Author: Clark Westfield
Clark Westfield grew up fixing up and driving past-their-prime American cars, including various GM and Mopar V8s. He has ghostwritten auto news for the last few years, lives in Farmingdale, New York, and can be reached at +1.516-531-4021.
07/08/2021
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GM, Ford, former-Chrysler jumping into electrics
After what many thought was a very slow start, all three domestic automakers are jumping into electric vehicles in a big way, with plans to open major battery plants and phase in a total switch from gasoline power. Both GM and Stellantis (the current owner of Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, and Mopar) have assured the […]
07/02/2021
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GM, FCA sales numbers seem good but both lost market share; Ford in production Hell
GM announced a healthy 40% gain in sales over the COVID-afflicted second quarter of 2020; year to date, GM is up by 20%. FCA US, or Stellantis US, posted a quarterly gain of 32%, with the same year-to-date rise of 20%. That’s the good news. The bad news is that, year to date, both companies […]
06/15/2021
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New Nissan Rogue to complicate Renegade, Trax sales paths
Last year, Nissan sold a stunning 350,447 Rogues. The small crossovers had gotten an early publicity boost from the 2016 movie Star Wars: Rogue One, which had nothing to do with the car other than the title, but seemed to dramatically lift sales. Their styling could best be described as “distinctive,” but their price and […]
04/02/2021
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Chrysler still dominates minivans
Chrysler still dominates the minivan market, despite the discontinued Dodge Caravan posting a 93% sales drop—from 24,931 to 1,709. Most of those lost buyers probably did not move up to the Pacifica, which went up from 24,525 to 34,342, a 40% gain. The Honda Odyssey posted a 22% gain, moving up to 20,066. The Toyota […]
03/15/2021
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Dealer satisfaction: GM at top, Stellantis at bottom
When Mary Barra took the helm of General Motors, she almost immediately started working on increasing the quality of the company’s dealer network. PR people have been tight-lipped on how this was done, but the results are clear in the latest J.D. Power study. Every General Motors brand (shown in bright green) ended up in […]
03/14/2021
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The big electric pickup list, updated
Here are all the electric pickups we know about, in one table. We are reporting what we know about; there are things we don’t know about. Not everything is comparable to gasoline powered cars (e.g. torque at the wheels). Most of these figures are not final, and some may be hyperbole. Electric car companies have realized […]
03/02/2021
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GM tops manufacturers for loyalty—again
General Motors was the top manufacturer for loyalty in the United States, for the sixth consecutive year, while the Ford brand took the top loyalty to a brand for the 11th year in a row. At the dealer level, Lincoln took the honors. There were 17 segment categories. Ford won three (plus a Lincoln), GM […]
02/18/2021
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GM does well in J.D. Power Dependability; Stellantis and Ford, not so much
The big winner in the J.D. Power dependability survey was, again, Toyota; they took the #1 spot with Lexus, and then the #4 spot with Toyota-the-brand. Both were well below average in problems (0.81 and 0.98, respectively). Hyundai/Kia also did quite well, coming in at #3 and #7, with Genesis at #8. But GM has […]
02/15/2021
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SRT is being disbanded; long live SRT!
The new Mopar site Stellpower recently reported that the SRT team is being disbanded, its members distributed throughout Stellantis. Longtime SRT-focused reporter Patrick Rall asked Stellantis for a comment on rumors that the SRT group was no more, and was told: In February 2021, all of the core elements of the SRT performance engineering team […]
01/21/2021
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All Dodge Durango Hellcats have been sold
Every one of the 2,000 Dodge Durango SRT Hellcats to be made has already been sold, despite a $80,995 (plus $1,495 destination) sales price. The truck has 710 horsepower and 645 pounds of torque, good for a stunning (given its size and weight) 11.5-second quarter mile and 3.5-second 0-60 time. The Durango can also tow […]