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Thursday, February 11, 2021

What You Missed | Your Autoblog Daily Digest for February 11, 2021

Feb 11, 2021

Top Stories of the Day

2021 Audi E-Tron Sportback Interior Driveway Test | Q5 bones, Q8 interior

The Audi E-Tron Sportback is the automotive equivalent of a neutron star: small yet unimaginably dense. Now, I was a bit off in the above video when I said it's equal to the Q5 in size. Though it shares the Q5's platform, it's actually closer to the …

2021 Mercedes-Benz GLB-Class Review | Bigger, boxier, better

Most subcompact luxury SUVs come across as a bit cynical; built to a price on less sophisticated bones than its pricier, more refined siblings. It sure seems like people buy them cause they can't make the payment on one of those pricier, more refined…

2022 Infiniti QX60 to get 295-HP V6, dump CVT for nine-speed auto

Infiniti confirmed Thursday that its redesigned QX60 will ditch its CVT in favor of a newer nine-speed automatic, following its platform cousin, the 2022 Nissan Pathfinder , in adopting an updated powertrain. Though not officially revealed, it should …

Listen to the 2022 Porsche 911 GT3's flat-six engine sing its anthem

Porsche will unveil the first GT-badged variant of the 992-generation 911 next Tuesday, February 16. Widely expected to be the GT3, the mystery model has been previewed in a sonorous video a few days before its official introduction. The 14-second v…

SCG's Le Mans twin-turbocharged V8 engine roars to life for the first time

Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus is busily preparing its entry into the World Endurance Championship's Le Mans Hypercar category. It released details about the engine that will power the car, which is called 007, and it reached a major milestone this mon…

2021 Ford Mustang gets more standard safety features and new colors

Obviously, the big news for the 2021 Ford Mustang is the return of the Mach 1 and all the performance upgrades in includes. But other Mustangs are getting some welcome if minor additions. All of them get new standard features, and there are a few new…

Dallas awakens to massive winter-weather pileups

East Texans encountered dangerous road conditions Thursday morning thanks to a winter storm that plunged deep into the Lone Star State, depositing as much as a quarter-inch of ice on some road surfaces. The weather is being blamed for massive pileups…

Apple Maps introduces user-based road hazard reporting, including speed traps

Apple just released an update for its Apple Maps application that brings Waze-like functionality to the iPhone's native navigation. It allows users to report a number of different road situations, with speed traps being one of them. It's only availab…

Ram introduces 33-mpg Tradesman HFE EcoDiesel

Ram announced Tuesday that its 2021 1500 Tradesman HFE EcoDiesel trim goes toe-to-toe (tow-to-tow?) with the segment's most efficient diesels, offering 23 mpg in the city, 33 mpg on the highway and 26 mpg combined. That's good enough for a first-plac…

Ford Maverick prototype spy photos reveal an independent rear suspension

Spy photos of the upcoming Ford Maverick compact pickup truck have revealed a fascinating development in the truck's design. Up until this point, the Maverick prototypes we've seen have featured a torsion beam rear suspension and front-wheel drive . T…

Wednesday, February 10, 2021

What You Missed | Your Autoblog Daily Digest for February 10, 2021

Feb 10, 2021

Top Stories of the Day

2021 Ford Ranger Tremor First Drive | Capability at a competitive price

While the United States is generally the truck capital of the planet, we've been missing out on one of the coolest pickups of the last couple years, the Ford Ranger Raptor. And the fact that it was a truck from one of our homegrown automakers added t…

Rivian, with Amazon and Ford already in its corner, plans huge stock IPO

Rivian Automotive Inc., the electric-vehicle startup backed by Amazon.com and Ford is looking to go public as soon as September at a valuation of about $50 billion and perhaps more, according to people familiar with the matter. The company's timelin…

Ford Maverick prototype spy photos reveal an independent rear suspension

2022 Audi E-Tron GT revealed as sporty, electric cousin to Porsche Taycan

We loved the look and the thinking behind the Audi E-Tron GT when the concept car debuted at the 2018 Los Angeles Auto Show. With its four-door coupe styling and special performance touches from Audi Sport, the E-Tron GT promised to be a stunner if i…

Porsche Taycan claims indoor speed record with 102-mph run

Porsche's 750-horsepower Taycan Turbo S, with a little help from racing driver Leh Keen, has claimed the Guinness World Record for top speed by a vehicle achieved indoors, hitting 102.6 mph and toppling the 86-mile-per-hour mark set by Tanner Foust i…

Land Rover Defender 110 Luggage Test | Boxy is better

If there's one thing I've learned doing all these luggage tests, it's that boxy is better. Be it the Mercedes GLB, the Toyota 4Runner or Jeep Wrangler, it doesn't take a geometry teacher to tell you that trying to fit rectangular-shaped things into a…

Land Rover's original Defender returns from the dead again with V8 power

Land Rover's original Defender simply won't die. Although the second-generation Defender has entered its second year on the market, demand for the first-generation truck remains high enough to warrant a string of limited-edition models defined by ex…

Subaru and Toyota could join forces on rally-inspired AWD hot hatch

A report out of Japan states that Subaru and Toyota might be working jointly on an all-wheel-drive high-performance car. The rumored hot hatch is said take inspiration from the rally machines both companies fielded from their 1990s heydays. Accordin…

Bugatti begins assembling the first 1,600-hp Centodieci prototype

Created as a tribute to the EB110 , the Bugatti Centodieci is coming to life. The French firm has started putting together the running and driving prototype that it will use to fine-tune the model before it launches production. Although the Centodiec…

Catalytic converter thefts spike nationwide as precious metal prices spike

Catalytic converter thefts are on the rise, and the crime increase is fueled by a number of factors. The New York Times reports that police are sounding the alarm on an unusual nationwide surge in cases. St. Louis catalytic converter thefts were ei…