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Thursday, December 19, 2019

What You Missed | Your Autoblog Daily Digest for December 19, 2019

Dec 19, 2019

Top Stories of the Day

As GM readies Alexa convenience for vehicles, we ponder its dark side

SEATTLE — On the 30th floor of Amazon's glass tower, in a room with a breathtaking view of downtown Seattle, there's a beautiful bed that nobody sleeps in. It's near a kitchen nobody cooks in, a living room couch that no one crashes on, a kitchen tab…

Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 Heritage Edition celebrates 55 years of fast Mustangs

The high-end racing efforts executed by the partnership between Ford and Carroll Shelby were recently highlighted in "Ford v Ferrari," but the Ford GT40 Le Mans winner and its progeny weren't the only cars born of that relationship. In 1965, famed …

California dealer asking $169,999 for 2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500

Ford Authority ran a piece on Koons Ford, a dealer in Sterling, Virginia, advertising a 2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 for $145,890 . Based on listed options like the carbon fiber track package, technology package, and $10,000 painted stripes, FA play…

$40 million Jeep Experience museum opening in Toledo, Ohio

Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) is helping a nonprofit organization open a Jeep museum in Toledo, Ohio. Called The Jeep Experience, the $40 million museum is expected to open its doors in 2022. Jeep has manufactured its off-roaders in Toledo since t…

[VIDEO] Apparently it's not too hard to make a knock-off Cybertruck

If copying is the highest form of flattery, the Tesla Cybertruck must be feeling pretty peachy at this moment in time. Regardless of all the hullabaloo about its design , the thing certainly has captured the world's attention. Not only did it garner a…

Tesla Model 3 owners can go quicker with a click

Is a half-second improvement in 0-60 time worth $2,000? Tesla reckons it is, and if you agree — and you happen to be the proud owner of a dual-motor Model 3 — then you're in luck. Tesla's updated companion app now offers dual-motor Model 3 owners t…

You can own this motorcycle-engined road 'rocket'

It's a car, it's a plane, it's a motorcycle, it's street-legal, and it could be yours.This weird mashup is available now on eBay . Designed by aircraft engineer Jim Bede, the vehicle initially was known as the Litestar Autocycle, but the the name cha…

2020 Toyota Highlander and Highlander Hybrid First Drive Review | Mass appeal on wheels

SAN ANTONIO, Texas — What do you get when you try to please everyone? Generally something adequate and inoffensive. In the midsize crossover segment, that'd be something like the third-generation Toyota Highlander that's been around since 2013. Now, …

2020 Honda Passport Review & Buying Guide | Great success, minimal effort

Sometimes great success comes with minimal effort. Most cars and SUVs share their mechanical underpinnings with various other vehicles from within their brand, but they look so different that you'd have to be a car geek like us to know. The 2020 Hond…

Honda Civic Hatchback Luggage Test | A different kind of hatch

An indelible part of any hot hatch is its ability to be a practical daily driver as well as a fun plaything. The Honda Civic Type R definitely lives up to its practical end of the bargain as you're about to see, but its cargo area is shared with ever…

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

What You Missed | Your Autoblog Daily Digest for December 17, 2019

Dec 17, 2019

Top Stories of the Day

BMW insists its customers love the new enormous grilles

As BMW's grille grows, so does the number of people whose opinion it splits. Top officials previously defended the move to a polarizing design, and they again stressed they're sticking to it. Recent additions to the company's range, like the X7 and …

2020 Audi RS 5 Coupe and Sportback adopt the family look

Audi has loosed the 2020 RS 5 Coupe and RS 5 Sportback on European audiences. The 2.9-liter twin-turbo V6 holds pat with 444 horsepower and 443 pound-feet of torque, shifting through an eight-speed automatic toggled with larger aluminum shift paddles…

2019 Jaguar F-Pace SVR Second Drive Review | A thunderingly good performance cat

Jaguar entered the high-performance SUV game late with the F-Pace SVR, but hopping on the unstoppable freight train now is better than ignoring it completely. Just like its European competition, the Jaguar has a delightfully overpowered engine and lu…

2020 Toyota Avalon TRD Drivers' Notes | A delightful surprise

The 2020 Toyota Avalon TRD is a car we never thought we'd see outside of SEMA. Traditionally conservative Toyota took the largest sedan it sells in America and gave it the full-fat TRD treatment. Nobody was asking for this model, but we're not compla…

2021 Kia Optima getting two turbo engines, all-wheel drive option

Even before we've had a chance to drive it, the 2021 Kia Optima is proving to be an interesting sedan. For one thing, it might not even be called Optima anymore, with a switch to the Korean-market K5 name rumored . The styling is thoroughly aggressive…

2020 Audi RS Q8 First Drive Review | Dancing bear

TENERIFE, Canary Islands – After a few minutes rolling through town, the Audi RS Q8's navigation system directed us to turn onto a long motorway on-ramp. With 591 horses underfoot, we couldn't resist matting the accelerator. The RS Q8 thundered down …

2020 BMW 8 Series Review & Buying Guide | A grand tourer for everybody

The 2020 BMW 8 Series is the automaker's ultimate personal luxury machine. It's been a long time since there was an 8 Series in BMW's lineup, and we're glad to see it back. It takes the concept of executive motoring and puts it in far more body style…

Nissan doubles up on Skyline concepts for 2020 Tokyo Auto Salon

In Japan, our Infiniti Q50 is the hallowed and venerable Nissan Skyline. In a bit of tangentially related badge-swapping earlier this year Nissan borrowed the 400R moniker once applied to a now-legendary version of the R33 Skyline GT-R for a top-tier…

Cadillac CT4 and CT5 high-performance V cars spied

This summer, Cadillac teased much more impressive V-series models than the lukewarm CT4-V and CT5-V . Now we get a better look at both super sedans, each one boasting more aggressive, but subtle visual upgrades. Normally we would talk about the visua…

BMW issues stop-sale on M5, M8, X5 M and X6 M

BMW has issued a stop-sale on certain M models in its lineup due to a transmission wiring harness problem. These cars include the M5 , M8 (Coupe, Convertible and Gran Coupe), X5 M and X6 M . The issue was originally seen posted on Bimmerpost forums and…

Monday, December 16, 2019

What You Missed | Your Autoblog Daily Digest for December 16, 2019

Dec 16, 2019

Top Stories of the Day

2020 Nissan Sentra First Drive Review | Boring no more

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — If the sedan really is dead in America, Nissan hasn't gotten the memo. The 2020 Nissan Sentra is reaching dealers alongside the equally all-new Versa, and just last year Nissan facelifted the Maxima and launched the sixth-gener…

2021 Cadillac Escalade to have a massive 38-inch curved OLED display

The redesigned 2021 Cadillac Escalade is going to be revealed Feb. 4, and it's going to have a huge screen. Cadillac released a video teaser today showing the enormous display — watch it above. This screen is a curved OLED display that measures 38 i…

Mercedes-Benz delays American EQC deliveries until 2021

American motorists who were hoping to start the next decade behind the wheel of Mercedes-Benz's first purpose-designed, mass-produced electric vehicle will be sorely disappointed. The German company informed its dealers it delayed EQC deliveries in t…

Ford Mustang Mach 1 rumored to replace the Bullitt in 2021

We've had about two weeks of bubbling rumor concerning a revival of the Ford Mustang Mach 1. It started with a video that Mustang parts supplier CJ Pony Parts published on YouTube , then removed. The video's host said there weren't many details, two o…

2020 Ford Explorer safer than old model; crash test ratings short of Top Safety Pick

The 2020 Ford Explorer three-row crossover has improved on the outgoing model in many ways . According to the IIHS, it has also improved in a number of safety categories, but not enough to earn a Top Safety Pick award. The culprit is not the headligh…

Honda preparing S2000 20th Anniversary Prototype for Tokyo Auto Salon

Honda Access, the automaker's accessories division, plans a four-strong lineup of concepts for the 2020 Tokyo Auto Salon. The hero car is the S2000 20th Anniversary Prototype, celebrating the launch of the roadster that made hearts race as quickly as…

12 used hybrids and EVs that aren't dreary, impractical or a Prius

In the wake of the U.N.'s dire climate change report and our recommendation that buying a used hybrid or EV is the best way to lower your automotive carbon footprint, here are 12 choices to consider.

Cybertruck legal to drive on Mars; in Germany, maybe not so much

Elon Musk's aspirations for the Tesla Cybertruck point to Mars. Based on comments from a German technical inspector, it appears the stainless wedge will be more welcome on another planet than in Germany and Europe. Stefan Teller is an expert with the…

Cybertruck Nuts. Need we say more?

Tesla unveiled the Cybertruck on Nov. 21, and because this is America, four days later, Cybertruck Nuts were born. Or, depending on whom you believe, two sets of Cybertruck Nuts were born. Motor1 covered the original pair that showed up at the websit…

Land Rover used a 3D-printed dog paw to test Defender paint

Land Rover clearly expects many of its owners to bring their canine companions along for the ride, hence the many dog accessories available for the 2020 Land Rover Defender . With that in mind, the company wanted to see what kind of wear and tear a me…

Friday, December 13, 2019

What You Missed | Your Autoblog Daily Digest for December 13, 2019

Dec 13, 2019

Top Stories of the Day

All the cars discontinued after 2019

Automakers are constantly adjusting and massaging their lineups. Sometimes that means certain models have to go. In this article, we detail all the cars that won't make it past the 2019 model year.

2020 Mazda CX-30 First Drive Review | The middle way

JULIAN, Calif. — An Aveo wanders in the lane ahead, its gas flap open and waving in the 30-mph slipstream as it creeps along some of the best roads in all of Southern California as swiftly as a retreating glacier. The 2020 Mazda CX-30's speedometer n…

Toyota announces pricing for 2020 Highlander and Highlander Hybrid

With the all-new Highlander coming soon — and with our first drive of it coming to Autoblog next week — Toyota has announced pricing for the redesigned crossover, including the hybrid version. The 2020 Toyota Highlander will start at $35,720, includi…

2020 Genesis G90 First Drive | How do you like me now?

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — In a tiny corner of the luxury car world there is a brand producing automobiles that are criminally underrated. Spun from the depths of the Hyundai/Kia more-for-your-money juggernaut, the three-year-old Genesis brand makes sedan…

Use the Porsche, Luke — Stuttgart designs a 'Star Wars' spaceship

Porsche is going where no automaker has gone before: to a galaxy far, far away in the latest "Star Wars" installment, "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker." Porsche designers engaged in a collaboration with their counterparts from Lucasfilm to design a…

2021 Cadillac Escalade getting a star-studded introduction

Now that Chevrolet's Tahoe and Suburban are out of the bag, it's Cadillac's turn to introduce its new body-on-frame SUV. The next-generation Escalade will make its public debut on Feb. 4, 2020. The Escalade could have been one of the stars of the 20…

Cadillac follows Lincoln in going back to proper names

Who else is excited for the 2025 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham? Right, don't all excitedly jump up and down at the same time. May make Earth wobble. In an interview with multiple outlets (and brought to our attention by Reuters and CNET Roadshow ) that…

McLaren Senna Can-Am and XP special editions honor two racing icons

McLaren produced 500 examples of the Senna road car, and the entire run sold out immediately. This year it added the more powerful, track-only Senna GTR , selling out of all 75 units instantly. That's not the end of the Senna line, however, with 26 mo…

Kia Optima could be renamed the K5 here in the U.S.

We recently showed you the Korean version of the 2021 Kia Optima , which is called the K5 there. And if a report is to be believed, the midsize sedan could carry that nameplate here, too, when it debuts. Korean Car Blog reported earlier today that Ki…

2020 Honda Ridgeline gains nine-speed auto, simplifies trim structure

The 2020 Honda Ridgeline gets a quick shot of new life as it heads into the 2020 model year. Honda is making the nine-speed automatic transmission from the Pilot and Passport the new standard transmission, displacing the six-speed automatic it exclus…