More stories

  • in

    Tested: 2024 Nissan Altima’s Updates Don’t Move the Needle

    Crossover SUVs have usurped mid-size sedans as the go-to family car, with some companies, such as Ford, vacating the sedan segment altogether to concentrate on higher-riding vehicles. But a contingent of holdouts still sells in sizable numbers. While the Nissan Altima trails the perennial frontrunners—the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord—it remains Nissan’s second-bestselling model after the Rogue crossover. The Altima’s sixth generation launched for 2019, with a refresh for 2023 bringing sharper styling and a larger touchscreen. But with Honda and Toyota treating their sedans to major overhauls for 2023 and 2025, respectively, the Altima’s upgrades aren’t enough to move the needle, with the Nissan falling even further behind. HIGHS: Cosseting ride, good fuel economy, comfortable cabin.We tested a 2024 Nissan Altima SL AWD, which sported an eye-watering $37,030 window sticker. The Garnet Pearl Metallic paint—a new color for 2023—was a no-cost option, but the sedan was fitted with several add-ons that raised the price. An all-wheel-drive Altima starts at $29,145, but to step up from the base SV trim to our top SL tester is a $5900 upcharge and includes things such as leather seats, 19-inch wheels, a larger 12.3-inch center touchscreen, and upgraded Bose audio. Our car also added floor mats, exterior ground lighting under the side sills, a rear spoiler, and illuminated kick plates. The 2023 refresh didn’t include any mechanical changes, so the Altima soldiers on with the same standard 2.5-liter four-cylinder—making 182 horses in SL AWD form—paired with a continuously variable transmission. The unrefined powertrain is the Nissan’s biggest flaw, with unsettling vibrations shimmying through the steering wheel at rest that only worsen at highway speeds. A low rumbling reminiscent of agricultural heavy machinery is always present in the background, and asking for even moderate acceleration brings a cacophony of engine noise as the 2.5-liter groans and the CVT sends revs skyward.The Altima is sluggish relative to its peers. Hitting 60 mph from a standstill takes 7.6 seconds, three-tenths behind a front-wheel-drive Accord EX and a half-second behind a less powerful front-wheel-drive 2023 Hyundai Sonata. It matches the outgoing Camry (we’ve yet to test the new hybrid-only 2025 model) but feels slower, the lethargic acceleration exacerbated by the engine’s strained aria and the clunky, confused CVT that always allows a beat to pass before responding to throttle inputs. While the Altima feels a bit perkier at highway speeds, the numbers once again disappoint. The 50-to-70-mph passing test takes 5.5 seconds, four-tenths adrift of the Honda and the Camry and eight-tenths behind the Sonata. The Altima shines brighter in the corners. The sedan is fairly nimble, with minimal body roll contributing to a sense of stability. We recorded 0.89 g on the skidpad, better than both the Accord and Camry, but the Altima is let down by its steering, which is completely devoid of feedback. This detracts from the confidence instilled by the suspension—in spirited driving on curvy roads, the detached feeling from the steering wheel makes the Altima seem less surefooted than it actually is. The Honda, meanwhile, feels more balanced and can even bring a grin to your face when you dash through a series of esses.LOWS: Unrefined powertrain, lethargic acceleration, numb steering.The brakes also lack communication, although they hauled the Altima from 70 mph to a stop in an impressive 164 feet. That’s 20 feet shorter than the Accord and 12 feet better than the Camry, but the absence of feel and the short, grabby pedal travel can make smooth braking tricky.While the Altima lacks the driving enjoyment of its rivals, the sedan is a comfortable partner for tootling about town. It isn’t quite luxury-car plush, but the ride is excellent for the segment. The suspension absorbs the harshest impacts, even over particularly brutal potholes, so while bumps are still present, they aren’t jarring. The Altima also makes for a solid road-trip companion, returning 35 mpg on our 75-mph highway test. But that’s slightly worse than the highway mileage we recorded with the Sonata and the all-wheel-drive Camry and falls well short of the Accord’s 40-mpg highway test result.Moving inside, the cabin looks essentially the same as the pre-refresh Altima. You won’t mistake it for an Infiniti, but this SL model was well appointed with comfortable leather seats, high-quality wood trim, and cushy armrests that feel well suited for a long drive. Underside lighting along the door sills, a $565 option, elevates the Altima and ensures good footing at night.The big upgrade is the new 12.3-inch screen, standard on the SL and SR VC-Turbo and optional on the SV and regular SR trims. The screen certainly modernizes the cabin, but it’s undercut by the backup camera, which displays a fuzzy image and is overexposed at night. The bird’s-eye view is a useful parking tool, although the video feed that looks like a VHS tape being played on an old CRT box TV really cheapens the effect. That’s All-tima, FolksOtherwise, the bigger screen is a handy upgrade, but we’re also glad there are still physical buttons to poke and prod for essential functions, intuitively arranged and within easy reach. For $37K, it’s surprising that the rear-seat passengers don’t get climate controls, but there are USB-A and USB-C ports. The back seat is spacious and comfortable, however, even if the bench sits a tad high, slightly cutting into headroom for taller occupants.VERDICT: The Altima is comfortable and decent to drive, but it’s outclassed by fresher rivals.As the sedan market dwindles, the Altima’s flaws appear more stark next to the remaining well-rounded choices. The Altima’s base price of $26,845 slips in under that of the Accord and Camry, but this SL AWD example can’t really be considered a value play, and both competitors offer hybrid powertrains at similar prices. The Altima’s latest update feels like too little for a sedan that was already playing second fiddle to its fellow Japanese competition.SpecificationsSpecifications
    2024 Nissan Altima 2.5 AWDVehicle Type: front-engine, all-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan
    PRICE
    Base/As Tested: $29,145/$37,030 Options: SL trim (19-inch wheels, moonroof, leather seats, 12.3-inch touchscreen, 9-speaker Bose audio), $5900; external lighting with logo, $565; rear spoiler, $420; illuminated kick plates, $400; floor/trunk mats, $355; splash guards, $245
    ENGINE
    DOHC 16-valve inline-4, aluminum block and head, direct fuel injectionDisplacement: 152 in3, 2488 cm3Power: 182 hp @ 6000 rpmTorque: 178 lb-ft @ 3600 rpm
    TRANSMISSION
    continuously variable automatic
    CHASSIS
    Suspension, F/R: struts/multilinkBrakes, F/R: 11.7-in vented disc/11.5-in discTires: Hankook Kinergy GT235/40R-19 92V M+S
    DIMENSIONS
    Wheelbase: 111.2 inLength: 192.9 inWidth: 72.9 inHeight: 57.3 inPassenger Volume, F/R: 56/43 ft3Trunk Volume: 15 ft3Curb Weight: 3500 lb
    C/D TEST RESULTS
    60 mph: 7.6 sec1/4-Mile: 15.9 sec @ 89 mph100 mph: 20.7 secResults above omit 1-ft rollout of 0.3 sec.Rolling Start, 5–60 mph: 8.1 secTop Gear, 30–50 mph: 4.6 secTop Gear, 50–70 mph: 5.5 secTop Speed (gov ltd): 119 mphBraking, 70–0 mph: 164 ftRoadholding, 300-ft Skidpad: 0.89 g
    C/D FUEL ECONOMY
    Observed: 24 mpg75-mph Highway Driving: 35 mpg75-mph Highway Range: 560 mi
    EPA FUEL ECONOMY
    Combined/City/Highway: 30/26/36 mpg
    C/D TESTING EXPLAINEDCaleb Miller began blogging about cars at 13 years old, and he realized his dream of writing for a car magazine after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University and joining the Car and Driver team. He loves quirky and obscure autos, aiming to one day own something bizarre like a Nissan S-Cargo, and is an avid motorsports fan. More

  • in

    Tested: 2024 Lexus TX500h Offers Large-Family Largesse

    From the January 2024 issue of Car and Driver.Lexus’s history with three-row SUVs is not especially heroic. The body-on-frame GX and LX have space but ride like trucks. The now-dead RX L drove better, but its diminutive third row had Porsche 911 levels of comfort. Lexus needed a better solution. Enter the 2024 Lexus TX. Sharing a platform with Toyota’s Grand Highlander, it scratches the family-truckster itch better than any of its predecessors. The TX comes in three flavors of powertrain. Sitting between the 275-hp turbo 2.4-liter and the 404-hp plug-in hybrid, the TX500h features an electric motor, a turbocharged 2.4-liter four, a six-speed automatic, and another motor that motivates the rear axle to provide all-wheel drive. The powertrain is good for 366 horsepower and 406 pound-feet of torque. It parallels Toyota’s Hybrid Max setup but nudges output up by four horsepower and six pound-feet. The extra power helps shore up the 5119-pound TX500h’s performance versus the 183-pound-lighter Grand Highlander Hybrid Max. The TX’s 5.7-second 60-mph time and 14.5-second quarter-mile both are just fractionally behind the Grand Highlander’s. And despite the TX500h wearing the F Sport badge, the adaptive dampers err toward softness, providing a much cushier ride. Lexus also fits larger 15.7-inch front brakes, and the TX’s 174-foot stopping distance from 70 mph handily beats its sibling’s 187-foot result. The Lexus’s 0.85-g skidpad grip also eclipses the Toyota’s 0.80-g effort. HIGHS: Supple in all the right ways, fuel-miser powertrain, space to spare.LOWS: Steep pricing, some silly interior ergonomics, angry face.VERDICT: Finally, a three-row SUV worthy of the Lexus badge. On our highway test, the TX achieved 26 mpg, 2 mpg below the EPA estimate but 2 mpg better than the Grand Highlander’s result. The softly lined cabin’s high points include USB-C ports in all rows, the center console’s sliding wireless charger and swappable cupholders, and a third row that can fit two actual adults. It’s not perfect, though. Electronic door handles still feel strange to us, and we wish the temperature dials had detents for easier no-look adjustments. If only the cabin’s demure design were shared by the front fascia, which looks like an angry cheese grater. More on the Lexus TXAt $77,159 as tested, the TX500h is also priced aggressively. But you’d be hard-pressed to find a three-row utility vehicle that treats its occupants as well as this Lexus.What’s in a Name? Did Lexus name its new three-row SUV after the Lone Star State it calls home? No, but no one minds if you think so. “The ‘Lexus Texas’ thing was a wordplay we couldn’t pass up,” a Toyota spokesperson told us, even if the actual origin is “a bit more vanilla.” TX stands for “Thoughtful/Three-Row X-Over.” A little less vanilla is the similarity to the name of actress Alexis Texas.SpecificationsSpecifications 
    2024 Lexus TX500h F Sport Performance Luxury AWDVehicle Type: front-engine, front- and rear-motor, all-wheel-drive, 6-passenger, 4-door wagon
    PRICE
    Base/As Tested: $72,650/$77,159Options: Technology package (peripheral monitor camera, head-up display, remote park assist, digital rearview mirror, interior rearview mirror, garage door opener), $2380; Convenience package (pre-collision system, lane-keeping assist, rear and rear side monitor, digital entry key), $895; 120V/1500-watt power outlet, $560; rear hatch cargo lamps, $399; side puddle lamps, $175; Cold Area package (wiper/window/windshield deicer), $100
    POWERTRAIN
    turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 16-valve 2.4-liter inline-4, 271 hp, 339 lb-ft + 2 AC motors, 85 and 101 hp, 215 and 124 lb-ft (combined output: 366 hp, 406 lb-ft; 1.4-kWh nickel-metal hydride battery pack)Transmissions: 6-speed automatic/direct-drive
    CHASSIS
    Suspension, F/R: struts/multilinkBrakes, F/R: 15.7-in vented disc/13.3-in vented discTires: Continental CrossContact LX20255/45R-22 107V M+S Extra Load
    DIMENSIONS
    Wheelbase: 116.1 inLength: 203.5 inWidth: 78.4 inHeight: 70.1 inPassenger Volume, F/M/R: 60/54/39 ft3Cargo Volume, Behind F/M/R: 97/57/20 ft3Curb Weight: 5119 lb
    C/D TEST RESULTS
    60 mph: 5.7 sec1/4-Mile: 14.5 sec @ 95 mph100 mph: 16.2 secResults above omit 1-ft rollout of 0.4 sec.Rolling Start, 5–60 mph: 6.3 secTop Gear, 30–50 mph: 2.7 secTop Gear, 50–70 mph: 4.0 secTop Speed (gov ltd): 116 mphBraking, 70–0 mph: 174 ftRoadholding, 300-ft Skidpad: 0.85 g
    C/D FUEL ECONOMY
    Observed: 23 mpg75-mph Highway Driving: 26 mpg75-mph Highway Range: 440 mi
    EPA FUEL ECONOMY
    Combined/City/Highway: 27/27/28 mpg
    C/D TESTING EXPLAINEDCars are Andrew Krok’s jam, along with boysenberry. After graduating with a degree in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2009, Andrew cut his teeth writing freelance magazine features, and now he has a decade of full-time review experience under his belt. A Chicagoan by birth, he has been a Detroit resident since 2015. Maybe one day he’ll do something about that half-finished engineering degree. More

  • in

    Comparison Test: 1998 Dodge Dakota, Ford Ranger, Chevy S-10, Toyota Tacoma, Nissan Frontier

    From the August 1998 issue of Car and Driver.In Nairobi, one noble use of the compact pickup has been to convert it to a 25-passenger municipal bus. In Afghanistan, compact pickups with mounted guns served the rebels heroically in ousting the Soviets, who drove larger, clumsier tanks. In California, enthusiasts drive heavily modified versions of these little trucks on snaking roads as if they were sports cars, and down in Texas, the locals use the most frugal of these machines to commute to work. Well, as for ourselves, we’re neither noble, heroic, nor frugal. But enthusiastic? To put it mildly, we’re excessive—especially when it comes to having fun on four wheels. Compact pickups are not our traditional mount when it comes to four-wheeled frolicking, so before we set off on this comparison test, we took the precaution of filling the beds of our trucks with all-terrain vehicles and trail bikes. Then we headed for Michigan’s north-woods trails, where we commenced major motorized playtime, tra­versing 52-inch-wide dirt paths at the speed of a water­skier. We assure you no animals were harmed during the testing of any of our four ATVs, or during the general flailing of these five compact pickups, five trail bicycles, two barbecues, and two bulging coolers. But before we get muddy, let’s look at the guest list of trucks. The compact-pickup market consists of eight name­plates riding on five different trucks. The Mazda B-series is an exact copy of a Ford Ranger, and the GMC Sonoma and Isuzu Hombre are duplicates of the Chevy S-10, so we left the clones at home. The Nissan Frontier has been around since the fall of 1997, and arch-rival Toyota has sold its Tacoma since 1995. Dodge’s Dakota was com­prehensively overhauled for the 1997 model year. Compact pickups come in a dizzying array of choices. There are regular- and extended-cab versions that can seat two, three, four, five, or six passengers. Chevy and Ford offer optional half-doors to ease entry into the rear seat. All offer a choice of rear- or four-wheel drive. The Chevy, the Dodge, and the Ford offer a choice of bed lengths. Most also provide a menu of engine choices. The standard motor in the Ranger is a 2.5-liter four; there are two optional V-6s. The Dakota’s standard powerplant is also a 2.5-liter four, with one optional V-6 and two V-8s. The Chevy’s standard engine is a 2.2-liter four, the upgrade is a 4.3-liter V-6. Tacomas come standard with a four­-cylinder of either 2.4- or 2.7-liter dis­placement, depending on the choice of rear- or four-wheel drive. A 3.4-liter V-6 is optional. This fall Nissan will add the 3.3-liter V-6 found in the Pathfinder sport­-utility to four-wheel-drive versions of the Frontier, but rear-drivers will continue to be motivated by the only engine available now, a 2.4-liter four.For this test we chose extended-cab, short-bed, rear-drive trucks powered by V-6 engines (except for the Nissan) and auto­matic transmissions. Sticker prices ranged from $19,589 to $21,532. (Four-cylinder, two-seat versions start at about $12,000, and loaded four-wheel-drive examples can top $25,000.) The majority of compact­-pickup buyers prefer less expensive, more lightly optioned trucks than we selected, according to several of the manufacturers.The shortest of our trucks was the 196.1-inch-long Nissan Frontier, and the longest was the 214.8-inch Dodge Dakota. Some argue the Dakota is in its own size class, but with a price close to the others’, it competes fine here.Two of our pickups—the Ford Ranger Splash SuperCab and the extended-cab Chevy S-10 LS Sportside—came with narrower, stepside beds. The side-mounted steps make it slightly easier to climb aboard while securing an unwieldy load, but those steps shrink the carrying space from 36 cubic feet to 31 in the Ford and from 40 to 29 in the Chevy. The bigger, flat-sided pickup boxes cost less, so we figure the main attraction of the stepside layout is styling. A different kind of fashion is available in Toyota’s Tacoma PreRunner Xtracab, which has the optional Toyota Racing Development (TRD) off-road suspension and big tires. It’s the odd duck in this group of over­whelmingly street-oriented rear-drive pickups, but we didn’t think its off-road parts would necessarily harm the Toyota’s street performance, so we sprang for the indulgence. With this group we carried neither guns nor 25 terrified passengers; instead, we sorted through the best and worst of compact-pickup life on a 650-mile road trip.5th Place: Nissan Frontier SE King CabMost of the pickups Nissan sells in the U.S. are rear-drive, regular-cab models, made for light hauling and com­muting. In fact, you see bunches of these Tennessee-built pickups in the truck-rich state of Texas, where it’s been selling third-best behind compact Fords and Chevys. The redesign for ’98 was its sixth since this class was created in 1959 with the Datsun 1000. Money-wise folks looking for no-nonsense transportation like the Frontier. Indulgent toymongers like us, however, find the Nissan lacking. HIGHS: Low price, good assembly quality, and for a pickup, its ride is quiet and as soft as feathers. LOWS: Cheapo interior trim pieces, boring styling inside and out, lacks a V-6. VERDICT: Physically and visually, the least trucklike here.Our $19,589 Frontier SE King Cab came standard with a sunroof; a tinted sliding rear window; upscale carpets; cruise control; a tilting steering wheel; power mirrors, locks, and windows; and a keyless remote. Even loaded up like that, it still fell $1151 shy of the next-cheapest, the Ford. What this truck doesn’t offer are the toys we like: a limited-slip differential, a V-6 engine, extra doors, and big meaty wheels and tires—things the other trucks offer. Quite simply, Nissan is aiming at the simpler, less-expensive end of the market. With a 2000-pound towing capacity and a 1460-pound payload capacity, our SE is the bargain hauler of our group.The Frontier does some truck things better than you’d expect for the price. It rides smoothly when unladen, on paved or dirt roads. Its steering is precise, and the messages it sends to the driver are honest. Surprisingly, it is not the slowest of the group. The 2.4-liter four-cylinder, which Altima sedan drivers will recognize by sound, makes 143 quiet, calm horsepower, nine more than last year’s Nissan pickup. This four-cylinder gets the 3240-pound Nissan to 60 mph in 10.7 seconds, 0.5 second quicker than the Dakota with its 175-hp, 3.9-liter V-6. The Nissan, the lightest in this test by 280 pounds, loses this acceleration advantage when both vehicles are loaded with 800 pounds of ATV and play gear. It then requires the same 13.4 seconds the Dakota takes to get to 60 mph. The Frontier works most like a car on bad roads and washboard gravel. The ride motions are soft but controlled. When loaded up with a 500-pound Yamaha Warrior and 300 pounds of bal­last, the Nissan tended to bob and bounce like a 1976 Caprice. That’s not the kind of car we want a truck to mimic. The Nissan ties the Toyota for the narrowest and smallest interior—both Japanese-branded trucks still follow the obsolete 66.5-inch width limit originally created by a long-extinct Japanese tax law. The Nissan feels smallest in the rear passenger compartment, too. You can haul two kids back there, but we’re warning medium-size adults right now that if they can squeeze in behind the folded seat (there are no handy half-doors), they risk physical injury when the road turns bumpy. Finally, the other trucks made us feel like strapping on our Justins and yodeling like Montana ranch hands. We never got that feeling driving the soft-riding Nissan.1998 Nissan Frontier SE King Cab143-hp inline-4, 4-speed automatic, 3240 lbBase/as-tested price: $19,530/$19,589Payload/towing capacity: 1460/2000 lbC/D TEST RESULTS30 mph: 3.0 sec60 mph: 10.7 sec1/4-Mile: 17.9 sec @ 74 mphBraking, 70­–0 mph: 224 ftRoadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.68 g C/D observed fuel economy: 21 mpg4th Place: Toyota Tacoma PreRunner XtracabHard-core car fans and truck lovers alike at Car and Driver prefer to be seen in this California-built pickup than in the others. It’s a styling thing. This particular Tacoma is the new-for-1998 PreRunner model. It’s made for folks who want to indulge in the Baja image but whose desert travels rarely require the four-wheel drive that costs about $4500 more but may be necessary in a Colorado blizzard. The PreRunner option comes only as an extended-cab rear-drive truck with an automatic transmission. It costs $1810 with the 2.7-liter four-cylinder (which is otherwise available only in four-wheel­-drive models) and $1220 with the V-6. The PreRunner gets the new aerodynamic headlights and new grille that were added to all four-wheel-drive Tacomas for 1998. Other bits borrowed from the four­-wheeler include an electrically locking rear differential and the larger front-disc and rear-drum brakes of the four-wheel-­drive Tacomas. Our PreRunner also had the $1610 TRD off-road package that adds butch-looking truck tires, a stiffer sus­pension, fender flares, and a tach. HIGHS: Macho, head-turning styling.LOWS: Giant tires and a stiff suspension, although great for crashing across the desert provide a punishing ride everywhere else.VERDICT: Appealing for its power and looks, but a Nervous Nellie on pavement.The PreRunner and TRD packages make the Tacoma a trick truck for running the Parker 400 around Lake Havasu in Arizona, but on our trek to the north woods, we found it a rough rider. “Being jacked up on tiptoes, the Tacoma loses some of its directional stability and becomes way scary in turns,” noted boss ATV wrangler John Phillips. The interior is inviting, but the Pre­Runner has the least headroom of the bunch. Our test truck’s optional bucket front seats and console replace the stan­dard three-seat front bench. Two jump seats fold forward from the back wall of the Tacoma’s cab, but a normal grown-up can’t sit facing forward. It’s emergency seating only. We like the clean, effective ergonomics of the Camry-like instrument panel, which adds a luxury feel to the Tacoma. But by indulging too much on the desert-racing equipment, we priced our way out of elec­tric windows, locks, and mirrors, and cruise control. We could live without that luxostuff, but next time we’d get the $590 anti-lock brakes. The twin-cam 3.4-liter engine felt strong on the track, getting our Tacoma to 60 mph in 9.2 seconds, the same as the pushrod 4.3-liter-equipped Chevy S-10. The Toyota engine is rated highest in horsepower, at 190, 15 more than the 175-hp Dodge or Chevy, and this power showed best when we loaded the Pre­Runner up with our 800-pound toy kit. Thus encumbered, it’s the fastest of the group to 60 mph at 10.9 seconds, and through the quarter-mile at 18.0 seconds. Only the Ranger stopped more quickly than our unladen Tacoma, but with 800 pounds in its bed, it dropped to third best. We were hoping the extra weight would temper the desert truck’s stiff ride, but it softened things up only slightly. At least the PreRunner boasts the highest pay­load of the group at 1480 pounds. To be fair, cruising the paved highways of the Midwest is not what Toyota designed this truck to do.1998 Toyota Tacoma PreRunner Xtracab190-hp V-6, 4-speed automatic, 3520 lbBase/as-tested price: $18,588/$20,990Payload/towing capacity: 1480/5000 lbC/D TEST RESULTS30 mph: 2.8 sec60 mph: 9.2 sec1/4-Mile: 17.0 sec @ 79 mphBraking, 70­–0 mph: 217 ftRoadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.70 gC/D observed fuel economy: 19 mpg3rd Place: Chevrolet S-10 Extended-Cab SportsideRedesigned in 1994, the S-10 is second in compact-pickup sales only to the Ranger. The S-10 is unique in offering seven different suspension options, three of which are for rear-drivers: a base suspension for all-purpose use, a higher-load­-capacity suspension standard on extended­-cab models, and a “ZQ8” sport suspension. We indulged in—guess which?—the $703 sport setup. With this package come extra frame bracing, lowered springs, stiffer anti-roll bars, and a faster steering ratio. Low-profile 16-inch Goodyear Eagle GA tires, also available on an SS two-seat model that has been added for ’98, come with the sporty suspension. The tires were mounted on rims we nicknamed Corvette wheels, and they delivered the fastest emergency-lane-change slalom at the track and returned skidpad grip of 0.77 g, almost as high as the Ranger’s best of 0.78 g. The Chevy’s 4.3-liter V-6 boasted the largest displacement of the pack and also the biggest torque rating, 240 pound-feet. Unloaded, the S-10 matched the Toyota to 30 and 60 mph but lost the quarter-mile race by 0.1 second (17.1 seconds). Loaded with our toys, the Chevy placed third in accelera­tion performance. HIGHS: Silky automatic transmission, big dash buttons that are easy to use while wearing thick ranch-hand gloves. LOWS: Weird ride on bumpy roads, transient steering feel. VERDICT: Tries harder to be a car than it does to be a truck.On the road, the S-10’s four-speed auto­matic transmission proved best, delivering steady, quick shifts, with and without a load in back. On twistier roads, the Chevy displays excellent roll control, even with its bed full. But the good performance numbers we recorded on the skidpad didn’t translate so well on the road. When you’re traveling straight ahead and making small steering inputs, the S-10 feels good and your confi­dence rises. But press the truck into a tight corner, and the steering feels suddenly numb and uncommunica­tive, thereby demanding a bit more faith in what it can do than does the Ranger, the top performer on the skidpad.The ride of the S-10 with the sport suspension didn’t bother any of us, except the bed made its presence known without invitation: “The bed wob­bles and dances over bumps—a discon­certing thing in Michigan,” noted Phillips. Our Chevy came with a third door, which opens behind the driver’s door. To get this $375 option you have to give up one jump seat in the rear, reducing the maximum people-carrying capacity of our bucket-seat-equipped test car from four to three. It’s okay for one-child families, even as the kid grows to legal working age. The jump seat cantilevers from the right-side cab wall, extending far enough so an adult can sit on it for short trips—but we’d get mutinous back there after 30 minutes. The stepside bed gives up too much space for styling’s sake. It will barely accept an ATV, which means you’ll need a friend’s vehicle to carry the rest of your stuff. The Chevy is competent and competi­tive in this pack, but its structure is dated, and we had more fun driving the Ford.1998 Chevrolet S-10 LS Extended-Cab Sportside175-hp V-6, 4-speed automatic, 3600 lbBase/as-tested price: $15,615/$21,532Payload/towing capacity: 800/5000 lbC/D TEST RESULTS30 mph: 2.8 sec60 mph: 9.2 sec1/4-Mile: 17.1 sec @ 79 mph100 mph: 23.3 secBraking, 70­–0 mph: 222 ftRoadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.77 gC/D observed fuel economy: 19 mpg2nd Place: Ford Ranger Splash SuperCabLast fall, Ford added a new front sus­pension, frame reinforcements, and other refinements to the Ranger. The changes produced two things: more-supple steering and a smoother, quieter ride. But those weren’t the only traits we liked about this pickup. Our test vehicle was powered by the larger of two optional V-6 engines, a 4.0-liter rated at 158 hp and 223 pound-feet of torque. Only the Frontier’s engine was less powerful. But mated to the group’s only five-speed automatic with nice, short gearing, the Ford was the quickest in our group when empty, getting to 60 mph in 8.8 seconds. Loaded down, it fell to second place behind the Toyota, achieving 60 mph in 11.1 seconds.HIGHS: Strong engine, confident handling, relaxed highway demeanor. LOWS: Overly styled Splash body moldings made us feel a little nerdy. VERDICT: It feels like the sports car of the group.The Ranger’s throttle response felt fastest of the group, too. “The peppy engine is immediately noticeable, even with an ATV in the rear,” remarked Jeep-owner Brad Nevin. On challenging roads, the Ranger Splash worked best. The steering is sensi­tive and quick. The Ranger stopped the best, too, with or without a Kawasaki Bayou and heavy gear filling the box. Inside, the Ranger’s front seats felt less­-than-ideal to some drivers’ backsides. Two test drivers said the bottom cushions felt too short, forcing them to recline the seat­backs farther than they normally would, just to make more rump room. In back, the jump seats (you can delete them for a $145 credit) can hold two adults. Like the single jump seat in the Chevy, the two in the Ranger have back­rests that are quite supportive. Unlike the rear seats in the Dodge and Toyota, there are no shoulder belts, just two lap belts. Overall, we wouldn’t mind riding around in the rear of the Ranger for up to 30 minutes. Max. And if we expected frequent rear-seat riders, we’d spend the $595 for two rear half-doors. The Splash package adds $1020 to the price of a base Ranger XLT extended-cab V-6, but all five test drivers were relieved to know that its black spoiler and body­color bumpers, side moldings, grille, and door handles are effectively optional. Oddly enough, though, constructing a sim­ilarly equipped XLT with the stylish stepside (Ford calls it Flareside) bed actually costs $430 more. We think the styling verges on the juvenile, and so do Ford’s cus­tomers: Of the 300,000 Rangers sold last year, just 1500 or so came with the Splash body treatment. As a commuter truck, the Ranger is the most fun to drive, but its bed is only two cubic feet larger than the diminutive box of the Chevrolet. Phillips wrote, “It’s a pleasant-enough around-town errand bopper, but a real truck? Hmm . . . “If your gig is radio-controlled miniature cars and planes, we can visualize the Ranger as your hauler. But for bigger toys, we like the Dodge best.1998 Ford Ranger Splash SuperCab158-hp V-6, 5-speed automatic, 3560 lbBase/as-tested price: $17,425/$20,740Payload/towing capacity: 1200/2000 lbC/D TEST RESULTS30 mph: 2.5 sec60 mph: 8.8 sec1/4-Mile: 16.7 sec @ 79 mph100 mph: 23.5 secBraking, 70­–0 mph: 213 ftRoadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.78 gC/D observed fuel economy: 18 mpg1st Place: Dodge Dakota SLT Club CabThere’s no substitute for cubic feet. The big Dakota satisfied a broader collection of our indulgences than any other pickup in this test. First, it tied the Toyota as a styling favorite. Then, it swallowed the largest complement of all-terrain machinery and other gear. The cargo bed is huge compared with the stepside boxes of the Ranger and S-10. It’s no clever packaging miracle, it’s just bigger. At 47 cubic feet, it’s three cubes up on the next-largest Nissan Frontier. HIGHS: Titanic cargo capacity, spacious interior, grown-up styling. LOWS: Drag-strip-loser V-6, toughest to park in a crowded lot. VERDICT: It changes “trucklike” to a complimentary term.Whether the big bed was empty or full, the Magnum 3.9-liter V-6 failed to impress us with its ability to motivate our big Dakota. In our standing-start acceleration tests, it was the slowest, hitting 60 mph in a leisurely 11.2 seconds. We didn’t expect the V-6 Dakota to be a hot rod, considering that its 3900-pound curb weight out-tipped the next-heaviest, the Chevy, by 300 pounds. But it felt slow to respond and often transmitted gritty shivers through the throttle pedal. Top-gear acceleration was slow enough to zap our passing confidence on two-lane highways. Loaded or not, you need patience to accelerate.You have to wait longer at the pump, too. The Dakota has the largest fuel tank (22 gallons) and gets the poorest fuel economy of the group: 16 mpg on the EPA’s city cycle and 18 mpg during our trail-busting trip. Like we men­tioned up front, we don’t profess frugality. We tested the high-priced SLT version of the Dodge, which starts at $17,465—$945 more than the more popular Sport model. We also had the $200 high-back bucket seats in our test truck, but you can get a bench seat that will hold three. We might have traded some of our pricey options for a 5.2-liter V-8, which only costs $590 and 2 mpg in city mileage. The rear bench will hold three adults, too, all facing forward. It’s no sedan, but we believe a trip of two hours would be bearable for two reasonably big people. It’s a significant achievement. It means the Dakota can be used as a sedan. None of the other trucks can, and this fact appealed to the rational car buyer in all five testers voting on these pickups. Most cars can’t carry as many people as a Dakota can with a bench seat, never mind that the Dodge’s bed will also carry 1300 pounds.Although the Dakota won this toy-toting festival, none of these trucks sated our fun-to-drive appetites. But if your hauling needs are focused more on cargo than people, these compact pickups can satisfy in smaller, less-expensive packages than their full-size coun­terparts’. But if you’re not serious about hauling anything, and want merely a membership badge for admittance to the Pickup Club, we think you’ll have less fun than you would in a car. 1998 Dodge Dakota SLT Club Cab175-hp V-6, 4-speed automatic, 3900 lbBase/as-tested price: $17,465/$21,100Payload/towing capacity: 1300/4800 lbC/D TEST RESULTS30 mph: 3.7 sec60 mph: 11.2 sec1/4-Mile: 18.4 sec @ 75 mphBraking, 70–0 mph: 244 ftRoadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.69 gC/D observed fuel economy: 18 mpg More

  • in

    Tested: 2024 BMW 530i xDrive Goes Back to the Basics

    From the January 2024 issue of Car and Driver.The Germans have a word for everything. In Munich, zuzeln means sucking a sausage out of its casing. BMW has employed a bit of automotive zuzeln with the 2024 530i xDrive, removing a familiar filling—a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder hooked to a ZF eight-speed automatic transmission and all-wheel drive—and stuffing it into a new wrapper. Not to dive too deep into Bavarian etymology, but the reason Germans zuzeln is because the region’s signature weisswurst is wrapped in a particularly unappetizing casing. That is certainly not the situation with the new 5-series, which marks a return to the aesthetic adventurism of the 2004 E60, only this time without the Chris Bangle controversy. Our office is split, but there is a faction that thinks the new 5er looks awesome.HIGHS: Stupendous brakes, good fuel economy, design that’s daring in a good way.As the entry-level 5-series, the 530i concerns itself with delivering a certain look and a business-sedan experience rather than scalding performance, and that’s been true since the days when a 530i actually had a 3.0-liter inline-six engine. This latest 2.0-liter four offers a modest performance bump, making 255 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque (versus last year’s 248 horses and 258 pound-feet). While the engine shares its displacement with its predecessor, BMW made plenty of revisions, most notably adopting the Miller-cycle combustion process, which leaves the intake valves open at the beginning of the compression stroke to increase efficiency. On that front, we saw 35-mpg highway fuel economy at 75 mph, matching the EPA’s number. With the 530i’s 15.9-gallon fuel tank, you’ll probably need to stop for a break before the car does. BMW also added a 48-volt hybrid system to bolster city mileage.Stronger powertrain options, gas and electric, exist on the 5-series menu, but the 530i xDrive aims to please the Bimmerphile who prioritizes efficiency and lower monthly lease payments over 60-mph and quarter-mile times. Not that the latter two are mediocre—5.5 seconds to 60 mph, quarter-mile in 14.2 seconds at 96 mph—but that kind of performance constitutes the minimum you’d expect from a modern BMW sedan.On the other hand, a sub-six-second 60-mph run looks more impressive when we consider the size of the new 5, which is longer, wider, and taller than its predecessor. We need only look as far back as 2008 to find a 7-series of comparable dimensions, the E65. This 530i’s 117.9-inch wheelbase and 199.2-inch length are slightly longer than those of the E65, and the two cars’ width and height are nearly identical. So it’s perhaps unsurprising that the 530i xDrive also checked in with an E65-caliber 4090-pound curb weight.For a two-ton slab of sedan, the 530i xDrive certainly knows how to dance. Its variable-ratio steering feels natural and seamless, and our test car’s optional M Sport suspension and 21-inch Continental EcoContact 6 Q tires helped it cling to the skidpad with 0.92 g of grip. The M Sport brakes, peacocking with their blue calipers, generated an impressive 156-foot stop from 70 mph. That’s only four feet longer than the stop we recorded from a 2019 M5 Competition with carbon-ceramic brakes, so: Wow, nice binders.View PhotosUh-oh, BMW heard about Easter eggs. See if you can find the hidden portrait of Wilhelm Hofmeister!Marc Urbano|Car and DriverWhen the throttle goes down, the 530 spits out some feisty turbocharger intake noise, though you only really hear it if a window is down. Put the transmission in manual mode, and it will faithfully hold gears. Pulling and holding the left shift paddle activates Sport Boost mode, bringing up a 10-second countdown on the instrument cluster that implies a timed deployment of extra power. However, Sport Boost doesn’t actually do anything besides drop to the lowest possible gear ratio. Any performance gain was undetectable to our test equipment.As we’d expect of a BMW, the 5-series’ stability control is fully defeatable, and that includes the traction-management technology. The system integrates traction control into the engine-control computer instead of a separate stability-control processor. BMW says this essentially allows it to snuff out wheelspin before it even happens, like the precogs in Minority Report preventing future crimes. Indeed, when we drove a rear-drive 530i at BMW Group Test Fest in South Carolina and deliberately launched it with max aggression, it smoothly pulled away with no wheelspin or apparent intervention. We’ll have to test a 530i to figure out whether that was evidence of supreme traction-control prescience or just the fact that 255 horsepower in a big sedan won’t generate a two-block burnout.LOWS: Sport Boost does jack squat, 7-series bulk, price is a big ask for 255 horsepower.The 5-series’ embrace of tech wizardry continues inside. While our test car didn’t have this particular option, the new Driving Assistance Professional system enables hands-free highway driving up to 85 mph. And they mean hands-free: When the car suggests a lane change, the driver confirms it by merely looking at the corresponding side-view mirror. What if, say, you didn’t want to change lanes but just noticed a brown marmorated stink bug crawling on the lower A-pillar? If there’s not yet a German word meaning “regret for surrendering decisions to the machine,” they’re probably working on one.View PhotosThat digital display can switch themes, but none of them look like an E39 instrument cluster.Marc Urbano|Car and DriverThe 5 also offers AirConsole in-car gaming. Passengers use their phones as controllers for games displayed on the 14.9-inch infotainment screen. BMW is initially offering about 20 games, but hopefully the options will expand to AirConsole’s full portfolio, which includes games like ClusterPuck 99, Mucho Muscle, and fARTwork, titles that seem calibrated to ensure that AirConsole will soon be available in Teslas.There are various display themes for that screen and the 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster. While we wish BMW had stolen an idea from the new Ford Mustang and threw in an E39 M5 gauge emulator, at least it’s using all of those pixels creatively. Digital Art mode splashes the screen with “Quantum Garden” by Cao Fei, banishing the speedometer to the lower left corner while trippy swirls of purple and green cover most of the screen. Far out, man. The interior includes some interesting physical details too, such as hidden HVAC directional vanes controlled by rubber nubs on the dash. It’s not immediately obvious what they do until you swivel one and feel the airflow change direction. There’s an extended Merino leather option that swathes the interior in fine hides and another that banishes leather altogether. The synthetic stand-in is called Veganza, which sounds like an early-2000s Kia hatchback sold only in Singapore.VERDICT: We’re really looking forward to the M5.Besides the $3000 M Sport package and the $2550 Premium package (heated steering wheel, remote start, and head-up display, among other things), our test car had the $600 Sky Lounge roof, which puts an enormous glass panel overhead. Its sunshade deploys from the front rather than the back, which means that, counter to decades of sunroof convention, you push the overhead button back to close the shade and forward to open it. You’ll get used to that around month 35 of your 36-month lease.View PhotosThe 255-hp inline-four isn’t much to look at, but it did return a commendable 35 mpg at 75 mph.Marc Urbano|Car and DriverIt may also take that long to get used to the idea of a four-cylinder 5-series that costs $70,745, as this one does. Though we admittedly haven’t sampled the whole range, including the forthcoming 540i and M5, this might be the best 5-series since they were dropping V-10s into the Banglemobiles. However, we can’t help but point out that a loaded 360-hp Cadillac CT5-V goes for $64,045. And if we were in one of those, lined up against a 530i at an intersection, we’d wait for the light to turn green and savor the schadenfreude.CounterpointsThe 530i seems confused. Its son-of-iX creased and folded styling makes it look smaller than it is; I almost mistook it for a 3-series. Its velvety turbo four is quiet, as a luxury car’s engine should be, but its optional M Sport suspension is tuned firmly. But if it’s supposed to be a sports sedan, where did its steering feel go? Then again, if BMW’s goal here is luxurious driving, why does the infotainment system add to your workload rather than ease it? The 530i has me asking too many questions it can’t answer. —Rich CepposI can still clearly envision the experience of driving an E39 540i back to back to back with its peers on twisty roads in upstate New York in 2001, because it completely recalibrated my car sense as a fresh-faced road warrior. This new series? The engine’s limiter steps in 500 rpm before the redline, the M Sport package gets standard all-season tires, and even if you pony up for the 21-inch summers, the tire is co-branded with a Mercedes marking. Today’s road warriors have already forgotten it. —Dave VanderWerpSpecificationsSpecifications
    2024 BMW 530i xDriveVehicle Type: front-engine, all-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan
    PRICE
    Base/As Tested: $61,195/$70,745Options: M Sport package, $3000; Premium package, $2550; 21-inch wheels, $1800; Bowers & Wilkins stereo, $950; Cape York Green Metallic paint, $650; Sky Lounge roof, $600
    ENGINEturbocharged and intercooled DOHC 16-valve inline-4, aluminum block and head, port and direct fuel injectionDisplacement: 122 in3, 1998 cm3Power: 255 hp @ 6500 rpmTorque: 295 lb-ft @ 1600 rpm 
    TRANSMISSION8-speed automatic
    CHASSIS
    Suspension, F/R: multilink/multilinkBrakes, F/R: 13.7-in vented disc/13.6-in vented discTires: Continental EcoContact 6 QF: 245/35R-21 96Y ★ MOR: 275/30R-21 98Y ★ MO
    DIMENSIONS
    Wheelbase: 117.9 inLength: 199.2 inWidth: 74.8 inHeight: 59.6 inPassenger Volume, F/R: 55/46 ft3Trunk Volume: 18 ft3Curb Weight: 4090 lb
    C/D TEST RESULTS
    60 mph: 5.5 sec1/4-Mile: 14.2 sec @ 96 mph100 mph: 15.4 sec130 mph: 30.6 sec140 mph: 40.3 secResults above omit 1-ft rollout of 0.2 sec.Rolling Start, 5–60 mph: 6.5 secTop Gear, 30–50 mph: 3.5 secTop Gear, 50–70 mph: 4.2 secTop Speed (mfr’s claim): 155 mphBraking, 70–0 mph: 156 ftBraking, 100–0 mph: 318 ftRoadholding, 300-ft Skidpad: 0.92 g 
    C/D FUEL ECONOMY
    Observed: 26 mpg75-mph Highway Driving: 35 mpg75-mph Highway Range: 550 mi 
    EPA FUEL ECONOMY
    Combined/City/Highway: 30/27/35 mpg 
    C/D TESTING EXPLAINEDEzra Dyer is a Car and Driver senior editor and columnist. He’s now based in North Carolina but still remembers how to turn right. He owns a 2009 GEM e4 and once drove 206 mph. Those facts are mutually exclusive. More

  • in

    1992 Pontiac Formula Firehawk, an SLP Hot Rod Available Straight From Dealers

    From the June 1991 issue of Car and Driver.In the beginning, hot-rodders lived by the Two Commandments: Thou shalt make it faster, and Thou shalt make it cheaper. Now there’s a third command­ment: Thou shalt make it legal.You can still get away with perfor­mance tinkering if you do it by your lone­some, but modify an engine for money, or even worse, try to sell complete hopped-up cars, and more government agencies than you knew existed will pounce on you as if you were dealing crack. Nonetheless, a trend in making more speed is to become a small-volume man­ufacturer, even though that requires enormous expenditures for testing and development. “Green speed,” as it were, is the way of the 1990s. Enter the Formula Firehawk, available from your Pontiac dealer as the “Regular Production Option B4U.” It is emissions-legal, crash-tested, its parts are un­der warranty, and it’s faster than any­thing you can buy for its $51,989 price. And in many ways, it’s very much like driving a hot rod—wild and woolly. The idea here was to build a car with ZR-1 performance for less than the Cor­vette’s $68,000 price. The ZR-1 perfor­mance is there. The lower price is there, too. But the tradeoff is refinement, or lack thereof. We’ll tell you about that later. The Firehawk is the work of Street Le­gal Performance Inc., a four-year-old company in Toms River, New Jersey, cre­ated by former drag-racer Ed Hamburger. He learned the tricks of the horsepower trade in the 1970s and by selling speed parts to racers. Hamburger’s Oil Pans Inc., a company he started in ’79, lists as customers Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Wal­trip, and 26 other Winston Cup teams. The Firehawk is Hamburger’s first complete car. It’s a Pontiac Firebird For­mula with a new drivetrain, the Firebird’s 1LE showroom-stock racing suspension, wider wheels and tires, plus a few other performance add-ons. SLP proposed selling the Firehawk through Pontiac dealers. Pontiac liked the idea. “It will help the performance image of the Fire­bird,” says Pontiac general manager John Middlebrook. The gates to GM’s mammoth Milford proving grounds were opened to SLP to test and develop prototypes. SLP is planning to build 250 Fire­hawks, starting in June. The finished car won’t appear in Pontiac ads, however, since it’s a deal between SLP and Ponti­ac’s dealers, according to Middlebrook. To order one (the only color is red), drop off a $5000 deposit at your Pontiac dealer. A 5.7-liter Chevy V-8 powers the Firehawk. It is built by General Motors Parts division to SLP’s specifications. These folks assemble the monster mo­tors we told you about in April—300-plus-horsepower Chevy V-8s you can buy and install yourself into classic cars built before the Feds got regulation-hap­py. The Firehawk’s engine consists of a stock block, a forged-steel crankshaft, special connecting rods, and lightweight cast pistons. The engine’s cylinder heads will be shipped to SLP’s headquarters in New Jersey, where they will be ported, and then shipped back to the assembly plant in Flint, Michigan. Completed en­gines will then be shipped to SLP, which will install them in Firebird Formula models. SLP warrants the powertrain, and Pontiac will cover the rest of the car. “If you could take the best parts and build the ultimate Firebird engine, these would be the ones,” says Chuck Jenckes, SLP’s chief engineer. For the port-injected engine, SLP de­signed a free-flowing intake system with two air cleaners—one occupies the space normally meant for the car’s battery, which goes in the trunk. The engine is emissions-legal in 49 states; SLP intends to certify Firehawk engines to California standards after production begins. Engine power is fed through a Cor­vette six-speed transmission and clutch to an aluminum driveshaft (lighter than stock to aid power delivery, says Jenckes). The driveshaft turns a Dana 44 rear end with a one-inch-larger ring gear for durability and special beefed-up axles driving the rear wheels. Stiffer bushings in the rear control arms keep the axle from hopping during maximum acceleration. We were impressed by the engine in our test Firehawk. It will rev to its 6000-rpm redline like a mad turbine, and it feels like it could rev a lot faster were it not for its 6100-rpm rev limiter. An optional package for racers in­cludes the same front brakes you’ll find on a $400,000-plus Ferrari F40. This package is worth about $11,000 of the Firehawk’s price, and includes a roll bar, a lower front end, an aluminum hood, a five-point harness for the driver, and a Recaro seat. Our test car, a devel­opment mule, had everything but the roll bar. “The racetrack is really where the car’s going to be at home. It’s kind of obnox­ious on the street,” says Jenckes. How true. It shook, and it felt unstable most of the way up to its 158-mph top speed. Some of its nervous character is a result of beatings: Our test car had more than 20,000 miles on it, at least half of which were tallied at GM’s test track, says Jenckes. The car felt, shall we say, unrefined on the street. The steering was darty. The Firebird front suspension and steering has trouble, we believe, maintaining control of the Firehawk’s extra-wide 275/40-17 tires. A ZR-1’s front tires are the same size as all four Firehawk tires, but the Corvette doesn’t wander over bumps the way the Firehawk does. GM designed the Corvette to ride on fatter rubber; stock Firebirds ride on nothing larger than 245/50-16 tires. “Its sophistication is not high,” says Pontiac’s Middlebrook, who drove a pro­totype Firehawk last summer, “but brute power is there.” Adds Jenckes: “It’s a broadsword in­stead of a scalpel.” We did our fair share of beating this Firehawk, too. Following our top-speed test on the track, we did repeated full-­throttle starts, at least a dozen in a half­-hour. On our final run, the engine felt just as strong as on our first tire-squealing start. Our best time to 60 mph was 4.6 seconds, and our best quarter-mile run took 13.2 seconds at 107 mph. That’s as quick as the las1 ZR-1 we tested, quicker than the Acura NSX, the Lotus Esprit Turbo SE, and the Ferrari 348ts we tested in September. But those cars won’t dislodge your fillings. This performance comes from an en­gine that started instantly for us one sub­freezing morning. Cold or hot, the mo­tor’s idle is a lumpy but steady 850 rpm. The optional brake rotors are massive, drilled thirteen-inch discs—as big as the wheels on a Honda Civic. Four-piston Brembo calipers grab these discs and haul down the Firehawk from 70 mph to a stop in 164 feet, only nine feet farther than a ZR-1, two feet shorter than a Porsche 911 Turbo. The brakes are tough to modulate—we promptly locked a wheel during our first hard stop. The flat-spotted tire, coupled to the stiff ride of the Firehawk, caused one of our test drivers to comment: “Its sensory level is a close second to riding in an industrial dryer.” The Firehawk is a tough car to ride in. It is noisy and stiff. “Riding in it is the most fun I’ve had since I got thrown on my head by the mechanical bucking bronco at Gilly’s,” one test driver noted. Much of the noise in our test car came from its well-worn Firestone Firehawk tires grumbling on the pavement, and those sounds were transmitted directly to the driver to combine with prodigious amounts of wind noise and body creaks. The six-speed shifted as smoothly as the same ZF unit does in the Corvette. The transmission retains the computer­-forced upshifting used on the Corvette, although it was disabled on this proto­type. That feature and the tall gearing (70 mph in sixth yields 1650 rpm) keeps fuel economy above the EPA’s gas-guz­zler limit. We rarely used sixth—or fifth. Fourth gear at 70 mph keeps the engine at 3300 rpm, ready to roar at a moment’s notice. Related StoriesA half-dozen supercars can outrun the Firehawk. All ride better, but none are cheaper. To match the Firehawk’s 158-mph top speed for less than its $40,995 base price (minus the racing package op­tion), you could attempt to build this car in the privacy of your garage. It would still cost plenty, but you might avoid these astronomical pitfalls: the emissions testing and certifying process ($50,000 minimum); the backward-barrier crash to satisfy the Department of Transporta­tion requirement that the new rear axle hasn’t compromised the car’s structure or fuel-system integrity ($20,000 plus bodywork); the two 200-hour dynamom­eter tests for engine durability (about $10,000 each, plus, says SLP’s Jenckes, another $10,000 for fuel); and one drive­line durability test that includes driving the car over hills and bumps under full throttle ($25,000). A small-volume man­ufacturer like SLP (250 cars per year or less) is spared the EPA’s 50,000-mile emissions durability test, but not much else. The Firehawk succeeds as a 1990s hot rod—it is fast, ferocious, and clean. Still, we’d think about giving up some of its speed for more refined handling and less ruckus on the street. A couple of cheaper cars come to our minds: Nissan’s 300ZX Turbo and Chevy’s Corvette L98. But they’re not hot rods in the viscerally raw, traditional sense. The Firehawk is.SpecificationsSpecifications
    1992 Pontiac Formula FirehawkVehicle Type: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 2-passenger, 3-door coupe
    PRICEAs Tested: $51,989Options: base Pontiac Firebird Formula Firehawk, $39,999; R option (includes 4-piston Brembo brake calipers, Recaro front seat with 5-point racing harness, roll cage, aluminum hood), $9995; luxury tax, $1999
    ENGINEpushrod V-8, iron block and aluminum heads, port fuel injectionDisplacement: 350 in3, 5733 cm3Power: 350 hp @ 5500 rpmTorque: 390 lb-ft @ 4400 rpm 
    TRANSMISSION6-speed manual
    CHASSIS
    Suspension, F/R: control arms/rigid axleBrakes, F/R: 13.0-in vented, cross-drilled disc/11.7-in vented discTires: Firestone Firehawk SZ275/40ZR-17
    DIMENSIONS
    Wheelbase: 101.0 inLength: 187.8 inWidth: 72.1 inHeight: 49.8 inPassenger Volume: 53 ft3Trunk Volume: 11 ft3Curb Weight: 3448 lb
    C/D TEST RESULTS
    60 mph: 4.6 sec100 mph: 11.4 sec1/4-Mile: 13.2 sec @ 107 mph130 mph: 22.4 sec150 mph: 42.3 secRolling Start, 5–60 mph: 5.0 secTop Gear, 30–50 mph: 11.0 secTop Gear, 50–70 mph: 11.2 secTop Speed: 158 mphBraking, 70–0 mph: 164 ftRoadholding, 300-ft Skidpad: 0.92 g
    C/D FUEL ECONOMYObserved: 13 mpg
    EPA FUEL ECONOMYCity/Highway: 16/25 mpg 
    C/D TESTING EXPLAINED More

  • in

    Subaru WRX TR Is No Longer a Blank Slate

    The original WRX TR launched in 2006 as a stripped-down, minimalist trim aimed at buyers who planned to start modding their cars the day they got home from the dealership. The moniker stood for “Tuner Ready,” and the TR went without a rear spoiler, fog lights, or a fancy stereo. Why include a nice sound system that’ll immediately be replaced by a sweet Pioneer OEL head unit with a swimming-dolphin display and a Rockford amp bridged down to about a quarter-ohm? (Not that we built something exactly like that, ever.) The 2024 Subaru WRX TR takes a different approach—it’s definitely not stripped down, and more like an STI-lite. As a consequence, nobody is really sure what “TR” now stands for. Totally Rad? Tire Roaster? Theodore Roosevelt? As Teddy might’ve said, walk softly and carry big stick into those braking zones.And brakes are the TR’s major upgrade, hulking Brembos with six-piston calipers up front and two-piston fixed calipers at the rear, animated by a larger master cylinder (an improvement that applies to all manual-transmission 2024 WRXs). The 13.4-inch front rotors are an inch larger in diameter than the standard WRX fare, and the 12.8-inch cross-drilled rear rotors gain 1.4 inches on the standard brakes. Lest there be any confusion over your WRX’s stopping power, the calipers are painted a searing red.The TR can also be identified by its unique 19-inch wheels, which are an inch larger to accommodate the boffo brakes and look vaguely like they were pulled from a Lamborghini Urus. Those wheels are wrapped in Bridgestone Potenza S007 tires, which are new to the WRX. Springs and dampers are about 5 percent stiffer, and the power steering is tuned for more feedback. Inside, the TR gets Ultrasuede-trimmed Recaro seats, making it the only manual-transmission WRX available with those chairs. Ah, yes—the TR is available only with a six-speed manual transmission. In a weight-saving (and cost-offsetting) nod to its parsimonious predecessor, the TR doesn’t have a sunroof. Subaru says that even with its big brakes, the sunroof delete means that the TR weighs within a couple pounds of a manual-transmission WRX Limited.Subaru introduced the WRX TR in Sicily, on the roads that made up the original Targa Florio circuit. What does Subaru have to do with a race that ended in 1977? Well, the Targa Florio became the Targa Florio Rally, which was part of the European Rally Championship from 1984 to 2011. And Subarus won that twice, in 1995 and 1999, so the WRX’s ancestors put down some victorious rubber on these roads—some of which can still be seen. You’ll be braking into a corner and notice the outside lane on your left streaked with skid marks, evidence of rally cars setting up to dive-bomb the apex. As public roads go, the ones that made up the Targa Florio are a lot like a track—a track designed by M.C. Escher.And during our drive, it was pure WRX weather, which is to say: bad. Cold and rainy, the pavement was so slick that even walking downhill was an invitation to join a Sicilian blooper reel. The WRX TR uses the same 271-hp 2.4-liter H-4 as other WRX models, and even without additional power it was easy to spin all four tires off the line. We’d presume those brakes and the stickier 245/35R-19 Potenzas will help improve the WRX’s Lightning Lap time, but on these roads anything more than a gentle prod at the brake pedal would cue the ABS. And whatever the Sicilian word for “runoff area” is, it must translate as “into the ocean.” Most corners are bordered by sturdy guardrail, and you’re happy to see it. Still, this being a WRX, it was easy to drive faster than everyone else on the road—all-wheel-drive turbocharged rally rockets aren’t easily discouraged by rain, midcorner bumps, or the occasional section where the pavement went missing entirely. Given that the local drivers, like their rally counterparts, tend to set up for corners on the wrong side of the road, we were glad for the WRX’s quick reflexes. And glad that we didn’t personally investigate the crashworthiness of its floorpan and rear suspension, which were strengthened for 2024. All WRXs also get Subaru’s EyeSight driver-assist system, which was previously unavailable on manual-transmission cars. In Sicily, the lane-detection system was disabled, on the grounds that there were no lanes to detect.WRX fans, ourselves included, are still disappointed that there’s no WRX STI, but the TR is a worthwhile step in that direction. And at $42,775, it’s surely priced lower than a hypothetical 2024 WRX STI would be—and lower than that $45,335 WRX GT, the current flagship of the range. Still, we can’t help but gaze back longingly at the not-so-distant year of 2021, when you could walk into your Subaru dealership with $38,170 and drive out with a 305-hp WRX STI. Related StoriesThe current WRX is a better car in a lot of ways, but it’s easy to imagine how much fun it would be with the 2.4-liter pumping out, oh, another 50 horsepower. Then again, as we’ve found before, there are plenty of firms that are willing to help make a WRX go faster. Maybe TR no longer stands for “Tuner Ready,” but that doesn’t mean it’s not true.SpecificationsSpecifications
    2024 Subaru WRX TRVehicle Type: front-engine, all-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan
    PRICE
    Base: $42,775
    ENGINE
    Turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 16-valve flat-4, aluminum block and heads, direct fuel injectionDisplacement: 146 in3, 2387 cm3Power: 271 hp @ 5600 rpmTorque: 258 lb-ft @ 2000 rpm
    TRANSMISSION
    6-speed manual
    DIMENSIONS
    Wheelbase: 105.1 inLength: 183.8 inWidth: 71.9 inHeight: 57.8 inPassenger Volume, F/R: 56/42 ft3Trunk Volume: 13 ft3Curb Weight (C/D est): 3450 lb
    PERFORMANCE (C/D EST)
    60 mph: 5.5 sec100 mph: 13.7 sec1/4-Mile: 13.9 secTop Speed: 145 mph
    EPA FUEL ECONOMY (C/D EST)
    Combined/City/Highway: 22/19/26 mpgEzra Dyer is a Car and Driver senior editor and columnist. He’s now based in North Carolina but still remembers how to turn right. He owns a 2009 GEM e4 and once drove 206 mph. Those facts are mutually exclusive. More

  • in

    2024 Subaru BRZ tS Is a Sharper Scalpel

    In the Floriopoli pit garages, along the route of Sicily’s Targa Florio road race, there’s a roughly translated warning from the mayor to the residents of a local town. Dating to the race’s early days—which correspond to the invention of cars themselves—it reads, “Listen, listen. Tomorrow there is the car races. Keep inside the house children, dogs, pigs, and chickens. Who dies, dies because of their own fault, and the mayor does not take the responsibility!” We don’t know if a similar warning went out before we showed up with the 2024 Subaru BRZ tS, but we didn’t see any chickens.Like Le Mans, the Targa Florio temporarily repurposed local roads as a racetrack. Unlike Le Mans, each lap included more than 2000 corners, most of them diabolical. If you’re looking for blind, off-camber, downhill, decreasing-radius, bumpy, wet, gravel-strewn corners, you might find all of that in a single left-hander in Sicily. Into this crucible Subaru threw the BRZ tS, which includes choice upgrades to the brakes and dampers. To paraphrase a certain mayor, whoever slides off a mountain, slides off because of their own fault, and the Subaru does not take the responsibility!Although the tS doesn’t receive any additional horsepower, its 228 was more than enough for the sodden Sicilian backroads that comprise the Targa Florio route. The tS does get upgraded brakes—fixed four-piston Brembo calipers up front, two-piston at the rear, both squeezing upsize rotors—and we imagine they’ll help improve the BRZ’s Lightning Lap showing. Their gold-painted calipers will provide a flex on any standard-issue Toyota GR86 you might encounter. (The GR86 Performance package, though, is the BRZ tS equivalent, with the same Brembos.)More important on the bumpy goat paths of rural Sicily, though, were the tS’s STI-tuned Hitachi dampers. The front dampers include variable valving to limberly accommodate high-frequency washboard while remaining general-purpose firm. It’s a purely passive system, but one that allows the tS to absorb surprisingly harsh impacts. The rear dampers have single-stage valving, and you can tell the difference when the front end gallops smartly over a heave in the pavement and then the rear end does a little mule kick over the same bump.Aesthetically, the BRZ tS is defined by the dark-gray-metallic finish on its 18-inch wheels (like the Limited, shod with 215/40R-18 Michelin Pilot Sport 4 summer tires) and tS-specific grille and trunk badging. It also gets a subtle red BRZ logo at the corner of the headlights and black paint on the mirrors and roof antenna. Inside, there’s a prominent blue stripe on the seats, and the red starter button wears a slightly disingenuous STI logo. (There’s another STI logo on the instrument cluster too.) Dash trim is blacked out, and the seats are upholstered in black Ultrasuede. Like all 2024 BRZs, the tS is fitted with the EyeSight driver-assist system, which was previously available only on automatic-transmission cars because Subaru wasn’t sure how to handle potential manual-transmission stalling problems when the car brakes on its own. The solution? Well, it’ll stall. But better to stall and not hit something, goes the logic. In keeping with its mission, the tS is manual only.If the BRZ tS isn’t a full-send STI product, neither does it command a full STI upcharge. The tS costs $2650 more than a manual-transmission Limited, for a range-topping $36,465. That still seems like a bargain for one of our favorite sports cars, a 10Best winner in any form. It would have been nice if the roads dried out and we could’ve leaned on those big Brembos a little more, but the snotty weather helped remind us why we love this car in the first place, with the tail sliding benignly through second-gear corners as the flat-four chattered toward its 7000-rpm horsepower peak. The Targa Florio was last run in 1977, but behind the wheel of the right kind of car, you might imagine you were there. Watch out for those chickens.More on the BRZSpecificationsSpecifications
    2024 Subaru BRZ tSVehicle Type: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 4-passenger, 2-door coupe
    PRICE
    Base: $36,465
    ENGINE
    DOHC 16-valve flat-4, aluminum block and heads, direct fuel injectionDisplacement: 146 in3, 2387 cm3Power: 228 hp @ 7000 rpmTorque: 184 lb-ft @ 3700 rpm
    TRANSMISSION
    6-speed manual
    DIMENSIONS
    Wheelbase: 101.4 inLength: 167.9 inWidth: 69.9 inHeight: 51.6 inPassenger Volume, F/R: 48/30 ft3Cargo Volume: 6 ft3Curb Weight (C/D est): 2850 lb
    PERFORMANCE (C/D EST)
    60 mph: 5.4 sec100 mph: 13.3 sec1/4-Mile: 13.9 secTop Speed: 140 mph
    EPA FUEL ECONOMY (C/D EST)
    Combined/City/Highway: 22/20/27 mpgEzra Dyer is a Car and Driver senior editor and columnist. He’s now based in North Carolina but still remembers how to turn right. He owns a 2009 GEM e4 and once drove 206 mph. Those facts are mutually exclusive. More

  • in

    2024 Honda Passport TrailSport Ventures Further from Mere Cosplay

    Honda’s TrailSport badge started as pure cowboy cosplay, adding visual flair but little else to the automaker’s two-row mid-size SUV. In our test of a 2022 Passport TrailSport, we felt it fell short of the mark and could stand to pack some true off-road credentials. Honda decided to remedy that for 2024 with some hardware changes, namely to the suspension and tires, and the results show that Honda was able to make these changes without sullying the Passport’s primary mission of reliable family drayage.That 2022 Passport TrailSport we tested rode on 18-inch 245/60R-18 Firestone Destination LE2 all-season tires—fine shoes for mall-crawling, sure, but not exactly built for whipping down muddy ruts. Now, the TrailSport comes standard with same-sized General Grabber A/T Sport all-terrain tires, sporting some chunky treads. A brief foray into the dirt reveals plenty of traction, but how do they fare in more commonly occurring scenarios? Quite well, actually. Our ears pick up some extra tire noise at low speeds, and we can hear a little extra slap over expansion joints and the like, but the Generals don’t exhibit tramlining on grooved pavement, and the noise level at highway speeds sounds about even with the 2022 model. But you can’t have it all, folks; when we get the Passport onto our 300-foot skidpad, we expect grip levels to decrease compared to the all-seasons. Something’s gotta give. While the tires will be a big help in the dirt, they aren’t alone. Honda also made tweaks to the Passport TrailSport’s suspension. Specifically, both the springs and passive dampers have been retuned for the dirt, and the anti-roll bars promise more articulation. We weren’t able to spend much time off-road, but the time that was spent there revealed more capability than before. Softening everything up and adding articulation can help when you’re off the beaten path, but it has the possibility of turning the on-road ride quality into Victorian orphan gruel. That is thankfully not the case here, as the Passport retains good body control in daily driving scenarios, leaning more cushy than mushy.Since its inception, the Passport has offered gobs of cargo space and a very livable cabin, but Honda decided to throw a little love in that direction as well. The old center console has been swapped out for a larger one. A big armrest hinges upward to reveal enough space to throw a purse or a small shopping bag, while the wireless device charger ahead of the shift buttons changes orientations, making room for another small tchotchke tray. A front USB-C port will make for zippier charging too. The display scheme doesn’t change: The TrailSport’s partial-digital gauge cluster and 8.0-inch center touchscreen are still tilted toward the sunroof for some reason.We regret to inform you that Honda’s slick new dual-overhead-cam V-6 has not made its way down from the Pilot (yet). The Passport makes do with the same 3.5-liter single-cam VTEC V-6 as before, making the same 280 horsepower and 262 pound-feet of torque, which gets routed to all four wheels via a nine-speed automatic transmission. There isn’t a whole lot of oomph in the lower half of the tachometer, but if you wring it out, you’ll get treated to some fun VTEC cam-profile crossover sounds. The 2022 Passport TrailSport required 6.0 seconds to reach 60 mph in our hands, and the 2024 model should perform similarly. The 2024 Honda Passport TrailSport starts at $45,875, and its $900 year-over-year price bump seems appropriate given all the new kit thrown in. But if you still want to ramp up the window dressing, Honda will oblige. Honda Performance Development packages will add black 18-inch alloy wheels, black lug nuts, taillight accents, and a different grille for $2250—or $2800 if you also want fender flares. Our example included a dealer-installed oil-pan protector, but we still wish a suspension lift was offered for even more capability.More on the Honda PassportWhether you want to play dress up or not, the TrailSport’s honest-to-goodness off-road-friendly additions should give owners the confidence to venture a little farther from the parking lot without feeling like the daily experience has been compromised in the process.SpecificationsSpecifications
    2024 Honda Passport TrailSportVehicle Type: front-engine, all-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door wagon
    PRICE
    Base: $45,875
    ENGINE
    SOHC 24-valve V-6, aluminum block and heads, direct fuel injectionDisplacement: 212 in3, 3471 cm3Power: 280 hp @ 6000 rpmTorque: 262 lb-ft @ 4700 rpm
    TRANSMISSION
    9-speed automatic
    DIMENSIONS
    Wheelbase: 110.9 inLength: 189.1 inWidth: 78.6 inHeight: 72.2 inPassenger Volume, F/R: 58/57 ft3Cargo Volume, Behind F/R: 78/41 ft3Curb Weight (C/D est): 4250 lb
    PERFORMANCE (C/D EST)
    60 mph: 6.0 sec1/4-Mile: 14.6 secTop Speed: 115 mph
    EPA FUEL ECONOMY
    Combined/City/Highway: 21/19/24 mpgCars are Andrew Krok’s jam, along with boysenberry. After graduating with a degree in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2009, Andrew cut his teeth writing freelance magazine features, and now he has a decade of full-time review experience under his belt. A Chicagoan by birth, he has been a Detroit resident since 2015. Maybe one day he’ll do something about that half-finished engineering degree. More