Best Shots: January 2020

Friday, January 31, 2020

What You Missed | Your Autoblog Daily Digest for January 31, 2020

Jan 31, 2020

Top Stories of the Day

A spotter's guide to Super Bowl LIV car commercials

Set to kick off on Fox at 6:30 ET on Sunday, February 2, from Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida, the big game will feature the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers. Throughout Super Bowl LIV, viewers will see about 50 commercials, each of…

Giant X-ray trucks helping keep Super Bowl LIV safe

As one of the biggest events in the United States and one of the largest sporting events in the world, the Super Bowl will always be regarded as a potential target of attack. No security cost is seen as too overboard, which is how Hard Rock Stadium e…

GMC could have used Jeep's prized grille design on its born-again Hummer

General Motors confirmed it's bringing the Hummer nameplate back on an electric, GMC-badged pickup by publishing a dark photo of its front end . The battery-powered drivetrain under the sheetmetal represents a tectonic shift, but we noticed another fl…

2020 BMW 840i Gran Coupe Drivers' Notes | The high-style 7 Series alternative

The 2020 BMW 840i xDrive Gran Coupe is dangerously close to the bottom rung of the 8 Series lineup . Take all-wheel drive away, and the base 840i Gran Coupe is actually the cheapest 8 Series money can buy, even more so than the actual two-door Coupe . …

2020 Morgan Plus 4 First Drive Review | Out of time

LOS ANGELES — Necks swivel, heads nod, and thumbs spring up reflexively in approval. Those who dig the Morgan Plus 4 simply can't help themselves. The anachronistic roadster turns heads, and has been since 1936 – that's no typo – when the Plus 4's di…

BMW M2 CS Racing makes North American debut

Besides bringing home a class win at the Rolex 24, BMW also brought out one of its latest race cars that will be lapping circuits in America next year. It's the BMW M2 CS Racing, which will be the successor to the M235i Racing and M240i Racing that c…

2020 Toyota 4Runner Luggage Test | Lean, green, bag-stuffing machine

Of course all the luggage in my garage fits inside the 2020 Toyota 4Runner. I mean, duh, it's a midsize SUV and a boxy one at that. Thankfully, then, there's a lot more to talk about here than answering "will it fit?" There's the matter of just how…

Mercedes-Benz quickly pulls the plug on its slow-selling X-Class pickup

Mercedes-Benz is getting out of the pickup truck game not long after it got into it. The brand confirmed that it will cease production of the X-Class midsize pickup in late May due to poor sales. Mercedes unveiled the X-Class , the brand's first-ever…

Acura MDX PMC priced at $63,745

The 2020 Acura MDX PMC edition, first unveiled as a prototype at the 2019 New York Auto Show last spring and later shown in production form at the L.A. Auto Show this past fall, is finally arriving in showrooms. And that means we now have actual pric…

[VIDEO] The Ripsaw M5 is a miniature robotic tank

Transcript: A mini robotic tank. The Ripsaw M5 is an unmanned tank. Howe & Howe collaborated with Textron Systems to create the Ripsaw M5. The modular design allows it to be configured to fit mission needs. It has a top speed of 40 mph, a 360 deg…

Thursday, January 30, 2020

What You Missed | Your Autoblog Daily Digest for January 30, 2020

Jan 30, 2020

Top Stories of the Day

Hummer officially returns as an EV with 1,000 hp in Super Bowl ad

Hummer , the iconic, controversial and long-dead truck and SUV brand, returns this Sunday in a Super Bowl ad that previews its comeback under the GMC brand. General Motors announced the move and previewed the vehicle with a series of clips (below) Thu…

Kia blind spot monitoring and crash avoidance wins 2020 Autoblog Technology of the Year Award

The Autoblog 2020 Technology of the Year winner is Kia's blind spot system. We judged the combination of blind spot monitoring and active blind spot crash avoidance on the 2020 Kia Telluride as the best in the industry. The Kia blind spot system won…

[VIDEO] Timelapse video: Watch heavy machinery build a coronavirus hospital in days

The construction sites of the two hospitals with around-the-clock livestreaming, broadcast by China Media Group's social media video platform Yangshipin, have received over 50 million hits from Chinese netizens, calling themselves "volunteer supervis…

2020 Volvo S60 T8 Long-Term Introduction | We plug in with an electrified Swedish sedan

A 2020 Volvo S60 T8 is joining the Autoblog long-term vehicle test fleet. Now that the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid has officially made its exit, we felt it was time for another long-term tester with a plug. Enter our Crystal White Metallic sedan in Insc…

Record sales push Tesla to 2nd straight quarterly profit

DETROIT — Record electric vehicle sales in the fourth quarter helped to push Tesla Inc. to its second-straight quarterly profit, giving bullish investors optimism that sustained black ink lies ahead. The Palo Alto, California, company said it made a…

Toyota RAV4 passes moose test after electronic stability upgrade

Last year, Swedish publication Teknikens Värld gave the Toyota RAV4 a failing grade after it showed video of it performing poorly on the so-called moose test. That's a test that puts a vehicle under maximum load through an abrupt S-shaped course corr…

Lincoln confirms the MKZ only has a few months left to live

Lincoln confirmed it will put the MKZ out to pasture in 2020. The sedan is based on the Ford Fusion, which is also scheduled to retire in the coming months as the company pivots towards high-riding models. Introduced at the 2012 New York Auto Show, …

[VIDEO] More Honda E details, video, photos emerge, and it's still cute

Thanks to Honda hosting media in Valencia, Spain, for first drives of the Honda E, we have more details on the city car we're condemned to lust after from afar. The power and range specs we already knew — either 134 horsepower from the base model, or…

Japan issues arrest warrants for Ghosn, Americans suspected of helping him escape

This security camera image shows men identified as Michael Taylor and George Zayek during their checkpoint processing at the Istanbul Airport in Istanbul, Turkey. They are suspected of smuggling Carlos Ghosn out of Japan to Lebanon via Istanbul. &nb…

2020 Mini Cooper SE First Drive | Little range, big fun

The all-electric Mini Cooper has been a long time coming. The company's first step toward electrics began in 2008 with the experimental Mini E , a car that used a powertrain co-developed with an outside company and that had some major compromises. It …

Wednesday, January 29, 2020

What You Missed | Your Autoblog Daily Digest for January 29, 2020

Jan 29, 2020

Top Stories of the Day

Pristine 21k-mile 1971 Datsun 240Z pulls in $310,000

A little over a week ago, we told you to check out this spectacular, 21,000-mile 1971 Datsun 240Z on Bring a Trailer . Your chance has come and gone, but the good news is you probably couldn't have afforded it anyways. This gorgeous green coupe now ap…

Ram 1500 TRX spied hiding production body work under camouflage

We've seen the upcoming Ram 1500 TRX pickup truck a few times with its Raptor-rivaling suspension and Hellcat-derived powertrain . Those past mules have all worn plain Ram bodies , sometimes with cheap bolt-on fender flares. This time, one of our spy p…

Next-gen 2021 Kia Sorento shown inside and out in leaked pics

We've seen spy shots of the next-generation Kia Sorento in both heavily camouflaged form and running laps around the Nürburgring (!), where it was wearing a more form-fitting wrap. Today, Instagram user CocheSpias leaked photos of the redesigned mids…

2020 Nissan Titan and Titan XD get price hikes, improvements

The 2020 Nissan Titan and Titan XD have gone through some changes for the new model year. You can read all about our impressions of the refreshed Titan here , and all the new details on the Titan XD here — we're about to drive the XD, so look out for …

Lincoln announces its first EV will be built on Rivian platform

Confirming months of reports , Lincoln announced that its first fully electric vehicle will be based on the Rivian electric platform. That platform will underpin the Rivian R1T pickup truck and R1S SUV . Lincoln didn't specify whether this EV will be …

Alpine A110 SportsX is a lifted rally-inspired design exercise that's ready to ski

It's winter sports season in many parts of the world, and auto manufacturers are using that as an excuse to make some pretty fun specialty versions of their vehicles. Only hours apart, Bentley unveiled an adventure-ready Continental GT , while Alpine …

2021 GMC Canyon AT4 will offer an Off-Road Performance Edition Package

In March 2018, GMC announced the 2019 Sierra 1500 AT4 , the alphanumeric finale denoting heightened ridge height and off-road capability. In December of that year, GMC took the AT4 further, creating an Off-Road Performance Package that boosted horsepo…

Genesis GV80: more details on the brand's new SUV

MIAMI — Genesis unveiled the GV80 , its first SUV, in its home market of South Korea earlier this month. Now the GV80 has made its first appearance in the United States, with a splashy party in Miami and a new TV commercial that will air during Super …

Kia's Australian arm wants a Toyota Land Cruiser-like SUV

The team in charge of Kia's Australian division is asking the company's top brass for a rugged, body-on-frame SUV with Toyota Land Cruiser -like off-road capacity. The model could arrive quickly if it's approved for production. "We need probably one …

2020 Subaru Ascent Review & Buying Guide | A family adventure

The 2020 Subaru Ascent is a full-size, three-row crossover that caters to the Subaru faithful, while welcoming new customers whose larger families might have precluded them from something with just two rows. It looks a lot like a bigger version of th…

Tuesday, January 28, 2020

What You Missed | Your Autoblog Daily Digest for January 28, 2020

Jan 28, 2020

Top Stories of the Day

2020 Volvo V60 Cross Country Drivers' Notes | A slightly taller Swedish masterpiece

Most of the world could likely get by with the regular Volvo V60 . Throw some winter tires on an all-wheel-drive model, and we can all but guarantee safe passage through every snowstorm. But maybe you're the kind of person who likes to see a little mo…

Jay Leno and Elon Musk caught driving a Cybertruck around L.A.

Looks like we can look forward to an episode of "Jay Leno's Garage" featuring the Tesla Cybertruck , based on footage that showed the former late-night host driving it with Elon Musk riding shotgun, which hit social media over the weekend. Instagram …

This X-ray should keep your passenger from ever again riding with feet on the dashboard

You surely know that riding with feet up on the dashboard is unsafe. The injuries in a crash could be severe, and even a minor accident in which airbags deploy could have dire consequences. But if you can't convince the person who rides shotgun with …

Next-gen Range Rover Sport spied for the first time with a familiar shape

Feast your eyes upon the next-gen Range Rover Sport . Hopefully you remember which Range Rover that is — if not, here's a handy guide , because it can be really confusing. Now that we're all on the same page of Land Rover world, let's dive into what t…

Cadillac Super Cruise's next generation coming to 2021 Escalade with auto lane-change

Super Cruise is getting its first big update since it was originally launched on the 2018 CT6 sedan . As that large car fades away, this new version of Super Cruise will be coming online in the 2021 CT5 , CT4 and … the 2021 Escalade ! Yes, ladies and ge…

Refreshed Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross spied, loses Aztek-style rear hatch

Despite being the brand's freshest model, the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross is already getting a styling update. The subcompact crossover prototype shown above has a mildly updated nose, and a significantly revised rear hatchback to give it a more convent…

[VIDEO] Try to spot the new Porsche 911 GT3 in this Super Bowl commercial

When Porsche chose YouTube for the reveal of its Super Bowl commercial , the biggest news was the Stuttgart sports car maker returning to The Big Game after 24 years away. Depending on whether you're more interested in the annual commercial-palooza or…

Latest 2021 Ford Bronco prototype spotted with beefy new wheels and tires

It's a new week, which means it's time for another round of Ford Bronco spy photos, this time showing off a set of go-anywhere beadlock wheels and mud-terrain tires that are likely destined for a variant of the Bronco similar to the Jeep Wrangler Rub…

Ford develops 3D-printed locking wheel nuts with your biometric signature

Ford says it has developed a 3D-printed locking wheel nut made using a unique biometric signature based on the driver's recorded voice in a bid to prevent wheel and tire thefts. Ford worked with industrial 3D printing supplier EOS to create the lock…

Bentley unveils Continental GT ice racer

Bentley has unveiled a new special edition of its Continental GT coupe with photos taken high in the Austrian Alps. On Monday, we were shown teasers of a Conti GT swathed in an eye-popping blue done up to look like an all-wheel-drive backcountry snow…