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    2022 Toyota GR86 Is Slightly Cheaper Than the Subaru BRZ

    The 2022 Toyota GR86 sports car will start at $28,725, with the Premium trim starting at $31,325.It comes standard with a six-speed manual transmission and a six-speed automatic is a $1500 option.The GR86 will arrive at U.S. Toyota dealerships in December, the company says.Toyota has revealed another small point of differentiation between the new 2022 GR86 sports car and its twin, the 2022 Subaru BRZ: the price. The 86 starts at $28,725 for the base trim, just barely undercutting the BRZ’s starting price of $28,955.

    That starting price is for the base model, which comes with a six-speed manual transmission and a 2.4-liter boxer-four engine with 228 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque. A more expensive Premium trim is available for $31,325 and swaps out the base car’s 17-inch wheels and all-season tires for 18-inch wheels and Michelin Pilot Sport 4 summer tires. The Premium also gains a larger rear spoiler, heated front seats, and leather and faux-suede upholstery.A six-speed automatic transmission is available for $1500 on either trim, but we don’t recommend choosing the two-pedal option in a fun-loving rear-wheel-drive sports car like this. The automatic-transmission car does come with a few extra driver-assistance systems—including adaptive cruise control, automatic emergency braking, and lane-departure warning—that the manual car does without.
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    How We'd Spec It: 2022 Range Rover, Land Rover's New Flagship

    A new Range Rover is here, which is reason enough to head right to its online configurator tool to see all the possible combinations. The redesigned 2022 model’s starting price of $105,350 is really just a light suggestion, as there are numerous expensive upgrades available including a long-wheelbase configuration, a loaded Autobiography trim level, a First Edition with special visuals, and a wide range of exterior and interior colors. We gathered a few editors to choose their ideal specs and came up with these selections.

    Joey Capparella’s $115,050 Standard Wheelbase P400

    Land Rover

    Land Rover

    I’ve always felt that Range Rovers are the rare vehicles with six-figure price tags that are truly worth it, and I’m confident that will continue to be the case with new model. I chose a standard-wheelbase model in its P400 trim because I’m a fan of JLR’s inline-six engine. British Racing Green was a natural choice for the exterior color, despite a steep $4500 option price, and the $1000 black contrast roof adds a touch of modernity to the look. 23-inch wheels are available, but I chose a set of 22-inchers for $2300 in an attempt to preserve the ride quality somewhat. Few of the interior options appealed to me, as even the base cabin looks very plush, but I did opt for the $300 heated steering wheel and the $1200 sound-system upgrade. My spec comes out to a total price of $115,050Caleb Miller’s $161,700 Standard Wheelbase Autobiography P530

    Land Rover

    Land Rover

    While I’m all in favor of frugality when buying an economy car, I believe in splurging when it comes to a high-end SUV like the new Range Rover. To that end, I chose a standard wheelbase model in the Autobiography trim, which starts at $152,000 and adds goodies such as 24-way heated and cooled front seats with massage, a heads-up display, SiriusXM satellite radio, a refrigerator compartment in the front console, and an upgraded sound system. Selecting the Autobiography locks in the V-8 engine, which I would’ve opted for anyway. I went for a subtle exterior look, with gloss Constellation Blue paint—a $4550 option—and the Shadow Exterior pack for an extra $1000 to channel my inner James Bond villain. To match the blacked-out trim, I upgraded to 23-inch gloss black wheels, an additional $1500. Inside I went for Deep Garnet, which surprisingly did not boost the price, but I did spend $1300 on the Natural Black Birch veneer, aiming to match the black exterior details while avoiding the fingerprint-attracting gloss black finish. Otherwise, I left the options list alone, since the Autobiography model is already decked out to the nines. My Range Rover came in at $161,700.Drew Dorian’s $158,250 Long Wheelbase Autobiography P530

    Land Rover

    Land Rover

    I think the redesigned Range Rover looks good. Really good. I’d probably be happy with just about any spec, but in this fantasy I went for the long-wheelbase model and the Autobiography trim. This combination automatically adds the more powerful twin-turbo V-8 engine, and the extra space inside should make it even easier for rear seat passengers to ride in comfort. The Autobiography loads up the Range Rover with goodies including handsome 22-inch wheels, massaging front seats, rear captain’s chairs, an air purification system, a 35-speaker Meridian stereo system, a rear-seat entertainment system, and all the best driver-assistance tech. I’d resist the urge to try out one of the new satin paint finishes and stick with a standard metallic; the one that I like the best is Belgravia Green. I also really like the SV Bespoke 22-inch wheel option for $900. Inside, I’d swap the standard black leather upholstery out for the rich saddle-colored Caraway theme and I’d go with the SV Bespoke walnut wood trim. All in, I’m looking at a steep $158,250 for this beauty, which is why this will remain a fantasy.Connor Hoffman’s $131,350 Standard Wheelbase P530

    Land Rover

    Land Rover

    I think the new Land Rover Range Rover looks like a concept car that should’ve never gone into production (especially in the rear), but if I had to buy one, I’d go for the standard wheelbase, not the new seven-seat model. I’m not going for the fancy Autobiography or First Edition model because why add excess to an already excessive SUV? Selecting the 523-hp twin-turbo 4.4-liter V-8 is almost an instinct. Thank goodness Land Rover provides more color choices than Jeep, so I’m choosing Tourmaline Brown with a gloss finish, which costs $4,550, and adding the Shadow Exterior Pack for $1000. These standard 21-inch wheels look derpy, so this Range Rover is getting fitted with 23-inch gloss black wheels for $3000 and black black calipers for $550. The roof needs to be black too ($1000). I’m going with the Caraway interior, sticking with the base Windsor leather and Brown Walnut veneer trim to avoid racking up the price even more, which makes my 2022 Range Rover cost $131,350. That’s Porsche 911 money.

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    2023 Kia Sportage Revealed for U.S. with New X-Pro Off-Road Model

    Kia has released U.S. specs for the 2023 Sportage compact SUV.It has the same base engine as the Hyundai Tucson and will offer LX, EX, SX, X-Line, and X-Pro trim levels.The Sportage will go on sale in the U.S. in early 2022, with a hybrid to follow.Kia is nearly ready to bring its redesigned 2023 Sportage to the U.S., and we now have a lot more details on the new model that’s set to arrive on our shores in the first quarter of 2022. Larger than before and with a wider array of trim levels, the new compact SUV features an interesting design inside and out and offers a new off-road variant called X-Pro. A gasoline version with a four-cylinder engine will arrive first, with a hybrid set to join the lineup later on.

    The new Sportage has a 3.4-inch longer wheelbase than before, and its overall length has grown by 7.1 inches. This makes for a large cargo area measuring 40 cubic feet with the rear seats up, which beats its corporate cousin the Hyundai Tucson and the Honda CR-V. The U.S. version has the same distinctive headlight setup as the global model we saw earlier this year.
    Like the Tucson, the base engine is a naturally aspirated 2.5-liter inline-four that will make 187 horsepower in the Sportage. An eight-speed automatic transmission and front-wheel drive are standard, with all-wheel drive optional. A Sportage hybrid is coming later on, but Kia has yet to provide details on that powertrain. AWD models also feature a bit of extra ground clearance, and there are two available models—the X-Line and the X-Pro—that play up the Sportage’s off-road cred.The X-Line is an appearance package with different bumpers, wheels, a beefier roof rack, and black trim. The X-Pro features additional upgrades including 17-inch wheels with BF Goodrich all-terrain tires, a heated windshield, and LED fog lights. Other trim levels include LX, EX, and SX, and the SX, X-Line, and X-Pro models offer a Prestige package with additional niceties.
    Higher trim levels have a modern-looking interior with two large screens: a 12.3-inch digital gauge cluster and a 12.3-inch central infotainment display. The base LX model has a smaller 8.0-inch touchscreen. There’s an interesting touch panel below the infotainment screen that controls the radio and the HVAC system, and the two physical knobs on either side can change function depending on what’s displayed, becoming either volume and tuning knobs for audio or temperature knobs for the climate control.Driver-assistance systems including lane-keep assist and forward collision warning are standard across the board, but blind-spot warning and adaptive cruise control are optional.Kia has yet to announce pricing for the 2023 Sportage, but we expect it to start a bit higher than the current model, which costs between $25,265 and $36,425. The nonhybrid is set to go on sale in the U.S. in the first quarter of 2022, with the hybrid likely to follow a few months later.
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    First Customers Picking Up Lucid Air EVs at Oct. 30 'Lucid Rally'

    Lucid Motors has announced it’s holding an event on October 30 called Dream Delivery where the first reservation-holding customers can pick up their Lucid Air Dream Edition EVs. The event is likely to be based at Lucid’s headquarters in Newark, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. A “Lucid Rally” as part of the event will include company executives along with the customers and is intended to showcase the car’s performance, Lucid said.520 Dream Edition cars, priced starting at $169,000, will be the first delivered to buyers. Air Grand Touring cars will come out next. Orders for the slightly more affordable Touring and Pure models won’t reach customers until 2022. Lucid Motors, a company that originated in Silicon Valley, doesn’t let its factory’s remote location in the Phoenix suburb of Casa Grande, Arizona, keep it from pulling off Instagram-ready product positioning. The startup EV maker held a splashy start-of-production event at the plant in September, and on Saturday, October 30, it will bring together a group of customers in California to pick up their Dream Edition EVs, the launch version of the luxury Air sedan. As part of the “Dream Delivery” event, the customers get to participate with company executives in a Lucid Rally, then take home their personally configured cars.Earlier this week, Lucid tweeted this photo of several Air cars sedans loaded onto a transporter.
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    These first Lucid owners will be those who placed reservations for the inaugural Dream Edition in either Range or Performance spec, starting at $169,000. Both cars are dual-motor, all-wheel-drive models that have an 118.0-kWh battery pack. The cars promise a top speed of 168 mph. Claimed range on the 1111-hp Performance model is 451 miles for the car with 21-inch wheels, or 471 miles with 19-inch wheels. As its name suggests, the 933-hp Range version offers more miles between charges: 481 or 520 miles, depending on wheel choice.There’s also a $139,000 Grand Touring version of the Lucid Air, which will begin to reach reservation holders after the 520 buyers of the $169,000 Dream Edition get theirs. The $77,400 Pure and $95,000 Touring trims will reach their buyers in 2022, Lucid said, while the Gravity SUV isn’t due until 2023.
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    Uber, Hertz Deal Will Put 50,000 Tesla Model 3 Rental Cars into Ride-Sharing Fleet

    Uber has announced it is partnering with Hertz to offer 50,000 Tesla EVs as rentals for ride-sharing drivers over the next two years.The pilot program will start November 1 in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., but will expand to other U.S. citiesHertz just agreed to purchase more than $4 billion for 100,000 Tesla Model 3 cars in a deal announced Monday.Uber Technologies issued an announcement today that it will offer Teslas to its ride-sharing drivers to rent for a flat monthly fee that will include insurance and maintenance costs. The company will source the Teslas, which Reuters reported will be “mostly” Model 3 cars, from rental giant Hertz. Hertz itself just inked a deal to buy 100,000 Teslas to add to its rental fleet by the end of next year.

    Uber had previously stated it would transition to becoming an EV-only service by 2030 in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. It also started a Zero Emissions Incentive program that rewards drivers who use EVs by paying them $1 more per trip, up to a maximum of $4000 a year. The Teslas will also qualify to be called Uber Green or Uber Comfort rides, which charge riders a premium.

    Uber

    The pilot program will start in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., starting on November 1. Hertz will make the total 50,000 Teslas available to Uber drivers by 2023, Uber’s statement said. Initially, drivers who rent the EVs will be charged $334 per week, which will include insurance and maintenance costs, but the price will drop to $299 “or lower” later. To apply, drivers must have a 4.7 or higher rating and have completed at least 150 trips with Uber.Uber already has programs to encourage drivers to use an electric vehicle in their work. The service’s website offers an $8000 rebate for purchase of a 2021 Nissan Leaf or $6000 for a 2022 Nissan Leaf. Uber also offers $2500 rebates for purchase or lease of a 2021 Chevy Bolt EV, in addition to deals the buyer can get from the Chevrolet dealer or GM. Uber drivers can also rent an unspecified EV from Avis for $260 a week, with a fee of $65 a week for unlimited charging.

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    Honda Civic Si Race Cars to Appear at 2021 SEMA Show

    Honda announced today it will bring not one, but two race-car concepts based on the new Civic Si sedan to this year’s SEMA show in Las Vegas. The first car, dubbed the HPD Honda Civic Si, is a turnkey factory race car designed to compete in the SRO TC Americas series. The other is a one-off model put together by a collection of Honda engineers, meant to compete at the 25 Hours of Thunderhill happening in December.

    The HPD Honda Civic Si will represent the company’s next generation of grassroots racing, succeeding the wildly fun-to-drive Civic Si TCA. Built from a body-in-white to adhere to the SRO TC Americas rulebook, it’s stuffed with all of the safety and performance gear necessary to perform on track. As far as drivetrain modifications go, there’s a tune for the 1.5-liter turbo inline-four, a strengthened fourth gear, a specialized exhaust, and a race-spec limited-slip differential. Other upgrades include Bilstein dampers, Eibach coil springs, adjustable control arms, and Wilwood rotors with six-piston calipers up front.The one-off Si meant to run in this year’s 25 Hours of Thunderhill is a bit more customized, with similar safety gear but a lot more drivetrain mods. Assembled and raced by engineers across the company’s divisions, the car features a new tune for the engine, an oil cooler, a bigger radiator, a titanium exhaust, a custom gearset for the transmission, and specific engine mounts. There are Paragon brakes all around with endurance racing pads from Pagid, cooled with custom brake ducts. The dampers are KW competition units, paired to H&R race-spec coil springs. There are also custom forged wheels, a custom vented carbon hood, and custom LED exterior lights.

    The Si meant to race at Thunderhill will be the first of the two Civics to make a public appearance post-SEMA when it competes for a class win on December 3. We expect the SRO car to begin competition with the 2022 season. Honda has yet to release pricing, though we expect it to come in around the $60,000 mark. That may sound expensive, but when you consider all of the expensive parts necessary to make it legal for competition, you’ll realize it’s actually a bargain.

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    2022 Range Rover Adds Third-Row Option, with Plug-In Hybrid to Come

    For 2022, the Range Rover will come in standard- and long-wheelbase variants with seating for four, five, or seven.Four-wheel steering is newly standard across the lineup.The 2022 Range Rover SE, Autobiography, and First Edition are available for order now, with deliveries next spring.“Range Rover is not about radical change for the sake of it,” says Jaguar Land Rover’s chief creative officer, Gerry McGovern. Despite the fact that a new Range Rover is a once-in-a-decade occurrence (significantly longer than the typical product cycle), the all-new 2022 Range Rover does indeed look immediately familiar. But the new Rover packs a host of innovations. Those start with the model’s first ever three-row version, which at long last puts it on equal footing with competitors such as the Mercedes-Benz GLS-class, the BMW X7, the Cadillac Escalade, and the Lincoln Navigator. The seven-seat Range Rover uses the long-wheelbase body style and is expected to be especially popular in the U.S. market, where, Land Rover tells us, one in four existing customers have requested such a vehicle.

    Both versions have added approximately three inches between the axles, with the standard wheelbase now 118 inches and an overall length of 199 inches, and the long-wheelbase version eight inches greater in both measures. The wheels are as large as 23 inches. McGovern characterizes the new Range Rover’s design as “clean, reductive, and free from excessive line work.” As before, the profile view features a gently falling roofline, a continuous beltline, and a rising sill line. Compared to the previous version, McGovern says the new one “is about taking out, not adding in.”

    Land Rover

    To that end, the molding at the base of the windows has been removed, the door handles are flush-mounted, and there’s flush glazing. Until illuminated, the taillights present as simple black vertical elements. Those flush elements, along with the new vertical creases at the rear corners, active aero elements, and a suspension that automatically lowers at highway speeds give the Range Rover a coefficient of drag of 0.30, an improvement of 12 percent.Range Rover claims to have pushed the envelope in terms of luxury finishes, with the SV trim (which arrives with the 2023 model year) featuring ceramic knobs and switchgear (in white or anthracite), wool-blend upholstery, and marquetry wood veneers in a mosaic pattern. The SV offers two design themes: Serenity, with a copper-colored roof and matching accents on the wheels and grille surround, or Intrepid, with black trim and anthracite gray as the accent color.The new Range Rover interior features a 13.1-inch central touchscreen that runs JLR’s Pivi Pro operating system, which adds haptic feedback and includes Amazon Alexa integration as well as wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Ahead of the driver sits a new 13.7-inch digital instrument cluster with a configurable display. The 1600-watt Meridian sound system, which is exclusive to the Autobiography and First Edition, includes active noise cancellation and boasts 35 speakers—including in the headrests. Perhaps the ultimate luxury: The optional cabin air purification system can filter SARS and Covid pathogens. Come next year, entering and exiting the Range Rover will be made easier by the optional new Power Assisted Doors, which also can be controlled via the touchscreen.We poked around inside three pre-production Range Rovers: a standard-wheelbase First Edition, an extended-wheelbase SV with the four-seat interior, and a seven-seater. In the seven-seater, both rear rows are power-folding. The third row is genuinely usable, with 34 inches of legroom, and access is reasonably easy. It also avoids feeling like steerage class thanks to its padded armrests, USB ports, A/C vents, and seat heaters. The four-seat SV, meanwhile, has a full-length center console from which a table motors up and swivels to serve either rear-seat occupant as well as its own 8-inch touchscreen. Its executive-class rear seats include deployable leg rests. An available rear-seat entertainment system features dual 11.4-inch screens, and there’s a refrigerated cool box in between the rear seatbacks.

    Land Rover

    Moving to the back of the Range Rover, the model again features an upper liftgate and a drop-down tailgate. For the latter, there’s a newly available Tailgate Event Suite: a pop-up two-person seat with leather cushions—just the thing for watching a polo match or tailgating before the Harvard-Yale game. The option includes additional lighting and speakers in the liftgate that can play music from your smartphone.Underneath all the finery, the new Rover debuts the brand’s MLA-Flex architecture, which is said to be 76 percent aluminum. Torsional rigidity is up by a claimed 50 percent. Powertrain choices include inline-sixes and a turbocharged V-8. An EV is also promised but won’t arrive until 2024.The familiar turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six with 48-volt hybrid assistance returns as the base engine in the SE. It delivers 395 horsepower and 406 pound-feet of torque.Optional on the SE and standard on the Autobiography and First Edition is a new 4.4-liter twin-turbo V-8 making 523 horsepower and 553 pound-feet of torque. With it, the new Rover hustles to 60 mph in a factory-estimated 4.4 seconds.A plug-in-hybrid six-cylinder arrives a few months later for the 2023 model year and makes 434 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque. Its 38.2-kWh battery (usable capacity 31.8kWh) gives it a projected EV range of 62 miles. A 105kW electric motor integrated into the transmission is brawny enough to propel the Range Rover at speeds up to 87 mph. All-wheel drive is standard and can now disconnect the front axle. The Range Rover adopts Land Rover’s Clearsight front camera system, which can stitch together a forward-view image as if the front bodywork were see-through. The default ground clearance is 11.6 inches, and the air suspension offers a maximum rise of 5.7 inches. The Rover can wade through nearly three feet of standing water. As in the Defender, there are six off-road driving modes. The major chassis innovation is the addition of four-wheel steering, which is standard. The rear wheels turn as much as 7 degrees, trimming the turning circle to 36 feet. Air suspension again is used but gets new twin-valve dampers that adjust rebound and compression separately. The Range Rover also adds 48-volt electronic anti-roll bars. The 2022 Range Rover is available for order now, with deliveries to commence in spring 2022. Expect the plug-in hybrid powertrain to be available three months later. Prices start at $105,350 for the SE and $153,350 for the Autobiography, with the First Edition currently the most expensive offering at $159,550 for the standard-wheelbase variant and $164,850 for the long-wheelbase version. When the SV arrives, it will be even dearer still and sit at the top of the lineup.

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    2023 Corvette Z06 Uses Exhaust-Tip Inserts to Reflect Sound into the Cockpit

    A lot of the excitement surrounding the launch of the 2023 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 is understandably about the 8600-rpm screamer of a V-8 nestled between its 3.6-inch-wider rear flanks. And a key piece of the return to a stonking naturally aspirated V-8 is about the experience. It sure sounds great from the outside, like when we caught it ripping off launch-control starts, but what about from the driver’s seat? Unfortunately, that’s a question we can’t fully answer just yet.

    When we asked the Corvette engineering team if they could quantify how much louder the Z06’s 5.5-liter DOHC V-8 is, compared to the 6.2-liter pushrod V-8 in the Stingray, they told us that the sound level at the exhaust exit is essentially the same, as, in both cases, they’re at the limits of noise pass-by requirements. In the Stingray, it was a bit of a letdown that the move to a mid-engine layout coincided with a slight reduction in the small-block’s roar at the driver’s ear. However, in the Z06, there’s a trick that should get more of its shriek into the cabin.
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    As you can see from the above photo, what look like quad tips are actually just finishers behind which the actual exhaust pipes are hiding. But notice the diffusers in the outer two. According to vehicle-performance manager Alex MacDonald, these bezels are actually “reverse trumpets” that are used to reflect the engine’s high-pitched anger back into the cabin. This is part of an extensive effort to perfect the sound of the highest-output naturally aspirated V-8 ever. Getting this inventive solution just right involved retooling the rear fascia during the development process, according to executive chief engineer Tadge Juechter, something made possible by the delay to the Z06’s launch caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent supply-chain issues. In addition to hearing more of the LT6, you’ll also feel more of it: its mounts, stiffer than the Stingray’s, “bring the engine into the car,” according to MacDonald. We can’t wait to experience it for ourselves, and, don’t worry, we’ll be bringing our sound-level meter when we do.

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