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Fisker Automotive Runs Karma Plug-In Hybrid Ads During Academy Awards Preview on KTLA
Fisker Automotive made a bold statement at the Academy Awards by running two 60-second commercials during the preview show to the awards ceremony. The commercials feature the upcoming Fisker Karma, a luxury plug-in hybrid that will be for sale later this year, and ran on the local KTLA station. We have a sample of one…
Corvette GT1 Championship Edition: Coupe, Convertible or Z06
Built to celebrate the tremendous success Corvette has had in racing over the past decade, General Motors has announced the launch of the GT1 Championship Edition. The GT1 Championship Edition Corvette will come with racing inspired graphics, including driver flags and the series championships. The car is available in either black or Velocity Yellow, with…
Ford Ranger Gets a Real Redesign… But Only for Europe
Ford Europe has just release images and information on the upcoming 2010 Ranger pickup truck. With a sporty new redesign that looks suited for hitting the sand-dunes, this new look is not destined to appear in North America. U.S. customers will get this instead: “The Ford Ranger nameplate is already established in more than 100…
GM Shuts Down High Performance Vehicle Operations
As a part of GM’s restructuring plan the company has made the drastic decision to “temporarily” close its High Performance Vehicle Operations department. “All high-performance projects are on indefinite hold,” said spokesman Vince Muniga to Auto News “The engineers are moving into different areas of the organization, and they will work on Cadillacs, Buicks, Chevrolets…
Kiss Saturn Goodbye: Dealers Ponder Plan to Sell Chinese or Indian-Made Cars
After General Motors made it clear in its viability report submitted to the U.S. Treasury that the future of Saturn was uncertain at best, it appears as though Saturn’s network of dealers has its own plan. Dan Januska, owner of Saturn of Scottsdale, told the Wall Street Journal that the dealers have been in talks…
Cadillac CTS Production Car: News Leaks in GM’s Viability Plan
After a flip through GM’s 117 page Viability Plan, submitted yesterday to the U.S. Government, we came across one little surprise. That’s right, the Cadillac CTS, listed in the “Future Product Launches” appendix. Up until now we have just sort of assumed that this car would see production, but now it appears to be official….
GM Says it Needs $16.6 Billion MORE: Will Cut 47,000 Jobs and Close 5 U.S. Plants to Get it
Today is it… the North American Auto Industry’s big day full of big and frightening news. But things may be worse than anyone had planned. That’s right, General Motors wants more money from the Federal Treasury… $16.6 Billion. Yes.. that is $16.6 Billion on top of the $13.4 Billion loan GM already secured from the…
Chrysler and Nissan Cancel Plans for North American Small Car
While Chrysler and Nissan will continue to work together on one project, the companies have said that they have put on hold any plans to build a small car for the North American market – essentially killing any hope that we might get a vehicle based on the Dodge Hornet concept. Plans to launch a…
Ford Unleashes 2010 Taurus SHO
The rumors were right. Ford used the opportunity provided by the Chicago Auto Show to unleash its 2010 Taurus SHO, with 365 hp, all-wheel drive and a paddle-shifted six-speed transmission. The SHO gets its power from Ford’s new Ecoboost twin-turbo, direct-injection 3.5-liter V6 engine, that delivers V8 power with V6 fuel economy. Total output is…
Ford F150 Harley-Davidson Edition: Chicago Auto Show News
The 2010 Ford Harley-Davidson F-150 edition was just unveiled at the Chicago Auto Show, combining distinctive Harley-Davidson styling with the best-selling F-150. The 2010 Ford is officially the first Harley-Davidson edition truck to be constructed from the award-winning 2009 F-150 chassis. This niche market co-branding exercise marks the 14th Harley-Davidson edition of an F-Series truck…
Chevy Spark Breaks Cover Ahead of Geneva Auto Show
General Motors has just released info and pics of its new micro-car, the Chevrolet Spark, which will be officially unveiled at the 2009 Geneva Auto Show in March. There is no word on what engine will power the vehicle when it comes stateside but it is possible the Spark could be powered by the larger…
General Motors to Cut 14 Percent of Workforce in 2009
In a bid to secure its $13.4 billion in loans from the U.S. government, General Motors is putting forth a rigid restructuring plan that will see 14 percent of it’s global workforce eliminated in 2009. The cuts will occur to salaried workers, reducing the total number of those employees from 73,000 to 63,000. In the…
Saleen’s New Owner A Candidate to Buy Viper?
MJ Acquisitions, which recently purchased most of Saleen Inc., has made it clear that purchasing Viper from Dodge/Chrysler is of interest to the company. Automotive News reports that MJ Acquisitions co-owner Mike Shields states that, “We’ve considered a purchase of Viper.” Shields and his bothers own several auto-industry related subsidiaries including Cyltec, LLC, Power-Tec Engineering,…
GM Performance Package gives Solstice, Sky and HHR 290 HP and Up To 340 ft-lbs of Torque
General Motors is now offering a dealer-installed performance upgrade for the Pontiac Solstice GXP, Saturn Sky Redline and Chevy HHR SS, that will give the cars almost 300hp and more than 300 ft-lbs of torque. All three vehicles share the turbocharged 2.0-liter direct-injection four-cylinder engine that makes 260hp and 260 ft-lbs of torque. Thanks to…
Saleen Inc. Sold Again: Future of Supercar Department Uncertain
Three months after Saleen Incorporated announced it was looking for a buyer the company has just released news that MJ Acquistions has purchased a significant portion of the automakers assets. The deal puts all supercharger, after market and high performance assets in the hands of MJ Acquisitions. Saleen Inc. will retain ownership of everything relating…
Ford to Bring Electric and Plug-In Hybrids to Market in 2011
While General Motors has been stealing all the publicity in the plug-in hybrid segment and Chrysler keeps rolling out an endless lineup of electric concept cars, Ford has been quietly working behind the scenes to develop both technologies. And according to a report in the Detroit News, Ford will bring both of these new technologies…
Ford Fusion Hybrid Qualifies for $3,400 Tax Credit
Ford’s Fusion Hybrid, which boasts a class leading fuel economy rating of 36/41 mpg (city/highway) will qualify for a $3,400 tax credit – the largest such tax credit the federal government has ever given out.The same tax credit will also apply to the Mercury Milan Hybrid. Ford is excited about this incentive and hopes it…
Saturn Stops Astra Production… For a Whole Year
According to a report on AutoBlog, Saturn will not be producing any more Astra models in the near future. This might sound like a bad thing if you are looking for one of the sporty three-door or five-door hatchbacks, but it actually has a positive spin. Because demand is so low right now and because…
Cadillac Delays production of 3 Series Competitor
According to a report from the regularly reliable folks at GMInsideNews.com, General Motors is holding off on bringing its Alpha platform to market. This is highly disappointing as the Alpha is a mid-sized rear-wheel drive platform that was expected to be the basis of an upcoming 3 Series fighter from Cadillac – much needed considering…
Cadillac to Kill-Off XLR after 2009
Cadillac has announced that 2009 will be the last year for its retractable hardtop XLR. Pity. Apparently dealerships are still taking orders for the $87,055 sportscar (or over $100,000 for the XLR-V) and the final model will roll off the production line in Bowling Green, Kentucky in the Spring. The XLR and XLR-V were the…
Ford to Bring Dual-Clutch Transmission to North America in 2010
When Ford showcased the Lincoln C Concept at the 2009 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit, we commented that we’d love to see a model from the blue oval that used such a dual-clutch transmission. Apparently we will be getting out wish. Ford has just announced that in 2010 it will bring a…
First 2010 Camaro sells at Auction for $350,000
As manufacturers tend to do these days, General Motors put the rights to buy the first 2010 Camaro on the block at the 2009 Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale, AZ. The lucky wealthy owner paid $350,000 for the privilege of owning what will no doubt be a serious collector’s item. The owner will, however, have to…
First Ford Thunderbird fetches $660,000 at Barrett-Jackson
A lot of vehicles at the Barrett-Jackson auction garner attention and fetch ridiculous sums of money, but even the vast majority of them are not as rare a a bird as the Raven Black 1955 Thunderbird that hit the auction block on Saturday. Verified by the Ford Motor Company as the very first Thunderbird to…
GM’s Heritage Collection Reject Buick Blackhawk Fetches $522,500 at Barrett-Jackson
Created to celebrate Buick’s 100th anniversary in 2003, the Blackhawk Custom was one of 250 oddballs that General Motors decided to part with at the Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale auction. Grouped in with modified GEOs and a first-run Pontiac Aztek, not much was expected for the lot of cars which were parted with more to free up…
