Drifting is certainly enjoyable, but it should only be done in controlled areas; public roads are not the place to do it as many things can go wrong. Case at hand, this Nissan driver.
A Japanese expressway operator says its work to dig an underground tunnel likely caused a cave-in in a residential area of western Tokyo.
East Nippon Expressway announced interim findings of its probe into the matter on Friday.
Few performance cars have captured the attention of car enthusiasts in 2020 quite like the Toyota GR Yaris. Even less have been so divisive, with some reviewers panning it – like JDM Masters (see the review here), while others are commending it, as is the case with this test by Jonny Smith from The Lake Brake Show who recently had the opportunity to put one through its paces in the UK.
Infiniti just revealed an off-road prepped QX80 that will take on the Rebelle Rally this week. Beginning today, the Rebelle Rally is an all-female rally where racers navigate off-road terrain from Lake Tahoe to the Imperial Sand Dunes by the U.S.-Mexico border. It's 1,200 miles of rough terrain, so the luxurious QX80 needed a little help to get ready for it.
The big bruiser of an SUV was handed off to Calmini Products Inc. in California for the prep work. It got a three-inch lift, heavy-duty control arms, off-road performance shocks, high clearance front and rear bumpers and thicker skid plates. The new Off-Road Monster 18-inch wheels are wrapped with chunky Nitto Terra Grappler all-terrain tires. We wouldn't normally say this about an Infiniti, but this QX80 looks badass.
Off-road-oriented trucks are the hot trend right now, and automakers are moving beyond special off-road models to selling parts to upgrade existing trucks and SUVs. Ford has rolled out multiple products for the Ranger pickup, and now Nissan is aiming to match them. And it all starts with a new range of parts for the Nissan Frontier.
These parts make their debut on a 2020 Nissan Frontier participating in the Rebelle Rally – a race for women focusing on off-road driving and navigation ability – and will be available later this year. The most immediately noticeable of these parts is the steel off-road bumper. It weighs 106 pounds and features mounting points and holes for lights, shackles and a winch. Mounted to that bumper are a set of lights developed with Rigid Industries. The first lights available will be these round, 6-inch LED units, but other sizes, shapes and illumination patterns will come later. All lights will come with a switch, harness and covers. Capping off the visual upgrades are the 17-inch Nismo off-road wheels.
The 2020 Acura NSX is the kind of car you're pumped to drive. You think about it the night before. You read up on it. You tell your friends and family. You notice passers-by admiring it in the driveway. They try to be sly. Some gawk. There's anticipation.
But is there satisfaction? The NSX immediately raises two questions. Where does it fit among its contemporaries and does it measure up to its legendary predecessor?
As I sit down to write this, it's dawning on me that I have owned all three of these vehicles at one point or another. The Toyota 4Runner TRD Off-Road is the one that currently shades my driveway. You've seen it before. Twice.
But I actually brought my wife and newborn daughter home from the hospital in a 1996 Toyota RAV4, a four-door model with a manual transmission, lockable center differential and a Torsen rear differential. It may have looked like a hiking boot, but it handled like a rally car on my dirt road commute, which was so utterly deserted I could fully exploit the route's numerous corners and float over its perfectly-shaped jump.
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.
You've seen this particular Toyota 4Runner before because it was the subject of the first Suspension Deep Dive I wrote for Autoblog. It's still hanging around my driveway and available to make the occasional repeat appearance because, well, it's mine. I chose the TRD Off-Road for a couple of reasons, some of which will come into play on my Flex Index ramp.
First, it's the only model other than the TRD Pro that comes with a push-button locking rear differential, electronic crawl control and multi-terrain select. Second, it can cost as much as $10,000 less than a TRD Pro, particularly if you're content with cloth seating and no sunroof, as I am. I used some of the money I saved to buy the third item: an option called KDSS, the Kinetic Dynamic Suspension System. Importantly, this clever option can only be fitted to a TRD Off-Road; it's not even available on the TRD Pro.
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 new life as a 2020 Mazda MX-5 Miata, bringing joy to his future owner and just generally being awesome, even if the RF power targa-ish roof that's already been applied to him is a tad dweeby. Visions of hairpins and power slides and expertly executed heal-toe downshifts dance in his head … and then it happens. He is given the one thing every new Miata dreads: an automatic transmission. Poor guy.
This will not, entirely at least, be yet another diatribe in the ongoing Quixotic campaign to Save the Manuals(!). Automatic transmissions can be quite good and even beneficial in sports cars, especially on the track where removing the need to operate a clutch and expertly execute those heal-toe downshifts lets you better focus on the steering, what the chassis is doing and just going faster. That the computers can shift quicker than you can is another obvious advantage.
This 2020 Toyota RAV4 TRD Off-Road would spend more time on boats than off road. The Falken Wildpeak A/T Trail tires would be more noteworthy for their elevated road noise than their puncture resistant design or severe snow rating. My selection from the Multi-Terrain Select system among Mud & Sand, Rock & Trail and Snow was always "none of the above." Admittedly, then, driving from Portland, Ore., to Victoria and Vancouver, B.C. with a few ferry trips along the way is hardly a tall task for the RAV4's new, most-rugged trim level.
Part of me knows this is a bit lame (or a lot), but the rest knows that if you're really game for serious off-roading, no amount of upgrades to a RAV4 will make it a great choice. You'll find better approach/departure angles and a 4WD Low setting in a Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk, while a used 4Runner would be the obvious Toyota alternative for similar money. That said, the new-for-2020 RAV4 TRD Off-Road has plenty of appeal, especially for folks who like the idea of a rugged, off-road ready SUV but know that A) they're unlikely to take it off-road much and B) appreciate the RAV4's superior fuel economy and family-friendly space. Basically, folks like myself.
Our 2019 Subaru Forester long-term tester is rounding second base in its stay at Autoblog's Michigan HQ, yet the blue-painted, gold-wheeled crossover hadn't left the Midwest throughout its first six months here, so I sought to change that by taking it down to New Orleans. The goal: Determine if the Forester is a good road trip car. Of course, my girlfriend and I also wanted to go to Mardi Gras, but either way, we were in for some long days of driving.
There are a few umbrella categories a vehicle should excel in to make a vacation and road trip better for all involved. For me, those include comfort, utility and its driver assistance systems.
Over the past two decades, the Honda CR-V has embodied Honda's reputation for building durable, comfortable and user-friendly family cars that don't require a ton of unscheduled attention (aside from a brief hiccup with transmission reliability). As it has slowly become the automaker's bread-and-butter model, Honda's product planners have put correspondingly increased effort and resources toward keeping the CR-V fresh and competitive.
For the 2020 Honda CR-V, Honda tweaked the styling, added features and simplified its engine offerings in what is the first significant update since this generation dawned for the 2017 model year. There's also a new hybrid offering for those OK paying a Honda a bit more so they can pay oil companies less.
Transcript: This safety tech keeps you focused on the road. Subaru's DriverFocus distraction mitigation system is one of the first technologies of its kind. It's designed to help detect distracted or drowsy driving. DriverFocus uses facial recognition and biometrics. A driver-facing camera keeps a digital eye on the driver and will chime if it notices you taking your eyes off the road. DriverFocus will also recognize the faces of up to 5 drivers and keep driver profiles. The system will welcome you and move your seat to your desired setting. DriverFocus comes standard in the Subaru Forester Touring Edition.