The 2026 Hyundai IONIQ 9 is not trying to be exciting. It is trying to be excellent. Those are different goals, and for most buyers in this segment, excellence is the more useful one. This is a three-row electric SUV designed to carry families comfortably, keep them connected, keep them charged, and ideally ask nothing difficult of them along the way. It does all of that pretty well. It also has a rear end that my twelve-year-old had more precise opinions about than most automotive journalists. More on that shortly.

2026 Hyundai IONIQ 9: Overview

The IONIQ 9 lineup spans six trims across three powertrain configurations, all sharing the same 110.3-kWh battery. The range is wide enough that the entry-level and top-of-range versions feel like genuinely different vehicles.

S RWD — $58,955.
The entry point and the efficiency champion. A single rear motor producing 215 horsepower and 258 lb-ft of torque. EPA-estimated 335 miles of range, 92 MPGe combined. Seven-passenger seating with a second-row bench. Standard equipment includes wireless CarPlay and Android Auto, heated front seats, and the full suite of Hyundai driver assistance technology. For buyers who prioritize range over performance and don’t need AWD, this is the rational choice and is very well equipped for the money.

SE AWD — $62,455.
The first AWD model adds a front motor, delivering a total of 303 horsepower and 446 lb-ft of combined torque. Range drops slightly to 320 miles (88 MPGe). Adds a power passenger seat, but is otherwise similar to the S in equipment.

SEL AWD — $66,955.
Steps up with a larger 12.3-inch touchscreen, a surround-view camera, second-row heated seats, ventilated front seats, a power-folding third row, and blind-spot monitoring. Still, 303 horsepower and 320 miles of range are solid. It’s the trim level where the IONIQ 9 starts to feel like a very well-equipped premium family vehicle.

Performance Limited AWD — $70,955.
The powertrain steps up significantly here: 422 horsepower, 516 lb-ft of torque. The range drops to 311 miles as the performance motors draw more power from the battery. Adds a head-up display, a premium audio system, and relaxation seating in the second row. The first trim to offer the captain’s chair second-row configuration for six-passenger seating.

Performance Calligraphy AWD — $74,990 base, $77,335 as-tested.
The car we are driving is the second-from-top in the lineup. Shares the 422-horsepower Performance powertrain with the Limited. Adds Nappa leather seating, a Digital Side Mirror system, a larger panoramic roof, rear-seat infotainment displays, and the sliding center console that is one of this review’s highlights. Standard H-Tex faux suede headliner, relaxation seats in the second row, a 14.5-inch central touchscreen with a 12.3-inch passenger display. Our test car in Cyber Gray adds $1,345 in options over base for a total of $77,335.

Performance Calligraphy Design AWD — $76,490.
The range-topper adds a distinctive exterior design package: unique 22-inch wheels, a panoramic rear spoiler, exclusive exterior color options, and additional interior finishing touches. It gets the same Performance AWD powertrain.

At over $77K, this is real money, but it buys a lot of Hyundai. Annual fuel cost is estimated at around $1,000, which the window sticker cheerfully points out saves you $3,500 over five years compared to the average new vehicle. It is also a CARB-certified zero-emission vehicle, built in Ellabell, Georgia, a detail I always like to point out to people who assume every EV comes from some other place. Ain’t no way that thing come from Georgia!

2026 Hyundai IONIQ 9 AWD Performance Calligraphy: Inside & Out

The IONIQ 9’s design is…polarizing. The front is sleek and clean. The profile is long and substantial, appropriate for a vehicle with a 123.2-inch wheelbase. Then you get to the rear, where the roofline drops in a dramatic taper that is either dynamic or unfortunate, depending on who you ask.

My youngest, who is twelve and maybe on his way to a career in automotive design, offered the most precise critique I heard all week: if the rear didn’t slope down so much, trying to be a coupe or something it’s not, it would look better. A straighter roofline would also mean more cargo space. These are the observations delivered with the confidence of someone who has never had to worry about being wrong in public, and he is not wrong.

The IONIQ 9 reminds me of some Volvo designs from over the years. That is not an insult. There is Scandinavian restraint in the overall shape. Whether the coupe-drop rear is a hit or a misstep is an ongoing conversation in our house. One thing we are not calling it: a minivan. It does not have sliding doors. This distinction matters to some people more than it should, and it is worth making explicit. There are options over at Kia if you want one.

The cabin is genuinely spacious in a way that pics do not fully capture. The big-ole wheelbase is doing real work here, translating into legroom across all three rows that feels more like a proper lounge than a people-hauler. The overall sense of the interior is that someone thought carefully about how families actually use a vehicle over the course of a day, a week, or a road trip.

The centerpiece of the cabin is the sliding center console. In its retracted position, it creates an open pass-through between the front seats, sized well enough for a bag or a small cooler. For road trips, this is immediately useful. There is a lever to move it forward and back, meaning second-row passengers can pull it toward them to access whatever is inside. This is the kind of feature that sounds obvious in retrospect and that nobody else has done quite this cleanly. The center area also functions well as an impromptu fast-food tray when the situation calls for it. It does not have to call for it very hard for me sometimes.

The wireless charging pad may be the best I have tested recently in a press car. It is positioned immediately next to the driver, is easy to reach, and has small rubber nubs on the surface that hold the phone in place under cornering. The nubs actually echo the square pattern on the steering wheel, which is a delightful design detail. The phone stays put. It charges. These two things happening reliably and simultaneously remain rarer than they should be.

The curved touchscreen is a panoramic display, more akin to a gaming monitor than to the flat tablet bolted to most dashboards. The buttons along the dash are not entirely physical but touch-sensitive, and they produce a satisfying blue light reaction when pressed. Real physical buttons for the major functions flank the hazard light button at the center, which is where they should be.

The automatic HVAC system has three speed settings for when you do not want full fan blast, which is a thoughtful concession. Even on the lowest setting, the fan still moves a meaningful amount of air. This may be a calibration choice rather than a flaw, but it is worth noting for buyers sensitive to airflow.

Behind the third row you get just shy of 22 cubic feet, enough for a couple of real suitcases rather than the emergency-grocery-run space some three rows pretend counts as cargo capacity. Fold the third row, and that grows to about 47 cubic feet, and drop the second row too, and you’re looking at nearly 87 cubic feet, more than you’d get in an Explorer, Pathfinder, or Highlander Hybrid.

People space is just as generous: Hyundai claims class-leading second-row legroom over the Model X and R1S, and even the third row gets a genuinely usable 32 inches of legroom, which is more than the stablemate Hyundai Palisade offers. The tradeoff, and it is a real one, is that the cargo floor sits noticeably high off the ground thanks to the battery pack underneath, so loading anything heavy means a lift rather than a slide.

2026 Hyundai IONIQ 9 AWD Performance Calligraphy: Driving and Usability

With 420 horsepower and 516 lb-ft of torque routed through AWD, the IONIQ 9 is quicker than you would expect it to be. It does not feel like a performance vehicle in daily driving, but when you ask it to go, it goes with the immediate, seamless surge that AWD electric powertrains deliver better than almost anything else currently available. The speed is there. It just arrives without ceremony.

The paddle shifters have been repurposed to control the intensity of regenerative braking. Pulling the left paddle all the way down engages maximum regeneration, the equivalent of one-pedal driving. The paddle shift settings are mostly remembered between drives. The exception is the maximum regenerative braking setting, which must be reselected each time you start driving. This is a minor daily friction, but one you notice every time.

The drive modes actively adjust the estimated range display, which is genuinely useful. Switching to Sport mode and watching the range number update to reflect the new consumption rate gives you an honest picture of the trade-off you are making. This is how range estimates should work, and it removes the guesswork from mode selection.

The startup sequence deserves its own paragraph. When you approach the car and open the door, the seat and steering wheel move in unison to their preset positions. When you settle in and pull the door closed, they move back as one. It is theatrical. It is completely unnecessary. It feels like boarding a small, well-mannered spacecraft. I enjoyed it every single time.

The gear selector sits on the steering column stalk, which also controls park, reverse, neutral, and drive, and includes the start button. It is an unusual layout that requires a day or so to internalize. It worked well, except when I turned the wheel so far that it completely blocked the level when parked.

A few other usability notes. The rear hatch release button is not obviously positioned, which my daughter discovered firsthand. The door handles retract flush when not in use, which is aerodynamically efficient but can be a problem in tight parking situations. I had to pop mine back in at least once to avoid a pole in a tight parking space. A collision warning also activated on an empty road early one morning. No traffic, nothing approaching, nothing changing. This remains the experience across multiple press cars, and I will continue to document it. An alert that triggers on an empty road does not assist the driver. It is startling the driver.

Oh, and I tried to charge it, but I never came across a Tesla/NACS charger that was convenient.

The Bottom Line

Electric vehicles do not have a soul in the mechanical sense. There is no combustion, no exhaust note, no gear change, no connection between your foot and an engine that sounds like it is working. The IONIQ 9 does not try to simulate anything it is not. It is a family hauler, and it is a very good one.

If you are comfortable with EV life, the IONIQ 9 makes a compelling case for itself at $77,335 as-tested. The interior is genuinely well-designed. The charging speed is class-leading. The range is solid for the size. The sliding console is a feature you will miss in every other vehicle you drive afterward.

The rear end design is a compromise. The lowest fan setting still moves a buttload of air. The maximum regen mode requires reselection on every start. These are manageable complaints on a vehicle that otherwise does everything a family of five needs, quietly, quickly, and without asking for much in return.

One parting shot from my wife, delivered as the car was being returned: “The ugly Volvo-looking Hyundai is leaving.”

Specs at a Glance

2026 Hyundai IONIQ 9 AWD Performance Calligraphy

The 2027 Ford Bronco Filson was revealed in June, and Ford has been touring it around the country this summer for exactly this purpose: getting journalists and enthusiasts close enough to touch it and form opinions before orders open in the fall. I attended the Washington, DC, stop thanks to the Washington Auto Press Association and came away with a few thoughts. The short version: the ambition is real, the execution is pretty solid, and whether the target customer actually exists in the numbers Ford needs is the interesting question.

What It Is

The Bronco Filson is not a special edition. Ford is positioning it as a permanent trim in the Bronco lineup, sitting above the Outer Banks and Badlands. It’s not inexpensive, targeted to start in the mid-$70,000 range when orders open this fall, with vehicles arriving at dealers in early 2027.

Under the hood is the 3.0-liter EcoBoost V6 from the Bronco Raptor, producing 418 horsepower. The Sasquatch Off-Road Package and Fox shocks are standard. It is a four-door-only proposition. There is a First Edition for North America, finished in an exclusive shade called Iron Sands Copper Metallic with a serialized console badge. The Filson collaboration includes a limited-edition apparel collection already available at Filson stores and online.

Filson, for context, has been making outdoor gear since 1897. They have supplied the U.S. Forest Service, outfitted hunters and prospectors, and built a reputation for making good stuff that lasts long enough to become someone else’s problem. Ford and Filson actually collaborated in 2020 on a Wildland Fire Rig concept, so this is not a cynical pairing of a car brand with whatever heritage label was available. There is a genuine shared customer here, somewhere.

I’ll admit the Filson store that hosted the event had some great stuff. My colleague and good friend Patrick Min did a “The Price Is Right” guess on the Bronco Filson hoodie at $120. He was so wrong. Based on TPIR rules, he lost!

It was $119.

First Impressions

The interior is the main event, and the Bronco Filson’s cabin makes a reasonably convincing case for itself. Double stitching, decent materials, a level of finish that reads as intentional rather than assembled from the options catalog. Filson’s signature tin cloth appears throughout, which is a nice touch. The seats feel fine, not exceptional but good, and appropriate for a vehicle that will spend time in places where the seat is the last thing you think about.

The details are where the collaboration works well. There is a small pouch on the back of the seat that looks exactly like a miniature Filson messenger bag, which is either charming or a bit much depending on how seriously you take this kind of thing. More Filson bags are strapped to the rear pillars as well. Whether you want your car’s interior to communicate the vibe is a personal question. I thought it looked pretty good.

Here, check it out for yourself.

The $70,000 Question

Back to Ford’s stated ambition to pull buyers from Land Rover and Mercedes. These are vehicles that start north of $100,000 and climb steeply from there. A Bronco Filson at mid-$70,000 is, on paper, a meaningful undercut. And yet. The buyer who is cross-shopping a G-Wagon is not primarily making a rational decision about off-road capability. They are making a statement, and the statement costs what it costs. A Bronco, however excellent, however Filson-branded, is still a Bronco. This is not a criticism of the Bronco. It is an observation about how premium badge purchases work.

The more realistic scenario, as I see it, is that the Bronco Filson becomes the thing that wealthy people buy as their outdoor vehicle, their ranch truck, their weekend machine, parked next to things that cost considerably more. The ninth car, not the primary one. That is still a viable business for Ford, and I’m sure there are customers who will appreciate what the Bronco Filson delivers.

Orders open in fall 2026. The Bronco Filson Tour continues through the summer. If you are curious, go see it in person.

2027 Ford Bronco Filson
Targeted Starting MSRP: Mid-$70,000s | Engine: 3.0L EcoBoost V6 | Output: 418 hp | Standard: Sasquatch Package, Fox Shocks | Body: 4-door only | Orders: Fall 2026 | On Sale: Early 2027 | Assembly: Michigan Assembly Plant, Wayne, MI

2026 Lexus IS 350: Overview

The 2026 IS lineup has been significantly simplified. The four-cylinder IS 300 is gone. The V8-powered IS 500 is gone. What remains is a focused, V6-only lineup in three configurations, all sharing the same 311-horsepower naturally aspirated 3.5-liter engine. In a segment where everyone else has moved to turbocharged four-cylinders chasing efficiency numbers, the IS 350 is the holdout, still doing things the old way.

IS 350 F Sport Design: $45,500.
The entry point, and honestly, the smart buy for most people. Standard equipment is substantial: NuLuxe upholstery, heated front seats, dual-zone climate control, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, the full Lexus Safety System+ 3.0 suite, and adaptive cruise control. Rear-wheel drive is standard, while AWD adds $2,000.

IS 350 F Sport — $47,950 base, $57,188 as-tested.
The car we are driving here. Steps up with heated and ventilated sport seats with driver memory, an F Sport leather-trimmed heated steering wheel, aluminum pedals, thematic ambient lighting, and access to the optional F Sport Handling Package. That package on our test car ($1,090) adds adaptive variable suspension, a Torsen limited-slip rear differential, and Sport S and Sport S+ drive modes with custom settings. Additional options on our sticker include 19-inch black BBS forged alloy wheels ($2,450), Mark Levinson Premium Audio ($1,120), triple beam LED headlights ($1,250), a panoramic moonroof ($1,100), and the Technology Package with front cross traffic alert, lane change assist, and traffic jam assist ($620). Total: $57,188.

IS 350 F Sport Special Appearance Package — limited production.
Three hundred and fifty units for North America, finished exclusively in Hakugin Matte White. Potentially a collector’s piece rather than a daily driver recommendation. If you are reading this and one is still available at your dealer, it’s probably got a pretty wild markup.

So, the better part of $60,000. Let’s see if it’s worth it.

2026 Lexus IS 350 F SPORT: Inside & Out

The IS 350 still looks good. This is genuinely surprising given that the design dates back to 2014 and has been refreshed rather than replaced. The spindle grille is…confident (much improved over the years), the proportions are right for a compact sport sedan, and in Wind paint, it looks good.

The 2026 refresh brings revised front-end styling and triple-beam LED headlights, which help the front efnd feel a bit more current even if the underlying architecture is not. The 19-inch BBS forged alloys on our test car are excellent. BBS is one of the few wheel brands where the name on the spokes actually means something.

Red interior. Not for everyone. Very much for someone. If you are that someone, you know it the moment you see it through the window, and you will order exactly this way.

However, the interior is where thirteen years on the same platform starts to show. The interior is starting to feel its age. The infotainment interface, even with the 2026 revisions, lacks the freshness of a BMW 3 Series or a Genesis G70. The screen size is respectable, the 12.3-inch display does what it needs to do, and CarPlay takes over cleanly once it connects. On the first attempt, it did not actually connect. On the second attempt, it did. Not a crisis, just a note. Didn’t have any issues after that.

And now, the things the IS does genuinely well. The sport seats on this F Sport trim are deeply bolstered, heated and ventilated, and shaped in a way that makes long drives considerably more comfortable than the Supra’s cabin I spent the previous week in. The heated steering wheel, leather-trimmed and F Sport-specific, is excellent. The HVAC controls are physical buttons styled to match the vents on either side of the dashboard. Cooling seat activation is a single button press. No menu required. My wife noticed this immediately and approved. Good marks for the IS.

There is a volume roller rather than a knob, which works fine. Immediately next to it is a large, round drive mode button. They are close enough together that reaching for the volume roller and accidentally pressing the mode button can happen. The IS is otherwise a car that rewards familiarity, and this is probably one of those rough edges that rounds off after a few weeks of ownership. The wireless charging pad works consistently and sits in a location that is genuinely easy to reach. Better than the Supra from last week by a significant margin. The phone does not slide around. It simply charges. This is all anyone asks.

Ergonomically, the shifter sits at exactly the right height and angle, perfectly aligned with the armrest, and angled slightly toward the driver’s hand. Every time I touched it, I thought the same thing: this would make a tremendous location for a manual shifter. Of course, the IS 350 is not available with a manual. This is a shame. I owned an IS 300 manual, and it was fun. Thus, I will continue to bring it up until someone at Lexus reads car reviews on Hooniverse. The windows roll up and down very quickly. This is a trivial observation. I am including it because it is the kind of thing that, in a new car, signals that details matter to the people who built it, and it is the kind of thing you notice every time you open and close it.

Going from two seats to four doors after a week in the Supra is one of those transitions that reminds you why you actually own the cars you own rather than the ones you dream about owning. Putting a bag in the back seat, rather than trying to toss it onto a passenger seat or negotiate with a 2+2 shelf, is a quiet but consistent daily pleasure. The IS has a decently sized boot, 10.8 cubic feet, which is modestly sized for the class but entirely functional.

2026 Lexus IS 350 F SPORT: On the Road

The IS 350 F Sport is not fast. Let’s establish that clearly and without embarrassment. With 311 horsepower from a naturally aspirated V6 in a car that weighs around 3,700 pounds in RWD configuration, it results in a 0-60 time somewhere around 5.6 seconds, which in 2026 puts it squarely in the territory of mildly quick rather than properly quick. The BMW 330, the Genesis G70, and the Cadillac CT4 all convey a better sense of urgency.

The upside is that it puts on a good show with its 311 horsepower. Putting it in Sport S mode makes the IS louder. Genuinely, perceptibly louder, not the theatrical speaker-augmented exhaust note that a surprising number of sport modes deploy these days. Sport S+ makes it louder still, and at that point the naturally aspirated 3.5-liter V6 sounds, it must be said, genuinely excellent. Whether it sounds better than the Supra is a close call. It might. The Supra has BMW’s B58 inline-six, which is a tremendous engine. The Lexus has a naturally aspirated V6 that has been refined for over a decade and knows exactly what it is. I suppose they are different pleasures.

Sport S+ mode also activates a horizontal tachometer bar across the top of the driver display. It is a small thing, a purely cosmetic feature that communicates nothing that the main display does not already show. It reminded me immediately of the Honda S2000’s high-revving display. It is completely unnecessary, and I liked it every single time it appeared.

The Handling Package’s adaptive variable suspension is the other reason to opt for the F Sport trim. Normal mode is compliant and comfortable, notably better over speed bumps than the Supra was. Sport S mode firms things up in a way that feels taut rather than punishing. Sport S+ is not quite track-oriented, but it is noticeable on public roads. The Torsen rear differential helps plant the power cleanly out of corners, and the rear-wheel drive balance is fundamentally more entertaining than the AWD version’s safer composure.

On the safety front, I had no false alarms from the driver-assistance systems to report this week, which is a relief after the Supra’s memorable highway incident. The IS 350’s Lexus Safety System+ 3.0 operated quietly and correctly throughout the test. This is the baseline expectation, and it is worth mentioning when it is actually met.

Summary

The 2026 Lexus IS 350 F Sport, as tested at $57,188, is a thirteen-year-old platform wearing its age honestly. It is slower than its competitors. Its interior is less current. Its infotainment is not best-in-class. It also sounds spectacular in Sport S+. It rides comfortably in Normal. It has physical HVAC buttons, a wireless charger that actually works, a shifter positioned as though it were waiting for a manual transmission, and a solid naturally aspirated V6.

At the end of the week, I found myself thinking about something. Maybe I do not actually need a massive amount of power to be happy. That is a strange thought for someone who has owned forty-four cars. But perhaps what I actually need is something that sounds good, looks good, goes pretty well, and is relatively comfortable to live with. Something with four doors and somewhere to put a bag, perhaps a child. Maybe that is why they sell so many Chargers, Challengers, and Durangos. They never had the best handling, the best interior, or the freshest platform either. They just have character, and character turns out to go a long way.

The IS 350 has character. When the exit interview is this enjoyable, you start to regret that the position is being eliminated.

2026 Lexus IS 350 F Sport
Base MSRP: $47,950 | As-Tested: $57,188 | Engine: 3.5L Naturally Aspirated V6 | Output: 311 hp / 280 lb-ft | Transmission: 8-speed automatic | Drivetrain: RWD | 0-60: ~5.6 sec | Fuel Economy: 19/27/22 mpg (city/hwy/combined) | Cargo: 10.8 cu ft | Assembly: Tahara, Aichi, Japan

Unlike the original DC2R, this one is not lighter than its pedestrian version. It’s actually heavier by about 70 pounds. But that weight buys a lot of good: a 320-horsepower engine, wider tracks, huge Brembo brakes, adaptive dampers, and a center exit triple-tipped exhaust that lets us enjoy the silence of old age or scream like we’re seventeen again.

The Insides

Pop the hood and you will find a small turbo mounted directly to a cylinder head with an integrated exhaust manifold. This is designed to reduce boost lag and let the turbo spool instantly. Honda ditched the beloved old-school two-stage VTEC crossover of the B18C noise for continuously variable valve timing; it works better, if less dramatically. You get a flat torque curve that pulls right from idle. They even threw in a BMW-style dual-mass flywheel to make the engine feel shockingly civilized. This also means that there are many opportunities to ruin it with cheap aftermarket parts.

Inside, the six-speed shifter remains a masterclass in mechanical precision. It is the best shifter on the market. Acura mercifully kept three physical knobs for climate control, a revolutionary concept in 2026. They also ditched the rear middle seat, turning the back row into a two-person lounge wrapped in hard leather. Out on the road, the dual-axis front suspension works pure dark magic to prevent the front tires from wrestling the steering wheel out of your hands every time the tach clears 5000rpm.

The Drive

Throw it into a corner and… it will turn. Really, it will just grip and grip until you power out, tipping your hat to a proper mechanical limited-slip differential. Between the magic of this front-end geometry and the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires, the cornering limits of this Teggy vastly surpass my skills and cajones.

Is it faster off the line than a generic electric blob with four wheels?

Absolutely not. But if you care about human connection, three pedals, and mechanical feedback, this thing delivers in spades. Check out the video above of me yapping about this amazing car for fifteen minutes. If your left knee can still handle a clutch pedal in bumper-to-bumper traffic, Acura built this masterpiece just for you.

Specs:

Engine: 2.0L Turbocharged Inline-4
Power: 320 hp @ 6500 RPM
Torque: 310 lb-ft @ 2600-4000 RPM
Transmission: 6-speed manual with Helical LSD
Drivetrain: Front-wheel drive
Weight: 3219 lbs
Length: 186.0 inches
Width: 74.8 inches
Height: 55.4 inches
Wheelbase: 107.7 inches
Track (Front/Rear): 64.0 / 63.5 inches
Wheels: 19 x 9.5 inches
Tires: 265/30ZR19 Michelin Pilot Sport 4S
Brakes (Front): 13.8-inch ventilated discs with 4-piston Brembo calipers
Brakes (Rear): 12.0-inch solid discs
Cargo Space: 24.3 cu ft
Fuel Tank: 12.4 gal
EPA MPG: 21 City / 28 Highway / 24 Combined

Above this sits the Scat Pack with its high-output 550-horsepower setup. The R/T makes 420 horsepower and 468 lb-ft of torque, pushing 22 pounds of boost. Dodge claims 0 to 60 mph in 4.6 seconds and a 12.9-second quarter-mile. For an entry-level powertrain in a full-size vehicle, it hauls.

The background on the vehicle’s development is obvious: Dodge engineered an EV platform, realized market demand shifted, and adapted the architecture to accommodate a twin-turbo gasoline engine. The result is a massive vehicle, 80 inches wide and nearly as long as a full-size pickup. Despite the footprint, it drives remarkably well, and there is surprisingly little to complain about.

Power goes to an all-wheel-drive system. Dodge claims the front axle disconnects, but on the R/T, you cannot select rear-wheel drive manually; the car manages the distribution automatically based on drive modes.

The active exhaust features two volume levels. It barks at cold start and sounds strong under load, but there is no manual quiet mode. If you are trying to slide out of a driveway unnoticed early in the morning, the cold start will alert the entire neighborhood. Plan accordingly.

Does it need a V8?

No, but also yes. Fundamentally, a so-call muscle car should have a V8. But the inline-six provides more than enough power. This thing feels fast and the power delivery is almost instant. Whether someone at Dodge can package a 6.4-liter engine into this bay remains to be seen.

Dodge went with a liftback design for this vehicle. Because the platform was designed around EV battery packs, the trunk floor sits high. While the interior space expands with the rear seats folded down, the shallow floor limits vertical cargo height.

Inside, driver visibility to both displays over the squared-off steering wheel is clear. The cabin retains physical knobs for volume and tuning, alongside hard climate controls. The fixed panoramic glass roof lacks a mechanical shade, but heat rejection is adequate. The infotainment system is responsive, though the unit in this test vehicle froze twice over four days. The frameless doors are very cool though the rear side windows do not roll all the way down into the doors.

Ultimately, the Charger R/T Plus is a pleasant surprise. It preserves the classic American muscle car presence, delivers serious straight-line speed, great ride and handling, and provides a distinct drive in a market that has largely abandoned big cars.

After the 2026 model year, the GR Supra is done. This is it. There are only 1300 units for the US market in the MkV Final Edition spec, and then the curtain comes down on a nameplate that has meant something to a lot of people for a very long time. Let’s see what’s what on this finale.

2026 Toyota GR Supra: Overview

The 2026 GR Supra lineup is three trims, one engine, and your choice of transmission.

GR Supra 3.0 — $56,900.
The entry point. It’s got 382 horsepower from the BMW B58 3.0-liter turbocharged inline-six, with an eight-speed automatic standard and a six-speed manual available at no additional cost. Standard features include adaptive variable suspension, an electronically controlled rear differential, Brembo brakes, and a ten-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay. For most people who want a Supra and are not concerned about collecting the final chapter version, this is the rational choice.

GR Supra 3.0 Premium — $62,510.
Adds red Brembo brake calipers with the Supra logo, a head-up display, launch control, a 12-speaker JBL audio system, heated and ventilated front seats, and a wireless charger. The Premium is likely the model to get. If you run out of budget before the MkV Final Edition, start here.

GR Supra MkV Final Edition — $68,550 base, $73,300 as-tested.
The car we’re driving here is a tribute to the last Supra you will be able to buy new. For now. Hardware upgrades over the Premium are real, not cosmetic: larger 14.7-inch front Brembo rotors (up from 13.7 inches), revised suspension bushings, additional underbody bracing, retuned adaptive dampers, retuned electronically controlled rear differential, more camber at all corners, and revised power steering calibration. The chassis is genuinely sharper than the standard car. Exterior treatments include matte-black 19-inch forged wheels, a gloss-carbon-fiber ducktail spoiler, and carbon-fiber mirror housings. Inside: GR-embroidered headrests, red seatbelts, red stitching, Alcantara on the driver seat with the GR logo, and a MkV Final Edition numbered plaque. A GR car cover comes standard, because of course it does.

The GT4 Style Pack on our test car adds $2,995 and has the Undercover matte paint, Toyota Gazoo Racing red-painted carbon fiber mirror caps, GT4 exterior graphics, and a wind-buffeting kit. It also has the Driver Assistance Package ($1,195) for a grand total of $73,300.

One note worth making: there is a more hardcore Final Edition that Toyota built for Europe and Japan. That version gets 429 horsepower, KW suspension, a swan-neck rear wing, GT4-sourced subframe components, and skeletonized carbon seats. American buyers are not getting that car. Still, this one seems pretty good. Let’s check it out.

2026 Toyota GR Supra MkV Final Edition: Inside & Out

Most matte black cars look like primer. This one looks intentional, finished, like the color was chosen with care rather than applied as an afterthought. The GT4 graphics running down the sill and lower body strike me as a bit…much for my personal taste. I felt a little like a yobbo in it, to borrow a term I have been picking up from too many Top Gear reruns. Do I feel comfortable in a Supra? Yes, absolutely. In a Supra with extra “GR” livery and red mirror caps? Not so much. At almost 50, it looks like I’m trying too hard. Your results may vary.

The carbon fiber ducktail spoiler is one of my favorite exterior details. It looks great and ties the matte black aesthetic together with the gloss carbon contrast in a way that works. The matte black 19-inch forged wheels complete the look, though something brighter might be more interesting.

The proportions of the GR Supra remain a point of ongoing discussion among enthusiasts, and I will not settle that debate here. What I will say is that, in person and in this color, the car stops traffic. Not metaphorically, I had people doing solid double-takes and a couple of photos taken. They may have posted “look at the yobbo old guy in the sports car.”

This is where the practicality conversation begins, and the answer to “is it practical” is: it depends on what you consider practical. First, trim specific stuff. There is an Alcantara driver seat, a GR logo stitched into the headrest, red seatbelts, and red stitching throughout. These details are not subtle, and they are not trying to be.

Storage is minimal. There are two cupholders positioned slightly behind the driver, a small cubby behind that, and the wireless charging area. That is essentially the full and complete list of places to put things in the front of this car. If you are accustomed to a crossover’s cubbies, door pockets, and center console systems, the Supra’s cabin will feel like a studio apartment after a house. You just have to bring less.

The wireless charging pad fits a current large-format phone, but only just. After a day or so of watching it smoosh my iPhone 17 Max into the charging area, I stopped using it and started using the cupholder as a phone holder instead. Less elegant, completely functional. CarPlay connected immediately on the first pairing. Returning to CarPlay after the car starts requires navigating a few button presses rather than launching automatically. Three or four inputs are not a crisis, but they could create a daily friction that the car should handle on its own.

Physical HVAC buttons. A volume knob. These are good decisions, easy to reach on the center stack, accessible without menu navigation. After several weeks of reviewing press cars with touch-sensitive buttons and sliders, I want to be clear: buttons are correct. The Supra has buttons. The main touchscreen is on the smaller side by current standards, but it does everything it needs to do without feeling cramped. The driver display clearly shows your current gear in manual mode, which matters when you are driving quickly.

You get 10.2 cubic feet of storage. Good news, though, the hockey bag fits! With the cargo cover removed, my youngest’s hockey bag went in. I was very clear that failure was not an option, because if it did not fit, he was going to have it in his lap for the ride home. Top Gear has documented worse fates. The bag fit. This is now canon. I also got BBQ supplies pretty easily on a trip to the grocery store.

2026 Toyota GR Supra MkV Final Edition: Driving and Usability

The part everyone already knows, and that still needs to be said: 382 horsepower through the rear wheels with a six-speed manual is excellent. The B58 engine, which BMW has been developing and refining for years across multiple platforms, is one of the best inline-sixes currently in production by anyone. It sounds great. It pulls hard. Fun.

The rev-matched downshifts on the manual are the best I have encountered in a press car. Rev-matching on automatics is common and often fairly well done. Rev-matching on a manual transmission, where the system has to read your inputs and blip the throttle on downshift without making you feel like it is doing the driving for you, is genuinely harder to get right. Toyota (OK, BMW) got it right. Each downshift blip is immediate, accurate, and satisfying in a way that makes you want to find a reason to downshift again. The engine sound on that blip is particularly good, as are the little burbles on the overrun. Quite fun.

The Sport mode on the adaptive suspension allows individual setting adjustments, which is how you do it. I ran softer suspension with sportier throttle response and steering weight. The car lets me do that rather than bundling everything into one preset. The ride quality is good, but not exceptional. The Final Edition’s revised suspension tuning finds a workable daily-driving balance, but this is a sports car, and it rides like one. On smooth roads, it is composed and satisfying. On rough urban surfaces, it communicates imperfections. Not unpleasant, just honest.

Stoplight visibility is limited when you are very close to the signal. The low roofline and high door sills mean that the light directly above and in front of you disappears from your sightline. You learn to position accordingly. It is a minor adjustment that sports car drivers have been making for decades, but worth mentioning for buyers coming from higher-seating vehicles.

Speaking of moisture, the driver assistance systems are not available in heavy rain. I know, because the car told me this while I was in heavy rain, which is when I would most want them available and when an unexpected alert is least welcome. I understand the technical constraints. The notification still arrives as a distraction rather than reassurance.

I’ll close this section with this. Everyone in a remotely quick car wants to race you. I assume that happens in regular Supras, but even more in matte black with GR on the side. It’s flattering, if annoying. Buyer beware.

Wait, one more usability item. There has been a lot written about the wonky wind noise coming from the mirrors on previous Supras. This one needs a bit of a warning about water intrusion: with any moisture on the windows, whether from rain, wiper fluid, or morning condensation, water finds its way inside when the window is open. On a morning with heavy dew, I got moving, rolled the window down briefly, and subsequently had water dripping onto my left arm for the next several minutes. The window also produces an audible creak when closed in wet weather. This a bit unideal on a $73,000 car, and it is worth knowing before you take delivery in a wet climate.

Summary

This is the last one. For now.

After this, Toyota has confirmed the Supra nameplate is going away, at least in this form. The next generation, when and if it comes, is expected to be Toyota going it alone without BMW’s involvement. The working assumption is a turbocharged four-cylinder hybrid system. Whether it carries the Supra name, whether it delivers anything close to this car’s character, whether it comes with a manual transmission option, all of that is speculation.

What is not speculation is the car that exists right now. The GR Supra MkV Final Edition in Undercover with the GT4 pack and the six-speed manual is a specific, limited, cool thing. It is quick and precise, it makes the right sounds, and it will fit a hockey bag if you remove the cargo cover. The water leak issue is annoying. The interior space is genuinely minimal. CarPlay takes too many button presses to reconnect.

Would I buy one? Not in this spec, if I am being honest. The Undercover matte and the GT4 livery are a look that requires a certain kind of vibe to drive daily. I am more of a manual Stratosphere blue person, personally.

But the car underneath the graphics and the matte paint? Yes. Without question. The GR Supra MkV Final Edition is a remarkable machine and a genuinely sad goodbye. I hope whatever comes next remembers what this one was, and what the four generations that preceeded it were about.

2026 Toyota GR Supra MkV Final Edition
As-Tested MSRP: $73,300 | Engine: 3.0L Twin-Turbo Inline-6 (BMW B58) | Output: 382 hp / 368 lb-ft | Transmission: 6-speed manual | Drivetrain: RWD | 0-60: 4.2 sec (manual) | Fuel Economy: 19/26/21 mpg (city/hwy/combined) | US Production: 900 units total | Color: Undercover (GT4 Style Pack exclusive)

2026 Mazda CX-5: Overview

The 2026 CX-5 lineup runs five trims on a single powertrain. Every version uses the same 2.5-liter SKYACTIV-G four-cylinder producing 187 horsepower and 186 lb-ft of torque, paired to a six-speed automatic and standard i-ACTIV AWD. The trim decision is entirely about comfort, convenience features, and material quality. Here is the map:

2.5 S — $29,990.
The entry point is genuinely strong. Standard AWD, a 12.9-inch touchscreen with Google built-in, the complete i-ACTIVSENSE safety suite, dual-zone climate control, and cloth seating. For buyers who want the CX-5 experience at the lowest possible price, this is the place to start. The powertrain and driving dynamics are identical across all five trims, so you aren’t giving up anything meaningful under the hood.

2.5 S Select — $31,990.
The first meaningful step up. Adds wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a wireless charger, leatherette seating, a six-way power-adjustable driver seat, and proximity keyless entry. For most buyers, this is where the daily-use feature list becomes complete. Edmunds calls it the best value in the lineup, and the argument is hard to argue with.

2.5 S Preferred — $34,250.
Adds heated front seats, a heated steering wheel, a windshield wiper de-icer, a power liftgate, a head-up display, and 19-inch wheels. The right choice for cold-climate buyers and anyone who does not want to think about whether they have enough features.

2.5 S Premium — $36,900.
Upgrades to a 15.6-inch touchscreen, ventilated front seats, a Bose 12-speaker audio system, and a panoramic moonroof. The interior materials step up meaningfully here. This is where the CX-5 starts feeling like a near-luxury product.

2.5 S Premium Plus — $38,990 base, $41,088 as-tested.
The range-topper and the car we are driving here. Adds a 360-degree surround-view camera, a driver-attention monitoring system, rear-seat climate vents, and navigation to the Premium’s already comprehensive feature list. Our Polymetal Gray Metallic example adds a $1,098 appearance package and the destination charge, bringing the total to $41,088. At this price, the CX-5 competes in the lower end of the premium segment, and the conversation is closer than the badge gap suggests.

Let’s get into some details on how we got on with the CX-5 over the course of the week.

2026 Mazda CX-5: Inside & Out

Here is an honest admission: I forgot what I was driving at one point when I came back to it in a parking garage. Not because the CX-5 is unattractive. It is genuinely handsome. But the third-generation redesign, which Mazda has presented as a meaningful evolution, looks from most angles like a refined continuation of what came before. The silhouette is familiar. The proportions are familiar. The face is cleaner and more resolved, the details are sharper, but the overall statement is iterative rather than transformative.

That is not necessarily a bad thing, the previous CX-5’s design has aged well precisely because it did not chase trends. The 2026 version continues that approach. It will still look correct in the background of a TV series several years from now. It just will not generate the kind of parking lot attention that some get. Soul Red would help.

About Soul Red: if you are configuring a CX-5, this is the color. Mazda’s Soul Red Crystal Metallic is one of the best paint options in the segment at any price, and it transforms the CX-5 from anonymous to genuinely striking. Polymetal Gray is a fine color that does the job. Order accordingly.

The 2026 CX-5’s interior is nicely updated, and the materials are genuinely good for this price point. The 15.6-inch screen on this trim is large, sharp, and decently integrated into the dashboard. CarPlay took a beat longer than usual to connect on the first pairing, but once it did, it looked fantastic, filling the entire display. Full-screen CarPlay on a screen this size is a different experience than it is on a 10-inch display, that’s for sure.

Next up, ergonomics. The cupholders in the center console sit further away than I would like. At six feet tall, with arms that aren’t short, I found myself reaching slightly further than comfortable for anything in the front cupholder position. Not enough to be a genuine problem, but enough to notice every time. Just past the cupholders, Mazda has included a small open tray sized well for sunglasses, a wallet, or whatever accumulates in pockets during the day. This is a great location for storage and the right size.

The HVAC controls are the one place the 2026 CX-5’s interior philosophy works against it. Mazda has moved climate controls to a slim, touch-sensitive bar at the bottom of the screen rather than via physical buttons. The touch targets are small, light gray against a light background, and require deliberate precision rather than casual glancing contact. I ended up with the fan on low after an unintended input and spent more time than I should have correcting it. This is the kind of usability friction that probably disappears after weeks of ownership, but it’s worth pointing out. Physical climate buttons exist for a reason, and the CX-5 makes you miss them.

The wireless charging pad fits a current-generation large-format phone, but just. There is not a lot of margin. Placement is successful, retrieval is fine, and charging is consistent once the phone finds its spot.

Rear seat room is adequate for the class. Cargo behind the rear seats measures 30.5 cubic feet and expands to 66.5 cubic feet when the rear seats are folded. The power liftgate on this trim opens smoothly at a reasonable clip.

2026 Mazda CX-5: On the Road

The CX-5’s reputation is built on how it drives, not on what powers it, and the 2026 continues that tradition. With just 187 horsepower in a vehicle that weighs about 3,800 pounds, it is not a performance spec. It is just adequate for daily driving, highway merging, and getting places without drama, but it will not surprise you with urgency. Sport mode sharpens throttle response a little, and keeps the six-speed automatic in gear longer, making the engine feel more willing without changing output. It helps. The car is still not quick.

The steering has genuine weight and feedback, the chassis responds to direction changes with precision, and the whole car feels smaller and more athletic than its footprint implies. The turning radius is impressive: one clean lock on my standard street test, with no three-point correction required. For a compact SUV with standard AWD, that kind of maneuverability is truly appreciated in daily urban’ish use.

The ride quality is composed without being stiff. Mazda’s suspension tuning has always threaded the needle between sporty and comfortable better than most in the segment, and the 2026 continues that balance. It absorbs road imperfections without transmitting harshness while still communicating enough of the road surface to feel engaged rather than isolated.

The seats are comfortable and well-shaped but light on bolstering. In normal driving, this is not noticeable. In the kind of corner-taking that the chassis actually invites, the lack of lateral support becomes apparent. The CX-5 will handle more enthusiastically than the seats will hold you through. This has always been a mild tension in the CX-5’s character, and the 2026 does not resolve it.

The i-ACTIVSENSE driver assistance systems are well-calibrated and unobtrusive by segment standards. Radar cruise control holds speed and following distance cleanly. Lane-keeping assist is present without being aggressive. The 360-degree surround-view camera on this trim is excellent, high-resolution, and lag-free, making a genuine difference when parking in tight urban spaces.

The speed limit alert system is active by default and announces itself when you exceed the posted limit. This is a…feature. It is also a feature that becomes maddening on roads where the speed limit is posted lower than the flow of traffic, which is most roads. Finding the setting to adjust it required some menu navigation. Worth doing on day one.

Summary

The 2026 Mazda CX-5 2.5 S Premium Plus at $41,088 as-tested is a near-luxury compact SUV that charges a near-luxury price without quite delivering a near-luxury powertrain. With 187 horsepower, it’s honest transportation. It just is not exciting transportation, and at this price point some competitors offer significantly more output.

What the CX-5 does offer is a driving experience that remains impressive for the money, solid interior materials, and a design that should age well. The HVAC touch controls are a genuine usability miss. The cupholder placement is a minor annoyance. Everything else is a considered, well-executed compact SUV that takes the segment seriously.

One more time, for anyone configuring: get it in Soul Red.

2026 Mazda CX-5 2.5 S Premium Plus
Base MSRP: $38,990 | As-Tested: $41,088 | Engine: 2.5L SKYACTIV-G 4-cyl | Output: 187 hp / 186 lb-ft | Transmission: 6-speed automatic | Drivetrain: i-ACTIV AWD (standard) | Fuel Economy: 24/30/26 mpg (city/hwy/combined) | Cargo: 30.5 cu ft (seats up) / 66.5 cu ft (seats folded) | Assembly: Japan

Ken Carter is the man who attempted to jump a car more than a mile. His mode of transport? A rocket-powered Lincoln Continental with small wings. As you should remember, Carter attempted the jump with his car shooting off a 1,400-foot ramp and taking to the sky, only to break apart in the air.

Carter was injured in the crash, but lived. He attempted another jump years later, which sadly took his life. But what a wild life he lived. And that St. Lawrence River jump is set to become cinema history with a new movie.

Jay Baruchel takes on the role of Ken Carter in the film The Stunt Driver. Ben Foster and Ed Helms are also set to star in the movie. Check out the trailer above.

The film comes out September 25th, and I can’t wait to see it. Baruchel is a great actor, and this story needs to be told to a larger audience.

I shared the news with Hooniverse Co-Founder Tim Odell (Mad_Science), and he replied, “It’s Titanic for men…” which is a perfect description.

To earn the S moniker, the DB12 gets more power. Aston Martin pushed the boost on the twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V8 engine to arrive at 690 horsepower. That’s up over the standard car’s 671. Torque remains the same at 590 pound-feet, and all the oomph is sent out back via an eight-speed transaxle setup.

The suspension also receives attention by way of a retune and a thicker rear anti-roll bar. And the pieces do indeed add up to a sharper DB12. But this car remains a grand tourer, and that’s quite alright.

Power delivery arrives with a slight lag, but then comes on like a cannon shot. There’s a bit of roll as you set up for corners, but once tucked in, you can rocket through a given corner. Each action item requires a moment of hesitation that’s perfectly fine in a proper grand tourer, but would be a bummer in a true sports car.

The Aston Martin DB12 S is a truly wonderful machine with brilliant styling and a delightful interior space. Just don’t pretend that the S badge has morphed it into a track beast. After all, the drive mode on this one goes up to Sport+, while the Vantage goes a notch further with a true Track mode.

Hummer Is As Hummer Does

I first drove the GMC Hummer EV back in 2023 and public awe has hardly ceased since then. Thanks largely to its sci-fi styling and simultaneously to its sheer size (it measures 216.8 inches long, 86.7 inches wide, and 79.1 inches tall), the Hummer Pickup has massive visual presence. We wouldn’t go so far as to call it dripping with curb appeal, but it’s an eye-catching, attention-drawing thing that succeeds on this front just as the General Motors teams intended: People stare at it wherever it goes.

Inside is just an extrapolation of the outside: Big, blocky, chunky controls and copious space. Materials are so-so and quality isn’t exactly the name of the game, yet we doubt anyone in the market for a new Hummer is cross-shopping it with a Porsche. Maybe a Cybertruck, versus which the build quality might as well be that of a Lexus, but this is a different class of vehicles and class of buyers. Machismo reigns above all else.

Imperfect, But It Almost Doesn’t Matter

Driving the Hummer is, frankly, underwhelming and polarizing. The ride quality is crashy, undoubtedly a consequence of the size, weight, cannon-sized air springs, and 22” carbon fiber wheels. It’s also just not particularly engaging, which is a bummer given how much tech is on board. They could have made it sporty, yet instead it feels as if it’s fighting physics and its own existence to stay restrained and buttoned down. This truck is an overweight linebacker hopped up on ten energy drinks and stuffed into a Halo-derived Master Chief costume. It works, but you get the sense it has to try very hard to make it work.

There’s a few other issues to touch on, again relating to quality. The roof panels creak incessantly over rough roads, and the panels can’t be dimmed so you bake inside on a hot day even with the A/C cranking. The air suspension on my test truck also got stuck on its highest and second highest modes multiple times while the vehicle was in my care.

Hilariously Fast And Maneuverable

The saving grace for the driving experience is two-fold: The immediate, massive speed (thanks to 1,160 horsepower), which allows the 9,063 pound pickup to rocket from 0-60 MPH in under 3 seconds. It’s hilarious, pointless, and truly terrifying. And for $131,770 as-tested, it should be exciting. It delivers on this front, especially when you engage Watts to Freedom mode.

Also positive is the maneuverability, which benefits enormously from aggressive rear-steer. Instead of the traditional lumbering steering of a full-size pickup, the Hummer has a tiny 37.1-foot turning circle with four-wheel-steer engaged. Parking the truck in a tight lot is still a high-focus experience, but the way the Hummer can pivot seemingly on the spot transforms its cruise ship size into something you can actually manage when other cars are parked close by.

What Really Matters Here Is The Wow Factor

Enough ragging on this thing. Of course it’s bad on paper and in “reality;” the Hummer isn’t meant to be evaluated like a normal truck, after all. The Hummer is something that exists for the experience first and foremost. And with the Hummer, I gave a group of kids a truly unique experience, letting them play around in the Hummer and explore one of the weirdest and wildest vehicles on sale today.

It started when I got wind of an upcoming section of my older daughter’s daycare curriculum. The topic for one week would be “cars,” so naturally I jumped at the opportunity to show my love and passion for the topic, offering to bring in a vehicle for show and tell. Thanks to the team at FMI who arrange the loans for the majority of vehicles I review, we lined up what turned out to be the perfect kid-pleaser.

A few weeks later, I rolled into the daycare parking lot in the middle of one morning of “car week” with the Hummer ready to impress. The front roof panels were off, the windows down, and the truck looking properly mean against the crossovers and small sedans that filled the rest of the vicinity. The kids walked out of the school’s front door and their jaws dropped.

After copious yelling and shouting about how cool (and big!) the Hummer is, I tried my best to talk to the kids about gas versus electric and the likes, but they probably couldn’t have cared less; this was all about the real life monster truck sitting up front. After a few minutes of ogling the behemoth we let the kiddos climb into the cabin via the driver side back door, crawl through the cavernous cabin (with the second row seats folded up), look up at the sky through the open top, and then hop out the passenger side rear door. We took a group photo with everyone loaded up in the truck’s bed, each kid wearing a massive smile only the Hummer could have been responsible for.

Eventually my show-and-tell time was up, so I explained the truck’s CrabWalk mode, how the rear tires will turn the same way as the fronts at low speeds, and told them to watch carefully as I drove away. Whether they did or not is irrelevant; as I drove past the school on my way home, every single one of them was standing up front, waving manically at me– and perhaps more so at the Hummer. The silly electric concoction from General Motors makes gods out of mortals, at least in the eyes of three- and four-year-old kids. Days later, kids in my daughter’s class were still telling me about how cool they thought the Hummer was.

It’s hard to endorse a vehicle so needlessly large and inefficient, but the Hummer is a certain kind of lovable that just doesn’t exist in most modern vehicles. You drive this, and in the eye of children and onlookers, you are a superhero. At least for a day. There’s no doubt that novelty will wear off once the realities of living with a truck larger than the britches it’s trying to fit in outshine the fun factor, but in small doses the smiles can’t be beat. And to a group of kids? Smiles are what matter.

Yay

• Presence only a Hummer could muster
• Party tricks aplenty
• Good maneuverability for its size
• Exceptional speed, especially given the vehicle’s mass

Nay

• Terribly inefficient for an EV
• Weight and dimensions impact everything from livability to practicality
• Too macho and in-your-face for most
• Woefully expensive

The Takeaway

• Star of the show wherever it goes– especially daycare– the GMC Hummer H3X Pickup is a real-life monster truck not so well suited to the real world in which it lives. Imperfect as it may be, it’s excellent at achieving its desired effect, and though it doesn’t really need to exist in the first place, we’re still glad it does.

(The manufacturer provided insurance and a fully charged battery for this loan, and thanks as always to the team at FMI for arranging and coordinating logistics).