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Mistakes happen. It’s just part of life. Unfortunately, some mistakes are easier to fix than others. If your new car’s tire pressure monitor stops working, for example, all the dealer has to do is replace the faulty part. But if your new car is one of the 2019 Ascents that have just been recalled, Subaru has decided the best option is to simply replace the whole car.

The Problem: According to Subaru, the affected vehicles may not have received all the necessary spot welds on or around the B-pillar. Because of that, the vehicle’s structural integrity is likely compromised, increasing the risk of injury in a crash.

The Fix: Instead of attempting to reweld the affected B-pillars, Subaru has taken a pricier but less risky approach. Owners of vehicles found to be missing the necessary spot welds will be given a brand new Ascent that was built correctly. The Japanese automaker will also cover the cost of any taxes, fees, and registration costs that owners are required to pay in order to swap vehicles.

Number of Vehicles Potentially Affected: Subaru believes a total of 293 vehicles built in the month of July were affected, although it’s unclear how many are currently on the road. To see if your car is affected, check your VIN using NHTSA’s recall checker tool.

Source: Subaru

The post Subaru Will Replace Your 2019 Ascent if it Was Recalled for Bad Welds appeared first on Motor Trend.

Yes, it’s a small crossover, and yes, its styling is less than conventional. But we’re convinced the Volvo XC40 was designed with practicality in mind, from its innovative storage solutions to its comfortable materials and useful safety technologies.

The XC40 offers a host of interior features that other luxury automakers overlook, including grocery hooks and a designated phone charging space. Drivers can find exactly what they’re looking for thanks to the minimalist cabin design and easy-to-use touchscreen. And as we also noted in our recent First Test, it’s also maneuverable in the city and has plenty of power at the ready, adding to the practicality equation.

We summed it up: “Because of their size and lower price tag, luxury subcompacts are likely to be scrutinized for whether they’re worthy of the esteemed brand badge. The XC40 keeps with Volvo tradition, particularly when it comes to interior quality, feature availability, and drive experience.”

Check out this video to find out how different innovations on the Volvo XC40 make for one very practical small SUV.

The post Watch: 7 Reasons Why the Volvo XC40 is the Most Practical SUV Ever appeared first on Motor Trend.

Three victories in Virginia for Corvette Racing since 2012 DETROIT (Aug. 15, 2018) – Corvette Racing’s title chase in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship takes it to a circuit where – not surprisingly – it has shown significant strength: Virginia International Raceway. This weekend’s Michelin GT Challenge is a GT-only weekend with the GT Le […]

The post Corvette Racing at VIR: Going for an Overall Three-peat appeared first on Corvette: Sales, News & Lifestyle.

The Nissan Sentra is due for a complete redesign soon, but in the meantime, it receives some much-needed updates. For the 2019 model year, Nissan is finally giving the model a larger screen as well as Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

All Sentras except the base model now feature Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as standard equipment. There’s also a new 7-inch audio display, much larger than the 5.0-inch and 5.8-inch displays offered on the previous model.

Prices start at $18,685 for the base S model. These cars come modestly equipped with a six-way manual driver seat, four-way manual front passenger seat, basic air conditioning, 16-inch steel wheels, and Bluetooth. Opting for the CVT instead of the standard six-speed manual brings the price up to $19,375.

On the SV grade, buyers receive smart key with push-button start, two rear USB ports, dual zone automatic climate control, piano black interior trim, a leather-wrapped steering wheel, 16-inch aluminum alloy wheels, and a tire pressure monitoring system with easy-fill tire alert. This model comes standard with the CVT and starts from $19,985.

This trim also receives a new Special Edition package for 2019. Available for $1,000, this package includes 17-inch aluminum alloy wheels, blind spot warning, rear cross traffic alert, adaptive cruise control, rear disc brakes, power sliding glass moonroof with tilting feature, and unique badging.

SR models boast adaptive cruise control, a rear spoiler with integrated LED brake light, 17-inch alloy wheels, a sport interior trim, and other upgrades for $21,485. When paired with the more powerful 1.6-liter engine making 188 hp instead of the standard 1.8-liter engine with 124-130 hp, the SR costs $23,465. SL models receive a standard moonroof, leather-appointed seats, heated front seats, a Bose audio system with eight speakers, and six-way power driver seat among other features for $23,915.

Sitting at the top of the lineup, the Nismo model offers the same turbocharged 1.6-liter I-4 as the SR Turbo model but also gets unique exterior touches like a ground effects kit and red stripe accents. It starts at $26,735 regardless of whether you pair it with the six-speed manual or CVT.

The 2019 Nissan Sentra is now on sale.

Source: Nissan

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The dream of a lifetime will come true for a Sikeston, Missouri man on Friday. And it involves a Corvette. In fact, several of them. Diagnosed in May with a terminal illness, Tony Ohara mentioned to his hospice nurse that he had hoped to fulfill his lifelong dream of riding in a Corvette, but the […]

The post Southeast Missouri Corvette Club Grants Wish to a Man with a Terminal Illness appeared first on Corvette: Sales, News & Lifestyle.

It’s rental car giant Hertz’s birthday, but customers can join in the celebration, too, by renting a special 100th anniversary Corvette Z06. Appropriately enough, all 100 of the 650-horsepower Corvettes will be decked out in Corvette Racing Yellow paint with dual black stripes, matching Hertz’s brand colors, of course. The special Z06s will be offered […]

The post Hertz Celebrates Milestone With Limited-Edition 100th Anniversary Corvette Z06 Rentals appeared first on Corvette: Sales, News & Lifestyle.

Our time with my beloved Durango is drawing to a close, and yet we’re still discovering new and wonderful features. The latest: Dodge’s inspired luggage rack cross-bar system.

I avoid roof-rack use because it torpedoes the fuel economy, but desperate times call for desperate measures. We needed to move an IKEA kitchen to our cabin, where we’d spend a week assembling and installing it. Among the week’s necessities to be transported was a new Weber grill for our Independence Day cookout. It weighed half the 150-pound recommended maximum roof-top cargo limit, so it had to ride up top.

Most vehicles make you buy accessory crossbars to use their longitudinal rails, but the Durango hides two crossbars in the rails. It’s all part of the $395 Cargo Plus Group that includes the cargo area roller shade. You unscrew the crossbars, swing them 90 degrees across the roof, pivot their hinged ends down, line up the mounting points (clearly marked with letters A–D), slide them in place, screw them down, and voila! Ready to lash a grill to. These rails stay out of the airstream when not in use, but they’re always with you, should an impulse estate-sale purchase beckon.

We heeded the owner’s manual warning to slow down with a roof load because it was 97 degrees out, our overall load might have been an ounce or two over our Durango’s 7,100-pound gross vehicle weight rating, and I was in no mood to deal with a heat- or load-related tire blowout. Traveling at 60–65 mph we actually averaged slightly better fuel economy than the empty ute does at 80 (#SlowDownToSaveGas).

Another load-hauling observation: I can’t tie the tailgate down when carrying a long load. With it up, an aggressive launch out into highway traffic sounds awesome but results in a big whiff of exhaust.

This week I’ve been playing with the Uconnect phone app, following Detroit editor Priddle’s vacation travels to her Canadian cabin, where she used the Durango to help deliver a pretty spiffy Sea Ray ski boat. It also shows me the odometer, tire pressures, fuel level, oil life, and vehicle health reports. I’ve resisted the urge to remote-honk the horn at 7 a.m. So far.

• Long-Term Arrival
• Update 1: Road/Tripper
• Update 2: Hot and Cold
• Update 3: Cheese and Beats
• Update 4: Whiskey, Wigwams & Wi-Fi

Photo Captions

The post 2018 Dodge Durango 4 R/T Long Term Update 5: Like Sisyphus appeared first on Motor Trend.

“I’d really like an Audi RS 5 Coupe, but I really need two more doors, a usable rear seat, and up to 35 cubic feet of luggage space.” That’s probably an inner conversation no buyer is ever going to have with himself as he walks into his friendly local Audi dealer. But it neatly sums up the appeal of the latest addition to Audi’s burgeoning RS lineup. The 2019 Audi RS 5 Sportback is a practical performance car, a civilized family vehicle when you need it to be, and a rip-snorting supercar when you want it to be.

Here are the headline numbers: 444 horsepower, 443 lb-ft of torque, 0–60 mph in 3.8 seconds, and a top speed—if you order the optional Dynamic Plus package—of 174 mph. All that, and room for the kids and their stuff.

Built on VW Group’s MLB Evo hardware, the RS 5 Sportback is identical to its two-door sibling from the B-pillar forward. However, wheelbase and overall length have grown 2.3 inches to accommodate the rear doors, and the roof is 1.1 inches taller to improve passenger headroom. The extra doors and the large rear hatch mean the Sportback weighs 89 pounds more than the Coupe, which Audi says accounts for it being a tenth of a second slower to 60 mph.

The RS 5’s twin-turbo 2.9-liter V-6—and Audi makes it very clear this engine, also used in Porsche’s Panamera, was developed entirely in-house—delivers a creamy surge of thrust, accompanied by a woofly baritone exhaust rumble when you nail the gas. It’s one of the nicest V-6s in the business, though with peak power arriving at a relatively modest 5,700 rpm, it lacks the thrilling top-end zing of the 4.2-liter V-8 that powered previous-generation RS 4/5 cars. But whereas the V-8 developed 317 lb-ft at 4,000 rpm, the V-6 makes its maximum 443 lb-ft available from just 1,900 rpm. It’s a torque monster, and rapid progress is most effortlessly achieved by short shifting before the digital tach starts flashing red to warn of the approaching rev limit.

Or you can leave the eight-speed ZF transmission to its own devices. That the engine’s torque curve is flatter than Kansas from 1,900 rpm to 5,000 rpm gives it a lot to work with; there’s always a response when you get on the throttle. In the normal drive mode—what Audi confusingly calls Auto—the transmission glides through the ratios before settling in the highest, most efficient gear and letting the torque do the work. But in Dynamic mode it neatly downshifts right where you want it on corner entry, the engine matching revs on the way through, and will coolly hold gear when you lift off the gas. You’d still be quicker down a canyon road fanning the paddles, shifting yourself. But not by much.

The RS 5 Sportback rides 0.3 inch lower than the regular S5 Sportback. The standard wheel/tire combination is 19-inch forged alloys with 265/35 summer tires, but our U.S. spec tester was fully loaded, fitted with 20-inch wheels and 275/35 tires, and the Dynamic Plus Pack. That adds monster 15.7-inch carbon ceramic brakes and gray painted calipers up front, in addition to Dynamic Ride Control, which uses steel springs and three-stage adjustable shocks connected diagonally via oil lines running through a central valve to reduce diagonal pitching and roll through corners. Oh, and the Dynamic Plus Pack also includes a tweak to the engine management system that lifts Vmax from 155 mph to 174 mph.

Don’t want or need 174 mph and the brakes to match? No problem. Just order the Dynamic Pack, which gives you the highly effective Dynamic Ride Control suspension, along with red-painted calipers for the steel brakes, and the RS sports exhaust system with blacked-out tips. Just to show what you’ve paid for.

You don’t notice the longer wheelbase and extra weight of the RS 5 Sportback on the road. However, like its two-door sibling, the RS 5 Sportback is a car whose front axle weight bias demands precision on corner entry when driven hard. But although the steering is accurate and there’s decent front-end grip, you never get a detailed read as to what’s happening at the tire contact patch. So the best way to attack the twisties is slow in, quick out, allowing the clever drivetrain to best apportion the torque between the front and rear axles and the rear wheels, to punch the car away from the apex.

Ironically, despite the label, Dynamic mode isn’t the best for press-on road driving. Even on Germany’s smooth two-lanes, the ultra-stiff damper rates delivered a gut-jiggling ride, and the novelty of the amplified rumble from the exhaust wears off quickly. The solution? Switch the drive mode to Individual and set the suspension and exhaust to the Comfort settings and everything else to Dynamic. Thus configured, the RS 5 is a fast, comfortable, coherent grand turismo, on any paved road, in any weather.

Americans don’t like wagons, which is why we don’t get the heroically subversive RS 4 and RS 6 load luggers this side of the pond. But we’re not exactly fans of hatchbacks, either. Audi’s A/S7 and A/S5 five-doors are the exceptions that prove the rule, however: The A/S5 Sportback outsells the A/S5 Coupe by almost three to one, and Audi of America product planners fully expect the RS 5 Sportback to be one of the company’s most popular RS models.

It’s not hard to see why. With a roofline that sweeps down into a fast backlight, the regular Sportback looks more like a racy four-door coupe than a prosaic grocery-getter. The RS family visual cues add muscle to the mix: The grille is shallower and wider, the fenders have been pumped 0.6 inch on each side, and the new front and rear bumpers are adorned with the usual performance car prerequisites such as vents, spoilers, splitters, and diffusers. Eight exterior colors are available at launch, including the lovely RS-only Nardo Grey, and Sonoma Green, which is exclusive to RS 5 models.

The interior is typically Audi, beautifully designed and impeccably executed, swathed in stitched leather, with soft-sheen aluminum highlights. Audi’s impressively configurable Virtual Cockpit digital instrumentation pack is standard equipment, and the RS-specific head-up display, showing engine oil temperature, lap time, and shift lights in addition to speed and nav information, is available as an option. That 35.0 cubic feet of luggage capacity—enough, says Audi, for five golf bags or four full-size suitcases—is what you get when you fold the rear seats flat. Seats up, the RS 5 will haul 21.8 cubic feet of stuff. In case you’re wondering, that’s about 14 percent less luggage capacity than an RS 4 wagon with the seats down, and only 3 percent less with the seats up.

You can’t buy an AMG C 63 wagon in the U.S., BMW hasn’t built an M3 wagon for a few years now, Jaguar couldn’t make a business case for an XE Sportbrake, and Cadillac has long since given up any ambition to play in the space. All of this leaves the $75,195 Audi RS 5 Sportback pretty much in a category of one. If you want autobahn-storming performance and genuine practicality in a premium midsize package, it’s the only game in town. But one worth the price of admission.

The post 2019 Audi RS 5 Sportback Review: Practical Performance appeared first on Motor Trend.

The IIHS has named the 2019 Acura RDX a Top Safety Pick Plus after putting it through its full battery of testing. In order to get the Top Safety Pick Plus rating, a vehicle must fulfill the following requirements: earn Good ratings on roof strength, side impact, head restraints, moderate front overlap, and driver’s side front small overlap impact; Acceptable or Good on the passenger’s side small overlap impact; Advanced or Superior in the front crash prevention test; and offer an available headlight option that scores a Good rating.

The 2019 RDX scored the highest rating on all of the IIHS’ categories, scoring Good on crash tests and Superior in front crash prevention after it avoided crashes at 12 mph and 25 mph. Surprisingly, the base LED headlights on the 2019 RDX are rated Good while the optional adaptive units have a lower score of Acceptable.

AcuraWatch, Acura’s suite of active safety features, comes standard across the 2019 RDX lineup. This includes adaptive cruise control, lane keeping assist, road departure mitigation, forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking, lane departure warning, and automatic high beams. Blind spot warning with rear cross-traffic alert is available with the Technology, A-Spec, and Advance packages.

The 2019 RDX is the first model to ride on an Acura-exclusive platform and is powered by a 272-hp 2.0-liter turbo-four paired to a 10-speed automatic transmission. Front-wheel drive comes standard and Acura’s Super Handling All-Wheel Drive (SH-AWD) is optional.

Source: IIHS, Honda

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McLaren Special Operations has cooked up more special editions of the 720S. The automaker announced it has delivered the first 720S vehicles to wear the Track Theme and Pacific Theme designations.

The first 720S Track Theme, commissioned by McLaren Manchester, features an Anniversary White paint job inspired by the automaker’s Formula 1 cars of the 1980s. The exterior also features black and orange accents on the doors, rear, and hood. The black wheels feature orange on the outer rim, and the “Speedy Kiwi” design on the mirror caps further celebrates McLaren’s racing heritage. To save weight, all carbon fiber components have a satin finish instead of paint. Inside, you’ll find black Alcantara upholstery with orange contrast stitching. Bred for the track, this car has a lightweight titanium harness bar that can be fitted with a six-point harness.

As you may have guessed, the 720S Pacific Theme is inspired by the ocean bearing the same name. It features a Cerulean Blue paint job accented with a darker shade called Estoril Blue on the door intakes. Carbon fiber components on the roof, air intakes, front splitter, mirror casings, rear diffuser, rear deck, and rear bumper are tinted in a third shade: Cobalt Blue. More blue can be found on the seats and steering wheel. If this isn’t your shade of blue, MSO also presented a darker 720S in Atlantic Blue earlier this year.

The two models add to the MSO 720S Themes portfolio. McLaren has already introduced its 720S Velocity Theme cars. First presented with a two-tone red color scheme at the 2017 Geneva motor show, the Velocity Theme was the first MSO special edition for the 720S, which also debuted at the show.

Source: McLaren

The post MSO Introduces McLaren 720S Pacific and Track Themes appeared first on Motor Trend.