Henry Payne Blog
Cartoon: Cuban Kamala Shark Tank
Posted by Talbot Payne on November 1, 2024
Cartoon: Trump Garbage Truck Harris
Posted by Talbot Payne on October 31, 2024
Cartoon: Hitler Israel Trump Sense
Posted by Talbot Payne on October 31, 2024
Payne: With RHO, Ram unleashes a rhino to take on the F-150 Raptor
Posted by Talbot Payne on October 31, 2024
Holly Oaks — Raptor, meet Rhino.
The 2025 Ram 1500 RHO supertruck is here and it’s a worthy competitor to segment pioneer Ford F-150 Raptor. RHO is short for Ram High Output, and the acronym’s similarity to rhinoceros is no accident. This is a full-grown, armor-plated, earth-pawing, terrain-chewing, bone-crunching beast.
Better yet, it’s a rhino in tennis shoes.
Barreling into Holly Oaks’ sandy, Back 40 “Lollipop” — foot to the floor, 540 horses snorting, all four corners churning — I nailed the brakes and hooked the 6,000-pound rhino into a 90-degree right-hander. With remarkable agility, we tangoed across the sand, the rhino’s hindquarters nearly overtaking its front end before the massive 35-inch front, all-terrain Goodyear Wrangler tires gripped, propelling us forward across the dance floor. BWAAAAWWRGH! If this were “Dancing with the Stars,” we would have received a perfect 10.
Track geeks like me marvel at the race car-like talents of modern-day $80K supercars like the Corvette C8, BMW M3 and Porsche Cayman — but for the same price, you can purchase off-road animals that sport similar horsepower numbers and astounding, Baja 1000 racing-like capabilities. And supertrucks do this while offering more interior space than a Boeing 737 and a bed that will haul home your tree for Christmas.
Rhino follows in Raptor’s footprints. Finally. It’s been 14 years since the Ford energized the pickup space just as the BMW’s M3 transformed the car market four decades ago with a performance version of a popular badge.
Like M3, the Ram is also a premium vehicle. Trucks are the new luxe, and RHO will go head-to-head against any Mercedes that pulls up next to you at the golf club. That’s right, take your Rhino to the club dressed to the nines.
Nines as in the $9,995 Level 1 package, which adds a 14-inch console screen, head-up-display, passenger-side display, carbon fiber accents, 19-speaker Harman Kardon stereo, memory/massaging/heated/cooled leather seats, 360-degree camera, hands-free self-driving system, and jacuzzi (kidding about that last one).
On I-75, I went hands-free just like GM’s Super Cruise and Ford’s Blue Cruise — two other mainstream brands who make luxurious trucks. I poked the left stalk and the rhino changed lanes automatically. Poked the right — and it moved back into the right lane. I enjoyed a snack and a drink while my luxury yacht — er, pickup — drove itself at 80 mph.
My wee wife might need a ladder to climb into the passenger seat (the RHO towers 11.8-inches above the ground thanks to 35s), but once strapped in, she would love it. She’s the navigator in the family, and the passenger-side screen would allow her to sync her phone using wireless Apple CarPlay, then share directions with the main screen that we both could see (the passenger screen is invisible to the driver).
In total. RHO can be outfitted with nearly 50 inches of available screens, starting with the vertically mounted 14.4-inch console jumbotron. A configurable 12.3-inch digital display is behind the steering wheel, the 10-inch HUD floats over the hood and there’s the aforementioned, 10.25-inch display for Mrs. Payne riding shotgun so she can immerse herself in music ‘n’ apps in addition to charting our course.
If all this luxe sounds familiar, that’s because it’s shared with the Jeep Grand Wagoneer luxury yacht.
What the RHO doesn’t have is the insane 702-horse Hellcat V-8 from the ol’ TRX. Yes, the T-rex is extinct, a victim of federal nannies. But Ram figures the Rhino will be more resilient — and not just because of its lesser appetite for fossil fuels.
The cheaper Rhino will sell in greater volumes — like its nemesis Raptor — and its $69,995 price tag (plus $1,995 destination fee) is closer to the lineup’s other performance trucks (unlike the T-Rex’s $100K sticker): the $56,255 Warlock and $66,190 Rebel with their 33-inch tires, off-road capability and detuned, twin-turbo inline-6.
What Rhino does share with T-Rex is chassis performance specs: 88-inch width for surer footing (thus the three amber lights required of vehicles wider than 80 inches), functional hood scoop, electronic-locking rear differential, gigantic 15-inch front brakes and huge, remote-reservoir Bilstein active shocks enabling 13 inches of suspension travel in front, 14 inches rear. What, no missile launcher?
As awesome as this truck may look swaggering up your country club driveway, the Rhino’s natural habitat is the Baja Peninsula. And since you’re unlikely to go there, may I suggest the Holly Oaks ORV park right here in Detroit’s backyard?
If you own a Corvette, you gotta track it at Waterford Hills or M1 Concourse. If you own a Rhino, you gotta go to Holly Oaks.
“Go on. Just put your foot in it,” encouraged veteran Dodge SRT dynamics engineer and fellow race driver Erich Heuschele. I didn’t need to be told twice.
Holly’s 200-acre sandbox is ideally suited for narrower midsize Jeeps and Broncos, but the Bilstein-shod RHO moves like it’s a size smaller. Roaring up Darlene’s Ridge, the beast stayed true, flattening washboard bumps like Hulk flicking away helicopter fire. It soared over jumps, drifted through corners, slung sand in launch control. To manage this punishment, the dampers feature remote reservoirs to better control shock fluid temperatures.
The 3.0-liter inline-6 and eight-speed transmission were in sync like Grey & Swayze. Where the Raptor’s 10-speed tranny can sometimes stumble, the Ram’s ZF gearbox ripped off shifts like a Porsche.
I missed the supercharged V-8’s rib-rattling roar. But the I-6 is 150 pounds lighter, making the truck easier to control, quicker to rotate. Load the Rhino with the Level 1 package and it matches the base, well-equipped Raptor’s $82K sticker.
Ram shrewdly offers the more accessible, $71,990 starter model without all the digital jewelry, while maintaining its core specs including a healthy 90 more horses than the 450-horse Ford. I kept Rhino in Baja mode for my high-speed antics, but other modes include Auto, Tow, Mud/Sand, Rock, Snow and Sport.
If you still covet a V-8, Ram will walk you across the showroom to a 2500 Heavy Duty Power Wagon. If you don’t need Olympian shocks, then the butch Warlock will do just fine. And if you just like the Ram’s smooth, best-in-class multi-link rear ride and handsome design, the base $42K Tradesman will do.
But for the price of a ‘Vette, RHO supertruck will explore the envelope of off-road capability while still having the capacity to tow up to 8,380 pounds. Enough to pull a real rhino.
Next week: Manual faceoff: Mazda Miata, Subaru BRZ, Toyota GR Corolla, Honda Civic Si, VW Jetta GLI
2025 Ram 1500 RHO
Vehicle type: Front-engine, four-wheel-drive five-passenger supertruck
Price: $71,990, including $1,995 destination fee ($84,965 as tested)
Powerplant: 3.0-liter, twin-turbo inline-6 cylinder
Power: 540 horsepower, 521 pound-feet of torque
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Performance: 0-60 mph, 4.6 seconds (mfr.); towing, 8,380 pounds; payload, 1,520 pounds
Weight: 6,200 pounds
Fuel economy: EPA, 15 mpg city/21 highway/17; range, 693 miles (33-gallon fuel tank)
Report card
Highs: Off-road agility, on-road comfort; powerful I-6
Lows: Won’t fit in your garage; deep console screen takes eyes off road
Overall: 4 stars
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or @HenryEPayne.
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Posted by Talbot Payne on October 30, 2024
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Payne: Lavish, lively, ‘lectric ID.Buzz transforms the VW Bus
Posted by Talbot Payne on October 24, 2024
San Francisco — The 2006 movie classic “Little Miss Sunshine” showcased the iconic, affordable, 1960-70s Volkswagen Microbus to a new generation of fans, complete with manual transmission, manual sliding door, unsafe driver position, and snail-like pace on the road.
The all-new 2025 Volkswagen Microbus is nothing like that.
In a reboot of V-dub’s most famous family hauler for the electric age, the Microbus — now dubbed ID.Buzz (see what they did there?) — has been completely transformed as a dual-motor, electric van with single-speed automatic transmission, auto-sliding doors, a cocoon of safety features, and 0-60 mph acceleration time of 6.0 seconds that would embarrass a 1969 Aston Martin DB6 Vantage (6.3).
Call this Buzz fancy, fast, and … not very ‘ffordable. If the original VW Microbus (Type 2, produced 1950-66 and Type 2 Gen-2, 1967-79) and its sibling Beetle were cheap, volume plays to capture American market share, the ID.Buzz and sibling ID.4 (VW’s first EV in the U.S. market) are an acknowledgment that the EV market is a niche segment aimed at luxury buyers.
Like the Hoover family, I traveled to California to put the latest V-dub to the test.
My ID.Buzz 1st Edition testers cost a whopping $67,045 (rear-wheel-drive) and $71,545 (all-wheel-drive). Compare that to the Hoovers’ 1978 Type 2 bus that would have cost (inflation-adjusted) $31K today. The 1966 model? A mere $23K.
But for all that dough, you get a lotta’ Buzz.
The tech-tastic Teuton is — perhaps more than any EV since the introduction of the Tesla Model 3 in 2017 — a testament to how much the automotive world has changed in the last 60 years. It’s also a testament to how difficult it will be to convince customers to reject the efficiency advantages of the internal combustion engine as automakers like VW rush towards an all-EV future.
The Hoovers’ dysfunctional family trip west to chase Olive’s beauty pageant dream nearly stalled because father Frank has a business conflict — and only he knew how to drive the Microbus’ stick shift. He eventually agreed to the trip.
If they had been headed to San Francisco instead of Redondo Beach, even Frank might have reconsidered. Frisco’s steep hills are notorious graveyards for manual transmissions. Comedians have made entire routines on the horror of starting in first gear on, say, Chestnut Street pointing straight up at the sky. STALL. GROOOONCH. STALL. AUUHHHRGGGH!
The Buzz made mincemeat of Chestnut.
With a simple rotation of the wrist, I shifted the Buzz’s single-speed automatic stalk on the steering column into DRIVE and sailed up the sheer face of Chestnut. Not just sailed — charged!
With 282 horsepower (335 for the AWD model) from its big, 86 kWh battery, the V-dub reared back on its haunches and accelerated with purpose. Had I run Chestnut’s stop sign (not a good idea), I might have gotten air like Steve McQueen in “Bullitt.” The ol’ Hoover Microbus likely would have wheezed to the summit in first gear for fear of losing momentum from a 1-to-2 upshift.
Merging onto Route 101 headed towards the Golden Gate Bridge, I even challenged a bigger Ford Lightning EV to drag race at a stoplight. They cost about the same, after all.
The Bay Area is politically green and loaded with green money, and there is a premium EV war on. Lightning, Audi e-trons, Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, Kia EV6 GT, BMW i5, Porsche Taycan, Tesla Cybertruck, Tesla Model X, Model Y Performance — heck, even the Waymo driverless taxis are Jaguar iPaces.
At $70K, the VW is actually at the low end of this premium mall (Made in Germany, it is not eligible for the $7,500 federal EV credit), yet it is every bit as distinctive as its peers. It caused as much whiplash as any Cybertruck during my day in the Bay area. The Buzz’s classic design is smartly updated with two-tone colors — just like the OG — complementing the modern design and sci-fi 20-inch wheels.
Like the Bug’s recreation in 1997, the look skews female as a cute minivan amongst squared-off SUVs like the Bimmer and Audis. But awake, the automatic handles and the sliding doors reveal an interior tech playground for us guy geeks.
The twin, hoodless, digital dash tablets are choked with technology from ambient lighting choices to multiple ECO, SPORT, NORMAL, and TRACTION (in the AWD model) modes. After crossing the Golden Gate, I activated adaptive cruise control and the V-dub virtually drove itself (that would have dropped Grandpa Hoover’s jaw!) to the coast. Exiting Route 101, I took Route 1 twisties on the way to Stinson Beach like a proper hippie bus — twisting the shift knob from D (Drive) to B (Regen) so that I could one-pedal drive, the electric motor braking the VW when I lifted off the accelerator.
The center console can be uprooted and moved to the back row. The second and third rows are as spacious as a Chevy Suburban, so dysfunctional families have more spacing from one another. I sprawled in the third row — flattening Row 2 as an Ottoman. USB-C ports, storage cubbies, and cubby dividers are everywhere. Even cubby dividers doubling as an ice scraper/bottle opener.
Want to store grandpa’s body in back like the Hoovers? Take out third-row seats like a Chrysler Pacifica. Want to stash his naughty magazines? Check out the storage bin under the tailgate seat. Tailgate seat? I could go on and on.
All these goodies reside under an (optional) two-way panoramic roof that changes from clear to opaque with the swipe of a button. The two-tone paint too girly for you? Choose a single color like black. Darth Buzz.
Speaking of Pacifica minivans, they’re cool, too, and would be a better choice for road-trippers like the Hoovers. The $50K Pacifica plug-in hybrid’s 500-mile range dwarfs the Buzz’s 234, and you can refuel 500 miles in 2 minutes compared to the Buzz’s 164 miles-in-30.
The Hoovers lost their clutch on the way to Cali, but charging delays would surely have made it hard to meet their 3 p.m. pageant sign-in. Then they really would have hated each other (and EVs). No, the Buzz is a local car for upper-income families who can afford airplanes for family trips.
I covered the Bay Area easily with the Buzz’s range. I plugged in at a 240-volt Rivian charger at Stinson Beach for a little extra charge while lounging on the sand. Charging is a lot easier to learn to operate than a stick shift.
Next week: 2025 RAM RHO pickup
2025 Volkswagen ID.Buzz
Vehicle type: All-electric, rear and all-wheel-drive, six-or-seven passenger minivan/microbus
Price: $61,545, including $1,550 destination fee ($71,545 AWD 1st Edition AWD and $67,045 1st Edition RWD as tested)
Powerplant: 86 kW lithium-ion battery pack mated to rear or twin electric motors
Power: 282 horsepower, 413 pound-feet of torque (RWD); 335 horsepower, 512 pound-feet of torque (AWD)
Transmission: One-speed direct drive
Performance: 0-60 mph, 6.0 seconds (mnftr. AWD); top speed, 101 mph
Weight: 6,197 pounds (AWD as tested)
Fuel economy: 234-mile range (RWD); 231 (AWD)
Report card
Highs: Nothing like it on road; feature-rich, roomy interior
Lows: Pricey compared to comparable Atlas gas model; wonky steering wheel controls
Overall: 4 stars
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
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Posted by Talbot Payne on October 23, 2024
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Posted by Talbot Payne on October 18, 2024
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Payne: 2025 Subaru WRX tS is an all-season pocket rocket
Posted by Talbot Payne on October 18, 2024
Sonoma Raceway, California — In basketball, there are multiple position players. Shot-blocking big men. Defensive forwards. Three-point shooters. Playmaking guards. And there are all-around players who can do it all — think the Detroit Pistons’ Tayshaun Prince or Grant Hill.
If compact performance sedans (aka, pocket rockets) were basketball players, they would be all-around all-stars. Performance sedans like the Subaru WRX, the perennial best-seller in the class.
On Sonoma Raceway, I barreled into the tricky, uphill, Turn 1-2 complex with my right foot screwed to the floor. The 2025 WRX tS’s big, gold Brembo brakes hauled me back to earth as I jinked left, then right, into the blind Turn 2 at the top of the hill — the WRX remaining remarkably neutral as I pitched it across the apex.
On twisty California Route 128 through the Mayacamas Mountains, WRX’s all-wheel-drive system clawed the road. I rarely had to shift below third gear thanks to the low-end torque from its 2.4-liter turbo-4 engine.
Out of the hills onto Route 121, I set adaptive cruise control to 70 mph with the intuitive steering wheel button. Subaru’s twin-camera Eyesight system wrapped me in a safety cocoon as I navigated midday traffic: ACC maintaining a gap with cars in front of me, blind-spot assist monitoring cars beside me.
At a corner gas station, I loaded some groceries for the evening — barely scratching the WRX’s cargo capacity that can swallow multiple suitcases while transporting four large adults.
Take a bow, pocket rockets.
The class has never been healthier even as I still mourn the departure of the Ford Focus and Fiesta hot hatches in 2019. Pioneered by the Volkswagen GTI in 1984 (my first car), the pocket rocket class now features the GTI’s Jetta GLI sibling, Honda Civic Si, Hyundai Elantra N, Mazda3 Turbo, Toyota GR Corolla and the WRX.
My preference is the hot hatch — not sedan — body style, and I wish Subaru brought the hatchback version of the WRX (called the Levorg) over from Japan. Alas, Subaru marketing has determined that the Impreza (which shares the WRX’s skeleton) comes exclusively as a hatch, the WRX performance variant as a sedan. Sigh.
It’s hard to be mad given the WRX’s deep toolbox. It begins, of course, with Subaru’s standard all-wheel drive, which makes it a four-season sports sedan. That means WRX will not only claw up Sonoma’s steep Turn One hill — but also crawl up my steep driveway in the middle of winter. When covered with 6 inches of snow. And an inch of ice underneath.
That all-season capability — and all-around value — has helped establish WRX as the perennial sales leader in class with 24,681 units sold in 2023.
The Subie isn’t the cheapest toy in class — that honor goes to the Civic Si at a $31,045 steal — nor is it the cheapest all-wheel-driver (Mazda3 Turbo just nips the Subie at $33,285). But WRX has a whopping 35% more horsepower than the Civic (271 vs. 200) and offers both a manual and automatic transmission where Civic only comes in stick. The Mazda3 Turbo? Only offered as an automatic.
The ‘Ru’s notchy manual is excellent, and 85% of buyers choose it. #SaveTheManual.
But there’s a new kid on the block: the AWD Toyota GR Corolla hot hatch, which also offers a stick/auto. The GR (short for GRRRRRRRR!) is a corner-carving riot that extracts a remarkable 300 horsepower from its wee 3-cylinder engine. Like spiking the punch bowl, GR has transformed the sleepy Corolla lineup. Ask any journalist what hot hatch they’ve most enjoyed in the last year, and they’ll tell you GR.
The drift-happy GR even plugs the void left by the winged, top-trim WRX STI (a victim of government emissions regs) with the ability to throw 70% of torque to the rear wheels. The WRX’s secret sauce? A 20% advantage in rear legroom (36.4 inches vs. 29.9 for the Toyota) and a five-grand cheaper starting price.
In this boiling piranha tank, the WRX must keep making improvements, and for 2025 it steps up with my tS tester and its suite of performance, style and tech upgrades.
You’ll know it by its mascara makeup — black mirror caps, WiFi shark fin, spoiler — and big, black 19-inch wheels. The bigger rims are needed to swallow enlarged, 13.4-inch, six-pot Brembo brakes. Storming out of Sonoma Turns 8-9 chicane — upshift to second, third, fourth, eclipsing 100 mph — my AWD locomotive built up a full head of steam into the iconic Turn 11 hairpin.
There is little room for error. White concrete barriers loom on the periphery. Sonoma is a NASCAR-owned track, and the big boys like their walls. You gotta have confidence in your brakes here, and the Subie delivered.
“I haven’t experienced any brake fade all week,” said ex-Formula One driver Scott Speed, now a Subaru ambassador and NASCAR driver coach. And Speed, ahem, ain’t easy on brakes.
Into the hairpin, I stood the WRX tS on its nose under braking — the Brembos and Bridgestone Potenza S007 tires doing their thing. ‘Ru was rock solid: no fade, no swerve, no squeals. Just. Rabid. Grip.
That grip is aided by sophisticated adaptive dampers. The adjustable shocks offer multiple drive modes — from COMFORT for Michigan’s ox cart roads to SPORT PLUS for track days. In stiff SPORT PLUS mode, I rotated through the hairpin and was gone up the pit straight. Not bad for a production sedan.
It would be nice if SPORT PLUS brought more growl, though. Entombed in my helmet, I barely heard the turbocharged exhaust note, and I bounced off the rev limiter at 7,000 rpm before upshifting to third. Dang, also wish the WRX had shift lights like the Civic Si.
The good news is tS debuts WRX’s first digital dash, so I could choose a horizontal RPM display among three instrument views.
Back on the road, the digital display complemented the Subaru’s excellent, 12-inch screen now ubiquitous across the Subaru lineup. Though I prefer horizontal screens to keep my eyes focused on the road, WRX’s deep, vertical display allowed for navigation of multiple menus, including Sirus XM radio channels and Google Maps (courtesy of wireless Android Auto).
All these toys don’t come cheap, so expect tS to crest $42K — about the same price as a comparable GR Corolla — when it hits dealer lots early next year. Pocket rockets require deep pockets, but — pound for pound — they remain the best ticket in autodom. Maybe Tayshaun Prince will buy one.
Next week: 2025 VW ID.Buzz
2025 Subaru WRX tS
Vehicle type: Front-engine, all-wheel-drive, five-passenger pocket rocket
Price: Est. $44,000 when on sale in early 2025
Powerplant: 2.4-liter turbo-4 cylinder Boxer engine
Power: 271 horsepower, 258 pound-feet of torque
Transmission: 6-speed manual (tS), continuously variable transmission (GT)
Performance: 0-60 mph, 5.5 seconds (Car and Driver est., manual); top speed, 145 mph
Weight: 3,450 pounds (est.)
Fuel economy: EPA, 19 mpg city/26 highway/22 combined (manual)
Report card
Highs: Roomy cabin; AWD OMG
Lows: No head-up display or shift lights; stronger engine note, please
Overall: 3 stars
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or @HenryEPayne.
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Posted by Talbot Payne on October 14, 2024
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Posted by Talbot Payne on October 11, 2024
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Payne: Nissan Kicks reboots with delightful, subcompact ‘bot
Posted by Talbot Payne on October 11, 2024
Farmington Hills — Hollywood’s delightful “Wild Robot” movie has hit theaters starring the ROZZUM unit 7134 and its endless standard features: Safe Mode, extendable arms, video scanner, remote hand.
Nissan has its own clever robot — call it the 2025 Kicks SUV — hitting showrooms this fall, and it’s loaded with standard stuff, too.
Standard adaptive cruise control, blind-spot assist, auto high beams, rear cross-traffic alert, automatic emergency braking. All-wheel drive is available for another 1,650 bucks. The ‘25 Kicks is a major upgrade over the last-gen robot — er, SUV — and stands out on a shelf full of clever B-segment, entry-level subcompacts. Think the stylish Chevy Trax, sporty Mazda CX-30, quirky Kia Soul and sci-fi Hyundai Kona — all compelling personalities that introduce buyers to their respective brands.
The Kicks conjures its own inner robot with a bold, fun design that would fit right in on the Hasbro toy car shelf (Nissan says the design was inspired by a football helmet). My SVR tester features a floating, two-toned roof atop brawny fenders stuffed with oversized 19-inch wheels with shard-like spokes. The Kicks robot’s face is less round “ROZZUM” and more “Robot-from Lost in Space” with its ribbed grille and LED running lights.
Danger, Will Robinson!
My Kicks automatically slowed on a tight Oakland County road — sensing the vehicle train in front of us. I was momentarily distracted by my Google Maps directions, but adaptive cruise control (backed up by emergency braking) did its job and saw the slowdown before I did. Ah, the modern car — you gotta’ have electronics to save you from the electronics.
The Chevy Trax was one of my three finalists for 2024 Detroit News Vehicle of the Year for its fetching looks and loaded features list. At a time when GM was rolling out entry-level electric vehicles at $40K, it was nice to see the Chevy brand sticking to its value roots with a $21K subcompact.
Nissan, too, is a value brand, and the Kicks cutie is proof the Japanese brand hasn’t been distracted from its core task even as it rolled out its own pricey EV, the $45K Ariya. My $25K Kicks droid featured all-wheel drive (it’s the cheapest AWD vehicle in the market, by the way) for Michigan winters like Ariya. Yet Kicks will get 434 miles of range compared to the EV’s, ahem, 214.
Kicks’ sci-fi ambitions extend to the interior.
Like Ariya, Kicks gets a high-tech hoodless screen stretching across the dash. Hoodless screen? This wondrous creation first appeared on a production car at the fall 2019 reveal of the $190,000 Porsche Taycan Turbo S Niagara Falls. The clouds parted. Angels sang. Jaws dropped.
Five years later and (yawn) here’s a hoodless digital screen draped across the dash of a $20K Nissan. Tech is moving fast. The Kicks’ 2.0-liter, inline-4 cylinder? Not so much.
While an improvement over the outgoing model’s 1.6-liter egg-beater, the new engine is a tool to get you from Point A to B. There’s been no hanky-panky between the Kicks and Nissan’s Z sportscar, I’m afraid. No athletic DNA here.
Which, frankly, didn’t matter during my Metro Detroit commute. With all that robot safety tech at my fingertips, I kept the Nissan in Adaptive Cruise Control most of the time to behave through small towns like Farmington Hills, Walled Lake and Wixom. If you choose my SR-trim tester, you’ll get Pro Pilot, which is Nissan’s advanced ACC system featuring lane centering.
When I hit I-696, I set Pro Pilot to 80 mph and cruised through midday traffic while tuning into (more electronics distractions!) Sirius XM on my phone. Yes, my phone.
Increasingly, automakers are surrendering to phones, given their superior Google Maps, generational tech upgrades and apps. Apps like Sirius XM, for which I pay $10 a month and can take into any car I drive that has Android Auto. Kicks’ steering wheel is easy to navigate without taking your eyes off the road. A left scroll wheel allowed me to navigate radio stations on the screen, and a raised toggle switch on the right spoke was useful for managing cruise speed.
Nissan could learn a trick from Detroiters Chevy and Jeep by adding volume and radio station controls on the back of the steering wheel.
The 12.3-inch screen on the SV and SR models options a wireless charging pad that kept my phone juiced while navigating, playing music and cooking my lunch (kidding about that last one). But even without the charger, you can just plug your phone in, thanks to the large center console.
Indeed, the Kicks has grown in every direction — it’s 1 inch higher, 1.5 inches wider, 2.3 inches longer — to allow for greater cabin room. It can’t hold a candle to Chevy’s twins in the backseat. Both the FWD Trax and AWD Trailblazer boast an impressive 39 inches of rear legroom, which is a gaping four inches more than a Kicks. Heck, Chevy rear leg room is as generous for six-footers like me as a midsize Nissan Murano SUV. But Kicks makes its mark behind the seats with best-in-class 30 cubic feet of cargo space.
So cutthroat is Subcompact Island that Kicks options a panoramic roof — a decidedly premium feature. Actually, it’s an option that the Jeep Renegade once had. Ahhh, the Renegade Wild Robot. I miss that cute ute with its round eyes and eager off-road stance.
The good news is that the Nissan comes standard with 8.4-inch ground clearance — nearly a match for the 8.7-inch Renegade Trailhawk off-roader, for goodness sake. That fits the Kicks’ venture vibe. I grunted around in the dirt ‘n’ grass playground of Proud Lake State Recreation Park. Let the Mazda CX-30 race around with its 227 horsepower — the Kicks’ natural habitat seems more nature park/ORV trail.
Kind of like the Wild Robotm which finds a home on its remote island at the end of the movie. Well-equipped with an affordable price, the Mexican-built Kicks will be finding a lot of new homes in 2025 too.
Next week: 2025 Subaru WRX tS
2025 Nissan Kicks
Vehicle type: Front-engine, front- and all-wheel-drive, five-passenger SUV
Price: $23,220, including $1,390 destination fee ($31,020 SR AWD with Premium Package (panoramic sunroof) as tested)
Powerplant: 2.0-liter 4-cylinder
Power: 141 horsepower, 140 pound-feet of torque
Transmission: Automatic, continuously variable
Performance: 0-60 mph (9.5 sec., Car and Driver est.); top speed, 110 mph
Weight: 3,252 pounds (as tested)
Fuel economy: EPA, 28 mpg city/35 highway/31 combined (FWD); 27 mpg city/34 highway/30 combined (AWD)
Report card
Highs: Sci-fi style; modern interior with lots of standard features
Lows: No-thrills powertrain; tight back seat compared to competitors
Overall: 3 stars
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or @HenryEPayne.
Cartoon: Campaign Cyberbus Trump Musk
Posted by Talbot Payne on October 8, 2024