jbkx7kjvb3y magzus.org

The first-ever GR Corolla. 300 HP. GR-FOUR AWD. Manual only. Get behind the wheel of this wild child.

TO: THE DIYER

32 ROAD TEST 2023 Chevrolet Corvette Z06

Chevrolet’s 8500-rpm bet on natural aspiration. We test the Vette in both convertible and extra-racy Z07 form.

By Ezra Dyer

TABLE of CONTENTS

40

COMPARISON TEST

The Luxe Life

The Genesis G90 3.5T e-SC AWD, the Lexus LS500 AWD, and the Mercedes-Benz S500 4Matic try to outpamper one another.

By Rich Ceppos

48

ROAD TEST 2023 Toyota GR Corolla Circuit

Three boosted cylinders and a sixspeed manual: I love what you do for me, Toyota GR Corolla!

By K.C. Colwell

54

LONG-TERM TEST 2021 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Z51

Even after 40,000 miles, we remain infatuated with this American icon.

By David Beard

60 FEATURE Sympathy for the Dealer

New-car dealers clocked their best year in memory, yet their future has never looked shakier.

By Jamie Kitman

“YOU MAY NOT GET ONE THE FIRST YEAR, BUT YOU WILL BE ABLE TO EVENTUALLY. IT’S WORTH THE WAIT.” —K.C. Colwell, “Paradigm Shifter”

COLUMNISTS

12. Tony Quiroga

First and last.

28. Ezra Dyer

Make EVs weirder.

30. Elana Scherr

Challenge accepted.

UPFRONT

16. Revealed: 2024 Ford Mustang

The seventh-gen pony car takes the stage.

22. Flex Time

Our new suspensionarticulation test.

24. The Taxman Changeth

Evolving credits for EVs and plug-in hybrids.

26. All Hail the Foaminator Ride along in the automatic carwash.

THE RUNDOWN

65. 2022 Hyundai Elantra N vs. 2022 Subaru WRX Limited Generation gap.

68. 2022 MercedesAMG SL63 Connection restored.

69. 2022 BMW R18 Transcontinental Wonder twins, activate!

70. 2023 MercedesBenz EQE350 4Matic Uneasy E.

72. 2023 Mazda CX-60

Shape of things to come.

74. 2022 Audi A3 Quattro

A lack of S appeal.

76. 2022 Land Rover Range Rover Bauhaus mover.

ETC.

7. Backfires May, we forgot you.

What to Buy An old M3 returns.

The joyful noise of the commentariat, rebutted sporadically by Ed.

TIME LAPSE

Hey, what happened to the letter I sent about the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS? I don’t recall reading any letters about that story [“Going Nowhere Fast,” May 2022].

—W. Deaver Dayton, OH

I’ve been a little distracted lately, and the letters covering the May issue didn’t make it into print. As a make-good, we’re running the letters about May here in November. It might be a bit late, but your backfires are timeless—Ed.

As a subscriber for over 40 years, I have witnessed the

sad and steady decline of the quantity and the quality of your magazine. As a Porsche owner, seeing the cover graced with the GT4 RS made me anxious to read the test “to find out whether it eclipsed the 911.” Neither I nor most of your readers, I’d suspect, give a crap about the SoCal roads. After nearly three paragraphs about the roads, you finally got to the test. Who cares about the road map? We can look it up for ourselves. Please consider including more test data, more car pics, and less BS about a road no one cares to read about. What a disappointment! Did it eclipse the 911? I guess we’ll never know.

Please spare me the wise-ass rebuttal and try to focus on the mission of testing and reporting on cars. If I want to read about the geography of SoCal, I’ll subscribe to National Geographic

—J.R. Bair Plainfield, IL

Enjoyed the Cayman story in the May issue. I often run these same mountain roads in my Lotus Elise. You missed the best road in the area. If you take a right across the bridge and follow the East Fork, it will connect with Glendora Mountain Road, a truly spectacular twisty piece of tarmac that runs along the ridge to the city of Glendora.

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I usually run it from Glendora to Azusa and stop at Canyon City Barbeque in Azusa.

—Bill Gordon Huntington Beach, CA Haven’t you heard? No one cares about SoCal roads—Ed.

Wow, you read my mind. The verdict on the GT4 RS: “The no-compromise Cayman we’ve all been waiting for.” I, too, have been waiting for a $198,297 Porsche 718 Cayman.

“Honey, can I have two hundred grand for a Cayman?”

“Are you going to sell the Genesis?”

“No, this is just a weekend car. It’s too rough for daily driving.” Dead silence.

“Honey, are you there? It’s fast and gets 16 mpg.”

—Peter Homestead Mission Viejo, CA

I remember when the Boxster and its subsequent sibling, the Cayman, were introduced as more affordable Porsches. But I’m old.

—Alex Gregorewsky Charlotte Harbor, FL The GT4 RS is more affordable than the 911 GT3 RS—Ed.

MANUAL NORIEGA

I really enjoyed Ezra Dyer’s “Grün with Envy” in the May 2022 issue. I am looking to purchase a Porsche 911 GT3 Touring and would like to know the options on the tested GT3.

—George Hauppauge, NY Sorry, this happened way too long ago and all records were lost—Ed.

CONTRIBUTOR Jamie Kitman

is a lawyer turned rockband manager (clients have included They Might Be Giants and OK Go) and award-winning car writer. Kitman’s collection of classic cars is so vast that he put it to work for himself by renting vehicles to TV and movie productions in need of vintage metal. “Sympathy for the Dealer,” his feature on the changing state of car sales, starts on page 60.

a big trunk begging to be filled with stolen diamonds and a leather and burlwood interior designed for cackling in during the getaway.” I decided to save $200,000. My wife thanks her.

—Jack DeLessio Knoxville, TN

CAR OR TRUCK

my local warehouse?

—Steven Kahn Benicia, CA

I took the Huggies—Ed.

Not sure I agree that the box of Huggies being left behind (pun intentional) by the Civic is really leaving “seriously fun” activities out of the evening.

The May issue has two articles on Porsches. Two too many. Why this obsession with Porsches? Next to nobody owns one. And there are many other fast, quality cars around, from BMW, Mercedes, Jag, etc. You used to be an interesting, intelligent, witty mag. Not anymore. Stop pigging out on Porksches.

—Vincent di Norcia Barrie, ON

I saw the comparison of the Ford Maverick XLT Hybrid and the Honda Civic Sport [“Buying Culture,” May 2022]. It further convinced me that the Ford Maverick is the perfect truck-car thing for a teenager such as myself. Finally, I can hide my pickles, rawhide, Doritos, and summer sausage from my family! In all seriousness though, that Cyber Orange paint is great, and you can’t convince me otherwise.

—Nate Bishop Vienna, VA

Did you pick Costco because of its generous return policy? If not, which writers took which stuff home? And where can I find the watermelon helmet at

—Roger Bare Houston, TX You’re doing it wrong—Ed.

Just finished reading the Maverick-Civic comparison. One thing that comes to mind: For what most people pay for a full-size pickup, you could have both the Maverick and the Civic.

—Joe Eanes Burton, MI

“But if your cargo, like Soylent Green, is people, the Civic is the machine you want.” Priceless!

—Mack Easty Austin, TX

LIFE WITH ELON

Thank you for your informative article on the

Sometimes we compare apples to oranges, then find ourselves at Costco with the

DIAL M

When I saw the GT4 RS on the cover, I knew before I even read the article that I would finally sell my 2002 BMW E39 M5 and get this car. Then I read Dyer’s article on the GT3 and thought, “Or not. I really want this one!” Then I read Elana Scherr’s article [“MMMBop Appreciation,” May 2022]. She said about my 20-year daily driver: “The E39 would make an excellent villain’s car, with

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long-term test of the 2019 Tesla Model 3 [May 2022]. It helped me make up my mind about whether to invest in one. After reading your article, I have decided no effing way do I want one!

—Steve Clinton Orange, CA

I enjoyed the long-term Tesla recap. You mention decreased battery life due to charging the batteries to 100 percent. If Nigel’s amp can go to 11, is there an option for the charger to turn off at 95 percent to help battery longevity?

—Justin G. Fontana, WI Tesla allows you to preset how much you charge a battery. You can top it off to 100 percent or charge it to a lesser percentage to slow battery degradation—Ed.

SMALL COMFORT

Thanks for the premiumcrossover comparo [“Challenging the Establishment,” May 2022]. Let me get this straight: For decades, top-performing cars were the Shelby Cobra 427

EXPLAINED

and the Ferrari F40. So a suburban grocery-getting soccer-mom BMW X3 M40i beats them both in acceleration to 60 mph, narrowly loses in the quarter-mile,

uses half the fuel while outweighing them by 1200-plus pounds, and places second?

—Jeffrey Hay Delta, BC

The Stutz Bearcat was a top performer for decades too—Ed.

You were fair about the Lexus RX350, and I don’t doubt the Genesis GV70’s goodness. But next time, before you throw the X3 M40i under the bus, skip the Adaptive M suspension and, if possible, toss the run-flats. Bingo. This car is so sweet. It deserves more praise. Oh yes, I just did a 12-hour day in mine. The seats are awesome.

—Charlie Wister Ketchum, ID

I just traded my 2019 BMW 330i xDrive for a 2022 X3 M40i, and I am shocked by how much better the X3

ment of the G20-generation 3-series seemed to land on a potentially good car depending on how it’s spec’d. Evidently, I did it wrong. My 330i had 20-inch wheels with 35-series all-season run-flats. That car required frequent midcorner corrections, and there was no sense of what the front wheels were doing. Ride quality was poor, and I curbed all four rims with the low-profile tires. Lesson learned. On the X3, I chose 19s, which came with 50-series Pirelli Cinturato P7s. Steering feel is staggeringly better than in the 330i—accurate, linear, and communicative. As you have written many times over the years, specifications matter, and evidently the wheel-and-tire selection on the X3 can drive a substantial divergence in experience.

—Scott V. Ridgefield, CT It feels so nice to be heard—Ed.

You had a perfect Paul Harvey–like opportunity to tell the rest of the story regarding your experience with the Full Self-Driving option in your longterm test of the Tesla Model 3, but you left us hanging [May 2022]. Did you get a refund for the $6000 you spent for nothing, or did the fine print in the purchase contract allow Tesla a free pass to scam you?

—Dennis Lyon, Layton, Utah

There is no “rest of the story.” After 48 hours, there are no refunds for the Full Self-Driving option. We take some consolation in the fact that we didn’t spend the $15,000 it costs now—Ed.

Are we really comparing BMW to Genesis? Come on! Who wants to keep having this conversation? Who makes Genesis? Hyundai. So it’s a Hyundai? I’ll stick with the BMW breed, thank you. Now back to my caviar and champagne! Snobs unite!

—Tony Jones Highlands Ranch, CO Is the caviar in Colorado anything like Rocky Mountain oysters?—Ed.

Acura is closing its run of the second-gen NSX and building 350 final cars, and you spent three pages reviewing one [“Closing Time,” May 2022]? This seems to confirm my long-held suspicion that the cars you test are just the ones you want to drive, as opposed to cars the typical reader might find available and affordable.

If I were you, I’d, well, I’d probably do the same thing.

—Terry Collins Homewood, IL

WEIGHT FOR IT

As a former U.S.-based Lotus engineer, I regularly presented to industry that spending money on lightweight materials, including aluminum and carbon fiber, to improve EV range could lead to substantial vehicular cost and weight savings [“Lotus Operandi,” May 2022]. A 10 percent vehiclemass reduction yields about a 6 percent efficiency increase. This means for a 10 percent weight reduction, either EV range can be increased by 6 percent with the same-capacity battery pack or range can be maintained with 6 percent less battery capacity. Current EV batteries, at $100 per kilowatt-hour and 260-Wh/kg energy density, cost about $12 per pound, which makes even carbon fiber a cost-effective EV material because of the

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mass decompounding effect. Colin Chapman’s lightweight philosophy is even more relevant today for electrified vehicles.

—Gregg

Somewhere in Michigan

I believe $130 per kilowatthour might be more like it, but hopefully Lotus is reading—Ed.

THESE EYES

It’s clear you love GM’s Super Cruise, singling it out as the only advanced driver-assistance system “good” enough at communicating its status to the driver [“Missed Signals,” May 2022]. By some stats, 8 percent of men are colorblind, almost all of them (including myself) red-green colorblind, making the red-yellow-green bar useless. I’m happy with my giant blue/notblue Tesla Autopilot indicators.

—Adithya Kaushik Spokane, WA

LIFE IN STEREO

Dyer’s article was a masterpiece, perfectly encapsulating the car-stereo-upgrade era, experience, and intent [“Sound Opinions,” May 2022]. As a short-time subscriber, I shouldn’t be forced to laugh out loud for identifying so much with an article. Cancel my subscription.

—Jeff Krueger Clovis, CA

Dyer’s piece was so full of pop-culture references from decades past, it made me go re-re-rewatch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Steely Dan, IROC, “Whoomp! (There It Is),” Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer,” MacGruber—I recognized them all. Upon finishing it, I thought, “Damn, Dyer’s getting old.” And then it dawned on me: I recognized them all.

—D. Wilburn Colorado Springs, CO

First and Last

There’s an unmatched sense of freedom that comes with a first car. My second-gen Volkswagen GTI 16V, the one with the 134-hp 2.0-liter engine, Recaro seats, and BBS wheels, gave me a joy that had been long ago stored away in the corners of my mind. And then I drove a Toyota GR Corolla and was slingshotted back to my first solo drives down Detroit’s Woodward Avenue. On page 48, executive editor K.C. Colwell provides an expert and detailed evaluation of Toyota’s wildchild hot hatch. I’m just here for a nostalgic gush.

My little GTI would rip into apexes and grind to its redline through very short gears. It had better moves than Ex-Lax and could not be tripped up. Quick steering moved the roughly 2500-pound box with windows into and out of trouble. Sometimes after parking I would linger in it, marveling about what we’d just done. Warm afterglow.

As documented over the years in this fine publication, I have tested some rare and eye-opening stuff: Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Bugattis, even a Pagani. Yet nothing quite matched those early teenage drives in the GTI. Raucous, impatient, eager, and daring: adjectives that applied to the GTI and to me 30 years ago. We were a perfect match. When I started up the GR Corolla, the buzz and churn under the hood refired long-idle synapses. Full throttle. Bam! Redline. Second gear. Bam! Redline. Short gears. No missed shifts. No waiting for boost in these low gears. Gruffness under the hood, just like the 16V engine. I loved that GTI. I’m loving the GR.

Corner coming up. Whoops. The brake is a little far from the accelerator to reliably heel-toe downshift. Solution: Tap the button to the left of the steering wheel to enable rev matching. Brake. Downshift. Rotate. Upshift. Repeat. The GR has seemingly inexhaustible grip. I remember my GTI had that same dogged refusal to let go. It pressed you hard into the bolsters. This Corolla is tenacious and pissed off, just like the GTI. What’s that, GR Corolla? Well, I couldn’t agree more with you about recommended cornering speeds. Do you think we can triple that really low one? Let’s find out.

If I drove that GTI today, I’m guessing I’d be shocked by the roughness and lack of rigidity. Age and perspective would render the ride and structure, like most things that seemed acceptable at 17, questionable today. Here in my late 40s, the GR seems satisfyingly firm and solid.

I’m happy. It’s as impatient as I am. Another great match.

I got a couple of speeding tickets in the first few months of my driving career. If I had a GR Corolla today, I’m sure I’d get nailed a few times until I started acting my age again. Thank you, GR Corolla, for helping me remember a feeling that cemented my love of driving. Thank you for reminding me that cars can bring so much joy. I can’t believe I found that firstcar feeling again after all these years.

TONY QUIROGA E DIT OR -IN-CHI EF

You’re proud of your cars. Now you finally have a way to stack and display them on a home lift made just for you. No side posts. No clutter. Autostacker’s low-profile entry ramp handles autos that other lifts wouldn’t dare. Keep your space looking sharp with the only home stacker that’s truly worthy of your pride.

See

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Editor-in-Chief Tony Quiroga

Executive Editor K.C. Colwell Digital Director Laura Sky brown • BUYER’S GUIDE Deputy Editor rich Ceppos Senior Editor Drew Dorian Staff Editors Frankie Cruz, Austin Irwin

FEATURES Senior Editors Greg Fink, elana Scherr • NEWS Senior Editor Joey Capparella Senior Associate Editor eric Stafford Staff Editors Jack Fitzgerald, Caleb miller Social Media Editor michael Aaron • REVIEWS Deputy Editor Joe Lorio Senior Editor ezra Dyer

FINISH STRONG

Love your magazine! Curious about the inconsistent use of that little red-andblue striped flag that often punctuates the end of your articles. Sometimes you use it. Sometimes you don’t. What’s the algorithm?

—Matt Neumann Wheaton, IL

The art department will take your call in the order in which it was received—Ed.

I drive a 2017 Subaru Forester with all the inherent safety tech. Brake pads last around 50K miles. I swear when the adaptive cruise control is engaged on crowded highways, I can feel the system applying throttle and brake simultaneously. Thoughts?

—Jeremy I. Shoemaker Charlotte, NC Yeah, I can’t believe I overlooked running these letters—Ed.

I recently acquired a 2021 Mercedes-AMG E63 S wagon that was previously designated a press car as per the build sheet. Could it be the same E63 wagon C/D tested? My VIN ends with 55934.

—Adam

Fort Lauderdale, FL We tested an E63 wagon with a VIN that ends in 55932, but it turns out we used your wagon for photography—Ed.

What happens if the airbag in my 1990 Buick Reatta deploys?

—Sean Sweaney Nashville, TN You start looking for a new Reatta—Ed.

TESTING Testing Director Dave vanderWerp Technical Editors David beard, Dan edmunds, mike Sutton Road Test Editor rebecca Hackett Road Warriors Harry Granito, Katherine Keeler, Jacob Kurowicki, Christi vanSyckle • CREATIVE Director Darin Johnson Deputy Design Director Nicole Lazarus Staff Photographers michael Simari, marc Urbano Photo

Assistant Charley m. Ladd • VIDEO Deputy Editor Carlos Lago Producer/Editor Alex malburg • PRODUCTION Director of Editorial Operations Heather Albano Copy Chief Adrienne Girard Associate Managing Editor Jennifer misaros Production Manager Juli burke

Associate Production Manager Nancy m. Pollock Senior Copy Editor Chris Langrill Research Editor matthew Skwarczek Copy Editor meredith Conrow Online Production Designer Sarah Larson Online Production Assistant Andrew berry Editorial Assistant Carlie Cooper

CONTRIBUTORS European Editor mike Duff Contributing Editors Clifford Atiyeh, brett berk, Sebastian blanco, Csaba Csere, malcolm Gladwell, John Pearley Huffman, Andrew Lawrence, bruce mcCall, Jens meiners, John Phillips, Jonathon ramsey, James Tate, John voelcker Editorial Office 1585 eisenhower Place, Ann Arbor, mI 48108

PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.

Editorial Contributions Unsolicited artwork and manuscripts are not accepted, and publisher assumes no responsibility for return or safety of unsolicited artwork, photographs, or manuscripts. Query letters may be addressed to the editors.

Publisher and Chief Revenue Officer Felix DiFilippo

Vice President, Sales Cameron Albergo • NEW YORK Group Sales Director Kyle Taylor Senior Sales Director Joe Pennacchio Sales Director Shannon rigby Sales Manager richard Panciocco Assistant Keierra Wiltshire • CHICAGO Sales Director rick bisbee

DETROIT Group Sales Director Samantha Shanahan Sales Directors Tom Allen, Deb michael Sales Manager Chris Caldwell Assistant Toni Starrs • LOS ANGELES Group Sales Director Jason Hunt Senior Sales Directors Lisa LaCasse, Lori mertz, Susie miller, Anne rethmeyer Sales Director molly Jolls • HEARST DIRECT MEDIA Vice President Christine Hall Sales Manager Celia mollica • PRODUCTION Manager mario Cerrato

CIRCULATION Vice President, Strategy and Business Management rick Day

Published by Hearst 300 W. 57th Street, New York, NY 10019

President & Chief Executive Officer Steven r. Swartz Chairman William r. Hearst III Executive Vice Chairman Frank A. bennack, Jr. Chief Operating Officer mark e. Aldam

HEARST AUTOS, INC. President & Chief Revenue Officer Nick matarazzo President, Hearst Magazines Debi Chirichella Chief Financial and Strategy Officer; Treasurer regina buckley Secretary Catherine A. bostron Chief Brand Officer eddie Alterman Finance Director Christina Connelly

PUBLISHING CONSULTANTS Gilbert C. maurer, mark F. miller INTERNATIONAL EDITIONS China, Greece, Spain

LETTER OF THE MONTH

Enjoyed your article on the Buick Roadmaster wagon [“Roadmonster,” May 2022]. It brought back memories of my favorite picture of all time in your magazine, of Granny in an LT1 Roadmaster sedan smoking the tires. She is probably doing it in

Using Shell v-Power® NiTro®+ Premium Gasolines and diesel fuels appropriately in Car and Driver test vehicles ensures the consistency and integrity of our instrumented testing procedures and numbers, both in the magazine and online.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

Call 800-289-9464, email cdbCustServ@ CDSFulfillment.com, visit www.CarandDriver.com/ service, or write to Customer Service Dept., Car and Driver, P.O. Box 6000, Harlan, IA 51593 for inquiries/requests, changes of mailing or email addresses, subscription orders, payments, etc.

PERMISSIONS material in this publication may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

To order digital back issues, go to your favorite app store. Car and Driver© is a registered trademark of Hearst Autos, Inc. Copyright 2022, Hearst Autos, Inc. All rights reserved.

Gay’s memory lands him a cool little Ford GT model he won’t soon forget. Also, the guy dressed as Granny in our October 1993 issue is alive and well—Ed.

“I’’ve gotten many compliments on this watch. The craftsmanship is phenomenal and the watch is simply pleasing to the eye.”

—M., Irvine, CA

THIS WATCH.”

Wheeling, IL

I

n the early 1930s watch manufacturers took a clue from Henry Ford’s favorite quote concerning his automobiles, “You can have any color as long as it is black.” Black dialed watches became the rage especially with pilots and race drivers. Of course, since the black dial went well with a black tuxedo, the adventurer’s black dial watch easily moved from the airplane hangar to dancing at the nightclub.

Now, Stauer brings back the “Noire”, a design based on an elegant timepiece built in 1936. Black dialed, complex automatics from the 1930s have recently hit new heights at auction. One was sold for in excess of $600,000. We thought that you might like to have an affordable version that will be much more accurate than the original.

Basic black with a twist. Not only are the dial, hands and face vintage, but we used a 27-jeweled automatic movement. This is the kind of engineering desired by fine watch collectors worldwide. But since we design this classic movement on state of the art computer-controlled Swiss built machines, the accuracy is excellent.

Three interior dials display day, month and date. We have priced the luxurious Stauer Noire at a price to keep you in the black… only 3 payments of $33. So slip into the back of your black limousine, savor some rich tasting black coffee and look at your wrist knowing that you have some great times on your hands.

An offer that will make you dig out your old tux. The movement of the Stauer Noire wrist watch carries an extended two year warranty. But first enjoy this handsome timepiece risk-free for 30 days for the extraordinary price of only 3 payments of $33. If you are not thrilled with the quality and rare design, simply send it back for a full refund of the item price. But once you strap on the Noire you’ll want to stay in the black.

REVEALED

By Eric Stafford

Pony Up!

The seventh-generation Mustang isn’t a huge departure from the previous car, but would-be cowpokes will see fun new options, fresh interiors, and the menacing Dark Horse.

Ford isn’t putting its gas-fed pony car out to pasture. Instead, the 2024 Mustang is galloping into its seventh generation with a mighty V-8, brawny bodywork, and an available manual gearbox. Inside, it’s a hightech horsey, with expanded digital displays. Don’t worry that the new breed has grown tame, though. Not only will the Mustang offer hoony gimmicks like a drift stick and a remote-rev feature, but it’s also coming out of the gate with a 500-hp version, the Mustang Dark Horse.

Ford hasn’t yet said how much the 2024 Mustang Dark Horse will cost, but we think it’ll start around $60,000, which is a few thousand more than the current 2022 Mustang Mach 1. We expect the Dark Horse to go on sale next summer.

Ford calls the intakes flanking the horse grille “nostrils.” They feed dual throttle bodies. Big horse gotta breathe.

Every Dark Horse rides on adaptive dampers behind 19-inch wheels mounted with Pirelli P Zero PZ4 summer tires. All Dark Horses have Brembo sixpiston fixed front brake calipers clamping 15.4-inch rotors.

All Mustangs get a substantial interior redesign. In the Dark Horse, the new flat-bottom steering wheel sits in front of a dashboard that combines a 12.4-inch digital gauge cluster and a 13.2-inch touchscreen.

Carbon-fiber wheels won’t be available at launch but will show up on the options sheet later in the model year, giving you more time to save up for them.

The design is more evolutionary than revolutionary. The Mustang rides on the same platform as before, with a slightly shorter 107.0-inch wheelbase. As for the suspension, Ford has used aluminum front lateral and diagonal links on all cars, redesigned the knuckles, and carried over the Shelby GT350’s integral (or vertical) link design in the rear. The car also has revised spring rates and dampers matched to each model’s ride and performance goals, as well as a new steering rack with a quicker ratio. You won’t see any of that unless you climb underneath, but you will notice the new bodywork. The exterior features a squaredoff front end, wide quarters, and a clean rear panel bracketed by the signature three-bar taillights. It’s clearly a Mustang with the usual mix of retro throwbacks and modern touches.

You can recognize a Mustang Dark Horse by the distinctive badges, bigger grille openings, fixed rear wing, and darkened quad-tipped exhaust. This copperyblue paint is a Dark Horse exclusive, as are the smoked headlights and taillights.

Ford will still offer the Mustang as a coupe or a convertible with either the turbocharged 2.3-liter inline-four or a 5.0-liter V-8. The turbo four receives updates that include a switch to both port and direct fuel injection to improve performance and efficiency, a higher compression ratio, and an updated turbocharger. We expect to see a slight boost to the current inline-four’s maximum output of 330 horsepower and 350 pound-feet of torque. Sadly, the four-cylinder now comes only with the 10-speed automatic because, well, nobody bought the stick.

The fourth generation of the 5.0-liter V-8 adds dual throttle bodies fed by separate air intakes, a setup Ford says provides better airflow and helps increase horsepower. We don’t yet know how much more, but Ford claims it’ll make more power than the current GT’s 460 horsepower. We suspect the official number will be right on top of the 480-hp tune the previous generation’s Bullitt and Mach 1 had for a few years, leaving a

The Dark Horse’s Handling package comes with 10.5-inch-wide front wheels and 11.0-inch-wide rears, an inch wider than the standard Dark Horse.

meaningful gap between this V-8 car and the roughly 500-hp Dark Horse. The V-8 comes standard with a Getrag six-speed manual transmission, which Ford paired with a new dual-mass flywheel. The 10-speed automatic remains an option.

The Dark Horse’s engine gains a forged crankshaft and the heavy-duty connecting rods from the GT500’s 760hp supercharged 5.2-liter V-8. It pairs with Tremec’s six-speed manual or the optional10-speedautomatic,bothbacked by a Torsen limited-slip rear differential.

Ed Krenz, Mustang chief nameplate engineer, tells us that Dark Horse had been kicking around as a brand name at Ford for quite some time before christening the seventh-generation Mustang.

“With the S650, we knew we were going to come out of the gate with a feature car,” says Krenz. He adds that the name’s connotation of an unexpected challenge to the establishment felt right for the introduction of a gas-powered performance coupe at a time when others are exiting the segment.

An optional rear wing with a Gurney flap aims to keep Dark Horses grounded when they’re leaving Cars & Coffee.

The Handling package adds super-sticky Pirelli Trofeo RS rubber, as well as stiffer springs and anti-roll bars.

“

Meet ValentineOne® Generation 2

It’s about range superiority. I told my engineers, ‘We want the best radarseeking engine this side of the military.’

In fact, we adapted a concept from military CHIRP radars used to find fainter targets farther away with higher precision; it’s a SAW Dispersive Delay Line, . For civilian users, V1 Gen2 is a breakthrough on range.”

Much longer range, yet fewer false alarms.

All-new and patented circuitry, powered.

LNA technology on all bands.

Laser detection on all V1 Gen2s.

Built-in Bluetooth® smartphone connection. All-new high-contrast display.

V1’s legendary Radar Locator and Bogey Counter, back by popular demand.

We call it V1 Gen2. You’ll love it.

V1 Gen2 brings new detection tools

New LNA technology: The only way to extend range

LNA has another benefit—it acts as a one-way

magnesium case. That’s the key to stealth. V1 Gen2 is practically undetectable.

New, and patented, : Detecting more radars adds exponentially to data flow. jumps the processing rate more than a hundred times, enabling V1 Gen2 to quickly sort speed-trap radar signals from today’s glut of lane-change and crash-prevention radars.

Range superiority

LNA’s faint-signal acquisition feeding the high-rate analysis of adds up to a breakthrough in radar early warning. The range increase on Ka band is especially dramatic. Our new K-Verifier weeds out unwanted K alerts.

Future upgrades via smartphone

V1 Gen2 has a built-in Bluetooth connection for iPhone® and AndroidTM devices. Our app is free, and future upgrades are easy via smartphone.

JOIN ROAD & TRACK EDITORS FOR THE SECOND ANNUAL RALLY THROUGH WINE COUNTRY!

YOU’LL ENJOY...

Scenic group drives curated by editors winding through Northern California.

Track day at Sonoma Raceway for autocross and hot laps.

Stays at luxury resorts in Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley.

Unforgettable culinary and cocktail experiences

Tastings at local vineyards and tours of private car collections.

Access to Road & Track editors and legendary special guests.

By Dan Edmunds

Flex Time

new test aims to measure off-roaders’ suspension articulation.

Perhaps you’ve seen a photo of an SUV with one wheel hiked high into the air and thought, “That’s cool.” Except it isn’t, at least not if you’re serious about offroading. A locking differential might keep you moving, but a vehicle with that much daylight under one tire could suddenly teeter as terrain changes, with the suspension unable to fully cushion the landing. The transition can be rough and potentially dan gerous. For good traction and stability, you want all four wheels on terra firma at all times.

Getting through the tough stuff requires ground clearance along with good approach, departure, and break-over angles, but oft overlooked is suspension articulation.

To measure articulation, we drive a test vehicle’s driver’s-side front tire up a 20-degree ramp to generate a Ramp Travel Index (RTI) score. The test stops when the driver’s-side rear tire just barely begins to lift off the ground. This is the point of maximum flex, where the driver’s-side front tire is at maximum compression while

Our steel ramp is homemade. For scale drawings and instructions, send a request to The New Yankee Workshop.

When the driver’s-side rear wheel comes off the ground, the test stops.

why wheelbase matters

Imagine two vehicles that both can climb the ramp until their driver’s-side front tire is three feet off the ground. If one has a wheelbase of 60 feet, that’s not an impressive accomplishment, in part because the vehicle will drag its undercarriage over any obstacle it tries to surmount. Say there’s a six-foot wheelbase on the other vehicle. It’ll be far better able to conform to terrain and tackle just about anything.

the passenger’s-side front tire is at maximum droop, with the opposite true at the rear.

We then measure how high the driver’s-side front tire rose off the ground and use a bit of high-school trig to convert that to a distance driven up the ramp (remember SOH-CAH-TOA?). We also take wheelbase into account. The final RTI score is distance driven up the ramp divided by wheelbase, then multiplied by 1000 (to eliminate decimals). A perfect score of 1000, which we’ve never seen from an unmodified vehicle, occurs if the driver’s-side rear tire touches the ramp before ever lifting off the ground.

The Ram TRX has traveled farther up the ramp than any other vehicle, but its long wheelbase limits the score.

~

By Csaba Csere

The

domestic production.

into law August 16.

a big one. Since that date, only vehicles assembled in the U.S., of 2023 and beyond:

SHIFTING QUALIFICATIONS

The limit of 200,000 units of qualifying EVs per automaker is lifted, making General Motors and Tesla vehicles eligible again. However, new price caps on qualifying vehicles—$55,000 for cars, $80,000 for trucks and SUVs—eliminate the GMC Hummer and several Teslas (Models S and X, higher-trim Model 3s).

Another change is that the amount of the tax credit does not depend on battery size. If your EV or plug-in hybrid has a battery capacity of at least 7.0 kilowatt-hours, you can get the full $7500 stipend.

For the first time, used vehicles are eligible when purchased from a dealer. They now get a credit of up to 30 percent, with a $4000 maximum. The pre-owned EV or plug-in hybrid must cost no more than $25,000 and be at least two model years old.

One more perk starts in 2024: You can get the credit for new vehicles at purchase rather than wait until tax season. That means the $7500 can serve as a down payment.

LOCALLY SOURCED

Many of the changes have to do with EV production. In addition to the provision about final vehicle assembly, half of the $7500 credit is contingent on at least 40 percent of the critical materials in the battery being extracted or processed in the U.S. or in countries with which we have a free-trade agreement. Materials recycled in North America also count. The benchmark gradually increases to 80 percent in 2027.

To promote local battery assembly, the other $3750 is based on a requirement that a minimum of 50 percent of the value of the battery components be manufactured or assembled in North America. This bogey escalates gradually to 100 percent in 2029.

Starting in 2024, if any battery components are manufactured in “a foreign entity of concern,” meaning China, Iran, North Korea, or Russia, then the vehicle is disqualified. The same rule will apply for sourcing of critical materials in 2025.

Overall, these new “clean vehicle” credit provisions are a mixed bag of industrial policy, social engineering, and EV promotion. Encouraging truck purchases by giving them a higher price cap hardly makes sense when trucks use more electricity, sourced mostly from CO2-generating power plants. But the domestic automakers are overwhelmingly truck-heavy, so this is another sop to them.

These rules, along with the escalating battery provisions, will encourage more EV and parts assembly in our automotive market. And the battery regulations will help us develop local sources to supply the coming waves of EVs. Expediting mining permits and environmental-impact statements might do even more good, but they’re absent from the bill.

In the short term, this law seems likely to reduce EV sales—at least until more manufacturers set up shop in North America. We’ll see how it goes a few years out.

By Benjamin Hunting

All Hail the Foaminator

From bumper blaster to banana foamer, an automatic carwash is a drive-through Rube Goldberg machine.

“KEEP THOSE RAGS AND MACHINES HUMMIN’”

The song “Car Wash,” by the group Rose Royce, was released in 1976 on the soundtrack of the film of the same name.

The single sold 2 million copies.

Carwashing is a big-money business, raking in around $30 billion annually worldwide. According to the International Carwash Association (ICA), the U.S. has more than 62,000 carwash locations—that’s one sudsy spot for every 5300 residents (or every 4400 registered vehicles).

The bane of Boy Scouts and cheerleaders out to make a buck, automatic washes handle most of the world’s cars. They’re designed to move you through and spit you out shiny and chrome, all without ever having to touch a rag.

SCRUB-A-DUB-DUB STEPS

Most automated carwashes rely on an intricate ballet of robotic scrubbers that dance around a vehicle as it sits patiently in the center of the bay or is gently tugged down the conveyor. High-pressure water cannons like bumper blasters, turbo blasters, and side-blaster baskets precede mitter half-moon baskets and wraparound brushes for full-contact washes or foam applicators like banana foamers or the Foaminator Maxx for touchless systems. A reverse-osmosis purified-water rinse and Mammoth Ear Air Dryer grand finale ensure a spotless finish.

ENVIRONMENTAL GENTLE CYCLE

Many modern washes feature water-treatment capabilities that recycle dirty liquids into purified H2O indefinitely, closing the loop using cyclonic-separation and media-filtration tech and sedimentation tanks. “On average, a conveyor wash will use between 60 and 150 gallons of water per car, but only 30 gallons of that is fresh from the local supply,” says ICA CEO Eric Wulf. “We might lose 20 percent in any given wash to evaporation and carryout, which is the water left behind, say, in the bed of a pickup.” Wastewater is filtered before being discharged into sewers.

CLEANING UP HISTORY

RIDE WITH ME

As the automotive world evolves toward increased automation, new vehicle features and technologies pose fresh challenges for the carwash industry. “Moving wheels are a safety-system tripwire on modern cars,” Wulf explains. “Wash conveyors that roll a vehicle through a wash by tugging on the front wheel are increasingly being replaced by belt conveyors that keep the wheels stationary.” This helps avoid triggering auto brake holds, collision-warning systems, parking sensors, and other showstoppers.

And some automakers are making things easier. “We’d love to see more companies add something like Tesla’s Car Wash mode,”

Wulf says, referring to the feature that closes all the windows and disables wipers, automatic door locks, and exterior sensors.

1940s 1946 1951

The world’s first “semiauto” carwash opens in Hollywood, California. It uses a winch to pull vehicles down a line of human scrubbers.

Paul’s Automatic Auto Wash in Detroit is the first to combine a conveyor, overhead sprinklers, and manually operated mechanical brushes using a system invented by a guy named Thomas Simpson.

Seattle’s Anderson brothers pull people out of the mix entirely by automating the whole soap-andscrub process, complete with an end-of-the-line blow-dry.

Make EVs Weirder

To compensate for their distressingly matchymatchy power delivery, electric vehicles need to get creative in other ways.

there are variations in suspension and steering and brakes, but pin the accelerator to the floor and what happens next will differ only in degree: smooth, rapid acceleration. I love the no-waiting blastoffs afforded by EVs, but the homogeneous behavior is a real bummer. Which means that for an EV to distinguish itself, the rest of the car better be weird. Like maybe it’s shaped like a 44-year-old regularcab pickup, or takes the form of a BMW iX.

BMW is conducting a sort of A/B test on customers, offering traditional cars that happen to be electric (the i4) alongside avant-garde lunar modules like the iX. Give me the freakmobile. In the i4 M50, you look around the cabin, see a 3-series sedan, and then get sad when it doesn’t act like an M3. In the iX M60, your frame of reference is obliterated by crystal-finish switchgear, an electrochromic roof, and a soundtrack scored by Hans Zimmer. Even the body shape defies easy comparison—I think it’s a sneaky wagon that happens to have 811 pound-feet of torque. Lower the suspension two inches and it’s an M5 Touring from another dimension.

The Ford Eluminator concept truck ruined me. Ever since Ford announced its electric crate motor, I’ve been daydreaming about putting one (or two) in a ’90s Bronco. But then I got to drive Ford’s own 1978 F-100 retro-rod out on the street in Charlotte, and it’s so good that nothing I could create will ever compare. The Eluminator drives like a Mustang Mach-E GT Performance with a cool old truck body draped over its running gear, which is exactly what it is. It’s tight, agile, and extremely quick, and I could never hope to build anything like it. But Ford could, and definitely should, because the Eluminator is flush with an attribute that can be elusive for EVs: personality.

If you drive one particular electric vehicle all the time, you might never realize that they all drive exactly the same. When I was at our EV of the Year testing, I began to despair as I switched between the Lucid Air and the Volvo C40 Recharge and realized both drive like the Tesla Model S Plaid, which drives the same as the Rivian R1T. Sure,

While BMW positions its gas-powered and electric sedans as different models, Genesis is bold enough to offer internal-combustion and EV versions of the same dang car, the G80. I drove them back to back and expected I’d prefer the EV—with 365 horsepower, it hits 60 mph in 4.1 seconds, which is 0.6 second quicker than the V-6 car. Alas, speed isn’t everything. The Electrified G80 (catchy name alert!) is hushed, refined, and effortlessly quick. But if you climb in after driving a G80 Sport with the V-6, you’re instantly reminded of the sensory involvement you’re missing: hearing the turbos spool as the torque ramps up and the transmission cracks off an upshift, accompanied by a harmonious burr from the exhaust. It’s dinosaur technology, I know. But in a car that’s otherwise conventional, the engine is the centerpiece of the experience. The Electrified G80 is a handsome cipher. It’s so shy about its EV nature, I was about five minutes from unscrewing the rear license plate to look for the charge port before I resorted to the owner’s manual and learned that a corner of the grille flips open for charging. Which begs the question: Why does an EV even have anything that looks like a grille?

When it comes to electric cars, the stranger the better. Let’s make them look like 1978 F-100s. Let’s make them look like flying saucers. Give me neon-purple underglow lighting that gets brighter when I stomp the accelerator. Put the steering wheel in the middle of a front bench seat on my six-wheeldrive convertible pickup. Let’s have a clean break to the freak side. General Motors already brought back the Hummer. But this is a job for Saab.

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Challenge Accepted

It seemed somehow preordained that the Dodge Challenger would play a significant role in my automotive enthusiasm.

I

got the T-shirt long before I got the car. I couldn’t even drive at the time, so its muscle-car graphics didn’t mean anything to me, other than a clean replacement for whatever I was wearing before I spilled something during a slumber party. I don’t know why Kelly Crowe had a too-big tee emblazoned with a blue 1974 Dodge Challenger Rallye, “So Rare!” written beneath it in a late-’70s font, but she was older and cooler, and willing to part with it. When I offered it back, Kelly told me to keep it. “It suits you,” she said.

I don’t know what sort of automotive precognition Kelly possessed, but several years later, I ended up buying a 1972 Challenger. Perhaps all that time in the shirt had subtly influenced my search, turning my head from the Road Runners and Chevelles my car friends liked, filtering out the mini-pickups fellow art-school kids drove, and aiming me toward the Dodge E-body.

At the time, Challengers were, as the shirt said, pretty rare. Dodge made the E-body for only five years, and its successor in the late ’70s was so different in spirit and form

that most people have forgotten it ever existed. The first-generation Challenger is a lovely design, all long hood and saucily arched rear quarters. It’s a Camaro in more stylish slacks, an E-type Jag in a trucker hat. Had Dodge not been five years late to the pony-car game, the Challenger might have sold in the same massive numbers as Mustangs and Firebirds. Even in its later days, with the frowny-face grille—and, in the case of my car, considerable body damage, uneven black primer, mismatched wheels, and a bare-metal interior—the Challenger was a head turner and a tire burner. I won my first (and only) racing money in that car, a check for $200 from Los Angeles County Raceway, which was probably just about enough to cover the cost of installing the cheater shot of nitrous we used to win.

Soon after my triumph at the drag strip, I sold the ’72 and swapped the running gear into a 1970—more collectible, more respectable. It had luxuries like door panels. During my restoration of that car, Dodge brought out the third-generation Challenger. Initially, I hated it for ruining my parts searches on eBay. “No, I don’t need lowering springs for a 2009. I need leaf springs for a 1970!” Suddenly my so-rare car was everywhere. New-car people were talking Challenger.

I liked the looks of the new one, in an overstuffed-Oreo sort of way, but it seemed stodgy, not fast enough, not rough enough. Sure, the SRT8 ran a 13-second quarter-mile, but so did a mildly tuned 40-year-old R/T. It wasn’t until the introduction of the Hellcat variants that the modern Challenger really impressed me. That irritated-beehive whine, the fat rear tires ready to liquefy like butter in a microwave, the Manic Panic color combinations— it was the first new Challenger to offer the same delights as the classic one, but quicker. Some of my favorite work over the past decade has involved testing, road tripping, and racing in Dodge’s hellish offerings.

All of this comes to mind now, as Dodge releases a slew of special-edition cars to mark the end of the LX-based Challenger and, possibly, the end of gas-powered Challengers altogether. Future Challengers, if there are any, will likely be in the electricmuscle camp. As Hank Williams Jr. says, even the rowdy friends settle down. Some Dodge fans are upset. It’s hard to say goodbye to an old friend, especially one who’s been a reliable party animal for 15 years. I think it will be okay. After all, Challenger survived the second gen, and an EV version can’t be worse than that. Still, my sympathies to thirdgen owners when their eBay parts searches bring up “2025 Challenger battery packs.” In the meantime, I’ve still got the 1970—and the T-shirt.

UNWRAP GIFTS

We hear boasts about platform sharing and production efficiencies realized. What no company ever says is, “You know what we decided to do? Draw up a big-ass V-8 that revs to a million and will only go in one version of one model. We’ll build it by hand, and pretty much not a single part will be compatible with anything else. It’ll have way less torque than its predecessor, and it’ll get worse fuel economy. But nobody will care because it’ll sound so righteous at 8500 rpm that you’ll forget your own name.” We might be paraphrasing a little, but that essentially is Chevy’s pitch for the 2023 Corvette Z06 and its singular LT6 V-8. We can’t believe General Motors actually built this thing, and maybe neither can GM.

Oddly, the LT6 V-8 has the same engine code as an 85-hp Oldsmobile diesel V-6. They share only a name. At 5000 rpm, the V-8 is just starting to wake up.

Chevrolet could have powered the new Z06 with an evolution of its supercharged 6.2-liter V-8, which made as much as 755 horsepower in the previous-generation Corvette. That would have been easy and effective, the obvious move.

AROUND HERE, WE SIT THROUGH A LOT OF PRESENTATIONS ABOUT AUTOMOTIVE TRENDS. CHARTS AND SPEECHES DETAIL THE LONGTERM MARCH TO ELECTRIFICATION AND HOW THE MOVE TOWARD SMALL-DISPLACEMENT, TURBOCHARGED ENGINES IS BRIDGING THE GAP UNTIL WE GET THERE.

Plus Sounds like the Monaco Grand Prix all by itself, deliciously linear power delivery, flared fenders are always a winner. Minus Gets 12 mpg, somehow induces nostalgia for the present, convertible hardware hides the gol-dang engine. Equals Best. Corvette. Ever.

Counterpoints

Instead, engineers started from scratch on a naturally aspirated 5.5-liter screamer with a flat-plane crankshaft and 32 valves. At a heady 8400 rpm, the LT6 generates 670 horsepower the all-natural way, and it makes its 460 pound-feet of torque at 6300 rpm, nearly the redline in a regular Stingray.

From the moment the engine barks to life, it sounds impatient, its ragged flat-plane idle suggesting a pit stall at the Rolex 24 at Daytona or perhaps a pair of Suzuki Hayabusas sitting at a stoplight. While the Stingray’s pushrod LT2 V-8 uses bimodal muffler valves—loud or quiet, a binary decision—the Z06’s muffler valves can continually adjust in two-degree increments, fine-tuning the sound. Wide open, it sounds like a Ferrari 458 Italia that hit puberty. An engineer told us that during testing at the Nürburgring, the Z06’s wail could be heard all the way around its lap. The Nürburgring, we should point out, is almost 13 miles long.

TheLT6wascode-namedGeminiduringdevelopment,but not as an homage to the Chevy Gemini sold in South America in the 1980s and known hereabouts as the Chevrolet/Geo

Driving the new Z06 is a little like the scene in Talladega Nights when Will Ferrell shares the cockpit of his ’69 Chevelle with a mountain lion. “If you’re scared, that beautiful death machine will do what God made it to do—namely, eat you with a smile on its face.” Leave the Z06 in Tour mode and it’s almost as if there isn’t a mountain lion in the car with you. Until you mash the accelerator. Then there are a dozen cougars roaring in the cockpit.

—Jack Fitzgerald

It should be the fastest thing on earth, but it’s only really, really fast. Then there’s the ride quality: Do you need to pee? It’s worse now. And, as in all eighth-gen Corvettes, the interior seems designed for divorcing couples—there’s a wall between us emotionally, and also in the car. These days, most sports cars are grand tourers, but not the Z06. Wrestle it into submission. Let ’em hear you with the roar that precedes tornadoes. Every shift is a whip crack, like you’re Indiana Jones. This is a bar fight on wheels. Your life has been too easy. Take on a challenge.

—Elana Scherr

EXTREMIST

THE HARDEST-CORE Z06 IS MULTIDIMENSIONALLY BETTER.

Until now, no one would have included in the many reasons to throw a set of Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R gummies at a sports car that they would improve ride quality. But it’s true on the Z06 when paired with the $9995 carbon-fiber wheels, which shed a claimed 41 pounds.

That this most extreme version of the Z06 is amazingly livable over far-from-smooth Michigan pavement is surprising, given that this car is also capable of setting many a track record. Going hardcore means you should choose the base targa body style, which saves about 90 pounds versus the convertible, and the $8995 Z07 Performance package. That’s actually a relative bargain, as it includes the carbon-ceramic rotors that cost $8495 alone, which makes the Cup 2 Rs only $500. Going Z07 also requires the aggressive Aero package for another $8495 (or $10,495 in exposed carbon fiber).

Oh, don’t worry, this Z06 is plenty sharper too. Its dramatically stiffer wheels necessitated a differ-

ent steering calibration. Turn-in is preternatural, the steering is purer, and, another surprise, this car better resists tramlining too.

Getting the targa also means the engine is visible, and shouldn’t you be able to see the 8500-rpm widget that’s causing a queue to pay $43,400 more than a regular Stingray costs? We thought having a line of sight to the 670-hp LT6 might affect the sound inside the cabin, but subjectively it doesn’t, although the targa measured quieter at wide-open throttle than the convertible, 94 decibels to 96. Other than the shriek to redline, the exhaust’s guttural throat clearing when tipping in and out of the throttle at elevated rpm tickled our car-enthusiast innards every time. Very Ferrari. A double-paddle pull lets the engine free rev and is a guaranteed way to draw a crowd— you can hear its wail from miles away.

At the test track, this one got to 60 mph in 2.6 seconds and through the quarter-mile in 10.5 at 131 mph, gains of 0.1 and 0.2 second, and 2

mph, respectively, over the 133-poundheavier convertible. The initial leap to 30 mph happens in 1.0 second flat, tying the 991-generation Porsche 911 GT3 RS and GT2 RS for quickest launch we’veeverrecordedinarear-drivecar and bettering many all-wheel-drive sports cars. Chevy’s launch control is exceptionally dialed in.

Although the new Z06 decisively shows its taillights to the previousgen car in a straight line, the C7 Z06 stopped shorter and cornered harder. An extra 108 pounds to an already heavy car never helps. On the skidpad, we measured 1.16 g’s, better than the 1.12 g’s of the convertible on Michelin Pilot Sport 4S rubber, but short of Chevy’s claim of 1.22 g’s, which requires much lower than doorplacard tire pressures. The skidpad also brings out the Z06’s understeer.

With its angry start-up, highpitched wail, and ability to spin to speeds that would shoot pushrods through a small-block, this latest Z06 is far more special. It’s also best served hardcore. —Dave VanderWerp

Carbon-fiber

Spectrum. No, it’s a reference to the moonshot NASA program, because that’s what this engine represents for the Corvette.

There’s a steep learning curve when your new V-8 is capable of 573 combustion events every second at the 8600-rpm fuel cut. If you’re compiling a list of GM V-8 firsts, a lot of them from the past 30 years or so belong to the LT6. Dual throttle bodies and intake plenums. Fuel injectors on the exhaust side of the cylinders to aid high-speed air-fuel

mixing. An 8500-rpm redline. The LT6 revs so fast that Chevy built in a mode to tranquilize the throttle when you’re selecting the rpm for launch-control starts, lest you blow past your intended target by 1000 rpm. When we congratulated one GM engineer on the LT6, the response was, “Congratulate me if it still runs after 150,000 miles.” Nevertheless, this engine has seen plenty of durability testing while powering the C8.R race car for two seasons.

the numbers

RESULTS

We didn’t put 150,000 miles on it, but we ran this Z06 70th Anniversary convertible plenty hard with nary a hiccup, and boy, did it put up some numbers. Its 2.7-second 60-mph time is a snapshot of a party that’s just getting started, as evidenced by the Z06’s 10.7-second quarter-mile at 129 mph. The Z06’s short 5.56:1 final-drive ratio helps fire it off the line, but we’ll be interested to see whether a car with the standard Aero package gets to, say, 160 mph quicker—this car wore the $8495 Carbon Aero package that helps generate 734 pounds of downforce at 186 mph, and those spoilers and underbody strakes exact a toll in drag at higher speeds. One clue on that front: Stand ard Z06s get a $2600 gas-guzzler tax, while cars with the Aero package are hit with a $3000 penalty. We averaged 12 mpg (the EPA city figure), making the 19-mpg EPA highway rating seem mighty optimistic.

Even though this particular car embodies a historically mellow Corvette spec—an automatic convertible—the Z06 structure is so stiff that the suspension calibrations match the coupe’s. And on its Michelin Pilot Sport 4S ZP tires (275/30ZR-20 up front and comically monstrous 345/25ZR21 in back), the Z06 pulled 1.12 g’s on the skidpad and stopped from 70 mph in 144 feet. So go ahead and treat yourself to the droptop. You’re not exactly trading performance for style, although you do miss out on gawking at the LT6. As with the Stingray, Z06 coupes display their engine under glass. Convertibles have a cover for the top mechanism that hides the engine, even with the convertible tonneau raised. As recompense, you’re treated to an extra-loud serenade from the LT6 if you put the top up or down while the car is in motion (at up to 30 mph), since you’re essentially driving with the hood open.

As with previous Z06s, this one is a holistic track-attack special, with plentiful chassis upgrades to take advantage of the newfound horsepower. The body is 3.6 inches wider than the Stingray’s, making room for those huge tires and a wider

track. The cooling system is upgraded with two extra heat exchangers, one of which is front and center and includes a removable grille panel to maximize airflow during track sessions. Six-piston brake calipers squeeze Brembo 14.6-inch rotors up front, and the rear end gets 15.0-inch rotors. The optional carbon-ceramic brakes ($8495) on our test car are even bigger—15.7 inches in front and 15.4 out back—and thoroughly indefatigable on a track. Put the car in Tour mode with the top down, gently blast some Gordon Lightfoot with the seat heaters blazing on a fresh fall evening, and it’s easy to forget you’re at the wheel of a hardcore track maniac, a car that can turn unapologetically sociopathic with the change of a couple of settings.

It recalibrates your expectations, the Z06. At first, 8500 rpm seems nutty, but soon enough you find yourself hitting the 8600-rpm rev limiter because it’s pulling

hard all the way there (the LT6 feels like it would be happy to visit the far side of 10,000 rpm, were it not for warranty considerations). There’s so much lateral stick that you’re almost surprised when it turns out to have limits, and the front and rear ends begin a dance to see who’ll relinquish grip first. It’s like the Z06 channels the high-winding spirit of the sixth-gen Z06, but with so much more sophistication. This is the Ferrari that Ferrari doesn’t make anymore.

It’s priced like it too, next to its Bowling Green brethren. This convertible carries a base price of $116,795, and options brought it to $162,510. The ceiling is higher if you care to explore the salutary effects of carbon-fiber wheels or treat yourself to the full Z07 Performance package. But what’s the competition? An Audi R8 Spyder is probably the closest thing, and that costs even more and is down nearly 100 horsepower.

Corvette engineers could have built a forced-induction Z06 that was more powerful than this. That would have been easy. Instead, they chased a subjective experience, the howling mid-engine exotic fantasy we all carry in our heads. Against all odds, they made it real.

While electronic safeguards don’t allow brake-assisted burnouts, the Z06 will drift if coaxed.

It’s a more fun way to melt rubber anyway.

Dimensions

Type: mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 2-passenger, 2-door convertible

3LZ equipment group (leatherwrapped interior with microfiber headliner, heated and ventilated GT2 bucket seats, navigation, wireless phone charging), $13,350; carbon-ceramic rotors, $8495; carbon-fiber aero package (includes $400 gas-guzzler tax), $8895; 70th Anniversary package, $5995; Level 2 carbon-fiber interior trim, $4995; front-axle lift, $2595; black stripes, $995; black exhaust tips, $395 Infotainment: 8.0-inch touchscreen; wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay; satellite radio (1 year included); minijack, 1 USB, 1 USB-C, and Bluetooth inputs; Wi-Fi hotspot (1 month included); Bose Performance Series stereo, 14 speakers

Engine

V-8, aluminum block and heads

Stroke

3.15

Chassis

aluminum spaceframe

Body Material: sheet-molded composite Steering

rack-and-pinion with variable ratio and electric power assist

Lock-to-Lock

Turning Circle Curb-to-Curb

104.3

Fuel Delivery: direct injection Valve Gear: double overhead cams, 4 valves per cylinder, variable intake- and exhaustvalve timing

Redline/Fuel Cutoff 8500/8600 rpm Power 670 hp @ 8400 rpm Torque 460 lb-ft @ 6300 rpm

Drivetrain

Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic Final-Drive Ratio 5.56:1, electronically controlled limited-slip differential

GEAR RATIO MPHPER MAXSPEED 1000RPM INGEAR(rpm)

1

2

3

2.91

1.76

1.22

0.88

0.65

5.0

8.2

11.8

16.4

43 mph (8600)

71 mph (8600)

101 mph (8600)

141 mph (8600)

(8500)

Suspension

F: ind; unequal-length control arms, coil springs, 3-position electronically controlled dampers, anti-roll bar R: ind; unequal-length control arms, coil springs, 3-position electronically controlled dampers, anti-roll bar

Brakes

F: 15.7 x 1.5-in vented, cross-drilled carbon-ceramic disc; 6-piston fixed caliper R: 15.4 x 1.3-in vented, cross-drilled carbon-ceramic disc; 4-piston fixed caliper Stability Control: fully defeatable, traction off, competition mode, launch control Wheels and Tires Wheels: forged aluminum, F: 10.0 x 20 in R: 13.0 x 21 in

Tires: Michelin Pilot Sport 4S ZP F: 275/30ZR-20 (97Y) TPC R: 345/25ZR-21 (104Y) TPC

THE LUXE

BY RICH CEPPOS PHOTOGRAPHY BY

WEALTH AND POWER.

For decades, that’s what big luxury sedans have represented. They’ve been the flagships of upmarket brands, making journeys supremely comfortable while conferring a special status upon owners. Hotel parking-lot valets leave them out front. Movie and TV directors use them as props to signal prestige (think Succession).

There are twice as many large luxury SUVs on the market today as large luxury sedans, but when a big, black, expensive sedan pulls up, it still gets attention. Several brands continue to build these cruise ships, so it seems like the right time to take the pulse of the luxe-sedan segment by pitting two important upscale nameplates against the standard-bearer.

The Mercedes-Benz S-class has long been the luxury car others are judged by. An S500 4Matic was the natural choice as this test’s benchmark. It’s the six-cylinder standard model—we’d never call it base—whose specifications best line up with our two challengers, the Lexus LS500 and the all-new Genesis G90, both also six-cylinder powered. Yes, there’s an S580 V-8 übermodel, but it’s even more expensive, and the S500

already had the highest base price of our trio at $112,150.

As you would expect, the S500 comes well equipped for the cruiseship mission with a 429-hp supercharged and turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six with hybrid assist, allwheel drive, air springs, adaptive dampers, every driver assist imaginable, and massaging front seats. Several interior options spruced up our test car. These included special Sienna brown-and-black nappa-leather upholstery ($2290), piano-black interior trim with embedded metal pinstripes ($1300), and multicolor ambient lighting ($790). Mechanical enhancements encompassed 21-inch AMG wheels shod in Pirelli P Zero PZ4 summer tires ($1750) and rear-wheel steering ($1300). An AMG Line package ($4300) dressed up the exterior with more aggressive front and rear fascias and side skirts. Our car was also equipped with the 3-D instrument cluster ($3000). The extras brought the sticker to $127,130—by far the priciest in the test.

At the other end of the price spectrum is the Lexus LS500 AWD, which starts at $80,500. Don’t be fooled by its fire-sale base price; while it includes luxury basics such

A six-figure cabin should coddle the body and inform the mind. None of these underdeliver on the former, and all go about the latter very differently.

Base/As Tested

Dimensions Wheelbase Length/Width/Height Track, F/R Passenger Volume, F/R Trunk Volume

Powertrain Engine

2023 Genesis G90 3.5T e-SC AWD $99,795/$101,295

125.2 in 207.7/76.0/58.7 in 65.2/65.4 in 57/48 ft3 11 ft3

2022 Lexus LS500 AWD

$80,500/$110,030

123.0 in 206.1/74.8/57.5 in 64.3/64.3 in 52/47 ft3 17 ft3

2022 MercedesBenz S500 4Matic

$112,150/$127,130

126.6 in 208.2/76.9/59.2 in 65.4/66.4 in 61/59 ft3 13 ft3

Power, hp @ rpm Torque, lb-ft @ rpm Redline lb per hp

Driveline Transmission Driven Wheels Final-Drive Ratio:1 Chassis Suspension Brakes Stability Control

Tires

supercharged and twin-turbocharged DOHC 24-valve V-6 212 in3 (3470 cm3) 409 @ 5800 405 @ 1300 6250 rpm 12.6

8-speed automatic all 3.73

F: multilink, air springs, anti-roll bar R: multilink, air springs, anti-roll bar F: 14.2-in vented disc R: 14.2-in vented disc

fully defeatable, traction off Michelin Primacy Tour A/S

F: 245/40R-21 100V M+S GOE

R: 275/35R-21 103V M+S

twin-turbocharged DOHC 24-valve V-6 210 in3 (3445 cm3)

416 @ 6000 442 @ 1600 6400 rpm 12.3

10-speed automatic all 2.76

F: multilink, air springs, anti-roll bar

R: multilink, air springs, anti-roll bar

F: 14.0-in vented disc

R: 13.1-in vented disc

partially defeatable, traction off Bridgestone Turanza EL450 RFT 245/45R-20 99V M+S

supercharged and turbocharged DOHC 24-valve inline-6 183 in3 (2999 cm3) 429 @ 6100 384 @ 1800 6300 rpm 11.2

9-speed automatic all 2.82

F: multilink, air springs, anti-roll bar

R: multilink, air springs, anti-roll bar

F: 14.5-in vented, cross-drilled disc

R: 14.1-in vented, cross-drilled disc partially defeatable

Pirelli P Zero PZ4

F: 255/35R-21 95Y MO-S

R: 285/30R-21 100Y MO-S

TEST RESULTS

Acceleration 30 mph 60 mph 100 mph 130 mph 1/4-Mile @ mph

Rolling Start, 5–60 mph

Top Gear, 30–50 mph Top Gear, 50–70 mph Top Speed Chassis Braking, 70–0 mph Braking, 100–0 mph Roadholding, 300-ft Skidpad

Weight Curb Distribution, F/R Fuel Capacity/Octane EPA Comb/City/Hwy C/D 500-mi Trip 75-mph Hwy Driving 75-mph Hwy Range

Sound Level

Idle/Full Throttle 70-mph Cruise

2.0 sec 5.1 sec 12.7 sec 21.9 sec 13.7 sec @ 104

Results above omit 1-ft rollout of 0.3 sec. 6.1 sec 3.5 sec 4.2 sec 132 mph (gov ltd) 184 ft 365 ft 0.84 g 5156 lb 50.6/49.4% 19.3 gal/91 20/17/24 mpg 22 mpg 29 mpg 550 mi 34/69 dBA 64 dBA

1.9 sec 5.4 sec 12.8 sec 22.3 sec 13.7 sec @ 104

Results above omit 1-ft rollout of 0.3 sec. 6.2 sec 3.4 sec 4.1 sec 140 mph (gov ltd)

185 ft 371 ft

0.83 g

5129 lb 53.3/46.7%

21.7gal/91 21/17/27 mpg 22 mpg 29 mpg 620 mi 38/74 dBA 65 dBA

1.7 sec 4.6 sec 11.5 sec — 13.1 sec @ 107

Results above omit 1-ft rollout of 0.3 sec. 5.3 sec 3.0 sec 3.9 sec 127 mph (gov ltd) 158 ft 324 ft 0.91 g 4786 lb 54.4/45.6%

22.1 gal/91 24/21/30 mpg 26 mpg 31 mpg 680 mi 35/71 dBA 65 dBA

BY DAVID BEARD

CHELSEA,

The LS also had air springs ($1400), a Mark Levinson audio setup ($1940), premium wood interior trim ($800), and the Lexus Safety System ($3200), which includes a bevy of additional driver assists. Options brought the as-tested price to $110,030.

By contrast, a Genesis G90 e-Supercharger AWD like our test car is the automotive equivalent of an all-inclusive resort vacation. The G90’s $99,795 base price accounts for virtually everything the S500 and the LS500 had—and in some cases more. The G90 has a 400-plus-hp V-6, massaging front and rear seats, and a full selection of safety tech. Our mount arrived with but one option: Matte Gray paint ($1500).

Yes, the absence of a couple of other luxury cars is conspicuous. BMW didn’t yet have the justintroduced new 7-series stateside, and Audi couldn’t conjure up an A8, the current version of which is in its final model year. Nevertheless, the three vehicles we got gave us plenty to ponder.

as a 416-hp twin-turbo V-6 and all-wheel drive and has a reasonable list of amenities, it required almost $30,000 worth of options to match the equipment levels of the S500 and G90. Among the most expensive additions was the Executive package, with semianiline leather trim, massaging front seats, and power-reclining and massaging rear seats ($17,380).

Lexus

LS500 AWD

Plus Plush front chairs, rich cabin materials, serene highway cruiser. Minus Clashing interior design themes, convoluted rearseat controls, looks too much like a Toyota Avalon. Equals The LS500 goes for radical in a conservative segment, and it doesn’t work.

In a vacuum, the LS is great, but in this company, it is the smallest inside and out, plus its design and powertrain are our least favorite.

What do you do with cruise ships? Do you really need to ask? We took them on a two-day, 500mile lake-to-shining-lake luxe-life cruise. We started with a few laps on our favorite local back roads to assess their handling, then headed east to ritzy Grosse Pointe, located

Genesis G90

3.5T e-SC AWD

Plus Looks the part, beautiful interior, spectacular value. Minus Least comfy rear seats, clunky-chunky steering-wheel design. Equals Presence that says you’ve arrived and rich appointments that make you feel like it too.

on Lake St. Clair, which separates Lake Huron from Lake Erie (and the United States from Canada). The area has been home to numerous auto-industry moguls since the early 20th century. We paused for sunset photos at a mansion that once belonged to Russell A. Alger Jr., an investor who helped found the Packard Motor Car Company. It’s now the Grosse Pointe War Memorial and a community center. From there we sailed west on interstates and two-lanes until we reached Lake Michigan and the picturesque resort town of South Haven. Upon arrival, we had our finish order of fabulousness.

3rd Place: Lexus LS500

When Lexus introduced the original LS400 back in 1989, it was good enough to send shock waves through luxury carmakers’ engineering departments. Over time, its luster faded, and it now sells in small numbers. The current model won’t change that.

The LS500 unfortunately lacks the visual gravitas that signals prestige. At first glance, it’s easy to mistake it for a commonplace Lexus ES—or a Toyota Avalon. In fact, someone on our test team mistakenly kept calling it “the Toyota.” Not a good sign.

Inside are expensive materials, plush seats, and a goodly number of worthwhile features. But the interior is unharmonious and busy bordering on jarring, with a mess of clashing design themes. The metal trim on the dash and doors looks

The G90 comes closer than ever to knocking off the class benchmark. It’s the quietest while cruising, but its back seat is the least comfortable.

designed for two different models. Many lesser cars have betterexecuted instrument clusters; the LS500’s lurks in a tight pocket sunk deep into the dash.

That’s too bad because the LS is otherwise pleasant. It rides softly and handles capably. Its twin-

Mercedes-Benz

S500 4Matic

Plus Velvet-gloved powertrain refinement, opulent interior, wide rideand-handling bandwidth. Minus Stingy on features for the price, that infotainment interface, steering-wheel controls require a surgeon’s hands.

Equals The class benchmark delivers the best-executed luxury-car fundamentals.

turbo V-6 engine hums quietly. Its 10-speed automatic behaves well. We enjoyed the cosseting softness of the driver’s seat and its comforting massage function. The audio system offers convenient knobs for volume and tuning. The massaging, reclining rear seats are a nice feature, but their touchscreen controls are so convoluted, they’re almost unusable. The awkward shifter, seemingly borrowed from a Toyota Prius, was annoying as well. In this expensive neighborhood, everything counts. The LS500 misses on too many big things.

2nd Place: Genesis G90

This newly introduced second-gen G90 is a revelation. The Genesis has presence; it looks big and expensive but not derivative. The ambience inside is warm and inviting. The interior design is modern but appropriately restrained; the clunky steering wheel is the only off note. Electric motors open the doors and pull them closed with the push of a button. You know another car that does that? A Rolls-Royce Phantom. The infotainment system is straightforward and good-looking. It even offers a “mood curator” that combines massage, sounds, and ambient lighting in four modes: Vitality, Delight, Care, and Comfort. We liked it.

The G90 goes down the road like a cruise ship should—at 70 mph, it

“I bet the owner of that new S-class is a pauper,” said no one ever. There’s a reason all the luxury-car makers aim to better it.

whispers along at 64 decibels inside the cabin, the quietest of the group. The suspension absorbs bad pavement with supple, well-damped movements, and the responses of the steering, brakes, and accelerator are progressive and refined. The 409-hp supercharged and twin-turbo 3.5-liter V-6 pulls well and is nearly silent around town. It emits a distant rasp only near the top of the rev band.

The G90’s one shortcoming is its reclining, massaging, heated, and ventilated rear seats. They need reshaping to be as comfy as the rear perch in the Benz. In the end, the Mercedes—with better performance, fuel economy, and driver engagement—outpointed the G90. But given its spectacular value and virtually equal luxuriousness, this Genesis earns our full-throated endorsement. In our hearts the result was a very close second—a moral victory if not an actual one.

1st Place: Mercedes-Benz S500

Mercedes has been building cars like this for a long time, and it shows. The S500 won because it gets the fundamentals right. That starts, unpredictably, with mass—the S500 weighs several hundred pounds less than either the G90 or the LS500.

This S-class’s inline-six purrs like it’s made of money—it had the most silken engine note of the group— and zips the big sedan to 60 mph in just 4.6 seconds, the quickest in this test. The powertrain also delivers the best fuel economy. This was the only car of the three shod with summer tires, which helped give it the most cornering grip and shortest braking distance.IntheComfortdrivemode, the Mercedes wafts along with a pillowy ride, but switch into Sport+, and it surprisingly behaves enough like a sports sedan to encourage your inner Lewis Hamilton.

The S500 nails the luxury fundamentals too. Its paint is gorgeous. Its interior furnishings are opulent, its cabin detailing elegant. It has the most comfortable rear-passenger compartment thanks to immense legroom and perfectly shaped seat

cushions. The tablet infotainment screen’s graphics are artful.

There are things about the S500 that should be better, though, considering the premium Mercedes charges for it. Our test car lacked not only reclining and massaging rear seats, but rear-seat HVAC controls, which both the Lexus and the Genesis offered. As we’ve said before, the company’s MBUX infotainment system is overly complicated, and the haptic steering-wheel controls that operate its functions are fussy. The instrument cluster’s 3-D feature left us asking “Why?”

Still, the S500 is great at the things you buy a luxury car for. It effortlessly eases down the road, encapsulating you in comfort. In all the ways that count, the S500 makes you feel rich. And isn’t that the point of the luxe life?

Paradigm

I love what you do for me, Toyota GR Corolla!

by K.C. colwell

photography by Marc Urbano

TOYOTA WORE THE STINK OF APPLIANCE-GRADE TRANSPORTATION WITH PRIDE FOR A LONG TIME.

Reliability is neither sexy nor fun—unless you’re into actuarial science, in which case, are you reading the right rag? But the past decade has been different for Toyota. It introduced two codeveloped rear-wheel-drive sports cars—the GR86 with Subaru and the Supra with BMW, both 10Best winners—plus a rally-inspired GR Yaris for overseas markets. Now we get the Yaris’s larger sibling, the GR Corolla. Are we crazy, or is Toyota the leading enthusiast brand of the day?

The GR Corolla is an absolute beauty. It’s capable of speeds as fast as anyone should feel comfortable going on public roads. The 143-mph governor can be reached on the street, but if you drive that fast on two-lane roads, you probably belong in a cage.

We tested the mid-grade Circuit trim, which starts at $43,995. A base Core model is $7000 cheaper, and a $7000-pricier two-seat Morizo edition will come later in 2023.

At the heart of the GR Corolla is a 1.6-liter inlinethree, a spunky little mill that also powers the GR Yaris. With a 10.5:1 compression ratio and a tiny turbo generating up to 25.2 psi of boost in the Core and Circuit models, it’s not without lag—the GR Corolla’s 5-to-60mph time is 6.4 seconds—but it isn’t even the slightest bit offensive. A balance shaft cancels the inherent imbalance of the triple, and the passenger’s-side

Counterpoints

At one point, I wanted a 1988–89 Mazda 323 GTX something fierce. That car was a rally-inspired special, built on the lowly Mazda 323 but priced twice as high as a normal 323 hatch. It had a turbo charged 1.6-liter engine, a five-speed manual, and an all-wheel-drive system with a lockable center differential giving a 50/50 torque split. The GR Corolla follows a similar blueprint, but with loads more power and sophistication. Driving the Gazoo is a riotous good time, and I’m determined not to miss out again. —Dan Edmunds

I’ve always thought the latest Corolla had a decent chassis. What rendered it uncompetitive against the Civics and Mazda 3s of the world was, well, pretty much everything else—but mostly its power train and interior. Now that the folks at Gazoo Racing have installed this high-strung turbo three, I don’t care so much about the graining of the plastics. The GR is pure fun thanks to lively throttle response, an eagerness to change direction, and prodigious grip. It’s great that such a singleminded machine exists at all, let alone that it was born of such humble origins. —Joey Capparella

powertrain mount is liquid filled to further quell shakes.

If you’re hoping for the wild wail of a Yamaha motorcycle or snow mobile, you’ll be disappointed. Despite the presence of a two-stage intake and exhaust and the occasional blow-off-valve whoosh, the engine sounds totally normal. It’s more like a four than other automotive threes of recent memory— BMW i8, Mitsubishi Mirage, or Smart ForTwo. When Toyota developed this engine for the Yaris, three engineering teams in the United States, Germany, and Japan worked together using computer-aided engineering to produce a working prototype in six months, about half the time of typical development. In the Corolla Core and Circuit models, it makes 300 horsepower at 6500 rpm and 273 pound-feet at 3000 rpm. The torque curve stays flat up to 5500 rpm. The Morizo edition

The regular Corolla’s dashboard is dressed up with the GR Yaris’s steering wheel and a unique digital gauge cluster.

Plus: Oozes fun, its driveline’s safe word is “more,” chassis balance makes ’90s BMWs blush.

Minus: Econo-grade interior, some might want a stiffer chassis, limited availability will likely drive up transaction prices. Equals: As close to the perfect blend of livability, affordability, and fun that is available today. And it’s a Toyota?

Flared fenders house

8.5-by-18-inch cast-aluminum wheels wrapped in 235/40ZR-18

Michelin Pilot Sport 4 rubber.

A track-focused display with a nonlinear tachometer pops up in Sport mode.

gets a midrange bump to 295 pound-feet courtesy of a little more boost.

The very stout driveline is seemingly impervious to the engine’s best efforts to destroy it. Borrowed from the homologation-special GR Yaris, the all-wheel-drive system and transmission were developed with private rally teams in mind. Following the best-practices advice of Toyota R&D, we launched the GR like a rally car, with lots of clutch slip. The GR Corolla swallowed all the abuse we could throw at it, and we never even smelled the dreaded stink of vaporized clutch material.

For the best launch, hold revs near the limiter and make sure the engine doesn’t dip below 4000 rpm. But the driveline wasn’t developed for reaching 60 mph in second gear. Thus, the 4.9-second 60-mph time doesn’t fully represent the car’s quickness off the line. Eliminate a shift and the GR would run quicker than the manual hot-hatch leader Volkswagen Golf R, with its 4.7-second sprint. The GR makes up some time in the quarter-mile, tying the VW with a 13.3-second run. The prototype we tested came straight from the media launch, and both the second- and third-gear synchros were easily beat. We’re confident our next go with a GR will result in even more impressive test results.

And it had better, because 300 horses is the opening bid in this segment. The Golf R and the Honda Civic Type R accomplish this, albeit from larger-displacement engines. The Corolla makes up for lack of a knockout punch by keeping mass trim. The Circuit’s standard forged carbon-fiber roof helps Toyota deliver all-wheel

drive in a 3269-pound curb weight. The front-drive Type R, which gets replaced any day (come back next month), is about 100 pounds lighter.

The Circuit’s standard front and rear Torsen differentials maximize grip. Drivers can select from three torque splits for the center clutchpack coupler, with 70, 50, or 40 percent of available torque driving the rear axle. Toyota says the best performance comes from the 50:50 Track mode.

Acceleration alone doesn’t make this car wonderful. Even better is its compliance on Michigan’s carpet-bombed roads. Fixed-rate dampers provide a ride-handling balance reminiscent of a ’90s BMW. There are no electronic crutches to toggle the suspension from soft to firm, yet jounce is never so abrupt that it violently tosses your head. The spring and bushing selections seem perfectly matched to the reinforced econocar unibody.

To get a Corolla body up to GR status, Toyota adds nine feet of structural adhesive and a whopping 349 additional spot welds, not to mention additional underfloor bracing. The result is a firm but not overly stiff structure. An Audi RS3 feels like granite in comparison. There is a little, tiny, minute bit of chassis flex—not nearly as much as in a Mazda Miata—that is a boon to feel. Toss the GR into a corner and you can practically sense the load travel up its path from the tire’s contact patch.

Michelin Pilot Sport 4—not 4S—tires provide 0.94 g of grip and a healthy dollop of understeer on the skidpad, although they feel much stickier on the road, and the car is more neutral. Other manufacturers should benchmark this brake pedal: It’s resolute underfoot and responds perfectly to small changes in pressure. Stopping from 70 mph in 167 feet isn’t great for this segment, but at least it’s without fade.

One of our few gripes is the pedal placement. With such a firm middle pedal, the accelerator is almost out of reach for an easy heel-toe downshift. Fortunately, a modified pedal is about the easiest alteration an owner can make. Hidden behind the steering wheel is the iMT button that activates rev matching, but why muddle this car with computer assistance?

Other complaints are more aesthetic. The interior is that of a car that starts at $22,645. There is no center arm rest. The infotainment screen is barely bigger than some smartphones, and its interface seems PalmPilot inspired. But it does have wireless Apple CarPlay and an inductive phone charger. And how many rally cars have a heated steering wheel?

Possibly the worst news for prospective buyers is that Toyota plans to build just 6600 GRs for the U.S. market this first year. The car has already achieved cult status and hasn’t even rolled off the showroom floor. You may not get one the first year, but you will be able to eventually. It’s worth the wait.

Bore

Redline/Fuel

Drivetrain

Transmission:

Engine

Toyota GR Corolla Circuit

Subaru

Brakes

Chassis

Steering

manual

Suspension

— 2021 —

Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Z51

life with an american icon. by David Beard

During our first weekend with the eighth-generation Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, we headed to an unlikely destination. With the trunk loaded with shotguns, a bin of hunting gear on the passenger’s seat, the frunk and remaining cargo space filled with Costco supplies and barley pops, we headed to northern Michigan for the opening of turkey-hunting season.

Michigan’s northernmost highways are empty at night. When the odometer rolled past 500 miles and the engine computer opened up the last 2000 rpm of

shove, it was time to press the long-travel gas pedal and let the 495-hp 6.2-liter V-8 drink deeply. Blink and the eight-speed dual-clutch automatic drops down a few gears, followed by firm, assertive upshifts.

The last mile to the hunting cabin is a rocky, rutted two-track. Before the trip, we removed the track-only cooling ducts for the rear brakes, and with help from the optional front-axle lift, the Corvette made the journey unscathed, implanting the notion that this is more than a mere sports car. It is a mid-engine multitool.

Departure

Long-Term Test After tracking every fill-up, service, problem, complaint, dent, and dog hair, car and driver presents the 40,000-mile Evaluation.

It’s a perfect balance of power, handling, and ride comfort. It’s a great track car, but one you can drive crosscountry in total comfort.

Ceppos, Buyer’s guide

editor

Rants and Raves

It would be perfect with better visibility and a round steering wheel.

—K.C. COLWELL

I adore this car. It does everything you want a sports car to do, and I’d love to own one.

—CARLOS LAGO

The performance numbers are impressive, but what shocks me the most is how livable this car is on a daily basis.

—JOEY CAPPARELLA

The Corvette’s ability to transform from a ferocious beast of a sports car to a relatively tame grand-touring cruiser is amazing.

—CALEB MILLER

While some believed we should have kept the price tag south of seventy-large by sticking with the base 1LT trim and adding just the essential go-fast goodies, such as magneto rheological dampers and the Z51 Performance package (performance suspension and exhaust, upgraded brakes and cooling, summer tires, and an electronically controlled limited-slip differential), we knew we’d be living with the Corvette day to day for 40,000 miles. We eventually settled on the $67,295 2LT trim, primarily for its additional creature comforts, including heated and ventilated seats, a heated steering wheel, a head-up display, and wireless device charging. We kept the options minimal and meaningful—the aforementioned Z51 package ($5995), front-axle lift ($1995), adaptive dampers ($1895), Red Mist paint ($995), and Carbon Flash wheels ($995)—for a $79,170 bottom line, still a performance bargain.

When the 1500-mile break-in period was complete, we headed to the test track. The 3665-pound Corvette leapt to 60 mph in 2.9 seconds and pummeled the quarter-mile in 11.2 seconds at 122 mph. That ties the 755-hp 2019 Corvette ZR1 to 60 and is just a half-second behind it at the quarter-mile stripe. The ZR1’s large 13-mph trap-speed advantage shows that the mid-engine car is more efficient at putting down power from a standing start. On the Z51’s Michelin Pilot Sport 4S rubber, the Stingray needed only 148 feet to stop from 70 mph and circled the skidpad at a respectable 1.03 g’s.

When it wasn’t out terrorizing a twisty twolane road or casually running daily errands, the

Warranty

3 years/36,000 miles bumper to bumper

5 years/60,000 miles powertrain

3 years/36,000 miles corrosion protection

6 years/100,000 miles rust-through

years/60,000 miles roadside

years/7,500 miles

Model-Year Changes

The base price swells by $2650. A C8.R appearance package commemorates the race car’s inaugural season. Revisions to the engine are said to lower emissions, but the less-efficient Z51’s sales were higher than expected, so EPA highway drops by 3 mpg.

In honor of seven decades of Corvettes, a 70th Anniversary model will be available on the top trim level. There will be other minor trim changes, but the biggest news is the 670-hp Z06.

test RESULTS

40,000 miles

2021 chevrolet corvette stingray z51

BY MICHAEL SIMARI

Corvette spent thousands of miles on the interstate bisecting the Midwest. It wouldn’t take long for staffers to praise the surprising comfort level of the Corvette’s base GT seats. From short to tall and skinny to wide, everyone found a supportive position in these chairs. On the highway, we were always impressed by the V-8’s seamless transition to four-cylinder operation and its ability to effortlessly cruise using half its cylinders at 75 mph, where the Corvette returns an honest 26 mpg.

Then there are the magnetorheological dampers, which could be simply labeled “magic.” We can only imagine the hell engineers endure calibrating suspensions on Michigan’s crumbling roads, but the Corvette is all the better because of it. The dampers deliver impressive ride quality over broken road in their least aggressive setting and properly firm up when it’s time to get wild. In fact, they’re so good at tuning out imperfections that when our local dealer told us all four wheels were bent, we didn’t believe it. After a second opinion verified as much, we eventually had the wheels fixed, at a cost of $500.

The Corvette also proved to be not for the socially awkward. Everywhere it went, it sparked conversation, thumbs-up, and ear-to-ear smiles. The winter months turned those looks of joy to ones of disbelief as the Red Mist livery transitioned to a frozen slurry of road grime with a nose full of Michigan’s finest uncut blue road salt. As the roads

Haulin’ Ass and Burnin’ Gas

Normal Wear: $2083

OPERATING COSTS

Maintenance:

SERVICE

Dealer Visits

LIFE EXPECTANCIES

Tires ����������� 21,000 miles

Brake Pads

• Front �������� 75,000 miles

• Rear ��������� 50,000 miles

WHAT BITS AND PIECES COST

Headlamp, L/R �������������� $2046/$1517

Engine Air Filter �������� $95 Oil Filter �������������������� $25 Wheel, F/R ���� $1251/$1313 Tire, F/R �������� $407/$574

Wiper Blades, L/R ��������������������� $35/$25 Front Brake Pads

Gasoline (at

FIVE-YEAR DEPRECIATION

Depreciation data from Black Book, based on 12,000 miles per year

SERVICE TIMELINE

April 9, 2021 161 miles

Long-term test begins�

June 22, 2021 4982 miles

We add a quart of 0W-40 oil� $12

July 13, 2021 6773 miles

Dealer performs 7500mile service, changing the oil and filter and replacing the transmission fluid and filter, and reprograms the airbag and infotainment software to resolve recalls� $0

September 13, 2021 12,177 miles Dealer remedies a navigation error by replacing the SD card� $0

September 27, 2021 13,086 miles

We install an over-theair update for the transmission control module� $0

October 27, 2021 15,091 miles

Dealer performs 15,000-mile service (oil and filter change) and installs new wiper blades� $153

December 2, 2021 17,603 miles Michelin Pilot Alpin PA4 tires fitted for winter� $1781

March 9, 2022 22,100 miles Dealer performs 22,500-mile service, refits summer tires, and inspects damage from an impact with road debris� $767

March 21, 2022 23,694 miles

Dealer replaces the A/C compressor and serpentine belt under warranty, resolves the frunk operation with the key fob, and replaces underbody pieces damaged by the road-debris impact� $471

April 21, 2022 25,283 miles

Four new Michelin Pilot Sport 4S ZP tires are installed� $1962

May 2, 2022 26,693 miles We add a half a quart of 0W-40 oil� $12

May 4, 2022 26,946 miles

Detroit Wheel and Tire repairs four bent wheels� $500

May 20, 2022 29,928 miles Dealer performs 30,000-mile service and installs new wiper blades� $186

June 22, 2022 37,695 miles Dealer performs 37,500-mile service� $168

June 27, 2022 40,001 miles Long-term test ends�

The successor to the original NSX, the everyday supercar, isn’t the current NSX, it’s this Corvette.

—RICH CEPPOS

The C8 Corvette makes the average Joe feel like Tony Stark in an Iron Man suit.

—ERIC STAFFORD

Cold starts are like a howitzer going off. Awesome.

—MIKE SUTTON

The interior is overdone. Why does a mid-engine car feel so cramped?

—TONY QUIROGA

turned to skating rinks, the Corvette cut through the ice like Scott Hamilton, with help from a set of Michelin Pilot Sport Alpin PA4 winter rubber. When the white stuff piled deep, the front splitter pushed more snow than El Chapo. Invoking the front-axle lift wasn’t much help, as it operates only at low speeds, but it was useful for keeping the chin from scraping on steep driveways.

Bent wheels weren’t the only destruction Michigan’s deteriorating roads caused. Mother Nature’s violent freeze-thaw cycles tend to jackhammer the pavement surface, and when we unexpectedly encountered a piece of concrete in the road, it tore up the ground-hugging Vette’s underbody. Thankfully, none of the vitals were damaged, and the repair bill was a reasonable $471.

Over 40,000 miles, maintaining our Corvette was relatively inexpensive. The first oil change and transmission flush and filter swap are complimentary, but the next flush at 22,500 miles cost us $539, which is nearly half of our total service tally of $1153. Still, that’s about 50 percent less than service costs for our last Porsche Boxster. Unsurprisingly, we wore through a set

of $1962 Michelins in 21,000 miles, but the Stingray demonstrated superb reliability with only two bogeys on its scorecard. Early on, the SD card that stores navigation maps failed, which is no big deal as we prefer the guidance apps beamed wirelessly through Android Auto and Apple CarPlay anyway.

The bigger mishap occurred after a day of lapping Virginia International Raceway. When we fired up the V-8 for the trip home, the sound of a fork in a garbage disposal and the smell of burning rubber came from the engine bay. The air-conditioning compressor had failed. The car was still drivable provided the A/C remained off, making for a sweaty 700-mile trek. Whether running the A/C on the track was the culprit or its failure was an untimely coincidence, we’ll never know. The repairs were covered under warranty.

A car of the Corvette’s outsize capabilities comes with a learning curve. You’ll need to familiarize yourself with all the buttons atop the divider separating driver and passenger, for example. With time, they make sense. And where else would those controls go? Buried in the infotainment? No thanks—physical buttons win every time, even weird ones. Outward visibility isn’t great, especially looking out the back. The 2LT’s rear-camera mirror feature requires some visual adaptation, but it’s worth it. The top panel’s removal and storage in the trunk is fairly simple, but it eats into space for the Mossberg. These grievances may be trivial, but they’re real. Nevertheless, Chevrolet’s mid-engine creation is a four-season, do-almost-anything machine. Sorry, Ford GT. This is America’s supercar.

BY MICHAEL SIMARI

Our Corvette was so racy feeling, editors took to wearing a helmet on their commute.

Car dealerships, then, have enjoyed some of their best years in history, with net profits climbing last year from the traditional neighborhood of 2 percent to 4, 5, or even 6 percent. To give one example, David Rosenberg, president of DSR Motor Group and owner of eight New England showrooms, tells us that until recently, “the average Toyota dealer in the Boston region in the best years made between $2 million and $2.2 million profit. [In 2021] the average net profit was $6 million. That’s a significant increase,” he says with wry understatement. Indeed, a report from Haig Partners, a Florida-based dealershipsale advisory group, found that in the year ending March 2022, publicly owned new-car dealerships recorded an average profit of $7.1 million, a whopping 242 percent increase over 2019.

So why, in the face of an abundance of good news, are dealers worrying?

PUMP UP THE VOLUME

Many dealers fear that manufacturers, whose business model historically wants them operating factories at maximum potential, will eventually solve their supply-chain issues. And when they do, the industry’s overcapacity will flood the market anew with vehicles, leading once again to excess inventory and a return to the endemic discounting

Direct Sales: It’s Complicated

carmakers had been trying to avoid, with little success, for the longest time before the pandemic.

One respected industry source who preferred not to be named explained the situation this way: “Car factories want at least 80 percent capacity utilization, because fixed costs are huge. And the OEMs’ suppliers have the same goal. One cannot just turn the supply chain off and on. So for lowest supply cost, we want to crank out one car per minute all year long. But demand follows no such rules. Maybe it’s January and no one wants to shop for cars; demand falls. Maybe it’s April and everyone has their income-tax refunds and wants to buy cars; demand soars. Maybe GM has launched the Aztek and no one wants it. Maybe Ford has launched the Bronco and everyone wants it. Demand whiplashes around while supply runs steady. Thus, inventory builds up and draws down. Car companies find it incredibly expensive to hold all of this inventory, so they unload it onto dealers. This reduces car-company costs.”

Overproduction also leads OEMs to essentially force dealerships to take more cars than they need. Holding inventory costs money, and, the source reminds, “when a dealer owns the inventory, they are highly incentivized to sell the product. It is their personal fortune they see eroding as every day they pay interest costs on unsold cars and pay idle salespeople.” So they cut prices. Which suggests an oft-unheralded benefit of the prevailing dealer model for manufacturers: the ability to offload vehicles no one wants to buy.

Thanks to a welter of protective regulations born of roughly a century of spirited statehouse lobbying, cutting out the dealer middleman is legally tricky. Rules about OEM direct selling vary by state and fall into roughly five categories:

1. Direct sales are permitted if there’s no competition with a franchised dealership of the same brand (either in the state or within a certain geographic area).

2. Direct sales are permitted upon showing that no independent dealer is available. (And since OEMs decide

the qualifications, it’s not too hard to determine that nobody meets them.)

3. Direct sales are permitted, but only for manufacturers of zero-emission vehicles.

4. No direct sales are permitted except for Tesla.

5. No direct sales are permitted.

During the pandemic, carmakers realized that there are other ways to make money besides flooding the zone with product. If the model mix has permanently skewed toward more expensive cars, why bother making a broad range of models? Why not let the used-car market take care of the thrifty and lower-budget customers, and instead concentrate, the way the industry has these past couple of years, on the upper end of the market? Thus, as one professional industry watcher told us, “the single biggest question in the U.S. auto industry today is whether OEMs can stay disciplined enough to let this high-profit situation persist.”

CUT OUT THE MIDDLEMEN?

States where direct sales are okay (with various qualifications, and sometimes only for Tesla)

States where direct sales are prohibited

This brings us to another series of dealer worries. If people who can afford new cars are able to pay more and continue to exhibit the willingness to wait substantial amounts of time for delivery, perhaps OEMs might be tempted to adopt the direct-to-consumer sales model Tesla uses. The EV giant’s high sales prices, glacial delivery times, tech-bro share price, and eye-popping market capitalization are the stuff of envy for smokestack industrialists from Detroit to Stuttgart to Tokyo and back.

Wall Street has been hopped up about the direct-toconsumer model since the dawn of the millennium. Tesla’s mold-breaking success has only intensified the market’s cry for a system that cuts the dealer out of the equation entirely or, at the very least, reduces the dealer’s participation in profits. According to Sheldon Sandler of Bel Air Partners, a New Jersey–based dealership financialadvisory firm, automakers have been squeezing dealership margins for years, with the wholesale discount eroding from 10 percent to 6.

One high-level industry veteran who, underscoring the sensitive nature of the topic, also asked to remain anonymous, maintains that the old model is tired, inefficient, and ripe for change. “The solution is not giant real estate, giant portfolios [of brands], cars stacked everywhere, and giant service bays,” says this observer, who believes today’s dealership model is obsolete and the need for service facilities is overstated.

“The truth is, a lot of stuff is going to get solved through overthe-air diagnostics like it is with Formula 1—let’s say the first 20 percent of problems,” the source says. “The next 60 to 70 percent can get solved in the driveway. Fifteen to 20 percent, you’re gonna have to pick [the car] up, take it somewhere, and fix it. But that is a far better way to deploy capital than to have a $40 million 25-acre facility sitting on a highway at a time of [expensive] real estate, getting utilized at maybe 15 percent of its capacity. Do you need some facilities? Damn straight you do. Do you need 2000 of them across the country, mostly under utilized? Probably not.”

Doing away with dealers, marketing, and incentives has given Tesla a competitive advantage in the neighborhood of $5000 per vehicle, according to this industry veteran, who adds, “Wall Street recognizes that competitive advantage, which is why the stock multiples are through the roof.”

But has the industry overreacted to Tesla’s success? Mark LaNeve, president of Charge Enterprises, which builds charging stations for EVs, thinks so. “There is a drastic misperception that EV owners want to buy direct because of Tesla,” says LaNeve, who also has been an executive at Ford, Volvo, and General Motors. “Tesla was so far ahead of the market in terms of EV product and its overall technology that customers would have bought the cars at the local landfill. I would argue that Tesla would have done just as well, maybe better, with a dealer network to help customers.”

Tellingly, representatives of several of the manufacturers we contacted were unwilling to speak on the record about plans for their dealers going forward. Some said they couldn’t compose a response ahead of our deadline,

and Ford, Genesis, Jaguar Land Rover, and Volvo declined outright. Perhaps not coincidentally, all four of those enti ties have had sour encounters with their dealer networks as they floated new sales models that reduce or eliminate dealer participation.

Though carmakers always reserve the right to change their mind, others were clear that dealers are exempt going into the future. “We have learned a lot over the past two years,” says American Honda’s Chris Naughton. “Leaner inventory, even under 20 days’ supply, comes with some benefits. Many of our dealers have expressed that they don’t want to return to the old way of doing business with inflated inventories that can lead to cycles of unhealthy discounting and incentives. As a manufacturer, we need to focus on building the right models given the limited supply. We will pursue a simpler, more disciplined approach, one where we minimize inefficient trim levels and focus on our most profitable and in-demand models.”

Eric Cunningham, vice president, sales, service, and marketing, for Cadillac North America, says his company also sees its dealership network as a “business advantage” that “will remain a critical part of the retail and relationship chain with customers.” The events of the past couple of years encouraged the company to appreciate that “dealers don’t need to carry historical inventory levels to have a robust business. There is no reason for us or our dealers to go back.”

Healthy inventories give the industry an opportunity to maintain the MSRP pricing model, says Erwin Raphael, a regional director of operations for Amazon Transportation Services and former COO of Genesis. “The current five-to-10-day vehicle supply is a bit thin, but 60 to 90 days was entirely too fat. My opinion is that a 30-day supply is the sweet spot,” Raphael says.

“So what will the successful dealer inventory model of the future look like? I believe it will consist of shared pools of vehicles in local markets, owned by OEMs, from which the dealers can pull in near real time,” he says. “This model will allow customers to have access to the largest selection of vehicles while maintaining the benefit of shopping from their living room. In such a model, OEMs can resupply these shared pools on a kanban or as-needed basis, eliminating overproduction of vehicles. Dealers will compete on customer experience and quality of service as opposed to deals, and customers will regain trust in the system.”

We’re not sure customers ever had trust in the system, but if the auto industry can take the lessons of the pandemic and adjust business models accordingly, it may create a new dynamic for both automakers and their stubbornly resilient dealer body.

“SO WHAT WILL THE SUCCESSFUL DEALER INVENTORY MODEL OF THE FUTURE LOOK LIKE? I BELIEVE IT WILL CONSIST OF SHARED POOLS OF VEHICLES IN LOCAL MARKETS, OWNED BY OEMS, FROM WHICH THE DEALERS CAN PULL IN NEAR REAL TIME.”

THE RUNDOWN

An expert look at the newest and most important vehicles this month.

Mercedes-Benz tries to make the EV easier to swallow, page 70.

Generation Gap

Just when the Subaru WRX starts acting all grown-up, along comes the upstart Hyundai Elantra N full of youthful attitude.

They’re both fast and furious, but the Elantra N presents an angrier face to the world.

As any aging punk rocker can tell you, youth is fleeting, and it’s hard to maintain the proper level of shameless rage as you get older. This is the dilemma facing Subaru, as the fifth-generation WRX attempts to please its maturing fans with adult styling and comfort while still holding on to its turbo-whistling, four-

wheel-gravel-spitting persona. In the meantime, the Hyundai Elantra N has burst onto the scene, rude and exuberant, with none of the expectations of nostalgia weighing on its spoiler. Which earns the most sport-compact cred?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and may not be what either brand is attempting here, but we’ll assert that neither the WRX nor the Elantra N would be the star of the catwalk. The Subaru is chunky and cladded. It’s not radically different from Subarus past, but it’s toned down. The WRX still has a wide-fendered stance, but without a big shoppingcart wing and a jutting front lip, it looks more like a hiking sneaker than a rally racer. Not that the Elantra N

2022 HYUNDAI ELANTRA N VS. 2022 SUBARU WRX LIMITED ~ BY ELANA SCHERR

can throw stones. Its huge frowning grille and crinkled body lines had a few staffers wincing. Let’s just say the word “tacky” made more than one appearance in the logbook.

Inside, the WRX continues its mission of inoffensiveness, with a comfortable but unremarkable cabin that has carbon-fiber-patterned accents, red stitching, and a vertical 11.6-inch touchscreen. The materials’ feel and finish are upgrades over the previous model’s, though we had to reference the photographs to recall those details. The Elantra, on the other hand, sticks in one’s memory. Microsuede and faux leather surround a 10.3-inch touchscreen, and BMWlike steering-wheel buttons promise all kinds of Sport-mode mayhem. There’s a cherry-red unit just for rev matching, a convenience all manualtransmission cars should adopt. Want it? Press it. Don’t want it? Don’t press it. The Elantra seats get mixed reviews. Some of us liked the driving position and high side bolsters; others felt they lacked padding and combined with the

2nd Place: Subaru WRX

Plus Comfortable on the road, mature in its movements, quiet. Minus Cheap speed isn’t so cheap, who wants a quiet and mature WRX?

1st Place: Hyundai Elantra N

Plus Connected chassis, dumb fun with no shame. Minus Stiff ride, firm seats, flirting with too-wild styling.

In the WRX’s newly gentrified interior, the touchscreen takes center stage. These seats are more forgiving than the Hyundai’s.

N’s stiff ride in tailbone-bruising malice.

Get into the numbers, and the Elantra N zips ahead in almost every metric, on paper and on the road. It’s quicker and lighter, pulls harder, and turns sharper than the WRX. Its turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder makes 276 horsepower and 289 pound-feet of torque, both more than you get from the Subaru’s 2.4-liter flat-four, which puts out 271 horses and 258 pound-feet.

With all four tires laying down power off the line, the WRX manages to beat the frontdrive Elantra to 30 mph, but after that, it sees the Hyundai’s taillights. The Elantra wins to 60 mph, to 100 mph, and in the quarter-mile, which it knocks out in 13.8 seconds at 103 mph, while the Subie takes 13.9 at 101. Close, we admit, but a win’s a win. There’s a lagginess to the WRX’s power delivery when exiting corners, whereas the Elantra is raring to go. Speaking of corners, the Elantra pulls 0.99 g on the skidpad, and the WRX pushes to 0.95 g. The Subaru brings things to a halt a little sooner, stopping in 153 feet from

mph, whereas the Elantra N takes 156 feet. The Elantra regains the upper hand in the numbers game when we get to price and fuel economy. The Hyundai costs $4000 less than the Subaru and gets 32 mpg at 75 mph. Subie-doo ekes out 28.

Base/As Tested

Dimensions Wheelbase

Length/Width/Height Track, F/R Passenger Volume, F/R Trunk Volume

Powertrain

Engine

Power, hp @ rpm Torque, lb-ft @ rpm Redline lb per hp

TEST RESULTS

Acceleration

30 mph 60 mph 100 mph 130 mph 1/4-Mile @ mph

Rolling Start, 5–60 mph

Top Gear, 30–50 mph

2022 Hyundai Elantra N $33,245/$33,245

107.1 in 184.1/71.9/55.7 in 62.4/62.2 in

55/46 ft3 14 ft3

turbocharged DOHC

16-valve inline-4 122 in3 (1998 cm3) 276 @ 6000 289 @ 2100 6700 rpm 11.6

2022 Subaru WRX Limited

$37,490/$37,490

105.2 in 183.8/71.9/57.8 in 61.4/61.8 in 56/43 ft3 13 ft3

turbocharged DOHC 16-valve flat-4 146 in3 (2387 cm3) 271 @ 5600 258 @ 2000 6100 rpm

12.5

2.1 sec 5.1 sec 12.9 sec 24.0 sec 13.8 sec @ 103

Results above omit 1-ft rollout of 0.3 sec.

1.5 sec 5.5 sec 13.7 sec 26.4 sec 13.9 sec @ 101

Results above omit 1-ft rollout of 0.2 sec.

5.9 sec 10.3 sec 7.1 sec 155 mph (C/D est)

On math alone, the win goes to the Elantra N, and our less scientific fun meters agree. The WRX is grown-up. It’s all-wheel drive, sure-footed, and unlikely to make anyone mad. The Elantra N, on the other hand, has an N mode that makes the exhaust pop like a dog full of cheese. It’s uncivilized, not always comfortable, and full of personality, much like the WRX used to be. There is very little wrong with the new Subaru, but it’s a more adult car now, trying to atone for the sins of its youth. The Elantra N is here to commit new sins, and it owes nothing to anyone. It’s silly, imperfect, and always down to party.

Top Gear, 50–70 mph Top Speed Chassis Braking, 70–0 mph Braking, 100–0 mph Roadholding, 300-ft Skidpad Weight Curb Distribution, F/R

156 ft 318 ft 0.99 g 3199 lb 62.8/37.2%

Drivers who don’t have ample padding of their own found the Elantra N’s seats firm. The N’s steering wheel invites you to push its buttons.

Fuel Capacity/Octane EPA Comb/City/Hwy 75-mph Hwy Driving 75-mph Hwy Range

Sound Level Idle/Full Throttle 70-mph Cruise

12.4 gal/91 25/22/31 mpg 32 mpg 390 mi

47/79 dBA 72 dBA

6.7 sec 10.3 sec 7.7 sec 145 mph (C/D est)

153 ft 317 ft 0.95 g 3401 lb 59.9/40.1%

16.6 gal/91 22/19/26 mpg 28 mpg 460 mi

49/79 dBA 71 dBA

TESTED BY DAVID BEARD AND K.C. COLWELL IN CHELSEA, MI

Connection Restored

Highs: V-8 rumble, aggressive handling, supple ride. Lows: Hard to see out of, some misaligned interior bits, tiny trunk.

The definition of status symbol for over 40 years, the Mercedes-Benz SL lost its ability to directly withdraw from the bank accounts of the wealthy in its last generation. That SL drove and performed better than any other, but after decades of elegance, the design—a nose-heavy, squaredoff look—had buyers spending elsewhere.

Enter the new SL, a smooth and shapely convertible that ditches the retractable hardtop for cloth. No longer a two-seater, the new SL adds a pair of small rear seats, which might not be useful for hauling humans but will hold a couple of roller bags. You’ll need to store them there since the eight-cubic-foot trunk only holds one.

This reinvention of the SL makes it slightly more practical, but Mercedes keeps the pendulum from swinging too far toward sensible. Two versions, both AMGs, are available. The SL63 we tested uses the same twin-turbo 4.0-liter V-8 as the less dear SL55 but raises horsepower from 469 to 577. It rips off runs to 60 mph in 3.0 seconds and turns traffic to a blur as soon as you roll into the accelerator. Just be sure to keep the nine-speed automatic in a mode angrier than Eco. To save fuel in that mode, frugal gearbox programming finds the highest gear possible and is reluctant to downshift. Moderate mode struck a much more satisfying balance.

A high beltline and cowl put you and the passenger deep in the SL’s bathtub. Sitting low doesn’t aid outward vision, but it does keep you far from the airstream when the top is down. Leather wraps most surfaces, and contrasting

The new vertical touchscreen can be angled to reduce sun glare. The fabric top comes in black or an orangy red that should satisfy Red Hat Society members.

stitching is a nice touch, although the seams on the door didn’t even remotely align with those on the instrument panel. Like any convertible, the SL63 lives its best life with the top down. The V-8 spits a fiery and gutsy tune, and the scents roll in. Jasmine. Magnolias. Plumeria. Street tacos.

On scarred Midwestern streets, the SL63’s ride is gentle, despite the large wheels and teensy sidewalls. Judging by the structure, you’d never guess this is a convertible. The windshield and steering never issued a shake or quiver. Turn the steering wheel hard, and the SL63

2022

cuts into corners with the deftness of the smaller AMG GT. Lean into the nose and it sticks hard; keep pushing and the rear tires begin to lose grip before the fronts let go. It’s a daring handling balance, even for a sports car.

Speaking of sports cars, the Porsche 911 Carrera GTS Cabriolet is the obvious competitor here. The SL is quieter, rides better, and comes with a V-8 backing track. The 911 is quicker, offers a manual, and is a livelier machine. There’s definitely a place in our hearts for the SL63. If only the bank account had the space.

WONDER TWINS, ACTIVATE!

While BMW is busy electrifying its automotive lineup, its Motorrad motorcycle division is still dreaming up creative ways to burn gasoline. Witness the 2022 R18 Transcontinental and its freakish powerplant: 1.8 liters of displacement, two horizontally opposed cylinders, two in-block cams, four pushrods, eight valves. This thing is an engine with handlebars.

And it lives up to its name. With a claimed weight of 941 pounds, the R18 Transcontinental feels like half a car. It’s unwieldy in a crowded parking lot, but on the highway, it feels ready to devour a few states at a time, that huge twin thumping out its 116 pound-feet of torque at the merest twist of the throttle. Its 91 horsepower isn’t impressive for something so huge, but this engine, like the clockwork behind Big Ben, is designed to spin at its own leisurely pace for a century or three.

As in BMW cars, the Transcontinental features both clever technology and overly complicated interfaces. Optional adaptive cruise control is welcome, as is the available steerable headlight that points its beam into a corner according to the lean of the bike. But the grip warmers eschew a simple button for a menu-based system that requires spinning and then laterally sliding a circular dial on the left handlebar, like trying to play Bop It! while balancing a half-ton spear of Bavarian metal. And the engine layout means your feet stay on the floorboards—no stretching out, like you can on a V-twin. But if the onslaught of electron-driven transportation turns you off, the R18 Transcontinental is a time machine built for the open road.

MERCEDES-BENZ EQE350 4MATIC

BY CSABA CSERE

Uneasy E

The electric equivalent of the E-class is less than compelling.

For most of our lifetimes, Mercedes-Benz has defined the luxury car. Its vehicles were elegant, straightforward, well-mannered, technologically sophisticated, and drenched in history. The company seems to be moving luxury in a different direction with its battery-powered EQ models.

On the move, the EQE is hushed with a smooth ride. The slick body might look good to the wind, but it leaves the rest of the elements wanting.

These changes are immediately apparent in the new EQE. The electrically powered E-class equivalent has a body shape and details devoted to minimizing aerodynamic drag, admirably achieving a coefficient nearing 0.20. However, the editorial eye finds little to savor in the dumpling-like form, which droops at both ends and would be impossible to identify as a Benz without the large three-pointed star decorating its prow.

Inside, the EQE hews closer to recent Mercedes designs with fine detailing, lovely wood, and plush leather, though we could do without the optional bordello lighting—thankfully, it can be turned off.

Logical controls, however, have been lost to the new MBUX infotainment system. It took us several days to figure out how to dim the instrument lighting, whose control is buried in a menu labeled System—a category typically containing software and firmware versions—rather than in the menu labeled Lighting, where it intuitively belongs. Even the voice-activated “Hey Mercedes” feature and the owner’s manual provided no help. Moreover, the mass of tiny controls on the steering-wheel spokes reminded us of a modern Formula 1 yoke and require more dexterity than they should.

the numbers

That said, the interior is stretch-out comfortable, front and rear, mostly because the EQE is bigger than the E-class sedan—2.3 inches longer, 2.5 inches wider, and 1.7 inches taller, with 7.1 more inches in the wheelbase. Of course, some of this additional volume is devoted to the 90.6-kWh battery under the floor.

Amazingly tranquil on most road surfaces, with pitch, roll, and vertical jolts well constrained, this smoothriding electric sedan subdues even the usual bangs from potholes and pavement joints. It’s also supremely hushed inside. The sounds of the electric power train are muted, wind noise seems com pletely absent, and road resonance is minimal. We measured a sound level of 66 decibels at 70 mph—three decibels quieter than the E450 we tested last year—but the cabin feels even more peaceful than those numbers suggest.

On the other hand, the 5488-pound EQE is not the most agile. It easily handles some hard cornering well enough, with minimal roll, but maximum grip

The EQE presents its driver with a screen-intensive interface, while the elongated windshield leaves the A-pillars within view

from the squishy Bridgestone Turanza T005 summer rubber is only 0.86 g, and stopping from 70 mph takes 178 feet. The tires are clearly optimized for ride, silence, and fuel economy rather than grip.

This is appropriate because the EQE’s controls do not encourage spirited driving. The steering is accurate and precise, but synthetic in feel. In Sport mode, effort increased, but not feedback. And the brake pedal is particularly odd because it depresses on its own when you lift off the accelerator and regenerative braking commences. When you do press the pedal, there’s virtually no travel; the modulation is all from pressure.

The accelerator works nicely, the EQE responding with the delightful immediacy and smoothness that typifies electric powertrains. With 288 horsepower and a massive 564 pound-feet of torque, it moves smartly around town. The car reaches 60 mph in 5.2 seconds and covers the quarter-mile in 13.9 seconds at 97 mph. But the faster you go, the less sprightly the EQE is. Its 9.8-second time from 60 to 100 mph is little better than the old fourcylinder E300’s. Pull out to pass on a 55-mph two-lane road, and the EQE feels a lot less ambitious.

The EPA has yet to release its range estimate, but we’re expecting it to be 300 miles. Starting at $78,950, the EQE350 4Matic isn’t cheap. In time, a less expensive single-motor, rear-drive version will be offered, as well as a 402-hp EQE500 and a 617-hp AMG EQE53.

As an electric luxury sedan, the EQE is comfortable, quiet, and refined. But it’s a shame Mercedes has dispensed with so many of its other traditional qualities in the quest for zero tailpipe emissions.

Shape of Things to Come

Mazda’s new CX-60 provides an early glimpse of the brand’s upscale SUVs.

To turn itself around, Mazda is turning around its engines. The new CX-60 is the first to use the brand’s longitudinal-engine platform. Just now arriving in Europe, the CX-60 won’t come stateside, but it’s closely related to the CX-70 that will and therefore merits our attention.

The CX-60 looks rather dowdy— we’re told the CX-70 will have more visual presence—but we’re more interested in what’s underneath. The CX-60 launches with a plug-inhybrid powertrain, Mazda’s first. Two new inline-sixes will be offered later: a naturally aspirated 3.0-liter and a turbo-diesel 3.3-liter.

We drove the plug-in version. The powertrain combines a 188-hp 2.5-liter inline-four with a 173-hp

electric motor. To improve efficiency, a new eight-speed automatic (which the six-cylinder also uses) has an electronically controlled clutch pack rather than a torque converter. The total system output is a stout 323 horsepower with 369 pound-feet of torque, and the 17.8kWh battery pack delivers 39 miles of electric range under Europe’s optimistic WLTP standard.

Running on electric power, the CX-60 is smooth and refined. The motor drives the gearbox, so there is the unusual (for an EV) sensation of gears shifting and enough urge to keep up with urban traffic. But there’s a noticeable pause when the engine fires up, and it’s loud and coarse when strained. With both elements working, acceleration is strong, but either six-cylinder will likely be a preferable choice.

Fortunately, the chassis is good, combining compliance and athlet-

icism in the finest Mazda tradition. The CX-60 resists understeer well, and body control stays tight during hard cornering. Ride quality is on the firm side but still acceptable, even on 20-inch wheels.

The CX-60’s cabin is said to have been inspired by contemporary Japanese design, and our top-spec sample car featured wood trim on the doors, a dashboard faced with woven fabric, and shiny metal accents. A digital instrument cluster and a 12.3-inch infotainment display come standard, but the CX-60 retains conventional climate controls, as should the CX-70.

While the CX-70 will admittedly be a different car, our first impression of Mazda’s new architecture is positive, and we’re looking forward to experiencing it with the new inline-six. Then we’ll see whether Mazda’s new architecture can power the brand into the luxury league.

BY JOE LORIO

A Lack of S Appeal

Highs: Well packaged, economical, snazzy virtual cockpit. Lows: Disappointing interior plastics, lifeless steering, unsporting chassis.

A3 managed 0.89 g, against 0.96 g for the S3. More disappointing is the overboosted steering, which feels disconnected, and switching to Dynamic mode provides no amelioration.

“For just a little more per month . . .” the showroom slickster begins, pressuring the unsure car shopper trying to stick to a budget. For the buyer wavering between an Audi A3 and an S3, we say give in to the upsell. The latest A3 is far less satisfying than its S-badged sibling.

Freshly redesigned, Audi’s compact sedan maintains a sensible size and is rendered in crisp sheetmetal. Inside, there’s a fantastic driving position and narrow pillars for unhindered sightlines. There’s also, however, hard plastic everywhere: the door grab handles, the upper door panels, the center console. And our test car’s Agate Gray wood inlays look like they popped out of an injection mold.

Audi apparently believes buyers can be hoodwinked by a screenintensive interior design, one that banishes all physical knobs. But the round four-way audio-control button whose outer rim adjusts the volume is an unsatisfying substitute. So, too, is the little flipper shifter.

The screens, at least, are well rendered. All A3s have a digital instrument cluster—ours had the larger, enhanced version (part of the

Technology package). Screen-based gauges are fast becoming commonplace, and Audi maximizes their potential more than most, with multiple display choices.

You probably guessed that motivation is provided by a turbo 2.0-liter inline-four driving all four wheels (front-wheel drive is standard). Now running a modified Miller cycle and boasting a 48-volt hybrid system, it’s more economical. The EPA combined figure increases to 31 mpg, a 6-mpg improvement over its predecessor. Our A3 Quattro returned 40 mpg in our 75-mph highway fuel-economy test. The snappy and responsive dual-clutch automatic makes the most of the modest 201 horses, but the 6.0-second 60-mph time trails the Mercedes and BMW entries. With 105 more horsepower, the S3 shames its weaker sibling, hitting 60 in 4.3 seconds.

Nor is the A3 as willing when the road starts throwing curves. The suspension is firm but feels underdamped on challenging pavement. The S3, particularly with its optional adaptive dampers, is much more sporting. On the skidpad, the

No, the remedy for the A3’s mediocrity is to spend up for the S3, which not only drives better but has welcome interior upgrades. With standard allwheel drive, the S3 is $9K dearer than the A3 Quattro. But hey, just skip eating out once a month.

Type: front-engine, all-wheel-

ROAD & TRACK

Bauhaus Mover

Highs: Looks like money inside and out, effortless thrust of the turbo V-8, still does Land Rover things. Lows: Genteel rather than sporty road manners, not the best transport for bulky items, sixfigure starting price is merely a launching point.

and makes for a generous, sharply rendered full-screen map and crisp images from the multiple cameras. Footage includes views along the sides the vehicle. Clearsight Ground View stitches together a virtual image of what’s immediately in front of and under the car.

In the beginning, the Range Rover’s appearance—upright profile, slablike body panels, unadorned sheetmetal—was the product of a utilitarian, functiondriven design. The latest version’s evolved look is again upright, smooth, and simple, but for the opposite reason: The Range Rover has become an art object.

That’s as true of the interior as the exterior. The leather-everywhere cabin looks and feels like the environs of a six-figure automobile. As on the outside, the theme is seamless integration. The interior door handles are so smoothly integrated that first-time passengers often struggle to find them.

In-cabin tech has the requisite modern depth and complexity. The seats’ massage function, for instance, requires its own menu page for choosing among 125 combinations of three settings: mode, area of focus, and intensity. Spelunking through the menus uncovers curiosities such as a dynamic info screen (g meter, lap-time recorder, stopwatch) and an air-quality page to activate the particulate filter, carbon-dioxide manage ment, and the ionizer.

For more common interactions, the 13.1inch touchscreen—with or without haptic feedback enabled—is relatively easy to use

The new model retains the Range Rover’s traditional regal seating position, with the base of the large side windows low enough that you can comfortably rest an elbow atop the door panel. Several rear seating configurations are offered. The biggest change with this generation is the arrival of three rows for the long-wheelbase version, and its adult-size rearmost seat has enough amenities to avoid feeling like steerage. Our standard-wheelbase test car had a bench seat for three, with the rightmost passenger getting a deployable leg-rest

BY MARC URBANO

2022 LAND ROVER RANGE ROVER FIRST EDITION ~ BY JOE LORIO

(which requires the front passenger’s seat to scrunch forward). The fully powered second row, however, doesn’t fold even remotely flat, compromising max cargo capacity.

Per Range Rover tradition, you access the cargo hold via an upper liftgate and a drop-down tailgate, both power-operated, as is the cargo cover. The no-cost Tailgate Event Suite option adds versatility by way of a panel in the load floor that corrals luggage when stood up. It also forms the back of the rear-facing “event seat”—just the thing for watching polo or your kid’s soccer practice. Activating Tailgate Event Suite mode opens the rear and directs stereo sound to the liftgate-mounted speakers.

While a carryover supercharged and turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six is standard, our test car had the new BMW-sourced twin-turbo 4.4-liter V-8. Its subdued rumble is a tip-off to what’s under the hood, yet at 70 mph, the Rover’s cabin is a hushed 66 decibels. An initial stab at the accelerator can bring a greater forward lunge than desired. Otherwise, the long pedal travel, the engine’s linear response, and the eight-speed automatic’s demure shifts combine to make this a polished powertrain. Only the auto stop-start system’s restarts strike an awkward note. The V-8’s 523 horses and 553 poundfeet of torque easily animate 5982 pounds of British SUV. Sixty mph arrives in a fleet 4.3 seconds (matching the 682-hp Cadillac Escalade-V), and the quarter-mile passes in 12.8 seconds at 109 mph. The Rover’s heft is more evident when stopping, as it takes 185 feet to haul this big boy down from 70 mph.

For all the techno wizardry of a new five-link rear suspension, air springs, and active anti-roll bars, the default Auto terrain response mode still allows for near-constant nodding body motions over all but

Vehicle Type: front-engine, 4-wheeldrive, 5-passenger, 4-door wagon

Base/As Tested

Engine: twin-turbocharged

intercooled

32-valve

aluminum

heads, direct fuel injection

Displacement

Power

Torque

Transmission:

test RESULTS

Rolling Start,

Braking, 70–0

the smoothest tarmac. The sportiest Dynamic mode quells that to some degree without overly degrading ride quality—unlike in some German competitors—although the 23-inch wheels do clomp over impacts. In any mode, the creamy-smooth steering is light, and the heavy Rover lists in fast, sweeping curves. On the skidpad, we measured just 0.73 g worth of grip, limited by nondefeatable stability control, but the Rover pirouettes through parking lots thanks to its new rear-wheel steering.

Sadly, we didn’t test the seven offroad driving modes, the transfer case’s low range, or the 35.4-inch wading capability. A Range Rover may have extreme abilities, but much like a Rolex Submariner that’s waterproof to 1000 feet, that doesn’t mean it will use them. Once a mere utility vehicle, the Range Rover has become something more.

What the Rover

in second-row legroom

makes up for in poweroperated

including backrests,

center armrest,

cupholders.

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WHAT TO BUY: BMW M3

Unlike the E30 M3 that came before it, BMW’s E36 M3 (1995–99) lacks the homologation pedigree that comes from racing. The decision to water down the U.S. version with a cheaper engine seemed only to add insult to injury. But talk with anyone who has spent time in one of the almost 33,000 sold here and, provided you’re not talking about the auto matic model, you’ll probably hear a story that supports the car landing “very near the top of our wish list” when we first tested it in 1994. With a coupe, a sedan, and a convertible available, there are many ways to enjoy the exceptional steering and neutral handling that earned the E36 M3 our “Best-Handling Car for More Than $30,000” in 1997, as well as a spot on our 10Best list every year it competed. Purists may lean toward the coupe, in part for its high-bolster “Vader” seats, but the sedan weighs essentially the same and is every bit as good. The convertible isn’t very rigid, yet it has the most headroom of the bunch. —James Tate

ENGINE

The first and loudest knock against the U.S.-spec E36 is that it didn’t receive the European model’s higher-revving individual-throttle-bodied 3.0-liter inline-six, which generated 286 horsepower to the American version’s 240. But the less complicated U.S. engine kept the price low enough to make the M3 a sales hit. In 1996, displacement was increased to 3.2 liters, bumping torque by 11 pound-feet, from 225 to 236.

“A flawless handler.”

—DON SCHROEDER, C/D , SEPTEMBER 1997

RECENT SALES

1995 BMW M3

1995 BMW M3

1998 BMW M3

VALUE

Like nearly all collector cars, the M3 has risen in price in the past few years. But with numbers generally still in the range of low teens to mid-$20,000s, the right E36 M3 is still a value. That said, E36s are being rediscovered now, with rare Lightweight models sometimes fetching more than $80,000. The temptation may be to find the lowest-mile car possible, but E36 M3s with under 100,000 miles might be more likely to need a lot of expensive catch-up maintenance. An E36 with around 125,000 miles could be up to date on needed fixes, and the cost savings can go into resolving problems that might come up.

1997 BMW M3 COUPE 240-HP 3.2-LITER I-6, 3248 LB

Test Results

• 60 mph

• 1/4-Mile

14�0 sec

sec

99 mph

• 100 mph 14�2 sec

• Top Speed (gov

PROBLEM AREAS

While the U.S.-spec engine is other wise very reliable, BMW’s VANOS valve-timing system might be a big-ticket replacement or rebuild. Water pumps and radiators can be considered every-60,000-miles consumables; there are better-built aftermarket options that replace plastic bits with metal. Under

carriage items such as ball joints, outer tie rods, and rear trailing-arm bushings are likely to be worn and pricey to replace.

The E36 interior is notoriously lackluster in build quality and seems to degrade in the presence of air. Check for missing or broken pieces, failing door handles and locks, and sagging or separated headliners, gloveboxes, and door panels.

Replace destinations with summits.