The Toyota GR Yaris has been hailed as one of the best hot hatches to have launched in the past few years. And more recently, it was set loose on the notorious Nurburgring Nordschleife.
This week's Autoblog Podcast features Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore and Consumer Editor Jeremy Korzeniewski as they debate the merits of the redesigned Subaru BRZ and Toyota 86 coupes and whether or not they are distinctive and powerful enough to attract buyers. The duo spends some time discussing ongoing EV and infrastructure legislation before turning their attention to a trio of crossovers. Greg muses about the 2021 Mazda CX-30 before Jeremy talks about the refreshed 2022 Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross and completely redesigned Outlander.
We get nostalgic as we remember the dearly departed Pontiac GTO before wrapping the podcast up by making one more suggestion to a longtime listener who is shopping for a vehicle to replace her aging Honda Pilot.
Honda is on the path to develop connected vehicle technology for its future cars like many other car companies. Today, it demonstrated how some of these technologies will help us and explains how the transition to 5G tech will move this along.
The video at the top of this post best shows what Honda is trying to do. It illustrates three different scenarios where cellular vehicle-to-everything communications (C-V2X) will come in handy, and potentially save lives. Honda says it's relying on Verizon's 5G network (we'll note here that Autoblog is part of the Verizon Media group of media companies, but the relationship does not affect our coverage) to test its tech at the University of Michigan's Mcity, which is a dedicated test area for future connected and autonomous vehicles.
The TRD Pro has been the top-dog 4Runner model for seven years now. It's the most hardcore in terms of capability and appearance, which perhaps has made it desirable enough to warrant the hefty price tag. There is another factor, however: There has been a new, special color each year, several of which were once offered on the FJ Cruiser. It was Inferno Orange for 2015, Quicksand for 2016, Cement for 2017, Cavalry Blue for 2018, Voodoo Blue for 2019, Army Green for 2020 and now Lunar Rock for 2021. And not only were these a one-and-done situation, not only were they unique to the TRD Pro, but they were also the only vaguely interesting color selections available. The rest of the palette has been white, gray/silver, black and perfectly acceptable but undistinguished blue and red. I can guarantee you people have purchased TRD Pros simply because of the colors. It's definitely a bit silly, but I know I would, and I have a friend who entirely wanted the TRD Pro because of Army Green.
For the 2021 Toyota 4Runner, though, the TRD Pro isn't the only version available with interesting colors and you don't have to pay top dollar to get them. Quite the opposite really.
It looks like Honda is getting serious about the Trailsport name. Last July the company filed a trademark for the name itself. Last month, it filed a trademark for the logo that will accompany that name.
The logo, discovered by Carbuzz, shows a mountain range with the word "Trailsport" in stylized letters below it. It actually bears a resemblance to the recently unveiled Subaru Wilderness logo, which depicts an even taller mountain. Read into that what you will.
Nissan is the latest carmaker to cut the cost of its EVs following last month's surprise announcement by the UK Government to massively reduce the financial incentives for Brits to buy electric cars.
Launched in 2017, the Lexus LC500 has proven to be a very capable grand tourer. So why don’t we pay more attention to it? That’s the question posed by one reviewer who recently set out to remind us what such a great car it is.
Good morning and welcome to our daily digest of automotive news from around the globe, starting with…
Photos keep sneaking out of the facilities where Nissan is putting together pre-production Z sports cars. They've already confirmed that the final car looks just like the Z Proto concept. Now a photo shared with us from the Nissan Z Club forum reveals an eye-popping blue leather interior option.
The blue leather is featured on the lower half of the dash, center stack, doors and on the front part of the seats. It also appears that the seat centers are finished in a faux suede or Alcantara of the same hue. The top of the dash and doors are still black to keep reflections to a minimum. This particular car appears to be painted white based on the door jambs.
The 2021 Nissan Murano has earned the top honor from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The agency awarded the midsize SUV its Top Safety Pick+ rating for the Murano's crash-test performance and the efficacy of its crash-avoidance technology.
The Murano achieved the top score of Good in all six crashworthiness evaluations: small-overlap front, driver's side; small-overlap front, passenger's side; moderate overlap front; side-impact; roof crush; and head restraints and seats.
It only takes a minute behind the wheel of the 2022 Outlander to understand how Mitsubishi's alliance with Nissan and Renault has allowed it to reap dramatic rewards. The 2022 Mitsubishi Outlander isn't just redesigned, it's a thorough rethink on how to attack the compact crossover marketplace. Not only that, it's vaulted Mitsubishi from an also-ran to a solid contender for your hard-earned bucks.
The Mitsubishi Outlander is not a rebadged Nissan Rogue. The two crossovers share their platform and powertrain, and Mitsubishi says they were co-developed and Outlander was not simply a hand-me-down. They differ in many notable ways, not the least of which is a standard third row (sized for very limited use) in the Outlander that's not offered in the Rogue, but also in tuning, design and materials.
Subaru will shut one of its Japanese factories for more than two weeks because of the ongoing shortage of semiconductors.
Many remarkable performance cars have come out of Japan over the decades and of them, the Lexus LFA is one of the finest.
The Japan-market, 232-horsepower versions of the Toyota GR 86 and Subaru BRZ were announced jointly this morning. While the latter is visually the same as the 228-horsepower U.S.-market car unveiled in November, it was the first time Japan has seen its home-market spec. Immediately following the reveal, the boys in blue laid out some accessories and STI performance parts for their version of the car.
The images show a more aggressive BRZ equipped with aerodynamic upgrades. A lower front spoiler wraps the lower bumper, while the side intakes add LED fog lamps. Moving rearward, the rocker panels add a pair of small winglets right in front of the rear wheels.