Recent Comments:
2009 Ford Flex preliminary pricing starts at $28,700 {Autoblog}
Aug 4th 2007 1:50AM The competition is the Dodge Magnum. Period, the end.
For $28,000, you can get a RWD Hemi V8 that gets pretty good mileage, all things considered.*
For $31,000, you can get it in AWD. For $39,000, you can get it in SRT/8 trim, and have one of the meanest musclecars ever to come out of Detroit... acceleration =and= handling. Oh, yeah, and it's got a lifetime warranty.
The Flex, at mini-van money in the low-to-mid $20k range, would be awesome. At $30k+, it's laughably overpriced.
(Sometimes, more power means better economy, especially in the case of heavy cars. If you have to run a V6 flat out just to get onto the highway and stay there at 70mph, you're going to burn more fuel than a V8 that's not sweating it much. This is why the new Wrangler with the overtaxed minivan engine gets worse mileage than most V8 4x4 pickups.)
Left lane drivers of America want you to move over. You know who you are {Autoblog}
Jun 12th 2007 5:01PM I agree that turtle-slow mo'fo's need to pry themselves out of the passing lane and into something more to the middle.
There are three notable exceptions. Get aggressive with drivers in the high speed lane in any of these circumstances will get you "bumped" - where the guy you're tailgating puts the fear of god into you by tapping the brakes, just enough to raise his rear-end and set off the brake lights and putting you into a panic-stop.
1) Two lane highways during commuter traffic. As long as the rate is reasonable (say, 70-75mph in a 60 zone), just accept the fact you're not going to move any faster, and the guy ahead of you isn't going to tangle with the merging lanes just so you can clip along at 85, no matter how tight you ride his bumper.
2) Left hand exits. There are a lot of them here in RI, and I'm not going to crank it up to 90mph just before a sharp sweeper to keep the idiot behind me from flashing his brights. Learn to read highway signs, speedy, and move your own ass over to the right, now, before you get snarled in exit traffic.
3) Overtaking a long line of much slower moving cars. I'm pulling into the middle lane in a minute, bitch, keep your bra on.
Ford Ranger on the ropes {Autoblog}
Jun 5th 2007 8:53AM There isn't much of a compact truck segment left - "Mid-size" is what the half-ton pickups off yore once were, the half-ton pickups are now the size and strength(stronger, even) of the three-quarter ton pickups of yesteryear.
Ford's ranger is small, yes, but it only comes in a gas-guzzling V6 for 4x4 configurations, and even the 4-banger in the 4x2 isn't very efficient.
Meanwhile, Toyota has quietly re-introduced an extend-cab 4x4 Tacoma with a very efficient 4 cylinder - 27mpg. That's mileage on par with the "cute utes" for a serious off-roader. I wouldn't want to tow a boat with it, but for a work truck or commuter in snowy climes, I wouldn't want anything different.
Freightliner announces new big rig: the Cascadia {Autoblog}
May 9th 2007 4:11PM Truckers don't care all that much for fuel economy - especially owner/operators who should know better. Outside of fleet sales, the aerodynamic trucks don't sell very well, and Western Star still sells a crapload of flat-nose, steel-cab rigs (everyone else, even Peterbilt, uses aluminum for the bodywork). Truckers still buy trucks on looks, rather than economy or reliability. Only Kenworth has had any success with their aero-styling, mostly because they made it look like a retro design. (Meanwhile, Volvo is generally popular with businessmen who can do math, sadly a minority among the small and independent players in the shipping industry)
So, anytime you hear an owner/operator crying about how hard it is to make a living, bear in mind that he's more than likely burning away his profit margin with an inefficient, unreliable rig.
Spicy Fiero kit car has off-road aspirations {Autoblog}
Feb 25th 2007 11:10PM I had a 1988 Fiero GT, with the T-tops. The Fiero is, perhaps, the only domestic vehicle who's design could be considered beautiful. Sleek and uncluttered, it looks like a vision of a future that never was.
The '88 model year had a suspension tweaked by lotus, and in '87 a refresh of the styling made a good thing great.
The downside was the engine... you had an anemic 4 cylinder motor or an unreliable POS V-6 motor. (Mine blew a headgasket.)
The upside is, you can easily and cheaply swap out the lame powerplants for a Chevy smallblock, with a weight penalty of less than 150lbs with kits from people like V-8 Archie. Now you have something with the power of a Trans-Am, and the handling of an Esprit (well, almost. Close enough for the money and effort involved.)
With the power problem solved, I've never understood why anyone would butcher the bodywork into an obvious kit-car. No-one believes it's a real Ferrari, dude, let it gooo... and now this. Yeugh.
