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Wednesday, December 23, 2020

What You Missed | Your Autoblog Daily Digest for December 23, 2020

Dec 23, 2020

Top Stories of the Day

2020 McLaren GT | Grand Touring, with an edge

As the winter settles in, I find myself reflecting on the most memorable cars that I've tested this year. Chief among them, the McLaren GT . I drove the GT on a damp midsummer evening. After a lengthy heatwave, temperatures dipped into the low 60s an…

Carroll Shelby's personal 1965 427 Cobra will cross the auction block

Genuine examples of the Shelby Cobra are extremely sought-after in a sea of replicas built with varying degrees of accuracy. One of the most famous examples, chassis number CSX3178, promises to spark a merciless bidding war when it crosses the auctio…

2021 Toyota 4Runner Review | A living legend fends off Father Time

Like the canyons and mountains through which it traverses, the Toyota 4Runner is timeless. Mechanically, this latest 2021 edition is pretty much the same truck that debuted 12 years ago – an eternity in car terms. On the one hand, that's great: it ha…

Alpha Motor Corporation unveils Ace electric coupe

We're always tickled by the new startups producing what appear to be interesting and fun electric vehicles. Lately, it seems like the vast majority of those have been trucks and SUVs. Fairly quietly last week, a company called Alpha Motor Corporation…

McLaren Sabre revealed with over 800 horsepower and 218-mph top speed

The McLaren Sabre is out and ready for business. While McLaren hasn't provided its usual full information drop and detailed set of photos, McLaren of Beverly Hills has posted the first customer car on its website and released some details about the c…

Mini Cooper Hardtop will soon receive its biggest makeover in two decades

Now well into its third generation, Mini's retro-styled Hardtop has been around since BMW rebooted the brand 20 years ago . Stylists and engineers are working on the fourth-generation model, and the company revealed the cheeky hatchback is in line to …

LG and Magna announce $1 billion joint venture to build electric car components

TORONTO/SEOUL — South Korea-based LG Electronics Inc and automotive supplier Magna International Inc are launching a joint venture that will make key components for electric cars, the companies announced on Wednesday. The joint venture, tentatively …

'Christmas Vacation's' Clark Griswold powers up again with help from the Ford Mustang Mach-E

This is the time of year when families all over America cue up "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" for a repeat viewing, reassuring themselves that whatever went wrong during their holiday season, it probably can't hold a candle to the travails t…

BMW to send its drivers in-car animated holiday messages

The proliferation of in-car screens and over-the-air updates provides an as-yet mostly untapped potential for automakers to communicate with drivers. As an example, here's BMW, beaming holiday greetings animations out to its owners. The New Year's g…

Elon Musk says he tried to sell Tesla to Apple, but Tim Cook snubbed him

Silicon Valley billionaire Elon Musk said on Tuesday he reached out to Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook "during the darkest days of the Model 3 program" to discuss the possibility of the iPhone maker acquiring Tesla for a tenth of its current v…

Tuesday, December 22, 2020

What You Missed | Your Autoblog Daily Digest for December 22, 2020

Dec 22, 2020

Top Stories of the Day

2021 Kia Sorento First Drive | Telluride's flip-side

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — While Kia may not have had the brand cachet of its competition in the past, the automaker has made big strides in the past decade through hard work, resulting in an improved overall image, especially to anyone who has driven its ne…

GMC confirms Hummer EV will be joined by an electric Sierra, or Sierra-like, pickup

GMC will step into the electric vehicle arena for the first time when it begins building the Hummer EV in 2021. While it's not planning on becoming an electric-only brand, it has more battery-powered models in the pipeline. "There will be an all-ele…

Redesigned 2021 Toyota Sienna earns an IIHS Top Safety Pick+ award

The new and redesigned 2021 Toyota Sienna takes big strides forward when it comes to crash safety, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. It earns the highest possible Top Safety Pick+ award for 2021, whereas the previous Sienna rec…

2021 Ford F-150 package and Bronco Sport prices will creep up on December 23

Buyers in the market for a 2021 F-150 or a 2021 Bronco Sport will need to pay a little more after December 23, according to documents sent by Ford to its dealers. Both models were recently added to the Blue Oval's range. Starting on Wednesday, the B…

2021 Nissan Altima Review | Well-rounded, but mid-pack

Challengers to the 2021 Nissan Altima continue to fall by the wayside with each passing year. For 2021, the Fusion officially takes its exit. The dwindling selection doesn't make it any less difficult for Nissan, though. Hyundai has charged back with…

Upgraded Subaru BRZ spotted testing at Fuji Speedway

The 2022 Subaru BRZ may have just been officially revealed last month, but an upgraded version has already been spotted testing in Japan at Fuji Speedway. Though camouflaged, the car seen is unmistakably the second-generation of Subaru's lightweight,…

Ford recalls 2020-21 Explorer and Lincoln Aviator, 2021 E-Series

Ford announced safety recalls for the 2020-2021 Explorer and Lincoln Aviator along with the 2021 E-Series early Monday. The recalls address entirely different issues. In the case of the 2020-2021 Ford Explorer and Lincoln Aviator, that issue is mot…

Three-row Jeep Grand Cherokee sheds camo in new spy photos

Jeep's prototype three-row Grand Cherokee model was caught in the wild yet again this week, this time wearing significantly less camouflage than it was the last time we got a good look at it . With the loose-fitting vinyl removed from its flanks and…

Hyundai will make the nicest version of the Palisade more accessible

Hyundai's most expensive non-electrified model, the Palisade Calligraphy , will soon become more affordable. The South Korean company confirmed plans to release a front-wheel-drive version of its upmarket SUV. As of writing, the range-topping Calligr…

Mercedes-Benz EQS will get an infotainment screen like no other

Just as the Mercedes-Benz S-Class is a showcase of the latest and greatest technology for the German automaker's internal-combustion cars, the upcoming EQS sedan will be the same for electric cars. This is evidenced by a teaser from Mercedes about th…

Monday, December 21, 2020

What You Missed | Your Autoblog Daily Digest for December 21, 2020

Dec 21, 2020

Top Stories of the Day

2021 Ram 1500 TRX Suspension Deep Dive | Belly of the beast

I think we can all agree that we have been waiting for a gonzo full-size truck like the 2021 Ram 1500 TRX for a long time. After all, it has been over a decade since the Ford F-150 Raptor came out, and it was such an immediate hit that I expected its…

Toyota open-top Supra and Tacoma-based travel trailer take in the outdoors

Earlier in 2020, Toyota tantalized us with images and videos of a Supra equipped with a removable roof panel. It finally unveiled the model, which it originally planned to introduce at SEMA 2020 . For enthusiasts who would rather go off the pavement, …

2021 Chevrolet Tahoe Review | Bigger, better and redder than ever

Tesla stock falls as it joins the S&P 500 today

DETROIT — In the middle of last year, Tesla's losses were piling up, sales weren't enough to cover expenses and big debt payments loomed. The situation was so bad that one influential Wall Street analyst raised the possibility that Tesla wouldn't be …

Polestar 2 owners in the U.S. could get smarter headlights via OTA update

In Sweden, when the nights become longer than the days, Polestar 2 owners are encouraged to leave their high beams on all the time. They don't have to worry about blinding other motorists thanks to a technology called Pixel LED that deactivates indiv…

Toyota to unveil solid-state battery EV prototype next year

In the race to produce the first electric car with a solid-state battery, Toyota is in the lead. The Japanese giant plans to debut its first working prototype in 2021, with a production car going on sale sometime in the early 2020s according to a new…

AddArmor's Ferrari 458 Speciale is a 605-horsepower safe on wheels

Exotic cars and armored cars are often found in the same garage, but they're positioned on opposite ends of the automotive spectrum. AddArmor leveraged the latest developments in armoring technology to build a Ferrari 458 Speciale that can survive .4…

Moto Guzzi V7 gets 25% more power and additional equipment for 2021

Moto Guzzi is making significant changes to the V7, its most affordable model, for the 2021 model year. It gave the bike with a bigger engine that delivers 25% more horsepower, suspension tweaks, and a subtle nip-and-tuck. Engineers achieved the pow…

Junkyard Gem: 1987 Volkswagen Quantum GL5 Syncro Wagon

One great thing about Colorado junkyards is that you can still find examples of long-forgotten four- or all-wheel-drive cars as you walk their rows. Remember the Toyota Previa All-Trac? Just spotted one with a 5-speed . The Mercury Topaz AWD? Still sh…

Innovative carbon fiber wheelchair design garners $1 million from Toyota Mobility in prize money

Toyota Mobility announced a prize money winner in its international mobility competition that challenged people around the world to come up with solutions to improve the lives of folks with lower limb paralysis. Finalists from Japan, Italy, the U.K. …

Friday, December 18, 2020

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

Dec 18, 2020

Top Stories of the Day

2021 Mazda3 Turbo vs. VW GTI | How the hot(ish) hatches compare

For the first time since 2013, Mazda is offering a hopped-up version of its compact hatchback and sedan, the Mazda3. But instead of the rip-snorting "wild child" of yore , this new 2021 Mazda3 Turbo is designed to provide impressive performance while …

Class ring found 50 years ago in a Chevrolet Corvair reunited with its owner

In the late 1960s, the owner of a 1960 Chevrolet Corvair poked around the driver-side footwell to investigate a sticking pedal. Much to his surprise, the issue wasn't due to a linkage-related problem; it was a class ring that a previous owner or a pr…

Toyota boss: Don't ban internal combustion engines

Toyota is on track to introduce an electric prototype powered by state-of-the-art battery technology in 2021, but its chief executive warned that banning the internal combustion engine too quickly is a short-sighted decision. He explained that blanke…

2021 Acura TLX nabs Top Safety Pick+ honor from the IIHS

The Acura TLX is all-new for 2021. It's built on a new architecture that we're told is the brand's most rigid other than the NSX. In our first-drive review , we called it "a true enthusiast's sedan." Now, we know that another benefit of the car's redo…

Bentley starts testing the sold-out, 200-mph Bacalar roadster

Bentley took the limited-edition Bacalar from a sketch to a 200-plus-mph roadster in nine months , a shockingly short amount of time. Its engineers are now putting the first car through its paces at the same break-neck speed. Although the Bacalar is …

2021 Chevrolet Tahoe Luggage Test | Big cargo gains for a big SUV

Prior to the 2015 model year, the Chevrolet Tahoe used to be criticized for its third-row seats, which had to be physically hoisted out of the SUV rather than folding into the floor as those of other SUVs did. Most notably, the Ford Expedition. Now, …

The world's most popular car color is white for the 10th year in a row

It's less of a drum roll and more of a sad trombone. Data for most popular car color in the entire world has been crunched and the winner is, once again, white. Not only that, but it's the 10th consecutive year that white has topped the global list. …

Mazda expands heritage parts program to include the iconic RX-7

Mazda has added two more cars to its heritage parts program. Joining the first-generation MX-5 Miata will be the second- and third-generation Mazda RX-7. It's something fans of Mazda's rotary sports car have demanded for years, and now Mazda is makin…

Tesla shares rise in busy trade ahead of S&P 500 debut

Shares of Tesla gained on Friday in a busy day for the electric car maker's stock ahead of its much-anticipated grand entrance into the benchmark S&P 500 index. Elon Musk's Tesla on Monday will become the most valuable company ever admitted to W…

Next-generation Kia Niro spy photos reveal HabaNiro concept cues

At last year's New York Auto Show, Kia showed us the HabaNiro concept , a meaner, bolder, spicier take on the comparatively mellow Niro hybrid crossover . The company said that it was a hint at things to come, and that seems to be the case based on the…