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Automobiles

Review: 2013 Land Rover Range Rover [w/video]

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By Jeremy Korzeniewski

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Legendary, Iconic… And Improved?

It is an undeniable reality that there are only so many adjectives to choose from when describing a given vehicle. Here are two that tend to be both overused and misused perhaps more than any other: legendary and iconic.

Forgive us for regaling you with these descriptors yet again, but when it comes to the 2013 Land Rover Range Rover, there simply aren’t any words in the English language that can be applied to this sport utility vehicle that are as accurate and forceful as legendary and iconic. And what’s especially impressive about our use of these adjectives is that they apply equally well when discussing the Range Rover‘s off-road capabilities as they do its position as a status symbol.

This marketplace position, however laudable and desirable it may be, presents a unique problem: How do you redesign a legendary SUV to be better, faster and stronger while maintaining its posh image? The boffins at Land Rover think they’ve nailed the art of the redesign, and we spent a week with the 2013 Range Rover to find out for ourselves if you really can mess with success and come out the victor.

Continue reading 2013 Land Rover Range Rover [w/video]

2013 Land Rover Range Rover [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 11 Apr 2013 11:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Automobiles

Review: 2013 Lexus GS450h [w/video]

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By Zach Bowman

2013 Lexus GS450h

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An Unlikely Star in the Lexus Stable

Think about Lexus for a second. Odds are your gray matter is busy regurgitating images of the company’s middle-aged RX crossover or possibly the midsize ES sedan. As the volume movers for Toyota’s luxury fleet, the two are the default ambassadors for everything with an italicized L pinned to the grille, and that’s a damned shame. As the 2013 GS450h is so willing to point out, Lexus engineers are busily crafting models that offer drivers more than a safe luxury choice.

As the master of fuel-sipping battery propulsion, Lexus has brought the impressive width of Toyota hybrid engineering to bear on the GS450h. The result is a vehicle that manages to sneak its hybridness by you with buttery acceleration, stone quiet operation and brakes that don’t feel like you’re trying walk around the house in Velcro socks. The drivetrain doesn’t feel the need to beat you over the head with its battery pack or announce to the neighborhood that you’re saving the world one whispery mile at a time. Both driver and passengers get to enjoy a luxury car that just so happens to be a hybrid instead of the other way around.

There’s no denying just how striking the GS has become outside. For all the ridicule Lexus endured for its new Predator-maw corporate look, the design snatches eyeballs quicker than a cross Master Pai Mei. Up front, the nose manages to look fresh without straying into garishness, though Lexus designers are walking a fine line here. While the LED daytime running lamps are a bit derivative, we love the complex and sculpted lower valance. Like other hardware in the Lexus toolbox, the GS gives you plenty to look at head on.

Continue reading 2013 Lexus GS450h [w/video]

2013 Lexus GS450h [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 09 Apr 2013 11:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Automobiles

Review: 2013 Audi S8

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By Matt Davis

2013 Audi S8

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Italy To Monaco In Ingolstadt’s Crushing Performance Saloon

I had an engagement a while back with the Audi RS5 Cabriolet in Monaco, and getting me from my lair in northern Italy by plane connection is an utter waste of time since the first flight is always to either Paris, Zurich, or Rome, three cities not at all on the way to Monaco. So I phoned Audi Italia about a quick loan of a car for the three-hour-ish drive to this event, and they were simpatici enough to propose that I keep whatever they gave me for two weeks. And what they gave me was a loaded Audi S8 with properly chosen 20-inch Dunlop SP Winter Sport treads attached.

This was about to be a much cooler two weeks than I had planned.

On the other hand, several colleagues looked at me and then at the car, and then said, “You’ll love the thing until it’s time to fill it.” I was determined to show them all that the 23.8-gallon capacity of premium fuel would not break my will to love the S8 as though it were my own in everyday driving over the next fourteen days.

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2013 Audi S8 originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 04 Apr 2013 11:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Automobiles

Autoblog drives to the Arctic Circle

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By Chris Paukert

Autoblog Arctic Circle Drive

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In Which Mercedes’ Sprinter Becomes A Long-Distance Sherpa

In the wintery wilds of northern Alaska, even the cute little critters want to kill you.

As I am about to nod off on my long leg flight from Minneapolis to Anchorage ahead of driving to the Arctic Circle, the friendly twenty-something Alaskan knitting furiously in the seat next to me pauses and says, “When you’re driving up there, don’t open your windows.” In the dead of winter? I hadn’t planned on cruising alfresco, but her warning to keep the glazing snugged against the weatherstripping is one I would take to heart. She continues: “If you leave ’em open, a fox is liable to jump right in. There are lots of rabid foxes up there, and they leap into your car and just Go. To. Town.” And here I was, thinking that a curious bear or maybe an ill-placed moose in the road was going to be my biggest potential four-legged threat. In the wintery wilds of northern Alaska, even the cute little critters want to kill you.

Bedraggled after two flights and a long layover, I reach my hotel room nursing a toothache and a suddenly metastasizing cold. I manage to down half a reindeer burger from room service and a sleeping pill, and with a cute red fox taking the place of the killer rabbit in that scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail stuck on mental replay, I hit the pillow, wondering what in the hell I’ve gotten myself into.

The next morning starts early, and I meet my fellow adventurers-to-be at the morning briefing. We’re assembled at the Anchorage Sheraton at the behest of Mercedes-Benz Canada, and our plan is to drive from Anchorage to the former mining camp of Coldfoot, which lies north of the Arctic Circle. In Sprinter commercial vans. At 1,264 miles, it’s the last leg of a longer endurance run that started out in Edmonton. We’ll stop for the night in Fairbanks, then run alongside the 800-mile-long Trans-Alaskan Pipeline before saying hello to the Arctic Circle. From there, we’ll venture up to Coldfoot Camp, where we’ll hopefully stand directly underneath the Northern Lights. Then we’ll do the whole thing in reverse, ending up in this very hotel five days from now.

Continue reading Autoblog drives to the Arctic Circle

Autoblog drives to the Arctic Circle originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 22 Mar 2013 11:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Automobiles

Review: 2013 Infiniti FX37

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By Zach Bowman

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Who Needs A V8?

There’s something in the water at Nissan. Has to be. There’s no other explanation for a company that produces vehicles like the Murano CrossCabriolet and Juke as well as the undeniably bonkers GT-R. Infiniti hasn’t escaped whatever’s lurking in the well, either. The company’s recent shift from a comfortable and logical naming structure to a slurry of Q-based monikers is the most recent example of insanity lurking in the luxury automaker’s halls, but it certainly isn’t the first. Take, for example, the FX50.

With its 390-horsepower V8 engine and a rear-bias all-wheel-drive platform, the mid-sized SUV is more sports car than family hatchback, and while a V8 in this segment is entirely ludicrous, it’s also the engine option we preferred over the less-throaty 3.5-liter V6. Like nearly every other off-tilt offering from Nissan, the FX50 simply made sense in a too-much-whiskey kind of way. But Infiniti has just offered up the best argument yet against that muscle-bound bruiser in the form of the FX37. Powered by the automaker’s new 3.7-liter V6 and backed by a recognizably aggressive exterior, the machine is doing a good job of stealing its older brother’s spotlight.

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2013 Infiniti FX37 originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 04 Mar 2013 11:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Automobiles

Review: 2013 Aston Martin DB9 [w/video]

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By Michael Harley

2013 Aston Martin DB9

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Fresh Arrival Makes The Virage A Distant Memory

My neighbor had been ignoring the various exotics and high-priced luxury cars parked in my driveway for many years – I should have expected that the DB9 would shatter the trend.

The morning sun was glistening off the Aston Martin‘s metallic Volcano Red paint when she rolled by in her late-model Acura TL, abruptly hit the brakes, and then reversed her sedan before coming to a stop in front of my driveway. The passenger window went down and she smiled before uttering seven words – a curious question followed immediately by an ardent statement.

“What is that car? It is gorgeous!”

There was no need to discuss the muscular twelve cylinders under the hood, yards of hand-stitched soft leather or its carbon-ceramic brakes. None of that mattered. As she peered at the sexy aluminum bodywork, her eyes filled with lust and then glazed over.

Continue reading 2013 Aston Martin DB9 [w/video]

2013 Aston Martin DB9 [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 06 Feb 2013 11:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Automobiles

Review: 2013 Cadillac XTS [w/video]

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By Jeffrey N. Ross

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The Cadillac Of Stopgaps

2013 Cadillac XTS

As confusing as most alphanumeric car names have gotten in recent years, at least one constant has been that the letter “X” is generally indicative of a crossover. Then why did General Motors use this letter on its new 2013 Cadillac XTS luxury sedan? Well, for that, we’ll have to look to the world of mathematics where “X” stands for an unknown variable or a placeholder. Now we’re talking. The XTS is just an interim product sitting at the top of Cadillac’s four-door food chain until the brand gets a true flagship in place. That sounds like a lot of resources to spend on what will likely be a one-and-done model, but the automaker needed to get something – anything – to replace the DTS.

So here you have the 2013 XTS. A big luxury sedan that was created to bridge the gap between Cadillac’s recent past and its pending future. Going into our week with this XTS knowing that it was a stopgap measure proved to be both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, we know (or hope) that this car will act as a baseline for future high-end Cadillac models, but at the same time, we couldn’t help but be mindful of past stopgap models, albeit in more entry-level segments, like the Cimarron and Catera.

Continue reading 2013 Cadillac XTS [w/video]

2013 Cadillac XTS [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 30 Jan 2013 11:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Automobiles

Review: 2013 Lexus ES350

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By Michael Harley

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Finally Saying Goodbye To Its Camry Roots

2013 Lexus ES 350

In its equivalent world of breakfast foods, the Lexus ES350 is unquestionably the pancake. While its siblings may offer more interesting textures, flavors and consistencies – a generally more exciting culinary experience – the four-door ES is designed with ‘indistinct’ as its middle name. Its objective is to please just about every entry-level luxury buyer once it ends up on their plate.

Even after a complete redesign for the 2013 model year, the sixth-generation Lexus ES350 emerges every bit as family-friendly and non-polarizing as its predecessors. It is the everyman’s luxury sedan, offering attractive pricing and a satisfying fill of amenities and features with the sweetness of a long warranty and polished customer service to back things up.

As a result of its overall wholesomeness and demeanor, the ES350 sells like hotcakes, too. Last year, 56,158 customers took delivery, thus allowing the five-passenger sedan to continue its reign as the highest sales volume Lexus passenger car (it outsells the bigger LS nearly seven-to-one).

To learn more about the all-new ES, and take our own taste of its goodness, we recently spent a week with the midsize luxury sedan in Southern California.

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2013 Lexus ES350 originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 24 Jan 2013 11:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Automobiles

Review: 2013 Acura ILX 2.4

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By Jeffrey N. Ross

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Going Mainstream Has Its Privileges

Acura’s experiment with niche models has failed. Competing in the luxury car business by filling white space with product just didn’t work for the Japanese automaker. In place of slow-selling models like its ZDX and quirky first-gen RDX, the mindset at Acura has recently switched to more conventional products with vastly improved volume potential. The redesigned 2013 RDX, for example, sold almost as many units in 2012 as it did in 2010 and 2011 combined, and the all-new 2013 ILX has sold more units each month – since going on sale in May – than Acura sold in ZDXs and RLs in all of last year.

While the redesigned RDX is a crucial product to compete with luxury compact crossovers, the ILX might be the most important new product for Acura, as a growing number of premium makes are starting to realize the importance of upscale entry-level compact cars. Ironically, this segment was a pivotal part of the brand’s success in the 1980s and ’90s thanks to the Integra, but Acura completely abandoned the genre when it killed off the RSX coupe in 2006. The addition of the ILX not only gives Acura a competitive small car again, it also drops the brand’s entry price by almost $5,000.

Like the Honda Civic to which it’s closely related, the 2013 Acura ILX is offered with three powertrain flavors (base 2.0, ILX 2.4 and Hybrid), and while our First Drive gave us some seat time in the base ILX 2.0, this time we got to spend a full week with the sportier ILX 2.4 – Acura’s version of the Civic Si. The ILX is positioned in a weird in-between market that includes premium small cars like the Buick Verano, Audi A3 and Lexus CT, but it also sits at the upper end of some well-equipped non-luxury models like the Ford Focus Titanium. With this in mind, and with keys in hand, we aimed to see how the ILX stacks up against other premium compacts – as well as its predecessors.

Continue reading 2013 Acura ILX 2.4

2013 Acura ILX 2.4 originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 17 Jan 2013 11:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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