Have you ever wondered what goes on at a dealership, and who all those people are? Let’s start with the technicians (or mechanics). They’re the guys who actually work on your car, and they are usually paid “book rates” when working on warranty items—and, depending on the dealership, anything else. Book rate means that if […]
The Washington Post took apart a Chevy to see what GM is learning about you, when you drive. As they say, it could have been a Ford, Toyota, or BMW, just as easily; and the results were more than a little frightening. Most new cars come with built-in cellular data connections, including all GM, Ford, […]
The French and Italian-American companies’ boards have agreed to merge, starting a process that will likely take over a year even after shareholders vote. As part of the “50/50” deal, the Peugeot family may buy more shares, and Dongfeng will turn in a good portion of theirs, to keep ownership balanced. The current major shareholders […]
We are bombarded by cyber attacks on our computers, phones, city and hospital networks, and, as time goes on, in our cars. While cars have largely been ignored until now, criminals have started to catch on and are getting set to rob people and car companies alike. According to Upstream, of Herzliya, Israel, nearly half […]
When is a hybrid people-mover not the green choice? When it’s the 2020 Lincoln Aviator Grand Touring model, which has a twin-turbo V6 engine guzzling down fuel at 23 mpg. The big crossover has an all-electric range of just 21 miles, with a 56 MPGe rating on electricity alone. Overall gas mileage is rated at […]
The Chevy Colorado is here to stay; General Motors just announced that it will invest $1.5 billion to produce them at its Wentzville truck plant, keeping 4,000 jobs in the U.S. (based on GM’s wording, that may include non-GM employees or people at other plants). The next generation is unlikely to look like the curvaceous […]
How did we do at predicting the new Chevy Suburban’s looks, and did our erstwhile renderer, Ryan D., do better than General Motors itself? Here’s Ryan’s image: And here’s the authentic General Motors image. Ryan accentuated the sides of the car to give hints of muscle, while using a traditional chrome bumper and grille to […]
Volkswagen and Ford have joined up on electric cars, since VW wants to spread out its investments and Ford has pretty much just copied Toyota and leaned on Magna for its electrics and hybrids. The next step may be pickups, but this time the product would be flowing from Ford to VW instead of the […]
Phoebe Wall Howard of the Detroit Free Press, in a story picked up by USA Today, wrote that seven Ford employees knew about defects in transmissions used by the Ford Fiesta and Ford Focus. The employees told the Freep writer that the problems were known to Engineering, Product Development, and Manufacturing alike, along with other groups. […]
In the latest edition of “Fun Autopilot Fails,” a 2018 Tesla Model 3 rammed a parked state police car in Connecticut on Saturday. The highway patrol vehicle had stopped behind a stranded car on I-95, and the Tesla slammed into it. The police car, while a Ford, was fortunately not a Crown Victoria; those had […]