After teasing, promises, and COVID-related delays, the Infiniti QX55 debuted a few weeks ago, as Infiniti eagerly drew direct comparisons between their new “classy” successor and the departed FX35/45. You might remember that shapely SUV headed to its demise in 2017 after it was left to rot for a few years, then renamed QX70. Infiniti chose to ignore its final QX70 name in the press materials and call it FX instead, which says something about their branding strategy, doesn’t it?

Today I’m here to tell you this “new car” is a perfect example of exactly what’s wrong at Infiniti, and the changes needed years ago, not sometime in the future.

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Zero to sixty in 3.8 seconds, or 0.3 seconds faster than the outgoing version, the 2021 Jaguar F-PACE SVR is also said to be 2 mph faster, with a top speed of 178 mph. The real question is where outside of Iredell County, North Carolina, scene of NASCAR racer Kyle Busch’s infamous 2011 speeding ticket (128 mph in a 45 mph zone), could you get anywhere near those limits?

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Forget all you’ve heard about Millennials (24-39 years old) and their disdain for automobiles. COVID-19 has changed that, as 31 percent of those without a car intend to buy one in the next six months, and 45 percent of them are Millennials.

EY, a global leader in assurance, tax, strategy, and consulting services, and a member of Ernst & Young Global Limited, issued their 2020 EY Mobility Consumer Index, surveying over 3,300 consumers across nine countries. Thirty-one percent of the respondents who don’t own a car plan to buy one in the next six months, while 20 percent that already own a car say they would be open to buying another vehicle. Both groups said that one of their principal reasons to purchase is the pandemic.

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It’s been five weeks since I opined VW should cancel the Arteon and the North American Passat, and replace both with the European Passat instead.

Late last week, Volkswagen complied with part of my request. They must read TTAC!

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In my mid-20s I had a boss who once said to me “We all gotta grow up sometime”.

I don’t remember the specifics of why he said that, other than he wasn’t chewing me out or anything like that. I think maybe we were talking generally about post-college life and the responsibilities of adulthood.

The specifics don’t matter. What does, at least for the purposes of this post, is that the Mazda 3 is learning that lesson. With Mazdaspeed more or less shelved and the manufacturer trying to move the 3 upscale, away from its spunky past, while not leaving the “zoom-zoom” reputation fully behind, the 3 is supposed to be all grown up yet still cool.

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The new 2022 Subaru BRZ is here, and it’s …. not all that different.

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Ford’s $11.5 billion investment (through 2022) into electrification has birthed its first in a series of planned work vehicles. The E-Transit takes everything that was good about the gasoline-powered Transit van and makes a few sacrifices in the name of progress while also offering a handful of useful features made possible by its 67 kWh battery.

One of the biggest items being surrendered is range. Ford estimates the E-Transit to have an operating area of roughly 126 miles between charges, which isn’t great. However, the company claimed this would be sufficient for the kind of applications it envisioned customers would be using it for and noted that reduced range helped the vehicle come in just under $45,000. Longer-range versions are planned, as well as an all-wheel-drive variant, and Ford has added a few features to the E-Transit not available on the gasoline-driven unit. Read More >

I’ve long resisted being the kind of person who could have The Simpsons “old man yells at cloud” jpeg thrown at me. Figuratively speaking, of course, since you can’t really throw a jpeg.

My reaction to the announcement that the unveiling of the 2022 Honda Civic will take place on Twitch is dangerously close to putting me at risk of having that meme used against me. If I had a lawn, and you were on it, I might start to form the words “get off.”

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As we reported a couple of weeks ago, Ford is set to debut its new E-Transit electric van tomorrow. An announcement was made yesterday regarding the Transit’s production location. And the new van brings along some cash, and jobs as well.

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Car Twitter was abuzz on Saturday, as eagle-eyed automotive journalists noticed a bunch of brand-new vehicles, mostly Jeeps, in the front row of the socially-distanced acceptance speech by Joe Biden that marked his being voted president-elect of the United States

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I don’t much care for tea, unless I am sick.

Some folks find it refreshing, though. And tea time is a thing in Britain.

Speaking of British things, the 2021 Land Rover Discovery is refreshed.

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The rumor mill is always, always churning. Some stuff turns out to be true, some not, but some reports catch my eye more than others.

Dropping eight cylinders of fury into the two-door version of the Land Rover Defender 90 is something that gets me to perk up. Even if it’s an unconfirmed rumor as of now.

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We’ve already reported that a new Subaru BRZ is on the way. Now we have a date for the unveil.

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Volkswagen’s Golf R has always sat among the top of the hot-hatch class, along with the Subaru WRX STI and Honda Civic Type R.

And it’s re-done for 2022.

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In the last edition of Buy/Drive/Burn, we discussed three large European wagons with a $65,000 price point. The Buy vote was a toss-up between the E-Class and the A6 allroad.

Today we cover the sedan variants of the same three cars, at the exact same price point. Think you’ll choose differently?

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