Soul’s new turbo model outruns the last cynics
Filed under: Weekly test drives, Autos
The Soul’s slightly stretched form might be harder to detect than the added zip from its turbocharged 1.6.
By John Gilbert
Maybe some engineer lost a bet, or maybe in a lighthearted moment the more rebellious side of Kia just wanted to do something out of the ordinary. Whatever, the feeling persists that when Kia first introduced the Soul it was intended to be more of a short-term, square gimmick car than a long-term player in the Kia automotive stable.
But after seeming to almost hurry to get past the square one and on to more significant models like the Optima, Rio, Forte, Sportage and Sorento, the Soul has grown up and acquired a robust personality, and for 2017 it is finally getting some equipment that makes it far more than the square 4-door, which still holds four large adults and a lot of luggage.
Would you believe the Soul is getting a hot turbocharged 4-cylinder with a 7-speed dual-clutch transmission as indications that it is living up to some sort of potential a lot of us never realized it had?
Stylish lines added to the squarish rear of the Soul encase all sorts of useful interior space.
The Soul ! I test-drove had the Kia-Hyundai corporation’s quick-revving 1.6-liter 4-cylinder, turbocharged, along with the corporate 7-speed dual-cutch transmission, which shifts automatically, as two internal clutches trade off instantaneously engaging the next gear up or down.
It’s the perfect transmission for the turbo 1.6, which has now become my favorite Hyundai or Kia engine because of its surprising potency, while retaining fuel economy in the mid-30s with gusts to near 40.
The 1.6 turbo in the Soul ! jumps up to 178 horsepower and 195 foot-pounds of torque, converting the vehicle into a sleeper well-deserving of the exclamation point in its name. The basic Soul 1.6 has 130 horsepower and 118 foot-pounds of torque, adequate for a mall-runner maybe. Upgrade to the 2.0 and you get a healthy 164 horses and 154 foot-pounds. The turbo is another story. Read more
Compact Rogue, Sentra set tempo for Nissan
Filed under: Weekly test drives, Autos
The compact crossover Rogue has subtly become Nissan’s signature vehicle.
By John Gilbert
The automotive media is guilty, and I’m no exception. With all the new cars and SUVs hitting the market, it gets easy to look for the most whiz-bang new stuff and, in the process, wind up overlooking some very deserving new vehicles that do more than just a competent job.
Nissan falls into that category of being overlooked and underrated, so we need to set that straight, focusing on two specific vehicles — the hugely popular Rogue SUV and the vastly underrated Sentra compact sedan.
When it comes to crossover SUVs (CUVs), the Rogue is a favorite of both my wife, Joan, and me. It always has been a tidy design, where everything fits, competing right well against the CR-V and RAV4, and to some occupants fit people better and performed better.
The compact Sentra has a reputation of being boring, but not with its new SR sporty model and its turbocharged engine.
And while the Sentra was only a favorite 20 years ago, when Nissan made a classic sleeper as a hot-rod SE-R, I find the new design a vast improvement, making the Sentra look more like a downsized Maxima-Altima than the soap-carving it used to resemble, and it has made a sly move back to bring to life the SE-R. For 2017, the test drive car I got defied Motor Trend’s premature capsule that lists the listless 1.8-liter engine with 130 horsepower as the only available engine, and came as the SR, with a turbocharged 1.6 instead, boosting it to 188 horsepower and 177 foot-pounds of torque. Read more
Chevy makes Trax to fill compact SUV segment
Filed under: Weekly test drives, Autos
Loaded with large and midsize SUVs, Chevrolet relies on Trax to cover compact crossover gap.
By John Gilbert
If you are a cynic, or a hard-core traditionalist, you might view the Chevrolet Trax with some degree of scorn. I mean, for comparison sake, you have the Suburban, Tahoe, Equinox, Traverse, and assorted sizes of pickup trucks, and next to them, the Trax seems almost toy-like.
In that frame of mind, you might look with careful scrutiny to find things that are objectionable about the Trax, which is Chevrolet’s smallest, lightest, and probably least-haul vehicle. And yes, it’s inexpensive, in the mid-$20,000 range, but it’s got a tiny engine, so what good is it?
However, in real life you can try to find fault in the size, but once you climb inside you find that there is a surprisingly adequate amount of room, both in the front buckets and the rear seats. It doesn’t seem that anything that compact on the outside can be that roomy inside.
You can’t find fault with the instrument layout or the fit and finish of the dashboard or controls. In fact, they all seem laid out to perfection.
And when it comes to design, the Trax looks good from the front, especially with that little ring of LED driving lights that outline the headlight enclosures. It looks good from the rear, with a nicely proportioned taper to the hatchback and rear corners, as they slope upward toward the roof.
It also looks good in silhouette, rounded off nicely and proportioned just right all along the lines that sweep from stem to stern.
Surprisingly adequate storage room under the hatch helps Trax adapt to family life.
The Trax is the brainchild of General Motors when it went over to South Korea and bought out the Daewoo factory, which had made stylish but marginal cars that were faltering in the marketplace, particularly alongside such outfits as Hyundai and Kia.
The first Trax caught my attention, because I have always thought that any vehicle that’s big enough needn’t be bigger, and unless you have to haul a heavy trailer around, or make frequent trips with half a dozen or so occupants, then anything bigger than big enough is too big. Why should we haul around excess weight?
So the latest trend toward compact crossover SUVs was instantly appealing to me, and I appreciate nearly all of the dozens of downsized, economical and agile performers amid the sea of crossover vehicles. But the Trax still is mind-blowing when it takes its place in Chevrolet’s arsenal of medium to enormous SUVs.
Then along comes the 2017 model year, and Chevrolet redesigns the Trax. It’s not an all-car, but what they cal“refreshed” in the industry. Meaning the corners might be rounded off, the contours tweaked just a bit, and everything sort of tightened up.
In the process, Chevrolet also upgraded the interior considerably, and what might have seemed a bit tacky in the original is now nicely padded and soft to the touch, as well as fitting together better.
Under the hood, there beats a 1.4-liter 4-cylinder engine with a turbocharger mounted, for crying out loud. There is no optional engine, but the Trax doesn’t need one. Chevrolet seems to have connected on the perfect group-think in plotting out the engine that will make the Trax perform the best, in either front-wheel drive or the all-wheel drive that folks in the snow-belt or who might face some foul weather should demand.
Raising the hatch reveals decent stowage space form a compact SUV.
I had the chance to spend a week with a gleaming white Trax, and I thought it looked good in all circumstances. It also performed well on a freeway trip, and delivered fuel economy in the high 20s. EPA estimates range into the 30s, in fact, and you might reach the estimated 34 if you stayed under 65 or 70.
Among the new features are a Premier trim level, which offers larger 18-inch wheels with your all-season tires, and Apple CarPlay or Android Auto are now compatible, boosting the Trax to the properly high level of connectivity.
Lane departure warning and forward collision alert are now available, too, and, going back to the cynical big-truck guys, there can be no faulting the quickness of acceleration or the quick response of the steering, which is well-coordinated with the suspension.
There is no recommended towing capacity for the Trax, although you might get away with a light fishing boat or extra light camping trailer with the AWD models.
Trax continues to be a made-in-Korea vehicle, which is not an issue for anyone this side of our new president. And for anyone who has driven anything by Hyundai or Kia in recent years, we won’t question the technology or quality control of the Trax.
Trax redesign for 2017 features rounded corners and refined interior features.
In fact, there are reports that the Trax has made its own impact on the new smaller compact-crossover segment by becoming the vehicle with a Chevrolet bow-tie emblem that is sold to the largest percentage of female buyers. Some estimates range as high as 60 percent female buyers, in fact, proving that women might be wiser than some of those cynical, macho types who think trucks have to be huge, hefty, poor in fuel efficiency, and twice as expensive as the basic $22,000 Trax.
The facts that it’s highly maneuverable, quick, attractive, and with all the improvements packed into the 2017 model make it worth evaluation for anyone looking for the security of weather-worthy AWD in a contemporary and high-style Trax.
CR-V adds turbo power to stay on top
Filed under: Weekly test drives, Autos, Uncategorized
Honda’s CR-V compact crossover SUV keeps improving, now with turbo power.
By John Gilbert
If you know folks who own a Honda CR-V, chances are they love it. And, chances are it might be four or five years old, or older, and they still love it.
The CR-V has been an enduring vehicle for Honda, helping establish the trend toward compact SUVs, which proved immensely popular when gasoline was expensive, and have continued their upsurge in popularity even when gasoline became cheap.
With the new 2017 CR-V, Honda has made so many changes that its left even popular auto magazines in the distance. Take Motor Trend, for example. That magazine runs annual editions that run little capsule descriptions of all the new cars, trucks, and SUVs. It is very helpful if you’re looking at buying a new vehicle, because it helps with the research and cuts down the usual comparison shopping chore.
That issue came out last October. In its capsules, it ran pieces on the all-new Ridgeline, the Pilot, the Odyssey van, the HR-V, and the CR-V. Under CR-V, it says: “The CR-V remains unchanged. All CR-Vs are powered by a 185 horsepower 2.4-liter inline-4…”
I got the chance to spend a week with a new 2017 CR-V, and it was remarkably peppy and handled extremely well, and it had quite a different look to it. Unchanged? I think it is greatly changed.
CR-V’s thorough new design has flashier exterior and luxury interior.
Believing Motor Trend, I didn’t bother to look under the hood for several days. The CR-V ran well, handling all weather conditions, and seemed to uphold the tradition of being a new halo vehicle for Honda. Finally, I raised the hood. Sure enough, there was no 2.4-liter engine in sight — instead, it was a 1.5-liter 4-cylinder, with a turbocharger hanging onto the engine.
Honda is not new to turbocharging, and in fact has some progressive engineers who have established breakthrough technology with some previous turbos on vehicles such as the Acura RD-X. And Honda has used turbos to extremes while fiddling at the highest echelon of motorsports, places such as the Indianapolis 500 and Formula 1.
Ergonomics always have been a staple of CR-V design and the new one doesn’t vary.
Honda had resisted the temptation to add turbochargers to its mainstream production vehicles. Turbos take a stream of exhaust gases that are headed for the tailpipes, and instead channels the flow to spin a generator turbine wheel that, in turn, force-feeds a more potent airflow into the engine’s intake. That air sucks in more fuel, and the result is more power and more efficiency.
The new CR-V, changed quite dramatically, thank you, is also changed under the hood. Instead of a 2.4-liter that produces 185 horsepower, the comparatively tiny 1.5 develops a quite amazing 190 horsepower and 179 foot-pounds of torque, thanks to the turbo.
While it feels light and agile (because it is!), the CR-V also has improved fuel efficiency, up to EPA ratings of 26 miles per gallon city, and 32 mpg in highway driving. All the while feeling quicker and more agile.
All controls are within fingertip reach from the driver’s standpoint.
Other more subtle tricks include a more aerodynamic shape amplified by an active-shutter grille, which closes at cruising speed, when cooling isn’t needed, to form a barrier against air streaming in.
Honda now has bracketed the CR-V with an all-new larger Pilot, which is a truly full-featured luxury SUV now, and a smaller and more basic HR-V, which I was slightly disappointed in, but only because I was accustomed to the CR-V and the high standards it had set and maintained.
The new CR-V comes in various forms, starting with the LX at a base price of just over $26,000; the EX starting at $26,695; the EX-L (meaning leather upholstery) starting at $29,000; and the Touring model, starting at $32,000. The base LX starts with a front-wheel drive version, which should handled even Duluth type winter driving without difficulty. But the available all-wheel drive is the trick answer, because it is a “real-time” system that transfers torque away from any wheel where any tendency to spin is detected by the sharp-witted computer.
Compact on the outside, the CR-V is spacious on the inside.
Stressing its safety and creature-feature style, the CR-V has Honda Sensing, which includes a suite of items such as lane-keep assist, collision mitigation, and road-departing mitigation which use computer aided technology to alert you if you wander across a lane-dividing line without signaling, and can be set to gently prevent you from wandering across that lane line.
Honda also has added the trick first developed by Ford for its Escape, where you can walk up to the CR-V from behind, holding your sacks of groceries, and wave your foot under the rear bumper, causing the tailgate to unlatch and open. Very handy.
The interior of the CR-V is upgraded too, although I’d like to make a strong suggestion to Honda to be careful how they “improve” their controls and switchgear.
My favorite feature of all Hondas is that they tend to have ergonomically perfect instruments and controls, meaning that you reach for something and it’s there. Even if you’ve never been in the vehicle, the lights are right where you think they should be, same with the wipers.
In recent model changeovers, however, there seems to be the tendency to make some items a bit more complex. Don’t do that! The CR-V still has logical redundant switches on the steering wheel, and you can pretty well operate everything from there.
Otherwise, you can operate the audio system’s technical complexities via the large navigation screen, which includes touch-screen operation. Personally, I’m not a fan of touch-screens. Seems to me, after three or four days, you need some high-tech stuff to clean the fingerprints off the touch-screen.
Nothing has changed more than the grille on each CR-V generation, and this time the stylists got it right.
Especially if you’ve stopped by the Great Lakes! Candy Shop in Knife River, and got overly friendly with some of those home-made caramel things. Let’s see you try to make it all the way home without sampling some of the goodies, after which you need some high-test washer fluid to clean the touch-screen.
As for the prices of the CR-V stable, each model offers all the features of the previous model, plus some added stuff. So the prices go up commensurately and each level seems to be a relative bargain. And while the basic LX is in the mid-$20,000 range, the completely loaded Touring model might reach the mid-$30,000 level. My favorite is the EX-L, because I like leather seats, and I’d pay extra for them, as well as the other features that model adds.
And so as not to embarrass anyone at Motor Trend, we’ll keep it a secret as we jump at that 1.5-liter turbo with its CVT, accepting power increases over the 2.4, as well as delivering fuel economy of over 30 mpg on the highway.
Jaguar adds ‘the Jaguar’ of SUVs
Filed under: Weekly test drives, Autos
One of the most storied names in sports cars and sedans, Jaguar has jumped into the SUV segment with the F-Pace that gives up nothing in the classy luxury area.
Duluth, MN.
Jaguar. The very name connotes slinky handling and exotic and classy styling. The name does NOT conjure up the image of an off-road truck.
The word “Jaguar” and the term “SUV” do not, on the surface, seem compatible. But only if you have not seen the new Jaguar F-Pace. I got to spend a week test-driving the F-Pace in Northern Minnesota, along with a couple other Jaguar more traditional Jag staples — the XF coupe and the XE sedan
You may have heard that every auto company in the world either has made an SUV or is in the process of making one. This includes the usual suspects of manufacturers that are accustomed to making rugged vehicles. But it also includes some companies that challenge you to believe it now has a legitimate sports-utility vehicle.
The F-Pace is Jaguar’s first attempt at building a world-class SUV, and it is a keeper. It gets a 2.0 turbo-diesel or 3.0 supercharged V6, which can be selected as 380-horse missile. It is fast in a straight line, and it handles…well, like a Jaguar. There’s never been a Jag that didn’t handle well. This just happens to be an SUV.
At about $70,000, the Jaguar F-Pace has a clean and classy silhouette, unencumbered with too many grooves and swoosh styling touches. It won a recent winter-drive competition by Motor Trend, beating the AMG-trim Mercedes GLC and a Porsche Macan GTS in performance — and also, the magazine says, with the most comfortable seats.
Other F-Pace models range from $42,000 to $57,000 for base price, but if you want to hold the price down, stay away from the delectable option bin.
Jaguar is owned, these days, by Tata Motors of India, a big-time auto manufacturer in a country that is rushing to the top of auto-selling, as if pursuing China to become the largest. Within a year or two, those two will be among the top three car-selling nations on the planet.
Maybe we shouldn’t be that surprised; Tata also bought Jag’s British cousin, Land Rover, which makes some of the best-engineered off-road vehicles anywhere. The plan works well, with Range Rovers now boasting Jaguar power and Jaguar undoubtedly benefitting from Land Rover’s off-road expertise.
Duluth, Minnesota, is a city with 90,000 on the Western tip of Lake Superior. Built on the side of a cliff means it has fantastic vistas of every sunrise. Its size also means Duluth doesn’t have the full spectrum of auto dealerships, although the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul are only 2 hours away. From my experiences there might be more car-fanciers per capita in Duluth than anywhere else I’ve been.
Every summer, some sort of vintage car show is held somewhere in the Duluth area virtually every weekend. The biggest is the annual Sidewalk Days downtown, when they close off Superior Street to traffic and have all the shops and restaurants take it over. For the first weekend, there is a huge hot rod and vintage car show, with at least a hundred beautifully restored cars lined up on both sides of the street for about six blocks.
As the area’s new car test-driver in residence, I knew I’d have a new car that week last summer, and I was able to park on the street, amid the show cars.
That week I had at my disposal a new Jaguar F-Type coupe. Now, as exotic cars go, we have Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Porsches, Aston Martins, Maseratis, a Lotus or two, and a Mercedes or four. But jolly old England, with its Jaguars, takes a back seat to nobody. To coin a phrase.
Sleek from any angle, the rear corner view captures the F Coupe R best.
The latest edition of the F-Type is a dramatic example of how well a storied old company in Coventry, England, with the right infusion of financial backing, can create a spectacular array of progressive and contemporary exotic cars. Under the ownership of Tata Motors, Jaguar is at the top of its game.view
F-Coupe R Jag stopped classic car viewers in their tracks at Duluth Sidewalk Days..
So there I was, with “my” Jag on Superior Street, right out front of a music and specialty shop where I could watch interested car folks meander by, stopping now and then to look at a 1957 Chevy, or some similar ancient car. But all of them, every single one, stopped in their tracks to gaze at the Jaguar F-Type.
That’s when I felt a little guilty. Those custom and restored cars consumed hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars, and many were prize-winners. But none of them could divert passers-by from stopping to appreciate the Jag.
You can buy the F-Type R-Sport with its optional 5.0-liter V8, supercharged up to 575 horsepower and 516 foot-pounds of torque for just under $130,000. You also can buy it for $62,000, which represents a tremendous bargain with its 3.0-liter supercharged V6 with 340 horsepower and 332 foot-pounds of torque, or tweaked from the factory to 380 horses and 389 foot-pound.
In any form you get fantastic performance, and either a 6-speed manual, or a 6-speed automatic that is operated by a neat little puck-shaped gadget that rises out of the console when you start the car. You also can get it in a convertible.
Classic and clean, midsize Jag sedan is striking.
Stunning as the F-Type is, particularly from the rear corner, where the spectacular tapering roofline is more than just exotic, it is just the hot model of Jaguar’s livery.
Within a few weeks, I got the Jaguar XE sedan. The F-Type is drop-dead gorgeous. The XE sedan came in two forms, the XE 35t Prestige, with the same 340-horse 3.0 supercharged V6, at $46,595, or the XE 20d, with a 2.0-liter turbocharged diesel engine, with 180 horsepower and 318 foot-pounds of torque and all-wheel drive.
The XE sedan came with a powerful, smooth and economical 2.0-liter turbo-diesel and all-wheel drive.
Yes, an AWD turbo-diesel sedan, with Jaguar flair, at just under $50,000. Diesels have been getting a bad rap lately, but they still perform with great power and can roll up impressive fuel economy figures.
By interesting coincidence, after thoroughly enjoying the drives in all these Jaguars, the timing continued to be fortunate. Another vintage, classic and hot rod car show was being conducted a few weeks after Sidewalk Days, out in West Duluth. By chance, that was when I had the XE 20d. I decided to be more subtle, and I parked at the far end of the gathered shopping-center parkers.
Sharing powertrains with other models, the F-Pace provides Jaguar owners with usable storage space.
As my wife, Joan, and I were about to leave, we walked up to the car from behind, and a couple of arriving car fanatics stopped. “Wow,” one of them said, reading the small plaque on the car, “an all-wheel-drive Jag sedan?”
Yeah, I told him, and the amazing thing is it’s a 2.0-liter turbo-diesel. “You’re kidding!” he said. “A diesel?”
Maybe I should try to get another test in the full rotation of Jaguars this summer, so I could try my luck with the F-Pace one more time. Jaguar keeps building better and more useful vehicles every year, but with all the eager car-nuts in the North Shore region of Minnesota, I’m sure Jaguar will run out of models before Duluth runs out of car shows.
About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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