If you’re considering a 2020 Subaru Outback, you’ve probably wondered if the 2.4 XT engine is any good. Now that the Outback’s engine upgrade model has seriously improved its fuel economy, the XT could become a viable candidate for an increasing number of buyers. If you’re comparing the 2.5 against the 2.4 (XT) engine or just want to know what the base Outback is like to drive, keep reading.
2020 Outback Fuel Economy: Class-Competitive NumbersFor a midsize wagon with SUV pretenses, the 2020 Outback’s fuel economy is pretty good. As you compare the Subaru to other SUVs, keep in mind that every Outback has standard AWD. If you stick with the 2.5-liter naturally aspirated four-cylinder base engine, that 182-hp powerplant delivers 26/33 mpg city/highway, 1 mpg better than the last-gen model in both city and highway numbers and competitive in its loosely defined segment. If you match the Outback against the best compact SUV [...]
Every time I see the letters TRD stuck onto the side of a Tacoma, Tundra, or 4Runner, I wince a little. Not because they’re bad cars—just the opposite is true—but because TRD stands for Toyota Racing Development. None of those off-road warriors strike me as particularly racy (unless you live in Baja). So in an effort to expand the TRD brand to the street, TRD recently set to work on Toyota’s perennial midsizer with the hope of turning the Camry into something genuinely fun to drive.
The result is the Camry TRD. At $32,125, it’s the cheapest way to get into a Camry with a V-6. That said, the reason the TRD is seemingly so inexpensive is because it’s based on the Camry SE. That means features such as blind-spot monitoring, an upgraded infotainment display, and premium audio aren’t just left out of the standard equipment list but unfortunately aren’t available at all. If it’s [...]
New-car shopping can be overwhelming, even if you’ve picked which car you want. Take the 2020 Honda Accord. Essentially unchanged since the midsize sedan made its debut for the 2018 model year, the Accord offers five different engine-transmission combinations. Will you know where to start? After extensively testing the Accord, we can help.
Keep reading for more on how the Accord lineup performs.
2020 Accord Fuel Economy: From OK to Great
You’ve heard “your mileage may vary,” right? It’s true even within a single car’s lineup. With the 2020 Accord’s 192-hp 1.5-liter turbo-four base engine, you’ll get an EPA-rated 30/38 mpg city/highway if you can resist the temptation of the Sport trim and its big 19-inch wheels. That model gets 29/35 mpg with the CVT but just 26/35 mpg in 2020 Accord Sport 1.5T trim with the six-speed manual. But hey, if you’re among the small group of [...]
Not a single C8 Corvette will be sold for its fuel economy, but as it turns out, the mpg numbers it returns aren’t actually all that bad. As we just learned from Corvette Chief Engineer Ed Piatek at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, the C8 has been EPA certified at 15/27 mpg city/highway.
The Corvette is powered by an LT2 6.2-liter V-8 engine producing 495 hp and 470 lb-ft of torque. Given that, 15 mpg in urban driving is good for such a burly block, but the 27-mpg highway figure is more impressive. Keeping revs low at speed is handled by the Corvette’s eight-speed dual-clutch transmission, but a cylinder deactivation system is largely responsible for reducing the LT2’s fuel consumption.
Additionally, the C8 will be a good road-trip cruiser thanks to its 18.6-gallon fuel tank. Filled to the brim and with judicious throttle application by the driver (a tailwind wouldn’t hurt, either), the Corvette [...]
Volvo is synonymous with safety. Thus it’s no surprise that the brand is taking the statistically safe choice of giving away $1 million worth of cars should a safety occur during Super Bowl LIV.
As defined by the National Football League, a safety occurs “if the offense commits a foul in its own end zone or when an impetus by a team sends the ball behind its own goal line, and the ball is dead in the end zone in its possession or the ball is out of bounds behind the goal line.” If those conditions are met, then the defensive team receives two points.
Yes, we know that’s pretty jargon-y and difficult to decipher, which is why we’ll break it down even more simply: a safety is a rare scoring event. In fact, less than 0.5 percent of the more than 10,000 points scored by every NFL team throughout the 2019 regular season were [...]