Honda could be embarking on a new hunt for lap records with the 2021 Civic Type R Limited Edition.

Many have their doubts about the Honda Ridgeline's unibody structure and independent rear suspension. Not me. I once drove the latest Ridgeline generation to Racetrack Playa, a geological wonder you may have read about in Death Valley. The trip there was a tooth-rattling 54-mile out and back journey on a badly washboarded dirt road, but thanks to its carlike unibody structure and independent rear suspension doing a better job sucking up the washboard at speed, the Ridgeline survived the trip much better than two off-road package trucks that tagged along. It may have returned with one slightly leaky rear shock, but the Tacoma TRD Off-Road and Nissan Titan XD Pro-4X suffered dramatic explosive failures of their rear shocks and irreversible heat damage to their front ones.

The Ridgeline's suspension has no equal in the pickup world when it comes to on-road ride and handling, and unlike the weird first generation's compromised bed, the new one's is longer and wider than any other midsize crew cab. It's got that trunk and two-way tailgate, too. By all accounts it's a great truck if you can admit you'll never take it to Moab. But Death Valley surprised me. Much like that original generation, the 2020 Honda Ridgeline is actually quite well-suited to some off-highway situations. Let's see if we can figure out why.

In the motorcycle world, Scramblers are all the rage. Rugged-looking street bikes that also perform well off-road. The Triumph Scrambler kicked off the craze in 2006, with its high pipes and knobby tires. It was a modern take on a model it offered in the 1960s, and now many other manufacturers have followed its lead, including Ducati, Indian and BMW.

In stark contrast to the gaggles of car-based crossovers roaming our streets, the SUV world also has its fair share of Scramblers. Trucks like the new 2020 Toyota 4Runner Venture Special Edition: rugged looking, full frame 4x4s that perform well both on- and off-road. And like the bikes, they're all the rage. Jeep Wrangler sales are through the roof. There's a new Ford Bronco on the way. Finally. And last year Toyota sold more than 130,000 4Runners.

The Suzuki Jimny would probably fit in the back of the Hummer H1, but make no mistake, this is a proper off-roader with all the bells and whistles, including a body-on-frame chassis, low-range transmission, short overhangs and four-wheel drive.

Last year was a big one in the world of performance cars, thanks largely to the arrival of the Chevrolet C8 Corvette Stingray and the new Toyota Supra. While the two have vastly different engines and roughly $10,000 separating their MSRPs, they are both huge fun to drive and are also very capable on a circuit.

When it arrives in showrooms this fall, the 2021 Acura TLX will be the first vehicle equipped with the new three-chamber front passenger airbag design Honda announced last year, reinforcing the automaker's commitment to infused the sports sedan with state-of-the-art safety bonafides.

As explained in the video above, the new airbag was designed and developed by engineers at Honda's R&D campus in Ohio and auto supplier Autoliv to mitigate the risk of severe brain trauma associated with angled frontal collisions. With its official launch in the 2021 TLX, the airbag will begin to be offered to other automakers through Autoliv.

Tesla and Panasonic have entered into a new three-year agreement for the manufacturing and supply of lithium ion battery cells at the carmaker’s Gigafactory in Nevada.

Nissan's board of directors is reportedly pressured by a team of current and former executives behind the scenes to promote Ashwani Gupta, the company's COO, to co-CEO alongside Makoto Uchida.

(Reuters) - Nissan's chief operating officer Ashwani Gupta, pictured above right, helped engineer the troubled automaker's latest turnaround plan. Now his allies are pressing the board to promote him to co-CEO to drive the new strategy, said four people with direct knowledge.

Thus far, Nissan's 12-member board has no plan to change the roles of Chief Executive Makoto Uchida or his No. 2 Gupta, the sources told Reuters. But the behind-the-scenes campaign, involving at least half a dozen current and former executives, points to continued tensions at the top of the Japanese automaker, which has had four CEOs in four years.

Honda is adding a few updates to its Pilot three-row crossover for 2021 that include introducing a new mid-level trim designation, making the nine-speed automatic transmission that was previously available on higher trim levels standard across the range, and giving the family hauler a $725 price increase. The entry-level LX now starts at $33,370, including the $1,120 destination fee. All-wheel-drive versions of each trim, which feature Honda's torque vectoring system, remain a $2,000 option, as before.

The new trim level is called Special Edition, or SE as it will appear on the liftgate badge. It builds on the EX-L grade, which adds features that include leather seats, second-row sunshades, a power liftgate and sunroof. Step up to the SE and you get 20-inch black wheels and trim like roof rails, grille, and front and rear skid garnishes. The only actual equipment upgrade is wireless phone charging. The SE grade is positioned exactly midpoint in the Pilot trim spectrum and starts at $40,080, including destination, for front-wheel-drive versions and $42,080 all-inclusive for all-wheel drive.

Mazda exited America's pickup segment when it deep-sixed the Ford Ranger-based B-Series after the 2009 model year, but it remains committed to the body style overseas. The third-generation BT-50 introduced online wears an unusually stylish design for a global truck, while its interior looks and feels more car-like than before.

The BT-50 is based on the Isuzu D-Max, but the familiar shield-shaped grille hides the common DNA well. Horizontal slats and a thick chrome frame create a visual link between the pickup and members of Mazda's line of sedans and crossovers, while stylists gave the rear end more utilitarian-looking lines characterized by vertical lights. The variant depicted in Mazda's images is an upmarket trim built for users who need a rugged daily driver, and more basic versions that feel at home on a construction site will ship will inevitably look a lot cheaper.

The last time we reviewed a Toyota Sequoia, George W. Bush was the president of the United States of America. The recession had officially hit, and the nationwide average price for a gallon of gasoline was $3.27. Great timing for a new truck that's rated at 15 mpg combined. 

Fast forward about 12 years, and we land at the 2020 Toyota Sequoia TRD Pro. Not a whole lot has changed in the interim — it's even painted green like that '08 model (though its Army Green is undoubtedly superior to the old Timberland Mica). Toyota played Tetris with some engines in the model's early years, but has settled on the 5.7-liter V8 as the only option at this point. Some minor tech upgrades were added over the years, and it got the closest thing to a mid-cycle refresh for 2018 — there were some small styling changes, new headlights and a bevy of driver assistance features added, but the truck remained largely the same.

We've driven the updated 2021 Toyota Supras already, and now we know the prices for the more powerful inline-six and the new four-cylinder. The inline-six price increases by a smidge, up to $51,945, including the $955 destination charge. That's a $1,000 increase to the base model, but the Supra 3.0 Premium only increases by $500, up to $54,490. Toyota gave the 3.0 more power this year, re-tuned the suspension and added bracing, so you are getting a bit more for your dollar in 2021.

If you want the Supra 2.0, it'll be $43,945. That makes the price spread between the base 3.0 and 2.0 exactly $8,000. That's about what we predicted. We were hoping for a base price closer to the $40,000 mark, but the Supra 2.0 is still a superb sports car for $43,945. If you want the Safety and Technology package available for the 2.0, it'll be an extra $3,485. It includes a ton of equipment: adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross traffic alert, parking sensors, the JBL audio system, Apple CarPlay and Supra Connected Services. The same package, minus some equipment, costs $3,155 on the base 3.0, while it comes as standard equipment on the 3.0 Premium. If you've already chosen the 3.0 Premium, a Driver Assist Package for $1,195 is also available.

Tesla has signed a three-year pricing deal with Japan's Panasonic Corp to manufacture and supply lithium-ion battery cells at the Gigafactory in Nevada, the electric carmaker disclosed in a filing on Tuesday.

Tesla and Panasonic have been reported to be in talks to expand the battery joint venture's capacity.