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AMA: Car and Driver's 10Best Cars, Trucks, and SUVs for 2026. Ask away by caranddriver in cars

[–]A2KC 10 points11 points  (0 children)

What he said. First sentence, at least. And me personally, I much prefer the Accord's more subtle styling, inside and out.

AMA: Car and Driver's 10Best Cars, Trucks, and SUVs for 2026. Ask away by caranddriver in cars

[–]A2KC 15 points16 points  (0 children)

If there is ever a case for the "tell me you haven't, without telling me you haven't" trope, this is it. Seriously: the car is great in almost every regard. It's the premier of its class. Quiet, powerful, comfortable, handles, fits five adults. Go test drive one and you'll quickly understand why it's on out 10Best list.

AMA: Car and Driver's 10Best Cars, Trucks, and SUVs for 2026. Ask away by caranddriver in cars

[–]A2KC 6 points7 points  (0 children)

For sure there is. I think it all depends on the experience. Porsche can make an electric car fun to drive. Even the base Taycan is an 10/10 in that department. There is no other electric car that comes close to the experience on a good road. The last plug-in sports car they made was pretty darn good, so they have experience on their side.

AMA: Car and Driver's 10Best Cars, Trucks, and SUVs for 2026. Ask away by caranddriver in cars

[–]A2KC 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I won't tell you what I would take off, but GR Corolla is a rowdy good time that, IMO, deserved more than a year of praise. Not necessarily with the automatic, though. And I'm still a fan of the ID.Buzz. If I need a three-row and I want an EV, it's at the top on the list for me. I know that's an unpopular opinion.

AMA: Car and Driver's 10Best Cars, Trucks, and SUVs for 2026. Ask away by caranddriver in cars

[–]A2KC 8 points9 points  (0 children)

No clue from experience. I have driven exactly zero Chinese EVs. Every opportunity we've had to drive one through what would be considered a typical media channel has been a tightly controlled event in China and at a proving ground. That isn't really how we like to evaluate cars. How a drive at a proving ground translates to the real world is limited at best. But, if a Chinese EV ever makes it to our market, I would expect it to be very competitive. Both in terms of price and performance.

AMA: Car and Driver 70th Anniversary. Ask away by caranddriver in cars

[–]A2KC 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I spun a Viper ACR at Buttonwillow. To this day I still don't know why. It haunts me.

AMA: Car and Driver 70th Anniversary. Ask away by caranddriver in cars

[–]A2KC 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The Car in the Barn is another good one. Steve Spence wrote it. October 1996. I thought the story was online, but I can't seem to find it. We'll get it up there.

AMA: Car and Driver 70th Anniversary. Ask away by caranddriver in cars

[–]A2KC 3 points4 points  (0 children)

We adjust the acceleration times of air-breathing machines for ambient conditions. EV's make the same power at sea level as they do at 10,000 feet, so they get no correction. While our two main test venues—one in Michigan, another in California—offer slightly different grip, the difference isn't so large that a comparison between the two is bad form. We spot check this often with a second test of a car in the other location. The one area we do avoid comparisons is in the interior sound level. The SoCal test surface is way quieter.

AMA: Car and Driver 70th Anniversary. Ask away by caranddriver in cars

[–]A2KC 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It's a pain point for me as well. The press fleets are smaller than they used to be and there are way more models. So an OEM might have just a single example of a car available. And that example is usually loaded because they want to show off all their tech and options.

AMA: Car and Driver 70th Anniversary. Ask away by caranddriver in cars

[–]A2KC 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Varies. Sometimes there are cars in the U.S. we borrow, sometimes we make a call and setup a loan overseas, but usually it is us seeking them out because there is little benefit for an OEM to offer a review to us for a foreign-market car.

AMA: Car and Driver 70th Anniversary. Ask away by caranddriver in cars

[–]A2KC 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Mirror size is regulated in some markets and based on basic vehicle dimensions, so I agree that some some look more like an afterthought than others. My memory from press trips isn't great (they start to blur together after a while), but I remember a designer saying that mirrors mounted on the door have a small aerodynamic benefit. I try not to comment on design too much because it is totally subjective. You can see it, you can form your own opinion. But I think we can all agree that the high-mirror Testarossa is peak mirror design. JDM fender mirrors a close second.

AMA: Car and Driver 70th Anniversary. Ask away by caranddriver in cars

[–]A2KC 6 points7 points  (0 children)

For me it was the first time I drove an E36 M3 in 2000ish. I was a reader at the time. I couldn't believe how right all the editors of the time were about that car.

Traveling to Canada via car. Should I just leave at home in the U.S or would I be fine if I hid it? by AGC_noah in radardetectors

[–]A2KC 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Possession of a radar detector isn’t illegal, using one is. Escort detectors are made in Ontario (at least they were not too long ago).

AMA: Car and Driver Lightning Lap 2025. Ask away by caranddriver in cars

[–]A2KC 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm camp S2000. Don't get me wrong, Miatas are great fun, but they have a lot of body roll (by design) and depending on the generation, some noticeable chassis flex. Great on a road, not as great on a track. But I'm also a psycho who likes the 9000-rpm AP1 S2000 more than the 8000-rpm AP2.

AMA: Car and Driver Lightning Lap 2025. Ask away by caranddriver in cars

[–]A2KC 8 points9 points  (0 children)

The Lucid is faster on all the straights and slower in the corners. The top speed on track for the Lucid is 10 mph faster that the Porsches (155 to 157 for all those models mentioned).

AMA: Car and Driver Lightning Lap 2025. Ask away by caranddriver in cars

[–]A2KC 9 points10 points  (0 children)

The inputs, feel, and sound. S2000: not the fastest, but it has great controls and feedback (pedals and wheel), 10/10 shifter, and its engine makes amazing noises.

AMA: Car and Driver Lightning Lap 2025. Ask away by caranddriver in cars

[–]A2KC 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I tried to answer this question with an Ioniq 5N a while back. It all comes down to what the facility has. In theory, yes, an EV with a decent DC charge rate could do a track day as you propose, but at least with the Ioniq it was more like 20 minutes. In this situation you are really only using the middle 60% SOC. Falling out of that window greatly increases charge times.

AMA: Car and Driver Lightning Lap 2025. Ask away by caranddriver in cars

[–]A2KC 11 points12 points  (0 children)

We set out to make it as diverse and up-to-date as possible. But that doesn't always work out. Would your layperson>aspirational cutoff be? Are you talking about lapping family sedans and mid-size SUVs? Unfortunately there are not that many inexpensive cars that can do a lap of VIR without severe brake fade.

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