First Drive Reviews

Have you ever considered driving your living room around a racetrack? Toyota would like you to think it's possible, and is why it decided to compete in the One Lap of America with a pair of Sienna minivans. One Lap concluded this past weekend, and both vans completed the 12-state, 3,500-mile trip...

The Porsche 911 isn’t just a car. It’s car history, one of the foundation garments on the body of work that includes everything from the Model T to the Beetle to the Corvette. Catch us on the right day and we'd argue the 911 is one of the cars mankind will be measured by, if there's...

The 2016 BMW X5 xDrive40e—that’s the new plug-in hybrid version of the X5 sport-utility vehicle—is going to draw you in with its numbers: 0-60 mph in 6.5 seconds; 14 miles in all-electric mode; 24 mpg combined. The numbers add up to an alluring (and image-greening) idea: that you...

Believe it or not, it's possible to get a bit jaded with all of today's automotive machinery. When you drive all manner of new automobiles, they start to blur together. Don't think I don't love what I do, but also realize that your average mid-size sedan starts to look an awful lot like the one...

Montenegro is mostly off the radar of Americans. We kind of know Yugoslavia, even though it no longer exists. Montenegro's a part of the former Yugoslavia, a rocky promontory wedged between Croatia and Albania, deep in Game of Thrones territory. Largely unscathed by the decades of civil war that...

Automotive quiz question: Which automaker has had the worst engine on the market for, oh, the last decade or so? Surprisingly, the answer is Lexus. The Japanese luxury brand's 2.5-liter V-6 offered little in the way of power, and made up for that shortcoming by delivering mediocre fuel economy. And...

Roadsters like the 2017 Mercedes-Benz SLC aren’t exactly in vogue right now. The Honda S2000 faded away a few years ago. BMW Z4 sales have fizzled to levels far below those of the more expensive 6-Series Convertible. Porsche’s pushed the Boxster upmarket. And the only bright spot on the...

Audi has come a long way since the days of the original Quattro. That all-wheel-drive original changed minds about which wheels should drive a performance car. But the Quattro wasn't quite a sports car, and it would take Audi another two decades before it would field an actual rival for cars like...

Talk up the feel of the wind in your hair and the natural high of sunshine as you will; but in the world of convertibles, there are those that cruise the scene, and there are those that help make the scene. The 2017 S-Class Cabriolet lineup is without question in the latter group. It’s a true...

Last night we were treated to the reveal of Tesla Motors’ [NSDQ:TSLA] all-new Model 3 electric sports sedan. Shortly after the reveal we also received a quick ride in the car. While Tesla only had pre-production models on hand, the cars were said to be representative of the production model...

Volkswagen has an issue on its hands with its diesel vehicles. You know this. The entire world knows this. That's because when you apply the suffix "-gate" to the end of anything, it automatically becomes a big deal. Diesels, however, aren't the only thing the automaker has to offer besides...

“We were sick of wearing the scarlet letter of mass with the fifth-gen Camaro.” That’s what Camaro chief engineer Al Oppenheiser told journalists at the launch program for the 2016 Camaro convertible and 4-cylinder. To reduce mass from the 2010-2015-generation Camaro, Chevrolet...

Halo cars aren't designed to be best sellers. They're vital vanity projects--succinct statements of all a car company wants to be, and what it can do. They can be culture-shifters. Witness the Audi R8, the BMW i8. When it made its debut 25 years ago, the Acura NSX was the brand's first halo car. It...

With its new Cascada, Buick is back in the convertible game after a lengthy absence, but all is not what it seems. This new Buick Cascada droptop, with its clean lines and big wheels, wasn’t penned in California. It wasn’t engineered in Detroit. It wasn’t even built in the...

The car world is hurtling off on new and exciting and in some cases, highly speculative vectors. From Tesla to Google to Apple, a batch of new auto arrivals are owning the tech mantle without having built generations of backstory. Or even a business case. They haven't left the old guard behind just...

Dynamic Digital Suspension, Direct Adaptive Steering, Active Lane Control, and a Drive Mode Selector with more than 300 possibilities. These are all available on the updated 2016 Infiniti Q50. But can a sport sedan with so many electronic nannies have a soul? I traveled to San Antonio, Texas, to...

What’s the best pick for a sun-drenched, cross-country luxury-car road trip for two—on a route that doesn’t shy away from challenging mountain two-laners? The set of contenders has reshuffled over the years, but the Mercedes-Benz SL holds strong on the shortlist. For 2017, this...

When McLaren decided it wanted to get back to offering cars for the road, the world was graced with the presence of the MP4-12C. Being the highly proficient team that ever quests for both "more" and "better", the 12C soon gave way to the 650S supercar and the P1 hypercar. Each machine is a...

The 2016 BMW M2 is, at long last, the M car that doesn’t try to please everyone—and will, because of that, end up pleasing far more driving enthusiasts in ways that matter. Get a group of longtime BMW enthusiasts together to talk cars—the ins and outs of the uncompromised...

It wasn't that long ago that 300 horsepower was exceptional, 400 was the domain of Corvettes, and 500 was reserved for supercars. Then we saw a 662-horsepower Mustang and 707-horsepower Hellcats, and soon the 600-horsepower club had double-digit members. Add two more cars to that club for the 2016...