Volvo Announces Pricing on 2014 Lineup

Volvo announced pricing this week for its 2014 lineup, across which exterior updates and technological enhancements have been made. Powertrains carry over from the previous year and include the 250-horsepower T5; 240-hp, 3.2-liter six-cylinder; 300-hp, turbocharged T6; and the Swedish automaker's most powerful engine, the turbocharged 3.0-liter six-cylinder, which makes 325 hp and 354 pounds-feet of torque. Click on each of the models for details on what’s changed for 2014 on the S60 sedan, S80 sedan, XC70 wagon and XC60 compact SUV; the XC90 SUV continues virtually unchanged.

New offerings for the 2014 model year include the Adaptive Digital TFT Display instrument cluster that allows drivers to choose between three themes — Elegance, Eco and Performance — all with different configurations and functionality, Volvo stated. New paddle shifters, coupled with the automaker's Advanced Quick Shift transmission-optimization software, are said to improve the speed of each gear change, increasing zero-to-60-mph times by as much as 0.4 seconds on some models. Safety equipment debuting for 2014 includes pedestrian and cyclist detection with full auto brake, cross-traffic alert and a new radar-based blind spot monitoring system.

Volvo's 2014 lineup is on sale now. Pricing, including a $915 destination charge, is as follows:

• The S60 starts at $33,315 for the T5 model and goes up to $46,615 for the T6 RD Platinum model.
• The S80 starts at $40,815 for the 3.2-liter with front-wheel drive and goes up to $49,065 for the T6 Platinum version.
• The XC70 starts at $35,415 for the 3.2-liter with front-wheel drive and goes up to $46,565 for the T6 Platinum model.
• The XC60 starts at $35,765 for the 3.2-liter with front-wheel drive and goes up to $50,715 for the T6 RD Platinum version.
• The XC90 starts at $40,615 for the 3.2-liter with front-wheel drive and goes up to $46,315 for the 3.2-liter RD Platinum model.

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2013 Land Rover LR2: Test Car Gallery

When Cars.com reviewer Joe Bruzek drove the 2013 Land Rover LR2, he said the compact luxury SUV felt like a throwback to another era — but not one for which he’s nostalgic. While he praised the five-seater's handling, Bruzek criticized its antiquated look, interior, equipment and gas mileage. Worst is its failure to live up to the brand's premium experience and design quality — particularly against the automaker's stylish and refined Evoque compact SUV.

The LR2 Bruzek tested, which came in Firenze Red with an Ebony Leather interior, was constructed making "extensive use" of high-strength steel, according to Land Rover. The powertrain is composed of a turbocharged, direct-injected 2.0-liter four-cylinder mated to a six-speed automatic.

Standard features included Land Rover's Terrain Response System for snow, mud and sand; hill descent control; 18-inch aluminum-alloy wheels and a temporary spare on an 18-inch steel wheel; an anti-roll bar; a body-colored rear spoiler; an electric rear-window defroster; rain-sensing wipers; front and rear fog lamps, daytime running lights and headlight washers; rear park distance control; and keyless entry with push-button start.

Inside, features that came with Bruzek's LR2 included dual-zone automatic climate control, leather seats, an analogue clock in the center console, a leather-wrapped tilt and telescopic steering wheel, dark chestnut trim, steering-wheel-mounted cruise control, power adjustable driver and front-passenger seats, a power sunroof, a 7-inch color touch-screen multimedia system and Bluetooth connectivity. The base price of the test car was $37,295, including an $895 destination charge. The $2,500 HSE Package added xenon high-intensity-discharge headlights with auto leveling, memory driver's seat and side mirrors, LED signature lighting and a rearview camera. The $1,750 Hard Disc Drive Satellite Navigation Package added voice control and a CD player. The $1,000 Climate Comfort Pack added a heated windshield, front seats, washer jets and steering wheel. Other upgrades included $950 for special paint and $750 for Sirius Satellite Radio and HD Radio.

Options packages brought the grand total, including destination, to $44,245. Check out the photos below by Cars.com photographer Evan Sears.

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2014 Mazda6: Family Checklist

The redesigned 2014 Mazda6 is an impressive car with stunning looks and a sporty drive, but I found its family-duty chops to be just OK.

When it was just me and my toddler in this midsize sedan, things went well. She was able to get in all by herself, and I was happy behind the wheel. The Mazda6, with its 184-horsepower, 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine, doesn't drive or handle like a boring sedan.

During my test drive, my husband, daughter and I got to play tour guide for an out-of-town guest, and things got really cramped with three adults and one kid inside the Mazda6. My tall visitor barely had enough headroom in the front passenger seat — I had to make sure the moonroof sunshade was open to keep him from feeling claustrophobic.

He was able to slide the front passenger seat back far enough to be comfortable with my forward-facing toddler sitting behind him, but if your family has a child in a rear-facing safety seat and a tall parent regularly riding up front, you're likely to run into problems. My husband sat in back, and at 5 feet 8 inches, he had enough legroom when seated behind me, but I'm just 5 foot 3. While the Mazda6's 38.7 inches of rear legroom barely beat the Honda Accord's 38.5 inches, the Volkswagen Passat's rear legroom bests it at 39.1 inches.

Aside from our somewhat cramped quarters, the Mazda6 did yield some great fuel-economy averages. Since I mostly stick to suburbia with my 2-year-old during the week, my weekly averages tend to come in below the EPA's estimations. The Mazda6 gets an estimated 26/38 mpg city/highway, but during our tour-guide weekend, I managed to maintain numbers in the high 20s or low 30s.

Although the Mazda6's trunk at 14.8 cubic feet is smaller than the Accord's 15.5-cubic-foot trunk and the Passat's even larger trunk at 15.9, it handled my groceries with room to spare, and my stroller fit in easily. If you need extra room, the Mazda6's 60/40-split rear seats fold flat, and the levers to fold the seats are conveniently located in the trunk.

2014 Mazda6: Car Seat Check

My daughter's forward-facing convertible installed easily in the Mazda6, which has two sets of lower Latch anchors. They can be difficult to use because of stiff seat cushions. I also had to wonder how my toddler would fare if she were older and buckling up on her own in a booster seat because the seat belt buckles were recessed into the cushions.

There's no doubt, you sure do get a lot of car for the price when it comes to the 2014 Mazda6. My top-of-the line Grand Touring trim came in around $31,000, including the destination charge, and had a standard blind spot warning system and rear cross-traffic alert, which is my favorite feature because it lets you know if a car is approaching when you're backing out of a parking spot. Adaptive cruise control is optional and can be added for as little as $900.

While I loved the Mazda6's good looks and drive experience, those only took me so far. In the end, I would've appreciated more clever storage solutions, cushier interior design and better tech to woo me away from its many competitors.

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Top 10 Best-Selling Cars: July 2013

The auto industry came off a June that saw the best sales rate since 2007, and the momentum appears to have run through July. Toyota had its best July since 2008; GM had its best July since 2007. Chrysler and Ford had their best July since 2006. Honda sales, up 20.9%, represented the best July since 2006. And Nissan and Hyundai-Kia had their best July ever. With the top seven automakers reporting numbers, sales are up 13.6%.

The 10 best-sellers changed little, with one car — the Ford Escape — dropping off the charts. The Toyota Corolla, whose 2014 redesign is waiting in the wings, replaced it.

A gallon of regular unleaded gained 15 cents in July, according to AAA, but small, fuel-efficient cars had a mixed month. The outgoing Corolla stayed flat, but rival Honda Civic gained nearly 30%. The Toyota Prius hybrid — ever the indicator of shoppers’ flight to fuel efficiency — gained a stunning 40% over an already-strong July 2012, mostly on the strength of the original Prius, which had a slight incentives uptick versus a year ago. The Chevrolet Cruze, meanwhile, piled on 70.2% in sales versus a slow July 2012 (sales were down 39.3% that month) thanks to higher year-over-year incentives on the compact sedan — and despite much lower dealer supply. The Ford Focus, meanwhile, stayed flat despite bigger incentives this year.

See the theme? Cash and financing incentives rose in meaningful levels on five of July’s top 20 sellers versus year-ago levels; they fell on four. It goes to illustrate average discounts, which continue their upward creep. The average car had 14.5% in total discounts — from dealer and factory cash rebates to discount financing and no-charge options — in July, according to CNW Marketing Research. That’s up from 13.3% in total discounts a year ago, and it represents the fifth consecutive month of rising incentives. But rising MSRPs have offset the climb, and the resulting transaction prices underline why two of Detroit’s three automakers saw increases in their latest quarterly profits: Automakers continue to sell cars at higher prices, and shoppers are increasingly willing to pay for them. The average new car in July sold for $32,676, up $493 over July 2012, according to CNW, and while used-car prices have begun to ebb, CNW says used-car sales are softening, too.

What about pickup trucks? A June report from CNW says contractors — tradespeople, builders and the like — accounted for the majority of pickup sales for the first time since the 1980s. But housing starts, which broke an annualized rate of 1 million units in March (the highest since mid-2008) have fallen below the mark since then. Truck buyers seem to care little, however. Sales for full-size pickups increased 29% in July, outpacing year-to-date gains of 22.6%. A big chunk of that comes from GM’s Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups, which combined for a 46.4% July gain. Light-duty redesigns for both trucks are in good supply, accounting for some 35% of all Cars.com new inventory for both trucks’ 1500 models.

That means the Ford F-Series, up 22.6%, continues to hold a commanding lead among July’s top 10. See all of them below:

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2014 Mitsubishi Outlander Rated IIHS Top Safety Pick+

It's unlikely that the first word that pops into your head when you hear "Mitsubishi" is "safety." Today's announcement from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety might just change that. The agency gave the redesigned 2014 Outlander its top award — the Top Safety Pick+ designation.

The crossover scored Good in small overlap front, moderate overlap front, side, rollover and rear crash tests. It earns the + designation for acing the IIHS's newest and toughest test, the small front overlap; it simulates a crash of a vehicle's front corner into another vehicle, and few vehicles have passed. The only other compact crossover to take home a Good rating in the test is the 2014 Subaru Forester.

According to the IIHS, the Outlander also improved its roof strength for 2014. "The 2014 model's roof withstood a force equal to nearly five times the SUV's weight. The previous generation Outlander earned an Acceptable rating for roof strength," it said in a statement.

Mitsubishi's smaller crossover, the 2013 Outlander Sport, is also a Top Safety Pick+ award winner after earning an Acceptable score in the small front overlap test. The Top Safety Pick+ requires a vehicle to score a Good rating in at least four of the five tests and no less than an Acceptable in the small front overlap test.

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Recall Alert: 2014 Nissan Versa Note

Nissan is recalling nearly 13,000 model-year 2014 Versa Note subcompact hatchbacks due to weak, loose or missing bolts that could result in injury to backseat passengers or reduced crash performance, the Detroit News reported.

The affected vehicles were manufactured before July 5 in Mexico and distributed mainly in North America, according to the newspaper. Bolts holding the rear seatback latches may not be strong enough, increasing the risk of injury for backseat passengers in a crash. Other bolts securing the body to the undercarriage may not have been tightened enough, or they could be missing in some cases, weakening the car's rear-crash performance; Nissan stated that it is unaware of injuries or accidents related to the bolt issue.

Nissan will notify owners starting in mid-August, and dealers will check the bolts and fix or replace them for free, the newspaper reported. Owners can call Nissan at 800-647-7261 or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's vehicle-safety hotline at 888-327-4236, or go to www.safercar.gov, for more info.

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2013 Chrysler 200: Car Seat Check

You know that student in class who just skates by with average grades? That's the Chrysler 200. The midsize sedan seats five passengers and is relatively roomy, but several factors combine to make it inhospitable to child-safety seats. Crowded Latch anchors and fixed head restraints earned the sedan C's and B's across the board.

How many car seats fit in the second row? Two

What We Like

• The three tether anchors on the rear shelf are under plastic covers that easily pivot out of the way.
• We didn't have to move the front passenger seat forward to make room for the rear- facing convertible.

What We Don't

• The two sets of Latch anchors are buried too far into the seat bight and sit directly under the seat belt buckles, making the Latch-access area too crowded for easy use.
• There's enough room for the booster, but the fixed head restraint pushed the seat off to the side. This was also a problem with the forward-facing convertible.
• The seat belt buckles are on floppy bases, so kids will have trouble buckling up independently.
• Installing the rear-facing infant seat was difficult, and there wasn't enough room; we had to move the front passenger seat forward to accommodate it, and the front passenger's legroom was uncomfortably tight.

Grading Scale

A: Plenty of room for the car seat and the child; doesn't impact driver or front- passenger legroom. Easy to find and connect to Latch and tether anchors. No fit issues involving head restraint or seat contouring. Easy access to the third row.

B: Plenty of room. One fit or connection issue. Some problems accessing third row.

C: Marginal room. Two fit or connection issues. Difficult to access third row.

D: Insufficient room. Two or more fit or connection issues.

F: Does not fit or is unsafe.

About Cars.com's Car Seat Checks

Editors Jennifer Geiger and Jennifer Newman are certified child safety seat installation technicians.

For the Car Seat Check, we use a Graco SnugRide 30 infant-safety seat, a Britax Roundabout convertible seat and Graco TurboBooster seat. The front seats are adjusted for a 6-foot driver and a 5-foot-8 passenger. The three child seats are installed in the second row. The booster seat sits behind the driver's seat, and the infant and convertible seats are installed behind the front passenger seat.

We also install the forward-facing convertible in the second row's middle seat with the booster and infant seat in the outboard seats to see if three car seats will fit; a child sitting in the booster seat must be able to reach the seat belt buckle. If there's a third row, we install the booster seat and a forward-facing convertible.

Parents should also remember that they can use the Latch system or a seat belt to install a car seat.

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