Honda Ridgeline : Price And Specifications

Honda Ridgeline : Price And Specifications
Price : $30,705 – $44,195

Honda Ridgeline : Specifications

VEHICLE TYPE:	front-engine, front- or all-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door pickup
ENGINE:	SOHC 24-valve 3.5-liter V-6, 280 hp, 262 lb-ft
TRANSMISSION:	6-speed automatic
CURB WEIGHT (C/D EST):	4250–4500 lb
PERFORMANCE (C/D EST):	Zero to 60 mph: 6.6–6.8 sec
	Standing ¼-mile: 15.2–15.3 sec
	Top speed: 112 mph
EPA FUEL ECONOMY:	Combined/city/highway: 21–22/18–19/25–26 mpg

Share:

Read More

Honda Ridgeline Reviews

Honda Ridgeline
Best Mid-Size Pickup Truck

We heard plenty of disagreement about our naming the Honda Ridgeline to our 10Best Trucks and SUVs list last year, with most grousing centered around claims that it isn’t a “real” truck. We hate to play the dictionary card here, but, like it or not, the Ridgeline is by definition a pickup truck. And we’ve driven and tested the entirety of the mid-size-truck segment, filled each one with our volume-measuring ping-pong balls and carry-on cases, evaluated the trucks’ real-world fuel economy, towed with them, and even taken them tailgating. The Honda Ridgeline is simply the best of them all.

A mid-size pickup doesn’t need to tow or haul as much as a full-size brute. We reason that the vast majority of buyers in this segment view their truck as more of a multitool, offering levels of convenience, wieldiness, and daily comfort absent from larger pickups while still having reasonable towing and hauling capabilities. Those who actually need full-size capability have a full set of options just one rung up—including the also excellent and also 10Best award–winning Ford F-150.

The Ridgeline’s 5000-pound maximum towing capacity and 1580-pound payload rating are good enough for an expensive trip to a home-supply store or for lugging a decent-size boat to the lake, and the Honda has the best balance of practicality and everyday usability even if it doesn’t out-tow the diesel-powered GMC Canyon or conquer off-road trails as well as the Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro or the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2. The Ridgeline’s smooth and gutsy 3.5-liter V-6 makes quick work of highway passing, plus it sips fuel at a surprisingly low rate, returning an impressive 28 mpg on our 75-mph real-world highway fuel-economy test—matching that of the GMC’s diesel engine but while burning cheaper and less energy-dense fuel.


Want to talk about cargo? The Ridgeline held 18 carry-on cases inside its rear cabin and 511 ping-pong balls throughout its various front-seat cubbies, both tops by large margins over any of its competition. And then there’s that huge, lockable, and watertight storage compartment underneath the 5.3-foot bed, a well that also features a drain plug, making it a perfect, albeit uninsulated, cooler for beverages and food when tailgating. Count us as huge fans of the dual-hinged tailgate, too, which just might be the Ridgeline’s most convenient feature. Source by caranddriver.com

Share:

Read More

Maserati A6G Gran Sport

Maserati A6G Gran Sport

Maserati A6G Gran Sport. Maserati is one of the most loved sports car of his era. Because the car that has a historical record that scene because it was found in an old warehouse, stacked and become one of the most expensive among the other luxury cars.

First slide in the world in 1957 with A6G full name Maserati Gran Sport Coupe Frua. With the sport model, a car that sat in France was then rewarded up to 2 million euros.

Share:

Read More

Peugeot 5008 Design & Styling

Peugeot 5008 Design & Styling

The 5008 sits on the modular EMP2 platform of the PSA Group, which owns Peugeot, Citroën, DS and Vauxhall-Opel.

It’s 190mm longer than the 3008 – although at a glance you’d be hard-pressed to tell the two apart on the road – and it uses that additional span to squeeze in a third row of seats.

There’s now space for seven occupants, ensuring the 5008 fulfils its remit as an MPV, no matter how well it disguises its true reason for being.

The rugged costume is certainly effective, the 5008’s dimensions yielding a bluff, athletic, hard-edged design softened only by numerous intricacies picked out either in chrome-effect trim orgloss black plastic.

Both ends of the car are imposingly sheered off, the front exhibiting numerous design elements but somehow managing to avoid looking overwrought.

This is an attractive car, to the extent that it may even turn the heads of those set on more glamorous options such as the Land Rover Discovery Sport.

However, the 5008’s rugged SUV exterior conjures a perception that isn’t borne out by the mechanicals.

Indeed, you cannot buy a 5008 with four-wheel drive. To make up for the lack of a driven rear axle, Peugeot has introduced Advanced Grip Control as an option.

It offers a range of traction control settings – Normal, Snow, Sand, Mud and ESP Off – along with a hill descent control system and Continental’s on-or-off-road ContiCrossContact tyres. It’s a set-up that should suffice for any soft-roading demands made of the chassis, but no more.

Locomotion, meanwhile, comes courtesy of one of five engines – two petrols, with either 128bhp and 163bhp, and three diesels, ranging from 99bhp to 178bhp.

There’s a choice of either five-speed and (for high-powered models) six-speed manuals alongside a six-speed automatic, plus there’s an eight-speed torque-converter automatic transmission in the most powerful diesel model.

All comply with the latest EU6.1 standards, with CO2 emissions as low as 117g/km for petrol and 106g/km for diesel. by Autocar.co.uk

Continue to Interior

Share:

Read More

Peugeot 5008 Interior

Peugeot 5008 Interior

The layered dashboard elements particular to Peugeot concept cars of recent years have started to see the light of production with the 5008.

The way it curls around the cockpit and uses a selection of unusual but – outwardly, at least – high-quality materials will have you reaching for a touch when you first climb in.

It suggests the French are getting closer to German build quality than the Germans are to French style, although closer inspection reveals that something of a gulf still exists.

The wide centre tunnel, meanwhile, and the manner in which it separates the front-seat occupants, lends the cockpit a GT-car feel that is unusual in this class.

The sense that the 5008 belongs rather higher up the food chain than its badge suggests is amplified by the quality of our test car’s bolstered (but strangely unsupportive) seats and a bank of smart, silver toggle switches that sits below the infotainment system’s touchscreen.

The 5008’s infotainment system uses a touchscreen but also employs separate toggle switches to bring up media, climate control, navigation, vehicle information and phone applications. Along with the rotary dials for volume, this makes it superbly easy to negotiate on the move.

There’s also Peugeot’s 12.3in screen within the instrument binnacle. It exhibits fluid graphics and, along with the small steering wheel and central touchscreen, makes up the i-Cockpit.

Latency is generally very good, with the software — which features Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatability — exhibiting only the occasional delay. The voice control function works well for simple commands, such as choosing a radio station, but it was stumped every time we attempted to set a navigation destination.

There’s also very effective ambient lighting, which works to beautiful effect during night-time drives.

Heated leather seats are available, by the way, as part of an expensive £1990 option pack.

Peugeot’s compact steering wheel stands out, for better or for worse. It’s designed to sit beneath the high-mounted 12.3in digital instrument binnacle, which is itself positioned in a way that shrinks the interval during which the driver has his or her eyes off the road.

This elliptical wheel is comfortable to hold but elicits an awkward, remote feeling of steering the car from between your knees, no matter how the column is adjusted. Perhaps it’s best reserved for the marque’s pointy little hatchbacks.

Crucially, the new 5008 retains the versatility that defined the original – that is, all three middle-row seats can be separately folded, and boast adjustable length and inclination.

There’s ample leg room all round, owing to Peugeot’s lengthening of the EMP2 platform for this application, although limited rear head room is exacerbated if your car is fitted with the optional panoramic glass roof (£870, or standard on top-spec GT models). With the third-row seats stowed away, the boot is cavernous, and accessible via a powered tailgate that can be operated by swiping your foot under the rear bumper. Source by Autocar.co.uk

Continue to Performance

Share:

Read More

Peugeot 5008 Performance

Peugeot 5008 Performance

So long as the engine had enough about it to transport its potentially numerous occupants to their destination in a timely fashion, the notion of ‘performance’ has traditionally weighed lightly on the minds of prospective MPV buyers.

Now that Peugeot has disguised its people-carrier as a luxurious sports-utility vehicle, this way of thinking no longer applies.

Our test car, equipped with the 148bhp 2.0-litre BlueHDi diesel engine and six-speed manual gearbox, recorded a 0-60mph time of 10.8sec. That’s a touch slower than the 9.6sec Peugeot claims but it’s neither refreshingly brisk nor tediously slow.

What matters here, though, is that this engine delivers its efforts in a refined, surprisingly sonorous manner that’s a good match for the character of the 5008.

It’s pliable, developing 273lb ft from just 2000rpm to propel the 5008 past slower traffic with reasonable ease, although holding onto gears beyond the mid-range of the engine’s 6000rpm scope is an endeavour that yields diminishing returns.

Notwithstanding a clutch pedal that’s overly sprung (illustrative of a lack of finesse in the finer control details that separates this car from its German rivals), the six-speed manual transmission is easy enough to get along with, although not particularly engaging.

We accept, however, that 5008 buyers wouldn’t buy this car for the satisfying tactility of a short-throw gearlever. More of an issue is the intrusive voice of the engine should you drop a gear or two and ask greater effort of it.

In terms of fuel consumption, the 5008 returned a touring economy of 60.1mpg against an overall test average economy of 51.3mpg. For a car that weighs 1490kg, those are fairly impressive numbers, although they would, of course, fall were the car to be loaded with passengers and luggage.

A fuel tank of 56 litres makes for an enormous theoretical touring range of 739 miles. Source by autocar.co.uk

Continue to Reviews

Share:

Read More

Peugeot 5008 Review

Peugeot 5008 Review

When it was launched in 2010, the first Peugeot 5008 was exactly what you’d expect of an MPV.

It had an impressively flexible interior, it was an undemanding car to drive and it adhered doggedly to a one-box appearance.

That it also handled with the dexterity of a smaller car and undercut the Ford S-Max on price helped seal it a four-star rating from us, but it never amounted to anything more than a determinedly functional product.

Seven years later and the game has changed. Although there’s still no shortage of people who require what a traditional MPV such as that original 5008 offered, far fewer of them actually want to be seen in one, particularly in China.

Instead, they want an SUV and all the kerbside appeal that goes with it. This hasn’t gone unnoticed among the PSA Group’s product planners on Avenue de la Grande-Armée (although it seems to have done just that at compatriot Renault), and what those planners have thus devised for the new 5008 is the rakish C-segment SUV seen here.

It’s quite a departure from its forebear and is based on the smaller 3008 crossover, only with an elongated bodyshell to allow for the fitment of seven seats instead of five. As a member of this increasingly popular clique of cars – and one with unreservedly upmarket objectives at that – it goes up against the likes of the Skoda Kodiaq, BMW 2 Series Gran Tourer and Nissan X-Trail, among others.

By treading the line between SUV and MPV, Peugeot has been ambitious. If it is to deliver on the promises made by its muscular, two-box design and people-carrying potential, the 5008 needs to offer the lithe handling and raised ride height characteristic expected of an SUV with the practicality and long-range refinement of an MPV.

Without an unlimited engineering budget, there are compromises to be managed here between ride and handling, aesthetics and ergonomics, and performance and economy.

Determining to what extent this portmanteau of a car manages those concessions is the aim of this road test. by Autocar.co.uk

Continue to Design & Styling

Share:

Read More

Ford Focus Interior

Ford Focus Interior

Ford’s aim was not only to bring the Focus’s interior up to date with this revision but also to simplify it significantly. Its success is best judged on acquaintance with the dashboard’s centre stack. Where formerly were found two banks of fussy, 1990s mobile phone-like systems buttons, there is now mostly grey plastic and a much smaller and more discreet nest of audio controls.

Underneath, there are likewise smaller and more modern-looking heating and ventilation controls, while above is the star of Ford’s interior makeover: the 8.0in Sync 3 touchscreen multimedia set-up fitted as standard to all Zetec Edition-trimmed models and beyond, while its a £600 option on the Style Econetic Focus. The system is a massive improvement over what was included before. It's not the most responsive system on sale, nor the best laid-out, but it's big, bold and comes with sat nav as standard.

As for equipment levels, the Style Econentic models get 16in steel wheels, hill start assist, air conditioning, cruise control and Ford's Sync infotainment system complete with DAB radio, USB and Bluetooth connectivity. Upgrade to Zetec Edition, and the Focus gains 16in alloy wheels, heated wing mirrors, front foglights, sports seats, rear parking sensors, heated front windscreen and Ford's Sync 3 infotainment system complete with an 8.0in touchscreen display. The mid-range ST-Line models, include numerous sporty touches such as firmer suspension, sports seats, ST-style bodykit, side skirts and rear spoilers and 17in alloy wheels. There is also LED day-running lights, keyless entry, rear LED lights and softer touch dashboard.

Titanium models receive automatic wipers and lights, dual-zone climate control, keyless start and entry and emergency city braking, while the range-topping Titanium X trim comes loaded with plenty of kit, including a rear-view camera, cruise control, heated front seats, part-leather upholstery, ambient interior lighting and bi-xenon headlights.

Opt for the ST models and expect to find an aggressive bodykit, bigger alloys, sportier suspension, rear spoiler and Recaro seats, all of which can be had in estate form. The ST-2 gets 18in alloy wheels and an aggressive makeober, while paying a bit more for the ST-3 will see you receive luxuries such as bi-xenons, leather-clad Recaro seats, rear parking sensors, power folding mirrors, red brake calipers and electrically adjustable front seats.

The fascia looks neater, cleaner and more contemporary as a result of the decluttering but not unquestionably classier. The tactile quality of the dashboard plastics isn’t outstanding, so populating less of their surface area with switchgear, without upgrading the canvas behind, doesn’t do a great deal for cabin ambience. It still feels more tactile and nicer place to be than the Astra but not the desirability of the Leon's and Golf's innards.

The four-spoke steering wheel has been replaced by a smaller three-spoke item with more attractive switchgear and the option of shift paddles if you go for a six-speed Powershift dual-clutch automatic gearbox. The new wheel looks smart, but somehow the old one struck us as a better fit for the car’s sporty character.

Credit to Ford is due for freeing up extra cabin storage midway through a full model generation. Immediately ahead of the gearlever there’s a cubby sized to accept a smartphone or iPod, while further aft on the centre console the cupholders have been made larger and the centre-cubby deeper.

Boot space with seats up decreases from 316 litres to 277 litres which, compared with key rivals such as the Volkswagen Golf's and Kia Cee'd's 380 litres, is lagging behind. An estate version of the Focus is also offered, with boot space being a respectable 476 litres with the seats up and 1502 litres with the seats folded flat. The area is wider than the estate versions of the Golf and Vauxhall Astra, but not as long.

Overall, though, you’d say the Focus’s cockpit has taken two steps forward, only to take one step back. Progress has been made here, but this remains a roomy, functional driving environment rather than a particularly pleasant or inviting one. Source by autocar.co.uk

Continue to Performance

Share:

Read More

Ford Focus Performance

Ford Focus Performance

The most notable revision with this facelifted Focus is in the powertrains. The 1.6-litre turbo, in both petrol and diesel flavours, has become a 1.5-litre turbo, with 148bhp and 180bhp in Ecoboost petrol forms, and 94bhp and 119bhp in diesel guise. The 1.0-litre Ecoboost with 123bhp remains the same.

In the latter form, the Focus has 3bhp more and torque of 148lb ft, the same as the Volkswagen Golf's 1.4 TSI 120bhp petrol motor. Much of the Ford's initial driving pleasure comes from the three-cylinder note. It oozes enthusiasm and encourages you to work it hard. However, this engine in the Focus can occasionally feel like it's the big turbo pulling you along in a bigger, heavier car.

The Focus’s ‘new’ 1.5-litre turbocharged diesel engine doesn’t strike you as the most state-of-the-art downsized motor – and it isn’t. Rather, this is a revised version of the old 1.6 with slightly less swept volume, some updated internal components and new induction and exhaust systems.

This isn’t an inherently quiet unit, but Ford has gone to pains to put refinement into the car by other means, with thicker carpets and side glass and more insulation between the engine bay and the cabin. The car is competitive with most, if not all, of the hatchback class’s smoothest operators on cruising manners, keeping vibration out of the cabin at all but very low crank speeds, but it gets a little coarse at high revs.

While good, it isn’t quite a match for the very best small diesels on flexibility or fuel economy. The 58.5mpg real-world average return recorded by our True MPG testers is a good 10 percent poorer than we achieved from the Honda Civic 1.6 i-DTEC, and only just pips Seat’s 57mpg Leon 1.6 TDI. It’s entirely acceptable from a car that doesn’t feel in any way compromised for the sake of economy, but it shouldn’t be a relative selling point.

 On outright pulling power, the Ford feels fairly strong and performs quite well against the clock. There’s enough urge here to execute B-road overtakes with some confidence, and throttle pedal response is respectable. That said, a slightly sticky-feeling accelerator in our 1.5-litre diesel 119bhp test car made it hard to apportion power exactly as intended and hampered smooth motorway progress.

The ratios of the six-speed gearbox are well chosen, and its action is solid and well defined – quite weighty and mechanical-feeling. However, rushing a change through the gate when cold can sometimes lead to a refusal to engage, unless you’re steady and deliberate with the lever.

Even on standard 16in wheels the Focus’s braking performance is good, with a well-tuned pedal that is both easily modulated and reassuring in an emergency. Source by autocar.co.uk

Continue to Review

Share:

Read More

Ford Focus Design & Styling

Ford Focus Design & Styling

The Focus has moved in and out of handsomeness, generation by generation. Fortunately, this model has found the Twister dial of design in a favourable position.

The car’s chiselled old nose makes a welcome return, largely thanks to the incorporation of the latest ‘face of Ford’, which introduces slimmer headlights alongside elongated foglights and a widened grille.

Beneath the sharpening of the styling, Ford’s engineers have taken a similar attitude. According to the manufacturer, the stiffness of the Focus’s frontal structure has been enhanced by the use of a stronger arc welding technique and some thicker brackets in the engine bay.

The fine-tuning continues on a number of chassis components, with the suspension geometry, control arm bush stiffness and dampers all fettled for a better sense of connectedness with the road.

Engineers have also concerned themselves with what happens at the limit of that connection. Ford claims a car industry first with the introduction of what it calls its Enhanced Transitional Stability system. This is claimed to be able to predict when a skid might occur and apply the brakes individually to counteract the condition before the worst can occur.

The metering of the electric power steering is essential to this process and this, too, has been retuned to give what Ford calls a “more instinctive reaction”.

Improvements under the bonnet are more easily quantifiable, with an engine range that is claimed to be up to 15 percent more efficient than before. This fact is helped along no end by the introduction of the new 1.5-litre EcoBoost petrol and 1.5-litre diesel engines to the Focus line-up.

The former, available in 148bhp and 180bhp variants to complement the returning 1.0-litre three-pot, replaces the old 1.6-litre powerplant and features the now-familiar combination of turbocharging, direct fuel injection and variable camshaft timing that comes with the EcoBoost badge.

Its diesel equivalent, sold in 94bhp, 103bhp and 118bhp variants, also replaces a slightly larger engine and includes what Ford calls the “most fuel-efficient combustion process to date” from one of its oil-burners, thanks to an optimised piston bowl, liberal internal coatings of friction-reducing diamond-like carbon, a revised turbocharger and the latest generation of diesel injectors.

Both the 1.5 and 2.0-litre diesel engines also get an after-treatment NOx trap to comply with Euro 6 emissions standards. The diesels share a variable-nozzle blower, while the 2.0 TDCi gets a modest power boost to go with significant economy gains. All of these powertrains put the Focus toe-to-toe with the Volkswagen Golf TSI and TDI engines.

A household Focus model is the ST range which is powered by two powertrains - a 2.0-lite Ecoboost engine pumping out 247bhp, which is more than the Volkswagen Golf GTI but 50bhp less than the Seat Leon Cupra 300, while a more economical 183bhp diesel completes the fast Focus range - which is by no small coincidence slightly more powerful than the Golf GTD.

Heading up the range is the fiesty and racous Focus RS - equipped with all-wheel drive and a 349bhp turbocharged 2.3-litre Ecoboost engine, which has revamped the mega hot hatch sector and takes on a raft of hot hatches from the Honda Civic Type R, BMW M140i, Mercedes-AMG A45 and the formidable Volkswagen Golf R for domination in this segment. Source by autocar.co.uk

Continue to Interior

Share:

Read More

Tesla Model X Review

Tesla Model X Review
From £72,700

Tesla got off to a slow start with the Lotus-based Roadster, but a decade has now passed since we first drove that car – in fairly shabby two-speed prototype form, straight out of the gates of Potash Lane, Hethel, as it happened.

And there has certainly been some water under the bridge since then.

The Roadster, now long discontinued, reached fewer than 3000 homes over its four-year life cycle; by way of contrast, Tesla delivered more than 76,000 other new cars last year alone.

So while only a brave few were willing to risk their motoring happiness on an electrified sports car at the turn of the current decade, some 50,000 buyers a year are now switching their preference from fossil fuels to battery power and buying a Model S executive saloon.

Growth of that kind doesn’t tend to come easy, and there have, of course, been safety controversies, recalls and a few corporate scandals to keep the gossip mill spinning. But the Model S has emphatically succeeded, and it is now a bigger-selling car than almost any other full-sized limousine in the world.

Tesla, being at once a long way from done and ever-keen to talk of its plans, has already told us about the Model 3: a compact saloon that will make Tesla ownership about twice as affordable as it currently is. It is due for production later this year.

By 2018, Tesla hopes to be making half a million cars a year. If it comes about, that’ll be a phenomenal transition: from Morgan-scale car-making to Volvo-scale volume production within just seven years. That’s one vehicle life cycle and a mere heartbeat in industry terms.

It won’t happen, though, if the world doesn’t take to the subject of this road test at least as readily as it has to the Model S.

The new Model X is the seven-seat SUV reimagined in much the same vein as the luxury saloon was by the Model S.

A 2.5-tonne electric vehicle available with as much as 611bhp, the Model X, is a car for which equally remarkable claims on acceleration (0-60mph in 3.2sec) and range (in excess of 300 miles) are being made.

We’re testing it in middle-rung 90D model trim. So will the luxury SUV ever be the same again? Source by autocar.co.uk

Continue to Design & Styling

Share:

Read More

First Tesla Model 3 deliveries to start this month

First Tesla Model 3 deliveries to start this month
CEO Elon Musk confirms launch and announces that production will reach 20,000 units per month from December

The first customer Tesla Model 3s will be handed over on the 28 July, around six months before initial predictions, CEO Elon Musk has confirmed.

In series of Tweets, Musk said production of the all-electric four-door will then be ramped up exponentially, with 100 cars produced in August, more than 1500 produced in September and then 20,000 produced per month from December.

The Model 3 has an entry-level price of $35,000 (about £28,000) and has been ordered by around 500,000 customers, which is the maximum output possible at Tesla's new battery-producing Gigafactory in Nevada.

Production starts as Tesla injects $1 billion (around £800 million) of investment into the company, something Musk has previously said would help the company meet the high demand requirements of its newest model.

The manufacturer has raised capital to help production and ease the financial risk associated with the production run, which led to a rise in its share price that was also helped by reports of its future model plans, including the Model Y compact SUV, according to New York financiers.

Tesla has also said it aimed to deliver a combined total of 47,000 to 50,000 Model S and Model Xs in the first half of this year, but did not give a figure for Model 3 target sales.

It has, however, reaffirmed its pledge to deliver 500,000 vehicles in 2018 and one million in 2020, when the Gigafactory is expected to reach full capacity - a sharp rise from the 80,000 delivered in 2016. Source by autocar.co.uk

Share:

Read More

Mazda CX-5 Design & Styling

Mazda CX-5 Design & Styling
The dimensions of the second-generation CX-5 silently confirm its relationship with its predecessor.

The new car is within 5mm of the old one on overall length – you’ll often see a bigger difference than that on a facelifted car as a result of a mere bumper styling alteration – and is identical on overall width and wheelbase.

Where it does differ is on overall height, the new car standing 30mm shorter than its antecedent – and quite possibly benefiting visually from the aesthetic advantages that a lower roofline confers.

Mazda’s new look for the car adds slimmer headlights and a larger helping of chrome trim and certainly creates a smarter, more serious and more upmarket-looking car.

Revisions to the CX-5’s body-in-white may have added 15 percent to the car’s torsional rigidity by the inclusion of 3 percent more ultra-high-tensile steel, but they haven’t made it significantly lighter.

Mazda’s claim, however, is that 50 percent of the components that make up the car’s monocoque (by number) are new. The joins between the front suspension and the body have been reinforced, as have the body sills and the A-pillars.

Elsewhere, the steering bushes have been stiffened, the lower suspension arm bushings uprated, and the dampers respecified and retuned for smoother roll characteristics and better mid-corner stability.

On the electronic side, the car features new dynamic stability software called G-Vectoring Control, which uses integrated control of the engine, transmission and chassis to monitor the car’s pitch as it progresses from turn-in to apex and then exit and makes subtle modulations to the engine’s delivery of torque to juggle the car’s weight around between its axles.

This, Mazda claims, is automatic load transfer and the consequent maximising of grip, steering response and stability done imperceptibly: an interesting idea.

The CX-5’s engines have been carried over for the most part, with detail changes made to Mazda’s 2.2-litre diesel lump in particular aimed at improving refinement.

We tested the volume-selling 148bhp 2.2-litre diesel in front-wheel-drive manual form. A 163bhp 2.0-litre petrol is also available, as is a 173bhp 2.2-litre diesel.

Four-wheel drive is offered on the 148bhp diesel as an option and on the 173bhp one as standard, and a six-speed automatic gearbox can be had with either diesel. Source by autocar.co.uk

Continue to Interior

Share:

Read More

Top 5 Compact SUVs

Top 5 Compact SUVs

1. Ford Kuga

Dead and buried is the quirky Kuga of old. It was highly rated by us but it proved popular on too few continents, and catered for too narrow a spread of tastes, to be worthy of a place among the Mulally model generation.

Its replacement has in effect moved up a class. Measuring over 4.5m long, it’s now a closer match for a Hyundai Santa Fe than a Nissan Qashqai, and with a sharp looking facelift due imminently the appeal of Ford's middle of the range SUV is only set to grow.  Read More ...

2. Volkswagen Tiguan

Two of Volkswagen’s current models are sold in greater numbers to the UK car-buying public than the Tiguan compact SUV: the Golf and the Polo.

VW currently sells 11 different cars in this country (more if you count estates and cabriolets as separate lines), so for the Tiguan to outsell so many of them – considering that it’s only now entering a second model generation – tells you that it has become quite popular in a short space of time.

The other thing that’s interesting about the Tiguan’s brisk success story is that it is just a compact SUV: not really a premium SUV, nor a trendy crossover-bodied one, nor a notably quirky or sporty-looking one.  Read More ...

3. BMW X1

As outstanding as some of its saloons, estates and SUVs have been over the decades, there’s no greater proof of the enduring power of the BMW brand than the success of the previous X1 crossover hatchback.

Over a lifecycle of almost exactly six years, built in factories in India, China and Russia as well as in Germany, the X1 clocked up 730,000 worldwide sales. And yet the X1 was awkward-looking, cumbersome-handling, badly packaged, plainly finished and equally plainly rough and unrefined. Munich’s blue-and-white propeller may never have been risked on such a poor car.  Read More ...

4. Range Rover Evoque

The formula for the Range Rover Evoque seems so obvious now: make a car that has all the desirability of a Range Rover, with a beautiful interior and the styling turned up to 11, yet at a more affordable price.

It wasn’t so clear-cut at the start, given that the concept version that preceded the Evoque was called Land Rover LRX. But when it arrived it all made sense.

The Evoque – offered as a five-door, a striking three-door whose looks befit its coupé tag or as a convertible – is an SUV right at the premium end of the compact 4x4 market.  Read More ...

5. Honda CR-V

The CR-V was no more the first ‘soft-road’ recreational 4x4 than was Blair the first Labour PM. But like Blair, it introduced a degree of apparent user-friendliness never seen before among its kin.

Perversely, and just like the man who kicked the Tories out of power, the appeal of the Honda stemmed from compromising the very things it was meant to do best.

The result was a more populist product, more than happy to alienate the traditional hardcore if it meant appealing more broadly to those of a more middle-of-the-road persuasion.   Read More ...


Source by autocar.co.uk

Share:

Read More

Honda CR-V Design & Styling

Honda CR-V Design & Styling

The current CR-V may not look that much different to the car it succeeds, but that’s because Honda is following Volkswagen’s cue and not messing with a winning formula any more than it has to. Besides, the fourth generation car is far more changed than first acquaintances might suggest.

It is, for example both lower by 30mm and shorter by 5mm than the last car. However, it suffers no reduction of interior space, says Honda, thanks to smarter packaging. It’s torsionally stiffer, too. A longer roof and flatter floor have smoothed out the airflow both over and under the car and combine with more efficient engines to provide some useful gains in fuel economy and falls in CO2 emissions.

Another throwback to the CR-V’s history is that two-wheel drive is the exception rather than the norm. Many newer rivals retain an all-wheel drive model just because of the credibility that would be lost if an off-roader was produced with literally no off-road ability. By contrast, four-wheel drive remains very much a CR-V staple and is available on all models save those fitted with the entry-level 1.6-litre diesel.

The extensive mid-life facelift gave the CR-V sharper looks, which correlates with Honda's design language, with the front grille, headlights and rear lights all getting a refreshed look. It was also made wider and given a quicker steering rack and new suspension components, while refinement was improved with thicker door seals.

However, just two engines were available at first, a 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol and a 1.6-litre diesel engine available with a nine-speed auto' box, replaces the long-in-the-tooth 2.2-litre diesel that has taken the lion’s share of sales in the UK. Doubtless Honda could have installed a higher-output engine – in the US the mainstay is a 185bhp 2.4-litre petrol – but in Europe, demand for such a thirsty, tax-inefficient powerplant would be negligible.

The CR-V sits on a bespoke platform that uses McPherson struts at the front and a multi-link rear end. Source by autocar.co.uk

Continue to Interior

Share:

Read More

Honda CR-V Interior

Honda CR-V Interior

For a car intended to appeal as much to fashionistas as traditional off-road devotees, Honda appears to have missed a bit of a trick. You can see what it was trying with its dashboard design but the truth is, it doesn’t quite work.

In certain circumstances, form can take precedence over function and still result in a driving environment that’s cohesive and not so difficult to use that it becomes counter productive. In the Honda CR-V, while the idea of a large central speedo flanked by smaller gauges for revs, fuel and water temperature is sound, more minor controls are less sensibly arranged. And if you choose the optional sat-nav, it may not be long before you wished you’d just bought a TomTom and slapped that in the window instead.

Elsewhere, the CR-V finds itself on surer ground. There is of course the obligatory raised driving position without which no SUV is worthy of the name, and you can count on Honda not to mess up the fundamental relationship between the driver, pedals, steering wheel and gear shifter.

Those condemned to life on the back seat may notice and appreciate the absence of a tranmission tunnel, though the 38mm drop in the H-point may be more difficult to spot. No matter, with a large and airy glasshouse the Honda CR-V provides one of the better views of the world as it passes by the window.

The boot is sensibly shaped and of competitive capacity for the class while your friends will marvel at the mechanism for dropping the rear seats: one tug of a handle and the seat bottom shuffles forward, then the back flops down and the headrest tucks into it.

It may even be a neat enough solution for you not to notice that the Honda's total loading capacity is somewhat smaller than that offered by many rivals.

Then there is the multitude of trim levels to decipher too. The entry-level S and S-Navi models come with 17in alloys, dual-zone climate control, cruise control and Bluetooth connectivity, while the latter also gets a 7.0in touchscreen Honda Connect infotainment system complete with sat nav. The SE and SE-Navi models also get parking sensors and front foglights, although the former foregoes the sat nav.

Choose the SR trim and you get high density headlights, half leather and half Alcantara interior and bigger alloys, while the range-topping EX models gets a full leather interior, panoramic sunroof and keyless entry and start. Source by autocar.co.uk

Continue to Performance

Share:

Read More

Honda CR-V Performance

Honda CR-V Performance

Why would anyone choose a petrol-powered Honda CR-V? Actually there have been some grounds, none more compelling than the fact that, model for model, the petrol car is more than £900 cheaper than the 1.6-litre diesel.

If, therefore, you were a low-mileage user, wanting the elevated seating position of an SUV but as little of the expense as possible, a petrol CR-V may have made a great deal of sense. However, all this was before the dawn of the 1.6-litre diesel. It asks for another second and a bit to get to 62mph, but it will reward you by travelling more than 20 miles further on each gallon of fuel while chucking in a free tax disc for good measure.

For many, however, the obsolete 148bhp 2.2-litre diesel motor would found under a majority of used CR-Vs bonnets. As we shall see, it is not only more frugal than the petrol version but also, less predictably, given that it has more weight and less power, offers better performance.

That sounds like a mathematical impossibility, but it’s not. The petrol motor may have three extra horsepower but that paltry advantage fades to total nothingness when you consider that it develops just 141lb ft of torque at 4300rpm compared to the substantial 258lb ft made by the diesel engine at fewer than half the revs.

Not only does that make the diesel fractionally faster on paper (0-62mph is 9.7sec compared to 10.2sec for a petrol all-wheel drive CR-V), in the real world there’s really no comparison. While you’re wondering just how many gears you may need to drop to clear some traffic in the petrol CR-V, the diesel has already gone.

On the subject of gears, the five speed automatic transmission is determinedly old-school and, like all such gearboxes, therefore extracts a heavy price for its installation not only when you buy but every time you put you foot down or pull up to the service station. Acceleration to 62mph for the 2.2-litre diesel increases by almost a full second to 10.6sec with a commensurate increase in fuel consumption. Source by autocar.co.uk

Continue to Honda CR-V Review

Share:

Read More

Honda CR-V Review

Honda CR-V Review
From £21,860

"You were the future once," was a comment famously hurled at the once boyish but now grizzled Tony Blair by the fresh-faced young upstart called David Cameron – and he could just have easily been talking about the Honda CR-V.

The CR-V was no more the first ‘soft-road’ recreational 4x4 than was Blair the first Labour PM. But like Blair, it introduced a degree of apparent user-friendliness never seen before among its kin.

Perversely, and just like the man who kicked the Tories out of power, the appeal of the Honda stemmed from compromising the very things it was meant to do best.

The result was a more populist product, more than happy to alienate the traditional hardcore if it meant appealing more broadly to those of a more middle-of-the-road persuasion.

And it worked beautifully. So beautifully that three successive generations garnered five million sales between them, business a traditional off-roader could not possibly hope to have imagined. But such success rarely comes with no price attached. When the CR-V made its debut in 1995, its only serious and direct opposition was the Toyota RAV4.

But the rest of the world was hardly likely to sit back and let them clean up. Slow out of the blocks though some have been, now almost every self-respecting mainstream and even large-volume premium player is in the market. From Korea's Hyundai and Kia to Germany's Audi, Mercedes-Benz and BMW, the marketplace has never been more crowded.

Nor does it look likely to thin out any time soon. The formula of providing a car that makes its owner look more adventurous than he or she actually is while coping with all the clobber of daily family life has captured the public imagination like no new class of car since the invention of the hatchback in the 1970s. Which means for old stagers like the Honda CR-V, sales that were once presumed now need to be fought over from first to last.

That said, the CR-V does come with one or two quite compelling factors in its favour. Honda is a brand that still commands worldwide respect for the quality of its engineering and, with a return to supplying engines in F1, a new NSX and a tenth-generation Civic and Civic Type R looming, its strength looks likely only to improve. Not content with playing catch-up a second time, Honda took the initiative and gave the CR-V a thorough facelift in 2015, and has unveiled what its next generation range-topping SUV will look like.

And it’s built right here in Britain, just north of the M4 in Swindon. If you want an SUV and believe in supporting your local car constructor, a CR-V may still be what you need.

For everyone else, though, it will need to compete on ability alone, and that is what we are here examine. Source by autocar.co.uk

Continue to Design & Styling

Share:

Read More