Motor News

Toyota will unveil an electric SUV in Europe in the coming months.
The automaker also plans to bring an electric vehicle to North America in the short term and plans to introduce a solid-state battery EV in the early 2020s.
Toyota notes that its hybrid technology has allowed it to hit targeted emission standards without jumping too quickly into the EV world.

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Toyota has been slow to adopt EVs into its lineup. It’s not because it lacks the technology, it’s been the king of hybrids since the introduction of the Prius. It’s also been investing in fuel-cell vehicles like the Mirai, and it sells the UX300e in Europe and China. But as sales for EVs tick up, the automaker seems finally ready to expand its portfolio.
Today the automaker announced that it had developed an electric SUV for Europe that will be based on Toyota’s e-TNGA modular EV platform and will be previewed sometime in the next couple of months.
As for the US, Automotive News reported last week that Bob Carter, head of sales for Toyota North America stated that an EV is coming to the United States. We’re not sure which brand will be the first with an EV, but at least we know something electric will come from the Japanese automaker.

Toyota

During a presentation for its European market, Koji Toyoshima Toyota’s deputy chief officer of its ZEV Factory said that the automaker intends to globally sell 5.5 million electrified vehicles every year by 2025. In that same time frame Toyoshima said that Toyota would introduce 60 new electrified vehicles. These numbers include hybrids, plug-in hybrids, EVs, and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles.
Toyoshima also noted that Toyota would have a mass-produced electric vehicle using a solid-state battery pack in the first half of the 2020s. A bold statement and potentially an EV game-changer since solid-state batteries charge quicker and offer more range in the same size pack as traditional lithium-ion batteries. It’s also potentially a few years earlier than the company has previously stated when it said it would have the technology ready in 2025.
As for why Toyota has waited as long as it has to enter the EV market, Andrea Carlucci director of product and marketing for Toyota Europe said that its hybrid technology has allowed the company to comply with tough emissions standards in Europe without jumping to early into EVs. “However, hybrid success has given us the foundation we need, for other electrified powertrains – which will be introduced when the time, the market, and the infrastructure are right. And that time is getting closer.”
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The 2021 Hyundai Santa Fe sees price increases of less than $725 across its lineup, but it does add a new range-topping trim, Calligraphy, which causes its top price to jump considerably.
The Santa Fe is available with a choice of two new engines, both of which produce more power than the old ones. It will later be offered in hybrid and plug-in-hybrid form.
The more powerful turbocharged 2.5-liter engine can only be had on the Limited and Calligraphy trims and with either front-wheel or all-wheel drive.
The 2021 Hyundai Santa Fe boasts new looks, tech, and powertrain options—including electrified ones—and sees prices increases to reflect those changes. The entry-level trim, SE, sees a price increase of $575, from $27,450 to $28,025, for the front-wheel-drive option; all-wheel drive remains a $1700 add-on. The Santa Fe adds a range-topping trim with Calligraphy, which starts at $43,275.

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The 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine that came standard on the outgoing model is being replaced by a 2.5-liter four-cylinder with 191 horsepower and 181 pound-feet of torque, which is a 6 hp and 3-pound-foot increase over the outgoing standard engine. This 2.5-liter engine is the only powertrain on the entry-level trim, SE, and the next highest trim, SEL. The SEL trim sees a $625 price increase from the 2020 model and now starts at $29,825.

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Hyundai

The more powerful engine option, a turbocharged 2.5-liter four-cylinder with 277 horsepower and 311 pound-feet of torque, replaces the turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder currently available on the Santa Fe. This turbocharged 2.5-liter engine can be had on the Limited and Calligraphy trims and in either a front-wheel and all-wheel drive configuration; it offers an increase of 42 hp and 51 pound-feet of torque over the turbo 2.0-liter engine that was previously available.
The Limited trim, which was previously the top version of the Santa Fe, sees its price increase by $725, from $39,050 to $39,775. The Limited is no longer offered with the standard engine option, only the turbo 2.5-liter engine. The Santa Fe will also be offered with hybrid and plug-in-hybrid powertrains, but pricing for those options won’t be announced until closer to when they are launched later in 2021.
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Post Malone is selling his 2019 McLaren Senna XP “Master of Monaco,” which is a 1-of-3 car that honors Ayrton Senna’s significant Formula 1 victories.
This 147-mile example remembers Senna’s six victories at the Monaco Grand Prix, where he had five consecutive wins from 1989 to 1993.
The McLaren Senna is powered by a 789-hp twin-turbo V-8, and a Senna launched to 60 mph in 2.7 seconds in our testing.
Rapper-songwriter Austin Post, more commonly known as Post Malone, is selling his 2019 McLaren Senna. Sure, it might not come as a surprise that the popular rapper owns a $1 million-plus hypercar, but the one he is selling is one of only three XP editions that commemorate three of Ayrton Senna’s outstanding Formula 1 achievements. Posty’s is the “Master of Monaco” edition, and it’s listed for sale by the DuPont Registry

duPont Registry

The car, which has been driven only 147 miles, is one of McLaren’s factory experimental prototypes that McLaren Beverly Hills commissioned by McLaren’s special operations (MSO) to commemorate Senna’s record-holding six wins at Monaco, of which five were consecutive between 1989 and 1993. It has a fully exposed carbon-fiber body with red and white trim to represent the Principality of Monaco with the flag hand-painted on the rear wing.

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Inside, the flag is stitched onto the red seat’s headrests with “Master of Monaco” underneath it, and the interior features gloss red exposed carbon fiber with Ayrton Senna’s signature pasted on the door sill. The steering wheel has a special red and white 12-o’ clock marker, and there’s a unique one-of-one plaque to distinguish the special-edition car.

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duPont Registry

A twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V-8 that produces 789 horsepower and 590 pound-feet of torque powers the Senna, and during Car and Driver testing, it launched the Senna to 60 mph in 2.7 seconds on its way to a 10.0-second quarter-mile at 147 mph. It’s also the current lap record holder at C/D’s annual Lightning Lap test at Virginia International Raceway (VIR), where it posted a 2:34.9 lap on VIR’s Grand Course.
The McLaren Senna XP sold for almost $1.5 million when new, and the seller did not disclose the price of Post Malone’s example to Car and Driver, but we expect it to sell for well over its original cost.

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Honda confirmed that the new hot hatch will have a manual, and it’s likely to use an upgraded 2.0-liter turbo four. More

The configurator tool for the new 2021 BMW M3 and M4 is now live.
There are some wacky exterior and interior colors available for the high-performance sedan and coupe.
The M3 starts at $70,895 and the M4 at $72,795.
The new elongated kidney grilles are the most controversial element of the new 2021 BMW M3 and M4. But the color combos available for these new high-performance models are equally likely to turn heads. We’ve been playing around with the build-your-own website for these new BMW M cars, and there are plenty of interesting exterior and interior hues to choose from.

BMW

BMW

The no-cost Sao Paolo metallic and $550 Isle of Man Green metallic are the most eye-catching of the exterior color options, but there are also some intense red and blue options. Interior upholstery choices include a Yas Marina Blue leather with yellow accents, a Halloween-y Kayalami Orange and black combo, and more tame silver and black leathers, and there don’t appear to be any restrictions for pairing strange (read: clashing) exterior and interior hues together.

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Both the 2021 M3 and M4 are available in 473-hp base forms with a standard six-speed manual transmission or 503-hp Competition forms. The latter necessitates a switch to an eight-speed automatic transmission but also includes other performance-enhancing features. The Competition cars cost $2900 extra, and the M4 coupe ($72,795) is more expensive than the M3 sedan ($70,895) to start.

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The Honda Certified website is getting some not-quite-certified additions starting on December 7, with an influx of used vehicles up to 10 years old.
Used vehicles from both Honda and Acura will now be available on the sales site, each in their own section.
The goal is to lower the bar for car buyers to get into the Honda and Acura brands when they’re young, and (the automaker hopes) become brand loyal for life.
There are a few rules used vehicles have to follow to be officially called “Certified Pre-Owned,” or CPO for short. For Honda, those rules include being less than five years old, having no more than 80,000 miles on the odometer, and passing a comprehensive mechanical and visual inspection. You can see the thousands of vehicles that met these requirements on the Honda Certified website. And starting today, you will also find used cars that don’t quite hit those levels.

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That’s because Honda is now the first mass-market brand to sell non-CPO vehicles on its own website. The reasons for this change are pretty easy to figure out, Dan Rodriguez, manager of auto remarketing at American Honda, told Car and Driver.
“There’s a big opportunity in that six-to-eight-year-old range, and when you look at the overall used-car market, it’s close to 40 million cars a year,” he said, noting that the U.S. new-car market in a good year is around 17 million vehicles. “In a utopic world, we’re bringing in this young, first-time buyer into our brand through a used car, where the car’s been checked by our dealer network that knows the car the best and has technicians who have been trained on it . . . so the experience is a good one. Our goal is to bring them into our family and then keep them for a lifetime.”
Used Acuras, Too
Another new addition to the Honda Certified website will be used Acura models, segmented off in their own section. Between the two brands, just over three million used cars were sold on the general market in 2019, Rodriguez said, but only about a million were sold through Honda or Acura dealers. “We think that we can to do better than that, and we really want to have more of the sales go through our dealer network,” he said.
Those dealers will be the ones pricing the non–Certified Pre-Owned vehicles that are added to the site, Rodriguez said. Mechanics working at Honda dealerships will also take a look at the less-than-certified-but-still-checked-out vehicles that will be listed and sold through the site. While the non-CPO cars on the Honda site will not, obviously, be asked to pass the standard CPO tests, Rodriguez said each used vehicle on the site will have any outstanding recalls taken care of and there will be no problems with the titles. The non-CPO models will also have less than 100,000 miles and will be no older than 10 years.

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Over the next year, Honda will determine other ways to give shoppers peace of mind with these used vehicles, perhaps by adding some sort of warranty, Rodriguez said. Currently, each CPO vehicle listed on the site has a digital checklist to let the shopper know what was done to that particular vehicle. The non-certified vehicles will also have one of these lists; it just won’t be as comprehensive as the current offerings.
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Predictably, since Haynes has been acquired by a company called InfoPro Digital, future Haynes manuals will be available only as downloads, not as printed books.
The good news is that if there’s a paper manual for a vehicle available now, you’ll still be able to buy one in the future, as these titles will remain in print.
Haynes says it’s working on a “new automotive maintenance and repair product” that will cover more makes and models than the current catalog can offer.
If you’re a regular user of Haynes printed vehicle repair manuals, 2021 will mark the end of an era. Starting next year, all new Haynes manuals will be available in digital format only. Don’t freak out just yet, though, since the company’s current catalog of printed titles will remain available.

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This isn’t exactly a sad surprise. As modern vehicles add more and more electronics, shade-tree mechanics are not able to apply all of the lessons they learned working on a 1980 Ford Bronco to a 2021 model. Also, Haynes was acquired by InfoPro Digital back in April and said at the time that the goal was “to create a leading global information services provider in the automotive industry.” Considering it’s owned by a company with digital in its name, we had an inkling things would head in this direction. Finally, Haynes already offers a plethora of online manuals available piecemeal or included in an All Access subscription for $399 a year (or $34.99 a month) for the Cars, Trucks, and SUVs section.
Haynes is eagerly making clear that it’s not totally exiting the paper-products game. “It’s not the end of the road for Haynes—we are embarking on an exciting new journey,” the company said on Twitter. “Contrary to reports, Haynes is not stopping printing Manuals. Whilst we will no longer publish new print Workshop Manuals, we will continue to print and publish our huge back catalogue.”
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Work isn’t stopping on new products, either, even if they end up being digital instead of print. “Embracing John Haynes’s philosophy, we are currently in the process of creating a new automotive maintenance and repair product that covers around 95 percent of car makes and models—an increase of around 40 percent over our current Workshop Manual coverage,” the company said. “Far from being the end of the road, we are ensuring that Haynes will continue well into the 21st century.”

Haynes Explains – Christmas (Haynes Manuals)
Haynes Publishing UK amazon.com
$9.99

The company’s FAQ needs a bit of updating, though. There, Haynes still says it will continue to “aggressively” market updated and new printed titles. Then there’s this: “Many customers are choosing the best of both formats and purchasing a print and online manual together!” Not anymore they’re not, but if you need one last book for the year, Haynes has made it easy to decide which one to get: Haynes Explains Christmas. First published in 2017, this book is described as a “lighthearted and entertaining take on the classic workshop manual” and it “takes the reader through all areas of Christmas, giving all the hints and tips needed to make the entire festive period run smoothly.”
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If you’ve spent more time than normal looking at the things in your house this year, imagine what it’d be like if you had the rarest Hot Wheels model of all time and your own personal museum to keep it in.
That’s the life of Bruce Pascal, who owns a 7000-piece Hot Wheels collection in Maryland that includes the valuable Pink, Rear-Loading Beach Bomb.
Hot Wheels will release more than 40 new VW models this year. None are expected to be worth $150,000-plus in 50 years.

Hot Wheels Volkswagen Team Transport Baja Bug Wide Open Series #23, 2020
Hot Wheels amazon.com
$24.99
$20.99 (16% off)

There’s one Volkswagen made in 1969 that has more than held its value. The famous Pink, Rear-Loading Beach Bomb Hot Wheels car is still the most valuable Hot Wheels ever produced, and it keeps going up in value because so few of them exist (two, to be exact).
These days, Hot Wheels remain a subject of endless amusement to kids of all ages, but there’s only one King of Hot Wheels, and that’s Bruce Pascal. In 2016, Pascal said the Pink Beach Bomb was worth $150,000. Today it’s probably closer to $175,000.

Pascal with his ultrarare Volkswagen Beach Bomb Hot Wheels prototype.
VW

The Pink Beach Bomb was Mattel’s first attempt at designing a Volkswagen Microbus. The problem, for the toy maker, was that by putting the surfboards into the bus through the rear window, the weight balance didn’t work out, so Mattel redesigned the VW van with thicker, heavier sides and put the surfboards on the side as well. After all, the whole point of these toys was for kids to “vroom” them around, and if they fell over all the time, kids wouldn’t approve.

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Pascal has been featured here on Car and Driver multiple times, given that he owns around 4000 Hot Wheels toys and has another 3000 pieces of Hot Wheels memorabilia. In 2016, Pascal’s collection was worth around $1 million, and in 2018, NBC News said it was worth $1.8 million. Now, VW is highlighting the pink Beach Bomb as a way to let the world know that, even in 2020, over 40 VW Hot Wheels models were or are being released.
When Pascal got serious about collecting Hot Wheels many years ago, he made it his mission to find those pink Beach Bombs.
“I already had heard about [the Beach Bomb] in purple, green, red, light blue, and gold. I even had heard about an unpainted model,” Pascal said in a statement. “But pink was extremely hard to find. Most Hot Wheels models were marketed to young boys, who the brand assumed didn’t want to play with pink. They created just a few pink [Beach Bomb] models to market to their female audience.”

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So, the pink color is the one to get. If you ever could, of course, but you can’t, since Pascal has one and he used to own the other one, but has since sold it to a friend. The one he kept for his personal museum in Maryland is stored in a dark plexiglass case to keep it protected from light and dust. Sometimes he loans it out to other museums or to event organizers for display.
“I want other people to experience the Beach Bomb,” he said. “I’ve found so much joy in learning about classic cars and Hot Wheels, and I hope I can spark some of that in other people. It’s a treasure to find these rare models.”

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