#offroad

Like a petulant child who won’t share their toys, Ford has released a handy smartphone app filled with crowd-sourced and professionally curated tools such as trail maps for off-road journeys – but the only ones who can use it are Bronco owners.

Talk about walling off your garden. Or off-road trail, in this case

We’ve spilled innumerable gallons of digital ink on the forthcoming Tacoma, partly thanks to an incessant stream of teaser photos but mainly because it is a hugely important product in a hot segment. But still – Toyota, if you’re listening, hurry up with the real thing, will ya?

This time around, we learn of a neat option ripped straight from the Book of Wrangler.

It hasn’t been too many flips of the calendar since Jeep rolled out their 4xe sub-brand, a moniker that denotes rigs as having a plug-in hybrid powertrain. Whilst more than one dusty corner of the internet figured Jeep-type customers would turn up their noses at such a proposition, recent sales numbers suggest the effort is actually doing quite well.

So long as one frames those numbers through a very specific lens, of course.

As is the wont of most brands, Chevrolet has decided to wring every single ounce of goodwill from a popular trim. Having first shown up on the midsize Colorado about five years ago, the ZR2 name quickly migrated to the Silverado half-ton and is now being applied to the mighty Silverado HD.

And it’s heavy. Real heavy.

Corporate tie-ups with successful gearheads aren’t new – witness any number of NASCAR sponsorships, for example – but those partnerships often just extend to a few photos of the star holding up examples of the product du jour and mugging for the camera.

That’s why it’s always a good day when the mashup results in a ten-minute film that's arguably better than some of the tripe trotted out by Hollywood. 

Just like the scientists at Jurassic Park kept coming up with new and increasingly terrifying raptors (weaponized heat-seeking Indoraptor, anyone?), Ford seems content to infuse Raptor DNA into most of the trucks it sells – even the mighty Super Duty, according to a fan forum.

The "baby Bronco" Ford Bronco Sport doesn't get the pub that the Bronco does -- but based on what I observe driving around, it's been a sales winner for the Blue Oval. And while most are probably never taken off-road, Ford is offering more choice for those who want to take their Bronco Sports to the proverbial badlands.

As a follow-up to our news on the same earlier this summer, Volkswagen has its sights on reviving the Scout brand name as its moniker for off-road EVs. Today we get a kinda-sorta look at the first model’s front end, along with a few other tidbits from their freshly launched website.

Lamborghini isn’t known for its subtlety, so it’s hard to miss the signs when a new model is on its way. The automaker has teased an off-road version of the Huracan several times, and now Lambo has officially announced the release date for the new car.

If you’ve felt something is missing from your new Porsche 911 – say, an ability to blast dunes or conquer snow and ice – then a variant scheduled for the L.A. Auto Show should be right up your alley.

The last time I reviewed a Land Rover Defender, I commented on how I enjoyed its driving experience despite some very British electrical failings such as the radio going AWOL for half an hour.

I expected similar from the two-door version, and to my pleasant surprise, I got the good parts without any real gremlins or bugs.

Last week marked the Ford Bronco’s 55th anniversary, with the model’s creator celebrating the momentous occasion by throwing an exclusive and socially distanced Bronco party in Holly, MI.

At this off-road soiree, Ford showed off its Bronco family adventure concepts, announced that 165,000 Broncos have been reserved since the July 13 reveal, and proclaimed that Austin, TX would be the first location of the Bronco Off-Roadeo (Ford’s spelling, not a typo) off-road adventure playground.

While all these pieces of information are great, they aren’t exciting enough to headline a Bronco Anniversary party. Instead, the headliners of this party were the off-road ride-alongs in the 2021 Ford Bronco Sport and the 2021 Ford Bronco 2-door.

At the Los Angeles Auto Show this week, Chevrolet announced the rebirth of the Trailblazer (note the spelling) for the 2021 model year. However, unlike its predecessor, it’s now a compact, three-cylinder CUV. The comments got a bit heated, pitting the GMT 360 version against its contemporary competition.

So let’s settle this. It’s time for a Buy/Drive/Burn in 2005.

Has there ever been a better time for a Toyota Tacoma-based, offroad-oriented, style-conscious SUV? It’s 2017. Americans are fully invested in the idea of riding high. Jeep is selling 17,000 Wranglers per month. At the other end of the spectrum, Toyota just sold a record number of RAV4s: more than 43,000 in August. In between, Subaru is selling more than 38,000 crossovers monthly.

As total industry-wide auto sales fell 3 percent through the first two-thirds of 2017, SUV/crossover volume is up 6 percent.

Toyota itself is selling more than 16,000 Tacomas per month, the pickup on which a potential second-gen FJ Cruiser would likely be based. That fact alone is likely a factor that limits an FJ Cruiser rebirth. Indeed, Toyota hasn’t sold the FJ Cruiser in the United States since the 2014 model year, having reached its end just as the U.S. SUV/crossover trend really broke through. Americans now buy 14-percent more utility vehicles than cars.

But the Toyota FJ Cruiser lives on, at least for a little while longer, if only in the Japanese domestic market. This is — say it in a movie trailer voiceover pitch — the Toyota FJ Cruiser Final Edition.

The allegedly rugged and especially outdoorsy version of America’s best-selling utility vehicle will be priced below the top-of-the-range for its debut model year. The 2018 Toyota RAV4 Adventure starts at $28,695, according to CarsDirect, which places the higher, more tow-ready RAV4 above the SE but below the XLE in Toyota’s compact crossover lineup.

Toyota has already sold 269,835 copies of the RAV4 in the United States through the first eight months of 2017, easily a record start for the RAV4 that appears destined to fulfill Toyota’s forecasts by cresting the 400,000-sale marker by the end of the year. The RAV4 Adventure, Toyota predicts, will generate 40,000 annual sales, though it will surely be stealing some of those buyers from other parts of the RAV4 lineup.

The RAV4 Adventure does not, however, come standard with all-wheel drive. Yet unlike other RAV4 variants, where the cost of all-wheel drive ranges from $915-$1400, the RAV4 Adventure’s optional all-wheel drive will add just $700 to the MSRP, CarsDirect says.