The seventh-generation Nissan Z, Japan’s sports car icon, is updated for the first time in more than a decade. As the simplified nomenclature suggests — the Z stripped of its numerical prefix for the first time — the sports car is returning to its spare, athletic roots.
With sleek looks, twin-turbo V-6 engine, optional stick shift, and rear-wheel-drive, the 2023 Z promises a mid-priced driver’s car for the Nissan lineup to go with the $100,000-plus GT-R supercar. The new car joins a refreshed lineup of Nissans — including the value-rich Rogue and Pathfinder SUVs — which have won raves for their own remakes in style and handling.
“Z is the pure expression of thrill. It is Nissan’s passion wrapped up on four wheels,” said CEO Ashwani Gupta ahead of the car’s debut on Nissan’s YouTube channel Tuesday. The Z was also unveiled live in New York City despite the cancellation of this week’s New York Auto Show. “The new Z retains its authenticity as a pure sports car to keep you connected to the road while bringing in the latest modern technologies to make sure the car can help keep you connected to your life.”
The Z draws on an enthusiast fan base that has endured for more than 50 years — and has been desperate for a new toy to play with this decade. The Z will go on sale next spring and do battle against other sexy coupes like the Toyota Supra and BMW Z4 Roadster — but for thousands of dollars less.
Nissan says that the pricing will start around $40,000 — more than 10 grand less than a comparable, 6-cylinder Supra.
You’ll know Z by the retro, minimalist design — very much in keeping with the Z Proto prototype that Nissan showed off earlier this year: long hood, racy roofline, big headlights. It reclasses the classic 1976 280Z.
“We found ourselves gravitating towards the sketches that touched the high points of certain decades while remaining true to our vision of the future,” said global design chief Alfonso Albaisa, “Ultimately, we created a Z that travels between the decades while being completely modern.”
The new Z is offered in six two-tone exteriors, including the searing, signature Ikazuchi Yellow. Other colors include Brilliant Silver, Boulder Gray, Seiran Blue, Passion Red TriCoat, and Everest White Pearl TriCoat. Monotone colors are also available: Black Diamond Metallic, Gun Metallic and Rosewood Metallic.
Where the Z’s Toyota/BMW rivals (they were co-developed in a joint program and option both 4-and-6 cylinder engines) sport an inline-6, the 2023 Z’s 400-horse mill is of the V-6 variety — its horsepower a significant bump in power over the sixth-gen 370Z’s rating of 332.
The Z achieves this power output with the addition of twin turbos while reducing displacement by more than half a liter. The standard, six-speed manual transmission remains, however — a siren call for enthusiasts who want a closer bond with the drivetrain.
In keeping with the rest of the new Z, the manual benefits from modern electronics, including a launch control system (the 9-speed auto option also has launch control in addition to steering-wheel mounted paddle shifters).
A stiffer body structure, double-wishbone front suspension, and new shock absorber design promise better handling over the aged, outgoing model. A Performance trim offers bigger brakes and a limited-slip differential for those who want to push the limits on track days. Sticky performance tires wrap around 18 or 19-inch wheels.
The interior shares the exterior’s lean approach but is stuffed with modern tech that had been sorely missing from the gray-beard last-gen model.
An 8.0-inch touchscreen sits under three analog pod gauges. A standard, configurable, 12.3-inch digital screen behind the steering wheel is full of driver information. Normal, Enhanced and Sport drive modes change the display when selected. Interior material options include cloth, suede and leather seats.
Like its SUV and sedan siblings, the base Z Sport model comes encrusted with standard tech including push-button start, adaptive cruise control, rear-view monitor, USB and USB-C ports, smartphone-app compatibility and more.
More goo-gaws are offered when customers upgrade to the Z Performance model. A Z Proto Spec launch edition is also offered — though limited to 240 units in the U.S. It gets yellow-colored brake calipers with Z logo, yellow interior accents, bronze 19-inch wheels, and an exclusive manual shift lever knob.
“Whether on an unexplored winding road or your daily commute, the Z brings a smile and awakens the senses,” said Gupta.
The 2022 Jeep Grand Wagoneer, like Mackinac Island’s historic Grand Hotel, embraces its past to offer the most luxurious vehicle the brand has ever offered.
Grand Hotel has coddled families since 1887 with its spectacular views of the Mackinac Straits, enormous porch, and opulent grounds and golf course. The Grand Wagoneer has its own storied history as the first, giant SUV built from 1963-1991 with commanding views of the surrounding streets, enormous wood paneling, and acres of space.
The 2022 model updates the concept for the 21st century.
Sharing its bones with the Wagoneer, which ably does battle with other truck-based SUVs like the GMC Tahoe and Ford Expedition, the Grand Wagoneer offers luxury on par with names like the Cadillac Escalade and Range Rover. For its 21st century model, the Grand brings its wood paneling inside where it shares space with hotel suite-like comfort and up to 75 inches of screen technology. I’ll have more time with the Wagoneer in the future, but for now, Grand Wagoneer is the headliner.
Few can afford it, but this is a halo vehicle — a fashion plate that inspires the rest of the lineup. You covet it, then settle for a handsome, three-row, $50k Grand Cherokee L.
Escaping Gotham north along the Hudson Rover, I hustled my remarkably nimble, 6,400-pound tester over a variety of bridges, highways, and undulating country roads. Deeper and deeper I rode into the Empire State. Credit major upgrades to the ladder-frame truck chassis (shared with the Ram 1500 pickup) like air suspension and independent rear suspension.
This is the second $100,000-plus Jeep I’ve driven — the 707-horse Grand Cherokee Trackhawk being the first. Like that Hellcat-powered rhino in tennis shoes, the Grand borrows a V-8 engine — the 471-horspower, 6.4-liter V-8 — from the Dodge Challenger. While the V-8 does yeoman’s work below decks powering the land yacht along, the Trackhawk and Grand are otherwise as different as Rocky Balboa and Rock Hudson.
Drop six figures on the Trackhawk and you’ll hang out at Woodward parking lot with the boys talking horsepower, launch control, and superchargers. Invest in the Grand to take to the family to, well, Mackinac Island.
Talking about the Garden Wagoneer’s drivetrain is as besides the point as boring the family over dinner at the Grand Hotel’s Main Dining Room about the hydro-electric plant that powers the resort.
What the kiddies really want to hear about is all the cool activities on tap. The Grand Wagoneer has plenty.
Encased in a whisper-quiet cabin with the V-8 barely audible up front, a family of six each have their own room in the Grand. Up front, the driver is immersed in tech. Heck, like captaining an airplane on Autopilot, he doesn’t even have to have his feet on the pedals. I spent much of my journey in Active Driving Assist, simply toggling the speed up and down with a button on the two-spoke steering wheel.
With good lane-keep assist, radar and cameras, the Grand did the rest.
I was surrounded by high-tech opulence. To my left (in a nod to Mercedes) the Grand locates seat controls on the door. A wide, configurable, 12.5-inch digital screen displays a row of pages so I could monitor the ship’s controls: navigation route, Sirius XM station, range (a hefty 536 miles on a full tank), and so on. An additional head-up display over the bow gave me more essentials like speed limit and nav turns.
To my right, two more screens. Another 12.5-incher powered by Uconnect 5.0 — the latest, best infotainment system in the land. With quick touch screen icons, menus, and graphics, it is easy to set up. Below is yet another screen to monitor climate controls. Tap it and it opens like a secret James Bond 007 compartment to reveal a charging pad for your cell phone as well as holders for up to three more phones.
Will future Grands option a microwave oven in there?
The front passenger commands a third dash screen — sitting above lush Satin American Walnut wood embossed with GRAND WAGONEER in raised silver letters. Mrs. Payne could use the screen to watch a movie, or send the family chauffeur (me) nav instructions as to where to stop for dinner. Or she could monitor kids in the second row with a cabin cam.
The console was so choked with features — self-park, tow/haul, passenger dash screen, 007 door — that Jeep forgot a mute button for the radio. Oops. To lower the volume I had to tediously turn down the volume knob. A rare miss in this meticulous product.
Second row seating has so many options, the kids would have little time to misbehave. Available 10.1-inch screens are Amazon Fire-equipped so they can watch their favorite shows on Netflix, Amazon Prime, whatever. Road trip to Mackinac? Binge watch “The Mandalorian.”
Or mirror your phone. At a rest stop, I paired my Samsung with the big screen (it’s that Smart View button in your phone settings, Boomer) and watched the highlights from the Nashville IndyCar race. The activities seem endless. I suppose the kids could argue over the temperature controls in the 10.25-inch center tablet.
Then there is the third row, normally the attic room of three-row utes. Not in the Grand.
Kids back there may not get screens (the second-row seatbacks have to fold to make a load floor after all), but they get plenty. Like their own own sunroof. Clever engineering has brought adjustable HVAC vents within reach rather than high in the ceiling. USB ports are on tap. Legroom is plentiful.
Boy is it plentiful. At 6’5”, I could easily sit behind myself sitting behind myself in the third row. Jeep has even carved out space under the second row seat for my size 15 shoes.
Speaking of attention to detail, Grand Wagoneer does a nice impression of a fine hotel.
The bright work on the grille is gorgeous. Bronze and chrome air vents are exquisite. The raised STARTER button is a small gem. And did I mention the Satin American Walnut wood continues back through the cabin like a Grand Hotel bar?
The Warren-made Grand Wagoneer has an American flag etched on each front door, just above the wide doorstep that unfold when you open the door.
Kind of the like the American flags hanging from the Grand Hotel’s front porch.
2022 Jeep Grand Wagoneer
Vehicle type: Front engine, four-wheel-drive, six-or-seven-passenger SUV
Price: $88,995, including $2,000 destination fee ($109,580 Series III as tested)
Ford Motor Co. will replace hardtop roofs on all Bronco SUVs due to a quality issues, the automaker said Thursday.
In a letter to customers, the Dearborn-based company said the so-called “molded-in color hard tops” on both two and four-door Broncos have been identified with a quality issue that does not impact performance, but creates an “unsatisfactory appearance when exposed to extreme water and humidity.” The Bronco also comes with a soft-top option, and that is not affected.
The automaker said it doesn’t expect replacement roofs until October, at which time updates will be prioritized for oldest units first. The letter was first posted to Bronco 6G forum and reported by Automotive News. A Ford spokesperson affirmed its authenticity and the company has posted an FAQ sheet on its website to assist customers.
“Our customers who already have a Bronco with a hardtop can keep driving them in the wild and we’ll get them a new hardtop roof at no cost as soon as we can,” said Ford in a statement. “Unfortunately, for some customers who have ordered two-door and four-door Broncos with a hardtop roof, they will need to wait a bit longer.”
Ford says the issue will impact future production of the Bronco as well as current customers and order holders. Fewer 2021 models will roll off the Wayne Assembly Plant and new Bronco orders will now be for the 2022 model year. Bronco customers who have placed an order but do not yet have a production date can update their 2022 hardtop order — or switch to a 2021 soft-top model.
The roof issue has been a consistent thorn in the side for Bronco, delaying production of 2021 SUVs earlier this year. The removable roof is made by German supplier Webasto, which struggled to equip its Plymouth manufacturing facility due to COVID-related issues. The new, $47.9 million manufacturing plant opened last year to service Ford and other automakers.
Previously, Ford pushed off two other roof options — a modular painted hardtop and dual roof — until 2022 models so Webasto could concentrate on getting molded-in color hardtops and soft tops. The supplier will make the replacement roofs.
TFLCar.com, one of the auto industry’s premier benchmarking publications, experienced issues with a Bronco First Edition model it purchased this year for testing.
Andre Smirnov, a writer for TFLCar, said they replaced the roof after experiencing “an annoying rattle near the B-pillar.” TFLCar did not experience fitment or water leaking issues in its tests, though they did notice some discoloration. They replaced the Silver Gray roof (matched with a Cyber Orange body color) with a black soft top acquired from aftermarket accessories supplier Bestop.
Despite its production issues, the wildly-anticipated Bronco has received rave reviews from media and owners for its style, off-road performance, and high-tech features. The Bronco is aimed squarely at Jeep’s Wrangler franchise — and has also spawned a Bronco sub-brand in a Ford Icons brand strategy that includes Mustang and F-150.
The Bronco Sport SUV, also released this year, has been selling like hotcakes. It shares Bronco style cues, but is built not on the Bronco’s ladder-frame truck platform, but on the same unibody architecture as the Escape SUV.
The Ford spokesperson said the company is determined to help Bronco customers with the roof issue. Dealers will pick up SUVs in order to make the replacement when the time comes, and Ford has also offered owners Bronco design posters, ride-and-drive experiences, and Ford Pass reward points.
The Bronco hiccups follow the bumpy launch of anther key Ford SUV, the Explorer, in 2019. Bronco owner forums have been buzzing about the roof issue, but it does not seem to have dampened enthusiasm for the SUV. Dealers say orders have been off the charts.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Provo, Utah — Housing construction here in the Wasatch Mountains is exploding. Everywhere you turn there is a new house, a new subdivision, a new townhouse development going up. Full-size pickups stream through these developments like worker ants. They bring contractors, managers, and trailers full of building materials.
But when the houses are completed, will any of these huge trucks fit in the garages?
For the suburban residents that will fill these homes, midsize pickups have become a hot commodity. They are small enough to negotiate home garages and big-box retail parking lots while still offering enough room to cart trail bikes to the mountains and lakes.
Pickups like sales-king Toyota Tacoma, handsome GMC Canyon, rockin’ Chevy Colorado ZR2, smooth Honda Ridgeline, tough Jeep Gladiator, techy Ford Ranger Tremor, and fresh, versatile Nissan Frontier.
Yes, the Nissan Frontier is all-new. And it is good. Very good.
Southeast of the sprawling new developments next to the Jordanelle Reservoir is Wasatch Mountain State Park, with rocky trails that will make you cringe if you aren’t in a gnarly pickup like Frontier’s off-road, Pro-4X model churning along on Hankook All-Terrain tires.
WAHHRRR growled the V-6 engine behind the Pro-4X’s menacing black grille as I emerged through a wall of dust thrown up by the pickup in front of me. WHOMP! The front skid plate found a divot in the road masked by the dust. HUNH! HUNH! HUNH went the Hankooks as they clawed for traction up a steep, stony grade — with an assist from the rear, locked differential.
Commute to work Monday-Friday, tear up the Wasatch Saturday-Sunday. Or, if you live in Metro Detroit, Holly Oaks ORV Park might be the hill you conquer.
“We wanted to make the Frontier fun to drive,” said Nissan chief development engineer Melaina Vasko, who aims to trailer her Polaris RZR side-by-side ATV to Holly Oaks behind a Frontier when the truck hits dealerships later this summer.
The affordable Frontier is not just a robust off-roader; it rivals the Multimatic shock-equipped Chevy Colorado ZR2 for class on-road prowess. A $40K ladder frame midsize truck is fun to drive on-road? Payne, you’ve lost your mind. Nope.
Vasko and her minions stuffed the Frontier with goodies like hydraulic steering, urethane jounce bumpers, hydraulic cab mounts and a rear stabilizer bar to help the chassis respond coherently to motorheads like yours truly. As I bombed down the asphalt Alpine Loop Scenic Byway out of Sundance, the firm steering boosted my confidence with each curve.
Cruising through small Utah burgs, I sometimes forgot I was in a pickup. With minimal bed flutter and a surprisingly quiet cabin, Frontier proved itself to be a reasonable facsimile of the unibody Honda Ridgeline. The Frontier team benchmarked its new version to the Honda pickup, which is — hands down — the creamiest pickup in class.
It’s a class that had almost forgotten the Frontier — sitting on ancient bones that hadn’t been renovated since 2005, which is odd because Nissan had long been on the frontier — pun intended — of pickup development in this pickup-obsessed nation.
Nissan (then Datsun) introduced the first mid-size pickup in 1959. Its 1987 hardbody was the first with a double-hull rear bed (so inner bed wall damage did not deform the outer wall). Its crew cab was first in segment in 2002.
But 2005 was a long time ago. So long ago, in fact, that the Frontier’s fifth-gen architecture predated the 2007 iPhone, which has transformed phones — and automobiles.
For all its exterior macho (Frontier looks butch with its blocky fascia, grille and fenders) the pickup’s biggest strides are inside, where customers bring a phone that demands connectivity. Frontier pays attention.
Standard Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, two USB ports, two USB-C ports, seven-inch digital instrument display standard. A nine-inch center console display is optional, as is a wireless phone charger. The console screen is excellent with, for example, intuitive radio preset buttons and a menu that always keeps essentials — AUDIO, MENU, MAP — front and center.
This attention to detail pervades the truck. Finally liberated from their old platform, engineers seem eager to please with a buffet of standard goodies. My favorite detail is a standard, soft-drop rear tailgate. How many times have you opened a pickup bed only to have it — WHAM! — drop like a rock? Frontier has got you.
The rear bed bristles with options including a 120-volt outlet (matching the standard 120 in the cabin), Utili-Track rails for securing cargo and LED lights.
The rear seats (which accommodated your giraffe-legged reviewer’s 6’5” legs) have standard cargo storage below so you can store wet clothes after, say, a wild trip, down the Jordan River. Speaking of wild trips, Mrs. Payne will love the “Oh, crap” handles on the center console for when her husband gets too aggressive. There’s also standard hill descent control.
The standard V-6 engine is a moose. Its 310 horses are best in class. Like Tacoma, it’s fun to stomp on the gas, with instant torque while towing 6,750 pounds of your favorite small watercraft or RZR side-by-side. But thanks to the cabin’s insulation, the engine won’t invade the cabin on long trips. That duality is noticeable next to noisier competitors like Tacoma and Gladiator.
For many truck owners, this laundry list of standard features will be enough. The midsize is a tool first and foremost. When I get an SUV in my driveway, my wife wants to know if it has Apple CarPlay and adaptive cruise control. When I get a pickup, she wants me to fetch mulch or a Christmas tree.
Frontier offers the total package.
For those who want it all, Nissan wraps extra features into three comprehensive packages:
1) Convenience package — that 120-volt outlet, heated steering wheel, spray bedliner, and so on.
2) Pro-4X premium package — leather seats, Fender audio and those gnarly, 17-inch tires.
3) Tech package — my must-have, with blind-spot assist, adaptive cruise control, rear auto braking, high-beam assist and more — all wrapped into one $990 package. It’s available on any trim.
The Frontier is not without its hiccups. Literally. Sometimes the 9-speed tranny hiccups at low speeds. Also, the adaptive cruse control will come to a stop for a vehicle ahead — but then start creeping forward (wha-?).
But it’s hard to be mad given all the details they got right. Nice to have the Frontier back and on the front row of the midsize pickup race these many years after leading in 1959.
After all, while trucks have gotten bigger, garages haven’t.
2022 Nissan Frontier
Vehicle type: Front-engine, rear- and four-wheel-drive, five-passenger pickup
Price: $29,015, including $1,175 destination fee ($38,415 Pro-4X as tested)
Powerplant: 3.8-liter V-6
Power: 310 horsepower, 281 pound-feet of torque
Transmission: 9-speed automatic
Performance: 0-60 mph (7.0 sec., Car and Driver est.); towing, 6,570; payload, 1,460 pounds
Milford — Since 1924, dozens of buildings have popped up across the General Motors Milford Proving Grounds’ sprawling, 4,000-acre complex — the auto industry’s first dedicated testing facility. They are known simply by their numbers: Building 1, 2, 40, 94 and so on. They house the tools and personnel to keep the General on the cutting edge of the auto wars.
Building 144 is the latest and most advanced.
Perched atop a hill at the south end of the sprawling campus, the white, beige and glass building looks out over MPG’s challenging, 17-turn, 2.9-mile test track. Like a rocket sitting on a Kennedy Space Center pad, Building 144 is accessed via a long, covered walkway.
Inside, a large, state-of-the-art simulator has taken General Motors Co. products to new heights. Rocket ships like the sublime, mid-engine Corvette C8 and ferocious Cadillac CT4 and CT5-V Blackwings — some of the first products developed here.
“When we have a brand like Cadillac that has the dual personality of performance and luxury, this facility helps take that integration to another level,” Blaine Heavener, global vehicle performance manager for Cadillac, told a small group of journalists, including The Detroit News’ auto critic, during a rare look inside. Heavener spoke as his colleague, engineer and race-licensed driver Tom Schinderle, hammered the Caddy — virtually — around the test track in the “Driver in the Loop” rig.
Schinderle sat in the cockpit of the simulator’s “buck,” which pivoted and danced on its electro-mechanical legs while an enormous, wraparound screen projected his path around the formidable track.
Such simulators are rare around the world. Costing tens of millions of dollars, they are commonly used by professional Formula One race teams to hone their cars and drivers. IndyCar and IMSA teams use a similar rig in Charlotte, North Carolina. Other manufacturers like Mercedes, BMW, Porsche and Audi — competitors to Corvette and Cadillac — have their own.
“A facility like this requires vision,” said Cadillac Executive Chief Engineer Brandon Vivian, who was part of the team that began development on Building 144 back in 2011. “To get to the level of vehicle sophistication we wanted, we had to go faster.” The facility opened to GM engineers in 2017.
“The computational speed of parallel processors enabled us to get here,” the veteran engineer continued, his arm sweeping in the direction of a bank of computers that occupy their own glassed-in room adjacent to the simulator buck. “Twenty years ago, this would have required a supercomputer.”
Combined with the real-world testing on Milford’s test track — fondly called the “Lutz Ring” after former GM product guru Bob Lutz, who pushed for its construction at the turn of the 21st century — Building 144 helps integrate mechanical and electronic technologies that are transforming vehicle handling as well as interiors and autonomous driving.
Those technologies include Magnetic Ride 4.0 (MR4, for short), sophisticated shock absorbers that allow a vehicle’s suspension to react in milliseconds to changes in body roll, pitch and traction. Combined with updates in chassis materials, stabilizer bars, e-limited slip differentials, adhesives and other vehicle wizardry, the simulator helps integrate developments without engineers needing to constantly build prototypes and put in on-track man-hours.
“The simulator allows us to focus on all the variables,” Heavener said. “This facility helps us do design reiterations while keeping everything else constant.”
Added global structural vibration engineer Mark Stebbins: “It means we’re not spending millions of dollars on prototyping. It short-cuts the process by a year or more.”
That time is crucial in four-year, vehicle-to-market product cycles.
Cadillac, a brand founded in 1902 on technological precision as well as posh luxury, has been pushing the envelope for more than a century. Building 144’s obsession with precision has its roots in the work of GM engineer Maurice Olley who, in the early 20th century, pioneered ways to objectively assess a driver’s interaction with the vehicle.
Olley helped develop a vehicle language using terms like understeer and overseer that became a permanent part of the auto lexicon. Today, Cadillac engineers have coined the term “isolated precision” to reflect the integration of ride, handling and comfort.
GM has long augmented its production development with auto racing in order to help push components to their limits at the highest speeds possible. The company continues to use motorsport for development — witness the successful IMSA Cadillac DPi and Corvette C8.R programs that have been winning races across North America this year.
But the electronic toys at engineers’ disposal have given production cars like the CT5-V Blackwing much more bandwidth than even their racing kin. To keep costs down to encourage competition, modern racing strictly limits technical innovation.
“The technological integration we’re doing on the Blackwings is technically not legal in racing,” Heavener said with a smile. “This is a level of sophistication that dwarfs what we are doing in racing.”
The CT5-V Blackwing’s obscene performance numbers attest to the sophistication of this rear-wheel-drive, 2-ton luxury sedan: 688 horsepower, 200 mph top speed, 3.7-second 0-60 acceleration, track-clawing grip.
The simulator benefits non-performance vehicles as well — vehicles like the smooth-riding, truck-based Cadillac Escalade that uses MR4. Made by Ansible, one of five simulator suppliers, the simulator allows vehicle assessment across multiple track environments — enabling 12-month testing that’s inconceivable on the nearby test track (which was down for repaving during The News’ visit).
The Ansible rig is not alone in Building 144. It is surrounded by other “hardware in the loop” virtual vehicle dynamics labs that test steering racks, brakes — even a full-production vehicle rig called the 8-Post that helps drivers assess ride and handling.
They complement a network of engineering labs stretching across the Milford campus back to GM’s Warren Tech Center as well as Milford’s 140 miles of test roads. The variables seem infinite as engineers also update the simulators for tire compounds crucial to marrying suspension components to the road.
Test driver Schinderle, an experienced sprint car racer, has put in hundreds of miles on simulators as well as on asphalt. Though Cadillac lags the sheer number of models that luxury giants like BMW and Mercedes produce, Building 144 has helped to accelerate a brand lineup that is now the freshest of any luxury marque.
“The Blackwings,” says Cadillac global vice president Rory Harvey, “are the icing on the cake.”
As Cadillac sprints towards an all-electric lineup by the end of the decade, engineer Vivian adds that “there is a lot more to come.”
Charlevoix — While I waited for my 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E tester to charge at an Electrify America station in a Meijer parking lot in Gaylord, a couple waiting for their Model S to recharge at the adjacent Tesla station asked if they could check out my filly.
“I really like it,” said Raj after I gave him the full tour. “It’s better looking than a Model Y and it really feels solid.”
My encounter captures the promise and limitations of Ford’s first EV.
The comely Mustang gets a lot of interest in a hungry Midwest market that has been dominated by Silicon Valley’s sexy Tesla brand. But it’s a niche market of people willing to spend their road trips hanging out in, um, discount store parking lots for extended periods of time.
I spent a week with Ford’s first EV up north. Like renting a Mustang convertible on a vacation trip, it’s a refreshingly different experience: high-tech, high-torque, high style. And, like my Tesla Model 3 (in which I’ve made the same trip many times), it demands patience when outside its metro comfort zone.
“Training a wild mustang (horse),” Sunset Magazine once wrote, “can be, to no one’s surprise, an intimidating task.” So can driving an electric Mustang Mach-E on a road trip.
With 197 miles on the Mach E’s battery, I left Oakland County for our summer cottage in Charlevoix. “Navigate to Charlevoix, Michigan,” I barked at the nav system. I might have heard the navi voice sigh as she plotted my trip. It would be a two-stopper.
I did not have enough juice to go the 255-mile distance — a distance easily covered in, say, a gas-powered Ford Explorer. I would have to stop first at an Electrify America fast charger at a Bay City Meijer on the way.
With the outside temp at a pleasant 72 degrees, Mach-E and I trotted along with traffic at 80 mph. But speed (and temperature) drinks electrons. Above 75 mph, I start losing 20% of range (that is, for each 10 miles I traveled on the odometer, I took 12 off the battery). I backed off to 70 mph to conserve electrons, swallowing my pride as Explorers blew by my ’Stang at 80 mph. As the outside temp dropped to 50 degrees in the evening (in, ahem, July. What’s this I hear about global warming?), I even suffered range loss at 70 mph.
My standard-battery Mach-E tester stickered for $47,235 — a significant 10 grand under the price of a long-range, 326-mile Model Y, which is the only Tesla available right now (standard range model not available). Mach-E wore a striking shade of Rapid Red (I like) which, at $400, is also cheaper than Model Y’s $2,000 red coat option. Factor in the $7,500 federal tax subsidy (no longer available on Teslas), and the $39K is a no-brainer for budget-minded EV buyers (if still significantly more than a comparable gas-powered Ford Bronco Sport).
Ford shrewdly chose its muscle car sub-brand to go head-to-head with Tesla’s performance brand. My 30-something son Henry said he’d go for the Mustang over the Tesla — and not just because of the price.
“I want to arrive at my friends’ house in a Mustang,” smiled the Detroit-raised motorhead.
The brand appeal was not lost on others on my journey. “Is that the new Mustang EV?!” thrilled a middle-aged couple in Charlevoix. “That’s sooo cool.”
Convincing them (and my son) to buy one, however, is the challenge. “Good luck beta-testing EVs for Ford,” they said, walking away. At the local Ford dealer here, customers had put in 11 orders for the new gas-powered Ford Bronco — none for the Mach-E. Bronco Sports are outselling Mach-Es by 6:1.
Owning an EV requires doing a lot of math. After a half-hour at Bay City’s Meijer charger, I stopped at 80% charge. Why 80%, you ask? Because the charging rate drops off sharply after 80% (charging an EV, the analogy goes, is like filling a beer glass — the last bit is slow). Charging to 100% would take another two hours. Gotta’ know these things owning an EV.
Also of note: it costs more to fill your EV (14.5 cents per mile) at EA’s 43-cents-per-kWh rate than your gas car (13 cents per mile) at $3.20-a-gallon gas prices. For now, though, automakers are providing free charges.
Mach-E told me I had 160 miles left, enough to make it to Charlevoix — albeit with 0% of battery left. I needed to charge in Gaylord to bank enough miles to get around in charger-poor Charlevoix. But Mach-E couldn’t find the Electrify America fast charger. I called EA’s 800 number to confirm it was working. Whew! After my Meijer stop (and conversation with Tesla-philes), I arrived in Charlevoix at 1:25 a.m.
Mach-E got a lot of interest from my Charlevoix neighbors. I gave a lot of test-drives.
The SUV’s Mustang styling cues — muscular shoulders, three-bar taillights, brooding headlamps — drew them in. Inside, it’s a Tesla clone with a big 15.5-inch center screen running the show (and a helpful LCD screen behind the steering wheel bearing key data like range and mph). It’s roomy and a hoot to drive (for a ute) with instant electric torque and low center of gravity.
Susie, a 76-year-old granny in tennis shoes who owns an Audi Q5, was smitten. She took an extended test-drive enjoying Mach-E’s single-pedal driving, hands-free drive assist and artificial engine sound in Unbridled mode. We did lots of range-sucking Unbridled mode.
With just 76 miles of range left on Mach-E (I needed 50 to get back to Gaylord’s EA charger to top up for the trip home), I went to charge overnight at Charlevoix’s lone 240-volt charger. It was blocked off by a summer carnival in town. What to do?
Mach E’s nav said a dealership three miles out of town had a 240-volt charger. The Jeep dealer was nice enough to let me use the charger, but it was slow. A just-installed Ford dealer charger across the road (which did not show up in the Mach E’s charger finder) worked best. I plugged in and rode 20 minutes back to my cottage on a bicycle I’d stashed in the Mach E’s hatch.
Maybe EVs should be sold with bicycles.
The lesson: if you want to travel north in your EV, install a charger (cost: about $2,000) in your second home (indeed, that’s what a Model S-owning doctor I met at another Meijer had done in Traverse City). Or keep your EV in Detroit for local commutes, then buy a gas-powered Explorer for trips everywhere else.
2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E
Vehicle type: Battery-powered, rear- and all-wheel-drive, five-passenger SUV
Price: $43,995, including $1,100 destination fee ($47,235 RWD Select with standard battery as tested)
Powerplant: 68-88 kWh lithium-ion battery driving single-or-twin electric motors
Power: 266 horsepower, 317 pound-feet of torque (as tested)
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Performance: 0-60 mph, 5.8 seconds (mfr.); top speed, 134 mph
Weight: 4,394 pounds (as tested)
Fuel economy: EPA MPGe 101 combined city/highway; range, 211 miles
Report card
Highs: Gets folks’ attention; useful hatchback for carrying stuff
Lows: Inferior refueling network; pricey compared to gas peers
Detroit– In the wake of the Miami condo collapse June 29, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm suggested that rising seas caused by human-induced climate change was responsible. Citing her years of experience as Michigan governor from 2003-2011, she said she’d seen the same phenomenon in the Great Lakes.
“Michigan, where I’m from, we’ve seen the loss of beaches because the waters are rising, so this is a phenomenon that will continue,” she added, referring to the Lakes’ recent rise.
But this was a fib.
Climate Science 101 posits that shrinking – not rising – Great Lakes is a sign of global warming because the lakes are affected by evaporation and shrinking snow pack due to rising temps. The Green bible, the Third National Climate Assessment, predicts “declines of 8 inches to 2 feet” this century. Indeed, as Great Lake levels declined from 2000-2013 according to their usual 30-year cycle, Governor Granholm hyped retreating water levels as a global warming crisis – even imposing a moratorium on water-bottling plants and restricting Nestle Inc. from selling water out of state.
As lake levels returned to their cyclical highs over the last decade, Democratic pols and their media chorus have simply flipped the script – declaring rising lake levels a climate crisis.
America, if you liked COVID science, then you’ll love climate change science.
For the last 18 months public health officials and politicians have played politics with COVID science in order to justify government intrusion into every corner of American life. Red state governors imposed strict restaurant restrictions despite no evidence COVID was spreading in dining facilities. Public health officials from Dr. Anthony Fauci to the CDC urged those vaccinated to return to normal, then back-tracked and claimed recipients should still wear a mask. Experts maintained a steady diet of super-spreader fear-mongering in Florida, Texas, schools, and elsewhere should citizens resist the COVID health autocracy.
Now Democrats are pivoting to climate “science” to justify sweeping government controls over American life.
Like coronavirus, the regulation of carbon dioxide emissions grants politicians enormous power because the greenhouse gas is the byproduct of virtually all daily activity including travel, food production, and construction.
By hyping catastrophic weather events as evidence of warming, the climate establishment hopes to keep the US population in the grip of fear. The Biden administration’s national infrastructure tour, for example, has turned into a climate fear tour as the administration pushes its Green New Deal taking over large sections of the economy.
Take the administration’s obsession with Michigan this summer. On a trip here July 8, EPA Chief Regan blamed flooding in Detroit – the result of years of infrastructure neglect by one of the country’s worst-run Democratic cities – on global warming.
“My team tells me . . . significant investments are needed to prepare (this) facility to withstand future storms, and other impacts from climate change, which we know are becoming more visible and more extreme,” he said while touring the city’s Water Resource Recovery Facility.
Right on cue, Democrats’ media chorus – quoting only “experts” that fit the Party narrative – backed up the administration.
“The steady, sometimes heavy rains that once again caused flooding and chaos in metro Detroit last week show signs of being related to human-caused climate change,” scared The Detroit Free Press July 20, citing cherry-picked data from 1901-2015. The paper twisted itself into knots trying to square the circle that global warming causes both droughts and more precipitation in the summer.
In truth, top climatologists like University of Alabama-Huntsville Professor John Christy, who oversees global satellite temperatures, say the earth is warming out of a Little Ice Age that ended two centuries ago. Christy says there is no evidence of a man-made climate crisis.
“It depends on the period of time you look at,” said the veteran climatologist about Midwest rainfall patterns. “Over the last 40 years, there has been no upward trend. The data is ambiguous.”
Ambiguous data doesn’t scare voters into handing more power to Washington.
Detroit Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib turned up the volume at the July 8 event, declaring the climate crisis is racist: “Many of these infrastructures are in the backyard of communities of color, and they have to pay the brunt when we do not invest enough.”
Democrats and media have been hyping weather events as evidence of a crisis. Left-wing publication Bridge Michigan even took the opportunity of limestone rocks falling into Lake Superior – a phenomenon that’s occurred for centuries – as evidence of climate Armageddon.
“We don’t know if it’s tied to climate change,” Pictured Rocks Park chief of interpretation Susan Reece told Bridge, who nevertheless feared the erosion was caused by climate crisis-induced high lake levels.
Too much water from the heavens and in lakes has become this decade’s narrative of choice, a far cry from a 2007 New York Times headline that summed up that decades’ manufactured horror: “Water Levels in 3 Great Lakes Dip Far Below Normal.”
Fourteen years – and the natural Great Lakes climate cycle later – the narrative has flipped.
“Our jobs, economy, and public health depend on the preservation of The Great Lakes. Michigan has been experiencing extreme weather and the Great Lakes are under threat due to increasing climate change effects,” Tiffany Brown, spokesperson for Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer, worried to MLive.com last year about rising lake levels.
Right on cue, ex-governor and Secretary of Energy Granholm is due to visit the state this week to keep revving the panic pedal.
“I call it the unfalsifiable hypothesis,” said climatologist Christy. “This method says wait for something to happen and then claim that human-caused warming is to blame. Anything is possible, therefore nothing is testable. Whatever weather happens confirms their theory.”
Granholm’s tour will include GM’s Detroit Hamtramck plant that is manufacturing electric vehicles like the $80,000 GMC Hummer for well-to-do customers. The plant is surrounded by Detroit poverty – a city gripped in a true crisis of rising crime after Democrats’ narrative over the last year to defund police.
Payne is The Detroit News auto columnist and a syndicated cartoonist with Andrews McMeel.
Cadillac has set itself on a bold course to go all-electric by the end of this decade. Call it the Yankee battle strategy as Cadillac follows California’s Tesla — the only U.S. automaker to best the German juggernaut of Mercedes/BMW/Audi on the luxury front.
Caddy’s decision comes after two decades following the European’s performance model of crafting sleek, Nurburgring-tested stallions with racing pedigrees. But GM’s luxe brand couldn’t beat the Germans.
But it’s not for lack of trying.
The 2021 Cadillac CT5 Premium Luxury sedan in my driveway is a gem. Pulling onto Telegraph Road in Pontiac, I toggled Drive Mode to SPORT and stomped the throttle with my size 15s. The 10-speed automatic transmission didn’t miss a beat, launching the 335-horse, twin-turbo V-6 through the gears with millisecond-quick shifts.
It’s one of the smoothest drivetrains in luxury autodom, and its surge of torque encouraged more misbehaving as I headed west and the lake-country roads became more twisted. Caddy essentially rebadged the last-generation CTS midsize sedan, then dropped it a segment to take on the compact Bimmer 3-series and Audi A6. So this is a big compact car — but the AWD system grips the road, transferring 405 pound feet of torque to the road without drama.
The buttery drivetrain is electric-like, but with more personality. The twin-turbo V-6 barked as it threw off shifts like machine-gun shells. Hard into a right-hander and the transmission rev-matched on downshift, the exhaust exhaling — HNUGGH! HNUGGH! It never gets old.
The CT5’s V-6 is a reminder of the badge’s huge performance bandwidth, which extends from the base twin-turbo inline-4, to the V-series I tested last year (with a healthy bump to 360 ponies) and the beastly 668-horsepower, V-8-powered CT5-V Black Wing (release the Kraken!). When you have the need for speed …
Otherwise, the CT5 is a sharp gentleman in a black suit. Once overly masculine with a full-fascia grille and blocky corners, Cadillac’s Art and Science design has matured. Its elegance is an interesting contrast to BMW’s recent evolution to a macho full-fascia front grille. CT-5 proportions are classic: long hood, wheels pushed to the front corners, coupe-like roof draped over big rear haunches.
The doors open with a squeeze of rubber pads on the inside of fixed handles — a properly firm handshake welcoming you to the club — and you are inside the roomiest cabin in class. With a basketballer’s 6’5” frame, I fit more easily in this car — with front and rear legroom to spare — than in its European competitors.
A comparably equipped AWD BMW M340i will run you eight grand more. For the extra dough, Bimmer gives you more sophisticated all-digital instrumentation and dash design. But functionally, the 3-series and CT5 are similar. Their roomy consoles are anchored by monostable shifters and remote infotainment screen controls (the screen responds to touch as well, which is my preference). Goodies like head-up display and the V-series configurable drive modes are available.
In a nod to Cadillac’s ambitious Tesla-like future of smartphone-like electronics, the CT5’s voice recognition system is excellent (superior to the Bimmer). The infotainment and climate controls are also easy to use. CUE (Cadillac User Experience) stumbled out of the blocks last decade — a friend traded in his Caddy for that reason alone — but the current system is a snap to use. Radio presets — one of my personal bugaboos — are intuitive, the screen interface displaying my choices in easy view.
I barked the names of restaurants as well as Michigan towns at the navigation system, and the Caddy responded obediently, like I was talking to my phone’s Google Assistant.
State-of-the-art, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and smartphone charging are on hand.
Curious, then, that Caddy does not make adaptive cruise control and self-park assist standard (a blind spot in other GM models, too). Even a Mazda 3 comes with standard ACC for under $30,000. Cadillac advertises a sci-fi future of Super Cruse and hands-free driving — yet forces you to pay an extra five grand for ACC that’s common in mainstream vehicles costing thousands less.
Perhaps that’s the advantage Tesla has over Caddy — as a startup, its brand purpose was comprehensive: a smartphone on wheels. Meanwhile, Cadillac had to co-exist with other brands (the gorgeous plug-in Caddy ELR was a Chevy Volt in a tux). Maybe the new-gen battery-powered Cadillac will be different.
But in the present, CT5 should be recognized as one of the best vehicles in its segment: engaging V-6 drivetrain, superior interior room, distinctive exterior design. All at a value price.
New EVs are coming, but the best gas-fired Caddys are here right now.
2021 Cadillac CT5 Luxury Premium
Vehicle type: Front-engine, rear- and all-wheel-drive, five-passenger sedan
Price: $41,790, including $995 destination fee ($51,455 as tested)
Powerplant: 3.0-liter twin-turbo V-6
Power: 335 horsepower, 405 pound-feet of torque
Transmissions: 10-speed automatic
Performance: 0-60 mph (5.4 sec., Car and Driver); top speed, 126 mph
My first car back in 1984 was the halo Volkswagen Golf GTI (nee Rabbit), the ultimate expression of the Golf hatchback. I have also owned the BMW M3 and Honda Si, halo vehicles for the 3-series and Civic, respectively. Halo badges like the GT3, STI, ZR1 and Scat Pack have also defined performance lineups for years.
But in the Age of Ute, the halo is changing. Where halo once denoted raw track performance, now it defines off-road performance as well, as buyers crave high-riding, adventure-mobiles. Sure, track prowess has translated to SUVs, with Frankenstein monsters like the Dodge Durango Hellcat and Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk — but generally the off-road halo segment is suddenly the bee’s knees. Think Jeep Rubicon, Jeep Trailhawk, Ford Bronco Sport Badlands, Toyota RAV4 TRD Off-Road.
Welcome the 2022 Subaru Outback Wilderness to the campfire.
Like its competitors, the Wilderness is based on solid off-road bones. The 2020 Outback is a treat, with its signature all-wheel-drive capability now matched by bold styling, modern interior, and even a competent driver-assist feature. Get it in black-trimmed Onyx guise and you’ll be the envy of Subie nation.
Wilderness then cranks the volume knob to 11. It wears one loud suit. If the winged Subaru WRX STI got its wardrobe tips from a Formula One car, then the Wilderness looks like a blown up La Sportiva Bushido trail running shoe.
Black cladding is everywhere, from the new front fascia to the fenders to the rear corners — even the hood gets a big black decal. Like tattoos on a cage fighter, these black marks are the markings of the off-road clan. Just check out the segment’s trend-setting Jeep Trailhawk.
It’s a halo thing, and I like it. STIs are defined by the wing, GTIs by their turbine wheels. The off-roaders gotta have their own style lingo, dude.
I’m less enamored of the drivetrain. Subaru says its customers are looking for an off-road destination vehicle — not an off-road immersion vehicle like a Jeep (ORV joke: What’s an off-roader’s nickname for a Jeep? “Subaru rescue vehicle.”). Where the STI halo gets a turbo-4 blown out of its mind, the Outback is content to supply Wilderness with the same 260-horse turbo-4 as the Onyx.
I grunted around the sandy caverns of Holl Oaks ORV Park in the Wilderness and pined for more sand-churning torque. I’m not asking for a 6.4-liter beat like the Jeep Rubicon 392, but for 40 grand, Wilderness deserves more.
Happily, Wilderness doesn’t hold back in the chassis department.
To go beyond asphalt, Outback’s top trim goes beyond its Onyx trim. Ride height is cranked up to 9.6 inches — on par with the Jeep Wrangler and higher than some other off-road stalwarts like the Chevy Colorado ZR2 and Toyota Tacoma TRD pickups.
Clawing along the sandy trails of Darlene’s Ridge at Holly Oaks, the added lift came in handy — as did increased approach, departure, and breakover angles. The Outback is not a short vehicle after all — this is a midsize SUV over a foot longer than a Cherokee or Subie Crosstrek. Still, the long front overhang is not ideal for off-roading, so for when the approach angle ran out in some steep moguls — GRONCH! — Wilderness is armored with a front skid plate.
For another $700, you can fully armor your underbelly. It’s money well spent if you plan on going off-road frequently.
Further grip is provided by 17-inch rims and meatier sidewall Yokohama Geolander A/T off-road tires. All this hardware compliments Outback’s most ingenious electronic feature: X-mode.
Also available on the Onyx, X-mode allowed for pedal-free descents over Holly Oaks’ most diabolical descents. X-mode is conveniently located high in the Outback’s huge, Tesla-like center console screen. I punched SAND/MUD mode, and the Subie would manage hill descents at whatever mph I desired.
More precise descent control can be found on off-road beasts like the Ford Bronco, where you can set your mph. But the Outback’s feature is good enough and avoids harrowing, locked-wheel descents by carefully managing driveline torque.
X-Mode’s careful steps are also a welcome reminder that this isn’t a ladder-frame Bronco that you can muscle though the dirt. This is a unibody crossover vehicle with expanded off-road element. Expansions include roof rails that will hold a roof tent (and occupants), washable seatbacks, front-view camera and full-size spare.
Most of the time, its purpose is as an on-road commuter where the Outback’s roomy, quiet interior is more tolerable than a raw off-roader. You can talk to your fellow passengers in the back seat — including six-footers (like yours truly) who will enjoy its midsize leg room compared with smaller compacts of the off-road halo species.
2022 Subaru Outback Wilderness
Vehicle type: Front-engine, all-wheel-drive, five-passenger SUV
Price: $38,120, including $1,125 destination fee ($39,965 as tested)
Powerplant: 2.4-liter “Boxer” turbo-4 cylinder
Power: 270 horsepower, 266 pound-feet of torque
Transmissions: Automatic, continuously variable transmission (CVT) with 8-speed manual mode
Performance: 0-60 mph (5.8 sec., Car and Driver); towing, 3,500 pounds
Some cars stick with you. The 10th generation Honda Accord is one of those vehicles.
I remember when it arrived in my driveway in 2017. Coupe-like profile. Tablet infotainment screen astride a clean interior. Smooth 252-horsepower turbo-4. It was a luxury sedan with a mainstream badge. Slap four rings on the mega-grille and most would think it was an Audi A6.
The Accord was perhaps the first vehicle that made me realize the gap between mainstream and luxury vehicles was shrinking. Fast. So when the 2021 Accord arrived in my driveway this summer, I was eager to see if one of my favorite dance partners still had it.
Without a doubt.
Indeed, like “Formula 1: Drive to Survive,” the Accord keeps getting better with each season. For its mid-cycle 2021 model year refresh, Accord gets a few upgrades while my favorite Sport trim (in a lineup that runs from LX to Touring trims, including a hybrid) gained just $640 in price. My Accord Sport tester was dressed in knockout Sonic Gray Pearl wardrobe, 19-inch wheels, black deck spoiler, 8-inch touchscreen tablet, sunroof.
Pardon me, but I couldn’t help noticing you across the room.
All that for just, ahem, $33,500. Which is $23,000 cheaper than, say, a comparably equipped Audi A6. You could buy a brand new 2022 Honda Civic Sport (another Made-in-America all-star from the Japanese brand) with the money you save. Think I’m making this up? Let’s pull the specs.
Both Audi and Honda sport turbo-4 cylinder engines. Accord’s 252-horsepower mill sprints 0-60 in 5.4 seconds vs. the Audi’s 5.8, despite the German’s all-wheel-drive traction. Both have adaptive cruise control, blind spot assist, auto high beams. Both have digital, configurable instrument displays. Sunroof? Check. My wife’s favorite, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto? Yup.
Sure, the plush Audi’s all-wheel-drive system will more confidently deliver you home through winter storms. But the Honda has bragging rights, too. For instance, superior ergonomics, console storage and rear leg room. Heck, the Accord’s ridiculous 40.4 inches of rear legroom is not only three inches more than the Audi — it’s just three inches shy of a Ford F-150 Super Crew. At 6’5” tall, I sat behind myself in the Accord without my knobby knees reaching the seatback.
The Accord is more than just specs.
Powered by Honda engines, Red Bull’s Formula 1 team is neck-and-neck with Mercedes right now. This is a company serious about blending driving performance with everyday practicality, and Accord is engaging to drive despite its big dimensions.
Accord Sport and I danced through the twisties on M-32 — Sonic Gray dress flowing behind. Across sun-soaked and dripping-wet asphalt the sedan always felt balanced, its long wheelbase rotating nicely through corners with little push.
Honda is expert at putting torque to the road in front-wheel-drive cars (see the 292-horse Civic Type R hellion), and Accord’s no different. The front hooves would squeal when I put 252 ponies to cold pavement out of stoplights — but never with torque-steer. And, you’ll be happy to know, dear reader, the Accord doesn’t do that annoying engine stop/start thing at stoplights.
With the Mazda 6 exiting the midsize sedan segment, Accord may be the new benchmark. The Sport certainly aims to please with a 10-speed transmission that rev-matched on downshifts in Sport mode while delivering crisp, quick shifts when racing through the gears.
I stopped at Summertime Rentals in East Jordan, where the Accord’s new wardrobe turned my friend (and fellow motorhead) Aaron’s head. He, too, appreciates Honda’s double threat of value/performance and had owned a previous-gen Accord. This gen adds a third element: looks.
The Sonic Gray color highlights the Honda’s lively lines — just run your hand along the deep stampings that form Accord’s high shoulders. They’re complemented by subtle scalloping in the quarter panel. A lovely dish, even if I cringe at the Black Hole grille. I know, I know … it’s all the fashion these days.
As attractive as the Honda is, it’s indicative of my fellow Americans’ obsession with high-ridin’ hatchback utes that Accord sales are just 52% of what they were a decade ago before the SUV-nami.
But for those who still covet sedans, Accord is the total package. When my corner carving is over, the Honda is an effortless, state-of-the-art driving experience.
For the long trek up I-75, Accord’s huge trunk swallowed two carry-ons, two tennis bags, a box full of iRacing equipment (pedals, steering wheel, etc.) and other odds and ends. Wireless smartphone-connect is one of the great equalizers between luxury and mainstream cars. My wife slipped into the car and the screen quickly recognized her phone — displaying Google Maps directions for our trip.
On a return journey, the screen did the same for my Android Auto. That’s just the beginning of Honda tech. The Honda Sensing suite (adaptive cruise control, lane keep, lane departure mitigation) provides excellent self-driving assist. With the speedo set at 80 mph, the Accord stayed centered in its lane — comfortably keeping its distance from other vehicles — giving up only on extended interstate turns. I reckon it’s on par with a 2016-vintage Tesla Autopilot (before recent over-the-air upgrades).
The cabin was quiet, which Mrs. Payne loved — though I frankly yearned for more engine sound penetration so I could hear the 10-speed’s rev-matching downshifts when under the cane. VW/Audi has long been an engineering benchmark for steering wheel buttons allowing easy feature access — a lesson Accord has learned with wheel quadrants that let your fingers do the walking for instrument display-menus, cruise control, voice commands and so on.
The console “trigger shifter” is also an engineering marvel. Long a staple in Acura models (there’s that narrowing of luxe/mainstream again), the shifter made it easy to negotiate gears as I negotiated beach parking lots up and down Lake Michigan.
Quick. High-tech. Roomy. And better-looking than the homely CR-V SUV (my Accord Sport even came with a family SUV-like backseat reminder in case you left junior behind). But I do have one hesitation in recommending Accord: little brother Civic Sport just unveiled a quick, high-tech, roomy, good-looking hatchback.
In (yum) Boost Blue Pearl wardrobe. Civic starts at $23,000 when it arrives later this year. Accord Sport or Civic hatch? If you were budgeting for an Audi A6, you could buy them both.
2021 Honda Accord
Vehicle type: Front-engine, front-wheel-drive, five-passenger sedan
Price: $25,765, including $995 destination fee ($33,500 Sport as tested)
Powerplant: 1.5-liter turbo-4 cylinder; 2.0-liter turbo-4; hybrid with 4-cylinder engine mated to electric motor
Power: 192 horsepower, 192 pound-feet of torque (1.5L); 252 horsepower, 273 pound-feet of torque (2.0L); 212 combined horsepower (hybrid)
Braselton, Georgia — Inside The Driving Club garage, which offers regular track time on the challenging Road Atlanta Raceway here, Porsches proliferate. As they do at M1 Concourse car club in Pontiac. And Autobahn Race Club in Chicago. And anywhere else enthusiasts go to satisfy their need for speed.
The reason is simple: Porsche makes the world’s best sports cars. They may not be the flashiest. Or the most expensive. But they are relentlessly, ruthlessly good at carving up race tracks.
Just as relentlessly, better models keep coming. Say hello to the 2022 911 GT3, the new Porsche standard.
Hustling down Road Atlanta’s pit straight, I stabbed the enormous 16-inch brakes at 140 mph into Turn One and the car slowed as if enveloped with an invisible net, yanking my eyeballs from their sockets. With double-wishbone front suspension right off an IMSA RSR race car and rear-wheel steering, the 3,150-pound beast rotated effortlessly into the fast right-hander — and I was hard on throttle before I reached the apex.
How hard? I caught Patrick Long, Porsche’s ace IMSA driver, in a 911 Turbo S — the fastest car in Porsche’s non-GT stable. As good as it is, the Turbo S doesn’t have the GT3’s huge swan-neck rear wing for added downforce. Or that front suspension. Or Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2R tires that stick like flypaper to asphalt.
Long wasn’t dogging it. At the top of the hill into Turn 2, he vaulted over the inside curb to keep the pace while my GT3 effortlessly carved around the curb, glued to his tail.
“I have to nail the curbs to stay ahead of you guys,” laughed Long afterward to a group of journalist drivers who had come to Road Atlanta. “The GT3 is that good.”
That’s what the Porsche GT3 does. It makes hero drivers out of amateurs. I can rattle off the GT3’s stats for hours: 502 horsepower, 0-60 mph in 3.2 seconds, 197 mph top speed.
But those are numbers common in the supercar class. What separates the GT3 — and all Porsches — is how effortless it is to drive fast.
While shredding one of America’s most fearsome race tracks, it was imperturbable. Rock solid. Poker faced. Never once does the car scare me, snap out of line or push menacingly close to the apron. Quite the contrary — it constantly demanded more of me. I came off the track perspiring, not because I was sawing the wheel, but because of the absurd g-loads I was carrying. And in a production vehicle, mind you.
Long demonstrated the full capabilities of the car earlier in the day. He lapped Road Atlanta in 1 minute, 26.46 seconds — just 7 seconds off the pole time set by the fanged, stripped, full-roll cage 2,700-pound IMSA GTD Porsche GT3 at last year’s Petit Le Mans road race. (“I wish race cars had rear-wheel steering,” laughed Long).
Credit the inherent goodness of the Porsche 911 recipe.
The $162,450 GT3 is based on the standard $90,000 911. It is a car so good that, as my colleague Eric Tingwall at Car and Driver once wrote, it will challenge rational thought: “Instead of asking, ‘How much does it cost?’ you’ll start thinking, ‘How can I afford it?’ Sell your family’s fourth-generation vacation home. Siphon off your kid’s college fund. Steal from the collection plate. All of these are sane ideas after some quality time in a 911 … ”
For my trip to Road Atlanta an hour northeast of the city, I drove the all-wheel-drive 4S version of the 911. I gave little thought to the infotainment system (which is a good thing, since the 911 lacks only in electronic functionality, with navigation system/voice commands notably inferior to the high bar set by BMW and Tesla). The car was a constant source of amusement.
Luffing along an empty stretch of highway at 75 mph in eighth gear, I pressed the Sports Response button. The dual-clutch transmission instantly downshifted to third, the flat-six engine shrieked like a poked Tyrannosaurus rex and I vaulted down the road at (speeds withheld to preserve my license).
Country roads are even more fun with the 911’s limitless grip and legendary rear traction. Curves are a blur. Stop signs become excuses to do launch-control-assisted 0-60 mph runs. Such taxing behavior will test other, mere mortal, performance cars. The 911 will do launches all day.
The GT3 takes this tasty recipe and bellies up to the buffet bar to add even more meat.
Red meat like the delicious 4.0-liter normally-aspirated flat-six cylinder engine that is one of the jewels of autodom. It’s a reminder in this EV-obsessed age of the visceral appeal of automobiles. I’ve been in love with flat-sixes since I was a teen, and GT3’s 9,000-RPM shriek never ceases to entertain.
It’s the same engine that inhabited the last-gen GT3 RS that I flogged at Road America three years ago (that’s right, the GT3 will ultimately get an even more potent RS variant).
So it’s not the engine that shaved an astonishing 17 seconds off the last-gen GT3’s Nurburgring lap time. It’s the attention to engineering detail that marries chassis, engineering and tire technology into a more perfect union.
You read that right: minus-17 seconds. The 2022 GT3 broke The Green Hell’s magic 7-minute barrier. I’ll pause while you pick your jaw off the floor.
In addition to the aforementioned double-wishbone front suspension, tires, adjustable-rear wing and rear-wheel-steer, the 911 GT3 gains carbon fiber hood, a different front nose for better downforce, air scoops for cooling, 1.9-inch wider track and center-exhaust system.
All told, the Porsche makes 317 pounds of downforce at 125 mph, and 770 pounds at top speed. When you are at full chat through Road Atlanta’s lip-puckering downhill esses, you want all the downforce you can muster. The GT3 will do loads for your self-esteem.
And for flattening your pocket book. But if you want to keep up with the Joneses at Road Atlanta’s Driving Club, you need the best money can buy. The GT3 has raised the bar again.
Step right up, folks, and see the Ford Bronco and Jeep Wrangler in the ring together for the first time! Ride ’em both! Kick their tires!
Yes, the auto show circus is back. First stop: Chicago.
McCormick Place, the biggest convention center in the U.S., opens its doors Thursday for the “Special Edition Chicago Auto Show 2021.” The show, which runs through Sunday, features the dueling Ford/Jeep Bronco off-roaders, electrified Fords, VW hot hatches and exotic supercars.
Normally held in frigid February, the show this year seized the opportunity of the waning epidemic — and summertime on Lake Michigan — to put on the first autopalooza after COVID brought shows to a standstill for more than a year. Detroit hasn’t had a show since January 2019.
A showcase for mainstream SUVs and pickups in demand across the Midwest, the CAS will offer visitors the rare opportunity to experience them inside — and outside — thanks to the unusual July dates. Attendees can ogle new vehicles inside the massive, 400,000-square foot West Building, then spill out onto Indiana Avenue and ride new vehicles. A street festival will rock Windy City’s historic Motor Row District into the evening with food and music.
“We came up with the concept of a shorter, smaller show and a move to the West Building last year,” said Chicago Auto Show General Manager Dave Sloan. “We knew that coming out of the pandemic this new concept would allow us to experiment with a show significantly different than usual.”
Some automakers — Acura, Audi, Cadillac, Infiniti, Jaguar-Land Rover, Volvo, Hyundai, Mazda, Mini — will skip the show. But visitors will still have a healthy 24 brands to choose from, including exotics like Aston Martin, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini and Rolls Royce thanks to Chicago’s rich Gold Coast dealership row. Other brands include Alfa Romeo, BMW, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Ford, Honda, Jeep, Karma, Kia, Lexus, Lincoln, Lotus, Nissan, Ram, Subaru, Toyota and VW.
Here are the new vehicle highlights:
Ford Bronco
With a flood of new, brand-defining product coming to showrooms, Ford embraced the show’s outdoor Indiana Avenue venue. Bronco will be showcased in a 30,000-square foot space called “Built Wild.” That’s the tag line of Ford’s new dirt-kicker making its auto show debut.
Aimed squarely at the Jeep Wrangler, Bronco is a two-or-four door, truck-based SUV for the adventurous. Like Wrangler, its doors and roof are removable so passengers can get closer to nature. Its macho Badlands edition goes head-to-head with Wrangler’s Rubicon with locking differentials, detachable sway bar, and big 35-inch Sasquatch tires.
Bronco seeks to differentiate itself from Wrangler with high-tech gizmos like rotary GOAT dial Trail Turn Assist and Hill Descent Control.
Ford F-150 Lightning and Mustang Mach-E
Nearby on Indiana Avenue, Ford will showcase its first two electric vehicles, the Mustang Mach E and F-150 Lightning pickup truck at its “Built to Electrify” experience. Lightning is Ford’s salvo in the EV pickup market — competing against the upcoming GMC Hummer EV, Tesla Cybertruck, Rivian R1T and others. It features stump-pulling 775-pound feet of torque and 300 miles of range (when not, ahem, towing 10,000 pounds).
Best of all, it puts that empty space under the hood where the gas engine used to be to good use. Lightning features the world’s biggest “frunk” (front trunk) that can swallow two golf bags or three piece of luggage. For buyers with extra pocket change, the F-150 EV options an inverter that can power your house when the lights go out.
Jeep Wrangler
Not to be outdone, Stellantis’s prize Jeep brand will feature Camp Jeep inside the West Building.
There reside the latest members of the Wrangler family: the 2022 plug-in Wrangler 4xe and Wrangler 392 stuffed with the same V-8 powertrain as a Dodge Challenger.
Jeep Compass
The stylish Compass pioneered the small-compact SUV segment in 2017. Slotted between the subcompact Renegade and compact Cherokee, it has since been followed by other competitors in the space like the Chevy Trailblazer and Mazda CX-30. To stay ahead of the pack, the refreshed ’22 Compass gets a new fascia and high-tech interior that includes optional, 10.25-inch instrument cluster and a 10.1-inch tablet infotainment display.
Compass even takes cues from big brother Grand Cherokee L and Wagoneer with driver-assist capability. The Jeep starts at $26,490 and adds a Latitude Lux option to its blizzard of trims — including the range-topping, trail-chewing, 4×4 Trailhawk.
Ram 1500 BackCountry
Customers can’t get enough of the gorgeous Ram pickup, so the brand is throwing more trim options at them. Say hello to the 2022 Ram 1500 BackCountry, a V8-powered, off-road bruiser with lots of off-road and bed functionality.
Sitting atop the Big Horn trim, BackCountry gets all-terrain tires, shocks, hill-descent control, skid plates, and a rear e-locker for when the asphalt ends. The bed gains lighting, spray-in bedliner, a step and adjustable tie-downs.
BMW
Big gopher teeth are here. BMW shows off its new look mega-grille on the BMW M4 coupe and the iX SUV. The iX also leads Bimmer’s new lineup of i-series electrics. The EV SUV — costing $20k more than a comparable, gas-fired X5 — also shows off a floating console interior and a whopping 516 horsepower.
Toyota Corolla Cross, GR 86, Tacoma, 4Runner
Toyota drops an array of new models on Chicago, including the 2022 Corolla Cross, GR 86 sports car, Tacoma TRD Pro 3.0/Tacoma Trail Edition and 4Runner TRD Sport. Forty-five vehicles in all will be spread across the Toyota display.
Corolla Cross take the popular Corolla compact sedan and turns it into a bold crossover (think the Subaru Impreza sedan and Crosstrek SUV). Corolla Cross sits higher than the Corolla and offers all-wheel-drive.
The GR 86 upgrades Toyota’s terrific, affordable sportscar. Partnering with Toyota’s Gazoo Racing team, 86 gains better handling, aerodynamics, and customer-demanded increase in power from 205 to 228 horses. Performance lovers will also drool over the Supra GT sportscar and Martin Truex’s NASCAR racer.
The Taco is America’s best-selling mid-size pickup and Toyota offers more options for the menu. Tacoma TRD Pro 3.0 gets a suspension lift. Tacoma Trail Edition comes standard as a 4×4 with Double Cab. Cousin 4Runner adds TRD Sport grade for a more stylish, on-road look.
VW GTI and R
The original hot hatch is back for its eight generation with evolutionary exterior design and a high-tech interior that will wow loyalists. GTI and Golf R are the last remaining Golf models in the U.S. market as VW introduces its Taos SUV. The hatchbacks sport a standard, digital 10.25-inch cluster and big infotainment screen. GTI’s signature “golf ball” manual shifter remains while the automatic gets a Porsche-like chicklet shifter. GTI pumps out an increased 241 horses from its turbo-4 while all-wheel-drive Golf R boasts 315 ponies.
Other vehicles making their auto show debuts include the Chevrolet Bolt EUV, Honda Odyssey, Jeep Grand Wagoneer, Kia Carnival, Lexus NX, Nissan Ariya, Nissan Pathfinder and VW ID.4.
Chicago Auto Show schedule
July 15-18, 9 a.m.-10 p.m.; July 19, 9 a.m.-8 p.m.
Location: McCormick Place, West Building, 2301 S. King Drive, Chicago, Illinois
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Some of Detroit’s most iconic vehicles are getting a plug.
Stellantis NV announced a comprehensive electrification strategy Thursday across a diverse, multi-continent portfolio of 14 brands that range from French sedans to American SUVs to Italian supercars. Motown brands play a key role. Dodge muscle cars, Ram trucks and Jeep SUVs will get new, battery-powered models (and new EV brand slogans) in the next few years as Stellantis aims for 40% electrified sales by 2030.
The foundation of Stellantis’s plans are four STLA (pronounced “Stella”) platforms: STLA Small, STLA Medium, STLA Large and STLA Frame. But its electrification strategy is not exclusive to those battery-electric vehicles (BEVs). Indeed, Stellantis uses the term electrification loosely and “low-emission vehicles” (LEVs) will cover a wide assortment of battery-enhanced products to meet its sales goals. Models will include BEVs, PHEVs (plug-in hybrid vehicles with gas engine assist), and HEVs (gas vehicles with battery assist).
Stellantis says its goals are driven by 64% of customers who say that preserving the environment is their most important value. Yet less than 2% of U.S. customers — the largest number in California — bought a battery-powered vehicle in 2020.
A look at what’s coming from Stellantis brands in the U.S.:
Jeep (brand slogan: Zero Emission Freedom)
Jeep showed off the first battery-powered version of the Grand Cherokee called the 4xe. The Grand Cherokee lineup will make its official debut at the 2021 New York Auto Show in August. Grand Cherokee follows in the footsteps of the first electrified Jeep, the Wrangler 4xe introduced earlier this year.
The pricey Wrangler 4xe’s 17.3 kWh lithium ion battery is paired with a turbocharged 4-cylinder engine and can go 21 miles on electrons alone. The Wrangler also sports an E-Save feature so battery power can be preserved for off-roading. Expect the Grand Cherokee 4xe to house similar capabilities.
In addition to the Grand Cherokee, Jeep promised electrified SUVs in every segment it competes in — as well as a mystery “white-space” Jeep coming soon.
Dodge (slogan: Tear Up the Streets … Not the Planet)
Electric motors showcase silent operation and instant torque, but also a challenge: without the different personalities of 6-, 8- and 10-cylinder engines, how do you tell performance brands apart? Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis said that Dodge will introduce an EV by 2024 that will be welcomed into the “brotherhood of muscle” brand born from high-power, earth-shaking Hemi V-8 gas power.
“If a charger can make a Charger quicker, we’re in,” said Kuniskis. “Dodge will not sell electric cars. Dodge will sell American muscle. Because Dodge doesn’t view EV technology as a revolution, but instead as a natural evolution of the modern muscle car.”
Kuniskis stood next to a covered Dodge, but did not unveil it. Expect a variant of the two-door Challenger or four-door Charger — or even an EV-specific badge called Cuda. It will likely be based on the STLA Large platform, which has the option of all-wheel drive and a big battery to harness big power.
Dodge won’t be the first performance brand to offer an EV. Tesla made EVs sexy with head-snapping acceleration — and rolled out the Model S Plaid to customers this summer with reported sub-2 second 0-60 mph acceleration. German sportscar brand Porsche has followed with the Taycan sedan and Taycan Cross Turismo EVs, and Ford offers its first solely battery-powered vehicle — the Mach E — under the Mustang sub-brand. BMW this week showed off the i4 M50 in Detroit — the first M-badged performance variant of its i-series EV sub-brand.
Both Taycan and Mach-E pipe in artificial gas engine sound; expect Dodge to use similar tricks for customers attuned to the hellish shriek of Hellcat V-8 superchargers.
Ram (slogan: Built to Serve a Sustainable Planet)
Electrification’s inherent benefits of low-end torque and efficient cargo space also promise benefits for trucks. Ram CEO Mike Koval announced the truck brand will introduce an electric version of its 1500 pickup by 2024.
“There is no reason why electrification should limit the choice of solution,” he said while teasing a sci fi-looking Ram EV. “Our technology will alleviate customer concerns, improve the product and deliver on real world demands.”
The Ram will go head-to-head against Ford’s first EV pickup, the F-150 Lightning introduced earlier this year. Lightning boasts sports car-like 4.5-second 0-60 acceleration as well as towing capacity of 10,000 pounds. Expect similar numbers from the Ram 1500, which will likely sit on the STLA Frame platform. Stellantis says vehicles built on the STLA Frame can achieve up to 500 miles of range, low-2 second 0-60 mph times, and 20-mile-per-minute charge rates.
Chevrolet is said to be working on a Silverado pickup EV and the six-figure GMC Hummer super-truck is coming in 2023. Tesla, Rivian and Lordstown also promise EV pickups in the next year.
Look for a tsunami of EV service trucks, analysts say. While retail customers have been lukewarm on EVs, big companies may value EV truck fleets both because of their low operating costs — and as a way to meet corporate sustainability goals. Utilities and delivery companies like Amazon have been bullish on converting their fleets to electric. Such trucks could help build up essential charging infrastructure needed to goose retail sales.
Ram’s Kovak stood in front of a design studio of five covered EVs. Ram says it will electrify its portfolio this decade.
Chrysler (slogan: Clean Technology for a New Generation of Families)
The brand was not part of Stellantis’s presentation other than a brief glimpse at a concept SUV. Chrysler showed a Portal autonomous electric concept a couple of years back. Chrysler’s lineup has been reduced to the 300 sedan and Pacifica and Voyager minivans — but the Pacifica has been a pioneer in its segment with a plug-in hybrid model.
Fiat (slogan: It’s Only Green When It’s Green for All)
Fiat is a cautionary tale in trying to translate European trends to the U.S. The wee 500 headlined Fiat’s takeover of Chrysler during the American automaker’s 2009 bankruptcy as the Obama administration touted a U.S. future of small, 40 mpg cars. Americans demurred and the Fiat brand has largely disappeared from U.S. shores — including the electric Fiat 500e, which bombed even in California.
In Europe, the Fiat 500e will lead the Italian brand’s charge to 70% sales of electric vehicles by 2030. If Dodge’s performance EV plan takes hold in the U.S., look for Stellantis to introduce more products here from Italian speed brands like Abarth (slogan: Heating Up People, But Not the Planet) and Alfa Romeo (From 2024, Alfa Becomes Alfa e-Romeo).
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
The three-row SUV space is a Fleming’s steakhouse on wheels with all kinds of delicious red meat on the menu. There’s the regal off-roadin’ Jeep Grand Cherokee L. The rockin’ twin-turbo V-6 Ford Explorer. The gorgeous why-would-you-spend-20-grand-more-for-an Audi-Q7 Mazda CX-9.
But the midsize ute that has wowed everyone is the Kia Telluride. A filet mignon platter with a Big Mac price. With looks, tech and value, it undercuts segment stalwarts by $5,000.
Challenge accepted. Here comes segment stalwart Nissan Pathfinder with its own value steak meal.
Pathfinder has been a segment regular going on five generations now. The original Pathfinder even predates Explorer. But sales have tailed off in recent years as the competition intensified and the Nissan grew long in the tooth. Interestingly, the all-new 2022 Pathfinder eschews Nissan’s usual visual sizzle for meat and potatoes.
Walking up to the big ute in Holly, Michigan, for a test drive, I found Pathfinder surprisingly simple. No floating roof. No plunging full-fascia V-motion grille. No whoop-de-do front fender swoops. No hybrid drivetrain. Like the all-new compact Rogue SUV also introduced this year, Pathfinder’s design is simple. Muscular. Timeless.
Pathfinder saves the sizzle for the stuff that really matters to families shopping in the midsize space: seats, towing capacity and room room room.
At 6’5” tall, I could sit behind myself in the third row sitting behind myself in the second row. Heck, even Nissan’s 6’10” product planner, Andrew Molnar, could fold himself into the third seat without having to take his head off. Ah, the advantages of not succumbing to the SUV “swept coupe-roof” trend.
Of course, most families don’t have kids the size of Kevin Durant. so the third-row seat space is a delight. Get the volume SV or SL trims and you can option a panoramic sunroof to bathe them in sunlight, too. Most important is third-row seat access — particularly when mom has popped out two more young ’uns (twins?) since their first two children were born.
That’s right rug rats, mom and dad want to put the child seats in the second row for easy access. Which means you’re headed to the third row if you’re age 6-plus. No problem.
Nissan engineers must be consulting 6-year-olds because they have made the second-to-third-row transition a wonder. Let’s pause briefly to give props to Honda here since they were the first to engineer one-button third-row seat access in their own Pilot three-rower.
Pathfinder goes further.
First off, the rear doors open wide — almost 90 degrees — for easy access. Then press a single button on the second-row seat, with child seats in place, and — WHUMP! — the entire seat jumps forward, opening an easy path to the third row. This jujitsu maneuver is unworkable on other brands (the clever Grand Cherokee L excepted) since the child seats prevent the seats from collapsing forward.
Exiting the rear coach seats is just as easy, thanks to another single button in the back of the second-row seats. Take a bow, engineers.
Aft of the third row is plenty of cargo space, including a bonus sub-trunk for additional room. The second-row captain’s chair operation also features a removable center console. Get the standard bench seat and you can string three child seats across the middle row (triplets?).
The front seats are similarly spacious with best-in-class room. Console storage is enormous thanks, in part, to Nissan’s compact “chicklet” shifter (also found in Rogue). Like the rear cargo area, there’s a sub-cubby with space for little-used items — or purses that you want to keep out of public view.
There’s even storage above the glove box.
Anchored by a tablet-sized screen, the interior is horizontally laid out with easy-to-use knobs and menus. The screen is a bit slow to respond to commands, but it’s hard to be mad since Nissan makes wireless Apple CarPlay standard. Mrs. Payne adores this — and it’s a feature coming into mainstream vehicles as quickly as luxury barges (why are we paying $20,000 more for luxe again?). I only lament that wireless Android Auto is not also available since, um, that’s my phone.
True to its badge, the Nissan will competently negotiate off-road paths (AWD gives you plenty of modes to choose from). But for all its girth, the Pathfinder was surprisingly easy to drive over Hell, Michigan’s writhing asphalt roads. Credit engineers again for crafting the Pathfinder’s doors out of aluminum so the big, tech-laden beast gained no weight over the outgoing model.
Credit, too, the good ol’ V-6 engine under the hood (Telluride is similarly powered). Yeah, I know, Wall Street investors go into a swoon whenever auto companies mention batteries these days, but range-limited EVs are impractical for trip-minded families and hybrids present packaging problems.
Meat-and-potatoes Pathfinder is all about space, and the 284-horse V-6 allows excellent towing capability of 6,000 pounds — the weight of your average RV when mom and dad want to haul the family to Yellowstone for a well-deserved camping trip after being cooped up at home with COVID for the last 10 years (really? Just 15 months? Seemed longer).
The snarl of a V-6 merging onto the highway is also my kind of music.
Music is the universal language, and so is value. My $45,000 SL tester came loaded with auto emergency rear braking (a must with big vessels like this), blind-spot assist, adaptive cruise control and lane-keep assist. And it came in at the same price as a comparably equipped Kia Telluride, a rare feat for anyone in this class.
The Nissan won’t turn your head like the lovely Telluride (though it does offer a unique combination of 35 two-tone color combos). But it will give you EZ seats, wireless CarPlay, Wi-Fi hotspot, Type C USB ports, rear-auto braking and other nifty features that Kia won’t.
I’m a sucker for high-horsepower, apex-carving three-row SUVs like the Dodge Durango Hellcat. But in my kid-hauling days, I saved my corner-carving for sports cars. Three-row utes are for practical ease of use, and keeping the kiddies happy on long family trips.
The Sentra compact last year set a new course for Nissan with stylish, tech-tastic vehicles punching well above their sticker price. It carved a path for Pathfinder, which has found its sweet spot: customers packing lots of rug rats, lots of gear — but just 45 grand in their budget.
2022 Nissan Pathfinder
Vehicle type: Front engine, front- and all-wheel-drive, seven- or eight-passenger SUV
Price: $34,560, including $1,150 destination fee ($45,540 AWD, SL trim as tested)
Detroit — BMW brought its traveling electric-vehicle show to the Garden Theater Wednesday night to show off the all-new iX and i4.
The i-siblings demonstrated an evolved BMW EV exterior design with bold, full-fascia kidney grilles and simplified interiors centered around big, high-resolution screens stuffed with smartphone-like electronics. Due in U.S. showrooms early next year, the Bimmers come in the wake of the Ford Mustang Mach-E and Audi e-tron vehicles (and ahead of Cadillac’s first all-electric Lyriq crossover, due in 2023) as luxury automakers race to catch up to EV sales-leader Tesla.
iX is a midsize SUV aimed at the Tesla Model X. With a similar footprint to BMW’s gas-powered, $62k X5 SUV, the iX starts at $84,195. The $56,395 i4 is an athletic sedan similar in size to BMW’s iconic, $42k 3-series and targets the $38k Tesla Model 3.
“The IX and i4 set a benchmark for our battery-electric vehicles going forward,” said BMW executive VP of operations Shaun Bugbee from the theater’s stage, where the models were displayed. “These vehicles are not just about performance but about sustainability. By 2050, we expect 50% of our sales globally will be electrified.”
The battery-powered iX and i4 amount to a reboot of BMW’s electric i-sub-brand, which debuted with the small i3 plug-in hybrid a decade ago. Like other EVs not named Tesla, the i-line has struggled with high sticker prices and inferior range compared with their gas-engine counterparts. EV sales made up less than 2% of the U.S. market in 2020 — with the highest number of sales in green-conscious California, where Tesla is headquartered.
The $45,445 i3 boasted 153 miles of range with the option of a small gasoline engine extending range to 200 miles. It debuted in 2013 to rave media reviews, winning two World Car of the Year Awards and 2014 World Green Car of the Year.
But the funky-looking box found few buyers, selling just 42,000 units by decade’s end. Its sister i8 sports car, replete with suicide doors and a $150,000 price tag, also sold few copies and has been discontinued. By contrast, Tesla’s midsize Model S sedan — introduced at the same time as i3, yet costing 50% more — sold 180,000 units by 2020. Tesla now sells that many of its Model 3 sedans annually.
The iX and i4 attempt to make the sub-brand more relevant to U.S. customers by right-sizing the cars to match popular segments — and by bench-marking to Tesla.
A brand that has been the standard for luxury performance for decades, BMW now follows the Silicon Valley automaker’s design and electronics lead.
Underneath a panoramic sunroof, iX and i4 feature chassis with big-battery modules beneath the passenger compartment. A digital key recognizes the owner’s smartphone and turns on the vehicles upon entry. Electric motors power the wheels with rear or all-wheel drive (iX comes standard with two-motor AWD). Regenerative braking allows one-pedal driving. Simple, screen-dominated interiors are roomy without a gas-engine prop-shaft to the rear wheels. Screens are lush with graphics and over-the-air updates.
Conspicuously missing is a “frunk” (front trunk) that manufacturers like Tesla and Ford use for extra cargo space.
The Bimmers tout a Tesla-like camera for theft detection, self-driving assist (though not as aggressive as Tesla’s controversial Autopilot) — even screen graphics indicating the proximity of other vehicles nearby.
The i-models, both hatchbacks, then build on this Tesla formula with signature BMW features.
The chassis are not clean sheet “skateboard architectures” but are derived from existing X5 and 3-series unibody platforms. The huge BMW kidney grilles — first seen on the gas-powered BMW 4-series — can practically be seen from space. They are largely decorative since there is no gas engine that needs to be fed air. But they contain radar, cameras and ultrasonic gear for self-driving assist as well as what BMW calls “self-healing.”
“(A) polyurethane coating reduces the kidney grille’s susceptibility to damage. The self-healing effect of its surface repairs minor scratches, for example — within 24 hours at room temperature or through a five-minute supply of warm air,” says BMW in its press release.
To enhance performance, batteries are integrated into the chassis for added stiffness. For example, i4’s battery pack is joined to the floor assembly with 22 bolts, and the battery enclosure is bonded to the front-axle subframe.
Though heavy compared with their gas-powered peers, the i-siblings use the low-slung battery weight to their advantage. The base-trim i4 eDrive40’s center of gravity is 2.1 inches lower than a gas-powered 3-series sedan. A more powerful performance variant — the i4 M50 — has a center of gravity 1.3 inches lower. iX and i4 benefit from aluminum chassis while iX also lightweights with carbon fiber body pieces.
BMW alphanumerics can make your brain hurt and i-models are proof. But the iX badge is consistent with the brand’s SUV nomenclature (X3, X4, X5, and so on) while M badges designate a performance version.
The dual-motor i4 M50 is the first M-badge for the sub-brand and features 536 horsepower/586 pound-feet-of-torque compared with the standard, rear-wheel-motor eDrive40’s 335 hp/317 torque. The AWD, dual-motor iX xDrive50 comes standard with 516 horsepower/564 torque and will hit 60 mph in just 4.6 seconds.
Bimmer cockpits are sparse — anchored by continuous, curved, 27.2-inch, horizontal screens that start behind the signature, hexagonal steering wheel (like a Chevy Corvette C8 to better view the displays) across the console dash. The screens stand upright with no traditional “hood” above the instrument display. Climate vents are below; head-up display is available.
Like Tesla, the screen can be controlled by touch or with voice commands. Unlike Tesla, the screens can also be accessed by a remote, rotary controller — wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are available as well.
EV shortcomings in cost and range are on display in both the iX and i4.
i4 sedan starts about $14k more more than the gas-powered 3-series (before available federal and state tax credits). The i4 xDrive40 begins $18k north of a starter Tesla Model 3. The iX is about $21,000 more than a comparable BMW X5.
BMW has not invested in a proprietary, fast-charging network like Tesla but will instead rely on third-party chargers across the country. iX and i40 xDrive40 tout range of about 300 miles — or about half that of their gas-powered peers. The i4 M’s range is 245 miles.
Plugged into a 240-volt wall charger at home, i-models will charge overnight in eight to 11 hours. On the road, fast-charging can take up to 40 minutes to reach 80% battery capacity. To help plan your trip, BMW’s navigation software includes restaurants and retail stores near charging stations to pass the time.
To attract carbon prohibitionists, BMW heads for the moral high ground. “BMW has partnered with EVgo, the nation’s largest public fast charging network and the first in the U.S. to be powered by 100% renewable energy,” boasts the German brand.
The i-brand is more than transportation, it’s a comprehensive rework of the manufacturing process to address BMW’s concerns over its carbon footprint. “A climate-friendly car is not created solely by using green power. We must design our vehicles for sustainability from the very first day of development,” said Oliver Zipse, chairman of BMW’s Board of Management.
To that end, the BW iX and i4 meticulously follow the green rule book with earth-friendly construction, including Australia-sourced lithium, leather tanned with olive leaves and recycled materials like “surface of floor mat and floor coverings made of 100% nylon (partly fishing nets recovered from the sea).”
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
In a major move for the 43-year-old institution, the Concours d’Elegance of America said it is moving to downtown Detroit for the first time in September 2022. With its new home at the Detroit Institute of the Arts, the high-profile collectors car show gives momentum to the North American International Auto Show — aka, the Detroit Auto Show — scheduled for the same month as the city reboots after two years of COVID cancellations.
“We really want to celebrate the glorious, elegant history of Detroit with all of its cultural value. The DIA in particular is tailor-made to showcase the elegance of truly great cars,” McKeel Hagerty, CEO of The Hagerty Group, said in an interview. Hagerty owns the Concours. “The DIA also happens to be right on Woodward, which is one of the very few roads in the United States — think of Route 66, think of Highway One — that has, in and of itself, a history in the automotive world.”
Concours has been anchored in the Metro Detroit suburbs for decades — first at Meadow Brook Hall in Rochester Hills and then the Inn at St. John’s in Plymouth. The event will take place in Plymouth this year (July 22-25) with delicious classic cars sprawled across the Inn’s main campus and golf course.
The Concours move to Detroit dovetails with plans for the Detroit Auto Show to return to the TCF Center in the fall of 2022. Last held in January 2019, NAIAS has twice been canceled due to coronavirus concerns — first in June 2020 and then this year’s planned event in September. NAIAS will have a scaled-down show outside Detroit — called Motor Bella — Sept. 21-26 at M1 Concourse in Pontiac.
“The more car events in Detroit the better,” said Detroit Auto Show CEO Rod Alberts. “Having Concours around the same time (as NAIAS) created more reason to go downtown and complement what we are doing.”
Traverse City-based Hagerty, the world’s largest provider of specialty insurance for enthusiast vehicles, has raised its profile in recent years as an auto enthusiast brand with sponsorships of over 2,500 auto events from vintage racing to classic car auctions to the Festival of the Exceptional in England. This year, Hagerty added the Concours d’Elegance of America and Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance to its portfolio.
McKeel Hagerty said the September date is scheduled with an eye on the Detroit Auto Show — as well as other summer classic car events like The Henry Ford’s Motor Muster in June and M1’s American Festival of Speed in September.
“The most coordination we can possibly have, the better,” said McKeel Hagerty. “If you look at, for example, in the vintage car week out in Monterey, California, which starts with vintage racing (at Laguna Seca Raceway) and then culminates with the Pebble Beach Concours — it’s a lot of events that cluster near each other. It’s meant to be highly collaborative and (to) say that this a great month for the vintage historic, cultural value of cars. It’s not just about the new car market.”
In the absence of auto shows the Detroit Institute of the Arts provided welcome eye candy over the last year with its “Detroit Style: Car Design in the Motor City, 1950-2020” exhibition. The show brought in some of the most iconic auto designs of the post-WWII years — vehicles like GM’s 1956 Firebird III and 2017 Ford GT — to show off the evolution of automotive design. The show will run at the DIA through January 2022, said curator Ben Colman.
Detroit got a needed boost this summer from the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear which returned to Belle Isle after cancellation in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As vaccinated Michigan rapidly accelerates out of the epidemic, the nationally televised Grand Prix was the first U.S. professional race to ditch masks.
Hagerty’s move of the Concours downtown drives against traffic as enthusiast events have been headed north into Oakland County. In addition to Motor Bella at M1, the Pontiac-based car club will be the epicenter for Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge on Aug. 14, followed by the Woodward Dream Show Aug. 21. The inaugural American Speed Festival will follow Sept. 30 to Oct. 3 with a celebration of performance cars “past, present, and future.”
Speed Festival this week announced the legendary Jim Hall, founder of Chaparral race cars, will be the Inaugural Master of Motorsports, On display will be, among other classic cars, the 1966 Chaparral 2.
Further north in Oakland County, off-road enthusiasts will descend on Holly Oaks ORV Park — one of the country’s premier off-road facilities — for Detroit 4Fest Sept. 25-26.
The September 2022 Concours d’Elegance show will feature classic cars at multiple locations in Detroit with the DIA as the show’s anchor. Hagerty thinks the timing will benefit schools as well as the NAIAS.
“We are deeply passionate about also doing our car events whenever possible during the school year,” said McKeel Hagerty. “Imagine sending cars around to the schools and involving different school aged kids.”
Details and dates for September 2022 will be announced closer to the event.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
The truck wars have been heating up on multiple fronts. The 702-horsepower Ram 1500 TRX super truck has locked horns with the 450-horsepower Ford Raptor. The torque-tastic GMC Hummer and Ford F-150 Lightning EVs are shockingly fast. Ford Bronco wants to mud-wrestle Jeep Wrangler for off-road supremacy. And Ford has busted open a new compact truck segment with the Maverick.
Chevrolet, however, has been laying low.
That will change this fall with the introduction of the brand’s popular ZR2 trim to its Silverado pickup. First introduced on the mid-size Colorado in 2017 with a more aggressive suspension and off-road attitude, ZR2 goes head-to-head against mid-size athletes like the Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro and Ford Ranger Tremor. The Colorado ZR2 treatment includes choice of V6-and-diesel engines, 2-inch lift, wider track, front-and-rear locking differentials, and racing-inspired Multimatic shocks.
While shy of the Raptor and TRX’s high-horsepower antics, expect the ZR2 to be more capable than Chevy’s current Trail Boss off-road offering. ZR2 will go head-to-head with the Ford F-150 Tremor and Ram 1500 Rebel.
If the Colorado ZR2 is any indication, look for the new Chevy dirt-kicker to come equipped with lifted suspension, twin-locking differentials, and big, 35-inch tires. It will also have a deep engine toolbox to choose from including two Chevrolet V-8s (355-horsepower, 5.3-liter and 420-horse 6.2-liter) and Duramax diesel inline-six.
The off-road chops will come at a premium. The four-wheel-drive Colorado ZR2 costs $43,795 — about $17,000 over the base, RWD Colorado. Pricing for the Silverado ZR2 will come closer to launch.
With Silverado promising a general model refresh for the 2022 model year, ZR2 should show off some new styling cues as well.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Ford has reached into its classics stable for another retro-hit.
Following the runaway success of on-track performance coupes like the Mustang GT350 and Ford GT, the 2021 Bronco takes Ford capability off-road. But for all its nostalgic styling touches, the new truck-based ute is a thoroughly modern affair that bristles with state-of-the-art tools (and 200 more accessories to choose from) to make the Bronco a delight to drive on- and off-road.
Five cool things about the Bronco:
1) Buttons galore. Jump into the Bronco and behold its simple interior design bristling with more button-operated appliances than your kitchen. These buttons unlock drawer-fulls of capability. At the car’s center is the rotary Terrain Management System with GOAT mode (Goes Over Any Type of Terrain) selector — stuffed with buttons for 2-wheel-drive (rear-based), 4-wheel-drive-high, 4-low or 4-Auto depending on your type of terrain.
Spin the GOAT and Bronco’s eight available modes (NORMAL, ECO, SPORT, SLIPPERY, MUD/RUTS, SAND, BAJA, ROCK CRAWL) will automatically select their own drivetrain preference. Or you can select your own. At the GOAT’s center is an (available) button for Trail Control — a sort of adaptive cruise control for low speed off-roading so you can concentrate on steering.
On the steering wheel are buttons to operate Trail Control (which works up to 20 mph off-road), on-road cruise control, voice commands for Ford’s excellent SYNC 4 infotainment system and instrument menu controls.
Atop the dash is another bank of (up to six) buttons conveniently located so you don’t take your eyes of the road. I recommend Bronco owners take their mules to Holly Oaks ORV Park (or a similar off-road park wherever you live) to experience these buttons. Operated on the fly, they can transform your drivetrain by locking the differentials (for better off-road grip), increasing rotation with Trail Turn Assist, even disconnecting the front sway bars to negotiate rocks.
2) Open-air driving. “That looks like a toy,” said my sons when I texted them photos of my Bronco test. Grown-up toys, no doubt. Bronco engineers designed the ute with Legos in mind so you can easily remove its modular pieces. Go on, take the aluminum doors off to get closer to nature. You’ll need some muscle (they weigh 50 pounds each), but you only need deal with three screws (toolkit included) — then bag the door and stow it in back (four-door models only). Roofs are easy, too. The soft-top pops loose with two latches, then just peel it back like a sardine can.
If the open-air lifestyle appeals to you, option the washable vinyl seats. They come with plugs in the foot well so you drain muddy water.
3) Engine choices. Speed is at the core of Ford’s DNA going back to Old Man Henry’s racing to attract investors in 1903. Bronco options a twin-turbo 2.7-liter V-6 shared with F-150, but the base 300-horsepower 2.3-liter turbo-4 will do just fine, thank you. Yes, that’s the same 2.3-liter turbo architecture found in Ford’s legendary Focus RS hot hatch and the whip-quick Mustang HiPo. Mated to a similar 10-speed tranny found in the beastly-fast F-150 Raptor (manual also available), the turbo-4 growls aggressively when you put your boot in it.
“I actually prefer the 2.3. It’s lighter up front for better maneuverability,” said King of the Hammers off-road race star Loren Healy as he flung a Bronco sideways around Ford’s Austin Off-Roadeo course. Such standard options make the Bronco a treat no matter which of the seven trims you pick, for example …
4) Sasquatch package. Available on every trim beginning with Base, Sasquatch lives large. The giant 35-inch tires are paired with capable Bilstein shocks to give Bronco formidable off-road chops, and a formidable presence. A Sasquatch-equipped two-door Bronco is one of the coolest looking cars on the road. Like having your own personal monster truck.
5) High-tech. Technology is the defining attribute of the current auto generation, and the Bronco is dripping with it. Right out of the box, the $31,000 Bronco features a standard digital instrument display rich in tech. Roll the GOAT selector and each mode is illustrated with slick graphics.
Also standard is wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Chart a destination on your phone, enter Bronco and the console screen will automatically navigate the route (as well as read your play lists, texts, etc.). If you’re an off-road geek, opt for the 12-inch console screen with its array of camera views — 360-degree, front and rear corners, more — to help you navigate the gnarliest off-road rocks and gulches.
The Ford Bronco: inspired by the ’60s, cutting edge in the ’20s.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Austin, Texas — The frisky 2021 Bronco has reinvented Ford’s iconic 1960s off-roader as a high-tech, high-powered competitor to the Jeep Wrangler. But that’s just the beginning. As Ford remakes itself as a rugged, SUV brand (think Jeep), it wants to educate customers on the off-road experience.
Say hello to Bronco Off-Roadeos — four sprawling, Disney-like off-road-vehicle parks that Ford has developed across the country.
Available at no cost to buyers of the truck-frame Bronco (and its unibody kid brother Bronco Sport Badlands), these “ORV resorts” offer an immersive experience to teach the vehicles’ versatile tools in the wild. Just a week before its July opening to customers, I got a driver’s eye view of what is in store for Bronco Nation at Ford’s premier Off-Rodeo park 54 miles northwest of Austin.
“We bring customers out here and say: ‘Here is where you start.’ We teach the ABCs of off-roading,” said Bronco Off-Roadeo program manager Greg Nikolas as we looked out over the 360-acre property in the Texas foothills.
The idea of marinating customers in an auto brand is hardly new. Luxury performance automakers have done it for years. Buy a ferocious Cadillac V-series performance sedan and GM’s luxe brand will invite you to Spring Mountain Motorsport Ranch in Pahrump, Nevada, where you get schooled on track, then unwind by the pool. Porsche has built U.S. customer playgrounds in Atlanta and Los Angeles so customers can wring the neck of six-figure sportscars.
Ford itself has entertained buyers of its performance products — think F-150 Raptor and Mustang coupe — at locales like Utah Motorsport Campus and Charlotte Motor Speedway.
But the four Off-Roadeo theme parks — in Austin; Moab, Utah; Las Vegas, and an east coast location to be named — are ambitious for a mainstream brand. They cater — not just to speed-addled motorheads — but to a new generation of buyers as Ford repositions itself in the market.
Just a few years ago new Ford customers were learning to hoon around Utah Motorsports Park in entry-level Ford Focus and Fiesta ST pocket rockets. Those cars are gone — replaced by a full lineup of SUVs led by Bronco and Bronco Sport.
Like taking the family to a Disney theme park, Ford hopes the experience will nurture new Bronco fans for years to come.
Nikolas brought in drift racing legend Vaughn Gittin Jr. and King of the Hammers champ Loren Healy to help craft the park.
“We helped curate the experience,” smiled Gittin, who won the Formula Drift championship in 2020 and competes in Ultra4 off-road racing. “I call it Walt Disney-fying the off-road experience so that owners can learn everything they need to know about their Bronco. We want them to embrace the Bronco lifestyle and join the collective of off-roading.”
Gittin & Co. have designed off-road trails with spicy names like Jalapeno, Habanero and Ghost Pepper that snake through the park’s woods, streams, rocks and 150-foot elevation change.
Ford leases the off-road park from the Horseshoe Bay Resort overlooking the Colorado River. The Vegas venue will be the next to open late this summer. Off-Roadeo attendees can book rooms (flights and hotel are on the customers) at the resort or other local hotels — then take a 20-minute shuttle to the venue. Spouses and children over 12 are welcome.
Off-Roadeo’s ranch-like vibe is anchored by a main building where participants register and share southwest-style meals. Attendees can play games on the wide porch or relax in Adirondack lawn chairs. Broncos outfitted in the rugged “Sasquatch” wardrobe of 35-inch tires and Bilstein shocks are littered around the main campus.
Bronco Off-Roadeo welcomes drivers of all skill levels. The two-day experience begins after lunch with an orientation session at “The Sluice Box,” where customers learn the Bronco’s formidable off-road toolbox. Those tools include a 43-degree approach angle, best-in-class 29-degree breakover angle, front and rear locking differentials, and two-speed 4×4 transfer case.
With Off-Road 101 under their belt, customers make their way to the ORX course (Off-Road Experience), where they apply the tools in various disciplines. A steep hill shows off Bronco’s Trail Control feature. A rock crawl demonstrates the 360-degree camera. Tight turns show off Trail Turn Assist.
“We show them the techniques and the technology,” said Nikolas.
Broncos head out on a trail, next familiarizing drivers with the terrain. Drivers learn which modes to select with the SUV’s GOAT (Go Over Any Terrain) mode selector. Or how to shift to neutral before engaging the 4×4 transfer case.
Dressed in bright colors like Lightning Blue Metallic and Cyber Orange, Bronco impresses as a cute ute. But back on the main campus, Bronco experts demonstrate the Ford’s macho modularity with removable doors, fenders and roof. Some 200 accessories can be snapped on. It’s Legos for adults.
Attendees end Day One with dinner and a campfire.
After breakfast on Day Two, customers apply all they’ve learned in a four-hour drive across the property. A full stable of Broncos are stamped — Jurassic Park-style — with the “Bronco Off-Roadeo” logo. Ford built a gas station on property to keep their steeds fed.
The four-hour drive shows off the SUV’s remarkable range, from fording 34 inches of water to climbing steep rock faces.
At the end, customers get the icing on the cake: a high-speed Bronco roller-coaster ride with a skilled driver at the wheel.
“We call it the Funhammer Five-Smile Loop,” said Gitton before taking me through the course.
Exhausted and exhilarated, attendees return to the main building for lunch and debrief before re-entering civilian life. Now official members of Bronco Nation, they can share their experiences at thebronconation.com — an independent online community for the Bronco brand faithful.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
The 2021 Bronco is a rockin, sockin’ instant archrival to off-road’s King Jeep Wrangler. After years atop the hill, our hero Wrangler has an equal for the throne. It’s Superman vs. Batman. Wonder Woman vs. Captain Marvel. Captain America vs. Spider Man. They’re both the good guys.
The Wrangler will put you on its back and take you anywhere. So will Bronco. Anywhere like Austin where I flogged Ford’s off-road beast over impossible terrain in the Texas foothills: streams, rocks, bigger rocks, craggy inclines, hair-raising declines. Built like Wrangler with two-or-four removable doors atop a rugged truck frame, Bronco boldly follows the trail the Jeep blazed.
The rivalry is refreshing in this age of kumbaya, let’s-all-hold-hands-to-the-EV-future bonhomie. Booooring. Bronco vs. Wrangler is the kind of gloves-off rivalry Detroit relishes. Like the truck and muscle-car wars, it will bring new customers to new frontiers.
I’ve lived and loved the track rivalry between Mustang-Camaro-Challenger — similar ponies, different personalities. So it is with Bronco-Wrangler.
Rivalries breed respect, and there is no bigger admirer of Wrangler than Bronco. Ford has embraced the Wrangler’s free spirit — fishnet door storage, detachable swaybars, roll bar, drain plugs, etc. — then mated it with the Blue Oval’s signature tech ‘n’ performance DNA.
“We saw the opportunity to build a more modern off-road SUV that Wrangler is not taking advantage of,” said Bronco marketing guru Mark Gruber, taunting his rival at the weigh-in ahead of the heavyweight fight.
From stem to stern, Bronco asks the questions: can we simplify it? Modernize it?
Start with the front end, a 2020s interpretation of the ’60s Bronco’s iconic face. Simplify? Modernize? Yup. The hood pops open like a normal hood — no struggling with the Wrangler’s signature straps.
Climb into the Wrangler and tall guys like me might bang their noggin’ on the fat rollbar. Go high-speed off-roading and I’ll have lumps the size of goat horns. Bronco integrates the bar into the ceiling, allowing for easier access and headroom.
Bronco’s smartly conceived, modular tech is everywhere.
In an off-road world spoiled by Wrangler customization, every Bronco panel can be removed (the term “Legos” was liberally used by engineers). Just locate the “Bronco Bolts” with BRONCO stamped on their heads. Even the grille can be swapped out if you wanna’ different look.
Removing 50-pound aluminum doors is never easy. Bronco simplifies the task with frameless, mirrorless doors (now you know why the wing-like mirrors are attached to the hood). Remove three bolts. Cap the electric wire harness. Wrap the doors in bags. If you have a four-door Bronco, you can stow them upright in the trunk. Fold back your soft-top roof (a removable hard top is also available) and you are at one with nature.
Want to take off my Outer Banks tester’s painted fenders for scratch-resistant plastic ones? Have at it with five easy clips. Want to take off the whole @&!** fender? Wrench some Bronco Bolts.
The drivetrain is simple, too, for the inevitable off-road temptation. It’s not, ahem, electric.
Ford suits say the automaker’s future is battery-powered, but their brand halo SUV says it’s gas-powered. Good luck crossing the Outback in anything else. Motivating all four wheels are a choice of great engines familiar to Ford fans: the 330-horsepower, 2.7-liter twin-turbo V-6 from the F-150 and 300-horse, 2.3-liter turbo-4 from the Ford Focus RS/Mustang Hi Po.
Okay, a brief detour off Simplification Trail into Trim Swamp.
The Bronco comes in a dizzying array of trims, including the Outer Banks, Base, Big Bend, Black Diamond, Wildtrak, Badlands and Skull Island (not sure about that last one). Just pick one depending on your budget and taste. They’re all good. Then lemme recommend the Sasquatch package with ginormous, 35-inch tires and Bilstein shocks. Add 360-degree camera. And vinyl interior with drain plugs so you can wash out the mud.
Now we’re cookin’ with hot sauce.
After a torrential overnight rain in Austin, I tackled the slippery, rocky terrain of Ford’s Austin Off-Roadeo Park in a two-door, Sasquatch-equipped Wildtrak. Where Wrangler offers a second stick shifter that has to be muscled to operate its HIGH/LOW gear transfer case, Bronco simplifies with a rotary dial. Ford calls it the GOAT (Goes On Any Terrain) dial.
I spun it to MUD/RUTS mode, which prepped the 10-speed transmission and engine for serious, low-speed rock crawling. When the 4WD system encountered slip, I reached for a row of buttons at the top of the dash (so I didn’t take my eyes off trail). Buttons like front-and-rear locking differentials or detachable swaybars that adjust on the fly (no stopping to shift into NEUTRAL. I see Wrangler nation drooling.).
We on-track speed junkies love torque-vectoring Subaru STIs and VW Golf Rs, and Ford makes sure off-roaders benefit from this tech, too. I fingered the Trail Turn Assist button and brakes retarded the inside rear wheel, slinging Bronco’s arse through tight turns. Treat your Dodge Hellcat buddies with off-road donuts.
Bronco left some Wrangler-inspired features alone — like the tailgate-mounted tire with integrated rear camera. Which is a good thing, because the spare is an off-roader’s best friend. You might even give it a nickname. Like St. Bernard. Or Lassie.
My Lassie saved me after an off-road adventure in the Middle-of-Nowhere, Texas.
I’d been traveling along twisty Lime Creek Road, well-known to Austin motorheads as a road to exercise their sports cars. Bronco offers no such temptation, though the independent front suspension makes for a smooth ride.
Sitting on a truck frame 10 inches off the ground on big, pillowy 32-inch tires, my Bronco Outer Banks chugged along. Until it heard the siren call of, well, the outer banks of the Colorado River. I detoured to its rocky shore, splashed in the water. Bronco stuff.
Then the digital instrument display signaled trouble. We were losing air in the left front, captain. And fast! I pulled into a parking lot, the front left punctured. I removed the jack from the trunk. Unscrewed the tailgate spare from its post. Replaced the front tire. Screwed the flat on the tailgate.
Quick, easy, and I only suffered third-degree burns (I kid) from sitting on asphalt on a 105-degree Texas afternoon.
The spare is the same as the tire it replaced so, if you’re in the wild, you can get right back to wildin’. Like when Bronco engineer Jamie Groves and his crew took a production Bronco Badlands (the most extreme Bronco trim, like a Wrangler Rubicon) to the bruising NORRA Mexican 1000 race on the Baja Peninsula.
They finished third (the first production-based car across the line) without a mechanical glitch — except for two flats they had to change in the desert.
That’s Ford for you. Not content to just go off-road, they gotta go fast. The need for speed goes back to founding father Henry at the 1901 Sweepstakes. And the GT40 at Le Mans. Heck, Bronco was the first production vehicle to win Baja waaaay back in ’69.
I preferred the lighter, 2.3-liter turbo-4 up front for its superior maneuverability. Think the Sandbox section at Holly Oaks ORV Park, where Bronco Nation will soon be locking horns with Wrangler Nation. Broncos are on sale now.
Don’t think Wrangler is waiting? Jeep introduced its Xtreme Recon package this summer with Sasquatch-fighting, 35-inch tires.
Oh, it’s on.
2021 Ford Bronco
Vehicle type: Front engine, four-wheel-drive, five-passenger, compact SUV
Price: $31,490 (2-door) and $36,190 (4-door), including $1,495 destination fee ($56,795 2-door Wildtrak, $53,150 4-door Outer Banks as tested)
Henry Payne RSS
