2020 Toyota Tundra improved, still trails truck royalty

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Like multi-word vehicles’ exterior paint colors, the names of cars and trucks are no longer simple. Welcome the 2020 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro CrewMax. The initials TRD stand for Toyota Racing Development, with the word Pro added as embellishment. Combined, it’s one vehicle simultaneously focused on racing and off-road duties. The TRD Package means Bilstein shocks raise the stance two inches, good for the 18-inch wheels. It also includes dual exhaust, a front skid plate and an eight-inch touchscreen for the Toyota Entune infotainment system. CrewMax means an extra spacious cabin, with a five or six-seat configuration and more interior

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#124, Cartoonist is auto world’s wacky, witty futurist

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:54 — 47.9MB)Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | MoreSteven M. Johnson is a cartoonist with a fondness for the absurd. With astute detail, humor and poignancy, he’s a purveyor of wacky, futuristic product ideas. It’s all silly, except for when it’s not. Johnson, an editorial cartoonist and illustrator for nearly 60 years, is our guest on this week’s episode of The Weekly Driver Podcast. The 81-year-old author of 10 books lives and works in Carmichael, California. A former city planner who attended Yale but transferred and graduated from UC Berkeley with a

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2020 Hyundai Santa Fe tech review and kudos

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New technology websites abound. Mark Pallone and Valerie Antkowiak have found a niche within a niche, the website AppMyHome.com. The husband/wife publishers recently produced a YouTube video of the smart tech in their new 2020 Hyundai Santa Fe. With Valerie as the moderator, the nearly 10-minute video details all of the technology the SUV has to offer. Here’s how the couple’s website is described: “Exploring technology and products available for the Smart Home, the Kitchen and Travel. We test and review products in our own home or occasionally, at our friends’ and relatives’ homes, and share our experience with stories and

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Coronavirus seriously stalling global auto industry

Like it has in many other industries, the coronavirus is affecting the global automotive industry, and the repercussions are fluid. Here’s a round-up of some of the issues in the car industry as COVID-19 spreads throughout the world, with its reach to more than 50 countries: * The Geneva Auto Show, scheduled to begin March 2 for the media and March 5-15 for the public, has been canceled due to concerns about the coronavirus. Annually among the most important car shows, the event was canceled because the Swiss government has banned gatherings of more than 1,000 people to prevent the

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Genesis upends Lexus as most dependable carmaker, says J.D. Power

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The banner across the top of the entrance to the Los Angeles Convention Center couldn’t have been any bigger. It proclaimed the 2019 Genesis G70 as a prominent automotive publication’s Car of the Year. The occasion was the Los Angeles Auto Show last November and the banner remained hoisted for about two weeks. It was another award for the upstart manufacturer, the former luxury trim from Hyundai but now on its own. And now comes another award: J.D. Power has named the Genesis, the industry’s most dependable in the renowned analysts’ detailed Dependability Study. The study is a comprehensive overview

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#123, Danny Shapiro discusses 2020 Nvidia GTC Technology Show

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:11 — 31.8MB)Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | MoreDanny Shapiro, Senior Director of Automotive at Nvidia Corporation in Santa Clara, California, is as knowledgeable as anyone in the autonomous automotive industry. The technology company is at the forefront of delivering solutions to automakers for self-driving cars, infotainment, digital instrument clusters, rear-seat entertainment and advanced driver assistance systems. Nvidia’s GTC Technology Conference, scheduled March 22-26 in San Jose, California, is the premier AI and deep learning event, providing you with training, insights, and direct access to experts from NVIDIA and other leading organizations.

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Buyer beware: Average price for a new pick-up truck now $50,000

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Considering buying a new pick-up truck? Beware. Just like new cars, the average price of a new pickup truck in the United States has increased. It’s now around $50,000, according to automotive analytics businesses like Edmunds and JD Power. With its calculations, the average price of a new pick-up truck in 2019, according to Edmunds.com was $49,543; JD Power determined the average 2019 new truck price was $51,700. Not all manufacturers’ 2020 models have been unveiled, but the average price is expected to further increase. Regardless of the source, the new pick-up truck average cost is the highest in history.

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2020 Mitsubishi Outlander improved SUV still lags leaders

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Mitsubishi for years has been among the lowest-selling mainstream manufacturers. It doesn’t offer flash, much innovation and its marketing campaigns are restrained. Still, the 2020 Mitsubishi Outlander, the carmaker’s stalwart SUV, combines a few worthy attractions. The Outlander, which debuted in North America in 2003, is among the least expensive compact crossovers. It has three rows of seating and with Kia and Hyundai offers the industry’s best powertrain warranty, 10 years/100,000 miles. For buyers interested in value over brand prestige and who are not particularly concerned about performance or a luxury ride, the redone Outlander Sport GT is intriguing. The

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Rats keep warm, eat well and ruin lots of car engines

Several years ago, a service mechanic at a local Honda dealership in Sacramento looked across the service garage and said: “See all those Hondas up on the racks? They’re all just like your wife’s CR-V. Rats have eaten the engine wires.” I’d taken my wife’s then five-year-old Honda CR-V to the dealership across town for a yet-undiagnosed problem. Turns out, rats like to keep warm and feast on engine wires, hoses and nearly anything else, particularly if it’s made with Polypropylene. If you live near a river or a tree-lined area (like Sacramento), the problem is often prevalent. Rats aren’t

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Big, badass and beautiful? Hummer set for 2022 return

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It may be hard to imagine, but the pending resurrected Hummer will have 1,000 horsepower and is being marketed to accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour in three seconds. The truck was “teased” during the recent yearly Super Bowl extravaganza of commercials and is the idea of General Motors. The new Hummer is scheduled to arrive in dealerships next year. The resurrected Hummer will be made and sold under the GMC brand at GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck factory. The automaker is investing $2.2 billion into its mass production of electric vehicles. With the country’s continued increase in truck sales and

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Best used car buying tips for the every person

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Taking your potential new used car to a reputable auto repair shop is the best thing you can do. Have it thoroughly inspected by a professional before you buy it. I’ve found paying for an hour of time is generally sufficient to identify everything wrong with the vehicle. If taking the vehicle to a mechanic is not an option, here are some tips to help keep you from buying a lemon. Buy an ODB Scanner/Reader You don’t need to spend a lot, as they’ll all do what you need here. A Bluetooth OBD reader and the TORQ app for your

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#122, Co-hosts Bruce Aldrich, James Raia talk car stuff

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 38:59 — 53.5MB)Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | MoreThe Weekly Driver Podcast usually has at least one guest each week, sometimes more. But sometimes co-hosts Bruce Aldrich and James Raia just talk it out. We did exactly that in episode #122. There’s always a lot going on in the automotive industry— recalls to Tesla’s latest fiascos, the further saga of the autonomous driving industry to new car and truck models. Bruce and I agree on many areas of the automotive industry, but not everything. Listen to the new episode of our 30-minute

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2020 Volvo XC40 T5 review: no more SUV malaise

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The amalgamation of sport utility vehicles has continued in 2020. About half of the new vehicles sold this year in the United States will be full-on SUVs or crossovers. Many brands are interchangeable, but Volvo has emerged from the cluster of sameness. The Volvo XC40 was introduced last year and for 2020 has a few updates, including varying upholstery and other equipment tweaks and a more efficient interior with new storage areas. But this year’s edition is largely the same vehicle the debuted last year and gained plenty of attention for automotive watchdogs and prominent review sites. A two-row, five-passenger

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2020 Lexus LC 500h defines large luxury hybrid coupe

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Car buyers can be particular and manufacturers are willing to oblige. With various trims and optional equipment, some vehicles are available in several-dozen configurations and with widely varying prices. Lexus knows the game as well as any carmaker, which is why it offers the 2020 LC 500h. It’s uniquely positioned in the marketplace as a large luxury coupe with sports car tendencies and impressive hybrid fuel efficiency. Unlike its gas-only sibling, the hybrid trim features a 3.5-liter V6 engine and two electric motors. It’s called the Lexus Multi Hybrid system, combines 354 horsepower and is matched with a unique transmission.

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#121, Best used cars, best enduring cars from iseecars.com

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:37 — 32.4MB)Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | MoreJulie Blackley, communications manager for the car search engine iSeeCars.com, is a frequent guest on The Weekly Driver Podcast. Blackley writes and distributes monthly studies that analyze automotive data, on topics ranging best used cars to popular car colors to states with the most pick-ups. The wide-ranging categories, according to the website, are aggregations of a massive amount of information tabulated from “proprietary algorithms to objectively analyze, score and rank millions of cars and tens of thousands of dealers, providing helpful insights and guidance

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BMW regains luxury clout with 2020 M850i gran coupe

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Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche all keep stealth watch on competitors’ next moves and then attempt to outdo them. Newcomer Genesis is now in on the fun, and it must be joyful for luxury sedan and gran coupe enthusiasts to observe the rivalry.   Consider BMW. Hoping to regain the front-of-the-pack edge from Mercedes-Benz, it reintroduced its flagship 8 Series last year after a two-decade hiatus. Its 2020 M850i xDrive Gran Coupe debuts this year and continues the stoic brand’s efforts to regain premier honors.   Like its German mainstay rivals’ fans, BMW enthusiasts are as loyal as

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