Ford’s Cheap New Compact Pickup Could Have a Very Familiar Name

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9 Awesome Beach Cars You Can Buy for Less Than $15,000

Summer is almost here. The weather — at least, on certain days — is getting warmer. Hopefully, social distancing restrictions will soon lift enough to let Americans head to their cottages, lake houses and beach homes without upsetting the authorities (or risking social media opprobrium). For some families, that may raise a question: What do you drive when you’re out there?

After all, the vehicular requirements for such an adventure are quite different from everyday life. Mainly, you need a beach car: something to traverse sand and rutted beach roads, and to hold kids, dogs, and gear. Sure, that Mercedes-AMG GLE63 S could perform all those tasks, but it’s a bit too pricey and flashy for that low-key beach town life. And you may not want to leave your exquisite Land Rover Defender resto-mod exposed to that much salt.

In other words, you’re looking for a capable, not-too-expensive off-roader. You don’t want to spend a ton of money, but you also don’t want to entrust your family to a rusted-out rattletrap. Below are several fun, dependable beach cruisers we found on sale for $15,000 or less.

2000 Jeep Wrangler Sport – $14,850

This one-owner, manual transmission Wrangler has already been on beach duty for 20 years. In fact, it’s already on sale in the Hamptons. (Spanish speakers: check out the license plate.)

2000 Toyota 4Runner SR5 — $14,995

If there’s one car you don’t worry about having 140,000-plus miles, it’s a 4Runner. Here’s a third-gen with a five-speed manual.

2006 Lexus GX 470 – $13,495

Lexus luxury and Toyota build quality — how do you say no? This off-road beast has less than 90,000 miles — which, for a Lexus, is almost nothing.

2009 Chevrolet Suburban – $14,997

The Suburban is the everlasting three-row rig your family actually needs. This 2009 model has just over 80,000 miles.

2007 Toyota Tacoma – $13,995

This list would not be complete without a Taco. This manual double cab version still has at last 100,000 miles of life left.

2012 Ford Expedition XLT – $14,995

This Expedition with fewer than 75,000 miles will transport a large number of people to the beach. Plus, the camel-colored interior will stay relatively cool while you’re there.

2013 Nissan Xterra Pro-4x – $14,998

The Xterra was Nissan’s version of the 4Runner on a budget. Here’s a PRO-4x trim version with fewer than 80,000 miles.

1991 Toyota Land Cruiser – $13,987

The J80 Land Cruiser is one of the most respected off-roaders in the Land Cruiser lineage. This one is clean, green — and has a fair bit of life left.

2008 GMC Yukon – $14,995

This 2008 Yukon was from the era when GM was more into big headlights than big grilles. The odometer is still in the five figures.

Note: Purchasing products through our links may earn us a portion of the sale, which supports our editorial team’s mission. Learn more here.

The New Porsche 911 Turbo S Made Me Fall in Love All Over Again

This is Kind of Obsessed, a column about all the stuff our team is really, really into right now.

I’ll be the first to admit it: I’ve had a longtime crush on the Porsche 911 Turbo for as long as I’ve truly loved cars. One of the first car brochures I ever took home as a child was for the 911 lineup circa 1997; it was just as the last of the air-cooled versions segued into the runny-egg-eyed 996 generation, yet the cover boasted neither hero shot of all-new car nor outgoing icon, but rather, a closeup of the cursive font reading turbo on the pronounced flat-deck spoiler of a purple 993-gen 911 Turbo. I wore those pages as soft as the ones in a pastor’s bible, every trip into 911 land marked by first gazing upon on that holy word: turbo.

With the arrival of an all-new Porsche 911 comes yet another 911 Turbo — now four generations removed from that one whose badge I so often gazed upon. The 992-generation Porsche 911 is already larger, more powerful and more jam-packed with technology than ever before; for comparison, the basic 911 Carrera is nearly as powerful as the 911 Turbo of 2001, accelerates even harder, yet still manages to cost more than $10,000 even before you adjust for inflation.

But as anyone who’s ever heard the phrase “don’t meet your heroes” knows, nothing hurts quite like unmet expectations. And the plan for driving this new über-911 was probably not what Porsche originally planned. Social distancing guidelines having wreaked havoc on the original plans for an American first drive for the new Turbo S, but in a stroke of luck, that meant the carmaker instead sent out its European-spec cars to press fleets on both coasts for journalists to drive. In other words, I’d be getting to drive the new Turbo S not on the Zamboni-smooth asphalt of a track, but on my home turf. Any car can seem good under controlled circumstances, but how would this new Turbo withstand the crucible of New York’s wild streets?

You probably already figured this out by now, but I needn’t have worried. The 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo S is every bit as awesome — in the classic sense of the word — as its reputation would lead you to believe.

Admittedly, its spec sheet sets the bar high. Using, presumably, some combination of black-market Skunk Works technology and Hogwarts wizardry, Porsche’s engineers have managed to not only squeeze 640 horsepower and 590 pound-feet of torque from 3.8 liters of displacement, but to do so in a way that matches the carmaker’s renowned reputation for dependability and solidity. (In 2014, Road & Track took a then-new 911 Turbo to a runway to see if it could do 50 launch control sprints from 0 to 60 mph in a row. It did 61 before they had to stop because the test driver was feeling nauseous.) Doing so requires not only twin turbochargers, but direct fuel injection and an improved air intake system that sucks in fresh atmosphere through both the side scoops and the rear decklid.

To put that hard-earned power to maximum use, there’s only one option when it comes to putting it to the ground. An eight-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox offers near-instantaneous shifts, while all-wheel-drive and Porsche’s traction management system apportions it around as needed for max traction, while wheels as wide as 12 inches across help push it to gummy tires.

Carbon-ceramic brakes — a pricey option on lesser 911s — come standard, as does the Porsche Active Suspension Management setup that adjusts the shock absorbers 200 times every second. To bolster the new Turbo’s sporting credentials even further (apparently some people felt the old one wasn’t sporty enough) the 992 version also offers a PASM Sport suspension that lowers the car by four-tenths of an inch and makes it handle with even greater vigor. I could go on — Porsche’s own press presentation on the car runs 32 pages long — but reciting facts and stats defeats the purpose. This car is about the experience.

With all that technology, it’s astounding how natural and fluid the new 911 Turbo S feels from behind the wheel. The steering, the gas, the brakes — all the controls feel directly wired into your body. Making the car feel like an extension of your body has always been a Porsche trademark, but the fact that they can do it with a modern car so well when so many other noted carmakers have fallen flat on that front is nothing short of praise-worthy.

Still, that applies to other members of the Porsche lineup. Why go for this over, say, a Carrera, when the regular car is already so fast? Well, because this isn’t just fast, it’s mind-bendingly fast. No independent acceleration times for it have been posted yet, but a couple launch control hole shots were enough to tell my trusty keister-based accelerometer that this is every bit a car that can do the 0-to-60 dash in 2.5 seconds or less.

There are plenty of fast cars, but the acceleration in the 911 Turbo S will redefine your idea of quick. Floor it, and the speed jumps so fast, the world becomes less of a blur than a hyperspace tunnel. 640 horsepower can make any car fast, but in a car weighing comfortably less than two tons with all-wheel-drive powering four steamroller tires,

What makes the Turbo S so impressive isn’t just its total power; it’s how tractable the engine is as it makes it. There’s the faintest whiff of turbo lag below 2,500 rpm, but it disappears like it was controlled by a rheostat, not a light switch — evaporating like fog in the morning sun. From there, you can ride the lightning all the way to the 7,200 rpm end of the tach if you want. The punch from 3,000 rpm is grin-inducing; the punch towards the top of the rev range is otherworldly, spurring the car forwards like I’d hit the afterburners in every gear.

While I’m a manual transmission evangelist, it’s hard to imagine the Turbo S with any gearbox but dual-clutch box formally known as Porsche Doppelkupplung. I still stand that eight cogs is one too many for a sports car, but if it helps squeeze better highway mpg out of this thing, then I won’t fight it. (I saw around 23 mpg on one relaxed stretch of highway driving.) You can ignore the top two cogs when you’re using the metal widgets behind the wheel at 9 and 3 to paddle through the cogs — which you don’t need to do, given how clever the gearbox’s own brain is, but is worth doing anyway just for kicks. Top speed arrives in sixth gear, anyway.

Power isn’t everything, though. Porsche’s aren’t muscle cars; they need to handle every bit as well as they accelerate. I’m not sure who exactly it was who complained about the last 911 Turbo being too soft, but, well, god bless ‘em, because the PASM Sport suspension setup on my tester was dialed in as close to sports-car perfection as I’ve ever experienced. “Handles like it’s on rails” may be a grossly overused term, but this car makes the cliché valid again. You can take 45 mph-is-recommended turns at 90, and the car still won’t be near its limits. There’s no body roll, no angst from the tires, no sensation of anything but control at any speed you’ll reach on the street.

But unlike many super-capable cars, the Turbo S is still enjoyable to drive at low speeds, too, thanks to a dynamic steering setup that’s direct, quick, and offers as much feedback as you can expect from a car with electric power steering and a driveshaft going to the front axle. And somehow, in spite of being so resistant to roll and helpful in keeping the wheels glued to the ground, this Porsche still manages to mop up the bumps like a veteran janitor — smoothing over bad pavement so well, it makes many sedans seem like Conestoga wagons by comparison.

I say all this this having spent 36 hours with the 911 Turbo S Cabriolet instead of the Turbo S coupe, which I’d consider far closer to the Platonic ideal of a 911. Opting for a Turbo cabriolet feels like drinking Pappy on the rocks: sure, it may be more refreshing, but it’s not as refined, doesn’t look nearly as cool, and doesn’t feel nearly as satisfying.

Yet once you’re behind the wheel, it’s hard to be anything but impressed with the Cabriolet — in those rare moments you stop to think about the fact that you’re driving a convertible. With the top closed, the cabrio seems as quiet as a hardtop car; top down, you barely notice the wind flowing by, so aerodynamically optimized is the car. I didn’t realize until two days later that I hadn’t needed to shout to have a conversation at highway speed with the top down; indeed, I hadn’t even noticeably raised my voice. Plus, the top rises or lowers in 12 seconds flat, all the way up to 30 mph.

On top of all that, as with the McLaren 720S Spider, there’s something to be said for the added thrill of a car this powerful that lets you feel the speed in the visceral way a convertible does. Dropping the top pushes you out of the bubble of security that new cars provide; even if they’re as safe as any other modern ride, the sights and sounds and smells of convertible driving dump adrenaline into your blood in a way coupes can’t match. (Still, the degradation of the 911’s iconic looks brought by the soft top means I’d still opt for a coupe with a sunroof instead.)

And while comfort has long been part of the 911’s mission brief, it’s amazing how livable this 640-hp budget supercar is. There’s plenty of room for tall people, and even the optional Sport Plus seats are still comfortable after hours in the saddle. The nose only scraped once, and that was on a steep hill with a dip. The back seats are too small for humans, but they’d work fine for a cat carrier or small dog — or better yet, a couple large backpacks or roll-aboard bags. And the frunk is surprisingly deep; with the right kind of soft bags, you could easily carry a road trip’s worth of luggage in this car. Two USB ports prove a delightful perk, as is wireless Apple CarPlay. There’s even two handy door pockets per door. on top of the

And the 992’s insides, thankfully, are much better than the one in the latest Porsche Panamera that pioneered the company’s current interior design theme. There’s no Star Trek-impersonating haptic glass buttons; they’re real ones, as well as very pleasurable-to-use toggle switches, and a satisfying rotary dial for the drive modes. Of course, you can also fiddle with many features using the 10.2-inch widescreen touchscreen, too.

There are a couple little bugaboos. The satisfying shift lever of old is gone, replaced with a space-saving…protuberance. Still, it works just fine, giving you an easy way to bump the car from Drive to Reverse or vice-versa with a single nudge. (Volvo, take a page from this.) The button for manual mode, though, is a little too well-hidden at the bottom of the shifter area, making it hard to grab quickly when you’re hustling through some twisties and want to take full control. And the new cupholder is rather worthless for anything larger than a 12-oz soda can; it’s too high for taller vessels, too narrow for thicker ones and too shallow for heavier (or more top-heavy) ones.

Still, the fact that these are the biggest complaints I had after several hundred miles of driving is fairly indicative: there’s not much to dislike here. The Porsche 911 Turbo S may not be the wildest car on the road; it may not offer the best bang for your buck; it may not the most exotic or even the fastest car you can buy. But it does everything well, and trades away so little for it. It offers roller-coaster thrills and road tripper comfort, all forged with some of the best engineering the car world has to offer and wrapped up in one of the prettiest shapes in auto-dom. I’d love it no matter what it was called…but I love it even more because the back ends says “turbo.”

Price as Tested: $236,120
Drivetrain: 3.8-liter twin-turbocharged flat-six, eight-speed dual-clutch automatic, all-wheel-drive
Power: 640 hp, 590 pound-feet of torque
Fuel Economy: Not yet rated
Seats: Two, with room for two dogs in back

Porsche provided this product for review.

Note: Purchasing products through our links may earn us a portion of the sale, which supports our editorial team’s mission. Learn more here.

Here’s the Perfect Low-Mileage Used Mazda Miata. Now Go Buy It

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This New Tesla-Fighting Electric Car Is Cheaper Than Expected. Here’s Why That Matters

In the world of electric cars, Tesla remains the 800-pound gorilla — but its silverback status is about to be challenged by a whole host of other carmakers. New companies like Rivian and Bollinger are poised to take it on from the startup side, while existing automotive goliaths like Ford, General Motors and the VW Group are in the process of spooling up their war machines to crank out dozens of new varieties of electric vehicles in the next few years

Perhaps one of the most interesting competitors, though, is Polestar. Volvo’s spinoff division marks the rare occurrence of an existing car company whipping up an entirely new brand solely for EVs, and it seems poised to take Elon Musk’s car business on directly with a tit-for-tat vehicle strategy. Tesla launched with the Roadster, a sexy proof-of-concept halo car based off an existing design; Polestar launched with the 1, a sexy proof-of-concept car based off an existing design. Tesla followed that up with the Model S, an all-new, all-electric luxury sedan; Polestar is about to launch its second car, the 2, which is — you guessed it — an all-new, all-electric luxury sedan.

Yet in price and size, the Polestar 2 is closer to a Model 3 competitor than a vehicle to take on Tesla’s range-topping four-door. It’s a smart move; after all, as Tesla’s own figures have shown, there are far more sales to be found there, and if the intent is to establish Polestar as a mainstream EV maker, sales are exactly what it needs. And that’s why Polestar’s announcement of U.S. pricing for the Polestar 2 shows it’s all about making smart moves.

While the Polestar 2 was originally expected to come in somewhere in the low-to-mid-$60K range, the carmaker announced on April 23rd that its base price would actually be $59,900. That’s important, because it allows the car to limbo under the $60,000 price cap that states like New York and California apply to electric vehicle incentives; if an EV’s base price is over that mark, it’s not eligible. Limboing the price in at that point means the Polestar 2 will be eligible for up to $9,500 in combined federal and state tax breaks, depending on where buyers live. (Tesla, of course, is no longer eligible for the federal $7,500 tax credit, having sold too many cars.)

Polestar also announced the pricing for the 2’s options — some of which sound far more entertaining than others. The $5,000 Performance Pack, which adds a sporty Ohlins suspension, Brembo brakes and a new wheel-and-tire package, will probably take a bit off the Polestar 2’s claimed 275-mile range, but it should make up for it in fun by enabling drivers to make the most of the all-wheel-drive sedan’s 408 hp and 487 lb-ft of torque. The $4,000 Nappa Leather Interior sounds nice, but not essential. You don’t need the $1,200 20-inch wheels because, well, you presumably already got the Performance Pack, but you probably will want to budget $1,200 for a paint color other than black.

Note: Purchasing products through our links may earn us a portion of the sale, which supports our editorial team’s mission. Learn more here.

The 2020 Subaru Outback Touring XT Is an Icon Improved

This story is part of our Summer Preview, a collection of features, guides and reviews to help you navigate warmer months ahead.

Brand: Subaru
Product: Outback Touring XT
Release Date: Summer 2019
Price (as Tested): $40,705
From: subaru.com

It may look familiar, but the latest edition of the Subaru Outback –the lifted all-wheel-drive wagon that pioneered the crossover concept 25 years ago — is practically all-new. Of course, making it look so familiar was a very intentional decision on Subaru’s part; after all, the Outback has been the heart and soul of the brand for those two and a half decades, as well as one of the profit engines driving the company forward. Indeed, all the brand’s best-selling vehicles in the U.S. — the Forester, Ascent and Crosstrek — all ape the same basic formula that the Outback developed: a two-box wagon that drives like a car while offering the off-road prowess of an SUV. 

Indeed, much of the car industry as a whole has come around to see the value in the Outback method. Every compact and midsize family crossover owes a debt to the Subaru…which effectively means that every other car sold in America today does. It’s why we named the new Outback the most influential car of last year’s New York Auto Show; its evolutionary design shows just how relevant and timeless the ideas it presents are.

Of course, it is still just a car. So to find out how it handles the real world, we took it out for a week-long spin around New York to see how it handles urban life, rural back roads, highway miles and even the occasional bit of dirt work.

What We Like

Many vehicles try to combine the best of car and SUV, but few succeed on the level of the Outback, which packs as much space and off-road capability as many sport-utes without the fuel-economy pain. Granted, going for the more potent turbocharged flat-four found in the XT model takes a bit of that advantage away, but even its 30 mpg on the highway betters plenty of SUVs. 32.5 cubic feet of cargo space lies behind the second row of seats; if that’s not enough, which is sure to be a rare occurrence, you can flop the back bench down and create 75.7 cubic feet of room. 

Much like the mechanically-all-but-identical Legacy, the top-shelf Touring’s interior is cushier than many cars costing twice as much, with soft leather and plush thrones for the front two occupants. Some of the most powerful seat heaters in the industry sit at their command, as well, with a heated wheel for the driver to boot. (The rear outboard occupants get heated seats, as well.) And the iPad-sized vertical touchscreen is a delightful high-tech accent that not only solves Subaru’s biggest recent problem, but ties the interior together much like The Dude’s rug did his living room. 

And while we didn’t have a chance to do any real off-roading, we can say that the Outback handles dirt, gravel and other poor terrain with the confidence — nay, aplomb — you’d expect from the brand’s advertisements.

Watch Out For

If you consider Subies playful driver’s cars, the Outback’s dynamics are bound to disappoint. It drives more like a Buick than a rally-ready WRX, bobbing and rolling into curves in a way that feels downright lazy. Even with the bigger turbocharged engine of the XT version, it’s hardly fast; adequate would be perhaps the best descriptor for the acceleration, but the fact that it’s paired to a CVT that’s quick to find the tallest gear ratio it can and reluctant to kick down minus a heavy boot means accessing the power takes more work than it should. (Luckily, you can take manual control using the paddle shifters to cycle through fixed ratios as though it were a conventional transmission, which we highly recommend doing.)

And while Subaru’s commitment to safety is applause-worthy, the overprotective active safety features intervene with the buzz-killing sternness of an Austrian nanny. The automatic rear braking setup makes backing into tight parallel parking spots nearly impossible, as it jams on the brakes with panic force even when you’re traveling at sub-speedometer speed and have a foot or more space to spare; likewise, the driver monitoring system squawks when you so much as raise a hand to scratch your scalp and block its view of your eyes for a moment. If you take any pride in your driving, you’ll probably want to disable as many of the active safety functions as possible; trouble is, you’ll have to dive deep into the infotainment menus for many of them.

Oh, speaking of those nannies: this car really, really does not like to oversteer. Attempts to kick the tail out in the dirt for a photo shoot were met with nasty, occasionally-frightening plowing towards the cameraman. We tried using the AWD’s X-Mode to distribute the power more evenly towards the back axle, but it turns out that it kicks off at 18 mph — which does you no good when your wheels are spinning fast enough to think they’re going 30.

Not pictured: me successfully doing donuts.

Other Options

Buick’s Regal TourX remains, for now, the closest direct rival to the Outback’s upper trims, basically copying Subaru’s idea and applying it to a European-designed midsize wagon. Compact crossovers like the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4 threaten the Outback from the more-traditional crossover ranks, while the Forester presents an intramural challenge.

Verdict

If the Outback’s car-like profile and heritage had you hoping it would be more fun to drive than your average SUV, well, we’re sorry to disappoint. Anyone seeking driving joy from their all-wheel-drive soft-roader is better off looking elsewhere, like the Mazda CX-5. If that’s not your overriding priority, though, the latest Outback is hard to beat — on safety, versatility or capability.

And don’t feel like you need to drop $40K for all this goodness, either. If you’ve resigned yourself to not going fast and can live without leather seats, the well-equipped naturally-aspirated Outback Premium can be yours for less than $30,000. Which, in turn, leaves you enough money for a used Miata for those times you need some zoom in your life.

Subaru provided this product for review.

A version of this story originally appeared in a print issue of Gear Patrol Magazine. Subscribe today.

Note: Purchasing products through our links may earn us a portion of the sale, which supports our editorial team’s mission. Learn more here.

One of the Future Vehicles We Were Most Excited About Has Been Canceled (And You Can Guess Why)

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These 10 Cars Took the Biggest Sales Hits from Coronavirus

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