Motor News

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.
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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.
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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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New-vehicle sales were down in 2020 to levels not seen since 2012, but they’re in a recovery mode now that leaves the industry hopeful for next year.
Truck and SUV sales saved the numbers from being much more dire, especially in the last quarter and the month of December.
Dealer inventories are still constrained, and as a result, deals on new vehicles will be hard to come by.
Automakers have emerged from 2020, a challenging and unprecedented year, and some did so on a high note. Eight months weren’t enough for the industry to fully recover from the low point in the spring, but a strong, if somewhat unexpected, recovery began in the summer and continued through December, even as the COVID-19 pandemic has surged across the country.

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The U.S. market is now estimated to see sales finish around 14.5 million, a much stronger result than the 13 million range that some analysts forecasted earlier this year. Overall, sales are estimated to be down 14.9 to 15.5 percent, bringing sales to the lowest levels since 2012. The decrease was lessened because retail sales were strong, although fleet sales slowed considerably.
Shutdowns earlier in 2020 were part of the reason sales were down, of course. “This year presented the economy and the auto market with incredible challenges. As we close the year, it is remarkable to see how well the industry performed,” Cox Automotive’s chief economist Jonathan Smoke said in a note. “Retail vehicle sales will end the year down less than 10 percent despite losing six weeks of the most important time of the year.”
Fiat Chrysler (FCA)
FCA finished with mixed results across its brands; the automaker saw an 8 percent decline in sales in the fourth quarter and 17 percent decline through the year. Dodge suffered the biggest decline, but that is due to the Caravan going out of production. And while both Ram and Jeep were down for the year, seeing 11 and 14 percent declines, respectively, they improved in the last quarter of 2020.
GM
General Motors finished the year down 12 percent compared to last year after finishing the fourth quarter with a sales growth of 5 percent. Pickups, as has been the case for most of the year, were a bright spot for GM; Silverado pickups saw annual sales increase 3 percent and Sierra pickups by 9 percent. Retail sales for GM were down only 6 percent for the year.
Honda
Honda’s sales in December fell by 0.1 percent based on volume, but 11 percent on a daily selling rate basis. Over the year, Honda’s sales dropped by 16 percent. Across the entire brand, including Acura, truck sales outperformed those of cars, seeing a decline of 12 percent as compared to 22 percent. The Passport was the only high-volume vehicle to end with sales growing from last year, doing so at a rate of 10 percent.
Hyundai
Hyundai sales grew 2 percent in December as compared to last year thanks to its popular—and recently expanded—crossover lineup, including the Kona, Santa Fe, and Venue. Annual sales for the Korean automaker saw a decrease of 10 percent from 2019, a drop largely attributable to reduced fleet-vehicle sales, as retail sales for Hyundai increased by 1 percent this year.
Mazda
Mazda, largely thanks to the new CX-30, which went on sale late last year, saw sales grow by 0.2 percent and 18 percent in December compared to last year. Although Mazda’s most popular vehicle, the CX-5, had sales contract by 6 percent this past year, the automaker’s largest offering, the CX-9, had a sales increase of 2 percent.

Tested: Mazda CX-30 Channels the Mazda 3

Nissan
Nissan’s troubles continued into the fourth quarter with sales falling 19.3 percent. Over the course of the year, Nissan saw a sales drop of 33 percent as its U.S. sales fell below one million for the first time since 2011. Both the car and truck divisions at Nissan saw challenging years, finishing down 39 and 29 percent, respectively.
Subaru
Subaru’s sales declined by 13 percent over the year and in December saw sales increase 2 percent. Both the Crosstrek and the Forester performed better than the rest of Subaru’s lineup, each seeing annual sales declines of 9 and 2 percent, respectively. Nonetheless, the Crosstrek was up 48 percent in December.
Tesla
Tesla, which only reports global—not U.S.—sales numbers, saw considerable growth in its total deliveries, which came in at just under 500,000—CEO Elon Musk’s goal for the year—at 499,550, an increase of 36 percent. The Model 3, Tesla’s most popular vehicle, appears to have seen further growth in sales, but Tesla combines Model 3 and Model Y sales numbers, so it’s difficult to attribute the growth to one vehicle or the other.
Toyota
Toyota saw a strong finish to the year with December sales up 20 percent by volume (that drops to 8 percent on a daily selling rate) and by 9 percent over the fourth quarter. On a volume basis, Toyota trucks ands SUVs, excluding Lexus, finished the month with 32 and 29 percent increases, respectively; those divisions have cushioned Toyota’s sales decreases elsewhere. Annually, Toyota’s total sales shrank 11.3 percent.
J.D. Power estimates that trucks and SUVs are set to make up 79 percent of new-vehicle retail sales, up from 75 percent a year ago. Strong truck and SUV sales have underscored many of the results seen throughout this year, a continuation of a trend seen in past years.
Volkswagen
Volkswagen saw sales jump by 11 percent in the fourth quarter, largely a result of the new Atlas Cross Sport, which went on sale earlier this year. Over the year, sales for VW fell by 10 percent, a decrease which was cushioned by the Tiguan’s—VW’s most popular vehicle—sales decline of 8 percent.
What to Expect Now
GM chief economist Elaine Buckberg said in a statement that the automaker expects the pandemic to continue to put pressure on the auto industry throughout the year, but for that to ease beginning in the spring. “Widening vaccination rates and warmer weather should enable consumers and businesses to return to a more normal range of activities, lifting the job market, consumer sentiment, and auto demand,” she said.
Although the better part of a year now separates the industry from the shutdowns in the spring, inventories haven’t recovered, largely due to pent-up demand. That has translated to early 2021 still not being an optimal time to buy a car, since dealers aren’t pressed to move outgoing model year vehicles off their lots.
“It’s certainly not much of a buyer’s market right now: Inventory is still in short supply in certain areas, and automakers and dealers aren’t faced with the pressure to use big discounts to clear out their lots like they normally do at this time of year,” Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds executive director of insights, said in a note.
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The Singer All-Terrain Competition Study, or ACS, started out as a 1990 Porsche 911 but has been completely overhauled for off-road purposes.
It’s powered by a 450-plus-hp air-cooled 3.6-liter twin-turbo flat-six that can be tuned for higher output, mated to a five-speed sequential transmission that can be shifted manually or via paddles.
As seen in the two examples shown here, it’s set up for rally competition, so there’s a roll cage, oversize fuel tank, and storage for spare wheels and tires.
Singer, a company that is definitely not in cahoots with Porsche and our lawyers advise us should never be remotely represented as such, is building a new model in the off-road idiom. Perhaps you’ve heard of the Porsche 959? Well, forget about it entirely. In fact, think about former Red Sox third baseman Wade Boggs and his legendary appetite for chicken. (Jim Rice called him “chicken man,” because he ate so much chicken.) Did you know Boggs averaged .352 over a seven-year span? Guess that chicken really worked out!

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Anyway, Singer is building a new off-road-oriented model that might remind you of a certain other famous German machine with a name that began with a “nine” and also ended with “nine.” But if it does remind you of that, that’s your problem.

View Photos

Singer Vehicle Design

The All-Terrain Competition Study (ACS) begins as a 1990 Porsche 911—the 964 model—before getting thoroughly modified and overhauled for high-speed off-road hijinks. Power comes from an air-cooled 3.6-liter twin-turbo flat-six that makes at least 450 horsepower and 420 lb-ft of torque but can be tuned for higher output. The five-speed sequential transmission can be shifted manually or via paddles, routing power through all-wheel-drive with triple limited-slip differentials. Long-travel suspension with two dampers per corner offers high ground clearance, and BFGoodrich All-Terrain tires reaffirm that this is not a GT3 RS—nor any car made by Porsche AG or any of its subsidiaries, except originally, back in 1990. Bodywork is carbon fiber, with the underlying body-in-white thoroughly gusseted and buttressed against future off-road abuse.

Longtime rally guru Richard Tuthill (who helped prepare the Rothmans 911 SC/RS race cars in the 1980s) was involved in the development of the ACS, which is also designed for competition. Standard features include a full roll cage, oversized fuel tank, and storage for two spare wheels and tires (in the front trunk and behind the seats). The first two cars, both of which were commissioned by the same individual who probably also has a swimming pool filled with gold coins, will be built at Tuthill’s facility in Oxfordshire, England. So will any other ones that get built, should anyone else take a shine to the concept. The white car will be set up for desert events, with the red one optimized for tarmac. Why do you need a jacked-up car for tarmac? Uh, because you like to party?

View Photos

Singer Vehicle Design

The price for the ACS will depend on how you outfit yours. It’ll be more than you’d pay for a 1990 Porsche 911 but maybe less than you’d pay for a 959, just to cite two examples of Porsche 911s—not that they’re necessarily germane to this discussion of a project from Singer Group, Inc., of Los Angeles, California. Porsche is very uncool about anyone mentioning its name in proximity to any other company’s name, in case you haven’t caught on.
But it did build some cool cars in, say, 1990. Ones that make an excellent foundation to create something even better. So who’s buying #3?

Porsche’s 959 Accurately Predicted the Future

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The 2021 Ford Expedition is adding a new base model, as first reported by Ford Authority.
Called the XL STX, it ditches the previously standard third row of seats.
The Expedition XL STX starts at $51,690, $2815 less than the previous starting price.
Ford is dropping the starting price for the 2021 Expedition full-size SUV, which gains a new base trim level called the XL STX. It starts at $51,690, a drop of $2815 from the XLT which previously served as the cheapest Expedition. While all other Expeditions come standard with three rows of seats providing space for eight, the XL STX has a two-row setup that seats five.

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Standard equipment includes a touchscreen infotainment system and three-zone automatic climate control, but this model does without SiriusXM satellite radio and a few driver-assistance features that are standard on the XLT. It looks a bit different than the XLT, too, with dark 18-inch wheels and black grille trim rather than chrome. The XL STX is available only on the standard-length Expedition; the larger Expedition Max still starts off with the XLT trim and costs $56,505 to start.

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Ford

The XL STX has the same twin-turbo 3.5-liter V-6 engine and 10-speed automatic transmission as other Expeditions. Rear-wheel drive is standard with four-wheel drive as a $3050 option. 4WD models offer an electronic limited-slip differential as a $1100 extra, but there are no option packages available for the XL STX otherwise.
Despite the price cut, the Expedition’s base price is still higher than its chief rival’s. The 2021 Chevy Tahoe, which comes standard with three rows of seats, starts at $50,295 for its base LS trim level.
2021 Expedition XL STX models are buildable on Ford’s configurator now and should be arriving at dealerships soon.
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Boutique automaker Jim Glickenhaus wants to pit his Boot SUV against the Tesla truck. Another follower bet Musk $10,000 that Full Self-Driving won’t be ready in a year. More