2002 Volvo V70 Wagon 4-door 2.4l on 2040-cars

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Consumer Reports no longer recommends Honda Civic

Consumer Reports annual Car Reliability Survey is out, and yes, there are some big surprises. First and foremost? The venerable publication no longer recommends the Honda Civic. In fact, aside from the walking-dead CR-Z and limited-release Clarity fuel-cell car, the Civic is the only Honda to miss out on CR's prestigious nod. At the opposite end there's a surprise as well – Toyota and Lexus remain the most reliable brands on the market, but Buick cracked the top three. That's up from seventh last year, and the first time for an American brand to stand on the Consumer Reports podium. Mazda's entire lineup earned Recommended checks as well. Consumer Reports dinged the Civic for its "infuriating" touch-screen radio, lack of driver lumbar adjustability, the limited selection of cars on dealer lots fitted with Honda's popular Sensing system, and the company's decision to offer LaneWatch instead of a full-tilt blind-spot monitoring system. Its score? A lowly 58. The Civic isn't the only surprise drop from CR's Recommended ranks. The Audi A3, Ford F-150, Subaru WRX/STI, and Volkswagen Jetta, GTI, and Passat all lost the Consumer Reports' checkmark. On the flipside, a number of popular vehicles graduated to the Recommended ranks, including the BMW X5, Chevrolet Camaro, Corvette, and Cruze, Hyundai Santa Fe, Porsche Macan, and Tesla Model S. Perhaps the biggest surprise is the hilariously recall-prone Ford Escape getting a Recommended check – considering the popularity of Ford's small crossover, this is likely a coup for the brand, as it puts the Escape on a level playing field with the Recommended Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V, and Nissan Rogue. While Ford is probably happy to see CR promote the Escape, the list wasn't as kind for every brand. For example, of the entire Fiat Chrysler Automobiles catalog, the ancient Chrysler 300 was the only car to score a check – there wasn't a single Dodge, Fiat, Jeep, Maserati, or Ram on the list. That hurts. FCA isn't alone at the low end, either. GMC, Jaguar Land Rover, Mini, and Mitsubishi don't have a vehicle on CR's list between them, while brands like Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Nissan, Lincoln, Infiniti, and Cadillac only have a few models each. You can check out Consumer Reports entire reliability roundup, even without a subscription, here.

Volvo Concept Estate is a brown shooting brake, need we say more?

Set for a debut at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show next week, images of the Volvo Concept Estate have found their way onto the web courtesy of Jalopnik. If the Concept Coupe from Frankfurt were a modern P1800, the Concept Estate is a modern P1800ES.
We briefly detailed the finale to Volvo's trio of concept cars earlier this week, when images of it poked out finished in a custom car cover. Now, with a batch of uncovered images at hand, we're able to see just how pretty this brown beauty really is.
Below the beltline, this is pretty much the Concept Coupe, featuring the same T-shaped headlights and wide, rectangular grille. Above the beltline, though, things get fun. The long, glass roof terminates in a squat, wide rear end which is set off by a pair of meaty haunches. The taillights, meanwhile, expand on the style shown on Volvo's Detroit concept, the Concept XC Coupe. And that hatch opens up into a rather cavernous rear end.

2025 Volvo S60 the last model year for the sedan in the U.S.

Once Volvo finally got the EX90 headed down assembly lines at the automaker's South Carolina plant, the plant's other product, the S60 sedan, was on borrowed time. A few days after the EX90 news, Instagram account volvo.forlife posted a pic with the caption, "Did you know that with the start of production of the @volvocars #VolvoEX90 at the Charleston, South Carolina plant, the production of the #VolvoS60 will also be coming to an end?" The S60 got about three more days of borrowed time, Volvo telling Road & Track that "After five years Volvo Cars is ending production of the S60 sedan in Ridgeville, South Carolina at the end of June 2024 for the U.S. and some other markets to focus on the all-new EX90." We suspect the sedan would have died earlier if EX90 production had commenced on time. The reprieve could have given the news more time to infiltrate the back channels, and might help explain why S60 sales are up 255% so far this year. Volvo's Chengdu, China plant that also makes the S60 will continue to do so, but those cars aren't coming here. The South Carolina facility can now concentrate on ramping up output of the Volvo EX90, already underway, and the Polestar 3, which commences local shortly. We haven't had an S60 sit through Autoblog exams for a bit, but the the sedan's seen no major revisions since we last drove the current third generation introduced in 2019. We lauded it for fantastic styling, a luxurious interior, and robust tech, dinging it only for a braking system not totally prepared for a driver to enjoy the dynamic potential of a 4,000-pound sedan with 400 horsepower and 472 pound-feet of torque.    That T8 Inscription trim is no more, but the rest of the S60's plaudits remain valid. Until inventory dries up, the S60 comes in three trims priced from about $45,000 to $53,000 before options. All are powered by turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder mild hybrid making a combined 247 horsepower and 248 pound-feet of torque, in front- or all-wheel-drive, and rated to tow 2,000 pounds.