Best Shots: April 2020

Thursday, April 30, 2020

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

Apr 30, 2020

Top Stories of the Day

2020 Honda CR-V Hybrid Second Drive | Batteries are better

The marriage seems so right you wonder what took so long. Honda's hybrid powertrain is excellent and the CR-V is its best-selling model, yet the 2020 Honda CR-V Hybrid is only just arriving in dealers now. That's four years after this current CR-V ge…

Ken Block's next project is the Hoonifox: the ultimate Fox Body Ford Mustang

First there was the '60s Ford Mustang Hoonicorn, then the '70s Ford F-150 Hoonitruck . Now Ken Block is tackling the 1980s with his next project, the Hoonifox. It's based on the Fox Body Ford Mustang, and it's just as outrageous as its predecessors, e…

McLaren Speedtail reveals its hybrid powertrain secrets, and of course it's impressive

Until now, McLaren has been keeping secrets about its three-seat Speedtail hypercar . We've known it's packing a hybrid powertrain that produces a combined 1,055 horsepower and 848 pound-feet of torque, but that's about it. Today, McLaren is spilling …

2020 Mazda MX-5 Miata Suspension Deep Dive

Full disclosure: I'm a longtime Miata fan. And by longtime I mean since mid-1989, the year I obtained, through a series of fortunate connections, one of the three original Chicago auto show display cars . But this was no blatant attempt to butter up a…

2021 GMC Canyon Denali shows its new grille

GMC showed us its new 2021 Canyon AT4 pickup at the beginning of the year. We got a few details on the "more upmarket" top-tier Denali trim coming next year, but we've been missing good photos of the article until now. The more upmarket part rings tr…

What the Autoblog staff drives: the ultimate editors' picks

Autoblog editors share what cars they actually own and what they like and dislike about them.

Ford applies to trademark term 'Lincoln eGlide'

There's an epilogue to Ford's recent announcement that it's giving up on a battery-electric Lincoln co-developed with Rivian. The MachEClub forum discovered that just a week ago, Ford applied with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to trademark the…

2020 E-Tron Sportback becomes Audi's most expensive electric car

Audi released pricing information for the 2020 E-Tron Sportback, a swoopier version of the standard E-Tron that inaugurates several powertrain improvements. The fastback-like model made its debut in late 2019 . The electric Sportback will carry a bas…

Alfa Romeo Giulia GTA heritage liveries revealed, and here's what it will cost

Alfa Romeo created the Giulia GTA as a tribute to one of its most successful race cars, and the connection between the two models won't stop at the nameplate. Buyers will have the chance to order their hot-rodded sedan in one of several heritage-lace…

Toyota Prius 20th Anniversary Edition coming for 2021

This week, Toyota celebrated selling more than 15 million hybrids worldwide since 1997, 5 million of them in the past three years. It really began in 1993 , when Toyota decided to develop a car that would be kinder on the environment. The car those en…

Wednesday, April 29, 2020

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

Apr 29, 2020

Top Stories of the Day

Refreshed BMW 5 Series and BMW iX3 photos leak

BMWBlog gets the credit for a couple of images of the 2021 BMW 5 Series smuggled out of a press shoot folder, during what the site calls "BMW's leak week" — it's only Wednesday, and what looks like a 2 Series , plus the iX3, have gained public exposur…

2019 Subaru STI S209 Drivers' Notes | An old-school sports sedan unites two of our editors

The 2019 Subaru STI S209 is peak Subaru for America. It's the most powerful and most expensive vehicle with the Subaru badge on it, and there will only ever be 209 of them sold. It's put together in STI's small shop in Kiryu, Japan, where workers bui…

2020 Acura TLX PMC Edition Driveway Test | Shine bright like a ... ruby

Valencia Red Pearl. That's the story with the 2020 Acura TLX PMC Edition. We got to see this limited edition TLX sedan at the New York Auto Show last year, but now it's in my driveway. The show lights don't do this paint justice. The setting sun refl…

Hondata's Honda Civic Type R fuel system upgrade lays groundwork for big power gains

The current generation Honda Civic Type R isn't a slow car by any means with 306 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque. But there are always people who want to go faster, and Hondata 's new fuel system upgrade can help Type R owners go faster, or ev…

Live the '70s dream with this custom Chevy van on eBay

The 1970s was a special time when customized vans were all the rage. This 1975 Chevrolet G10 panel van is a fitting homage to the era, from the wild flames-over-metal-flake paint job, to the side pipes, to the chrome Cragar wheels. But most of all, i…

BMW i8 M with M1 looks and rumored 600 hp coming in 2023

Forty-two years after its introduction, the BMW M1 still has a more enticing spec sheet than many sports cars today: Mid-engined 3.5-liter straight-six with 273 horsepower and 243 pound-feet of torque, five-speed manual transmission, rear-wheel drive…

Luc Donckerwolke steps down as head of Hyundai Group design

Automotive News got hold of "an internal note" declaring that Hyundai Group design chief Luc Donckerwolke is stepping down today for "personal reasons." After ex-Volkswagen Group pen Peter Schreyer took over Kia design in 2006 and began the South Kor…

Elon Musk calls to re-open America; Tesla investors seem less bothered

Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to twitter Tuesday night to call for the re-opening of America, joining calls from protest groups and business owners alike to re-start the economy in the wake of the initial spike in novel coronavirus cases. FREE AMERICA…

McLaren recalls Senna and several other models over potential fire risk

McLaren is recalling multiple models due to a potential fire risk. The models in question include the 2016-2020 720S , 2019 Senna , 2020 GT and 2017-2019 570GT . In total, that amounts to 2,763 cars. The Senna being part of this recall caught our eye, …

Tuesday, April 28, 2020

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

Apr 28, 2020

Top Stories of the Day

2021 Ford Bronco and Bronco Sport to offer three grille designs

Ford Authority credits "sources familiar with the project" for new tidings about the 2021 Ford Bronco. It's said that at launch, Ford will offer three grille designs to alter the personality of the SUV, which FA refers to as "Modern," "Classic" and "…

2020 Porsche Cayenne Coupe Turbo S E-Hybrid Performance & Exhaust Test

For those who measure the value of a car by the number of words in its name, well, this 2020 Porsche Cayenne Coupe Turbo S E-Hybrid with Lightweight Sport Package in Black couldn't possibly score higher. And for those who measure the value of a car b…

2020 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid First Drive | Same style, only greener

The opportune time to launch a hybrid would be when the economy is strong and gas is expensive. That would not be today. Yet, here comes the 2020 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid that costs thousands more than the gas-only version and offers 50-plus mpg. Oh, an…

2021 Porsche 911 picks up new features, including some options from the Turbo S

Following the reveal of the 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo S , Porsche has announced that this year's 911 Carrera models will get a variety of new options, including several from that uber 911. The new options run the gamut from convenience items to styling. …

GM, Ford and Fiat Chrysler set target date for restarting production

The parking lot stands empty at Fiat Chrysler's sprawling Belvidere, Ill., assembly plant. / Getty Images General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles are targeting May 18 to resume some production at their U.S. factories after shuttin…

Lexus LS mid-cycle refresh to restore V8-powered LS 600h hybrid?

When Lexus launched the fifth-generation LS at the end of 2017, the Japanese luxury maker predicted its once-brand-defining sedan would sell 12,000 units per year in the U.S., a threshold the model hadn't reached since 2010. The LS managed 9,301 tran…

Tesla's Musk nears record $750 million options payday

OAKLAND, Calif. — Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk is on the cusp of a roughly $750 million payday as the electric carmaker's stock recovers from a slump caused by the coronavirus, which led the company to close its factories and furlough workers. Sh…

Patent office gives Nikola a small victory in $2B lawsuit over Tesla Semi

When it comes to Class 8 trucks, it's Nikola vs. Tesla on the road and in the courtroom. Nikola unveiled a rendering of its Nikola One truck on Twitter on May 9, 2016, and showed a prototype in December of that year. In November 2017, Tesla revealed …

Oregon strip club offers drive-thru dancing and carry-out 'Food 2 Go-Go'

PORTLAND, Ore. — An Oregon strip club forced into the takeout-dining business in the age of the coronavirus has returned to its burlesque roots by offering delivery and drive-through services featuring exotic dancers - a concept the owner has promote…

A 'Back to the Future' two-pack is up for auction on Bring a Trailer

A pair of vehicles that add up to a time warp straight back to 1985 are up for auction on Bring a Trailer. "All that's missing is a dung-filled Ford and a flying train," our own James Riswick quipped when he laid eyes on these two seemingly period-pe…

Monday, April 27, 2020

What You Missed | Your Autoblog Daily Digest for April 27, 2020

Apr 27, 2020

Top Stories of the Day

BMW 2 Series next generation unexpectedly appears camo-free on Instagram

Spy shots published on Instagram have seemingly revealed the second-generation BMW 2 Series well ahead of schedule. The images show the car's front and rear ends with absolutely no camouflage. This is one of the rare instances where we see a new car…

BMW X8 M rumored to be a PHEV, possibly the first electrified M car

Trademark documents posted online a couple weeks ago revealed to us that the BMW X8 M could be on the horizon. Today, a report from Car claims the X8 M will be a PHEV. The report doesn't cite anybody within BMW specifically, so we do have our doubts…

The Suzuki Jimny is even more awesome with these retro graphics

We already were pretty smitten by the Suzuki Jimny , the pint-sized 4x4 that, sadly, U.S. buyers can only look on from afar . It manages to remind us of its ancestors, the Suzuki Samari and Sidekick (small and basic 4x4s for which collectors and off-ro…

Chevrolet Colorado with 700-horsepower Cadillac ATS-V engine for sale

In the 2010s, the truck-tuning world gradually moved away from go-fast mini-trucks as it shifted towards rigs with sky-high ground clearance and fat tires. North Carolina-based tuner Mallett Performance bucked that trend by bringing a highly modified…

2020 Honda CR-V Interior Storage Driveway Test | Muy bins

If there's one thing Honda is exceptionally good at, it's packaging. That includes managing to squeeze as much interior space from an exterior footprint as possible, and then from that, as much interior storage space as possible. Cupholders, bins, cu…

2020 Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class Review & Buying Guide | Class leader, style leader

The all-new 2020 Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class is a class leader in the fittingly small subcompact luxury car segment. In its basic form, it provides all the refinement, comfort, performance and style of larger Mercedes in a small, affordable package. The …

2020 Dodge Charger R/T and Scat Pack get Daytona Edition Packages

Dodge announced the Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody Daytona 50th Anniversary Edition late last year, limited to 501 examples, one of which has already gone to that big NASCAR infield in the sky. For the rest of the Daytona fandom, Mopar Insiders says Do…

Lotus working on a more spacious daily driver with a kinder price

Lotus has another sports car in the works, with a reveal planned for later this year or early next. It could be the second piece of the puzzle former Lotus CEO Jean-Marc Gales spoke of to Automotive News in 2018, saying parent company Geely "has appr…

SCG 007 hypercar to swap twin-turbo V6 for twin-turbo V8

Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus began the long tease to its SCG 007 LMP1 hypercar with a set of sketches in June 2018 that clearly incorporated cues from the SCG 003. Refining that original sketch for 18 months produced a longer, smoother design with po…

Sneaky secrets rideshare drivers use to make ends meet

Uber and Lyft drivers have long employed a number of secret strategies to help make ends meat. They are a group of workers who have seen a lot of pay cuts over the years, and every time, it seems like they come up with a whole new slew of strategies …