Car guides

The Rolls-Royce Cullinan is the most luxurious SUV in the world (sorry Bentayga, but it is). The BMW X7, despite many reporting it is the most luxurious, actually isn’t. I’ll be modest in my unpretentious estimates and say that the BMW X7 is the fourth most luxurious production SUV in the world. The Cullinan being the first, the Bentayga the second and, the Land Rover Range Rover is the third. So, yes, I am probably correct - the BMW X7 is the fourth most luxurious SUV in the world. It is also the biggest BMW SUV in the world.

As the world basks in the greatness of the new large BMW X7, whose price starts at $73,900, I am pressed to find all the cool facts about the thing. Or as Doug DeMuro would say, I am listing here all the strange quirks and cool features the BMW X7 has to offer.

You are in for a cool one.

The BMW X7 has arrived, and it’s poised to take the reigns from the X5 as Bavaria’s new flagship SUV. The full-sized behemoth will have its hands full competing against the likes of the Mercedes GLS-Class and the Land Rover Range Rover. For the time being, at least, the X7 will also draw comparisons to the model it’s replacing atop the BMW SUV food chain. Fair or not, the X7 will be compared to the X5, in part to judge the merits of the X7 as Bimmer’s new flagship SUV. The latter now holds the keys to BMW’s SUV kingdom as all eyes will be on it to see if it can elevate the German automaker’s status in the market.

The first time I ever saw the Tesla Model S was sometime in 2012 or 2013 at one of the car shows in Europe. I will guess that it was in Geneva. I left the Tesla stand a bit underwhelmed by its interior, but the performance, the size, and the sheer fact that someone is buying an electric car like that was more than enough to show me its importance. After that, I drove it only once. And not for a long time at that.

Now, finally, I got my third chance with the Tesla Model S at the Continental AG organized event called the #blackchili. In Nice. Yup, the South of France. I know, I am a lucky guy.

This time I had the Tesla Model S for 40 or so miles. Not the P100D, but the one with 373 horsepower. More than enough, believe me. Considering I drove the car for less than 50 miles, it may seem like I don’t have anything to write home about. How can I call this a short test drive then!? Well, I can because I will tell you about the Tesla Model S from the perspective of a guy who drove European cars all his life, and who never really had an EV stint like this.

The rivalry between the BMW 3 Series and the Mercedes C-Class is the automotive equivalent of the rivalry between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. The stakes are different, sure, but there are no two models that are linked to one another than the 3 Series and the C-Class. It’s fitting, too, that just as Mercedes unveiled the 2019 C-Class a few months ago, it didn’t take BMW long to roll out the next-generation 3 Series. With both models offering something new to the table, it’s only fitting that we compare both models to see which one has the edge over the other.

BMW has unveiled the seventh generation 3 Series, signaling a new era for the company’s iconic compact luxury sedan. The new 3 Series is a lot bigger than its predecessor, effectively questioning why we still call it a compact sedan. There’s nothing “compact” about the new 3 Series. Not only is it larger than any 3 Series on record, but it’s also lighter, more powerful, and filled to the brim with a lot of interesting tech features. At launch, the new 3 Series will be available in 330i and 340i trim levels. More versions, including the next-generation M3, will become available in the future. Pricing for the new 3 Series starts at $41,245.

The 2018 Paris Motor Show presented all its gems. Now, apart from hundreds of awesome presentations, great novelties, news, and cars, I am pressed to find the five worst of the show. So, I sunk into the depths of the Internet and my mind and found cars I could maybe describe as underwhelming. Worst? Well, maybe.

Interestingly enough, my list was populated by some of the most amazing manufacturers on earth. The reasoning behind the list is a simple one. I listed here all the cars I don’t actually find worthy of a car show such as the Paris Motor Show due to the lack of real novelties or proper updates.

The Outback has been a historic product in Subaru’s portfolio. This vehicle is for those folks who want the comfort of a sedan and ruggedness of an SUV. Yes, you have subcompact crossovers for that, but the Outback is for people who don’t like crossovers also. Might sound like a niche category, but the Outback is actually Subaru’s Best-selling vehicle in the U.S. The Outback is known for its fuss-free long-term ownership; thus making it a perfect vehicle for families who want a car they can rely on. Come next year, Subaru will launch the fifth generation Outback. But will it be a competitive product and garner customer interest like the generations that came before it? Let’s find out what we can expect from the 2020 Subaru Outback.

The 2018 Paris motor show, officially called the “Mondial de l’Auto,” always provides cool car premieres and this year was no exception, in spite of the many notable absences. But even without manufacturers like Ford, Mazda, Volkswagen, Volvo or even Bentley among others, it provided plenty of new metal for us to examine.

PSA managed to shine on home territory, thanks to the lovely Peugeot e-Legend concept and 508 SW, as well as the new DS3 Crossback, but BMW also took center stage with three production car premieres. Mercedes showed off several new models too, including the EQC all-electric SUV and Skoda launched its first RS-badged SUV alongside the bold Vision RS concept.

Out of all the debuts from the show, I’ve tried to narrow it down to just five cars; here are the five most notable premieres.

The market trend is quickly shifting from sedans to crossovers and SUVs. However, SUVs have two major cons when compared to their segment counterparts - high retail price and poor fuel economy. Even though they are a practical choice thanks to additional cabin and cargo space, it’s a little difficult for everyone to afford an SUV. So why not go for a used SUV instead? You don’t take the depreciation hit that first owner does, and since SUVs are built to last a lifetime, you can get an almost-new SUV at half the original price.

Now that we’ve planted this seed in your head, let’s have a look at the best used SUVs from 2016 with high fuel efficiency.

Just after Ferrari presented their awe-inspiring Monza SP-1 and the Monza SP-2 cars, I had an idea I simply had to explore. For mine and, consequently, your good, I researched a little bit (not a little bit, but quite a bit actually) about the most amazing special edition cars Ferrari ever built. Apart from the Monza SP-1 and the Monza SP-2 I find striking, I am presenting you five other Ferrari special edition cars which proved to be as sensational as the best that ever came out of the Maranello factory. You may call me shortsighted, or whatever, but I did not include any of the V-8 powered Special Edition Ferrari cars. You know what, if you already have the money to spend on a freaking special edition Ferrari that costs millions of dollars, then go all out and buy a proper one - with the V-12. Call me mad, an idiot or just a dumb car guy, but the V-8 powered Ferrari Special Edition can’t be as good as the V-12 powered Ferrari Special Edition car. I found five mesmerizing ones.

Please welcome the heavyweight SUV showdown. This is the Mercedes-Benz GLE versus the BMW X5. No, you will not find out which one is better, nor will I suggest you get one over the other. You will, however, find out how two of the most astounding SUVs of today stack one against another. How do they differ? Do they bring anything new? How cool are they?

I am well aware that many hate SUVs because they find them too flamboyant and too aggressive for the world we live in, but the matter of the fact is that SUVs have become a staple of car design, leaders of technology development, and models that make a lot of money. Every SUV you buy fuels a bit of money into the development of the really cool stuff. So, as far as I’m concerned, you should buy them as much as possible.

With the recent introduction of the BMW X5 and Mercedes-Benz GLE, SUV fandom becomes even richer.

Hindsight is such a wonderful thing, isn’t it? Understanding some things weren’t as amazing as we thought they were in their golden days. The same applies to the tuning style of the “Fast & Furious” era or, rather, the early-to-mid 2000s. Got wings? Got flashy colors? Got the loudest audio setup and tons of screens? It was all about that!

Tuning goes almost as far back as the car itself. Modifying an object, with either functionality or looks in mind, is a natural impulse. Same goes for modifying a car. People used to do it as far back as the beginning of the first decades of the 20th century, switching engines off a Ford V8 and stuffing them in a Ford Model A. Everybody remembers the hot rods in movies like “Grease.”

A lot of the tuning in the early days was carried out with competition in mind, motor racing being a great catalyst of innovative ideas that arose from the need to make a car go faster than it was originally intended to. Generations of “garagisti” – as Enzo Ferrari would call the British racing teams – or shop owners made a living out of improving a car’s natural ability around corners or in matters like acceleration or top speed.

Coupled with the mechanical part came the visual part. If you are to modify your car, you want people to notice it even before you turn the key in the ignition – mind you, unless sleepers are your thing. That’s why the hot rods featured flame graphics on the sides or outlandish pinstriping following the car’s profile. All that evolved into metallic paint jobs, big chromed wheels and many other elements that made people turn their heads, if not in appreciation at least due to sheer awe.

Arguably, the peak of the looks-over-functionality drive was reached somewhere in the early ‘00s with the advent of the “Fast & Furious” franchise. Back then more about cars and illegal street racing than about jumping between skyscrapers, Michael Bay-esque explosions and desert racing, the franchise transformed cars like the Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34) or the Mazda RX-7 (FD) into cult icons that everyone bowed before and adored. And that everyone wanted to mod.

Be it visually or mechanically, Japanese machinery became the go-to platform for tuners in the early part of the new millennium. It wasn’t all due to the fad since these cars had very potent underpinnings that could hold vast amounts of horsepower beyond those offered on the showroom floor, but we’re talking here more about the aesthetic department. Large body kits, huge wheels, colorful everything, vinyl liveries – not to be mistaken by the vinyl trim on Malaise-era land yachts – and earth-pounding sound systems.

Read on to relish the memories of the tuning scene as it was back when many of us were in their teens.

Zagato is the modern equivalent of a coachbuilder and is based in Milan, Italy. It’s been in business since 1919, and over the years it has established itself as a creator of very dramatic looking cars. It has its own design center, and all its creations have a certain Zagato look that you can start to recognize once you’ve seen a wider selection of their cars.

This look has been continued and refined over the decades, and you can spot the visual links between their very latest creations and ones from half a century ago. They have made so many different cars, that it wouldn’t do them justice to try to pick the most notable ones from their nearly 100-year history, so in order to keep things fairly concise for the purpose of this article, I’ll be trying to pick the most striking and interesting ones from the past 20 years.

High-riding vehicles, like crossovers and SUVs are at the height of popularity right now, but they’re not the only way to go if you want practicality and some off-road capability. Crossover style raised wagons are a great alternative and while they can still drive you over a rough field or rutted road with ease, they’re better to drive on road and actually pretty stylish.

They are essentially the wagon versions of different cars which have gained extra ride height and plastic cladding on the outside to protect them from scratches in their most vulnerable points. These vehicles usually have standard all-wheel drive and are usually a higher trim level, so they are not cheap (compared to the vehicle they’re based on) but they also come with a lot of equipment.

Here’s a list of the 13 coolest crossover-style wagons you can buy today.

The world of EVs is ever growing, and as we near a time when there will be no gas to fill our tanks, we realized some of the world’s best-sounding and glorious engines will have to be ditched in favor of electric power. Think of an electric Camaro, Mustang, Corvette, or Lamborghini... does it sound good? Or rather, does it make any sound at all?

With the advent of electrification in the business of car building, you see every major manufacturer scramble to put together a lineup of eco-friendly electric vehicles as a statement of their forward-thinking plans and their bias towards the future of mobility. It all looked foolish almost 20 years ago when Honda introduced the original hybrid Insight, which was shortly followed by Toyota’s Prius, but today, this seems to be the trend that will sell. For some, it might be a marketing ploy to appease a new section of the market, but you can’t dismiss the trend altogether.

Audi just took the wraps off its first fully-electric car, the E-Tron. Mercedes was doing the same just a few weeks ago with its EQC, and just about any manufacturer you can think of has a mid- to long-term plan for at least hybrid, if not electric. For instance, Aston-Martin is looking forward to the year 2030, by which time the British manufacturer’s stable should be made up exclusively of electric cars. Ferrari, well-known for their devotion to making their cars sound perfect, is planning a 60 percent hybridization of its lineup in just four year’s time. You can imagine a Ferrari EV isn’t that far off in the future, then.

All this got us thinking - which cars would you never want to see without a growling V-8, or maybe a high-revving V-12 under the hood? Which car’s move from gas to electric sounds like blasphemy to you? We know there is a Mustang-inspired sports utility vehicle coming from Ford in 2020, and the pony car itself might go electric in the future, so how does that make you feel?

Read on to learn about our top 10 cars that would be blasphemous to turn into EVs.

Crossovers are vehicles designed to look like they can go off-road, but really be at their best on the road. Sure, some can do light off-roading, but realistically you won’t want to stray too far from the blacktop or the occasional bumpy gravel backroad.

To this end it’s not trivial to know which of these 4x4-aping high riders are best out on the open (and sometimes twisty) road, since it’s where they will spend most of their time. But don’t go thinking that they are on par with more conventional car shapes, because their higher center of gravity and usually higher mass will affect handling.

Safety is at the top of buyers’ lists these days, but what many don’t think about when browsing lists of cars rated with safety stars is that good, predictable road manners and sharp handling are one of the biggest safety features a car can have, since they allow the driver to avoid crashing in the first place.

And while crossovers may give occupants a feeling of extra safety when they’re on board, their poor road manners bring this into question.

Here’s a list of the 10 best handling high-riding vehicles ever made.

While most modern cars pack in the safety features and offer plenty of value-per-dollar, there are some out there that seem to stand above the rest. If you’re scouring the used market looking for just the right ride for your new driver, fear not, as we’ve put together a list that outlines ten models that are just a few years old, but still come with just about everything you could want.

Each entry also includes a rundown on crashworthiness, as tested by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, or IIHS, a U.S.-based non-profit organization that conducts research on almost all new cars.

So with that, read on for our list of the ten best-used cars for new drivers.

Retro styling done right in the automotive world can result in a car that buyers instantly feel drawn to because they remember the original from their childhood. Granted, if done wrong, it can look really hideous and out of place, but you won’t find any of those here.

When mainstream manufacturers do it, they spend a lot of time and money to get it just right, and it really shows. Many of these retro-styled cars are bought first and foremost for the way they look, but they are actually just good cars overall. I’ve assembled the ones you can buy new right now, in the list after the jump.

When Mercedes-Benz unveiled the fourth-generation A-Class in 2018, it basically dropped a giant anvil on the hatchback market. Fitted with never-before-seen technology and infused with design cues from the bigger sedans inside and out, the new A-Class trumps the BMW 1 Series and the Audi A3 in just about every department. With a handful of models already available, Mercedes-Benz just unveiled the AMG A35. Offered for the first time, it slots above the A250 and below the upcoming AMG A45.

The A35 is Mercedes’ answer to the long-standing Audi S3 and BMW M135i and arrives just when these two hatchbacks are getting a bit long in the tooth. But while the 1 Series is almost out of the market, to be replaced by a front-wheel-drive model, the S3 was facelifted recently and will be around for a few more years. That’s why we decided to throw the S3 into the lion’s den and find out how it compares to the new Mercedes-AMG A35.

The world of resto-mods is the promise land of beautiful, vintage, bodyworks on top of modern, state of the art, powertrains with performance figures that embarrass modern sports cars. Be it an Alfa Romeo on steroids, a Mercedes bettered by AMG themselves, a Bronco that looks 35 years old but very much isn’t under the skin, the variety in restomods is ever increasing with quality as the main differentiator between the good, the really good and the exceptional.

The automotive industry has created some real design icons over the years, cars like the Mercedes 300 SL, the Alfa Romeo Giulia GTA, or the Porsche 911 remain etched into the minds of many petrolheads. Such emblematic designs seem to never age but, sadly, the engineering-wise, they are all outdated. Of course, you get a kick out of driving them merely because you get a chance to do it in the first place, but some want even more than that.

A select few look at classic cars as a starting point for a tough undertaking: transforming these icons of the past in machines that are able to keep up with whatever’s new on the road right now. The key is to have everything come out in pristine condition – hence the term restoration in ‘resto-mod’ – while modifying what’s under the skin. Some choose to start from existing cars while others do something more radical - building their own chassis from the ground up and then wrapping everything up in a retro bodywork that clearly reminds you of their inspiration. The Eagle E-Type and the Singer Porsches fall in the latter category.

Whichever road you choose, resto-mods are a brilliant – yet highly expensive – way to experience classic cars re-imagined in with technology that was barely on the drawing boards when some of these cars were new.

Keep reading to find our seven resto-mods picks

Concept cars are often the result of an automaker’s desire to showcase possibilities. Very rarely, though, do these possibilities translate to reality. Some concepts get used as springboards for future production models. Some get used as blueprints for future technologies. But more often than not, a lot of concept cars get sent back to the shadows, never to be heard from again. It’s a shame because the concept cars on this list didn’t deserve that fates they received. These concepts should’ve been turned into production models. Unfortunately, for one reason or another, none of them did, and all we’re left with our thoughts of what could’ve been.

Midsize SUVs and crossovers are hugely desirable these days, even more so if they wear a premium badge like Mercedes’ all-new GLE does. But being so desirable also means that all manufacturers want as big a slice of the market to themselves as possible, and these models have become increasingly talented in recent years, so it’s a hugely competitive segment.

The GLE is all-new for 2019, so the engineers and designers behind it have had time to study the previous model and models already on sale, learn from them, and try to improve. Once such very talented rival is the Audi Q7 which, in its current generation (introduced in 2016,) is arguably one of the best vehicles in its class, even if it’s by no means a flamboyant effort.

Despite being direct rivals, the two adopt very different styles both inside and out, offering visually different solutions to the problem of creating a modern midsize SUV.

In the changing circumstances of the car market, car manufacturers have to reimagine their business models and discontinue a number of cars we became so accustomed to. Last year, Hyundai axed the Azera, Nissan stopped producing the Quest, and even the Dodge Viper met its end. This year and the next year, another five cars are bound to be discontinued. We may search for reasons for ages, but the simple fact of the matter is that these cars don’t sell well enough for car companies to keep them in production.

In an effort to shift focus from sedans and hatchbacks to SUVs, companies are forced to reinvent their lineups. In the world of today, this means that they have to pull some radical moves. Here are five cars that are on their way out.