Evelyn Reynolds

From the February 1995 issue of Car and Driver.First, you should know that the road to Moose Factory, Ontario, is not a road. This is a fact of history and geography. And there were no roads to its neighboring village Moosonee, either, when the Hudson’s Bay Company settled there in 1673. Second, there exists maybe 15 miles of byways between these two villages, and only about a quarter-mile of them are paved (or were before freeze-up—the tarmac reverts to gravel slurry during spring thaw).Third, Moose Factory is so remote that it is excused from Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act. This means that neither drivers nor vehicles need be licensed. It is a local custom, however, to frown on permitting children less than three years old and three feet tall to use the family vehicle. These infants are, however, encouraged to pilot four-wheel all-terrain vehicles up and down Moose Factory’s mud-­slick streets, but only at wide-open throttle. To reach Moose Factory and Moosonee is not easy. From our lavish Hogback office complex, we drove 775 miles in the direction of the North Pole, at which point the road ceased being a road and began being spruce trees. Then we chained our four-wheel-drive trucks atop one-and-a-­half railroad cars (six chains per vehicle, each tightened with a “Johnson bar,” an item we somehow neglected to bring along) and allowed the Polar Bear Express (a train that runs from Cochrane, Ontario, and is anything but express) to carry us 200 miles farther north. Again, this distance was easy to gauge; the track stopped being a track and began being spruce trees. This causes the train to halt at the mouth of James Bay, which feeds Hudson Bay, which washes the edges of Arctic pack ice. 3rd Place: Ford ExplorerAlthough the Ford Explorer has been the best-selling sport­-utility vehicle since its inception in 1991, it brought up the rear in our last SUV test (March 1994). On the road and off, the Explorer was the least enjoyable to drive. For 1995, the Explorer has received its first major makeover, but it wasn’t enough to move it to the head of the class in Moosonee. HIGHS: Stylish dashboard with dual airbags, lots of elbow room.LOWS: Short-lived front-seat comfort, off-road clumsiness, leering chrome-plated front fascia.VERDICT: Works best as a foul-weather station wagon.The 1995 Explorer gets a new unequal-length control-arm front suspension, which replaces Ford’s famous ”twin I-beam” swing axles. The control arms add steering precision and straight-line stability that the Explorer did not have before. The suspension also allowed an impressive 57.3-mph clip in our emergency lane-change test, where we found we could not beat the power-steering pump as we could in past Explorers.The Ford’s off-road behavior is still its Achilles’ heel, despite a new ”Control Trac” four­-wheel-drive system with a computer-controlled multi-disc clutch that dials up automatic engagement of the front wheels when rear-wheel slip is sensed. On curving washboard surfaces, the steering goes numb with understeer that is difficult to predict, per­haps due to delay in the Control Trac system. Turn off those roads and into the woods and the Explorer lunges in and out of mud bogs and holes, tossing passengers (particularly their heads) abruptly from side to side. The Explorer’s new front fascia looks, well, controversial to our eyes. We didn’t find the Explorer’s complicated power seats very comfortable for long drives either, because of poor lumbar support. But the Explorer is fleshed out in other areas. It’s the only sport-utility at its price to offer dual airbags. Of the three vehicles tested here, it alone featured adjustable shoulder belts, rear-seat stereo controls, and separate head restraints. There’s even a tissue box in the console. And as the charts indicate, the Explorer is the most voluminous of the three, especially in the rear-seat and cargo areas. More Explorer!When used exclusively as an on-road station wagon—what the vast majority are used for—the roomy and feature-laden Explorer fights the good fight. Every Great White North inhabitant we spoke to thought this truck was the best thing since Tim Horton’s donuts, so it earned a perfect “10” in the “moose factor” column. If the Explorer wins you over similarly, just remember to buy a back-support pillow from Pep Boys, and stay away from the muskeg. —Don Schroeder1995 Ford Explorer XLT160-hp V-6, 4-speed automatic, 4442 lbBase/as-tested price: $23,915/$25,625Interior volume, front/rear/cargo: 56/49/42 cu ftTowing, as tested: 4000 lb C/D TEST RESULTS60 mph: 10.7 sec1/4 mile: 17.9 sec @ 76 mph100 mph: 43.5 secBraking, 70­-0 mph: 199 ftRoadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.67 g C/D observed fuel economy: 18 mpg The crude roads of Moosonee and Moose Factory are main­tained by the Swampy Cree Indians of the Moose Band Nation. Historically, the art of road maintenance has not come naturally to the Swampy Cree. Some members have developed a creative facility with the municipal road­grader, but you have to deploy a helicopter to appre­ciate their talents—which we did. In C/D’s quadrant of the North American tectonic plate, Moose Factory is as far north as we can travel in a Chevrolet Blazer, Ford Explorer, and Jeep Grand Cherokee. Well, actually, we might have made it a lit­tle farther if the muskeg (the “Northern Exposure” term for “bog”) and the half­-mile-wide Moose River had attained its annual frozen Dilly Bar countenance, but we were a week too early for that. In any event, northern Ontario historian John Milne warned: “Last winter, I destroyed my company Cherokee at the end of a long, long drift down the ice road across the Moose River. I hooked a pressure ridge [there’s four feet of tide here, so the ice is rarely smooth], setting a height and dis­tance record for sport-ute catapulting on ice.”Moosonee and Moose Factory are both tiny tracts carved out of an astoundingly flat landscape of 30-foot-tall trees. From the air, you can see the curvature of the Earth. The wet, incessant wind off James Bay makes this out­post damnably unpleasant dur­ing the six months of winter, when temperatures of minus 41 Fahrenheit are not unusual. But the annual 89-inch snowfall is not excessive by Arctic stan­dards. The place constantly reminds you how far north you have ven­tured. For example, although both villages are in Ontario, the map’s legend stipulates that nearby islands lie within the Dis­trict of Keewatin in the North­west Territories. In Moose Fac­tory, one of the streets is named Mook-I-June-I-Beg. Another reminder: We passed a store that sold ferrets for $29.99. Associate Editor Marty Padgett had to be restrained. “I want to be the first to claim a live ferret on my expense report,” he said. For the 1400 or so Cree Indians here, life is forlorn. The place used to be part of our Distant Early Warning Line, with six-­story radar domes aplenty, but the Russians no longer seem inclined to invade, and satellites monitor them better anyhow. The military thus withdrew, along with its money, leaving behind dented mobile homes and row after row of 1950s-era military-issue Cracker Jack houses with twisted propane spigots causing random concussive fireballs. Moosonee and Moose Factory have emerged as something of an artificially sustained movie set, with the Cree thriving not on what they can trap but on “moisturized chicken,” L.A. Raiders fashion wear, a daily trainload of tax-free Players cigarettes, and color TV beamed from Tor­onto. Sadly, the best-­looking building in Moosonee is an alco­hol rehab center. The ride up there on the Polar Bear Express is a five-hour trip, unless the engi­neer stops to pick up lost hunters, or stops to pick up eight loads of logs, or stops to examine the pieces of the locomotive engine that just blew up. Our engineer did all three. Nonetheless, there are many interesting sights, not counting the Labatt’s Ice in the bar car. There are, for example, remote-controlled dams belting out some 500,000 random volts to Ontario’s power grid. One of them, the Otter Rapids dam, is operated not by persons on site but by VHF and microwave signals tapped out 30 miles distant by gentlemen who, while attempting to pick up the adult Channel “J” on their satellite dishes, could inad­vertently unleash 400 million gallons of 34-degree water on unsuspecting down-stream beavers whose dams are not as sophisti­cated. There is also an end­less diorama of frost­-wracked black spruce, sphagnum moss, ground lichen, sedges, dwarf birch, and tangled tama­rack. And beyond that, one of the planet’s most panoramic views of nothing. Dick Kelley|Car and Driver2nd Place: Chevrolet Blazer LTAfter a twelve-year run, Chevy finally replaced its smaller Blazer (and the GMC Jimmy) with a new model that brings GM within a bumper-length of best-in-class.The Blazer’s attractive new clothes didn’t turn many heads during our 1350-mile enduro, but they hide substantial revi­sions to this truck’s platform. The Chevy’s body felt stout even on the roughest road , and its pushbutton four-wheel drive was nearly as adept as the Grand Cherokee’s system at tackling the quarry pits and muddy potholes of Moosonee.HIGHS: Stout but shapely new body, peppy but parsimonious V-6, polished ride.LOWS: Interior plastic, elfin-sized rear seats and cargo hold.VERDICT: After a lengthy hiatus, GM’s sport-utility is back in the big leagues.On the frost-weary roads to and from Cochrane, the LT model’s premium sus­pension, with its expen­sive deCarbon shock absorbers, provided the smoothest ride of the three trucks.The 195-hp Vortec V-6, now the standard Blazer powerplant, carries over unchanged. It propels the Blazer to 60 mph in a spir­ited 9.1 seconds. In every acceleration and passing test, the Blazer dusts the Jeep and the Explorer­ and it beat them in observed fuel economy by 1 mpg.More Blazer!For $26,969—highest price of the three—the Blazer LT came nearly as well equipped as the Explorer. Although the Blazer does not offer the Explorer’s passenger-side airbag, its tab did include a CD player. After 14 hours of driving one day, nobody complained about the leather-clad power seats. Editors also liked the Blazer’s new simple and readable gauges. Unfortunately, this truck suffers from the same problems that plague many other recently introduced Chevys: over­-investment in cheap-looking hard plastic on the dashboard and door panels.The Blazer’s second-place finish was more a result of the Grand Cherokee’s superior off-road prowess, not to mention the Blazer’s lack of back-seat and cargo room. This truck’s split-fold rear seats sit less than a foot off the floor, and their size—the seatbacks are just 20 inches high—make them better suited for kids than adults. The Blazer’s cargo area is also the smallest of the three.If room in the rear is of less importance to you than power and a smooth ride, your next conversation should be with a Chevrolet dealer. —Don Schroeder1995 Chevrolet Blazer LT195-hp V-6, 4-speed automatic, 4146 lbBase/as-tested price: $25,975/$26,969Interior volume, front/rear/cargo: 56/46/16 cu ftTowing, as tested: 5500 lb C/D TEST RESULTS60 mph: 9.1 sec1/4 mile: 17.0 sec @ 80 mph100 mph: 30.0 secBraking, 70­-0 mph: 218 ftRoadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.67 gC/D observed fuel economy: 19 mpg Moose Factory huddles on an island in the Moose River—a mile-long trip by water taxi, winding around sand bars. When the ice breaks up, the place some­times floods. This explains the drain holes in the floor of the 135-year-old St. Thomas Anglican church, which might otherwise float off its foundation and become a tourist attraction where not even the tod­dlers’ all-terrain vehicles could reach it.The Cree in Moose Factory are here because, well, be­cause their previ­ously nomadic forebears grew attached to the consumer goods and activity offered at the Hudson’s Bay store. It opened on this site 322 years ago. Back then, the enterprise was known as the “Company of Gentlemen Adventurers of England Trading Into Hud­son’s Bay,” but the more forward-think­ing of its employees realized that such a storefront sign would require a hellish amount of neon, hence the shortened ”The Bay” appellation Canadians know today. As it happened, Hudson’s camp became the first permanent English-speaking settlement in what we now call Ontario. Despite the intervening 322 winters, a few of the storekeepers’ structures still stand—40-foot-square white clapboard houses with red, steeply pitched roofs designed to shed snow. Standing big as you please nearby are graffiti-stained bronze cannons, dated 1843, littering the yard of the latest Company staff house, built 145 years ago. The arrangement back then was sim­ple. The Cree swapped animal pelts—fox, bear, badger, mink, marten, and “grizzle foxes”—for life’s necessities, at least if you count purple beads a necessity. Here is the barter schedule, as of 1774:1 beaver pelt= 3/4-pound colored beads1 beaver pelt= 12 dozen buttons1 beaver pelt= 20 fish hooks1 beaver pelt= 1 shirt (white or checked) For life’s real necessities, such as a gallon of brandy, more sacrifice was required: four beaver pelts. In addition to the Hudson’s Bay Com­pany (today called Northern Stores and selling not a single beaver pelt but a superb selection of TV dinners and toilet paper), Moosonee also attracted archrival Revîl­lon Fréres Trading Company. This firm eventually attained fame as Revlon, the musk peddlers who later afforded an F1 ride for Peter Revson and also supplied much-needed employment for Catherine Deneuve, who is not known to winter here.Both Moosonee and Moose Factory are knee-deep in wildlife. In the brackish bay are beluga whales, which we did not see, plus bald eagles and seals and the occasional polar bears who eat the seals, which we also did not see. There are moose, of course, one of which bolted before the Explorer and looked for all the world like a brown box­car on stilts. Plus timber wolves, a pack of whom not long ago loped into town and departed with a local pet. In this matter, the wolves acted as public servants. Both villages are awash in huskies, malamutes, and curs who howl incessantly. One blue-eyed husky, with the chest musculature of Arnold, leaped through our Ford’s window as the vehicle was moving toward Han­nah-Sailor Street. The beast landed on photographer Dick Kelley. He graciously exited a half-block later (the dog, not Dick). 1st Place: Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo”The sports car of the bunch.” That was the unanimous opin­ion of the three editors who logged enough miles in the Grand Cherokee to know the difference between a real moose factory and a Boyd Coddington-style bovine chopshop. HIGHS: Appealing power, usefully compact dimensions.LOWS: Awkward part-time four-wheel drive, baggy front seats.VERDICT: Walks like a good sedan, can hike when it needs to.The most agreeable combination of power and size pro­pelled the Grand Cherokee Laredo to the No. 1 spot. Its 190 horsepower is just 5 hp shy of the benchmark Blazer and 30 ahead of the Explorer. Plus, it’s the lightweight of the group: its 3762-pound curb weight makes it significantly lighter than either the Chevy or the Ford.More on the Grand Cherokee From the ArchiveThough it can’t outrun the torquey Blazer to 60 mph, the Grand Chero­kee’s adequate power is delivered smartly through Jeep’s clean-shifting trans­mission. Add to this the best brakes and the high­est cornering numbers of the bunch, and the Jeep emerges as the most reasonable imitator of a pleas­ing sports sedan.The Cherokee’s interior is not as large as the Explorer’s, but four Jeep occupants will find plenty of space front and rear. The front seats feel like bags of flour, but the rear cushions are at least as shapely as the Ford’s, and they offer more foot and knee space than in the Blazer. At this price level, the Jeep comes not with the ritzier electronically actuated four-wheel drive of the Explorer and Blazer, but with the simplest Jeep four-wheel-drive system (not intended for dry-pavement use) called “Command Trac.” Power can be applied to all four wheels by pulling on a console-mounted lever. The other two SUVs in this test engage all-wheel drive with the simple push of a button on the dash. Nonetheless, the Jeep handled our light off-road­ing so easily that we mostly left it in rear-wheel drive and played tail-out games in the gravel.Dislikes? The optional full-size spare tire is mounted in the rear cargo area, taking up valuable stow space (dealers offer a tailgate-mount kit). There’s no passenger airbag. And the side defoggers need a fan-speed boost to do their job prop­erly. Still, even without the attractions of V-8 power and full-­time all-wheel drive, the Grand Cherokee earns its off-road­ing merit badge with a scout’s honor. —Martin Padgett Jr.1995 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo190-hp inline-6, 4-speed automatic, 3762 lbBase/as-tested price: $25,706/$26,193Interior volume, front/rear/cargo: 54/46/40 cu ftTowing, as tested: 2000 lb C/D TEST RESULTS60 mph: 9.7 sec1/4 mile: 17.3 sec @ 78 mph100 mph: 35.0 secBraking, 70­-0 mph: 182 ftRoadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.73 gC/D observed fuel economy: 18 mpg Some of the wildlife possesses neither genus nor species. We are talking sas­quatch, here. Its prints were photographed 24 miles from Moose Factory only a week before our arrival. Well, it might not have been a sasquatch. Maybe a bigfoot, or pos­sibly Shaquille O’Neal. Whatever it was, it left a spate of 17-inch-long footprints with humanoid toes, and it kept at least two Cree hunters up all night in anxious foment. An Ontario Ministry of Resources employee, who did not wish to be identi­fied, said the footprints were likely the handiwork of an Alaskan brown bear the size of Trump Plaza. However, Joe Craw­ford, the kindly Scot proprietor of Moosonee’s Osprey Inn, insisted it was the spoor of something far more dangerous. Namely, “a lunatic who fashions massive feet out of plywood and stomps around in the mud and snow so that tourists like you [he looked at me when he said this] have something pointless to discuss.”A food staple in Moosonee is french fries soaked in gravy, topped with melted Velveeta. This is probably not a Cree recipe. Actually, it turned out to taste good. But, just to be safe, we had earlier assigned Padgett to prepare retaliatory rations. Marty expended way too much energy on this project. Using a felt-tipped pen, he wrote on plastic Baggies the names of his creations. Here are three: -Turkey and swiss on white: Anna Nicole’s Twelve-Step. -Ham and swiss on pump: Rodney’s Hyundai. -Baloney on rye: The sandwich for­merly known as Prince. More Off-Road Adventures From the ArchivePadgett also customized our trail mix with mustard powder, pillow pretzels filled with peanut butter, and more raisins (“nature’s little earth movers,” he glowed). We scattered this amalgam near emaciated seagulls, who, not surprisingly, seemed to prefer the aforementioned french fries. In my survival pack, an unnamed mem­ber of our party deposited a selection of human-skull temporary tattoos and a but­ton that declared: “God grant me the seren­ity to know when to change my under­pants.” The latter is of some value, ace guide John Milne pointed out: “I know trappers nearby who wear the same under­wear all winter, but they don’t sweat much and they swap their T-shirts, long under­wear, pants, and wives at New Year’s.” Local ER medical technician Geoff Hutchison says: “A lot of folks here, they’re just saving a big enough nest egg so they can move south. But until you do, life can be hard, lonely, and boring. You sort of feel proud just to survive here.” Which is one reason that pinkish college­-boy tourists like us should not pose the question, “So, if this is Moose Factory, where are they assembled?” We made this mistake and learned only where moose are disassembled. This was at a hunting camp, where, mid-lunch, we had an all-too-inti­mate view of a 1200-pound moose whose legs were being cut off with a wood saw. You have to do this in order to haul the carcass home on your Ski-Doo trailer.Not many people know that. More

Somewhere outside Fresno, a goober in a clapped-out Silverado decided he wanted to see what the Mercedes-Benz G550 could do. Lined up at a red light, a ribbon of dead-straight highway across the intersection, he finessed brake and accelerator to engage in a no-doubt familiar form of peacocking: the brake stand. The light turned green, and the Silverado—rear tires warmed, cleaned, and grippy—was promptly demolished by the rectilinear Teutonic SUV in lane two. Which wasn’t a great surprise, because a G550 runs the quarter-mile in 13.9 seconds at 100 mph, and old farm trucks usually don’t. But the Chevy’s driver probably enjoyed the spectacle anyway. It’s fun to watch a grizzly bear sprinting, as long as it’s sprinting away from you. HIGHS: Looks like a G should, on-road performance doesn’t suffer, parties on the roof deck.This G550 wears the G Professional package, which replaces the SUV’s standard 19-inch wheels and pavement-optimized tires with black 18-inch wheels wrapped in Falken Wildpeak A/T all-terrain tires, size 265/60R-18. The G’s genteel running boards are deleted, and the roof gains a towering rack-slash-observation-platform with a rear-mounted ladder. Those changes alone banish the G550’s usual Real Mall Crawlers of Miami-Dade aesthetic, which is calibrated to the audience and use case for contemporary G-wagens. It seems redundant to describe the G Professional as “the off-road G-wagen,” but that’s what it is. It’s a G550 that realized three electronically locking differentials are a terrible thing to waste, so let’s throw on some knobbier tires and find some dirt. Roof-rack addition aside, the Professional is more like a back-to-first-principles distillation of the G-class gestalt. However, acquiring this purist vision of a woodsy wagen will nonetheless require an additional $25,350 atop the $141,050 base price—plus whatever odious market adjustment your local dealer feels like tacking on. Hopefully our nation’s long-suffering G550 buyers will get some quality glass etching and ceramic coatings along with their MSRP inflation.Given that five-figure financial penalty, at least the off-road-ification of the G-class incurs no practical penalties in terms of driving dynamics. Our G Professional weighed in at 5746 pounds, which is 86 more than the last street-oriented G550 we tested. That extra poundage showed up off the line. In getting to 60 mph, the G Professional slightly lagged behind its sibling, requiring 5.3 seconds (versus 5.1). But after that, it’s a dead heat, with identical quarter-mile times and trap speeds. Even the time to 120 mph—22.8 seconds—is identical. Evidently, that metal top hat doesn’t much affect high-speed drag. Braking from 70 mph, however, eats up 199 feet of pavement, considerably worse than that standard G’s 175 feet, but skidpad performance actually improved. Any lateral-acceleration exercise in a G550 will be limited by its stability-control system, but the Professional tormented its Falkens all the way to 0.64 g, a 0.03-g improvement over that 2019 model, with its 275/50R-20 Pirelli Scorpion Zero all-seasons. LOWS: Cherry cargo floor is almost too precious, roof rack blocks sunroof, no new performance hardware.Besides the functional changes, the G Professional package also brings blacked-out trim—brush guard, hood hinges, front skid plate, and badges. (Mustn’t be battling glare when sighting a line across the savanna.) The external spare-tire holder is a tube-steel affair, in keeping with the overlanding theme, and painted black as well. Somewhat incongruently, the rear cargo area is decked in pretty cherry-wood planking bedazzled with chrome tie-downs and rubberized metal stringers to keep your luggage from sliding around. Our test G also included adaptive dampers ($1400), the Exclusive Interior Package Plus ($12,400, starring massaging front seats with active side bolstering), and Arabian Grey paint ($6500). A few more odds and ends brought the total to $188,650, which is one reason why our off-road exploits did not include King of the Hammers or the Black Bear Pass. But some mellow California mountain trails confirmed that the G550 is a supremely comfortable means of traversing whatever unpaved byways stand between you and your cliffside redoubt. We didn’t even need to use the rear diff locker. Or the center one. Or the front one. But if any G550 shoppers could be expected to correctly interpret the runes emblazoned on those three dash-mounted buttons, it will hopefully be the ones who go for the 18-inch wheels and Wildpeaks. (Mercedes, perhaps in a bit of off-road-newbie hazing, labels the diff locks in the sequence they should be engaged but doesn’t arrange the buttons themselves in order, so they go 3, 1, 2.)On the street, the G Professional is composed, confident, and quicker than it has any right to be. As we dip into the throttle of the 416-hp twin-turbo 4.0-liter V-8, the main question that arises is: What kind of maniac needs a G63 AMG? The V-8’s muscular baritone is highlighted by the stubby active exhaust, which terminates under the rear doors and mumbles its belligerence even in corked-up Quiet mode. From behind the wheel, the main difference between this rig and a non-Professional is the view skyward through the sunroof, which is subject to a perpetual partial eclipse from the overhanging roof platform. More on Mercedes G-classReally, the main drawback to the G Professional package is the price, which we know is probably a nonissue for this demographic but still strikes us as borderline ludicrous for what it includes. For example, the Night package, which brings a lot of the G Professional’s blacked-out trim and the sport exhaust, costs $900. Add the 18-inch black wheels ($1000) and you’re well on your way to the G Professional look and load-out. What we’re saying is, don’t do the math on that roof rack and the cherry cargo decking. VERDICT: This should just be the standard G-class.Just think about how next time you’re stuck in traffic, you could climb up the ladder, stand on the roof, and plot your escape. You could take a trail to the rim of a canyon without worrying about bending your rims. You could plow through some mud without hurdling scuzzy running boards when you disembark. If the G550 represents the stylized glittering projection of an off-road fantasy, the G Professional hews closest to the roots of its own fable.SpecificationsSpecifications
2023 Mercedes-Benz G550 ProfessionalVehicle Type: front-engine, all-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door wagon
PRICE
Base/As Tested: $166,400/$188,650Options: Exclusive Interior Package Plus (active multicontour front seats with massage, rapid-heating front seats with ventilation, nappa-leather trim with diamond stitching, microfiber headliner), $12,400; G Manufaktur Arabian Grey paint, $6500; adaptive-damping suspension, $1400; G Manufaktur Black Flamed open-pore ash-wood trim, $1300; G Manufaktur Logo package, $650
ENGINE
twin-turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 32-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads, direct fuel injectionDisplacement: 243 in3, 3982 cm3Power: 416 hp @ 5250 rpmTorque: 450 lb-ft @ 2000 rpm
TRANSMISSION
9-speed automatic
CHASSIS
Suspension, F/R: multilink/live axleBrakes, F/R: 13.9-in vented disc/13.6-in vented discTires: Falken Wildpeak A/T AT3WA265/60R-18 110H M+S 3PMSF MO
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: 113.8 inLength: 189.7 inWidth: 74.5 inPassenger Volume, F/R: 54/53 ft3Cargo Volume, behind F/R: 69/38 ft3Curb Weight: 5746 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS
60 mph: 5.3 sec100 mph: 13.9 sec1/4-Mile: 13.9 sec @ 100 mph120 mph: 22.8 secResults above omit 1-ft rollout of 0.3 sec.Rolling Start, 5–60 mph: 5.9 secTop Gear, 30–50 mph: 3.2 secTop Gear, 50–70 mph: 4.0 secTop Speed (drag ltd): 132 mphBraking, 70–0 mph: 199 ftBraking, 100–0 mph: 420 ftRoadholding, 300-ft Skidpad: 0.64 g
EPA FUEL ECONOMY
Combined/City/Highway: 14/13/16 mpg
C/D TESTING EXPLAINEDSenior EditorEzra 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

From the February 1995 issue of Car and Driver.My granddad had the first Lincoln on the block, a respectable blue 1974 Mark IV coupe with crushed velour seats and a marshmallow ride. I thought it meant he was really rich. I rode in back, ticking off other cars as they passed in the crosshairs of the Lin­coln emblem etched into the oval porthole windows. That Lincoln was little more than a Ford with a big grille, but it meant luxury to me, at least until we worked our way through a succession of Audis in my teens. Then, my definition of luxury was enough power to pass Mom’s Thunderbird, room to kick my feet around in the back seat, and lots of buttons and knobs. Now that definition has widened to include sensu­ous looks and handling—the things you can’t appreciate from the back seat. I blame Audi, Infiniti, and a whole host of imported luxury sedans for this awaken­ing. But mostly I lay it at the feet of the seamlessly superior Lexus LS400. HIGHS: Fluid V-8 power, artfully arranged cabin.Ford was also impressed by that Lexus and made it the bogey for developing the Continental. As a result, this is the first four-door Lincoln to deal directly with this revisionist concept of luxury. Firm on the old terms, it’s still coming to grips with the new ones. Power is a smooth rush (as in Grand­dad’s old Mark), and it’s as quiet as the previous Lexus LS400. The Continental gathers speed quickly behind a version of the 32-valve 4.6-liter V-8 found in the Lincoln Mark VIII. Here it makes 20 horsepower less, for a total of 260 hp, due to a more restrictive intake manifold. The redline is still 6500 rpm though, and the seamless power and distant exhaust bark remain intact. As with the Duratec V-6 found in the Ford Contour SE, the Lincoln motor requires no tuneups for its first 100,000 miles, thus earning the name “In Tech.” Because this is the first transverse application of this engine, Lincoln had to upgrade the AX4S front-drive transmis­sion (from the Taurus SHO) with extra clutchplates, a stronger overdrive drum, and high-strength drive-chain pins to han­dle the V-8 engine’s torque. The electron­ically controlled four-speed automatic, now called the AX4N, bucks the latest wave and doesn’t offer “sport” or “economy” programs. But the gears are matched well enough to the engine’s broad-shouldered torque, and shifts occur with minimal driveline shock. With this drivetrain, the Continental acquits itself about as well as any other luxury sedan—save Cadillac’s SLS. The Cadillac brushes off 0 to 60 mph in 6.7 seconds, the Lincoln does it in 7.5 seconds, and the new Lexus LS400 needs 7.8 sec­onds. The LS400, however, charges on to 156 mph, while the Lincoln’s governor allows it a 123-mph top end. The Caddy is reined in at a lazy 115 mph.Not that many owners are likely to do it, but exploring that top speed reveals a governor that shuts off the thrust abruptly and lets the Continental coast for several seconds before it turns the engine back on. Those unfamiliar with this behavior might conclude that they had blown the engine for those few seconds. To slow down intentionally, Lincoln has given the Continental four-wheel discs with anti-lock control, claiming they’re the biggest in the company. They stop it from 70 mph in a respectable 184 feet, but not without considerable fade. The Continental has room to kick around, more than the Lexus LS400 in a cabin that’s just as handsome. This is easily the best-looking, most refined interior that Ford has ever produced. Soft leather laps over the seats, chrome accents are kept to a minimum, and the gauges are perfect knockoffs of the electroluminescent dials from you-know-who. Textures and sur­faces play off each other richly. The vel­vety carpeting, wood, and grained vinyl leatherette make it modern and mature in a way that other Lincoln interiors, like that of the disjointed Mark VIII, never have been.LOWS: Close resemblance to the Mercury Grand Marquis, average returns from complex suspension. Thoughtful touches abound without cluttering the cabin. The Continental has two programmable pushbutton memory profiles that hold the positions of seats, mirrors, and even set radio stations at the touch of a button. The umbrella that comes with each car has its own pocket on the pas­senger seatback, and its wood handle matches the burled walnut on the console. The rear seat is a place of honor. Pas­sengers sit high on firm, ideally tilted cush­ions and pillowy seatbacks. They have plenty of knee and headroom, plus equal­-height armrests. The Continental can be ordered as a five- or a six-passenger car. Five-placers get a center console with room for a CD changer, a cellular tele­phone, and fresh-air ducts for the back seat. Six-seaters have a mini-console and less accommodating split bench seats. The most innovative feature is in the trunk, in the form of an optional $200 movable cart. Grab its handle and pull it forward, and you can neatly stow groceries between the spring­loaded dividers, or you can lower the dividers for a Pullman case. Then you can push the cart to the back of the trunk to stow two sets of golf clubs, or to the middle to line up another row of grocery bags. It’s clever and useful, and it only robs three cubic feet of room. Granddad’s Mark had a dis­tinctive look. Okay, it was ugly. Crests of metal, sharp edges, a silly vertical grille that made an impression (literally, on an unlucky deer). It’s ironic, then, that the toothy shield on its nose is the most handsome detail of this Continental. It could be described as a more elegant Mercury Grand Marquis. Not a bad shape, but not particularly distinctive either, especially when compared with the sharply creased suit of today’s Caddy Seville. But luxury-­car buyers are notably conservative in their tastes. Its suspension, on the other hand, is quite up-to-date. Like other luxury makers, Lincoln is pursuing computer­-controlled suspensions in its quest for the holy grail of good ride and handling. Except in the Continental, the driver can choose how they’d like the ride—fluffy like Granddad’s Mark IV or Euro-firm. All the driver sees is a button on the dash that toggles between three ride modes: Plush, Normal, and Firm. Hidden from view are the complex workings of control arms, hydraulic suspension links, air springs, variable dampers, and wheel­-travel sensors. In each of the three modes, the dampers react to bumps by increasing their resistance during wheel deflection, but they react at different rates depending on the mode selected. Thus, when the wheel sensor detects a rapid vertical wheel movement (a bump) in Firm, it signals the computer to switch the dampers from their soft to their firm setting quickly; in Plush, the transition takes a few milliseconds longer, allowing the wheels to move freely before stiffening the ride. This carnival of electronics ably han­dles impacts and road bruises—to a point. When set on Firm, the suspension trans­mits some minor impacts to the driver’s seat but tames most body motions quickly and, well, firmly. In Normal, the front end begins to float over imperfections, with the most reasonable combination of ride qual­ity and roll control. Choose Plush, though, and the Continental suffers from lots of wheel motion and a loose, disconnected feel. The steering can also be tailored to the driver’s taste with three settings: Low, Normal, and Firm. (To prevent dartiness on the freeway, the computers will not accept the “Low” steering setting when the suspension is set to “Firm.”) When set on Low, the steering lacks feel, and it requires too much attention to pilot the car on rural two-lanes. The Firm setting produces incredible steering heft right off center and gets progressively worse. The Normal set­ting is agreeably quick and has a crisp on­-center position for the freeway forgetful. More 1990s Luxury Car Reviews From the ArchiveAt its best—steering in Normal, sus­pension in either Normal or Firm—the Continental is settled and obedient, if not a true sports sedan. There’s no grinding understeer as it corners to 0.79 g on the skidpad, it has good ride-motion control, and it has fairly swift response to inputs despite all the electronic gimcrackery. It behaves, but not with the effortlessly damped responses of a Mercedes E-class (with its comparatively straightforward multilink suspension), or even the sheer predictability of a Chrysler LHS.VERDICT: Lincoln’s most rational claim to Lexus-style luxury. Pulling even with the redoubtable LS400 is no easy task, and the new Continental hasn’t quite done it. But at a price that undercuts Lexus’s mid-line GS300, the Continental’s progress looks plenty good.SpecificationsSpecifications
1995 Lincoln ContinentalVehicle Type: front-engine, front-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan
PRICE
Base/As Tested: $38,000/$44,000
ENGINEDOHC 32-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads, port fuel injectionDisplacement: 280 in3, 4601 cm3Power: 260 hp @ 5750 rpmTorque: 265 lb-ft @ 4750 rpm 
TRANSMISSION4-speed automatic
CHASSIS
Suspension, F/R: struts/control armsBrakes, F/R: 11.6-in vented disc/10.1-in discTires: Michelin MXV4225/60HR-16
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: 109.0 inLength: 206.3 inWidth: 73.3 inHeight: 55.9 inPassenger Volume, F/R: 54/49 ft3Trunk Volume: 18 ft3Curb Weight: 3980 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS
60 mph: 7.5 sec1/4-Mile: 15.7 sec @ 89 mph100 mph: 20.1 sec120 mph: 39.8 secRolling Start, 5–60 mph: 7.8 secTop Gear, 30–50 mph: 3.7 secTop Gear, 50–70 mph: 4.9 secTop Speed (gov ltd): 123 mphBraking, 70–0 mph: 184 ftRoadholding, 300-ft Skidpad: 0.79 g 
C/D FUEL ECONOMY
Observed: 19 mpg
EPA FUEL ECONOMYCity/Highway: 17/24 mpg 
C/D TESTING EXPLAINED More

There were many who bemoaned the Porsche 718 Boxster’s switch from a standard flat-six engine to a turbocharged flat-four. And while Porsche has reintroduced the six in headlining variants such as the GTS 4.0 and the Spyder RS, the brand also is out to bolster the cred of even the entry-level four-cylinder Boxster. The 2023 Boxster T does exactly that.The premise behind the Boxster T is simple: Take the whole kit and caboodle of Porsche’s handling options and slap those bad boys onto the base model. Like its bigger brother, the 911 Carrera T, the Boxster T relies on its entry-level powertrain, but unlike the 911, it doesn’t throw a bunch of weight savings into the mix by deleting seats and thinning the glass—although the occasionally frustrating loop door pulls might save a handful of grams. Our Boxster T tipped the scales at 3069 pounds, just 10 pounds more than a base manual Boxster we tested back in 2017. European models shed a bit more weight thanks to an infotainment delete that our backup-camera regulations don’t allow.HIGHS: Good blend of value and capability, grippy cloth seats, one of the best shifters out there.Here’s what your hard-earned $76,050 gets you on the Boxster T. Porsche’s PASM sport suspension adds adaptive damping and lowers the car by 0.8 inch. The 20-inch wheels offer a dash of extra style while retaining enough sidewall rubber to avoid trashing the ride quality. Active engine mounts work to isolate the flat-four’s movements from the rest of the body by varying their stiffness, while brake-based torque vectoring is on hand to improve turn-in and stability through corners. Porsche’s Sport Chrono option is standard, as well, adding a dashboard clock, a drive-mode switch on the steering wheel, rev-matching downshifts, and—on cars with the seven-speed PDK dual-clutch automatic transmission—launch control.The interior gets a little extra love too. The Boxster T comes standard with two-way power adjustable seats covered in a combination of leather and grippy cloth surfaces, and they’re great, offering lots of comfort and support whether the driving is sedate or sporty. Our test car also had the optional 718 T Interior package ($2770), which brings contrasting stitching, seat embroidery, and color-matched seatbelts. You still get the plastic-fantastic base interior, but your hands likely won’t stray from the wheel to massage the dash very often.LOWS: Just-okay engine note at idle, silly pull-strap door handles, discontinued for 2024.Sounds like a good combo, right? It is. Even with its larger wheels, the Boxster T’s adaptive dampers do an impressive job soaking up Michigan’s heavily blemished roads and returning a smooth ride that still keeps body motions in check when attacking switchbacks. Sport mode stiffens things up but doesn’t necessarily add any additional precision. Those 20-inch wheels may add a smidge of unsprung mass, but the steering is still direct and happy to tell you what the front tires are experiencing. Around the 300-foot skidpad, we measured a solid 1.03 g of pavement adhesion.With just 300 horsepower and 280 pound-feet of torque on tap, the Boxster T certainly lacks the outright hustle of a GTS 4.0 or even an S model, but it’s not like waiting for a late-arriving bus. With the exception of the lowest depths of the rev range, the turbocharged 2.0-liter flat-four builds boost quickly as the exhaust note changes from flat-brim-cap bass to a more fitting yowl. With clean footwork and one of our favorite six-speed manuals underhand, we recorded a 4.3-second run up to 60 mph, exactly the same as we achieved in 2017, and four-tenths of a second quicker than a 2.0-liter Toyota Supra. Keep your foot in it, and the T will run the quarter-mile in 12.9 seconds at 109 mph, 0.1 second ahead of the 2017 Boxster and 0.4 ahead of the Supra.More on the Boxster ConvertibleThe Boxster T uses the base car’s brakes, but that’s not a cause for concern. The T stops from 70 mph in 143 feet and from 100 mph in 293. Not only are these impressive numbers on par with the 2017 Boxster and the 2.0-liter Supra once again, the 100-mph result is a foot better than what we recorded with a 2020 Corvette Stingray convertible (stopping from 70 mph is more impressive by four feet).One place where Porsche’s four-cylinder engines do very well is fuel economy. Sports cars aren’t often pillars of efficiency, but the Boxster T doesn’t mind a bit of thrift. While the EPA estimates a 26-mpg highway figure—1 mpg higher than an entry-level manual Boxster—our own 75-mph highway fuel-economy test returned an impressive result of 34 mpg.Perhaps the most frustrating part of the Boxster T is that it’s already leaving. Porsche discontinued the 718 T from the lineup for the 2024 model year, but there’s a workaround that will get you nearly there. A base Boxster can be fitted with the PASM suspension (albeit with half the ride-height reduction), torque vectoring, and nearly every other Boxster T component, save for the interior upgrades. Throw in a set of upsized wheels, and the out-the-door price won’t be too far off from our test car’s as-tested $83,120.VERDICT: The 718 Boxster T is proof that four-cylinder models aren’t boring bargain-bin affairs.Whether you assemble your Boxster T one piece at a time or get lucky and find a 2023 model chilling on the dealer lot, your hard work won’t go unrewarded. The Boxster T is about as value-laden as a two-door Porsche can get, marrying base-model sensibilities with more than enough agility for the weekend canyon carver or enthusiastic commuter.SpecificationsSpecifications
2023 Porsche 718 Boxster TVehicle Type: mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 2-passenger, 2-door convertible
PRICE
Base/As Tested: $76,050/$83,120Options: 718 T Interior package, $2770; navigation with Porsche Connect, $2320; Premium package (heated steering wheel, power folding exterior mirrors, Light Design package, luggage net in passenger footwell, Porsche Entry and Drive), $1980
ENGINE
turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 16-valve flat-4, aluminum block and heads, direct fuel injectionDisplacement: 121 in3, 1988 cm3Power: 300 hp @ 6500 rpmTorque: 280 lb-ft @ 1950 rpm
TRANSMISSION
6-speed manual
CHASSIS
Suspension, F/R: struts/strutsBrakes, F/R: 13.0-in vented, cross-drilled disc/11.8-in vented, cross-drilled discTires: Pirelli P Zero PZ4F: 235/35ZR-20 (88Y) N1R: 265/35ZR-20 (95Y) N1
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: 97.4 inLength: 172.4 inWidth: 70.9 inHeight: 49.7 inPassenger Volume: 49 ft3Cargo Volume, F/R: 5/4 ft3Curb Weight: 3069 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS
60 mph: 4.3 sec100 mph: 10.4 sec1/4-Mile: 12.9 sec @ 109 mph130 mph: 18.7 sec150 mph: 28.8 secResults above omit 1-ft rollout of 0.3 sec.Rolling Start, 5–60 mph: 5.9 secTop Gear, 30–50 mph: 9.9 secTop Gear, 50–70 mph: 6.2 secTop Speed (C/D est): 170 mphBraking, 70–0 mph: 143 ftBraking, 100–0 mph: 293 ftRoadholding, 300-ft Skidpad: 1.03 g
C/D FUEL ECONOMY
Observed: 20 mpg75-mph Highway Driving: 34 mpg75-mph Highway Range: 280 mi
EPA FUEL ECONOMY
Combined/City/Highway: 22/20/26 mpg
C/D TESTING EXPLAINEDSenior EditorCars 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

Fans of braggadocious luxobarges may have mixed feelings about the 2024 BMW i7 M70 xDrive. On one hand, BMW remains firm in its insistence that a proper M7—one that would follow M’s ethos of building road cars from track-borne inspiration—isn’t going to happen. On the other hand, the i7 M70 is so thoroughly competent at everything it does that those folks may finally be willing to settle. Maybe. But they should.The meat and potatoes of the i7 M70 lies under the body. A 255-hp motor—the same one you’ll find up front in the i5 M60—drives the front wheels, and a 483-hp monster (BMW’s most powerful e-motor to date) lurks aft. Combine the two with a dollop of launch control or the aptly labeled “BOOST” paddle on the steering wheel, and output is an impressive 650 horsepower and 811 pound-feet of torque. Otherwise, however, you’ll have to make do with a paltry 748 pound-feet. L’horreur.BMWThat all courses its way to the pavement through single-speed transmissions, express-shipping the i7 M70 to 60 mph in a manufacturer-estimated 3.5 seconds. Considering our test of an i7 xDrive60 shaved four-tenths off BMW’s supplied 4.5-second figure, we reckon this half cruise ship/half cruise missile will prove even more unhinged when we test it. No matter what the stopwatch says, the experience of Full Send in the i7 M70 isn’t far off from launching the GMC Hummer EV, or perhaps a Saturn V. Grip the wheel like you’ll fall off the planet if you let go, hit the right pedal, and the nose rises as the entire car rail-guns its way forward. We chose not to have the piped-in Hans Zimmer Sound Experience assault our eardrums as this happens, but fans of Interstellar may choose to leave it on and shout, “Don’t let me leave, Murph!” for a little extra flavor. It’s brutal and silly and exactly as over the top as a $169,495 7-series—roughly $45,000 more than the next-step-down i7 xDrive60—should be.Of course, BMW didn’t only go to the gym on leg day. The i7 M70 features a wealth of upgrades meant to improve stability and handling. There’s an additional shear panel between the firewall and the strut towers for extra front-end rigidity. Four-corner air springs and electronically controlled dampers are standard, with M adding its touch to the air springs and hydraulics. Rear-axle steering can turn the back wheels up to 2.5 degrees, while active roll stabilization helps minimize lean in corners.Does it work? You betcha, insofar as anything can make an i7 M70 (estimated curb weight: 6050 pounds) feel light on its feet. With everything given a Sport-mode stiffening, the M70 does a commendable sports-sedan cosplay, keeping body motions in check and making impressively tidy work of switchbacks where each lane is barely wider than the car itself. Some cars shrink around you as the speed rises—not this one. The lane-departure warning will keep you acutely aware of this BMW’s width.But don’t think that the pursuit of playing switchback surgeon has in any way compromised the i7. For as capable as the M70 is when hustling, it’s just as happy to dial it back and focus on luxuriating. Like its less powerful xDrive60 sibling, this car will positively glide all day long, soaking up any hint of bad roads and transmitting little motion to the cabin. Wind and road noise are buried three towns over, although the optional summer tires may detract from the hush; stick with all-seasons if you don’t plan on acting like a hoodlum.Providing the electrons for these shenanigans is the same battery pack that’s in the i7 xDrive60, measuring 101.7 kilowatt-hours of usable capacity. EPA range is 291 miles with the standard 21-inch wheels and 274 with the 20s, 16 and 24 miles shy, respectively, of the xDrive60’s figures. However, our 75-mph real-world range test in an xDrive60 ended after just 260 miles—a far cry from both the EPA’s figures and our tests of the i7’s closest competitor, the Mercedes-Benz EQS—and there doesn’t seem to be any reason to assume the M70 would do any better.BMWIf you’re worried you won’t be able to make it to that next charger, the i7 M70 has a trick that may help. A new Max Range mode reduces motor output, limits the top speed to 56 mph, and eliminates creature comforts including climate control and the seat heaters. BMW estimates that it can boost the remaining range by 25 percent or so; every situation is different, but it should help. Once hooked up, the M70 can take up to 195 kilowatts via DC fast-charging or 11.0 kilowatts with AC power.Naturally, BMW zhuzhed up the i7 M70’s look to give it a little extra flair. The fasciae have a few more angles, and a thin strip around the front grille lights up. There’s blacked-out trim, more aggressive side skirts, and so many M badges you’d think they were on sale somewhere. BMW didn’t do anything about that Habsburg jaw of a rear bumper, though.More I’s Than An OptometristWe enjoyed the i7 so much the first time around that many of us were hard-pressed to figure out what could be added to the equation. Now that the i7 has picked up some added vim with the M70, the question is even harder to answer.SpecificationsSpecifications
2024 BMW i7 M70 xDriveVehicle Type: front- and rear-motor, all-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan
PRICE
Base: $169,495
POWERTRAIN
Front Motor: current-excited synchronous AC, 255 hp, 269 lb-ft Rear Motor: current-excited synchronous AC, 483 hp, 479 lb-ft Combined Power: 650 hpCombined Torque: 811 lb-ftBattery Pack: liquid-cooled lithium-ion, 101.7 kWhOnboard Charger: 11.0 kWPeak DC Fast-Charge Rate: 195 kWTransmissions, F/R: direct-drive
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: 126.6 inLength: 212.2 inWidth: 76.8 inHeight: 60.8 inPassenger Volume, F/R: 58/54 ft3Trunk Volume: 18 ft3Curb Weight (C/D est): 6050 lb
PERFORMANCE (C/D EST)
60 mph: 3.3 sec100 mph: 8.8 sec1/4-Mile: 11.7 secTop Speed: 155 mph
EPA FUEL ECONOMY
Combined/City/Highway: 77–81/74–79/80–85 MPGeRange: 274–291 miSenior EditorCars 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

The 2024 Mercedes-Benz EQS sedan and S-class offer Drive Pilot, the first SAE Level 3 autonomous-driving system. When specific driving criteria are met, Drive Pilot allows the driver to look away for long periods and keep their hands off the wheel. Drive Pilot will be offered as a subscription service for $2500 per year in Nevada and California. It’s rare to wish for more traffic, but we needed a slowdown so we could stay below 40 mph and keep watching Beyoncé concert clips. We were heading east on I-10 from Santa Monica toward downtown Los Angeles, and when the other cars sped up, the Mercedes EQS580 we were driving (riding in? overseeing?) would beep gently, requesting that we retake the wheel. Which meant turning our attention away from Bey and focusing it on the Honda CR-V in front of us. Are you rolling your eyes at yet another irresponsible driver using some poorly labeled “self-driving” tech and putting everyone around them in danger? That’s a fair assumption. In this case, though, we were on the right side of the law even as we drank coffee and turned around to chat with a passenger in the rear seat. If our EQS580 had been involved in an accident during that time, Mercedes would have been responsible, not us. Self-driving cars are probably the most egregiously mislabeled technology in the automotive sphere. Let’s be clear: They don’t exist. All the cars on the market at the time of this writing with any major drive-assist functions offer a Level 2 system. And yes, that includes Tesla’s Full Self-Driving and GM’s Super Cruise. With Level 2 tech, despite what you may have seen in YouTube videos, the driver is not legally able to turn their attention away from the road, whether that’s hands on the wheel or eyes forward. Mercedes Drive Pilot is the first approved Level 3 drive system, which means that when it is engaged—and all the drive criteria are met—the driver can legally stop paying attention. At least until the CR-V speeds up, and Drive Pilot beeps at us to take control. Drive Pilot: When Can It Be Used?This was our first chance behind the wheel (although we did a ridealong back in March 2022), and it’s interesting to tackle one of L.A.’s most tiresome stretches of freeway with the option of simply zoning out. Drive Pilot has strict parameters for its use. It’s available only on mapped highways and during daylight when there is no rain or snow and the traffic is below 40 mph. It will return control to the driver if it senses something out of the ordinary, whether that’s a pedestrian on the highway or an oncoming emergency vehicle. What’s It Like to Use?Most commutes in Los Angeles meet the sunny-and-slow criteria, so during our test, we were able to engage the system—a straightforward button press—and just . . . stop driving. Well, theoretically. It’s not so easy to release years of ingrained habits, and not only did we find it difficult to stop paying attention, but there also wasn’t really anything we wanted to do instead. Yes, you can watch videos or play games on the infotainment screen, and if we were in Germany, where using hand-held devices behind the wheel is legal, we could have scrolled Instagram. But something that’s sort of nice about driving a car is being forced to take a break from those things. If I-10 were our usual commute, we might feel differently. On the nonphilosophical side, Drive Pilot works well while all its conditions are met, but transitioning from Drive Pilot back to Level 2 adaptive cruise is still clunky. While in use, Drive Pilot won’t go above 40 mph, but it took some time to recognize that traffic ahead was moving faster and notify us to take over. In that time, the car in front of us could pull several lengths ahead—not a huge deal, but enough to irritate city drivers used to nose-to-tail spacing. Mercedes’s Level 2 features, such as adaptive cruise and automated lane changing, can operate at much higher speeds, and we were able to use them uninterrupted for more of our drive. However, during that time, it’s not legal to stop paying attention, so if we’d had a fender bender or a lane-change incident, it would have been our responsibility. Mercedes wants the tech to be safe. The company has logged more than 100,000 test miles in California alone. Drive Pilot combines information gathered from radar, cameras, and lidar and uses microphones to listen for sirens and sensors to detect wet pavement. The redundancy of systems includes backups for braking, steering, and much of the electrical. At the moment in the U.S., the tech is legal only in California and Nevada, and Mercedes expects additional states to approve its use. Drive Pilot will be offered on S-class and EQS models as a subscription service starting at $2500 per year. That’s a pricey add-on, but it would cost more to commute to your job via helicopter, and we can’t think of any other way to mitigate traffic in California’s big cities. This content is imported from poll. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.Senior Editor, FeaturesLike a sleeper agent activated late in the game, Elana Scherr didn’t know her calling at a young age. Like many girls, she planned to be a vet-astronaut-artist, and came closest to that last one by attending UCLA art school. She painted images of cars, but did not own one. Elana reluctantly got a driver’s license at age 21 and discovered that she not only loved cars and wanted to drive them, but that other people loved cars and wanted to read about them, which meant somebody had to write about them. Since receiving activation codes, Elana has written for numerous car magazines and websites, covering classics, car culture, technology, motorsports, and new-car reviews.     More

From the November 2023 issue of Car and Driver.If you have a quarter-mil burning a hole in your Balmains, your automotive choices have never been wider. From fortress-like super-SUVs to road-scraping supercars, there are more $200K-plus vehicles available now than at any time in history. Astonishingly, there are now twice as many Ferrari models as Buicks.But none of these prancing horses are as pretty or as purely intentioned as the new Ferrari Roma Spider. None capture the romance and myth of the front-engine V-12 cars of the ’60s like this louche convertible 2+2. In the Roma Spider, you are Marcello Mastroianni rolling up to Cinecittà, Anita Ekberg in the passenger’s seat. You’ll get no such dolce vita energy from an F8.Sure, the Roma has four fewer cylinders than the legendary 250s and 275s, but eights are the new 12s, and this twin-turbo 3.9-liter produces a whopping 612 horsepower.It’s obviously the same V-8 found in the Roma coupe, linked to the same dual-clutch eight-speed transaxle from the SF90 Stradale. But in the droptop Roma, you can really hear it in all its glory. One-third intake noise, one-third reciprocating engine parts, and one-third unmuffled exhaust, the V-8 snorts and belches right into your ear canal. And my God, look at the thing. It is one glorious cursive swoop, perfectly beautiful with the top down or up. The rear hips rise to the decklid, which integrates a discreet three-position spoiler, and the shark-nosed front grins like it just found Nemo. The Spider accrues another 185 pounds, much of it due to reinforcements in the side sills and rear bulkhead. Here’s what you need to know about the interior: One can spec leather and faux-suede floormats laid over an entirely faux-suede floor. Talk about knowing your customer—these are people whose feet do not touch the ground. Also, the rear seatback hinges near the top edge to double as a wind buffer. It is surprisingly effective.We drove the Roma Spider on the scarped mountain roads of Sardinia, past ancient olive groves and aqueducts, and alongside lagoons full of shrimp-starved white flamingos. The car felt half its size and two-thirds its 3800 or so pounds. Ferrari is obsessed with managing inertia and loads, which is why even its biggest cars feel light.So, by some sorcery of physics, the Roma Spider darts into corners without feeling darty. It stops hard without being harsh. It floats without the slightest hint of floatiness. It masks its mass.The gearbox and chassis are always set up for the coming corner, and front-end grip is authoritative. The car’s dynamics are as crisp and fluid as its bodywork. This is a joy-delivery system. Even dogs yelped with glee as we roared past. More on the Ferrari RomaOne criticism is that the carbon-ceramic brakes squeak at low speed. The solution? Drive faster. Some might also carp that the Roma Spider is too expensive, but they’re missing the point. You give a dealer a piece of paper and then get this quicksilver convertible in return? Seems like you should go to jail for that.SpecificationsSpecifications
2024 Ferrari Roma SpiderVehicle Type: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 2+2-passenger, 2-door convertible
PRICE
Base: $277,970
ENGINEtwin-turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 32-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads, direct fuel injectionDisplacement: 235 in3, 3855 cm3Power: 612 hp @ 7500 rpmTorque: 561 lb-ft @ 3000 rpm 
TRANSMISSION8-speed dual-clutch automatic
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: 105.1 inLength: 183.3 inWidth: 77.7 inHeight: 51.4 inCurb Weight (C/D est): 3800 lb
PERFORMANCE (C/D EST)
60 mph: 3.1 sec100 mph: 7.0 sec1/4-Mile: 11.1 secTop Speed: 199 mph
EPA FUEL ECONOMY (C/D EST)
Combined/City/Highway: 19/17/21 mpg Chief Brand OfficerEddie Alterman is Hearst Autos chief brand officer, having served as Car and Driver’s Editor-in-Chief from 2009 to 2019. He enjoys decrepit old German cars, high-output American V-8s, and long walks on the beach. More

From the August 1989 issue of Car and Driver.If we had to characterize Chrysler’s Ea­gle Division, we’d describe it as “the new home of pretty neat alternatives.” You’d almost think that Chrysler had been working with a sorcerer lately: suddenly, the once-shaky Eagle lineup looks posi­tively scrumptious.Eagle’s dazzling new Talon TSi AWD (C/D, July) is a car with 90 percent of the abilities of the Porsche 911 Carrera 4—at about one-quarter the price. Eagle’s well-balanced Premier sedan flaunts nimble road manners every bit as good as those of the acclaimed Ford Taurus. And just to ensure that there are no ugly duck­lings in the Eagle aviary, Chrysler has mercifully retired the unpopular Medal­lion sedan.And then there is the perky new Eagle Summit, a car ready to take on the auto world’s most renowned purveyor of good stuff: Honda. The Summit is yet another product of the highly successful Chrysler-Mitsubishi partnership. This joint venture has placed several rebadged Mitsubishis in Chrysler dealerships, and it is also re­sponsible for the Diamond-Star Motors Corporation, the U.S. facility that pro­duces the impressive Laser/Eclipse/Tal­on sports coupes for the two companies. Unlike the Diamond-Star coupes, however, the Summit is wholly designed and built by Mitsubishi. Mitsubishi sells three- and four-door versions of the car as the Mirage. Chrysler/Plymouth and Dodge dealers sell their own version of the three-door under the Colt badge. Ea­gle gets the four-door version, which it sells as the Summit. Still with us? The Summit’s styling is a study in Japanese uncontroversial. The shape maintains the interesting slim-headlight treatment characteristic of Mitsubishi’s products, although the Summit’s hoodline is not as dramatically low as the Honda Civic’s. The Summit’s wheelbase is nearly two inches shorter than the Civic sedan’s, yet the Eagle is three and one-half inches longer overall. In all but two critical inte­rior dimensions—front legroom and rear hiproom—the Summit equals or betters the Civic. And the Summit has a greater than two-inch advantage in rear­-seat legroom over the Honda. That means that four passengers of adult size will easily fit into the little Eagle. Choosing the right trim level is crucial if you want to obtain the highest Summit. Both the base DX package and the costli­er LX trim kit offer an 81-hp 1.5-liter in­line four-cylinder as standard equip­ment. But only the LX offers the optional DOHC 1.6-liter four-cylinder. This en­gine cranks out 113 hp, a robust 32-hp increase over the base engine and 21 more ponies than you can get in a Civic four-door. Like all Mitsu twin-cam engines, the 1.6-liter dynamo revs with abandon all the way to its 7000-rpm redline. And it makes a satisfying growl all the while. Even with this willing engine, howev­er, the Summit LX—weighed down with such luxurious touches as power win­dows, power locks, and air condition­ing—feels chunky. The LX’s 9.6-second 0-to-60-mph run reflects how severely 2587 pounds of sedan can burden 113 eager horses.Driving the Summit LX is never a bur­den, though. The five-speed manual gearbox (the only transmission available with the DOHC engine) is a joy, so keep­ing the revs up is easy. And the LX’s stan­dard power steering makes maneuvering through city traffic a breeze. You sense that same lightness of oper­ation when hustling down your favorite back road. Fitted with the optional four­teen-inch alloy wheels and 195/60-14 Yokohama tires, the Summit feels nim­ble. The steering is accurate, and the sus­pension dances through the twisties with modest understeer and just a trace of en­tertaining off-power oversteer. This car doesn’t make you work hard for your fun. Good as it is, you’ll never forget that the Summit has an econobox heart. The suspension—struts at the front, a solid axle and coil springs in the rear—is limit­ed in travel and reaches its bump stops easily. A high-g run through a choppy bend can produce some pretty unsavory body motions.But for most driving the Summit is as easy to live with as any small sedan you’ll find—the Civic included. The interior displays the quality we’ve come to expect from Mitsubishi: the seats are supportive and attractive, the layout is airy and spa­cious, and the instruments and the con­trols are logically arranged and easy to operate. About the only gripe we have is with the chintzy-looking sun visors.In overall goodness and quality the Summit LX can match the Honda Civic four-door blow for blow. And the LX has more power than the Civic. So why hasn’t the little Eagle usurped the little Honda in our hearts and minds?More Eagle Reviews From the ArchiveCheck out the price, amigo. At $14,297, the Summit LX with the DOHC engine and all the goodies is hardly a fire­sale bargain. For that kind of money you can get into low-level versions of such considerably larger cars as the Honda Accord and the Ford Taurus. In fact, the Summit LX costs about two grand more than a fully loaded Civic sedan. There’s no question that the Eagle Summit LX is a fun, functional package. But before we’ll be won over, Chrysler’s sorcerer needs to say the magic words that will make a few thou disappear from the Summit’s bottom line. SpecificationsSpecifications
1989 Eagle Summit LXVehicle Type: front-engine, front-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan
PRICE
Base/As Tested: $10,639/$14,297
ENGINEDOHC 16-valve inline-4, iron block and aluminum head, port fuel injectionDisplacement: 97 in3, 1596 cm3Power: 113 hp @ 6500 rpm 
TRANSMISSION5-speed manual 
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: 96.7 inLength: 170.1 inCurb Weight: 2587 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS
60 mph: 9.6 sec1/4-Mile: 17.0 sec @ 80 mph100 mph: 36.2 secTop Speed (gov ltd): 108 mphBraking, 70–0 mph: 200 ftRoadholding, 300-ft Skidpad: 0.80 g 
C/D FUEL ECONOMY
Observed: 25 mpg
EPA FUEL ECONOMYCity: 23 mpg 
C/D TESTING EXPLAINED More