Martin Padgett, Editorial Director
Articles
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There’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...
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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...
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2018 Porsche Panamera first drive review: baser instinctsWhat’s the biggest sacrifice you’ve ever had to make? Drip coffee at home instead of a drive-thru latte? The middle seat in back, in coach? Okay, breathe. The base 2018 Porsche Panamera won’t trigger any gasps like those commonplace horrors. We’ve driven all kinds of...
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2019 Kia K900 video first look: 2018 New York auto showKia plunged into old-school luxury a few years ago with the big K900. Then it had a better idea: it sidetracked into BMW territory and came out with the terrific Stinger. Now it’s applied those lessons learned, as it revamps its most expensive model, the 2019 Kia K900. The new K900 strips...
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New Mercedes CLA/GLA due late this year, with Apple-like MBUX and plug-in electric powerThe new compact family of Mercedes-Benz cars due late this year will introduce a new architecture and eventually, more body styles than today’s CLA/GLA cars. Ola Källenius, Daimler AG’s head of research and product development, said on Tuesday at the Geneva Motor Show that Mercedes...
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2019 Bentley Bentayga V8 first drive review: 8 is enoughBurnt coffee, unlined trousers, post-Achtung Baby U2. Life is rife with mild disappointments. With four fewer cylinders under its hood than its W-12 cousin, does the V-8 Bentley Bentayga deliver another? Math with us here for a moment. A W-12 Bentayga with 600 horsepower lashes out at 60-mph runs...
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The next Toyota Supra will revive its signature inline-6 engine because the car’s fans demand it.
Even so, it’ll have a lower center of gravity than the flat-4-powered Toyota 86,...
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2018 Buick Regal GS first drive review: six appealThe 2018 Buick Regal GS wears lots of letters and words on its flanks and in its cabin. Two you won’t find? “Gran Sport.” That moniker’s a relic of an era when rear-drive Buicks prowled the roads, leaded fuel their Muscle Milk. Today’s Buicks lean heavily on recently...
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2019 Porsche Cayenne first drive review: an epoch-ending SUVBack in the 1980s, Porsche knew it could build an SUV. And it knew a Porsche SUV would sell well. It finally got around to building that first Cayenne in 2002. Instincts: correct. Since then, it’s sold more than 770,000 of them. It’s so successful, Porsche now sells a smaller Macan SUV...
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Acura ARX-05 prototype race car bows at The QuailAcura will field this new prototype race car, the ARX-05, in the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the automaker announced Friday. The fifth-generation endurance racer takes the ORECA 07 chassis and powers it with a distant relative of the V-6 engine Acura fits to its sedans and SUVs...
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Here's how the 2019 Audi A8 will become the first Level 3 self-driving car**Rules and restrictions apply. Void where prohibited. With the launch of its 2019 A8 in Barcelona on July 11, Audi is marketing itself as the first company to sell a Level 3 self-driving car. The technology isn't legal yet in many markets, but Audi says the new A8 will have the hardware and...
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Hyundai N performance brand aims for America: will it be Veloster first?The air’s thick around the Hyundai R&D facility in Namyang, South Korea. It’s summer. It’s humid. Dust from beyond Beijing blows in from the west and turns the sky to cement. The air’s thick with excitement, too. It’s the first time a slew of global journalists get...
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It’s a spectacular summer day in Montreal, and not just because it’s 80 degrees. It’s Formula One week, and the remote buzz is audible even downtown as F1 drivers crackle off...
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2018 Porsche Panamera 4S first drive review: the quiet hereticWhat’s a little heresy among friends? Porsche put out its first Cayenne SUV in 2003, and oh, the hand-wringing, the garment-rending. The haterade flowed like Dom in the VIP room or so we’ve heard. Porsche 911 loyalists–mostly, people who’d never driven one–hauled their...
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2018 Lexus LC 500 first drive reviewSEVILLE, Spain--If you remember the very first days of Lexus, you remember the clever ads: the champagne glasses on the hood of the car, the ball bearing rolling down its hood, the "relentless pursuit of perfection." Forget it all. Now Lexus is chasing after world-class luxury and performance with...
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2018 Mercedes-AMG E63 first drive review: the deep-knee BenzIt's time to come clean, friends. Don't worry, You're in a safe space here. Just admit it. You're power-hungry. But just how much power will it take to get your fix? 300? 400? 500? How about 603 horsepower—stuffed into the latest, greatest version of the Benz E-Class? Works for us. We're just...
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Alfa Romeo planning lots of new cars, but which will make it to US?Alfa Romeo is widely expected to launch a new Stelvio SUV at next week's Los Angeles auto show. Beyond that new vehicle, what else does Fiat Chrysler Automobiles have up its sleeve for the sporty Italian brand? Autocar reports that Alfa will launch up to nine new vehicles in the next five years...
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Jeep Renegade Altitude, Deserthawk to bow at the 2016 LA Auto ShowTwo new editions of the Jeep Renegade will make their debut at the 2016 Los Angeles Auto Show, which opens to the media and the public next week. Neither of the new editions makes any big changes to the running gear on the Renegade. Taking the easier route to the show is the Renegade Altitude. It...
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The Porsche Boxster and Cayman are brilliant sports cars, but they're not so different as the names might suggest — they’re basically the same car, aside from that minor roof thing. So...
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2017 Nissan Sentra SR Turbo first drive reviewFaulkner famously told us the past isn't dead; it isn't even past. We can't prove it, but we think he had the Nissan Sentra SE-R in mind. The 1991-1994 SE-R set the cheap-car benchmark for a generation: a flyweight car with feathery controls and a lamprey lock on the pavement. Think ersatz M3 with...
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2018 Mercedes-AMG GT Roadster gets Paris auto show debutIt's been rumored, suggested, hinted, even teased—now, the Mercedes-AMG GT roadster is reality. (Insert your own "topless" buff-book pun here.) The roadster arrived at this week's Paris auto show wearing two different outfits, as both the AMG GT and the GT C Roadster. And now we have photos...
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2017 Land Rover Discovery previewThe Discovery is back. Land Rover will revive the nameplate it retired in the 2005 model year, while it sends the LR4 nameplate to the archives. The new Discovery will team up with the Discovery Sport on the more rugged side of the Land Rover brand, while the luxury side of the house continues to...
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2017 Nissan Sentra SR Turbo pumps out 188 hp, thanks to the Juke
It's been forever since the Nissan Sentra SE-R was a machine to be feared--but this year, a new Sentra SR Turbo gives us hope that its tossable, rev-happy spirit lives on. The 2017 Sentra SR Turbo gets its start as a stock Sentra SR, complete with its 124-hp, naturally aspirated inline-4. Yank that...
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New Kia Rio revealed ahead of 2016 Paris auto showToday's Kia Rio has earned a reputation for tight-fisted fuel economy and decent road manners, but not one for driving excitement. That could be due to change as a new, fourth-generation Rio makes its world debut this month at the 2016 Paris auto show. Kia says the Rio's new shape was a joint...
Martin Padgett