Top 5 Reviews and Videos of the Week: SUVs Dominate
For better or worse, SUVs are a growing force on the roads and sales charts, and now SUVs have almost completely taken over our most popular reviews of the week. Three of the top five reviews are SUVs, and a fourth — the 2020 Subaru Outback — is almost indistinguishable from such ilk. The only holdout this week for people who don’t want the higher seating position is Cars.com reviewer Brian Wong’s experience driving the 2020 Dodge Charger Scat Pack and Hellcat Widebodies.
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Shop the 2020 Toyota Highlander near you
Popularity and goodness don’t necessarily correlate, and credentials vary between such SUVs and SUV-adjacent vehicles. Let’s take a closer look by way of our most popular review this week, Kelsey Mays’ writeup of the redesigned 2020 Toyota Highlander:
“Cabin materials for the redesigned SUV improve on the third-gen Highlander, already among the higher-quality interiors in its class,” writes Mays, giving the Toyota an interior to take on increasingly posh rivals from the likes of Hyundai and Kia. Unfortunately, Mays says elsewhere, “space for people or luggage is not its forte — a historical weakness for the model that has improved only modestly in this fourth-generation overhaul.”
The 2020 Subaru Outback was our third most popular review this week, and it offers a driving experience matched by much pricier vehicles.
Although it doesn’t look terribly different from its predecessor, “the Outback drives like a premium luxury vehicle,” according to Cars.com reviewer Aaron Bragman. “Think Audi A6 or Volvo V90 wagon, not SUV competitors like the Chevrolet Blazer, Hyundai Santa Fe or Jeep Grand Cherokee.”
In fourth place, a true premium competitor, the 2020 Lexus RX, finally gave us something we’ve long wanted in a Lexus: a touchscreen.
“We all gasped when we heard Lexus was getting a touchscreen — actually, it was a sigh of relief — because the way the previous Lexus RX controlled the non-touch display distracted drivers, requiring them to use the mouse to select a little button,” reports Joe Bruzek. “No longer, as the 2020 RX gets a standard 8-inch touchscreen or the optional, vibrant 12.3-inch touchscreen I sampled.”
The screen sits 5 inches closer to the driver for 2020, but “that might not be enough,” Bruzek continued. “The touchscreen might prove too far to be useful if you have shorter arms and/or like to sit farther back; I had to fully extend my arm to reach the far end of the screen.”
For those on more of a budget, the 2020 Mazda CX-30 was our fifth-place review from Fred Meier. Fitting in between the tiny CX-3 and compact CX-5, Mazda is hoping the CX-30 is a goldilocks SUV for U.S. buyers — and Meier agrees.
“The roomier CX-30 — about an inch wider and about 5 inches longer on a wheelbase 3.3 inches longer — is based on the new Mazda3 compact car,” wrote Meier. “It shares many of the car’s bits and packages them into an SUV that should have more mainstream appeal.” Unfortunately, the CX-30’s multimedia system doesn’t function as a touchscreen; it’s operable only through an armrest-level controller, and it “feels particularly unnatural to many [shoppers] to operate Apple CarPlay or Android Auto without a touchscreen,” Meier added.
The CX-30 also made its way into our most popular videos of the week, where it was joined by another new-to-America car, the upcoming 2020 Land Rover Defender, and the completely redesigned, first-ever production mid-engine 2020 Chevrolet Corvette C8.
You can find all the most popular reviews and videos of the past week below.
Top 5 Reviews
1. 2020 Toyota Highlander Review: More in Some Ways, Not in Others
2. 2020 Dodge Charger Scat Pack and Hellcat Widebody Review: Which to Buy?
3. 2020 Subaru Outback Review: Punching Above Its Weight Class
4. 2020 Lexus RX Review: Just What the Doctor Ordered
5. 2020 Mazda CX-30 Review: Stylish Small SUV Right-Sized for U.S.
Top 5 Videos
1. 2020 Chevrolet Corvette C8: First Impressions
3. 2019 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye: Drag-Strip Tested
4. 2020 Mazda CX-30: First Impressions
5. 2020 Land Rover Defender: First Impressions
Cars.com’s Editorial department is your source for automotive news and reviews. In line with Cars.com’s long-standing ethics policy, editors and reviewers don’t accept gifts or free trips from automakers. The Editorial department is independent of Cars.com’s advertising, sales and sponsored content departments.
