Latest from The Drive
The Drive
16 hours ago
- Automotive
- The Drive
Why America's Street Lights Are Turning Purple
The latest car news, reviews, and features. If you're over the age of 25, you probably remember when streetlights had a warm, yellow-orange glow. That was emitted by sodium vapor lamps—the streetlight standard for many years. Recently, as lighting technology has changed, the old has been replaced with newer and more efficient LEDs. But it turns out that there were some unforeseen consequences of using the LEDs that were chosen for street-lighting duty. In this video, our Editor-In-Chief, Kyle Cheromcha, digs into why so many street lights around America have turned purple and what could be done to rectify it. I kind of like the color—it gives everything kind of a moody synthwave vibe. But that's not what any municipality intended when the old lamps were swapped for LEDs. As Mr. Cheromcha put it: 'The 2010s saw the first big push by local, state, and federal governments to switch out the old lamps for LED streetlights, which are a lot more efficient. They also produce a much harsher, colder, blueish white light that a lot of people can't stand. So why are they turning purple now? The thing is, white LEDs don't exist. To make one, manufacturers use a blue LED that shines through a special filter that turns it into white(ish) light.' 'And it turns out that in the mad rush to convert everything to LEDs, no one realized that the filter layer would break down a lot quicker than anyone expected, which causes the lights to turn purple. Or blue, depending on how complete the failure is.' So it comes down to quality control … or lack thereof. Give the video a watch and get the whole picture. Then make sure you're subscribed to The Drive 's YouTube channel to see these explainers every time they come out! Got another automotive or infrastructure-related mystery you'd like to have solved? Drop us a line at tips@
The Drive
19 hours ago
- Automotive
- The Drive
Spied Mitsubishi Pajero Prototype Suggests 4x4 May Return After All
Stefan Baldauf / SB-Medien The latest car news, reviews, and features. The Pajero is back! No, not that one. That one. If you're member of our U.S. audience, you might remember it as the Montero. Then again, it was last sold here two decades ago, so you'd be forgiven for not remembering it at all. Elsewhere in the world, the Pajero has been on Hiatus for several years—axed as part of a broader cost-cutting strategy that also saw Mitsubishi curtail future plans for Europe and North America. Since then, the global Renault-Nissan ( and Mitsubishi ) Alliance has been hard at work updating its brands' SUV lineups, and somewhere along the line, a new Pajero was green-lit Our spies expect the revived Pajero to be sold in several overseas markets as a budget-friendly alternative to some of the Alliance's more-expensive 4x4s. It is expected to be offered with four-cylinder, hybrid-electric powertrain that may future-proof it somewhat, but could cause it to butt up against European emissions regulations in short order. Whether it's available as a diesel will also likely be market-dependent. Absent some unforeseen pivot toward the dystopian, we're highly unlikely to see the Pajero in the United States. Not that we're hurting for it, really; we get both the Nissan Armada and the Infiniti QX80, which are far closer to the pinnacle of the Alliance's 4×4 offerings. We'll just have to enjoy this one from afar. .article-sidebar]:pt-0>
The Drive
21 hours ago
- Automotive
- The Drive
2025 BMW M5 Touring Review: Haters Are Wrong, but It's Not for Everyone
The latest car news, reviews, and features. If car dorks had churches, you'd see some of BMW's greatest hits on the stained glass and plastered on the walls. As you know, the 2025 BMW M5 Touring has been out for a bit, and reviews have been… mixed. As a wagon, this new luxury long roof is solid, but it doesn't look or feel like the bygone Bimmers that millennials grew up worshiping. And after hundreds of miles exploring its many modes and moods, I have complicated feelings about the darn thing myself. The candid curmudgeon in me says it's embarrassingly gaudy, annoyingly complex, and too fast for public roads. The realist in me is much happier with the old non-M BMW wagon I have at home. But objectively speaking, there's no denying that the M5 Touring is supremely comfortable, capable, quick, and technologically advanced. Which is surely what was on the whiteboard of whatever Munich office this thing was conceived. This is the seventh generation of BMW M5, chassis code G90 for the sedan and G99 for the wagon. M wagons are not entirely new, but they are to the U.S. market. The last time BMW sold a station wagon here at all was in 2018—the F31 3 Series—and the hottest version had a modest four-cylinder engine built for efficiency rather than performance. That's not the case anymore. The new M5 Touring is an aggressive, 5,500-pound plug-in hybrid family car with 717 horsepower and peak system torque of 738 lb-ft. All that oomph comes from a 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8 and a synchronous electric motor paired to an eight-speed automatic transmission. Or in BMW-speak: It's got an M TwinPower Turbo V8, fifth-generation BMW eDrive, and M xDrive. If that sounds complex, it's because it is, and so is the user interface. The new M5 offers many customizable features beyond the typical modern performance car driving settings, and it even swaps from all-wheel drive to rear-only in its most hardcore driving mode. Andrew P. Collins If you're willing to take it easy on the throttle, the plug-in hybrid can go 25 miles on a full charge. I was not, but more on that later. I have a 2017 BMW wagon myself—it's an M Sport, but that just means it has a few nice decorative flourishes. Still, I couldn't resist doing a photoshoot with the wagons together. Swipe through for some comparisons: The M5 Touring's cargo area is generous, as you'd expect. Folding down the rear seats creates a downright huge hold for whatever you are carrying. You'll want to be very careful squeezing long items in, though. The rear climate control is run by a screen, and of course, the entire dashboard is pretty much a screen, so don't go yeeting lumber in there without somebody carefully guiding you from the inside. Some particularly brutal commentary on the new M5 wagon came from critic Jason Cammisa, who recorded the wagon's wiggling under acceleration. 'I don't understand how any engineer let this car leave the building,' he said on his Carmudegon show. As an aficionado of classic German cars, he categorically hated it. I launched the car quite a few times and did not experience the same odd effect. But I agree with his assessment of the interior. Chris Harris reviewed the M5 more favorably but still couched his praise, '…as a fast, roomy, daily that treads the line of acceptability in these weird times, I loved it.' Travis Okulski similarly appreciated the car's refinement but called it 'too isolating to feel like it's ever working on a back road.' Andrew P. Collins Those guys all have serious driving experience and know what they're talking about, but I think Harris has the best assessment. An M5 is not optimized for smoking tires on Angeles Crest, it's not that likely to be used on a track, and it's definitely not supposed to feel like it's 'working' on a back road. This car's happy place would be high-speed highway cruising across Europe. Log out in Munich on Friday and prost 'ing at a bar in the Alps before the sun goes down. Zip the family down to Innsbruck for the evening. At socially acceptable speeds, it's quite comfortable and appropriately responsive. I was pleasantly surprised by the ride quality, too. The last modern M car I drove was an X4 M Competition, which was downright punishing on New York roads. But I was satisfied with the M5 Touring's comfort-to-stiffness balance. It rides cleanly over potholes or unpaved roads, even in the more aggressive drive modes. But when you go to make a turn, the response is instantaneous. The downside of this high level of isolation is that when you're driving a new M5 at sub-stupid speeds, it kind of feels like the car's sitting still while the world is moving around it. Like the windows are screens, and you're playing a driving game. The cockpit is a fine place to watch things fly by from, though—the seats are spectacular, front and rear. Andrew P. Collins Of course, one doesn't spend six figures on a 700-hp car to keep calm and carry on. New performance cars at this level are heavily comput'ified, and some, unfortunately, have reached an annoying level of capability where they're not fun until you're tripling the speed limit. Then, when you make a mistake, they drop you off a cliff—proverbial or otherwise. I fully expected the M5 to be one such vehicle. Linking turns at an aggressive pace doesn't provide the sense of accomplishment or oneness-with-the-machine that you get in an old E46-something. But the M5 is surprisingly easy to line-step with and can be quickly reeled in from overly ambitious driving. If you boot the throttle in a sport driving mode to light up the tires and kick the tail out at an intersection, you can do that, and then regain control of the car with minimal effort and input. Andrew P. Collins Granted, you don't really need a twin-turbo V8 for such silliness; all I'm saying is you don't need to be on the Autobahn to evoke some personality from the car. All that to say, the car's core mission hasn't changed all that much since the days of the first M5. In the '80s, the E28 M5 was a showcase of the era's top sport-luxury car tech, just like the new one is today. But the reserved executive aesthetic BMW used to do so well has long been left behind. Andrew P. Collins From the outside, the G99 M5's got some good angles and interesting visual details. More than a few passers-by complimented the Isle of Man Green Metallic color, and the optional Style 952M wheels are incredibly cool-looking. The vehicle has a lot of presence, and you don't need to be into cars to appreciate that you're looking at something special. Andrew P. Collins The interior has some neat decorative elements. The cockpit, though—gauges, dash, buttons, touchpoint materials—is overwhelming in the worst kind of way. Sitting behind the steering wheel of the new M5 reminded me of everything that sucks about Las Vegas. It's just a ceaseless expanse of lights, colors, and shiny materials that look very cheap under the slightest scrutiny. There are way too many lines and shapes on the dashboard of this thing. And those butterfly wing lights on the front… not feeling it. Andrew P. Collins At some point, the software designers at BMW must have been encouraged to get creative with displays. Maybe the idea was to be distinctive, maybe they just wanted to compensate for the inherent dullness of a huge rectangular screen being the only prominent shape in the cockpit. But they went way too hard. The gauge cluster is packed with so many colors, shapes, gradients, and shading. It's doing way too much and is neither legible nor cute. Almost every flat surface is illuminated. When you hit the hazard lights, you're surrounded by red blinking bars like the car's trying to warn you of an incoming missile. A gaudy plastic bar illuminated in M colors spans the dash, and the few physical buttons that are present are disappointingly low-effort. Like, a row of buttons will actually all be one button, yielding a very unsatisfying haptic experience. Some of the door plastic feels like it was 3D-printed on some kid's tabletop machine. In spite of my dissatisfaction with the interior, I would say that the M5 Touring is a decent value. At least in the context of cars at this price point. You get a lot of impressive technology, some unique capabilities, considerable practicality, and the novelty of being in a high-performance station wagon. These list for about $120,000 and they hold their own at that level. The longroof M5 looks like a six-figure car, and if you pick a good color, you'll make an entrance anywhere you pull up with this thing. Like most of the elite cars I've driven lately, I was impressed by it, but you won't catch me staring at the window wishing it'd come back. I'm fine with my 200-odd horsepower BMW wagon from the last decade, which I think is quite a bit prettier. It's more fitting to compare the new BMW M5 Touring to the Audi RS6 Avant. They're both about the same price, same idea, but have considerably different executions. Even though I've been called 'a BMW guy' (I do have three of them), it'd be the Audi for me if I had to choose. If you're interested in a new M5 wagon, I wouldn't get too hung up on evaluations of its performance at the track or its limits. This is a battlecruiser, not a starfighter. And you will feel like you're on the bridge of a spaceship while driving it. I'd much rather see an M340i Touring come to the U.S. market for people like me who appreciate sport-luxury wagons but don't want to commit $100,000 to a novelty. That said, I'm grateful that the M5 Touring finally came to America; here's to hoping it's a harbinger of more wagons, because sedan driving dynamics with crossover cargo capacity is a great combo. 2025 BMW M5 Touring Specs Base Price (as tested) $121,500 ($140,775) Powertrain 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8 with trans-integraged electric motor | 8-speed auto | all-wheel drive Horsepower Gas Engine: 577 @ 5,600-6,500Electric Motor: 194 Total System: 717 @ 5,600-6,500 Torque Gas Engine: 553 @ 1,800-5,400Electric Motor: 207 Total System: 738 @ 1,800-5,400 Seating Capacity 5 Cargo Volume 27.2 cubic feet behind second row | 57.6 behind first row Curb Weight 5,530 pounds 0-60 3.5 seconds Top Speed 190 mph (M Driver's Package), 155 mph standard EPA Fuel Economy 54 mpge combined, 13 mpg combined (gasoline only) Score 8/10 A big shiny battlecruiser for ostentatious aristocrats. But for some reason, I still think it's cool.
The Drive
a day ago
- Automotive
- The Drive
Riding With Travis Pastrana in a Subaru Rally Car Is Chaos at Its Most Graceful
The latest car news, reviews, and features. I am not a thrill seeker, and nobody would ever describe me as one. I drive slower than anyone I know who cares about cars. On the other end of the spectrum is Travis Pastrana. He's the foremost authority on risk-taking, and he's here, at the 2025 Goodwood Festival of Speed's Forest Rally grounds, conducting stage runs with lucky passengers in the Subaru WRX ARA25 rally car. This is the same machine that competes in the American Rally Championship's Open Class, and it's one of the fastest vehicles that will tackle the 2.1-mile course over the weekend. Goodwood is and isn't a serious competition. Outwardly, it's an all-ages celebration of cars, motorsport, and the cultures that surround them. But the hillclimb has a leaderboard, as does the rally stage. The second that those times are posted on a massive screen for the public to see, it gets serious, even for the factory-backed teams that theoretically have nothing to prove. 'They're 'demo' runs,' Rhianon Gelsomino, Travis' co-driver, said to a small group of journalists on Sunday afternoon. 'But they go on the board and then post them on YouTube. With competitive people, the first thing they do is go and find their time.' Rhianon Gelsomino explains how she records pace notes. Adam Ismail Rhianon said that the WRX's times on Friday were only about a second behind those of the top-flight World Rally Championship cars from Toyota, Hyundai, and Ford that were also contesting the stage this weekend. That's a pretty striking similarity, considering how different the two classes are, and that they'd never get the chance to compete with each other under normal circumstances. Modern WRC cars weigh 2,600 pounds and make 365 horsepower and 330 lb-ft of torque; they're also quite short, which means they're better suited to chase the optimal line on a narrow stage. On the flip side, ARA Open Class cars produce about 45 fewer horsepower, but 50 lb-ft more torque. That would seem to give the latter an upper hand on a Goodwood course that Travis described to me as 'tight and slow,' but the WRX's extra 300 pounds makes a huge difference, as does its extra length. A Toyota GR Yaris WRC car is 17 inches shorter than a production WRX, and the ARA25—with its massive fenders and aggressive aero—is even longer than that. While Travis was driving this Subaru WRX ARA25 Open-class car for Goodwood, he normally drives the ARA25L in the actual championship. The 'L' stands for 'Limited,' as it's more similar to a production WRX. Adam Ismail I'm no rally coach, but I'd guess Travis had to be leaving a little something on the table during our go. There's no other way to explain deltas of 10 seconds or more between his slowest and fastest runs. That's the penalty of my presence, quantified. But god , it didn't feel like he was letting up. Sitting in the car together, before the countdown hit zero, he was telling me how slippery certain sections of the stage were, comparing the surface to ice. 'You'd honestly do better with winter tires,' he said on a sticky and surprisingly sunny July afternoon in England. The next roughly two and a half minutes were both the shortest and longest of my life. Short because I struggle to recall specific sensations, and I selfishly wanted to go for another ride; long because I felt like we were on the ragged edge through the whole damn thing. You're almost never pointing straight, for starters, and the acceleration is astonishing. The phrase 'no margin of error' is used a lot in motorsport, but let's be honest—in most circuit disciplines, it refers to the margin between triumph and defeat. In rally, it means that too, but it also means the difference between staying on a path barely wide enough to fit a sedan, or a wreck. You can watch Travis' fastest run of the weekend at the 45-minute mark in the video below. I've probably traveled twice as fast on asphalt, but it feels much quicker when you could almost reach your arm out and graze a hay bale with your hands. There was a portion about halfway through where we briefly blasted out of the forest to pull a donut around a barrel, and it just emphasized that calculated, precise flamboyance of rally driving that makes it so special. Just before our journey came to an end, Travis gave me a friendly warning that he liked to lean on the banking on the outside of the final chicane to help position the car. What followed were a pair of elbows-out shunts to the right side, then the left. He apologized that they were a little more forceful than he planned, which I thought was unnecessarily kind. Honestly, I expected more bumps like it, but sharing a car with him was a very graceful chaos. Subaru hosted me on this trip to Goodwood, and I'm grateful to them for the ride. But even if I'd never met Travis, I'd still have loved my time at the Festival—and especially the rally portion. Traveling to races, meets, and concours events, you might see one or two of these cars. But nowhere else will you be able to walk right up to a Delta, Celica, Impreza, 037, RS200, 205, Evo, Escort Cosworth, Quattro, A110, or Metro 6R4, all in the same lot, and then see them compete. (That's to say nothing of Toyota, Hyundai, and Ford's modern WRC machines there, too.) This year marked the 30th anniversary of Colin McRae's 1995 WRC drivers' title, and some of his cars were present. Adam Ismail The ease of access at the rally area, which is just past the far end of the hill climb, also seems generally better than elsewhere at the Festival, where the crowds are considerably larger and the cars themselves are cordoned off. The paddock is pretty much open for fans to browse and, if you grew up worshipping these machines like I did, it's just heaven. I'd say that Goodwood is worth a visit for any car or motorsport fan, but the Forest Rally Stage is a must visit if you love rally—whether you seek thrills yourself, or consider it best left to the professionals. Got a tip? Email us at tips@
The Drive
a day ago
- Automotive
- The Drive
How Rivian Is Future-Proofing Its EVs 7-10 Years Out
The latest car news, reviews, and features. Buy a Rivian today or tomorrow and it will gain new features, functionality, and different software interfaces for years to come unlike a Toyota or Honda. Rivian Chief Software Officer Wassym Bensaid told The Drive 'we like to think about 7 to 10 years' in terms of how long the automaker will upgrade the software within its vehicles. And Rivian's baking that plan into the development of its vehicles. Bensaid said the electrical architectures developed, which the automaker's now buttoning up its third that will debut in the smaller R2 electric crossover in 2026, are designed with that 7 to 10 year timeline in terms of headroom for upgradeability. A functional concept not seen anywhere else in the automotive industry outside of Tesla to date. But updates won't stop after just 7 to 10 years, as that timeline is simply limited to functional feature updates. Bensaid said 'for anything related to safety or security, it would go beyond those 7 to 10 years.' Bensaid noted that Rivian is developing its own operating system that runs on multiple sets of hardware and that the beauty of doing things this way, the hard way, is it's flexible and modern enough to run on different versions. 'It's not easy, it requires a lot of work,' Bensaid said. Staying far away from software updates that enable fart noises, Rivian's have gained Soft Sand mode along with low and high regenerative braking settings since the R1T and R1S launched. That's in addition to a myriad of other software updates, including one that redesigned the 15.6-inch touchscreen's user interface. Ford has updated the F-150 Lightning and Mustang Mach-E's software multiple times enabling bits of extra functionality through the touchscreen. But the automaker's limited by its electrical architectures and outsourcing of components to simple tweaks. No Ford EV on sale today is going to suddenly ride better because of a free over-the-air (OTA) software update. The same can be said about most EVs on sale in the U.S. for the same reasons. The vertical integration and in-house developed electrical architecture at Rivian has paid dividends in this arena. Rivian R1S Quad performing a Kick Turn Joel Feder Joel Feder The upgradeability will be put further on display later this year. In September the Rivian RAD Tuner software and Kick Turn function will both arrive via a free (OTA) software update, but only for the 2026 R1T and R1S Quad. Cars are expensive. The average transaction price of a new car in May was $48,799 according to Cox Automotive . Trucks and large SUVs cost even more. Bensaid acknowledged cars aren't like smartphones stating, 'this is a big purchase and a lot of our customers will keep their cars for a long time, it's important for us that those cars feel fresh.' Bensaid is right about consumers keeping cars for a long time. The average age of a vehicle on U.S. roads today is 12.8 years, according to a S&P Global report. Sticking to the smartphone comparison, Apple typically provides consistent software updates for 5 to 7 years before deeming a phone obsolete, but it too continues to provide security updates after that timeframe. Addressing concerns of how a software-defined vehicle will operate in 12 years (sticking to that average age of a vehicle on the road today timeline), Bensaid said Rivian's will 'it will absolutely work' but that 'it just will not necessarily get new features.' 'I think that's the point where sometimes people don't necessarily get it, which is like, there will be no degradation, it will not be a brick, it will be a perfectly functioning car,' Bensaid said. Bensaid is open to evolving the mindset. 'We own our own destiny,' the exec said. Today's goal is to continue to update the automaker's vehicle software about every month, but things change. 'Maybe we'll change our opinion,' Bensaid said while noting maybe the automaker shifts its 7 to 10 year software upgradability to '9 to 11 (years).' At least Bensaid went up in terms of years and not down in his theorizing, which is great news for Rivian buyers. Got tips? Send 'em to tips@
