Hyundai dropped details on the upcoming Elantra N Line sedan Thursday, revealing that the six-speed manual that disappeared from the previous Elantra Sport for 2020 will reappear in the new-generation model.
Not appearing in ’21 are extra horses, however. (Read More…)
Crossovers often get mocked by auto journalists as “tall wagons.” These scribes – and there are many, myself included, who have used this term – don’t understand why people don’t buy actual wagons.
Indeed, just the other day, the section of the Twitterverse reserved for auto writers had a discussion about why the public likes the much-loathed crossover so much.
There’s the obvious reason, of course – most of the people in the car-buying public are either not car enthusiasts, or they’re enthusiasts forced into crossover life by budget and life needs. We’ve been over this before.
Just when Toyota’s Yaris finally adorned the name of a fun car, the brand kills it.
It was once the Scion iA, but a couple years ago, Toyota bestowed it with the Yaris moniker after retiring the Scion brand. Once attached to underwhelming subcompacts, the name was now slapped on the side of a more-fun small car.
It’s not shocking that the brand killed the Mazda 2-based Yaris sedan. The culprits? Slow sales and new regulations.
Slow sales is a big story in the subcompact class, and in 2019 the Yaris was down 5,000 units from the year before. Coronavirus may have ushered the Yaris out the door, too, since Toyota planned to limit North American production to adjust to the difficulties posed by the pandemic.
The big news at Mazda right now are the two new additions to the compact 3 line for 2021. Bookending the model’s range, the fresh faces include a new entry-level trim that adopts the 2.0-liter four-cylinder ditched for 2019, plus a turbocharged all-wheel drive model positioned at the top of the heap.
It’s a tale of two very different prices. (Read More…)
Jeep sent me a desert-running rig, and I took it to the grocery store.
Let’s back up a bit. Jeep introduced the Gladiator Mojave at the 2020 Chicago Auto Show, with the intent of this trim being meant for blasts across the desert, while still being as capable as any Gladiator, if not more so, on a rocky trail.
I was all set to join others in the automotive media on a junket to drive the Mojave, almost certainly in the actual desert, in Southern California this spring. Then the world shut down.
The next time certain product planners in Wolfsburg look in the mirror, they have a question to ask themselves: “How did we let the Volkswagen Passat get so damn dull?”
Especially after a refresh.
It’s not like the company is incapable of producing quality, fun sedans. The Jetta GLI is a hoot. The Arteon might struggle to find buyers, but that has little to do with the car’s dynamics, as it’s pretty fun to pilot. Even the non-GLI Jetta mixes practicality and pleasure well enough.
Why, then, did the Passat, which was once relatively engaging, if not an outright sports sedan, get so boring? (Read More…)
The idea of Honda and Toyota slugging it out for midsize sedan supremacy, with every other contender — from the very good to the mediocre to the also-rans — fighting it out for sales scraps, is pretty much an auto-journalism cliché at this point.
Other contenders dance in and out of the ring, but never quite stay part of the conversation. Hyundai’s Sonata has long been one of those. Certain generations of the Sonata were very much a part of the mix at the top of the class. Others were forgettable, hanging out in the muddled middle.
Sadly for Fiat Chryler’s Italian luxury brand, the buzz last week surrounded the newly unveiled Ford Bronco, not the upcoming Ghibli Hybrid.
A model and brand TTAC’s readership can’t get enough of, the Maserati Ghibli appears for 2021 with an optional 48-volt mild hybrid powertrain that mates a 2.0-liter four-cylinder with electric “e-Booster” supercharger to an eight-speed automatic. It’s the automaker’s first electrified vehicle. (Read More…)
The Fiat 500X counts as a crossover, somehow. Yes, it shares a platform with the Jeep Renegade, but then again, it also shares that platform with the Fiat 500L.
At least it looks better than that rolling blob of anonymity.
New for 2020 is a Sport model, although how much sport is gained is debatable.
Don’t have a compact EV crossover in the works? Are you even an automaker?
Keeping up with the industry Joneses is a longstanding tradition among automakers, and Nissan, despite its troubles, isn’t throwing in the towel when it comes to cutting-edge competition. After revealing a concept CUV last year that promised gas-free driving and a healthy driving range, Nissan unveiled the production vehicle last night.
It doesn’t differ much from the concept. (Read More…)
After putting the finishing touches on its sales-seeking crossover expansion, Hyundai realized something already well-known by domestic truck makers — if you offer a new trim above your loftiest level of luxury, plenty of people are liable to buy it. Assuming the basic bones of the vehicle are competent enough, of course.
After looking at early sales, it seems the Palisade has earned Hyundai plenty of sales, and perhaps more importantly, plenty of first-time buyers.
Time to crank up the lux! (Read More…)
Eventually, the absence of a body-on-frame, go-anywhere, dedicated off-road SUV was too great for the Ford lineup to bear — which is why, after a quarter-century absence, the Bronco triumphantly returns to do battle with its Mopar foe, the Jeep Wrangler.
Talked about endlessly since Ford announced the storied model’s return and leaked as often as celebrity medical records to the National Enquirer, the Bronco makes its debut with the goodies fans want and certain things all SUVs need in the futuristic year of 2021. Namely, a four-door model. (Read More…)
The Ford Bronco news doesn’t just stop with one model. There’s not one, not two, but three in the family.
That threesome includes the two-door and four-door versions of the Bronco, as well as the smaller Bronco Sport.
Think of the Bronco Sport as an off-road version of Ford’s Escape crossover. Ford might get mad at us for saying that, but hey, we’re not PR.
A strange new animal has appeared overseas, bearing a name that’s very, very familiar to American drivers. Corolla Cross, by Toyota.
It’s a Corolla, only a crossover.
Let’s explore. (Read More…)
Have you seen a Volkswagen Arteon in traffic?
Odds are, you probably haven’t.
According to our friends at GoodCarBadCar, Volkswagen sold less than 3,000 units in 2019, and 788 through March of this year. To date, there hasn’t been a month in which more than 400 units were sold.
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