Charlevoix — In the 1920s, the Ford Model T transformed America.

Bringing affordable, personal transportation to the masses, “Tin Lizzies” — as Model Ts were fondly nicknamed — established Detroit as a manufacturing colossus, made farming more efficient, replaced the train as the primary means of long-distance transport, and opened rural areas like northern Michigan to tourist travel.

A century later, Ford Motor Co.’s Model Ts are still plying the roads — and turning heads — here thanks to its durable design, dedicated repair infrastructure and passionate owners.

Mary Carr Leatherman is celebrating the 100^th birthday of her family’s 1925 T this year by going on long country drives with her sister, Irene, and husband, John Dean. With its two-speed transmission and 40-mph top speed, the four-cylinder Ford can be seen chugging along Charlevoix County’s two-lane roads in daily traffic.

“It’s a special feeling, because I like antique things,” said Dean, 78, decked out in 1920s-style goggles, flat cap and elbow-length leather gloves. Mary and Irene sit behind him, resplendent in full period white skirts. “I keep thinking about what (the Model T) was like then, what the people were like, and what they experienced when they were driving it. It’s a bit of a reverse time machine.”

Made from 1908 to 1927, Model T production revved up after 1910 when it moved to Ford’s Highland Park facility, reaching more than 2 million units a year by 1925. Prices dropped from $850 in 1909 (about $30,000 in today’s dollars) to $260 in 1925 (about $5,000 today), making it widely affordable with 10,000 cars a day rolling off the line. Henry Ford and his son drove the last Model T — the 15 millionth — off the line in May 1927.

Henry Payne

Leatherman’s grandfather Richard Sr. purchased the T in 1925 in Commerce, Mississippi, where he used it as a daily driver on his cotton farm. Two generations later, his grandson, Richard Jr., moved the car to Memphis, Tennessee, where it made cameo appearances — like transporting Mary and Irene to their weddings.

“I remember as a child my brother and first cousin, Ted, playing around with it — and my grandfather teaching them how to drive it,” said Leatherman, 71. “They loved cars.”

One hundred years on, the Model T’s revolutionary design is still remarkably relevant. Its left-side drive makes it easy for passengers to exit curbside (legend has it Henry Ford designed it that way so his wife, Clara, could safely exit to the curb). Its Model T nomenclature has been copied by Tesla Inc., which fancies its popular electric vehicles (Model X, Model 3, etc.) as Ford’s 21st-century successor. And its high-riding, good-visibility seating position dovetails with the current craze for high-riding SUVs.

In the 1920s, that tall wheelbase was essential to navigating rutted, muddy, horse-and-buggy roads that were suddenly busy with thousands of Fords. It is hard to understate how the T changed life here.

Reliable, durable and powerful, Model T proliferated on farms.

“It was called ‘the farmer’s friend,’” Ford Heritage and Brand Manager Ted Ryan said in an interview. “Its tall wheelbase was essential to navigating rutted roads, and its versatility made it a tremendous farm tool. Like an F-series platform toy, you could put different top hats on it, from a four-door to a pickup bed.”

Farmers used the T for a variety of farm chores, including hooking up wheat thrashers, running grist mills and transporting goods to market. “The only thing that limited the Model T was the imagination of the owner,” Ryan said.

Leatherman and Dean brought their Model T to Charlevoix because their extended family reunions are here each summer. And because it felt like home.

“When my father died, he sent (the T) back to the farm in Mississippi … and no one was caring for it,” Leatherman said. “My sister and I decided we would put this project in (John’s) hands, because he loves a challenge. And Michigan, of course, is the car state.”

They follow in the tire tracks of scores of Model T owners who headed north a century ago with their new contraptions. Before the T, northern Michigan had mostly been accessible only to upper-income families who would load their families on trains for long hotel stays.

Charlevoix, for example, had some 1,000 hotel rooms in 1920 — and just 350 today. The move away from trains toward automobiles was signified by the closure of Charlevoix’s massive, 250-room hotel, The Inn, in 1937.

“The effect of reduced train ridership due to the continued rise of the automobile sealed its fate after 43 seasons,” records a Charlevoix Historical Society documentary. “It has no room for parking for the large number of cars.”

Dean took the Model T to Ed Baudoux, one of Northern Michigan’s “Model T whisperers,” who restored the car to its original mechanical condition.

“People look at these cars and think they are worth a million dollars,” said Baudoux, who works from a barn behind his Grayling home. “But Ford made 15 million of them. The Model T is the poor man’s collector car.”

Model Ts today can fetch anywhere from $5,000-$20,000 with good restorations somewhere in between, said Baudoux. Rare models like a two-door Runabout might push $50K. Along with help from Jeff Humble, president of the Northern Michigan Ts (the local Model T club), Dean trained himself to drive the Model T using an original owner’s manual as thick as Manhattan’s phone book. A Ford poster on his wall prescribes regular maintenance.

“I’ve driven a modern stick car for a good part of my life, and you have to unlearn that, because the Model T methodology (of) levers, pedals and the tools of the car are not common sense. They’re not what you’re used to,” Dean said. “My new best friends Ed and Jeff were very patient with me.”

Dean juggles the controls as he drives — an art that he has passed on to Richard Leatherman Sr.’s 16-year-old great-great grandson, Richard.

For all its accessibility to average drivers, the Model T required owners to pay attention to mechanical detail. A six-volt battery under the rear seat powers the flywheel magneto ignition system. The nine-gallon gas tank is under the driver’s seat, requiring a careful fill lest fuel drip on the hot exhaust running beneath the car. A single carburetor delivers fuel to four pistons, and Dean closes the fuel line valve when the car is not in operation.

“Allow the fuel to run low, and the Model T might stall on an incline due to its gravity-fed fuel line from tank to carburetor,” Humble, who owns three Ts, said in an interview. Should that happen, he explained, drivers would turn the car around, put the T in reverse gear (thus allowing fuel to flow downhill into the carburetor) and drive it backwards up the hill.

Sideboards make for easy access to the driver’s seat (via the right passenger door only), where operators encountered a blizzard of controls, including a parking brake, three floor pedals (left clutch/first gear, center clutch/reverse gear, right engine brake), floor-mounted starter button, dash key and choke, steering wheel-mounted accelerator stalk and spark plug advance.

“It was a unique system that Ford designed for the Model T,” said Baudoux, 59, who learned to work on Ts at Saginaw’s Douglas MacArthur High School at the foot of shop teacher — and renowned Model T whisperer — Robert Scherzer. Scherzer’s class built a 1923 Model T pickup that is one of two Ts Baudoux owns today.

“By the time the Model T went into mass production, it was obsolete,” said the Grayling mechanic, citing the relentless pace of automotive development in the early 20^th century. “But Henry Ford was a manufacturing genius and kept making the T more affordable.”

The T’s successor, the Model A (one of which Baudoux also owns), in 1927, adopted the three-pedal clutch system familiar to stick-shift cars today. But the T was simply designed and repeatable to make — a feature demonstrated by the Model T Club of Greater St. Louis, which publicly assembles a T in 10 minutes every year. With so many Ts still alive today, a global supply chain has grown to support it: tires made in Vietnam, axle shafts from Taiwan, radiators by Brassworks in California.

“The Model T was brilliantly designed,” Humble said. “It could be put together quickly and reliably. For a public that had never driven a car before, it was a clever, easy introduction into automobiles.”

In northern Michigan, the T phenomenon brought a flood of visitors onto an antiquated road system. Among them was Henry Ford himself.

“He loved walking the walk,” said archivist Ryan. “He loved his Ts and making people’s lives easier.”

Paved roads were largely exclusive to Metro Detroit in the early 20^th century (the first concrete road was built in Motown in 1909) with out-state roads mostly dirt or gravel, co-traveled by horse-and-buggy. The American Automobile Association was formed in 1902 as 23,000 cars joined 17 million horses on the roads.

By 1916, Model Ts were transforming travel, and AAA instituted roadside assistance for stranded travelers. Fuel? Travelers carried their own cans, buying petrol at general stores where kerosene was also sold (for lighting and cooking). AAA spearheaded a campaign for better roads, including federal funding for highways. Gas stations began to pop up on heavily-trafficked routes and, by 1919, gas had surpassed kerosene as the best-selling U.S. petroleum product.

Each year, Humble said, the northern Michigan Ts get together to make a trip around the region’s roads, including through the Tunnel of Trees and over the mighty Mackinac Bridge.

It’s a trip that Dean and Leatherman want to do someday with their new friends Jeff, Ed … and more.

“Once you start talking about (old) cars in this part of Michigan … it’s very different,” Dean smiled.“ There’s a gentleman in Petoskey that specializes in replacement carburetors. There’s this network that just goes all over the place, and every time you turn around, you end up with yet another new friend.”

One of Henry Ford’s favorite destinations was Lovells Township, just 23 miles northeast of Baudoux’s Grayling shop, where the Ford founder enjoyed fishing on the Au Sable River beginning in 1916. The Lovells Township Historical Society recounted to promotemichigan.com how Ford once met a local, frustrated Model T owner who had stalled his Model T on an incline.

Ford turned the car around, put it in reverse, then backed it up the hill.

Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or @HenryEPayne.

Henry Payne, The Detroit News

Charlevoix — After not touching the steering wheel on Full Self-Driving for an hour and a half up I-75, I exited the freeway at Gaylord. Turning on to the M-32 twisties, I took back the controls — my left thumb searching for the turn signal — from Autopilot. ZOT! The sedan rocketed past 60 mph in less than three seconds, its colossal 554 pound-feet of torque burying my spine in the seatback.

The second-generation Tesla Model 3 Performance is here, and it’s two steps forward — and one step back.

Or maybe I should say leaps instead of steps. As the most innovative brand of the 21^st century commandeered by the most mercurial CEO since Henry Ford (imagine the blowback to Ford’s building WW2 bombers for FDR in today’s political climate), Tesla hasn’t been shy about trying to reinvent the automobile, whether design, autonomous driving, or electric power. I’ve owned both generations of the Model 3 Performance and they have been a nonstop, exhilarating, nerve-wracking journey on the cutting edge of auto tech.

Happily, the journey is now shorter to pick up a new car.

Leap forward. Six years ago, I picked up my 2019 M3P at Tesla’s Shaker Heights showroom outside Cleveland … because Michigan, um, banned Tesla showrooms. Today, thanks to a Whitmer administration initiative, Tesla has four showroom/service centers in Michigan — including in my West Bloomfield backyard. The no-haggle, online purchase process is easy-as-pie.

Leap forward. I was excited for the new 2025 Performance model for no other reason than designer Franz von Holzhausen has cleaned up the design. With its wide hips and coupe-back roof, M3 was always a looker from behind — but, oh, that face!

Determined to be different (Tesla’s North Star), the American startup’s first mass-produced car (it has sold a remarkable 2 million units since its 2017 introduction) scrubbed its front end of any trace of a grille. The result was a featureless face that reminded me of the Harry Potter villain, Voldemort. Eek.

Gen 2 is a dramatic improvement. The nose is sharper, more sculpted — its lean theme extending rearward with thinner headlights/taillights and more toned stampings. Always distinctive, Model 3 is now the peer of its handsome European competition.

Leap backward. Over those six years, I put just 14,331 miles on the odometer as an auto critic testing over 60 cars a year. No matter. The residuals of Model 3 Production models are through the floor (an EV affliction).

My low-mileage 2019 M3P cost $63,940 in 2019 and was listing no better than $22,000 on the used market — a 65% depreciation. A comparable, gas-fueled 2019 BMW M2 Competition, by comparison, held its value at $51,000 — just a 15% depreciation.

The sales process for the 2025 Tesla Model 3 Performance remains haggle-free and is completed online. Thanks to legislative changes since 2020, buyers can now pick up their cars — and get them serviced — in Michigan.

Henry Payne, The Detroit News

I took Tesla’s $19,500 trade-in on a new, 2025 M3P priced for $62,000.

Unlike 2019, that price did not come with a $7,500 federal tax credit, the ceiling having been lowered to $60,000 for EVs to qualify ($80,000 for EV SUVs like a Tesla Model X). On the other hand, I was able to transfer my Full Self-Driving capability (an $8,000 value, up from $5,000 in 2019) from my old Tesla to the new bot.

Leap forward. And what a bot it is.

The advances in self-driving since 2019 are remarkable. When I drove my 2019 MP3 home from Cleveland, the system only worked on divided highways, and I had to keep my hand on the wheel.

You can drive the 2025 Tesla Model 3 Performance hands-free anywhere in Full Self-Driving (FSD) mode.

Henry Payne, The Detroit News

When I picked up my 2025 Model 3 Performance from West Bloomfield, I gave it my address and it drove itself home. Credit Tesla’s relentless race with Google and Amazon for the Holy Grail of self-driving. Google is trying to achieve full, Level 4 driverless autonomy using Lidar, while Tesla is convinced it can get the job done with cheaper cameras.

Production cars like my M3P, however, are still Level 2, meaning that, on my trip to Charlevoix, the car constantly monitored my eyes for engagement.

While hands-free systems from General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co.are mostly limited to divided highways, Tesla will drive to your destination as long as the road has painted lines. With a full 296 miles of range, I instructed the Tesla to navigate back from Charlevoix to my home, a 250-mile trip. Included was a 10-minute charging stop at Meijer’s Bay City store.

Not only did the Tesla navigate to the charger, but — upon arrival — it parked itself at one of the charging stalls. Press the turn signal, and M3P backed into the first available space.

Leap backward. That’s right, I “pressed” the turn signal.

In its quest to simplify cabin controls (and, no doubt, manufacturing), Tesla messed up one of the coolest cabin operations in autodom. The OG steering wheel was an aesthetically clean creation with two scroll wheels handling functions from mirrors to steering-wheel position to cruise control-speed to volume. Shifting/FSD and turn signals? Handled by two column stalks.

For 2025, Tesla has removed the stalks, leading to a mess o’ complications. Shifting is now done in the 15.4-inch center infotainment screen — an echo of other brand methods (think Lincoln’s console shifter buttons or GMC’s piano keys). Operation briefly takes your eyes off the road.

But moving turn signal and FSD commands to the steering wheel requires a blizzard of icons (for voice, cruise control, arrows for turn signals).

The latter is the most problematic, as you now have to feel for the turn signal buttons next to a braille locator. Argh. As I turned the wheel onto M-32 in Gaylord, I fished for the turn signal buttons at the same time — clumsy when compared to the simple pull of a stalk.

“It’s not just dumb, it’s unsafe,” bemoans YouTube colleague Jason Camissa. Aftermarket companies have already crafted stalk solutions. Stalks aside, passengers will appreciate conveniences like ambient lighting, better-fitting seats and a rear-seat screen with climate control.

Leap forward. Of course, you don’t need stalks when you release the Kraken on M-32’s curves.

Here, the new M3P shines. The Tesla is noticeably better screwed together than the last gen. Solid chassis, quiet cabin, while unlocking an impressive 83 more torque (and 37 more horsepower). Remarkably, Tesla has achieved this while actually REDUCING curb weight from 4,072 pounds to 4,054. Has any modern performance car gotten lighter from one gen to the next? Ever?

With all-wheel-drive power and a stiff chassis, the 2025 Tesla Model 3 Performance is fun in the twisties — though turn-in is numb.

Henry Payne, The Detroit News

That light weight contributes to nimble center entry and face-flattening thrust on exit. Alas, turn-in is still numb, but magnetic shocks have made for a more compliant suspension.

Tesla’s charging and self-driving supremacy hint at an autonomous future. But the Gen 2 M3P’s aesthetics and handling are welcome indications that Tesla hasn’t forgotten what makes performance sedans fun to drive.

Next week: Genesis G80

2025 Tesla Model 3 Performance

Vehicle type: All-wheel-drive, five-passenger sedan

Price: Base $56,380, including $1,390 destination charge ($64,630 as tested)

Powerplant: Lithium-ion battery pack mated to dual electric motors

Power: 510 horsepower, 554 pound-feet torque

Transmission: Single-speed automatic

Performance: 0-60 mph, 2.8 seconds (Car and Driver); top speed, 155 mph

Weight: 4.054 pounds

Range: 298 miles on full charge

Report card

Highs: Improved build; improved design

Lows: Poor residuals; where’d the stalks go?

Overall: 4 stars

Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or @HenryEPayne.

Henry Payne

If you FOMO on BEVs but still must emit CO2 for trips, PHEV may be your GOAT.

Translation: Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) are the new fashion statements as luxury customers face the drawbacks of BEVs (battery electric vehicles) yet still require electric for moral or convenience reasons. Two of the latest PHEVs are the handsome 2025 Range Rover Sport and Volvo XC90 T8 sitting in my driveway.

Both bring the latest digital tech, peppy drivetrains and roomy three-row cabins — wrapped in their respective, distinctive European wardrobes. Here’s how I rate ‘em after a weeklong test in Metro Detroit:

Charging

Like BEVS, PHEVs are best fueled on home 240-volt charging systems. I plugged both models into my garage charger overnight for 100% battery range the next a.m. That is, 53 miles of battery-only driving for the Range Rover, 33 miles for the Volvo. That was plenty for daily errands ‘round Oakland County but not enough for my 64-mile round trip to Detroit Metro Airport. Your range will vary depending on temperature, rain and speed.

Driving to the airport on a lovely 50-degree May morning, my XC90 T8 Ultra tester got its advertised battery range at 75 mph on the Lodge and I-94. At 33 miles, just shy of the airport, the Volvo seamlessly switched to gas-electric power without missing a stride. Inside the quiet cabin, I didn’t notice the turbo-4 engine kick in while traveling on I-94 on adaptive cruise control.

Had I been driving the Englishman (its given name, the Sport P460e Dynamic SE a typically European bowl of alphabet soup), the internal combustion mill wouldn’t have kicked in until I was halfway back home. But either way, if I wanted to drive on electrons alone, I would need to plug the two utes in at my airport parking lot, Qwikpark, and its bank of 110-volt outlets.

When I arrived at 6:40 a.m. on a Monday, there were only two spots left at the 12-space charging stable. I dragged the charging cord out of the hatchback’s sub-storage bin and … wrong plug for the Qwikpark outlet. Back to the trunk, I found the proper, three-prong plug, and … it didn’t work.

Every charging station is different, and Qwikpark secrets their plugs inside covered boxes to keep them out of Michigan’s elements. This box was too shallow for Volvo’s plug. Grrr. A Qwikpark airport shuttle sidled rolled up. I waved her on.

“I’m still plugging in,” I smiled, thankful I left home three hours ahead of my flight. “I’ll get the next van.”

I found another 110-volt box that had been — um, expanded by force — to accommodate larger connections like mine. The three-prong connector snapped into place. Phew. Of course, the beauty of PHEVs is that, even if charging failed, I would still have 497 miles of gas range in the Volvo, 407 in the Rover.

The XC90 indicated it would take 24 hours to fill 32 miles on the 110-volt. That’s a loooooong time. No worries, though. I wouldn’t be back from my trip for 40 hours.

Driving

Assisted by battery torque and turbochargers, the internal combustion powertrains in Rover ‘n’ XC90 can really hustle. On battery power alone? Not so much.

In EV (Range Rover) and PURE (Volvo) modes, the SUVs sail along on smooth, all-wheel-drive power. But these are small batteries — 31 kWh in the Sport, 15 kWh in the XC90 — compared to the massive 100-kWh pack in a comparable Tesla Model X or Cadillac Vistiq. So acceleration is more of a nudge than the face-flattening ZOT! of a luxury BEV peers.

The Brit’s a bit perkier, thanks to its 2X battery capacity over the Volvo, but that added beef comes at a price — the 6,199-pound Rover is 1,000 pounds heavier than the XC90. That’s a lotta meat pies. The XC90 feels downright spry compared to the Rover.

When the battery runs out — or if you switch Rover to HYBRID mode — the big Brit wakes up. RAAAAWRGH! I stomped the gas pedal and the beast let out a roar from its twin-turbocharged, 3.0-liter inline-six — its formidable 454 horses vaulting past 60 mph in less than five seconds.

With 455 ponies, the Volvo is just as quick, according to our friends at Car and Driver, but gets there with a less invigorating turbo-4 banger. Hammer down, Thor!

Design

Speaking of the Scandinavian superhero, the Volvo delivers the brand’s signature Thor’s Hammer headlights combined with the expected grille bisected by Volvo’s diagonal bar logo. What’s unexpected is the new, interlaced grille logo interpretation. It’s both refreshing and more distinctive — always a welcome combination when you are paying north of $80K.

Speaking of looks, Land Rover is an industry icon. Its chiseled proportions and simple aesthetic are mimicked by brands from Ford to Jeep. The Sport ups its game inside with the usual lush materials decorated with crisp, thin digital tablets in the console and instrument display. The latter — which seems to float beneath its hood — is particularly eye-catching.

As expected at this price point, both utes are lathered with luxury features like heated/cooled seats, massaging chairs and comfortable head/legroom. The tight third rows? For small adults and children.

Rover and XC90 adopt monoshifters to save console space and accommodate wireless phone chargers and cupholders. The Volvo shows off its Scandinavian heritage with its shifter made from Orrefors glass. De-lish.

Operation

The brands’ austere design themes mean few buttons. Both mitigate this slight with clever visual, in-screen shortcuts to adjust, for example, temperature and drive modes. But ultimately, I learned to adjust my environment with voice commands:

Hey, Land Rover: Set driver temperature to 70 degrees

Hey, Land Rover: Navigate to CVS Pharmacy

Hey, Land Rover: Turn the radio on.

Volvo was one of the first automakers to adopt the Google Built-in operating system, which accomplished the same mission. Voice commands also avoid sometimes laggy screens.

Tech

Where Range Rover separates itself from Volvo in content and price is its ridiculously capable off-road toolkit. If I owned a Sport, I would take it to Holly Oaks ORV Park, select OFF-ROAD mode, finger MUD/RUTS and exercise it over the auto playground’s hills and valleys. The Brit even has a two-speed transfer case for the really sticky stuff.

If it’s bandwidth you’re looking for — six cylinders, off-road capability — Rover’s your dog. If not, both these critters will hunt just fine. Often on nothing but electric motors.

Next week: Picking up my second-generation Tesla Model 3 Performance

2025 Range Rover Sport PHEV

Vehicle type: All-wheel-drive, five-door, seven-passenger luxury SUV

Price: $96,725, including $1,625 destination charge ($106,865 Dynamic SE as tested)

Powerplant: 3.0-liter, twin-turbocharged, inline 6-cylinder and electric motor paired with 32-kWh lithium-ion battery

Power: 454 horsepower, 487 pound-feet of torque

Transmission: Eight-speed automatic

Performance: 0-60 mph, 4.8 seconds (Car and Driver); towing, 6,614 pounds

Weight: 6,199 pounds

Fuel economy: EPA 53 MPGe; 21 mpg (gas only); 53 miles on battery alone; 470 miles gas/electric

Report card

Highs: Gorgeous inside/out; throaty inline-6

Lows: Tight third row; gets pricey

Overall: 3 stars

2025 Volvo XC90 PHEV

Vehicle type: All-wheel-drive, five-door, six-passenger luxury SUV

Price: $81,995, including $1,295 destination charge ($88,695 T8 AWD Ultra as tested)

Powerplant: 2.0-liter, twin-turbocharged, inline 4-cylinder and electric motor paired with 15-kWh lithium-ion battery

Power: 455 horsepower, 523 pound-feet of torque

Transmission: Eight-speed automatic

Performance: 0-60 mph, 4.8 seconds (Car and Driver); towing, 5,290 pounds

Weight: 5,124 pounds

Fuel economy: EPA 58 MPGe; 27 mpg (gas only); 33 miles on battery alone; 530 miles gas/electric

Report card

Highs: Handsome new face; peppy inline-4

Lows: Tight third row; inline-4 lacks sex appeal of rest of package

Overall: 3 stars

Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him athpayne@detroitnews.com or @HenryEPayne.

San Diego — We Americans love our hamburgers and our mid-size SUVs.

Burgers are the meat (pun intended) of popular food. McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, Shake Shack, Five Guys, Sonic, White Castle, Whataburger, Culver’s, Hardee’s and so on meeting consumers’ insatiable appetite for the patty. So, too, are mid-size SUVs the meat of the auto market. Toyota RAV-4, Honda CR-V, Tesla Model Y, Nissan Rogue, Ford Escape, Ford Bronco Sport, Mazda CX-5, Mazda CX-50, Chevy Equinox, Equinox EV and so on meeting consumers’ unslaked thirst for the SUV.

But just as the Big Three of McDonalds’, Wendy’s and Burger King dominate the burger market, so too did RAV-4, Model Y and CR-V rule the segment in 2024 with each topping a staggering 400K in sales (over 400,000 served!) — numbers exceeded only by the Detroit Three pickups of F-150, Silverado and Ram.

McHonda CR-V wants more.

The Made in America CR-V vaulted to 402,791 units sold last year by offering a recipe that appeals to a broad swath of Yanks. The sixth-generation model, introduced in 2023, split the lineup with two powertrains: an entry-level 1.5-liter turbo-4, and a gas-electric hybrid. Call it the Big Mac-V: two all-beef engines, special sauce, served on an all-wheel-drive bun (oh, I’m just getting started with the burger metaphors).

The terrific 190-horsepower/179 torque turbo-4 — shared with the Civic Si pocket rocket and luxury Acura ADX — has ponies aplenty. But the hybrid is no tree-hugging gerbil wheel. It’s a 202-horse/247-torque beastie that can stomp the Acura out of a stoplight while also sipping 40 mpg.

Offered in the upper-trim Sport models (Sport, Sport-L, Sport Touring), the hybrid made up 50% of CR-V sales last year despite carrying a $1,500 premium. Smart shoppers no doubt figured out gas savings would pay for the premium in about four years (not to mention the time saved with its healthy 500 miles of range).

No surprise that CR-V has changed little for its 2026, mid-product cycle update other than the addition of another hybrid model — my $39K TrailSport.

The CR-V TrailSport follows its larger stablemates (Passport ‘n’ Pilot) in appealing to Americans’ recent taste for off-road models. Dressed in Ash Green Metallic, with black accents and standard all-wheel drive, TrailSport is a looker (note to my sis who thought the fifth-gen model a dog) — if not as capable as its peers (more on that later).

TrailSport’s special sauce — like all CR-Vs — is its attention to passenger detail and reliability. Let’s begin in back.

Open CR-V’s second-row passenger door — and it keeps on opening. All the way to 90 degrees, a rare feature in automobiles, which makes ingress/egress a cinch whether you’re a 6’5” freak like me or a wee mom struggling to load in one of those modern Brobdingnagian child car seats.

Once inside, row two keeps on giving with a palatial, best-in-class 41 inches of legroom (just two inches shy of a Ford F-150, for goodness sake). More convenience for my long limbs and that mega-car seat. Need more room?

The second-row seats fold flat to expand the best-in-class cargo space. Climb behind the wheel and CR-V sports excellent ergonomics combined with standard, state-of-the-art tech — all wrapped in signature orange TrailSport trim. After setting my navigation course with wireless Apple CarPlay, I merged onto San Diego’s crowded I-5 and engaged (standard) adaptive cruise control.

I thumbed the steering wheel’s raised toggle switch to increase/decrease speed without taking my eyes off the road. Climate controls are fat knobs under a nine-inch screen located high on the dash for good road visibility while navigating.

The entry-level, alphanumeric turbo-4 CR-V models (LX, EX, EX-L) are all you need beginning at $32K, but TrailSport’s pricier hybrid system offers cool toys.

Chief among them is the B mode selection (short for regenerative braking) below D (Drive) which doesn’t actually select gears at all. Honda’s two-motor hybrid system replaces a transmission with an electric motor, and B mode allows the e-motor to slow the car without brakes.

So-called one-pedal driving is a unique feature of electrified vehicles, and Honda makes good use of it. The hybrid also has a SPORT mode which enables maximum engine torque for interstate merges and two-lane road passes. The engine gets shouty — WAUUUURGH! — under load, but the extra grunt is appreciated.

Less inspiring is the hybrid’s long-term reliability given its complexity compared to old-school internal-combustion engines.

Honda’s reliability secret sauce is an asset in the motor mall. An iSeeCars longevity study, for example, gave CR-V the best chance of any mid-size SUV lasting over 250,000 miles.

“I bought a Honda because they are sporty and reliable,” said friend Mike. “Detroit automakers keep getting recalled, and Hondas keep on ticking. I have a family and don’t have time to keep taking my car to the shop.”

CR-V’s dependability, however, has slipped in recent generations as powertrain complexity has increased. As hybrid sales grow, consumers will have their eye on reliability as well as the gas gauge.

As for McTrailSport’s off-road chops, CR-V is not as ambitious as other brands. Want a mouth-watering beef burger? Ditch Mickey D’s and go to Five Guy’s. Want a dirt-kicking off-roader? Check out a Ford Bronco Sport with lifted chassis, underbelly bash plates and twin-clutch packs out back for gnarly mud-slinging at Holly Oaks ORV Park.

Use the CR-V TrailSport to haul your Honda motorbikes there.

TrailSport will tow up to 1,000 pounds (the turbo-4 1,500 pounds) and comes equipped with all-terrain tires to navigate dirt trails. I grunted around dusty Barona Parks Motocross Park near San Diego, where its off-road tools (all-terrain tires, no-slip all-wheel-drive system, low-speed hill descent control) worked nicely.

These tools translate to real-world Michigan roads — whether covered by snow or potholes. More aggressive off-roaders be warned — the underbody is not protected by skid plates (like the Bronco Sport — and Passport and Pilot TrailSports), and CR-V hybrids don’t come with a spare tire to make room for the battery beneath the cargo floor.

After a day of driving the CR-V, I devoured a food truck burger at Barona Parks. I recommend both.

Next week: Topless in the 2025 Mazda MX-5 Miata

2026 Honda CR-V

Vehicle type: Front- and all-wheel-drive, five-door, five-passenger SUV

Price: $32,315, including $1,395 destination charge ($40,195 TrailSport as tested)

Powerplant: 1.5-liter turbocharged, inline 4-cylinder; hybrid 2.0-liter, inline 4-cylinder driving two electric motors paired with 1.1-kWh lithium-ion battery

Power: 190 horsepower, 179 pound-feet of torque (Turbo-4); 202 horsepower, 247 pound-feet of torque (Hybrid)

Transmission: Continuously-variable automatic; direct drive

Performance: 0-60 mph, 7.9 seconds (Car and Driver); towing, 1,000-1,500 pounds

Weight: 3,900 pounds (TrailSport as tested)

Fuel economy: EPA 28 mpg city/33 highway/30 combined (Turbo-4 FWD); 40 mpg city/34 highway/37 combined (Sport Hybrid AWD); 38 mpg city/33 highway/35 combined (TrailSport Hybrid); 30 mpg observed

Report card

Highs: Rugged styling; awesome ergonomics/cabin detail

Lows: TrailSport limited off-road bandwidth; Google Built-in only available on top Sport Touring trim

Overall: 4 stars

Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him athpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne

Paris — Merging onto Paris’s suburban ring roads, my mid-size Cadillac Lyriq electric vehicle felt supersized surrounded by subcompacts, motorbikes, and small panel vans. Unlike Detroit’s I-96 and I-75 speedways, we moved like a school of fish, toeing the speed limit in an orderly procession out of France’s biggest city.

Welcome to Planet Europe.

With gas prices at $8-a-gallon (1.80 Euros per liter), mandated in-car speed warnings, speed cameras everywhere, narrow city streets, and the European Commission banning internal combustion engines over the next ten years, the automotive landscape in statist France is a very different place than open-road, low-cost energy USA.

No wonder Cadillac’s European product lineup is dramatically different than in its U.S. backyard. There are no V8-powered Escalades or fire-breathing CT5-V Blackwing hellions here. Or Ford Mustangs, Dodge Challengers and Chevrolet Corvettes for that matter. Full-size pickup trucks, the best-selling vehicles in the Unites States? Nowhere to be found.

But General Motors’ luxury brand sees paydirt here as it re-invents itself as the electric Standard of the World. European autos, analysts say, are increasingly luxury goods as entry-level vehicles become unaffordable — opening windows for premium, American EVs and heavily subsidized Chinese makes.

“With the electric mandates, small cars are going away. Cars are something for the rich,” said President Emeritus of the World Car of the Year awards and veteran writer Jen Meiners, who splits his time between Europe and the United States. “People are being pushed into public transportation. Even Smart cars and VWs have become unaffordable with the regulations.”

The once-popular, three-cylinder, gas-powered Smart Fortwo microcar cost about $15,000 in 2015 (adjusted for inflation) before the brand switched to electric power in 2018, increasing the price to $25,000 by 2024 when it was discontinued. Smart has moved on to larger, pricier EVs starting at $42k for the Smart #1 subcompact crossover.

The VW Golf GTI, the only Golf hatchback sold in the United States (starting at $34k), sold for $33,000 here 10 years ago. Today it stickers for about $45k, a 30% increase.

The EV market in Europe, as in the United States, has taken hold among affluent, urban buyers. Cadillac has planted its flagship showroom in the heart of Paris, and there is not a gas-powered car in sight (save the Cadillac V-Series.R Le Mans race car on display).

My rear-wheel-drive Lyriq Sport EV starts at $95,500 in France, compared to $65,000 in the US.

“We have a great opportunity here in Europe to grow our presence, especially in the current environment around EVs and the growth and the attraction that they’re bringing for the brand,” said Vice President for Global Cadillac John Roth in an interview here.

Two Lyriqs are on the showroom floor, and visitors can sign up for test drives around Place de l’Opéra square — nickname, “The Hub of the Universe” — where the showroom is located. My Lyriq journey would be a little longer: three hours west over 133 miles to the city of Le Mans where I would be covering the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the world’s premier endurance race.

Henry Payne

I awoke to a fully-charged Lyriq with 326 miles of range waiting for me outside my hotel. With France’s rush towards EV-only sales, Paris has embraced battery power. Regulators have drawn up plans to eliminate ICEs in the city with expanding “low-emission zones” that allow/fine cars according to their carbon emissions. My Lyriq, of course, wore an approved green badge.

“Cities want to give special rights to EVs and they push all ICEs out by 2035,” said Meiners. Paris regulations have been delayed due to consumer pushback.

Cadillac said inner city parking garages are littered with 220-volt chargers for overnight charging. European metropolises are famous for residents throwing cords out of second-story windows to charge their steeds curbside, and Paris has carved out EV-only parking places with chargers. The nuclear power-fed electric grid here has kept utility costs around 20 cents per-kWh — or about the same as Michigan.

That’s affordable compared to $8 a gallon prices I passed in Paris that have kept vehicles small (along with engine emissions taxes). Heading west on Paris’s Left Bank south of the Seine River, the Lyriq EV’s instant torque was well equipped for stop-and-go city traffic as I repeatedly shot through gaps — ZOT!

I pulled over in front of the Eiffel Tower tourist magnet for photos on a crisp, 60-degree morning. The Lyriq was a tourist attraction itself, provoking long stares. Its bold, vertical, that’s-gotta-be-a-Caddy lines stood out in the sea of homogenous econoboxes.

“There’s a lack of consumer choice here compared to 25 years ago,” said Meiners, who is also founder of the German Car of the Year awards. “Cars are expensive, and they are not as much fun anymore.”

Gasoline in France costs about $8 a gallon which encourages small gas cars and EVs like Tesla (right).

Henry Payne

A fun-killer is the EU’s mandated vehicle speed warnings — aka, Intelligent Speed Assist. Exceed the limit and the cabin will emit a BONG! BONG! BONG! alert. No wonder everyone was minding the speed limit. Exceed the limit in France and Big Brother may record your license plate number — with the fine mailed to your home.

So hated was ISA when it was introduced in 2019 that working class “yellow vest” protestors — rebelling against government taxation and regulations — vandalized 60% of the country’s speed cameras. As an American in Paris, I tucked into the (slow) flow of traffic out of town. Mercifully, my Lyriq tester’s ISA was turned off (a process that needed to be repeated each time I got into the car).

Regulations have deterred Cadillac from bringing its V-6 and V8-powered CT4 and CT5 sedans to Europe because they can’t meet (along with similar U.S. performance cars) Euro 6 emission rules that will soon escalate to tighter Euro 7.

The regulations concern England-headquartered Ineos CEO Lynn Calder, whose gas-powered, inline-6 cylinder, luxury Grenadier SUVs are built in the Hambach, France, plant where the Smart Fortwo was once made. Ineos is targeting the U.S. auto market for a majority of its sales.

“If (EU regulators)) aren’t careful, they will kill the industry,” she said in an interview. “Europe is a massive problem. EVs are more expensive, residual values are worse, and total cost of ownership is worse, so it’s double whammy after double whammy. It’s a rich person’s thing, and therefore the answer is there are going to be (gas cars) on the road for much longer than 2035.”

Looming electric mandates have, however, attracted new brands in addition to Cadillac — most notably America’s Tesla and Chinese brands.

Planet Europe also differs from the United States in that the majority (about 60%) of vehicles are purchased not by consumers but by companies that then distribute them to employees as perks of the job. Cadillac’s biggest customers, for example, are insurance and infrastructure companies, said Cadillac France Communications Director Isabelle Weitz.

Model S/E/X/Ys from Tesla — the OG of EV revolution — were everywhere, the electrics of choice among Parisians. Since corporate fleet sales tend to be more compliant with EV mandates, they are also a big opening for Chinese companies.

“We are starting to see the Chinese brands coming into the fleets with little fanfare,” said Meiners. “BYD, XPeng, Great Wall — even MG, which is now an EV brand owned by the Chinese. They are not great quality, but the MGs are fun to drive.”

On a two-lane country lane, the slavish following of speed limits fell away. A white Tesla Model 3 blew past me at a high rate of knots and I gave chase.

As in Paris, EV torque was an advantage. ZOT! We quickly vaulted slow-moving camionette (small utility trucks) in broken-line passing zones. When we approached small towns, the Tesla would slow abruptly, apparently knowledgeable of the speed cameras — located inside big, road-side, graffiti-covered boxes.

Traffic thinned in the countryside as did EV sightings. As back home, rural charging infrastructure is scarce.

Also scarce is government approval for hands-free drive assist — a common feature in U.S. vehicles, including Cadillacs, Chevys, Teslas, Fords and Lincolns. I relied on adaptive cruise control as the EU approves neither Cadillac’s SuperCruise nor Tesla’s Autopilot systems.

I pulled into Le Mans after my journey with 50% charge left. But for my brief, pedal-to-the-metal playtime with the Tesla, I had traveled below 70 mph — the sweet spot of batteries — so my range had degraded only 10% below expected mileage.

I spent the weekend watching V8-powered Cadillac V-Series.R Hypercars, Corvette Z06 GT3 and Mustang GT3 race cars pound around the 8.5-mile circuit against V8s from Porsche, Ferrari, and Mercedes. On Planet Europe, the racetrack is one of the last refuges for the mighty V-8.

Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him athpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne