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Tuesday, May 19, 2020

What You Missed | Your Autoblog Daily Digest for May 19, 2020

May 19, 2020

Top Stories of the Day

2021 Genesis G80 priced far below its luxury sedan competitors

The 2021 Genesis G80 is a stunning luxury sedan, far outpacing the looks of the outgoing G80 , and now we have pricing to go along with all the other details learned at the launch. A base G80 will start at $48,725 after tacking on the $1,025 destinati…

RV rental bookings skyrocket by 650% ahead of summer travel season

As states began locking down to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, RV tourism companies took the same punishment as the rest of the travel industry, only rescuing a bit of business by renting to governments , utilities and healthcare workers…

Buy this one-off 428 four-speed '67 Ford Country Squire

What is the late-'60s car guy to do when you really want a muscle car but family needs demand a station wagon? For one Ford enthusiast in Ohio, the answer was to order a 1967 Country Squire, upfitted with the 428-cubic-inch 4-bbl V8, a four-speed flo…

Porsche explains why the 911 will receive much bigger engines in 2026

Porsche recently spent millions of dollars downsizing its range of engines, yet new regulations scheduled to come into effect across Europe in 2026 will force it to upsize once again. One of the company's top engineers predicted the next round of eng…

Watch as U.S. auto industry springs back to life after lockdown

WARREN, Michigan — The Detroit Three automakers and their suppliers began restarting assembly lines on Monday after a two-month coronavirus lockdown in a slow revival of a sector that employs nearly 1 million people in the United States. On a chilly…

2020 Honda Civic Type R has a surprisingly quiet exhaust

Of all the sporty compact cars out there, the 2020 Honda Civic Type R would seem to be the one that would have the most obnoxious exhaust note. It has oodles of scoops and vents, a towering rear wing and fat fender flares. And yet, as we discovered i…

[VIDEO] 2021 Toyota Supra dyno run reveals more power and torque than advertised

In June last year, two Toyota Supras ended up on dynos courtesy of a Motor Trend run in Southern California and a Car and Driver tilt in Michigan. Both Supras put down more power at the wheels than Toyota rated them at the crank. This took no one by …

BMW Alpina XB7 debuts as the closest thing you can get to an X7 M

Transporting seven (or, optionally, six) people in a serious hurry is the mission of the first Alpina version of the BMW X7. The 2021 BMW Alpina XB7, as it's known, is the first Alpina SUV sold in the United States (an Alpina version of the X3 is ava…

2020 Porsche 911 Carrera 4 Road Test | AWD for all-year smiles

There is always going to be a better Porsche 911 . Yet, that fact is hard to care about when in the driver's seat of any variant on the performance ladder, because every single one of them is enchanting to drive. This time, it's the 2020 Porsche 911 C…

Raptor-powered Ford Ranger Thunder is ready to rumble in Europe

Ford Europe announced today the launch of the Ford Ranger Thunder, a limited-edition variant of the popular midsize pickup truck. Scheduled to release strictly in Europe, the Thunder will feature distinct visual accents and a power upgrade and will b…

Monday, May 18, 2020

What You Missed | Your Autoblog Daily Digest for May 18, 2020

May 18, 2020

Top Stories of the Day

2021 Toyota Sienna breaks cover as a stylish, hybrid minivan

There's a new minivan on the block. It's the 2021 Toyota Sienna, and the van is totally new from the ground up. Toyota hasn't given us a fresh new Sienna since the current-generation hit the roads for the 2011 model year, so this one is a long time c…

2021 Toyota Venza debuts as a hybrid-only high-fashion crossover

The Toyota Venza is back, but it's not the same Venture Monza vehicle it was when Toyota discontinued the car-like crossover after the 2015 model year. Instead, the 2021 Toyota Venza is much more SUV-like, and it's only going to be sold in hybrid for…

2021 Toyota Venza vs midsize crossovers: How they compare on paper

The revived 2021 Toyota Venza is merely the latest in a steady flow of newcomers to the growing midsize crossover segment. Toyota's entry into this crowded — but somewhat narrowly defined — midsize two-row class comes out of left field, for better or…

2021 Porsche 911 Targa officially unveiled

The slow, steady drumbeat of the 992-generation of Porsche 911 continues. We already have the Carrera, Carrera S and their all-wheel-drive counterparts in fixed-roof and convertible guise. Most recently, Porsche unveiled the Turbo S . Now we've got a …

2020 Mazda MX-5 Miata RF Automatic Road Test | Cue the sad trombone

Somewhere in Hiroshima, a parade of nearly finished Miatas glides along a track waiting to receive their beating hearts, the powertrains that'll let them ply their road-carving talents the world over. One – let's call him Fred – is eager to begin his…

Now's your chance to buy Lotus founder Colin Chapman's 1981 Turbo Esprit

Lotus founder and Chairman Colin Chapman's former 1981 Turbo Esprit Series 3 sports car is for sale, and it looks fantastic in its metallic silver exterior imprinted with "turbo esprit" on both sides and the bonnet, and contrasting red leather interi…

2021 Ford Bronco and Mach-E production pushed back two months

The Big Three planned to resume domestic manufacturing today after the enforced hiatus and, with all hope, can begin piecing together firm timelines for many delayed orders of business. A couple of days ago, a leaked bulletin showed Ford waiting to o…

Basic configurator for 2021 Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon slips online

TFLnow discovered basic configurators for the 2021 Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon are already online at GM's site for employee discounts . These aren't the fully-featured whiz-bang configurators that will show on the retail websites soon, but they …

Dyson finally unveils its cancelled electric car

Having famously killed off its electric car project back in October, Dyson's automobile remained a mystery to most, with insiders telling Engadget that only a handful of engineers had seen a working prototype somewhere in Wiltshire . But yesterday, th…

Junkyard Gem: 1983 Honda Accord Sedan with 411,794 Miles

I've learned that finding discarded vehicles with astronomical figures showing on their odometers can be very difficult. Most manufacturers stuck with five-digit odometers well into the 1980s and even the 1990s, which rules out a majority of potentia…

Friday, May 15, 2020

What You Missed | Your Autoblog Daily Digest for May 15, 2020

May 15, 2020

Top Stories of the Day

2020 Lamborghini Urus Road Test | How many bags of steer manure can it haul?

The question posed in the headline probably got your attention, as a headline should. You might also be wondering how many wet, muddy golden retrievers the 2020 Lamborghini Urus can carry home from a swim. Or how many seat-kicking Girl Scouts will dr…

Ford says Mustang Mach-E can get 61 miles of range in 10 minutes

Ford has been working on improvements to the charging infrastructure for its forthcoming Mustang Mach-E electric crossover , and it says its latest tests show that fast-charging range is up by as much as 30%. Meanwhile, owners will be able to access m…

2021 Cadillac Escalade's EPA highway fuel economy is worse than before

EPA fuel economy estimates for the 2021 Cadillac Escalade are out, and the news is mostly not good. The redesigned SUV sees slim to no improvement in the Feds' city ratings, and its highway numbers are considerably worse than before. These are estima…

Porsche 984: The car that should have filled the gap between the 914 and Boxster

Had it been built, the Porsche 984 would be at the top of its game in 2020. It would have escaped the merciless mandibles of beater culture and the clean examples left would be trading hands for unreasonable sums on your favorite classifieds site. We…

Porsche launches nationwide pre-owned site, and here are some cool cars we found

Today, Porsche of North America launched its own used-car search platform under the to-the-point name "Porsche Finder." The new website collects inventory of pre-owned and certified pre-owned Porsches from all 192 U.S. Porsche dealerships and organiz…

Bugatti walks us through the Chiron Pur Sport's testing process

Bugatti is emerging from weeks of lockdown loudly, and sometimes sideways. Its engineers have started testing the Chiron Pur Sport unveiled in March 2020 on the Blister Berg track nestled in Germany's Teutoberg forest. Blister Berg is a private trac…

2019 Subaru Forester Touring Long-Term Update | Wet carpet

I hadn't been doing much driving, so the Forester had spent a good chunk of the rainy/snowy spring week relaxing in my driveway. Finally, it came time to pick up a birthday dinner — Indian food, curbside to-go. As soon as I sat down, I noticed someth…

Honda CR-V vs. Subaru Forester Cupholder Test | King of cups

When I got our long-term Subaru Forester back from the shop to fix a mysterious source of moisture , I also happened to have a Honda CR-V Hybrid taking up temporary residence in my driveway. After testing out my large son's car seat in each to these t…

Acura RLX will die after 2020 model year

Only Acura knows why its flagship RLX sedan is still on sale; every year that we had occasion to remember the RLX — which wasn't every year — seemed like a good year to let the car die peacefully. Automotive News reports the deed is finally done, or …

VW Golf Mk8 wagon spied: Now you see it, but no you can't have it

Volkswagen has unveiled the eighth-generation Golf and the new GTI but not the redesigned Golf Variant (or wagon) — these new spy pictures, however, capture the new longroof is all its glory. Bereft of disguise, these pictures give us a clear look. U…

Wednesday, May 13, 2020

What You Missed | Your Autoblog Daily Digest for May 13, 2020

May 13, 2020

Top Stories of the Day

2021 Toyota GR Supra First Drive | More power is good — who knew?

Welcome to 2020, where once again, the Toyota Supra is back. We hailed its return last year when we slid behind the wheel of the first new Supra sold here in the 21st century, and Toyota has gone and changed things up just one year later. Now, there …

2020 Nissan Frontier First Drive | A glimpse of the future, and it's good

The 2020 Nissan Frontier marks the last in a particularly lengthy pickup truck generation that dates all the way back to the 2005 model year. Next year we'll get a completely redesigned model , but before that happens, Nissan is giving the old truck o…

2020 Acura NSX Suspension Deep Dive

The Acura NSX has been a special car as long as I've been in the business. The first one came out in 1990, the same year I started my career in automotive engineering. I vividly remember driving one briefly back then when we brought one in for benchm…

Subaru's new, more powerful Crosstrek is nearly as efficient as the existing model

Subaru quietly confirmed the Crosstrek will receive a bigger, more powerful 2.5-liter flat-four engine for the 2021 model year. It hasn't released technical details yet, and it kept its silence when Autoblog reached out for more information, but fuel…

Ford Puma ST spied uncovered at Nurburgring

The Ford Puma ST was just recently teased by the Blue Oval, but now the car is making an unofficial debut thanks to one of our spy photographers. The hot subcompact crossover was out testing at the Nürburgring with no camouflage, bearing its blue pai…

Hyundai wants to use UV light to disinfect automobile interiors

Ultraviolet light's ability to kill viruses has moved this technology to the forefront of the fight against the coronavirus. Now the Hyundai Motor Group says it is exploring the idea of using UV light to disinfect automobile interiors, turning the hu…

Maserati dedicates MC20 prototype to Stirling Moss

Maserati is paying tribute to Stirling Moss, the British race car driver who died on April 12 , by wrapping one of its MC20 test mules in commemorative camouflage. The mid-engined sports car is due out in September 2020. It's a fitting homage, becaus…

BMW M4 Gran Coupe finally coming with next-gen 4 Series

Before the year is out, the long awaited next-generation BMW M3 and M4 will debut, bringing new tech and a new bodystyle: Autocar has info on an M4 Gran Coupe. In 2014, M GmbH sales chief Jörg Bartels told Cars Guide in Australia , "It was definitely …

Kia developing 800-volt charging technology for its future electric cars

Porsche-grade technology will trickle down to the Kia range during the 2020s. The South Korean company is planning to launch no less than 11 electric cars globally by 2025, and it confirmed some will come with an 800-volt charging system that promise…

Uber driver escapes abduction at knifepoint by jumping out of her car at 60 mph

A Nashville-based Uber driver survived a terrifying attempted kidnapping last week, according to a report from News Channel 5 . The passenger in the back seat allegedly pulled a knife on the driver, 26-year-old Carolina Vargas, but she escaped by jump…