Driven
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The 2014 MINI Cooper hardtop is the first entire, top-to-bottom redesign of the iconic British minicar. In its base form, with a new 1.5-liter turbocharged three-cylinder engine and a six-speed manual gearbox, it runs a bit more than $20,000 and is rated at 34 mpg combined. But it's longer, wider, and taller. It has more passenger and cargo room, and a host of new features. DON'T MISS: 2014 MINI Cooper First Drive We had two questions: First, are the essential MINI values of fun, nippy driving still preserved in the most maximal MINI three-door yet? And what kind of fuel economy did the base...
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2015 Hyundai Sonata: Gas Mileage Review Of New Mid-Size Sedan
The last Hyundai Sonata was a striking stylistic departure from usually bland mid-size sedan styling. The new one, not quite so much: To our eyes, there's very little aside from the badges that identifies it as a Hyundai. We spent a few days with a 2015 Hyundai Sonata Limited, a test car so new it...
John Voelcker -
2014 Toyota Highlander Hybrid: Gas Mileage Review
The Toyota Highlander Hybrid remains the sole seven-seat hybrid vehicle on the market, and it has been redesigned and updated for the 2014 model year. While smaller vehicles--the Prius far ahead of any other model--make up the bulk of U.S. hybrid sales, the 2014 Highlander Hybrid stands at the top...
John Voelcker -
2014 Subaru XV Crosstrek Hybrid: Video Review
It's no secret that Subaru has surged from strength to strength over the last several years. Its sturdy, all-wheel-drive lineup of sedans, hatchbacks, and crossover utilities can be seen on the roads anywhere there's bad weather, mountainous terrain, or active-sports participants. We tested the...
John Voelcker -
2014 Ford Fiesta EcoBoost: Gas Mileage Test Returns 40 MPG
As a general rule, we like small cars, and small cars with small engines. Eighteen months ago, when we first drove prototype versions of the 2014 Ford Fiesta EcoBoost, we knew we'd be eager to get our hands on the little subcompact with the turbocharged three-cylinder engine for a longer drive...
John Voelcker -
2014 MINI Cooper Automatic: Quick Drive
The all-new, third-generation 2014 MINI Cooper three-door hatchback--now called "Hardtop" by MINI--sports a longer nose, a new 1.5-liter three-cylinder engine, and an interior that at last cleans up some of the disastrous ergonomics of the previous cars. Specifically, the round display in the...
John Voelcker -
The new 2015 Subaru Legacy is a stealth car: Other drivers may not pay it much attention, but it's sneaking up on the high-volume vehicles in the ultra-competitive mid-size sedan segment. The latest Legacy, redesigned and re-equipped for 2015, is the most competitive Subaru sedan yet--and it also delivers the highest fuel-economy rating of any mid-size sedan with all-wheel drive. That's a smallish universe: The others are the 2015 Chrysler 200 and Ford Fusion. ALSO SEE: 2015 Subaru Legacy - Full Review You can't get all-wheel drive on the Chevrolet Malibu, Honda Accord, Hyundai Sonata, Kia...
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2014 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel: Quick First Drive Report
The 2014 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel is the only half-ton truck on sale this year with a diesel engine.
Stephen Edelstein -
2014 Nissan Leaf: Bestselling Electric Car, Driven By Newbie
Driving the world's highest-volume battery-electric car in New York's Hudson Valley.
Stephen Edelstein -
Volkswagen e-Up: Driving VW's Smallest Electric Car (Forbidden Fruit)
Of the three plug-in VW cars we drove in Berlin this month, the one we liked best is the one we won't get in North America. The Volkswagen e-Up battery-electric minicar is a blast. It's small, rollerskate-agile, and performs well enough that it would be our preferred vehicle in any crowded city...
John Voelcker -
2014 BMW 535d xDrive Diesel Sedan: Fuel Economy Drive Review
For 2014, BMW offers diesel engines in its three sedan lines, and now we've spent a long weekend with the mid-size 5-Series sedan fitted with the fuel-efficient engine. Given the depth-of-winter test schedule, its xDrive all-wheel-drive system was very welcome--and almost a necessity for our...
John Voelcker -
Volkswagen Golf GTE Plug-In Hybrid: First Drive Of Prototype
Volkswagen is on an electric-vehicle model offensive right now. Not only is the e-Up electric minicar on sale in Europe, dominating Germany's electric sales charts, but the automaker has now launched the e-Golf, an electric version of its popular compact--a car that will make its way to U.S...
Antony Ingram -
If ever any car brand should have offered a hybrid before now, it would be Subaru. Now we've driven the 2014 Subaru XV Crosstrek Hybrid, its very first hybrid offering. It's a much better car than the Crosstrek on which it's based, but little of that improvement has anything to do with the hybrid powertrain. While the hybrid Crosstrek gets better gas mileage in EPA ratings, the increase isn't huge--and we didn't see an increase in real-world testing against the non-hybrid Crosstrek we tested in December 2012. Fuel economy: Call it a draw? The 2014 XV Crosstrek Hybrid is rated at 31 mpg...
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2015 Volkswagen e-Golf: Drive Report, First U.S. Sale Details
The 2015 Volkswagen e-Golf is the German maker's first production electric car to be offered for sale in the U.S. On sale late this year, it adds a plug-in electric powertrain option to the all-new seventh generation of the classic Golf five-door hatchback, now celebrating its 40th birthday. While...
John Voelcker -
2014 Cadillac ELR: Gorgeous, Too-Pricey Electric Luxury Coupe
Let's get one thing out of the way up front: The 2014 Cadillac ELR is rather more than a "tarted-up Volt," in the words of more than one commentator. It's a quiet, smooth, adequately powerful and very stylish coupe with a luxurious interior, and it runs on GM's most advanced range-extended electric...
John Voelcker -
2014 Toyota Corolla Eco LE: Gas Mileage Test Drive
The Toyota Corolla has long been the best-selling compact sedan in the U.S., and the all-new 2014 Corolla is a considerable advance over the aged, grim, unexciting model it replaced. We recently tested the most fuel-efficient model, the Corolla Eco, over our usual test route of about two-thirds...
John Voelcker -
2015 Volvo S60, XC60, New V60 Wagon: Fuel-Efficient Drive-E Engines
After several years of keeping quiet, Volvo is finally starting to roll out new and updated products--especially in its core mid-size segment. We've now driven three of them, all 2015 models: the XC60 crossover utility, the S60 sport sedan, and the new V60 wagon, the first actual Volvo wagon to be...
John Voelcker -
2014 Smart ForTwo Electric Drive: What It's Like On The Road
With minimal changes from the model launched last year as the least expensive electric car in the U.S., the 2014 Smart ForTwo Electric Drive remains the smallest and shortest plug-in electric car sold in the U.S.--as well as the only one offered as a convertible. The two-seat electric Smart comes...
John Voelcker -
The Nissan Versa is one of the largest "subcompacts" on the market. For 2014, a new hatchback model called the Versa Note joins the all-new sedan launched last year. We spent several hundred miles with a prototype 2014 Versa Note over three days of this past weekend, and came away relatively impressed. While it's not as stylish or upscale-feeling as the Chevrolet Sonic, nor as flexible inside for carrying people and their stuff as the aging Honda Fit, the Versa Note proved to be a more pleasant long-distance road-trip vehicle than we'd expected. 35-mpg combined rating The Note offers several...
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2013 Smart Electric Drive Cabrio: Brief Drive Of Electric Convertible
If you want an electric car, there are now 14 different models with plugs to choose from. But if you want an electric convertible, there's just one: The 2013 Smart ForTwo Electric Drive Cabrio. The little two-seat battery electric vehicle with the roll-back cloth roof is now on sale along with the...
John Voelcker -
2014 Chevrolet Spark EV: First Drive Report
Aspire, Sprint, Swift, and Esteem: They’re among the most ironically inappropriate car names. But in its new EV guise, the Chevy Spark has the perfect name, on many levels. This car certainly has more than a spark of personality; it's all-electric (forget about those spark plugs); and...
Bengt Halvorson -
2013 Chevrolet Sonic RS: How Hot Is Chevy's Sporty Hatch?
The Chevrolet Sonic subcompact was an impressive offering when we tested both a 1.8-liter LT hatchback and a 1.4-liter LTZ sedan almost two years ago. Now, with the advent of the 2013 Chevy Sonic RS sports model, we had a chance to revisit the car--and we remain impressed. The RS version uses the...
John Voelcker -
2014 Volkswagen XL1: First Drive Of Wolfsburg's 261-MPG Car
Look out, owners of 200-mph testosterone-supplement poster cars. If there ever was a real hypercar, it's the Volkswagen XL1. Although in recent years the term hypercar has been distorted—to include cars that are faster (and often even thirstier) than those supercars from Lamborghini, Ferrari...
Bengt Halvorson -
Volvo S60 KERS Hybrid Prototype: Brief First Drive
Is KERS an energy-saving technology we'll be seeing in production cars any time soon, or is it just a way to help increase performance? We've been to Sweden to find out at Volvo's Gothenburg test track.
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield