-Jaguar Land Rover is showing off a prototype Range Rover Sport that can be remote-controlled via smartphone. Your James Bond fantasies are one step closer to reality. – The experimental prototype Remote Control Range Rover Sport does exactly what the name implies: Via a smartphone app, the driver can pilot the vehicle from a short distance away, controlling steering, accelerator and brake, gear shift position, and selection of high or
– Honda is adding 1.04 million more airbag inflators as part of the ever-expanding Takata airbag recall. – The company said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, after reviewing Takata’s revised estimate of 34 million defective inflators, told Honda to increase its earlier May recall expansion of 350,000 cars. The new recall is for passenger-side airbags on 2003–2007 Accord and 2001–2005 Civic models—two vehicles with the highest defect rates uncovered in
-For 2016, the Jaguar XJ gets its first thorough makeover since 2010. And you’ll have to squint extra hard to spot the changes. Or, if we’re being honest, any XJ on the road at all. – That the current XJ doesn’t appear in any way outdated after six model years is testament to two things: Ian Callum deserves his big salary, and XJs—and indeed, all Jaguars—sell in very limited quantities. Be it
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– Lo! News from an oft-overlooked corner of Mercedes-Benz’s droptop lineup: For 2016, the SLK-class roadster drops its manual-transmission option—it was the only U.S.-spec Benz available with a stick—and swaps its standard turbocharged four-cylinder engine for a new (more powerful) turbo four. A new automatic transmission and a name change from SLK250 to SLK300 also accompany the changes.– – It’s worth noting that the four-cylinder SLK’s new name will be short-lived, as next
-Few brands have ascended from near oblivion as convincingly as has Kia. Run your eyes down the flanks of the resculpted 2016 Sorento and it’s hard to envision products that were once bait for subprime buyers shopping for low monthly payments. Kia’s 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranty introduced more than a decade ago helped erase some memories of bottom-of-the-barrel quality and subpar resale values in preceding years. But the advent of Peter
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– Alfa Romeo’s new 4C Spider is not a convertible in the sense that, say, an Aston Vanquish Volante is a convertible. Instead, the flyweight Alfa features a roll-up soft top that can be stashed in the car’s diminutive trunk, leaving just enough room for a slender knapsack and a sack lunch. Alternately, a lift-off carbon-fiber hardtop is available for $3500; this panel is not stowable in the vehicle. The
– Denizens of Multnomah County, Oregon, rejoice, for your automotive lord and savior, Fuji Heavy Industries, has announced the cash layout required to purchase yourself a brand-spankin’-new 2016 Subaru Forester, a vehicle as at home on the streets of Portland as it is in the wilds of neighboring Skamania County, Washington. (We really just wanted to type “Skamania” because it makes us think of thousands upon thousands of lumberjacks skanking
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