Car and Driver

This magazine is for automobile enthusiasts interested in domestic and imported autos. Each issue contains road tests and features on performance, sports, international coverage of road race, stock and championship car events, technical reports, personalities and products. Road tests are conducted with electronic equipment by engineers and journalists and the results are an important part of the magazine's review section. Get Car and Driver digital magazine subscription today.

“Twenty years now. Where’d they go? Twenty years, I don’t know.”

BACKFIRES • Think of it as the peer-review section of the magazine, hosted by your pal Ed.

Car and Driver

Under Pressure • Megacasting promises to upend the way automakers mass-produce cars by simplifying the assembly process.

Phoning It In • Set up your iPhone to take car photos like a pro.

From Lego to Renault • The French automaker’s E-Tech hybrid system can trace its roots to a handful of Lego bricks.

Urine Charge • Can your bladder outlast an EV’s range?

EZRA DYER • A 1500-mile winter-break road trip in a Lincoln Corsair reveals the real use case for hands-free driving assist.

ELANA SCHERR • We have seen the light! Unfortunately, it’s from super-bright LED headlights that are frying our corneas.

JUST SHOOT ME • While under the peering lenses of strangers, we ponder existentialism and the polarizing 2024 Tesla Cybertruck Beast.

COUNTERPOINTS

AIR BENDER

NOW STEER THIS

SUVs FOR THE REAL WORLD

Are Plug-In Hybrids Finally Making Good on the Promise of the Best of Both Worlds?

Roll Call

The Many Different Hybrid Layouts • Through-the-road, series, parallel, range extender—all of these terms describe a hybrid powertrain’s layout. To make any of them a plug-in, automakers use a larger battery and program it to maintain enough charge to operate indefinitely. But they all work differently, as you can see in these diagrams.

The Penalty of Not Plugging In

Battery Size and Cycling

How Long Does It Take to Pay Back Higher PHEV Prices?

MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS • THE 453-HP BMW M2 AND THE 500-HP FORD MUSTANG DARK HORSE TAKE PERFORMANCE COUPES TO NEW HEIGHTS.

AUTOMOTIVE OMAKASE • We leave it up to the chef on a tour of car culture in Japan, and we’re not disappointed.

Grand Tourific • 2024 Maserati GranTurismo Trofeo HIGHS: Elegant as high tea, rip-roaring acceleration, passenger-pleasing comfort. LOWS: Sleepy shifter buttons, pricey driver-assistance options, Joe Walsh lost his license in a Maserati, and you may too.

Reversed Course • Porsche Cayenne S Coupe HIGHS: V-8 sound and fury, improved ride even on 22s, sleeker design. LOWS: V-8 thirst, interior collects fingerprints, coupes should have two doors.

Sensibly Extravagant • 2023 Mercedes-Maybach S680 4Matic HIGHS: Truly decadent back seats, unexpected sports-sedan reflexes, actually a good value. LOWS: Soft brake pedal, 14-mpg EPA combined rating, having to correct the hoi polloi’s mispronunciation of “Maybach.”

The Mini Countryman JCW sidles up to its sibling, the BMW X1.

Mixed Breed • With a little help from General Motors, the Honda Prologue starts an electric chapter.

A BASE CAYENNE IS HARDLY BASIC

2022 Volkswagen Golf GTI S • The car that established the modern hot-hatch formula remains as rorty and rational as ever.

Passing Judgments

The Best Odds • The cars I recall most fondly were neither the prettiest nor the quickest. Certainly not the most expensive. They were machines that emerged willfully peculiar and intractably idiosyncratic.