2019 Ram 1500 Laramie Longhorn Ram is on something of a tear with its new 1500 pickup in this country, chalking up healthy sales as it offers customers a wide a range of trims and engines. Now, it has another arrow to add to its quiver a Top Safety Pick+ award from the IIHS.This makes Ram 1500 the first full-size pickup to earn this accolade. It tests a half-dozen crashworthiness measures, plus the clarity and strength of headlight output.It is this last criteria that flummoxes most manufacturers, denying them the coveted + notation. Driver assists such as forward collision mitigation helps improve ratings as well.Ram ticked all the boxes in testing, meaning the Top Safety Pick+ rating applies to 2020 Ram 1500 pickups and 2019 trucks produced after May of this year, so long as theyre equipped with adaptive LED projector headlamps that have high-beam assist and Rams automatic emergency braking technology.Of the crash tests conducted by the IIHS, three simulate frontal impacts, with the new Ram half-ton recording good results in each. In typically understated government fashion, good is the highest possible rating. Outcomes were the same in the three remaining crashworthiness tests, which inflict damage consistent with a side impact, rear impact and a rollover.This recognition validates our unrelenting efforts to deliver more value for our customers, says Reid Bigland, head of Ram Brand. The new Ram 1500 has earned many accolades for its capability and design. It is immensely satisfying to have the IIHS recognize our truck for its compelling safety story. As for its competitors, the 2019 Ford F-150 also earns good marks in all crash tests but fails to annotate its result with a + thanks to headlights which only earn a poor rating. Its the same story at Chevy for its 2019 Silverado, save for a marginal result in the passenger-side small overlap crash test.Elsewhere in the automotive sphere, the snazzy new 2020 Hyundai Palisade also earns a Top Safety Pick+ award from the IIHS when equipped with its best headlights. Volvo, long a brand with a name thats basically a byword for safety, also picked up a brace of Top Safety Pick wins for its large S90 and XC90
Origin: The 2020 Ram 1500’s the first truck to earn top marks in IIHS safety testing
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Buick Encore GX to earn brace of small-displacement turbo engines
2020 Buick Encore GXBuick The upcoming 2020 Buick Encore GX reminder: its a separate model from the Encore and not simply a trim level will offer the choice of two different engines when it goes on sale next year. Neither of them are very large.Taking a peek at GM Canadas fleet order guide, we find the mystifyingly-named Encore GX will be offered in three trims, Preferred, Select, and Essence.Only the Preferred model will be available with either front- or all-wheel-drive; the latter two are AWD-only in the Great White North.This lone front-wheel-drive Encore GX will receive a 1.2-litre three-pot turbo making 137 horsepower at 5000 rpm and 166 lb.-ft. of torque at 2500 rpm. It will be lashed to a CVT gearbox. Eighteen-inch aluminum wheels are the sole offering no matter the trim, so at least buyers of the base model neednt suffer the indignity of hubcaps.All-wheel drive Preferred models, and all Select and Essence trims, will be powered by a 1.3-litre turbo four producing 155 horsepower at 5600 rpm and 174 lb.-ft. of torque at just 1500 rpm. The combination of more torque at a lower engine speed, and the fact this engine is mated to a nine-speed automatic and not a soul-sucking CVT, leads your author to believe these will be the Encore GX volume models.In case youre wondering, the non-GX Encore offers but one engine in this country a 1.4-litre turbocharged four-cylinder mill that makes 138 hp and cares not one whit if the car is front- or all-wheel-drive. It seems curious that Buick would source different engines with near-as-makes-no-difference displacement and power outputs for two machines that share two-thirds of a name.To refresh your memory, the upcoming Encore GX is ever so slightly larger than the Encore, with the former measuring 171.4 inches long and the latter casting a 168.4 inch shadow. GX is about an inch taller and wider, riding on a 1.5-inch longer wheelbase. All other measures headroom, legroom are virtually identical. The GX does claim an extra five cubes of cargo volume behind the rear
Origin: Buick Encore GX to earn brace of small-displacement turbo engines
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