Tabla de contenidos para September 2021 en Car and Driver

Most new cars have very similar driver-assistance capabilities. Not that a consumer would know, given all the names automakers attach to these aids and the distinct indicators each employs. Lane-keeping or centering assistance uses one or more cameras to detect lane markings and applies appropriate nudges to the steering to keep the vehicle between the lines. Adaptive cruise control in most cases uses radar to track vehicles ahead and adjusts your car’s speed to the flow of traffic. Together these two features can steer, accelerate, and brake a car. The best examples might even lull drivers into believing the computers are capable of handling the driving for extended periods. That’s a mistake. None can be trusted to mind the road and avoid obstacles to the point that a driver is…

With new vehicles in short supply and high demand, dealers are often asking for—and getting—the sticker price or more from buyers. But the ripple effect means the chip shortage is having an even bigger impact on the used-car market. Unwilling or unable to pay such high prices, many would-be new-car shoppers are considering used vehicles instead, which has caused prices to rise by 21 percent in the past year. Average Transaction Price Used Cars Source: Edmunds. When automakers took stock at the end of last year, they discovered it hadn’t been the financial bloodbath many feared when COVID-19 forced factories and suppliers to close, put millions of potential customers out of work, and sent almost everyone home to stay for a while. Jack Hollis, senior vice president of automotive operations…

If you relish the 9000-rpm scream of a naturally aspirated flat-six but not the attention of every cop on the road, the Porsche 911 GT3 Touring is the car for you. It offers the same sound and fury as its mechanical twin but ditches the giant wing in favor of a rear spoiler that automatically extends at 49 mph. Apart from that, the two models share all other aero bits, from the paneled underbody to the rear diffuser. Under the wingless tail lies one of the greatest flat-six engines Porsche has ever made, a 4.0-liter unit kicking out 502 horses. The six-speed manual’s throws are natural and precise, much like its beautifully weighted clutch. For the first time in the Touring, buyers can spec the seven-speed dual-clutch automatic, but take…

That the Jeep Grand Cherokee amassed 209,000 sales last year despite a decade-old design underscores the appeal of the outgoing two-row-only SUV. As Stellantis’s cash cow, Jeep faces a lot of pressure to maintain that success as it introduces a redesigned version with three rows. Fortunately for fans of the old model’s refinement, style, and formidable off-road and towing credentials, the new and longer Grand Cherokee L stays on course. Compared with the two-row GC, the L gains 15.1 inches in length and 7.0 inches in wheelbase, which together provide friendly accommodations for six-foot-tall passengers from the front to the wayback. The standard captain’s chairs easily tilt and slide forward for access to the spacious third row. Want seven seats? Jeep offers a second-row bench with the same capability. A…

As we write this, the House of Representatives has agreed to a slimmed-down version of President Biden’s proposed infrastructure plan. The bill sets aside $7.5 billion to build a national network of 500,000 EV charging stations, many of which would be in rural and low-income areas. Regardless of whether the bitterly divided Senate will allow his plan to come to fruition, other government initiatives and businesses are driving the construction of charging stations across the country. But where will they go? That depends on what’s used to determine the optimal network layout, according to Mehrnaz Ghamami, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Michigan State University. She led a team of researchers to develop a plan for optimizing electric-vehicle charging in Michigan. Their proposal suggests first putting stations…

When Ernie Adams looked at a trashed refrigerator, he saw not garbage but the steel curves of a classic car. In 1965, Adams started an eight-year build that turned nine scrapped fridges into a cool little “Chevy.” He stacked two refrigerators to create the body. Adams used one more for the firewall and radiator shell. Others became the body skirts, running boards, and fenders—which proved to be the most challenging part, “because I had to make patterns so that right and left would match,” he said. The finished product wasn’t modeled exactly on any existing machine, but it looks most like a 1928 Chevrolet, so that’s how Adams describes the chest-high coupe. It was originally a roadster rolling on solid rubber; in the late ’70s, he upgraded to pneumatic tires…

An expert look at the newest and most important vehicles this month. 2021 ALFA ROMEO GIULIA QUADRIFOGLIO VS. 2021 BMW M3 COMPETITION Everyone knows a couple who probably shouldn’t be together. They fight in public and drag friends into their quarrels, yet at the end of the night, perhaps after disappearing for an hour or two, they’re all smiles. They remind us a little of our complicated relationships with the BMW M3 and the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio. You see, the M3 and C/D, we go way back. Our love affair started in 1995 and burned hot for decades. But then, sometime in 2014, the passion fizzled. We called it quits, not necessarily because the M3 was a bad car, but because we felt it had become dull and cold…

The hot-hatch genre has, at times, made us feel very old. Our younger selves would have happily tolerated a bouncy ride, a laggy engine, or a raucous cabin if it kept the price low and the fun-to-drive quotient high, but our backs, our patience, and our eardrums aren’t as forgiving as they once were. Volkswagen seems to understand. Ahead of the Golf R’s arrival here this fall, we recently drove a Europe-spec model around our Michigan stomping ground and concluded that it stays true to the franchise. The new Drift mode may be the star in the highlight reels, but the Golf R’s distinguishing trait is that it’s so much more well rounded than your typical hot hatch. The heart of the Golf R remains a turbocharged iron-block 2.0-liter inline-four,…

Nissan has seen the light and for 2022 is giving us a better Pathfinder—one with smart interior packaging, a large third row that fits adults, and styling that reads SUV instead of minivan in SUV clothing. While the 284-hp 3.5-liter V-6 engine carries over, a new nine-speed automatic livens up the Pathfinder’s responses, offers none of the old CVT’s annoying droning and sluggishness, and appears to have helped acceleration. In front-drive SL spec, the 4481-pound vehicle scoots to 60 mph in 6.7 seconds, a 0.6-second improvement over a 173-pound-heavier, all-wheel-drive 2017 Pathfinder. After revitalizing the powertrain, Nissan turned to handling, installing wider tires and stiffer springs. Grip is up to 0.80 g (versus 0.77 g for the last gen), but the Pathfinder still trails the Mazda CX-9 in nimbleness and…

The International Union for Conservation of Nature says more than 37,400 species are threatened with extinction. Big V-8s in small cars and unexpected off-roaders are not on the ledger, but if they were, we’d expect to see them listed as “near threatened,” defined by the conservation union as “species close to the threatened thresholds or that would be threatened without ongoing conservation measures.” Since high-horse V-8s can still be spotted in Land Rovers (Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, Defender), Jeeps (Grand Cherokee, Wrangler Rubicon 392), Cadillacs (CT5-V Blackwing), Lexuses (IS500 F Sport), and Dodges (Hellcat everything), to name just a few, they’re clearly not yet extinct. Possibly, they’re not even endangered. On the automotive watchlist, V-8s are still healthier than the manual transmission, but they’re roaming the land in fewer…

For 10 years, the fourth-generation Chevrolet Camaro dominated Mustangs on the street and the strip as it bridged the gap between GM’s legacy-small-block era and its LS-powered future. The last Camaro to offer T-tops, the fourth gen paid tribute to the windblown, big-hair ’80s while its sleek and stylized body looked forward to the wind-tunnel-optimized days ahead. As ’90s cars become collectible, this Camaro’s aero emphasis and V-8 options make it both a fun driver and a worthy investment that (we think) hasn’t quite reached its potential. Muscle-car fans in search of a good deal should focus on the initial Z28 with the 275-hp LT1 or the SS model with the 305-hp V-8 that came out three years later. For those with a bigger budget, the 1998–2002 Camaros borrow the…

As part of this look at the state of the American driver, it made sense to reach out to as many of you as possible and consider your thoughts, because there’s a lot going on. A pandemic with the power to change how we live and work doesn’t happen often. And with each new press release promising more electrification at a date not terribly far in the future, automakers seem set on changing the way we drive We worked up a survey touching on many of the topics in this issue, posted it online, and promoted it on social media and in our newsletter. And then, because a lot more people drive than just those of you who read this magazine, we asked our colleagues at Good Housekeeping to put…

We asked Car and Driver readers how interested they are, on a scale of zero to 10, in owning or leasing a vehicle with various driver-assistance technologies. Here are the averages from the more than 1900 responses. Blind-Spot Monitoring 6.7 Adaptive Cruise Control 5.5 Lane-Departure Warning 4.9 Driver-Attention Monitoring 3.7 Hands-Free Highway Driving 3.2 Hands-Free City Driving 2.4 YOU DON’T HAVE TO GO DEEP DOWN AN INTERNET RABBIT HOLE TO FIND EVIDENCE THAT HUMANS WILL PUSH BOUNDARIES. The relatively recent introduction of semi-autonomous technology in cars has led to all sorts of documented bad behavior, from folks putting water bottles on their steering wheel to drivers letting Jesus take the wheel as they climb into another seat. The former can trick a car into thinking a driver’s hands are where…

As companies like Ford, Stellantis, and GM abandoned cars to focus on segments that are more popular and profitable, Honda’s venerable Civic has hung on to its market share. U.S. Sales January–June 2021 All Vehicles 8,242,764 January–June 2011 All Vehicles 6,333,313 Source: Automotive News These days, if you walk into a dealership looking to spend as little as possible on a new car, the salesperson will probably steer you toward a shrink-rayed version of the brand’s bestselling SUV, not the matchbox sedan you might have been directed to 10 years ago. Depending on the dealership, there might not even be a new entry-level sedan or hatchback on offer. But chez Honda, the compact-car-as-brand-entry structure is alive and well with the Civic. The outgoing Civic was nimble, engaging, affordable, and efficient.…

We were so busy playing with all the tech in the new S-class that we ignored the navigation system’s commands and missed the exit for the Jersey Turnpike. The car’s revised route took us past multimillion-dollar estates with lawns that must take weeks to mow. Act like you belong, the adage goes. Mercedes’s latest version of its flagship sedan makes us look and feel as if we do. If this is the kind of place you call home, the S-class’s $110,850 base price may seem entirely reasonable. Hell, you might even spring for the Maybach, which opens at $185,950. At launch, U.S. shoppers can pick between the S500’s 429-hp turbo and supercharged 3.0-liter inline-six and the S580’s 496-hp twin-turbo V-8. Every model comes with all-wheel drive and a 48-volt motor…

Harjeet S. Kalsi has created an anomaly. Defying the model’s reputation for horrendous reliability, his 1982 Aston Martin Lagonda runs flawlessly. It has for almost two decades. As a young boy, Kalsi came across a magazine road test of the Lagonda, and the car wedged in his mind like an earworm. He was 30 years old before he encountered one in person, on a trip to Kuwait. He purchased the next Lagonda he saw—a Series 2 car with bespoke pearlescent paint. When Kalsi bought it, the engine blew clouds of black smoke, desert heat had destroyed the interior, half the instrument panel didn’t work, and the seat electrics were broken. He had it shipped from Kuwait to Canada anyway and drove it home to Surrey, British Columbia, from the local…