2023 Honda HR-V EX-L First Test Review: 0–60 MPH in How Long?

ford f-150 Full OverviewIn announcing our MotorTrend 2022 Truck of the Year, we observed that today's trucks are far more than workhorses. They're also commuter cars, family haulers, weekend toys, and luxury vehicles. It's a trend at least 20 years in the making, but one that doesn't make everyone happy. Indeed, some of you wrote to us and expressed your displeasure with this mission drift and argued for trucks to be treated like trucks again. That's easier said than done, as it turns out. Take, for example, this 2021 Ford F-150 XLT Supercrew 4X4 we just tested.This isn't a blinged-out luxury truck; it's an XLT with cloth seats, a column shifter, basic four-wheel drive, a bedliner, and a max-towing package. One step above the base model, this should be a work truck, yet it's priced at $59,520 as tested. How the heck did that happen?What's an XLT, Anyway?A 2022 Ford F-150 XLT trim starts at a more reasonable $39,825 (banish the thought of a full-size truck starting for less than $30,000; those days are gone), but that only gets you a single cab, the base engine, and rear-wheel drive. Single cabs are old school, and every truck maker in the industry will tell you full four-door cabs like this F-150 Supercrew are bestsellers. That's an extra $5,260 right there.Four-wheel drive is a $3,425 upgrade, and getting a stouter engine adds at least $1,195. If you want to tow and haul heavy things on the job site or at the farm, you need power. This 3.5-liter twin-turbo EcoBoost V-6 has plenty of both, but it costs $2,595. After destination and acquisition fees, you're already nearing $50,000 without any other options.The rest of the asking price is made up of both the necessary and the nice to have. The max-trailer-towing package is $1,995, and the spray-in bedliner is another $595. Pro Power Onboard 2.0 kW, handy on the jobsite and in the field, is $995. Now we're at $54,000 for a work truck. The other $8,000 covers stuff you don't need for work but is nice to have, like the big infotainment system, optional wheels, etc.TowingYep, modern work trucks are expensive. The good news is you still get a lot of work for your money. We hitched this Ford F-150 XLT up to a high-profile two-horse trailer and found it to be the comfortable, stable towing platform we've come to expect from Ford. After returning the livestock, we filled the bed with a yard of hot, fresh mulch for the garden. Here again, the torquey twin-turbo V-6 made light work of the added weight, and the sizable payload and tongue-weight ratings meant the truck barely squatted.A Pleasant RideMore impressive, though, is how well the Ford F-150 XLT rides, either empty or loaded. With leaf springs capable of holding up 2,100 pounds of payload, you'd reasonably expect a stiff ride, but Ford's engineers worked wonders. The F-150 is as pleasant and comfortable to drive while doing work as it is cruising into town for groceries.Track TestingIt'll get you down to the market quick, too. Unburdened, the 3.5-liter twin-turbo V-6 hustled this 5,345-pound truck up to 60 mph in just 5.3 seconds and past the quarter-mile mark in 13.9 seconds at 99.9 mph.Power is not a problem, and neither is stopping. The Ford F-150 XLT was consistent in our braking tests from 60 mph, achieving a best result of 126 feet, about average for a full-size pickup. Even better, the stops were drama-free, with little nosedive or wiggling around.Handling tests were similarly uneventful. We discovered excellent composure for a pickup truck, with well-controlled body motions, good brakes, and strong traction. The 0.76-average lateral g it pulled on the skidpad and its 28.0-second figure-eight lap at 0.62-average g are on the right end of the full-size-truck class—and undersell how well the 2021 Ford F-150 XLT takes a corner without any weight loaded into it.SafetyOpt for Ford's $750 Co-Pilot360 Assist 2.0 suite of driver aids and included among all the safety stuff are adaptive cruise control and lane-keep assistance, which helps steer the vehicle and keep it in the center of the lane. Ford's system, which takes some load off your mind on long highway slogs, is one of the better hands-on systems on the market.Wrapping UpThe rest of the driving experience isn't bad, either. The cloth seats are plenty comfortable and feature a pleasing contrasting color scheme. The column shifter frees up a ton of center-console bin space and allows you to use the flip-out tray table while the truck is moving. The rear seat could use a bit more thigh support and recline, if we're being picky, but we like how much space it frees up when you fold it out of the way.As mentioned earlier, our truck was fitted with the big infotainment screen, and it's good to see how far Ford's Sync system has come. This latest incarnation is more user friendly and intuitive, sports modern graphics, and has a handy split-screen mode that lets you use Apple CarPlay or Android Auto simultaneously with other built-in programs like the radio without having to change screens.Simple fact is, unless you're a fleet manager buying dozens of trucks from a commercial dealer, even work trucks are pricey these days. Yes, the convenience and dress-up options can run up the bill, but even the stuff you need to get the job done will dent your budget hard. The good news is, these trucks drive, tow, and haul better than any time in history.Looks good! More details? 2021 Ford F-150 XLT 4x4 Specifications BASE PRICE $45,850 PRICE AS TESTED $59,520 VEHICLE LAYOUT Front-engine, 4WD, 5-pass, 4-door truck ENGINE 3.5L Twin-turbo port- and direct-injected DOHC 24-valve 60-degree V-6 POWER (SAE NET) 400 hp @ 6,000 rpm TORQUE (SAE NET) 500 lb-ft @ 3,100 rpm TRANSMISSION 10-speed automatic CURB WEIGHT (F/R DIST) 5,345 lb (58/42%) WHEELBASE 145.1 in LENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT 231.7 x 79.9 x 77.2 in 0-60 MPH 5.3 sec QUARTER MILE 13.9 sec @ 99.9 mph BRAKING, 60-0 MPH 126 ft LATERAL ACCELERATION 0.76 g (avg) MT FIGURE EIGHT 28.0 sec @ 0.62 g (avg) EPA CITY/HWY/COMB FUEL ECON 18/23/20 mpg EPA RANGE, COMB 720 mi ON SALE Now Show All

The dance we do as hot-rodders typically goes like this: We find a classic car, strip it down to the bare body, and then rebuild it to suit our own, often modernized vision. With a pro touring- or restomod-type build, that includes adding a high-power modern EFI engine, modern brakes (often with ABS on the nicer builds), and amenities like air conditioning and a rockin' audio system. In essence, the classic lines of the old body are kept, and the newest performance and cruising technology is grafted to it. It's time-consuming and expensive, but it gives us the look we want along with modern performance.But what if you did it the other way around? This would be where you took a modern performance car and added body panels to replicate the classic lines. This isn't a new idea, but to be honest we haven't loved the results in the past. The problem is that modern cars have modern dimensions and structures that don't always play nice with the lines of our classics. This is especially true around the windshield and A-pillars. For example, we remember a company that was trying to make a C5 Corvette look like a vintage C2 'Vette, but the windshield area just killed it since the C5's A-pillars were way too swept back for aerodynamics. It just looked wrong. We had yet to see one of these retrofied modern muscle cars done where the proportions were right, or at least close enough to still look good.That was until we spied the builds from eXoMod Creations. It was their C68 CARBON build (a clever code for 1968 Charger) and it actually looked like a vintage Dodge Charger! Now, we're not saying it's an exact copy, but it certainly captures the soul of a '68-'70 Charger that's been given a 21st-Century makeover. You get all the modern performance and tech of a new Dodge Hellcat (707 hp) or even a Hellcat Redeye (807 hp) with the vintage vibe of its '60s-era ancestor. They are also currently offering the C69 CARBON, which is reskinned in carbon fiber to look like a 1969 Charger.eXoMod Creations owes a thank you to Dodge for making this possible. You see, the C68 CARBON Charger is exactly the same length as a bone-stock 1968 Charger. It also has the exact same wheelbase! Add in that the windshield rake isn't nearly as extreme as some cars, such as Camaros and Corvettes, and you end up with proportions that are close enough to work. One area that changes, though, is the car's width, since the eXoMod C68 CARBON is a true widebody. This is done with the quarter-panels and fenders instead of the fender flares used on a modern widebody Dodge. The result of all this body-swap voodoo is a modern Dodge Hellcat that has the look of a vintage Charger, with the right proportions so that your eye doesn't dismiss it all as some sort of bait-and-switch deal.As they said in that old Ginsu knife infomercial, "But wait—there's more!" You see, the new vintage-shaped body panels aren't stamped-steel, they're carbon-fiber. This means the new retro-modern Mopar is 400 pounds lighter than a factory Hellcat Challenger! The weight loss is akin to free horsepower for an already stupid-fast car. Oh, and the body panel swap retains Dodge's powertrain warranty.The interior of the eXoMod cars stays pretty stock with the exception of better, Italian leather for the seats. All the high-tech options found on a new Hellcat are still there, so you have heated and cooled seats, launch control, and safety stuff like airbags and backup sensors.eXoMod isn't stopping with Chargers. Other classic Mopars are getting the reskinned-in-carbon treatment as well. The D71 is styled after the 1971 Dodge Demon, and we have to say the rendering looks kickass. This ride, limited to just 25 vehicles, should be done around the summer of 2023. Like all the eXoMod cars there are tons of color, wheel, and trim options.Want something wilder? How about a Hellcat reskinned to look like a 1969 Charger Daytona? Yep, big nose, big carbon-fiber wing, and tons of attitude. They are currently building this Daytona and hope to have it on display at November's MCACN event in Chicago. All the eXoMod conversions roll on high-end Forgeline wheels. Even these rollers, which look like vintage steelies, are in fact 20-inch billet Forgeline wheels!Now this isn't an inexpensive proposition, but what is these days? Consider the cost of taking a 1968 Charger and building it into everything the 2022 Hellcat is. All the comfort, all the power, all the modern suspension parts, flush-mounted glass, and latest technology. A build like that would be hundreds of thousands and take an eternity to get done. eXoMod can convert your existing Challenger (all the way back to a 2011 R/T model year) for $275K and have it built, painted, and on the road in around 8 weeks! They also sell complete cars, customized to your tastes, starting at $400K for the 707-hp Hellcat or $450K for the 807-hp Redeye!For us mere mortals, nearly half a million bucks falls into fantasy land, but you could easily spend that much, and more than likely more, adding all the Hellcat guts and carbon fiber to a vintage Mopar, and still not end up with a car capable of reliably making cross-country drives. This car drives like a new Hellcat because, in essence, it is a new Hellcat. In short, this is just another way to skin the proverbial feline; a way to get those classic-car lines we love along with the modern kickass performance we've become accustomed to. To window-shop or place an order, click on over to www.exomodcarbon.com. If you're at the 2022 SEMA show in Vegas, look for booth 24995 in the Hot Rod Alley, where a new purple car that's just being finished up will be on display.Watch! Roadkill's General Mayhem Gets UpgradedIs the '68 Dodge Charger the "best car" like David Freiburger says? Maybe, but the General Mayhem is definitely one of the most iconic Roadkill cars. Watch as Roadkill Garage hosts Freiburger and Steve Dulcich give it tons of body upgrades and engine-saving modifications before hitting the road for proper break-in procedures—aka burnouts! Sign up for a tree trial to MotorTrend+ and start watching every episode of Roadkill Garage today! Video created by Little Dot Studios.

If you've got your heart set on a Bollinger, maybe it's time to start that delivery business you've always dreamed of. Bollinger, the Michigan-based developer of the boxy B1 electric SUV and B2 electric pickup, has announced a change in plans: Production of its consumer trucks will be suspended indefinitely as the company pivots to its commercial business."Even though I love our trucks, we were getting so much interest on the commercial front, it just became a smart business decision," founder and CEO Robert Bollinger told MotorTrend. "We have a lot of fleets coming to us. We have agreements with them in place that we'll talk about later. All of our hard work and all of the patents, all of the expertise we've learned, battery development, thermal management, the battery management system [for] which we wrote our own code, all of our controls, all that we've done up to this point leads us perfectly into commercial."Bollinger's plan is to concentrate on Class 3 to 6 trucks (those with GVWRs ranging from 10,001 to 26,000 pounds—think heavy duty pickups up to two-axle box trucks and school buses), which makes sense given what Bollinger has shown us: Alongside its trucks, Bollinger has developed chassis-cab and dually versions of the B2 electric pickup, along with a bare Class 3 chassis for commercial use."We've been in Class 3 since day one," Bollinger said. "When we started having more and more of the team work on the commercial front, we saw that there was a lot of similarity between [Classes 3 to 6]. There are a lot of components we can use that are the same. The fundamental engineering and manufacturing of those frames for commercial are all very similar. We can expand our expertise in Class 3 into higher classes. We're doing this because, what else is out there?"Bollinger had announced a starting price of $125,000 for the B1 SUV and B2 pickup truck, well above the pricing of the Rivian R1T, Ford F-150 Lightning, Chevrolet Silverado EV, and even the expensive Edition 1 version of the GMC Hummer HEV."Way back in 2015 when I started the company," Bollinger told us, "I knew there was going to be an electric [Ford] F-150 in the future. Things would go all-electric, so [we wanted to] make a truck that's really unique, very different, has all these capabilities that you won't find in any other truck. We succeeded in that and it became a vehicle we knew would be hand-assembled, low-volume and niche. I will go to my grave saying the B1 and B2 have no competition."We'd be lying if we said we weren't a little disappointed. There was a lot we were looking forward to seeing in the Bollinger trucks, not least of all that 12-foot cargo pass-through from the front to the rear of the truck, which is arguably even cooler than the Rivian R1T's Gear Tunnel.Bollinger plans to return deposits put down on B1 and B2 trucks, so does that mean the consumer vehicles are gone for good?"Never say never," Bollinger told us. "The B1 and B2 will always be in my heart. We're keeping all of that intellectual property, obviously. [But] commercial is definitely 100 percent of the focus right now."