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Archive for the ‘midsize cars’ Category

The 2020 Shelby Super Snake Sport F-150 is a high-performance concept truck that Shelby built for the 2019 SEMA Show. Developed in response to Shelby “enthusiast’s requests for a scorching fast street truck,” it’s essentially an F-150-based version of Shelby’s outstanding Super Snake Mustang. Unlike other F-Series trucks modified by Shelby, the Super Snake features a two-door cabin. Power comes from a supercharged V-8 rated at 755 horsepower, backed by a more aerodynamic exterior and exclusive features inside the cabin. Let’s find out more about it in the review below.

The 2020 Shelby Super Snake Sport F-150 is a high-performance concept truck that Shelby built for the 2019 SEMA Show. Developed in response to Shelby “enthusiast’s requests for a scorching fast street truck,” it’s essentially an F-150-based version of Shelby’s outstanding Super Snake Mustang. Unlike other F-Series trucks modified by Shelby, the Super Snake features a two-door cabin. Power comes from a supercharged V-8 rated at 755 horsepower, backed by a more aerodynamic exterior and exclusive features inside the cabin. Let’s find out more about it in the review below.

Believe it or not, the Jaguar F-Type has been on the market for eight straight years without the customary nip and tuck. That’s a lot, even for a sports car that usually gets to live longer than your run-of-the-mill sedan – the best example here is the Nissan 370Z, which still marches on to this day. The 2021 F-Type, however, will come to fix that as Jaguar is looking to revamp its range-topper in order to keep customer interest high, and there have been suggestions that it will be derived from the Aston Martin Vantage.

After years of promises, teasers, and concept cars, Porsche finally unveiled the Taycan. A major turning point in the company’s history, the Taycan is the first Porsche with an all-electric drivetrain. What’s more, the Taycan is an EV of the high performance variety, so it goes against one of the most popular electric vehicles on the market, the Tesla Model S. A strong seller in the United States and a market leader in some European countries, the Model S is tough to beat. The big question is whether the Taycan has what it takes to give the Model S a run for its money and that’s exactly what we will find out in the comparison below.

Where do you go when you want a car that looks like a BMW and still is a BMW deep inside, but sports subtle design tweaks, boosted powerplants, and new badges without looking over the top and rather elegant instead? Well, if you’re thinking Alpina, then you’re absolutely right. The firm calls itself a manufacturer because it does not offer aftermarket kits, tuning chips, of mods, but instead, it delivers BMW-based models that have been tweaked from the ground up. Alpina’s latest product, the B3 saloon, just took the stage in Tokyo, so why don’t we get to learn what’s it all about?

The Jaguar F-Pace arrived late to the SUV/crossover party. With it, the Indian-owned British carmaker had the intent of crashing the said party, but things didn’t quite go as planned. Although zippy on the asphalt and rather spacious, the F-Pace found it difficult to break the BMW-Mercedes-Audi-Porsche quartet: BMW has the spirited driving baked into every SUV it churns out, Mercedes-Benz relies heavily on comfort and plushness, while Audi ticks the material quality and hi-tech design boxes first and foremost, and Porsche kind of has everything. The Volvo XC60 is also lurking around, as is the Range Rover Velar. Yet a new set of spy shots hints at a redesigned F-Pace. Has Jaguar learned its lesson? Stick with us to find out.

The Ford Explorer has been around for almost 30 years. In that time, the SUV segment has evolved in ways no one could’ve dreamed of. Through it all, the Explorer has remained one of the segment’s backbones, a pillar from which the SUV world has stood on for close to three decades. The Explorer’s life reads like a Hollywood script, too. It started off with a bang, establishing itself as one of the most popular SUVs on the market. That success lasted for more than a decade before the Explorer lost its way as other SUVs arrived. Sales eventually cratered, leaving Ford desperate to recapture the magic the Explorer had when it became the breakout hit of the early ’90s. The return to form eventually took place as the SUV segment in the U.S. exploded. With the Explorer now entrenched as one of the most popular SUVs in the market, Ford’s banking on the sixth-generation model to keep that momentum. Whether it does so or not remains to be seen, but the all-new Explorer appears fully equipped to take on that challenge.

Infiniti was early to what has become one of the industry’s hottest market segments: the compact luxury crossover. The 2008 EX35 was much more of a car than an SUV, a slightly elevated, slightly roomier version of the acclaimed G35 sports sedan. Infiniti bet big that buyers would sacrifice utility for performance — and it bet wrong. Despite beating most competitors to the market, and even after numerous upgrades over the years (including a longer wheelbase and a name change to QX50), it never made a splash. Later arrivals were able to emulate the more successful compact luxury crossovers and avoid Infiniti’s mistakes.

So not surprisingly, for its first full redesign in more than a decade, the 2019 Infiniti QX50 similarly gravitates toward the class norm. It became taller and wider, adopting more SUV-like proportions. It switched from a V6 engine and a rear-wheel-drive platform to a turbocharged four-cylinder and front-wheel-drive (still with optional all-wheel-drive). All of that mirrors such top rivals as the Acura RDX, Lexus NX, and Cadillac XT4, though a few other competitors still have rear-wheel-drive roots.

But beyond being merely typical, the QX50 is decidedly ordinary as well. It checks general boxes for the luxury crossover class without managing to dazzle. It neither fun and sporty nor vault-like in its serenity. Its infotainment isn’t cutting-edge. It has advanced engineering behind its variable-compression engine, but the real-world effect is less notable.

To be sure, calling a luxury car “ordinary” compared to its peers is no great insult. That means it’s meeting the high standards of its class, even if it doesn’t exceed them. So if you’re looking for a comfortable, quiet, respectably spacious, and generally easy-to-drive small luxury crossover, the QX50 is one of many potentially attractive choices. Prices start at $37,645 including destination change.

Every day we find reasons to admit that, while the person individually is smart, people as a whole are stupid. The video you see here reinforces that concept beyond a reasonable doubt and karma catches up with a stupid driver almost instantly? What exactly and I talking about? Well, the video you see below showcases what happens when you either don’t pay attention or don’t give a shit about traffic laws or street signs. In short, someone in a Chevy Equinox (at least one-generation back) not only ignores common street signs that prohibit U-turns but ignores a red light and the train alert system in place. Without even watching the video, I bet you can already guess what happened.

Yup; that moronic driver got creamed. Lucky for them, however, they were going fast enough that the train they cut in front of only hit the rear, driver’s side quarter panel. It could have clearly been much worse and, if the driver was just going a bit slower, this would have undoubtedly been a fatal accident. Of course, it could have been anyway considering the fact that there could have been someone in the rear seat of the Equinox. We’re hoping not, and we hope that anyone in the car escaped with no or minor injuries.

This video also raises a question about whether or not mankind is actually devolving. The driver of this Equinox exhibited no common sense, no respect for the laws of the road, and absolutely zero survival or self-preservation instinct. Instead, their desire to get somewhere just a few minutes quicker almost cost them their life and who knows what kind of injuries for passengers on the train or anyone else in the car. The driver of the Equinox has, hopefully, learned their lesson and you can chalk this one off as one more brownie point toward an ever-increasing need to put self-driving cars on the road.

After three years on the market, the second-generation Nissan Titan was revised for its mid-cycle facelift. The 2020 Titan truck was unveiled at the 2019 State Fair of Texas with an updated exterior design, a revised V-8 engine, and extra features inside the cabin and in the technology department. Let’s have a closer look at what’s new.

Elon Musk has had a tooth to pick with Porsche and more specifically the Taycan EV ever since before Stuttgart’s first-ever electric sports had the chance to make its online debut. But now, the battle has moved to the Nurburgring, where a heavily-modded Tesla Model S reportedly beat the Taycan’s (which was a pre-production prototype, to be clear) lap time set earlier this summer.

It was 2010 when the rules changed after two Peugeot models were killed off: the 607, which was almost completely based on the 605 model from 1989, and the 407, which seemed like it was roaming between segments in an attempt to get into the wallets of two social strata. It wasn’t like Peugeot roamed around wearing blindfolds, though. This was more of an attempt at creating a global trend founded on personal identity; however, Peugeot couldn’t find its ground when it came to cars whose length was more than 4,5 meters (177 inches).

Mind you, Peugeot wasn’t the only one, as similar strategies were employed by Volvo, Renault, and even Ford. And then they were back with another attempt – one car that would be interesting to those in need of a spacious family car, but also those who were in search for a business saloon or the second best thing at least. As the wheelbase for the 607 was 2.800 mm (110.23 in), and 2.725 mm (107.28 in) for the 407, Peugeot found itself in uncharted territories in 2010 given that its 508 (albeit shorter than the 607), had a wheelbase of 2.817 mm.

So, the two generations of the 508 model found its way to more than 400,000 buyers in Europe alone. Despite steadily declining sales figures, Peugeot wasn’t ready to euthanize the model. Instead, the company decided to cut the administrative costs, and adequately entice its designers and engineers. They came up with a new product and Peugeot revealed it in March 2018 at the Geneva International Auto Show as the new 508.

The SEAT Tarraco is one of the most pleasantly surprising SUVs in the market. It’s offered in a variety of trim options, and it’s more powerful than you’d expect. There’s something upscale about how it looks, too, particularly in the front end where traces of Audi’s design language are evident in the physical profile of the Tarraco. There’s also more good news about SEAT’s big boy SUV as the Spanish automaker is all set to introduce the model’s new FR trim at the 2019 Frankfurt Motor Show, complete with exclusive touches to the exterior, improvements in the interior, and, most importantly, the introduction of a plug-in hybrid powertrain, ushering SEAT into the world of PHEVs. The days of people looking at SEAT as an afterthought automaker are over. If anything, the new Tarraco FR
represents one of the first of many hybrid and all-electric models to proudly wear the “S” badge. That counts for a lot when it comes to SEAT.

Kia South Korea has unveiled the Mohave a few weeks after the SUV’s official release in its motherland. The production model’s looming arrival comes a few months after the Korean automaker unveiled the Masterpiece, the concept SUV from which the Mohave is based on. There are striking similarities between the Masterpiece and the Mohave, though, more importantly, the new SUV’s design is a massive departure from the outgoing model, which is on its last legs after an exhausting 11-year run. The most significant upgrade, however, can be found inside the SUV. The changes are significant, to say the least. That bodes well for future owners of the Mohave in South Korea, though not so much for us here in the U.S. because the likelihood of the Mohave returning to the American market — it had an uneventful one-year stint in ‘Murica as the Borrego in 2009 — isn’t something that we’d bet on.

Kia South Korea has unveiled the Mohave a few weeks after the SUV’s official release in its motherland. The production model’s looming arrival comes a few months after the Korean automaker unveiled the Masterpiece, the concept SUV from which the Mohave is based on. There are striking similarities between the Masterpiece and the Mohave, though, more importantly, the new SUV’s design is a massive departure from the outgoing model, which is on its last legs after an exhausting 11-year run. The most significant upgrade, however, can be found inside the SUV. The changes are significant, to say the least. That bodes well for future owners of the Mohave in South Korea, though not so much for us here in the U.S. because the likelihood of the Mohave returning to the American market — it had an uneventful one-year stint in ‘Murica as the Borrego in 2009 — isn’t something that we’d bet on.

Acura has introduced the Type S Concept, a model that not only serves as the official reintroduction of Acura’s Type S performance division, but it also serves as a preview to what the next-generation TLX will look like. According to Acura, two high-performance Type S models will make their debut by 2021, one of which is the TLX, but there’s a big elephant in the room – the Type S name, while revered by Honda and Acura Fanboys, only lasted eight years the last time it was a part of Acura’s lineup.

So, that raises a few questions: Is Acura’s reintroduction of the Type S name a strategic move in a time where some automakers are dropping cars from their lineup altogether or is it pure coincidence? Does the Type S Concept represent that Acura is ready to step back into the performance car battlefield yet again? Will the Type S name have a bright but short existence this time around or with it thrive? I intend to answer these questions, and we’ll start by exploring the new concept.

As an entry-level luxury performance cabriolet within the AMG lineup, the Mercedes-AMG C43 Cabriolet continues a famous line of Mercedes-branded convertibles that shaped this part of the automotive landscape. With the latest redesign, the Mercedes-AMG C43 Cabriolet brings more power, a more aggressive exterior, and refined tech onboard. Our test drive revealed if it still has the grace and unique character that every Mercedes cabriolet carries with pride.

As an entry-level luxury performance cabriolet within the AMG lineup, the Mercedes-AMG C43 Cabriolet continues a famous line of Mercedes-branded convertibles that shaped this part of the automotive landscape. With the latest redesign, the Mercedes-AMG C43 Cabriolet brings more power, a more aggressive exterior, and refined tech onboard. Our test drive revealed if it still has the grace and unique character that every Mercedes cabriolet carries with pride.

Performance pickups are picking up heat more than ever. With competition touching new heights in almost all mainstream genres, automakers are now turning to this segment which is still somewhat niche. When you talk about stock performance pickups, only two of them come to mind – the Ford F-150 Raptor and the Ram Rebel TRX. This trend is trickling down to the smaller trucks as well. Nissan Australia’s boss has revealed that he is putting pressure on the company to come up with a powerful version of the Navara pickup truck to take on the Ford Ranger Raptor. Will the Navara be the latest Nissan offering to be smitten by the in-house performance division, Nismo?

The F-Series has been a consistent seller for Ford. It has been the top-selling vehicle in the States for 42 consecutive years, thus scripting a legacy that will be most likely remain unbeaten in the 21st century at least. But given the way the competition has upped the ante, it is going to be hard to sustain and keep this consistency alive, unless Ford decides to take the game to the next level. To maintain the pole position, Ford has decided to replace the current generation of the F-150 with a newer breed and what you’re looking at here is our first spy shots of the 2021 Ford F-150. This heavily camouflaged mule was spotted doing test runs in Dearborn, Michigan. Will the next-gen F-150 feature changes that a merely aesthetic, or can we expect new drivetrain options as well?