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Filed under: Time Warp , Celebrities Click above image for photo gallery OntarioStreetCar caught sight of a transporter loaded with Detroit Muscle being used in the filming of the fourth installment of The Fast and the Furious saga, innovatively titled, Fast and Furious . This is one truck we'd gladly hijack with a crew of accomplices driving tuned Civics, as it's hauling, at minimum, a pair of Challengers, a Chevelle SS, and the wicked Torino GT you see above. Not included in the attached gallery are studio shots of Vin Diesel with a Grand National and yet another Chevelle, both of which you can see at OntarioStreetCar . The F&F films may be light on plot, but they're long on car porn, and we can say, without a hint of embarassment, that we are totally going to see this movie. Thanks to Jesse for the tip! Gallery: Fast and the Furious movie car transporter [Source: OntarioStreetCar ] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Car Buying , Trends , Earnings/Financials Just less than a year ago, the Big 3 domestic automakers' combined market share dropped to less than 50-percent of the overall automobile market. That sobering statistic was made factual when the combined sales of vehicles from both Asian countries, such as Japan and Korea, were combined with sales from European companies, like Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. It seems that this sad state of affairs did little to stop the bleeding coming from Detroit, as last month marks the first time in history that Asian automakers alone, with a combined share of 47.8-percent, sold more vehicles in the United States than companies actually based there. Ouch. Large pickup trucks and SUV's have long been the last stronghold for Detroit's struggling automakers. While the Big 3 still have a commanding lead in sales of these large vehicles, it's the smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles which are taking the largest bite from the overall...
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Filed under: Plants/Manufacturing , Celebrities "It ain't that hard folks -- make better cars." That's the word aimed at Detroit from Jay Leno, the late-night television host and avid hands-on car nut. According to Leno, nobody builds trucks as well as Americans, as he cites the Ford F-150 and Chevy Silverado as examples. Same goes with performance cars. "The Corvette Z06 has 505 horsepower, comes with a big warranty, and can hit 200 miles per hour. It weighs almost exactly the same as a half-million-dollar Porsche Carrera GT and gets higher mileage - 26 miles per gallon," states Leno. However, Americans just can't seem to build a low-bucks economy car. "In order to make the more expensive car more appealing, U.S. companies feel as though they have to dumb down the cheaper car," the comedian reasons. "When you get into a high-priced, well-made American car today and the key is in the ignition, you hear a melodic bong, bong. But when you get...
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Filed under: Tuners , Etc. , Chrysler , Ford , GM , Misc. Auto Shows The Woodward Dream Cruise is one of the biggest events in Michigan all year, with 1.2 million people attending and over 40,000 hot rods, exotics, antiques and oddities coming from near and far to one of the world's most storied roads. Yet each year businesses on the cruise route complain that the annual event actually hurts their bottom line. It isn't so much the weekend that kills profits as it is the fact that cruisers plug up Woodward for the entire week before the big cruise on Saturday. Organizers of the big event may have helped these businesses by transforming the Woodward-centric cruise into a nine day mega-event that spans into the city of Detroit and other surrounding areas. Some of the new events includes a low-rider competition to kick off the event on August 8 to an AutoblogGreen-friendly green car show, motorcycle show, and a Model T event. Sprinkling cruise events around southeast Michigan will give...
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Filed under: Hirings/Firings , Chrysler , Ford , GM , UAW/Unions Over the last few years, huge numbers of union workers have accepted buyout packages to leave their high-paying jobs at automotive factories and office buildings. Many of those retired workers will be replaced by new hires at much lower salaries in the coming years. In fact, there could be as many as 46,000 new workers hired in Michigan alone, according to a recent 95-page report ( PDF link here ) released by the Center for Automotive Research (CAR). This report could mean good things for the troubled economy surrounding Detroit -- but it's not all roses, as the report indicates that more workers will leave through attrition than the estimated 46,000 that could be hired. Also, all of those new workers will require lots of training before they can be counted on as worthy replacements. Still, as Kristin Dziczek, an analyst from CAR says, "The bleeding will stop." [Source: CAR via The Car Connection ] Read | Permalink...
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Filed under: Hybrids/Alternative , Sedans/Saloons , Green , Plants/Manufacturing We were captivated by the Karma plug-in hybrid when it was unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show earlier this month. Its curvaceous, aggressive design combined with its ability to go 50 miles without using any gas seems like a bargain at the projected starting price of $80,000. Fisker is hoping to deliver its first Karma to customers in the fourth quarter of 2009, but to do that they will first need to find a place to build the cars (and get the drivetrain sorted and figure out that batteries and...). Vic Doolan, director of retail development for Fisker, says the company is considering metro Detroit to handle production. The combination of unused capacity, close proximity of suppliers, and availability of experienced workers make Detroit an ideal location. Those interested in the Karma and unconcerned about the vaporware accusations can pre-order one with a $1000 deposit , although the Signature Edition vehicles...
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Filed under: Detroit Auto Show , Podcasts , Sedans/Saloons , Trucks/Pickups , Crossovers/CUVs , Supercars , Audi , BMW , Dodge , Ford , GM , Hyundai , Lincoln Episode 85 of the Autoblog Podcast finds us reminiscing about the North American International Auto Show that recently invaded Detroit. It was perhaps not as thrilling as past shows, but the new F-150 and Ram hauled and herded some excitement into Cobo. Both pickups are newly spiffed and bristling with new features and engineering. While the trucks are no doubt big news, the CTS Coupe stokes our fires far more. We hope to see it visited by the V-series gnomes, too. There were a passel of diesels at the show, too. Audi's V12 TDI R8 concept was filled with design gumdrops for us to chew on, besides the 12-pot 500-hp diesel that returns mileage in the 20s. BMW had its 335d and some X5 alphabet soup thing , and Honda showed its clean diesel . Beyond oil burners, we took an IRL look at the Hyundais Genesis and found it surprising beyond...
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Filed under: Chicago Auto Show , Detroit Auto Show , LA Auto Show , New York Auto Show Detroit may be the host of one of North America's largest auto shows , but Cobo Hall is far from the continent's best conference facility. It's dated and small, and larger venues like Chicago's McCormick place and the LA Convention Center are more modern and accommodating to automaker displays. Officials from area counties are attempting to work together to expand and modernize the aging facility with plans that include an additional 120,000 square feet of floor space and a walkway between Cobo and the Renaissance Center. Said officials are currently bickering over the total cost of the plan, which ranges between $595 million and $846 million. The financially ailing state of Michigan is willing to contribute $150 million to the cause, but county executives need to bury the hatchet and hammer out a deal that greatly improves a building that in LA or New York would likely have been bulldozed...
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Filed under: Detroit Auto Show , Coupes , Sports/GTs , Trucks/Pickups , Supercars , Audi , Cadillac , Chevrolet , Ford Here's a way to create content long after an auto show has ended, dream up a list of editorial favorite picks. Well, what the hell, we might as well be meta and report on the anti-news. Here we go blithely. AutoWeek handed out its Editors' Choice awards for the North American International Auto Show at its Design Forum on Wednesday. We can debate the relevance, but we'd rather just talk about the cars. The four vehicles that AutoWeek thought were the bee's knees are as follows: Most Fun: Audi R8 V12 TDI Best Concept: Cadillac CTS Coupe Most Significant: 2009 Ford F150 Best of Show: 2009 Corvette ZR1 As Linda Richman would say: discuss. [Source: AutoWeek] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Detroit Auto Show , Sedans/Saloons , Hyundai click above to view more high-res images of different Genesis grille When the production version of the Hyundai Genesis was revealed, debate over its styling was a hot topic. Of particular interest to commenters was the grille , dubbed the "Klingon forehead" by some of you, which has a vertical center spine with three horizontal bars that turn down when they meet from either side. We instantly noticed the absence of Hyundai's logo on the grille and surmised that perhaps the Korean automaker felt that the presence of its logo would somehow divert attention away from the levels of luxury and refinement that people might normally associate with Hyundais. With that in mind, we were surprised to find this Genesis V6 model with a different grille on the floor of the 2008 Detroit Auto Show. When asked what it was doing there, Hyundai responded that the badgeless grille is the only Genesis grille for now, but this version was...
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Filed under: Concept Cars , Detroit Auto Show , BMW , Cadillac , Chrysler click above to view more high-res live shots of the Cadillac CTS Coupe Concept One bit of news we passed over on the way out the door of COBO Hall on Tuesday was the winners of this year's EyesOn Design Awards at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show. There are four awards given away each year, including Best Concept and Production Car and Best Concept and Production Truck. Cadillac sweeped the car side of things with the CTS-V being honored as Best Production Car and the CTS Coupe Concept named as the Best Concept Car. The BMW X6 , meanwhile, was named Best Production Truck and the Chrysler ecoVoyager Concept nabbed the Best Concept Truck award. The EyesOn Design awards are sponsored by the Detroit Institute of Opthamology and judged by a panel of automotive designers including ex-VP of Design for GM Wayne Cherry, Chrysler's Senior VP of Design Trevor Creed, the renowned Henrik Fisker, GM's VP of Global Design Ed...
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Filed under: Detroit Auto Show , Trucks/Pickups , China Laugh if you must, the wares that CHAMCO were showing off at the Detroit Auto Show were certainly a lot more humble than what you'd find at Lexus. China America Cooperative Automotive is seriously considering bringing pickup truck to the United States that they've retained the services of Steve Saleen to help guide them through the federalization process. The goal is to have the vehicle on sale here by 2009. Styling-wise, CHAMCO's un-named truck isn't going to win any EyesOn awards, but at $13,500, who cares? Besides, it could have looked a lot more grotesque, but it's not entirely a toad. The equipment levels will meet market expectations, with power steering, windows, locks, and mirrors. Not a cupholder in sight, though. Materials inside the Anony-Truck will have you reliving the glory days of 1985, when truck interiors were seemingly blow-molded on the same production line as 2-liter soda bottles. Power comes...
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Filed under: Detroit Auto Show , Hybrids/Alternative , Sedans/Saloons , Green , Lexus , Toyota Think of the words "luxury" and "hybrid" and the name Lexus should come to mind. Toyota's luxury division offers gas-electric hybrid versions of the RX, GS and LS models, but while parent company Toyota has the hybrid-only Prius model, Lexus has yet to offer a dedicated hybrid of its own. According to Toyota's president Katsuaki Watanabe, by this time next year that will change. Watanabe announced at the Detroit show that at the same show next year his company will unveil two new dedicated hybrid models. While one is known to be the replacement for the highly-successful Toyota Prius, the second will be Lexus' first hybrid-only model. Few details on the Lexus hybrid are known at this point, but Toyota can't be happy to have been beaten to the punch by a comparatively tiny outfit when Fisker took the wraps off the Karma hybrid luxury sedan at the show this year...
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Filed under: Detroit Auto Show , Sports/GTs , Tech , Supercars , Chevrolet Yea, we know - the automotive press has featured a whole bunch of Corvette ZR1 content lately (including us!), and readers are probably getting a bit tired. However, we figure that a cutaway of the mighty supercharged LS9 should be interesting enough to justify yet another post on the revived King of the Hill. Painted in monochrome silver as GM is wont to do, this particular display isn't particularly photogenic. Still, we were able to capture some details that aren't easily observed in 2D drawing or press releases, so click through the jump for a variety of shots. Gallery: 2008 Detroit: Corvette ZR1 LS9 engine cutaway Continue reading Detroit 2008: Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 - supercharged LS9 cutaway display Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Concept Cars , Detroit Auto Show Click image for high res gallery of the competitors. Michelin hosts its annual Michelin Challenge Design (design challenge?) to help young designers and their hot designs get some recognition. The emphasis is on innovative thinking, both on the technical and style side. While the challenge doesn't have any direct link to tires, per se, Michelin uses the forum to help push the boundaries throughout the automotive field and get people thinking outside the box. The NAIAS contest focuses on making "smaller vehicles safer particularly in urban environments." One can make the argument that producing smaller, more efficient cars has a direct impact on tire design and tread wear, but we hardly care about Michelin's motivation here and just enjoy looking at futuristic concepts. This year's entries ranged from the practically plausible to way-out-there wild as you'll see in our gallery below. The full press release and the winners...
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