AEV Prospector XL Review: A Ram Truck to Mine the Overlanding Market

With the retirement of the third-generation 6 sedan, just two car models remain in Mazda's 2022 lineup, the MX-5 Miata roadster and 3 compact (and really, it's more like three cars since the 3 comes in both sedan and hatchback varieties). Model year updates for each include new exterior colors, interior materials, drivetrain technology, and even a new trim for the 3.The 6 is gone, but that might be only for now. There's a promise of something wearing the 6 badge on the horizon. Keep reading for more about that future sedan as well as what's new and different with every 2022 Mazda car.

We're at the end of an era for luxury sport compact sedans. The segment that BMW invented with the 1986 M3 has long embraced change. The little four-cylinder homologation specials that matured the segment beyond icons such as the 2002 eventually became V-8-powered cruise missiles in the early '00s. The engines have since downsized to forced-induction sixes as times changed, and with nearly every automaker now promising to electrify their lineups in the near future, we're witnessing yet another transition. But thanks to cars such as the new 2022 BMW M3 Competition and 2022 Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing, the internal combustion luxury sport compact sedan is going out with a bang.Spec RundownPitting the M3 Competition (the top dog of the M3/M4 lineup) against the CT4-V Blackwing (effectively a reskinned ATS-V) may seem like a mismatch, but there's a method to our madness. The ATS-V, despite never winning a comparison test, had always been one of our favorite vehicles in the segment. The new CT4-V Blackwing, simply put, makes the ATS-V better. Its 3.6-liter twin-turbo V-6 gets a small output boost, now churning out 472 hp and 445 lb-ft of torque, and it's paired with an optional quick-shifting 10-speed automatic (a six-speed manual is standard). It's also crucially fit with the latest generation of MagneRide dampers, and well, that's really about it. Prices start at $59,900, but the CT4-V Blackwing you see here stickers for $80,235.With 473 horsepower and 406 lb-ft of torque spilling forth from its 3.0-liter turbocharged I-6, the standard M3 seems to be an even matchup for the Cadillac. Except when we drove the latest manual-equipped M4 (the two-door version of the M3) back to back with the CT4, it was no competition—the Caddy was just plain better to drive. More fun, more planted, and more capable, it made the M4 feel like a midgrade M440i. So, with an M3 Competition on hand and in the interest of making things, well, interesting, we decided the M3 Competition would take the M4's place.The Competition turns the wick up a bit on the basic M3/M4 formula. Thanks to more boost and upgraded cooling, output rises to 503 hp and 479 lb-ft of twist. To make the most of the newfound power, BMW equips the Competition with an eight-speed automatic, and on our test car, defeatable all-wheel drive (meaning you can force it into a rear-drive-only mode). Prices for the M3 start at $70,895, while the all-wheel-drive M3 Competition xDrive starts at $77,895. A good chunk of our M3 Competition xDrive's $108,545 sticker is eaten up by optional M carbon-ceramic brakes ($8,150) and the dividing (literally) M Carbon bucket seats ($3,800), though the vast majority of the options on our test car are inconsequential cosmetic and luxury options.Hitting the RoadAlthough the outright performance of both the CT4-V Blackwing and M3 Competition is what will get buyers into showrooms, how they drive in the real world is what will sell them. So let's ignore the numbers, shall we? May the most fun-to-drive car win—because after all, "fun" is what this segment is all about.Riding on GM's rear-drive Alpha platform, the Cadillac is, as senior features editor Jonny Lieberman puts it, "a stud." Aided in part by the latest MagneRide dampers and more accessible Performance Traction Management (PTM) modes (now handily operable via a switch on the steering wheel instead of buried in fiddly menus), the CT4-V Blackwing shines on a good back road. Steering is quick and communicative; the chassis feels light, poised, and well balanced; and the car is damn near impossible to upset. The Cadillac's brakes are worthy of praise, too. Despite lacking fancy (read: expensive) carbon-ceramic brake rotors, we are enamored by the steel rotors' stopping power and the CT4's brake tuning. "Makes the M3 Competition feel like it has 320i brakes," features editor Scott Evans said. "Immediate bite, perfect modulation, and it stops so much harder than the BMW."If the Cadillac has a weak spot, its low-revving V-6 is a good candidate. We weren't taken with this engine back when it first appeared under the hood of the ATS-V, and the addition of 8 extra horsepower hasn't made it any better. That's not to say the CT4-V's powertrain is bad. The twin-turbo V-6 is punchy and delivers a broad torque curve, while the 10-speed auto is among GM's best performance automatics yet, with quick, decisive up- and downshifts, and bang-on tuning for hard driving. It's just so … incredibly uninspiring, with a dull, flat exhaust note and a relatively low 6,500-rpm redline. A naturally aspirated V-8—like the one currently available in the CT4's Chevrolet Camaro SS 1LE platform mate—would do much to wake the CT4-V Blackwing up.The M3 Competition, on the other hand, feels as if its "engine runs on Tannerite," as deputy editor Alex Stoklosa puts it. The Bimmer is explosively powerful and gloriously unhinged. Capable of revving to 7,200 rpm, the M3's inline-six feels like a Minuteman missile on a hair trigger, throwing its power down so violently that we question its 503 horsepower rating.But the M3 is more than just an underrated engine. In a welcome change of pace from modern BMWs, steering is quick, and feel is light but direct. The all-wheel-drive system is impressively neutral, too, helping tame the manic engine without negatively impacting steering feel. "The chassis feels very balanced front to rear," Stoklosa said, "and I found it very easy to transition between over/understeer. It's supremely easy and satisfying to meter out just enough throttle to tuck the nose in or kick the M3 into a controllable, easily placed slide."Still, it's not all roses for the BMW. For starters, there are way too many adjustable settings in the M3 and no easy way to cycle through them while on the move; it is much easier to find your Goldilocks setting in the Cadillac. Some editors found the BMW's carbon-ceramic brakes difficult to modulate smoothly when driving hard, though we were all impressed by their stopping power.Do Numbers Even Matter?With any car—but especially performance cars—it's really tempting to get bogged down in the numbers. Surely, they must tell us something, right? Honestly, though, they really don't in this particular case. There will always be cars that are quicker or faster than a BMW M3 Competition and Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing. These cars—among the last of their kind as we approach widespread electrification—are about the way they feel, the way they drive. The emotional response rises above other considerations.You're more than welcome to geek out over performance numbers by scrolling down to the chart at the bottom of the page, but spoiler alert: The more expensive, more powerful, grippier M3 comes out ahead in all of our instrumented tests. But again, in this particular case, so what?Which Car Is Best?When it comes to picking the winner, ignoring everything but the way these vehicles make us feel when unleashed on our favorite roads, the BMW M3 Competition earns the victory. The Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing is a fantastic riding and handling car that's ultimately held back by an uninspiring engine and a general lack of fireworks. The M3 Competition, on the other hand, is everything we're going to miss about internal combustion—loud and unapologetic but also an absolute joy to drive. It's an engaging and organic powder keg and a return to form for BMW. Just a shame about that nose, no?2nd Place: 2022 Cadillac CT4-V BlackwingPros: Well-balanced chassis with great handlingSuperb brakesRelatively cheapCons: Uninspiring engineCould handle more powerBoring exhaust note1st Place: 2022 BMW M3 CompetitionPros: Unhinged engineTransparent all-wheel-drive systemExceptional steeringCons: PriceyCarbon-ceramic brakes aren't worth the upgradeIt's quite rough to look atPOWERTRAIN/CHASSIS 2022 BMW M3 Competition (xDrive) Specifications 2022 Cadilac CT4 V Blackwing Specifications DRIVETRAIN LAYOUT Front-engine, AWD Front-engine, RWD ENGINE TYPE Turbo direct-injected DOHC 24-valve I-6, alum block/head Twin-turbo direct-injected DOHC 24-valve 60-degree V-6, alum block/heads DISPLACEMENT 2,993 cc/182.6 cu in 3,564 cc/217.5 cu in COMPRESSION RATIO 9.3:1 10.2:1 POWER (SAE NET) 503 hp @ 6,250 rpm 472 hp @ 5,750 rpm TORQUE (SAE NET) 479 lb-ft @ 2,750 rpm 445 lb-ft @ 3,500 rpm REDLINE 7,200 rpm 6,500 rpm WEIGHT TO POWER 7.8 lb/hp 8.2 lb/hp TRANSMISSION 8-speed automatic 10-speed automatic AXLE/FINAL-DRIVE RATIO 3.15:1/2.02:1 2.85:1/1.82:1 SUSPENSION, FRONT; REAR Struts, coil springs, adj shocks, anti-roll bar; multilink, coil springs, adj shocks, anti-roll bar Struts, coil springs, adj shocks, anti-roll bar; multilink, coil springs, adj shocks, anti-roll bar STEERING RATIO 15.0:1 11.6-15.5:1 TURNS LOCK-TO-LOCK 2.0 2.2 BRAKES, F; R 15.7-in vented, drilled, carbon-ceramic disc; 15.0-in vented, drilled, carbon-ceramic disc 15.0-in vented disc; 13.4-in vented disc WHEELS, F;R 9.5 x 19-in; 10.5 x 20-in, forged aluminum 9.0 x 18-in; 9.5 x 18-in cast aluminum TIRES, F;R 275/35R19 100Y; 285/30R20 99Y Michelin Pilot Sport 4S 255/35R18 94Y; 275/35R18 99Y Michelin Pilot Sport 4S DIMENSIONS WHEELBASE 112.5 in 109.3 TRACK, F/R 63.7/63.2 in 60.5/60.5 in LENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT 189.1 x 74.3 x 56.4 in 187.6 x 71.4 x 56.0 in TURNING CIRCLE 41.4 ft 38.8 ft CURB WEIGHT (DIST F/R) 3,899 lb (54/46%) 3,888 lb (53/47%) SEATING CAPACITY 5 5 HEADROOM, F/R 40.6/37.8 in 38.3/36.5 in LEGROOM, F/R 41.6/35.6 in 42.4/33.4 in SHOULDER ROOM, F/R 56.0/54.6 in 55.2/53.9 in CARGO VOLUME 13.0 cu ft 10.7 cu ft TEST DATA ACCELERATION TO MPH 0-30 1.0 sec 1.5 sec 0-40 1.7 2.2 0-50 2.3 3.0 0-60 3.0 4.0 0-70 3.8 5.1 0-80 4.8 6.4 0-90 5.9 7.7 0-100 7.2 9.4 PASSING, 45-65 MPH 1.5 1.9 QUARTER MILE 11.1 sec @ 124.7 mph 12.4 sec @ 114.0 mph BRAKING, 60-0 MPH 105 ft 106 ft LATERAL ACCELERATION 1.03 g (avg) 1.05 g (avg) MT FIGURE EIGHT 23.3 sec @ 0.89 g (avg) 23.8 sec @ 0.84 g (avg) TOP-GEAR REVS @ 60 MPH 1,500 rpm 1,500 rpm CONSUMER INFO BASE PRICE $77,895 $59,900 PRICE AS TESTED $108,545 $80,235 AIRBAGS 8: Dual front, front side, f/r curtain, front knee 8: Dual front, front side, f/r curtain, front knee BASIC WARRANTY 4 yrs/50,000 miles 4 yrs/50,000 miles POWERTRAIN WARRANTY 4 yrs/50,000 miles 6 yrs/70,000 miles ROADSIDE ASSISTANCE 4 yrs/Unlimited miles 6 yrs/70,000 miles FUEL CAPACITY 15.6 gal 17.4 gal EPA CITY/HWY/COMB ECON 16/22/18 mpg 16/24/19 mpg EPA RANGE (COMB) 281 miles 331 miles RECOMMENDED FUEL Unleaded premium Unleaded premium ON SALE Now Now Show All

lucid air Full OverviewProsAbsurdly quickHandles like a heavyweight sports carUnbeatable range ConsTakes forever to boot upProximity key is infuriatingSafety tech needs more workMaking an EV quick in a straight line is easy, so much so it's been one side of Tesla's calling card for a decade. Making an EV drive like sports cars has proven incredibly difficult, in no small part because batteries are so heavy. Various automakers with plenty of experience in sports cars have tried, and although they've made their cars go around a corner quickly, none has really captured the feeling of driving a world-class sports car. The 2022 Lucid Air Grand Touring Performance, though, has cracked the code.If you've read our First Drive story on this electric luxury sedan, you already have a feel for what we're talking about. You'll also know the back story: Lucid's director of chassis and vehicle dynamics, David Lickfold, personally retuned the Air's chassis for this Grand Tour Performance (GTP) model by benchmarking a last-generation Porsche 911 GT3 RS, one of the greatest sports cars on earth.Now we have the numbers to add to the equation.You already know the Air is quick, so we'll start with the handling stats. The Air GTP pulled 0.87 g on our skidpad, which is a shockingly low number compared to other high-performance EVs like the Tesla Model S Plaid and Porsche Taycan Turbo S, which both pull more than 1.00 g. Similarly, the Lucid's 24.8-second figure-eight lap at a 0.80-g average is a full second or more behind the other two.But How Does It Drive?It's moments like this we remind ourselves why we do what we do. Numbers don't always tell the story. It's why we created Best Driver's Car and Performance Vehicle of the Year. If you could tell which car drove the best purely via bench racing, we'd just publish charts and fire all the writers. You can't. This car proves it.Put the Air GTP on the same mountain road as the Model S and Taycan, and no unbiased driver will pick the Porsche or the Tesla. As good as they drive, the Taycan in particular, neither comes close to the Air GTP. The Tesla is roughly 450 pounds lighter than the Lucid, but the Lucid feels as if it ought to be the other way around. The nimbleness of this massive car, the response from the front end, and the feedback in the steering, all make it feel like a classic high-performance sport sedan, not a big heavy EV with sticky tires.It's really worth emphasizing here, because automakers have been trying to capture the sheer driving delight of a good sports car in an EV chassis and so far have come up at least a little short. There's a lot of weight for the suspension and brakes to deal with, not to mention the handoff between regenerative and mechanical braking. Putting huge amounts of power to the front axle in all-wheel-drive setups makes it harder to get the steering feel right, and the traction and stability control have a lot of work to do with this kind of power on hand.Lucid cracked the code. Even more so than Porsche. The Air GTP is the new handling benchmark for EVs. If they all drove like this, all the enthusiasts wringing their hands about the all-electric future would have to move the goalposts again. This is the EV we've been asking automakers to build.With 1,050 horsepower going to all four wheels, you'd be forgiven for thinking it might be a handful. We went easy on the accelerator in the early corners, just in case the software didn't have what it takes to cheat physics, but that was unnecessary. In a matter of seconds it was clear this car has the grip and poise to use every last electric pony. Get on the power hard and early exiting a corner, and the Air GTP sticks and goes. You can force the GTP to drift, but you have to be very deliberately trying.It'll Impress Your Friends at a Stoplight, for SureIt does the electric vehicle "super quick in a straight line" thing, too, of course. We clocked this 1,050-hp cruise missile at 2.7 seconds to 60 mph followed by a 10.0-second quarter-mile trap at 145.3 mph. That's a half-second quicker than the Porsche and 0.7 second slower than the Tesla, which is pretty impressive considering the Air GTP is the heaviest car of the bunch.More than winning bracket races and showing off to your friends, though, that accelerative acumen is life-altering on a mountain road. We've driven a lot of high-horsepower supercars on Angeles Crest Highway, and none of them has shortened the time between corners like this one. None of them has required us to back up our braking points as far as this one, and not just because it's heavy. The rate at which this car gains speed and the incredibly short distance needed to do it has you arriving at every corner much sooner and much faster than any other car we've driven. Critically, it doesn't slack off as you approach or exceed triple digits. It just keeps pulling like crazy up to at least 150 mph (where we ran out of test track, not power).Braking for those corners—always remember they arrive much sooner than expected—is another example of the numbers not telling the whole story. On the test track, the Air GTP needed 118 feet to stop from 60 mph. That's as much as 15 feet further than the other two EVs we've mentioned. When you're up the mountain hurtling at a hairpin, though, it has no problem stopping in time, and then doing it again at the next corner, and the next, and the next. What's more, the blend of regenerative and mechanical braking is an excellent recipe, allowing you to lift and activate the regen to slow the car slightly or just settle it, or to get on the brake pedal hard for the serious corners.Is It Also a Good Luxury Car?When it comes to the fundamental engineering of being a good car and a good sport sedan, Lucid has it nailed. The luxury side of things is well in hand, too. The materials are impeccable, the design inside and out is stunning, and the construction all around is superb.We've rattled on before about how much we like the interior of our 2022 Car of the Year, and we're going to do it again here. The front seats provide an excellent balance of comfort and support, and the massagers are no joke. The rear seat, meanwhile, is absolutely massive. Futuristic as all the big screens look, everyone's favorite trick is power-stowing the largest one up in the dash.It's Not Perfect, ThoughWhat's on those screens looks good, too, but the functionality leaves something to be desired. Whereas most cars' screens boot up in the time it takes to fasten your seat belt, the Lucid's need a solid 12 seconds just to come off the loading screen (a beautiful sunset landscape, it must be said). It's another 12 seconds before the car is actually ready to drive, and 10 more before everything is fully loaded on every screen. Thirty-four seconds doesn't sound like a lot, but when competitors are fully booted and ready to work in less than five seconds, it's an eternity.Lucid says an over-the-air (OTA) software update is coming that'll address the load speeds, but it wasn't part of the update we ran while we had the car. That one made a bunch of little background fixes we didn't notice. We couldn't help but notice, however, that the scheduled installation failed to start; after that, the manual installation failed to finish properly, leaving a massive warning on the instrument cluster that read, "Software update failed, vehicle may not be driveable" along with a customer service number to call. As it happens, the car was driveable, but we had no instruments because we couldn't clear the message. After following the customer service rep's instructions to, in essence, turn it off and turn it back on again, the message cleared and the car was fine. Apparently, the update was fully installed, after all.The software update also didn't fix some of the latency issues with the screens. Most of the time, response times to inputs were good, but sometimes it took several seconds for the screen to change. It was especially annoying when bringing up the navigation system, which apparently doesn't always load when you start the car but rather when you actually open that app. It even affected hard controls like the volume rocker switch on the steering wheel, which didn't always register a press and doesn't tell you when the volume is muted but still raises and lowers the volume bar on the screen.We had a similar issue with the video blind-spot monitors. Activating a turn signal brings up a video feed of the appropriate blind spot on the corresponding side of the instrument cluster. The cluster is mounted high enough to put the video near your line of sight, so no issue there. The problem, rather, is that we haven't seen lag like this since we played Counterstrike at LAN parties in 2005. There's no reason for video frame rate to be this bad in 2022.Latent LatencyIn fact, nearly all the issues we had with the Air GTP had to do with latency. The other was the keyless entry system. The best cars wake up and unlock as you're walking up to them, before you're close enough to reach the door handle. The Air GTP almost always required us to stand next to the driver door for several seconds before it realized we were there, and on occasion it didn't recognize our presence at all. At that point, pressing the center of the buttonless key fob is supposed to unlock the doors, but we couldn't get it to work. It just reaffirmed the car was locked, as if we'd only pressed it once (and that's after we finally figured out there was even a button in the fob to begin with by accidentally squeezing it too hard).Non-latency issues were limited to the driver safety aids. We love that automakers are incorporating advanced driver monitoring systems into cars with semi-autonomous driving features to make sure people are still watching the road, but Lucid's system is wildly overzealous. Maybe it just didn't like our sunglasses, but the system regularly warned us to keep our eyes on the road when we were looking straight out the windshield, and more often than not, it almost immediately escalated to a second, much more disruptive warning.We also took exception with the lane departure intervention. Although the overzealous warnings seem to have been reined in since the last time we drove an Air GTP, the way the system intervenes to keep the car in its lane needs work. When you drift too close to the lane line, it feels as if the steering wheel locks up to correct and get back to the middle of the lane; you have to wrest it free. We're fine with the system preventing you from steering farther out of your lane, but it shouldn't fight you when you try to steer back to the proper spot.The only non-software—and thus un-over-the-air-updateable—issue was the glass roof. Lucid says it's coated in all sorts of high-tech chemicals to keep out UV rays, but for a company that builds cars in Arizona, it feels like they didn't test much in the summer sun. When the thermometer approaches triple digits, you need a physical cover. Lucid could also offer a metal roof on this model like it does on the less expensive Airs. The glass roof and suspended sun visors sure do look cool, though.What About Range and Charging?We can't talk EVs without mentioning range and charging, and it's good news on that front. With an EPA-estimated range of 446 miles, it takes forever to run the battery down on this thing, even when you're driving it hard. Replicating a story we did with the Taycan, we took the Air GTP for a run from the beach up into the mountains and—starting with only an 80 percent charge—got there with more than 50 percent left. The Taycan, which started with a full battery, was down to 30 percent, and we drove it on a much cooler day so the battery-, motor-, and interior cooling systems had less work to do.Driving like a normal person, a 50 percent charge is still good for more than 200 miles of range. With a lot of EVs, you feel like you need to keep them at 70 percent or better all the time, just in case. This one you just don't worry about. Plug it in whenever. Only charge it to 50 percent at home so you spend less time tethered to the wall. And shoot, it charges pretty quick. On our 240-volt Level 2 wall charger, it pulls down 25 miles of range per hour, the charger's maximum. Our long-term Rivian R1T tops out at 13.7 miles of range per hour. Hit a high-speed 350-kW public charger, and the Air fills up crazy fast.Curiously, though, its reported efficiency doesn't match its promises. Lucid says it'll do 3.8 miles of driving per kilowatt-hour, but the best we saw cruising on the freeway was barely better than 3.0. Most of the time we drove it around town, it hung around 2.5. Our Rivian averages just over 2.0, and it's a truck. Our long-term 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV consistently did 3.4 miles per kilowatt-hour. It still took forever to run down the Lucid's battery, so we didn't mind this inconsistency as much.The Bottom LineThe Air GTP may not be perfect in every way, but it's so damn good at being an EV, a luxury car, and a sport sedan, we have no second thoughts about naming it our 2022 Car of the Year. Even more so than when we bestowed that title eight months ago, the GTP model sets the bar for all other EVs, from its already incredible range to its newly transcendent handling. If you're the chief EV engineer at a rival automaker, get your order in now and prepare your benchmarking and teardown teams. You all have work to do.Looks good! More details?2022 Lucid Air Grand Touring Performance Specifications BASE PRICE $180,650 PRICE AS TESTED $180,650 VEHICLE LAYOUT Front- and rear-motor, AWD, 5-pass, 4-door sedan MOTOR TYPE Permanent-magnet electric POWER (SAE NET) 1,050 hp TORQUE (SAE NET) 921 lb-ft TRANSMISSIONS 1-speed automatic CURB WEIGHT (F/R DIST) 5,256 lb (50/50%) WHEELBASE 116.5 in LENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT 195.9 x 76.2 x 55.4 in 0-60 MPH 2.7 sec QUARTER MILE 10.0 sec @ 145.3 mph BRAKING, 60-0 MPH 118 ft LATERAL ACCELERATION 0.87 g (avg) MT FIGURE EIGHT 24.8 sec @ 0.80 g (avg) EPA CITY/HWY/COMB FUEL ECON 109/110/109 mpg-e EPA RANGE, COMB 446 miles ON SALE Now Show All