Let’s settle a few issues right up front. Pickup trucks have been defined in exactly the same way for almost 100 years with a three-box design–hood, cabin, and bed. In fact, it takes just seven lines to draw them–up, across, up, across, down, across and down. Now comes the Tesla Cybertruck, trying not only to disrupt one of the most un-disruptable segments on the planet with an entirely new look.
From a business perspective, it makes perfect sense that Tesla wants to take a crack at the largest and most profitable segment in the U.S. As unique and jarring as this new offering is, there are plenty of examples in our collective automotive memories of distinctive trucks trying to disrupt the segment. Models like the Chevrolet Avalanche, Ford Explorer Sport Trac, Hummer H2 SUT, GMC Envoy XUV, and even the Pontiac Aztec offered unique answers to problem-solving questions.
The problem, of course, is that when [...]
Being seated way up in row F, I had to twist my head way around to inspect the audience behind me. But the theater looked packed, which is saying something. Regal Edwards Big Newport is something of a cinema cavern, claiming to have the biggest screen on the West Coast (40 feet tall and 80 feet wide) with 1,108 recliner seats. I studied the faces: most everybody were salt-and-pepper middle-agers–the ideal audience for seeing Ford v Ferrari. A graphical bubble-chart of the planet’s Cobra and Ferrari populations would center its largest blue and red circles straight on top of Newport Beach, California.
It’s a great, jumbo-popcorn movie. By the end I figured that Shelby Cobras must have appreciated by about 25 percent (the guy in front of me said “I’m seeing this again” as we left). From beginning to end, though, this guy in row F was flinching with automotive triggers.
Like Phil Remington actually [...]
The Hyundai Vision T concept debuting at the 2019 Los Angeles Auto Show previews the production version of the upcoming Tucson SUV, and also offers a peek at the next evolution of the Korean automaker’s Sensuous Sportiness design language.
Sporting a matte-green exterior, the Hyundai Vision T concept is powered by a plug-in hybrid powertrain that can be juiced up via an illuminated charging port cleverly hidden in the passenger-side rear fender. In terms of exterior dimensions, the Vision T is half an inch longer than the current-generation Tucson with a wheelbase that’s 5.3 inches greater.
Perhaps the most [...]
The 2020 Buick Encore GX makes its North American debut at the 2019 Los Angeles Auto Show, revealing details about the U.S.-spec version of the standard Encore’s larger sibling. Like its equivalent in the Chinese market, the U.S.-spec 2020 Encore GX will be offered with two turbocharged three-cylinder engines. Front-drive models will come with a 1.2-liter paired to a CVT, but no power figures have been provided. All-wheel-drive variants get a 1.3-liter unit with 155 hp and 174 lb-ft of torque coupled to a nine-speed automatic. Like most General Motors vehicles equipped with all-wheel drive, there’s a switch that lets you toggle between front- or all-wheel drive modes.
When the 2020 Buick Encore GX goes on sale in early 2020, it will come standard with forward collision warning, pedestrian detection, automatic emergency braking, lane departure warning, lane keeping assist, a following distance indicator, and automatic headlights. Other driver assistance features include blind spot monitoring, rear [...]
The debate will rage for a while: whether Ford’s new electric crossover should be part of the Mustang family. Outrage over Chevy attaching the Blazer name to a car-based SUV has largely died down and purists need a new focus for their outrage.
In Ford development labs in Dearborn and Detroit, the evolution of the Mach-E to its adoption of the Mustang name unfolded almost organically—it was not the goal from the outset. But in the minds of top brass and key engineers there is no debate—the first expansion of the Mustang family in 55 years is a thoroughbred.
“I’ve always said the Mustang brand should be bigger than it is,” said Moray Callum, vice president of design for Ford Motor Company. “A lot of people aspire to a Mustang. Now’s their chance. It meets their needs and still has the balls of a Mustang.”
So how did this happen?
Talk of a new electric [...]
