MotorTrend March 2023

Pickup trucks, like everything else in the world of automobiles, are changing. Last year, during the 2022 MotorTrend Truck of the Year contest, we spent some time discussing what a truck even is—and we awarded an electric pickup the big prize. This year, the field of full-size contenders runs the gamut from traditional internal combustion trucks to cutting-edge hybrid and fully electric pickups. But no matter what’s under the hood or between the axles, we evaluate each truck according to our standard OTY criteria. The winner must do well in six categories: advancement in design, engineering excellence, efficiency, safety, value, and performance of intended function. We evaluate each truck on a punishing off-road dirt course, on the open road during extended street loops, and loaded for payload and towing tests up…

Words Billy Rehbock If you’re a Porsche fanatic—or visit the corners of the internet that celebrate oddball cars—you’re likely familiar with custom “Safari 911s.” Inspired by Porsche 911 rally cars of yesteryear, the term has come to embody builds that take a classic neunelf and add a lift kit, knobby off-road tires, a roll cage, a brush bar, and perhaps a spare tire on the roof. Thing is, none of those homages has been official. Until now. “We’ve got the same ideas, and we know what the fanbase wants,” 911 chassis development manager Achim Lamparter says. “It was just the next step.” So Stuttgart has joined the fun with a run of 2,500 911 Dakar models, the name nodding to the 1984 Paris–Dakar Rally, where Porsche claimed the podium’s top step. The Dakar…

Words Alisa Priddle Talk about your ugly duckling becoming a swan! The new Prius has undergone the kind of transformation often promised but rarely delivered, going from frumpy and really efficient to stunning and, well, still really efficient. And that last point is key. For as much as the looks might quicken hearts, it was critical that the new car be just as green as the old one. It’s actually even more so, delivering as much as 57 mpg combined against the previous car’s max of 52. Plus, it’s more powerful. The fifth-gen hybrid system pairs a larger 2.0-liter I-4 engine with a new lithium-ion battery that has 15 percent more output than the previous nickel-metal hydride unit. The pack is again located under the rear seats, but the new chemistry also helped…

Fabian Schossau puts his foot on the brake and presses a button on the dash. He keeps the steering wheel straight and holds down the right shift paddle. Then he lifts his foot off the brake, punches the gas … and suddenly, our G-Class is spinning in one spot as if a giant had skewered it to the ground and flicked a corner with a finger. The horizon is a blur of color and dust accompanied by the scrabble of rubber on rock and dirt. Meet the all-electric, four-motor Mercedes EQG. Schossau lifts off the accelerator, and the rig stops suddenly, having traveled not at all from its starting position. He admits he’s not sure whether the “G-Turn,” as G-Class engineers have dubbed it, has a practical application. But it has…

With more than 3 million Americans using a wheelchair full time, you’d think there would be more accessible SUVs on the market. Unfortunately, few vehicles besides minivans provide the maneuvering space needed for a wheelchair user to transfer to the driver’s seat, but BraunAbility has identified one: the Chevrolet Traverse. The Chevy requires extensive re-engineering: The unibody is cut in two so the floor can be lowered and flattened. The exhaust, wiring, and brake and fuel lines are rerouted and a cassette-style ramp installed under the right-rear door, which itself is modified, plug-style, to open away from and toward the rear of the vehicle. Through it all, BraunAbility was able to preserve the Traverse’s 5,000-pound towing capacity. Black body cladding extends below the rockers to help hide the changes in body height,…

There’s a guy in an Audi A6 driving 6 inches off my rear bumper. If he knew what this car cost—approximately 12 times what his did, new against new—he’d back off. To him, it’s just an old bucket, probably too slow to get out of its own way. No matter. He quickly learned what the 6.2 badge on its rump means as I suddenly disappeared into the distance. This is an Icon Derelict, a classic car meticulously reinvented from the ground up to look stock but outperform modern vehicles. Each Derelict—there have been 20 or so—follows a philosophy that could be called “subtle perfectionism,” and this one is perhaps its ultimate expression. It began life as a 1971 Mercedes-Benz 300 SEL 6.3, and you must look closely to tell what it has…