Evelyn Reynolds

From the August 1980 issue of Car and Driver.The consensus among your obedient staffers is that this little Subaru has an endearing sort of crudeness that makes it rather fun. This is in contrast to the ordinary sort of crudeness found in Dat­sun 310s and old B-210s, which make them rather annoying. Such findings may seem a misdirected exercise to you—right up there with pondering whether Brussels sprouts should be eat­en buttered or creamed, when every­body with even half a sense of taste knows they shouldn’t be eaten at all­—but these fine judgment calls are what we get paid for.This little Subaru, for the record, starts life as an “STD 4wd hatchback,” the loss leader in Subaru’s four-wheel-­drive line, and at a base price of $4799 ($4998 in California), it’s the cheapest four-wheel-drive thing available in America. In a time when most plain-va­nilla econoboxes list for more than that, the price alone is quite an attraction. At the same time, such a low price im­plies a pretty Spartan machine; hence the crudeness we spoke of earlier. Your opinion of this car will depend pretty much upon what you expect of it. If you live in snow country or RFD America where the roads don’t go everywhere you need to, and therefore want a bud­get-priced go-anywhere car to keep you mobile, you’ll probably think this is the best automobile in the world. If you just want some no-fuss utility box for get­ting around the country and your stan­dards of presentability require hosing out the interior once a year, whether it needs it or not, you’ll probably think the STD 4wd hatchback is a pretty nifty piece as well. But if you have visions of a jewel-like machine with the sophistica­tion of a BMW and the comfort of a Rabbit (or even of an American pickup), you’ll certainly have to go higher in the Subaru line—say, to the DL model we used for photography—or possibly to another store. Because the base four­-wheel-driver is a bit of an automotive hair shirt. Five years ago its creature comforts would have made it competitive with any budget import, but now they are substandard. More Reviews From the ArchiveThere’s absolutely nothing wrong with the four-wheel-drive part, though, at least nothing we discovered in polite motoring. Normally, only the front wheels transmit power. But at any speed up to 50 mph, you may engage 4wd by lifting a healthy-looking lever on the console. When it is pulled fully home, the Honda Accord-style outline draw­ing of a car on the instrument panel comes alive with four green-glowing wheels and an indicator off to the side shows “4wd.” That’s all there is to it. No drum rolls, fanfares, or transient crunchings from the machinery below. Four-wheel drive manifests itself solely by graphics on the dashboard and, one hopes, a better grip on our planet. This latter, unfortunately, is much harder to measure. The 1595 Subaru ccs under the hood are not noticeably ambitious, so there isn’t enough energy available to explore the high-perform­ance possibilities of four-wheel drive in paved-road motoring. The off-road potential of four-wheel drive is, of course, well known, so there seemed little rea­son for us to terrorize the Bambi and bunnies just to report that, yep, four is better than two. All of this is by way of saying that the four-wheel-drive virtue of this car will be left to faith. What we did find is that the personal­ity of this model is substantially differ­ent from that of the four-door, 2wd GL sedan we tested in February. The four­-wheel-driver is much noisier and more subject to vibration. How much of the blame should be apportioned to the four-wheel-drive machinery itself and how much is merely due to the loss-­leader status of the base model we are unable to determine. Moreover, official Subaru spokesmen in this country don’t know either. We also found that the sus­pension of this car did not maintain its aplomb on rough pavement. Even with only the driver aboard, it crashed through to the bump stops in a way that modern econoboxes—Rabbits, Omni/Horizons, Hondas, and the like—would never do, which speaks poorly for the off-road potential of this car.Needless to say, such roughriding is not a part of the endearing crudeness, which in itself is a quality not easy to explain and even harder to defend. But some of it has to do with the engine, a horizontally opposed four-cylinder like that of the old Beetle, except this one is water-cooled. As it happens, both make similar sounds, a kind of beating of the exhaust pulses at certain speeds when you accelerate hard, and we found this to be an endearing foible. Then there is the elemental nature of the car itself. The doors, for example, are incredibly light; they feel like two layers of tin with some glass sandwiched in the middle, and that’s what they sound like when you slam them. Again, this is hardly praiseworthy, but in the case of a bite-sized four-wheel-driver, it adds a sense of purposefulness that we found appealing. Then, too, there is the one-piece molded-rubber interior. Well, that’s an exaggeration, but the entire headliner is one piece of skinned vinyl foam, and each door panel is one piece of formed plastic, and the mats swelling and turn­ing over the countless irregularities in the floor are one-piece, wall-to-wall cre­ations of the most intricate detail. All of this is wonderfully coordinated in a sin­gle hue of cheese-mold gray (we also saw a butterscotch-pudding version). This one-piece theme gets some tricky embellishment on the seats. They’re covered entirely in vinyl; however, to disguise that fact the part where you ac­tually sit has been embossed with a black pattern to make it look like woven cloth. But you could still take a hose to it—to the whole interior, for that mat­ter—and that seems kind of endearing. These diverse elements—the nostalgic engine and the tin-can functionality and the Tupperware interior—all combine to give a pearl-of-discount-price feel to the STD 4wd hatchback; this is such a novelty in the car business today that the Subaru manages to be interestingly annoying rather than just plain annoy­ing. Get yourself a shiny new Bronco Ranger XLT and you’re afraid to drive it out in the bush because it’ll take you a week to pick all the nettles out of the deep-pile carpets. But the Subaru, hell, you just drive it like what it is: a dirt­-cheap, wash-and-wear, go-anywhere car. It’s the automotive equivalent of the pair of shoes you change to when it’s muddy outside, and you can’t argue with the endearing nature of that. You can’t find much fault with the hatchback’s space utilization either. Considering its mere 93.3-inch wheel­base and truncated, 156.7-inch overall length, there is a great deal of room in­side. The front buckets are good enough for adults of almost any com­mon dimension, and, surprisingly, the rear bench is equally accommodating. There is enough room for heads and knees back there for real people. Or you can fold down the seatback to extend the trunk area forward to the backs of the front seats. The trunk’s lift-over height is about medium—the sill line is just above the taillights—but it’s no worse than on Subaru sedans. To put this car into final perspective, the endearing crudeness we spoke of earlier is not all that dissimilar to what you find in typical Japanese pickups. And since those devices are regarded as acceptable transport by what seems like millions of Americans these days, the STD 4wd hatchback is certainly not too rough and ready for an important seg­ment of the nation’s drivers. All in all, we think this car is really quite an attractive alternative to a small four-wheel-drive pickup. Its over-the-road handling is much easier to live with than that of a truck; the driving position offers much more room where it’s need­ed by long American limbs; and the rear seat folds down to make a substantial cargo area—not big enough for a mo­torcycle, true enough, but if your toys are smaller they will enjoy the security of a locked hatch, which no pickup of­fers. And finally, this little skate is well over a grand cheaper than any four-­wheel-drive pickup you can name, ex­cept for Subaru’s own BRAT. So the 4wd hatchback, it seems to us, poses two choices: you approach it ei­ther as a rude little car that will go any­where, or as a wonderfully sophisticated near-pickup. CounterpointsSubaru is much like Mercedes-Benz, in that both firms have a crystal-clear vision of who they are and what they ought to be building. I don’t know the Japanese word for “leitmotif,” but that’s what they have, and it works for Subaru just as well as it works for the Germans. I’m keen on Su­barus because they don’t make any bones about what kinds of car they are, or what they’re supposed to do. This means that it is unheard of for someone who doesn’t want a Subaru to wind up owning one. There are Subaru people, and they were meant to own Subarus. They’ll feel un­comfortable and unloved in a something-­for-everyone car like a Chevrolet Malibu, but they’ll feel as if they’ve just snuggled into Grandma’s lap the minute they sit down behind the wheel of our Subaru three-door and fire up the scrappy little terrier-motor. This is a deadly-serious little car, but it’s so much fun to wail around in that I don’t know how to cate­gorize it. It may be the most useful little car around. Usefulness abounds in the rear hatch, four-wheel drive, fold-down rear seat, great gas mileage, robust per­formance, and the ratio of interior space to the overall bulk of the vehicle. And it doesn’t even look funny. —David E. Davis.Jr.Subaru, I’m happy to see, knows exactly when to mess around with a good thing. The first generation of breadbox all­-wheel-drivers was a great idea, but there was plenty of room left for improvement. The Mark II version attends to every one of the old model’s shortcomings—but there is one caveat. While the new 4wd sedan has taken a quantum leap ahead in room, comfort, appearance, and road manners, it still gives away a chunk of refinement to Subaru’s revitalized, standard-issue front-drive models. For some reason the 4wd’s en­gine seems far coarser, the ride is choppi­er, and on the highway it’s a buzz box. One more trip through finishing school is needed to make it a first-class small car. The Subaru’s saving grace, of course, is the magic lever between the seats. Having four-wheel drive on your side means nev­er having to worry about Mother Nature. And the Subaru’s easy way with fuel makes Blazer-class rigs look as dumb as the dirt they drive in. On balance, life with Subaru is a lot nicer the second time around, caveat and all. —Rich CepposSubaru used to be the ugly duckling of Japan, a last bastion of the strangely-mis­shapen school of auto design. You’d nev­er guess that fact looking at the 1980 line, however. This company has matured into its graceful-swan mode, and the new cars look so terrific that every old-Subaru owner should rush right out and trade for one. What better opportunity to help beautify America? Beauty isn’t the only thing that’s been added this year, either: what we have here is the world’s first small sedan with four-wheel drive. This is your chance to own a weatherproof run­ner with 23 mpg! And best of all, it looks and acts nothing at all like a truck. The interior is modern, roomy, and comfort­able to live with. The hatchback “trunk” is small but versatile since the rear seat splits and folds. Roadworthiness could be better with a little more steam under the hood and some suspension development, but one forgives these minor shortcom­ings the instant all four wheels bite into a snowdrift or a sand dune. What’s more, the best may be yet to come: home-mar­ket 4wd Subarus have two- speed transfer cases. —Don ShermanSpecificationsSpecifications
1980 Subaru 1600 4WDVehicle Type: front-engine, 4-wheel-drive, 4-passenger, 2-door hatchback
PRICE
Base/As Tested: $5608/$6510Options: Bridgestone tires, $466; Jackman wheels, $224; front-end protector, $119; roof rack, $93
ENGINEpushrod inline-4, iron block and aluminum headDisplacement: 97 in3, 1600 cm3Power: 68 hp @ 4800 rpmTorque: 84 lb-ft @ 2800 rpm 
TRANSMISSION4-speed manual
CHASSIS
Suspension, F/R: struts/semi-trailing armsBrakes, F/R: 7.2-in disc/7.1-in drumTires: Bridgestone RD703 Steel175/70SR-13
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: 93.3 inLength: 156.7 inWidth: 63.8 inHeight: 55.7 inCurb Weight: 2280 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS60 mph: 15.1 sec80 mph: 41.0 sec1/4-Mile: 19.6 sec @ 67 mphTop Speed: 85 mphBraking, 70–0 mph: 240 ft  
EPA FUEL ECONOMY
Combined: 23 mpg (est) 
C/D TESTING EXPLAINED More

The Mercedes-Benz van you see here is still nearly a year away from a proper reveal. We don’t even know its name yet, which is why the only name you’ll see here is Van.EA. While Van.EA sounds like a shady website streaming bootleg NFL games, it’s actually a brand-new electric-vehicle architecture that will eventually underpin all corners of Mercedes-Benz’s van empire. Mercedes, aware of current consumer hesitancy, has a complementary combustion-engine platform in the works too. But the most interesting part of Van.EA is that this effort is going to result in a high-end people mover aimed at both China and the United States.Not (Just) a Mall-CrawlerIf you’re familiar with JDM-fanboy favorites like the Toyota Alphard and Lexus LM, that gives you an idea of what Mercedes is cooking up. Something that can serve as high-end VIP transport, chauffeuring—things beyond trips to Target.It’s worth noting that, while this type of vehicle is popular in China, the current U.S. market for luxury minivans is, well, pretty much nonexistent. We have minivans, but not a lot of them, and none that really lean into Benz-level luxury or try to cater to buyers outside the confines of the middle-class nuclear family. The old Metris had a passenger variant, but its commercial roots were obvious; its high-and-forward driving position felt more like that of a Sprinter than a GLS-class.That’s what Van.EA aims to change. Private-use vans, as development head Andreas Zygan put it, will no longer “have to carry the burden” of so many commercial-grade components and hard points; that would immediately put a six-figure minivan into “hard sell” territory with discerning buyers. In fact, to further push it away from its roots, the M-B vans team started collaborating more closely with coworkers from the passenger-cars division.The hope is that the new high-end people mover built on this Van.EA architecture will become favored transport for shuttling VIPs of all stripes. But Mercedes surely wouldn’t be disappointed if you also see many of these suckers stuck in a mile-long pickup line at your local private school. What Can You Tell Us About the Van?In terms of straight facts and figures? Not a ton. Van.EA will run on an 800-volt architecture, which means it should be pretty quick at the DC fast-charger. If you’re charging at home, the platform’s onboard unit can accept AC juice at up to 22 kW, which is almost enough zap to grant sentience to your circuit-breaker panel. Dual-motor all-wheel drive and rear-axle steering will be available. We don’t have any powertrain output figures, nor do we have knowledge of the battery chemistry or motor types, but we do know that Mercedes is aiming for an EPA range estimate north of 300 miles. If electromobility isn’t your hang, worry not. Van.EA will be followed by Van.CA, which will be a variant of the platform dedicated to internal-combustion powertrains. CA shares approximately 70 percent of its components with EA, and they’re able to be built on the same production line, so think of it less as a separate platform and more of an internal-combustion analogue. Even kissin’ cousins would be too distant.The two diverging roads in this yellow wood will offer several variants to suit all sorts of needs. The new platform won’t be limited to six-figure moonshots; there’ll be plenty of commercial models and middle grounds to fill the gaps. But we may have to wait a few more months to get the full skinny there.How Does Van.EA Drive?To give the new electric van a very, very early shakedown, we headed to Mercedes-Benz’s winter testing grounds outside Arjeplog, Sweden. With Van.EA being in the middle of development, its exterior was entirely camouflaged, and the interior was a rat’s nest of ethernet cables and shrouds to hide the bits that were further along and closer to production spec. One thing we can tell you is that three large displays occupy the entire width of the dashboard. There’s a gigantic gauge display, and two similarly sized screens next to it—one for traditional infotainment duty, the other for the passenger. It’s like a more upright and symmetrical Hyperscreen. First, we tackled 10 and 15 percent grades, with one side of the vehicle on dry pavement and the other half on ice. A brake-hold feature prevents the van from rolling backward, and all we needed to do was lightly apply the accelerator and let the stability system dole out the torque to the wheels with the most grip. A little bit of wheelspin later, we made it up with barely any lateral deviation.Then came the low-friction braking. We ran the van up to 62 mph, which admittedly did take awhile on solid ice, but it tracked straight as the stability-control light blinked its little heart out. As we approached a piece of dry pavement, we put half the van on it and slammed the brakes as hard as we could. ABS did its thing, and the ESC once again held the vehicle surprisingly straight. Engineers told us that the goal was to ensure the driver needed no more than a 90-degree steering input to keep the vehicle tracking straight under that kind of braking; we only needed a couple dabs in the 30-degree range.The last two pieces of the puzzle involved pretty simple stuff. Cones were set up in a square so we could see how tight the turning circle was (the answer: impressively). Then we were set loose on a long stretch of icy pavement, as well as a large skidpad-style plot, to see how well the stability control keeps things in line. While you can definitely turn hard flicks of the steering wheel and unnecessary right-pedal tomfoolery into lurid snowy drifts, the ESC sure as hell doesn’t want you to. Half the time, it was already well on its way to sorting us out before we finished our steering corrections. But, of course, in driving a car for the first time, there’s plenty of ancillary stuff to pick up on, too. The seating position was more carlike than in most vans; you sit in it, rather than on it, although the pedals still felt a little too close when your author set the seat for his six-foot frame. Visibility was solid when the camouflage wasn’t in the way. The ride over ice and snow was smooth; as we careened over a large dip, the body slowly and surely recombobulated itself without any annoying nautical float.The biggest issue with Van.EA’s major upmarket push won’t be the van itself—the foundations seem solid, as one would expect. Instead, the challenge will be convincing well-off Americans that they want this instead of a traditional SUV, especially if that SUV already wears a three-pointed star. To Mercedes, part of what makes something luxurious is a feeling of spaciousness, and a van delivers that in spades. Whether people are willing to accept that shape into their predefined mental image of luxury is a different story.Cars are Andrew Krok’s jam, along with boysenberry. After graduating with a degree in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2009, Andrew cut his teeth writing freelance magazine features, and now he has a decade of full-time review experience under his belt. A Chicagoan by birth, he has been a Detroit resident since 2015. Maybe one day he’ll do something about that half-finished engineering degree. More

From the June 1980 issue of Car and Driver.Ladies and gentlemen, you will please cue up your Superman tapes, main title passage, please. We are here to tell you about one of those rare cars, of which a few come to each generation, whose presence and capabilities completely transcend even the uppermost limits of accepted goodness. To harness yourself into this car is to lace up Seven League Boots. To drive it well, with skill, con­centration, and energy, is to unleash the miracle of our own genius for progress in transportation. Each time we drive the 733i, then relinquish the key to a neophyte, we find ourselves looking over our shoulders at the one taking its wheel for the first time. Each of us won­ders privately if he is alone in his per­ception of this car’s capacity to satisfy our wildest dreams of accomplishment in sedandom. But then the newly initiat­ed driver returns, gets out of the car, and pinches himself. As we have pinched ourselves in the same situation. Aha, we are not alone! We on the staff are expected to foam some at the mouth when a piece like the 733i comes along, but when the boss does, too, well, jeez… When the origi­nal 733i was first made available to us two years ago, frankly The Man’s praise button short-circuited in the full-on po­sition. “I’m saved,” he said. “I, David E. Davis, Jr., self-appointed high priest of Bimmer Madness in North America, can finally stop feeling guilty about not lik­ing the 630CSi coupe. Forget the coupe! The magnificent 7-series sedans have arrived in America and God’s in his heaven and all’s right with the world! Damn, what a car…this is Bim­mer Infinity.”Right again, Boss-man. What we need here is an automatic typesetter with a key marked “Superlatives.” That is the nature of this 733i. It is so good, it makes you feel guilty when you note something even slightly negative about it. And while it’s nice to dabble around town in, you will never discover its true delights until you take it out in the open, where the road unreels like a bal­loon with a hole punched in it. Knowing that, we quit Los Angeles and set off for Monterey up the coast on Highway 1 in our Seven League Boots, sidestepping the highway patrol by sixth sense and practiced eye. This is necessary because this car makes you feel like a somnolent old coot if you’re not out there thump­ing on it for all you’re worth every sec­ond the wheels are turning. More BMW Content From the ArchiveBMW has done hand-to-hand combat with the rudiments and the complexities of suspension design, and has come out a winner. The result is a fine cream of consistency, a refinement in the way the car goes about its most trying business that carries through to almost every as­pect of its behavior. The 733i offers a thoroughly civilized give-and-take that returns at least what you put into it. It feels better than the Mercedes 450SEL in its way of going, although it will be interesting to see how the new S-class Mercedes, coming next year, will com­pare. BMW’s biggest advance in the 733i’s all-independent suspension came in front at its damper-strut linkage. It is located by two separate positioning links instead of the normal (and less ef­ficient) one. Suspension geometry is thus improved, providing less self-steer­ing when the wheels are unequally load­ed, more self-centering for the steering wheel, and less dive under braking. The 733i goes around corners like an overgrown open-wheeled race car, yet it sacrifices nothing in the way of ride quality. It just turns in and tracks around with record low amounts of un­dersteer for a big sedan. It encourages you and serves devotedly in the tightest of switchbacks, and it cuts beautifully clean arcs through great, long sweepers. It is light on its feet and possessed of startling maneuverability and agility, and while its passage can be breathtak­ing from outside, inside, the 733i pro­fesses absolute calmness and gives time for clearheaded perception. BMW’s characteristic trailing-throttle oversteer, a normal byproduct of semi-trailing-arm rear suspension, has been throttled back, although it’s still provokable. Log­ic has it that the 733i’s very low levels of initial and final understeer help reduce final oversteer because, even entering corners more quickly, it will track around with less addition of steering lock (which tends to initiate an outward swing of the tail with the turning in of the nose), and have much less need to close the throttle (thus avoiding the in­herent steering outward of the semi­-trailed rear wheels), which is the likely way to slow down a car that first threat­ens to go straight on in corners. Dips and bumps pass under BMW’s suspension calibrations like low water under a tall bridge, the 733i flowing over the road as if it were the world’s fastest hovercraft. Its directional stabili­ty seems somehow related to the path and character of unrefracted light, un­wavering and true. The degree of steer­ing assist is determined by road speed, and its subjective feel may outqualify Mercedes’ as the best in the world. The BMW’s steering has slightly less feel, but it also take less effort, nearly perfect effort. We dream about having this no­-muss, no-fuss steering response in se­dans, and discovering it here feels as reassuring and familiar as pocketing your favorite penknife in the morning. Thank God for that. California was just entering its record-breaking rain-­flood-and-mudslide season when we picked up the 733i. Amid the stop-and-­go traffic and the impending, soggy collapse of the coastal range, the car never missed a beat. Its single flaw, in the face of winds that tore shrieks from damp young ladies clutching disemboweled umbrellas that flopped like one-legged chickens, was a tendency for it to be bat­ted around by these stout gusts. This is Mother Nature’s elbow in the ribs of the 733i’s superior attitude. Cars that like to change direction when you tell them to sometimes like to do so when they haven’t been told, you see, and a stabi­lizing air dam would be a welcome addition beneath the front bumper. Beyond that, the smooth attitude transitions and fishbowl visibility of the 733i make working traffic a breeze. And its Continental radials, in spite of minor out-of-roundness, slice through rainwa­ter and cling to sunbaked pavement with equal finesse, though nothing in their appearance would suggest this combination of virtues. BMW has some­how magically wedded these tires to its suspension, and the 733i flashes as surely up Highway 1 in streaming rain as lesser cars do when it’s bone-dry. And in the dry, HO-HO! the 733i plays first chair. It has some tendency to vault through quick cycles of vertical motion over repeated and highly exaggerated ripples, but its speed must be nigh on to ungodly to make this happen, and it re­covers quickly. Most other cars would already have inserted themselves in ditches.When trouble does start, the brakes are at your side. They are hydraulically assisted, shunning the more popular vacuum boost, so they put the squeeze on very quickly, without deliberation but with great consistency. They have tremendous feel, easily defining the ul­timate possible degree of braking under every hard-charging circumstance we could induce on our run up the gantlet of Pacific Coast Highway. The brakes are progressive, direct, and firm, a blessing that shuns disguise. They are also called for. It is no surprise that the engine is a thing of wonder. This is a BMW. It is expected, and BMW has smote our gov­ernment’s emissions and mileage re­quirements with research and develop­ment. The research has turned up a three-way catalyst, a Lambda-sensor, and unleaded fuel, and the develop­ment is horsepower. The expensive and sophisticated six-cylinder engine it’s housed in is the mechanical embodiment of absolute insistence. It has a pas­sion for accelerating the countryside past as if it were wired to a well-man­nered-but-berserk, Jekyll-and-Hyde rhe­ostat. It pulls beautifully through the gears, and when the power band of its overhead cam comes on, it begins to howl. It says you could never ask too much. And lordy, does it give. You may wonder that 3.2 liters can wallop 3600 pounds of prime Bavarian comfort up to 60 mph in 8.2 seconds, and cover the quarter-mile in 16.3 seconds at 84 mph, but believe it. The 6400-rpm redline, if you’re in the grasp of neck-and-neck fe­ver, won’t bid you goodbye in third gear until 97 mph, and running flat-scat over the open road packs your sensory load­ings to overflowing. This raises impolite questions such as, “How come other automakers can’t seem to do this?” and, un­fortunately, “Do they even want to?” BMW’s EPA mileage number is 16 mpg, but we’d say you could probably do better with restraint.Even so, your mileage won’t be terrific. This car needs a five-speed, with fifth an overdrive. At least there isn’t a nicer four-speed around, and finding one in here at all is reward enough. This is sig­nificant because there aren’t any other luxury cars that come with manual gear­boxes over here. BMW, of course, has an automatic too, but the stick shift is the tip. Our engine ran so smoothly that we used the gears too hard, too soon, and it wasn’t long before the box was audibly reminding us of our shortsight­edness. Gear noise is not normally a problem, but proper break-in, as we know from other experiences with BMWs, is very important. Inside this 110-inch wheelbase is enough room for the Jabbar family up front and a non-contact soccer match in back. We stretch the point, but the space is all here. The leather seats are at first very comfortable and they are ad­justable for any angle or attitude from foxhole to crow’s-nest. But the leather is slick, lumbar adjustments are missing, and marathon drivers seem to wind up with minor backaches. But support for hard driving is good, and the back seat is a place of airy comfort despite still more slippery leather. BMW’s four-spoke leather wheel is in-out adjustable. The dash layout, con­trols, and ventilation are worth the price of admission, and there are separate ventilation controls for the back seat. Our only real complaints cover the two-­tone dash treatment—black above, out-­of-place gray below—and the lack of engine-function gauges. A good Blau­punkt AM/FM/cassette unit puts out four-speaker stereo, and a central lock­ing system buttons up everything that can be opened except the ashtrays and the huge, fold-down glove box. The electric sunroof seized open once, as still more rain approached, and then it inexplicably freed itself just in time to fend off another downpour. Outside, the 733i is a solid citizen of upright appearance, but it could use a deft pinstripe around the beltline crease for the sake of definition. Its solidity of construction needs no extra help. The 733i, in terms of driving satisfaction, is certainly worth more than $10,000 less than a 450SEL. And one of these days, one of these 733is will burst up behind you, slashing at your heels. Capitulate and move over. This may not give you the view you’d like, but it’s the second-­best suggestion we’ve got, the other be­ing to fork over big money and plug in your Superman tapes. CounterpointsBefore I wax hyperbolic about the 733i, I think there are a few sobering facts you ought to consider: compared with a Pontiac Bonneville, the 733i has one fewer seats, gets 2 mpg less, and costs $21,971 more. And you have to shift it yourself?Most Bonneville buyers probably think that shelling out nearly 30 grand for any car—let alone one that makes you stir the gears—is about as dumb as buying land by mail. Value, of course, is in the bank account of the beholder. But if you can stretch your credit far enough for a high-roller luxo-sedan, you won’t find more satisfaction than in the 733i. It’s a cornucopia of driving delights, from the way it moves—arrogantly assured, superbly responsive—to its carved-from-a-single-billet construction. From behind the wheel of a 733i you survey the vehicular world as if from a snowcapped peak in the Bavarian Alps. And to drive it is to know all the wonderful things machines can do for man. Which is a sense makes the 733i a pretty good deal. After all, it may cost $30,000 but it make you feel like a million. Make that two million. —Rich CepposSo what we have here is the wonder of the ages, right? The perfect automobile. You’ve just read reams on how exquisite the 733i is, and the people who have been telling you all these wondrous things are card-carrying automotive experts. Still, you’re a little skeptical. Philosophy 101 taught you that nothing is ever as it seems. And you’re right. All is not perfect in 733i land, and I would be remiss if I didn’t take this opportunity to reveal the truth. Yes, the engine and transmission are perhaps the most delightful tandem you can own. And the instrument panel is an aesthetic and ergonomic delight. Oh, sure, the suspension offers the best combination of luxury ride and handling available. And, yes, the car’s looks, solid feel, and general over-the-road competence are unmatched in even the best Mercedes-Benz has to offer. But what about the driver’s side floor mat? I’ll tell you what. It doesn’t fit. It snags on the clutch pedal. No matter how you move it around. Can you believe it? Inexcusable. —Mike KnepperThis is the third 7-series BMW I’ve driven since our friends in Munich introduced their Mercedes-zerstörer, and it’s the first one I did’t like so much. The electric sunroof so compromises front-seat headroom that I was always uncomfortable driving the car—literally a pain in the neck, she was. Given the lack of headroom, I then found it impossible to get the seat adjusted to my taste. Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, Volvo, Saab, and the GM X-cars all provide me with enough headroom for the hat of my choice—why not BMW’s 733i?The engine is strong and willing, but the one in our test car had a period of vibration in the midrange that would send me bitching and grumbling to my BMW dealer once a week. The four-speed gearbox is a pleasure to use, but it needs a fifth speed, since the engine really begins to intrude at radar-detector cruising speeds. Perhaps I’m being tough on the luxus-Bimmer because I just spent ten days in an XJ6 Jaguar. More and more, though, I feel that BMW’s business is somewhere south of the 5-series cars. I really like the 320i, and I’m eagerly awaiting the 323. Now, if they’d just build us an all-new 1600. —David E. Davis, Jr. SpecificationsSpecifications
1980 BMW 733iVehicle Type: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan
PRICE
Base/As Tested: $28,945/$28,945
ENGINESOHC 12-valve inline-6, iron block and aluminum head, port fuel injectionDisplacement: 196 in3, 3210 cm3Power: 174 hp @ 5200 rpmTorque: 188 lb-ft @ 4200 rpm 
TRANSMISSION4-speed manual
CHASSIS
Suspension, F/R: struts/semi-trailing armsBrakes, F/R: 11.0-in vented disc/11.0-in discTires: Continental TS772205/70HR-14
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: 110.0 inLength: 197.4 inWidth: 70.9 inHeight: 56.3 inCurb Weight: 3610 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS
60 mph: 8.2 sec1/4-Mile: 16.3 sec @ 84 mph100 mph: 26.7 secTop Speed: 118 mphBraking, 70–0 mph: 200 ft 
EPA FUEL ECONOMY
Combined: 16 mpg (est) 
C/D TESTING EXPLAINED More

Remember the Mercedes-Benz EQC? An electric analogue to the GLC-class compact luxury SUV has been in the works for years—and in markets beyond the U.S., it actually existed as a thing people could buy. We in the States didn’t get that lucky, though; the EQC as originally conceived suffered several setbacks and ultimately never arrived here. But that’ll soon be rectified with the electric GLC. Ahead of the new EV’s debut at the IAA auto show in Munich this September, we got a taste of the GLC at Benz’s winter proving ground in far-north Sweden.The regular GLC is a bestseller in the U.S., and its electric variant will live within that greater lineup. We don’t have an official name yet, but the lineup currently contains the gas-only GLC300 and the plug-in-hybrid GLC350e, so the EV could slide above that as the GLC380 or GLC480, similar to how the electric G580 is positioned above the gas-only G550. Going forward, this is likely how Mercedes will continue to structure its lineups, even when cars within the same line don’t share a platform.Despite looking like a gas-powered GLC, the electric variant rides on the dedicated MB.EA platform, which will underpin additional future EVs as well. Ahead of our prototype drive, Mercedes told us the decision to use MB.EA was all about compromise—or rather, a lack thereof; putting an EV on the gas-fed GLC’s platform would’ve required the automaker to make undesirable concessions, whereas MB.EA lets Mercedes engineers optimize for the EV part. The examples we drove were heavily camouflaged inside and out, and concrete specs at this stage are few. But Mercedes did tell us that the GLC EV’s body is just a bit longer than the gas model’s, granting enough space in the floor to fit a roughly 94.5-kWh battery. The top offering works at 800 volts, and it is said that charging rates of 320 kW can be “sustained” on a 350-kW charger. As for range, Mercedes estimates that this juice box will be good for a hair over 400 miles on the European WLTP test cycle, with an EPA estimate north of 300 miles. Lift the hood, and you won’t find any power hardware—just a four-cubic-foot frunk, which, according to our eyeballs, should hold at least 50 pounds of shrimp. At least.Similarly, we’re not quite sure of the full breadth of powertrains we’ll get in the U.S., but deep in wintry Sweden, we sampled a dual-motor all-wheel-drive variant that makes approximately 483 horsepower. On roads covered in snow and ice, that proved more than enough power to get the rear end loose at will, and Sport mode offers a surprising amount of yaw before it slowly dialed back the power and brought the rear end in line. There’s a two-speed transmission tucked in at the rear, too, as in the Porsche Taycan, and like the Porsche, the transmission’s shifting is nearly imperceptible.Thankfully, there were some stretches where we were able to assess the GLC EV’s ride quality on normal pavement. Unsurprisingly, it was mighty smooth; the vehicle we drove included the optional air-spring suspension, which did a great job counteracting the EV’s as-yet-unknown curb weight. The car can take a licking, too; with the suspension raised about an inch, we blasted up a small mountain road riddled with washboard bumps and deep ruts. And aside from having the fillings shaken out of our molars, the GLC sailed its way upward without much drama. That’s probably more off-roading than most owners will ever do, but it’s nice that the capability is there. Mercedes-Benz’s complicated all-in-one brake module makes an appearance on the GLC EV, too. We first sampled this unit on the upcoming new CLA-class hybrid; the module combines the booster, master cylinder, and other components, with the goal of providing a seamless brake feel whether using regeneration or friction. The brakes prioritize regen as much as possible to boost efficiency. In most situations, it doesn’t rely on a mechanical link between your foot and the brake discs—the feedback and pressure underfoot are simulated, and they’re simulated quite well.The interior was completely shrouded, so we can’t yet speak to how closely the cabin resembles that of the gas-powered GLC. But we can say that the EV’s extra length pays off in rear-seat legroom, which was ample behind a six-foot-two front-seat passenger. The platform’s flat floor also left more than enough space to comfortably tuck our feet under the front seat. Between that and the sizable panoramic glass roof, the cabin is airy and feels more spacious than the average compact SUV. There’s a long time to go until the GLC EV’s official debut in September, and it will likely end up as a 2026 model when it goes on sale in the States. While pricing likely won’t be announced until after the Munich show concludes, we can look at current context; the GLC350e PHEV tops out at $65,2o0 in its loaded Pinnacle trim, so we’d estimate a starting price somewhere above that. The electric GLC will be expensive, but after our brief spin in one, we think it’ll fit right into the greater lineup—when it finally arrives. Which we think it will, this time.Cars are Andrew Krok’s jam, along with boysenberry. After graduating with a degree in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2009, Andrew cut his teeth writing freelance magazine features, and now he has a decade of full-time review experience under his belt. A Chicagoan by birth, he has been a Detroit resident since 2015. Maybe one day he’ll do something about that half-finished engineering degree. More

Perhaps you were one of the legions of critics of the whole Mercedes-EQ thing—what with the oddball naming convention and the even odder egg-shaped styling. If so, consider yourself vindicated. The backpedaling is now fully underway.A slew of new product announcements have signaled that Mercedes plans to move back toward a more traditional lineup, one where vehicles with different powertrains exist alongside one another with fraternal-twin styling. We’ve seen the first fruits of this new direction with the G-class: The G550 has a gas engine, while visually identical the G580 is electric. And the upcoming new CLA-class keeps this momentum going.We’ve already had an early exposure to the upcoming electric CLA, and now it’s time to take the CLA hybrid for a spin.Not-So-Mild HybridOne of the, let’s say, peculiarities of the Car and Driver style guide is that we generally don’t separate “mild hybrids” from their more traditional counterparts. Yes, so-called mild hybrids do still contain electric motors and a battery (albeit a very tiny one), but these 48-volt systems exist mostly to enable engine-off coasting and extend the length of stop-start engagement. They’re nothing like a Prius.The CLA hybrid is also a 48-volt hybrid, but it’s just different enough to make us glad we never split those hairs. The gas side of the equation comes in the form of a new 1.5-liter four-cylinder, dubbed M252, running on the more efficient Miller cycle. This combines with a 1.3-kWh lithium-ion battery, as well as a 27-hp electric motor sandwiched inside the eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. In total, the CLA hybrid should be good for about 188 horsepower. More on the CLA-classSo what makes the CLA hybrid so different? Simply put, it wants to do more than a “mild hybrid” normally can. Forty-eight-volt hybrids generally pull a bit of energy from the brakes, but the CLA can jam up to 25 kilowatts of juice back into the system at any time. The brake pedal itself is new too; it’s part of an integrated module that, in most circumstances, does not provide a mechanical connection between your foot and your brakes. Instead, the pedal’s force and travel—and the actions of the brakes themselves—are generated electronically, though there is a hydraulic fallback if needed. The module’s goal is to ensure maximum usage of regenerative braking, with friction braking only entering the picture as needed.Mercedes promises that the CLA hybrid will also be capable of electric-only operation in short bursts, but don’t expect to cruise 10 miles on battery power alone—unless you’re at the top of a very large hill. It’ll permit EV operation in traffic, and perhaps on your way out of your neighborhood, but not much more than that. Driving the CLA HybridOur time with the CLA was limited to pre-production prototypes, which we experienced in the same way that its engineers did during the car’s cold-weather development. Thus, we started our journey at the top of a Swedish mountain with rutted roads covered in ice and snow. With simple non-studded winter tires underfoot, the CLA kept itself nice and tidy on the way down—until we gave the wheel a good yank, at which point the car was more than happy to drift. You get more lateral leeway in Sport mode, but no matter the setting, the electronic stability control will eventually rein everything in with minimal noise or vibration. It acted quickly too; by the time we made a steering correction input, the car was already halfway to sorted out.Since the first stretch was entirely downhill, the combustion engine never turned on. Small throttle inputs would provide a smidgeon of acceleration at will, but the temptation of power-induced oversteer couldn’t be satiated without a fat stab of the gas, at which point the engine would step in—and without much fuss, since the e-motor also functions as the starter. If your commute happens to be wholly in a downhill direction (the opposite of how your grandpa walked to school), you won’t hear much from the engine. Which is fine; the 1.5-liter Miller-cycle four sounds okay, but only just okay. The handoff from e-motor to gas engine was more or less imperceptible—a point of praise we must also extend to the new brake-pedal setup, which provided nothing but consistent, strong pedal feel without any blending weirdness. That last bit is notable for anyone who’s driven a Benz EQ model.The second portion of our CLA jaunt took place at a Mercedes-Benz proving ground atop a frozen lake. This part was mostly outright hooliganism. You’ll be glad to learn that you can do snowy donuts all day in the CLA, and it’s rewarding, though maybe not as much as in the insta-torque EV variant. It’s impressive what Mercedes has managed to get out of a 48-volt hybrid system, and that system operates with a delightful smoothness. Nothing odd about that.Cars are Andrew Krok’s jam, along with boysenberry. After graduating with a degree in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2009, Andrew cut his teeth writing freelance magazine features, and now he has a decade of full-time review experience under his belt. A Chicagoan by birth, he has been a Detroit resident since 2015. Maybe one day he’ll do something about that half-finished engineering degree. More

From the October 1986 issue of Car and Driver.Porsche predicted long ago that the 944 would become its mainstream model, just as the 911 once was. In 1969, at a stage of the 911’s evolution comparable to where the 944 line stands today, Porsche offered increasing levels of performance in the 911T, E, and S models, along with the price-leader 912 variant. Similarly, the 944’s promise has become a reality over the past year. With the introduction of the new S model in Germany, there are now three distinct 944 automobiles—the origi­nal 944, the 944 Turbo, and the new-for-1987 944S—as well as the closely related 924S (C/D, July 1987). Only an open-air 944 is missing, and that’s not far down the road.The new S, due to go on sale here this fall, employs a sixteen-valve engine to bridge the nearly 70-horsepower gap be­tween the popular base 944 and the pow­erhouse 944 Turbo. We were certain that such a model was on the way two years ago when Porsche announced the four-valve­-per-cylinder 928S, for the 944’s power­plant is essentially half of the 928’s V-8. Sure enough, the prototype 944 convertible shown at the 1985 Frankfurt Auto Show was powered by just such an engine, rated at 181 horsepower. In the intervening months, Porsche’s engine wizards found another 6 hp, raising the total to 187 SAE net hp for the produc­tion 944S. That translates into 190 hp, ac­cording to the latest EEC, or Common Market, standard (the DI system is no longer used by most European manufac­turers), but don’t let the 3-hp difference confuse you: this engine develops exactly the same output with or without a catalyst, just like the 944 Turbo engine. That equality wasn’t achieved by letting the engine loaf. The 944S’s 187 hp repre­sents 75.4 horsepower per liter, the high­est specific output of any normally aspirat­ed American-spec engine that doesn’t wear a Ferrari or Lamborghini badge. And despite its outstanding power, the new sixteen-valve virtually matches the eight­-valve 944 engine in refinement, low-rpm flexibility, and stingy fuel consumption. At a glance, the 944S’s engine appears to be little more than a 944 block combined with one of the 928’s sixteen-valve heads. Its head is virtually identical to the corresponding 928 part, sharing its unusu­al cam-drive design (a belt drives the ex­haust cam, which in turn drives the intake cam via a chain that connects the two at their midpoints). In addition, the four- and eight-cylinder engines share the same pent-roof combustion-chamber design (with its 27.5-degree valve angle), valve sizes, and even valve timing. However, the four-cylinder head employs considerably larger intake ports, which favor high-rpm breathing at some expense to low-end per­formance. Although such a trade-off is the opposite of the result achieved with the 928S’s heads, which were calibrated to produce the low-rpm torque needed to match the car’s tall, fuel-economy-orient­ed gearing, it is appropriate for the sport­ing 944S. If there is a secret to the new engine’s well-rounded performance, it’s the lofty 10.9:1 compression ratio. High compres­sion simultaneously promotes high-rpm power, low-rpm torque, fuel economy, and, unfortunately, detonation. The last effect is why only one other engine in the land of the free and the home of unleaded fuel has ventured higher than a ratio of 10:0.1 (The exception is Jaguar’s V-12 with an 11:5.1 ratio.)To make their new engine perform at such pressures, Porsche engineers have not only incorporated everything they know about combustion-chamber design but also taken the unprecedented step of employing two detonation sensors. Both sensors are located on the left side of the block, just below the cylinder head with one between the front pair of cylinders and the other between the rear pair. The Bosch Motronic engine-control system monitors each sensor in turn (at any given moment monitoring the one nearer to the firing cylinder), responding to a signal from an intake-cam-position transducer. According to Porsche engineers, this elaborate system is more sensitive to detonation than a single-sensor system would be, particularly in view of the increased noise and vibration generated by the additional hardware and higher rpm of the sixteen-valve engine. When detonation is detected, the timing is dialed back in three-degree increments to a maximum of nine degrees. Porsche specifies premium unleaded fuel for full power, but the system prevents damage if low-octane is used.More on the Porsche 944Other than the mounting bosses for the detonation sensors, very little is changed in the bottom end of the engine. The increased stresses of the sixteen-valve powerplant required no modifications to the block, the crankshaft, the connecting rods, or the lubrication system. Even the new pistons, with their slightly concave faces, weigh the same as their eight-valve counterparts, obviating any changes to the engine’s twin balance shafts.Naturally, the intake and exhaust manifolds were revised to match the flow needs of the sixteen-valve head. To save weight, the new intake manifold is cast from magnesium, as are the distributor-drive housing and the cam cover. In addition, fuel pressure has been increased from 36 to 55 psi to improve atomization.Along with the S engine’s 26 percent power increase, torque is boosted by 18 percent, from 144 pound-feet at 3000 rpm to 170 pound-feet at 4300 rpm. That’s enough of an increase to require upgrading the transaxle with several of the beefier components developed for the 944 Turbo. Indeed, the S’s transmission ratios are exactly the same as the Turbo’s, although its final-drive ratio is 3.89, instead of 3.38. Compared with the standard 944, the S is geared the same in first, is slightly taller in second, third, and fourth, and, like the 924S and the European 944, is much shorter in fifth.The new powertrain should satisfy anyone who feels that the 944 is to docile. Porsche claims a top speed of 142 mph for the S, and our prototype easily reached an indicated 151 on the autobahn. That’s a big improvement over the eight-valve car, which is hard pressed to reach 130, but it’s still well short of the Turbo’s mid-150s capability. In acceleration as well, the S falls right between the other two 944 models, the factory promising a 7.7-second 0-to-60-mph time and a 15.4-second quarter-mile. If those figures don’t seem too impressive, remember that our tests generally find the Porsche factory’s num­bers extremely conservative. Despite the 944S’s strong performance, it doesn’t feel startlingly quick. As with many sixteen-valve engines, the S motor delivers its power almost seamlessly. It simply pulls well at low rpm and keeps tug­ging harder as the revs increase. In con­trast, the Turbo is a bit weak at low rpm; then the boost comes on, and the sudden transition produces a strong kick in the back. In the 944S, it isn’t until you find yourself accelerating forcibly above 100 mph, or zinging up to the redline on an up­hill stretch, that you become fully con­vinced of how strong the car really is. The S’s linear power flow may not pro­vide the adrenaline rush of a turbo climbing its boost curve, but that’s no bad thing when one is exploring a car’s handling lim­its. Instant thrust, exactly proportional to the motion of the driver’s right foot, is very useful in controlling the 944’s cornering attitude. The S handles very much like the standard 944 because its chassis is virtually unchanged. The only noteworthy alter­ation is a switch from a positive to a negative scrub radius in the steering geometry, which improves stability when the optional ABS brakes are applied. (ABS will be op­tional on all 944 models for 1987. Other chassis specifications for the American 944S have not yet been determined, but it’s likely that the base 944’s optional anti-­roll-bar package will be standard.) Externally, the 944S will look exactly like the standard 944 except for the badge on its tail and “16-Valve” labels on its front fenders. The only interior clue will be the 6800-rpm redline on its tachometer. Several new options will be offered on all three 944 variants for 1987: new seats, with fully power-operated adjustments; driver and passenger air bags (standard on the 944 Turbo); and a sound system with ten speakers, an 80-watt amplifier, and an equalizer. In addition, racing packages are being prepared for the two higher-­powered models. Prices haven’t yet been set, but the S will probably be positioned about halfway be­tween the eight-valve 944 and the Turbo. In other words, don’t expect much change from your $30,000. The good news is that such a broad range of models and options is now available that you should have no trouble selecting the 944 that’s exactly right for your needs. SpecificationsSpecifications
1987 Porsche 944SVehicle Type: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 2+2-passenger, 2-door hatchback
PRICE
Base: $28,000 (est)
ENGINEDOHC 16-valve inline-4, aluminum block and head, port fuel injectionDisplacement: 151 in3, 2479 cm3Power: 187 hp @ 6000 rpmTorque: 170 lb-ft @ 4300 rpm 
TRANSMISSION5-speed manual
CHASSIS
Suspension, F/R: struts/semi-trailing armsBrakes, F/R: 11.1-in vented disc/11.4-in vented discTires: Pirelli P6215/60VR-15
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: 94.5 inLength: 168.9 inWidth: 68.3 inHeight: 50.2 inPassenger Volume, F/R: 50/12 ft3Trunk Volume: 12 ft3Curb Weight: 2850 lb
PERFORMANCE (MANUFACTURER RATINGS)
944/944S/944 Turbo60 mph: 8.3/7.7/6.1 sec100 mph: 22.3/19.6/14.8 sec1/4-Mile: 16.2/15.4/14.4 secTop Speed (mfr’s claim): 131/142/153 mph 
EPA FUEL ECONOMYCity/Highway: 19/27 mpg Csaba Csere joined Car and Driver in 1980 and never really left. After serving as Technical Editor and Director, he was Editor-in-Chief from 1993 until his retirement from active duty in 2008. He continues to dabble in automotive journalism and WRL racing, as well as ministering to his 1965 Jaguar E-type, 2017 Porsche 911, 2009 Mercedes SL550, 2013 Porsche Cayenne S, and four motorcycles—when not skiing or hiking near his home in Colorado.  More

Congratulations! You’ve just purchased a new 2025 Polestar 3. You grab the keys from the salesperson, hop into the cabin, start it, and—what the hell is this? The whole steering wheel is blank! Everything else lights up, but the wide swath of buttons on the tiller stays dark as night. Is it broken? Do you have to solve a series of riddles first? Your window sticker did have a line item for the bridge-troll toll, so it can’t be that.Not every car spoon-feeds you the driving experience in the way you’re used to. It’s not necessarily a surprise that Polestar does things a little differently—after all, the new Polestar 4 doesn’t even have a rear windshield—but doing things differently doesn’t also mean doing them well. That’s the thing about the Polestar 3: It nails the basics, but when you start diving into the minutiae, some parts of this compact electric SUV will clearly take some getting used to.Then again, even a quick glance at the exterior is all it takes to know the Polestar 3 isn’t always following the beaten path. The whole shebang gives off more of a tall-wagon vibe in person than a proper SUV, but Polestar’s traditional Volvo-adjacent lighting keeps the car vaguely rooted in familiarity. HIGHS: A blast in any weather, clever design, competitively priced.And for all the awkward bits we’ll get to in a bit, the 3’s cabin does succeed in its luxurious-minimalist appeal. We love the utilization of multiple interesting textiles across various touch points, though the carbon-footprint data printed on the $5500 nappa leather seats might lean too hard into the greenwashing. Otherwise, the cabin is well lit from all sides and felt sufficiently spacious. We don’t love the size of the tiny armrest cubby, but the expansive tray underneath makes up for it.Our Polestar 3 test car was the Launch Edition, which included all three of its major packages. The Pilot package adds additional driver aids, while the Plus pack piles on the luxury with a Bowers & Wilkins sound system, but we’re most interested in the Performance pack. A standard dual-motor Polestar 3 produces 483 horsepower and 620 pound-feet of torque, but Performance models bump that up to 510 horses and 671 twisties, in addition to adding sportier chassis tuning and a whole lot of gold, including the seatbelts. LOWS: Some infuriating controls, nannies out the wazoo, iffy rear visibility.That’s more than enough motive force for this sled. At the test track, our Polestar 3 made its way to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds—0.3 second quicker than the last Mercedes-Benz EQE 500 SUV we tested and dead even with the Porsche Cayenne S Coupe. The Polestar also bested the EQE in the quarter-mile by 0.3 second and 2 mph, running 12.5 at 109 mph. Despite the Polestar weighing 30 pounds more than the EQE, the former’s brakes were certainly hungrier for friction; the 3 only needed 152 feet to stop from 70 mph, while the EQE 500 SUV required 182. The gulf widens further at 100 mph, where the Polestar required just 307 feet, while the Merc asked for 374. In addition to its zero-to-60 dead heat with the 3, the Cayenne is even-steven with the Polestar in braking from 70 mph (and oh so close from 100 mph at 310 feet)—which is wild when you consider the Porsche is almost 600 pounds lighter.More on the Polestar 3Polestar has said many times that the Cayenne is the 3’s natural dynamic target, and whaddya know, it’s pretty darn close. Sure, the Swede’s 0.92-g skidpad effort is 0.11 g below the Porsche’s, but lateral grip isn’t everything. The 3 rides on a pretty normcore combination of adaptive dampers and dual-chamber air springs. The suspension did a great job of waving away the Polestar’s mass, and the scales belied how light the 3 really felt whether we were chucking it into a mostly dry corner or around an abandoned (read: unplowed) Walmart parking lot. Unwanted pitching or rolling was hard to find, but the 3 never rode so stiff that we felt uncomfortable. Polestar found a lovely line to thread between comfort and poise. The only thing we truly didn’t like about the driving experience was mediocre sightlines to the back and the sides.There are some parts of the Polestar 3’s cabin tech that work well—the infotainment software is Polestar’s (hell, Sweden’s) best iteration yet, with a pleasant color scheme and vehicle settings that include graphic complements to better show what the setting actually changes. The tiny little display behind the steering wheel is nice, and certainly preferable to looking farther away from the road for some centrally mounted display, like you’re back in a Saturn Ion. And then there’s the steering wheel and most of what’s near to it. All those blank buttons? That’s by design—you must lightly hover your finger on a button before the gauge display will tell you what it does, if anything. Sometimes, the buttons simply have no function. Most of it’s related to the cruise control, which is engaged by . . . shifting into Drive for a second time, which in other cars usually hides a brake-regen function. Need to cancel? Shift into Drive again. Need to resume? Shift into Drive twice—but not too slowly, or else it won’t count. If you also own a non-Polestar vehicle, it’s sort of like learning a second language, which can be less than ideal if you bounce between cars often.Oh yeah, and there’s only two window switches for four windows on the driver’s door panel. Thank you, Volkswagen, for creating a monster that we may never be able to kill. This car costs damn near $100,000; we think they can afford four window switches there.VERDICT: A solid-value performer if you can get past some of the quirks.Price is the final arena where the Polestar competes to win. Our Launch Edition, which includes the Performance pack’s power boost, starts at $86,300, with our tester ringing in at $93,100 with a couple extra options. A base Mercedes EQE 500 SUV demands $90,650 before a single option box is ticked; if you want an EQE SUV that outperforms the Polestar 3, you have to step up to the $110,750 AMG variant. The Porsche Cayenne S is also quite dear, starting at $103,595. Skip the Launch Edition model and you can get a Perf-pack 3 for just $81,300.Not only is the Polestar 3 approaching the performance chops of its intended target, but it’s doing so at a major discount too. It may not have the badge panache of Mercedes-Benz or Porsche, but the 2025 Polestar 3 is definitely worth checking out, provided the steering wheel doesn’t trip you up.SpecificationsSpecifications
2025 Polestar 3 Performance Launch EditionVehicle Type: front- and rear-motor, all-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door wagon
PRICE
Base/As Tested: $86,300/$93,100 Options: Nappa leather seating surfaces (nappa leather, front massaging seats w/ ventilation and power side support, Bowers & Wilkins front headrest speakers, black ash wooden deco panels), $5500; metallic paint, $1300
POWERTRAIN
Front Motor: permanent-magnet AC, 241 hp, 310 lb-ftRear Motor: permanent-magnet AC, 268 hp, 361 lb-ftCombined Power: 510 hpCombined Torque: 671 lb-ftBattery Pack: liquid-cooled lithium-ion, 107.0 kWhOnboard Charger: 11.0 kWPeak DC Fast-Charge Rate: 250 kWTransmissions, F/R: direct-drive
CHASSIS
Suspension, F/R: control arms/multilinkBrakes, F/R: 15.7-in vented disc/15.4-in vented discTires: Pirelli P Zero Elect PZ4F: 265/40R-22 106V XL POLR: 295/35R-22 108V XL POL
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: 117.5 inLength: 192.9 inWidth: 77.5 inHeight: 63.5 inPassenger Volume, F/R: 58/48 ft3Cargo Volume, Behind F/R: 47/18 ft3Front Trunk Volume: 1 ft3Curb Weight: 5700 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS
60 mph: 3.9 sec100 mph: 10.2 sec1/4-Mile: 12.5 sec @ 109 mph130 mph: 21.7 secResults above omit 1-ft rollout of 0.3 sec.Rolling Start, 5–60 mph: 4.1 secTop Gear, 30–50 mph: 2.5 secTop Gear, 50–70 mph: 3.1 secTop Speed (gov ltd): 132 mphBraking, 70–0 mph: 152 ftBraking, 100–0 mph: 307 ftRoadholding, 300-ft Skidpad: 0.92 g 
EPA FUEL ECONOMY
Combined/City/Highway: 77/81/73 MPGeRange: 279 mi
C/D TESTING EXPLAINEDCars are Andrew Krok’s jam, along with boysenberry. After graduating with a degree in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2009, Andrew cut his teeth writing freelance magazine features, and now he has a decade of full-time review experience under his belt. A Chicagoan by birth, he has been a Detroit resident since 2015. Maybe one day he’ll do something about that half-finished engineering degree. More

12/4/24 UPDATE: This review has been updated with instrumented test results.Okay, let’s get this out of the way: “2025 G580 with EQ Technology” is a terrible name. But Mercedes is ditching its EQ branding convention (EQS, EQE, etc) and bringing back the old letter-plus-a-number scheme that everyone understands, so that’s the moniker affixed to the new electric G-wagen. Luckily, Benz had the foresight to bestow the electric G with an alphanumeric that lends itself to shorthand—since there is no gas-powered G580, we can simply use that succinct handle for the EV. And from here on out, we will.The G580 looks very similar to its internal-combustion siblings, the G550 and AMG G63, and that’s by design. There are a few subtle nods to aerodynamic efficiency, but not so you’d immediately notice. The G580’s most obvious visual tell is its slim exterior cargo bin at the back, which houses a charging cable where you’d expect to find the spare tire. But you can specify a spare tire instead, so even that isn’t an automatic giveaway.The G580 is still a body-on-frame SUV, and indeed the body’s mounting points are the same whether a gas or electric G-wagen is coming down the assembly line. The frame itself is much different, though, since it houses a 116.0-kWh battery pack between its rails. Given that the battery precludes the ladder sections of the frame, the pack itself subs in as a stressed member and is designed accordingly, with cells spaced out to allow structural reinforcements tied to the frame. We’ve yet to run the G580 on our 75-mph highway range test, but by the EPA’s measuring stick, the G580 will travel 239 miles on a charge. HIGHS: Incredible off-road talent, retains the classic G look, tank turns!Also buttressing torsional rigidity: the 127-pound underbody armor plate that protects just about everything between the axles. Mercedes says that this component, which is fastened with 50 bolts, is made of “an intelligent mix of materials including carbon.” Which sounds like a step back from claiming a carbon-fiber skid plate, but when you peek beneath the G you’ll see a familiar glossy black weave that sure looks like carbon fiber. Whatever Benz calls it, the underbody armor is designed to take severe rock-crawling abuse in the name of battery-pack preservation, because breaching the pack with a boulder would be a major harsh on your trail-ride mellow. Benz also tested the pack in situations that combined torsional stress with rapid temperature changes because, hey, that’s off-roading—you might clamber up a mountain with suspension flexing at max articulation for a mile, getting the motors and battery nice and warm while the trail tries to play Slinky with the structure, and then plunge into a cold creek and suddenly chill all the components. What happens then? Are all the seals still watertight? What if you do all that 10 times in a row? Benz feels confident that its test engineers have abused the G580 more severely and creatively than its customers will.And in fact, some of its capabilities may be understated. The G580’s rated 33.5-inch wading depth is 5.9 inches more than the gas models can manage, but Mercedes concedes that the electric G can go even deeper than that—the powertrain is thoroughly waterproofed. The weak point now: the HVAC air intake. We’d guess that in coming years, Benz will snorkel that intake and enable some really preposterous water fording. And we can confirm (with an assist from French weather) that the G580 can handle plenty of water. Mercedes arranged a trail drive outside Montpellier, France, that involved billy-goat rock climbs, water fording, and mud. All of those off-road disciplines were more difficult than planned on account of relentless rain. We’ve been to off-road events where rain completely scrambled the plans, but not here—our hosts just reminded everyone that the climbs would be more treacherous, the water and mud deeper, and we forged on ahead.We headed out on the trail in pairs, with one driver in a G550 and the other in a G580. Traditionalists, prepare for rending of garments and gnashing of teeth, because the electric G is pretty clearly the superior off-roader. LOWS: Weighs nearly 7000 pounds, confusing name, G63 will be quicker.While the G550 retains its locking front, center, and rear differentials, the 579-hp quad-motor G580 requires no differentials at all, and thus the signature G-wagen diff-lock buttons on the center of the dash are relabeled to reflect the exciting possibilities of independent torque at each corner. The middle button engages low range, which might seem superfluous when you have 859 pound-feet of torque at 0 rpm. But by deploying a 2:1 gear for rock crawling, Mercedes was able to use smaller motors, with the mechanical advantage helping minimize heat buildup during off-road workouts. (The motors use extra lubrication oil to dissipate heat, Porsche 993–style, giving an assist to the coolant circuits. And no, the oil never needs to be changed.) You can switch between low range and high range on the move—while coasting in neutral—which is a neat trick, and the neutral mode allows flat-towing a G580, if you’re looking for a luxe runabout to lash behind your Prevost. Besides all that, the low-range capability means that you get to say that your car has four transmissions, which ought to earn bragging rights at your neighborhood off-road park. Of course, even if there were only a car length of real estate—say, a dead end out on the trail—the G580 could still turn around, thanks to the third button on the dash. That one engages G-turn, which drives the motors on either side of the car in opposite directions to spin it on its axis. After engaging G-turn, you pull the steering-wheel shift paddle for the direction you want to turn and then floor the accelerator and hold the wheel pointing straight. That last part requires some mental recalibration, because it’s extremely hard to resist steering a car that’s turning, and if you dial in even a bit of lock the system will cancel. And you do have to hold firm to keep the wheel from moving. Follow all the rules and the G580 will spin two full rotations, which is to say one more than is strictly necessary for convenient exit of your Upper East Side parking garage. More on the Mercedes G-classThe electric G even apes the gas-powered models’ live rear axle articulation by using a De Dion rear end, a setup also employed by the eSprinter. The De Dion is sort of a hybrid of a solid rear axle and an independent setup, with the motors centrally mounted and driving the wheels via half-shafts and CV joints while a C-shaped solid axle connects both sides. So unsprung weight is minimized while retaining the articulation prized by off-roaders—one side goes up, the other side goes down. In fact, the G580 handily beat the 2023 G550 Professional’s ramp travel index score, recording a limber 549 to the gas G’s 511. Like the other G-classes, the G580 eschews air springs, and its ride height is fixed. It still delivers a properly imperious ride. Time for an apples-to-oranges comparison. The G580’s 0.80-g skidpad performance on Falken Azenis FK520 summer rubber demolishes any of the gas-powered G-wagens—the last G63 AMG we tested equipped with the Trail package managed a severely stability-control-limited 0.72 g on its all-terrain tires, and the G550 Professional, just 0.64 g. Despite the G580’s 6908-pound curb weight, it’s the handling champ of the lineup. Summer tires will do that, and it’s the only way to current get a G580. Our fun in in the French mud was on the Professional package’s Falken Wildpeak A/Ts, a tire package not yet on the option sheet. Pin the accelerator long enough, and you might run into the G’s electronically limited top speed of 112 mph, at which point the motors are turning 14,500 rpm. The G580 will run in rear-drive mode when possible to aid efficiency, which means that Benz had to consider the possibility that a driver might be cruising at 112 mph on the rear motors, encounter a hill, and suddenly need the dormant front motors to join the party—which means matching motor speed to road speed. So here’s a fun stat: The G580’s motors can spin up from 0 to 14,500 rpm in 300 milliseconds. The engineers on hand asserted that despite the surge of power required for that trick, selectively disengaging motors is still the most efficient strategy. With all four motors at work, the G580 hits 60 mph in 4.1 seconds and runs the quarter-mile in 12.6 seconds at 108 mph, numbers that split the difference between the former twin-turbo V-8 powered 416-hp G550 and 577-hp AMG G63. The G550 is now powered by a 443-hp turbocharged 3.0-liter inline six that we have yet to test. The mighty G63 remains the same. When it’s time to stop, though, the G580 is best of the bunch, with its 162-foot stop from 70 mph besting the G63 Trail package’s performance by 20 feet. The first G580 with EQ Technology will be the $180,900 Edition One, and if that sounds like too much of a bargain, we’d recommend talking to your sales representative about the Manufaktur customization program, which offers a modest selection of novel exterior colors (20,000). Because there’s nothing more embarrassing than seeing your neighbor pull up in a G-wagen painted the same standard-production Obsidian Black Metallic hue that you just ordered.VERDICT: G plus EV equals off-road LOLs.In the decades since its 1979 introduction, the G-wagen mutated from a hardscrabble four-by-four into a luxury icon, but even its most ridiculous offshoots (looking at you, Maybach G650 Landaulet) were fundamentally capable machines. The electric G not only lives up to those expectations, it expands them. For instance, after experiencing G-steering’s radius-carving wizardry, we asked a Mercedes engineer why the gas models couldn’t do that too. He conceded that someday they probably will.SpecificationsSpecifications
2025 Mercedes-Benz G580 with EQ TechnologyVehicle Type: front- and rear-motor, 4-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door wagon
PRICE
Base/As Tested: $162,650/$192,690Options: Edition One (Night package, 20-inch AMG wheels, Blue brake calipers, exterior trim insert with Blue accents, Manufaktur Logo package in Black, Manufaktur Interior Package Plus, active multicontour seat package, Silver Pearl/Black nappa leather, multifunction sports steering wheel in nappa leather with Blue contrast stitching, Manufaktur grab handles in leather, Manufaktur Magma Grey seatbelts, Manufaktur AMG carbon-fiber interior trim with Blue accents, AMG floor mats with Blue contrast stitching, $18,250; Manufaktur Moonlight White Magno paint, $6500, high-end rear-seat entertainment system, $2990; Black panel radiator grille, $1600; Manufaktur running boards in Black, $700
POWERTRAIN
Front Motors: 2 permanent-magnet synchronous AC, 145 hp, 215 lb-ftRear Motors: 2 permanent-magnet synchronous AC, 145 hp, 215 lb-ftCombined Power: 579 hpCombined Torque: 859 lb-ftBattery Pack: liquid-cooled lithium-ion, 116.0 kWhOnboard Charger: 9.6 kWPeak DC Fast-Charge Rate: 200 kWTransmissions: 2-speed automatic
CHASSIS
Suspension, F/R: control arms/live axleBrakes, F/R: 13.9-in vented disc/13.9-in vented discTires: Falken Azenis FK520275/50R-20 113V MO
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: 113.8 inLength: 182.0 inWidth: 74.4 inHeight: 78.2 inPassenger Volume, F/R: 54/53 ft3Cargo Volume, F/R: 70/37 ft3Curb Weight: 6908 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS
60 mph: 4.1 sec100 mph: 10.4 sec1/4-Mile: 12.6 sec @ 108 mphResults above omit 1-ft rollout of 0.3 sec.Rolling Start, 5–60 mph: 4.4 secTop Gear, 30–50 mph: 1.9 secTop Gear, 50–70 mph: 2.5 secTop Speed (gov ltd): 112 mphBraking, 70–0 mph: 162 ftRoadholding, 300-ft Skidpad: 0.80 g
C/D FUEL ECONOMY AND CHARGING75-mph Hwy Fuel Economy/Range: 47 MPGe/160 miAverage DC Fast-Charge Rate, 10–90%: 128 kWDC Fast-Charge Time, 10–90%: 46 min
EPA FUEL ECONOMY
Combined/City/Highway: 62/68/53 MPGeRange: 239 mi
C/D TESTING EXPLAINEDEzra Dyer is a Car and Driver senior editor and columnist. He’s now based in North Carolina but still remembers how to turn right. He owns a 2009 GEM e4 and once drove 206 mph. Those facts are mutually exclusive. More