Automotive Reviews

Buying bland beige works best for pickup truck resale value

If you want the best resale value after owning your pickup truck for three years, buy beige. And don’t buy brown. According to the analysis of iseecars.com the online automotive search engine and research website, beige pickup trucks have the lowest average depreciation of any color. A beige truck with a new price of $45,272, has an average resale price after three years of $37,097, or an 18.1 percent depreciation. After comparing the prices of more than six million new and used cars between 2017 to 2020, iSeeCars.com has determined which colors help, hurt, or have minimal impact on a vehicle’s resale value. “A vehicle’s color is among the primary considerations after shoppers have decided on a make and model,”

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PREVIEW: 2022 Kia Telluride gets upgrades, new pricing

Prices and upgrades have been announced for the 2022 Kia Telluride, the increasingly popular sport utility vehicle. Introduced as a concept car in 2016, the vehicle debuted in the spring of 2019 as a 2020 model. Named after the town of Telluride, Colorado, the SUV is the largest vehicle Kia has manufactured in the United States. Kia Telluride: Top Sales, Awards Among other accolades, the Telluride was named the 2020 World Car of the Year as well as SUV of the Year. The large SUV had a 28 percent increase in sales from 2019 to 2020. It was the 11th best-selling SUV in the United States in 2020 among the nearly 50 large SUVs offered.   For 2022, the Telluride

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2021 Hyundai Venue seeks home in crowded SUV family

Now in its second model year, the Hyundai Venue is the smallest sport utility vehicle and seventh sport or adventure offering in the company’s stable. It fills a niche the South Korean manufacturer has deemed important. But it’s hard to fathom. Since the carmaker already offers the Ioniq, Kona, Palisade, Santa Cruz, Santa Fe and Tucson, does it need the Venue? It’s marketed as a mini or sub-compact, entry-level SUV with a healthy chunk of features and superior gas mileage for its segment. It’s matched against more than dozen competitors, notably the Kia Soul, Mazda CX-30, MINI Cooper Countryman, Nissan Kick, Subaru Crosstrek and its Kona sibling. Hyundai‘s pedigree is constantly improving, but competition between two family members? Is it

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2021 Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat reigns in SUV jungle

Being the biggest, baddest or fastest means a lot in the automotive industry. The 2021 Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat is the most powerful sport utility vehicle ever made. It has a few horsepower nod over the Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk. What’s difficult to determine is why the designations are important. The SUV Hellcat is newly designed to join the other Hellcat sedan offerings. It’s aggressive-looking but not particularly handsome. But multiple badges (side views of an angered wildcat) vault it into a roadshow. The design derives from the name of the American Grumman F6F Hellcat, the main Navy fighter in the second half of World War II. A Hellcat also means “witch” or “a violently temperamental person.” If it’s an important

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No computer chips for new trucks, top dollar for old trucks

Across the country, but notably in states like Texas where pickup trucks reign, supplies of new trucks are surprisingly thin. The reason? Car parts, particularly computer chips, are in rare supply. As a result, vintage Ford and Chevy pickups from the 70s and 80s are selling for 10 times more than their worth before the Covid-19 pandemic. So hold off selling that old pickup truck to the first person who offers $5,000 take it off your hands. It could be worth $50,000. In several states, according to several media reports on Drive.com, Ford is storing thousands of new Ford F-150 pickup trucks at the Kentucky Speedway and in parking lots in Detroit. The shortage of chips is preventing the trucks

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2021 Cadillac Escalade: powerful, plush, pricey

A year after the Lincoln Navigator debuted, General Motors launched the Cadillac Escalade, the luxury brand’s first sport utility vehicle. It was 1998 and a quick rivalry began between the makers of gas-guzzling apartments on wheels. The behemoth auto segment has since expanded. A half-dozen others are in the mix, the GMC Yukon to the Chevrolet Suburban, the Toyota Sequoia to the Nissan Armada. Powerful and optimally comfortable, road giants largely get left alone. The new Escalade is 17 feet, 6 inches long, 6 feet, 7 1/2 inches wide and 6 feet, 4 inches tall. It weighs nearly 6,000 pounds. Some Escalades seat eight passengers; second-row captain’s chairs cut the capacity to seven in other models. Big and bad, there’s

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2021 Kia K5 outdoes outgoing Kia Optima

Just about the time the Kia Optima may have been absorbed into the public’s consciousness as a superior midsize sedan, it’s gone. It’s now the Kia K5. With 2021 models, the former Optima simultaneously arrived as a new generation with a new name. The Korean carmaker is trying to bring conformity to its cars’ names. The lineup has the K letter designation in international markets and now it also does in the U.S. The name is more robot-sounding than Optima, a stylized version of Optimum. But the newly named and newly designed sedan is far removed from the stiffness of many midsize sedans enduring their lives in rental car fleets. Instead, the Kia K5 offers more of what the Optima

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2023 Cadillac LYRIQ: Carmaker’s first EV SUV pending

If there’s any doubt about how quickly the automotive industry is changing, consider the former gas-guzzler reputation of Cadillac. Once the automotive beacon for bigger meant better and better meant lots of fuel, Cadillac has just revealed its 2023 Cadillac LYRIQ. Key Takeaways Cadillac’s first EV arrives with 300 miles of estimated range: A 100-kWh battery pack, 340 horsepower, and rear-wheel-drive Ultium Platform underpin the brand’s shift away from its gas-guzzler reputation. Starting price expected at $59,997: Cadillac announced reservations would open in September 2021, with production at GM’s Spring Hill, Tennessee plant and deliveries beginning in the first half of 2022. 190 kW DC fast charging adds 76 miles in 10 minutes: Home charging uses a segment-leading 19.2 kW

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2021 BMW 530e masters driving tasks

The Grapeville technically extends on Interstate 5 only from Fort Tejon five miles north to the bottom of a six percent and 1,600-foot ascent. More realistically, the challenging driving stretch covers 40 miles from just north of Castaic over the Tehachapi Mountains from northern Los Angeles County to the San Joaquin Valley in Kern County. It’s an ideal location to test drive a car, notably a recent 850-mile trip in a 2021 BMW 530e. The south-to-north Grapevine route seems more arduous than the north-to-south route. Eighteen-wheel trucks often form long, tightly packed convoys in the right two lanes. Speed limit followers travel in the third lane from the right. Drivers for whom rules don’t apply often opt for the far

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2021 Mercedes-AMG GLB 35: Fills niche, who knew?

Mercedes-Benz doesn’t make it easy for luxury crossover and sport utility vehicle buyers. It’s not because the German automaker doesn’t offer quality vehicles. It does. But where does a shopper start with three levels of offerings, including the brand’s AMG and Maybach relationships. The 2021 Mercedes-AMG GLB 35, is a small entry-level luxury sport utility vehicle, and it’s a worthy choice. For drivers with a penchant for sportiness in their SUVs, the AMG GLB 35 is optimal. It expands on its GLB 250 siblings’ 2-liter, 221-horsepower, 4-cylinder engine. It’s matched with an eight-speed automatic transmission and front-wheel drive or 4Matic, the all-wheel-drive option. 2021 Mercedes-AMG GLB 35: Sensitive sensors Seating for five is standard in two rows. An optional third

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2021 Kia Niro PHEV: worthy but not royalty

Unveiled by the South Korean manufacturer five years ago, the Kia Niro debuted in the United States in 2018. The five-door subcompact joins the list of unheralded vehicles offered as gas-powered crossovers, hybrid plug-in electric vehicles (PHEV) and electric-only options. Many of the little SUVs seem much the same. The 2021 Niro has the identical platform as close automotive relatives, the Kia Seltos and Hyundai Ioniq. (Hyundai owns about one-third of Kia.) The Niro revisits last year’s model with a few updates. The front grille has a new diamond shape. The headlamps are also new and the wheels have been redesigned. What remains from previous models is the best of what PHEVs offer. For newbie buyers, range anxiety isn’t an

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New Ford Super Duty Trucks: big, bad, ready soon

The pending 2022 Ford Super Duty Trucks define the brawn and bravado of pickup trucks. The models — F-250, F-350 and F-450 — have impressive statistics for the mammoth segment, specifically in areas important for RVers. Powered by gasoline and diesel engine options, the 2022 model beasts have options: The 7.3-liter gasoline V-8 produces 430 horsepower and 475 lb-ft of torque; Ford Super Duty Trucks: Big, Bad The turbodiesel 6.7-liter Power Stroke V-8 churns includes 475 horsepower ad and 1,050 lb-ft of torque; A gasoline 6.2-liter V-8 also remains available. Current max towing and hauling numbers are also massive: 37,000 pounds gooseneck, 32,500 pounds fifth-wheel, 24,200 pounds conventional and 7,850 pounds for payload. The 2022 Ford Super Duty will be

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Carvana offers good slot odds in Las Vegas on used cars

A vending machine isn’t a slot machine. But almost anything goes in Las Vegas, so why not spend thousands of dollars in a vending machine in Sin City? You can buy a used car. Less than a month ago, Carvana, the online used auto company opened another of its e-commerce locations, its first in Nevada. It’s the newest location for the company’s “vending machine” approach. Via its location in an 11-story glass tower, located at 3720 Morgan Cashman’s Way, off I-15 south between Spring Mountain and Flamingo Blvd., customers can observe various vehicles for sale. If a customer decides to purchase a vehicle, they can have the car delivered to pick it up at the vending machine. Carvana offers good

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2021 Aston Martin Vantage: stunning, fast, flawed

There’s no way around it. Something’s not right with the 2021 Aston Martin Vantage. And what would James Bond have to say about it? Sean Connery as Agent 007 was often portrayed escaping from criminals and saving the world while driving an Aston Martin. But how could anything but perfection be the vehicle of choice for the epitome of espionage elegance? Bond film aficionados know the secret agent often drove an Aston Martin DB5 in films, although the tuxedo-wearing purveyor of cool drove other models, including the Vantage. 2021 Aston Martin Vantage: Pricey Options As awkward as it may read, the Vantage is the British carmaker’s entry-level vehicle with a top-line price of about $200,000. The MSRP is $147,000 and

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The legacy of BMW includes 2 funky pickup trucks

BMW makes vehicles admired by many performance-car enthusiasts. The automaker’s reputation, like other German automakers’ pedigrees, is well-heeled and varied. The carmaker makes comfortable sedans that power along the open road like sports cars. What’s less known is BMW’s foray into pickup trucks. It made the E30 M3 and the E92 M3. The E30 M3 debut in 1986. It had a 2.3 liter engine with 200 horsepower and it was a soft top convertible. The pickup wasn’t a success but it lasted for 26 years — as a transport vehicle for the manufacturer. BMW pickup trucks didn’t sell well The carmaker also made a second M3 pickup, the E92. It included a 4.0-liter V8. It was short-lived and only was

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It’s not a canoe. It’s a Canoo, a new electric pickup truck

There’s another new electric truck on the horizon, the oddly named Canoo. formerly known as Evelozcity, Canoo is an American manufacturer headquartered in Torrance, California. While specs and pricing weren’t announced, the start-up announced it will debut its trucks in 2023. The trucks will be offered with single-motor and dual-motor all-wheel-drive options. The latter version is touted to produce 600 horsepower and 550 foot-pounds of torque. Canoo said its trucks will have 1,800-pound payload capacitors and a 200-mile range. The Canoo will be built on the same modular platform as Canoo’s other vehicles. The company announced last December a lineup of delivery vans. Its new dual-motor truck will deliver up to 600 horsepower and 550 lb-ft of torque. The Canoo

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