Motor News

After a great deal of painstaking research last month, I was able to determine that the very last three-speed automatic available in a new car in North America came in the 2002 Toyota Corolla/Geo Prizm. After that, I hunted down the identity of the last new car available here with a four-speed manual transmission (the 1996 Toyota Tercel). It turned out to be much tougher to determine the very last new car North Americans could buy with the good old three-on-the-tree column-shift manual transmission, but now I know.

Plymouth Division, Chrysler Corporation

Chrysler put the three-speed column-shift manual on the map back in the 1939 model year, with the “Remote Control” shifter setup in the ’39 Plymouths. This rig allowed the use of a big, cushy bench seat and three-abreast seating, without a floor shifter banging into anyone’s knees.

Plymouth Division, Chrysler Corporation

Other manufacturers followed suit, and most Detroit cars of the immediate postwar era came off the assembly line with three-on-the-tree manual transmissions. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, most affordable American cars used this setup, and the three-on-the-tree remained commonplace well into the 1960s. I came of driving age in the early 1980s, and three-on-the-trees were still semi-mainstream at that point… but they disappeared quickly after that.

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If you ask a bunch of nitpicky car-history freaks to name the very last car you could buy new in North America with a three-on-the-tree, you’ll get a wide range of answers, delivered with varying levels of vehemence. The main candidates will boil down to the Chevy Nova, the Dodge Aspen, and the Ford Fairmont (and the badge-engineered siblings of those cars). The final new truck you could buy with a three-on-the-tree is another subject, but we’ll cut to the chase by letting you know it was a 1987 GM product.

Chevrolet Division, General Motors

I purchased sales brochures and owner’s manuals for numerous models, consulted with an incredibly knowledgeable Chrysler restorer with a complete set of dealership reference books from the 1970s, and dove down far too many online-forum rabbit holes populated by very angry old dudes to determine that the absolute last three-on-the-tree car available here was the 1979 Chevrolet Nova (and its Oldsmobile and Pontiac twins).

Chevrolet Division, General Motors

1979 was the final year for the rear-wheel-drive GM X-Body, and the three-on-the-tree died with the platform (the Citation and its siblings were based on an unrelated front-wheel-drive X platform).

Chevrolet Division, General Motors

You could buy three-on-the-floor manual transmissions in Detroit cars after 1979, but that’s a tale we’ll tell a bit later. The very last year for a Chrysler-built, American-market new car with a three-on-the-tree manual was 1978, when the Dodge Aspen, Plymouth Volaré, Dodge Monaco and Plymouth Fury could be purchased with a 1939 Plymouth-style shifter (your enraged uncle who swears he bought a new ’80 Volaré with a three-on-the-tree is wrong, sorry). American Motors ditched the three-on-the-tree earlier, with the 1976 Pacer and Hornet being the last Kenosha machines so equipped.

Chevrolet Division, General Motors

In theory, the first-year Ford Fairmont could be purchased with a three-on-the-tree manual, which makes 1978 the last year for a Ford car with such a shifting rig, but I am extremely skeptical that anyone in Dearborn actually signed off on spending vast sums of money to build a one-year-only bespoke steering column for a desperately obsolete shifter configuration on the brand-new Fox platform. Most likely, the 1977 Ford Maverick/Mercury Comet was the final real-world three-on-the-tree Ford car here. If it turns out that three-on-the-tree Fairmonts really made it off the assembly line, then someone needs to build a three-on-the-tree 1990s Fox Mustang using that special steering column.

Since the 1979 Oldsmobile Omega and Pontiac Phoenix were mechanically identical to the Nova, the three-on-the-tree was the base transmission hardware available on the entry-level versions of those cars. However, anyone willing to buy the Pontiac- or Olds-badged Nova probably felt able to spring for the automatic or at least the three- or four-speed floor-shifted manual transmission in those cars, and I’ll bet close to zero three-on-the-tree Omegas or Phoenixes made it out of the showrooms in 1979. When the new Oldsmobiles were in early for 1980, the three-on-the-tree was history.
So, next time you’re talking about the racing prowess of the three-on-the-tree and someone claims the ’80 Aspen could be purchased with that most American of transmission hardware, set them straight with the truth: the 1979 Nova, Omega and Phoenix were the final three-on-the-tree cars sold new here.

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Last week, we set our sights on the very real task of finding the most reliable car possible for $5000, but this week’s challenge is rooted in fantasy. For our 34th episode, we decided to ask the Window Shop crew to show us which cars they’d buy if they won the lottery and suddenly had $1,000,000 to burn.
Not surprisingly, the challenge was met with a lot of Italian exotics of different vintages but also one very curious and rare Gumpert Apollo, a mid-engine supercar that contributing editor Jonathon Ramsey selected. It turns out Ramsey has actually driven one and knows quite a bit more about the beast—and its Audi RS6–sourced engine—than the rest of the crew. Undaunted, we pick apart his choice of supercar, discover it can get stuck on a speed bump, and then question if it’s even street legal.
With John Pearley Huffman out for the week, we invited contributor Scott Oldham to spend an imaginary million dollars with us. He picked a Ferrari worthy of the Cannonball Run. Senior editor Joey Capparella also went with a Ferrari but his is more modern and has over $60,000 worth of options.Capparella and Oldham aren’t the only two editors to think alike. Deputy testing director K.C. Colwell and I both landed on iconic Lancias. And unlike Ramsey’s Apollo, you can definitely drive either of these rally cars on the street.
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Hyundai has announced that its performance-oriented 2021 Sonata N Line will start at $34,195, compared with the $24,595 base price of the standard Sonata.
The vehicle will have 290 horsepower and 311 ft-lb of torque from a turbocharged 2.5-liter engine.
The 2021 Hyundai Sonata N Line will be in dealerships in November.
If you wish the Hyundai Sonata were faster and don’t mind dropping an additional 10 grand for performance, the 2021 Sonata N Line, starting at $34,195, could be your answer. This is the first Sonata in Hyundai’s performance-oriented N Line trim, and it is expected to appear in dealerships in November.

Hyundai

The N Line Sonata makes 290 horsepower and 311 ft-lb of torque from a 2.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine. For comparison, the 2020 Sonata’s 2.5-liter makes 191 hp. Hyundai added the extra 99 hp by swapping out the head (which has an integrated exhaust manifold), adding unique internals, and of course adding a turbocharger.
An eight-speed dual-clutch transmission similar to the one in the Veloster N and a tuned suspension round out the performance elements of the upcoming Sonata.

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Design-wise, the vehicle is outfitted with 19-inch wheels and a choice of all-season or optional summer tires, which will set customers back an additional $200. A rear spoiler, dual exhaust, N badging, N Line–specific front and rear fascias, and a panoramic sunroof will let others on the road know this isn’t the typical Sonata.
Hyundai says the sedan will have its own unique exhaust note and launch control. The automaker didn’t share a claimed zero-to-60-mph time, but we look forward to putting the quicker Sonata to the test.
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FCA’s Mopar has announced that the 807-hp version of the Hellcat supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 is now available as a crate engine.
A version of that engine, which is equipped with a larger 2.7-liter supercharger, is currently found in the Challenger and Charger SRT Hellcat Redeyes as well as the 807-hp Challenger SRT Super Stock.
The Hellcrate Redeye crate engine is available now for $21,807.
Dodge has proven that it can stuff its supercharged Hellcat V-8 into almost every vehicle in its lineup and keep pumping out more and more power from it. The latest vehicle in Dodge’s lineup to get the 797-hp Hellcat Redeye treatment is the four-door Charger Widebody. The most powerful iteration available today is the 807-hp Challenger SRT Super Stock, and now you’ll be able to implant its powerful supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 into anything of your liking.

Mopar

Mopar calls it the Hellcrate Redeye engine, and on 91-octane pump gas it produces 807 horsepower and 717 lb-ft of torque. A version of that engine, which is also equipped with a 2.7-liter supercharger (the standard Hellcat engine has a 2.4-liter blower), is found in both the Challenger and Charger SRT Hellcat Redeyes, where it makes 797 hp, as well as the new 807-hp Challenger SRT Super Stock. The 2.7-liter supercharger makes 14.5 psi of boost pressure, and the engine redlines at 6500 rpm compared to the standard Hellcat engine’s 6200-rpm redline.

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The 807-hp Hellcrate Redeye crate engine is available to order now for $21,807, and it includes throttle body, fuel injectors, coil packs, water pump, front sump oil pan, and flexplate. There’s also a front-end accessory drive kit available, which includes an alternator, power-steering pump, belts, pulleys and mounting hardware. If customers want to mate the beast to a manual transmission (#SaveTheManuals), Mopar will offer a clutch and flywheel kit for purchase, and customers can also complete their build with parts including a Tremec transmission and an exhaust manifold kit.
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The car detailing experts at Meguiar’s have announced new Hybrid Ceramic products at this year’s SEMA trade show.
A new Hybrid Ceramic wash and wax as well as a new wash mitt join the lineup as does a Hybrid Paint Coating kit.
Due to Coronavirus concerns, the 2020 SEMA show has moved to an online format and Meguiar’s has launched an interactive virtual experience.
Citing an increase in demand for its Hybrid Ceramic detailing products, the car-care specialists at Meguiar’s are expanding the company’s lineup of detailing products with a virtual debut at the 2020 SEMA trade show. The new products include a wash liquid with the company’s Hybrid Ceramic Si02 additive, which is said to boost surface tension and improve water beading. A double-sided wash mitt is also new.

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Meguiar’s

Meguiar’s

Intended to be used in addition to the Hybrid Ceramic spray wax, the wash liquid helps maintain the protective coating on the paint’s surface. On sale in January 2021, the Hybrid Ceramic Wash and Wax will cost $19.99 and provide enough soap and Si02 boosting liquid for 16 washes.
For those looking to step up their home detailing game, a new Hybrid Paint Coating product has also joined the party. This more expensive kit—$59.99 when it goes on sale next year—uses a hybrid polysiloxane compound to provide protection and deliver exceptional water beading. The kit offers enough product to do two coats on the average car and is said to last about a year. Meguiar’s claims it provides similar benefits and shine to a professionally-applied ceramic coating.

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Meguiar’s also announced changes to the polymer compounds in its popular Ultimate line of wax products as well as a new tire-shine foam spray and the introduction of a new snow foam soap product for those who use foam cannons. The company has no plans yet to introduce a foam cannon tool of its own, but says its liquid soap product is compatible with foam cannons from other car care brands.
Both Meguiar’s and competitor Chemical Guys have told C/D that they’ve experienced increases in sales and interest in DIY car care products this year as car enthusiasts like us have been homebound due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Not only is car detailing a great way to kill time until we can get back to track days and in-person Cars and Coffee events, doing car care at home is cheaper than hiring a professional detailer.
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Bentley announced it will sell only EVs starting in 2030.
The luxury brand’s first all-electric model will arrive in 2025.
By 2026, the full Bentley lineup will either be a plug-in hybrid or an electric vehicle.
While many automakers are happy to talk about the end of combustion engines, most tend to do so in the abstract. Bentley is brave enough to put a date on it and has confirmed that it will no longer offer any internal-combustion engines, including those found in plug-in-hybrids, as soon as 2030. From that point onwards the British luxury maker will be EV-only.

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The radical move was announced at an event today as Bentley executives elaborated on the company’s Beyond100 strategy to become an “end-to-end carbon neutral car brand.” The move to full electrification is set to happen quickly. Bentley says that every model will have the option of a hybrid powertrain by 2023, it will launch its first full EV model in 2025 and that as soon as 2026 it will be selling only plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) and full EVs.
Although Bentley is still the world’s largest producer of 12-cylinder engines, it had previously said that the mighty W-12 used in the upper reaches of its range will be retired soon. But as Volkswagen Group’s most powerful PHEV powertrain uses a V-6 gas engine, today’s announcement seems to confirm that Bentley’s V-8 powered models will survive barely longer than those using the W-12.
At the event Bentley also confirmed it will launch two new PHEVs next year, both using developments of the V-6 plug-in powertrain that made its brand debut in the Bentayga last year. The first of these will be a revised Bentayga with an increased electric-only range. The second, we believe, will be the same powertrain in the Flying Spur sedan.
Bentley CEO Adrian Hallmark is a self-professed fan of PHEVs, and has even been part of the Volkswagen Group’s efforts to lobby European regulators to exempt them from forthcoming bans on the sale of combustion engines. But he acknowledges that smaller companies like his own won’t be able to support the cost of parallel development of pure combustion and EV powertrains for long.
“You’ve got to make a corporate decision on how much overlap you want,” he told Car and Driver at an event in the U.K. last month, “and I would always say the less the better. Don’t forget, by the time we get to 2030 the legislation on batteries and the energy efficiency of cars will be no less challenging than it is now with combustion engines.”
“We would love to keep working on six engines plus battery-electric vehicles plus hybrids,” Hallmark added, “but we haven’t got the capacity to do it. You’ve got to pick a point in time where battery power density, especially for bigger cars, is the liberator for us. We’ve always said that the mid-2020s is the time when you can expect to see 120.0-plus-kWh batteries coming through the supply chain.”

Bentley EXP 100 GT concept
Bentley

At the same event Bentley announced it wanted to become fully carbon neutral on the same timescale and also “plastic neutral”—removing the same amount of plastic from the environment as it creates. It is also set to actively target an increase in female and minority representation among its senior management.
The aggressive move is likely to create a rift with fans of the brand’s charismatic existing engines; we find it hard to imagine any fully electric Bentley will be able to match the experience of the mighty W-12 engine. It also reveals an ideological split at the top of the car industry, with Ferrari CEO Louis Camilleri having recently said he does not expect his company’s production to be even half EV within his lifetime. Others are much more likely to follow Bentley’s lead, Rolls-Royce’s ultra-quiet powerplants making it a brand that seems ideally suited to electrification.
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The electric Audi e-tron GT will get the RS treatment. It makes 684 hp and 612 lb-ft of torque.
The battery-powered sports sedan will do zero to 60 in about 3.5 seconds and come with four-wheel steering and a two-speed transmission.
The RS e-tron GT shares its platform with the Porsche Taycan and will support 800-volt DC fast-charging up to 270 kW.
While Audi began its electrification path with with the e-tron SUV, there are those that covet the joy of being near the asphalt in a beautiful vehicle that also happens to be quick and powered by electricity. For those people, there’s the Audi RS e-tron GT, the high-performance version of the upcoming electric sedan.

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The all-wheel-drive, dual-motor RS e-tron GT will produce 684 horsepower and 612 ft-lbs of torque pushing it from zero to 60 mph in about 3.5 seconds, according to Audi. This will be the first electric RS model but won’t be the last. The dual-motor horsepower split will be 449 hp for the rear motor and 235 hp for the front motor. By contrast, the regular e-tron GT is anticipated to produce 590 horsepower.
The GT will ride on an air suspension with adaptive dampers, which allows for ride-height adjustment based on drive modes. For example, in efficiency mode, the vehicle drops an additional 0.8–0.9 inch to help increase the driving range. Audi didn’t share drag coefficient or range numbers but did note that this is the first Audi with a flat undercarriage design.
A 93.4 kWh battery pack is standard, and Audi says 83.7 kWh of that is the usable capacity. The weight and location of the battery pack give the RS e-tron GT a lower center of gravity than the Audi R8, according to the automaker. If that pack’s gross capacity sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the same as what’s found in the Porsche Taycan. The Taycan and e-tron GT share the same platform and Audi and Porsche developed the vehicles together. Where the vehicles differ is in motor, chassis, steering, and suspension tuning.

Audi

One thing both vehicles share is quick charging and the ability to pre-condition the battery ahead of reaching a charging point along a route. Like the Taycan, the RS e-tron GT supports 800-volt DC fast-charging up to 270 kW. Also like the Taycan, the rear motor has a two-speed gearbox.
Audi will offer 19-, 20-, and 21-inch wheels. The company says the 20-inch wheels are the most aerodynamic. A four-wheel steering system is available, which can turn the rear wheels up to three degrees. It can either turn the rear wheels in the opposite direction as the fronts at low speeds or in the same direction for lane changes at higher speeds.
Stopping power is available in three flavors: traditional steel disc brakes, carbon-fiber ceramic discs, or surface-coated steel discs. As with most EVs, the braking will be handled by both the friction brakes and the regenerative braking system.
Audi says the RS e-tron GT will arrive in showrooms in the United States in the summer of 2021 and will go on sale later in the same year. While the automaker is covering the vehicle in camouflage for now, its final production design is close to the concept car it unveiled at the LA auto show in 2018. In other words, it’s a looker.
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The sales data from those that report monthly numbers show that while the automakers are still being affected by the pandemic, the worst is behind them.
Ford added itself to the list of monthly reporters in October, a decision which will continue for the “foreseeable future.”
Growth in SUV and truck segments were largely the reason why automakers saw their sales largely flat as compared to last October.
The auto industry—or at least those companies that report monthly data—showed in October what we have seen in the last few months: a steady recovery from a low point in sales back in the spring. And although new vehicle sales still aren’t quite what they were last year, the strength in sales of SUVs and trucks has kept the industry optimistic through October.

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This was the case among the larger monthly reporters, including Honda and Toyota, as well as Ford. The American automaker has rejoined the group of monthly reporters to give “investors more frequent updates on US sales and dealer inventory during the pandemic,” Said Deep, a Ford spokesperson, told C/D. That’ll continue for the “foreseeable future.”
Ford’s sales were down in October by 5.8 percent, but its luxury division, Lincoln, did see a 2.8 percent increase in sales. Ford SUVs, led by the Expedition and the Explorer, were up 9.4 percent, but the trucks division did see sales decline partially due to a 4 percent drop in F-series sales.
Honda reported a drop in sales of 3.4 percent as compared to October of last year, while Acura car sales and Honda truck sales both ended the month positive. The Honda Pilot, Passport, and Ridgeline all made year-over-year gains; the Pilot, the most popular of the three, saw sales jump 22.1 percent.
On the other hand, Toyota had sales increase 8.8 percent in October, with sales moving upwards among all of its divisions except for Toyota cars. The popular Toyota Tacoma, RAV4, and Highlander all made gains.

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Both Hyundai and Kia saw sales improve compared to October of last year to the tune of 0.5 percent and a 12.2 percent, respectively. Kia’s largest gains were seen from the Telluride, but also saw Forte sales increase; overall, Kia’s sales were helped along by new offerings including the Seltos and K5, which both performed well. Hyundai’s sales were influenced by an improvement among the Kona, Palisade, and Sonata.
Subaru posted a 10.6 percent increase in sales for the month, which was led by the Outback and Crosstrek. The Japanese automaker saw its best October ever last month. Mazdahas seen its performance largely undeterred by the pandemic. Mazda’s sales increased 12.2 percent and its year-to-date sales are currently down only 0.7 percent. The CX-5 and CX-9 both posted strong monthly sales.
Nonetheless, despite the positive numbers seen throughout the industry, there are reasons for concern, as noted by Cox Automotive senior economist Charlie Chesbrough. “However, weakness of lower-priced segments like compact cars shows these buyers, generally with lower incomes, have been hit hard by the pandemic recession,” Chesbrough said in a release. “All of which suggests the vehicle market is an example of the K-shaped economic recovery – higher incomes do well while lower incomes do not.”
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