The other day, a friend texted me the following question: “Do any manufacturers use exciting colors anymore? Seems like you have the choice of black, white, silver, gray, or some mixture of blue/gray or green/gray . . . ” He punctuated the sentiment with a yawning emoticon.

I told him that there are interesting colors available on mainstream cars, and I wish more people bought them. But I guess, when I look at my own cars, I’m part of the problem: black Jeep Gladiator, Ceramic Gray Chrysler Pacifica, Ice Silver Metallic Subaru WRX. The Pacifica at least has a vibrant interior: searing bright red. But outside, all is wan.

I’ve just never ranked paint color as a high priority when I’m car shopping. When I bought the Gladiator, I would have loved to get one in Hydro Blue, but I also wanted a Sport S with the Alpine stereo, the cold weather package, and the diesel engine. And the only ones with those options all seemed to be black. So I got a black one.

Likewise, my ideal WRX would be draped in WR (shorthand for World Rally) Blue Pearl, but my local dealer didn’t have one, and I didn’t care that much. The silver has grown on me. And it lowers the WRX’s cop-attention factor—I say if you’ve got a hood scoop, maybe go with the neutral paint.

But you, friends, you should all buy vibrantly painted cars so that I can enjoy looking at them on my travels. And I should clarify that I’m not talking about Skittles-hued Lambos and BMW M cars, here, or the obvious candidates for wild factory paint—you expect Dodge will have some vibrant colors for the Charger with names like Your Mom and Resisting Arrest. And Jeep always has a couple of SEMA-worthy paint options for the Wrangler (currently Reign, which is purple; Mojito, which looks like the color of an energy drink that would be illegal in 57 countries; and Goldilocks, which is yellow). But what about regular everyday cars?

Well, there are some good options out there. Here are some that I heartily endorse.

Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid in Cavalry Blue with Jet Black Roof

Two-tone roofs are a trend, and a fine one at that. The Corolla Cross Hybrid’s blacked-out topsides add extra pop to the striking blue paint down below, and I say that’s $500 well spent. Note that only the hybrid Corolla Cross is available with the two-tone treatment, and this is the rare $30,000-ish car that has multiple levels of optional paint finery—Wind Chill Pearl is $975, as is Soul Red Crystal.

Hey, wait a minute, isn’t that a signature Mazda color? Why yes, padawan, it turns out that Mazda and Toyota’s collabs extend beyond the mechanical realm (see: the CX-50 Hybrid’s Toyota powertrain). The Corolla Cross and CX-50 are built in the same plant, so the Corolla Cross gets a Mazda color and the CX-50 is available with Cypress Green, a Toyota color. (Swappin’ paint: It’s not just for NASCAR.) But even if Soul Red doesn’t solely belong to Mazda, it belongs on one. Which brings me to . . .

Mazda Soul Red Crystal (on Anything)

Soul Red Crystal is such a cool color that we did a whole story on it. It’s a $595 option on the CX-5 and is well worth it. Soul Red Crystal’s deep crimson derives from a three-layer process: a reflective/absorptive layer with embedded aluminum flakes, a translucent layer with high-chroma pigment, and then a clearcoat. In the shade, Soul Red looks dark. When the sun hits it, it turns into liquid lava, bathing your retinas in its bottomless redness. Near where I live, someone has a Soul Red Mazda 3 that they park outside a hilltop medical building, always in the end spot, and when I drive by at sunset, that car lights up the whole town.

Nissan Frontier in Citrus Strike

Remember when the Nissan Xterra was synonymous with bright yellow? Nissan’s getting fun with its truck again, as exemplified by the Frontier’s available Afterburner Orange, Bluestone Pearl, and the aforementioned acid-yellow-green Citrus Strike (all $450).

I also have an affinity for the peak 1990s shades of dark green, and the Frontier’s got an option there, too—I drove one in Tactical Green Metallic, which isn’t quite a ’90s forest green, but close enough to warm my heart.

Nissan Leaf in Seabreeze Blue Pearl with Super Black Two-Tone

The new Leaf is a fantastic deal, so go ahead and spend $800 on Seabreeze Blue Pearl so that I can daydream of lounging on the beach in Barbados any time I see you drive by. Leaf buyers, it’s your responsibility.

Chevrolet Trailblazer in Marina Blue Metallic

Chevy offers some interesting colors for both the Trailblazer and the Trax, which makes sense because affordable cars also tend to be young-person cars, and Gen Z is perhaps more open-minded about fast-fashion paint jobs ($395 for this one). The Marina Blue also comes with a two-tone roof—but, unlike most of them, it’s white, which is a little bit braver. Unfortunately, the bravest small-Chevy hue, Nitro Yellow Metallic, was dropped this year.

Kia K4 Hatchback GT-Line Turbo in Sparkling Yellow

Any turbocharged hatchback should be available in an eye-catching color, and Sparkling Yellow ($395) tells the world that you opted for a zesty K4. Sparkling Yellow is only available on the GT-Line hatchbacks and is unavailable on the sedan.

Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid in Citron Yellow Pearl

The Crosstrek is somehow suited for eye-catching colors. In fact, last year marked the inaugural Sunshine Orange Crosstrek parade in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, an event that organizer Michelle Kaplan said was “completely ridiculous with no deeper meaning.”

Sunshine Orange is no longer available, but fear not, those of you who want to make your Crosstrek easier to find in the Mad River Glen parking lot: Citron Yellow Pearl ($395) is the new Sunshine Orange. You should check that option box, so I can live vicariously in my anonymous silver Subaru.

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Ezra Dyer is a Car and Driver senior editor and columnist. He’s now based in North Carolina but still remembers how to turn right. He owns a 2009 GEM e4 and once drove 206 mph. Those facts are mutually exclusive.

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]]> https://engineicon.com/a-good-luxury-car-nullifies-the-stress-of-being-on-the-road/ Sat, 02 May 2026 02:27:09 +0000 https://engineicon.com/a-good-luxury-car-nullifies-the-stress-of-being-on-the-road/

That the highway is so dark is almost a blessing: less chance of seeing the steep edges and tumbling drops to a clashing, smashing shoreline. Redwoods loom overhead, the peaceful green light they filtered down before sunset now a smothering black ceiling.

California’s coastal Highway 1 is a gorgeous, scenic day trip, worthy of all its fame. At night, though, it’s just very dark.

When I finally find the hotel down a side road that was somehow even narrower and darker than the main route, the hotel clerk shakes her head sadly as she looks up my reservation. “Did you make this online?” she asks. “It’s for next week.”

I’d love to say that’s an unusual experience for me, but it’s pretty on-brand. Leaving late, ending up on the road for hours longer than I intended because I got distracted by a side road, or some elephant seals on the beach, and then ended up at the wrong hotel, or a hotel I didn’t manage to book a room at: it’s all part of my regular travel routine.

In any other car, a roadblock like this after hours of driving would be the point where I had a meltdown and a quick cry in the bathroom before dragging my aching tailbone back to the driver’s seat in search of somewhere, anywhere to stay. But in the Mercedes-AMG S63 E Performance, with its automatic high-beams, turn-tracking headlights, and massaging seats, it’s not nearly so horrible to get back behind the wheel. Luckily, I was able to find an open cabin a mile up the road, and the other reservation was refundable. Still, all of it was made much less stressful by the S-class’s quiet competence.

Now I’m not saying the S63 can solve every life problem. It’s got some quirks that might even add irritants to a driver’s day. The Mercedes touch-sensitive steering wheel controls with their itty-bitty haptic pads are annoyingly easy to activate by accident, which sends the screen displays on the 3-D instrument cluster into a scrolling flash like a slot machine in the Vegas airport. Those 3-D gauges are themselves more gimmick than glam, with multiple layout options and pulsating graphics that seem more appropriate to a Star Wars–themed ride than a stately hybrid sedan.

In general, Mercedes design currently seems to be pitting high tech against high end, with occasional friction at their overlap. The screen-heavy interior of the S-class highlights that you can, in fact, have too much information, and that parsing that information is not made easier by fingerprint smears and gaudy accent lighting. In defining luxury materials, an argument could be made that upper-class objects should be improved by human handling, the way wood, leather, and gold gain patina from fingertips, rather than smudges.

Greasy glass is not the AMG’s only weakness. The S63 also has an uncouth drinking problem. Its 188-hp electric motor plays a part in an (admittedly impressive) total torque output of 1055 pound-feet, in combination with its 603-hp twin-turbo V-8, but it doesn’t do much for fuel economy. I was down to low double digits on the range when I came into the dark forest, and in previous testing, the S63 returned a boozer’s 16 MPGe.

Other minor quibbles can be made about the big Benz’s pop-out door handles, which sometimes don’t, and its shallow pool of a trunk, which gives up considerable cargo room to house the hybrid battery.

And now that we’ve established that pobody’s nerfect, allow me to rave about how even with its flaws, the AMG S63 is absolutely perfect for smoothing out the bumps in a road trip, both in the pavement and the planning. The interior, despite earlier screen complaints, is both physically and emotionally soothing. The cathedral-stitched leather seats, the choice of trims ranging from classic burl wood to a more modern gloss-black shot with steel threads, the convenience of charging pads and places to keep beverages, sunglasses, and all the detritus that accumulates while on the road, combine in a cabin that never feels messy or confining.

The seats are plush and comfortable, with side bolsters that inflate in response to the cornering forces of the car, offering a little hug with each sharp turn. Many of my co-workers prefer this feature turned off, but I adore it. No more sliding across the seat or fighting the bolsters with my elbows in a tight racing setup. The Mercedes leans in to hold you, at least one supportive presence in your life.

Meanwhile, the 603-hp twin-turbo 4.0-liter V-8 engine and its little buddy, the 188-hp motor on the rear axle, put 791 horsepower at the tip of your toes. Leave passing-zone stress to the motorhome traffic; you’re slingshotting by like Voyager 1 past Jupiter. When the roads are clear, the biggest challenge is not eating up that emptiness too quickly, because not only is it quick, it sticks and stops like you’d never expect from a four-door. We’ve previously measured a 0-to-60-mph time of 2.6 seconds and a 10.8-second quarter-mile run. The S63 also pulled 0.96 g on the skidpad. That’s pretty impressive for a four-seater that weighs in at 5877 pounds.

With passing and cornering stresses eliminated, the miles fly by, even when they have a lot of zigs and zags. Curb your heavy foot with adaptive cruise control and an interesting podcast (I recommend Normal Gossip, hosted by Rachelle Hampton).

When the sun goes down, driving can quickly get exhausting, especially on mountain or coastal roads where there’s minimal lighting and lots of turns. Not only does the Mercedes active headlight system work well to follow the curves of the road, the automatic high-beams were a blessing on a two-lane with lots of oncoming traffic. It would have been a full-time job to flick between lighting settings, but the automatic system not only did it for me, it was quicker to see the oncoming lights than I would have been, making me a more polite and safer night driver. One less thing to worry about.

It’s fast, it’s comfortable, and it offers all kinds of nice temperature and tension-kneading features for your lower back while you drive, but the S63 also manages to be impressive without being off-putting. The valet at the Four Seasons noted it when I checked in for a fancy work trip, but so did the gas station attendant in Big Sur, who, when I apologized for confusion at the persnickety gas pump by saying I was always making a mess of things, answered, “You wouldn’t have that car if that were true.”

He also responded to my declaring his pump-then-pay system old-fashioned by saying, “Well, I’m old. And fashionable.” I made other friends with the AMG too. A tabby cat at the hotel chose my hood for a warm nap. A fellow traveler down Highway 1 suggested we lunch together after an impromptu game of leapfrog through Carmel, and a fellow Mercedes owner who was carefully cleaning bugs from his car at the truck stop made eye contact across the parking lot as I was eating chicken strips while leaning against mine. Actually, he might not have approved, but hey, he was too intimidated to say anything.

A $189,800 sedan might not be in everyone’s budget. It’s certainly not in mine, but of all the cars I’ve driven in this price range, the S63 is one of the few that felt close to worth the money. If, like me, you don’t always make the best decisions while traveling, at least you’ll know your choice of ride is solid.

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Like a sleeper agent activated late in the game, Elana Scherr didn’t know her calling at a young age. Like many girls, she planned to be a vet-astronaut-artist, and came closest to that last one by attending UCLA art school. She painted images of cars, but did not own one. Elana reluctantly got a driver’s license at age 21 and discovered that she not only loved cars and wanted to drive them, but that other people loved cars and wanted to read about them, which meant somebody had to write about them. Since receiving activation codes, Elana has written for numerous car magazines and websites, covering classics, car culture, technology, motorsports, and new-car reviews. In 2020, she received a Best Feature award from the Motor Press Guild for the C/D story “A Drive through Classic Americana in a Polestar 2.”  In 2023, her Car and Driver feature story “In Washington, D.C.’s Secret Carpool Cabal, It’s a Daily Slug Fest” was awarded 1st place in the 16th Annual National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards by the Los Angeles Press Club.
 

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]]> https://engineicon.com/radical-new-2027-lexus-is-could-drop-gas-for-good-report/ Sun, 22 Feb 2026 21:19:28 +0000 https://engineicon.com/radical-new-2027-lexus-is-could-drop-gas-for-good-report/

• An all-electric Lexus IS sedan is reportedly coming sometime in 2027 to rival the BMW i3 and Mercedes C-Class EV.
• The new IS EV will grow by three inches and feature radical styling and a super low-drag body.
• This new rumor fits in with an older report claiming Lexus had pushed the launch of two new EVs to mid-2027.

Lexus is reportedly working on a radically redesigned IS sedan that will ditch combustion in favor of a pure-electric powertrain with big performance numbers and massive range. The most powerful variant will apparently have around 500 horsepower and it has a range target of 620 miles (1,000 km) on a single charge—this could indicate it’s getting a solid-state battery.

Nothing’s official right now, but Japan’s Best Car has been right before and it makes sense for Lexus to launch a performance electric sedan in the near future. It’s a segment that will soon be populated with models from rival automakers—the BMW i3 and Mercedes-Benz C-Class EQ—and it’s in Lexus’ DNA to try to compete with the Germans.

The report doesn’t go into too much detail, and it rehashes some bits of information we already knew, but it does mention the new electric IS will look a lot more futuristic than the new ES sedan—available with combustion and pure electric power—and will be around 3 inches longer than the current IS. It is said to feature giga-cast structural pieces, dual-motor all-wheel drive and be a full software-defined vehicle with over-the-air update capability.

We could see this new IS debut sometime in 2027, though without official confirmation, there’s also a chance we won’t. An older report from Australia’s Car Expert, published in December 2024, announced (citing unnamed insider sources) that Lexus had pushed back the launch of new EVs from 2026 to mid-2027, which aligns with the timeline presented in the Japanese report.

One of the delayed models was the production version of the highly aerodynamic LF-ZC concept, which fits the bill as being the next IS in terms of size and electric-only powertrain. Lexus is reportedly targeting a drag coefficient of under 0.20 Cd, which would make it among the most aerodynamic production cars, most of which are electric sedans.

If the new electric IS materializes as described in these reports, it will likely be pitched as a global model, one that could also reach the U.S. market as a larger and fancier alternative to the upcoming Toyota Corolla, which will also be reborn as a futuristic sedan with electric power and global ambitions.

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