I’m to that scene in la-la land when Ryan Gosling helps Emma Stone find hercar by telling her to hold her key fob up to her chin there’s no way that’strue right wrong the typical key fob only functionsup to a few dozen feet but you can extend that range considerably byliterally turning your head into an antenna by holding your key fob up toyour chin you combine its ability to conduct a signal with that of yourfluid-filled melon hey it worked that got us to thinking about some othercommon sense car hacks hiding out in the open too obvious toadmit you didn’t know like how to de fog your windshield when it’s cold outsidelike where I am today fog tends to form on the inside of thewindshield when you run the heat and add moisture to the air when you breathe andthat causes a driving hazard start by turning your heater down or offthis will help equalize the cold inside and outside temperatures turn on yourdefroster to the max but on a cooler setting be sure to turn off your airrecirculation feature leaving it on will simply recirculate humid air converselywhen it’s hot and humid outside the cold air from your air conditioner will causecondensation to form on the outside of your windshield obviously the firstthing you can do is wipe away the condensation with your windshield wipersthen turn that a/c down are entirely off to help balance the temperature andagain turn off that recirculated air crank up the defroster on a warmersetting or just roll down your windows but what about when you’re in anunfamiliar car like in a rental car for example or maybe you’re just the kind ofperson who can never seem to remember what side the fuel tank is on as youpull into the gas station just take a look at that little gas pump icon nearyour fuel gauge see that little arrow it’s on the right side of the gas pumpyour fuel cap is on the right it’s on the left your cap is on the left admitit some of you didn’t know that now you won’t have to do any more precariouseleven-point turns trying to line up with the gas pump as your fellow fillersup look on with judgy expressions
small crossovers and suv’s are all the rage these days everybody’s buying oneand they’re buying them more and more every single minute hyundai does notwant to be left out of that party which is why they’ve brought us this this isthe new 2018 hyundai kona and while the name may make you think of volcanicislands and tropical breezes and beautiful Hawaiian beaches franklythat’s not what we have here today we are in Detroit on Belle Isle and asbeaches go this is pretty much what we’ve got however we also have this toplay with a fantastic new crossover from Hyundai so what makes this thing sospecial I’m not sure it’s the styling that makes it special because we’vecriticized the Kona in the past for kind of looking like a mishmash of everyother crossover on the market put together let me check this out these arenot the headlights these are the daytime running lights they’re LED and they’restandard the actual headlights are down here they’re in the bumper and if thatlooks like the last generation Jeep Cherokee to you well frankly it lookslike that to me too the grille is wider and is meant toevoke Hyundai steel making processes it meant to look like an urn where youmelting the steel and pouring it into something else and if you’re a fan ofblack plastic cladding while they’ve got it here – it’s all down the front it’son the fenders it’s on the back fender sits on the back bumper it’s meant tomake the thing look a little bit more rugged meant to look like some kind of amachine where you can see the bones of the machine instead of just the actualexterior and if you’re a fan of compact dimensions well check this out it’salmost a foot shorter than the Hyundai Tucson so it’ll fit just about anywhereyou want to put it depending which model you get you get a choice of wheel sizesbase wheels are 17 inch but this one has 18 inch wheels which come as you risethrough the various trim levels now the paint on this one is a special for 2018called lime twist optional is a contrasting roof either black or greyobviously this one doesn’t have it if you like this color however you’re goingto want to get an 18 because in 2019 this becomes bright orange so there area couple of things we should talk about inside the kona and the first is thisyou push this button and it automatically locks the all-wheel drivein a 50/50 torque split normally the all-wheel drive operates only the frontwheels and it activates rear wheels as needed if it detects anykind of slippage but if you think you can do better than the system detectingwhen you need to have that kind of torque you push that button 50% of thefront 50% of the rear sometimes it’ll help you get out of a slippery situationout on the street I’m actually really quite surprised at how well the kkonadrives it feels like a much larger vehicle than it actually is and that’snot to say that it’s got a larger footprint anything like that because itcertainly doesn’t it is a very small SUV and it feels like a small SUV but theride and handling of it make it feel like a larger vehicle the rideespecially is really quite well damped the handling itself it’s still a tallvehicle and it is a bit more tippy than say something like a Veloster or anElantra but in terms of overall ride quality even with these 18-inch wheelsit’s really not that bad until you get to some seriously broken pavement andthen you may have wished that you’ve gotten the 17-inch wheels instead withthe larger sidewall tires but overall it has a sophistication that we’re startingto find in a number of Hyundai vehicles that hasn’t been there before part ofthe reason I think for the better ride and handling in this vehicle at least isthe multi-link rear suspension base Kona’s only get a torsion beam rearsuspension was a little less sophisticated but when you get theall-wheel drive option you get a multi-link rear suspension as well soyou have a fully independent suspension front and rear and that definitely doeshelp things out in terms of dynamics underhood you’ve got a choice of twoengines if you get the base models you get a two-liter four-cylinder enginemaking 147 horsepower which it’s not a whole lot if you upgrade to all-wheeldrive you can get the 1. 6 liter turbocharged engine now it’s making ahundred and seventy five horsepower but it makes 195 pound-feet of torque and itreally does help the conus scoot around town with no problem whatsoever you geta choice of two transmissions in the Kona and it depends on which enginechoice you’ve specified the base 2-liter engine with the front-wheel drive comeswith a six-speed Automatic transmission but if you upgrade to the 1. 6 literturbo engine you get a 7-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission thoseare the same power trains that you find in the Hyundai Veloster but the turboengine in the Kona is detuned a little bit it only makes 175 horsepower insteadof 201 that we see in other applications but it’s still making 195 pound-feet oftorque and that means that the code of scoots around town with really noproblem at all acceleration is brisk it really feels strong and the 7-speeddual-clutch transmission snaps off shifts pretty much imperceptibly theonly issue I have with the dual clutch transmission is that when you’reshifting you can say from park to drive or from the reverse to drive it doestake a half a second before it actually gets into that gear so you have to kindof let it do its thing before it’s ready to actually send you on your way onearea that sets the Kona apart from a number of its competitors in the classis the amount of safety equipment that is both standard and optional now for2018 things like forward collision warning and automatic emergency brakingare optional you can only get them on the higher trim levels but they’ve toldus that if you wait for the 2019 model all of those items become standard evenon the base model so they’re going to be a slight price increase for 2019 butyou’ll be able to get things like the forwardand the automatic emergency braking on a base-model instead of having to springover $25,000 for a higher trim level and for us it might be worth the wait thisis not the quietest interior that I’ve experienced in the crossover there issome wind noise around the top of the windshield and you’re getting goodamount of road noise through these 18-inch wheels and tires but overallit’s still a pleasant experience the seats are very comfortable franklythey’re supportive and if you’re driving an ultimate trim like this one you havea power 8 way adjustable driver’s seat with lumbar support as well sitting inthe kona the visibility is really quite good it’s a small SUV and so you’resitting up a little bit higher you’ve got great big windows all around therereally isn’t a problem in any direction in terms of visibility you’ve got plentyof headroom in here even though this one has the optional moonroof there’s noissue in terms of having front or back now there is a little bit of an issuewith legroom in the back it does feel kind of tight back therethere’s really not as much room as there are in some other small SUVs or evensome of Hyundai’s own products like the Elantra the interior quality is reallyquite good in fact you know most new Hyundai’s and Kias that we’ve seen thesedays they’ve really upped the interior quality game now everything in here isstill hard plastic there’s no soft touch stuff even on up high parts like on thedoor sills on the top of the dash it’s still all hard plastic but the grainingon it makes it look like it should be soft touch and as long as you’re nottouching it frankly it looks just fine this model is got thespecial paint on the outside and so it’s also got a special interior we’ve gotsome green trim rings and green piping in the seats as well now for 2018 that’sthe special color for 2019 this probably becomes orange and probably gets someupdates as well to what the interior looks like there’s a couple of differentinteriors you can choose from depending on the trim level that you’ve selectedbut there are cloth and leather options if you get a turbo engine youautomatically get leather interior as wellthe standard multimedia screen is a 7-inch touchscreen you get standardapple carplay and android auto but if you want to upgrade you can get thisthis is the 8 inch navigation screen and it comes also with the Infinity premiumaudio system which actually sounds pretty bumpy one of the reasons youmight buy a small crossover like this is for the utility of it and it does havemore cargo room than some competitors like the Jeep renegade or the ChevroletTrax but surprisingly it has less cargo room behind the second row thanHyundai’s own Veloster sports coupe so while you get a more comfortable vehicleand you get a lot more Headroom it’s not necessarily more practical in terms ofcargo so what has surprised us so much about the Hyundai Kona well it’s not howpretty it is because quite frankly it’s really not all that pretty we’re notsurprised by how roomy it is because unless you’re in the front seats reallynot all that roomy either but what has surprised us is how well it drives forhow big it is this is a really small SUV but it has a sophistication and a poiseto it when going down the road that makes it feel like a much larger moreexpensive vehicle and speaking of cost to start with it’s just over $20,000 fora base model and if you load it up with all the options like a turbo engine andall-wheel drive you’re looking at just under 30 grand out the door these are inHyundai showrooms right now and if you’d like to learn more you can read allabout it at cars. com
Hi I’m Jonathan Lee from paultan. org and we’re here in sunny Portugal withthe brand-new BMW X2 – essentially an X1 coupe. So it’s got asportier, more dynamic look, aimed more at hipsters rather than young families. So, is this X2 just a marketing trick or is there actually some substanceunderneath? We’re taking it for a spin to find out. Let’s start with what’s under the bonnet. At launch there’s the sDrive20i, the xDrive20dand the xDrive25d. This one is the xDrive20dmaking 190 hp and 400 Nm of torque. The one we are gettingis the sDrive20i with a 2 litre petrol engine making 182 hpand 280 Nm of torque. This here has an 8-speed automatictransmission, the one we are getting has a 7-speed dual-clutch transmission andwhile this is four-wheel drive, the sDrive20iis front-wheel drive only. The styling is the main differentiatorsbetween this and the X1, so it’s a good job that this looks very different fromthe outside. There’s not a single piece here that is shared with the X1. At the front youhave these trapezoidal double kidney grilles which give it greater roadpresence – it’s actually a first for BMW. And then along here you have these hexagonalCorona-ring daytime running lights and full LED headlights. On the side thesewheels they measure up to 20 inches like you see here and the squared off wheelarches have an angled look to them which BMW says makes it look like it’s moving while it’sstill standing still. Then you have this roof line which is stretched andfairly low slung giving it that sort of a coupe look. You’ve got slim windows for a moredynamic look. The badges you see here they hark back to the classic BMW coupeslike the 2000 CS, the 3000 CSL and so on. On the back you havethese L-shaped LED taillights which are classically BMWthere’s a small rear window which makes it seem like it’s quite difficult to seeout of. These tailpipes they are 90 millimeters in diameterwhich BMW says is about the same size as an X6 M. Now let’s talkabout the models on offer unlike other BMWs you don’t get theSport Line or the Luxury Line. This just has the base model, and it goes straight to theM Sport pack which adds more aggressive front and rear bumpers and differentalloy wheels. There’s also for the first time on the BMW the M Sport X which isthe car that you see here with these grey highlights on the front the sideand the rear. This is not the one that we are getting, we’re getting the mid-rangeM Sport. The X2 won’t be cheap when it comes to Malaysia with an estimatedprice tag of RM320k. To put that into perspective the Mercedes-BenzGLA 250 is priced at RM270kand that’s with a more powerful engine and all-wheel drive. At least it’ll havemore kit a standard such as keyless entry, head-up display, a large touchscreen and dual zone automatic climate contro,l none of which are offered on theGLA. There are also LED headlights foglights and tail lights, hands-freepowered tailgate, powered seats with driver side memory and a reverse cameraunfortunately however you don’t get autonomous emergency braking which isunacceptable at this price range. Inside it’s kind of the same as X1 in terms ofthe design of the dashboard and so on There are a few changes though, thisdashboard is wrapped in Sensatec, which is basically BMW’s idea offake leather. There’s now an electronic gear lever thatgoes back to the same position whether it’s in reverse or drive, just like in otherBMWs. The infotainment system is the same as you’d find in the BMW 5-seriesThere is a tiled interface and live information on thehomescreen. The one that you see here is the one that we’ll be getting – it’s an8. 8-inch screen for the professional navigation system withtouch function. As with most BMWs the basics are well taken care of – the seatingposition is excellent and there’s plenty of support from the seats. There’s alsogreat visibility at the front, although the small rear window does meanthat rear visibility is impaired slightly. There’s also plenty of legroomand even though there’s a panoramic sunroof that is still enough headroomhere. Now let’s look at the back shall we?It’s in the back here where the BMW X2 struggles a bit. Headroom is actuallypretty tight and this high sill means that it feels quite claustrophobic inhere so it’s not the best if you have childrenHowever there’s plenty of legroom even with the front seat set to my drivingposition and you get air con vents and a rear armrest with dual cupholders. Open the tailgate, powered on this one you get 470 litres which is 35 litersless than the X1. However it’s still plenty big enough for all your luggageand remember if you want a more practical car there’s always the X1. Now let’s go for a drive shall we?So let’s talk about performance first. The car we are driving is an xDrive20dThe 2. 0 litre turbodiesel making 190 hp and 400 Nm oftorque. There’s an 8-speed automatic transmission driving all four wheels. With all that, 0-100is done in 7. 7 seconds and it’ll go all the way to 221 km/hIt also has a combined fuel consumption figure of between 4. 6 and4. 8 litres per 100 km. But what’s it like in thereal world? Not too bad actually. There’s a little bit of turbo lag when you’regoing down low, when it gets going it pulls cleaning all the way to theredline. Being a typical BMW turbodiesel that’s a little bit of rattle at idle, but once youget going it’s smooth and quiet. However there’s quite a lot of roadnoise and wind noise at speed so it’s not exactly the most refined car out thereWe won’t be getting this engine however. Instead we’re getting the sDrive20iwhich uses a 2. 0 litre turbo petrol engine making 192 hp and 280 Nm oftorque driving the front wheels through a 7-speed dual-clutch transmissionNow Malaysians are quite skeptical when it comes to double clutch transmissions tosay the least so we’ll have to try it out in Malaysia to see if it’s any goodMechanically the X2 rides on the same UKL platform as the X1 but with numerouschanges to make this a sportier car to drive. The body for example is 10%stiffer than the X1 and the springs dampers and anti-roll bars have beenadjusted to suit. BMW has also increased the front camber to reduce understeerThis car is also fitted with the M Sport suspension which is 10 mmlower than standard and it comes with pre-loaded bushings for bettercontrol of body movements. There’s also sports steering which has a quickerratio. Put all that together and the result is a car that really does feelquite sporty. Sure the steering may be lacking in feel but it’s quick accurateit allows you to place it exactly where you want it to be. And despite thetall ride height being that this is a crossover, there’s very little body roll, andowing to the fact that this is a four-wheel drive car, there’s very little understeerOne thing I have to say is that the ride is fairly firm. It’s not uncomfortable butyou do feel the bumps on the road even on these fairly smooth Portuguese roadsWe’ll have to try them on our pockmarked Malaysian roads to see how itfares over our potholes. So there you have it, the BMW X2. It’s certainly a capable carand while it does have a few niggles here and there that’s not such a badthing on a niche vehicle. What do you think of the looks, the specs andespecially the price? Leave your thoughts in the comment section. I’m Jonathan Lee frompaultan. org signing off, thanks for watching.
we’re here at the Chicago Auto Show or Toyota has just debuted their 2019 fulllineup of TRD pros that’s 4runner Tacoma and tundra but here we’re going to focuson the Tacoma a lot of this is going to look familiar but there are somesignificant changes the hood itself very familiar same air intake on top theToyota classic Toyota grille design is standard that’s what they had on theprevious generation but now a ton of safety gear the t SSP and a lot of thestar safety system that Toyota makes standard on all of its vehicles is nowequipped in this new TRD package still has the same quarter inch thick aluminumskid plate underneath but one thing that’s new this time around is thisdesert air intake now Toyota’s calling it a desert air intake because theydon’t want you to go river rafting or water crossing with this vehicle so theytypically don’t like to do anything with fording depths but you could cross afairly shallow stream if you wanted you because the front suspension just likeon the previous gen has about a one and a half inch extra amount of ride heightto it so coil springs are longer but the key to this entire package are the Foxshocks had bill stains before but now more high-tech more high-performance Foxshocks at all four corners here at the back end of the vehicle the Fox shocksin back have eight different they call them bypass zone so much more flexibletheoretically we’ll be able to do a lot more different things from rock crawlingto high high speed desert racing but here we have the same tire so it’s aGoodyear Wrangler it’s not any bigger than the previous generation and franklymaybe and not all that aggressive so that might be one of the first thingsthat we change out if we had this vehicle in house also Tacoma still hasdrum brakes at the rear end but what we do like we do like this gloss black tiphere at the TRD exhaust inside it’s all about the black outfi black seats on theinside front and rear red stitching around each of the seats TRD logoon the headrests and on the floor mats and even on the gearshifter one lastfeature that’s upgraded for the 2019 tacoma TRD pro is that it has theupgraded Entune JBL audio so much higher performance for a very high performancevehicle you want to know more about this vehicle go to pickup trucks calmyou
we at cars calm we’re kind of a skeptical Bunch now we’ve seen a lot ofelectric concepts come and go promising out there styling and fantastic rangebut finally we found something that might melt our cold hearts here in theJaguar ipace now part of the reason that I like the I paste so much is that itactually delivers on the promise of the styling seen on the I paste concept it’sa little bit more muted because you kind of have to fit things together for aproduction version for example it has larger side mirrors because of safetyregulations but it still looks futuristic sleek and it’s a low-slungSUV which is kind of in vogue these days Jaguar is also using the eye pace todebut a few new technologies that we’ve already seen from sister brand LandRovers Range Rover velar so namely that is touch pro duo and whatthat is it’s a new multimedia and all-around system that you use tocontrol much of the functions of the car without any physical buttons you havetwo screens here in the center console and these two dials which will actuallychange functions so sometimes will be for climate sometimes they’ll change howthe car drives just it’s a way to interact with the car without actuallytouching buttons it’s not my favorite because it’s kind of hard to use whileyou’re driving but our staff is actually little bit split on that now theeyepieces plunging roof line might suggest that there isn’t much room forbackseat passengers but that’s not the case there’s a lot of headroom here andyou also get a giant glass roof which will have a ton of light into the cabinand make everyone feel a little bit more comfortable one more cool feature in theback row there behind these seats here there are these two ports now Jaguarwill actually sell you different accessories so you can plug things inthere whether it be like a tablet holder or maybe even a coat rack and there’salso four USB ports back here which can be all used at the same time and thatgives this car eight total so if you own a ton of devices you can charge them allat the same time now the final important figure for the ipace is price now it’sgoing to start right at around $70,000 before any federal tax credits thatundercuts is chief competitor the Tesla Model X by about 10 grand and if youwant an even higher trim of the Tesla it’s gonna cost you way more moneyspeaking of way mo Jaguar has also entered into agreement with theself-driving company way mo and they’re going to provide up to 20,000 AI pacesfor their self-driving fleet and those will start to hit the road at around2020you
if you’re not used to seeingexorbitantly priced BMWs then $130,000as tested price of this 2018 m5 may giveyou heart palpitations but it shouldn’tthat’s very similarly priced tocompetitors in other super sedans likethe Mercedes Benz AMG c63 and a superhatchback like the Audi rs7 but stillwhat does $130,000 gets you five andwhat does it do for that much money whenwe spend a week driving the m5 to findout the m5 starts at one hundred andfour thousand dollars with destinationand gas guzzler tax ours just has$25,000 worth of optional equipment onething you won’t have to pay extra forthough is this Marina Bay metallic bluepaint and it is a head-turner it’s whatmade this m5 stand out we got a bunch ofthumbs ups and they do nice carand a lot of that is because of thiscolor it has this depth in metallicshine to it in the daylight that I don’tthink you’d get the same response if itwere silver black or white now for thegood stuff the 600 horsepower under thehood of the new m5 and this 600horsepower is perhaps the most refinedway 600 horsepower has ever beendelivered it’s smooth its linear andthere’s no such thing as turbo lag inthis car and with the standard all-wheeldrive you have 0 to 60 in 3. 2 secondsyes it’s smooth and luxurious butthere’s there’s still something missingit feels restraint it’s like BMWs at theend of the night and it’s tie is stillright up there under its collar itdoesn’t really feel like it’s let loose100% and honestly I think a lot of thathas to do with the exhaust somethingthat’s easily changeable after you buytheas its it’s a Porsche Panamera P 63 AMGthey have this booming loud exhaust whenyou change into those optional modes theBMW just doesn’t have that effect and Ithink it’s where the m5 goes turned upvery BMW wish but I think I’d like tohave that option just to take it upanother notch there are an overwhelmingthan good ways to control that 600horsepower there are individual settingsfor engine throttle sensitivitysuspension firmness steering firmnesstransmission programming stabilitycontrol and new for 2018 you can evenadjust the new all-wheel drive systemnow that all-wheel drive previous m5didn’t have it was real wall drive onlyand the automatic transmission that’sadjustable here well that’s your onlytransmission choice for 2018 the manualtransmission option is gone and honestlyI’m glad to see that because that oldmanual transmission did not improve howthe m5 drove it was just the sloppymanual transmission experience and thisnew automatic is very very good but thatall-wheel drive you can choose two-wheeldrive all wheel drive or a sportall-wheel drive option so each one ofthese modes you have three engineoptions three suspension options threesteering options three transmissionoptions three all-wheel drive optionsmultiple stability control systemoptions and exhaust option overwhelmingit’s exactly what this is so BMWsimplifies that and perhaps the best wayout of any of these super sedans andthat’s with the m1 and m2 buttons on thesteering wheelthese are programmable buttons and youcan set them up so m1 is strictlycomfort this has the softest suspensionsetting the fishing engine setting theleast offensive transmission mode andthen all-wheel drive and who can be setup for exactly the opposite so you haveaggressive engine the firmest suspensionthe firm is steering option and twowheel drive which and two wheel driveyou have to turn off the stabilitysystem and by having it programmed in m2it’s already done so you have one buttonfor m1 and onefor em – and that’s how I drove the m5in the m1 button how I have it set upand its most relaxed efficient drivingthis drives like a normal 5 Seriesit really does it’s very hard to tellthere’s 600 horsepower in m2and with rear-wheel drive it is acompletely different vehiclebut I’m not totally convinced there’s abig difference between 2 wheel drive andfour wheel drive on this car it doesn’tmagically take away the weight that theall-wheel drive adds and there’s still alot of mass on the front end of this carit’s very hard to tell the differenceunless you’re driving at the limit so ifyou have access to a drift pet or on theracetrack I’m sure that two-wheel drivesetting will let you get much moresquirrelly than with the all-wheel drivebut for just tooling around town andtaking some curvy roads I didn’t noticea big difference between the 2 wheeldrive and the all-wheel drive on thiscar so where is the extra 25 thousanddollar spent on this car well you’relooking at about 10 thousand of it righthere with the optional carbon ceramicbrakes that are 8500 and the 706 mwheels and 20-inch summer tires that are$1,300 now these carbon ceramic brakesif you’re spending a lot of time on theracetrack you know get these but ifyou’re not there squeaky they’re grabbyeven when they’re hot and I’m not surethat the weight savingsrotational mass is really worth it whenyou’re pulling up to of valet and theirbrakes are squeaking and you have toexplain to everybody who’s sittingoutside having a nice meal why you’revery pretty car is making all of theseawful noises do people care what carbonceramic brakes are probably not so it’san option you probably want to skip onthis one if you’re not doing a lot ofheavy-duty track driving other packagesthat rack up the bill on the m5 are notunique to them five at all they’reavailable on the regular five seriesthat includes the driving assistanceplus package for seventeen hundreddollars with active driving assistanceplus now if you plan to spend any amountof time in the car on the road justregular commuting or a road trip hereand there then consider getting thatpackage it has BMW semi autonomousdriving features and while you do haveto have your hand on the wheel it’sgonna hold the car in its lane it’sgonna stop and go semi autonomous Lee intraffic and is really just a greatassist to have for $4,000 the executivepackage gives you soft clothes automaticdoors rear sunshades front ventilatedseats front and rear heated seats fourzone climate control front massagingseats parking assistance plus wirelesscharging Wi-Fi hotspot’ enhanced USB andbluetooth active participants controlrear view camera but what’s really gonnaimpress people in the car out of theexecutive package is the surround viewwith 3d viewthere are numerous cameras around thecar and you can have this 360 degreeview at ground level what’s around thecar it’s useful and it’s one of thosegee-whiz features the last two bigticket items on this option sheet arethe $3,400 Bowers & Wilkins sound systemand the $2,500 M drivers package now itsounds like a package you would wantright M drivers package got to give mebetter steering better tires optionalsway bars but there’s no hardware at allthe M drivers package is actually aone-day drivers training course througha BMW facility and it raises the topspeed from 155 miles an hour to 178miles an hour honestly I think you canskip that package too for drivertraining you don’t find a road coursearound your area that has highperformance driving days there arealmost always instructors there andthey’re probably not more than a fewhundred dollars and it’s for the topspeed well if you’re going to a localtrack I don’t think you’re gonna comeanywhere near that 155 mile an hourspeed limit unless your local track isCircuit of the Americas or Road Americaso while this BMW has $25,000 worth ofoptions the Bolton puts buildingstandard and it doesn’t need all ofthose options to be BMWs that a sedan
hi there we’re here in Utah with the 2019 Hyundai Santa Feit’s the redesigned version of Hyundai’s midsize two row SUV and it replaces theSanta Fe sport in Hyundai’s lineup it’s a little bit bigger than the Santa Fesport overall and Hyundai has packed it with a lot of standard active safetyfeatures this is our first chance to drive the vehicle so let’s go for a ridewe’ve been driving the Santa Fe for a little bit on the roads outside of ParkCity Utah and the initial theme I’m getting is that this is a very smoothvehicle and it comes through in a lot of different ways and I think that’s theright tuning for it because you see in some SUVs where automakers really fourcould focus on sportiness Hyundai I think has found a good balance here inthis focus on smoothness we’re in a model with the optional 2-literfour-cylinder engine and it’s a very smooth revving engine it gets up tospeed quickly and easily highway passing power drops off a little bit it workswith an 8-speed automatic transmission and again it makes smooth shifts it’svery unobtrusive and it’s willing to make part throttle kick downs easilyit’s a responsive transmission that feeling of smoothness comes through inthe steering too it doesn’t offer a ton of feedback but the car steers welloverall and it rides well overall – it’s not too firmly sprung one of the thingsthat Hyundai focused on when redesigning the Santa Fe was improving itsvisibility and you know from driving it just now you can you can really see howthey’ve done that the car has really thin eight pillars the front roof pillarand that really helps you have a good view forward they’ve movedthe side mirrors to the door so there’s better visibility at the base of thedoor and even over shoulder views when checking your blind spotthose are good if they’re relatively unobstructed so we’re testing right nowa high-end ultimate trim level of the Santa Fe it has the optional turbo forceover like I mentioned all-wheel drive and the as tested price is nearly$40,000 but the Santa Fe starts at around twenty five thousand five hundreddollars and at that base level you get all the important active safety featureslike automatic emergency braking blind spot warning lane keeping assist of rearcross traffic alert adaptive cruise control it’s a long list of features andone of the features you can feel it really makes itself known when drivingand that’s the lane keeping function because as we’ve been driving on thesewinding roads you feel it following the road it’s it’s keeping track of wherethe lane is it’s it’s not intrusive but it’s definitely present another thingHyundai changed in the redesigned Santa Fe are the seats they have differentdensities of foam and with firmer foam for the bolsters and kind of a mediumfoam for the seat bottoms and their comfort is OKthe seats are wide so they’re not too restrictive which is nice but the bottomcushion in the backrest feel a little flat to me and not particularly sculptedHyundai included a bit of light off-roading on the drive route with thehill climb up a dirt trail we arrived at the hill just as a hail storm waspassing through but we stopped put the Santa Fe in 4×4 lock mode and thenpowered up the hill about a quarter of the way up I could feel it start to slipa bit but then I felt the rear wheels engageand the rest of the Hill is fine so inside the Santa Fe features a restyleddashboard that gets the tablet-style display screen that we’re seeing on moreand more Hyundai’s it’s it’s kind of on top of the dash propped out a little bitand below it are simple controls for the air conditioning system and otherfeatures in the car so the Santa Fe offers a number ofupscale features and those include a head-up display wireless device chargingfor your smartphone heated and cooled front seats this huge panoramic moonroofand a 360-degree camera system for enhanced visibility the rear seat uses a60/40 split design and both sections can slide forward and backwards so if youwant to share space with the cargo area or have more legroom you can do that andthe seats also recline if you prefer to kind of lean back a little bit and lookout the panoramic sunroof it’s a comfortable spot for adult passengers onabout 6 feet tall and the seats are high enough to offer decent thigh supportit’s not too low to the ground so the cargo area is a good-size space withoutany significant intrusions and it does have two underfloor storage areasthere’s this back one here it has this little space on the left-hand side and abigger cargo space under the forward portion which has these deep bins whichis kind of nice and you want to keep anything out of the way and hidden ifyou need even more space than that there’s buttons on the side thatpressing down releases the second row seats and they fold flat with the cargofloor automakers have been adding a lot of SUVs to their lineup slightly to meetconsumer demand especially small models but the mid-size class has held prettysteady with not a lot of new competitors for models like the Santa Fe but that’sabout to change as chevrolet is poised to reintroduce its blazer as a crossoverSUV and honda is promising a new passport model to compete as well so thenew santa fe is here at the right time it’s arriving at dealerships right nowand it should offer a lot of value especially considering its long list ofactive safety featuresyou
