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Tuesday, February 4, 2020

What You Missed | Your Autoblog Daily Digest for February 4, 2020

Feb 04, 2020

Top Stories of the Day

2020 Audi S6, S7 and S8 First Drive | Getting the family together

I've been deposited in the dank, redwood-dominant Santa Cruz mountains in Northern California to sample a trio of vehicles occupying the coveted middle child/Goldilocks position in Audi's performance-oriented lineup. The 2020 Audi S6, Audi S7 and Aud…

2021 Kia Sorento caught completely undisguised at a commercial shoot

Remember when Kia just sold cheap warranties wrapped in sheetmetal? After looking over these fresh spy photos of the 2021 Sorento crossover, we'd forgive you for saying no, as those days are clearly well behind the Korean automaker. Not even a week…

Hyundai Santa Cruz pickup caught testing in Lapland

Those who have been waiting (perhaps not-so) patiently for concrete signs of Hyundai's Santa Cruz reaching production, today is your day. The long-promised compact Korean pickup has been spotted in the wild. Hyundai first caught our attention back …

EV exuberance: Tesla tops $900 in Tuesday trading

TOKYO/SEOUL — Shares of Tesla surged 15% on Tuesday to hit the $900 mark, extending a stunning rally that has more than doubled the company's market value since the start of the year as more investors bet on Chief Executive Elon Musk's vision. The l…

UK plans to ban new internal-combustion cars by 2035 at latest

A ban on the sale of new gasoline, diesel, and even hybrid cars could go into effect in the UK as soon as 2035, under a new proposal by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. That deadline is five years earlier than previously planned. The announcement came a…

Ford Motor Company job listing mentions '2023 Mustang S650'

A job listing by the Ford Motor Company might have leaked the next-generation Mustang's launch year. As spotted by a forum user on Mustang 6G , the post mentions a "Ford 2023 Mustang S650 vehicle program" and says the car launches in 2022. Roughly …

First production 2020 Chevy Corvette rolls off the line in Kentucky

Production for the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette is officially underway. Chevy marked the occasion with a tweet (how else?) from the assembly plant in Bowling Green, Ky. Regular production for the 2020 #Corvette #Stingray coupe began today at GM's Bowli…

2020 GMC Acadia AT4 Review | A soft-roader in steel-toed boots

For carmakers today, the perfect lineup would be focused almost entirely on trucks and crossovers, favoring profitability at the expense of diversity. Just look at FCA's Ram and Jeep showrooms. In the General Motors portfolio, that brand is GMC, with…

2020 Infiniti QX80 refreshes its cabin, adds tech and safety features

After performing a nip-tuck on the Infiniti QX80's sheetmetal for the 2018 model year, designers have massaged the QX80's interior for 2020. The driver's cluster keeps the analog gauges but loses the previous, low-res digital information screen. A ne…

How to offset your carbon footprint | Behind the Wheel S02 // E06

Behind the Wheel is a video series that shows you a bit of what it's like to work at Autoblog. The editors and video producers will show you the cars we have in our fleet, and you'll get a behind the scenes look at some of the personalities that help…

Monday, February 3, 2020

What You Missed | Your Autoblog Daily Digest for February 3, 2020

Feb 03, 2020

Top Stories of the Day

2020 Porsche Taycan crushes its EPA range in our exclusive test

A nondescript white van rolls up beside my blue 2020 Porsche Taycan Turbo as I sit at a red light on the Pacific Coast Highway near Huntington Beach, Calif. The driver rolls down his window, gives a hearty thumbs up, and makes it clear via additional…

Hyundai introduces 3-year/36,000-mile free maintenance program for all 2020 vehicles

Hyundai used the Super Bowl spotlight to show off its "Smaht Pahk" feature on the 2020 Hyundai Sonata , but there was one other commercial that ran before the game even started. This one highlighted Hyundai's new complimentary maintenance program, goo…

Jeep's Groundhog Day Super Bowl commercial stars Bill Murray

Watch Jeep's Groundhog Day Super Bowl LIV commercial, starring Bill Murray as Phil Connors.

Hellcat-powered Dodge Durango teased in 'Fast and Furious' companion spot

"Hellcat all the things" has become a bit of a meme, and it appears Dodge is either in on the joke, non-ironically committed to the concept, or maybe a little bit of both. What makes us say that? Well, this commercial FCA has introduced to coincide w…

2021 Kia Seltos officially costs $23,110; trim features detailed

Kia has broadcast the Seltos' arrival in a Super Bowl commercial , but the South Korean automaker has done its usual stealth reveal of pricing, quietly uploading trims and MSRPs to the build site . Turns out the prices leaked to Motor1 last month are a…

Chevy strips carbon fiber aero package from 2020 Corvette orders

Chevrolet put three ground effects kits on the options sheet for the 2020 Corvette. Two of them are late availability , meaning they still can't be ordered: RPO Code 5V8 in a black hue called Carbon Flash for $3,850, and RPO 5VJ, in body color, for $6…

2021 GMC Canyon trims overhauled, SL and SLT disappear

Until this year, the GMC Canyon has offered six trims in two drivetrains: SL, a base model simply called Canyon, SLE, All Terrain, SLT, and Denali, with all but the SL available in either 2WD or 4WD. GM Authority credits "dealer sources" for news tha…

Performance artist creates virtual traffic jams with 99 smartphones

Simon Weckert, at times, carries 99 smartphones with him, and none are for personal phone calls. Or texts, or emails, tweets, or photography. All 99 devices spend their battery capacities on Google Maps and Google Maps only. Weckert is a Berlin-based…

Men who are jerks and who break traffic laws prefer high-status cars, study says

If you drive an expensive luxury car, this might make you squirm: A new study out of Finland finds not only that drivers of expensive cars are more likely to break traffic laws, but they're more likely to be self-absorbed jerks — and overwhelmingly m…

Huge golden eagle gets wedged in engine compartment of box truck

A massive golden eagle is spending the weekend at a wildlife rehabilitation facility in southwestern Oregon and appeared to be in fine health after colliding with a box truck and getting stuck. The eagle, an adult female weighing 7.8 pounds, arrived…

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 …