Popular Mechanics - USA (2019-05)

43

BUICK REGAL

TOURX

WAGON OF THE YEAR

IF YOU WANT a 250-hp turbocharged German wagon with a killer all-wheel-drive sys-
tem, you could get an Audi A4 Allroad for close to $46,000. Or you could get a Regal
TourX—built in Germany at the Opel Rüsselsheim plant—for $29,995. It’s an incredible deal
on a great-looking car that stands apart from the crossover crowd.

PRICE

$29,995

POWER

250 hp, 295 lb-ft

of torque

AND SAFETY

A pyrotechnic

actuator lifts

the hood four

inches to cushion a

pedestrian impact

BOTH ARE NEW, but don’t look it. Phew.

You could say that the new Mercedes-Benz

G-Class and Porsche 911 are retro, but we think the word

retro only applies if something’s brought back from the

dead. The revived Volkswagen Beetle was retro. Ditto

the Dodge Challenger. But the G-Wagen and 911 never

went away. They’ve always looked basically the way they

do now. In the case of the G-Wagen, that’s a happy

accident—we think its designers got lost in the

Black Forest during an ill-conceived team-build-

ing exercise in 1988 and only recently emerged to

find that nothing at all had changed and their truck

was more popular than ever. So they overhauled the

MERCEDES-

BENZ G-CLASS &

PORSCHE 911

mechanical hardware (independent front suspension!)

while drawing an exterior that’s obviously new but still

obviously a G-Wagen, which is to say, styled with a raf-

ter square. At Porsche, meanwhile, you get the idea that

every degree of tumblehome, every millimeter of over-

hang, probably incurs at least a 15-hour company-wide

meeting and possibly fisticuffs. We mean, Porsche is still

getting grief for changing the shape of the headlights for

the 1999 model. So the new 911 looks like a 911. To the

uninitiated, it’s probably hard to distinguish the 2020

model from a 2010. But the people who know will know

instantly. There’s a new 911. And it’s definitely not retro.

REDESIGNS OF THE YEAR

TESLA MODEL 3

PERFORMANCE’S

RALLY SKILLS

It’s like it’s

possessed by

Petter Solberg.

All-wheel-drive

drifts for days.

OTHER

EXCITING

ADVANCES

2019 EDITION

THE NISSAN

KICKS’

ASYMMETRICAL

BOSE STEREO

Yea h , i t s o u n d s

best for the

driver. But

that’s how

you get a nice

system in an

inexpensive car.

MERCEDES-AMG

AND CIGARETTE

RACING

They keep col-

laborating on

boats. This

year’s, the 41'

AMG Carbon

Edition, is the

11th.