the real deal. As in, we figured Lego planned to sell customers a Porsche 911 wearing full-size prototype camouflage of the ilk often […]

Beyond the Wind Tunnel: How Automakers Are Maximizing Vehicle-Efficiency Virtually
A few years ago, when Jaguar engineers commenced work on the recently introduced XE small sedan, they took what then seemed like a risky break from normal practice. Instead of building full-size clay models to develop the XE’s exterior details in a wind tunnel, they took a chance on a technology called Computational Fluid Dynamics […]

Fiat-Chrysler Recalls 811,000 Sedans and SUVs for Poor Shifter Design
German transmission supplier ZF has taken a lot of flack for its rough-shifting, occasionally misbehaving nine-speed automatic across multiple automakers. Now comes word that the shifter it designed and supplied to some automakers who use its eight-speed automatic transmission has caused injuries and crashes, resulting in a large recall. After an investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Fiat-Chrysler […]

She’s a Real Vixen: The Only Manual-Transmission, BMW-Diesel-Powered Motor Home You’ll Ever Need
Low-slung. Sleek. Wind-tunnel-honed aerodynamics. A BMW inline-six. Five-speed manual transmission. A real driver’s vehicle. No, we’re not talking about a BMW Z3 M coupe, or anything actually made by BMW at all. We’re talking about a Vixen motor home, one of those strange, compact RVs produced in Pontiac, Michigan, from 1986 to 1989, one of […]

BMW Creates Funky Long-Wheelbase X1 for China
Back in the good old days when America was the world’s biggest car market, everybody wanted us to know we were special. All of our domestic automakers built cars just for us, while those in Europe and Asia pandered to our every whim. Can you buy a Tundra in Tokyo? No. See? That was then. […]

Craigslist Candy: One Part VW Rabbit Pickup, One Part Rabbit GTI
Everyone loves a practical performance car: The mix of driving fun plus everyday usability has an undeniable appeal. This 1981 Volkswagen pickup converted to Rabbit GTI spec is an oddball, but it follows the same template. It’s currently listed for sale on Craigslist, with an asking price of $6550. The listing says the conversion was […]

Prince: Another Toll Paid on 2016’s Road of Heavy Losses
When you’re a child, you might not be accepting of things like cauliflower, bedtime, or the lack of the latest, greatest Tonka truck in your life. But a guy swathed in eyeliner and lace on a purple custom Honda CB400A? That’s perfectly fine. Totally bad-ass, even. That the man funked as hard as anybody has […]

2016 BMW 328i xDrive Automatic – Instrumented Test

Tested: 2016 BMW 328i xDrive Automatic with All the Toys
BMW forged its reputation with fun-to-drive sports sedans, especially compact ones like the 3-series, a regular on our annual 10Best Cars list for much of three decades. But recently, BMW has also become good at certain things beyond that core competency. Fuel-efficiency. All-wheel drive. Ride smoothness. High-zoot luxury and technology. So when our West Coast […]

Aftershock: GM Idling Four North American Plants Due to Japanese Earthquakes
General Motors announced that it will temporarily idle operations at four of its North American plants as a result of the damaging earthquakes that ravaged Japan late last week. Despite being nearly half a world away from the quakes’ epicenters, GM’s facilities in Spring Hill, Tennessee; Lordstown, Ohio; Fairfax, Kansas; and Oshawa, Ontario, Canada all will […]

Uber Settles with Drivers Over Worker Status for $100 Million
With each passing year, Uber becomes less of an anti-establishment protest against traditional taxi services and more of an established corporation. Well, if one judges by the size of the lawsuits, anyway. The latest involves an $84-million settlement reached with 385,000 Uber drivers alleging they should be compensated as full-time employees rather than 1099-filing freelancers. […]

Mercedes-Benz Under Federal Investigation for Diesel Emissions
Mercedes-Benz USA is under investigation by the Department of Justice for potential discrepancies over its diesel emissions certifications, according to a Daimler statement released today. Last Friday, the DOJ effectively told MBUSA to begin an internal investigation “to review its certification and admissions process related to exhaust emissions in the United States,” Daimler said. The […]

Mini’s Future Plan: Five Core Models, Two of Which Are Undecided
Mini’s lineup is about to be thoroughly consolidated. The British carmaker, relaunched in 2001 under BMW’s ownership as a retro-themed lifestyle brand, has been a resounding success . . . as far as its core models go. Some of the derivatives have been far less successful: The Roadster and the Coupe fared poorly, and the Paceman—a […]

Toyota Switching to Biosynthetic Rubber for Some Underhood Hoses
As part of a stated effort to cut its vehicle life-cycle carbon-dioxide emissions to zero by the year 2050, Toyota has announced its intention to use an environmentally friendly biosynthetic rubber for the engine and drive-system hoses on a number of its cars and trucks. Called biohydrin, the plant-derived material is the result of a collaborative effort between Toyota, Zeon […]

Volvo Pledges to Sell 1 Million Electrified Vehicles By 2025: No Way
As Volvo launches its second plug-in hybrid this year, the Chinese-owned Swedish automaker has placed a sales wager: 1 million electrified Volvos worldwide by 2025. Volvo announced in October that it would make a plug-in-hybrid version of every model it sells and launch an all-electric model in 2019 on the SPA platform, which underpins the […]

2016 GMC Canyon Diesel 4×4 Crew Cab – Instrumented Test

2016 GMC Canyon Diesel 4×4 Tested: It’s Not Quick, but It Hauls Mass
Until recently, diesel and pickup were words that went together only for buyers of Detroit-brand medium- and heavy-duty rigs, the ones commonly described as three-quarter-ton or one-ton trucks. Hyper-capable, they’re also huge, stiffly sprung machines that far exceed the needs and pocketbooks of buyers who use their trucks for household chores and recreation. The Nissan […]

VW Agrees to Buy Back 482,000 Diesel Cars, Other Details Still Hazy
Volkswagen has agreed to buy back nearly 500,000 diesel cars from model years 2009 through 2015 that ran afoul of U.S. emissions laws as part of a sweeping settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency. While details won’t be finalized until this summer, it is clear that owners of Volkswagen- and Audi-brand 2.0-liter diesel cars will receive […]

What Came Before: The Real History of the Toyota Prius
There are people who say “Prius” when they mean hybrid in the same way they use “Kleenex” for tissue, but the car didn’t spring full-blown from Toyota’s forehead–it had precedent and context, detailed in this story.

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