Category Archives: NEW CARS

NEW CARS

The 2026 Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid Keeps It Simple—and That’s the Point

Among subcompact hybrid SUVs, the 2026 Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid lands comfortably near the top of the class—not because it’s flashy or futuristic, but because it understands something many automakers seem to have forgotten: most people just want a car that works.

The Crosstrek Hybrid Subaru sent over was a Limited trim, second from the top of the lineup, with a starting price of $36,415. Add a $1,600 options package and the as-tested sticker climbs to $38,015. That money buys you a heated, leather-wrapped steering wheel, a 10-way power driver’s seat, and Subaru’s usual all-weather, all-roads confidence. Hybrid badge or not, the Crosstrek’s mission remains unchanged—be dependable, predictable, and easy to live with.

The Tech: A Mixed Bag

Let’s address the biggest flaw early, because you’ll notice it immediately: the touchscreen. Subaru’s portrait-oriented infotainment display looks modern enough, but its performance is anything but. Inputs are met with hesitation, occasional lag, and the kind of delays that make you tap the screen twice just to be sure it heard you the first time.

The screen’s layout doesn’t help matters. The vertical orientation and small fonts can make information difficult to read at a glance, which is exactly what you don’t want while driving. Climate control is partially handled by physical buttons—temperature and defrost get real switches—but everything else lives inside the touchscreen menus. Adjusting fan direction or digging into deeper climate settings requires too much attention away from the road.

Our advice? Connect Apple CarPlay or Android Auto and minimize your interaction with Subaru’s native interface. The saving grace here is that Subaru had the good sense to keep the heated-seat and heated-steering-wheel controls as physical buttons—simple, tactile, and usable without looking.

Driver Assists Done Right (Mostly)

Every 2026 Crosstrek comes standard with Subaru’s EyeSight driver-assistance suite, including adaptive cruise control with lane centering. The controls are neatly arranged on the right-hand side of the steering wheel, and on the highway, the system works smoothly and confidently. It keeps the Crosstrek centered in its lane and manages traffic without the jittery corrections that plague some competitors.

The downside is the EyeSight sensor pod itself, mounted high on the windshield near the rearview mirror. It does intrude slightly into your forward view. That said, placing the sensors there also keeps them safer from road debris and winter grime, which is a very Subaru trade-off to make.

Digital Gauges, Analog Humor

This Limited-trim Crosstrek Hybrid gets a 12.3-inch fully digital instrument cluster. As with many modern digital clusters, it proudly displays… a pair of analog-style gauges. There’s something unintentionally funny about replacing physical dials with a screen, only to recreate the dials digitally. Still, the display is clear, legible day and night, and features a starlit mountain backdrop that feels appropriately outdoorsy.

The backup camera, however, is underwhelming. The wide-angle view is useful, but image quality is low, and the camera feed appears small relative to the amount of screen real estate available. Subaru could—and should—do better here.

A Small Win for Old-School Audio

In an era where physical media has all but vanished from new cars, the Crosstrek Hybrid sneaks in a delightful anachronism: an auxiliary audio jack. No, there’s no CD player, but the presence of a 3.5-mm input feels like a small act of rebellion. It’s practically useless for most modern phones, but if you’re still clinging to an old iPod or dedicated music player, you’ll appreciate it.

And yes, the removal of the smartphone headphone jack remains one of the worst “advancements” in consumer tech. We’ll die on that hill.

Comfort and Space: Sensible Priorities

Inside, orange contrast stitching adds a bit of visual flair to the otherwise straightforward cabin. The front seats are comfortable over long drives, with power adjustment for the driver and manual controls for the passenger. Both front seats are heated, with buttons located exactly where you expect them to be—on the center console.

The rear seats are more upright but still supportive. Headroom is acceptable, though taller passengers may find legroom a bit tight. Rear-seat amenities are sparse: no air vents, just two USB ports (one USB-A, one USB-C) and hard plastic door panels. This is par for the course in the subcompact segment.

Cargo space takes a small hit compared to the nonhybrid Crosstrek—18.6 cubic feet versus 19.9—but the difference is barely noticeable. Even with the second row up, the Crosstrek Hybrid is competitive, suggesting Subaru prioritized cargo utility over rear passenger space. The load floor is slightly high, thanks to the Crosstrek’s extra ground clearance, which shorter users may notice.

The Subaru Feeling

What stands out most about the Crosstrek Hybrid is how quickly it feels familiar. The ergonomics are intuitive, visibility is excellent thanks to a low beltline and large windows, and thoughtful storage touches—like staggered cupholders and door-handle pockets—make daily driving easier. There’s even a wireless charging pad positioned exactly where your phone naturally ends up.

Subaru claims this generation is quieter than before, and while that’s probably true, the engine still makes its presence known under hard acceleration. It’s not offensive, but it’s far from refined.

The 2026 Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid isn’t trying to reinvent the subcompact SUV. It doesn’t wow with cutting-edge tech or futuristic design. Instead, it offers something arguably more valuable: a sense of ease. It’s approachable, predictable, and thoughtfully laid out—a car that feels like it was designed by people who actually drive.

And in a market obsessed with novelty, that kind of competence feels refreshingly old-school.

Source: Subaru; Photos: Caranddriver

NEW CARS

Kosmera Nebula 1 Is a 1,876-HP Electric Sedan

If you squint at the Kosmera Nebula 1 long enough, you might forget that it comes from Dreame—a company better known for keeping dust bunnies in check than for chasing lap times. But here we are, at CES in Las Vegas, staring at a low-slung, four-door electric concept that looks less like a tech demo and more like a serious shot across the bow of the established performance-EV elite.

The Nebula 1 still wears a dramatic silhouette, but the overdone hypercar cosplay seen in earlier teasers has been dialed back. What’s left is something leaner and more athletic, with proportions that feel closer to a modern Lotus than a sci-fi prop. Yes, there’s a hint of Bugatti-like drama in the C-pillar kink, but the nose is far more Ferrari F8 Tributo than Chiron horseshoe. Importantly, it doesn’t read as a copy of any single car—which, in today’s copy-paste concept landscape, is a small victory in itself.

Despite having four doors, the Nebula 1 screams supercar more than sedan. The roofline is low, the stance is wide, and the carbon-fiber lower aero package looks ready to scrape a pit lane apron. A motorsport-style wing perched on the trunk lid suggests that Kosmera isn’t shy about its track-day ambitions, even if this thing is still very much a concept.

Those ambitions are backed up by some appropriately unhinged numbers. The Nebula 1 packs a quad-motor electric drivetrain producing a claimed 1,876 horsepower (1,399 kW). Zero to 62 mph (100 km/h) allegedly takes just 1.8 seconds, putting it squarely in the same performance bracket as China’s growing list of electric heavy hitters, including the Yangwang U9 and Xiaomi SU7 Ultra—and, frankly, faster than anything most legacy European brands are currently selling.

Things get a bit murkier when you zoom out. Alongside the Nebula 1, Kosmera teased two additional four-door cars at CES. One appears to be a close relative—possibly another flavor of the Nebula concept—while the third has a longer dash-to-axle ratio and two visible filler flaps. That detail strongly suggests a front-engined plug-in hybrid, which would mark a notable departure from the Nebula 1’s all-electric bravado.

For now, the Nebula 1 remains an exterior-only concept, with no interior shown and plenty of unanswered questions. According to company leadership, production is planned for later this year, potentially at a facility in Berlin, not far from Tesla’s Gigafactory. Final specs, equipment, and—critically—pricing are still up in the air.

But if Kosmera manages to deliver something close to what it’s promising here, and prices it in the same neighborhood as the SU7 Ultra, the Porsche Taycan could be in for an even rougher time than it’s already having. It’s a strange world when a vacuum cleaner company is building a four-door electric missile—but then again, the EV era has a way of sucking up old assumptions.

Source: CarNewsChina via YouTube

NEW CARS

BMW Can’t Decide How Bold Its M5 Facelift Should Be—and That Might Be a Good Thing

BMW usually plays its Life Cycle Impulse cards close to the chest. Minor tweaks here, a lighting signature there, and done. But the facelifted M5 appears to be breaking that tradition—and not subtly. Since March 2025, when the first spy shots of an updated M5 surfaced, BMW has been testing not one but two noticeably different design directions for its super sedan, all while the current G90-generation car is still barely warmed up.

That alone raised eyebrows. Testing a facelift just months after customer deliveries begin is unusual, even by BMW standards. But the real surprise came later, when a second prototype appeared wearing camouflage that hinted at a completely different face.

The first test mule leaned hard into BMW’s Neue Klasse design language. Its kidney grille stretched outward, visually linking up with the headlights in a way that echoed the 2023 Vision Neue Klasse concept. BMW has already confirmed that this look will debut on upcoming production models like the next 3 Series and the electric i3 sedan, so seeing it previewed on an M5 made a certain amount of sense—at least on paper.

Then came the second prototype. Same car, same mission, but a noticeably more conservative approach. The kidneys looked closer to the current design, and the overall effect was far more traditional BMW than concept-car experiment. A recent rendering based on this newer prototype strips away the camouflage and suggests BMW may be walking back some of its bolder ideas.

Which version looks better? That’s up for debate. What’s harder to argue is what this all implies: BMW appears to be actively rethinking the M5’s facelift in public view.

Both prototypes shared some common ground. The headlights are slimmer, taking cues from the upcoming iX3, and the changes seem destined to extend beyond the M5 to the regular 5 Series lineup. The G61 5 Series Touring has already been spotted with a toned-down Neue Klasse-inspired front end, hinting that whatever BMW decides here will ripple across the range.

What makes this situation unusual isn’t that BMW is revising a facelift—it’s when and how we’re seeing it happen. Automakers frequently change course during development, but those decisions are usually finalized long before prototypes start racking up miles on public roads. Watching two different facelift philosophies play out in real time is rare.

The rumored reason for the pivot? Customer feedback. Internal studies and external research reportedly suggested that the more aggressive Neue Klasse look might not land as well as BMW hoped, particularly on a car as expensive and performance-focused as the M5. A subtler update, the thinking goes, would be safer—and more in line with buyer expectations.

There’s also a financial angle. The 5 Series and M5 are among roughly 40 models slated to receive BMW’s Neue Klasse interior and next-generation iDrive system. That’s already a massive investment. Adding extensive exterior reengineering on top of costly interior tech upgrades for cars that aren’t clean-sheet designs could push budgets into uncomfortable territory.

Of course, camouflage can be misleading, and prototypes don’t always tell the full story. For now, the facelifted 5 Series and M5 remain a waiting game. Production of the LCI models reportedly won’t begin until July 2027, putting an official reveal sometime in 2026 at the earliest.

Until then, BMW’s indecision is on full display—and for once, that might be the most interesting part of the story.

Source: BMW; Photo: Kolesa.ru