I’ve long been a hydrogen fuel-cell skeptic. But after laying out my case against “the fuel of the future” in a recent drive comparison of the Toyota Mirai and Hyundai Nexo, a reader from Down Under pointed me to recent research by Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) that promises to address many

Alex Trebek looks at you and then carefully reads the card: “While one of them rests on a ladder frame, the other has unibody construction” and then he looks up. If you were a Jeopardy contestant and shouted “What is the difference between an SUV and a Crossover?” Alex would announce, “Correct!” You’d win the

As we’ve been informing you here, auto racing is all canceled or postponed. Ditto auto production, auto shows, classic concours, cars-n-coffee confabs, and pretty much everything else for the next several weeks, minimum. If it all has you on edge*, perhaps there’s no better time to engage in a bit of social drinking via video

The company email read: “Our vast employee population across a footprint covering most of the globe is working remotely, and will do so for the next two weeks, or more if necessary.” This whole working home thing due to the coronavirus outbreak is going to take some getting used to here at Casa Reynolds. My

What’s a life worth? The answer probably depends on the life in question. Young or old? Related to me or not? Well, relax, this isn’t another robocar-chooses-nuns-or-baby-carriage treatise. It’s a tale of two technologies aimed at saving 300 to 400 lives per year—but at dramatically different costs. The first is the reverse camera, which became

Daimler may have invented the automobile, and Ford may have invented the automobile factory, but General Motors invented the modern automobile company. When GM was founded in 1908, there were 253 automakers in the United States, all with entrepreneurs and engineers, dollar-men and dreamers, vying to make their fortunes with a technology that was going

As North America’s appetite for sport utility vehicles continues to swell year after year, automakers are responding by making SUVs to fill every nook and cranny of the market. There are now crossovers and SUVs for every occasion—be it large, small, extra-small, off-road, on-road, and even on-track. As a result, picking the one that’s right

Whenever a little rain falls on the streets and freeways of Los Angeles, the city’s drivers seem to fall apart. Rates of accidents, commute times, and tempers all go through the proverbial roof. But driving in the rain doesn’t have to be stressful or particularly treacherous. Common-sense tips like not being in a hurry to

Turbine cars seemed inevitable in 1963, when 50 Chrysler Turbine demonstrators hit the streets. Low parts count, reduced maintenance, and absolute smoothness were the selling points, but by 1979 efficiency and emissions woes scuppered the automotive turbine. Now, micro-turbine range extenders like those in Jaguar’s C-X75 and Mitsubishi’s MI-Tech concepts are beginning to hit the road.

The Land Rover Defender is getting a complete redesign, and although designers worked hard to modernize its iconic exterior, customers will be spending all of their time in the new interior, which brings a mix of outdoor and elegant cues that give the cabin a modern look. Here are four things we like and two

When Tesla Motors rolled out its original Model S in fall 2011, some folks (myself included) were a bit underwhelmed by the rather restrained styling of Elon Musk’s opening salvo in the electric vehicle wars. To me, it looked like a next-gen Mazda6, which wouldn’t have been a reach—given that Musk had poached Mazda U.S.

Back in September, I took a small team from MotorTrend to see the Tesla Cybertruck, in very early stages of its conceptual design. Tesla told us we were the first outsiders, and only media outlet to see the vehicle, period. By the time you read this, the Tesla’s game-changing truck will already have broken the

Let’s settle a few issues right up front. Pickup trucks have been defined in exactly the same way for almost 100 years with a three-box design–hood, cabin, and bed. In fact, it takes just seven lines to draw them–up, across, up, across, down, across and down. Now comes the Tesla Cybertruck, trying not only to

Being seated way up in row F, I had to twist my head way around to inspect the audience behind me. But the theater looked packed, which is saying something. Regal Edwards Big Newport is something of a cinema cavern, claiming to have the biggest screen on the West Coast (40 feet tall and 80

Much will be written about the Tesla Cybertruck, but we wanted to focus like a laser here, specifically regarding its off-roading credibility. Much of what we know so far is admittedly superficial, and plenty of time will be needed behind the wheel to really know how this truck performs. With that said, at first glance,

You just can’t smell what stinks from your phone; sometimes, you’ve gotta actually see the cars, trucks, and SUVs in person to determine what’s hot and what’s not. And when it comes to the 2019 Los Angeles Auto Show, the editors of MotorTrend have comprehensively covered the new-car debuts to bring you this special list.

It has been another fascinating year for the auto industry, with product highlights ranging from the much-anticipated mid-engine Corvette to a string of Tesla-challenging EVs to a swath of three-row SUVs and heavy-duty trucks. As usual, there was drama in the executive ranks of the automakers that make these vehicles happen. The most tumultuous was

Imitation, they say, is the sincerest form of flattery. Well, Bob Petersen would have been pretty flattered to see how often the Big Idea he came up with 70 years ago—the MotorTrend Car of the Year—has been imitated. In the United States and around the world, variants of our Of The Year awards are now

We’ve always been a big-tent operation at MotorTrend, particularly for our longest running, most important editorial programs: Car, Truck, and SUV of the Year. In the ’70s, it wasn’t uncommon to find non-staffers on the jury that decided Car of the Year. Famous interlopers included Dan Gurney, Peter Brock, and even the big boss, Robert

Toyoharu Tanabe is President and Technical Director of Honda Racing Development UK, Ltd, which means he’s basically the big boss for Honda’s Formula 1 program, which supports the Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso teams. Honda has been involved in top-level Grand Prix racing since the ’60s, but this latest stint wasn’t going very well,

Except that good content like MotorTrend ‘s Best Driver’s Car costs a small fortune to produce. Sure, we could pile in a few cars, drive around for a day, then kick back and write a couple snarky blogs. But if you want something that actually adds value to the lives of your subscribers … well, that

Hard to believe this is our 12th edition of Best Driver’s Car. Some may recall the original concept, Best Handling Car, and all of the sensors, stickers, and other gear we attached to the season’s hottest sports cars, all in the name of determining what makes great-handling cars so great. Over time, we moved to

I credit Jeremy, James, and Richard—among many others—with jumpstarting my love for cars. I’m sure many members of the millennial generation do. After just one episode of Top Gear I decided my life, in some form or another, had to align with the automobile. As a result, I owe the boys a bit of a

Carbon fiber seems relatively good for the environment—it makes cars and planes so much lighter that they get way better gas mileage, right? True, but this simple analysis forgives the fact that cured carbon-fiber structures are extremely energy-intensive to produce. That’s why BMW sourced the carbon fiber for its i3 and i8 cars from Moses

We owe Chris Bangle an apology. The avant-garde BMW designer was roundly castigated when his provocative reworks of the 5 Series and 7 Series sedans hit the streets in the early 2000s. The undercut bodysides, contorted surfacing, and edgy detailing offended the auto industry’s chattering classes. Yet even the so-called “Bangle butt,” the squared-off trunklid

Just now, I watched a mini-marathon of Buster Keaton movies on Turner Classic Movies followed by a good documentary that its director, Peter Bogdonovich, made about him last year. Actually, I went to see this when it was showing at the Nuart Theatre’s big screen in Santa Monica. Along with about twelve other people, I

Morning: The last time I walked through these doors, this was a functioning car factory. Now I feel like a tomb raider. An early ’90s keyboard and computer sit on a deserted desk, the plastic yellowed with age. Off to the left is the dramatic circular space that once housed a showroom, engineering office, and

It’s always entertaining to watch Clarkson, Hammond, and May test the new flavor-of-the-month supercar on the track. But honestly, even the hottest pieces of sheetmetal tend to blur together over the course of 25-plus seasons. So it’s the wacky, unusual rides from the show that I remember the most. After all, Top Gear is about the

There were few options for those looking for a small truck five or six years ago. But today, many competitors populate the space, as automakers have realized that lots of consumers are looking for something smaller and less expensive than a full-size truck. Fortunately, today’s small pickup trucks are more capable than ever. Keep reading

At the start of the 2019 Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance, I found myself at the front of the pack of this year’s participants, a highly curated collection of some of the rarest (and most valuable) motorcars in the world—including a 1932 Mercedes-Benz SSKL, a girthy and raw metal reproduction of one of the company’s famed