Motor News

Audi has announced updates for the TT RS for the 2021 model year.
It has new 20-inch seven-spoke wheels, black exterior trim, carbon fiber inlays on the center console and doors, and standard Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
The 2021 TT RS Coupe is available now starting at $73,545.
Audi is making the TT RS Coupe a little more attractive for the 2021 model year with new standard equipment, including black exterior trim, that gives it a sportier look—as if the RS version wasn’t sporty enough. The new sports coupes will also come standard with new technology including standard Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

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Audi

The new look consists of a new black optic exterior, and even more black trim can be added with available black badging. Red brakes are now standard, as are a set of 20-inch seven-spoke Audi Sport wheels wrapped in all-season rubber. The sporty details flow into the interior as well with new standard carbon fiber inlays on the center console and doors. A Bang and Olufsen sound system is also standard as well as Audi’s MMI infotainment system with navigation, Audi Connect, and lane-keeping assist. For 2021, a new sport exhaust with black tips is available to add to the blacked-out look.

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The TT RS is powered by a raucous 394-hp turbocharged 2.5-liter five-cylinder that sends power to all four wheels through a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and Audi’s Quattro all-wheel-drive system. During Car and Driver testing, a 2018 model launched to 60 mph in 3.3 seconds on its way to an 11.8-second quarter-mile at 117 mph.

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Audi

The 2021 Audi TT RS is on sale in the U.S. starting at $73,545, making it $4950 more expensive than the 2020 model.
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Volkswagen has confirmed that the Passat sedan will be discontinued in the U.S. by the end of the decade.
The German automaker will shift its focus toward SUVs, including the Atlas and the upcoming Taos subcompact SUV and ID.4 electric crossover, in the States.
The 2021 Passat starts at $24,990 and is powered by a turbocharged four-cylinder that’s EPA rated at 28 mpg combined.
Volkswagen is planning to discontinue the Passat sedan in the U.S. in favor of its SUVs, CEO Ralf Brandstätter said. The company’s new Taos compact SUV is arriving next year as well as an electric crossover, the ID.4, which will eventually be built at VW’s Chattanooga, Tennessee, plant alongside the Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport SUVs.

Volkswagen

“We’ve made a decision to cancel the Passat for the U.S. later in the decade,” Brandstätter said, not specifying a date. “The sales trend is very firmly in favor of SUV models, as indicated by the success of the Atlas.”

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2022 Volkswagen Taos Revealed as VW’s Smallest SUV

The ID.4 is set to arrive in the U.S. early next year. Until production begins in Chattanooga, the cars will be imported from VW’s factory in Zwickau, Germany. Some observers have speculated that the plant would need to cease production of the Passat to make room for the ID.4, but a Volkswagen spokesperson told Car and Driver that we shouldn’t assume that VW “need[s] to get rid of one vehicle to make room for the other.”
The VW Passat has been sold in the U.S. since the sedan’s third generation, starting in 1990. Prior to that, the Passat was sold here as the Dasher starting in 1974 and as the Quantum from 1982 until 1990. It was built in the U.S. starting in 2011.
It’s not the end of the Passat in other parts of the world, though. Volkswagen confirmed to Car and Driver that a new MQB-based Passat model is coming. When the current generation ends production in the U.S., it will be nearly 12 years old. VW never offered a hybrid, something the Jetta sedan and Honda Accord have both had, or an all-wheel-drive model, like the Toyota Camry.

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A security researcher has detailed a pair of unintended flaws, known as “exploits,” that would allow a person to steal a Tesla Model X in minutes.
The researcher carried off the feat with about $300 in computer hardware items, including a Tesla part found on eBay, as Wired first reported.
Researcher Lennert Wouters told Tesla of the vulnerability back in August, and Tesla has told Wouters an over-the-air update will be sent out this week to fix the issue.

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Automakers work hard to reduce the possibility that hackers can steal their cars. But, it’s an ongoing battle between the people who make the systems in vehicles and those who want to exploit them. Fortunately for Tesla, the latest pair of unintended flaws—known to computer types as “exploits”—were found by a security researcher happy to share his findings, not a group of car thieves with a taste for falcon-winged EVs.
Wired reported about the security researcher, Lennert Wouters from KU Leuven university in Belgium. He discovered a pair of vulnerabilities that allow the researcher to not only get into a Model X, but also start it and drive away. Wouters disclosed the vulnerability to Tesla back in August, and the automaker has told Wouters that an over-the-air patch may take a month to be deployed to affected vehicles. For Wouters’s part, the researcher says that he won’t publish the code or technical details needed for anyone else to pull off this hack. He did post a video demonstration of the system in action.
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To steal a Model X in minutes requires the exploitation of two vulnerabilities. Wouters started with a hardware kit costing roughly $300 that sits in a backpack and includes a Raspberry Pi low-cost computer and a Model X body control module (BCM) that he purchased off eBay. It’s the BCM that enables these exploits, even though it’s not from the target vehicle. It acts like a trusted piece of Tesla hardware that allows both exploits to be pulled off. With it, Wouters is able to hijack the Bluetooth radio connection that the key fob uses to open the vehicle using the VIN and coming within 15 feet of the target vehicle’s fob. At that point, his hardware system rewrites the target’s fob firmware and is able to access the secure enclave and get the code to unlock the Model X. He stores that code in his backpack rig and returns to the Model X, which opens up because it believes it’s connected to the original fob.
Essentially, Wouters is able to create a key for a Model X by knowing the last five digits of the VIN—which is visible in the windshield—and standing near the owner of that vehicle for about 90 seconds while his portable setup clones the key.
Once in the vehicle, Wouters has to use another exploit to get the vehicle started. By accessing the USB port hidden behind a panel under the display, Wouters is able to connect his backpack computer to the vehicle’s CAN (Controller Area Network) bus and tell the vehicle’s computer that his spoofed key fob is valid. With that done, the Model X believes a valid key is in the vehicle and willingly starts up and is ready to drive away.
The issue is that the key fob and BCM, while connecting to each other, don’t go the extra step of validating firmware updates to the key fob, giving the researcher access to the key by pretending to send over new firmware from Tesla. “The system has everything it needs to be secure,” Wouters told Wired. “And then there are a few small mistakes that allow me to circumvent all of the security measures.”
Wouters also noted that this type of exploit isn’t unique to Tesla. “They’re cool cars, so they’re interesting to work on,” Wouters told Wired. “But I think if I spent as much time looking at other brands, I would probably find similar issues.”
Tesla has a history of working with security researchers and even offers up a Model 3 every year to the Pwn2Own competition. Wouters won’t share the technical details of his exploit until January at the Real World Crypto conference.
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General Motors is recalling 5.9 million of its SUVs and pickups from 2007–2014 model years over defective airbag inflators.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) denied a GM petition to avoid the recall and gave GM 30 days to come up with a plan to notify owners and replace the inflators.
GM had said that the recall isn’t necessary because the Takata-made airbag inflators in these vehicles aren’t subject to the same deterioration as they are in other vehicles involved in a massive worldwide recall.
General Motors is recalling 5.9 million vehicles over defective Takata-built airbag inflators after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) denied GM’s petition to avoid the recall. The vehicles include SUVs and pickups with model years between 2007 and 2014, including the the Cadillac Escalade; Chevrolet 1500, 2500, and 3500; Chevy Suburban and Tahoe; GMC Sierra 1500, 2500, and 3500; and the GMC Yukon and Yukon XL.
“NHTSA concluded that the GM inflators in question are at risk of the same type of explosion after long-term exposure to high heat and humidity as other recalled Takata inflators,” the regulatory agency said in a statement to C/D. “Such explosions have caused injuries and deaths.”

Takata Airbag Recall: Everything You Need to Know

GM contested this decision, saying that it doesn’t believe that the airbags in these vehicles with Takata inflators were subject to the same deterioration as those in the other vehicles that have been recalled. “Based on data generated through independent scientific evaluation conducted over several years, we disagree with NHTSA’s position,” GM said in a statement. “However, we will abide by NHTSA’s decision and begin taking the necessary steps.”
NHTSA’s decision document said that GM claimed that the specific inflators which went into these now-recalled vehicles had a lower risk of rupture as a result of unique design differences. The automaker also claimed that the actual environment in these vehicles, which share a platform internally referred to as GMT900, “better protects the front-passenger inflator from the extreme temperature cycling that can cause inflator rupture.”
In its securities filings, according to Reuters, GM said that it would cost $1.2 billion to address this recall if it did come to fruition. The Takata recall, by far the largest the auto industry has ever seen, affects 19 different manufacturers and includes roughly 63 million airbags in the U.S. and tens of millions of vehicles.
These Takata airbags have an ammonium-nitrate-based propellant that can deteriorate when exposed to high temperatures or moisture, or simply due to aging. Once they deteriorate, if deployed, they can send metal fragments into the cabin of a vehicle. There have been 18 deaths as a result of these airbags, although none in a GM-made vehicle.
NHTSA gave GM 30 days to provide the agency with a plan on how the automaker will notify owners and fix this recall. Owners of vehicles that may be affected should check the NHTSA recalls website for more information in the coming months.
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The new 2021 Kia Sorento starts at $30,560, a significant increase from last year’s model.
The hybrid model, a new addition to the lineup, starts at $34,760 and is rated at 37 mpg.
The 2021 Sorento is on sale now at dealerships.
Kia’s new Sorento has arrived, and we now have pricing for the redesigned mid-size SUV. The 2021 Kia Sorento starts at $30,560 for the base LX model, representing an increase of $2450 compared with the 2020 model’s base price. Because the previous Sorento’s lowest-priced L trim level is no longer part of the lineup, though, prices for equivalent models are more in line with last year’s. The new Sorento hybrid starts at $34,760 and the top SX Prestige X-Line model with AWD and a more powerful turbocharged engine is $43,760.

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The 2021 Sorento’s lower models, the LX and the S ($33,060), come standard with front-wheel drive and a 2.5-liter inline-four with 191 horsepower. The EX ($36,160) has a turbocharged 2.5-liter inline-four with 281 horsepower, as does the top SX ($39,160). All-wheel drive is an $1800 option on all of these models, and the SX model offers a $2600 Prestige package with desirable features such as cooled front seats, a heated steering wheel, and an upgraded audio system. The SX also offers a rugged-looking X-Line appearance package on AWD models.

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Kia

A hybrid version of the Sorento is new for 2021, and it starts at $34,760 for the S trim level and $37,760 for the better equipped EX. It’s offered only with front-wheel drive and is rated to deliver 37 mpg combined by the EPA.
All 2021 Sorentos come standard with a third row of seats; the seven-passenger LX and S have a second-row bench, while the six-passenger EX and SX have second-row captain’s chairs. All Sorento hybrids have the captain’s chairs.
2021 Kia Sorentos have already begun arriving at dealerships and are on sale now.
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You can win the first U.S.-market 2021 Honda Civic Type R Limited Edition in a raffle on the fundraising platform Omaze.
Proceeds will go to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, a charity that supports historically Black colleges and universities.
If you win, you can drive that Type R Limited Edition home and will also get a track driving experience with Honda’s IndyCar driver, Colton Herta.
The new 2021 Honda Civic Type R Limited Edition is on its way, and you can win the first one imported to the U.S. This Type R, sporting serial plate 001, is being awarded on the fundraising platform Omaze through a donation to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, a charity that supports historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU).

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Civic Type R Limited Edition Starts at $44,950

Winning this Type R Limited Edition also means that you get a track driving experience in it with Honda’s IndyCar driver, Colton Herta, and then you can drive it home. This limited-edition Type R, sporting a Phoenix Yellow paint job, will be the first of 600 examples scheduled to reach the U.S.
“Historically Black colleges and universities have been greatly impacted by COVID-19, and many of our students don’t have a safety net,” Harry L. Williams, president and CEO of the Marshall fund, said in a release. “This initiative to give away a Honda Civic Type R Limited Edition will help us continue to provide much-needed assistance to our students and schools.”

Honda

The 2021 Civic Type R Limited Edition was unveiled in February. This version of the Type R sheds 46 pounds through different wheels and a lack of rear heating ducts, rear wiper blade, among other miscellaneous items. The lighter, aluminum BBS wheels are wrapped exclusively with Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 rubber, and the suspension and steering have also been uniquely tuned in the Type R Limited Edition.
The Type R, along with the Limited Edition, is powered by a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine making 306 horsepower and 295 lb-ft of torque; that power reaches those summer tires by the way of a six-speed manual transmission. The 2021 Civic Type R starts at $38,450 and the Type R Limited Edition starts at $44,950.
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Audi is adding a new base model to the 2021 Q3 lineup.
It’s called the 40 TFSI and it comes with a less powerful turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four engine than the existing 45 TFSI.
The 40 TFSI starts at $35,095, while the 45 TFSI starts at $37,095.
The Audi Q3 is getting a lower base price for 2021 due to the addition of a less powerful 40 TFSI model. It now starts at $35,095, a $600 drop from last year’s base price, and is offered in both Premium and Premium Plus trim levels. The existing 45 TFSI model continues on with its more powerful turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four; it starts at $37,095 and now comes standard with the S-Line appearance package.

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The 40 TFSI’s version of the turbo 2.0-liter inline-four makes 184 horsepower and 221 lb-ft of torque, 44 hp and 37 lb-ft fewer than the 45 TFSI. It still comes standard with all-wheel drive and the same eight-speed automatic transmission. The EPA estimates that the 40 TFSI will get better fuel economy, as it’s rated at 25 mpg combined to the 45 TFSI S-Line model’s 23 mpg combined.
While we haven’t yet tested one, the 40 TFSI model will almost certainly be slower than its more powerful counterpart. Audi quotes a laggard zero to 60 mph time of 8.6 seconds. For reference, our test of a 2019 Q3 with the more powerful 228-hp engine recorded a 7.3 second sprint to 60 mph.
The 40 TFSI is also available in a better equipped Premium Plus trim level, which starts at $38,395. The 45 TFSI’s top Prestige trim level has been dropped, meaning its top version is now the 45 TFSI Premium Plus, starting at $40,395.
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Over the last four episodes of Quick Spin, the Autoweek team has reviewed a diverse collection of cars from the inside out: the Ford Mustang Shelby GT350, Ram TRX, Porsche 718 Cayman T, and a Lamborghini Huracán that featured Blondie’s guitar player Tommy Kessler. In case you missed any of ’em, we’ve bundled them together here for your listening pleasure.
Like what you hear? Don’t forget to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever podcasts are played!
The Lamborghini Huracán Evo Is Rockstar Ready

Lamborghini

The Lamborghini Huracán Evo is no stranger to Quick Spin. It already appeared in one of the show’s first episodes. This V10-powered Italian supercar makes 610 horsepower in rear-wheel-drive trim and 630 hp in its all-wheel-drive configuration, or enough power to safely make a trip to your local store. The updated Lamborghini also features some styling enhancements adding more visual impact to emphasize that this is the evolution model.
On this episode of Quick Spin, this Lamborghini is reviewed by Blondie guitarist and sports car enthusiast Tommy Kessler. Kessler takes you into this Lambo with a walk around and then brings you along with him while he takes it for a spin. Kessler then joins host Wesley Wren and Robin Warner in the studio to flesh out his feelings about the Italian machine.
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The 2020 Porsche 718 Cayman T Is a Budget Brawler

Porsche

While the 2020 Porsche 718 Cayman T doesn’t have a flat-six mounted behind the rear axle like its iconic big brother, it delivers one of the best driving experiences you can get for the money. This mid-engine, turbocharged 2.0-liter flat-four-powered coupe makes hopping into a Porsche slightly more accessible than the pricier 911. This Cayman T model also sports some weight-saving measures like mechanically adjustable seats and fabric door pulls.
On this episode of Quick Spin, editor Wes Raynal puts this Porsche through its paces and brings you along for the ride. Raynal evaluates how the car drives, how it feels, and how it sits in the Porsche lineup. He guides you through the car’s features in a brief walk around of the Cayman T before taking you along while he reviews the car. In between those pre-recorded sections, Raynal expands his thoughts in a discussion with host Wesley Wren.

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The 2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 Rides Off into the Sunset
The 2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 is one of the coolest Mustangs to ever leave a Ford factory. Powered by a 5.2-liter, naturally aspirated, flat-plane-crank V-8, this Mustang changed the perception of Ford’s legend. This high-performance Mustang pushed the coupe further into the direction of a true-blue sports car. Mated to a six-speed manual transmission and revving to an ear-splitting 8250 rpm, this Mustang is an enthusiast’s dream. Unfortunately, nothing can last forever and this Shelby is going out to pasture after the 2020 model year.
In this episode of Quick Spin, managing editor Robin Warner takes you along for a ride in this Shelby Mustang while he evaluates it. Robin shows you how the car handles, how it sounds, and relays how it feels while he puts it to the test. Mixed between those sections, he elaborates and adds context to the Mustang with host Wesley Wren.
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The 2021 Ram 1500 TRX Snarls at the Competition

FCA

It’s been a long time coming for a true competitor for Ford’s F-150 Raptor pickup, which has been largely unchallenged in the world of trophy truck inspired pickups. Well, Ram debuted a concept four years ago, which is finally ready for the public. Dubbed the Ram 1500 TRX, this Hellcat-powered pickup sends 702 horsepower through the eight-speed automatic transmission and then to all four wheels. Add to that, that this truck is suspended by a serious set of shocks and springs and has a host of other desert-racing goodies: This might be the current king of showroom off-roaders.
In this episode of Quick Spin, Mark Vaughn takes the TRX’s reins during the truck’s launch event to give listeners some insights. Vaughn captures the truck’s exhaust note from the outside of the rig while it’s at full song. He also captures the experience of launching the high-horsepower hauler with some off-road honing thrown in for good measure. In the studio, Vaughn talks with host Wesley Wren about the truck’s ability to jump and drive on roads.
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To hear more episodes of Quick Spin, head over to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever podcasts are played.

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