Car and Driver May 2022

STARTING IN I got a kick out of the January 2022 cover saying, “No need to write a letter. We count 11 as well.” As if the magazine needs more letters to the editor. Aren’t the letters the bread and butter of C/D these days? —Hans Groenewold Rio Rancho, NM The 10Best list is like the automotive baker’s dozen. Sure, they can’t count, but who doesn’t love an extra pastry? —Zach Lashley Denver, CO As I stood looking at the cover of your 10Best issue, I realized the blue color of the text almost matched the color of the water. With another two flushes, it lightened to be an exact match! Don’t cancel my subscription. —Bob Pentecost Boise, ID This issue provided a delightful experience. The descriptions of the 10Best cars made me feel as if I…

I have always felt that once you get your Mach-E, you take your Mach-E auto to Starbucks and get a macchiato [“Half-Full Fridge,” January 2022]. —John Calvert, Salinas, CA Swing and a miss—Ed. Since the Mach-E Mustang isn’t really a Mustang, maybe it should be called the Mock-y Mustang instead. —Jim Heldberg, Pacifica, CA Foul tip. Strike two—Ed. If Ford exports the new Mach-E to Italy, will it be called the Mach-E-Vellian? —Tim Geahan, Grand Rapids, MI Ball, outside—Ed. LETTER OF THE MONTH Any word on the de Sade package for the Mach-E? If you don’t find that hilarious, you can just cancel my subscription! —Eric Howell, Urbandale, IA Going, going, gone! And, the scale-model Acura NSX goes to Howell, for his painful wordplay—Ed. SIC YOUR DOGS ON US AT: EDITORS@CARANDDRIVER.COM PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL SIMARI…

Decades ago when C/D introduced “results tallies,” I sent you a letter to complain that you’d overwhelm a dozen objective elements with one massive subjective ranking, spoiling the outcome like a turd in a punchbowl. So seeing the Broncoversus-Wrangler tallies brings back memories [“Mud and Guts,” December 2021]. You cite “objective scores” on “features/amenities” with a score of 10 to 1. To call that anything but a big subjective swing vote is completely whacked unless, as my math professor once insisted, you can show your work. A tenfold order of magnitude on two very comparable trucks? Is it the Jeep’s manual transfer-case lever? Or its live front axle? Maybe your algorithm carried over from a minivan comparison? —Dean Pepperine, Ferrisburgh, VT We unfortunately aren’t going to show our work, because while you…

A move to Michigan is happening. But first, California’s gravity will tug on me, making escape difficult. The Golden State is seductive, and pulling away from its warm embrace isn’t easy. In addition to my adopted home’s sunny climate, I’ll lose the uplifting San Gabriel Mountains, the Pacific’s calming flat affect, and the joy of living 15 minutes from the Angeles Crest Highway. But it’s better to focus on things I won’t miss. Near the top of that list is having to smog my cars every two years. Over the past decade, California’s emission-testing requirements have served as guardrails keeping me from straying into automotive weirdness. Vehicles from eight years old all the way back to 1976 have to be tested, which can be too high a hurdle for cars built…

Increasing profits is the goal for Matt Windle, managing director of Group Lotus since January 2021. He’s presiding over an explosion of new products and a well-funded future made possible by the deep pockets of Geely. The Chinese giant has pumped more than $3 billion into the plucky but chronically underfunded British sports-car and racing marque. Lotus has said goodbye to standard-bearers—Elise, Exige, Evora—over the past few years and next plans to fire off new products, including its first SUV, like Steph Curry on a three-point tear. Launching as you read this, and due in America this fall, is the Emira, which the company calls its last gasoline-powered car. Coming “late in the second quarter, early third quarter,” according to Windle, is the oft-delayed Evija, a near-2000-hp electric hypercar with a…

There’s a group of features trickling down from luxury vehicles into more affordable fare. ADAS (advanced driver-assistance systems) is the collective term for technology designed to take over some part of driving duties with lane centering or follow-along capability combined with adaptive cruise control and automatic braking. All of this relies heavily on hyper-accurate highway mapping, radar guidance, stereoscopic cameras, other sensors, or a combination of these things to keep tabs on the road, surrounding traffic, and sometimes the driver. Currently, there’s no standard in place from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for how ADAS should notify drivers of its actions, but there should be. While some vehicles are clear about when software is taking over, others are subtle, with warnings flickering at the periphery. Without a common standard, systems…