Camber Daily

Volvo’s seat belt was perfected by an ejection-seat engineer, then given away

Tue, 20 Oct 2026 13:37:00 -0400

A 1959 Volvo PV544, the model that got the first standard three-point belts. Photo: TTTNIS via Wikimedia Commons, CC0 (public domain dedication)

The man who perfected the modern seat belt used to work on ejection seats for airplanes. Then his employer, Volvo, gave the design away for free. It is one of the few stories in the car business where the most generous move and the smartest one turned out to be the same thing.

The engineer from the ejection seats

His name was Nils Bohlin. Before he joined Volvo, he was an aviation engineer who worked on catapult seats, the kind that fire a pilot out of a failing aircraft. So he arrived already knowing a great deal about what a sudden stop does to a human body.

Seat belts were not new. Volvo’s own heritage history points out that belts of one kind or another had been around since the mid-1800s, and plain lap belts already helped. Then, in the 1950s, a new belt prototype reached Volvo and landed on Bohlin’s desk. In 1959 he got it right.

Why three points

The design is the one you wear every day. One strap runs across your lap and one runs across your chest, and they meet at an anchor low beside the seat, in a V that points to the floor. Volvo’s explanation is simple: the belt spreads the force of a crash across your pelvis and chest, where the body is strongest. Bohlin’s patent puts it in drier words. It says the belt keeps the wearer’s body from being thrown forward “effectively, and in a physiologically favorable manner.” Engineers, it seems, never write “it stops you hitting the dashboard.”

The first car to get it

On Aug. 13, 1959, Volvo delivered the first car with three-point belts as standard to its dealer in Kristianstad, Sweden. It was a PV544, the rounded little sedan in the photo above. Before long the belt was standard in every Volvo, and in 1963 Volvo launched it in the United States.

The part that still sounds made up

Volvo patented the design and then let every carmaker use it without payment. Volvo Group’s heritage page says the belt was “gifted to the rest of the industry,” and today it sits in most of the cars on the road, whoever built them, with its use required by law in much of the world.

Volvo estimates the three-point belt has saved more than a million lives. That figure is Volvo’s own estimate, not an independent count, but the basic idea behind it is hard to argue with. Somewhere, a patent lawyer is still wincing at the royalties that never were.

Volvo has long said that safety is the starting point for everything it builds. Its founders wrote in a 1936 sales handbook that “an automobile is driven by people,” and that safety must be the basic rule for all design work. A free seat belt is about the clearest proof of that line anyone could ask for.

So, honest question: do you buckle up before you start the car, or after the chime starts nagging?

Sources

Toyota changed nothing on the 2027 Camry, and that is the whole pitch

Tue, 20 Oct 2026 08:37:00 -0400

A 2027 Toyota Camry XSE with the two-tone black roof Toyota offers on select XSE colors. Photo: Toyota

Toyota’s big change for the 2027 Camry is that there isn’t one. The press release says so in a headline bullet: grades, features and options carry over from last year. For a car people buy so they never have to think about cars again, that is not a confession. That is the sales pitch.

So this is a short story about a car that did not change, which is very on brand for the car.

The numbers

The 2027 Camry starts at $29,700. That is before Toyota’s dealer processing and handling fee, so the number on your paperwork will be higher.

Every Camry is a hybrid. There is no gas-only version and no plug. A 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine works with Toyota’s fifth-generation hybrid system, and the car charges its own battery as you drive, including when you brake. The transmission is an electronically controlled CVT: no fixed gears, just a smooth slide through the ratios.

Front-wheel drive: 225 horsepower combined.
All-wheel drive: 232 horsepower combined, offered on all five versions.
Fuel economy: Toyota estimates the front-wheel-drive LE at 51 mpg combined. That is Toyota’s number, not an EPA rating yet.

No plug, no new habits.

How the all-wheel drive works

Toyota puts an electric motor on the rear axle. The system shifts power between the front and rear wheels as conditions change, and when it senses a slippery road or a tire losing grip, it can send more to the rear wheels for traction. Think of it as a spare pair of hands that turns up when the floor is wet.

Which one is which

Five versions, two personalities.

The calm ones are the LE and XLE. The LE gets 16-inch alloy wheels and woven cloth seats with a pattern Toyota says is inspired by ocean waves. The XLE moves up to 18-inch wheels, leather and microfiber trim, heated front seats and a 12.3-inch digital gauge screen.

The sporty ones are the SE, Nightshade and XSE, which get a sport-tuned suspension and paddle shifters. The SE rides on 18-inch black wheels and the XSE on 19s, and both show off exposed dual exhaust tips. The Nightshade paints its trim black, from the grille and mirror caps down to the door handles and the shark-fin antenna. It is the Camry for people who want to look like they are up to something.

Every 2027 Camry gets wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a wireless phone charger, five USB ports, blind-spot monitoring and Toyota Safety Sense 3.0. That is Toyota’s standard set of driver aids, including a pre-collision system with pedestrian detection, radar cruise control that works across the full speed range, and help staying in your lane.

Built in Kentucky

Toyota builds the Camry in Georgetown, Kentucky. The basic warranty runs 3 years or 36,000 miles, the powertrain 5 years or 60,000 miles, and the hybrid parts get their own 8 years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first. The 2027 cars reach dealers this fall.

Our take

A carryover year sounds boring, and it is. That is the feature. This is still the ninth-generation Camry, and Toyota has decided it does not need fixing yet.

We have not driven the 2027. On paper, if you want a roomy sedan with hybrid mileage and nothing to plug in, price the front-wheel-drive LE first, since it is the version with the 51 mpg estimate. Pick an SE or XSE if you want the neighbors to wonder whether you bought the sporty one. You did, sort of.

If you would rather sit higher, our RAV4 review and the Grand Highlander Woodland story cover Toyota’s hybrid SUVs.

A Camry that refuses to change: smart, or a missed chance? Tell us on Facebook.

Sources

Jeep’s last Twelve 4 Twelve Wrangler is built by swapping doors and hoods

Mon, 19 Oct 2026 13:37:00 -0400

The 2027 Jeep Wrangler Switchback four-door, revealed Oct. 12, 2026. Photo: Jeep

Jeep’s newest Wrangler is built by having two Wranglers trade doors and hoods on the assembly line. The 2027 Wrangler Switchback, revealed Oct. 12, is the 12th and final release in Jeep’s Twelve 4 Twelve series, a new special-edition Wrangler every month from November 2025 to October 2026. Jeep saved the oddest idea for last, and it might be the best one.

How the swap works

Jeep says Gloss Black and Sting-Gray Wranglers are sequenced together down the line. Their doors get switched during regular production, and their hoods are swapped at the upfitting center. Each one leaves wearing parts in its sibling’s color, which is why the Jeep in the photo mixes gray and black.

It is the junkyard door swap, done on purpose and with a warranty. Jeep’s own release talks about the Wrangler’s “building kit” philosophy, and this is the factory leaning all the way into it.

The swapped hood is Jeep’s dual-vented power-dome hood, painted Gloss Black or Sting-Gray. The three-piece hardtop also comes in either color. A “Switchback” hood graphic and a Sting-Gray “41” decal on the body side add another layer of contrast, and the badges and tow hooks are black.

Where the green goes

Gecko, a bright green, moves from body color to accent. It shows up on the grille surround, the hood graphic, the swing-gate decal and the beadlock wheel rings around the rims. Jeep says those are the first bright-colored beadlock wheel rings on a production Wrangler, and that it developed the Gecko finish specifically for them.

Jeep says the look draws on the bold colors, graphics and mix-and-match style of today’s gaming and digital culture. In other words, this is a Wrangler with a custom skin, except the skin is real paint and you cannot unlock it by grinding.

Inside

The seats are Global Black Nappa leather with a debossed Switchback logo. The instrument panel surround, door armrests and center-console lid are trimmed in Sea Salt Nappa leather, which Jeep calls a first for the Wrangler. Pearl and Lime stitching ties the cabin back to the green outside.

The small stuff is where Jeep had fun. There is a Willys satin chrome shifter medallion, vent graphics showing the seven-slot grille and a Willys silhouette, a Switchback cupholder plaque, and a swing-gate plaque with blueprint-style Wrangler drawings, specs, map details and Detroit and Toledo callouts.

What it costs

The Switchback is based on the Rubicon X, the loaded version of the trail-focused Rubicon, and comes as a two-door or a four-door. Orders open in November. The two-door starts at $66,695 and the four-door at $69,995, both including the $1,995 destination charge, the fee for shipping it to the dealer. Jeep lists the Switchback package price at $2,870.

The series, briefly

Twelve 4 Twelve started in November 2025 with the Wrangler Moab 392. Along the way came the Willys 392, with a 470-horsepower 6.4-liter HEMI V8; the Sarge, a tribute to the military Willys MB; and a Laredo that revived a trim Jeep says helped define its style in the 1980s. The Switchback is the only one where the factory swaps the parts for you.

Gray with a black hood, or black with a gray hood?

Sources

AMG finally built its own SUV, and it brought 1,153 hp and a recorded V8

Mon, 19 Oct 2026 08:37:00 -0400

The Mercedes-AMG GT 55 SUV, revealed with the rest of the GT SUV range on Oct. 17, 2026. Photo: Mercedes-Benz

AMG has been putting big engines in Mercedes SUVs for years. What it had never done, in 59 years, is develop a full-size SUV from the ground up entirely in-house. The new Mercedes-AMG GT SUV is that first one. It is electric, the top version makes 1,153 hp, and it plays a recorded AMG V8 while you drive. Think of it as decaf that still comes with the sound of the espresso machine.

What it is

Mercedes revealed the GT SUV on Oct. 17 at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart. It is the second model built on AMG.EA, AMG’s electric high performance architecture, and it shares its three-motor layout with the recently unveiled AMG GT 4-Door Coupe. Mercedes pitches it as the presence of a full-size SUV with the driving feel of a sports car. In plain terms: tall enough to see over traffic, quick enough to leave it.

The numbers

Three versions come to the US. The GT 53 uses two motors, one on each axle, for a combined 536 hp, with a two-speed transmission at the rear. The GT 55 and GT 63 use three axial flux motors, two at the rear and one at the front. The front one is a booster that only joins in when the car wants more power or grip.

The GT 55 makes up to 805 hp. The GT 63 makes 1,153 hp at peak, 711 hp continuously and 1,475 lb-ft of torque. Mercedes estimates 0 to 60 mph in 2.6 seconds, or 2.4 seconds measured the drag-strip way with a 1-foot rollout, and limits top speed to 168 mph. Carbon ceramic brakes are standard on the GT 63, which seems wise.

Charging

The 800-volt battery comes in two sizes: 106 kWh in the GT 53 and 128 kWh in the GT 55 and GT 63. Mercedes says the larger one accepts up to 710 kW of DC charging and goes from 10 to 80 percent in 12 minutes. The GT 53 tops out at 600 kW. On a more common 400 kW charger, Mercedes quotes 14 minutes for the GT 53 and 16 minutes for the bigger battery. US cars use the NACS plug, the Tesla-style connector. That is a charging stop shorter than most drive-thru lines.

About that V8

The AMGFORCE Sport+ drive program plays a V8 sound in the GT 63 and GT 55 and a six-cylinder sound in the GT 53. Mercedes says the sounds are recorded, not synthesized, from over 100 measurements taken with 16 microphones on reference cars such as the AMG GT R. It also simulates gear changes, lets you shift with the paddles and shakes the seats along. There is a slider with Powerful, Balanced and Silent settings. Silence was never the AMG brand, but at least it is now on the menu.

Underneath

The new AMG Active Ride Control+ suspension, standard on the GT 63 and optional on the GT 55, swaps traditional anti-roll bars for active hydraulics and pairs them with three-stage air springs. Rear-axle steering is standard and turns the rear wheels up to 6 degrees. Below 50 mph they turn against the fronts, which Mercedes says makes the big SUV turn in sharper and easier to maneuver at low speed. Above 50 mph they turn with the fronts for stability.

Price and timing

The 2028 GT 53, GT 55 and GT 63 reach US dealers in summer 2027. Mercedes has not announced US pricing. The SUV will be assembled in Hall 32 at Sindelfingen, a Mercedes-Benz plant founded in 1915 and retrofitted for the new electric hardware.

Our take

AMG’s first homemade SUV skips the V8 and then works very hard to sound like it has one. The numbers are huge and the charging figures may matter more than the horsepower. The real test comes next summer, when US buyers see the price and decide how much a recorded V8 is worth to them.

Sources

Street HEMI: the 426 Chrysler sold because NASCAR made it

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 08:37:00 -0400

A 1966 426 Street HEMI on display at the Walter P. Chrysler Museum, photographed in December 2016. Photo: Greg Gjerdingen via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

Chrysler did not build the Street HEMI because customers begged. It built it because NASCAR said no.

A race engine you could not buy

In 1964 the 426 HEMI was a race-only engine. You could not walk into a dealer and order one in a car. It went to Daytona anyway, and it won the 1964 Daytona 500. Stellantis’s own history says HEMI cars finished first, second and third.

NASCAR’s answer for 1965, as the NHRA tells it: if an engine was not available in a car sold to the public, it could not race. That rule has a name, homologation. In plain English, prove you sell it, then you can race it. Stellantis puts it more politely, saying NASCAR quickly imposed stricter engine specifications.

A season in a straight line

So Chrysler sat out. With Chrysler sidelined from NASCAR, Richard Petty spent much of 1965 drag racing instead, in a Barracuda with a mechanically injected 426 HEMI, per the NHRA. The engine that had just swept Daytona spent the year going in a straight line.

The expensive fix

Then Chrysler did the expensive thing. For 1966 it offered a slightly tuned-down 426 in showroom cars: the Plymouth Belvedere, the Dodge Coronet and the Dodge Charger. Chrysler advertised it at 425 horsepower. That is the Street HEMI, and that is the engine in the photo.

For a buyer, it meant you could order, in a family-size car, a close relative of the engine that won Daytona, with some of the edge filed off for the street. For NASCAR, it meant the HEMI was now an engine the public could buy, which was the whole point of the rule.

Back to Daytona

Petty went back to Daytona in 1966 and won the 500. In Victory Lane he wore an NHRA hat. Subtle.

What is in the picture

The photo shows a 1966 426 Street HEMI on a display stand at the Walter P. Chrysler Museum, taken in December 2016. It is the street engine, not a race engine: orange block, black valve covers and a chrome air cleaner with a 426 decal, in case anyone at the cruise night asks how you can tell.

If you want to know what the HEMI name actually means, our Reel on the engine and its rounded combustion chambers is on the Video page.

Would you have ordered the HEMI just to get Petty back?

Sources

2027 Lexus NX: three hybrid parts become one e-Axle

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 19:37:00 -0400

The 2027 Lexus NX 350h AWD in a Lexus studio photo. Photo: Lexus

For 2027, Lexus changed the hardware under the NX hybrid rather than the sheet metal around it. These are the parts you never see, and Lexus says they make the NX lighter, lower and more efficient.

Three parts, one box

A hybrid like the NX needs three things between the battery and the wheels: a transmission, an electric motor, and a box of electronics that tells the motor what to do. Lexus calls that box the power control unit. On the 2027 NX, all three come as a single unit Lexus calls an e-Axle.

Lexus says that makes a more compact, lighter package and helps lower the vehicle’s center of gravity. In plain English, the heavy stuff sits lower. A lower center of gravity helps a tall vehicle feel steadier in corners, which is useful in a crossover that rides higher than a sedan and gets driven like one anyway.

Why silicon carbide matters

The second change is in the inverter, the part that converts the battery’s power into the kind the electric motor runs on. Its chips are now silicon carbide, and Lexus says that brings further efficiency gains. Less energy wasted on the way, more of the battery doing actual work.

Silicon carbide is also what a lot of sandpaper is coated with. In the NX it has found a more glamorous job.

All-wheel drive that stays on

The NX’s electric all-wheel drive, which Lexus calls E-Four, can now run continuously when you are driving in a straight line, not only when you pull away or a wheel slips.

No more gas-only NX

Every 2027 NX is a hybrid or a plug-in hybrid. The grades are the NX 350h and the NX 450h+, and the gas-only versions are gone. The plug-in gets a revised lithium-ion battery pack, and DC fast charging and a power charge port door are standard. Lexus says pricing comes later, and EPA figures are still pending, so we are not quoting any numbers we would have to take back.

If you like your hybrid hardware explained, our Nissan Rogue e-Power story does the same for a very different idea.

The Mars part

Lexus says the new interior color, Abalos, is inspired by the sand dunes of Mars’ northern hemisphere. The e-Axle is the engineering story. The Mars sand is the one your passengers will ask about. Nobody has driven an NX there to check the match.

Would you take the lighter hybrid hardware now, or wait for the EPA numbers?

Sources

Lexus USA Newsroom, “The new 2027 Lexus NX: advancing hybrid and plug-in performance, refined design and elevated in-cabin experience,” Sept. 1, 2026, updated Sept. 9

The 911 will never be electric, Porsche says. The Boxster and Cayman will be.

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 21:56:00 -0400

Porsche CEO Michael Leiters with a red 911, in a photo Porsche released with its Oct. 7 strategy announcement. Photo: Porsche

Porsche’s new chief executive, Michael Leiters, held his first Capital Markets Day on Wednesday, Oct. 7, at the company’s Weissach Development Center. That is the meeting where a carmaker tells investors what it plans to build and how it plans to make money doing it. Most fans heard one line, a promise about the 911. The bigger news was about the two cars that did not get one.

The promise

Autocar reports Leiters saying: “I can assure you, the 911 will never be electric.” Finews and Electrek carry the same quote. It is not in Porsche’s written release, so file it under something the boss said on stage, as reported, rather than a line in the strategy document.

That is him in the photo, standing next to a red 911, which is roughly where you would stand if you wanted a promise to look sincere. Autocar notes he joined Porsche from McLaren last year.

The cars that go electric

The Boxster and Cayman are Porsche’s smaller two-seaters. Boxster is the convertible, Cayman the coupe. In plain English, the big difference from a 911 is where the engine sits. In these two it lives behind the seats, in the middle of the car. A 911 carries its engine behind the rear axle, which is the reason 911 people have opinions about everything.

Porsche’s release says the next 718 Boxster and Cayman will be all-electric, and that 2028 is expected to be their first full year of production. Finews describes the electric 718’s battery stacked behind the cockpit, where the engine used to sit. So the middle of the car keeps its job. It just stops making noise about it.

Something above the 911

The release also says Porsche is developing a mid-engined super sports car platform that would allow a new model line above the 911. A platform here means the shared bones, the structure and layout a family of cars can be built on, not one finished car. Porsche said it would show a preview of that potential platform on Oct. 15, and it did. More on that below.

So the timeline reads like this: the small cars go electric, the 911 stays as it is, and something bigger and more expensive got its first look on Oct. 15.

Update, Oct. 15: the Mission S

Porsche showed the preview on Oct. 15 and called it the Mission S. It made its world premiere on a pier in Queens, New York, the same pier where the 550 Spyder, Porsche’s first super sports car, was photographed in 1953. It is a vision model, meaning a design study, not a showroom car. Porsche says it stands for the new mid-engine platform and a permanent line of cars above the 911, not a one-off.

The most talked-about detail is something it leaves out. There is no permanently built-in center screen. A retractable MagSafe phone mount holds your own phone instead, and the phone can do the navigation. Behind the wheel sit five round gauges, and a red button on the steering wheel switches on a driving mode called “On your own,” which turns off the driver assistance systems. Porsche has not announced the engine, the speed or the price. So for now, the one part of the dashboard with a confirmed spec sheet is the phone you already own.

The fine print

So the Boxster gets a battery and the 911 gets a pinky promise. Of the two, only the battery is in the written release.

Would you drive an electric Boxster, or does a Porsche need an engine?

Sources

The Smithsonian’s 1986 Dodge Caravan

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 14:31:00 -0400

The Smithsonian's 1986 Dodge Caravan in the National Museum of American History's America on the Move gallery. Photo: lostplanetcomics1 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

Look at the side of this 1986 Dodge Caravan facing you. One door.

That is the driver’s side. Chrysler’s minivans did not get a second sliding door there until 1996. For a dozen model years before that, getting to the way back meant climbing over a sibling. The woodgrain paneling is period-correct. The museum setting is not a joke. This van is on display at the Smithsonian.

Why a family van is in a museum

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History keeps it in the America on the Move gallery. The object record says Fred and Maryann Knoche of Warren, Michigan, bought the Caravan because their car was too small for family vacations. They drove it from 1986 to 2001. Maryann used it to haul her daughter’s softball team to practice and games.

That is the whole pitch of the early minivan in one family’s story: not stylish, long on utility, and suddenly the default way American kids got to where they needed to go.

What made it different from a full-size van

In plain English, the breakthrough was packaging. The engine sits up front and drives the front wheels. There is no long driveshaft running down the middle of the floor to a rear axle, so the floor can stay flat. You step in like a car instead of climbing up into a cargo van.

Stellantis’s own minivan timeline calls the first ones the T-115 and describes them as the first front-wheel-drive small vans. Friends and family, the company wrote, stepped into them like a car rather than climbing up into a full-size van. Chrysler Chairman Lee A. Iacocca marked the first one off the line at Windsor Assembly Plant in Ontario, Canada, on Nov. 2, 1983. The Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager followed into the market for the 1984 model year.

The missing door

The photo is the punch line. On the driver’s side you see one ordinary front door and no slider. The passenger side had the sliding door. For years that was enough, until it wasn’t. In 1996 Chrysler introduced its third-generation minivans on the NS platform with a U.S. first: a driver-side sliding door, so both sides of the cabin opened the same way. Suddenly “climbing over a sibling” stopped being a design feature.

A dozen model years is the span from the early vans through 1995, before that second slider arrived. Arithmetic, not poetry.

Short on style. Long on utility. Still the easiest way to start an argument about who had to sit in the way back.

Who rode back there, and what was the rule?

Sources

2027 Kia Sorento: is the turbo worth $3,200?

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 08:52:00 -0400

2027 Kia Sorento. Photo: Kia

The gas-powered 2027 Kia Sorento is a three-row family SUV, and Kia barely touched it for the new model year. The base LX goes up $200, one paint color swaps out, and that is about it. So the interesting question is not what changed. It is which engine you buy, because the lineup splits cleanly in two.

This is a buyer’s breakdown. We have not driven the 2027 Sorento. Prices come from Kia’s Oct. 1, 2026, pricing release and exclude the $1,495 destination fee, which is the charge for getting the car to the dealer. Performance and economy figures come from Kia’s own spec sheet.

The two engines

2027 Sorento (front-wheel drive)	MSRP	Engine	Horsepower
LX	$32,590	2.5-liter four	186 hp
S	$35,490	2.5-liter four	186 hp
EX	$38,690	2.5-liter turbo four	274 hp

Both engines are the same size, 2.5 liters. The difference is the turbocharger on the EX and up: a small fan spun by the engine’s own exhaust that pushes extra air into the cylinders so the engine can burn more fuel. That takes horsepower from 186 to 274 and torque, the twisting force you feel when you pull away from a light, from 178 lb-ft to 311 lb-ft.

The gearboxes differ too. The LX and S use an eight-speed automatic with a torque converter. Turbo trims get an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission.

What the $3,200 buys

The jump from S to EX is $3,200, by our math. Kia’s spec sheet says the front-drive EX gets from 0 to 62 mph in 7.4 seconds against 9.8 for the S, and from about 50 to 75 mph in 4.4 seconds against 6.7. That second number is the one you feel when merging onto a highway with the whole family on board.

Towing also changes. Every gas Sorento is rated to pull a 2,000-pound trailer with its own brakes, but the EX with the tow package is rated for 3,500. If you have a small camper or a boat in mind, that alone may settle it.

What it costs you

Kia estimates 23 mpg combined for the front-drive EX, down from 26 for the LX and S. At 12,000 miles a year, that works out to about 60 more gallons, by our math. All trims carry the same 17.7-gallon tank, so the turbo also means a few more trips to the pump.

Seating is worth checking in person. Kia’s spec sheet lists the LX and S as seven-seaters and the EX as a six-seater. Cargo space is the same across the trims.

All-wheel drive and the paint

All-wheel drive adds $2,000 on the S ($37,490) and $1,500 on the EX ($40,190). The AWD four-cylinder drops to an estimated 25 mpg combined, while the AWD turbo stays at 23.

The one real update for 2027 is color. Black Jade Green replaces Jungle Green, and Kia says the new shade “has performed well on the new Telluride.” We have never seen paint get a performance review before, but here we are.

Kia also says the gas Sorento is assembled in the United States from U.S. and globally sourced parts.

Our call

If you mostly drive around town with a light load, the S is the sensible buy and keeps the better fuel economy. If you tow, merge onto busy highways often, or regularly carry a full car, the EX turbo is the one that actually changes how the Sorento drives, on paper at least. We will say more once we have driven one.

Sources

BMW’s new iX4 is an iX3 with the roof sloped, and up to 428 miles of range

Wed, 07 Oct 2026 19:41:00 -0400

The BMW iX4, revealed for the US on Oct. 7, 2026. Photo: BMW

BMW says its new iX4 can go up to 428 miles on a charge. It is also the one with the sloped roof, which is the part BMW would like you to notice first.

What it is

The iX4 is the third model in the Neue Klasse, BMW’s name for its new generation of electric cars. The first two were the iX3 SUV and the i3 sedan. BMW calls the iX4 an SUV coupe, which in plain English means a crossover with a roofline that slopes down toward the back like a coupe’s. If you know the iX3, picture that with the roof drawn on by someone in a hurry to get to the tailgate.

The iX4 is built at BMW’s plant in Debrecen, Hungary, the same factory that builds the iX3.

Price and when it arrives

The first version, the iX4 50 xDrive, goes on sale in March 2027 and starts at $66,200 plus destination and handling. BMW did not list the destination charge in the release. A faster iX4 M60 xDrive follows later in 2027, with production also starting in March 2027 and a staged market launch.

How fast and how far

The 50 xDrive has two electric motors, one at each axle, which is how it gets all-wheel drive. Together they make 463 hp and 475 lb-ft of torque. BMW says it gets to 60 mph in 4.7 seconds and tops out at 130 mph.

The battery holds 112.2 kWh of usable energy. Think of that as the size of the gas tank. BMW’s preliminary estimate is up to 428 miles of range. That number comes from BMW’s own testing using EPA procedures, so it is not an official EPA rating yet.

On a fast charger rated at 400 kW, BMW says the iX4 can add up to 184 miles of range in 10 minutes, and go from 10 to 80 percent in 21 minutes. At home on a regular AC charger it accepts up to 15.4 kW.

The M60 xDrive is the loud one, in a quiet electric way. BMW quotes 603 hp, 645 lb-ft and an estimated 3.7 seconds to 60 mph, with top speed governed at 149 mph.

The rest of the spec sheet

Every iX4 comes with BMW’s M Sport package, 20-inch wheels and a glass roof that runs the full length of the car. BMW quotes a drag coefficient of 0.23, a measure of how easily the shape slips through the air (lower is better). With the optional hitch, the iX4 can tow up to 4,400 lbs.

Inside, there is a 17.9-inch center screen, a voice assistant built with Amazon’s Alexa+ technology and an available hands-free highway driving system that works at up to 85 mph, with the driver still required to pay attention. The iX4 also gets bidirectional charging, so the battery can send power back out, not just take it in.

It measures 188.3 inches long, 74.6 inches wide and 63.3 inches tall, on a 114.1-inch wheelbase.

Our take

A sloped-roof SUV that tows 4,400 lbs and might go 428 miles is a strange thing to call a coupe. Coupes are not what they used to be. Whether that range holds up will depend on the official EPA number, which BMW has not published yet.

Sources

BMW Group PressClub USA, “The BMW iX4.,” Oct. 7, 2026

Toyota’s new Grand Highlander Woodland comes with a six-can cooler

Wed, 07 Oct 2026 13:50:00 -0400

The 2027 Toyota Grand Highlander Hybrid Woodland Edition. Photo: Toyota

Toyota put a cooler between the second-row seats of the new Grand Highlander Hybrid Woodland Edition. It holds six cans. In a three-row SUV that seats up to eight, that means somebody in the back is going without.

What it is

The Grand Highlander is Toyota’s biggest family crossover, the one with a third row Toyota says is sized for adults. Toyota quotes 33.5 inches of third-row legroom and up to 97.5 cubic feet of cargo space with the rear seats folded flat. It is assembled only in Princeton, Indiana.

Woodland is the badge Toyota puts on the outdoorsy versions of its models, and for 2027 the Grand Highlander gets one. It joins the LE, XLE, Limited and Platinum grades, and it comes only as a hybrid.

What the Woodland gets

The headline change is height. The Woodland sits an extra half inch off the ground compared with other Grand Highlanders, thanks to taller springs and all-terrain tires on matte black 18-inch wheels. Half an inch will not turn a family hauler into a rock crawler, but it does buy a little more room for a rutted trailhead or a slightly more ambitious speed bump.

All-wheel drive is standard. So are a tow hitch, mud guards, LED fog lamps, all-weather floor mats with a Woodland logo, a heated steering wheel and a 120-volt, 1,500-watt outlet in the second row. In the cargo area there is extra lighting and a tray with pop-up dividers. Toyota also blacks out the badges, roof rails, mirror caps, shark fin antenna and the trim around the headlights and windows.

Then there is the cooler. It is a removable, Woodland-branded console that sits between the second-row seats and fits up to six 12-ounce cans. Toyota pitches it as a way to keep snacks handy on the go.

Power, mpg and towing

The Woodland uses the 2.5-liter hybrid, which Toyota rates at 245 total system horsepower. Toyota calls its all-wheel drive electronic On-Demand AWD. Toyota estimates 34 mpg combined for the hybrid AWD models, Woodland included. Hybrid grades can tow up to 3,500 pounds. If you need more, the gas and Hybrid MAX models are rated for 5,000 pounds.

What it costs

Toyota’s full-line pricing sheet lists the Grand Highlander Hybrid Woodland AWD at $51,780. That is $3,000 more than the Hybrid XLE AWD at $48,780. Neither figure includes the delivery, processing and handling fee, which Toyota lists at $1,595 for the Grand Highlander, putting the Woodland at $53,375 before taxes and any dealer extras.

For context, the cheapest 2027 Grand Highlander is the gas LE with front-wheel drive at $42,560, and the cheapest hybrid is the LE at $45,910. Toyota says 2027 models should start reaching dealers later this year.

The verdict, for now

The Woodland is less about off-roading and more about looking ready for it, with a few genuinely useful extras along the way. The tires, the lift and the hitch are real. The cooler is a nice touch, though in an eight-seat SUV the math does not quite work out.

Worth the extra $3,000 over an XLE, or would you skip the cooler and keep the cash?

Sources

Jaguar’s comeback car has 1,015 horsepower and no rear window

Wed, 07 Oct 2026 08:48:00 -0400

The Jaguar Type 01, revealed in New York on Oct. 6, 2026. Photo: Jaguar

Jaguar has been quiet for a while. It ended that on Tuesday night in New York by revealing the Type 01, a four-door electric grand tourer that Jaguar calls the most powerful car in the brand’s history. Jaguar also says this is the most significant moment for the company since the Jaguar name was established in 1935. No pressure, then.

What it is

The Type 01 is a large four-door GT, all-electric, and Jaguar says it is designed, engineered and built in the UK. It is the first production Jaguar on what the company calls Jaguar Electric Architecture, a platform built only for its new electric cars. The press release says it has a clear line back to the E-type and the XJS. Whether you see that in the photo is between you and your optometrist.

The numbers

Three electric motors drive all four wheels. Jaguar’s US site lists up to 1,015 horsepower and 0 to 60 mph from 3.1 seconds. That is a lot of shove for something with four doors and, presumably, a coat hook.

The battery side is just as confident. Jaguar quotes up to 400 miles of EPA range. On a 350 kW fast charger, Jaguar says it can add 200 miles in 13 minutes, or go from 10 to 80 percent in as little as 22 minutes. The electrical system runs at 850 volts, which in plain terms is part of how it takes a charge that quickly. The battery comes with an eight-year, 100,000-mile warranty.

Underneath, there is four-corner air suspension with active dampers, plus all-wheel steering. Turning the rear wheels a little helps a big car feel smaller in town and calmer at speed.

No rear window

The tailgate has no glass. To make up for it, Jaguar puts a camera feed on a screen inside what it calls the Panoramic Soundbar, a full-width Meridian speaker bar along the base of the windshield. That screen does the job of the rearview mirror. It is a bold move, and it means your first parking-garage reverse will be done entirely on trust.

Wheels go up to 23 inches, with a 21-inch all-season wheel also offered.

Price and timing

Jaguar’s US Type 01 page shows a starting figure of $130,500. That number carries an asterisk, and we could not read the footnote, so treat it as a starting point rather than a window sticker. Orders open in early 2027, with first customer deliveries expected in the second half of that year. Jaguar also notes that the car shown is the vehicle as it enters production, and that final customer models and features may change before launch.

Our take

Jaguar has bet the whole brand on one very fast, very expensive four-door with no rear window. The specs are strong on paper, and the price puts it squarely in serious luxury territory. The real test starts when orders open, and when the first owners try to back it into a driveway.

Sources

CSX 2000: the first Shelby Cobra

Tue, 06 Oct 2026 19:42:00 -0400

CSX2000, the first Shelby Cobra, photographed in 2015 at Shelby American's headquarters in Las Vegas. Photo: Sicnag via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

Before the Cobra was a poster car, it was one prototype: CSX 2000.

One car, one chassis number

CSX2000 was the chassis number given to the one and only prototype Cobra. That is how the Shelby American Collection in Boulder, Colorado, puts it, and the car is on display there on loan from the Miller Family Automobile Foundation. AC Cars labeled it “Carroll Shelby Experimental 2000.” Every Cobra story starts with this car, because for a while it was the only Cobra there was.

The British half

AC Cars built it at Thames Ditton, England, by modifying an AC Ace with direct input from Carroll Shelby. In plain English, the Ace was a small, light British roadster, and Shelby wanted to make it a lot faster without making it a lot heavier.

So the prototype got stronger parts than any Ace. It had a Salisbury limited-slip rear end, which means the differential sends power to both rear wheels instead of letting one spin uselessly. It had inboard rear disc brakes, mounted next to the differential instead of out at the wheels, reinforced suspension and thicker-walled main chassis tubes. AC’s own description of everything else was a “general beefing-up throughout.” Engineers are not always poets.

AC and Shelby tested the car at the MIRA track in England with Ford’s brand-new 221-cubic-inch Fairlane V8.

The American half

When AC finished its part in late February 1962, the car was air-freighted to Los Angeles International Airport without an engine or transmission. It went to Dean Moon’s shop in Santa Fe Springs, California, where it got a four-speed transmission and one of the first Ford 260-cubic-inch V8s. That is about 4.3 liters, a pushrod V8 in a light aluminum body. The collection says the 1962 performance reviews were “quite remarkable,” which is what happens when you put a V8 in a small, light roadster.

The paint trick

CSX2000’s first public appearance was the New York Auto Show in April 1962. It was painted pearlescent yellow because Shelby was advised that color looked best under fluorescent lights.

Then came the clever part. CSX2000 was the sole factory demonstrator, and it was repainted several times to convince customers and the motoring press that the production line was humming along. One car, several paint jobs, and a lot of confidence. The Commons description of our photo says the same thing: the car was repainted from magazine to magazine to give the impression there was more than one.

That is why the car in our photo is blue, not yellow. It was photographed in 2015 at Shelby American’s headquarters in Las Vegas, and its Commons description identifies it as CSX2000.

Light British chassis. American pushrod V8. One car that sold the whole idea.

Which color would you have painted it for your magazine: the show yellow or the blue?

Sources

Chevy small-block: the V8 that would not die

Tue, 06 Oct 2026 13:46:00 -0400

A Chevrolet small-block V8 on display at the Automobile Driving Museum in El Segundo, California. Photo: Daderot via Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0

One of the most famous numbers in American hot-rodding started in a Camaro, not a Corvette. The number is 350.

What the number means

In plain English, 350 is cubic inches, about 5.7 liters. That is displacement: the total space the pistons sweep in all eight cylinders as they travel up and down. Bigger number, bigger gulp of air and fuel every time the engine turns over, and usually more power and torque.

Where the small-block came from

Chevrolet Performance’s own timeline starts in 1955, when GM and Chevrolet released the original small-block V8, a 265-cubic-inch engine fitted to the Corvette. In 1957 Chevrolet stretched it to 283 cubic inches for the Super Turbo-Fire V8, reaching one horsepower per cubic inch. In 1962 came the 327, as a more powerful option for the Corvette.

GM says one measurement has stayed put through more than 100 million small-blocks since 1955: the middle of each cylinder sits 4.40 inches from the middle of the next. It is the one number every small-block shares.

The Camaro got it first

Chevrolet’s answer to the Ford Mustang, the 1967 Camaro, gets the credit in that timeline for the first 350 V8. The Corvette, Chevy’s flagship, had to wait until 1969, when the 350 replaced its 327. Imagine being the flagship and getting the pony car’s hand-me-down.

The 350 kept evolving after that. In 1970 Chevrolet introduced the LT1 version for the Corvette and Camaro Z28. In 1985 the L98 350 got tuned port fuel injection for Camaros, Firebirds and Corvettes, which is a long way from a carburetor like the one on the engine in our photo.

Back for 2027

On September 17, 2026, GM announced its sixth-generation small-block for the 2027 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and GMC Sierra 1500. The L76 is 5.7 liters, 350 cubic inches, and GM’s own release says it heralds the return of the 350. GM got there by lengthening the piston stroke, meaning how far each piston travels, by 6 mm compared with GM’s current 5.3-liter truck V8.

GM rates the L76 at 402 horsepower and 428 lb-ft of torque, and says a properly equipped Silverado 1500 with it can tow up to 13,700 pounds. Its bigger sibling, the L78, brings back 400 cubic inches as a 6.6-liter with 481 horsepower. Both feed fuel two ways, with direct injection and port injection, and the first engines are built at GM’s Flint Engine Operations.

Fifty-nine years after the first one, the number still sells. This time it went into a pickup truck, not a pony car.

What did you put a 350 in, or what do you wish you had?

Sources

Under the skin: BRZ ZC15 stays simple on purpose

Tue, 06 Oct 2026 08:49:00 -0400

A BRZ engine bay from Subaru's WRX GD25 and BRZ ZC15 media gallery. Two companies, one engine cover. Photo: Subaru

Look at the engine cover in Subaru’s own photo. It says TOYOTA D-4S and SUBARU BOXER on the same piece of plastic. That is the BRZ in one picture: a Subaru flat-four with Toyota’s fuel injection, in a car the two companies developed together. Subaru Corporation says the second-generation BRZ “was born in a joint development project with Toyota Motor Corporation.”

The new BRZ ZC15 is a 300-car anniversary edition, and the most interesting engineering decision Subaru made for it is the one it did not make. The engine stays exactly as it is.

What D-4S actually means

D-4S is Toyota’s name for a system that gives each cylinder two kinds of fuel injector. Subaru explained it when the first BRZ arrived in 2012. Direct injectors spray fuel straight into the combustion chamber, which cools the cylinder and lets the engine run a very high compression ratio (12.5:1 on that original 2.0-liter). Port injectors spray fuel upstream, into the intake ports, and Subaru said that in light- and medium-load driving they help produce precise combustion.

In plain terms, the engine gets the cooling and high compression that direct injection allows, plus port injectors for the gentle driving most cars do most of the time. Subaru Canada still lists direct and port fuel injection for the 2026 car.

The numbers Subaru left alone

The ZC15 uses the same naturally aspirated 2.4-liter Subaru boxer as every current BRZ. Subaru quotes 228 horsepower, and Subaru Canada lists that at 7,000 rpm, with 184 lb-ft of torque at 3,700 rpm and a 7,500-rpm redline. No turbo, no tune, no new number for the brochure.

Why the engine sits where it does

The boxer layout is the whole reason this car exists. A flat engine is short, so it can sit low. Subaru Corporation says the BRZ mounts its boxer “as low as possible” to make the most of its low center of gravity, light weight and compact size. Back in 2012, Subaru said the BRZ engine sat about 2.4 inches lower in its mounts than the Impreza’s 2.0-liter and 5 inches lower overall, and quoted a center of gravity of just 18.1 inches for that first car. Rear-wheel drive let Subaru put the engine lower and farther back than in any other Subaru of the time.

Three pedals or nothing

Every 2026 BRZ comes standard with a six-speed manual and a Torsen limited-slip differential, and the regular BRZ Limited also offers a six-speed automatic. The ZC15 does not. Subaru says it pairs the 2.4 “exclusively with a 6-speed manual transmission powering the rear wheels,” with an STI aluminum and leather short shifter. So your left leg has been drafted.

The parts you feel more than you brag about

Under the hood, Subaru adds a flexible V-bar, the STI-branded bar across the top of the photo. Subaru does not say how it is tuned on the BRZ. In the same release, it says the flexible strut tower bar on the WRX GD25 enhances rigidity, which is the usual job for a bar like this. Outside, there are gold-painted Brembo calipers behind matte bronze wheels and a black decklid spoiler.

Only 300 are coming, and Subaru says the ZC15 is available in early 2027, with specifications and pricing closer to launch. If you want the full spec rundown, our news story on the ZC15 has it, and the WRX version of this story is here.

Would you rather Subaru had found 30 more horsepower, or kept it exactly like this?

Sources

2027 Subaru BRZ ZC15: 300 cars, Ceramic White, manual only

Mon, 05 Oct 2026 19:41:00 -0400

The 2027 Subaru BRZ ZC15, with the WRX GD25 behind it. Photo: Subaru

Subaru will build 300 of the 2027 BRZ ZC15. Subaru sells cars through about 640 retailers across the United States. Do the math, and more than half of them will never get one. If you want a ZC15, the dealer down the road may not be part of the plan.

Subaru of America unveiled the car on Sept. 28 at Boxerfest 2026 in York, Pennsylvania, next to its bigger, bluer sibling, the 350-unit WRX GD25. Both are anniversary editions, and both take their names from old chassis codes.

What ZC15 means

The first-generation BRZ arrived in the U.S. in 2012 on a chassis codenamed ZC. Add 15 years and you get the badge. It is the car world’s version of a birthday card: a little cryptic to outsiders, very meaningful to the people who already know.

“BRZ ZC15 embodies the best of our long-running, accessible performance sports car, right down to its rear wheel-drive engagement,” said William Stokes, Car Line Planning Manager for Subaru of America.

One color, and it is not up for debate

Every ZC15 is painted Ceramic White, a color Subaru says is exclusive to this edition. It sits on matte bronze wheels, with gold-painted Brembo calipers behind them and bronze decals near the side sills. A black decklid spoiler finishes the back end.

The white-and-bronze look is not new. Subaru calls it an homage to the 2020 BRZ tS, which wore the same scheme. So if it looks familiar, your memory is fine.

Inside

The cabin gets black leather-appointed upholstery with Bordeaux red inserts that Subaru says are not shared with the rest of the BRZ lineup. Near the STI aluminum and leather short shifter there is a ZC15 anniversary plaque, which means you get reminded what you bought every time you change gear. In a manual-only car, that is a lot of reminders.

2027 BRZ ZC15	What Subaru says
Production	300 units
Color	Ceramic White only (exclusive to ZC15)
Engine	2.4-liter boxer, 228 hp
Drive	Rear-wheel drive
Transmission	6-speed manual only, STI short shifter
Wheels and brakes	Matte bronze wheels, gold-painted Brembo calipers
Arrives	Early 2027

The mechanical bits

Power comes from a 2.4-liter, 228-horsepower Subaru boxer engine, sent to the rear wheels through a six-speed manual. There is no automatic. Under the hood, Subaru adds a flexible V-bar. We will dig into what the hardware does in a separate story.

When, and how much

Subaru says reservations begin in 2026, and the BRZ ZC15 is available in early 2027. Detailed specifications and pricing will be announced closer to market launch, so there is no price yet, and we are not going to guess one. With 300 cars and about 640 retailers, getting your name down early may matter more than the number on the window sticker.

Would you reserve one before the price comes out?

Sources

Subaru of America, “Subaru Debuts Limited-Production 2027 Subaru WRX GD25, 2027 Subaru BRZ ZC15 at Boxerfest 2026,” Sept. 28, 2026

Boss 302: the Mustang Ford built to go racing

Mon, 05 Oct 2026 13:42:00 -0400

Allan Moffat's Coca-Cola Boss 302, photographed at the 2003 Sydney International Motor Show. Photo: sv1ambo via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

The Mustang built to beat the Camaro was styled by the man who drew the 1963 Corvette Sting Ray. Ford’s answer to Chevy came with a lot of Chevy in it.

A Chevy boss and a Corvette designer walk into Ford

Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen spent his career at General Motors. He ran Pontiac, became general manager of Chevrolet in 1961, and in February 1968 resigned to become president of Ford Motor Company. He brought Larry Shinoda with him. At GM, Shinoda had worked with Bill Mitchell and Zora Arkus-Duntov on the concepts that became the original 1963 Corvette Sting Ray.

Shinoda’s first project at Ford was a Mustang homologation special. Asked what he was working on, he answered “the boss’s car,” meaning Knudsen. “Boss” was also 1960s slang for excellent, so the name stuck twice over.

It outlasted the boss. Knudsen was dismissed on September 11, 1969, after infighting with career Ford executives including Lee Iacocca, and Shinoda was let go a few days later. The car kept the name anyway.

Built to a rulebook

The Boss 302 existed so Ford could race a Mustang in the SCCA Trans-Am series, which was for cars with engines of 5.0 liters (305 cubic inches) and under. So the 302 got the parts you need when a street engine is going to spend its weekends at high rpm: solid lifters, four-bolt main bearings instead of two-bolt, threaded freeze plugs, and canted-valve heads with bigger valves that were being developed for the 351 Cleveland. The Cleveland did not debut until the following year, which means the race-homologation Mustang got the new heads first. Ford rated this “G Code” engine at 290 horsepower.

Shinoda’s styling did real work too. He deleted the fake air scoops from the rear quarters of the regular 1969 Mustang and added a front spoiler and a rear deck wing, which made the Boss 302 one of the first production cars to wear both. A designer removing fake scoops is a rare and beautiful thing.

The plan paid off on track. In 1970 Bud Moore ran Ford’s factory effort with two cars, and Parnelli Jones edged out Mark Donohue and Team Penske’s AMC Javelins. Ford took the 1970 Trans-Am Over 2 Liter manufacturers’ title.

The red car in the photo

The car pictured is Allan Moffat’s Coca-Cola Boss 302, photographed at the 2003 Sydney International Motor Show. It came new from Kar Kraft, Ford’s in-house race car shop in America, and was finished by Bud Moore Engineering. It was one of seven factory Boss Mustangs built for racing, and it gave that group its first win, at the Southern 60 at Sandown in May 1969.

Between 1969 and 1972, Moffat won 101 championship and non-championship touring car races from 151 starts in it. That is two wins in every three starts. The one thing it never did was win him the Australian Touring Car Championship. In 1971 he went into the final round at Oran Park four points behind Bob Jane’s 7.0-liter Chevrolet Camaro ZL-1 and finished six-tenths of a second behind it, second in the race and second in the series. The car built to beat the Camaro was beaten, just barely, by a Camaro.

So the Mustang built to beat the Camaro got its name from a former Chevrolet boss, its look from a former Corvette designer, and its most famous record in Australia. Not bad for a homologation special.

Boss 302 or Camaro Z/28: which one gets your garage?

Sources

Under the skin: what Subaru bolted onto the WRX GD25

Mon, 05 Oct 2026 08:49:00 -0400

The 2027 Subaru WRX GD25, side view. Gold wheels, gold calipers, blue everything else. Photo: Subaru

The WRX GD25 makes 271 horsepower. So does every 2026 WRX, from the base Premium to the tS. Subaru’s own 2026 spec sheet lists the same 2.4-liter turbocharged boxer four for every trim: 271 hp at 5,600 rpm and 258 lb-ft from 2,000 to 5,200 rpm. The GD25 release quotes the same 271 hp and mentions no engine changes.

So the 25th-anniversary WRX is not about going faster in a straight line. Subaru spent the occasion on the parts that turn, stop and grip, plus one very visible part that mostly gets looked at.

Turn

Subaru calls the GD25’s suspension performance-tuned, with stiffer springs and revised damping calibration. Under the hood sits a flexible strut tower bar, which Subaru says enhances rigidity. The stated goal is “more composed, confident cornering.”

That is the full extent of what Subaru has said. There are no published spring rates, no damper names and no ride-height figures, so we are not going to invent any. If you were hoping for a spreadsheet, the spreadsheet arrives “closer to market launch,” along with the price.

Stop

The GD25 gets uprated Brembo brakes with gold-painted calipers. Subaru does not say what they are uprated from, and that matters a little, because the 2026 WRX tS already comes with a Brembo system and gold monoblock calipers: six-piston fronts on 13.4-inch rotors and two-piston rears, per the spec sheet. Whether the GD25 goes beyond the tS hardware or simply brings it to an anniversary car is a question for the detailed specs. Either way, the calipers are gold, and Subaru has never met a gold brake caliper it did not like.

Grip

The tires are Bridgestone Potenza S007 high-performance rubber on gold-painted 19-inch alloy wheels. Subaru pairs the S007s with the suspension changes in the same sentence, so the tires are part of the handling story, not just the photo shoot. The gold wheels, to be clear, are part of the photo shoot.

The wing

On the back is a dry carbon fiber swan-neck wing from Subaru Tecnica International. Subaru says it is the same component used on Travis Pastrana’s WRX ARA25L rally car, and Car Line Planning Manager William Stokes calls it “the wing it shares with the ARA Championship-winning ARA25L.”

A swan-neck wing mounts from the top, so the underside stays clean. On a rally stage it earns its keep. On the commute it mostly tells the car behind you what you bought, which, to be fair, is also a job.

Homework for your left foot

The only gearbox is a six-speed manual with an STI short shifter. That is a real choice in the current lineup: the 2026 GT trim is automatic only, while the GD25 has no automatic at all. Drive goes through Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive, and the cabin adds performance-design Recaro seats with black Ultrasuede inserts and red stitching, plus an STI shift knob.

The short version

Subaru will build 350, all in World Rally Blue, with deliveries in summer 2027. The engine is the one you can already buy. The money went into springs, dampers, a strut bar, brakes, tires and a wing with a rally résumé. We covered the wider launch here.

So, keep the wing, or delete it?

Sources

The 2027 Subaru WRX GD25 is 350 blue sedans with gold wheels and a rally car’s wing

Sun, 04 Oct 2026 19:45:00 -0400

The 2027 Subaru WRX GD25. Photo: Subaru

Subaru will build only 350 of the 2027 WRX GD25, and it has kept the order form very short. The paint is World Rally Blue. The wheels are gold. The gearbox is a six-speed manual, and there is no second choice. On the back sits a dry carbon fiber swan-neck wing from Subaru Tecnica International, the same component used on Travis Pastrana’s WRX ARA25L rally car.

Subaru of America unveiled the car on Sept. 28 at Boxerfest 2026 in York, Pennsylvania, alongside a limited-production 2027 BRZ ZC15. Both are anniversary editions, and both are named after chassis codes, which is the most enthusiast way there is to say happy birthday.

Why it is called GD25

The name honors the first WRX to arrive in the U.S., in 2002. That car used a chassis codenamed GD, and the 25 counts the years since. Somewhere, an owner of one of those early cars is reading this and quietly measuring the garage.

“The WRX GD25 is a tribute to our rally-ready sedan and its sports car pedigree, including the wing it shares with the ARA Championship-winning ARA25L,” said William Stokes, Car Line Planning Manager for Subaru of America.

The wing has a reference letter

Big rear wings on road cars usually get accused of being for show. This one can point to a championship-winning rally car that uses the same part. It is made of dry carbon fiber, it comes from STI, and it will make every other WRX in the parking lot look like it forgot something.

Gold, and more gold

The GD25 rides on gold-painted 19-inch alloy wheels. Behind them are uprated Brembo brakes, and the calipers are painted gold too. Subaru has clearly decided that if you are going to do gold, you do it everywhere it fits.

The tires are Bridgestone Potenza S007 high-performance rubber. The suspension is performance-tuned, with stiffer springs and revised damping calibration, and Subaru says the setup gives more composed, confident cornering. Under the hood, a flexible strut tower bar adds rigidity.

2027 WRX GD25	What Subaru says
Production	350 units
Color	World Rally Blue only
Engine	2.4-liter turbocharged boxer, 271 hp
Drive	Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive
Transmission	6-speed manual only, STI short shifter
Wheels and tires	Gold-painted 19-inch alloys, Bridgestone Potenza S007
Brakes	Uprated Brembo, gold-painted calipers
Arrives	Summer 2027

The part that makes it go

Power comes from a 271-horsepower, 2.4-liter turbocharged Subaru boxer engine, sent through Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive. The only transmission is a six-speed manual with an STI short shifter. No automatic is offered, which should narrow the buyer pool to people who use the phrase “row your own” without a hint of irony. There are probably at least 350 of them.

Inside

The cabin gets performance-design Recaro seats with black Ultrasuede inserts and red accent stitching, plus an STI shift knob. Your hand will be on that knob a lot, given the gearbox situation.

When, and how much

Subaru says reservations begin in 2026, and the WRX GD25 arrives in summer 2027. Detailed specifications and pricing will be announced closer to market launch, so there is no price yet, and we are not going to guess one. With 350 cars to go around, the speed of your reservation may end up mattering more than the number on the sticker.

Sources

Subaru of America, “Subaru Debuts Limited-Production 2027 Subaru WRX GD25, 2027 Subaru BRZ ZC15 at Boxerfest 2026,” Sept. 28, 2026

Ford Flathead V8: the cheap V8 that changed the street

Sun, 04 Oct 2026 14:04:00 -0400

A 1936 Ford convertible flathead V8. The photo is a period engine bay, not engine No. 1 itself. Photo: Stephen Foskett (sfoskett) via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

In 1932 Ford put a V8 in a car ordinary people could buy. That sidevalve engine is still the one hot-rodders mean when they say flathead.

The Henry Ford museum holds V-8 engine No. 1 from that program. According to the museum’s artifact record, it is a 221-cubic-inch L-head V8 rated at 65 horsepower at 3,400 rpm, made by Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan, and dated 1932.

One casting, one bargain

Henry Ford and Ford Motor Company had already remade the industry once with the Model T. They did it again in 1932 with a low-priced V8. The museum’s overview is blunt about the manufacturing trick: by casting the crankcase and cylinder banks as a single unit, Ford cut costs and could offer the V8 in a car starting under $500.

That is the whole point of this engine. It was not a racing special or a coachbuilt oddity. It was a V8 you could buy with regular money, then take home and, later, take apart.

Long-lived by design

Ford’s original V8 design remained in production, with modifications, until 1953. That is more than two decades of the same basic idea: an L-head V8 that was simple enough to build in volume and durable enough to keep selling while other makers chased higher peak horsepower.

The museum groups engine No. 1 with its Post-Model T Henry Ford set for a reason. After the Model T, the next big democratizing move was not another four. It was a V8 priced for the same customers who had bought Fords before. Casting the block as one piece was the production answer that made that price possible.

It was never the most powerful American V8. Peak power was not the product. Affordability was. The museum’s numbers on engine No. 1, 221 cubic inches and 65 horsepower at 3,400 rpm, are modest by later standards. They were enough to put eight cylinders under the hood of a car that started under $500, and that was the revolution.

What the photo is (and is not)

The photo on this page is a 1936 Ford convertible flathead V8 in an engine bay, credited to Stephen Foskett via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 3.0. It is not engine No. 1. The copy does not claim it is. It is the shape hot-rodders still point at when they say flathead: sidevalve, low, and unmistakeable once you have seen one.

A lot of American car culture still runs on that bargain. The V8 that mattered was the one you could afford, modify and hear coming down the street. Engine No. 1 is sitting in a museum. The idea never really left.

Sources

The Henry Ford, “1932 Ford V-8 Engine, No. 1,” artifact 100456

2027 Kia K4: which trim is worth the money

Sun, 04 Oct 2026 08:43:00 -0400

2027 Kia K4 sedan. Photo: Kia

Kia priced the 2027 K4 from $22,390 before destination, which puts a new Kia sedan back in the conversation for shoppers who still want four doors and a trunk without leasing a small SUV by accident. The real question is not whether the number looks good on a billboard. It is whether you stop at LX or jump to the turbo.

This is a buyer’s breakdown. We have not driven the 2027 K4. Every price and package note below comes from Kia’s Sept. 30, 2026, pricing release.

Sedan ladder

2027 Kia K4 sedan	MSRP
LX	$22,390
LXS	$23,590
EX	$24,590
GT-Line	$25,590
GT-Line Turbo 1.6L	$28,490

Destination is $1,245 on every trim, sedan or hatch. Add that before you congratulate yourself on the window sticker.

Hatch ladder

2027 Kia K4 Hatchback	MSRP
EX	$25,090
GT-Line	$26,090
GT-Line Turbo 1.6L	$28,990

The hatch skips the cheapest sedan trims and starts at EX, which is the honest way to sell a body style that costs more to stamp. The Turbo hatch sits $500 above the Turbo sedan, which is a small premium for a bigger cargo opening and the chance to look like you meant to buy a hot hatch even if you mostly haul Costco bags.

What changes for 2027

The GT-Line Premium Package adds 18-inch black alloy wheels on both the sedan and the hatch. That is the sort of option that photographs well and does nothing for your commute, which is exactly why people buy it.

GT-Line and GT-Line Turbo sedans can also pair a red interior with Steel Gray paint. Kia calls the combination newly available. We call it the trim that will get commented on in parking lots by people who do not care about 0-60 times.

Sedan or hatch

The sedan is the volume play: five trims, a lower entry price, and a trunk that does not announce your grocery run. The hatch is for buyers who already know they want the extra opening and will live with starting at EX. Neither body style invents a new segment. Both give Kia a compact car story that still has a sticker under $30,000 before the Turbo, which is rarer than it used to be.

Our call

If you want the cheapest new Kia sedan with a warranty story, buy the LX. That is the trim for people who already decided they need a car, not a personality statement.

If you want the powertrain step, the GT-Line Turbo is the one that changes the car. Everything between LX and Turbo is equipment and attitude layered on the same basic idea. The Turbo is the one that asks you to pay for a different engine, which is usually the difference you can still feel after the novelty of black alloys wears off.

We will leave the “is a sedan still relevant” debate for the comments. Kia already priced its answer.

Sources

The 2027 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk is a hybrid that wades through two feet of water

Sat, 03 Oct 2026 19:46:00 -0400

The 2027 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk, fording. Photo: Jeep

Most compact SUVs treat a deep puddle as a reason to take the long way round. The 2027 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk is rated to ford 24 inches of water, and Jeep says it is the only SUV in its class with a fording rating that deep. It is also a hybrid, which makes it the rare off-roader that could save fuel on the way to getting stuck.

The Trailhawk wears Jeep’s Trail Rated badge, and Jeep tested it at Sand Hollow for slickrock and sand, and at Moab to dial in articulation, clearance and traction.

The hardware

The headline part is a class-exclusive two-speed power transfer unit, standard on the Trailhawk, with a 2.92 low range and a 37.5:1 crawl ratio. It works with Jeep’s Active Drive II four-wheel-drive system, which adds a Lock Mode, and an electronic locking rear axle. Jeep says that combination lets the Trailhawk climb steep, loose and rocky surfaces without the driver riding the brakes.

Underneath, steel skid plates protect the front axle, wiring and fuel tank, and a separate plate guards the hybrid battery. That last one is very reassuring when the trail has opinions.

The suspension gets a 1-inch lift and its own spring and damper tuning. The result is 9 inches of ground clearance and a 45-point improvement on the Ramp Travel Index over other Cherokee models. Ramp Travel Index is the standard test for axle articulation, which is a scientific way of measuring how well a car can keep its feet on the ground while doing yoga.

The numbers

Approach angle: 28.8 degrees.
Breakover angle: 21.9 degrees.
Departure angle: 31.8 degrees.
Water fording: 24 inches.
Ground clearance: 9 inches.
Tires: Nexen Rodian ATX all-terrains, 245/65R17.
Powertrain: 1.6-liter turbo hybrid, 210 hp.
Fuel economy: an estimated 31 mpg combined.
Towing: 3,500 pounds with the trailering package.

Selec-Terrain is standard, with five modes, and both bumpers get red tow hooks. Jeep calls those class-exclusive too, which suggests nobody else in the class expects to need towing out.

Inside

The cabin gets Mantis Green upholstery with red stitching, a Black Spun Aluminum shift dial and a Radical Red bezel around it, the same touch Jeep uses on some of its most capable trims, including the Wrangler Rubicon. A 10.25-inch digital cluster and a 12.3-inch touchscreen are standard on every Cherokee.

Price and timing

The 2027 Cherokee Trailhawk starts at $44,625, including a $1,995 destination charge. Orders are open now, and production starts later this year at Stellantis’ Toluca Assembly Complex in Mexico.

Our take

On paper, this is a proper off-road kit in a compact hybrid: a real low range, a locker and armor in the right places. The 31 mpg is still an estimate, so we will wait for the EPA. The 24 inches of water we are happy to take on trust, from the shore.

Sources

Buddy Baker, the Dodge Charger Daytona and the first official 200-mph lap

Sat, 03 Oct 2026 13:46:00 -0400

Buddy Baker's No. 88 Dodge Charger Daytona at the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, 2011. Photo: BWard 1997 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

On March 24, 1970, during a test session at Alabama International Motor Speedway, now Talladega Superspeedway, Buddy Baker turned a lap at 200.447 mph in a 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona. According to the NASCAR Hall of Fame, it was the first time any car had lapped a closed course at more than 200 mph.

To put that in perspective, the Hall of Fame says Baker’s lap was more than 30 mph faster than the pole speed for the 1970 Indianapolis 500. In a stock car. With a roof.

The car with a past

Chrysler engineers knew the car as DC-93, and its back story is better than most crime novels. It started life as a 1969 Dodge Charger 500 used as a magazine test car on the West Coast. Then it was stolen, stripped of many of its parts and found perched on cement blocks in the Watts section of Los Angeles.

Chrysler reclaimed it and sent it to Nichels Engineering in Indiana, which rebuilt it into a proper NASCAR stock car for research and development. Fitted with the Daytona’s tall rear wing and pointed aerodynamic nose, it was tested on the 4.75-mile oval at Chrysler’s Chelsea Proving Grounds in Michigan, where it purportedly topped 205 mph in the summer of 1969. Under the hood sat Chrysler’s 426-cubic-inch Hemi.

Why the wing

The road-going Daytona was the homologation model for Dodge’s NASCAR stock cars. Dodge built 505 of them for the 1969 model year, priced at $3,860, and its own heritage caption calls the Daytona the most conspicuously styled Dodge of all time. That is hard to argue with. The NASCAR Hall of Fame says the huge rear wing smoothed the airflow at the back of the car on fast superspeedways. It also made the Daytona very hard to lose in a parking lot.

The day itself

The morning began wet, and the track dried by early afternoon. NASCAR inspected the car before the test, and its chief timer and scorer, Joe Epton, brought his timing equipment from Atlanta so the record could be certified. Bill France was there to watch.

Baker brought the Dodge up to speed patiently. He passed 200 mph for the first time on his 30th lap, at 200.096 mph, and four laps later ran the 200.447-mph lap that became the track record.

Certification mattered to him. “We had all run 200 mph before, but not officially,” Baker later said in his book, “Flat Out and Half Turned Over.” When Dodge officials told him the next barrier was 300 mph and asked whether he wanted to break that one, he remembered his answer: “Scratch my name off that trophy.”

Where it is now

DC-93 was restored over several years by Hall of Famer Ray Evernham and his team, exactly as it set the record, with No. 88 on the right-side door and no number on the left. It is now owned by Scott Borchetta, and in 2023 the NASCAR Hall of Fame put it on display in Charlotte as part of its “NASCAR 75: Moments and Memories” exhibit.

The car in our photo is Baker’s blue No. 88 Daytona as displayed at the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2011. We do not claim it is DC-93 itself. Either way, it is the shape that made 200 mph official, and it still looks fast parked.

Sources

2027 Nissan Z buyer’s breakdown: which one to buy, now that the NISMO has three pedals

Sat, 03 Oct 2026 08:46:00 -0400

2027 Nissan Z NISMO with the new six-speed manual. Photo: Nissan

The 2027 Nissan Z is a refresh, not a new car, but it answers the request Nissan says it heard most: the NISMO now comes with a six-speed manual. Better still, Nissan charges the same for the manual and the nine-speed automatic on every trim, which removes the “manual tax” argument from the dinner table and leaves only the “can you even drive stick” argument.

This is a buyer’s breakdown. We have not driven the 2027 Z, so everything below comes from Nissan’s pricing release, its press kit and spec sheet, and the EPA estimates Nissan lists there.

The lineup

2027 Nissan Z	Power	Torque	Front rotors	MSRP
Sport	400 hp	350 lb-ft	12.6 in	$44,480
Performance	400 hp	350 lb-ft	14.0 in	$54,480
NISMO	420 hp	384 lb-ft	15.0 in	$67,260

Every trim uses a twin-turbo 3.0-liter V6, and every price is the same with either transmission. Destination and handling is $1,325 on top.

Sport: the sensible one

The Sport has the same 400-hp engine as the Performance for $10,000 less, and it is the lightest Z, at 3,486 pounds with the manual. The EPA estimates are 18 mpg city, 24 highway and 20 combined with the manual, or 19, 28 and 22 with the automatic. It also gets the heritage-inspired refresh: a body-color bar in the grille and a new Z emblem on the nose in place of the Nissan logo.

Performance: the one we would look at first

The extra $10,000 buys a mechanical clutch-type limited-slip differential, 14.0-inch front rotors, new forged 19-inch wheels and larger-diameter monotube shock absorbers, which Nissan says smooth out the ride and make the handling more predictable. The Performance is also where the new tan interior lives. Pair it with the new Shinkai Green Pearl Metallic paint and you get the green-on-tan combination that Nissan says customers have been asking for, and that your neighbors will definitely ask about.

NISMO: the one with the new manual

The NISMO costs $67,260 and makes 420 hp and 384 lb-ft. Its new six-speed manual was engineered for this trim, with an upgraded clutch and a shorter shift stroke. Nissan also retuned the throttle and ignition timing for the manual, and retuned Active Sound Enhancement to amplify intake and exhaust tones in Sport mode. So the car will help with the noises. We will not tell anyone.

The front brakes now use two-piece, iron-aluminum rotors derived from the GT-R, 15.0 inches across, which Nissan says save 19 pounds and run cooler on track. Recaro seats come standard.

The catch is the usual one. The NISMO is the thirstiest Z, at 16 mpg city, 21 highway and 18 combined with the manual, and the heaviest, at 3,677 pounds with the automatic.

Also new on every Z

All 2027 models get a redesigned fuel tank that keeps fuel around the pump during long, high-G corners. It is not glamorous, but neither is your engine coughing halfway through Turn 6.

Our call

For most people, the Performance is the sweet spot: the differential, the brakes and the better dampers are the upgrades you will actually feel. The Sport is the value pick and gives up nothing under the hood. The NISMO manual is for buyers who already know they want it, and who consider $12,780 a fair price for a clutch pedal, 20 more horsepower and very serious brakes.

Sources

The BMW M2 gets all-wheel drive, and it still wants to be rear-wheel drive

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 19:45:00 -0400

The BMW M2 with M xDrive. Photo: BMW (European model shown)

For years, the BMW M2 has been the smallest, angriest and most resolutely rear-drive member of the M family. For 2027, BMW is offering it with M xDrive all-wheel drive for the first time. Before anyone drafts a strongly worded letter, here is the important part: in normal driving, it is still a rear-drive car.

How it works

M xDrive sends drive only to the rear wheels until they cannot put down any more. At that point, an electronically controlled multi-plate clutch in the transfer case starts feeding torque to the front axle. At the back, the Active M Differential distributes power between the rear wheels as required.

The clever bit is where the decisions get made. The transfer case has its own control unit and wheel-slip limiter, so it can react on its own without waiting for the central DSC stability system to weigh in. In plain English, the all-wheel drive has its own reflexes and does not need to ask permission.

For drivers who would rather the front wheels mind their own business, there is a 2WD mode, available with DSC switched off. It is there for track days, and for people who regard understeer as a character flaw.

The numbers

Engine: a twin-turbo inline-six with 473 hp at 6,250 rpm and 443 lb-ft.
Gearbox: eight-speed M Steptronic automatic.
0 to 60 mph: 3.6 seconds, or 3.3 seconds with a one-foot rollout. That is 0.3 second quicker than the rear-drive M2.
0 to 124 mph: 12.8 seconds.
50 to 75 mph: 3.7 seconds, which covers most of the overtakes you will ever need, and several you should not attempt.
Top speed: limited to 155 mph, or 177 mph with the M Driver’s Package.
Curb weight: 3,988 pounds.
Price: $73,600 plus $1,350 destination and handling.

The wheels are staggered, 19 inches at the front and 20 at the rear, and the M Compound brakes use six-piston fixed calipers up front.

The rest

BMW Individual Borusan Turkish Blue is offered on an M2 for the first time, for anyone who wants their all-wheel-drive coupe to be visible from orbit. Like the other M2 models, the M xDrive car is built at BMW’s San Luis Potosí plant in Mexico, with production starting in August 2026 and the market launch in late summer 2026.

The M2 has earned the attention. BMW says it was the best-selling high-performance model from BMW M in 2025.

Our take

The worry with an all-wheel-drive sports car is that it stops feeling like a sports car. BMW’s answer is a system that stays out of the way until the rear tires ask for help, then quietly steps back when they stop asking. Whether it feels that way on a wet back road is a question for a test drive. On paper, it beats the rear-drive car to 60 mph by 0.3 second, and it still has a button for the old ways.

Sources

BMW Group PressClub USA, “The new BMW M2 with M xDrive,” June 2, 2026

Mazda 787B: four rotors, one last chance and the only rotary win at Le Mans

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 13:46:00 -0400

Mazda 787B No. 55 on display at the Mazda Museum in Hiroshima. Photo: Aos.1905 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

Le Mans has been won by all sorts of engines, and by a great many very serious engineers. It has been won by exactly one rotary. In 1991, the Mazda 787B, car No. 55, took the overall victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and Mazda became the first Japanese manufacturer to win the race.

Thirty-five years later, Mazda says it is still the only rotary-powered car ever to win Le Mans outright.

The last chance

The timing was not an accident of fate so much as a deadline. Because of a change in the race regulations, 1991 was to be the last year a rotary-engined car could compete at Le Mans. Mazda had been chasing the win for 17 years. So the 787B went to France knowing it was sitting the final exam, with no resits.

Four rotors and a lot of noise

Mazda and Mazdaspeed, the outfit that ran Mazda’s racing program, developed the 787B together, with a carbon composite chassis built to the Group C rules. Behind the driver sat the R26B, a four-rotor engine with 654cc per rotor, rated at 700 horsepower. Mazda lists the car’s weight as “over 839 kg” and the gearbox as a Mazda-Porsche five-speed.

Mazda’s own description of the sound is “clear” and “unmistakable.” That is accurate, in the way that describing a jet engine as “audible” is accurate.

24 hours, 362 laps

Volker Weidler, Johnny Herbert and Bertrand Gachot shared the car. It covered 362 laps, roughly 4,923 km, and Mazda says the race went off without a hitch: only routine stops for fuel, tires, driver changes and brake pads. In a race famous for breaking things, the 787B mostly needed new shoes and a drink.

Mazda also says the car set its lap times exactly as planned, picking up the pace only when it needed to pass rivals and pull away. Calm, methodical and quietly devastating, which is not how anyone describes the noise.

Where it lives now

Since 1991, the winning car has mostly been on display at the Mazda Museum in Hiroshima. For the 20th anniversary in 2011, Mazda restored it to driving condition for the first time since its post-race overhaul, and ran it at the Circuit de la Sarthe before that year’s race.

For the 35th anniversary, Mazda scheduled demonstration runs at Le Mans Classic 2026, held July 2 to 5 at the Circuit de la Sarthe, with Yojiro Terada and ACO president Pierre Fillon at the wheel. Fillon said it had “long been a dream” of his to drive it. We understand completely, and we are available.

Why it still matters

Mazda says rotary development continues, and the engine marks its 60th anniversary in 2027. The 787B remains the proof of what an unusual engine can do with 17 years of effort and one last chance, in what Mazda calls the world’s most demanding endurance race.

Sources

The Nissan Rogue Hybrid’s engine never drives the wheels, and that is the whole idea

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 08:42:00 -0400

Under the hood of the 2027 Nissan Rogue Hybrid SR. Photo: Nissan

Most hybrids run a quiet negotiation between an engine and an electric motor over who gets to turn the wheels. The 2027 Nissan Rogue Hybrid skips the negotiation entirely. Its gasoline engine never drives the wheels at all.

This is Nissan’s e-POWER system, and the Rogue Hybrid is the first car to bring it to the U.S. It is not an experiment. Nissan says it has sold nearly 2 million e-POWER vehicles in 68 countries since 2016, and it tuned this version for North American speeds and roads.

The engine is a power station

Under that helpfully labeled cover is a 1.5-liter turbocharged three-cylinder, code ZR15DDTe, with 148 hp at 5,000 rpm, 171 lb-ft of torque and a 13.0:1 compression ratio. Nissan says it is tuned for quietness and efficiency, and its only job is to work as a generator. It charges a 1.67-kWh battery that feeds the motors, and it shuts off entirely when the battery has enough charge.

Nissan quotes 42 percent thermal efficiency for the system. For context, that is the sort of number engineers bring up unprompted at parties, which may explain the parties.

Two motors and no gearbox

The electric motors do all the driving. The front motor makes 202 hp and the rear makes 134 hp, for 225 hp combined, and dual-motor all-wheel drive is standard on every Rogue Hybrid. There is no transmission, so there are no gear changes, and there is no CVT drone for the internet to call “rubber-band.”

The Rogue Hybrid also gets e-Pedal, Nissan’s one-pedal regenerative braking. Lift off the accelerator and it will slow the car all the way to a stop. The real-world effect is that your right foot does most of the work and your left foot gets the day off.

Refueling works exactly as it does in any other car. There is no plug, no charging cable and no app asking you to find a charger. You fill it at a gas station and drive.

The numbers

2027 Rogue Hybrid	MSRP	City	Highway	Combined
SV	$35,490	41	35	37
SR	$37,490	41	36	38
Platinum	$43,490	41	35	37

Prices exclude the $1,575 destination charge. Fuel economy figures are Nissan’s estimates in mpg, pending EPA certification.

Towing is rated at 1,500 pounds, and curb weight runs from 4,065 to 4,167 pounds. The Rogue Hybrid is assembled at Nissan Motor Kyushu in Japan.

When you can buy one

The first cars to reach dealers this fall are the SR with all-wheel drive and the $4,000 Tech Package. The full SV, SR and Platinum range follows in early 2027.

Why it matters

The pitch is simple: an electric drive, with the smoothness and instant response that come with it, plus a gas tank instead of a charging habit. Whether the 38 mpg target survives the EPA’s testing is the next question. Until then, the Rogue Hybrid is the rare family crossover with a genuinely interesting idea under the hood, and an engine cover that spells it out in case you forget.

Sources

Nissan USA Newsroom, “2027 Nissan Rogue Hybrid Press Kit,” Sept. 21, 2026

The 2027 Hyundai Tucson gets bigger, squarer and much better at towing

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 19:40:00 -0400

The all-new 2027 Hyundai Tucson. Photo: Hyundai

Hyundai unveiled the all-new Tucson in New York on Oct. 1, against the Manhattan skyline. That is a lot of backdrop for a compact SUV, but Hyundai calls the Tucson its best-selling SUV worldwide, and it was not about to be upstaged by a few skyscrapers.

For American buyers, the headline is the hybrid. Hyundai says the North American Tucson Hybrid makes 233 horsepower, runs from 0 to 60 mph in 8.5 seconds and targets up to 42 mpg in two-wheel-drive form on 17-inch wheels. That last number is Hyundai’s target, not an EPA rating, so for now it is a promise rather than a receipt.

Bigger in every direction

The long-wheelbase body is 4,700 mm long, 1,905 mm wide and 1,685 mm tall. That is 60 mm longer, 40 mm wider and 20 mm taller than the outgoing car, and the wheelbase grows 30 mm to 2,785 mm. In American units, the new Tucson is nearly two and a half inches longer. It is less a growth spurt than a good summer.

Hyundai has also widened the door opening angle from 73 to 83 degrees. Nobody has ever bought a car for its door hinges, but anyone who has wrestled a child seat into a back seat will quietly appreciate the extra 10 degrees. Cargo space is quoted at 41.7 cubic feet on the SAE measure.

Inside, the Pleos Connect infotainment system pairs a 17-inch or 12.9-inch touchscreen with a 9.9-inch slim display above the steering column. Hyundai also lists tactile buttons below the center screen for climate and audio, which may be the most welcome sentence in any press release this year.

The numbers that matter

Hybrid: 233 hp, 0 to 60 mph in 8.5 seconds, and a targeted 42 mpg in North American two-wheel-drive form on 17-inch wheels.
Gas: a 1.6-liter turbo with 184 hp and an eight-speed automatic.
Towing: up to 3,000 pounds for the hybrid in North America, 1,000 pounds more than before. That moves the Tucson from “small trailer, nervously” to “small boat, confidently.”
Why the hybrid matters here: hybrids made up 31 percent of Tucson sales in the U.S. in 2025, and the U.S. accounts for about 20 percent of the Tucson’s cumulative global sales.

XRT PRO, and the stuck score

The off-road XRT PRO adds all-wheel drive, all-terrain tires and front recovery hooks, and raises ground clearance by 30 mm, to 210 mm. It also debuts Hyundai’s first Smart Terrain Assist, which analyzes traction and wheel slip and shows a green, orange or red “stuck score.” In other words, the car now has a polite way of telling you that you should have turned around 10 minutes ago. In North America, Hyundai says Smart Terrain Assist comes only on the XRT PRO.

Alongside it, Target Speed Control manages acceleration and braking at a driver-selected speed between 2 and 25 km/h, or roughly 1 to 16 mph. Hyundai says that lets the driver focus on steering. We would add steering and regret.

When, and how much

The new Tucson launches in Korea later this year, with North America to follow in 2027. Hyundai also said a sport-inspired variant would debut at the Paris Motor Show on Oct. 12.

Hyundai has not announced U.S. pricing, and the EPA has not rated the new car yet. Anyone quoting you a monthly payment today is guessing, with confidence.

Sources

2026 Toyota RAV4: the spreadsheet loves it, your right knee might not

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 13:46:00 -0400

2026 Toyota RAV4 Woodland, EPA-rated 38 mpg combined. Photo: Charles from Port Chester, New York, via Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0

On Sept. 30 we promised Review No. 01: a crossover your spreadsheet likes and your right knee might not. It’s the 2026 Toyota RAV4.

This is a buyer’s breakdown. We haven’t driven it. It is built on Toyota’s specs, EPA ratings, NHTSA records and Consumer Reports’ road test of an AWD XLE Premium that CR bought anonymously for $43,238.

The spreadsheet

Every 2026 RAV4 is a hybrid, either a conventional hybrid or a plug-in. Toyota lists the LE at $31,900 MSRP, before fees.

The EPA ratings are the strongest argument for the car, and they argue well:

2026 RAV4 Hybrid	City	Highway	Combined
Front drive	47	40	43
AWD, SE and LE	46	39	42
AWD, XLE	45	38	41
AWD, Limited and XSE	43	37	41
AWD, Woodland	41	35	38

All figures are mpg, from fueleconomy.gov. In CR’s testing, its XLE Premium averaged 40 mpg overall and ran 0 to 60 mph in 7.7 seconds. Nobody buys a RAV4 for its 0 to 60 time, and the RAV4 seems at peace with that.

The knee

The knee in our headline is literal. CR says a hard plastic edge on the center console rubs directly against the driver’s right knee. On a short errand, that is an annoyance. On a road trip, it is a relationship. It calls the XLE Premium’s cabin one that “feels cut-rate.” It also reports intermittent reconnection problems with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

CR’s advice for anyone who wants some pampering is to step up to the top-shelf Limited. In other words, the cure for a hard plastic edge is a bigger check.

Safety record so far

NHTSA has not crash-rated the 2026 RAV4 yet. Its 5-Star Safety Ratings list the hybrid and plug-in versions as Not Rated.

There is one recall so far, and it covers a label. As recalls go, this is the paper-cut kind, though the label matters. On some 2026 RAV4 Hybrids, the load carrying capacity modification label may show inaccurate added-weight values, which NHTSA says could lead to an overloaded vehicle. Dealers will replace the label free of charge. The NHTSA campaign is 26V571000, Toyota’s number is 26TA18, and owner letters are expected to go out Oct. 18, 2026. NHTSA lists no recalls for the 2026 RAV4 Plug-in Hybrid.

Who should buy it

Drivers who cover a lot of miles and would like to see gas stations as rarely as possible. The front-drive RAV4 is rated at 43 mpg combined, and every all-wheel-drive version is rated at 38 or better.

Who should skip it

Buyers who expect a nice cabin at XLE Premium money. CR’s verdict on that trim is blunt.

Our call

Buy it for the miles, but sit in a Limited first. Bring your right knee to the test drive. It gets a vote.

Sources

The 2027 Subaru Impreza costs $2,000 less and gets 28 more horsepower, against all known laws of car pricing

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 08:49:00 -0400

2027 Subaru Impreza. Photo: Subaru

The cheapest 2027 Subaru Impreza costs $2,000 less than last year’s cheapest Impreza, and it gets 28 more horsepower. Cheaper and more powerful in the same model year is a sentence car buyers rarely get to read.

Subaru announced on Sept. 24 that the 2027 Impreza starts at $24,595, plus $1,245 destination and delivery. The 2026 lineup opened with the $26,595 Sport and its 152-hp 2.0-liter. Subaru calls the new car the most affordable all-wheel-drive compact on sale in the U.S.

2027 Impreza	Engine	MSRP
Base	2.5-liter boxer, 180 hp	$24,595
RS	2.5-liter boxer, 180 hp	$29,495
RS option package	Harman Kardon audio, power moonroof, power driver’s seat	$2,070

Destination and delivery is $1,245, and it can vary in Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont. It is $1,395 at Alaska retailers. If you live in one of those states, your dealer will be happy to explain. At length.

One engine for the whole lineup

The 2027 lineup is down to two trims, base and RS, and both use the 180-hp 2.5-liter boxer four. That is where the extra 28 horsepower comes from: the 2026 Sport’s 2.0-liter made 152. The 2.0 has left the Impreza, presumably for somewhere with a lot of gravel roads.

Every 2027 Impreza pairs the 2.5 with a Lineartronic CVT and Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive. Both trims get steering-wheel paddles with an 8-speed manual mode that steps through preset ratios, plus SI-Drive with Intelligent and Sport settings. It is a CVT doing an impression of a gearbox, and the paddles let you call the shifts it is pretending to make.

What the base car gets

The $24,595 car is not a penalty box with a roof rack. It comes with:

EyeSight driver assist, including Pre-Collision Braking, Lane Keep Assist and Advanced Adaptive Cruise Control with Lane Centering
Dual 7.0-inch touchscreens, the upper one for infotainment and the lower one for climate and vehicle functions, with wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto
Dual-zone automatic climate control
Keyless access with push-button start
LED steering-responsive headlights with high beam assist
Dark gray 17-inch alloy wheels and Tricot cloth seats

The RS

The RS stays at $29,495, the same price as the outgoing model. The RS did not get cheaper. It watched the base car get cheaper and kept its composure. It adds dark gray 18-inch wheels, fog lights, black RS cloth upholstery and an 11.6-inch screen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

An all-weather package with heated front seats, heated mirrors and a windshield wiper de-icer is standard on the RS, along with Blind-Spot Detection with Rear Cross-Traffic Alert. The $2,070 option package adds a 10-speaker Harman Kardon system, a power moonroof and a 10-way power driver’s seat with lumbar support.

Space, colors and where it is built

Cargo space is 20.4 cubic feet with the rear seats up and 56.0 cubic feet with them folded. Ignition Red joins the color list, and Citron Yellow Pearl is a $395 option, a small price for never losing your car in a parking lot again.

The 2027 Impreza is assembled in Gunma, Japan, and arrives at Subaru retailers in late 2026.