Forbes Wheels Car Of The Year For 2021

Americans abandoned sedans in droves in the last decade for crossovers and SUVs. To keep the newby SUV-buyers happy, automakers tarted up the crossovers’ interiors and softened the suspensions, at which point the cranky SUV old guard said, “Enough with wimpy SUVs!” The Ford Bronco Sport is Ford’s recognition that some buyers want off-roaders that can go off-road.

The Bronco Sport is based loosely on the Ford Escape compact crossover, but there’s no BS in Bronco Sport. The suspension is completely different from the Escape’s to allow for larger tires, more suspension travel, and more ground clearance. Compared to the Escape, it’s 8 inches shorter and that reduces problems with front and rear overhangs catching on rocks and hills. (But back seat room suffers. There is no free lunch.) It is a very good off-roader, especially the Badlands trim line with 9 inches on ground clearance and 24 inches of water fording. As well as it goes off-road, the Bronco Sport looks the part, too. Where Chevrolet had a rocky launch of its less-rugged, Buick Encore GX-based Trailblazer, the Bronco Sport looks and acts the part of an off-roader that’s also happy on paved roads, and Ford has yet to unleash the bigger, brawnier Ford Bronco.

How good is the Kia Telluride midsize, three-row SUV? When the first truckloads arrived at dealers from the factory in West Point, Georgia in 2019, the Telluride was commanding premiums of as much at $10,000, a 20% surcharge. The Telluride’s exterior looks every bit as rugged as the top-selling midsize SUV, the Ford Explorer, which suffered through a botched new model launch at the same time as Kia’s rollout. Inside, the craftsmanship and leathers should be worrisome to Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. The suspension and ground clearance make the Telluride desirable for navigating slighted rutted gravel roads en route to the mountain cabin. It looks more rugged than the similar Hyundai Palisade.

One of the slickest Telluride features is Blind Spot View Monitor, blind-spot warning coupled with blind spot cameras. The rear side view to the left or right appears in the instrument panel display. Kia succeeded after Honda tried, and stumbled with Lane Watch, a camera system that was intended to replace not, supplement, blind spot warning sensors. When an automaker one-ups Honda engineers, it’s a sign of a smart car company. And this is one smart SUV.

Mazda’s Mazda3 walks the walk. To wit, everything the competition hints at, Mazda delivers. That means superb handling, a class-above interior, 0-60 mph times of about 6 seconds if you opt for the turbocharged engine and top-tier reliability recognized in the latest JD Power survey of three-year reliability (VDS). The Mazda3 puts more fun in the daily tasks scooting around town and slipping into snug on-street and mall parking spaces.

The Mazda3 comes in two sizes: a compact sedan 184 inches long and a subcompact hatchback 8 inches shorter with a very snug back seat. In addition to the 155- and 186-horsepower engines, Mazda now has one with a turbo four-cylinder engine producing 250 horsepower and a lot of smiles from enthusiasts. The cheapest front-drive Mazda3 runs $21,445 and gets real-world highway mileage over 40 mpg. The most powerful, upscale Mazda3 Premium Plus trim line with all-wheel-drive runs $33,990 ($1,300 more for the smaller hatchback) and has leather seats, Bose audio, virtually every driver assist feature available, a head-up display, and surround view camera, especially handy on the hatchback with modest sightlines when backing up.

How did the Mazda3 stand taller than the superb new Genesis G80 luxury sedan? Both do a fair bit of dragon-slaying in their respective categories. In the panelists’ final analysis, a great affordable car that handles well is hard to beat when it delivers power to the people.

The Chevrolet Bolt EV is the little engine – correction, motor – that could. Overshadowed by Tesla when it arrived as a 2017 model with a 238-mile range, the Bolt has grown on customers and reviewers. At launch, it was the only sub-$50,000 electric vehicle with a range of more than 200 miles. At the time, the Nissan Leaf was getting 107 miles range. A year ago, with the Leaf up to 226 miles, Chevy reworked the chemistry of the Bolt battery to deliver 66 kilowatt-hours of power and 259 miles of range. The Bolt is built with the battery pack under the passenger compartment, providing rigidity and a low center of gravity.

Over time, after GM dropped the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid to concentrate on battery-only electric vehicles, the Bolt has gained a few more hearts and minds. It’s an honest little subcompact of 164 inches that’s fun to drive away from stoplights, easy to park, and has enough range for all but long vacation trips. It’s even kind of sexy in Cayenne Orange Metallic. GM’s OnStar telematics system links the car, charging services, and the owner’s smartphone. CEO Marry Barra is doubling down on GM’s Ultiium battery technology in the form of more R&D in Michigan and a $2.3 billion battery production joint venture in Ohio with LG Chem. With current GM incentives (but not the expired $7,500 federal tax credit), it can be had for about $32,000. The 5,000-and-up Porsche Taycan is more fun to drive, but for EVs to succeed, the heart of the EV market needs to be where the Bolt lives now.

The Chevrolet Corvette Stingray is finally a mid-engine sports car, something Chevy engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov suggested back in, er, 1957. It is now a full-fledged Ferrari competitor starting at $59,995 for the coupe, $67,495 for the convertible. Plus options that can put the car over $100,000: bigger engines, bigger wheels and tires, carbon fiber mirror caps, a custom VIN number, delivery at the Corvette museum, even a GPS-linked front suspension lift to automatically raise the car and front spoiler over speed bumps and steep driveways.

Unlike many sports cars, the C8 (that is, Corvette, eighth-generation) is capable of long highway trips without fatiguing the occupants, room for a reasonable amount of luggage in both front and rear trunks, and the ability to turn quick laps at the racetrack. Critics can still sneer at pushrods activating the engine intake and exhaust valves rather than the overhead camshaft European automakers prefer, but the Corvette still has a 6,500-rpm redline, or maximum engine speed. Outsiders, especially Europeans, have long sniffed at the inability, in their opinion, of Americans to cook well, produce great wines, or make tasteful movies. On the matter of exotic sports cars, Corvette has shown it’s possible to produce a great car that competes with other sports cars costing two to 10 times as much. And get the nose safely up steep driveways.

Ford changed the world of pickups five years ago with the extensive use of aluminum to reduce weight by 750 pounds. It also made available the first-ever adaptive cruise control on pickups. Now the 2021 F-150, representing the 15th generation, continues the economy kick with a gasoline-hybrid V6 powerplant dubbed PowerBoost, which is a play on EcoBoost, Ford’s proprietary term for turbocharging. Some technology is standard on all trim lines (over-the-air updates via telematic, Sync 4 infotainment) and a lot more is available, including a 12- not 8-inch center display, eight- or 18-speaker B&O sound, and driver safety assists.

To most buyers, what matters is you can buy a solid pickup truck for $30,635 including freight for the XL to $72,520 for the XL before adding options, which is how people buy trucks. For contractors, onboard generators of 2.0 kilowatts, 2.4kW or 7.2kW replace noisy gasoline generators. The big generator requires the hybrid V6 and has four 20-amp outlets plus a 30-amp 240-volt outlet. That’s enough to power everything in the contractor’s house during a power failure except the air conditioning system or electric resistance heat (which Ford says is often not permitted by code, but that’s only if the owner gets caught).

This kind of innovation is why the F-Series pickup is the top seller among all vehicles sold and, were it not for Covid-19, the line (including F-Series Super Duty) might have cracked 1 million sales in 2020. No single vehicle has hit 1 million sales since the Chevrolet Impala in 1965 and in 1966.