Motor News

A new version of the Chevy Colorado pickup is coming for 2023.This teaser shows the ZR2 model, which has numerous add-ons for off-roading.The new truck will debut July 28, and a similar GMC Canyon AT4X is coming too.A new teaser video shows an updated 2023 version of Chevrolet’s mid-size pickup truck, the Colorado, bounding around the desert ahead of its official debut July 28. Both of GM’s smaller trucks, the Colorado and the closely related GMC Canyon, are being redesigned for the 2023 model year, and the company describes the trucks as “all-new.” We reckon that means they will both have new bodies and upgraded interiors, although we think the trucks’ underpinnings will largely stay the same.

In the teaser, we can see that the Colorado’s front end looks different, as do the taillights. The version shown is the off-road-oriented ZR2, which has chunky all-terrain tires, a light bar behind the cab, and what Chevy calls a “Safari Bar” on the front. Like the current ZR2, the new model will likely have suspension upgrades including different shocks and a higher ride height. The Chevy’s GMC sibling, the Canyon, will also add an off-road model called AT4X that should be equivalent to the ZR2; that model has also been teased and appears to have a different body than the current truck.The current Colorado and Canyon offer three engine choices: a 2.5-liter inline-four, a 3.6-liter V-6, or a turbodiesel 2.8-liter inline-four. We’re guessing that the base four-cylinder might be dropped, and that GM could add the Silverado’s turbocharged 2.7-liter inline-four as an option. Both rear- and four-wheel drive will remain on the menu.Stay tuned to learn more about the 2023 Colorado and Canyon, as the Chevy will debut July 28 and the GMC should follow soon after.
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You recharge an electric car by plugging it into the electric grid, where renewable solar energy may make up part of the power supply. But what about using solar panels mounted directly on EVs to recharge their batteries? A new electric car from a Dutch automaker does just that.Vehicle startup Lightyear says it will begin production late this year of its Lightyear 0 (“Zero”)—and Car and Driver was able to drive a pre-production development vehicle. The mid-size four-door sedan promises up to 6840 miles a year of added range in the sunniest climate from the 54 square feet of solar cells under glass that cover its roof, hood, and liftgate. The price is roughly $265,000, steep for a car in the same category as the Tesla Model 3, which starts at one-fifth that price. But Lightyear intends the Zero to be a proof of concept. It will build and sell just 946 examples, to show the technology is workable and also gain data about the real-world performance of its solar panels.

Presuming it raises more capital, Lightyear’s second vehicle—the Lightyear 2—will be a compact crossover in the same segment as Tesla’s Model Y, according to CEO Lex Hoefsloot. He spoke to Car and Driver during a drive event in a pair of prototype Lightyear Zeros held in the hot, mostly sunny Navarre region of northeastern Spain. The target price for its second vehicle, which Lightyear hopes to launch in late 2024 or early 2025, is a far more affordable $31,700.Secret Sauce: Ultra-Efficient EverythingTo build a car for which today’s solar panels could provide substantial added electric range required engineering every aspect of the vehicle for extreme efficiency. Our 20-minute test drive of the pre-production Lightyear Zero development vehicle didn’t include any high-speed highway driving. It covered roughly 12 miles of two-lane country roads, numerous roundabouts, and a jaunt through one village. Under those conditions, indicated power usage was 91 to 134 Watt-hours per kilometer (4.7 to 6.9 miles/kWh)—versus 3 to 5 miles/kWh in most of today’s production EVs.The Lightyear Zero’s 60.0-kWh battery pack can be smaller and lighter than those of other EVs with similar capacities because the company strictly limits the stress on its cells. The car is far from a speed demon; the company quotes a zero-to-62-mph time of roughly 10 seconds—slow compared to a Tesla Model 3. Lightyear is still tuning the powertrain and said it expects to add 10 percent to maximum torque while retaining the same efficiency. Top speed is limited to 100 mph.
Longer Tail, Lower DragThe car itself is as close to a teardrop shape as you’ll find in any vehicle today, with a long tail in particular. That produces a very low claimed drag coefficient of 0.19. (Note that without a standardized measuring system for drag coefficients, claimed Cd figures aren’t necessarily comparable among different carmakers.) Active grille shutters, flat wheel covers, and partially enclosed rear wheel wells further reduce drag. Its carbon-fiber shell (made largely out of carbon-fiber waste recaptured from other uses) gives it an exceptionally light weight of a claimed 3500 pounds including 770 pounds of battery. And the Lightyear Zero will be the first production passenger car to use in-wheel hub motors, developed through several generations to be smaller and lighter for the power they deliver while eliminating driveshafts and other components. All of this translates into lower energy use. We couldn’t test the car’s energy use ourselves in the brief time we had to drive it, but Lightyear benchmarked its production-intent prototype against a Tesla Model 3 Standard RWD Plus. Their car, they said, used 10.5 kWh to cover 62 miles at a steady speed of 68 mph, while the Tesla required 16.1 kWh to do the same. The range provided by its 60.0-kWh battery was 350 miles, while the 50.0-kWh Model 3 returns 225 miles in the same tests.The upshot is a very efficient EV that goes farther per kilowatt-hour than similar vehicles, with the added bonus that energy from the sun translates to more added miles than it would in less efficient competitors. Lightyear expects the official range rating under the WLTP cycle to be 388 miles.On the RoadGetting into the low car with its steeply raked windshield requires careful head placement, but once inside, the seats are nicely shaped and very supportive. A digital instrument cluster and separate horizontal center touchscreen are conventional, though Lightyear is still working on display graphics to present energy usage in a more easily comprehensible way than the present list of numbers.Getting underway is as simple as pushing the “D” button in the row at the front of the console. Every Lightyear team member we spoke with stressed that the steering and accelerator mapping wasn’t final. Indeed, the steering was heavy and somewhat slow to respond, while the accelerator felt entirely linear, which produced leisurely takeoffs from a standing start. The car’s roadholding on relatively narrow tires was fine for daily use, though we squealed a front tire coming out of a roundabout. The car isn’t intended to be a sports sedan, as our Lightyear engineer riding along stressed. On our short drives, we perceived no ill effects from the heavier unsprung weight of the wheel motors—which weigh 82 pounds each plus another 9 pounds for the integrated inverter. Adding Range, Reducing Plug TimeThe team’s primary goal for the development prototypes was to ensure the solar generation aspect worked correctly. Testing at noontime, apps for the two test vehicles showed their panels producing 492 and 673 watts. The maximum solar charging rate is just above 1 kilowatt, the company says, about the same as what a 120-volt household outlet can provide, which can add up to 43 miles of range a day—or 6840 miles a year. You’ll note that that annual claim isn’t just the maximum per-day range multiplied by 365, because you don’t get long sunny days year-round. And the reason that it can add relatively so many miles is due to the Lightyear’s super-high efficiency; the number of miles the same solar array on a mainstream EV could add would be substantially fewer.The idea, then, is not that the sun provides all the needed charging for the car. Rather, it’s that the car can slowly charge during daylight to extend its range and reduce the frequency of charging, perhaps substantially depending on usage patterns.Assuming an average commute of 22 miles, Lightyear says solar energy can extend the time between recharges in daily use for as long as two months in a cloudy climate like its home country of the Netherlands—and up to seven months in a sunny area like Portugal.The Lightyear Zero won’t come to North America, so we won’t have a chance to see how efficient it is under American drive cycles. The Lightyear 2 will, however. We could imagine EV drivers in LA or Phoenix liking the idea of a more efficient car they don’t need to plug in as often.

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Superman IV was a disastrous end to a beloved movie series from the 1970s, turning heads for all the wrong reasons. The SuperVan 4, on the other hand, is turning heads for all the right ones as an astonishing addition to a beloved, if completely ridiculous, series of vehicles started in the 1970s. Ford unveiled the Frankensteinian marriage between its Performance division and a nearly unrecognizable E-Transit Custom body on June 23 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, where it will show off its because-we-can bag of tricks for the first time.

The original SuperVan.
Ford

Officially known as the Ford Pro Electric SuperVan, the SuperVan 4 is the fourth Ford utility van to be retrofitted with a race-car-caliber powertrain, after the first SuperVan stuck a Transit bodyshell on a GT40 chassis back in 1971. This time, though, Ford Performance collaborated with Austria-based electric race and rally specialists STARD to bring the super-powered show-and-tell vans into the future with an all-electric design.

The SuperVan 4 harnesses the capabilities of a mid-mounted 50.0-kWh liquid-cooled battery, located where previous SuperVans’ ICEs were, to power four electric motors that promise to deliver 1973 horses and a zero-to-62-mph time of under two seconds via an all-wheel-drive system. The SuperVan 4 comes complete with a full roll cage and racing seats built to FIA standards, as well as motorsport-grade brakes.

Ford

It also utilizes a Sync display, not only to do the regular stuff but also to control the SuperVan 4’s funky driving modes and transmit real-time data for optimal performance, just as racing teams do. The aforementioned driving modes include road, track, drag, drift, and rally modes, plus a “Tyre Cleaning mode” that brakes one axle and spins the other, ostensibly to clean and warm the tires before performance runs; head-turning burnouts are just a bonus.However, all these high-tech components are not so much contained in a Transit Custom—which Ford brags is Europe’s bestselling van—as they are housed by a steel spaceframe and composite body panels made to look like a Transit-inspired spaceship. While distinctly van-shaped, the SuperVan 4 has extravagantly futuristic styling courtesy of Ford’s Cologne, Germany-based design team. It features a front splitter, rear wing, dorsal fin, and huge cutaways to generate more downforce, as well as neon-green accents and a front light bar for exotic flair.

Ford

Still, the SuperVan 4 has a cargo space behind the driver and a sliding door to load it, lest you forget that the “van” component of the SuperVan is just as important as the “super” component. Ford even intends to add an electromagnetic cargo-securing system, because God forbid cargo shift even slightly at supersonic speeds. To put the fantastical contraption to the test at Goodwood, Le Mans–winning driver Romain Dumas is suiting up in the cockpit of the SuperVan 4. Aside from his multitudinous endurance-racing accomplishments, Dumas has also set outright records at Goodwood and Pikes Peak in the fully electric Volkswagen I.D. R. Who knows, maybe a new record could be on the clock when the SuperVan 4 climbs the hill this weekend. Regardless, the ludicrous but fun box of speed will certainly be something to watch.
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According to a study performed by a Subaru dealership, Americans say they are willing to travel an average distance of 469 miles for their next car. The state prepared to travel the farthest is (somewhat unsurprisingly) Alaska at 722 miles.The survey consisted of 2690 drivers in March 2022. Gas prices are high. Very high. That hasn’t stopped Americans who are looking to battle equally high, record-setting monthly car payments. As means of fighting against rising car payments, prospective buyers are traveling farther out from their local dealership groups than they may have in the past. According to a study conducted by a Subaru dealership in Lexington, Kentucky, Americans say they are willing to travel an average distance of 469 miles to find their next car. The study surveyed 2690 drivers and broke down the miles consumers were willing to travel on a state-by-state basis. Relatively unsurprisingly, the state willing to travel the largest number of miles is Alaska at 722. The state least willing to travel is Vermont, with prospective buyers willing to travel 286 miles.

Quantrell Subaru

As we pointed out in March, finding good deals on cars is still possible for buyers who can remain flexible. That was as true two years ago as it is now, and although we don’t have comparative numbers from pre-pandemic days, part of the needed flexibility appears to be willingness to travel to get the car you want.

Rather than focusing only on deals you can find in your ZIP code, it may be worth traveling beyond state borders in order to find a great deal. It may also be worth considering ordering new vehicles rather than looking at used cars which have seen a significantly larger price jump than their new counterparts. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index Summary, prices for new vehicles were up just over 10 percent in January compared to a year before. Prices of used vehicles were over 40 percent in the same time period. Most importantly, remember that this is temporary. Chip shortages will end, dealer lots will fill back up and prices will come back down. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, and that you’re driving to meet it in your next dream car.
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This long-bed 1995 Ford F-250 XLT comes with an extended cab, four-wheel drive, and a 7.3-liter Power Stroke diesel V-8 engine. With 108,000 miles on it, this diesel pickup has plenty of life left for hauling bags of feed or just looking cool. The auction closes Thursday, June 23, with bidding currently at $15,000.Being born in Texas makes a love of Ford F-series trucks practically genetic. For me, despite living the past seven years of my life in Metro Detroit, I have no more shaken my affinity for the reliable rigs than I have shaken the slight Texan accent that comes out when I say words like “tomatah” and “mornin’.” That’s why this single-owner 1995 Ford F-250 XLT caught my eye. It’s listed on Bring a Trailer—which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos. The truck has the top-of-the-line 7.3-liter Power Stroke V-8 diesel engine, a four-speed automatic, and four-wheel drive, and it comes with aftermarket 16.5-inch wheels and CD stereo, cruise control, power windows and locks, a trailer hitch, and dual fuel tanks.

Bring a Trailer

The ninth generation of the F-series was produced between 1992 and 1998, and it was the last generation to use the same chassis for all its pickup trucks as well as to retain the square body introduced in 1980. After the dusk of the ninth generation, the F-250 and the F-350 became their own beefier variant of the F-series known as Super Duty, while the 10th-generation F-series took on a rounder, more fluid look.

That’s part of what makes this particular F-250 so enticing. It’s in the sweet spot of having the classic ninth-generation look plus the 7.3-liter Power Stroke engine, factory rated at 210 horsepower and 425 pound-feet of torque. It was a revelation compared to its indirect-injection predecessor, and trucks equipped with it regularly run for mileage nearly twice the circumference of Jupiter.

Bring a Trailer

However, those aren’t the only reasons this truck called to me. See, generations of my family hail from Melvin in West Texas, population 247. Growing up, I would visit my grandpa, PeePaw, there, and he would sit me on his lap and let me drive around his goat pastures in a truck very similar to this one. PeePaw’s was a 1994 model, painted a rusty red to go with the actual rust adorning the edges of the truck, but it had the same engine and drivetrain as this BaT listing.My dad and uncle affectionately nicknamed the truck “The Turd” in honor of its apparent decrepitude compared to the shiny new trucks going down Highway 87. But as other pickups came and went, the Turd was always there, ready to haul bags of corn to deer feeders or a gaggle of children in the bed to stargaze at the top of the mountain.

Bring a Trailer

When PeePaw died a few years back, the Turd finally reached the end of its journey, but it still holds a special place in my heart. So much so that I saw this listing and wished I had the money to drop on it and relive some of those days back in Melvin. But I don’t, but some other person stands to experience the joys of an old truck the way I did. Sure, it’s got some light wear and tear, but any good truck should look like it’s gotten its hands dirty a few times, maybe even enough to get dubbed a Turd. Bidding on this one closes on Thursday, June 23.

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Honda released a new teaser image of an updated interior for the 2023 CR-V.A new climate control vent spanning length of interior bears a similarity to what’s in the 2022 Civic Si.More details are set to be released on July 12.Honda released a new image of the updated interior for its 2023 CR-V that shows off a raised infotainment screen as well as an updated digital dash. This follows closely after a preview of the upcoming CR-V late last month in which Honda released images showing the SUV’s updated headlights and taillights, both of which appear to give the car more presence on the road.

Updated interior photo for 2023 Honda CR-V
Honda

The updated interior, Honda explains, is intended to be “sporty and modern.” We tend to agree with that sentiment, though we don’t love the increased use of potentially fingerprint-prone black plastic. The modern interior shows a generous amount of black leather with vibrant orange stitching. Reminding us very much of the 2022 Civic Si, the updated dash now features a honeycombed vent spanning from the steering wheel to passenger door. Physical climate controls are thankfully preserved and stay front and center on the dash. In a change from the outgoing model, the infotainment screen has moved to a stand-alone position near the top of the dash. Taken together, the components seen in this photo show the new CR-V as an upscale and pleasant place to spend morning commutes.

Previous spy photos led us to expect the new CR-V to be slightly larger than the current model. This expectation is all but confirmed in Honda’s release where it describes the interior as having “even more space.” We also expect it to have an improved hybrid system and to make a bit more power than the combined 212 horsepower in the current model.
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Honda is recalling 112,060 Ridgeline pickups due to risk of rear-frame corrosion that could lead to the fuel tank becoming unsecured.Unsecured fuel tanks are in danger of sustaining undercarriage damage that could cause fuel leakage and pose a fire risk, the NHTSA report says.The recall applies to Ridgelines produced between October 2004 and June 2014 that were sold or ever registered in Salt Belt states. The report claims that the road de-icing agents used in these states are what causes the corrosion. More than 112,000 Honda Ridgeline pickup trucks sold or ever registered in northern states are being recalled because their fuel tanks could become detached. According to filings with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the area where the fuel tank mounting bands are attached could corrode and separate from the rest of the frame. Should the fuel tank then become unsecured, damage from undercarriage impact could cause a fuel leak and potentially a fire. The affected area, which the NHTSA report calls the Salt Belt region, includes Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington D.C., and Wisconsin. Road salt used to de-ice and maintain roads in these states can accumulate on the rear frame, causing the corrosion detailed in the recall. The dealer-provided remedy includes attaching a reinforcement brace and applying anti-corrosive wax. If the vehicle is damaged beyond repair, the dealer may offer to repurchase the vehicle. In addition, owners who paid to have these repairs done at an earlier date will be eligible for reimbursement. Honda notes there have been no reports of fires or injuries related to the issue. However, between November 2016 and November 2021, five customer complaints related to the defect were received, none of which claimed fuel leaks had happened. Dealers were notified of the issue on June 17, and affected vehicle owners will be notified starting August 1. Until then, the report says, loud noises coming from the fuel tank or the rear frame could indicate that the area has corroded, and owners can use the NHTSA recalls website to check if their vehicle is affected.

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New York City Office of the Mayor

New York City’s mayor waved the checkered flag on Tuesday to end the lives of 900 illegal motorcycles, ATVs, and dirt bikes in a video shared by Reuters on Twitter.The illegal motorcycles were destroyed by means of having a bulldozer smash them to bits. The reason: they were not legal to use on city streets.The NYPD has seized over 2000 such illegal vehicles this year.
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In this video that turns out to be just as odd as its title, New York City Mayor Eric Adams waved a checkered flag, prompting a waiting Department of Sanitation driver to hit the gas on his bulldozer and bring doom on a pile of ATVs and motorcycles. A line of motorcycles and dirt bikes stand waiting while the bulldozer charges ahead to crush them. The video clip shows that the driver gets about halfway through the line before needing to reverse and unstick a pesky motorcycle before charging back down to finish the job.

Seizure of illegal dirt bikes, ATVs, and motorcycles has risen in New York this year as part of a public safety push by the mayor, who assumed office on January 1, 2022. According to a statement by New York Police Department Commissioner Keechant Sewell: “Since January the NYPD has seized over 2000 of these vehicles citywide. As the mayor said, that’s nearly over 80 percent more than we took by this time last year.” The mayor said the city chose to destroy the dirt bikes rather than sell or donate them because it keeps them off the street permanently. In his press conference, the mayor stated that many of the bikes don’t have insurance and said he is pushing for ATV dealers to request proof of insurance and registration documents before selling the vehicles. “It’s reckless and it’s illegal. It puts everyone at risk. Other drivers, passengers, pedestrians, and not to mention the bike riders themselves,” said Sewell. Message received, Commissioner. Message received.
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