2022 Ford Bronco Raptor First Test: Absolutely Awesome!
Pros
- Dune-bashing, mud-splashing, rock-crawling fun
- Shockingly good road manners
- Unfazed by potholes and frost heaves
Cons
- Half-ton weight gain
- Could have had a V-8
- Slow steering makes for busy hands
From the driver's seat of the 2022 Ford Bronco Raptor, a pond looks like a puddle, a boulder field looks like a gravel road, and a Mitsubishi Mirage looks like a speed bump. This $70,095 off-road colossus—it's 85.7 inches wide and has 37-inch-tall tires—bounds across the gnarliest terrain and towers over traffic with an air of invincibility that shrinks everything in its path. Objects in the windshield are larger than they appear when you're riding this high, literally and metaphorically.
It doesn't take long for this Raptor's immense capability to go to your head. In the same way that the best Porsches make drivers into heroes, the Bronco Raptor turns the person behind the wheel into a villain—reckless, all powerful, above the law. Driving a Bronco Raptor means fighting an incessant urge to straight-line every roundabout. You'll fantasize about blasting by gridlock traffic on the shoulder and turning every open space you pass into an off-road park.
Roads? Where We're Going, We Don't Need Roads
To keep those anti-social and imprisonable impulses at bay, it's important to regularly exercise the baddest Bronco in its natural habitat, which happens to be wherever civilization isn't. Ford has built the Raptor brand around high-speed desert-running antics, and the Bronco abides with big-barrel Fox Racing dampers calming the suspension as it strokes through up to 13 inches of travel in the front and 14 in the rear. Electronically adjustable valving adapts to whatever happens to be pummeling the suspension at any given moment, while internal bypasses cushion the biggest hits.
Translation: The harder and faster you drive, the less the Bronco Raptor is fazed by the terrain. In its signature Baja mode, this SUV combines sports-car reflexes with the compliance of a bounce house. The 10-speed automatic cracks off up- and downshifts with perfect timing and the BF Goodrich All-Terrain T/A KO2 tires find traction where there is none, all while bombing over terrain that would fold a Honda in half.
This Bronco isn't a one-trick pony, though. It will just as eagerly and expertly pick its way through a boulder-strewn ravine with the 360-degree camera system putting your spotter out of a job. It can wade into a waist-deep swamp and negotiate a mud-slicked trail (as long as those washtub fenders fit between the trees). There's a dizzying amount of adjustability in the Raptor's four exhaust modes, three steering settings, four damper calibrations, locking front and rear differentials, front anti-roll-bar disconnect, and the transfer case that offers rear-wheel drive, high-range four-wheel drive, or low-range four-wheel drive. Trying to tune all that via buttons on the steering wheel, atop the dash, and on the center console proves tedious, but Ford has smartly included shortcuts to several useful combinations via the preset GOAT modes (Normal, Off-Road, Rock Crawl, Baja, Sport, Tow/Haul, Slippery) and a customizable MyMode.
Those Road Manners Aren't Shabby, Either
The Bronco Raptor's 0.67 g of lateral grip and 160-foot 60-mph stopping distance are atrocious by any objective measure of on-road performance, but those numbers bury the subjective excellence of how this truck steers, handles, and rides when it returns to the civilized, asphalt world. Thanks to the impossibly wide stance, the body doesn't roll in corners so much as it squats over the outside wheels, creating a surprising sense of stability.
The heavy hiking boots pound the pavement and send tremors into the body at city speeds, but just as it does off road, the Raptor becomes supple—even graceful—the faster you go. On the highway, it floats over expansion joints and potholes, making it the perfect vehicle for traversing our pre-apocalyptic infrastructure in comfort and without fear of damaging a tire.
At 3.2 turns lock-to-lock, the steering feels slow when you're sliding the Raptor sideways on dirt or hustling down a tight two-lane. Nevertheless, the steering wheel would be at home in a Mazda Miata, both for the way its sculpted rim fits your hands and its exacting precision.
How Quick Is the Ford Bronco Raptor?
If there's a weak spot in the Raptor's game, it's the engine. The twin-turbo 3.0-liter V-6 raises output by 103 horsepower and 30 lb-ft of torque compared to the 2.7-liter unit available on lesser Broncos. Yet you wouldn't guess it's packing 418 horsepower from the driver's seat or looking at the numbers. That's because this leviathan weighs 5,778 pounds, or nearly 1,000 more than the V-6-powered Bronco Outer Banks we tested last year. The Raptor hides that weight well in cornering, but it's palpable under acceleration.
The Raptor covered 0-60 mph in 6.3 seconds and cleared the quarter mile in 14.9 seconds in MotorTrend testing, both just 0.3 second quicker than the Outer Banks model. That's significantly slower than we originally predicted and worse than what the Raptor's weight-to-power ratio suggests it should be capable of. That also places it two whole seconds behind its chief rival, the 470-hp Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 392. Yet no matter what we tried at the track, the Raptor returned consistently sluggish runs.
The engine also fails to deliver on this truck's nickname, "Braptor." It never so much as blips, blats, rips, snorts, burbles, chortles, barks, or braps. The adjustable exhaust is performative theater, merely amplifying the engine's thrum at part-throttle and low rpm. At full throttle in any mode, the V-6 sounds too flat, too muffled, and too high-pitched for a truck this rowdy.
The SUV That Conquers All
In a motoring world overrun with Wranglers and 4Runners, the Bronco Raptor still stands out as one of a kind. With its appetite for high-speed hooning, its composure on paved roads, and its ability to tackle any type of terrain, it's as close as you'll come to finding a truck that will drive anywhere and over anything. Try to resist the urge.
Looks good! More details?2022 Ford Bronco Raptor Specifications BASE PRICE $70,095 PRICE AS TESTED $78,750 VEHICLE LAYOUT Front-engine, 4WD, 5-pass, 4-door SUV ENGINE 3.0L Twin-turbo direct-injected DOHC 24-valve 60-degree V-6 POWER (SAE NET) 418 hp @ 5,750 rpm TORQUE (SAE NET) 440 lb-ft @ 2,750 rpm TRANSMISSION 10-speed automatic CURB WEIGHT (F/R DIST) 5,778 lb (55/45%) WHEELBASE 116.5 in LENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT 191.0 x 85.7 x 77.8 in 0-60 MPH 6.3 sec QUARTER MILE 14.9 sec @ 91.0 mph BRAKING, 60-0 MPH 160 ft LATERAL ACCELERATION 0.67 g (avg) EPA CITY/HWY/COMB FUEL ECON 15/16/15 mpg EPA RANGE, COMB 318 miles ON SALE Now Show AllYou may also like
WHAT IT IS: A three-row all-electric SUV from Hyundai previewed by the Seven concept.WHY IT MATTERS: The Hyundai Ioniq 7 will be the third vehicle in the expanding Ioniq family of electric vehicles. Following the footsteps of the acclaimed Ioniq 5 subcompact crossover and the soon-to-arrive Ioniq 6 sedan, the 7 will borrow the 5's pixelated taillights and daytime running lights. When the 7 concept made its debut at the 2021 Los Angeles Auto Show, Hyundai Motor America CEO José Muñoz promised the production model will hew closely to the show car. "You'll be amazed," he added. Although the Seven concept has a loungelike interior and coach doors, the version that goes on sale will have a normal interior with a steering wheel. We expect its cabin to borrow some of the Ioniq 5's details.PLATFORM AND POWERTRAIN: The Ioniq 7 will be based on Hyundai's Electric-Global Modular Platform (E-GMP), which can accommodate multiple sizes with different battery systems. This is the same architecture used in the Ioniq 5, the Kia EV6, and Genesis GV60, all of which are much smaller. Similarly, the Hyundai Ioniq 7 will share much with the Kia EV9 and Genesis GV90. The Kia is slated to go into production soon and could be here next year, while the Genesis GV90 will most likely arrive in 2024. The Ioniq 6 sedan will also share its platform with these SUVs. Like its smaller sibling, we expect the 7 to have a range north of 300 miles while being able to charge from 10 to 80 percent in about 20 minutes with a 350-kW charger.ESTIMATED PRICE: $50,000EXPECTED ON-SALE DATE: Q1 2024
kia carnival Full OverviewWe decided to assign our long-term 2022 Kia Carnival minivan to the Detroit office after it was delivered to our SoCal HQ. So, a cross-country road-trip/familiarization drive was hastily organized to relocate our Carnival from Los Angeles to its new home in Michigan. On a Saturday in May we flew out, picked up the yearlong test van, and decamped to a family outpost in Vista, California, where we spent the afternoon customizing settings, registering with Kia Connect (formerly UVO) telematics, and purchasing and stashing all our road-trip essential maps, snacks, and cooler. The Kia's nav system estimated the direct 2,316-mile route would take 33 hours, 17 minutes, but our route would be less direct and way more entertaining. Here's what we learned about the Carnival as a road-trip machine.Day 1: Calico Ghost TownOur first stop was at the Calico Ghost Town, a former silver and borate mining boomtown near Barstow, California. It was restored in the '50s by Knott's Berry Farm founder Walter Knott, who worked in Calico as a carpenter before becoming a berry/jam/pie magnate. It's here we noticed the Carnival EX gets standard sunshades for all the rear side windows—fancy stuff in a $39,055 van. This and the standard solar reflective glass (a step up from the LX's mere tinting) helped keep the cabin cool in desert sun.World's Tallest ThermometerI-15 from L.A. to Vegas passes a 134-foot-tall digital temperature gauge in Baker, built to commemorate a record 134-degree reading from 1913. As we passed this unofficial gateway to Death Valley and the giant 392-MW Ivanpah solar-generating mirror farm, we started to miss the SX trim's ventilated front seats just a little, but my copilot registered his relief at finding visors that slide to cover the entire front side glass width—a small thing, the lack of which excludes a vehicle from his purchase consideration.Neon Sign MuseumOur first gas stop was just across the Nevada line. We should have gassed up in Baker, but the Carnival is so shy about begging for fuel (there's a brief low-fuel warning on the info screen, then there's just the tiny orange low-fuel lamp) that we pressed on until the needle was fully on E. When we only squeezed 16-plus gallons into the 19-gallon tank, we reckoned the gauge is conservative. Passing Las Vegas, we avoided the hackneyed Welcome sign in favor of the less well known Googielicious Neon Sign Museum. Its lobby once welcomed guests to the LaConcha Motel, a fabulous sign for which is included in the collection.Arizona & UtahPressing on, we marveled at the gradual change of scenery from desert, to dry hills, to increasingly verdant mountains viewing a geology lesson in heaved sedimentary formations. We exited the interstate at Cedar City on State Route 14, which climbs to 9,900 feet crossing the scenic Markagunt Plateau, and stopped at Navajo Lake, which is fed by springs through lava tubes and feeds several rivers we'd soon be crossing, including the Virgin. By now we were disappointed in the Carnival's door pockets, which are basically only good for maps (remember those?). They feature a cupholder indentation, but it only fits 12-ounce cans (remember those?) Our taller water bottles and even motel coffee cups don't fit. A midcycle refresh needs to relocate the speakers to the upper door panel to accommodate larger water bottles.Red Canyon, Utah in JulyA little way up Utah's Scenic Byway 12 en route to Bryce Canyon is Red Canyon, which features miniature "hoodoos" that preview the epic eroded stalagmite-like formations that define Bryce Canyon. Jumping back in after this photo op, CarPlay acted up, requiring multiple unplug-plug operations (wireless CarPlay is not yet available) to resume, thus interrupting our streaming performance of The Book of Mormon musical. We eventually prevailed and proceeded to the Bryce Canyon Pines motel and restaurant for a feast of local trout and berry pie.Day 2: Bryce Canyon National ParkScotsman Ebenezer Bryce, for whom this striking park is named, was a Mormon convert and "serial pioneer" who settled a half-dozen towns or villages in the region to help spread the Mormon gospel. We spent 90 minutes in the park in 39-degree overcast weather searching unsuccessfully for a location where the van could pose with the spectacular canyon, then headed back down to rejoin the interstate following a stop at…Butch Cassidy BirthplaceThe notorious horse and cattle thief/bank and train robber grew up in this quaint log structure near Circleville, Utah. Just before arriving here, a speeding dove Kamikaze-dive-bombed the Carnival's nose, releasing feathers that penetrated the joint between the fascia and front fender. Descending the steeper hills in this area, we found the eight-speed automatic's manual shifting gate an intuitive and swift way to moderate downhill speeds without traumatizing the brakes.Giant Soda CansOur Roadtrippers app suggested several fun roadside "attractions" like these tanks adorning the parking lot of a Carl's Jr. They originally wore PepsiCo liveries (7Up, Dr. Pepper, Diet Pepsi, and Pepsi labels). A Carl's corporate conversion to Coke products presumably prompted the current labels. Here CarPlay went completely black-screen on us. Other native Kia screens worked, but CarPlay entered a deep and persistent snit that resisted even a "cold reboot" (park, ignition off, open and close door, lock, unlock, open and close, restart). Later, after a longer lunch stop, full CarPlay functionality mysteriously resumed.Serpentine Freeway CurvesAs part of the Carnival's Highway Driving Assist system, there's a feature that uses map and GPS data to slow down in tighter curves. Some curves on I-70 through Utah and Colorado prompted the system to decelerate way more than necessary—sometimes by 10 or 15 mph. Puke-prone preschoolers in car seats may warrant such caution, but with two adults looking out the windows, not at a screen, we overrode this feature and eventually disabled it.Snowy PassesAs we crested Vail Pass and other I-70 passes, we were met with lots of snow and dropping temperatures that dipped into the 30s. Yet, the Carnival's climate-control system managed to keep a constant temperature despite the day's wild swings in sun load and exterior temperature. As eastbound transcontinental travelers, we were saddened to see the Johnson Tunnel on I-70, which marks the beginning of the end of the journey's most epic scenery.Day 3: Pony Express & ObsolescenceThe welcome center at Julesburg, Colorado, honors the Pony Express National Historic Trail—a 1,900-mile run from St. Joseph, Missouri to San Francisco that originally took 10 days. It was rendered largely obsolete just 18 months after it was established by the advent of the telegraph. Speaking of obsolete, how is it that this brand-new minivan lacks modern conveniences like a capless fuel filler, wireless CarPlay, and USB-C jacks? This might be a long year.Rain Stays Mainly in the PlainsHard rains driven by strong headwinds torpedo our fuel economy all day, from an indicated 25 or 26 mpg through the mountains, down to 20. We skipped a visit to the Archway Museum, which pays tribute to pioneer adventurers who plied the Great Platte River Road. Crossing the plains, whoever is in the passenger seat turns to email and work, whereupon we miss the SX's 115-volt plug and our van's built-in Wi-Fi (we initiated setup back in California, but the system takes 10 days to activate). Our portable inverter and MiFi kept us connected and productive.Pioneer VillageJust east of Kearney, Nebraska, we detoured 13 miles south to Minden to see the Harold Warp Pioneer Village, a cluster of 28 buildings housing 50,000 historical artifacts including loads of cars, planes, tractors, trains, etc. We spent an afternoon and evening here during a cross-country trek in 2001 and were saddened to see the decline it's suffered in the years since. Leaving, we approached the locked Carnival with the key sharing a pocket with an iPhone in the driving rain and struggled to get in. Turns out the phone interferes with the key—a fact we'd struggle to remember in the coming days. Other cars occasionally suffer this problem; here it's always.Drizzly Des MoinesWe streamed the musical Hamilton on our way into Des Moines (later learning the Broadway touring company is in town!) and decided the non-branded audio system sounds decent but lacks any sense of spatial imaging. We found ourselves fiddling with tone settings more than we might with the SX Prestige model's 12-speaker Bose setup to mitigate this. We closed out the night with whiskeys at The Library, where nearly two decades earlier, MotorTrend digital director Erik Johnson and I met and drank with the Drake University women's basketball team during a peculiar Subaru press trip.Day 4: Detroit or BustRoad-tripping offers very few compelling roadside attractions to tempt us on the anchor leg of this journey, but the birthplace of Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, at 2300 Jackson Street in Gary, Indiana, lures us off the freeway (and lest you presume the road has been renamed, this neighborhood's north-south streets are all named for presidents). We both found ourselves fidgeting, readjusting the seat, and moving our legs around to stay comfortable after a few hours at the Carnival's helm. A little reverse engineering and/or patent-licensing of Nissan Zero Gravity seats might be another midcycle upgrade worth doing.Home at LastAfter four 8-9-hour driving days, we rolled into 's Detroit outpost having covered 2,470 miles and consumed 102.726 gallons of gas at a cost of $483.85. That works out to an average of 23.7 mpg—that's about 7 percent above the EPA combined rating of 22 mpg and a reasonable 7 percent below the trip computer's calculated 25.3-mpg average for the trip. Stay tuned; this rig is bound for many more adventures.Looks good! More details?2022 Kia Carnival (EX) Specifications BASE PRICE $39,055 PRICE AS TESTED $39,940 VEHICLE LAYOUT Front-engine, FWD, 8-pass, 4-door van ENGINE 3.5L direct-injected DOHC 24-valve 60-degree V-6 POWER (SAE NET) 290 hp @ 6,400 rpm TORQUE (SAE NET) 262 lb-ft @ 5,000 rpm TRANSMISSION 8-speed automatic CURB WEIGHT (F/R DIST) 4,609 lb (56/44%) WHEELBASE 121.7 in LENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT 203.0 x 78.5 x 68.5 in 0-60 MPH 7.7 sec QUARTER MILE 15.8 sec @ 90.4 mph BRAKING, 60-0 MPH 129 ft LATERAL ACCELERATION 0.78 g (avg) MT FIGURE EIGHT 28.4 sec @ 0.58 g (avg) EPA CITY/HWY/COMB FUEL ECON 19/26/22 mpg EPA RANGE, COMB 418 miles ON SALE Now TOTAL MILEAGE 3,621 mi AVERAGE FUEL ECON 22.8 mpg UNRESOLVED PROBLEM AREAS Intermittent CarPlay failure Show All
ProsNear limitless gripQuicker-than-you-can-think responsesBiblical brakes ConsConfusing drive modesNo performance auto-shifting modeNeeds a bigger shift lightIt's not often a car comes along where the only thing you can find to complain about are the names, functions, and number of drive modes, but here we are. The 2021 Lamborghini Huracán STO is so insanely good to drive, we're left with the nittiest nits to pick."You look at the STO and its wings 'n' things," deputy editor Alex Stoklosa said, "then consider that it's shoving a V-10's worth of power to only the rear wheels, and you assume it'll be hairier than a barbershop floor. Not at all. There is so much grip front and rear, and the chassis is so balanced, that it drives nothing like it looks. There is no evil here. Sure, the Lambo hustles in ways most cars don't or can't, but it simply has no vices while furiously raging."You could call it a complaint for lack of others, but the amount of time some judges felt they needed to fully understand the car's limits was a bit longer than usual, simply because the limits are so high you need a telescope to see them. Once you truly understand what it's capable of, though, you never want to stop driving it. On the street, on the track, it doesn't matter.Credit the brilliant blending of adaptive magnetorheological shock absorbers, rear steering, racing brakes, and Bridgestone Potenza Race tires for the STO's direct connection to your brain's pleasure center. The front end changes direction quicker than you can think it while the rear stays behind you no matter the speed unless you very deliberately kick it out. When you do, the car breaks away beautifully, allowing you to ride that slip into the perfect amount of rotation.Mostly, though, it just goes. The damn near race-spec V-10 delivers a perfect progressive powerband that never wallops the rear tires with more torque than they can handle (which is, admittedly, a lot), so you can stand on the throttle leaving every corner, and the STO will grab and go. Get to the next turn, and the brakes require only gentle but deliberate pressure to stop the car like you just grabbed the No. 3 wire on an aircraft carrier's deck.Not just a one-lap pony, the Huracán STO will do it over and over, every corner, every lap, all day long. It's so rewarding and fulfilling to drive, you never want to stop. You can't automatically say these things about every mid-engine supercar with 600-plus hp.About those nits. Some judges found the drive modes confusing, assuming the STO mode would be the most aggressive since it shares the car's name. ("STO" stands for Super Trofeo Omologato, meaning this is the road version of the Huracán Super Trofeo track-only race car.) But STO is actually the "around town" mode, and many felt it was way too docile. Corsa is the mode you want to be in, but keep in mind it's the full race mode with manual-only shifting and reduced stability control. Several judges found themselves wishing for an intermediate mode with lighter steering than Corsa and far more aggressive automatic shifting. But alas, the only other mode is Pioggia, the wet weather mode.Since we're whining, an actual shift light instead of the graphics in the digital instrument cluster would be nice. The engine just revs forever, right until it suddenly doesn't, so you need the upshift indication in Corsa.But again, all you really need to know about how ridiculously awesome this car is to drive is that we can't find anything better to complain about. The Huracán STO is an apex predator at its apex, fully bestowing the thrill of the hunt to anyone who slips behind the wheel.2021 Lamborghini Huracán STO Specifications Base Price/As tested $333,633/$442,033 Power (SAE net) 630 hp @ 8,000 rpm Torque (SAE net) 417 lb-ft @ 6,500 rpm Accel, 0-60 mph 2.8 sec Quarter-mile 10.7 sec @ 132.3 mph Braking, 60-0 mph 95 ft Lateral Acceleration 1.16 g (avg) MT Figure Eight 22.3 sec @ 0.99 g (avg) EPA City/Hwy/Comb 13/18/15 mpg Vehicle Layout Mid-engine, RWD, 2-pass, 2-door coupe Engine, Transmission 5.2L port- and direct-injected DOHC 40-valve 90-degree V-10, 7-speed twin-clutch auto Curb Weight (F/R DIST) 3,390 lb (42/58%) Wheelbase 103.1 in Length x Width x Height 179.0 x 76.6 x 48.0 in On Sale Now Show All
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