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Jalopnik Reviews: 2007 Ford F250 Outlaw — He Drove He Drove Edition — Part 3
Why You Should Buy This Truck:
Read MoreArchive for February 2007
Back to Archive IndexBuying (8)
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Jalopnik Reviews: 2007 Ford F250 Outlaw — He Drove He Drove Edition — Part 2
Exterior Appearance *****
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Jalopnik Reviews: 2007 Ford F250 Outlaw — He Drove He Drove Edition — Part 1
Loverman: OK, so let's just put this out in the open. You drive a decades-old Toyota Starlet and I drive a tuner-kid, boy-racer WRX Sport Wagon (eat it, Johnson). We agree that the Honda Fit is one of the best cars for sale at the moment, yet we both love the Ford F250 Outlaw. How is this even sorta, kinda possible?
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Jalopnik Review: 2007 Dodge Nitro R/T 2WD, Part 3
Why You Should Buy This Car: Looks matter to you most of all. It's impossible to lose in the mall parking lot. You and three of your adult friends go out to eat a lot, and want to do so in comfort. Armored car side metal makes you feel safe and/or secure. You just love sitting up high. That commercial gets you every time, "Rainbows and seashells and blue skies above — now is the time for love. Look around and what do you see? A beautiful world!" The 20" shiny chrome rims are pretty blingtastic.
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Jalopnik Reviews: 2007 Dodge Nitro R/T 2WD, Part 2
Exterior Appearance **** As ungainly as it is, I like the way the Nitro looks. The high belt line and gun-slit windows scream "Don't look at me while you're looking at me." The busy front is its worst side, but at least the hodgepodge of tough-guy cues is unique. The over-rendered wheel arches and acres of metal adorning the sides are the Nitro's visual strong points, though I must admit to finding the rear of pleasant to look at. A feat, I should mention, that hasn't been pulled off in an SUV s
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Jalopnik Reviews: 2007 Dodge Nitro R/T 2WD, Part 1
Recently, a friend and I stood staring at the massive, awkward fascia of a Dodge Nitro, trying to make heads and/or tails of it. The otherwise monumental Crossfire motif of the grill was, in fact, dwarfed by the bulging bumper and drooping ground effects. "I think I think it's ugly," I said, unsure as I've ever been about a car. "Yeah, well, I'd rather have [the Nitro] than that," my friend said, pointing to a wholly anonymous Honda CRV parked nearby. He raised a fair and solid point; I hadn't e
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Jalopnik Reviews: 2007 Ford Focus PZEV Part 3
Why you should buy this car: Because you want a functional runabout on a budget that holds the bonus of being really fun to drive. Because you care about engine emissions and the environment, yet want to discount the cost and complexity of a gas electric hybrid. Because you want to take the money saved by picking up a base model and tap into the vast resources of the performance aftermarket to build your own super-handling low-emission hatchback.
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Jalopnik Reviews: 2007 Ford Focus PZEV Part 2
Exterior Design: *** The Focus has embodied polarizing exterior styling since its inception. Fans of hatchbacks and high taillights will continue to be entertained. The rest will exclaim a love it or hate it difference of opinions. Overall the design seemed to work better without the sharp front fender creasing, absent from more egg-like designs of previous versions. Sport appearance body kit added sporty to economy, but for a price.
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Entertainment (2)
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James May Responds To Alabama Hicks
As we showed yesterday, this week's episode of Top Gear featured a scene where the threesome of on-air talent and their crew were pelted with stones after painting some "provocative language" on the sides of some beaters in sweet home Alabama. With horribly outrageous epithets like "Hillary For President" and "country music is rubbish," it seemed only natural the trio was in for a whooping, right? Obviously. Even Captain Slow agrees he should have seen it coming — after being warned by some "Ame
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Top Gear Tours Alabama In American Hoopties
There are some places we've been in this country that have actively frightened us. For example, Hunter's Point in San Francisco. Also notably Ozona, a wide spot in Interstate 10 where we stopped for gas while driving a So-Cal Speed Shop Plymouth Prowler from Pomona to Houston on a ten-day roadtrip. Pulling into tha O for gas and a smoke break, a pickup full of men who were likely suffered from a lack of genetic diversity and healthy methamphetamine habits.
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News (180)
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Paris Hilton Violates Probation, Gets Bentley Continental GTC Hauled Away In West Hollywood
According to TMZ, everyone's favorite celbrawhore, Paris Hilton, saw her $170,000-plus Bentley Continental GTC hauled away on a flatbed (which Bentley folks tell us is the correct way to have your vehicle towed so as not to void your warranty) yesterday in front of the West Hollywood Virgin megastore. According to TMZ:
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Starionamino!
Apparently this fine machine is used as a parts runner for a shop in the UK. While it does seem to be cheating a bit on the bed opening (simple hatch removal), it does have a functioning tailgate. Go, Starionamino, go!
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Nice Package For The Mercedes-Benz SL-Class
Mercedes SL350 and SL500 buyers in Europe can select a new check box on the options sheet. It's the SL-Class sports package, and it comes with five-spoke wheels, silver-painted front brake calipers and perforated brake discs at the rear wheels to heighten stopping power. Minor performance mods include a sport air cleaner in the SL350 installed to give it a throatier growl. The 7G-TRONIC automatic gets a manual-shift program and paddle shifters. Merc says the tranny programming decreases shift ti
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Autoextremist Knows Things You Don't, Not Afraid To Let You In On That
Whoof. Criminy and cripes if the Sweeter Peeter didn't wake up this morning in love with his own self-styled great import. The D. runs down the rumors flying about the Motor City this week, as well as parroting the downfall of the buff books. Interestingly, Peet comments, "Yes, a few titles will survive - Road&Track for the string back driving glove and pipe-smoking crowd who like to sit around the fire place and talk about the old days, and AutoWeek, which still clings to a modicum of immediacy
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Ford Exodus: A Jalopnik-Bialystock Production
We're assuming at least 10,000 FoMoCo employees will be taking the long route home today, with the remainder of employees "left behind" wondering why they didn't take advantage of those early buyouts. But if this is a true "exodus" from Dearborn as the headline from the Freep this morning suggests, we're wondering who plays who in this turnaround story of biblical proportions on stage today in Dearborn? Our guesses on the playbill after the jump.
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Sr De Vous, Sr D'Elle: The Simca Vedette
The 1959 Simca Vedette packed V8 punch and the crypto-automatic "Rush-Matic" transmission. And, according to this ad, it could even drive itself (though at one point a mysterious gloved hand appears to poke the Rush-Matic buttons). Those crafty Franco-Chrysler engineers had their act together!
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Natomas Party People Left Out Of Highway Funds Allocation, Old-Timers Stoked
For the last week or so, Jalopnik's San Pedro office has taken up temporary residence in Sacramento and our bureau chief must admit that he giggled a little bit when proponents of carpool lanes on I-80 in the Natomas area got shut out of a large allocation in funds that will go to improve the 405, the 5 in LA and other freeways throughout the state. But it's really just because we've come to loathe Natomas. What was a floodplain when Los Jalops were wee has become a sea of crackerbox condos and
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To CUV Or Not To CUV, Part 1
That really is the question for soccer moms car buyers these days. Frankly, I don't have much experience driving the new car-platformed CUV's, leastwise on pavement and in inclement weather. But as an SUV owner, why would I want to? Having actually taken my four-wheel drive "cute bug" (ask Jonny Lieberman) off-road a few times, my level of confidence translates to on-road driving in lousy conditions. But then, I'm not the CUV's target market. Nonetheless, automakers are falling all over themselv
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Wizard Of Audi: Automaker Unintentionally Shows How Sausage Is Made...Err...Lit
Sometimes I feel like marketing a new car is kind of like making sausage. Sure, the end product looks like it could taste great, but you just know the process to get there is messy. And what about actually knowing what's in it — forget about it! But basically, it's the job of the marketing team at an automaker to make that sausage look as inviting as possible in the hope you ignore how it got there and what little bits n' pieces you'll find inside. Sometimes it's by dressing it up with pretty c
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You Are There: SpeedTV's Forza Motorsport Showdown
It's official. Any idiot in America can to be on reality TV. I'm proof. I was there the whole time Speed TV was filming the new series, "Forza Motorsport Showdown," which premiered last Thursday (11:00 pm EST). And that's why I'm going to be your guy behind the scenes of the show. Here's how it works. Teams of supposedly amateur drivers compete in multiple challenges — from road course and autocross driving, to oval, drag, and drifting — for a shot at $100,000. Each week I'll be conveying what i
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AWESOME POWER! GTM's 40TR Roadster To Get Turbo, More Horsepower
GTM says feedback from the public has led it to turbocharge the Honda Civic Type-R powerplant in its GTM 40TR (track and race) roadster. Now, the Ariel Atom and KTM X-Bow challenger will reportedly do the zero-to-60 hop in 3.5 seconds, compared with the previous incarnation's under four seconds. That's been achieved, they say, by boosting the 2.0-liter powerplant to 300 hp. We're still put off by that weird aluminum superstructure, but if that's what it takes, so be it.
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What's That Volkswagen Thing? VW Humbug
This kit car looks to be hybrid of a Baja bug and a Hummer H1. But it also could represent what a modern VW Thing would have looked like had that VW jeepster not gone the way of "Archie Bunker's Place." Nonetheless, this kit's called the Humbug (go figure), and this specimen reportedly cost $35,000 to build. Bidding stands at $12,000 currently.
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Gumpert The Second: Apollo Sport To Debut In Geneva
The folks at Gumpert Sportwagenmanufaktur GmbH (glad we don't have to hand-address letters to them) will show off their latest Apollo model, the Apollo Sport, at the Geneva show next week. Mechanically, the Sport model won't stray from the base Apollo, which is powered by a midship-mounted Audi 4.2-liter V8 prodded with twin turbos and tuned to produce 800 hp — good for a zero to 60 mph time of 3 seconds. But it will get an aero kit that includes a rear wing, and creature comforts like Alcantara
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It's Official Unless China Says It's Not: Chery To Make Itty-Bitty Cars For Chrysler Group
This deal's been in the works for what seems like forever. We'd even heard the 'merican side of the German-American hybrid was all set to go in October of this past year, but held off for "political reasons." So it's really no surprise that the deals' done — the DaimlerChrysler supervisory board's approved the "framework of a limited partnership to develop small vehicles between the Chrysler Group and Chery Motor Company of China." Under the agreement, Chery-built vehicles would be distributed u
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Bear Stearns Predicts February US Auto Sales Are Sucktastic, Like January
Here's the latest across the wires from Bear Stearns, we're assuming that means it was their auto analyst stud, Peter Nesvold, but regardless of who it was — here's their official guesstimate on what sales numbers will look like for the "Big Three" for the month ending tomorrow:
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Bye, Bye, Rockin' Supercar: A Tercel's Last Ride
A few years ago I sold an ugly-but-running '86 Tercel wagon to a friend. She's a single mother on a tight budget, so the car worked out great for her. Her little girl named it the "Rockin' Supercar" and much Tercel-enabled happiness ensued... until the fateful day when the oil ran out and a rod was thrown. Here's the heartbreaking video of the car being towed away to The Crusher and its poor sad 6-year-old friend running after the tow truck. The Rockin' Supercar is in heaven now, kid.
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Weight Watchers: The Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera
The high priests of Sant'Agata have dispatched a messenger with their latest proclamation. We'll paraphrase. "And shall it be so, that the Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera will be one sporty MF. It shall be 150 pounds or so lighter and its engine computer will be remapped. Further, improved volumetric efficiency will be achieved through reduced intake load losses and by exhaust backpressures [better exhaust - ed.], such that it will produce 530 hp." See you in Geneva, my liege.
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The Scorpion Returns: Fiat's Abarth-Tuned Puntos Coming To Geneva
The return of Abarth is near. If you'll recall, the motorsports firm of Carlo Abarth spent the 1950s and 1960s building race-winning cars sports cars that showed up many a big name. It also built tuning kits for Fiats, and was eventually taken into the bosom of the Agnelli dynasty. Now, Fiat's reviving the name for a new factory tuner and a rally team. The Grande Punto Abarth will appear at the Geneva show with its rally cousin, the Abarth S2000. Both bear the Scorpion logo, but it's the rally c
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Road Rage Roundup: Tahoes, Suburbans, And PT Cruisers
A passenger in a Chevy Tahoe appeared to have been shot from another vehicle, but then it turned out another passenger in the the same vehicle pulled the trigger. Armed robbery, crazy Tahoe driving, uncooperative witnesses, and other hijinks make for a knot the Lexington, KY, cops are having a tough time unraveling. [Lex18]
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SHO Me The Bold Moves! Enthusiasts Create Web Site Asking Ford To "Bring Back The SHO" Taurus
In 1989, Ford took their sales leading Taurus and took it from sedan for the mere mortal to a sports sedan for the gods. Turning a management mis-fire into a minor miracle, Ford execs took engines from a dead deal with Yamaha and inserted the 3.0-liter V6's into their pedestrian four-door and watched as the performance boosted up to 220 hp and 200 lb-ft of torque when coupled with the 5-speed MTX-IV manual tranny. They called this special sports sedan the Super-High Output, or SHO. Other than th
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Spy Photos: 2008 Nissan Sentra SE-R?
Spy shots of the new-for-2008 Nissan Sentra SE-R have been hard to come by as of late, with many pondering whether we'd be seeing anything remotely better looking for the '08 model year than what many Sentra fans have opined as the "less than enthusiastic...styling" of the 2007 model. Although we still can't answer whether they'll be jumping for joy, at the very least we've now got a few more details to look at in these exclusive shots of what appears to be the '08 model SE-R taken by Jalopnik r
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Stroke It, FoMoCo! Navistar Stops Shipping Power Stroke Diesel Engines To Ford
Reuters is reporting that Navistar International's stopped shipping big 6.4-liter Power Stroke diesel engines to FoMoCo because of a "contract dispute." The big f-ing engine is the power plant that gives the big F-Series Super Duty the get-up-and-go it needs to — you know — help the automaker become profitable again. Remember, the F-Series is the most profitable thing Ford sells, it has like a 50% market share in the Heavy Duty market, and based on estimates we've seen, FoMoCo makes an average
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The World IS Enough: Honda's Envirogastic 2007 Formula 1 Livery
Honda officially dropped the curtains on their new 2007 Formula 1 race car amid speculation all month that it would be receiving all sorts of different visual treatments — from enviro-friendly look in the pre-season flat black on up to a Google-icious paint job. It turns out the environmentally-friendly look's in for spring, as Honda's painted it in a global hue. The car will feature a picture of the Earth — or Gaea, as we've heard she prefers to be called — and will promote Honda's continued at
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Breaking Crazy Chrysler Speculation! Chrysler Swap For GM Ownership Stake; GAZ To Buy Or Not To Buy?
As we continue to follow the Chrysler Group rumor trail out of Stuttgart, Germany and Detroit we're finding ourselves hearing all sorts of strange stuff this AM. First off the bat, Reuters is reporting that the Financial Times is reporting that some guy in a back room somewhere in Stuttgart overheard from a waiter who was taking a lunch order from Bobo Uebber's assistant's intern that the German side of the not-so-much-a-merger of equals is considering taking a minority stake in the General as
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Question Of The Day: Radio On! What Are Your Favorite Driving Songs?
I've been up in Sacto for the last week, hanging out with friends and family and as one of the iPodless, I don't have access to my regular trove of rock, so I've been listening to a lot of the regular old radio in my Dad's Blazer. This afternoon, driving back from a karaoke-tastic birthday bash in San Francisco (Dude, they totally had "Fast as a Shark." I am hoarse today from unleashing my inner Udo.), Dramarama's "Anything, Anything" turned up on the radio. The gas pedal went down a little furt
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Now It's Official: Audi A5, S5 Revealed
The impact may have been lessened by last week's leak, but today the company let fly with official info on the Nuvolari-inspired A5 and S5. Maybe today's release was already on the schedule. Nonetheless, we now know the European A5 will get a range of engines from the 1.8-liter TFSI producing 170 hp to the 3.2 FSI producing 265 hp, to a choice of two oil burners (2.7 TDI at 190 hp and 3.0 TDI at 240 hp). As expected, the S5 will get the 4.2 V8 producing 354 hp. Read more from the official launch
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Check Out The Size Of The Chrysler Group's Package!
That's right, the Chrysler Group's just announced severance packages and buyout terms that make up the Chrysler Group Recovery and Transformation Plan (or, feel free to use the not-at-all-awkward acronym of CGRTP, if you prefer). The 'merican side of the German-American hybrid's looking to reach their target of a reduction of 2,000 salaried positions by 2008 by offering these packages to and incentive programs for non-bargaining units (i.e. salaried employees, white collar workers, folks who w
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Rambler Rogue? No, Renault Torino!
One of the cars in the above illustration is a '79 Renault Torino, while the other is a '65 Rambler American. Notice any similarities? The story of the Renault Torino isn't just the usual case of a US automaker selling the tooling for an obsolete model to a South American manufacturer, nor was it a simple re-badging of a US model for license-building abroad. No, the Torino is the result of an early chapter in the twisty tale of the Renault-AMC story, which resulted in a unique-to-Argentina vehic
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Breaking! Police Report From The Great Million Dollar Corvette SS Mule Photo Caper!
Yeah, we couldn't come up with anything better to call it either (feel free to drop your suggestions in the comments below and we'll potentially use the best one). It looks like our breathless buddy Josh Oliver breathlessly procured a copy of the police report in — whatever we're calling this thing. So what can we glean from the document? Well, the car was on the loading dock at Central States Trucking Company and it's a
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And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Parts: Replace A Radiator Or Heater Hose
While there are still a few air-cooled automobiles on the roads the good majority out there these days are of the liquid cooled variety. Those driving an old Karmann Ghia or a pre-98 Porsche 911 can take the time spent reading this series of articles on the automotive cooling system and instead check their oil frequently. The rest of the liquid cooled vehicle owners out there have three important components under the hood that take the heat out of an internal combustion engine. The radiator, th
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Audi's True Hollywood Story
Audi's PR machine is a funny thing. Without a massive marketing budget compared to other big-name automakers, the company has resorted to going chichi viral; throwing indulgent soirees for journos and tastemakers, as well as trying the tack they've taken in the UK — having celebrities seen in Audis. A cornerstone of that program in Southern California is Celeste Atkinson, a woman who certainly knows how to work a room. As a well-known autojourno once said to us, "Ah yes. Celeste. She has certain
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We're Not Yet In Jail: More Speculation On The Corvette SS Spy Photos, Corvette C7
OK, so the spy photographer who snapped those pictures of the Corvette powertrain mule and posted them all over the internet is NOT in jail, and our sources at the General now confirm they've taken no legal action "themselves" against anyone. The General also hasn't pushed for anyone to take down their photos — which is good, because as you can see in the photogallery below, we weren't planning on pulling them down any time soon. But since speculation is what the name of the game is about on thi
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Breaking! Nissan Vice Chairman Jim Morton Moves Company To Tennessee, Up And Leaves
We just received this news from a tipster at Nissan NorAm's new HQ in out-of-the-way beautiful Tennessee. Apparently the man who made the move happen has decided to move on himself. Jim Morton's retiring from Nissan on April 1st, and we're wondering what he'll do afterward. Maybe some fishing? Some hiking? Some running for Governor, perhaps?
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Droptop C'eed: Kia To Show Concept Cabrio In Geneva
If it's the Geneva show, Kia is virtually bound by law to show some manner of C'eed concept car. This year it's the ex_cee'd cabrio, a prototype designed by Peter Schreyer, Kia's new design boss. If you'll remember, Schreyer created the Bauhaus-inspired first-gen Audi TT coupe. Now, he's charged with giving Kia a new, Euro friendly face. The ex_cee'd cabrio sports a fabric roof, intentionally bypassing Europe's folding-hardtop fad. Nonetheless, the show car will inevitably draw attention to the
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Em Five Madness: The Currency Motorcars M5
And speaking of Dutch masters, Vincent and his gang of millionjars at Autoblog.nl bring us this batshite-mad BMW twin-turbo M5. It's the product of Westlake, California's Currency Motorcars. It's not just some run-of-the-mill tweaker. The super-high-end work includes serious powertrain alterations to unlock upward of 800 horsepower from the V10. The intercooler is a custom job, and the gestalt adds up to a top speed, according to Currency, of 240 mph. As if that figure were not badshite mad enou
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JC Whitney 1975: Hood Ornaments
It's still possible to get quite a few of these wonderful 1975 hood ornaments at JC Whitney today- more than you'd think- but my heart sank when I saw that such charismatic chromium canines as the French Poodle, Basset Hound, and German Shepherd have been lost to the passage of 32 years. The Panther, Falcon, and Owl are also gone, as are several of the Nearly Nekkid Goddesses. Perhaps worst of all, Mighty Atlas can no longer hoist the globe over the hood of your Renault Fuego Turbo.
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TechArt's Porsche GTstreet Coming To Geneva
It was just a matter of time before TechArt unveiled its take on the new 997 Porsche 911 Turbo. That day will arrive next month, when the GTstreet takes a bow at the Geneva show. And compared to the company's last iteration, the bar has been lifted in an upward fashion. TechArt boosted horsepower to 630 from the Turbo's stock 480, and sent the torque number skyward to 604 lbs-ft from 457. TechArt says that's good for a zero-to-62 mph time of 3.2 seconds and a top speed of 214 mph. It's completed
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Corvette SS Spy Photographer Now NOT In Jail?
Well lookie here, Josh Oliver from TheGMSource.com took some time away from breathlessly interviewing GM engineers to turn his attention breathlessly towards police officers in Romulus, MI. Here's what he's claiming to be the straight scoop from his lips to your (and Mark Truby's) ears.
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Breaking! Anna Nicole Smith News Tangentially Involving Cars!
According to the celeb-watchers at TMZ, John "Texas" O'Quinn, the lawyer for Virgie Arthur, Anna Nicole Smith's mother, collapsed in court just under an hour ago. TMZ says,
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Car Hack's Notebook: Electric Cars, The Silent Killer
As regular readers know, I spend a good deal of time behind the wheel of obscenely overpowered machines that have about as much place in the modern world as a guillotine, yet I love each and every one of them. Electric cars, though, have me worried on safety grounds. Seriously. See, we've all read hundreds of reviews marveling at the sheer power, the torque, the majesty of the new breed of electric cars and how they do it all on a thimbleful of kilowatts, even though we don't really know what th
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The Flight Of Pegasus: The AVE Mizar
Allegedly obsessed with flying cars, it seems like our latest obsession happens to be with turbocharged Pinto motors. So what if an ex-Northrop engineer grafted the wings and ass end of a Cessna Skymaster to a Ford Pinto and had the prototype painted by a hot van artist? Not 1973 enough for you yet? What if we told you that Southern California Ford megadealer Galpin was involved as the distributor? And that the project was on track until the wing assembly somehow came apart and sent inventor Hen
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Chrysler Group CEO Tom LaSorda Says "There's Nothing To See Here, Folks — Move Along"
Chrysler Group CEO Tom "Lose Weight By Cutting The Fat" LaSorda is urging employees to remain calm and ignore all the hubbub out there about the German-American hybrid looking to sell off the not-so-equal side of the "merger of equals." Somehow we're going to bet it'll take more than an e-mail from the boss to lift spirits down there. Maybe free ice cream or something. That always seems to work for GM. Here's the full text of the e-mail:
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Orange Crush: Volkswagen's GTI Fahrenheit Edition
What would you say to a spec'ed-up Volkswagen GTI in a lovely shade of metallic orange? Seriously. It's the Fahrenheit edition, and it's hitting dealerships this week. VW's offering the limited edition to 1200 buyers, who will be asked to pay nearly $28,000 for the privilege of a European sport-tuned suspension, 18" alloys and orange interior trim. Plus, you can have any gearbox, as long as it's DSG. Not sure if that's exactly a bargain, but if your kids were recently featured on "Laguna Beach,"
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Not So Many Briefcases Left: Does Dr. Z Really Want To Make A Deal On Chrysler?
This whole "Chrysler Group for sale" thing has gotten so much interest that, well...ok, so not that many automakers really appear to be so much interested. The list of "interested parties" (or the list that won't comment on their interest, which in and of itself means...well...not much either) has gotten even smaller since yesterday when we found out Renault-Nissan wasn't interested. We've now heard V-Dub isn't interested in picking up the slack from their cross-national automaking buddy, Daim
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Spy Photos: I Am The Corvette SS Powertrain Mule
Why yes, that is the new Corvette SS (or whatever) powertrain being mule-tested at — well, we'll just let the guy who just lost his job by posting these on a forum explain where they are from:
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Geneva Pre-Show: Hyundai Arnejs i30 Compact Hatch Makes An Early Entrance
Hyundai's been planning an exclusive press presentation of the European developed i30 compact hatch at the Four Seasons Hotel in Geneva one day before the Geneva Show media days begin. Well now the swanky soiree may be a little less swank, as a number of fan sites around the net seem to have prematurely shot their load of pictures onto their forum pages. We don't have know much else about the i30 other than it'll be powered by the same engines running under the hood of it's its cross-brand cousi
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Over The Back Fence: Acura NSX Going Back To The Drawing Board?
Hey, so did you like the Advanced Sports Car Concept (gallery below) Acura showed off at Detroit last month? Did you hope that would be the design language used for the next NSX? You did? Well...that stinks, because they weren't ever going to build that one. But wait, aren't you excited for the Tokyo Show car that insiders said would really show off the design of a new NSX? You are? Well...then life is twice as stinky. According to the folks who've never seen a Road that's straight,
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UAW's Gettelfinger Waxes On Ford, Gives No Opinion On Chrysler-GM Combo
Apparently the way UAW head honcho Ron Gettelfinger sees it, there's really nothing to say about this whole GM-buying-Chrysler bug everyone's caught. Earlier today on WJR Radio in Detroit, the chieftain of the auto workers said "I have absolutely no opinion on that at all...It may end up that it's not sold. Who knows?" That may make Ron the one industry insider out there who's truly calling it as they see it — because really, other than that one person who knows "better than anyone else covering
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IMSA Merkurs! Yes!
Back when Ford was preparing to launch Merkur, they decided it might raise a bit of brand awareness to campaign the XR4Ti in IMSA's GTU class. With a slight dip in displacement over the car's Pinto-based 2.3 mill, the cars, prepared and campaigned by Kent Racing. A bit later, FoMoCo shifted the XR4Ti's mission to Trans-Am and over-two-litre IMSA competition, with the Merks running under Roush's aegis. Peter Cipolla, a man from the Show-Me State we can throw our weight behind, has rescued a coupl
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Danny Howes Attacks Michigan Governor's Husband For Telling The Truth About Toyota
Fair warning here — if you're not into the industry navel-gazing, you'll probably just want to run along to another post — because this one'll be a doozy. I digitally opened up the Detroit papers this morning, ready to sink into some meaty auto industry news when I ran into something both strange and bizarre. It was none other than the pundit of automotive pontification for The Detroit News, Danny Howes. Now normally I enjoy reading Danny playing the conservative role for the adoring anglo-sax
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The Late, Lamented Mustang SVO: Ford Attempts Formula SUPER POTENTIAL!
What was the coolest of the Fox-body Mustangs? Without a doubt, it's the SVO. Obviously threatened by the birth of the Mitsubishi Starion, Ford decided to take the fabulous Mitsubishi on using its own formula: slightly-over-two-litre turbocharged I4, sport tuned suspension Space Shuttle-look exterior components, etc. Its 2.3 turbo mill also found its way into the Merkur XR4ti — the main difference between that car and its European Sierra twin. Truth be told, though, we'd still rather have the Me
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If You Can't Buy It, Build It: Wanky The Safety Cat
When I got my first beater car as a proto-hoon of 16, my dad had some excellent advice, straight from the Midwestern heartland where he learned about wrenching: "Son," he said, squinting at my barely-running Corona, popping the top on his can of Old Milwaukee, and taking a mighty swig, "You need to get yourself a JC Whitney catalog!" He knew the address by heart: JC Whitney, Chicago, Illinois, so that's what I wrote on the postcard requesting my first catalog. Soon the first of many wonderful p
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Autoextremist: Should GM, Chrysler, Marry?
Sweet Peet D. decides to weigh in on whether GM, the car company he knows "probably better than anyone else covering the business out there," according to himself and Chrysler, his former employer, should should just give up and get together. According to His Peetness, the road to a successful acquisition of Chrysler by the General would be fraught with difficulty, most notably by the crew led by Ron "Don't Lay a Finger on My" Gettelfinger and a whole pantsload of dealers that would require buyo
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From Bucket To Binary: Morrison Corvette Scanned Into Gran Turismo
3400 hours of work and three years is a long time. That's about how long it took Art Morrison Enterprises to take what was essentially a basket case 1960 Chevrolet Corvette and turn it into a machine worthy not only of Art and Craig Morrison's high standards of finish and performance, but also of the Next Edition Gran Turismo HD.
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Alfa Romeo 166 Spotted In NYC
A denizen of The Car Connection's TCC lounge caught a sketchy Alfa Romeo 166 from MY1998-2001 on the upper east side of Manhattan. To call it a gray market model may be kind of a stretch. It's actually a black-market model, considering most of these Alfas were imported illegally. Though there's always a chance this guy got some manner of exemption for his executive car, which is registered in Pennsylvania. Still, it did trigger our yen for stateside Alfas, which should arrive back on these shore
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Running Out Of Dance Partners: Renault-Nissan Denies Interest In Chrysler Group
Seriously, the 'merican side of the German-American hybrid's been shunned by the likes of Fiat and Hyundai, and now they've been denied by the cross-global alliance of Renault-Nissan. The Wall Street Journal's reporting Renault Chief Financial Officer Thierry Moulonguet as telling investors in London that the Renault-Nissan duo isn't interested in Chrysler in any manner. In addition, spokeswoman Madoka Soma has made it clear they're dealing with their own problems at the moment,
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Half-Century Of Hybrids? No, Camry Hybrid 50th Anniversary Edition
Hold on, the Camry Hybrid's been around for 50 years? Well, no. And it's really only been a couple of decades for the Camry badge. (Let's hear it for ambiguous press release headlines.) In truth, Toyota's new 50th Anniversary Edition Camry celebrates 50 years of Toyota doing business in the US. At base, it's a spec'ed-up Camry Hybrid. Outside are 16" alloys with a graphite finish, a Blizzard Pearl paint job; inside is a voice-activated DVD nav system with a four-disc changer, leather-trimmed bis
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GM An Official Transformers Movie Partner, Rick Wagoner To Play Megatron?
Yes, it's officially the end of the world. The Decepticons are in the gate, and evil now goes by another name — General Motors. The General's officially added their name to a "power partnership" with Paramount Pictures today at the General's pre-Oscar fashion event in Hollywood for joint promotion of the new upcoming live-action Transformers movie. As part of the gala, they helped introduce "four...movie stars." Namely they're who we already know about, the disguise-side alt-modes of everyone's
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More On The KTM X-Bow: Real Photos, Track Testing 101
The KTM wizards dropped a few more photos of the X-Bow track-day roadster ahead of its unveiling in Geneva next month. They're the first real photos we've seen of the Austrian, Audi-powered two seater. We still can't confirm if that's the old Stig behind the wheel. [Thanks to Bernard for the tip.]
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Question Of The Day: What's Today's Too-Good-To-Be-True $113 GTO?
When I was 17, one of my mom's coworkers flipped out over "that damn junk heap" that her husband had kept rusting in the driveway for years. "Hey, doesn't your kid like cars?" she asked my mom. "If he takes it today he can have it for $113!" (Bad Husband had paid $112 for it). Next thing I know, I'm handing over the cash for what I'm told is "some kind of ugly Pontiac that gets terrible mileage."
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Breaking! Nissan Offers "Voluntary" Buyouts To Tennessee Hourly Workers
We just received a tip letting us know Nissan will be offering a "voluntary transition program" — otherwise known as a "cash buyout" — to all workers in the automaker's Smyrna and Decherd, Tennessee plants. The Smyrna plant began by building trucks and SUV's, but has recently moved into car production — a less labor-intensive process. Decherd makes engines. All hourly workers will be offered the plan which includes cash incentives of "$45,000 lump sum payment and an additional $500 for each ye
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Isetta In Drag: The Whatta Drag
As its name attests, the Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum is the venue for all manner of microcar, from the Grataloup to the Vespa 400 and right up to the towering Isetta. In fact, funny story. There was this Hot Wheels car called the Whatta Drag. It was part Isetta, part drag bike and all the kind of Hot Wheels car that sat, unpicked, in the back of the box when cars were played. Nonetheless, the team at Bruce Weiner went about building a full-scale version of the Whatta Drag, using a 1959 Isetta 3
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Chrysler Would Prefer A Chery-Flavored Hornet Rather Than Plain Chery
Negotiations have been going on for around a month between Chery and the Chrysler Group over what b-segment car the folks at Chery may build for the less-than-equal side of the "merger of equals." AutoWeek's reporting the folks at the 'merican side of the German-American hybrid are a bit concerned over the quality level of Chery's b-segment lineup. So instead of having them build one of their own vehicles, Chrysler looks to be moving in the direction of having them build the Dodge Hornet concept
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Geneva Pre-Show: Donkervoort D8 GT
Dutch specialty car builder Donkervoort (whose funny Dutchness belies a lack of humorous meaning) revealed the D8 GT it plans to unveil at the Geneva Show next month. For those unaware of Donkervoort's charms, it's a purveyor of batshit mad Lotus Seven-style sports cars like the 270 RS. The D8 GT is a coupe, whose carbon-fiber roof provides extra rigidity, though whose scissor doors add needless glam. Under the hood is the Donk's customary Audi-sourced 1.8 turbo four, producing 180, 210 or 270 h
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You Know Ford Is FUBARMoCo When Even CAR Is Calling It A "Company Meltdown"
I thought it was established fact that FoMoCo was in a "company meltdown" — I mean, did we really need a labor economist like Sean McAlinden from the Center for Automotive Research to tell us that? Well, at least he provided us a meaningful set of stats telling us a 20% cut in wages and benefits at the blue collar level could lower Ford's costs by $1.4 billion per year for the next four years. I mean, that's good and all that they're going to be asking the UAW to help by making concessions — b
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JC Whitney '75: Hauntingly Beautiful Vinyl Van Murals By Greg Of Akron
Hang on to your mood rings, swingin' studs and feathered foxes, because Murilee's got himself a 1975 JC Whitney catalog! And within that catalog are some wonderful things that make me get back to work on the half-finished time machine in the basement. For example, look at what $7.95 or $12.95 would get you: a genuine stick-on vinyl "Exotic full-color mural" featuring a "special airbrush technique" for the look of "expensive, original hand painted scenes!" But, best of all, these hauntingly beaut
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Geneva Pre-Show: Maserati GranTourismo Coupe Revealed
Maserati's revealed its new Pininfarina-designed GranTourismo Coupe, ahead of the car's unveiling at the Geneva show next month. With styling more suggestive of Maserati's Quattroporte sedan (also a Pininfarina job), and weight distribution of 49/51, the new model will likely erase memories of GTs current and past. The standard 4.2-liter V8s been tweaked to produce 405 hp, and it'll be linked to the trident's new automatic transmission, which includes a paddle shifted quasi-manual feature. Spyde
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New Mexico Gets Tesla "WhiteStar" Facility — To Produce An Electric Fusion?
I had the chance to meet Tesla Motors CEO Martin Eberhard briefly at the Detroit Auto Show this year, not less than a couple of days after their research center was to be opening in Metro Detroit. I jokingly asked him if we'd be seeing a manufacturing center for the "White Star" four-door 'lectric sedan located nearby as well. Eberhard was coy on the subject, and no wonder — New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson announced earlier today that Tesla Motors will build a new automobile assembly facili
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Ad Watch: T.I. And Dale Jr. Play Ride-Swap For Chevy At Daytona 500
The Daytona 500 actually lives up to the "Super Bowl of racing" tag-line in one way, that's the commercials. And with NASCAR commercials, there's one thing that everyone agrees on: racers in jumpsuits and country western sell. That's why even if the Chevy brand's trying to look "cool," "hip" and "with it" brandishing a rapper like T.I. (last seen in Chevy's Super Bowl of Super Bowl's ad) as it's corporate singing shill of shivery cool, they've still got to do it with Dale Earnhardt Jr showing up
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Road Rage Roundup: McMissiles And Lengthy Jail Terms!
It's Monday afternoon, and that means it's Road Rage Roundup time!
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Breaking! XM, Sirius Announce Merger!
Although rumors have been running rampant since this morning, it's now official — they'll be combining in a $13 billion "merger of equals." Where have I heard that before? Oh wait, yeah — isn't DaimlerChrysler trying to sell off one of those "equals" as we speak? Anyway, here's the press release — hot off of wherever it is press releases come from these days:
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Confirmed: Volkswagen Building R Touareg
According to Holland's AutoTelegraaf, an overzealous media employee spilled the beans on a closely guarded secret among V-dub brass. That is, the company is building an R edition of its Touareg SUV. Not a mere R Line appearance package, like the Touareg above, this is a real R-spec performance truck, with a tweaked version of the 4.9-liter V10 TDI diesel. No word on performance numbers, but we're betting something in the 400-hp range and torque in the uprooting-an-elm range.
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Daytona 500 After-Party: Clint Bowyer Makes Driving Upside Down Look Easy
In case you missed the "fun" and "excitement" of the first 185 laps of yesterday's "Super Bowl of racing" — and our tremendous coverage — you missed out on a really superb nap. But if you missed the last 15 laps — you missed a helluva good show. It wasn't just for the close finish, it was because it was such a wild finish. As cars headed up the frontstretch towards the finish on the final lap — and as more than a dozen drivers thought they had a shot at history — a little friend named "chaos" pa
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Welcome To Smog Hell: The Mid-80s CVCC Engine
Now I love the third-generation Honda Civic. At this point I have owned at least a half-dozen '84-'87 Civics; they're quick, soldier on for 300,000+ hassle-free miles, and parts are easy to find. But I will never own another carbureted 3G Civic, not since the Smog Overlords imposed the dyno-based Smog II testing standard on Northern California. The CVCC engine, with its double combustion chambers, requires thee most complicated rat's nest of vacuum hoses, solenoids, dashpots, and sensors I've ev
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Buy Chrysler For $13 Billion: JP Morgan To Formally Kick Off Auction This Week?
According to UK's The Times, JP Morgan, the US investment bank advising the German-American hybrid on the future of the 'merican side of the not-so-much a merger of equals, will "formally kick off a $13 billion auction by sending information memorandums to a number of potential suitors as early as this week." Not only is that interesting, as it completely runs contrary to everything publicly DaimlerChrysler's said on the issue, but as we're now learning " a number of interested bidders started
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Daytona 500: Kevin Harvick Beats Mark "Old Man" Martin By A Tenth Of A Second!
Wait, what — Mark Martin just won the Daytona 500? What is this — February of 1982? That's because '82 was the first year Martin raced in Florida's 200-lap "Super Bowl of Racing." Before today, the man's won 47 races and finished in the top ten 141 times. But the one win he'd never had — was Daytona 500. After leading 26 laps, he finally saw his first win in the 500-mile race today — beating out a hard charge by fellow Impala SS driver Kyle Busch in his #5 car and the #16 Ford run by Greg Biffle
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Daytona 500 Live-Blog: Tony Stewart's Loose Ass Causes A Problematic Crash
With Kurt Busch following Tony Stewart's loose ass into the oblivion of an early exit to the Daytona 500, we're now into the last 50 laps of the "Super Bowl of Racing." We've now got Martin Truex Jr. in the #1 Chevy car leading, with Mark Martin in the #01 Chevy car (not to be confused with the #1 car) following closely behind and Kyle Busch in 3rd place in his #5 Chevy. Yay, only 30-some-odd laps to go!
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Daytona 500 Live-Blog: Drive Quickly, Call Me Jeff Gordon...
Yup, the man in the rainbow brite car's moved up from 42nd place to 20th, and somehow Boris Said found a way to disappoint his legions of Said-heads by taking himself out of the race.
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Daytona 500 Live-Blog: It's All About The Pre-Race
Well, Big n' Rich just sang the national anthem, and we're all set up in our comfy chair ready to watch some racing. Stick with us today as we keep y'all in the know on the latest happenings in what's been dubbed "the Super Bowl of racing." We'd call it that ourselves but although it's got some big money ads, we're not entirely convinced it's a "Super Bowl" if there aren't lines at every bar around — and as we've been reading, that's not always the case above the Mason-Dixon line. Oh wait, Nick
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Hyundai Interested In Chrysler? Yes, Hyundai.
Oy, this whole "let's sell the Chrysler Group" thing that Dr. Z has going on is taking another turn for the weird. The Times UK's now reporting that the Korean car company with a lot of vowels is now interested in the 'merican side of the German-American hybrid. The paper's reporting on the entire issue should be weighed with at least a little skepticism as they've covered the GM discussions as though interest in the Chrysler Group's fait accompli:
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German TV Network To Get Oscar Winners To Name-Drop In A GeigerCars Escalade
ProSieben, Germany's second-biggest television network, is all about American star-humping. With a motto of "we love to entertain you," the network is largely dependent on US-copyrighted shows and movies. It's a network well-known for running promos and lead-ins for the shows featuring the 'merican stars and cast parroting the network motto like a Matt Lauer recorded reach-around for a local NBC affiliate. These promos are called the "ProSieben Star Force" and to facilitate the network's addicti
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Spy Photos: Exclusive Pictures Of The Nissan GT-R!
Much to the chagrin of many an automaking engineer, Jalopnik readers are often quite handy and quick with a camera. Mike Vermeesch and Adam E. are no different. The pair got some up-close-and-personal pictures and video of the new Nissan GT-R doing some cold-weather testing up in Bay City, MI. As you can see from the photo, we can now count Nissan engineers among those caught testing some new sheet metal. We'll have the handycam video up shortly, but for the time being check out the gallery bel
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And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Parts: Replace An Alternator
Recent dash light disco electrical mayhem from the Starlet served as a reminder that an automotive electrical system can go haywire at any time. An automobile electrical system comprises three key parts. The battery stores electricity to spin the starter and start the engine. The alternator produces electricity once the engine is running by way of an engine driven belt. The voltage regulator balances the delivery of electrical power between the battery, spark plugs, and hi-fi stereo playing Burt
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Disqualified! Jeff Gordon Fails Inspection, Worked Real Hard For 42nd Slot At Daytona
We thought we had the problems behind us from earlier this week at the closed-cock-pit always-turn-left race league's first competition of the year. After what some have taken to call the "Waltrip-ping" incident or "Toyota-gate," NASCAR's first race of the season certainly is showing a talent for the technical violations. The newest driver to be penalized was the rainbow racer himself. That's right — Jeff Gordon's winning car from the second of Thursday's two 150-mile qualifying races was disqua
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Ford's Failing Report Card: Automaker Grounded, Not Allowed Out To Play?
Apparently, according to an internal report card Ray Day spirited over to that made it's way into the hands of Mark Truby Bryce Hoffman at The Detroit News, FoMoCo ain't quite hitting the metrics it's set out for itself. This despite a request from new CEO Alan Mulally for "unblushing honesty" and "realistic goals for 2007." Apparently even reality isn't "realistic" enough as the plan points out FoMoCo's missed its retail sales market share goal in the United States by 10,600 vehicles and doesn'
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This Is Our Country, This Is Our Chrysler?
According to The New York Times, those "talks" we reported on yesterday? Yeah, they're occurring, but apparently they're not what manager-magazin.de thought they were. According to Detroit bureau chief "Hey!" Micki Maynard's sources, it's actually all about the platforms. Namely, the platform that GM has and that the Chrysler Group wants. That's right, according to the NYT, the General's all about pimping out their GMT-900 platform to the king priest of the religion of platform prostitution, the
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Harlequin Trabant Alert On eBay!
Oh, I yearn for this car. Who cares that I'd have to ship it back from Deutschland, or that its two-stroke mill would probably get me sent straight to jail as soon as the Smog Police saw it on a California street. Because, well, look at it! And air horns! Gott in Himmel! Current bid price: 1 Euro
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Auto Return Has Nothing To Hide
It's the same in every American city: cars get towed away for unpaid parking fines, a Franz Kafka-scripted drama ensues for the erstwhile car owners, and the cars are auctioned off. But somehow San Francisco, where you'd better be sure to wear some goddamn flowers in your hair, adds that extra bit of pain to the whole process. Since City Tow lost their contract to handle the towing/auctioning process after a slew of alleged improprieties a few years back, their successor, Auto Return, has attemp
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Michael Waltrip Handed Biggest NASCAR Sanction Ever, We Don Rocket Scientist Hats
There's more news from Daytona, as the closed-cockpit 'merican rubbin' is racin' league has levied what would seem to be some pretty serious sanctions against Michael Waltrip over the "undetermined substance" in the engine manifold of his #55 Toyota car before qualifying runs at Daytona on Sunday. In fact, the sanctions are the worst NASCAR's ever given out, as AutoWeek reports:
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Tell The Estonian Defense Forces: New Mercedes G-Wagon's Just A Little Different
That lovable Gel ndewagen, the German military vehicle almost replaced by the GL-Class familial barge, has gotten a new look. And by "look" we mean you have to really look for the differences. Mainly, the changes are focused in the interior, with a restyled dash binnacle, modified center console, and a newly styled steering wheel. (Seriously, look hard.) Outside, the only telltale addition is that of new, LED-look taillights. New features include a back-up camera for dodging pesky Peta protester
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The Official Car Pundit Drinking Game: Wait, There's Chrysler News Today?
Well, when shit rains, shit pours, and since it's too cold to rain today in Detroit, it's got to be a blizzard. That's what it's got to feel like is coming down today over at the 'merican side of the German-American hybrid. First was the just-shy-of-horrible earnings announcement, the 13,000 jobs cuts and then there was the news breaking early this AM that the Chrysler Group's sale is being contemplated. Sounds like kind of a sticky day, and "America's business channel" needs someone to help pry
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Borg-Warner All-Wheel Drive Coming To Sebring, Avenger
Any press release containing the words "Building on our successful launch on the 2007 Chrysler Pacifica" has a bit of a credibility problem. Fortunately, BorgWarner's spinmeisters aren't talking about the Pacifica itself. They're lauding the front wheel all-wheel drive system currently underpinning [dust collecting] upmarket examples of DCX's proto-CUV. ITM 3e is the first all wheel-drivery to reduce power to the rear wheels at highway speeds to improve fuel economy. It's yet another clever gizm
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All Your Automakers Are Belong To GM: General Motors Looking At Acquiring Chrysler Group?
Photo By: Bill Pugliano / Getty Images News
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eBay Find: Sweet Firey Geronimo! Jet Powered Go Kart!
I'm wondering if you can hear that. That funny noise? Yeah, that's me foaming at the mouth from whatever distance it is from you to Detroit. Are you freakin' SERIOUS? Jet powered go kart?! Phew... Phew.... let me take a little breather here. Okay there, now that the blood is returning to my brain, this little number is pretty slick and I'll tell you why. Any Joe Blow can stretch a go kart body and slap a snazzy engine on it, but it takes an artist to built an engine like this. Everyone knows tur
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Ford Europe's 2008 Mondeo, Coming To Geneva
Ford Europe released the latest on its redesigned Mondeo, which premiered in lights of lime during last year's Bond vehicle "Casino Real." It played an airport rental car, which won't necessarily different from the real European Mondeo. But the first manifestation of Ford Europe's "kinetic design" language is too well designed to be relegated to rental hell. It's debuting in Geneva in four-door, five-door and wagon models, ahead of sale this June.
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Not An M, It's An M Sport: BMW's New High-Spec 3-Series
Despite our objections to BMW using its M name on anything but its pure sports models, the company's gone and revealed its latest 3-Series cars in M Sport spec anyway. That means no M Power, but an aero kit, sport suspension setup and 18" M star-spoke alloys (or, optionally, 19" double-spokers). Inside you'll find more such puffery (no word on how many Alacantaras were killed). Feel free to browse the spec sheet after the jump.
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Breaking! Chrysler Group To Cut 13,000 Workers And Return To Profitability By Investing In...Engines?
Now we understand why Dr. Z won't be talking about the Chrysler Group. The main man in the big office in Stuttgart is letting his main man in Auburn Hills, MI give the bold and bad news and put his ass on the line. Like when he's giving the news today that instead of 11,000 job cuts, the 'merican side of the German-American hybrid's trying to beat expectations on the street and cut 13,000 jobs, which amounts to approximately a 16% cut. hourly employment will be reduced by 11,000 over three yea
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Breaking! DaimlerChrysler Makes $7.3 Billion In 2006, Chrysler Group Posts Loss Of $1.5 Billion, Up To $1.3 Billion In 2007 On Restructuring
Photo Credit: Bill Pugliano / Getty Images News
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Aston Martin's Bon Voyage Vanquish S "Ultimate Edition"
With 007 having already made the switch to the Aston Martin DBS, and the Vantage V12 fading out this year. Aston's offering a farewell edition. Actually, the latest fruit of Buckinghamshire is the Vanquish S "Ultimate Edition," and it's getting a black-on-black treatment — sorry "Ultimate Black." It's also getting a newly swank interior of semi-anline leather and chrome-finish fittings, as well as a number'd plaque (collect 'em all!). Only 40 will be produced, so back up the Brinks truck early a
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Question Of The Day: Your Greatest Wrecks
Every accident I've been in has been mundane. Fender-benders and whatnot. Only two of them ever involved insurance companies, — one of which was only because the woman who rear-ended me was in a company car. I could've repaired the damage she did for 300 bucks and an hour's labor. Her company offered me $1,500. In fact, only one ever actually resulted in a bent fender. The hairiest incident occurred in Northern Ireland seven years ago when a pretty girl I met at a club in Newry spun her parents'
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Breaking Valentine's Heart! Chrysler Group Gets 11,000 Job Cuts And Two Plant Closures
It looks like based on early reports this will be one hell of a terrible Valentine's Day for Chrysler employees in Missouri and Delaware. That's because The New York Times is reporting:
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Jeep Stops Head-Bobbing: LaSorda Pissed At Everyone, Sends Marketing For Jeep Brand Out To Bid
Apparently Tom LaSorda's got some serious rage going on today. We're assuming it's about the terrible head-bobbing ads for the Jeep Compass and not just random displays of bravado in the face of what'll more than likely be a terrible Valentine's Day tomorrow. The ads, which were criticized by both the ad pundit class (for being well, head-bobbing) as well as dealers (for showing nada in the way of details on the new "urban-uv") were created by the ad house, Global Hue, but were to be shunned in
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Blog Hoonage: Anger, Poorly Managed
• Earth to Madison Avenue: seriously, what's with the suicide references in car commercials? [AdWeek] • One of these days, it's going to snow. When it does, you should probably know how to drive in it. [JG-TC.com] • Is the Toyota Prius really as eco-friendly as some have been led to believe? [Thunder Pig] • Parking lots in Saudi Arabia, fun for the whole family. [Neal of Arabia] • 10-year old girls: far more frightening than your average pissed-off motorist. [QuizLaw]
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Mitt Romney Likes Cars, Reads Automotive News
Mitt Romney, Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, just declared he's running for president. What's this got to do with cars? Well, Mitt declared his intentions right here in Metro Detroit — and to be precise, he did it in Dearborn at The Henry Ford museum. His declaration of candidacy speech is just rife with auto-love for the Rambler and a certain Keith Crain-produced auto daily:
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Car Hack's Notebook: The Dakar
Last month, St phane Peterhansel, Cyril Despres and Hans Stacey cemented their status as legends with victory in arguably the scariest, most hardcore event in the world, and yet their wins on an event simply known as The Dakar barely registered a blip on the news. When a ChampCar driver next complains about a bump in mid-corner, he might want to consider being shot at by Algerian rebels intent on theft and kidnap, lions waiting in the pit lane or even cresting a hill to find the shifting road su
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??, ??, ??!
Yeah, I'm a little stumped here on this big-footed Soviet-block Trabant. Do we think it actually runs and more importantly, how would it do taking on Truckasaurus?
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I Need A Little Money, 'Cause I'm Gettin' Old: The Promise Ring In A Camaro!
There was a time that didn't seem that long ago when it was de rigeur for punks and indierockers to drive vintage '60s and '70s iron. Hell, Mike LaVella founded an entire mini-empire around the concept. The girls drove old Volvos, Subarus and Valiants, while the boys tended toward 'Cudas, Chevelles, Super Bees, C-Bodies or Cadillacs. Or vans. There naturally had to be one guy out of every six with a van. Tonight I was thinking about the old Promise Ring song, "Old Chevy" and realized that it had
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Compact High: The New Mazda2
Mazda today revealed the redesigned, flame-surfaced subcompact that is its new Mazda2, ahead of its unveiling at the Geneva show next month. Built on Mazda-Ford's new global B1 platform, the new two is rumored to be headed to the US to compete with the Nissan Versa, Honda Fit and that Toyota that looks like a doorknob. Possibly by 2008, but more likely by 2009. [Thanks to Stephan for the tip.]
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Holding Out For That Teenage Feeling: The Old-Car Smell
I recently had a rather erm, charged conversation with a girl I like who happens to have a very acute sense of smell. She remembers my first two cars, both of which outdated us, either by months or years. And they both had an old-car smell about them. She said to me, "Suddenly, I can't get the smell of car parts out of my nose." My Dodge is at this point eight years old, and it's developed its own sort of old-car smell to it. And there's something about that that's homey to me. My uncle's Volvo
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Road Rage Roundup: It's A Weekly Thing!
The Road Rage never stops! And neither does the weekly Road Rage Roundup! We've got another batch of stories recounting the events that take place when folks can't make nice whilst sharing a strip of asphalt. Such as...
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Car Show We Don't Watch Names Honda Fit "Best Of The Year"
PBS's MotorWeek, which is like Top Gear without humor, high production value or entertaining hosts, has named its "Drivers' Choice Awards" for 2007. Most of the choices aren't that surprising: Lexus LS as the "Best Luxury Sedan" and Ford Shelby GT500 for the "Best Performance Car." The one thing that sticks out is the Honda Fit, which is not only the "Best Small Car" but also the "Best of the Year." This is a year after the Honda Civic was named "Best of the Year." Perhaps this shouldn't be surp
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01 Number 01: The First General Lee
Inside Line, new home of the Loverman, has the story of the first General Lee — the example that leaps Rosco's cruiser at the close of the Dukes of Hazzard's opening credits. Hastily assembled by a crew at Warners' the O.G. Lee was in sad shape when Travis Bell located the car in the yard of a Georgia transmission shop. After exchanging hands a number of times, Marvin Murphy commissioned Bell, co-founder of the North American General Lee Fan Club, to spearhead the restoration effort with the wor
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Shelby Takes The Checkered Flag...In Court...Sort Of
It's one of the oldest maxims in the automotive world: drive on Sunday, sue on Monday. OK, that's a bastardization of the actual maxim, but whatevs, it works here so we're rolling with it. A California jury sided with Carroll Shelby in a trademark/licensing case against Wilhelm Motor Works, which has been reproducing classic Shelby Mustangs. But, the jury agreed with WMW that Shelby had unreasonably withheld licensing for one of the company's prototypes. Both parties were awarded damages of $250
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Jalopnik Question Of The Day: Is GM Designer Vicki Vlachakis Hotter Than The Pontiac Solstice?
Is GM Design Manager Vicki Vlachakis better looking than the cars she designs? We'll call it the Ralph Gilles Effect (we're comfortable enough to admit he is better looking than a Chrysler 300, if just barely). Vlachakis is the pen behind the recently launched Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky convertibles. Described in this flattering Freep article as "Part car geek, part Malibu glam girl," her work has definitely been turning heads. House & Garden magazine recently named her one of America's to
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Job One Redux: Ford Prepares New Ad Campaigns For Taurus, Sable
Now that Ford has decided to re-christen (rather than feed) the Five Hundred, it's no surprise that the Blue Oval Boyz are set to launch a new marketing campaign around its retro-monikers. In advance of that mind-boggling campaign, Ward's had a chin wag with the Cisco Kid (that's Cisco Codina, Ford's group vice president, North America Marketing, Sales and Service). Mr. Codina stressed that bringing back the Taurus, Taurus X (nee Freestyle) and Sable (nee Montego) nameplates was not, as reported
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I Am The Gert: Riding Shotgun In A Se7en Over Decker Canyon
For part 47 of "Why My Job Is Better than Your Job," I direct your attention to how I spent my Saturday. Turns out that Jalopnik blabbermouth commenter and all around righteous dude Al Navarro is president of USA7s.com, a new club dedicated to all cars inspired by the legendary Lotus 7. He sent the Postfather a query wondering if any of us So-Cal Jalopnikos would be interested in riding a Se7en around Decker Canyon. I was screaming "YES!" at the top of my lungs. At 6:30 am. On a Tuesday. Alone i
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Swiss Moneybags Names Ferrari Enzo Most Iconic Automobile
The early Christian Church got so fed up with icon worship they made the practice a sin. When that didn't play well in Peoria (and the Greeks opted out), the Church backpedaled, redecorated and told the faithful it's OK to "venerate" an icon. Just remember who's boss. According to Zurich Private Clients, it's Ferrari. The insurance provider to the chronically well-heeled has named the Enzo as the world's most iconic automobile. I know: how can a vehicle be "more" iconic than another? That's like
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Spy Photos: More Mazda2
There's no question FoMoCo's trying hard to enhance its offering of b-segment "microcars" it's got sitting in the company's micro machine carry-all. We're assuming that in addition to the available-only-overseas Fiesta, the Mazda2 (aka Mazda Demio, Mazda 121, Mazda Metro and a whole host of other brand names) is going to play a key role in that effort. The little DY-platformed FWD sub-compact's been a big hit in the segment in all of its names in both the European and Asian markets. But will i
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The Jalopnik Morning Shift
• So wait a second — does this mean Delaware is Europe? [NYT] • "Maximum" Bob Lutz turns 75 today, plus some other interesting stuff other than the fact that he's older than dirt and designing cars for the kiddies. I do think he's explaining in the picture how he was born from a jet. [Detroit News] • Joe Guy Collier argues the Toyota Tundra has the right stuff for people who don't need trucks. [Freep] • We knew there was something special about the Enzo Ferrari — we just knew it was an icon fo
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Geneva Pre-Show: Dodge's Demon-Ic Concept Car
Chrysler Group's been pushing the Dodge brand to the European market in hardcore fashion. Take as most recent evidence the new Dodge Demon roadster prototype the company's planning to roll out at the Geneva show next month. For visual guidance, picture a Mazda MX-5 birthed in the seventh ring of Hell (home to the violent types). And that's fitting, because Chrysler Group's design guru Trevor Creed has the MX-5 buyer in his crosshairs. Dodgeification's been achieved by way of the signature grille
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Oh What A Not Good Feeling! Underwhelming Michael Waltrip Sees Toyota Impounded Due To "Potential Cheating Scandal"
The first potential ToMoCo slight of the day involved the NASCAR.com website, but the second's coming directly from NASCAR officials track-side. Michael Waltrip's being accused of potentially using "an undetermined substance in the intake manifold" of his bright and shiny new Toyota by officials during normal inspections before qualifying runs today. NASCAR officials then confiscated the manifold, causing "widespread speculation among rival teams in the garage area that Waltrip's team could put
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We're Not Going To Live-Blog Daytona 500 Pole Qualifying
Photo: Nick Laham/Getty Images Sport
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Jalopnik Weekend: How Much Good Could A Good Man Do If A Good Man Could Do Good?
Turns out, lots. Driving home on the Arroyo Seco last night (the portion of the 110 between Pasadena and Highland Park) I began realizing just how much of my life I will soon be spending on the world's first freeway. Inside Line is HQ'd in the People's Republic of Santa Monica, meaning that starting Monday not only will I have to deal with the shitty 10, but also the staggering volume of traffic that goes through the 4-level Interchange (think the beginning of Falling Down when "D Fens" abandons
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Iraq Is A Better Investment Than General Motors?!
Junk bonds are more about reading tea leaves than a science but sometimes, especially with extremely undervalued or overvalued entities, it goes from "tea leaves" to ludicrously silly. Like today. CNBC's reporting "bond gurus" as pricing GM bonds in such a way that Iraqi national bonds are rated higher. That means pricing's occurring on the belief that "Iraq has about the same chance of going bankrupt as General Motors." The mid-day show on the network most well known for letting me on to talk a
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How To Make Your Car Cassette Player Useful Again
Nevermind that silly OEM iPod connection we talked about earlier on the Scion. We've found a way to use your old cassette adapter in a cool and new way. CarDomain.com user JPPadula has done some amazing entertainment tech upgrades to one of the featured rides on his user page, a 2002 GMC Denali. In addition to some neon and electric power enhancements on the SUV, he's also created one of the most ingenious iPod cradle units we've seen. Guess what he used? That's right, all of it's housed in a
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And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Parts: Change An Air Filter
The internal combustion engine at its core is an air pump. It takes in air, mixes it with fuel, and ignites the mixture to make power. Over the course of even a minute, an engine can breathe in a massive volume of air. A 2-liter engine can inhale nearly 3000 liters of air per minute at cruising speed. That's 1500 2-liter bottles of soda a minute! All of this air enters the engine through the air filter.
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Question(s) Of The Day: Who Will Buy Primedia's Car Titles; Which Will Be Cut?
Ho, snap. Just a day after content giant, Primedia announced it was buying car-niche competitor VerticalScope Inc.'s Modified, Modified Luxury and Exotics titles, the company announced it's looking to sell off its remaining enthusiast titles. Primedia has been on a cash-raising binge, of late, for example, shedding its crafts pubs late last year for around $132 million and its hunting, fishing and outdoor titles to private equity firm InterMedia Partners for $170 million in cash. The publisher o
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Karl Benz? Nein! DaVinci Invents The Automobile
Eighteen eighty five is so 122 years ago, Karl. All the coolest engineers and great thinkers were inventing cars back in 1478. Well, if by "car" you mean self-propelled conveyance, then yes, this is totally a car. (If you're going to be a d-bag and insist on internal combustion, then no, but you'd have to be Canadian to define it so narrowly.) Okay, Enough hubris; back to the retro-futuristic innovationism that is the Da Vinci car. The engineer in me really gets hot over the linear output of the
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The 2008 Scion tC Revealed, Gets Standard iPod Connectivity
Oh yeah, in all of the excitement to show off the Scion's two brothers yesterday, the all-new 2008 Scion xD and the re-styled 2008 Scion xB, everyone forgot about the new-for-2008 Scion brand sales leader, the tC. Well, let's rectify that little problem, because hey — Scion's issued a press release and some PR shots. The tC gets a bit of a newer style including an upper mesh grille, and rear tail lights with a styling that'll make sure you'll be confused as to whether you'll be looking at the f
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Did GM's Bob Lutz Mention The "Great Style" Of The Pontiac G8?
The picture above's from the introduction of Pontiac's new G8 muscle car, and as you can see, that's one seriously excited GM vice chairman for products. We know "Maximum" Bob Lutz's focus is the look and feel of the product — but he was spending a lot of time on the hard-core sell of the "great style" talking point on the new Pontiac G8. Although we didn't catch it on video when he did it twice during the introduction when he claimed the Holden Commodore-derived RWD V6 and V8 muscle car had "it
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Spy Photos: Nissan GT-R, Almost
A couple of Nissan buffs caught sight of what looks to be NIssan's new GT-R coupe in Santa Fe, New Mexico, surrounded by a squad of Japanese engineers on a testing junket. Obviously, they were loading up on microwaved chorizo breakfast burritos and taking a breather from flogging the upcoming twin-turbo burner — to be unveiled in production trim at the Tokyo show later this year — on desert roadways.
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Chicago Auto Show: RONDO SX SUPER SLAKEY CONCEPT SPACE WAGON!
It's time once again to work up that RONDO thirst. The rollout of the RONDO SX Concept at the big Chicago show makes it official. Driving an econobox need not be drab. The RONDO SX takes styling cues from itself and existing SX cousins, but means them up a bit to bring forth an aggressive and sporty look. A cold air intake and cat back exhaust take the otherwise stock engine to 192 hp. A three-inch suspension drop onto some 18-inch rims shod with sticky Michelins keeps RONDO closer to the road.
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Chicago Auto Show: Scion xD
Scion also rolled out its xA replacement, the xD — a five-door subcompact based on the Toyota Yaris. Did we mention it's small? Anyway, the xD is more squared off than the Yaris, one of which was recently mistaken for a Hostess Sno-Ball, and subsequently eaten by a group of third graders in Spokane, Washington.
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Playing With Ourselves: The Jalopnik Guide To Chicago Auto Show Infotainment
As part of our ongoing commitment to entertaining while informing, we hit the show floor to find the best in info-tainment displays you wont want to miss if you're braving the cold and visiting the Chicago Auto Show. Our advice: bring a barf bag, Advil and your favorite method of contraception.
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Chicago Auto Show: Scion's New Angry Washing Machine, The 2008 xB, Debuts
Scion launched its latest angry washing machine (thanks, Bob Lutz), which the company's execs would prefer to call "sinister." It's the new Scion xB, and in addition to getting a complete redesign, it's gotten more power by way of the tC's 2.4-liter four — that's 158 horsepower, 55 more than the current model. Transmission choices are five-speed manual or a four-speed automatic with sequential shifting, which as the press release reads is a first for automatic four-speeds in the Scion or Toyota
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Ain't No Galaxie! The 1967 Ford Custom
I've been thinking about how much more fun a big lumbering 60s family sedan is when it has a floor-shifted manual trans; back then, the cheapest base-level model would come with a three-on-the-tree as standard equipment, though almost everybody upgraded to the automatic. Not my dad, though; when his boss decided a company car was needed, he sent my dad to the Ford dealership and let him choose the options "within reason." So naturally the first car I remember from earliest childhood is a '67 For
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Chicago Auto Show: The BMW Alpina B7, Because There's No Such Thing As M7
BMW tuner pal Alpina's 7-Series, the d butante known as B7, made its coming-out earlier today in formal court dress. The $115,000, supercharged seven doesn't quite break the 200 mph marky (top speed, 186 mph), but it can get from zero to 60 in 4.8 seconds and it's got a tweaked six speed and that schmacky set of 21" Alpina rimmage. BMW's vouching for the lady, so we'd imagine she's respectable.
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Chicago Auto Show: US-Bound Volkswagen R32
Volkswagen execs say the 2004 Golf-based R32s are still so highly in demand that they've retained 85% of their resale value (seriously, check the eBay). And now, the company's shown off its long-awaited successor — right, the R32. Considering the updated model's been fitted for the VW/Audi DSG automanual, we're putting the epitome of hot hatches atop our must-drive list for 2007. And to those who were closed out of the previous model by low supply, prospective buyers can (soon) register as prosp
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Chicago Auto Show: Dodge Rolls Heavy Duty In 2008
Dodge has good news from the big show in Chicago for those wanting to become repo men, or just need fill the convertibles of their enemies with paving stones. The new and tougher than ever before Dodge Ram 4500 and 5500 sport an improved 6.7-liter Cummins turbodiesel that kicks out 610 ft lbs of torque at a mere 1600 RPM. A choice between a six-speed manual or automatic puts all that twist to the wheels and gives this series best in class first gear acceleration. The largest brake rotors in the
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Volvo 140 Cars, Rockin' Yer Face!
There are a few people we owe a Wookiee Life Debt to. One of them is a man who shall be known as Beeeg Red, for he is logically a big, red man. Back in '94-95 we would roll 45 miles down to Redwood City for donuts at Chuck's in the middle of the night. We collaborated on completely goofball collegiate writing projects. We would sit around and watch John Woo movies on Saturday nights drinking Bali Blast and Kiwi-Strawberry Snapple, wondering how to get that pretty blonde girl in the flannel shirt
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Chicago Auto Show: Ford Unveils Taurus Models For 2008
No more Five Hundred, sayonara Freestyle. Ford unveiled its new, three-row Taurus, Taurus X (nee Freestyle) and Mercury Sable models in Chicago. Master of ceremonies was none other thanFord's Cisco "Systems" Codina, group vice president North America sales and service ampersand spong whapcaplet looseliver vendetta and prang (brush up on your Monty Python, children). The new models will hit dealerships this summer, ahead of several more years of snide comments from automotive enthusiasts.
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Exclusive! The 2008 Saturn Vue Greenline (Hybrid) And Redline (Not So Much) Live And In The Sheet Metal
We're not afraid to admit at least one of us (that would be me) really digs the new styling of the Saturn Vue. True, it's vaguely jellybean-esque, but it's still so much more appealing to the eyes than the boxy Rubbermaid exterior of the last one, it's hard not to be rooting for the little CUV. We dunno how either the Greenline Hybrid or Redline "performance version" actually perform, but man, we like how they look. Further not helpful lack-of-information-and-deets can be found in the press rel
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Exclusive: 2008 Saturn Astra Live And Unveiled!
And with the introduction of the 2008 Astra, the Opelization of the Saturn line-up is now complete. In fact, the lineup for the customer-conscience brand from the General is actually so all-new, it now claims the Sky roadster as their "oldest product." But this bit of autobahn-tuned 3-door and 5-door hot-hatchness is, according to Jill Lajdziak, Saturn's general manager, expected to hit showrooms during the 4th quarter of this year. Gallery of both the 3-door and the 5-door below, along with the
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Chicago Auto Show: 2008 Toyota Highlander
Just a few Chicago minutes ago, Toyota rolled out its entirely redesigned Toyota Highlander for 2008, along with its hybridized sibling. The new design, which the company says makes way for a roomier interior, is more of an art piece than the unconscionably bland model it replaces. Character lines abound, as do sculpting around the wheel wells — giving it a family resemblance with the smaller RAV4. The hybrid model's Hybrid Synergy Drive system gets an upgrade to 270 hp (net), while the base 3.5
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Ford's New Bull Is Official: Exit The Five Hundred, Enter The Taurus
Yup folks, it's now official. We sent our intrepid young Chi-town connection, Matt Hardigree down to snap some pictures of Mark Fields dropping a load of bull on the crowd. And hey, this time it's actually appropriate to say that — go, us! That gallery's below. There's nothing much more to say other than what the headline on the press release says, so here it is — digest at your own risk.
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Chicago Auto Show: Pontiac G8 GT Show Car
Yeah, it's not like you haven't seen the Pontiac G8 before, but GM released the details on its new rear-driveness this morning. As it turns out, the pictured model is a show car, which has a few features the production model won't. It will get a limited-slip diff and the same 6.0-liter V8, producing 362 hp and 391 lb.-ft. of torque. (Under 400 hp? Don't these guys know there's a war on?) It won't have the 20" wheels, lowered ride height, hi-po brakes with painted calipers, custom interior trim c
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Exclusive! Scion xD And xB Break Out From Their Embargo Box
No idea where they got it from or how they got it Seems Car and Driver is actually the ones who broke the embargo, but since GM Inside News broke it earlier this AM, we've got it here — the new Scion xD, pictured above, and the Scion xB, pictured below the jump. Here's what the folks over at GMIN have to say:
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It's Sort Of Official: Introducing The Ford Taurus, Taurus X And Mercury Sable
Well, when you hear it on BlueOvalNews it must be true. According to the fan site all about FoMoCo, they've got the press release before the press conference — the five hundred will be no more for 2008. Instead, the Dearborn, MI based automaker will be bringin' FleetSalesBack (yeah!), and bringing back the Taurus nameplate. But it won't be just the five hundred that'll be getting the name, the Ford Freestyle will also be re-badged as the "Taurus X" and the Mercury Montego will be re-born as th
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Merkel Don't Need No Merkin: German Chancellor Stands Up For Bruce
Angela Merkel just applied a blast furnace to the cockles of our speed-freak hearts by standing up to the EU and asserting that unrestricted autobahn speeds aren't negotiable. The key to the development of the most Brucetastic vehicles in the world, the highways are a wonder of order and precision, at least when compared to the 405. The German chancellor stared down EU Environmental Commissioner Stavros Dimas when he asserted that Germany isn't doing enough to be green. Funny, because when we st
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History Is Bunk: Fortune Gets Dumb
Alex Taylor makes a case against Ford bringing over European models that's based largely on suckiness. He cites the Merkur catastrophe as the rationale behind Americans not wanting European Fords. The reason Americans didn't want European Fords is that they knew not what the hell a Merkur was. I, as a child who watched a rather average amount of television in the 1980s, only knew about Merkur when we stopped by a Lincoln/Mercury dealership to get a part for our Colony Park and I saw a Sierra XR4
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Introducing Road Rage Roundup!
Hey, fellow Jalops, haven't you all been itching for a one-stop shop for all your road-rage story needs? A place that makes you feel like Mahatma Gandhi because you didn't ram that tailgating jerkola off the road and pull out all his teeth with your Channel-Locks on your commute this morning, even though that bastid was begging for it? Of course you have, and your ol' pal Murilee Martin is the one to give it to you! Here on the Road Rage Roundup, we'll fill you in on the latest tales of what goe
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Fords! Fords! Fords! For 1960!
You are about to enter a beautiful, exciting, wonderful new world — the world of nineteen sixty! It was a time when hyperbolic adjectifications passed for advertising. When men were gallant creatures, behatted and besmoked, and women felt as at home in chiffon and pearls as they did in house frocks and aprons. Well, maybe not exactly. But still, it was nineteen sixty, for fuck's sake, and Ford was on the move, Johnny! Not one, not two, but three new kinds of Ford cars for 1960 shot across the sk
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Chicago Auto Show: Yes, That's A 2008 Saturn Astra
We've seen the Astra as an Opel overseas — heck, at least a couple of us have seen them in person — but never before on these shores and never before branded as a Saturn. So although you've seen the Astra in all sorts of Opel-platformed pictures, and even seen that one pic Dubspeed Driven got from Jill Lajdziak, check out a full gallery of how it looks with the Saturn badge below. And then, if when you're done whetting your car pR0n appetite, and you're still feeling hungry for something with a
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Chicago Auto Show: 2008 Saturn Vue Red Line, Green Line
Saturn's set to launch its latest Vue Red Line and Green Line Hybrid models at the Chicago show. Naturally, the Red Line is the tricked version, with the lowered suspension, 18-inch alloys and DOHC 3.6-liter V6 VVT engine producing 250 hp at 6,500 rpm and 243 lb.-ft. of torque at 4,400 rpm. The Green Line Hybrid doesn't yet have GM's new two-mode system, but rather the same 2.4-liter, alternator-based system with stop-start functionality as the current model. The company says the new system will
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Coming To A Second Life Near You: Mazda To Launch Hakaze Concept In Cyberspace
Later this month, denizens of that placeless cyberplace, Second Life, will get a sneak preview of Mazda's Hakaze concept car, ahead of its debut in three dimensions at the Geneva show. Mazda's following the lead of Toyota's Scion, which has been running 3D campaigns in Second Life since August, 2006. Scion also plans to launch its xD and redesigned xB there (is there a "there"?), simultaneously with the cars' unveiling at the Chicago show this week. Mazda's created a place called Nagare Island,
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Jalopnik Late Night: Astronauts Gone Wild!!!
We admit; this is only peripherally related to cars. However, that doesn't change the fact that US Navy Capt. Lisa Nowak drove 900 miles wearing diapers to confront, allegedly intimidate and possibly kidnap another woman in an airport parking lot. Nowak felt Colleen Shipman was romantically involved with Space Shuttle Discovery pilot William Oefelein whom Nowak had a big ole crush on (even though she's married with children, as is he). Back to the important bits: The diapers were so Nowak wouldn
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Fargo North: Dodge Reveals 2008 Dakota
Someone in Dodge design must have gotten a new band saw for their birthday. At least that's what seems to have happened, judging from the newly squared-off 2008 Dakota pickup, which will be unveiled at the Chicago auto show later this week. With the jaw of a Yale man and a set of wheel arches that attach, faux-cantilever style, to the front doors, the new model is more stylistically forward than that which it replaces. It also gets more power (25% more from a new 4.7-liter V8) and a towing capac
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Attack Of The No Guys: A Doomed Plan To Save Jaguar
Ford executives have a long and noble history of failing upwards. This seems to be especially true where the company's Premier Automotive Group (Jaguar, Volvo, Land Rover, Aston Martin) is concerned. After Premier's premier Premier Wolfgang Reitzle bled billions trying to transform a rag tag army of money-losing foreign car brands into the Louis Vuitton collection of upmarket autos, Bill Ford offered Wolfie the keys to the entire kingdom. When Mark Fields assumed control of Ford's English patien
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Car Hack's Notebook: Driving The Jaguar XKR For Fun And Profit
This week's task involved chasing a big black cat in a big black cat, in one of those painfully tenuous story hooks where I took the Jaguar XKR on a futile hunt for the Beast of Bodmin Moor.
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Go, Go, Mister Show! Group Wants To Shut Down Chicago Auto Show
Guess we'd better make other plans for this week, lest we run afoul of one pro-bicycle group that aims to shut down the Chicago auto show. The group, AutoShowShutdown.org recently launched a web parody of the Chicago show's site, on which they provided counterpoint to the show site's content. The group even rebuffed a cease-and-desist letter from the show's organizers, with the support of online free-speech advocates the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Their plan is to protest the show's "
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So That's What That Was: The Can-Am Spyder
When pics of that unidentified trike — shot during a burn through Tail of the Dragon — hit earlier this year, the kids were abuzz. Had BMW taken over Volkswagen's GX3 mantle and built a three-wheeler for the sporting set? Turns out, as the New York Times reported yesterday, the mystery bike was called the Spyder, a product of the Sea/Ski Doo people, Bombardier Recreational Products of Canada. That company relaunched the Can-Am brand this year as a maker of ATVs and this thing. It's powered by a
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Geneva Pre-Show: Mazda Reveals Hakaze Concept
Its name is a mashup of the Japanese words for leaf and wind, and its styling evokes the movement of sand on a shoreline — says its creators. But the Mazda Hakaze is no zen gardener's weekend project. It's the latest in Mazda's Nagare ("flow") concepts, whose designs draw from natural influences (see also Nagare and Ryuga). Designed at Mazda's European Design Center in Frankfurt, the Hakaze is a crossover SUV with a removable top, about the same size as a Mazda3 and powered by that car's 2.3-lit
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Jalopnik Book Preview: Roland Barthes's "Mythologies"
Back before Ruthless Reviews imploded and became the derivative mess it is today, we were pretty funny. The site was so freewheeling that we were going to start reviewing films we hadn't watched. We never did, but we should have. Now I'm advocating a book I haven't read, yet. I promise you that I will. Why? Well aside from being a Red at heart, who can resist a chapter about "The Sexual Politics of the Domestic?" Certainly not moi. Why do I mention Barthes's book on the fanboy site that exists i
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Holy Shit! You Can Run Racing Cars On Alcohol!
Yeah, yeah, we know, it's a press release. But criminy it's annoying. And cloying. Ethanol people are claiming great joy upon the beginning of testing at Daytona for the IRL season. And sure, we've got no beef with racing cars running ethanol whatsoever and we think that even if ethanol is far from a cure-all at this point, it's at least raising awareness of renewable fuels. But to read this thing, you'd think a bunch of racecars starting up was was like the Second Vatican Council or something.
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Carlos Ghosn Addresses His "Performance Crisis" While HQ Staff Go Bonus Bonkers
The Japanese side of the cross-global partnership announced today their profits took a bit of a hit during the fourth quarter. Ok, that's an understatement, in reality it was a 22.6% slide. In response, CEO Carlos Ghosn told reporters in Tokyo on a conference call from Paris, "We have today a performance crisis and we need to fix it as soon as possible." We've only got to ask the normally virile doubled-up CEO superhero one question — Levitra, Cialis or Viagra?
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Super Bowl Ad Watch: Chevy Gives Corvette Racing Driver Johnny O'Connell A Chance To Be An Idol For America
One more Super Bowl ad's breached the gates at a Detroit tower of auto power. Today's break comes to us from the RenCen and it's one of the two spots from Chevrolet (the second one's going to be that college kid produced one). This commercial, called "Ain't We Got Love" features a host of stars and a bevy of non-stars singing their love for Chevy products. You've got folks like Dale Jr., and Mary J. Blige, some rapper named TI and Big n' Rich. But that's the usual silliness you'd expect to see.
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BMW M7, If Only: Alpina B7 To Make US Debut At Chicago Show
Sultans lamenting the lack of BMW M7 action, whip out your AMEX Centurion cards. Bavarian tuning shop and BMW partner Alpina Burkard Bovensiepen (just Alpina, thanks) will show its B7 sedan at the Chicago show next week. It'll be the US debut for the tuner 7-Series, which has been massaged up to 500 hp and 516 lb-ft of torque, via supercharging. That means unlike the M5, the B7 is a lowdown torque monster, peaking at at 4,250 rpm (compared to the V10's 383 lb-ft at 6,100 rpm). It also gets a spo
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Transformers Toys For Tots: Barricade, Brawl, Jazz And...Wreckage?
Well, it's Friday and we're feeling a bit of a hankering for some Transformers action, and our fave fan-boy site on all things 'formers is all about the toys today, scoring not only pictures of the Pontiac Solstice-bodied Jazz, the Saleen Mustang-bodied Barricade and the Abrams Battle Tank-bodied Brawl — but also some pics of a not-yet-seen and until-now not-yet-named Decepticon by the name of Wreckage. Wreck-Gar? No — Wreckage. We've no idea what he is — although he does appear to be some kind
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And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Parts: Check Tire Pressure
The reason to check your tire pressure is usually explained with some nearly unbelievable statistical simile bordering on hyperbole. If everyone checked their tire pressure once a month, we could save enough oil to build comfortable cities on the moon and help kittens. Or something like that. The fact is checking tire pressure on a regular basis can improve handling, increase fuel economy, promote tire longevity, and even save lives.
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Brisbane Auto Show: Holden Reveals The Epicuriously Strong Epica
GM's division down under just dropped the curtain on the Holden version of the General's newest mid-size sedan, the Epica, at the Brisbane International Motor Show. The new replacement for the Vectra will be on sale in April of this year in dingo-land and will be available with two variants, CDX and CDXi, with the choice of a 2.0 or 2.5-liter in-line six cylinder engine. The 2.5-liter CDX and the CDXi will both come with an automatic transmission, while the 2.0-liter CDX will only be available w
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Chrysler Group's Got Embargo-Busting Balls. Jalopnik Likes Balls.
Ok, well — it looks like at least one automaker's got the balls to pick up our my gauntlet I slapped down on Monday. Just a few minutes ago, Jason Vines, veep of communications at the 'merican side of the German-American hybrid, issued the following decree over the Firehouse media blog:
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What's An Embargo? Volvo V70 Makes A Break Out Onto The Internet
We don't remember seeing a press release on the V70, nor do we remember reading anything about it other than quickly grabbed spy shots and camera phone shots, but apparently the rest of the world knows something we don't. But no longer! The world and Auto Motor und Sport aren't the only folks with the pics and deets of Volvo's new Sweden-wagon. With the looks of an S80 and the ass-end curves of a C30, this wagon's got itself some cargo-carrier room on top of the obviousness of its family-haulern
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The Mighty Bay Bridge
There's a photograph of the bridge abutment between the two suspension spans of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in the liner notes of Jawbreaker's 24 Hour Revenge Therapy that I've always loved. Because while the Golden Gate may be the most perfectly beautiful bridge ever built, it's also kind of crap. First of all, it takes longer to get to Bottom of the Hill from the East Bay if you take the Golden Gate. But more seriously, the 10-foot lanes make driving over it an experience that can be
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Blog Hoonage: Making Faces
• It's everything you (and we) have ever dreamed of — forty-five minutes of video showcasing Wert's awkwardly adorable not-really-angry look of concentration. Oh, and as we already knew, Charlie Gibson was there, too. [Autoblog] • You can only drive like an asshole in LA so long before someone snaps a picture, publishes it on their blog along with your license plate and the exact reason why you suck at life. [L.A. Can't Drive] • We already knew that Texans can't drive in the snow. We do, howev
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No LUV? A Jalopnik Oversight Corrected.
There are just some things taken for granted in life; the sky is blue, water is wet, common sense is uncommon, and Jalopnik exploits quirky, out of production transportation like a Chinese twelve year old. When it was discovered that the most attention paid to Chevrolet's easily loveable LUV was Loverman's outrage toward Dan Lienhart calling it an oddly named vehicle, a correction was inevitable.
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I Am Indy: Chevrolet's 2007 Indianapolis 500 Corvette Pace Car Replica
Last year we were lucky enough to be feted by the General down at the Indy 500, getting a taste of beer the way it was meant to be served — dripping down our forehead after a half-empty found our noggin an appealing target. Otherwise, it was an amazing experience and although I don't necessarily understand why someone would want to drive around in a Corvette decaled-up to look like the "Official Pace Car" for the race, I understand that some people do like to roll like that. That's why Chevy's c
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Precision Is Expensive: Welcome To The BMW Experience
I've come to the conclusion that BMW spends more money on sending promotional materials to their customers than any other automaker. Let's use my mom as an example. Momma Wert just bought BMW's new mini-UV, the X3. Since she bought the new car four months ago, she's received a "welcome letter" and "an exclusive invitation" to an event for new BMW X3 owners as well as "BMW magazine," a monthly "lifestyle" magazine for bimmer owners. Gag. As the topper to these wonderful parting gifts, last week
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And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Parts: Replacing 30 Year-Old Lights With LEDs
At least one, and perhaps more of us here at the the Jalop not only fantasize about cars on a minute-by-minute basis, but also find time to squeeze in wet dreams about transportation of the two-wheeled variety. While the world of motorcycles can seem foreign and dangerous to the cage driver (that's what we call you douchebags when we're on the bike), it's actually safer than you'd think. The vast majority of motorcycle-related injuries are caused by operator stupidity. Another huge chunk of thos
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Technology (1)
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Leaning Tower Of Power Gets Blown For $400
The Mopar Slant Six is one of the undisputed marvels of the engineering world; when the Sun goes supernova and the entire planet has been reduced to ionized hydrogen, a '67 Valiant will still be chugging along in the debris field (I once saw a Slant Six that had been completely filled with water- due to the owner's confusion about which cap to remove in order to add coolant- and had driven that way for weeks; the unpleasant noises and brown foam spewing out the tailpipe were apparently not regar
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