What welder is best for Off-Road Fabrication?

What you need to first start with is what, when, and where you'll be using your welder. Unfortunately there's downsides to every type of welder out there, it's just finding one that checks as many boxes as possible for you. I put together some pros and cons on each type of welding in regards to off-road and 4x4 vehicles below. Hopefully it helps you choose a welder that fits your needs the best.

What welder is best for Off-Road Fabrication?

What you need to first start with is what, when, and where you'll be using your welder. Unfortunately there's downsides to every type of welder out there, it's just finding one that checks as many boxes as possible for you. I put together some pros and cons on each type of welding in regards to off-road and 4x4 vehicles below. Hopefully it helps you choose a welder that fits your needs the best.

IIHS Names 2016 Kia Optima a Top Safety Pick Plus

CARS.COM - The redesigned 2016 Kia Optima earned the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's top designation, Top Safety Pick Plus. The Optima scored well in IIHS' crash tests - small-overlap front, moderate-overlap front, side impact, roof strength, and head restraints and seats - and garnered a top rating for the performance of its forward collision warning system with automatic emergency braking.

Related: 2016 Kia Optima: First Drive

Kia says the redesigned Optima is the first model from the brand to earn a Top Safety Pick Plus under IIHS' revised - and more challenging - qualifications. It's one of several 2016 family sedans from various makers to earn the accolade. However, to get the automatic emergency braking that fully qualified the car for Top Safety Pick Plus status, you have to step up to the SX or SXL trim levels. Those are the top two trims among five Optima trim levels. Automatic emergency braking is optional on the SX and standard on the SXL.

The designation may be short-lived, however, as the Optima scored poorly in the agency's just-released headlight evaluations. Those tests don't count in the qualifications for the institute's safety picks for the 2016 model year, but IIHS spokesman Russ Rader told Cars.com they will factor into the 2017 picks in some form.

IIHS has not published any results for Latch car-seat tests on the 2016 Optima.

2016 Toyota RAV4 SE AWD Tested: We SE No Sportiness

-Toyota made waves-okay, ripples-several years ago when it rolled out the “It's a car!” advertising slogan for the crushingly average Yaris hatchback. The tagline was a little too on the nose, underscoring the Yaris's lack of notable styling, features, or personality, and playing up its existence as just one of the many small-car options available to consumers. Predictably, over time, the “It's a car!” tagline faded into the background nearly as effectively as the Yaris, but we'd advocate adapting the tagline for the refreshed-for-2016 RAV4. READ MORE ››

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IIHS Names 2016 Kia Optima a Top Safety Pick Plus

CARS.COM - The redesigned 2016 Kia Optima earned the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's top designation, Top Safety Pick Plus. The Optima scored well in IIHS' crash tests - small-overlap front, moderate-overlap front, side impact, roof strength, and head restraints and seats - and garnered a top rating for the performance of its forward collision warning system with automatic emergency braking.

Related: 2016 Kia Optima: First Drive

Kia says the redesigned Optima is the first model from the brand to earn a Top Safety Pick Plus under IIHS' revised - and more challenging - qualifications. It's one of several 2016 family sedans from various makers to earn the accolade. However, to get the automatic emergency braking that fully qualified the car for Top Safety Pick Plus status, you have to step up to the SX or SXL trim levels. Those are the top two trims among five Optima trim levels. Automatic emergency braking is optional on the SX and standard on the SXL.

The designation may be short-lived, however, as the Optima scored poorly in the agency's just-released headlight evaluations. Those tests don't count in the qualifications for the institute's safety picks for the 2016 model year, but IIHS spokesman Russ Rader told Cars.com they will factor into the 2017 picks in some form.

IIHS has not published any results for Latch car-seat tests on the 2016 Optima.

2016 Toyota RAV4 SE AWD Tested: We SE No Sportiness

-Toyota made waves-okay, ripples-several years ago when it rolled out the “It's a car!” advertising slogan for the crushingly average Yaris hatchback. The tagline was a little too on the nose, underscoring the Yaris's lack of notable styling, features, or personality, and playing up its existence as just one of the many small-car options available to consumers. Predictably, over time, the “It's a car!” tagline faded into the background nearly as effectively as the Yaris, but we'd advocate adapting the tagline for the refreshed-for-2016 RAV4. READ MORE ››

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2016 Lexus RX350 AWD Tested: Yep, It's Still a Lexus

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Lexus gives itself credit for inventing this vehicle class-a luxury sport-utility based on a front-drive-sedan platform-and by association contributing to one of the most malleable of all vehicle classifications: the crossover. That was in 1998. Since then, in the rare moments when Lexus wasn't celebrating annual sales-the RX crossover has sold at least 100,000 copies every year, about one-third of the brand's annual total-it has been pondering ways to make the RX a little more masculine in character and a little more engaging at the wheel. READ MORE ››

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