Land Rover Defender 110 on 2040-cars

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BMW tops Consumer Reports 2023 Brand Report Card

Feels like we wrote about Consumer Reports' 2022 Brand Report Car and 10 Top Picks a few weeks ago, but it was last April. So the mag is back with a ranked roster of 32 brands and 10 vehicles in four categories for your debating pleasure. Starting with the brands, last year's top three were Subaru, Mazda and BMW. This year, the Munich crew climbed two spots to win the prize thanks to "Superb road test scores and solid results in CR’s reliability and owner satisfaction surveys." Subaru narrowly fell to second, maintaining its four-year run in the top three. Mini, eighth last year, jumped five spots to get the last step on the podium. The rest of the top 10 were Lexus (up one spot from last year), Honda (down one spot from last year), Toyota (up three), Genesis (up 12), Mazda (down six), Audi (down three) and Kia (up eight). The magazine and testing outfit says its Brand Report Card "[reveals] which automakers are producing the most well-performing, safe, and reliable vehicles based on CRÂ’s independent testing and member surveys," and that "Brands that rise to the top tend to have the most consistent performance across their model lineups." Last year's top 10 had six automakers from Japan, three from Germany (giving Mini credit for England), none from the U.S. or South Korea, and five luxury brands. This year's list counts five makes from Japan, two from Germany because Porsche fell out of the top ten, two from South Korea, still none from the U.S., and four luxury brands. Buick again ranked as the best domestic, dropping to 12th after being 11th last year. The big mover was Lincoln, its 10-place jump up to 16th attributed to better reliability from the Corsair and Nautilus. Tesla's improved overall reliability saw it climb six spots to 17th. Dodge climbed one spot to 15th. Jeep got out of the penalty box in last to come second-to-last. Land Rover fell three places into the penalty spot.  CR's top 10 vehicle models The 10 Top Picks list is practically a new list. Only two holdovers made it to 2023, those being the Subaru Forester and Kia Telluride.

Pivi Pro Jaguar Land Rover Infotainment Review | A massive improvement

Infotainment systems in Jaguar Land Rover products have irked us for a long while. They’re generally a good step — or several — behind other luxury automakers' infotainment systems in terms of features and looks. But the big problem has always been their functionality. Even right out of the gate, they exhibited an undue amount of lag and general bugginess. Pivi Pro is supposed to change all of that. ItÂ’s JLRÂ’s completely new-from-the-ground-up infotainment system that is quickly spreading across the companyÂ’s range of products. It features a new screen size and layout. Plus, the software itÂ’s running is vastly different from what we saw previously. Our Byron Hurd got a first taste of it with a number of JLR products in a short period of time and found it to be a big improvement. Now, weÂ’ve had a new Land Rover Discovery in the garage for a longer period to fully suss out the system. Will it hold up? Watch the video above for a quick tour, and keep reading for some more detailed thoughts. Before diving in too deep, you should know off the top that Pivi Pro is a massive improvement over JLR infotainment systems of old. There are still some issues, but the new systemÂ’s performance is exponentially better than what itÂ’s replacing. This is partly thanks to it now running off its own backup battery. This allows the whole system to load immediately upon startup, ensuring that you arenÂ’t sitting and waiting for items to populate after you press the start button.  The new 11.4-inch screen this software plays on is splendid to both look at and touch. ItÂ’s a super-high-resolution panel, and it takes to our inputs quickly and without protest. The new UI layout makes things easier and prettier, too. All of your important items are tucked into a panel on the left, making them super easy to find and select. Plus, a sticky “home” button means you can always find your way out of menus when youÂ’re done diving around. We dig the three-panel home screen and its minimalist style, but for those who might favor maximum functionality over a pretty home screen, you can replace this with rows of app icons. For those wanting to use their phones, there is indeed an in-car WiFi data plan available to buy. Plus, JLR newly allows you to connect two devices via Bluetooth instead of just one. Both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are nicely integrated with this new system.

New Land Rover Defender aces Euro crash tests

While the 2020 Land Rover Defender has not yet been crash-test by U.S. safety agencies such as NHTSA or IIHS, we do now have results for Europe's NCAP crash tests and accident-avoidance tests, where the Defender earned the top rating of five stars. The Defender model used for NCAP testing was the 110 variant with right-hand drive. The NCAP regimen includes several different crash tests: an offset front crash test into a moveable barrier with both the vehicle and the barrier traveling at 50 km/hr (31 mph), a front crash test into a full-width fixed barrier at 50 km/hr (31 mph), a side-impact crash test with a barrier traveling at 60 km/hr (37 mph) hitting the driver's door, and a side-impact test where the car strikes a pole at 32 km/hr (20 mph). The Defender's scores for the adult occupant and for a child occupant were both 85%. Additionally, the agency looks at the severity of injuries of the vehicle striking a pedestrian, taking data for a pedestrian's head hitting the hood, and their upper and lower leg being hit by the front of the vehicle. There is also testing of the vehicle's automatic emergency braking system's ability to avoiding hitting a pedestrian and a cyclist under various scenarios. The efficacy of active-safety systems for avoiding collisions with other vehicles is also tested. The Defender's score for protecting pedestrians and cyclists was 71%. The driver assists scored 79%. Results for several European-market cars were released together with those for the Defender, the most noteworthy of which was for the Honda E. The electric city car fared less well than the big Land Rover, garnering a score of four stars overall. In the same battery of test, the Honda E scored 76% for adult occupant protection, 82% for a child occupant, 62% for protecting pedestrians and cyclists, and 65% for its driver assists. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.