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Consumer Reports no longer recommends Honda Civic

Consumer Reports annual Car Reliability Survey is out, and yes, there are some big surprises. First and foremost? The venerable publication no longer recommends the Honda Civic. In fact, aside from the walking-dead CR-Z and limited-release Clarity fuel-cell car, the Civic is the only Honda to miss out on CR's prestigious nod. At the opposite end there's a surprise as well – Toyota and Lexus remain the most reliable brands on the market, but Buick cracked the top three. That's up from seventh last year, and the first time for an American brand to stand on the Consumer Reports podium. Mazda's entire lineup earned Recommended checks as well. Consumer Reports dinged the Civic for its "infuriating" touch-screen radio, lack of driver lumbar adjustability, the limited selection of cars on dealer lots fitted with Honda's popular Sensing system, and the company's decision to offer LaneWatch instead of a full-tilt blind-spot monitoring system. Its score? A lowly 58. The Civic isn't the only surprise drop from CR's Recommended ranks. The Audi A3, Ford F-150, Subaru WRX/STI, and Volkswagen Jetta, GTI, and Passat all lost the Consumer Reports' checkmark. On the flipside, a number of popular vehicles graduated to the Recommended ranks, including the BMW X5, Chevrolet Camaro, Corvette, and Cruze, Hyundai Santa Fe, Porsche Macan, and Tesla Model S. Perhaps the biggest surprise is the hilariously recall-prone Ford Escape getting a Recommended check – considering the popularity of Ford's small crossover, this is likely a coup for the brand, as it puts the Escape on a level playing field with the Recommended Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V, and Nissan Rogue. While Ford is probably happy to see CR promote the Escape, the list wasn't as kind for every brand. For example, of the entire Fiat Chrysler Automobiles catalog, the ancient Chrysler 300 was the only car to score a check – there wasn't a single Dodge, Fiat, Jeep, Maserati, or Ram on the list. That hurts. FCA isn't alone at the low end, either. GMC, Jaguar Land Rover, Mini, and Mitsubishi don't have a vehicle on CR's list between them, while brands like Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Nissan, Lincoln, Infiniti, and Cadillac only have a few models each. You can check out Consumer Reports entire reliability roundup, even without a subscription, here.

2022 GMC Hummer EV dimensions, clearances and off-road features explained

There are two things that almost everyone immediately thinks of when they hear the word "Hummer." And they are size and off-road capability. Looking at the numbers on the 2022 GMC Hummer EV, it seems the electric pickup has literal truck loads of each. One of the most prodigious numbers is the truck's width. See those clearance marker lights on the roof? They aren't just there for style, they're required by law due its width. At 86.7 inches, it's just a bit wider than a Ford F-150 Raptor, which is itself 6.4 inches wider than a comparable F-150. The Hummer is also 5.5 inches wider than a GMC Sierra. Length is more reasonable at 216.8 inches, which is much less than a full-size crew cab pickup (a Sierra 1500 is 231.7 inches with its 5-foot-8-inch box or 241.2 with the 6-foot-6 one). It's even 3 inches less than the Raptor SuperCab and only 4.4 inches longer than a GMC Canyon with the standard 5-foot-2-inch box. In other words, the Hummer EV is roughly as long as a midsize pickup but is wider than a heavy-duty one.  What does that mean for the cabin? With 38.9 inches of rear legroom, it falls well short of a Sierra Crew Cab's 43.4, but it's important to remember that crew cab pickups have an overkill amount of limo-like legroom. The Hummer's amount is still 3.7 inches longer than a Sierra Double Cab and 3.1 inches longer than a Canyon Crew Cab. Headroom, which was rather pathetic in the old Hummer H2, is 38.6 inches in the back seat – less than both its GMC truck siblings, but not by much. In other words, there should be plenty of space back there. Note that GMC didn't indicate bed length, frunk volume, or importantly, curb weight. We will update this should we find out answers to any of those.  Although it's big, the Hummer has plenty of features to make it nimble off road, both traditional and high-tech. One of the primary features is the height-adjustable air suspension, which offers 13 inches of travel and automatically adjusts damping for driving conditions. It has three main levels, a lowered setting for Aero Mode that helps with improving highway energy use, a default height for the normal driving modes, and a higher setting for the off-road Terrain Mode.

2015 GMC Canyon

As discussed earlier today, the 2015 Chevrolet Colorado is a new standout in terms of midsize trucks. But the Colorado wasn't the only pickup the General Motors team brought to San Diego for us to sample. Also along for the ride was a pack of GMC Canyons, the slightly more expensive and polished platform-mate to the Chevy.
There's no question that the Canyon and the Colorado are a lot alike under the skin - almost entirely, in fact - so GMC has worked to first create some daylight between the two trucks by way of sheetmetal. This is most obvious from the front view, where the blocky and blingy GMC grille replaces the more subdued tone and shape seen on the Chevy's nose. Projector headlights with LED running lights come as standard, and, again, with the squared-off look that is typical of the brand. 16-inch aluminum wheels come stock on the GMC, too, with the 17-inchers seen on my photo truck offered as standard equipment on the top-trim SLT.
GMC considers the Canyon to be the only premium truck in the segment (which is clearly true), and the team has spent a ton of time and effort to get the interior correct to prove out that point. "Any trim that looks like metal, is metal," I was told at the product briefing, a certain indication that the company is serious about bringing a new class of buyer to a truck segment that it hopes to redefine.