Motor News

The 2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee L is launching into an already full class of three-row crossovers.
Some of its stiffest competition comes from the Ford Explorer, Kia Telluride, and Toyota Highlander.
The four vehicles are closely matched in many performance and convenience metrics, so the right choice may come down to personal taste.
The Jeep Grand Cherokee L brings another three-row to the Jeep lineup (the forthcoming Grand Wagoneer will also have three rows). Catering to the seven-passenger market is a change for Jeep, but the automaker is not exactly early to this trend; the Grand Cherokee L has plenty of established competition to contend with. The Ford Explorer, Kia Telluride, and Toyota Highlander have all been successful in this market. Read on to see how Jeep’s new entrant will fit in with the rest of its class.

View Photos

FCA

Powertrains and Towing
The Grand Cherokee L will use a rear-wheel-drive-based platform, like the Ford Explorer. The Telluride and Highlander are both on front-drive platforms, but each of these crossovers is available with all-wheel drive. The Grand Cherokee will have a 290-hp 3.5-liter V-6 engine as standard, and a 357-hp 5.7-liter V-8 is available. Both engines use an eight-speed automatic transmission. When properly equipped, the V-6 will tow up to 6200 pounds and the V-8 will manage up to 7200 pounds.

Telluride vs. Highlander: 10Best or Best Seller

2020 Ford Explorer vs. 2020 Kia Telluride

The Kia Telluride is the simplest of this bunch, with only one engine, a 291-hp 3.8-liter V-6. The Telluride can tow up to 5000 pounds, just like the other front-drive member of this group, the Toyota Highlander. The Highlander offers one extra engine choice, though. In addition to the standard 295-hp 3.5-liter V-6, Highlander buyers can opt for a 243-hp 2.5-liter four-cylinder hybrid powertrain. The Ford Explorer also offers a hybrid variant, but a V-6 hybrid with a considerable 318 hp. The Explorer comes standard with a 310-hp four-cylinder engine and, in addition to the hybrid, is available with two turbocharged V-6 engines making 365 and 400 horsepower. The Explorer can tow up to 5600 pounds.

View Photos

FCA

Third Row
There are few, if any, truly comfortable third-row seats on the market. Three of these four crossovers have between 30.3 and 32.2 inches of third-row legroom. The Grand Cherokee L is on the low side, the Explorer on the high side. The Highlander has the least accommodating third row, with a measly 27.7 inches of legroom.
Cargo
The Highlander also has the smallest cargo space behind the third row, with 16 cubic feet of space. The others aren’t far ahead, though. The Grand Cherokee L will have 17 cubic feet of space, the Explorer has 18 cubic feet, and the Telluride leads the pack with 21 cubic feet of storage behind the third row.

View Photos

FCA

Active-Safety Technology
All four of these vehicles have a bevy of standard active-safety equipment, including automated emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, and lane-keeping assist. The Grand Cherokee L will have standard blind-spot monitoring, as do the Explorer and Telluride. That tech is optional in the Highlander. A driver drowsiness monitor will be optional in the L. A similar driver-attention monitor is standard in the Telluride.
The real question, for those of us who love driving, is how the experience of driving the Grand Cherokee L will compare to that of driving the other three vehicles. That question won’t be answered until the second quarter of 2021, when the L goes on sale. Jeep hasn’t confirmed pricing for the new model yet, but we expect it’ll range from $38,000 to $55,000, depending on the trim. That would put the L on the high side for these vehicles, but not egregiously so.
This content is imported from {embed-name}. 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.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io More

Luxury materials, new displays, and passenger-watching cameras show up in the new Grand Cherokee. More

The 2021 model year includes the new three-row L and the old two-row carryover model, while other variants are still to come. More

The new 2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee L will be revealed tonight at midnight, eastern time, and tomorrow at noon on Jeep’s YouTube page.
We expect it to be a three-row version of the popular SUV, thanks to spy photos in recent weeks and the confirmation of the L name.
The 2021 Grand Cherokee should arrive on dealer lots later this year.
More than a year since we first spied the updated 2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee, the fifth-generation of the popular SUV will be revealed tonight, January 6, at midnight Eastern time and then tomorrow, January 7 at noon on Jeep’s YouTube page. The Grand Cherokee hasn’t seen a redesign since 2010 and we expect it to undergo a number of changes, some of which might be inspired by the Grand Wagoneer concept revealed earlier this fall.

Three-Row Grand Cherokee Comes into Clearer View

Jeep Grand Cherokee Will Be All-New for 2021

Larger Next-Gen Jeep Grand Cherokee Spied Again

Jeep has confirmed that this model will be called the Grand Cherokee L. We’ve seen spy photos of this three-row model that show a stretched version of the SUV. The new Grand Cherokee should get a larger infotainment screen, and it could have a rotary shift knob and digital gauge cluster as well.
We expect the new SUV to be powered by the standard 3.6-liter V-6 seen currently in the Grand Cherokee, plus an optional V-8. Later on, it should also see a plug-in-hybrid version, as well as higher-performance options such as an SRT version and possibly featuring a 700-plus-hp supercharged V-8 that recently found its way into the Durango.
The 2021 Grand Cherokee should arrive at dealers by the end of the year, and we’ll be bringing you full details at the launch tonight at midnight.
This content is imported from {embed-name}. 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.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io More

The redesigned 2021 Escalade starts at $77,490 for the base Luxury trim, but GM reports that 43 percent of buyers paid more than $100,000 for theirs. More

Ready to dive into the most exciting racing series on the planet?
For the next episode of their Inside Track virtual Q&A series, our friends at Road & Track are excited to announce the guest will be IndyCar racer Alexander Rossi. It’s all happening on Thursday, January 14, at 5:00 p.m. ET, and they’d love for you to join them.
Register Here
California-born Rossi started his career at the age of 10, when he fell in love with go-karts. By 14, he was crowned champion of many national and international karting races, and he quickly transitioned into a professional F1 career at just 17 years old.
Since 2016, Rossi has been competing in IndyCar—piloting the No. 27 Honda for Andretti Autosport—and has scored seven wins, including a first-place finish (as a rookie) during the 100th running of the Indy 500 in 2016.
In this episode of Inside Track, Road & Track editor-in-chief Mike Guy will be speaking with Rossi about his impressive career and what he’s looking forward to most in the 2021 season. If you want to see it all go down, head over to the dedicated sign-up page.
Inside Track is one of the many offerings of the newly revamped magazine. Road & Track is hosting live events, virtual experiences, and adventures around the globe. They’ll also be hosting driving rallies at racetracks and on the most epic roads, holding discussions and debates on cool topics with some of the most influential people in the car world, and giving participants the white-glove treatment at concours and auto show events.
Register Here
If you want to get in on the fun, become a member of The Track Club. You’ll get every issue of their magazine, plus a whole lot more. Find more details on the membership tiers and exclusive discounts at roadandtrack.com/join, and check out the full experiences lineup at experiences.roadandtrack.com.
This content was provided by the Road & Track marketing team.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io More

Actor, recording artist, and America’s Got Talent judge David Hasselhoff has put his personal K.I.T.T., the car from the 1980s TV show Knight Rider, up for auction.
In the series, the car could drive itself, talked, and was outfitted with weapons and a special turbo-boost feature that made it jump.
The auction ends on January 23, and if the final price is at least 25 percent above the reserve, Hasselhoff will personally deliver the vehicle.
Weird high-concept shows peppered the big three networks of the 1980s. The weirdness of Manimal and Automan couldn’t find a steady audience, but shows such as Airwolf and Alf stuck around long enough to solidify a place in the zeitgeist. But none of them could top Knight Rider and its automotive star K.I.T.T. (Knight Industries Two Thousand), a talking car that drove itself, had an arsenal of weapons, and for some unknown reason could jump when the turbo boost was enabled. David Hasselhoff played Michael Knight, the crime-fighting human protagonist of the series.

7 Oddball Cars You Never Thought Would Be TV Stars

Best Movie Cars: Window Shop with Car and Driver

The Most Famous Characters from Car Commercials

Turns out Hasselhoff has had his own personal K.I.T.T. vehicle stashed away for the past few decades, and now the actor is auctioning off this piece of television history. According to the auction description, the 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am conversion is a fully functioning K.I.T.T. car, although don’t expect any weaponry or the vehicle actually helping you solve crimes while it doles out droll observations. Instead, from the posted photos we see that the dash lights up like a crime-fighting Christmas tree, and we’re betting the Cylon-esque series of red lights on the hood are functioning.

LiveAuctioneers

The influence of the show and especially of K.I.T.T. is still being felt today. Self-driving cars that talk to you are still works in progress. Maybe they won’t solve crimes or leap into the air, but we do have swanky smartwatches like Michael Knight’s that can control some features of current vehicles on the road.

LiveAuctioneers

A bonus of this auction is that if the final vehicle price exceeds the reserve by 25 percent, David Hasselhoff will personally deliver the car to the new owner. The chances of that occurring are extremely good; the current bid is $975,000, and the original estimate for the vehicle was between $175,000 and $300,000. The auction is set to end on January 23. There is one rub, though: the car is currently in the U.K. But if you’re willing to bid a million dollars on a TV car, you’re likely the type of person with the means to transport it to your home, along with the star of Baywatch and America’s Got Talent.

This content is imported from {embed-name}. 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.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io More

Mazda confirmed that the MX-30 is coming to the U.S. market, as first reported by The Detroit Bureau.
It will be available either as a battery-powered EV or as a plug-in hybrid with a rotary gasoline engine.
Mazda has not yet announced timing for its arrival in the U.S. market.
Mazda’s quirky foray into the electric-vehicle market, the MX-30, will eventually come to the U.S. A Mazda spokesperson confirmed to C/D that the company will offer the MX-30 in America with two drivetrains: either solely with an electric motor and a battery pack or with a plug-in-hybrid setup using a rotary gasoline engine.

Mazda MX-30 Electric Crossover Has RX-8 Doors

Mazda Says MX-30 EV is Even With Diesel on CO2

The MX-30, revealed in 2019, is a small crossover with five seats and rear half-doors that are reminiscent of the company’s most recent rotary-powered sports car, the RX-8. In global markets, the EV version has a 144-horsepower electric motor powering the front wheels and is offered with a small 35.5-kWh battery pack that provides a short 124-mile driving range on the WLTP cycle. While Mazda has an emissions justification for such a small battery pack and short range, we wouldn’t be surprised if the company decides to fit a larger battery pack for the U.S. version of the car.
We don’t know the specs for the plug-in hybrid, but we expect it to be powered primarily by the electric motor. Similar to models such as the BMW i3 and Chevy Volt, the gasoline engine will serve mostly as a range-extender that kicks in to charge the battery pack—only in the MX-30’s case, that engine will use an unconventional rotary design.
Mazda has yet to say anything about timing for the MX-30’s arrival on our shores, but we’d expect to hear more by the end of the year, with it possibly reaching dealerships for the 2022 or 2023 model year.

This content is imported from {embed-name}. 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.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io More