MotorWeek

Hi, I'm John Davis and this is MotorWeek !

This week we track test one lightning-fast EV, the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT... Then, we'll slow it down for a breakdown on brakes... Greg Carloss goes "Over the Edge" with a mini e-racer... Then, wrap things up in a small pickup with style, the Hyundai Santa Cruz...

So, come drive with us, next!

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whether it's... JOHN: In an era when even mass market EVs have mind-bending acceleration, how do performance-minded brands such as Porsche stand out?

Well, you take things to an even higher level of road-going insanity.

Hold on for this one!

The Porsche Taycan Turbo GT just changed the game again.

When the original Porsche Taycan arrived for 2020, it did not disappoint.

We blasted the Turbo S version to 60 in 2.8 seconds and hustled that hefty Hoss around Roebling Road Raceway with 911-like proficiency.

None of that was enough for Porsche.

So, for 2025, the Taycan gets more range, more style, more tech, and of course it does it all faster than before too.

And that's before we even get to this Porsche Taycan Turbo GT which is new to the lineup.

For our return trip to Roebling Road, there was a threat of a major winter storm about to impact our track time, so we wasted none of it, hitting the track early and often.

And it's still amazing how this big battery on wheels can feel so Porsche like.

No other brand has been able to accomplish a similar feat.

We laud BMW for even coming close with the i4, but here you get the full capable and confident Porsche experience; even the brakes feel incredibly natural and powerful, ceramic brakes are standard with the Turbo GT.

Having said that, it remains a very heavy vehicle, so while you're hustling it around the track it does tend to feel more like work than fun.

Many EVs dial back the power as soon as you get up to speed, but here in the Turbo GT, it never seemed to let up, building to the point we reached over 170 miles per hour on Roebling's front straight, and the way it powers out of corners is otherworldly.

Now, while it does absolutely shred on a racetrack, it really feels best just high-speed sweeping your way through life on some scenic roads through the countryside.

This Turbo GT's 760 kilowatt dual-motor setup cranks out 1,019 horsepower and 914 pound-feet of torque with Launch Control, which allows for sprinting to 60 in 2.2 seconds and clearing the quarter-mile in less than 10.

But alas, that winter storm arrived and covered the track in snow before we got a chance to verify that.

All Taycans get a new rear motor for '25, along with updated software and improvements to the cooling system.

And guess what?

It charges faster too, now accepting up to 320 kilowatts, getting it to 80% in as little as 18 minutes.

There's a 30 percent boost to the energy capture from regen braking as well, now up to 400 kilowatts.

What the Taycan desperately needed was more range, because who wants all this fun to ever stop; and it has been increased by as much as 35 percent throughout the lineup, now delivering as many as 318 miles; 276 for this Turbo GT.

The Turbo GT features a unique front splitter and active rear spoiler, but all Taycans get revised styling for '25 including upgraded lighting and a revised front clip that both improves aerodynamics and accentuates the Taycan's substantial width.

All wheels have been aerodynamically optimized as well.

Things inside look mostly the same, but they have improved the functionality of their multimedia setup, moved some controls around, and provided more standard content.

It's a borderline luxury car experience as far as amenities and tech go, yet it still has a purposeful feel to it; and whether things are covered in Race-Tex or real leather everything looks and feels great.

Gauges are of course, all virtual now, but they can still have a traditional look if you prefer.

You really have to duck down to get into the rear seats, but space is plentiful; and with a pair of trunks, there's abundant luggage space too.

Using 41 kilowatts of electricity for every 100 miles, the Turbo GT earns a fair Efficiency Rating.

There are now more options than ever across the Taycan lineup, and that's even before you even get to Cross Turismos and Sport Turismos.

So, while this Turbo GT may cost $231,995 to start, you can get largely the same experience for as little as $101,395 for a base Taycan.

The 2025 Porsche Taycan Turbo GT is more than just a fantastic EV; it's a great car period, and even a terrific Porsche.

With the recently released Macan Electric SUV and the upcoming Boxster and Cayman EVs, more than any other brand, Porsche is giving us reasons not to fear the electrified future.

JOHN: Kids don't grow up; their toys just get bigger.

That's especially true of car enthusiasts, including our own Greg Carloss who's always making us jealous when he goes "Over the Edge" with some seriously cool big boy toys.

But this week he's the one that's green with envy after hanging out with a tiny toy racer.

GREG CARLOSS: Ahhh!

You know, son.

Back in my day, our screens were tiny.

Our Internet was slow and so were our Power Wheels.

And you know what?

We liked it!

TREVOR TETER: Nice story, grandpa.

(motor sound) GREG: Kids these days...

This young whippersnapper is Trevor Teter, a 6-year-old from Oxford, Pennsylvania, with a toy car collection most can only dream of.

Though, it's not just the cars themselves, but what they do when Trevor mashes that little plastic pedal.

ALEX TETER: So, this all started because I was- I drag raced and we would all be at the track, you know, with-- my son would be with us and he loved seeing all the cars there racing.

And he would always ask us, you know, "Dad when... when can I get involved?

When can I race?"

So, we built him a mini Power Wheel that kind of mimicked my car and that's kind of what started it all.

GREG: Rippin' donuts in the driveway is fun, but racing with friends is better.

So, Trevor and his dad started Oxford Power Wheels Racing.

ALEX: So, Oxford Power Wheels Racing is a group, um, aimed for kids drag racing.

So, we do 60-foot drag racing on a full timing system.

So, we have some cars, you know, as slow as 3.0 miles per hour, we have some cars as fast as almost 30 miles per hour in just 60 feet.

GREG: If you've ever driven one of these things as a kid, you know they don't go this fast out of the box.

But an auto mechanic by trade, Alex is able to soup them up for his little speed demon.

ALEX: First thing we do is switch everything over to a thicker gauge wiring.

So, we switch it over to 10-gauge.

We get the 30-amp breaker out of there and put a 100-amp breaker in there.

GREG: Once, the car's wiring is upgraded, it can run more powerful motors with bigger batteries.

TREVOR: He even puts some drill batteries-- two drill batteries or even LiPo.

GREG: What does it sound like?

TREVOR: Loud!

GREG: Loud?

Does it sound like a drill or does it sound like a race car?

TREVOR: Race car!

GREG: This may look like play, but Trevor treats it more like a test and tune ahead of the group's weekend races.

TREVOR: Down's a 3.31 and up's a 3.30.

ALEX: We do a lot of events at Cecil County Dragway, we've done some events at Maple Grove.

So, we'll usually do a little open testing before the event-- and start with first round of the stock class, then we do first round of the modified class and then move on to our outlaw class.

There's a few certain, um, safety requirements like a 100-AMP breaker.

We recommend having long sleeves and pants, gloves, and then helmets are required for all of the classes.

GREG: Wanting to grow the Power Wheels racing community, the father-son duo took to the Internet posting videos of Trevor driving their ever-expanding toy car collection, as well as tutorials for fellow speed seekers.

Word of the Trevor's Fast Life YouTube channel took off faster than even Trevor himself, gaining almost 30,000 subscribers in one year.

He even collaborated with YouTube star Steven Sharer on a video that's tallied more than 2 million views.

STEPHEN SHARER: Check it out, Sharers.

Today, I'm here with Trevor and we're going to be racing my Lamborghini versus the world's fastest mini-Lamborghini.

GREG: Despite the glitz and the glamour of Internet fame, Trevor is still just a boy who likes to go fast and hang out with his dad.

ALEX: It's a priceless feeling when we go to the track.

It's definitely brought us closer together and I believe it's brought- it's brought a lot of the kids closer.

TREVOR: He's the coolest dad ever.

GREG: Why?

What makes him the coolest dad ever?

TREVOR: Because he builds all my Power Wheels.

ALEX: Two, one... (motor sound) JOHN: We're going to slow down a bit now for some quality advice on choosing quality brake parts.

Taking the lead is our own Dan Maffett on MotorWeek's "Your Drive."

DAN MAFFETT: Every vehicle owner knows eventually, you're going to have to maintenance your brakes.

We're here with Dieter Lorentz from Bosch and he's going to tell us why quality parts are important for performance.

DIETER LORENTZ: Thank you, Dan.

So, it's very important to have high quality components, and a brake job is going to provide less brake fade, it's going to also reduce, um, better heat dissipation and it's going to also allow that system to work properly as it was designed by the OEM manufacturer.

So, in the example we have here-- so we have a newer rotor here, so if it's new out of the box you can see the finish has a nice uniform unidirectional finish.

The one right here, you can see, is one that's been in service for a long period of time... DAN: A very long time.

DIETER: ...and it's obviously gone way too long before service work was done here.

DAN: Right.

DIETER: So, these components, the rotor, everything here, would need to be replaced in this service, and behind us on the vehicle here we can see that this is what a normal in-service rotor assembly would be.

So, there is some differences on the...the finish of the rotor.

Um, good quality pads will also come with new hardware.

So, many of our complaints for the customer is noise-related... DAN: Right.

DIETER: ...and also receiving or achieving normal pad wear.

So, if the pads hang up on the hardware or on these slides, you know, we're in a, you know, most areas of the country have some rust or...or...uh, adverse conditions, so this always affects the sliding of this caliper assembly and the pads from, uh, wearing evenly.

So... DAN: Right.

So, then as far as performance goes, what are modifications consumers can do to their vehicles for better performance in their braking?

DIETER: So, on some of-- most of the vehicles, a good overall pad would be a ceramic-type pad.

Um, we gain a lot of good things from that.

We get low dusting because that's one of our major complaints; on the rim of the tire you get a lot of dust.

Uh, noise.

Um...our...those are primarily our biggest concerns.

Now, behind that we also need to have good quality parts to ensure a good stopping distance because, at the end of the day, you know, what's most important is the vehicle stops properly.

DAN: That's the goal.

DIETER: Yeah, it's very important.

It's also, you know, people's lives and obviously a lot of cost is involved with vehicles, so it's imperative that the system operates properly to what it was designed to.

We can upgrade to sometimes ceramic-type pads that are going to be better performance for the vehicle.

Some severe-duty materials are we could have semi-metallic pads as well.

They may have a better feel for some people, depending on their driving style... DAN: Right.

DIETER: ...but then there's always a trade-off.

There could be more noise and also more dusting on those... DAN: Right.

DIETER: ...as well.

DAN: There's definitely a trade-off based on those and that's why quality performance parts are important for safety on a vehicle.

DIETER: Yes.

So, all of these are foundation brakes, is what we call this here.

All of our safety systems in the last 50 years have been built on this system working properly.

So, we need a good foundation brake system to allow anti-lock brakes, stability control systems, and all our adaptive cruise control and emergency braking systems to work properly.

DAN: Okay.

Well, thank you for coming out and talking with us.

Guys, as always, if there's any questions or comments, hit us up right here at MotorWeek .

GREG CARLOSS: Seven months into our extended test time with this 2024 Honda Accord Hybrid, and we're still getting comments on how great it looks.

Though going along with that great presence is a low-slung roofline, matched by a seating position that's also very down to earth.

We've been sitting in it plenty though, adding another 2,000 miles since our last report, taking us over 17,000.

A final blast of cold winter weather did finally begin to affect fuel economy just a bit, falling from 45.4 to 44.2 miles per gallon, which is still right at its Combined rating.

It's a great highway cruiser, feeling solid and smooth, while handling crosswinds with ease, requiring very little steering input, making long-distance cruising more relaxing than intense.

And getting over 500 miles between fill-ups is a bonus too.

You could also say the 2.0 liter I4 hybrid's 204 horsepower has it feeling a little too relaxing off the line, but there always seems to be plenty of power in reserve for easy highway merging or making quick passes.

Nobody's gonna make the case that this generation Accord is a "performance hybrid."

But, for an efficiency-minded hybrid, it performs well.

Accessing the power does require a heavier right foot, but it's certainly within reach.

And it's also pretty agile, too, which is accentuated by the low seating position.

Most of our drivers are fans of the Google-based infotainment setup, and the early connectivity issues we had with Apple CarPlay seemed to have worked themselves out, as we've had no problems at all lately.

It will be time for us to get reconnected to our Kia Carnival minivan on the next MotorWeek Long-Term Road Test Update!

JESSICA RAY: Did you know just because a vehicle is bigger doesn't necessarily mean that it's safer?

That was once the general consensus, but nowadays there's a lot more to it than that.

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, vehicles that weigh more than 4,000 pounds see little decrease in risk to their occupants compared to lighter vehicles, but each additional 500 pounds increases the risk of death to people in other vehicles.

Increased use of side airbags and better impact-absorbing structures have made all vehicles safer.

So, it's reassuring to know you don't need a huge vehicle to be safe on the road.

JOHN: Small trucks are once again a big deal here in the U.S., with more options to choose from than we've had since the 1980s heydays, including newcomers like this Hyundai Santa Cruz.

And just like the Hyundai Tucson crossover that it's based on, the Santa Cruz gets some major updates for 2025.

So, it looks like it's time for us to do some more tiny truckin'!

The Hyundai Santa Cruz pickup truck, and the Hyundai Tucson compact utility that it's based on, get some significant updates for 2025, mostly revolving around style and tech.

So, while our focus here is on the Santa Cruz, just know that most of what you see also applies to the Tucson.

The biggest changes happen inside where the Santa Cruz adopts Hyundai's curved panoramic display that puts the 12.3 inch driver display and 12.3 inch infotainment screen into a single housing that stretches from behind the steering wheel to over the center stack.

And while the center stack itself remains relatively minimal, they've redone the climate controls and actually added a few more physical buttons and dials back in.

There's also a better-looking steering wheel with a Driver Attention Sensor behind it; and while the Tucson moved its gear selector to the column, the Santa Cruz keeps its beefy old school shifter right there on the console.

That, combined with an overall feel that's not quite as open as the Tucson, goes a long way towards helping this trucklet feel more truck-like.

XRTs have a Surround View Monitor, Blind Spot Monitoring, and some branded logos.

Rear seat room is more plentiful than you'd think seeing it from the outside, but you do sit very upright, and the seats themselves are not very comfy.

Exterior changes center around the usual new grille and wheel choices, but the off-road-inspired XRT gets a tiny bit more serious, featuring a unique front fascia with added tow hooks and a tidied-up undercarriage for better approach angles; plus, exclusive 18 inch wheels with all-terrain tires.

No changes to the integrated 4.0 foot bed with all trims getting storage cubbies on the side of the bed as well as underneath the floor.

The integrated bed cover comes with XRT and above or is available in SELs as part of an added Activity package which also adds a sliding rear window.

The Santa Cruz is certainly one of the best riding vehicles around with a bed, nothing rough or tumble here.

In XRTs, you will hear a little more road noise from the more aggressive tires, but it's far from being annoying.

And the Santa Cruz's size makes it very easy to whip in and out of parking spaces.

Nothing changes mechanically; that means a standard 191 horsepower, 2.5 liter naturally aspirated I4 engine in SE and SEL.

While, XRT and Limited get the turbocharged version of that engine with 281 horsepower, 311 pound-feet of torque, plus, standard all-wheel-drive.

AWD is available on SE and SEL for $1,500.

The turbo engine gets a unique dual-clutch transmission which gets an added tow mode for '25, while the non-turbo works with a traditional automatic; both are 8-speeds.

Max tow rating is 3500 pounds with the standard powertrain and 5000 pounds with all-wheel-drive.

After towing our crew to Mason Dixon Dragway, the turbocharged Santa Cruz XRT delivered us to 60 in 6.6 seconds, about half a second slower than what we achieved back in '22 with a Limited.

Full power was a little late to arrive, but once it showed up, it was ready to get to work, providing steady power the whole way down the track.

Our best quarter-mile time was a 15-flat at 96 miles per hour.

At wide open throttle, DCT shifts were smooth with no power loss moving through the gears, but it does still stumble a little at slower speeds around town.

The handling experience with the XRT was also different from Limited, as the off-road tires struggled to get a good grip on the pavement when we pushed hard; leading to oversteer and more roll than we remember.

There was great feel and feedback coming from the brakes in our panic braking runs however; also, consistent fade-free stops from 60 in just 105 feet.

Government Fuel Economy Ratings are 19 City, 27 Highway, and 22 Combined; we averaged a good 23.1 miles per gallon of Regular.

That's an average Energy Impact Score; consuming 13.5 Barrels of Oil Annually, with CO2 Emissions of 6.7 tons.

Starting price is a low $30,100, but things get much more serious for the XRT which starts at $41,600, though that's still well below the average transaction price for a pickup truck these days.

So, until Subaru brings back the Brat or Baja or something similar, the 2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz will remain as the most car-like "truck" you can buy.

For purists, that's an absolute turn-off, but for a lot of others, it's exactly what they desire.

Well, that's our show, I hope you enjoyed it.

Now, for more MotorWeek, including daily news updates, podcasts, and even complete episodes, cruise on over to PBS.ORG/MOTORWEEK.

And I hope you'll join us next time when we see what's new with the ever-popular Acura MDX, then we'll get into the groove in the MINI Countryman ALL4.

We'll diag steering wheel shakes on "Your Drive" and fuel up with America's natural gas fleets, big and small.

Until then, I'm John Davis.

We'll see you right here on MotorWeek !

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Learn more at AutoValue.Com and BumperToBumper.Com.

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We test tires, then share our results.

We stock over one million tires.

We offer multiple installation options.

We do this because we believe tires matter.

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