Martin Padgett, Editorial Director
Articles
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It’s a chainsaw in a box, revving behind your right ear. It’s firm, direct, unflappable. The 2020 Mercedes-Benz CLA35 AMG is a dab of Gorilla Glue applied right to the road.
With more...
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Review: The 2020 Mercedes-Benz GLB 250 plays all the right anglesBenz’s new crossover SUV, the GLB 250, skips the softer stuff—at least, on the outside.
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Gone in 60 seconds? Bentley Continental GT Pikes Peak edition limited to 15 copiesYou'll need a fast internet connection to grab one of Bentley's back-patting Continental GTs—and a nice cash stash won't hurt, either.
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Wild horses, part three: The land of second chancesCinders from a campfire pop and explode like fireworks somewhere in the desert outside Yuma. They trace arcs toward an infinite number of stars in the ink-black sky above, each its own possible world, an infinite number of futures spinning out of reach in dizzy orbit. The sparks turn to ash, then...
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Wild horses, part two: Horses with no namesNobody needs a mustang, but the United States of America owns thousands of them. Some roam the dun-colored hills outside the indistinct suburbia that shrouds Reno, Nevada, out past the legion Banks of America and Starbucks and Home Depots, past the dreary model homes at Shadow Ridge. Misty gray sky...
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Wild horses, part one: The misfitsMrs. Velma Johnston typed letters, filed carbon copies, and answered the phone at the insurance office where she worked as a secretary. She dressed conservatively, smiled often, and spoke kindly. She sat with good posture, as good as she was able, as long as she could. Her husband Charlie drove her...
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First drive review: The 2020 Lincoln Aviator Black Label pilots a winning luxury course Martin PadgettThe Navigator fired a clear warning shot in the direction of Cadillac’s Escalade. Now with the 2020 Aviator, Lincoln’s taking down the Caddy XT6 before that luxury SUV can find any blue...
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First drive review: The 2019 Porsche Cayenne Turbo sets all the thirst trapsThe 2019 Porsche Cayenne Turbo isn’t just the ultimate performance SUV—it’s a taste of the electric Taycan to come.
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A life during wartime: Jamie Farr, the most famous Jeep driver in historyThe Jeep was always a part of Jamie Farr’s life during wartime in Toledo. Then it followed him to Hollywood.
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First drive review: The 2020 Jaguar XE puts gravity on holdWith the 2020 XE, Jaguar puts its compact sport-sedan hopes in simple turbo-4 power, excellent handling, and a best-in-class warranty.
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First drive review: The 2019 Jaguar F-Pace SVR is no performance mirageWe drive the 2019 Jaguar F-Pace SVR, and find the 550-hp, V-8-powered performance SUV brings new meaning to the words "performance SUV."
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I work the line: What it’s like to assemble a 2019 Volvo S60Volvo takes us behind the curtain at its new assembly plant in South Carolina, and lets Motor Authority install the windshield on your next S60 luxury sedan—with a lot of help.
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First drive review: The 2020 Land Rover Range Rover Evoque adds more gray with its own Grecian formula Martin Padgett“Sweaters and lunch,” my co-pilot points ahead.
The flock of sheep being herded across the road ahead can’t tell the difference between our Range Rover Evoque and the grass they...
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First drive review: The 2019 BMW X7 has grit, grille, and grandeurSomewhere on the interstate between Columbia and Charleston, South Carolina, it finally clicks, like the incessant drops of rain on the glass. We’re not getting any decent weather on this first drive of the 2019 BMW X7. No useful turns, either. The descent into Low Country evaporates all hope...
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First drive review: The 2019 Subaru WRX STI S209 has zero chillIn the shadow of an active volcano, a pop-up city rises up and shouts in unison. The noise bounces off the tarmac and visibly shakes the delicious vapors that rise from nearby food trucks. The young women in long ponytails and short blue satin shorts who cheerlead from a low stage have to be...
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First drive review: The 2019 BMW Z4 sDrive30i revives the roadsterCoachella is a town, not a thing. For the 356 days a year when Boy Pablo and Childish Gambino aren’t in residence, it’s a prosaic farm community, where highlighter-pink and yellow signs hawk Medjool dates, shaken fresh from the trees that tower over checkerboards of agri-business green...
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First drive review: The 2019 Acura NSX grips better, and gives moreNorth Georgia roads bustle in the spring but crowds thin when browned leaves and cool north winds arrive. It’s just warm enough to keep the windows down and the tires warm. In other words, it’s perfect NSX weather. The 2019 Acura NSX doesn’t veer far off the course Acura plotted...
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2019 BMW 3-Series first drive review: Benchmark or bookmark?The BMW 3-Series has made bank for decades off its undeniable clout. With its mastery of nimble steering feel and brilliant balanced handling, it’s oozed something from its pores that seeps into brains of enthusiasts like sugar, or mercury. When we talk about “sport sedans”...
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Ford’s ST badge hails from Europe, where it’s adorned a couple of decades’ worth of Cougars, Pumas, Mondeos, Focuses and Fiestas.
In the U.S. we’ve danced with the Focus ST...
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2019 Rolls-Royce Cullinan first drive review: Tetonic shiftIn Jackson, Wyoming, things get a little weird. More than a half a million people live in the entire state, most of them in modest small towns never far from staggeringly beautiful wilds. Jackson’s the same, just different. It's filthy rich, overrun by Cheneys and Gateses and their ilk. The...
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2019 Aston Martin DBS Superleggera first drive review: Dead serious, dead sexyTwelve-cylinder engines are an endangered automotive species. Only a handful are left: Mercedes and Maybach share one, and so do BMW and Rolls-Royce. Ferrari has its holdout—and it’s impossible to leave out Bentley’s W-12, though its offbeat cylinder layout makes it an outlier...
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2019 Mercedes-Benz C300 and C43 first drive review: Subtle upgrades, big safetyA web of country roads casts a romantic net between the alpha world cities of Paris and Frankfurt. Where maps pare down to two-lane roads, the Moselle Valley unfurls vast expanses of lush green carpet, sun-spotted by a yellow haze of wildflowers, lidded by a cobalt-blue sky. Lucky steers and...
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2018 Porsche 911 GT3 first drive review: Country roads and chicken liversThere’s one place where you can get great fried chicken livers on a Sunday morning in Georgia, before church is out. It’s a low-ceiling kind of place, tacked on to a gas station, the hallmark of fine low-priced dining across the south. Over the first glorious spring weekend this year, I...
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2019 Mercedes-Benz G550 and AMG G63 first drive review: flying bricks and off-road tricksWe’re far off charted roads, somewhere in France’s L’Occitanie region, on some family estate where wine and off-roading are baronial hobbies, when I first take a peek in the rearview mirror. As I crash a 2019 Mercedes-AMG G63 through trashcan-sized holes and muddy slip-n-slides...
Martin Padgett