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50 WE TRY HARDER 2018 BMW 740e xDrive iPerformance VS. 2018 Genesis G90 3.3T HTrac (Premium) VS. 2018 Lexus LS 500 AWD VS. 2017 Lincoln Continental AWD (Black Label) Who has the mettle to challenge the Mercedes-Benz S-Class as the best luxury sedan in the world? Christian Seabaugh

60 HALF STEP 2018 Mercedes-Benz S-Class A midcycle change keeps the three-pointed star in the conversation. Frank Markus

64 WILD CHILD 2019 Volvo XC40 The small Swede steps out with a cool new look. Frank Markus

72 THE NEVER ENDING STORY 2018 Chevrolet Camaro SS 1LE VS. 2018 Ford Mustang GT Performance Pack A new Mustang GT takes on the benchmark Camaro. Jonny Lieberman

78 REINVENTION 2018 Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross Mitsubishi resurrects an old name for a new crossover. Michael Cantu

82 BUILDING BUZZ Volkswagen I.D. Buzz VW’s new Microbus amps up the hype for I.D. Christian Seabaugh

84 ALPINE STAR 2019 Mercedes-Benz G-Class We take an off-road ride in Mercedes’ redesigned G-wagen. Collin Woodard and Frank Markus

68 THE NO-BRAINER JAGUAR 2018 Jaguar E-Pace Jag leaps into the industry’s most competitive segment. Angus MacKenzie MOTOR TREND (ISSN 0027-2094) March 2018, Vol. 70, No. 3. Published monthly by TEN: The Enthusiast Network, LLC, 1212 Avenue of the Americas, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10036. Copyright© 2018 by TEN: The Enthusiast Network Magazines, LLC; All rights reserved. Periodicals Postage Paid at New York, NY, and at additional mailing offices. SUBSCRIPTIONS: U.S. and U.S. Possessions $18 for 12 issues. Canada $30 per year and international orders $42 per year (including surface mail postage). Payment in advance, U.S. funds only. POSTMASTER: Send all UAA to CFS. (See DMM 707.4.12.5); NON-POSTAL AND MILITARY FACILITIES: send address corrections to: MOTOR TREND, P.O. Box 420235, Palm Coast, FL 32142-0235.

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DEPARTMENTS 16 18 24 26 30 32

LOHDOWN Out of the landfill, onto the water TREND INTAKE This month’s hot metal WE SAY Words from our editors REFERENCE MARK Why the autonomous-car society is still decades away TECHNOLOGUE A new cure for autonomous car sickness? THEY SAY INTERVIEW Britta Seeger, board of management, Daimler AG YOUR SAY Our readers talk back

102 THE BIG PICTURE Living the dream

MCLAREN SENNA McLaren’s latest limited-production road-legal race car packs a 789-horsepower V-8 punch.

MOTOR TREND

ARRIVAL Kia Niro UPDATES Audi A4, BMW 530i, Honda CR-V, Jaguar F-Pace, Mazda CX-5 VERDICTS Honda Civic, Toyota Mirai

IN YOUR CAR

MOTOR TREND

THE WORLD'S #1 AUTOMOTIVE AUTHORITY

YOUR DREAM CAR IS G N I T I A W

Editorial Editor-in-Chief Edward Loh @EdLoh Executive Editor Mark Rechtin @markrechtin International Bureau Chief Angus MacKenzie @Angus_Mack Senior Features Editor Jonny Lieberman @MT_Loverman Detroit Editor Alisa Priddle @alisapriddle Features Editor Christian Seabaugh @C_Seabaugh Associate Editor Scott Evans @MT_Evans Manager, Visual Assets Brian Vance Photography Asset Editor William Walker @MT_dubdub Associate Photo Editor Robin Trajano Associate Photographer Jade Nelson Managing Editor Rusty Kurtz Senior Copy Editor Jesse Bishop @thejessebishop Copy Editor Mary Kaleta @marykaleta Copy Editor Kara Snow

Technical Technical Director Frank Markus @MT_Markus Testing Director Kim Reynolds @MT_Reynolds Road Test Editor Chris Walton Associate Road Test Editor Erick Ayapana @Erkayapana

Art Creative Director Alan Muir Managing Art Director Mike Royer @MT_Royer

Contributors Correspondents Mike Connor, Aaron Gold, Randy Pobst, Derek Powell, Gary Witzenburg Photographers Wesley Allison, Brian Brantley, Daniel Byrne, Jim Frenak, Evan Klein, Julia LaPalme, Jessica Walker, Kevin Wing Artists Paul Laguette, David Kiss

Motor Trend Online Digital Director Chris Clonts @CClonts Senior Production Editor Zach Gale @ZachGale Associate Online Editors Alex Nishimoto @MT_NishiMotor, Erika Pizano, Kelly Pleskot, Collin Woodard, Michael Cantu, Stefan Ogbac Motor Trend en Español Miguel Cortina @CortinaMiguel Video Producer Cory Lutz Social Media Editor Carol Ngo

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The Lohdown

OUT OF THE LANDFILL, ONTO THE WATER JAGUAR LAND ROVER MAKES WAVES ON THE WAY TO ZERO WASTE Sustainability. Green manufacturing. Zero landfill. No matter what terms are used, every car company has a position if not a mission statement and color (usually a shade of blue or green) devoted to the cause of reducing the environmental impact of vehicle manufacturing. With some, it’s hard to determine real action beyond the lip service, but others are more honest dealers. Subaru has been leading the charge for decades. In May 2004, its Subaru of Indiana manufacturing center became the first zero-landfill automotive assembly plant in the U.S., with 100 percent of its manufacturing waste either recycled or turned into electricity via incineration. Honda can make a legitimate claim to environmental leadership, too. It has been atop corporate sustainability and greenestmanufacturer lists for years, arguably with a deeper impact than Subaru, given the breadth and depth of Honda’s U.S.-based car, motorcycle, powersports, small-engine, and aircraft production capabilities. Globally, General Motors deserves plaudits for its 152 zero-landfill operations, including every GM manufacturing facility in Mexico, a country that has been a convenient place for greenwashing multinationals to hide dirty operations. So how are zero-landfill targets achieved? Through a combination of common sense, creativity, and economies of scale. Some are easy to imagine, such as melting down excess scrap metal, bolts, and fasteners for new body panels or grinding up damaged bumpers into pellets that are sent back to the molding machine. Harder to visualize is how cardboard boxes can become headliner insulation or that engine-block casting sand makes good mulch. It takes imagination, vision, and, sometimes, two surf bros from Northern Ireland. You know those hand-sculpted clay models we’re fond of showing

What’s On Demand This Month? JAN. 26 JAN. 29 JAN. 31 FEB. 2 FEB. 5 FEB. 7 FEB. 9 FEB. 12 FEB. 14 FEB. 19 FEB. 23

JUNKYARD GOLD Ep. 4 ROADKILL GARAGE Ep. 26 ENGINE MASTERS Ep. 31 PUT UP OR SHUT UP Ep. 8 ROADKILL Ep. 75 IGNITION Ep. 188 DIRT EVERY DAY Ep. 73 HOT ROD GARAGE Ep. 62 HEAD 2 HEAD Ep. 98 ROADKILL Ep. 76 JUNKYARD GOLD Ep. 5

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within these pages? They’re not solid clay but instead large slabs of polyurethane foam covered with the expensive sculpting compound in order to keep both weight and cost down. To find a use for the foam infrastructure that underpin its clay models, Jaguar Land Rover turned to Chris and Ricky Martin (no relation to either musician) of Skunkworks Surf Co. in Coleraine, Northern Ireland. JLR already reclaims 50,000 metric tons of aluminum waste from its press shop, enough to stamp approximately 200,000 Jaguar XE body shells, so the concept of recycling isn’t new. Similarly, the Martin brothers are already pioneers in the construction of foam surfboards that use recycled aluminum stringers and environmentally responsible, heat-activated adhesives to increase board lifespan and reduce the impact of their production. So they were ready to figure out how to turn JLR’s large slabs of polyurethane foam into the “blanks” that provide the buoyant internal structure of a modern surfboard. This “second-life” program has a doubling effect. Recycling old automotive foam not only keeps it out of a landfill but also tackles a core issue in surfing. Contrary to the all-natural image of the sport, modern surf gear (namely surfboards and wetsuits) is made from a wide variety of foam, fiberglass, plastic, neoprene, resin, and other petroleum-based products. Like the auto industry, surf companies large and small struggle with responsible environmental stewardship. Shortly after announcing its partnership with Skunkworks, JLR arranged a test ride of the first five Waste to Waves JLR RECYCLES And not only the foam but also the clay. In 2016, 18.5 surfboards at El Porto—a beach only a metric tons of modeling clay were reclaimed and repurposed by schools mile from Motor Trend’s headquarters in and universities near JLR’s design headquarters. El Segundo, California. The conditions were typical for a winter in L.A.’s South Bay; a swell was in, and once the marine layer burned off, relentless sets of big, dumpy waves revealed themselves. The sets were too big for my amateur skills and their longboard, but I did catch a nice ride in on the lightning-bolt-emblazoned single-fin pintail. Kudos to Jaguar Land Rover and Skunkworks Surf Co. for a small, fun step in the right direction. Q

16 MOTORTREND.COM / MARCH 2018

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NEWS / OPINION / GOSSIP / STUFF

TREND3.18 INTAKE P18

WE SAY P24

THEY SAY P30 INTERVIEW

THIS MONTH’S HOT METAL

WORDS FROM OUR EDITORS

BRITTA SEEGER, DAIMLER AG

THE BEST OF L.A.

CROSSOVERS GALORE JAM THE SHOW FLOOR

2017

LOS ANGELES AUTO SHOW SPECIAL

Nissan Kicks The 2018 Nissan Kicks arrived in the U.S. at the 2017 L.A. Auto Show as the new entry-level subcompact crossover in the automaker’s lineup. Already on sale in other global markets, the Kicks will take over from the Juke and Rogue Sport as the brand’s entry crossover—but sources say all three crossovers will remain. At 169.1 inches long, 69.3 inches wide, and 62.4 inches tall, the Kicks is 3.3 inches shorter, 3.0 inches narrower, and 0.1 inch lower than the Rogue Sport in front-drive form (the all-wheeldrive form is 0.9 inch taller). The Kicks is 6.7 inches longer, 0.6 inch taller, and 0.2 inch narrower than the Juke. At 103.1 inches, the Kicks’ wheelbase is 3.5 inches longer than the Juke’s but 1.1 inches shorter than the Rogue Sport’s.

A 1.6-liter I-4 with 125 hp and 115 lb-ft paired to a CVT is the sole powertrain option and is expected to get 33 mpg combined. SR models feature Nissan’s Integrated Dynamic-Control Module which combines active engine braking, Active Trace Control, and Active Ride Control. Bluetooth, three USB ports, automatic headlights, and 16-inch steel wheels are standard on the S trim. The SV trim adds a 7.0-inch

18 MOTORTREND.COM / MARCH 2018

touchscreen, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, keyless entry/ start, blind-spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert, and 17-inch alloy wheels. SR models add LED low-beam headlights, foglights, and a 360-degree camera system. Heated front seats and a Bose premium audio system are

optional on the SR trim. All models get automatic emergency braking. Taking passengers? A 6-footer can easily fit behind a 6-foot driver with plenty of foot- and headroom and a generous cargo area. Pricing will be announced closer the Kicks’ on-sale date in spring 2018. Stefan Ogbac

YOUR SAY P32 READERS TALK BACK

FEATURES The FT-AC has a retractable bike rack and mirrors with removable infrared cameras.

Toyota FT-AC Toyota is working on its next soft-roader, based on the Future Toyota Adventure Concept show car. Known as FT-AC, this compact crossover builds off the direction established by the FT-4X concept from last year. But what the FT-AC really does is preview Toyota’s next RAV4, which arrives in late 2018. Despite the gritty cladding, this is not a rugged body-on-frame SUV but instead a dirt-capable crossover with unique features. Just by looking at the concept, most folks will see how this vehicle has been designed to look off-roady, thanks to the large fender flares, skidplates, huge roof rack, all-terrain tires, and

integrated bike rack. Even more impressive, the vehicle’s foglights can be removed and used for portable lighting; you can even attach them to your bike for a night ride. An integrated Wi-Fi hot spot automatically uploads the recorded footage to a cloudbased storage system, where it can be edited and then posted using a mobile device. The system also has the capability to livestream footage. The large safari-style roof rack holds plenty of gear but also features front LED lights that

provide extra visibility at night and can act as a flash for the integrated cameras. Like the front LED lights, the rear-facing LED roof rack lights can assist during nighttime adventures and can be controlled using a mobile device. If you take it off the beaten path, a GPS system will help you get back on track. Or help you find the mall.

Although still a concept, the production FT-AC/RAV4 would likely be offered with an optional all-wheel-drive system and possibly an off-road driving mode. We expect the crossover to be powered by a small turbocharged four-cylinder engine and likely an available hybrid powertrain. Michael Cantu, Scott Evans

MARCH 2018 / MOTORTREND.COM 19

Lexus RX L Lexus dealers are getting a three-row crossover, and it’s a stretched RX. An extra $4,500 or so nets you an extra 4.3 inches of wheelbase and a third row with seating for two. The second row can be had with captain’s chairs or a bench. The same 290-hp, 263-lb-ft 3.5-liter V-6 is standard, as is the eight-speed auto. Two grand more buys you all-wheel drive. An available hybrid combines the same engine with two electric motors and a CVT to produce 308 hp .

Infiniti QX50 The replacement for the Infiniti EX is here, and its QX50 badge is the least interesting part. The most interesting is its 2.0-liter turbo “VC-Turbo” engine, which can vary its compression ratio on the ﬂy for more power or better efficiency. Infiniti says it can produce 268 hp and 280 lb-ft or get up to 27 mpg. A CVT is your only transmission choice, but you can opt for AWD. Also standard: steer by wire and Pro Pilot Assist Level 2 semi-autonomous driving aides.

Lincoln Nautilus Replacing the MKX in the Lincoln lineup, the Nautilus keeps the same architecture and optional 335-hp 2.7-liter twin-turbocharged V-6 but replaces the standard 3.7-liter V-6 with a 245-hp 2.0-liter EcoBoost engine. A new eight-speed automatic replaces the old six-speed autobox. Inside, Lincoln played with the packaging to provide more rear-seat headroom and legroom, and the rear seats fold ﬂat with the press of a button. The infotainment system has a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, and there’s more open storage, a 22-position power driver’s seat, and a Revel sound system that offers the 13 or 19 speakers.

Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class

The original “four-door coupe” might not be the most famous, but it ain’t dead yet, either. Now sharing a platform with the E-Class sedan, the new CLS-Class walks a technological tightrope between the E- and S-Class, borrowing from both. Under the hood is a 362-hp variant of Benz’s new turbocharged, supercharged, and mildly hybridized 3.0-liter I-6. Some of its power and 369 lb-ft of torque are provided by an “EQ-Boost” electric motor in the transmission and a 1-kW-hr lithium-ion battery. Oh, and it technically seats five.

NEWS / OPINION / GOSSIP / STUFF

Intake FIRST LOOKS

McLaren Senna Named for three-time Formula 1 World Champion Ayrton Senna (with the family’s blessing), the Senna is the latest limited-production “Ultimate Series” road-legal

race car from McLaren. Its pumped-up 4.0-liter twinturbo V-8 makes 789 hp and 590 lb-ft and pushes the second-lightest road car McLaren has ever made

aside from the F1. Every one of its controversial body panels is pure carbon ﬁber, and each one is designed for aerodynamics, not looks. The suspension and rear wing

are hydraulically controlled and continuously variable in application, and there’s no trunk. Only 500 will be built, and they’ll each cost about a million bucks.

BMW i8 Roadster The i8 Roadster is ﬁnally here, apparently waiting on a larger overall update to the i8. The roadster drops its two rear “seats” in favor of a folding soft-top, and all i8s beneﬁt from additional battery capacity and a more powerful front motor, which brings total output up to 369 hp and 420 lb-ft and adds 3 miles to the all-electric range (now 18

miles). The soft top opens in 16 seconds at up to 31 mph and only adds 132 pounds, per BMW. It also adds upward of ﬁve grand to the price tag.

Lamborghini Urus We drove a prototype for last month’s issue, but now we can show you what this $200,000 Lamborghini SUV actually looks like. Wheels can be had from 21 to 23 inches in diameter, and a real-deal off-road package is optional and features a different front fascia. Its 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8 pumps 650 hp and 627 lb-ft through an eight-speed automatic and can reportedly push it to 190 mph, making it the fastest SUV ever. 22 MOTORTREND.COM / MARCH 2018

MIKE CONNOR

MT CONFIDENTIAL

Jaguar I-Pace on the town Jaguar engineers took time out from ﬁnal calibration testing to give us a ride around L.A. in one of the ﬁrst I-Paces built using production tooling. We weren’t allowed behind the wheel, but after riding along with powertrain program manager Simon Patel on streets and roads we know well, we can say the I-Pace is quick and quiet, with a nicely buttoned-down chassis and a remarkably composed ride. The I-Pace is powered by two electric motors—one driving the front wheels and one driving the rear through concentric drive transmissions. The permanent magnet motors were developed in-house, along with the battery concept and design and all the software that controls the powertrain and manages the battery. Jaguar isn’t revealing system output numbers yet, but Patel says the production I-Pace will have close to the 400 hp and 516 lb-ft quoted for the concept version unveiled in 2016 and a 300-mile range. The powertrain has a 50/50 front to rear torque split under normal running. The driveline management software will automatically vary the torque split between the two axles to allow for sporty driving or to cope with lowfriction surfaces. The system also allows torque vectoring by braking to enhance agility

and stability through corners. Two regenerative braking modes will be available— Normal, which replicates the coast-down feel of an internal combustion engine car, and Regen B, which allows for single-pedal driving. The I-Pace is whisper quiet while cruising under light power loads. But when Patel plants his right foot—and the I-Pace surges forward with an urgency that suggests the claimed 4.0-second 0–60 time is legit—there’s a gentle whirr that builds in pitch as speed increases. This is what electric performance sounds like, apparently. We can’t tell you about steering or brake feel, but from the passenger seat, it’s clear JLR dynamics guru Mike Cross spent time on the chassis. An electric vehicle exhibits different pitch behavior from that of an internal combustion engine vehicle on throttle lift off and corner entry, Patel says, and a lot of effort has gone into making the I-Pace feel as familiar as possible. Even

when he exaggerates steering, braking, and throttle inputs on our drive loop, the I-Pace responds with roll, dive, and squat motions that have a measured calmness. The I-Pace feels to be one of the better-riding modern Jaguars, at least on L.A.’s choppy tarmac. Our car rolled on the air suspension and 22-inch wheels and 255/40 Pirelli P Zero tires that will be standard on top-spec models, but it showed excellent compliance and subdued impact harshness. Mass helps. As with all electric vehicles, the I-Pace is relatively heavy (Jaguar isn’t saying how much it weighs), but, says Patel, having all those batteries under the ﬂoor means the I-Pace’s center of gravity is 4 inches lower than that of the F-Pace. It should go around corners well. Jaguar calls the I-Pace a crossover. That’s apt. It has allwheel drive and is a tall wagon. But it’s not quite as tall as an F-Pace and doesn’t look as offroad-capable. Because you’re riding atop the battery pack, the seating position is higher than a regular car’s, and the low cowl and beltline deliver a commanding view of the road. We can’t tell you much about the interior, other than the steering wheel looks like familiar Jaguar hardware, and the instrument panel features the 12.1-inch TFT screen that’s used in current top-spec Jags. Everything else was covered in black felt. Angus MacKenzie

After almost 40 years, Daimler is replacing the G-wagen. The all-new version of the off-roader has the same boxy styling as the original but is 3.9 inches wider, about 660 pounds lighter, and equipped with air suspension (check out our coverage on page 84). In 2019 the G-wagen gets a little brother: the GLB. It’s a longer, taller GLA with G-wagen styling cues and three-row seating. Codenamed X247, it will be powered by Daimler’s 2.0-liter I-4 gas and diesel engines driving all four wheels through a seven-speed dual-clutch. There will be an AMG version, says the Stuttgart rumor mill. The Apple Car has gone quiet. But it hasn’t gone away, say Silicon Valley insiders. Project Titan is alive, but Apple has prioritized work on supporting technologies, principally around autonomous driving and the changes to automobile use and ownership that will result. Sources say many of the vehicle concepts Apple has considered are valid, and the view from Silicon Valley is that once the company has created the technological ecosystem and user experience it wants, producing vehicles will be fairly straightforward given the relative simplicity of sourcing, packaging, and integrating battery electric powertrains. VW Group’s new battery electric vehicle architecture, MEB, takes it back to the future. MEB will underpin up to 15 new all-electric Volkswagens by 2025, starting with the I.D. hatch that goes on sale in Europe in 2019. (See our First Drive of the I.D. Buzz Microbus concept on page 82.) MEB features an underfloor battery pack and room for front- or rear-mounted e-motors. Wolfsburg sources say the default e-motor position for MEB vehicles will be at the rear; a front-mounted e-motor will only be used for all-wheeldrive variants. Rear-engine, rear-drive Volkswagens. Just like the Beetle.

MARCH 2018 / MOTORTREND.COM 23

NEWS / OPINION / GOSSIP / STUFF

@markrechtin

Mark Rechtin REFERENCE MARK

Tapping the brakes Autonomous-car society is still decades away gets in an accident, other automakers might not be as beneficent. And until the tort lawyers and insurance industry sort out the at-fault versus no-fault circumstances, this technology grinds to a halt with the first fatal accident. And when you have a situation involving fatalities, you also have the situation of … Pull out any issue of Popular Science from the past 50 years, and you’ll likely find a story predicting that we would be living in a world of self-driving cars any decade now. (You can add in recent long-form pieces by other national media that push that Jetsons-tinged future even harder.) The self-driving scenario is definitely much closer to reality now, as automakers gird their technologies toward that ultimate purpose. As we at Motor Trend have tested repeatedly, the technology is indeed here in nascent stages and is improving rapidly. The combined brainpower of Detroit, Stuttgart, Tokyo, and Silicon Valley will not be denied. But the truth is we are still a long way from a fully self-driving society, for several very key reasons that have nothing to do with our ability to create the technology. Here is the cocktail party checklist of the interrelated barriers we face:

expensive. To merely keep our roads in their current lousy condition—replete with crumbled shoulders, degraded markings, and unfilled potholes— costs more than $100 billion every year. To invest in upgrading roads to autonomous-worthy standards would cost substantially more. Given the current antitax sentiment in America, I don’t see many people willingly opening their checkbooks for this. Perhaps the creation of private, autonomous-only roads would solve some of the problem. Would you pay an extra $50 for your self-driving car to platoon from L.A. to San Francisco at 125 mph on a private road adjacent to the 75-mph lanes piloted by humans? Some might, but given the lack of success of toll roads in many states, who in the private sector is willing to make that risky investment? And even if we find the hundreds of billions of dollars to make our roads worthy of autonomous cars, we have uncontrollable situations prompted by …

INFRASTRUCTURE Autonomous vehicles need roadways that are wellmarked and in good shape. There are 4.12 million miles of road in America, according to the Federal Highway Administration, of which 2.68 million miles are paved. How bad are our roads? According to the FHA, 42.1 percent of Connecticut’s federal-aid highway miles are in “poor or mediocre condition.” Traffic-choked California is close behind, with 35.1 percent in terrible shape. Fixing that takes …

WEATHER So far, no autonomous technology has proven capable of driving in snowy conditions that obscure road markings and the cars’ radar and cameras. The alternatives? Installing sensors in the road (read Money, above) or vastly improving mapping and navigation data—down to the inch. Ford has made progress with “self-locating by deduction,” but that still might not be enough to satisfy the …

MONEY Repairing infrastructure is the janitorial service of the industrial age. Those jobs ain’t sexy, but they are

LAWYERS As much as we laud Volvo for stating that they will assume the legal liability if one of their self-driving cars

ETHICS How do you teach a computer to be self-aware, to acknowledge every possibility in the driving world? Will a computer-controlled car willingly sacrifice itself (and its driver) if it is presented with this impossible situation: to run over children mingling around their stalled bus in the middle of a blind corner, or to drive off the adjacent cliff? No executive has yet properly answered that question, saying it’s a theoretical situation. But that is the sort of theory that must be embraced and programmed into every car—and the autonomous cars’ occupants must be willing to accept the uncomfortable outcome generated by a software coder. Which leads us to … HUMANITY While we are in this lengthy transition phase, how autonomous cars interact with erratic, even impaired humans remains one of the biggest hurdles facing autonomous-car programmers. Some argue that a computer can more accurately predict unpredictable human behavior than another human; the default autonomous response so far is “slow down.” But people want autonomous cars to get them to their destination faster. Merely replacing America’s 250 million humancontrolled cars with autonomous ones crawling in the same mosh pit should not be the ultimate goal. Look, this advancement is going to happen. The ability to create autonomous vehicles is not at issue. At issue is how to incorporate 21st century technology into a world that is still mired in the 20th. And that will take time. Q

At issue is how to incorporate 21st century technology into a world that is still mired in the 20th. 24 MOTORTREND.COM / MARCH 2018

NEWS / OPINION / GOSSIP / STUFF

Frank Markus TECHNOLOGUE

Proactiv for Road Acne A new cure for autonomous car sickness? My January 2005 Technologue ranks as one of my most memorable. It featured a daring new active suspension that employed electromagnetic rams (like the ones that probably ding your doorbell), scaled and powered up sufficiently to enable a Lexus LS 400 to leap over a 2-by-6 lying across the road. At the time of that impressive demo the Bose Corporation had been quietly working on the concept for 24 years. Ten years later the technology finally came to production … scaled down by a fifth as a vibration-canceling seat suspension for long-haul trucks. Then in November 2017 came word that a Boston-area automotive tech firm called ClearMotion had purchased the rights from Bose for all its ride-related technology. Might Amar Bose’s lifelong dream of cars riding on electrons be poised to come true? Not exactly. But ClearMotion’s goal is the same. Founder and CEO Shakeel Avadhany believes the demand for smooth ride quality is about to spike. That’s because, as I noted last June, when autonomy makes everyone a passenger, staring at smartphones (or one another)

and not looking out the windows will make car sickness a bigger problem—one that diminishes as ride quality improves. Here’s how ClearMotion’s system works: A small turbine pump, power pack, and control electronics module gloms on to a conventional monotube or twin-tube damper at each suspension corner. Each 48-volt electric pump pressurizes one side or the other of the damper piston and drives the wheel down into a pothole or pulls it up over a bump. As was the case with the Bose suspension, the pump then regenerates much of the electricity it just expended as gravity, or spring energy drives the fluid back through it during rebound. Hence net power consumption from the vehicle remains modest, though ClearMotion isn’t talking specifics yet. Four driving modes are programmed: performance mode (max pitch and roll resistance), compromise mode (smooth ride with moderate pitch/roll management), magic-carpet ride, and one that mimics total passive shocks (to demonstrate how bad old cars

ClearMotion suspensions will effectively “fingerprint the road surface,” measuring irregularities and sharing the data to plot the smoothest course between bumps.

DIGITAL CORNER MIT grad Avadhany’s active damper idea drew $120 million in funding and hits production soon. 26 MOTORTREND.COM / MARCH 2018

were). Avadhany claims his system can effectively counteract up to 15 roadsurface irregularities per second and can actively manage wheel motions throughout a vehicle’s entire range of suspension travel. The dampers retain passive damping capabilities for extreme inputs that exceed the system’s cancelation abilities. The system has been under development for five years, and dozens of prototype vehicles are currently undergoing durability and extremeweather testing at sites around the world. It will enter production in two years on a (human-driven) electric vehicle from an as-yet-unnamed company—probably one with a forward-thinking boss enamored of disruptive technologies. The initial application of this so-called “proactive suspension” will not employ forward cameras to directly measure the road surface. Instead it will rely on extremely quick accelerometer sensing of wheel motions and fast-reacting (5 milliseconds) controls. Adding road sensing will improve system performance. Another intriguing aspect of the system: Working with partner Bridgestone Tire, ClearMotion suspensions will effectively “fingerprint the road surface,” measuring surface irregularities, puddles, ice patches, etc., pairing this info with high-accuracy GPS data, storing it to the cloud then sharing it with vehicle-to-vehicle applications, using it to plot the smoothest course between bumps, and “remembering” how deep to press the tires into each pothole. ClearMotion aims to offer the ultimate digital ride experience from tire contact patch to seat in everything from passenger vehicles to commercial and agricultural equipment. The Bose seat suspension will isolate ride inputs on vehicles with the stiffest springs. I look forward to channeling the spirit of Amar Bose and assessing this system against Audi’s electromechanical AI Active Suspension on the A8 and a Mercedes electrohydraulic system that’s coming on the next GLS- and S-Classes. Q

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They Say...

Britta Seeger

BOARD OF MANAGEMENT, DAIMLER AG

Britta Seeger is a relatively new member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG, but being responsible for marketing and sales of Mercedes-Benz cars on a global level is a key rung on the corporate ladder. It was held by Chairman Dieter Zetsche and by Ola Källenius, who is viewed as Zetsche’s heir apparent. When Källenius was promoted to oversee research and product development in January 2017, Seeger took over the post. Previously, she ran operations in Korea and Istanbul and held positions in parts, service, and after-sales operations. We caught up with her at the L.A. Auto Show. What is your strategy, and how have you changed in the job? Imagine where I

started. We had just concluded 2016 when we were No. 1 in the premium brand segment again, so it’s not about change for the sake of changing. It was more, “What is the strength that brought us to where we were at the end of 2016, and how do we further evolve?” This is what we have done. The majority of our work is to continue to build on the strengths. We identiﬁed some topics where there are things that aren’t done. Our concentration is on best customer experience, talking to the customers, receiving their feedback, interacting with them. Customer experience is becoming an industry trend, especially in luxury markets.

Yes, the customer currently has so many different inﬂuences in what they expect in their experience of the brand, inﬂu-

of our dealerships. The format can evolve over time, and we are doing this already.

Interview

In terms of getting the right product, are there gaps you’d like to see filled? We have

an excellent product lineup coming. We are enhancing our lineup for the compact cars, launching them globally, and we have a strong lineup of SUVs coming. We will see a new C-Class. AMG is so strong it could almost be more standalone, like Porsche … It is absolutely

The majority of our work is to continue to build on the strengths.” enced by new players in our private lives. You cannot continue to have the same customer experience as in the ’70s in the automotive industry. So we have to live up to the expectations of our customers— online, ofﬂine, and retail. You still need the dealer and test drive, but do you need the dealership? Yes. Maybe in

10 or 20 years with autonomous driving it will be different, but I think for the personal interaction for the customer who wants it, the essence of what we have in our network is the dealer. In Europe, we’re having discussions with our dealer body about how it’ll evolve over time and what are the changes we need to accommodate the digital journey. How do you see it evolving?

Britta Seeger unveils Maybach’s latest at the 2017 Geneva show. 30 MOTORTREND.COM / MARCH 2018

I think as a contact point the dealer is still very important. If you look in the business world at the businesses that have a strong presence online, what is their next move? They are moving into physical retail because you can’t do this without it. This is why we are building on the strength

connected to Mercedes. It has its own footprint. It stands for performance, so it has its own branding, but it’s strongly linked to Mercedes. You cannot take it off. Is there room to expand AMG further? In the U.S. we’re overwhelmed with how the customer sees our new products, and we will further enhance and further enlarge our product offense. Whether doubledigit growth—again I don’t know, but we will see further growth. Is Maybach moving along at the pace you wanted? Yes, absolutely. China is the

biggest market followed by the U.S. then South Korea. I was in South Korea when we launched Maybach. I was surprised. The people were so thrilled. Do you need more Maybach products?

We’d love more. Maybach follows certain rules. It should be the ultra-luxurious approach. It’s not a mass product, so we are investigating currently where to extend the Mercedes-Maybach brand. How much halo effect comes from Project One? I think that it underlines the

technological leadership that we have with Formula 1, and yes, absolutely, it has a halo effect. We are making Formula 1 technology street-legal. It has a big effect not only on AMG but on the whole brand. Are you going to buy one? They are

already sold out. Did you get one? No. Alisa Priddle

3 .18 TREND

REARVIEW

Do you hate your detector?

From the Motor Trend Archive ...

It was your best friend, now it never shuts up. The good news: New cars have a safety feature, the blind-spot warning system. Many models use K-band radar to “see” nearby cars. The bad news: The onboard K-band turns each of these “seeing” cars into mobile false alarms. A blind-spot system may tag along with you for miles. You’re stuck, not knowing which car to maneuver away from. GPS is no solution. It doesn’t work on mobile falses.

Why you will love V1

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READERS’ THOUGHTS ON PAST ISSUES The counterintuitive results of car-sharing I just read (and reread) Mark Rechtin’s article “The hidden benefit of ridesharing,” and I’m struggling with the math. He claims “more car-sharing means fewer cars on the road,” and he implies that it will help minimize traffic jams. It seems to me, however, that this doesn’t make sense. If I, for example, need to go to the store, I can drive my own car from home to the store and then back home, a two-way trip. Or I can call a car-sharing vehicle who drives to my house, then to the store, then back to my house, then to wherever they need to go next. That seems like a four-way trip to me, doubling the cars on the road. I can see where car-sharing can keep cars out of garages and parking spaces but not off of the road. What am I missing? DALE STEEN MANHATTAN, ILLINOIS

As strange as it sounds, the study’s claim actually does hold some water. The reason? Those who forgo car ownership don’t rely on ride-hailing and car-sharing to replace all mobility needs. Instead, those services act as a smaller supplement to an overall package that includes mass-transit, pedestrian travel, and other ways to get

from A to B. When you own a car, you’re more likely to use it for every foray you make outside your home. When you don’t, you use car services only when a car is the best option.—Ed.

Mismatched engines and tires I read this article (“No Man’s Land,” December) with interest as I wished to provide my soon-to-graduate son some guidance on a suitable new car that would best meet his needs. As an owner of a 2013 Subaru Outback (love the car!), I was pleased to see that the Crosstrek was picked as winner versus the Nissan Rogue Sport and the Jeep Compass Trailhawk—all good. That said, I am mystified by the comments regarding the Crosstrek, and I quote: “More so than the Jeep or Nissan, the Crosstrek is practically begging for more power.” Then I look at the test results, and almost all acceleration data favors the Subaru. In comparison to the other two vehicles, there is no comparison. What were you trying to convey in the sentence quoted above? BRUCE JACKSON VIA EMAIL

The numbers don’t really tell the whole tale here. The Crosstrek is the quickest

FOR THE GARAGE MAJAL

READERS ON LOCATION BRETT WEINMAN lugged his copy of Motor Trend to the ends of the Earth ... literally all the way to the South Pole. Weinman, of Chesterfield, Missouri, is seen here at the base camp in Union Glacier, Antarctica. Weinman says he’s been an avid reader and car enthusiast since he was 8 years old. Thanks for checking in, Brett! Stay warm.

on paper, but it doesn’t feel it—basically because of the way power is delivered via its CVT. All of these crossovers are frustratingly underpowered, but when it comes to the Subaru, you can feel in the way it drives that it can handle a good deal more. An additional 50 hp would drastically improve the car’s power-toweight ratio, likely improve fuel economy, make it more fun, and give you that extra power you need to safely merge or pass on the freeway.—Ed. I read that, against the Jeep Compass and Nissan Rogue in the same test, the Subaru Crosstrek actually did quite well. I find this fascinating, mainly because of its 18-inch Falken tires, which couldn’t have worked very well with its 17-inch aluminum rims. Did you have special machinery to assemble them? If you did, I would be very interested in reading about it! Thanks for giving me something to smile about. JOE STRICKER VIA EMAIL

2018 BEST DRIVER’S CAR CALENDAR We know most of you mark time on smartphone apps. But a wall calendar is a beautiful thing—especially when its subject matter consists of our field from the Best Driver’s Car competition. For the first time, we offer a premium printed 24-by-12-inch heavy-stock calendar, which will look great in any garage or cave. As it represents 12 pieces of artwork, it is price-appropriate at $50 (including shipping for continental U.S.).

Orders can be placed through MotorTrend.com/calendar. 32 MOTORTREND.COM / MARCH 2018

Frank Markus recently scheduled an interview with Dr. Jan Benes at the CMDF, but communications issues have delayed the conversation. We’re working to get the story out and should have a full rundown of the technology soon. It’ll be fantastic. (The Crosstrek 2.0i Limited has 18-inch wheels. Good catch.)—Ed.

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FIRST LOOK | Lexus LF-1 Concept SUV

EXCLUSIVE!

RESHAPING THE LEXUS CREATES A NEXT-GENERATION FLAGSHIP—AND IT’S A CROSSOVER It’s a balmy December morning. I’m standing in an L.A. photo studio and bearing witness to the Lexus LF-1 concept. This is the first time anyone has seen the tangible, functional, completed evidence of Toyota’s styling team’s efforts since it returned from the specialty-car fabricators at Sivax. For more than a year, the 11-member Calty team pored over sketches,

renderings, scale models, paint samples, interior fabrics and materials, and a fullsize clay model. Now, with their collective work effort starkly posed in front of them, the group is speaking in hushed, almost reverential tones. Suddenly, in a fit of enthusiasm, Ian Cartabiano, Calty’s chief designer and the overseer of the exterior design of the LF-1, spontaneously grabs my shoulders and gives them a manly shake.

“It’s so hot. It’s so hot. Look how hot it is,” he exclaims. He is quite literally hopping up and down, unable to contain his elation. The normally composed Cartabiano is justifiably adrenalized. To call the LF-1 merely a departure for the traditionally conservative Lexus brand would be an emphatic minimization. The look of the LF-1 is more athletic and dramatic than the current LS and LC but has none of

COVER STORY

To call the LF-1 merely a departure for the traditionally conservative Lexus brand would be an emphatic minimization. 34 MOTORTREND.COM / MARCH 2018

SUV the gratuitous wackiness of RX and NX. The bold styling represents Lexus’ new design direction—which the automaker describes as “brave, courageous, provocative, and imaginative.” So let’s get to the critical question: Just how realistic is this concept? There are fanciful but impractical concept cars built to stir the creative and strategic juices within a car company but that won’t (or can’t) be suitable for production. Some small element of the design might surface on a showroom vehicle in a decade or so. Words Mark Rechtin Photographs William Walker

Then there are concept cars with more production intent. Their design might stretch the public’s idea of the brand, but they’re meant to give a tantalizing taste of what is to come in the near term. The Lexus LF-1—to be unveiled at the 2018 North American International Auto Show in Detroit—most definitely is grounded in realism. “This will not be a stretch to build,” Calty president Kevin Hunter says. “The reality is, we could use this in our lineup right now. This is a category we’re desperate to be in. So why waste time?”

SPINDLE GRILLE Calty designers strived to make the Lexus LF-1’s front fascia appear integrated into the body structure.

CALTY CHIEFS Ian Cartabiano (left) and Kevin Hunter walk this reporter through the design process for the LF-1, including its numerous clay modeling exercises.

MARCH 2018 / MOTORTREND.COM 35

FIRST LOOK | Lexus LF-1 Concept SUV This is a startlingly straightforward answer from an automaker whose communications typically traffic in nuance. In short: If you like it, Lexus will build it. The LF-1 indicates that Lexus is changing to meet consumer preferences. No longer is a sedan or coupe perceived as the logical starting point for a flagship. Given the soaring demand for SUVs and crossovers, it is clear that Lexus is presenting the LF-1 as the luxury brand’s new elite vehicle. You read that right: A production LF-1 could supplant (or supplement) the LS as Lexus’ top dog. THE EXTERIOR Using Toyota’s GA-L platform—which also underpins the flagship LS sedan and LC coupe—as its base, the LF-1 design interprets a sports car through an SUV lens. Granted, Lexus is not alone with this creative brief, but the LF-1 might be the most imaginative iteration to date. Traditionally, to create a sporty vibe for a crossover, designers have aggressively sloped the roofline downward as it carries

past the B-pillar, severely hindering headroom and ingress/egress for passengers. But that look is already played out. Instead, the LF-1 maintains a consistent roofline without looking like a box on wheels. To provide performance credentials, the LF-1 carries a stretched hood and a long dash-to-axle ratio. The proportions have the sleekness of a raised wagon, more than a squished crossover. If it sat any lower, it could almost be mistaken for a hopped-up station wagon. The production version of the LF-1 will benefit from the flexibility of the GA-L platform; the LF-1’s wheelbase and overall length splits the dimensions of the LS and LC. It’s 3.0 inches taller and 3.5 inches wider than the LS, too. The platform also allows the LF-1 to carry 8.5 inches of ground clearance. Its structure is versatile enough to accommodate gasoline, hybrid, electric, and fuel cell powertrains. Some rumors had pegged the LF-1 as a three-row crossover, but Hunter believes a two-row flagship makes for “a more personal driving experience.” “Lexus doesn’t have 100 years of heritage and baggage to deal with,” Hunter quips, throwing some shade at the competition. “As a young brand, it’s better to change and shift gears to satisfy market needs.” Although it’s the stuff of motivational posters,

Lexus designers were urged to accomplish the mission of “transforming function into emotion, performance into passion, technology into imagination.” “We wanted to redefine the Lexus design language,” Cartabiano says. “We wanted something organic and sharp—a flowing, beautiful structure controlled by edges, not just edge, edge, edge. ” Anyone who has seen Lexus’ angular production crossovers of late—such as the NX or UX—can immediately understand Cartabiano’s thoughts on the evolution of the brand’s design. One key indicator of the new look is the flare that grabs the LF-1’s front wheel. The fender construction, as the A-pillar dives into and away from the hoodline, is

SIDE-VIEW CAMERA It might not make it to production, but the idea of blind-spot video ﬂanking the instrument panel is novel.

36 MOTORTREND.COM / MARCH 2018

The structure is a thing of beauty, one giant scalloped arc and muscular swoop that leads all the way down the body side.

intricate and complicated. If this vehicle indeed goes to production, a battalion of manufacturing engineers will curse Calty’s name. But the structure is a thing of beauty, one giant scalloped arc and muscular swoop that leads all the way down the body side. As sketches evolved into early-stage scale models, an additional rib resided below the flare, low down on the doors. But the doors then had an alternating round-flat-round-flat shape that was too busy, Cartabiano says. The LF-1 called for simplicity without looking slab-sided. The wheel flare and body side designs went through myriad iterations during their creation. “Some of the early models were not sophisticated or premiumlooking,” Hunter notes in his typical deadpan delivery, right in front of the design team. “Ouch,” Cartabiano says. Hunter continues in order to salve the burn: “Then it became more fluid, more harmonized. A new space. It was a cool sketch, but getting it to the finishing point is another thing. It was a roller coaster of pain and suffering.”

Speaking of pain and suffering, perhaps the most polarizing aspect of Lexus’ design of the past decade is the brand’s signature spindle grille—dubbed “Predator” by critics who call out the Schwarzenegger alien movie as a reference. And don’t the Calty designers know it. Part of the problem is that, in past applications, the grille has looked tacked on, almost a graphical afterthought. During the LF-1’s design development, Lexus chief branding officer Tokuo Fukuichi and Lexus International president Yoshihiro Sawa challenged the Calty designers to define what the grille really meant to the brand. This led to a month of resketching the upper half of the spindle in various proportions in order to determine how the spindle would integrate with the LF-1’s headlights and hood.

The final creation is a hood with severe cutouts that feed directly into the grille and make it appear to be an integrated part of the vehicle’s structure. In the final design, the grille almost vanishes, looking more like negative space between floating front fenders. As for the grille pattern itself and the Lexus badge’s location in it, Cartabiano described it as having the appearance of a magnet dropped into a pile of metal filings. A stylish touch, which might not reach production, is the glass roof that appears to flow all the way through the tailgate hatch. There’s a separation to the glass, of course, so the tailgate can open. But instead of a solid roofline connecting the

SPOILER ALERT These trailing wings help define both the rooﬂine and the rake of the D-pillar on the Lexus LF-1.

MARCH 2018 / MOTORTREND.COM 37

FIRST LOOK D-pillars over the roof, sheetmetal wings splay off the hatchback. Even that decision—whether the wings should follow the roofline or descend to follow the angle of the D-pillar—was the subject of extensive rendering and modeling. The placement of the Lexus badge below the hatch-opening split rather than above it was the subject of lengthy debate. The look provides a clean line across the back of the vehicle, but the badge is located lower than some might be accustomed to. There are many height and mass issues to consider when designing an SUV, Cartabiano says. The placement of the taillamps can alter the perception of an off-road vehicle versus a pretend off-road vehicle. By designing a sporty vehicle, the location and shape of the taillamps must be as sleek as the rest of the car. Then there’s the paint, which must be seen to be believed. It’s a copper-meetsrose-gold that was custom developed by

SAMPLE SIZE Light boxes were used to test variations of interior illumination dots for the Lexus concept; paint swatches were applied to scale-model cars.

Calty. The full-size clay model was the test palette for an eye-fuzzing patchwork of shades, hues, and variations of metallic, satin, chromatic, and gloss finishes. Coming up with a paint color took the most time—literally, months—of any part of the concept, Hunter says. “I can’t remember this much debate on color on any other car we’ve done.” And although a satin look would pop from certain angles, Hunter says it would go “completely dead” as the color and reflectivity changed from another angle. Wendy Lee, Calty’s chief designer for color and trim, says the final version allows light to be diffused and reflected, as if off the ocean. “It gives it a mystical, exotic, romantic feel.” THE INTERIOR When vehicles are designed for production, the exterior styling usually remains relatively static between concept and final vehicle. But the interiors can include wild reaches of the imagination. We can only guess which of these LF-1 ideas might reach production.

The front seats have been designed to appreciate the different mindsets of their occupants. The driver’s seat and surrounding area is cockpitlike, immediate, serious, and engaged with “compressed energy,” says Ben Chang, the LF-1’s chief interior designer. Even the center console and infotainment system are canted toward the driver— as they would be in an exotic sports car. Meanwhile, the passenger seat is spacious, restful, and relaxed. Chang uses the Japanese word omotenashi, which translates into “anticipating the needs of your guest,” to describe the feeling Calty wanted from the LF-1 interior. It also happens to be a national slogan for the upcoming 2020 Tokyo Olympics. As Hunter puts it, “Everything revolves around the user experience.” Such hospitality is apparent as the driver approaches the vehicle and the front fascia engages in an LED lightshow that flows like lava. Then, as the driver enters the vehicle, a galaxy of pinprick stars illuminates and flows through the center console and door panels. Calty designers created an array of sizes, shapes, patterns, and light diffusions for the pinprick holes in order to find the right balance of mystical and

COMMAND VIEW The Lexus LF-1’s minimalist cockpit is driver-oriented with all controls close at hand.

38 MOTORTREND.COM / MARCH 2018

FIRST THING YOU DO: NEVER SETTLE FOR 2 ND

A L FA R O M E O U S A .C O M

FIRST LOOK | Lexus LF-1 Concept SUV

welcoming, Lee says. Meanwhile, the undersides of major interior surfaces illuminate with ambient sublighting shaded in “Lexus Blue”—a cobaltish color between violet and blue. But if Lexus really wants to be hospitable, it needs to update its much-derided touchpad infotainment interface. In this case, the LF-1 uses a simplified tracer with numerous shortcuts to decrease the amount of driver distraction. The LF-1 back seat features captain’s chairs identical in comfort and style to those up front—as well as similar infotainment controls. Two in back could be a production option, but it seems pretty obvious that a three-seat bench would be the main build. PRODUCTION PLANS How soon can we expect to see the LF-1 on the road?

“We need this. Sooner would be better,” Hunter says. “There’s a lot of excitement and enthusiasm. It helps when you have a design target.” The LF-LC concept coupe from 2012 was planned as a design exercise, nothing more. After a rapturous reception in Detroit, Toyota’s board moved to turn the concept into reality. But it took four years from its Detroit unveiling to reach Job 1 production. After all, you can only move so fast when you are starting with a fantasy—especially one with dimensions nowhere near what would be required for the production version. By contrast, nearly everything about the LF-1 was designed with production in mind. The GA-L platform allows for multiple powertrain options—though likely rolled out in stages rather than simultaneously. GA-L also was created to be compliant with self-driving, either with the Guardian or Chauffeur self-driving

The LF-1 design team (From Left to Right) Ian Cartabiano, exterior chief designer Kevin Hunter, Calty president Wendy Lee, color and trim chief designer Yohaan Nanji, creative designer (exterior) Shin Kamiura, creative designer (exterior) Ben Chang, interior chief designer Not Pictured Sean Yoo, senior creative designer (exterior) Aaron Park, senior creative designer (interior) Fero Tobak, creative designer (exterior) Mona Beattie, senior creative designer (color and trim) Takeshi Tanabe, director of coordination

systems being developed by Toyota’s advanced research team. A lidar provision is built into the headlight system. Cartabiano says that even the bumper lines were conceived for production engineering purposes. The door latch mechanism is pulled straight from the LC coupe. “We even used Michelin 22-inch production tires.” Some intricacies—such as the sideview cameras projecting images onto the fully digital instrument cluster—are for concept, not production. Other ideas: To make more room in the center console, the actuators for park, reverse, and drive are located at the base of the steering wheel hub. And activating Sport mode or various AWD modes can be accomplished with gesture control rather than having to push a button. Although none of the Calty executives would give an explicit time frame, given past Toyota and Lexus product cadences, there is a strong chance the LF-1 could be a reality as soon as 2021—if Toyota’s board hits the “go” button. Given the LF-1’s status as a counterpart flagship to the LS and LC, pricing would likely start around $75,000. “If the reaction is positive,” Hunter says, “we could move this into the Lexus production design system right away.” Q COMING SOON? Calty designers used Lexus’ GA-L platform as the LF-1’s base to make the concept’s leap to production easier.

Lexus LF-1 dimensions Wheelbase 117.1 in Length 197.4 in Width 78.2 in Height 63.2 in Ground Clearance 8.5 in 40 MOTORTREND.COM / MARCH 2018

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RAM LOOKS TO LURE MORE FIRST-TIME TRUCKERS WITH LUXE, EFFICIENCY. Since its 2009 model-year launch, the current Ram has increased its share of the full-size truck market from 16 to 22 percent. Half-ton pickup buyers are fiercely loyal, but as the pickup truck segment has grown out of its postrecession doldrums, more first-time truck buyers are coming into the market. It makes sense that the truck with the most carlike ride might attract unbiased folks moving out of cars or crossovers, so for 2019 Ram is amping up the comfort, efficiency, and luxury of its 1500 models to keep those newcomers coming. Headline upgrades include 48-volt mild hybridization, a claim to the longest and

strongest chassis, and class-leading 0.357 Cd aerodynamics. Will this be enough to continue attracting new blood in the face of a refreshed 2018 Truck of the Year– winning Ford F-150, the forthcoming all-new Chevy Silverado/GMC Sierra duo expected in 2019, and a renewed Toyota Tundra arriving shortly thereafter? Let’s start with what’s not new: the interior window switches, the pickup box floor stampings,

and some fasteners. Although the gas powertrains mostly carry over, the Pentastar V-6 and Hemi V-8 employ new eTorque starter/generators that store deceleration energy in a 0.43-kW-hr battery pack. The energy is then fed to the powertrain to optimize fuel economy—like helping sustain a cruising speed without downshifting or reverting from four- to eight-cylinder mode. More than 40 shift maps allow the eight-speed auto and the eTorque motors to cooperate to wring every mile from a gallon of gas. The V-6’s water-cooled unit contributes 12 hp and 90 lb-ft; the V-8’s is air-cooled and delivers 16 hp and 130 lb-ft. These motors start the engine in 0.55 second after an auto stop and are used on initial starts except in cold conditions, when a conventional starter does the job.

Words Frank Markus

42 MOTORTREND.COM / MARCH 2018

DOOR BUSTER Chrome bumpers are retained because some farmers push open gates with them. Parking sensors hide discreetly in black trim.

2019 Ram 1500 | FIRST LOOK Two more novel fuel-economy boosters: A heater/cooler for the rear differential oil in rear-drive trucks enables the use of lighter-weight lower-friction oil, and a pair of active mass dampers on the frame cancel vibration so the Hemi can lug a bit more in cylinder deactivation mode without anyone feeling it. The ultimate fuel-saver, an EcoDiesel V-6, arrives later in 2019 but without eTorque mild hybridization. Let’s talk chassis: The new 98 percent high-strength-steel ladder frame features a taller, narrower boxed cross-section that improves bending strength. Octagonalsection front frame-rail extensions are mandrel-bent and welded into that shape from tailor-rolled sheet steel that varies from 3 to 2 mm thick going forward to ensure they crumple. These octo-rails

SHIFTY Some 40 transmission shift schedules help eTorque motors maximize fuel efficiency.

splay outward to capture small-offset crash forces. Despite a 4-inch wheelbase stretch (to a claimed longest in class), the new frame dropped 100 pounds for a 17 percent weight savings. Max payload increases by 420 pounds to 2,300, and towing capacity increases from 10,650 to 12,700 pounds. (That beats Chevy, Nissan, and Toyota but falls short of Ford’s 3,270 and 13,200 ratings.)

COVER STORY

Other chassis upgrades include a novel upper control arm made of reinforced nylon molded around a steel stamping. It doesn’t save weight, but it efficiently adds the strength needed to permit a 22-inch wheel option on 4x4 models. New frequency-response dampers from Hitachi—a Ram-exclusive feature— greatly improve ride quality, especially on high-frequency chatter bumps. (Rebels still get off-road-optimized reservoir shocks.) New variable-rate rear coil springs help comfortably shoulder heavy loads without bottoming out. Off-road options include an electroniclocking rear differential and unique rear-axle-locating geometry to raise the coil-spring suspension’s ride height by an inch. This becomes standard on the Rebel, lowering the entry cost relative to the 2018 model with standard air ride. Upsizing the base wheel from 17 to 18 inches allows the front brakes to grow from 13.2 to 14.9 inches in diameter, shaving a claimed 7 feet from the 60–0 stop. (We’ve measured 122 to 138 feet.) That claimed class-leading aero figure—a 9 percent improvement over

Max payload increases to 2,300, and towing capacity increases to 12,700 pounds. That beats Chevy, Nissan, and Toyota but falls short of Ford. MARCH 2018 / MOTORTREND.COM 43

FIRST LOOK | 2019 Ram 1500

Ram parts with some storied design icons. Gone is the crosshair grille, and the ram’s head logo gets a more angular look.

44 MOTORTREND.COM / MARCH 2018

BIG-SCREEN UCONNECT Ram introduced 8.4-inch touchscreen infotainment to the pickup world, and now it’s doubling down with a portrait-oriented 12.0-inch screen that works like two of the old screens, only brighter and sharper. How bright? 1,000 candela per square meter. Recent iPhones manage only 625 cd/m2. And at 1,280 by 800 pixels, it about matches the iPhone 8’s Retina HD display for resolution. Not surprisingly, this tablet doppelganger functions much like a tablet, supporting pinch-to-zoom and the ability to move frequently used app buttons to the home row at the bottom. As in a Tesla, you can view the map, audio, or other content in full screen or opt to split the screen with any choice of content on the upper and lower halves of the screen. Another cool feature is expanded SiriusXM functionality including On Demand content. This allows you to listen to archived shows or stream your favorite team’s game from a home-team station. You can also pause streaming content of any type and resume it on your smartphone or home system (where you can ask Alexa to resume it). Better still, your onboard cellular Wi-Fi link can seamlessly switch to the online stream if you drive into a tunnel or skyscraper jungle and lose the satellite stream. Uconnect gets exclusive access to these features for a year. FM

ROLL-TOP The Ram’s upper glove box lid disappears up into the dash in fully damped motion. The insides of both glove boxes are ﬂocked to keep things quiet in there. Also note the Limited model’s console-lid embroidery. MARCH 2018 / MOTORTREND.COM 45

COOL RUNNING To squeeze every mpg of travel out of each gasoline molecule, thinner axle lube is used on RWD trucks, and it’s warmed and cooled to ensure it can safely tow 12,700 pounds.

the current generation—is due primarily to a new active front air dam that lowers 2.7 inches at speeds above 35 mph and rises again below 15 mph. It’s standard on all coil-sprung Rams except Rebels and those with the Off-Road package. Raising the sides of the bed by 1.3 inches and sculpting a vortex-generator into the center of the trailing edge of the roof to manage airflow over the truck helped considerably (and gave Ram the largest standard box capacity). The HFE fuel-economy-special model adds flatter, smoother wheels and air-damming running boards that span between the front and rear tires. Another 100 pounds came out of the body, thanks to clever hydroforming of the front upper crash rails and tailgate surround structure and use of aluminum for the hood and tailgate (the latter saving 15 pounds). Speaking of the tailgate, it offers electric release, a tailgate-ajar warning, damped lowering from any height, and assist with lifting. Added content like this conspires to limit net weight reduction to about 130 pounds— not bad for a cab body that’s said to measure roughly 4 inches longer and a half inch wider and lower. Ram is parting with a few storied design icons for 2019. Gone is the crosshair

46 MOTORTREND.COM / MARCH 2018

grille, replaced by seven designs featuring a revised Ram wordmark in the center, most of which are offered in multiple finishes. The ram’s head logo, which dates to 1981, is now a more angular look and adorns the tailgate of all but the Rebel model, which retains the giant wordmark. The low-fender/high-hood big-rig look is only hinted at—the fender gets taller and narrower and the hood bulge widens. Oh, and those tacked-on fender flares that adorn more than half of all Rams are tacked on more robustly to reduce car-wash warranty claims. And hallelujah! Ram has ditched the metal mast radio antenna most pickups still employ. Six price classes plus HFE are now offered: Tradesman, Big Horn, Rebel, Laramie, Longhorn, and Limited. These are amply differentiated, thanks to three headlamp and taillamp designs, the aforementioned array of grilles, 15 wheel designs spanning 18-inch steel through 22-inch aluminum (all of which now attach with six bolts, up from five), and the choice of chrome, blackout, or body color for various trim pieces. Also new: Sport (body color trim) and Black

appearance packages are available across nearly all of the lower price classes instead of occupying a single rung on the price ladder. Speaking of ladders, a motorized running board is now available. New electrical architecture brings all the expected safety gear, including available adaptive cruise control with forward collision warning, lane departure warning, lane keep assist, blind-spot detection with trailer sensing, and a 360-degree camera view. Parallel and perpendicular parking assistance is offered; trailer-backing assistance is not. Ram expects best-in-class safety ratings. Interior space, comfort, and noise levels will all take a big step forward in 2019, we’re assured. On crew cab models, the aforementioned 4-inch stretch amounts to an extra inch in the front and rear doors plus 2 inches behind the rear door. (The eTorque battery and a subwoofer reside behind the rear seat.) The rear floor is now completely flat and features four tie-down rings and in-floor stowage bins that are enlarged to fit the receiver drop hitch. The seat bottom flips up as before to facilitate carrying large items indoors. Beneath it is a 1.4-cubic-foot storage area (twice as big as before) that can now accommodate rifles or fishing rods. On upper trim models, the rear cushion can slide forward 3.1 inches, reclining the backrest 8 degrees in the process. The entire center third of the seat back folds down as an armrest and cupholders, forming both a more comfy armrest and a better thirdpassenger backrest. All of the price classes look classier, with even the cloth or vinyl-lined Tradesman variants getting some contrast stitching and a 3.5-inch color driver-information screen in the cluster.

INTRODUCING THE FIRST-EVER LEXUS LC 500 WHAT STARTED AS PURE CONCEPT, LAUNCHED A NEW ERA OF PERFORMANCE AND DESIGN. The LC 500 is a collection of visionary ideas. 10-speed Direct-Shift transmission. Near-perfect weight distribution. An innovative suspension system that defies conventional logic, accommodating aggressive 21-inch wheels* within a ground-hugging profile. The LC is also an uncompromising approach to design. Although the first seat design was technically perfect, it was the 50th prototype that had the exact fit and feeling to complement the unique LC driving experience. This intense dedication to craftsmanship and innovation results in a level of refinement you’ve never felt. A sound you’ve never heard. And a feeling you have yet to experience. Introducing the first-ever 5.0-liter V8 Lexus LC 500 and Multistage Hybrid LC 500h. Experience the future of Lexus. Experience Amazing. lexus.com/LC | #LexusLC

Options shown. *21-in performance tires are expected to experience greater tire wear than conventional tires. Tire life may be substantially less than 20,000 miles, depending upon driving conditions. ©2017 Lexus

FIRST LOOK | 2019 Ram 1500

These bench-seat models get a threepoint center front seat belt for 2019. Big Horn models add the option of two-tone interior trim. Rebels get red anodized trim and other red accents, seats with inserts patterned after its new Goodyear Wrangler DuraTrac tire tread, and a larger 7.0-inch info screen in the cluster. Laramie leather seats get suede bolster inserts, and Longhorn models add filigree accents in the leather and wood trim. The Limited trim is what happens when a company has no Imperial sedan to separate rich folks from big money. The wood veneers have argent stripes laminated in, and there’s plenty of fancy embroidery. Leather covers the dash, console sides, and seat backs, and the navy blue and “frost” two-tone leather treatment would suit Aston Martin’s first pickup. These trucks reportedly offer more real wood, leather, and metal trim than any other. And between acoustic-laminated glass and active noise cancelation on all models, Ram says this will be the market’s quietest truck. 48 MOTORTREND.COM / MARCH 2018

Three touchscreen systems are offered—two 8.4-inch versions and a fabulous 12.0-inch one. Wi-Fi is served up by a dedicated SIM card with a 12-month “free trial,” and there are five USB ports—four use a Type C format slot (FCA will be first to market with this), and three can send content to the Uconnect system. The front console offers a mobile device docking slot with Qi wireless charging, and in the rear of the console there are two cupholders with a slot sized to hold a tablet at a comfortable viewing angle for rear-seat occupants. The center console has a hanging file folder area in the back

TYPE-C Four USB 3.1 jacks support 4K video streaming and 100-watt charging.

with room for purses or laptops (which can be plugged into a 110-volt outlet— there’s another in the rear and one in the optional deeper cargo Ramboxes). There’s also a sliding lid with cupholders and a shallow stowage bin. The steering wheel now telescopes and tilts, the pedals still adjust for reach, and the front power seats now feature four-way headrests and four-way lumbar adjustment and can motor 0.8 inch lower to better accommodate 10-gallon hats. As new truck launches go, this should be a smooth one; Ram production is moving to the Sterling Heights, Michigan, plant vacated by the Chrysler 200. That’s allowed Ram to start production early and ramp up gradually. Considerable overlap of the current-gen 2018 Ram is expected from the nearby Warren plant, so we should see a rich mix of fancy 2019 Rams alongside lots of 2018 Tradesman models. If claims on the comfort, quiet, and efficiency front pan out, we’re bullish on Ram’s likelihood of continued market share growth. Q

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COMPARISON | 2018 BMW 740e xDrive iPerformance VS. 2018 Genesis G90 3.3T HTrac (Premium) VS. 2018 Lexus LS 500 AWD VS. 2017 Lincoln Continental AWD (Black Label)

Words Christian Seabaugh Photographs Robin Trajano

WE TRY HARDER Test cars for long enough, and you’ll have a default answer anytime someone asks for advice. Want a compact car? Get a Civic. An affordable sports car? Miata. Want to survive the apocalypse? Land Cruiser should do the trick. Easy. For decades, the default choice when buying an executive luxury sedan has

50 MOTORTREND.COM / MARCH 2018

been the Mercedes-Benz S-Class. But what if you want to stand out from your fellow titans of industry in their everyday Newport Nissans? What if you shudder at the thought of dropping 100 large on a depreciating asset? WE HAVE YOU COVERED

We assembled four Mercedes S-Class challengers from each major auto-producing

nation to see which has the best shot at challenging the Merc on its throne. And because most of this country doesn’t have the cash (or credit) to easily part with six-figure sums, we set a rough $100,000 price cap on our luxury sedans, with each luxobarge sporting six-cylinders (or fewer) and all-wheel drive. Our appropriate setting for the test: The tony coastal environs of Palos Verdes

PRIME PARKING Pull up in these one of these four luxury sedans, and you’re bound to get a parking spot out front.

WHO HAS THE METTLE TO CHALLENGE THE MERCEDES-BENZ S-CLASS AS THE BEST LUXURY SEDAN IN THE WORLD? Estates, where you’ll quietly find one of the greatest concentrations of wealth in America. With views of the Pacific Ocean and Catalina Island looming offshore, the average home value is $1.9 million, according to Zillow. From there, we would journey to Malibu, where the Hollywood elite sun and splash. Would any car not bearing a three-pointed star turn the heads of the landed and beached gentry?

THE CHALLENGERS

The BMW 7 Series is the S-Class’ German archrival. Representing Bavaria’s best is the 2018 740e xDrive iPerformance. Powered by a 2.0-liter turbocharged I-4 paired with an electric motor, the 740e is an odd choice for this test, given the rest of our field is powered by twin-turbo V-6s. But considering the segment is moving

toward increased electrification, it was the right choice. Plus 14 miles of EV range in a 4,700-pound limo is plain cool. Our lightly optioned 740e sneaks right under our price cap, stickering for $99,845. There was a time when Lexus was seen as the new kid on the block challenging the established German automakers. Nowadays, Lexus is part of that MARCH 2018 / MOTORTREND.COM 51

BMW 740e xDrive The Bimmer’s interior looks great, but we question some of its engineering choices. Maybe BMW should spend less time on Gesture Control and give more attention to adding connectivity options and more comfortable seats.

Lexus LS 500 AWD The LS 500’s cabin hits most of the luxury car marks in that it both looks and feels upscale. Unfortunately, the human-computer interfaces seriously detract from an otherwise solid luxury experience. It’s time for Lexus to rethink the infotainment system.

establishment, and its fifth-gen LS is the best since the original. Sporting bold styling to emphasize its confident stature in the face of Europe’s best, our LS 500 AWD tester costs around $103,000. Just as the original Lexus LS disrupted the luxury car space in 1989 with equivalent luxury to the Germans for a cut-rate price, Hyundai Motor is hoping to do the same with its upstart Genesis 52 MOTORTREND.COM / MARCH 2018

brand. Representing South Korea’s sole global luxury brand is the 2018 Genesis G90 HTrac 3.3T. Taking the place of the Hyundai Equus, the G90 is a remarkable effort at a luxury flagship, putting aside any questions as to whether the Koreans can do more than just imitate. And much like Lexus once did, the G90 takes a chainsaw to its competition’s price premium by selling for $71,825.

Representing the stars and stripes is the 2017 Lincoln Continental AWD Black Label 3.0. Wait, you say, why isn’t the California-born and bred Tesla Model S the American pick? After all, it is far and away the best-seller in this segment—it even outsells the Mercedes S-Class. We reasoned we’d hold it back for a future test with this comparison’s winner and the S-Class. As for the “other” American

Genesis G90 3.3T HTrac (Premium) Now this is a nice place to be! Sure, the Genesis G90’s black leather and brown wood thing isn’t exactly taking a design risk—it’s a bit tired, to be honest—but everything you touch feels like a million bucks.

Lincoln Continental AWD (Black Label) The Continental’s interior is a breath of fresh air. Our car, equipped with the white leather “Chalet” theme, made a great first impression up front and in the “presidential suite” in back. We just wish it were screwed together a little tighter.

luxury car, the Cadillac CT6, well, it’s unimpressive, finishing third to the Mercedes E-Class and Volvo S90 in its last comparison. With no major changes to the CT6 since then, we thought we’d give the Continental, a proper flagship for Lincoln, a shot at glory. Our loaded Continental Black Label tester stickers for $79,780. If it’s more expensive than the Genesis, it must be pretty good, right?

The luxury car experience can be broken into categories: the drive and the experience. The drive is self-explanatory—it’s all about how effortlessly a luxury sedan wafts away from a stoplight, how quickly it gets up to speed, and how confidently the car rides and handles. The experience, on the other hand, entails the lavishness of the cabin and how it swaddles you in luxury. It’s about

the thoughtful touches such as executive back-seat packages, massaging leather seats, and metal door handles that click just so. It’s all about the things that make the car—and you—feel special. With that in mind, let’s dig in. THE DRIVE

With such similar powertrains, you’d think that our competitors would drive MARCH 2018 / MOTORTREND.COM 53

TRANSITION The 740e’s motor provides smooth acceleration until the turbo has time to spool up.

pretty much the same, but each has a unique personality behind the wheel. The BMW 740e is quite sporty, shockingly so for a big sedan. Its 2.0-liter turbocharged I-4 and electric motor combine for a middling 322 hp and 369 lb-ft of torque, giving it the lowest power output here. Yet this nearly silent sedan was the quickest of the bunch, thanks to smart use of carbon fiber. It’s just 7 pounds heavier than the lightest car in our test, the Continental. Add in short gearing of its eight-speed automatic and instant-on electric torque, and the 740e accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in 5.1 seconds and blows through the quarter mile in 13.6 seconds at 102.9 mph. Its handling performance is second-best in the test, lapping our figure-eight course in 26.0 seconds while averaging 0.71 g. But its braking performance brings up the rear with a 123-foot stop in our 60–0 test. On our test loop, the BMW is a solid driver. The Bimmer’s electric motor gives a helpful shove off the line. It’s possible to creep along in stop-and-go traffic in the blissful silence that defines electric motoring. Even with its 9.2-kW-hr battery depleted (6.5 is usable), the 740e feels more powerful than its specs would suggest. But when the motors hand off duties to the engine, the tranquility is shattered as the gas engine fires up. “Lots of vibrations and unpleasant noises coming from the engine whenever it turned on or off—something I haven’t felt in other PHEVs,” Motor Trend en Español editor Miguel Cortina said. Although its powertrain could use a bit of fine tuning, the Bimmer’s ride and handling is among the best here. The 740e’s steering is light and direct. The suspension is as adept at minimizing body roll on tight canyon roads as it is eating up strips of the rotten cliffside pavement eroding into the sea. “This is how you do luxury sedan ride and handling,” associate editor Scott Evans said. “The little bumps barely register, and the big ones are one and done. No floatiness at all.” Just like Republicans and Democrats have effectively swapped ideologies over the years, BMW and Lexus seemed to have changed M.O.s. The Lexus LS used to be soft and cushy, but now it offers up 54 MOTORTREND.COM / MARCH 2018

damn near sports car levels of performance. Its new 3.4-liter twin-turbo V-6 makes 416 hp and 442 lb-ft of torque, and when combined with its new 10-speed auto, it hustles the LS to 60 mph in 5.3 seconds and through the quarter mile in 13.7 second at 103 mph. Not enough evidence for you? The LS 500 lapped our figure eight in a test-best 25.7 seconds at 0.73 g, and it aced the 60–0 braking test with a 113-foot stop. Driven back to back with the BMW, Genesis, and Lincoln, the Lexus feels an order of magnitude sportier than the rest of the pack. The new V-6 maintains the Lexus tradition of buttery-smooth revs, with plenty of low-end torque, and the automatic happily shunts through its 10 cogs in the background. However, if you ask for moderate or more acceleration from the LS 500, the V-6 struggles to move the 5,103-pound sedan, and the transmission’s shifts get harsh. The LS 500’s steering is much more new-gen and away from the numb appliances of yore. Sporty, direct, and with a stiffness that will be unfamiliar to the Lexus legions, the LS 500 is a good set of tires away from being a true canyon carver. Our test car’s air suspension sorted out big bumps but struggled with small, high-frequency bumps such as the Botts’ dots that line California lanes. “We’re on new pavement here, and I’m still getting lots of small vibrations from all the little bumps in the road you can’t see from the driver’s seat,” Evans said.

From a performance standpoint, the G90 splits the difference between the Lexus and Bimmer. The Hyundaisourced 3.3-liter twin-turbo V-6, sporting 365 hp and 376 lb-ft of torque, helps get the G90 from 0 to 60 mph in 5.3 seconds, tying the LS 500, and through the quarter mile in 13.9 seconds at 99.9 mph. The Genesis can hang with the BMW in our handling tests, too. It laps our figure eight in 26.1 seconds at 0.72 g, just a tenth of a second behind the Bimmer but at a higher g. The G90’s 60–0 performance of 122 feet edges out the 740e by a foot. Although the G90 is just a nose behind the LS 500 at the track, it couldn’t feel more different on the road. Everything about the Genesis G90 is as smooth as a Marvin Gaye ballad. Its engine and transmission are noteworthy for how effortless they make the process of driving. Dip into the throttle, and the G90 accelerates with pure elegance, with no noise from the V-6 under the hood and no physical sensation of gearshifts, save for the tach needle’s swing. The G90 imparts a sensation of calm capability. When the roads get twisty, the G90’s steering isn’t as talkative as the Lexus’ or BMW’s, but it’s appropriate for the segment. Its ride falls between the 740e and LS 500; it doesn’t have the BMW’s solidity, but it handles bumps both large and small better than the Lexus. The Continental brings up the rear— but not by much—in our instrumented testing. With the optional 3.0-liter twinturbo V-6, exclusive to the Black Label in the Continental lineup, churning out 400 hp and 400 lb-ft of torque and paired with a six-speed automatic, the Lincoln needs 5.5 seconds to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph and 14.0 seconds to finish the quarter mile at 100.4 mph. Despite the inherent disadvantages of

COMPARISON

LOOKS GRAPE All four of these luxury sedans look at home in the heart of SoCal wine country. Because it’s a comparison test, we had to pick winners and losers, but each one offers a strong option in its own right.

Lincoln’s front-drive-based platform, the Continental’s torque-vectoring all-wheeldrive system helps the Lincoln hang with the others in the figure eight, lapping the course in 26.1 seconds at 0.70 g. It has the second-best brakes of the group, needing 119 feet to come to a stop from 60 mph. Out on the road, the Continental could benefit from a bit of finishing school. There’s too much unnecessary drama and not enough finesse for what purports to be a luxury sedan. “For a brand that has officially eschewed sportiness, it’s trying very hard to be sporty,” Evans said. “The throttle tip-in is aggressive, and the engine is loud. It’s difficult to leave a stop without being thrown back into the seat. It’s a powerful engine, but it feels like it hasn’t fully been tamed for the job.” Unfortunately, the ride and handling

balance also seem tilted a bit too far toward the ragged end of the spectrum, with a brittle, almost harsh ride quality, especially over larger impacts. The unexpected sportiness does have one positive trade-off, though, as all of us found the Conti fun in tight switchback corners. There is a cure to the Continental’s harshness: Comfort mode, buried under five layers of menus on the instrument cluster. Defeating the default sportier mode helps smooth out the Lincoln with a slightly softer setting of the Lincoln’s electronic dampers, smoother throttle input, and lighter steering. Yes, this is an automotive journalist asking an automaker to not make Sport the default drive mode. Comfort vastly improves the Continental’s driving experience. We can’t help wonder how many potential

buyers might opt for the Continental if not for such a harsh first impression. THE EXPERIENCE

The other half of the luxury car equation involves enveloping occupants in comfort, sharp interior design, elegant tactile quality, and advanced features. The Lincoln makes a great first impression, but like its drive experience, it’s a bit inconsistent. Click open the doors with a gentle pull of the window-line-mounted door handles, and you’re greeted by an art deco–themed cabin swathed in contrasting white and black leather and flamed wood. The cabin, the secondsmallest by passenger volume, still feels refreshing and airy. Up front, the 30-way adjustable seats are supremely comfortable, and the back seat is Town Car spacious with reclining seats and an executive package for good measure. “It takes you back to the era when the Continental had its golden years,” Cortina said. Little details matter in luxury cars of this caliber, and the Conti doesn’t hold up under our magnifying glass. The cabin, already on the sonically louder side in terms of exterior noise seeping in, suffers from squeaks and rattles from the fancy front seats and center console lid. Switchgear, both up front and in back, is also lacking the quality action and feel that the rest of the group exhibit.

MARCH 2018 / MOTORTREND.COM 55

POWERTRAIN/CHASSIS

DRIVETRAIN LAYOUT ENGINE TYPE VALVETRAIN DISPLACEMENT COMPRESSION RATIO POWER (SAE NET) TORQUE (SAE NET) REDLINE WEIGHT TO POWER TRANSMISSION AXLE/FINAL-DRIVE RATIO SUSPENSION, FRONT; REAR

STEERING RATIO TURNS LOCK-TO-LOCK BRAKES, F; R WHEELS, F; R TIRES, F; R

DIMENSIONS WHEELBASE TRACK, F/R LENGTH X WIDTH X HEIGHT TURNING CIRCLE CURB WEIGHT WEIGHT DIST, F/R SEATING CAPACITY HEADROOM, F/R LEGROOM, F/R SHOULDER ROOM, F/R CARGO VOLUME TEST DATA ACCELERATION TO MPH 0-30/0-40 0-50/0-60 0-70/0-80 0-90/0-100 PASSING, 45-65 MPH QUARTER MILE BRAKING, 60-0 MPH LATERAL ACCELERATION MT FIGURE EIGHT TOP-GEAR REVS @ 60 MPH CONSUMER INFO BASE PRICE PRICE AS TESTED STABILITY/TRACTION CONTROL AIRBAGS BASIC WARRANTY POWERTRAIN WARRANTY ROADSIDE ASSISTANCE FUEL CAPACITY REAL MPG, CITY/HWY/COMB EPA CITY/HWY/COMB ECON ENERGY CONS, CITY/HWY CO2 EMISSIONS, COMB RECOMMENDED FUEL

2018 BMW 740e xDrive iPerformance

2018 Genesis G90 3.3T HTrac (Premium)

Front-engine, AWD Front-engine, AWD Turbocharged I-4, alum block/ Twin-turbo 60-deg V-6, alum head, plus AC synchronous block/heads electric motor DOHC, 4 valves/cyl DOHC, 4 valves/cyl 121.9 cu in/1,998cc 204.0 cu in/3,342cc 10.2:1 10.0:1 255 (gas)/112 (elec)/322 365 hp @ 6,000 rpm (comb) hp 295 (gas)/185 (elec)/369 376 lb- @ 1,300 rpm (comb) lb- 7,000 rpm 6,500 rpm 14.6 lb/hp 13.3 lb/hp 8-speed automatic 8-speed automatic 3.23:1/2.16:1 3.54:1/1.97:1 Struts, coil springs, adj shocks, Multilink, coil springs, adj shocks, anti-roll bar; multilink, coil anti-roll bar; multilink, coil springs, adj shocks, anti-roll bar springs, adj shocks, anti-roll bar

2018 Lexus LS 500 AWD

2017 Lincoln Continental AWD (Black Label)

Front-engine, AWD Twin-turbo 60-deg V-6, alum block/heads

DOHC, 4 valves/cyl 210.2 cu in/3,444cc 10.5:1 416 hp @ 6,000 rpm

DOHC, 4 valves/cyl 180.4 cu in/2,956cc 9.5:1 400 hp @ 5,750 rpm

442 lb- @ 1,600 rpm

400 lb- @ 2,750 rpm

6,400 rpm 12.3 lb/hp 10-speed automatic 2.94:1/1.76:1 Multilink, air springs, adj shocks, anti-roll bar; multilink, air springs, adj shocks, anti-roll bar 14.5:1 2.8 14.0-in vented disc; 13.1-in vented disc, ABS 8.5 x 20-in forged aluminum

6,200 rpm 11.7 lb/hp 6-speed automatic 3.39:1/2.51:1 Struts, coil springs, adj shocks, anti-roll bar; multilink, coil springs, adj shocks, anti-roll bar

16.9:1 2.3 13.7-in vented disc; 13.6-in vented disc, ABS 8.0 x 19-in cast aluminum

12.9:1 2.5 14.2-in vented disc; 13.4-in vented disc, ABS 8.5 x 19-in; 9.5 x 19-in cast aluminum

14.8:1 2.0 13.9-in vented disc; 13.6-in vented disc, ABS 8.5 x 20-in cast aluminum

245/45R19 102V Bridgestone Turanza EL 450 RFT (M+S)

245/45R19 98W; 275/40R19 101W Continental ContiProContact (M+S)

245/45R20 99Y; 275/40R20 102Y Bridgestone Turanza T005 RFT

245/40R20 99W Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric (M+S)

126.4 in 63.4/64.6 in 206.6 x 74.9 x 58.2 in 42.3 4,704 lb 49/51% 5 39.9/38.9 in 41.4/44.4 in 59.2/57.7 in 14.8 cu

124.4 in 64.6/64.5 in 204.9 x 75.4 x 58.9 in 39.2 4,861 lb 52/48% 5 41.1/38.0 in 46.3/37.8 in 59.1/57.9 in 15.7 cu

123.0 in 64.4/64.4 in 206.1 x 74.8 x 57.5 in 39.4 5,103 lb 54/46% 5 36.8/36.4 in 41.0/38.9 in 58.8/56.4 in 17.0 cu

117.9 in 63.2/64.1 in 201.4 x 75.3 x 58.5 in 39.0 4,697 lb 58/42% 5 39.3/37.7 in 44.4/41.3 in 58.3/55.9 in 16.7 cu

1.8/2.8 sec

1.8/2.7 sec 4.0/5.5 7.1/9.0 11.2/13.9 3.1 14.0 sec @ 100.4 mph 119 0.84 g (avg) 26.1 sec @ 0.70 g (avg) 1,900 rpm

1.7/2.6 sec 3.7/5.1 6.5/8.4 10.4/12.9 2.7 13.6 sec @ 102.9 mph 123 0.85 g (avg) 26.0 sec @ 0.71 g (avg) 1,500 rpm

7.1/8.9 11.2/13.9 2.8 13.9 sec @ 99.9 mph 122 0.85 g (avg) 26.1 sec @ 0.72 g (avg) 1,500 rpm

1.8/2.8 sec 3.8/5.3 6.7/8.6 10.5/12.9 2.7 13.7 sec @ 103.0 mph 113 0.85 g (avg) 25.7 sec @ 0.73 g (avg) 1,200 rpm

$91,695 $99,845 Yes/Yes

$71,825 $71,825 Yes/Yes

$85,000 (est) $103,000 (est) Yes/Yes

$72,395 $79,780 Yes/Yes

8: Dual front, front side, f/r curtain, front knee 4 yrs/50,000 miles 4 yrs/50,000 miles 4 yrs/unlimited miles 12.1 gal + 9.2-kW-hr lithium-ion ba ery

9: Dual front, f/r side, f/r curtain, driver knee 5 yrs/60,000 miles 10 yrs/100,000 miles 5 yrs/unlimited miles 21.9 gal

10: Dual front, f/r side, f/r curtain, front knee 4 yrs/50,000 miles 6 yrs/70,000 miles 4 yrs/unlimited miles 21.7 gal

10: Dual front, front side, f/r curtain, front knee, rear belts 4 yrs/50,000 miles 6 yrs/70,000 miles 6 yrs/70,000 miles 18.0 gal

30.0/39.4/33.6 mpg 25/29/27 mpg 135/116 kW-hrs/100 miles 0.73 lb/mile Unleaded premium

17.0/26.2/20.2 mpg 17/24/20 mpg 198/140 kW-hrs/100 miles 0.99 lb/mile Unleaded premium

17.2/33.1/22.0 mpg 18/27/21 mpg (mfr est) 187/125 kW-hrs/100 miles 0.92 lb/mile Unleaded premium

16.1/26.4/19.5 mpg 16/24/19 mpg 211/140 kW-hrs/100 miles 1.03 lb/mile Unleaded regular

4.0/5.3

COMPARISON These might seem like little things, but details matter in this segment. Example: The fonts for the Continental’s digital instrument cluster don’t match those of the Sync 3 infotainment system. You might not notice it on the test drive, but six months in, you’ll grit your teeth. “No car here is quite like the Lincoln,” senior production editor Zach Gale noted. “It delights and surprises in some ways but disappoints in others.” The Lexus’ cabin matches the Lincoln’s for its distinctiveness but outstrips it in elegance. The LS 500’s interior perhaps isn’t quite as revolutionary as its LC sister’s, but it’s a huge step forward for the sedan, with beautiful wood, bright metallic trim running across the cabin, and a cool backlit piece of artwork on the passenger dash like in the new RollsRoyce Phantom. The LS’ doors are also particularly noteworthy, with an artful origami-inspired finish. “The Lexus blows the others away in making the owner feel rich and successful,” Gale said. The Lexus gets most of the details right, but there are still a few misses. Despite the new LS sporting a longer wheelbase than the previous long-wheelbase version, the LS 500 has the smallest passenger volume of the group. It feels it, too, especially in back, where the adjustable executive-spec rear seat effectively doesn’t have any room to adjust—leaving adults sitting uncomfortably upright. Folding the front passenger seat forward helps some, but it’s a compromise no other sedan here needs to make. The LS 500’s electronics are also baffling. The infotainment system remains the bane of the brand. Cluttered, unintuitive, difficult to navigate, and operated via a wonky touchpad on the center console, it is by far the worst user interface in the auto industry. We are thisclose to declaring it downright dangerous to operate while the car is in motion. We recommend caution and a clear, straight road when using it. There are other frustrating electronic choices made by the Lexus team that detract from the luxury experience. The Lexus’ oncoming traffic safety alert system is overeager, distractingly turning the LS’ head-up display into flashing arrows and alerts at every stoplight. We’re also mildly annoyed by the LS’ insistence on beeping audibly inside the cabin when in reverse. “This is not a commercial vehicle,” Evans said. “Shut up.” After the sensory overload of the Lexus’ electronics, the G90 is a welcome respite. Hop in the cabin, shut the door, and you’re in a peaceful sensory deprivation chamber. You know, like

Genesis G90

Genesis appears to have thought out every function of the G90’s interior. If there’s one criticism, it’s that it takes no risks. Lexuses used to be. The leather seats are “buttery smooth,” as Gale put it, and comfortable both up front and in the rear passenger area. With much to prove, Genesis appears to have thought out every function of the G90’s interior—with high-quality materials and easy-to-find controls for the 360-degree camera, radar cruise control, and infotainment system. If there’s one criticism to make of the G90’s cabin, it’s that it takes no risks. It’s simple black leather with wood trim. “Really rich-looking” wood trim, Evans noted as a caveat, but it’s sterile compared to the stimulating Lincoln and Lexus. “Just imagine this interior with more interesting wood trim and a more exciting interior color” Gale said. Our BMW 740e also seems to have been bitten by the boring bug—though in fairness you can tack another $5K to our tester’s $99,845 as-tested price to inject a bit of color into the cabin. But our price cap once again highlights BMW’s insistence on offering expensive options that come standard for most other automakers. Inside the base-equipped 740e, you’re frequently reminded of the options you’re missing, such as articulating front seats, the “executive” rear-seat package, or even the appearance of more than one USB plug. “I’m a little let down by this interior, but I guess this is what you get for competitive money,” Evans said. Regardless of what the 740e’s cabin is missing, it’s serene and spacious, edging out the G90 by a cubic foot for largest in our test. It’s also filled with much of the tech we’ve come to expect from flagship sedans. The gesture-controlled audio functions are a waste of motion, but the LED “red carpet” that illuminates when you unlock the 740e at night was cool.

THE RESULTS

The sedan furthest from encapsulating all we expect from a flagship luxury sedan is the Lincoln Continental. There’s a lot to like about the Lincoln, from its interior trim to its spacious cabin and tidy footprint. But it lacks polish. “I really wanted the Continental to knock it out of the park,” Evans said. “Instead, it’s a base hit.” The BMW 740e takes home the bronze. The 740e’s plug-in hybrid brings a lot in terms of luxury. It provides smooth, silent acceleration and trades the hassle of the gas station for the convenience of plugging in to charge at home. “Imagine going to a show across town and not using a drop of gasoline, in a very quiet cabin— that’s the appeal of a plug-in,” Gale said. But as much as we like the powertrain, we don’t like paying extra for options that are standard or more affordable elsewhere. The Lexus LS 500 sits in second. The new LS is worlds better than the one it replaces. It’s a compelling, fun-to-drive sedan that makes you feel special. “I’m pleased with the way it drives, and I like the design,” Cortina said. Yet three things sunk the LS: its tight rear seat, unfriendly technology, and sticker price. These errors left enough room for our winner to sneak by—just as the German brands left a similar opportunity for Lexus in 1989. This result surprised us. It’s easy to dismiss upstart luxury automakers as luxury car imitators. But the G90 is no knock-off Rolex—it’s a proper luxury flagship in its own right. Although we wish the G90 made more of a visual statement, the cabin is comfortable, luxurious, and filled with the latest creature comforts and semi-autonomous technologies. The drive is smooth yet engaging. And its value story is undeniable. “It’s hard to ignore a car that competes so well yet still leaves enough money left over for a kitchen remodel or a Hyundai Sonata for your kid,” Gale said. After all, the rich don’t get richer by spending their money. The G90 is not only a convincing S-Class alternative but is also a proper executive luxury sedan. Welcome to the club. Q MARCH 2018 / MOTORTREND.COM 57

L U X U R Y.

E X O T I C .

S U P E R C A R S .

We’re #1 for a reason.

A MIDCYCLE CHANGE KEEPS THE THREEPOINTED STAR IN THE CONVERSATION

Words Frank Markus

Mercedes-Benz put the world’s luxury car peddlers on notice four years ago. The W222-generation S-Class featured automated parking, Magic Body Control air suspension with Road Surface Scan, six seat massage settings, and automatic perfume dispensing. But technology changes fast. BMW was first to parry with its new-for-2015 60 MOTORTREND.COM / MARCH 2018

G11/12-generation 7 Series, which failed to unseat the mighty Merc in a 2016 Head 2 Head. Recently, Audi let us drive its spanking-new A8, dubbed MLB64, which arrives in the fall. And as you can see in our related luxury comparison on the preceding pages, Lexus and Genesis are also staking legitimate claims to the title. Question: Can the 6,500 part revisions Mercedes made to this midcycle S-Class

keep the competition at bay? Possibly, especially when you consider Mercedes counts each new engine as one part. The S-Class powertrain overhaul is thorough—with a slew of improvements to its V-6 and V-8. Wait, a V-6 S-Class? You bet. We’ll see the U.S. return of a V-6 to power the entry-level S for the first time since the S400 Hybrid variant died with the previous generation. (A hybrid

2018 Mercedes-Benz S-Class | FIRST DRIVE

TORCHED Subtle styling revisions include new bumpers and “triple-torch” headlamps. Exec-package rear occupants get wireless charging, and front occupants still get a button for the seat massagers.

is expected to rejoin this generation of S-Class within a year or two.) It’s basically the engine from the GLS450. The twinturbo V-6 produces 362 hp and 369 lb-ft. Paired with a nine-speed automatic, it motivates this limo just as easily as it does the GLS450, which finished second in a six-way jumbo SUV Big Test in 2015. Stepping up to the S560 buys you a detuned AMG 4.0-liter biturbo V-8 good for 463 hp and 516 lb-ft. That’s 14 more horses than the previous S500’s 4.7-liter with equivalent torque. With the ninespeed tranny and cylinder deactivation, it also gets 17/27/21 mpg city/highway/ combined, a smidge better than the engine it replaces. The AMG S63’s new hot-vee 4.0-liter biturbo V-8—also with cylinder deactivation—huffs up 603 hp and 664 lb-ft, a gain of 26 hp with equivalent torque. It also benefits from the added leverage of two more transmission ratios (for nine here, as well). This helps boost fuel economy by 10 percent (to 17/26/20 mpg). The S63 also gets the Race Start function from the E63, which permits you to preselect a launch rpm to suit road conditions then perform a brake-torque launch. The 4Matic Plus system adds the ability to vary front/rear torque in place of the former fixed 33/67 front/rear split. Only the boffo 621-hp, 738-lb-ft biturbo V-12 and seven-speed transmission from the AMG S65 carry over largely unchanged. But luxo-barge owners care as much about their car’s supple ride as they do its acceleration performance. MercedesBenz set a standard in 2014 with its Magic Body Control system, which used forward-looking cameras to instruct the dampers when to soften up for bumps. Audi is trumping that feature with its AI active suspension, which will use its cameras to measure bumps and dips and then direct electromechanical arms to push a tire down into a hole and pull it back out again (or vice versa for bumps). We understand Mercedes will introduce rival technology on its next GLS-Class, using electro-hydraulic rams to manipulate the corners under orders from the cameras. You can count on that system appearing on the redesigned S-Class that arrives in a few years. In the meantime, note that the V-12 AMG S65 also offers curve compensation that pumps up the outside suspension corners to maintain a more level ride in hard cornering (which the Audi AI suspension pretty much does, too, on any A8 so equipped). MARCH 2018 / MOTORTREND.COM 61

FIRST DRIVE

S-Class upgrades for 2018 include broadening the speed range at which both the cruise and steering assist functions operate, Active Lane Change Assist (you signal, it checks your blind spots then changes lanes), Active Speed Limit Assist (which will vary your speed to match the limit but cannot maintain a set increment above the limit), and Route-Based Speed Adaptation (which slows for tighter turns or navigation-recommended exits).

Then there’s safety. Mercedes has enhanced Active Brake Assist with crosstraffic alerts and adds Evasive Steering Assist. Think of it like Brake Assist for steering; when a collision is impending, if the driver initiates evasive maneuvers, the car will steer clear of danger then countersteer back into the lane or out of a spin. The blind-spot and lane keep functions also operate at a wider range of speeds. The S-Classes could benefit from Audi’s capacitive steering wheel, which knows when you’re touching it instead of inferring contact by steering input (three times S-Classes told me to put my hands on the wheel when one or both were firmly gripping it). The speed limit assist is useful if you live in a strict jurisdiction, but if you want to corner at the speed limit whenever possible, you must either set the Dynamic drive mode to Sport or set up your “Individual” setting with ESP and steering set to Sport but the suspension set to Comfort for a smoother ride.

What does the S-Class feel like to drive? Pretty sublime, truth be told. The base V-6 and V-8 variants excel at being driven in a serene and stately manner befitting their class. Auto stop/start shutdowns were more noticeable in the S450 than in the S560. The V-8 shaves about a second off the V-6’s 0–60 time and makes a sweeter sound, but all engine noise is so muffled that it barely registers. The AMG variants are another story, with the S63 staged as the miscreant of the lineup—all crackling, snorting, and popping exhaust in Sport+ mode. Nobody buys a luxo-barge like this for track days, but the S63 will oblige those who seek to summon their inner Lewis Hamilton— even offering an app that connects to your phone to give you lap times. Its Race Start function and variable-torque 4Matic drive make it the 0–60 champ at 3.4 seconds. Meanwhile, the S65 wafts off the line a bit less aggressively, coming into its own when you need to roll onto the accelerator and whoosh from 100 to 150 mph (or 150 to 186, the limited top speed). Is it worth waiting a year for the A8 or three for the new S-Class? Tech geeks who have been waiting for a truly predictive active suspension since before the Infiniti Q45a arrived will want to sit on their wallets. Those who want a luxe sedan to breathe fire, step up to the AMG counter now. Everyone else, pick the one that makes your knees go wobbliest. They’re all good choices. Q 2018 Mercedes-Benz S-Class

62 MOTORTREND.COM / MARCH 2018

NOT MAYBACH Various rear-seat upgrade packages for any S-Class add massage, heating, cooling, a 40-degree recline, tray tables, and hot/cold cupholders.

BASE PRICE

$90,895-$230,495

VEHICLE LAYOUT

Front-engine, RWD/AWD, 4-5-pass, 4-door sedan

ENGINES

3.0L/362-hp/369-lb- turbocharged DOHC 24-valve V-6; 4.0L/463hp/516-lb- twin-turbo DOHC 32-valve V-8; 4.0-L/603-hp/664-lb- twin-turbo DOHC 32-valve V-8; 6.0L 621-hp/738-lb- twin-turbo SOHC 36-valve V-12

TRANSMISSIONS CURB WEIGHT WHEELBASE LXWXH

7- or 9-speed automatic 4,550-5,300 lb (mfr) 124.6-132.5 in 206.9-215.0 x 74.8-75.8 x 58.8-59.0 in 3.4-5.0 sec (mfr est) 13-19/21-28/16-22 mpg

0-60 MPH EPA CITY/HWY/COMB FUEL ECON ENERGY CONSUMPTION, CITY/HWY CO2 EMISSIONS, COMB ON SALE IN U.S.

177-259/120-160 kW-hrs/100 miles 0.87-1.24 lb/mile Currently

THE WINNER TWO YEARS RUNNING. AND HAULING. AND TOWING. Last year, Super Duty.® This year, F-150. Ford F-Series is proud to score back-to-back Golden Calipers.

FORD F-SERIES. 2017 & 2018 MOTOR TREND TRUCK OF THE YEAR. ®

FIRST DRIVE | 2019 Volvo XC40

Words Frank Markus

WILD CHILD

Volvo’s three SUVs are all similarly dressed and obviously related, but line them all up, and the new compact XC40 stands out. Like maybe dad left the elegant mom who birthed the XC60 and XC90 and hooked up with the cute pixie barista from the artisanal coffee shop. Not to forgive the wandering eye of Volvo’s paterfamilias, but this styling departure was actually carefully calculated—to convince upscale millennial buyers that this newcomer isn’t just a chip off the old sensible, safety-first Volvo block. So how different does the new sibling look? Does it at least have its father’s eyes? Well, the Thor’s Hammer LED headlights—a styling cue of the other Volvo crossovers—have morphed into something more akin to Loki’s Scepter here. The XC40 borrows the XC90’s grille but 64 MOTORTREND.COM / MARCH 2018

wears it inside out. Short overhangs push the wheels to the corners, and the beltline swoops up into a blind-spot-inducing C-pillar. But can you see the family resemblance underneath? Sure. To assess the XC40’s chances of success, we channeled our inner Gen Y selfiesnapper and headed to Barcelona to sample Volvo’s most youth-focused car. As the first product from parent company Geely’s new CMA small-car platform, this is the first 40-series car Volvo has offered on a global basis. It’s also the brand’s first entry in the fastgrowing premium compact crossover space. From an automaker known for building smart, savvy people haulers, expectations for the XC40 are pretty high. Know what else is pretty high? The body. Volvo asserts the XC40 has best-inclass ground clearance and height. The equipment specification is also high for

THE SMALL SWEDE STEPS OUT WITH A COOL NEW LOOK MARCH 2018 / MOTORTREND.COM 65

NORWEGIAN WOULD? The interior manages Scandinavian sleekness without wood. It looks upscale despite conventional starter and mode-select buttons. The by-wire shifter requires two taps forward or backward to engage R or D, as in T8 Volvos.

its competitive set, with the safety gear list mostly the same as an XC90’s—including Pilot Assist (adaptive cruise control and lane centering), City Safety, run-off-road protection and mitigation, cross-traffic alert with brake support, and a 360-degree camera to help drivers maneuver their car into tight parking spaces. The only trim level available for test driving was the range-topping T5 AWD R-Design; we gravitated to a white one with the “molten lava” orange carpet and door insert trim (a $100 option on R-Design models only). The XC40’s Sensus vertical iPad-like infotainment screen, A/C vent design, gauges, and fonts all carry Volvo’s clean, modernist look. But the lack of a wood-grain trim option and the techie metal trim—not to mention that bright orange carpet—all reflect Volvo’s desire to lure the youth. In one sad bit of decontenting, the XC40 replaces the console-mounted, diamond-milled rotary twist start/stop knob with a black button on the center stack. A practical note: Nothing is getting lost on this floor or in the gigantic door storage

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pockets, which benefit from ditching the bass speakers from the lower door trim and replacing them with a single big bass speaker mounted to the firewall just under where the right wiper parks. The interior bristles with other clever storage solutions. There’s a retractable hook above the glove box described as a place to hang carryout food bags. A console trash bin with a lid comes out for easy emptying, and Volvo introduces its first wireless phone-charging dock in the console. The rear cargo floor folds to form a divider, with three hinge points that serve as bag hooks (another pair of bag hooks flank the cargo area for when the floor is left flat). We also like the rigid cargo cover that stows beneath the floor. In another millennial-luring touch, the XC40 is designed so that you can assign

digital keys to the smartphones of family members and loved ones (or perhaps the occasional renter) for car sharing. And the XC40 won’t force you into an arranged marriage involving laborious purchase or lease negotiations with a dealer. You can effectively “swipe right” on an app and hook up with one for as little as a year. Now to the hardware. The XC40 T5 models are powered by a 2.0-liter turbo rated for 248 hp at 5,500 rpm and 258 lb-ft between 1,800 and 4,800 rpm. The engines in the senior XC T5s make two more horses and reach peak torque 300 rpm earlier. A T4 front-drive base model will trail the T5 to market this summer; it’s outfitted with a smaller turbocharger producing 14.3 pounds of boost (down from the T5’s 20.0), so output peaks at 185 hp and roughly 195 lb-ft. (Full specs are not yet available.) In other markets, the XC40 will introduce Volvo’s I-3 engine making 150 hp and 207 lb-ft, and we could see hybrid and/or fully electric variants. The XC40 uses its elder siblings’ eightspeed automatic, ratios and all. The all-new CMA platform employs struts in front and a fully isolated four-link rear suspension. Base cars get twin-tube shocks, and the optional sport suspension

FIRST DRIVE

BLACKTOP R-Design models all get a black roof and roof rails, grille, and mirrors and an embossed black R-Design logo on the C-pillar. Momentum trim levels can have a white top for $300.

(standard on R-Design) gets fancier mono-tube shocks with stiffer damping and spring rates. An optional Four-C active-damping chassis will eventually be available with continuously controlled damping courtesy of Tenneco valves on Öhlins dampers. In another departure from Volvo’s SPA larger-car platform, the electric power steering’s motor moves the steering rack via a second pinion instead of via parallel belt-drive and worm gears. The effort map looks like a V instead of a U, ramping up quickly just off center in each direction. Base cars get 18-inch wheels, and 19s and 20s are optional—all shod in all-season tires for the U.S. There’s a 21-inch accessory wheel that gets summer tires. So how does it feel, zipping around the twisting Catalonian roads below Montserrat? Compared with an XC60 T6 AWD sampled on these very same roads in May, the XC40 is considerably lighter, nimbler, and more compact. As with the 60- and 90-series Volvos, an XC40 driver can select between Eco, Comfort,

CARE BY VOLVO — NETFLIX FOR PREMIUM VEHICLES Today’s harried millennial has no appetite for the hassle of dickering to buy or lease a vehicle, cross-shopping insurance, contemplating maintenance plans, etc. He or she just wants to pick the colors, twiddle a smartphone screen, and drive off. That’s all it takes to stream a movie or TV series from Netflix or Amazon, and now as little as 10 minutes of phone fiddling can also “download” a nice Volvo XC40 (T5 AWD Momentum trim with five popular options) for $600/ month or a nicer Volvo XC40 (loaded R-Design) for $700. During that time, Care by Volvo partner Liberty Mutual Insurance assesses your risk profile and either accepts or declines you for its $500-deductible standard insurance plan—there’s no discounting or surcharging based on your location or driving record. The contract is for two years at 15,000 miles per year, but after just 12 months the car can be swapped for another one by signing a new 24-month contract—just like you do with your smartphone. These mono-spec cars will be stocked and distributed by Volvo and then delivered and serviced by local dealers. All the subscriber pays for is gas and local taxes and fees. (This is an ownership model, not a rental model like GM’s Maven.) The first Care subscriptions will be offered in March and marketed on convenience rather than lower overall cost. FM

Dynamic, Off-road, and Individual driving modes that tailor the throttle and transmission response, brake and steering feel, all-wheel-drive torque bias, and damping level (when so equipped). Dynamic mode brightens up throttle response and sharpens transmission logic quite noticeably, but any variation in steering or brake feel were too subtle to notice on this drive. At one point an aggressively driven older VW GTI gave chase, and we were impressed by the XC40’s flat cornering and high levels of grip afforded by the R-Design’s standard sport suspension. Of course our Euro-spec cars were shod in optional 20-inch Pirelli P Zero summer rubber. America gets standard allseason fitments, so we should expect more tire squeal and fewer cornering g’s. None of the bumps we encountered with these sport suspenders threatened to knock passengers’ phones from their hands. Volvo estimates the XC40 will hit 60 mph in 6.2 seconds, and it does feel nearly as quick as our last XC60 T6, which hit 60 in 6.1 seconds. Trimming 600 pounds is similar to adding a supercharger, as our XC40’s engine is towing just a fraction of a pound per horsepower more than its middle sibling. Bury the throttle to pass a slow-moving local, and revs build quickly. But we wish the engineers had differentiated this engine’s sound signature. On the boil, it has the same angry-horseflies buzz of the bigger XCs. Oh well. Crank up the jams on the Harman Kardons. If our drive raised one caution, it’s on the fuel economy front. If the computer is to be believed, we managed just 22 mpg over 180 miles, half of which was highway cruising. Deliveries are expected in the second quarter of 2018. Before then we’ll ask our millennial staffers to rank this wild Swede among its peers, the BMW X1, Audi Q3, Infiniti QX30, and Mercedes GLA-Class. Their eagerness to assume the task might be our first clue to the vehicle’s success. Q 2019 Volvo XC40 BASE PRICE VEHICLE LAYOUT ENGINE

TRANSMISSION CURB WEIGHT WHEELBASE LXWXH 0-60 MPH EPA CITY/HWY/ COMB FUEL ECON ON SALE IN U.S.

FLAGGED The first 5,000 XC40s will feature this little rubberized Swedish ﬂag adhered to the clamshell hood on the driver’s side and echoing the cloth one that’s been affixed to Volvo seats for years.

$34,195-$38,695 Front-engine, FWD/AWD, 5-pass, 4-door SUV 2.0L/185-hp/195-lb- (est) turbocharged DOHC 16-valve I-4; 2.0L/248-hp/258-lb- turbocharged DOHC 16-valve I-4 8-speed automatic 3,450-3,550 lb (est) 106.4 in 174.2 x 73.3 x 65.0 in 6.2-7.0 sec (MT est) Not yet rated Spring 2018; Summer 2018 (T4)

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There was a certain inevitability to the Jaguar E-Pace. With its midsize F-Pace, Jaguar’s first ever SUV, powering an 80-plus percent increase in global sales for the storied British brand over the past year and demand for the compact Range Rover Evoque blasting past 600,000 units worldwide since 2011, the decision to build a small Jaguar SUV was a no-brainer. Especially as the Evoque and the Land Rover Discovery Sport had provided Jaguar with a platform and a parts bin as a starting point. The E-Pace shares its basic body structure, powertrains, and sundry other pieces of hardware with the Evoque and the Discovery Sport. But JLR has worked hard to keep the two brands distinct, giving the E-Pace a unique character that’s more than skin deep. Quicker and sportier, the E-Pace is more fun to drive than either of the Rovers. Which is as it should be. Eager to see it? It has just gone on sale in the U.S., priced between $39,595 and $54,545. Critics will note that this is only the second Jaguar built on a front-drive architecture with a transverse-mounted engine under the hood . (The other? The unloved X-Type sedan, which was based on the Ford Mondeo.) Nevertheless, the E-Pace successfully morphs the studied emotion of Ian Callum’s design language onto a tall package with a short dash-toaxle ratio. The trapezoidal grille, power bulge on the hood, and slimline taillights are key Jaguar family visual triggers. A bold, crisply defined haunch over the rear wheels and a greenhouse that riffs on that of the F-Type sports car give the E-Pace its own personality. Inside, the PRNDL shifter and the flying buttress that arcs down from the dash to the center console give the E-Pace cabin a pinch of F-Type spice. And the TFT instrument panel and InControl Touch infotainment interface are straight from the JLR parts bin. But careful attention to materials—in terms of quality and execution—has made the E-Pace cabin appear more discreetly upscale than that of the F-Pace. Impressive given the price leap to the larger crossover. Significantly, there’s no wood trim available, not even as an option. The E-Pace is a modern Jaguar. Dimensionally, the E-Pace is an inch longer than the Range Rover Evoque and half an inch taller, and it has a wheelbase 0.9 inch longer. The difference in wheelbase is due to a different rear suspension. Whereas the Evoque has 68 MOTORTREND.COM / MARCH 2018

Words Angus MacKenzie

FAMILY STYLE Ian Callum’s design team has successfully grafted modern Jaguar design cues onto a tall vehicle with a transverse front engine. The E-Pace is emotionally a Jaguar yet functionally a compact SUV.

2018 Jaguar E-Pace | FIRST DRIVE

THE NO-BRAINER JAGUAR

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SPACE, GRACE The multilink rear axle gives the E-Pace almost an inch longer wheelbase than the Range Rover Evoque and delivers a quieter, smoother ride on the road.

struts, the E-Pace rear axle has the same integral link design as the F-Pace and the Discovery Sport; the rear knuckles are the same as the F-Pace’s, and the subframe and control arms are shared with the Discovery Sport. The E-Pace therefore has a different rear floor than the Evoque and offers more legroom for rear-seat passengers and more room for luggage— there are no strut towers intruding into the load space. Early in the E-Pace development program, insiders acknowledged the biggest problem with using the all-steel Evoque platform—which traces its ancestry back to Ford’s ownership of Jaguar and Land Rover—was its weight. Developing a new, lighter platform from scratch simply wasn’t an option, so the engineering team applied what weightsaving countermeasures it could. The

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E-Pace’s hood, front fenders, roof panel, and tailgate are aluminum, delivering weight savings of almost 75 pounds over comparable steel parts. The body sides are also stamped from special thinner steel that saves almost 8 pounds. Even so, a base E-Pace still weighs 155 pounds more than the entry-level version of the larger F-Pace, which is built on JLR’s aluminum-intensive D7a architecture. The E-Pace is the first Jaguar in history available only with four cylinders under the hood. No V-6. Americanmarket buyers can choose between two versions of JLR’s 2.0-liter turbocharged Ingenium gas engine driving through a ZF nine-speed automatic. The regular E-Pace, which is available in standard, S, and SE trim levels, gets a 246-hp variant; it also develops 269 lb-ft of torque from 1,200 to 4,500 rpm.

In E-Pace R-Dynamic form, available in S, SE, and HSE trim levels, the engine has been tweaked to deliver 296 hp and 295 lb-ft from 1,500 to 4,500 rpm. Peak power in both arrives at a modest 5,500 rpm. Jaguar claims the R-Dynamic’s extra horsepower cuts the 0–60 acceleration time from 6.6 seconds to 5.9 seconds. JLR’s 2.0-liter Ingenium engine isn’t the smoothest in class. There’s almost a diesellike graininess at idle and under light throttle at low speed, especially when cold. But it delivers good performance and drivability on the road. The nine-speed has been recalibrated to deliver smoother and faster shifts, especially in Dynamic mode, and R-Dynamic models benefit from having paddle shifters on the steering wheel for drivers who like DIY driving in the twisty bits. Although the platform is front-drivebased, all-wheel drive is standard across the E-Pace range. There are, however,

2018 Jaguar E-Pace | FIRST DRIVE

two systems available. The regular E-Pace lineup gets a conventional setup that simply varies torque between the front and rear axles, depending on load. The R-Dynamic models come equipped with Jaguar’s electronically controlled Active Driveline, which is capable of rapidly shifting nearly 100 percent of the torque to either the front or rear axles and between the rear wheels. In steady-state cruising, the Active Driveline switches to front-drive only, decoupling the prop shaft to the rear axle to help save fuel. But it can funnel needed power back to the rear wheels in just three milliseconds. Two electronically controlled wet plate clutches on the rear axle also send precise measures of torque to each rear wheel to help control understeer and oversteer. Subtle chassis and suspension tweaks have given the E-Pace a more alert and agile rear-drive feel than the Evoque. On the rear axle, positive camber has been increased to help initial turn-in response, particularly at low to medium speeds, and brake-induced torque vectoring is standard. Up front, there’s more negative camber to help get the nose of the car into corners, and the two rear mounting points of the front subframe have been bolted directly to the body to deliver a more rigid platform. The E-Pace is 20 percent stiffer than an Evoque and 25

Developing a new, lighter platform from scratch simply wasn’t an option, so the engineering team applied what weight-saving countermeasures it could.

SPICE The pistol-grip shifter and ﬂying buttress connecting the instrument panel and center console link the E-Pace’s interior with F-Type sports cars. A 12.3-inch TFT screen instrument display is standard on R-Dynamic HSE.

percent stiffer than a Discovery Sport, says lead engineer Matt Eyes. That stiffness improves steering feel and response. What’s more impressive is that this fun-to-drive character happens with smoothness and silence, too. Our tester, a loaded R-Dynamic HSE riding on 20-inch alloys and 245/45R20 Pirelli P Zero summer tires, felt calmer, quieter, and more relaxed on jittery British back roads than Evoques we’ve driven on 20s. Impact harshness is better suppressed, and there’s much less tire noise from the rear axle. In terms of off-road capability, the little Jaguar doesn’t give much away to the baby Range Rover. All E-Pace models can be switched between four drive modes— Normal, Dynamic, Eco, and Rain/Ice/ Snow. The latter setting allows drivers to activate the standard All Surface Progress Control (ASPC), the low-speed, offroad “cruise control” system developed by the all-terrain specialists at Land Rover. ASPC is masterful at exploiting every last vestige of available traction, especially when working with the Active Driveline system. Worldwide sales of compact SUVs last year totaled 9.8 million vehicles, according to JLR, and are forecasted to grow substantially in the near future. As it gives Jaguar the opportunity to play this white-hot segment for the very first time, the E-Pace is arguably one of the most important new Jaguars in history. Although comparisons with the Range Rover Evoque are inevitable, the E-Pace’s real targets are BMW’s X1, Audi’s Q3, and Mercedes-Benz’s GLA, along with

buyers moving up from mainstream U.S. and Asian brands. Its mission is one of conquest, and early indications show that’s exactly what’s happening—more than 90 percent of customers who’ve placed an order for an E-Pace in the U.S. are newcomers to the brand. A lot of buyers are looking for a stylish, accomplished, competitively priced premium compact SUV, and they are likely going to see that Jaguar has a definite place in this segment. Q 2018 Jaguar E-Pace BASE PRICE VEHICLE LAYOUT ENGINE

TRANSMISSION CURB WEIGHT WHEELBASE LXWXH 0-60 MPH EPA CITY/HWY/ COMB FUEL ECON ON SALE IN U.S.

$39,595-$54,545 Front-engine, AWD, 5-pass, 4-door SUV 2.0L/246-296-hp/269-295-lb- turbocharged DOHC 16-valve I-4 9-speed auto 4,050 lb (mfr) 105.6 in 173.0 x 78.1 x 64.9 in 5.9-6.6 sec (mfr est) Not yet rated Currently

MARCH 2018 / MOTORTREND.COM 71

COMPARISON | 2018 Chevrolet Camaro SS 1LE VS. 2018 Ford Mustang GT Performance Pack

It’s like déjà vu all over again, again. Yes, dear Motor Trend readers, it’s that special time of year when we trot out the latest pony cars from Detroit and figure out which one is best. For now. Because yes, we’ll do it again. Soon, too. We’ve been doing this particular headto-head challenge for 50 years, and you have never told us to stop. The occasion for this particular comparison test is 72 MOTORTREND.COM / MARCH 2018

Ford’s launch of the bigly refreshed 2018 Mustang. For the purposes of this story, we got our hands on the GT Performance Pack 1. Why not the recently announced P-Pack 2? Because Ford isn’t releasing it until May. Representing Chevrolet’s interests is the Camaro SS 1LE, unchanged since 2016. Both our tested cars came with a six-speed manual transmission, though the new Mustang is available with a 10-speed automatic.

Let’s first break down the carryover Camaro SS. The Chevy comes packing a stout 6.2-liter pushrod V-8 that pumps out 455 horsepower and 455 lb-ft of torque. 1LE is Camaro code for a trackoriented option pack. All 1LE Camaros come with a black hood, black mirrors, blacked-out other bits, and a manual transmission. The SS 1LE gets Magnetic Ride Control, GM’s trick eLSD rearend and five levels of Performance Traction

KINGS OF ALL MEDIA Check out the video version of this Head 2 Head. Why? Burnouts! Only at Motor Trend OnDemand.

A NEW MUSTANG GT TAKES ON THE BENCHMARK CAMARO

THE NEVER ENDING STORY Words Jonny Lieberman Photographs Jade Nelson

MARCH 2018 / MOTORTREND.COM 73

COMPARISON Management (aka PTM), Brembo brakes, and sticky Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar 3 tires. It also has a dual-mode exhaust and coolers for oil, the differential, and the transmission. Our car came with the optional Recaro seats and Performance Data Recorder, a nifty built-in camera/ data-logger system to help you work on your lap times. All in, this red Chevy will set you back $46,295, an $8,300 bump over the Camaro SS base price of $37,995. For the first time in history, a production Mustang 5.0 displaces more than 5,000 cubic centimeters. The old Coyote V-8 displaced 4,951 cubes. Ford Performance changed out the cylinder liners and is using the same plasma transferred wire arc process as the FRESH MEATS It takes a great deal of rubber to make it through one of our comparison tests. Just ask Michelin and Goodyear stockholders.

GT supercar. As such, the bore is now 93mm (up nearly a millimeter), and total displacement is 5,038cc. Because the bore is larger, the valves can be (and are) larger. The cylinder heads are new, as are the camshafts, the crankshaft, and the rod bearings. This new engine also revs 500 rpm higher to 7,500 rpm. The 2018 Coyote engine provides both port and direct injection, and because of the cooling effect of DI, the compression ratio is now a relatively lofty 12:1. As you’ve probably guessed by now, power is up, going from 435 to 460 horsepower (5 hp more than Chevy). Torque also is up by 20 lb-ft to 420 lb-ft (though 35 less than Chevy). The six-speed manual sports new gears, optimized for the engine’s healthier output. The 2018 Mustang also gets updated and polarizing new sheetmetal. Ford’s decision to take the Mustang global means that the car is subject to Europe’s restrictive pedestrian safety regulations, which often have an adverse effect on design. That’s the why the headlights are so tiny while the hood is so bulbous. The coolest change to me is the big 12.4-inch instrument panel. It’s bright and readable, has different displays for different modes (the Track screen, specifically the way Ford made the tachometer look, is particularly good), and works well with the Mustang’s

SAUSAGE MAKING Our video crew snaps a pic of a photographer while our sound guy listens in.

pleasant innards. Sadly, like too many Ford screens these days, there’s too much information displayed and/or something always prompting you to hit “OK.” Ticking the box for Performance Pack 1 adds such features as a big wing, black aluminum wheels, Michelin PS4S tires, Brembo brakes, a dual-mode exhaust, a strut tower brace, a K-brace, stiffer front springs, a thicker rear anti-roll bar, a larger radiator, a Torsen limited-slip differential, “unique chassis tuning,” and retuned electric steering assist, stability control, and ABS. To even things up, our test car had optional magnetic dampers, MagneRide in Ford-speak. (We asked for but didn’t get the available Recaro sport seats.) Total price: $49,670, a $9,675 jump over the GT’s base price. Does the Mustang feel $3,375 more special than the Camaro? Almost; the Ford’s interior does look and feel about $2K nicer.

When you’re arguing with the jerk who owns the car you don’t, 0–60 mph is hella important.

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Before we get to the numbers, we should talk about each car’s inherent pony car credentials. Meaning that yes, when you’re sitting at the bar arguing with the jerk who owns the car you don’t, 0–60 mph is hella important. International bureau chief Angus MacKenzie calls that stuff “pub ammo.” However, out on the street, numbers really don’t matter all that much. What does matter is what my MTOD co-host Jethro Bovingdon refers to as “cowboy science.” Roughly speaking, that means noise, burnouts, and nonoptimized drag racing. The Mustang’s V-8 barks better. Both ponies have a twomode exhaust and eight pistons churning away on a crankshaft, but the higherrevving Ford makes much sweeter music. This is a notable improvement over the previous Mustang, which didn’t sound so hot. The Camaro’s exhaust note isn’t bad, but it’s not noteworthy (pun intended). The part that upsets me is that in some more than tangential way, the Chevy’s LT1 is related to the V-8 in the C7.R Corvettes. I’ve heard them run at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and they are the bestsounding machines at the race. Imagine if rolling thunder got angry. So, Chevy tuners, a little more like that, please. As for burnouts, the orange Ford literally, figuratively, and in every other way

smoked the Chevy. In a way, this is actually good news for the 1LE. Here’s why: The Camaro can do about one, maybe two decent burnouts, and then the Goodyears get hot to the point where they “grip up,” to steal a term from Randy Pobst. It’s enough grip that 455 lb-ft of twisting force has trouble breaking ’em loose. This is slightly surprising. I used to tell anyone who would listen to me that the best production burnout machine on earth was either the 2015 Jaguar F-Type R (it was rear-drive for one year only—future classic!) or any Hellcat. Then I drove a Camaro ZL1 and melted six sets of rear tires. Not joking. In my fairly elaborate burnout experience, no other car comes close to the 650 lb-ft of torque and fury of the LT4 big dog Camaro. Why do I mention this? The SS 1LE comes on the same tires as the ZL1. (The ZL1 1LE gets even stickier R compound meats.) It turns out the ZL1’s additional 195 lb-ft of supercharged torque are quite necessary. As for the Mustang GT, it represents one more reason to buy Michelin stock. The Ford is content to just sit and roast ’em. I should mention that although both cars come with line lock (a feature that disables the rear brakes to allow for easier burnouts), I’m both impatient and not too bright. I couldn’t get line lock to work, and after two attempts I stopped trying. That brings us to nonoptimized drag

BLOW OUT It turns out that sand sticks to hot wheels when you’re traveling at 150 mph. Jonny Lieberman takes action with a cordless leaf blower.

TRACK DAY Jethro guffaws as Jonny bloviates. No doubt some crucial aspect of the Head 2 Head being filmed (or lunch) was being discussed.

racing, a term I made up. Basically it means leaving things such as GPS tracking gear and standardized measurements (like, say, distance) out of the equation and just seeing which car goes faster. To figure this out, Jethro and I headed out to El Mirage, a dry lake bed near Edwards Air Force Base. It was instrumental in the birth of both hotrodding and drag racing. To the best of our cowboy science abilities, we marked off what probably was pretty close to a mile and went for it. The Mustang repeatedly beat the Camaro, showing 159 mph on its speedo to the Chevy’s 151 mph. The Ford was about four car lengths ahead each time, too. And by “each time,” I mean we did this about 30 times in a row. (Check out the video at MotorTrendOnDemand.com.) Why did the Ford win? For one thing, the Mustang’s V-8 just loves to rev out. The faster it spins, the more power it spits out. For another, and we’ll explore this more in a second, we have the distinct feeling that the new Coyote is putting out more than 460 ponies. For its part, the Camaro sits on wider, slicker rear tires, and on compacted dirt, that just doesn’t have the same traction as the Mustang. Then came time to leave cowboy science behind and get to actual science, as provided by our testing team. The Ford outporks the Chevy, 3,863 pounds versus 3,746. The two cars have identical

MARCH 2018 / MOTORTREND.COM 75

COMPARISON 54/46 weight distribution. The 1LE wins the 0–60 sprint, doing so in 4.1 seconds versus the Mustang GT’s 4.4 seconds. By the end of the quarter mile, the Camaro is still in the lead but not by much: 12.5 seconds at 115.2 mph for the Chevy versus the Mustang’s 12.6 seconds at 115.1 mph. Road test editor Chris Walton, our straight-line guru, told me that were we to lengthen the race, the Ford would win because at that point the Chevy’s torque and traction advantage is gone, and highreving DOHC horsepower takes over. We feel Ford is sandbagging the actual output. Why? My best guess is to protect the 526-hp GT350, which is still on sale. But who knows? On to braking, and here the Chevy wastes the Ford. The 1LE’s sixpiston binders haul it to a dead stop from 60 mph in 93 feet. That’s world class. The GT, which also has six-piston calipers, needs 104 feet. Keep in mind that both cars are on similar performance rubber, and both have Brembos. Yes, the Ford weighs more but not that much more. The Camaro’s brakes are just better. As is the 1LE’s handling. Around our

THUNDER AND LIGHTNING Does anything beat the fact that you can buy 450-plus horsepower V-8s for less than $50K? We think not. Also, that new Ford engine? She’s a screamer.

figure-eight track, the Mustang managed a 24.0-second lap. That’s a fantastic time, especially because the 2016 Mustang GT needed 24.4 seconds, and the BMW M4 takes 24.1 seconds. So that’s good company. But by comparison, the Nissan GT-R NISMO, Porsche 991 GT3, and Porsche 991.2 Turbo S all dance the figure eight in a significantly quicker 22.9 seconds. I mention this because so does the Camaro. I’m still having a hard time processing that number. The workaday Chevy runs even with the world’s elite performance cars in a true handling test. For the record, the quickest time we’ve ever seen around the figure eight is 22.2 seconds, put down by both the Porsche 918 Spyder and the Lamborghini Huracán Performante. The Camaro 1LE is within spitting distance. When I asked our handling guru Kim Reynolds what he thought about the two cars after lapping them, he looked first to the Camaro then disparagingly glanced at the Mustang and said, “There’s about 4,000 years of evolution separating the two.” Ouch. But that’s the feeling both Jethro and I got out on the road. The SS 1LE is an ideal back road warrior. Everything it does is sweet, from turn-in to midcorner to post-apex—the Chevy never puts a

foot wrong, never misbehaves, and most certainly never understeers. But the grip is so high that even though the chassis is keen to, the car never oversteers—even with everything turned off. The Ford? Ever since the Mustang went with an independent rear end, the GTs haven’t been set up properly. The lighter EcoBoost cars are better, and the Shelby GT350R handles about as well as anything on the road. But the normal V-8s? Not great. I had high hopes the combination of the 2018 refresh, the new Performance Pack goodies, and MagneRide would fix things. Nope. The car rolls over on itself and seems to not only understeer but also to try and oversteer at the same time. Like the front and back aren’t actually

We headed to El Mirage, a dry lake bed instrumental in the birth of both hot-rodding and drag racing.

76 MOTORTREND.COM / MARCH 2018

FIFTY YEARS’ WAR There are certain parts of life, much like life itself, that you never want to end. May pony cars keep on fighting forever and ever.

connected. Jethro kept pointing out that although the Ford felt bad going into a corner, once you were in a turn it was OK. “There’s a good car somewhere under there,” he said. I concur. Then came the track. We took the two American icons out to Streets of Willow. Here’s the good news for Ford fans. The fastback GT laid down a 1:23.97 lap. That’s 0.24 second off the aforementioned M4 (1:23.73), just quicker than a Lexus RC F (1:24.08), and nearly three tenths of a second better than a 2015 Mustang GT Performance Pack (1:24.29). The bad news? The Camaro SS 1LE laid down a 1:20.67 lap, 3.3 seconds quicker. In other words, these two cars wouldn’t be allowed to race together. Different class doesn’t cover it. The list of cars the Camaro went faster than should embarrass some OEMs: Porsche Cayman GT4, 2014 Audi R8 V10 Plus, Ferrari 458 Italia. I mean, come on! The Camaro is in another league, with legitimate supercars. A 2015 GT-R NISMO held the Streets record, 1:19.07— meaning the gulf between the quickest car ever lapped at the track and the Chevy (1.6 seconds) was less than half the gulf between our two competitors (3.3 seconds). But then we got bored at lunch and Randy ran a lap in a Huracán Performante. Result: new champ, at 1:18.73—making the Camaro the sixthfastest car around Streets. Yet the Chevy still is less than 2 seconds off the pace of a hypercar costing six times as much. Dang. The winner of this round? The Camaro 1LE. Chevy has done the near impossible, transcended the genre and turned a once provincial pony car into an honest to goodness world-class sports car. This $46,000 miracle punches so far above its weight that I’m in danger of saying things that could be taken out of context. Such as, if I were an engineer at BMW or even Porsche, I’d clear off my drawing boards. Where does that leave the Mustang? If you don’t care about measurable performance and are instead into the “cowboy science” side of things, you have your winner. However, in the ways that matter to car guys, the 2018 Mustang got its butt handed to it. For less money, Chevy outengineered Ford. And this is what that galls me. Not only should Ford have done a better job, but I also know they can do a better job. The Shelby GT350R—a car that’s every inch as awesome and breathtaking as a Porsche GT3—proves Ford has the knowledge to build a better car. It remains to be seen how much the forthcoming Performance Pack 2 closes the handling gap with that GT350R and this Camaro SS 1LE. You can expect another pony car face-off for the answer. Q

2018 Chevrolet Camaro SS 1LE (1SS)

POWERTRAIN/CHASSIS

2018 Ford Mustang GT (Premium)

Front-engine, RWD 90-deg V-8, alum block/heads

DRIVETRAIN LAYOUT ENGINE TYPE

90-deg V-8, alum block/heads

OHV, 2 valves/cyl 376.0 cu in/6,162cc 11.5:1 455 hp @ 6,000 rpm* 455 lb- @ 4,400 rpm* 6,500 rpm 8.2 lb/hp 6-speed manual 3.73:1/1.87:1 Struts, coil springs, adj shocks, anti-roll bar; multilink, coil springs, adj shocks, anti-roll bar 11.1-15.1:1 2.8

VALVETRAIN DISPLACEMENT COMPRESSION RATIO POWER (SAE NET) TORQUE (SAE NET) REDLINE WEIGHT TO POWER TRANSMISSION AXLE/FINAL-DRIVE RATIO SUSPENSION, FRONT; REAR STEERING RATIO TURNS LOCK-TO-LOCK

Front-engine, RWD DOHC, 4 valves/cyl 307.4 cu in/5,038cc 12.0:1 460 hp @ 7,000 rpm 420 lb- @ 4,600 rpm 7,400 rpm 8.4 lb/hp 6-speed manual 3.73:1/2.32:1 Struts, coil springs, adj shocks, anti-roll bar; multilink, coil springs, adj shocks, anti-roll bar 16.0:1 2.5

14.6-in vented disc; 13.3-in vented disc, ABS

BRAKES, F; R

15.0-in vented disc; 13.0-in vented disc, ABS

10.0 x 20-in; 11.0 x 20-in forged aluminum

WHEELS, F; R

9.0 x 19-in; 9.5 x 19-in, cast aluminum

285/30R20 95Y; 305/30R20 99Y Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar 3

255/40R19 100Y; 275/40R19 105Y Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S

TIRES, F; R DIMENSIONS

110.7 in 63.0/62.9 in 188.3 x 74.7 x 53.1 in 38.1 3,746 lb 54/46% 4 38.5/33.5 in 43.9/29.9 in 55.0/50.4 in 9.1 cu

WHEELBASE TRACK, F/R LENGTH X WIDTH X HEIGHT TURNING CIRCLE CURB WEIGHT WEIGHT DIST, F/R SEATING CAPACITY HEADROOM, F/R LEGROOM, F/R SHOULDER ROOM, F/R CARGO VOLUME

1.8 sec 2.5 3.2 4.1 5.1 6.5 7.9 9.4 13.1 1.8 12.5 sec @ 115.2 mph 93 1.12 g (avg) 22.9 sec @ 0.91 g (avg) 80.67 sec 1,400 rpm

ACCELERATION TO MPH 0-30 0-40 0-50 0-60 0-70 0-80 0-90 0-100 0-100-0 PASSING, 45-65 MPH QUARTER MILE BRAKING, 60-0 MPH LATERAL ACCELERATION MT FIGURE EIGHT 1.6-MI ROAD COURSE LAP TOP-GEAR REVS @ 60 MPH

107.1 in 62.4/65.1 in 188.5 x 75.4 x 54.3 in 40.0 3,863 lb 54/46% 4 37.6/34.8 in 45.1/29.0 in 56.3/52.2 in 13.5 cu

TEST DATA

1.9 sec 2.6 3.5 4.4 5.4 6.7 8.1 9.7 13.6 1.9 12.6 sec @ 115.1 mph 104 1.00 g (avg) 24.0 sec @ 0.83 g (avg) 83.97 sec 1,700 rpm

CONSUMER INFO

$37,995 $46,295 Yes/Yes 8: Dual front, front side, f/r curtain, front knee 3 yrs/36,000 miles 5 yrs/60,000 miles 5 yrs/60,000 miles 19.0 gal 16/25/19 mpg 211/135 kW-hrs/100 miles 1.02 lb/mile Unleaded premium

*SAE certiﬁed

BASE PRICE PRICE AS TESTED STABILITY/TRACTION CONTROL AIRBAGS BASIC WARRANTY POWERTRAIN WARRANTY ROADSIDE ASSISTANCE FUEL CAPACITY EPA CITY/HWY/COMB ECON ENERGY CONS, CITY/HWY CO2 EMISSIONS, COMB RECOMMENDED FUEL

$39,995 $49,670 Yes/Yes 8: Dual front, front side, f/r curtain, front knee 3 yrs/36,000 miles 5 yrs/60,000 miles 5 yrs/60,000 miles 16.0 gal 15/25/18 mpg 225/135 kW-hrs/100 miles 1.06 lb/mile Unleaded premium

MARCH 2018 / MOTORTREND.COM 77

FIRST DRIVE | 2018 Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross

Words Michael Cantu

REINVENTION A thick, smoky haze blanketed Santa Monica. The beach and coastline were not visible. The Santa Ana winds were howling—slanting palm trees and fueling wildfires just a few miles north. Those apocalyptic surroundings only made the media drive of the new Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross all the more interesting.

78 MOTORTREND.COM / MARCH 2018

Mitsubishi hasn’t had a new product in years, and it is betting big on this compact crossover. It’s a cruel fact of a cutthroat industry: The automaker’s lineup is not very competitive, and executives hope to change that with the Eclipse Cross. They wouldn’t let a fire get in the way. Masks were handed out as product experts gave presentations. Photographers scrambled to stay ahead of the ash.

The Eclipse Cross fills the space in between the company’s best-selling smaller Outlander Sport and the larger and more expensive Outlander. It has the same wheelbase and width as the Outlander Sport and has a mere 1.5 inches more overall length—which raises the question whether there’s enough room in the lineup for two similar-sized vehicles with such a large price gap.

SPLIT OPINIONS Mitsubishi created a well-styled Eclipse Cross, but it gets hindered by the weirdness of the split rear window.

MITSUBISHI RESURRECTS AN OLD NAME FOR A NEW CROSSOVER

smoke-choked air, and famous pier. They set us up right next to the hills of Malibu, which provides some of the best twisting, climbing roads in America. Scenic canyon carving made up most of the drive. After driving the not-fun Outlander Sport, I wasn’t sure what to expect. However, I couldn’t forget the brand’s sports car heritage. It takes guts to borrow the name of one of the iconic coupes of the 1990s and slap it on a crossover. After cruising north on Pacific Coast Highway, we turned onto Topanga Canyon and the fun began. From the first turn-in, I knew this was no Outlander Sport. That’s a relief. As the twisty canyon road continued, I found some initial body roll, though plenty of grip followed— nothing extraordinary but one of the better-handling utes in the segment. In certain cornering situations, the Cross felt momentarily unsettled, but product planners took careful notes regarding

our impressions of these preproduction models. Expect the Eclipse Cross to be tweaked before going on sale in March. An all-new engine powers the Eclipse Cross—a 1.5-liter direct-injection turbofour that produces 152 hp and 184 lb-ft of torque. A CVT with eight simulated gears backs the engine and routes power to the front wheels (only in the base trim) or to Mitsubishi’s S-AWC all-wheel-drive system. The powertrain provides plenty of power with decent throttle response for daily driving, but it feels a bit shy on torque. It’s a definite improvement over the 2.4-liter I-4 found in the Outlanders. The AWD system did a fine job providing grip coming out of corners, but like most AWD crossovers, understeer quickly ruins the party (or saves your butt). Not watching the road because of the beautiful scenery, I found out that the Cross does well under quick trailbraking. I have no complaints about the

The Eclipse Cross is designed to be the sportier-looking, fun-to-drive alternative to the Outlanders. Designers hit the styling mark with the sloping roof, high beltline, raked rear window, and a thick body line. Mitsubishi’s signature Dynamic Shield grille, tubular-LED taillights, and large fenders lend to the sporty styling. It’s an attractive design from the front and profile. The rear end, however, is another story. The split rear window will get mixed opinions, but it stands out in a sea of similar crossovers. But does the sporty design carry over into driving character? Mitsubishi didn’t invite us to Santa Monica for the beach, MARCH 2018 / MOTORTREND.COM 79

FIRST DRIVE

brakes—the power, feel, and travel is acceptable for a crossover. The Eclipse Cross comes equipped with Mitsubishi’s best-ever budget-minded interior. It’s not the best in class, but it’s much better than those in the Outlander and Outlander Sport. Most noticeably, Mitsubishi designers created a much quieter interior. The steering wheel and some of the switchgear are shared with the Outlanders, but overall, the quality

is much better. The new-to-Mitsubishi touchpad did a better job of navigating the infotainment system than expected. The Eclipse Cross lineup consists of four trims. The base ES trim starts at $24,290 and comes standard with frontwheel drive. But the S-AWC system—with Auto, Snow, and Gravel modes—is available for $600; it’s standard on other trims. Standard features for the ES trim include 16-inch wheels, foglights, LED running lights, LED rear combination taillights, Bluetooth, automatic climate control, a 7.0-inch touchscreen, and a USB port. That’s pretty good out of the gate. The LE trim adds black 18-inch wheels, SiriusXM radio, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and dual USB ports. It takes moving up to the SE trim to get standard blind-spot warning, rear cross-traffic alert, and features such as heated front seats and keyless entry. LED headlights, a head-up display, and a multiview camera system are standard on the SEL trim.

The Eclipse Cross introduces a new service called Mitsubishi Connect, which consists of automatic collision notification, emergency services, and alarm notification, among other things. The Remote services package can remotely start the crossover, adjust the climate settings, lock the doors, honk the horn, turn on the lights, find your car in a parking lot, and offer parental controls. It’s standard on the SE and SEL trims and free for two years—it’s $99 a year after that. The Eclipse Cross’ biggest problem could be pricing. A $24,290 starting price is not that low, especially for a brand that is not known for superior build quality. It’s also a three grand jump from an Outlander Sport. That price tag also puts it above all subcompact rivals. Perhaps a worse equation: The Eclipse Cross has a price ladder just shy of the larger Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4, and Mazda CX-5, and it is almost identical in starting price to the Kia Sportage and Ford Escape. If Mitsubishi is betting on its bold looks, all-wheel drive, and new features and technology to steal buyers away from other brands, they might be in for a tough ride. Our upcoming First Test review will give us a better idea of its real-world prowess. Regardless, the Eclipse Cross is currently the automaker’s best product and shows that Mitsubishi has evolved and can again be competitive. Q

2018 Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross BASE PRICE VEHICLE LAYOUT ENGINE

BIG STEP FORWARD The dashboard is mostly softtouch, and the shifter is smooth with a leather boot, not the clunky plastic one of the Outlanders. 80 MOTORTREND.COM / MARCH 2018

TRANSMISSION CURB WEIGHT WHEELBASE LXWXH 0-60 MPH EPA CITY/HWY/ COMB FUEL ECON ON SALE IN U.S.

$24,290 Front-engine, FWD/AWD, 5-pass, 4-door SUV 1.5L/152-hp/184-lb- turbocharged DOHC 16-valve I-4 Cont variable auto 3,300-3,500 lb (mfr) 105.1 in 173.4 x 71.1 x 66.3-66.5 in 9.2-10.8 sec (MT est) Not yet rated Currently

FIRST LOOK | Volkswagen I.D. Buzz concept

Words Christian Seabaugh

Building Buzz Reinvention ain’t easy. Just ask Blockbuster how well that DVD rental to streaming video transition went. Volkswagen, long the poster child of efficient diesel transportation, is going through a similar (though probably far more successful) transformation after its diesel emissions scandal, pivoting from diesel engines to a new family of electric vehicles, called I.D.

Ever pragmatic, VW knows it needs a global halo of sorts for its new I.D. lineup, which includes the not-for-U.S. Volkswagen I.D. hatchback and the global VW I.D. Crozz crossover. Both are acceptable if a bit bland, but neither is meaningfully in gotta-have-it territory. Which is why I found myself in L.A.’s bro-hemian Venice Beach, behind the wheel of the VW I.D. Buzz concept. Volkswagen hopes the reborn electric

VW’S ELECTRIC MICROBUS AMPS UP HYPE FOR I.D. Microbus, slated to go into production in 2022, two years after the I.D. and I.D. Crozz, will build buzz and amp up customers. Yes, this writes itself. The I.D. Buzz is a lot like Venice, where you’re just as likely to find hippies in drum circles and people living in their vans as you are the nouveau riche and tech bros in multistory modernist modules. Its styling is a callback to VW’s freelove heyday. VW Group’s new modular MEB platform is the host for all three I.D. vehicles—which allows VW to nail the Microbus proportions and design of the I.D. Buzz, in that it artfully blends old styling cues with new. The cabin, which seats up to eight, is as versatile as the original’s, with seats that convert the cabin into a lounge or even a bedroom. Underneath the I.D. Buzz’s retro sheetmetal is a modern platform with a floormounted battery, front and rear electric

FOURTH TIME’S THE CHARM The I.D. Buzz concept is the latest in a long line of bus-inspired concepts: Microbus Concept (2001), Bulli Concept (2011), and BUDD-e (2016). The difference is that VW says it will build this one.

motors, and electrical architecture that should eventually allow the production version to drive autonomously. The concept runs and drives, but it’s far from what the production version will be like. This one is more of a proof of concept, powered by an e-Golf powertain that would give it 200 miles of range, but it’s limited to 20 mph. But production versions will be able to go farther. VW says there will be three powertrains with three battery sizes—a rear-drive 201-hp motor paired with a 60-kW-hr battery, a 302-hp dual-motor all-wheel-drive version with an 83-kW-hr battery, and another dual-motor all-wheel-drive version with 368 hp and a 100-kW-hr battery. Volkswagen says the production version should be able to travel between 250 and 310 miles on a charge. That VW is confident enough to turn me loose on a half-mile stretch of Venice’s bustling Abbot Kinney Boulevard says a lot (though in retrospect, I did have an LAPD escort and two VW minders). Press the “D” on the I.D. Buzz’s rectangular steering wheel to engage the concept’s single forward speed, and tap on the accelerator (marked with the play symbol; the brake gets the pause symbol), and the I.D. Buzz motors off smoothly. There’s not a ton of regeneration once off the throttle, but the brakes bite well. The I.D. Buzz feels agile considering its handmade tires, though its turning circle is

wider than expected, an issue amplified by the oddly shaped steering wheel. With five years to convert the I.D. Buzz from concept to reality, VW has plenty of time to make it fun to drive— something the original Microbus was in a prehistoric, underpowered way. Even if the I.D. Buzz drives like the original when it and its cargo van variant go on sale in 2022, it won’t matter—the crowds mobbing the concept in Venice show VW’s mission is already accomplished. Q

I.D. Buzz I.D. Crozz I.D.

HALO The I.D. Buzz is slated to go on sale two years after the I.D. Crozz and I.D. If we’re armchair quarterbacking this, we’d put the Buzz on sale first, then the Crozz, followed by the I.D.

MARCH 2018 / MOTORTREND.COM 83

ALPINE FIRST RIDE | 2019 Mercedes-Benz G-Class

Words Collin Woodard

WE TAKE AN OFF-ROAD RIDE IN MERCEDES’ REDESIGNED G-WAGEN When Mercedes set out to redesign its G-Class sportutility for the first time since its 1979 introduction, one of its biggest goals was to improve the brickshaped SUV’s on-road behavior. And boy did the G-wagen need it. The primitive recirculating ball steering is notoriously loose and requires constant correction to maintain a straight line. And let’s not even talk about the body roll. 84 MOTORTREND.COM / MARCH 2018

Just remember, Mercedes originally envisaged this vehicle for use by farmers and Bundeswehr officers who had terrible terrain to traverse. That it became a favorite of the Cartier and Cristal set was a happy accident. But no matter how modern and civilized the Geländewagen needed to become to satisfy the mall-crawler crowd, Mercedes wanted to ensure the new version satisfied its original purpose as a

capable off-roader—perhaps even more so than its predecessor. That mountain goat aptitude is as much a part of the G-wagen’s identity as its squared-off styling. Without it, there would be no reason for the G-Class to exist. To prove that the redesigned G-wagen is still one of the most capable off-roaders you can buy, Mercedes invited us to Schöckl, the Austrian mountain it uses to test and develop the G-Class. The trails there are rocky and treacherous, far

STAR DESCENT CONTROL There’s no low-speed crawl mode, but low-range gearing keeps things steady in tricky terrain.

beyond the abilities of the modern-era car-based crossover. Crawling up and down these trails in prototype vehicles, Mercedes’ professional drivers showed off not only the G-Class’ new features but also how shockingly capable it is off-road. Although the new version has swapped out its live front axle for an independent front suspension, it’s apparent that there isn’t much the new G-wagen can’t handle. Perhaps more important, it tackled every obstacle in such a calm, controlled fashion it almost felt like it wasn’t trying. Even when blasting down the trail at truly insane speeds (love the grab-handle location, BTW), the new G-wagen was remarkably composed. Could a Jeep

Wrangler or Toyota Land Cruiser keep up in a race down the mountain? Possibly. But everyone in the G-Class would be far more comfortable. The body control is seriously impressive. How did Mercedes’ engineers do it? The frame is 34 percent stiffer, and body rigidity has been improved nearly 50 percent. And although the body is only 0.67 inch wider than before, Mercedes found room to widen the track by a whopping 4.4 inches. The fording depth, meanwhile, has been raised 3.9 inches, bringing it up to 27.6 inches. Approach, departure, and breakover angles were all improved by 1 degree, and the tilt angle has been improved to 35 degrees. Suspension travel has increased, with the front axle offering 3.35 inches of jounce and 3.94 inches of rebound. The rear axle, meanwhile, gets 3.23 inches of

jounce and 5.59 inches of rebound. Other changes include switching from three-link to five-link location of the rear axle, adding a new transfer case that defaults to a 40/60 front/rear torque split, moving the front differential higher off the ground, and placing the fuel tank ahead of the rear axle. Mercedes also swapped in a new nine-speed transmission. Don’t worry. The important stuff is all still there. The G-Class still sits on a ladder frame, gets side-pipe exhaust, and retains its three locking differentials. There’s also still a low-range mode that you can only select when the transmission is in neutral. When you need to switch back to high range, you can do that on the move up to about 43 mph. Mercedes says it has no plans to offer a low-speed crawl control like we’ve seen from several other automakers, but I can’t imagine anyone actually missing it. The MARCH 2018 / MOTORTREND.COM 85

FIRST RIDE

INSIDE THE G-WAGEN’S CABIN

driver made sure to demonstrate not only how easy the throttle was to modulate but also how much you can rely on engine braking to slow a descent. One surprisingly useful feature, though, is the front-facing camera. It shows a clear, crisp picture of what’s ahead and, unlike the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2, has guidelines that show how wide the vehicle is and where you’re headed. There’s also a 360-degree view to help you keep an eye on what’s next to you. Expect both to make tackling a difficult trail much simpler. Mercedes also added a new off-road driving mode called G-Mode. Once the low range has been engaged or one of the differentials has been locked, G-Mode engages—automatically optimizing the adjustable dampers, steering, throttle, and shift times for off-road conditions. However, because we didn’t do any on-road driving, we can’t say for sure how big a difference it makes. Put it all together, and it’s clear that even though the live front axle is gone, the new G-Class hasn’t lost a beat. It’s still a G-wagen, it’s still an absolute beast off-road, and with improved specs, it should easily outperform the outgoing model. Now we just need to see how it drives on a paved road. Q 86 MOTORTREND.COM / MARCH 2018

The interior of the original G-Class has been nipped and tucked more frequently and thoroughly than almost any other part of the vehicle, yet this second-generation version’s interior is unmistakably all-new and vastly improved. The 2019 Mercedes-Benz G-Class’ high, wide instrument binnacle brow links this dash design with those of most Mercedes sedans—especially on AMG Line models that upgrade the mechanical speedometer and tach to virtual gauges on a second thin-film transistor screen. The multifunction steering wheel with paddle shift switches is shared with the revised S-Class. But the new G shares its electrical architecture—including the bank of silver organ-key switches that control the heating and A/C, the analog clock below them, and the buttons that direct the infotainment system to the navigation, radio, media, telephone, or car screens—with the E-Class. Does that mean the Geländewagen’s look has gone all futuristic? Hardly. All the other design cues hark back to G-wagen’s strictly utilitarian roots. The round air vents are meant to echo the (still) round headlights. The stereo tweeters on the upper corners of the dash are designed to look like the iconic turnsignal indicator lights that still mount to the front fender tops. Opt for Burmester sound, and the total speaker count hits 16. Two more G-Class icons remain. The three differential lock switches are prominently centered between the middle air vents, and a robust grab handle gives passengers something to hang onto when the terrain introduces extreme pitch and roll angles. The low-range selector switch is on the center console near the user-interface rotary push knob. Speaking of the console, switching to a standard Mercedes-Benz column shifter and an electronic parking brake freed up sufficient center console space for cupholders and a 390-cubic-inch storage bin (adding to the 317 cubes available in the glove box).

Rear-seat passengers are treated to considerably better accommodation that’s much easier to access, thanks to a wheelbase stretched by 1.6 inches. Foot clearance from the seat support structure to the B-pillar is greatly improved, and legroom increases by a claimed 5.9 inches. Shoulder and elbow width also grow by 1.1 and 2.3 inches in back, three-position seat heating is provided, air vents are now offered on the B-pillars, and the backrest offers nine recline positions from vertical. An elevated rear-seat hip point and narrow-back front seats promise great outward visibility, and rear cargo capacity is said to be roughly unchanged. Naturally, Mercedes will offer abundant opportunity for individualization. At the G’s interior launch event, 10 two- and three-tone interior upholstery color schemes were presented alongside seven trim choices—carbon fiber, metal, piano black, and four types of wood—at

Even when blasting down the trail at truly insane speeds, the new G-wagen was remarkably composed.

INDEPENDENCE DAY Live front and rear axles were trademarks of the G-wagen, but you’ll find an independent front suspension on the redesigned version.

MEIN GOTT HANDLE Preserving design icons from the original G-wagen was a prime objective in this redesign. The two most obvious are the big-enough-fortwo-fists passenger assist handle and the three centrally located switches for locking the differentials.

least a few of which could perfectly coordinate with any of the 11 standard and 13 Designo exterior paint colors. OTHER COOL FACTS ABOUT THE NEW G-CLASS’ INTERIOR The windshield and side glass are curved, but it’s barely enough to notice. Probably enough so that they don’t reflect like mirrors, though.

The doors had to get thicker to accommodate the stronger reinforcement needed to pass FMVSS 214 side-impact pole testing. Two elements customers deemed absolutely crucial to the G-wagen were the sound that the doors make when they close and the rifle-bolt sound the power locks make when they actuate. These both seemed authentic on the demo vehicle presented.

The design team knew better than to set ambitious targets for improving aero on this brick, but the mandate was to be no worse than the original. No Cd numbers were shared, but we were told the more critical CdA (drag area) remains the same despite the frontal area growing, so the coefficient is at least slightly better. Frank Markus

MARCH 2018 / MOTORTREND.COM 87

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Sparco Terra 15 16 17

BRAKES

Sparco Terra 15 16 17

Bremmer Kraft BR16 17 18 19

SUSPENSION

Verde Saga 17 18 20

We can assist you in selecting wheels that are compatible with your vehicle’s sensors. We also offer an extra set of sensors for all TPMS systems, so your tire and wheel package can arrive with sensors already installed.

UPDATE AUDI A4

Words Motor Trend Editors

ARRIVAL 2017 Kia Niro Kelly Pleskot “Kia has thought up an interesting alternative to the Toyota Prius. We’re ready to see how it holds up as an eco-wagon.”

EPA CITY/HWY/COMB FUEL ECON 46/40/43 MPG BASE PRICE $30,545 PRICE AS TESTED $32,575 Life after chaperoning our long-term Toyota Mirai has been easier but a little less interesting. Sure, I don’t miss the somewhat disappointing range or driving across city lines to fill the hydrogen tank, but I enjoyed the car’s instant response, its otherworldly styling, and the new discoveries that come with testing technology not normally found in passenger cars. Now I find myself in one of the most pragmatic, down-to-earth vehicles on the market: the Kia Niro. In past reviews, we’ve called Kia’s new hybrid wagon “vanilla,” “practical,” “nondescript,” and “utilitarian.” But we’ve also praised its excellent fuel economy, long driving range, spacious interior, and value pricing. Over the next 12 months, we’ll get a chance to better explore these areas and one of the biggest concerns with any new car: quality. 90 MOTORTREND.COM / MARCH 2018

The Niro has few direct competitors. Perhaps its closest rival is the Ford C-Max, though it’s also bound to be cross-shopped against the Hyundai Ioniq and the Toyota Prius. The Niro is the first Kia to sit on the new green car platform shared with the Ioniq. You can buy a 2017 Kia Niro for $23,785. That price is on par with the starting price of the ubiquitous Prius. But we splurged for the top-level Niro: the Touring. Unlike lesser Niros, the Touring features leather-trimmed upholstery, ventilated seats, a power tilt and slide sunroof, a heated steering wheel, front and rear park assist, a 10-way power driver’s seat with memory, and an eightspeaker Harman Kardon audio system. On top of these standard features, we also tacked on the Advanced Technology package for $1,900. It’s not a bad investment considering you get automatic emergency braking, forward collision warning, lane departure warning, adaptive cruise control, and

Swapping the hydrogen-powered Toyota Mirai for the Kia Niro has made life easier.

a wireless phone charger. After adding on $130 carpeted floormats, our Niro rang out to $32,575. Kia sweetened the pot for the 2018 model year. The new Niro Touring no longer offers the Advanced Technology package, instead incorporating its features as standard equipment. These top models start at $32,840, a little bit more expensive than the top-trim Prius. At the time of this writing, both 2017 and 2018 model Niros are listed as available on Kia’s consumer site. All Niros come with a 1.6-liter I-4, an electric motor, and a 1.56-kW-hr lithium-ion battery pack. This system produces 139 hp and 195 lb-ft of torque, which, as we’ve noted in the past, isn’t quite enough juice to feel confident getting up to speed quickly on the highway. The question is: Will fuel economy and range make up for this shortcoming?

UPDATE BMW 530i

JEEP RENEGADE

BMW M2

CHEVROLET BOLT EV

FORD F-250 SUPER DUTY

UPDATE HONDA CR-V

HONDA HR-V

HYUNDAI TUCSON

UPDATE JAGUAR F-PACE

KIA NIRO ARRIVAL

MAZDA CX-5 UPDATE

MAZDA CX-9

MERCEDES-BENZ GLC300

MINI CLUBMAN

NISSAN TITAN XD

SUBARU LEGACY

RIDE ALONG FOR UPDATES ON OUR LONG -TERM FLEET

PAUL LAGUETTE

60.8”

SPECS 2017 Kia Niro EcoHybrid Touring

1 7 1.5 ”

71.1”

CO2 emissions 0.45 lb/mile lb/mile

MT figure eight 27.3 sec @ 0.62 g (avg)

9.6 sec

17.2 sec @ 79.0 mph 123 ft

0-60 mph

Quarter mile

Braking distance, 60-0 mph

Vehicle Layout Front-engine, FWD, 5-pass, 4-door hatchback Engine 1.6L/104-hp/109-lb-ft I-4 plus 43-hp/125-lb-ft front electric motor; 139-hp/195-lb-ft combined Transmission 6-speed twin-clutch auto Lateral Acceleration 0.86 g (avg) Curb Weight (F/R Dist) 3,237 lb (60/40%) Energy Cons, City/Hwy 73/84 kW-hrs/100 miles Counteracting some of its extra niceties, Touring models take a hit in fuel economy compared to other trim levels. Our Kia Niro delivers EPA-estimated 46/40/43 city/highway fuel economy, but base FE models, which are lighter and feature less content, actually top out at 52/49/50 mpg. We’ll have to conduct our own Real MPG tests to determine how efficiently our top-trim Niro really performs on the road. In addition to fuel economy, we will learn much more about how much the Niro can carry and how that affects performance. Our first impressions? Yes, the Niro takes a while to get up to highway speeds from a start, but Sport mode sharpens its reflexes. As you’d expect from a subcompact, ride quality suffers when encountering bumps in the road, and it’s noisier than expected on the highway. On the plus side, we’ve noticed it has an exceptionally high range readout after filling up. More on that in future updates.

2017 Honda CR-V AWD Touring Brian Vance “On warm days, push and hold the unlock button on the key fob to lower all the windows to jettison the hot air inside the car.”

Service life / 4 mo/8,754 mi Avg CO2 / 0.69 lb/mi Energy cons / 120 kW-hrs/100 mi Unresolved problems / None Maintenance cost / $67.80 (oil change, inspection, tire rotation) Normal-wear cost / $0 Base price / $34,595 As tested / $34,595

AVG MPG FUEL ECON 28.0 MPG This and all 2017 CR-Vs at or above the EX trim levels come equipped with the Honda Sensing suite. It equips the car with a series of cameras and sensors that actively help the driver pay more attention to the road and traffic. Attempting to prevent accidental lane departures or fender benders, Honda Sensing is also paying attention when the driver neglects to do so. And although Honda’s technology isn’t quite as robust as Tesla’s Autopilot 2.0, it does have a similar Tesla-like feature that allows it to execute low-speed following in bumper-to-bumper traffic during rush hour. Suffice to say the first few times using the system left me skeptical, but I’ve come to rely on low-speed follow to ease the pain of my evening commute on the Santa Monica Freeway (I-10) between the 405 interchange and downtown Los Angeles. That particular stretch of asphalt is clogged more often than not, and it is a perfect place to activate the system and allow the CR-V’s computing power to relieve my commuter stress. It’s worth mentioning the CR-V does not have full autonomous abilities, and yes, a driver from another lane cutting in front of you when there really isn’t any space to do so can confuse it, but generally it is a great way to maintain low blood pressure in thick, frustrating traffic. Learning to activate the system and understanding its limitations comes naturally for the driver. And although

The center console armrest is thinly padded, and I’ve begun to feel the hard plastic on my forearm. Honda does not officially endorse using low-speed follow in heavy traffic, the situation I’ve described entails speeds of less than 15 mph on real-world roads, sun up or down, and it works. Low-speed follow works better on freeways than boulevards, partially because the lower speeds of thick-trafficked boulevards allow drivers to forcefully change lanes in front of you, which causes nail-biting situations for the driver and/or a hard, jolting jab of the brake by the CR-V. Also of note is that Honda offers this same technology in its affordable Honda Civic LX sedan when equipped with CVT transmissions, so for under $22K, you can significantly ease the pain of big-city commuting via Honda Sensing.

MARCH 2018 / MOTORTREND.COM 91

UPDATE | Long - term test

2017 BMW 530i Mark Rechtin “A few electrical gremlins have me wondering if the Bimmer is haunted.”

Service life / 8 mo/14,691 mi Avg CO2 / 0.80 lb/mi Energy cons / 140 kW-hrs/100 mi Unresolved problems / None Maintenance cost / $0 (oil change, inspection) Normal-wear cost / $0 Base price / $52,195 As tested / $72,135

REAL MPG FUEL ECON 24.4 MPG In German, BMW’s Connected Drive slogan is, “Vernetzt um frei zu sein,” which essentially translates to “Networked, to be free.” But given the glitchy software in our long-term 530i infotainment system, it meant something else entirely when I was muttering it under my breath. Anyone with multiple smartphones in their family might be faced with the same problem I found as the BMW rotated through our staff. Any time someone else linked his or her phone to the car, the iDrive system wouldn’t recognize my iPhone even though it was still listed as a paired phone. The same thing happened when I upgraded to iOS 11. It often would take upward of an hour to reconnect

my phone and get it to work. This is criminal when everyone from Chevy to VW has an almost instant recognition and pairing of smartphones with CarPlay or Android Auto. Meanwhile, associate editor Scott Evans had a different, perhaps more obnoxious result: As soon as he got in the BMW, iDrive automatically opened Pandora on his phone even if he had left the car with the stereo set to satellite radio. Hence, a warning: If you listen to raunchy rap or naughty comedy stations on Pandora, you might want to change over to Chillwave or Sinatra before you take children or clients for a drive.

2017 Mazda CX-5 AWD (Grand Touring) Robin Trajano “A full tank of gas gives me more than 300 miles of range, and I usually have to fill up two or three times per week. I really wish it had a bigger tank.” As the honeymoon phase starts to taper off, I’m starting to see a few shortcomings of my CX-5. I mentioned in the arrival that our Real MPG testing resulted in an 18.4/29.9/22.3 mpg city/highway/ combined rating, which is below the claimed EPA fuel economy ratings (23/29/26). We retested it and came back with slightly better numbers— 19.7/31.2/23.6 mpg, respectively. That’s pretty close to the EPA claim for highway and combined mileage but still low for city driving. I struggle to get

92 MOTORTREND.COM / MARCH 2018

Service life / 4 mo/9,995 mi Avg CO2 / 0.74 lb/mi Energy cons / 130 kW-hrs/100 mi Unresolved problems / None Maintenance cost / $99.89 (oil change, inspection, tire rotation) Normal-wear cost / $0 Base price / $31,635 As tested / $33,960

REAL MPG FUEL ECON 23.6 MPG over 28 mpg on the freeway, but I haven’t seen less than 20 mpg in the city. The less than ideal mileage can be attributed to the sportier drivetrain calibration. The throttle is responsive, and I can easily coax a downshift or two with my right foot. This makes it feel peppy in the city even without Sport mode. It even monitors cornering g’s and will hold lower gears if you take a

Most of us are unimpressed by the “gesture control” system for audio controls. The only one that works consistently is twirling a circle for audio volume, but it also cranks up the sound if you or your passenger speak with your hands. Poking your fingers toward the screen to change channels works maybe once in 10 times. Never mind. Not that everything about iDrive is awful. The scroll-and-push controller-wheel interface for navigating the myriad infotainment menus is quite intuitive once quickly self-taught; the built-in shortcuts help, too. The ability to spell things on the touchpad is useful and much less distracting in some cases than using the controller. And the iDrive screen is crisp and sharp. One system that works very well, says testing director Kim Reynolds, is the smart cruise control and lane keeping assist. Kim’s daily 35-mile slog is a perfect test. “It hardly needs inputs to the steering wheel and doesn't ping-pong in the lanes. Smart cruise is excellent in slow-and-go.” However, BMW still is plagued by a coarse auto stop/start system. Upon restarting, it shakes the car like the engine has misplaced its balance shafts. To save fuel, the system shuts down the engine if you’re slowing to a stop, but if you ease up on the brakes for a smooth limousine stop, it confuses the computer and the engine fires back up. Perhaps our BMW is haunted. When exiting the car, sometimes the audio shuts off along with the ignition, but sometimes it plays until the doors are locked, and sometimes it plays for several minutes until it perhaps realizes no one is around. We also frequently received a “fasten seat belt” warning for the unoccupied passenger seat. That got fixed in a software reflash during our 10,000-mile service.

It’s rare that an automotive journalist pines for an Eco mode, but the CX-5 could use one. turn or are on a freeway on-ramp at spirited speeds. That’s fun, but it can get annoying when the engine hovers near redline long after you’ve started cruising. I always end up manually shifting up to “reset” the transmission into Normal mode. That playful willingness to keep revs up eats through gas. I hate to say it, but an Eco mode could help here. Or I could be a little gentler on the throttle. Another gripe I have is Mazda’s overzealous blind-spot monitoring system. When you use your turn signal, it will alert you if there is a car that is two or three car lengths behind you—so far that the car will be in your side and rearview mirror, no longer in your blind spot. It’s useful for people who never look over their shoulders when switching lanes but redundant for those who do. I get paranoid when I hear the warning beep and double-check even though I know there isn’t a car in my blind spot. After four months, I’m impressed with the CX-5.

2017 Jaguar F-Pace 35t R-Sport Ed Loh “So far the ride of the Jaguar F-Pace has been pretty good, though it does vary depending on road quality. I’m curious what lower tire pressures might do.”

Service life / 4 mo/7,470 mi Avg CO2 / 0.80 lb/mi Energy cons / 140 kW-hrs/100 mi Unresolved problems / None Maintenance cost / $0 Normal-wear cost / $0 Base price / $57,295 As tested / $64,343

REAL MPG FUEL ECON 19.3 MPG Shortly after we published our F-Pace arrival story online, a friendly email arrived from proud owner Gregory Craig of Denver, Colorado, with several suggestions he culled from “the collective experience of hundreds of owners” and “many more lurkers and pre-buy folks” on fpaceforum.com. One suggestion was to make sure the dealer executes a thorough pre-delivery inspection. This was not useful for us because we had already received our Jaguar, but it was definitely sound advice for those looking to buy not only an F-Pace but also any new car. A PDI involves checking off dozens of service points, including but not limited to such things as removing any protective films or

covers, checking all fluid levels, installing the front license plate, and testing all systems from cruise control to HVAC. Craig recommended we check that the Jaguar’s InControl TouchPro infotainment system was running the latest version of the software. This turns out to be difficult to confirm 100 percent, but after examining various clues on the forum, it looks as though we need to have our system updated (though we have yet to experience any glitches). The most useful recommendation addressed the ride, which we’ve called “Conestoga-like” depending on the wheel size and driving surface.

2017 Audi A4 2.0T Quattro Zach Gale “The Audi A4’s engine sounds just fine, but you won’t be mistaking it for anything other than the turbo-four that it is.”

Service life / 2 mo/3,127 mi Avg CO2 / 0.85 lb/mi Energy cons / 147 kW-hrs/100 mi Unresolved problems / None Maintenance cost / $0 Normal-wear cost / $0 Base price / $40,350 As tested / $52,325

REAL MPG FUEL ECON 22.2 MPG The Audi A4 2.0T is a sleeper—you wouldn’t expect the understated luxury sport sedan to be one of the quickest cars in its class, yet it boasts a 0–60 time in the low 5-second range. No matter the launch method, our all-wheel-drive Audi feels quick, but to fully explore the car’s performance, we sent it to the track for Motor Trend testing. Our well-equipped A4 tester reached 60 mph in 5.2 seconds. In the real world, drivers who prefer to stomp and go will find a bit of an initial delay

followed by impressive acceleration—the car realizes you’re more interested in GO than MPG. At the track, road test editor Chris Walton found the best launch method was to switch to Dynamic mode, turn off stability control, and press down on both pedals: “It revs to 2,750 rpm then gently leaves the line. Upshifts are extremely smooth.” Quick shifts are made possible by the car’s seven-speed twin-clutch transmission. At low

“Every reviewer gripes about the ride; however, there’s a very simple fix that we owners have discovered,” he wrote. “Take the tire pressure down from the Jaguar-recommended setting, and make sure in the car options that you set the vehicle for light load, as appropriate. Makes a massive difference on any sized tires, including the 22s.” I ran these suggestions by Jaguar USA. “The owner is correct on both technical fronts,” they replied. “There’s a ‘normal’ and a ‘light load’ setting, and they do make a big difference. By default the car is set to normal, which should be 43/44 psi [for the 22-inch wheels]. The light setting is 34 psi.” Up to three occupants is a considered a light load. Add enough people and cargo to total 1,100 pounds, and you’ll max out the gross vehicle weight rating, which is the limit for normal load. For our 20-inch wheels, the recommended tire pressure settings varied. Online, the normal loads are listed at 41/44 psi for the front/rear tires, but the sticker in the vehicle’s doorjamb listed 43 psi all around. Not that it really matters; we rarely have more than a surfboard in the back seats, so we took the pressures down to 34 psi and will experiment with them for the remainder of the loan. Thanks for the help, Gregory.

Audi’s virtual cockpit is a cool feature even if you’re not using available Google Earth imagery. speeds, such as commuting in a stop-sign-filled residential neighborhood, the transmission doesn’t quite give linear responses. More sensitive drivers might feel a bit of resistance as you first press down on the accelerator. It’s not a big deal, and some will find that small trade-off is worth it for the transmission’s quick responses when you’re driving faster. As with most cars in this class, the 2017 A4 is equipped with an engine stop/start system that feels smooth enough. If you’re into quick starts from traffic lights turning green, however, you’ll want to turn the system off (but that’s no different than most versions of this tech). In a segment filled with more challengers than you’d probably expect, the A4 2.0T’s quickness is a good advantage to have. The twin-clutch transmission could be even smoother at lower speeds, but moving to a different transmission might reduce some of the responsiveness that draws us to the car in the first place.

MARCH 2018 / MOTORTREND.COM 93

LONG-TERM TEST | Verdict

2016 Toyota Mirai Kelly Pleskot “After six months with the Toyota Mirai, I’m not ready to find a place in my heart for a hydrogen-powered car. But others will.” People ask me all the time why someone might opt for the 2016 Toyota Mirai, a hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle, over a traditional battery EV. The conventional answer is that fuel cells require little change in an owner’s routine if they are accustomed to driving a gasoline car; refueling takes a few minutes at a station with a pump, and in theory you should achieve a similar driving range with the added benefit of emitting nothing but water from the tailpipe. But my response would differ. Despite the factors that should normalize hydrogen FCEVs, I found that driving a Mirai feels far more foreign than any other type of vehicle. Our Mirai rolled into the MT garage with 7,947

Service life / 6 mo / 10,497 mi Base price / $58,335 Options / None Price as tested / $58,335 Avg fuel econ/CO2 / 59.0 mpg-e / 0.00 lb/mi Problem areas / None Maintenance and normal-wear cost cost / $18.31/$0 3-year residual value* / $37,000 Recalls / None Total days / 179 Total H2 / 171.249 kg Total H2 cost / $2,703 (26 cents per mile) Average fuel economy / 61.3 miles per kg (mpk)/ 62.5 mpg-e EPA official mpk / 65.9 Average (mean) new range estimate after refueling / 272 miles Low 254 High 295 Average (mean) total driving range (actual miles driven plus indicated range remaining) / 279 miles Low 239 High 314 Average time to refuel at / 1/2 tank 2 min, 53 sec 3/8 tank 3 min, 13 sec 1/4 tank 4 min, 6 sec 1/8 tank 4 min, 35 sec

AVERAGE MPG FUEL ECON 62.5 MPG-E *IntelliChoice data; assumes 42,000 miles at the end of 3 years

The Mirai has a unique interior layout with touch-based climate controls, but the overall look resembles the cabin of the Prius.

Instant torque makes the Toyota Mirai feel quick off the line despite it making just over 150 horsepower. miles on the odometer, and we added another 10,497 miles over about six months. As we learned from Toyota, the average Mirai customer drives about 10,000–12,000 miles a year and has one other vehicle at their disposal. Only 15 percent of customers buy rather than lease the Mirai. In some ways, the conventional answer to the fuel cell versus EV dilemma is true. Pumping hydrogen is much like pumping gas, save for the extra-cold temperature of the hydrogen dispenser nozzle. We spent an average of 4 minutes and 6 seconds refueling the Mirai on occasions when there was a quarter of a tank remaining, or 4 minutes 35 seconds when we had dropped down to just one-eighth of a tank. But the Mirai’s driving range proved somewhat disappointing. Although the EPA estimates the Mirai can travel 312 miles on a tank, we averaged a total potential driving distance of 279 miles, based on the sum of the miles driven before a fill-up and the indicated range remaining on the readout. We refueled the H2 tank more than 50 times, but the car cracked 300 miles of total driving distance in just six instances. After refueling, the average new range estimate came out to 272 miles on the display. In a similar vein, we achieved a fuel economy rating of 61.3 miles per kilogram during our time with the Mirai, though the EPA estimates a 65.9-mpk rating. Unlike gas stations, which are available at every corner, hydrogen stations are still few and far between. The nearest one to my residence is 12 miles away, and there are just 30 open retail stations across California as of this writing, though a couple of them opened after or slightly before the end of our time with the Mirai. In addition to the limited infrastructure, the experience of filling up varies slightly from station to station. They usually don’t prove problematic, but one pump requires watching a lengthy tutorial, and on a couple of occasions, stations encountered hiccups dispensing hydrogen fuel. In contrast, plugging in an EV is as easy as plugging in your cell phone nowadays, especially if you charge at home. The Mirai is available in one fully loaded trim

2016 Toyota Mirai POWERTRAIN/CHASSIS

DRIVETRAIN LAYOUT MOTOR TYPE BATTERY TYPE POWER (SAE NET) TORQUE (SAE NET) WEIGHT TO POWER TRANSMISSION AXLE/FINAL-DRIVE RATIO SUSPENSION, FRONT; REAR STEERING RATIO TURNS LOCK-TO-LOCK BRAKES, F; R

level with active cruise control, pre-collision braking, LED headlamps, a 7.0-inch touchscreen, and heated seats with SofTex synthetic leather upholstery. Our model goes for $58,335, but if you lop off a $5,000 California rebate, the price drops to $53,335. (As of June 30, funding for the California tax credit has been exhausted, with priority now going to lower- and moderate-income applicants; a federal income tax credit with a maximum $8,000 value expired at the end of 2016 and has not been retroactively extended.) Toyota provides free fuel for three years, worth up to $15,000. That extra moola comes in handy because hydrogen often costs $15 or more per kg, quite expensive when you consider the Mirai’s usable fill capacity is 4.72 kg. Compare that to a single charge for an EV, which will definitely cost you less than a tank of gas. But sweetening the pot a little more, owners get free rental car service for 21 days, and Toyota also offers free maintenance for three years or 35,000 miles. Accordingly, we spent $0 maintaining our Mirai, with one small exception. After noticing our cabin air filter was dirty, we dropped $18.31 to fix the problem. (The filter is not covered by the complimentary maintenance program). The Mirai is the first hydrogen vehicle we’ve had in our long-term fleet, so it’s impossible to compare its maintenance cost to its direct competitors. But we can compare it to our long-term 2015 Kia Soul EV+, which cost $71.42 to maintain over 10,099 miles, and our long-term 2013 Tesla Model S P85+, which cost $0 to maintain but required $1,760 for new tires after 38,054 miles. Getting the Mirai serviced was a surprisingly simple affair. True, you’ll only find four Toyota dealerships in Southern California and four in Northern

California that service the vehicle, and there are special Mirai technicians, but we never had to wait long to get our Mirai in for a checkup. We didn’t have to make a formal appointment for either of our two visits while adhering to the 5,000-mile service intervals. Once the tires were rotated and a few inspections were performed, we were in and out of the dealership in an hour or two. What will I miss most about the Mirai? I enjoyed its instant power delivery, which helps maneuver quickly through traffic, and its comfortable ride. Plus the car’s low beltline means expansive windows provide excellent visibility. Customers also get a uniquely designed, high-quality interior with a competent and responsive infotainment system, unique touch-sensitive climate controls, and comfortable SofTex seats. But for as many good things as I can remember, there are bad ones too. First off: The Mirai has only four seats. Vague handling, a heavy feel when cornering, and mushy brakes diminish the driving fun. The Mirai’s value proposition is put in question when you realize you’re getting a vehicle with an uninspired driving experience at the same price you’d pay for a premium car even after all the perks. The Mirai also feels older (because it is older) than the Honda Clarity. Although the Mirai trumps the Clarity in ride quality, the Clarity benefits from better handling and a newer cabin. The few hydrogen cars on the market have noticeable drawbacks when it comes to driving enjoyment, and electric vehicles such as the Volkswagen e-Golf, Chevrolet Bolt, and Tesla Model S more closely fit the bill in terms of performance. So how would I respond if someone asked what it would take for me to get into a FCEV over a BEV? I’d have to live within a few miles of a hydrogen station, have another vehicle or not travel outside of California very often, and be willing to make sacrifices in drive or ride quality.

WHEELS TIRES

7.0 x 17-in cast aluminum 215/55R17 93V (M+S) Michelin Primacy MXV4

DIMENSIONS

WHEELBASE TRACK, F/R LENGTH X WIDTH X HEIGHT TURNING CIRCLE CURB WEIGHT WEIGHT DIST, F/R SEATING CAPACITY HEADROOM, F/R LEGROOM, F/R SHOULDER ROOM, F/R CARGO VOLUME

109.4 in 60.5 / 61.8 in 192.5 x 71.5 x 60.5 in 37.4 4,072 lb 58/42% 4 38.5/36.8 in 42.5/30.1 in 54.3/53.5 in 12.8 cu

TEST DATA ACCELERATION TO MPH

0-30 0-40 0-50 0-60 0-70 0-80 PASSING, 45-65 MPH QUARTER MILE BRAKING, 60-0 MPH LATERAL ACCELERATION MT FIGURE EIGHT TOP-GEAR REVS @ 60 MPH

2.9 sec 4.3 6.2 8.6 11.8 16.1 5.0 16.7 sec @ 81.2 mph 129 0.78 g (avg) 28.3 sec @ 0.58 g (avg) 6,975 rpm

CONSUMER INFO

BASE PRICE PRICE AS TESTED STABILITY/TRACTION CONTROL AIRBAGS BASIC WARRANTY POWERTRAIN WARRANTY FUEL CELL SYSTEM WARRANTY ROADSIDE ASSISTANCE FUEL CAPACITY EPA CITY/HWY/COMB ECON ENERGY CONS, CITY/HWY CO2 EMISSIONS, COMB RECOMMENDED FUEL

I enjoyed the Toyota Mirai’s instant power delivery and comfortable ride.

Front-engine, FWD Permanent-magnet AC synchronous electric 1.5-kW-hr nickel-metal hydride 151 hp @ 3,230 rpm 247 lb- @ 0 rpm 27.0 lb/hp 1-speed automatic 8.78:1/8.78:1 Struts, coil springs, anti-roll bar; torsion beam, coil springs 14.8:1 2.8 11.6-in vented disc; 11.4-in disc, ABS

$58,335 $58,335 Yes/Yes 8: Dual front, front side, f/r curtain, driver knee, passenger thigh 3 yrs/36,000 miles 5 yrs/60,000 miles 8 yrs/100,000 miles

3 yrs/unlimited miles 5.0 kg H2 67/67/67 mpg-e 51/51 kW-hrs/100 miles

0.00 lb/mile (at vehicle) Compressed hydrogen

MARCH 2018 / MOTORTREND.COM 95

LONG-TERM TEST | Verdict

2016 Honda Civic Touring Erick Ayapana “The 10th-generation Honda Civic has set a high bar in its segment with a knockout combination of refinement, tech, and value.”

It’s been 15 months since we welcomed our longterm 2016 Honda Civic Touring to the #MTGarage and asked, “Has the Honda magic returned?” That’s a tough question to answer because magic isn’t quantifiable, but it came to mind every time I hopped into our Rallye Red test car. Regardless if it’s returned, the Civic is an outstanding sales success for Honda, especially here in California where it’s been the best-selling car for two years. With an achievement like that, we were eager for a long-term evaluation. One big draw is likely the Civic’s new 1.5-liter turbo-four that’s paired to a continuously variable transmission. For starters it’s relatively good at sipping gas, which is something many Californians care about now that they pay an average of $3.23 for a gallon of fuel, the highest in the nation (as of this writing). Our test car was hard at work the

Service life / 15 mo / 30,828 mi Base price / $27,375 Options / Wireless charger unit ($250), rubber floormats ($142), trunk tray ($114), wireless charger attachment ($55) Price as tested / $27,896 Avg fuel econ/CO2 / 32.2 mpg/0.60 lb/mi Problem areas / None Maintenance cost / $483.20 (4-oil change, inspection, tire rotation) Normal-wear cost / $0 3-year residual value* / $18,700 Recalls / None

REAL MPG CITY/HWY/COMB FUEL ECON 30.1/40.0/33.8 MPG *IntelliChoice data; assumes 42,000 miles at the end of 3 years minute it arrived—it spent many hours slogging through L.A. traffic, withstood numerous heat waves (with A/C on blast), and endured editors who know nothing else but to go hard on the gas pedal. That said, our Civic’s observed average fuel economy was a solid 32.2 mpg. And a look at the fuel log reveals five occasions where our Civic exceeded 40 mpg between fill-ups. The powertrain had a peppy side to it, too. Acceleration was smooth and brisk, and the engine never felt out of breath lugging around five passen-

This mug is a common sight in California, where the Honda Civic is the state’s best-selling car.

gers or climbing steep inclines. The transmission was responsive and always on point—one of the best CVTs we’ve experienced in recent memory. And trips to the Malibu Canyon roads revealed that Honda didn’t skimp on chassis development, either. With a suspension system that combines standard MacPherson struts up front and a multilink setup out back, the Civic eagerly stayed planted through corners and was simply satisfying to navigate through twisty roads. Its variable ratio steering system worked as advertised, especially with low-speed agility, which I especially appreciated while maneuvering in tricky parking spots. Some notable incidents pulled our Civic out of the MT Garage rotation. A hit-and-run incident while it was parked on the street caused substantial damage to the driver’s side rear fender and door, requiring almost two weeks’ worth of body repair. Then there was the worrying ordeal due to a faulty Transmission Control Module that completely bricked our test car, requiring a tow truck for a rescue trip to the dealer. This occurred while our Civic was still relatively new, but other than that, it was trouble free for the remainder of its stay. Despite the down time, we managed to rack up 30,828 miles on the odometer. Our Civic looked just as fresh as it did when we first took delivery,

One big draw is the Honda Civic’s new 1.5-liter turbo-four paired to a continuously variable transmission.

96 MOTORTREND.COM / MARCH 2018

New Male Potency Formula Makes “The Little Blue Pill” Obsolete Soaring demand expected for new scientiﬁc advance made just for older men. Works on both men’s physical ability and their desire in bed.

MADE JUST FOR MEN OVER 50 But now, for the first time ever, there’s a pill made just for older men. It’s called Vesele®. A new pill that helps you get an erection by stimulating your body and your brainwaves. So Vesele® can work even when nothing else worked before. The new men’s pill is not a drug. It’s something completely different Because you don’t need a prescription for Vesele®, sales are exploding. The maker just can’t produce enough of it to keep up with demand. Even doctors are having a tough time getting their hands on it. So what’s all the fuss about?

WORKS ON YOUR HEAD AND YOUR BODY The new formula takes on erectile problems with a whole new twist. It doesn’t just address the physical problems of getting older; it works on the mental part of sex too. Unlike the expensive prescriptions, the new pill stimulates your sexual brain chemistry as well. Actually helping you regain the passion and burning desire you had for your partner again. So you will want sex with the hunger and stamina of a 25-year-old.

THE BRAIN/ERECTION CONNECTION ®

Vesele takes off where Viagra only begins. Thanks to a discovery made by 3 Nobel-Prize winning scientists; Vesele® has become the first ever patented supplement to harden you and your libido. So you regain your desire as well as the ability to act on it. In a 16-week clinical study; scientists from the U.S.A. joined forces to prove Nitric Oxide’s effects

on the cardio vascular system. They showed that Nitric Oxide could not only increase your ability to get an erection, it would also work on your brainwaves to stimulate your desire for sex. The results were remarkable and published in the world’s most respected medical journals.

THE SCIENCE OF SEX The study asked men, 45 to 65 years old to take the main ingredient in Vesele® once a day. Then they were instructed not to New men’s pill overwhelms your senses with sexual desire as well as ﬁrmer, long-lasting erections. change the way they eat or exercise but to There’s never been anything like it before. take Vesele® twice a day. What happened next was remarkable. Virtually every man in impressed by the way it increases cerebral the study who took Vesele® twice a day reported and penile blood flow. The result is evident a huge difference in their desire for sex. In in the creation of Vesele®. It’s sure-fire proof layman’s terms, they were horny again. They also that the mind/body connection is unbeatable experienced harder erections that lasted for almost when achieving and maintaining an erection 20 minutes. The placebo controlled group (who and the results are remarkable” said Dr. received sugar pills) mostly saw no difference. Damaj. (His ﬁndings are illustrated in the AN UNEXPECTED BONUS: The study results chart at left.) even showed an impressive increase in the energy, HERE’S WHAT MEN brain-power and memory of the participants.

JAW-DROPPING CLINICAL PROOF

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With Vesele 82.0%

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100 SATISFACTION RATE (% Patients)

By Harlan S. Waxman Health News Syndicate New York – If you’re like the rest of us guys over 50; you probably already know the truth… Prescription ED pills don’t work! “Simply getting an erection doesn’t fix the problem,” says Dr. Bassam Damaj, chief scientific officer at the world famous Innovus Pharma Laboratories. As we get older, we need more help in bed. Not only does our desire fade; but erections can be soft or feeble, one of the main complaints with prescription pills. Besides, they’re expensive… costing as much as $50.00 each Plus, it does nothing to stimulate your brain to want sex. “I don’t care what you take, if you aren’t interested in sex, you can’t get or keep an erection. It’s physiologically impossible,” said Dr. Damaj.

Baseline 41.1%

Baseline 47.9%

OVERALL SATISFACTION

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Vesele Baseline Overall Satisfaction. . . . . . . . . . . .88.1% Frequency of sex. . . . . . . . . . . . . .79.5% Desire for sex. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82% Hardness during sex. . . . . . . . . . .85.7% Duration of erection. . . . . . . . . . .79.5% Ability to satisfy . . . . . . . . . . . . .83.3%

41.4% 44.9% 47.9% 36.2% 35% 44.1%

SUPPLY LIMITED BY OVERWHELMING DEMAND “Once we saw the results we knew we had a game-changer,” said Dr. Damaj. “We get hundreds of calls a day from people begging us for a bottle. It’s been crazy. We try to meet the crushing demand for Vesele®.”

VESELE® PASSED THE TEST “As an expert in the development of sexual dysfunction, I’ve studied the effectiveness of Nitric Oxide on the body and the brain. I’m

HOW TO GET VESELE® This is the first official public release of Vesele® since its news release. In order to get the word out about Vesele®, Innovus Pharma is offering special introductory discounts to all who call. A special phone hotline has been set up for readers in your area; to take advantage of special discounts during this ordering opportunity. Special discounts will be available starting today at 6:00am. The discounts will automatically be applied to all callers. The Special TOLL-FREE Hotline number is 1-800-881-5719 and will be open 24-hours a day. Only 300 bottles of Vesele® are currently available in your region. Consumers who miss out on our current product inventory will have to wait until more become available. But this could take weeks. The maker advises your best chance is to call 1-800-881-5719 early.

THESE STATEMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN EVALUATED BY THE U.S. FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION. THIS PRODUCT IS NOT INTENDED TO DIAGNOSE, TREAT, CURE OR PREVENT ANY DISEASE. RESULTS NOT TYPICAL. OFFER NOT AVAILABLE TO IOWA RESIDENTS.

2016 Honda Civic Touring POWERTRAIN/CHASSIS

DRIVETRAIN LAYOUT ENGINE TYPE VALVETRAIN DISPLACEMENT COMPRESSION RATIO POWER (SAE NET) TORQUE (SAE NET) REDLINE WEIGHT TO POWER TRANSMISSION AXLE/FINAL-DRIVE RATIO SUSPENSION, FRONT; REAR STEERING RATIO TURNS LOCK-TO-LOCK BRAKES, F; R WHEELS TIRES

Front-engine, FWD Turbocharged I-4, alum block/head DOHC, 4 valves/cyl 91.3 cu in/1,497cc 10.6:1 174 hp @ 6,000 rpm 162 lb- @ 1,700 rpm 6,500 rpm 16.8 lb/hp Cont variable auto 4.81:1/1.95:1 Struts, coil springs, anti-roll bar; multilink, coil springs, anti-roll bar 10.9:1 2.3 11.1-in vented disc; 10.2-in vented disc, ABS 7.0 x 17-in cast aluminum 215/50R17 (M+S) Firestone FT140

DIMENSIONS

WHEELBASE TRACK, F/R LENGTH X WIDTH X HEIGHT TURNING CIRCLE CURB WEIGHT WEIGHT DIST, F/R SEATING CAPACITY HEADROOM, F/R LEGROOM, F/R SHOULDER ROOM, F/R CARGO VOLUME

106.3 in 60.9/61.5 in 182.3 x 70.8 x 55.7 in 35.7 2,919 lb 61/39% 5 37.5/36.8 in 42.3/37.4 in 56.9/55.0 in 14.7 cu

TEST DATA ACCELERATION TO MPH

0-30 0-40 0-50 0-60 0-70 0-80 0-90 0-100 PASSING, 45-65 MPH QUARTER MILE BRAKING, 60-0 MPH LATERAL ACCELERATION MT FIGURE EIGHT TOP-GEAR REVS @ 60 MPH

2.6 sec 3.8 5.2 6.8 8.8 11.3 14.3 17.9 3.2 15.3 sec @ 93.0 mph 120 0.84 g (avg) 27.4 sec @ 0.64 g (avg) 1,600 rpm

CONSUMER INFO

BASE PRICE PRICE AS TESTED STABILITY/TRACTION CONTROL AIRBAGS

$27,375 $27,896 Yes/Yes 6: Dual front, front side, f/r curtain 3 yrs/36,000 miles 5 yrs/60,000 miles 3 yrs/36,000 miles 12.4 gal 31/42/35 mpg 109/80 kW-hrs/100 miles 0.55 lb/mile

BASIC WARRANTY POWERTRAIN WARRANTY ROADSIDE ASSISTANCE FUEL CAPACITY EPA CITY/HWY/COMB ECON ENERGY CONS, CITY/HWY CO2 EMISSIONS, COMB REAL MPG, CITY/HWY/COMB 30.1/40.0/33.8 mpg Unleaded regular RECOMMENDED FUEL

The Honda Civic’s variable ratio steering system worked as advertised, especially with low-speed agility.

including the leather seats and other interior touch points that are prone to wear and tear. No squeaks or rattles to report, either. Four routine maintenance visits cost us $483.20, though that total could’ve been about $100 less if it weren’t for one dealer that was twice as expensive as the others. For comparison, our previous long-term 2014 Mazda3 S GT set us back $162.55 for two service visits in 22,000 miles and our 2013 Volkswagen Jetta GLI cost us nothing, thanks to complimentary maintenance for 3 years/36,000 miles. Notes and comments from staffers were mostly positive. The infotainment system, however, was one common source of frustration, with its jumbled interface and clumsy capacitive-touch volume slider. Honda can do better, and it has—the new 2018 Accord, for example, gets a next-gen infotainment system that’s more responsive, sharper, and has a good old-fashioned volume knob. We’re hoping all that eventually trickles down to the Civic lineup sooner than later. Other than that, we were impressed with the overall build quality, ergonomics, best-in-class legroom, and plenty of features showcasing Honda’s thoughtful engineering and attention to detail—the center storage console, for example, is not only spacious but also features multiple tiers of sliding trays and cupholders, a USB port, and an armrest that’s perfectly lined up with the one on the door. Then there’s the long list of tech including remote start, adaptive cruise control, and a driver assist system that automatically provides mild steering inputs to keep you in your lane. One intern, who had lots of seat time in our Civic and a friend’s Audi A3, declared that the Honda was

a “worthy adversary” to the fancy German sedan and “an amazing value.” It’s hard to argue with that assessment when you consider the Civic Touring’s premium features and a price tag just under $28,000. A similarly equipped front-drive A3 commands almost $10,000 more. So back to that magic. Senior features editor Jonny Lieberman explained it pretty well following a Big Test compact sedan comparison that the Civic handily won. “Honda magic is tricky to define, but to me it means that in a given competitive set [like this one], the Honda product stands out,” Lieberman said. “It drives better, it feels better, it’s engineered better, and it’s got special sauce—the X factor.” And after spending a year with the 10th-gen Civic, we’re even more convinced that Honda’s magic wand is stronger than ever. Q

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The Big Picture LIVING THE DREAM RACING ... IT’S LIFE The brake lights ahead ﬂash bright red through my steeply raked windshield. I count an extra beat then grenade the brake pedal, the bellowing 620-hp V-10 inches behind me erupting into a quick-ﬁre, shock-and-awe sonic barrage—boom! boom! boom!—as I fan the le paddle, working the six-speed sequential-shi transmission back through the gears. The Lamborghini Huracán Performante in front of me is squirming all over the road as Lamborghini Squadra Corse test driver Christian Engelhart dances it to the absolute limit of adhesion on corner entry. The Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO I’m driving stops hard enough to punch the air from my lungs, dives for the apex the instant I turn the wheel, and then carves through the corner, slick tires gripping like limpets as the big V-10 at my back bellows once more. In that moment I feel like a racing god—like I’ve swapped jobs with Lewis Hamilton or Max Verstappen, and no one’s laughing. And that’s exactly how Lamborghini’s newest factory race car has been designed to make me feel. Welcome to the future of the supercar. With its trick aerodynamics, racing transmission, slick tires, carbon brakes, and FIA-approved rollcage nestling in a strippeddown interior, the Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO is a proper race car. It’s also

proper production Lamborghini, created by Lamborghini engineers and designers and built alongside the Huracán and Aventador road cars at Sant’Agata Bolognese. Write a $295,000 check, and the friendly folks at Lamborghini will send you one pre y much ready to race. What’s more, they’ll give you somewhere to race it. Super Trofeo is a Pro-Am race series devised and promoted by Lamborghini speciﬁcally for these Huracán race cars and aimed at customers the company politely calls gentleman drivers—those with the money to consider racing Lamborghinis on some of the world’s most iconic tracks a hobby. Super Trofeo championships are held in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, culminating in a world ﬁnal at the legendary Imola circuit in Italy, just down the road from Lamborghini HQ. Despite its race-face swagger, the Super Trofeo EVO is heavily based on the Huracán road car, sharing about 70 percent of its parts, including engine and suspension. It’s not as fast, nor is it as tricky to drive on the limit as the Pro-spec Huracán GT3 race car. Although it has more power, the Super Trofeo EVO generates less downforce and is electronically limited to 174 mph. “We allow drivers to enjoy the power and torque, but the Super Trofeo is meant to be a scholarship car, to prepare them to move

“In that moment I feel like a racing god—like I’ve swapped jobs with Lewis Hamilton or Max Verstappen, and no one’s laughing.”

102 MOTORTREND.COM / MARCH 2018

up to a GT3,” Lamborghini Motorsport boss Giorgio Sanna says. Case in point: The new aero package that includes most of the EVO upgrades over the 2015 Huracán Super Trofeo has been specifically designed to improve chassis balance and stability, especially through fast fourth-, fi h-, and sixth-gear corners that would give gentleman drivers wide eyes and sweaty palms in the edgier GT3 Huracán. An 8 percent reduction in drag boosts straight-line speed, however, and helped the EVO lap the storied Monza grand prix circuit 1.5 seconds quicker than the old car in testing. Super Trofeo racing is close and spectacular (check it out on Motor Trend OnDemand) and for Lamborghini, it’s good business—the company has built 150 Huracán Super Trofeos since 2015 and already sold nearly 50 of the new EVO models. But it’s also a survival strategy: As mass automobility heads inexorably toward autonomous vehicles, brands that are defined by high performance and driving passion can no longer rely on simply selling fast and sexy road cars. “Racing … It’s life,” Steve McQueen said in the 1971 film Le Mans. “Anything that happens before or a er—it’s just waiting.” The Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO, one of a growing group of factorybuilt race cars for gentleman drivers that includes Porsche’s 911 GT3 Cup, Ferrari’s 488 Challenge, and the Mercedes-AMG GT4, gives supercar owners the opportunity to not only drive the dream but to also live it. Q

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“ EXQUISITE” -Joshua S., Hurst, TX

THE MAZDA CX-5 How do you enhance the already bold, distinctive lines of the Mazda CX-5? By crafting Soul Red Crystal Metallic, a signature paint that achieves an even higher level of energy and vividness. With one glance, Joshua had just one word to describe it all. Why do we create such alluring details? Because Driving Matters.

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