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Bad news for fans of drop top muscle cars: according to multiple sources, the Dodge Challenger Convertible has been canceled and the Chevy Camaro Convertible delayed for at least a year. Luckily Ford will be showing a 2010 Ford Mustang Convertible at next week’s LA Auto Show , with sales scheduled to start in Spring ’09. galleryPost('2011CamaroVertSpy', 3, 'Camaro Convertible'); galleryPost('teaser2010stang', 3, '2010 Ford Mustang Convertible'); galleryPost('semachallengerconvert', 3, 'SEMA Challenger Convertible'); Chrysler and GM’s decisions to respectively kill and delay the ultimate poser’s cars, convertible muscle cars were made for the same reason: money. The unibody Challenger is, unbelievably, not originally engineered to lose its top. So engineering a model capable of retaining its rigidity is, due to the financiapocalypse , now considered wayyy to expensive. Speaking to Motor Trend , a company insider described the Challenger convertible...
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When Chrysler dropped its bevy of extended-range electric vehicles in our laps today as part of the company's new ENVI program, we wondered how coincidental it was that Chrysler was claiming the same all-electric range as the much ballyhooed Chevy Volt . The Volt makes concessions to seating and obsessively maximizes aerodynamics to get its 40 mile range, but the Chrysler EV and the Jeep EV both claim 40 miles as well. No funny-shaped center consoles, no wacky aero-trickery, just batteries and electric motors. So what's the deal? Not surprisingly, it's mainly the batteries that make the difference here. Battery storage capacity is measured in watt-hours, more or less the total amount of energy used over time. A kilowatt-hour (kWh) is simply a thousand watt-hours and this is what's used to measure big batteries, the kind used in modern hybrids.The Chevy Volt uses a 16 kWh battery and only really functions within a range of 50-80% charge in order to extend battery life. In...
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In 1989, it was increasingly clear a new revolution was coming to the truck market, but what shape it would take was still a mystery. With the staggering success of large body-on-frame SUVs and light trucks just a gleam in the eyes of automakers, GMs design team continued down the path of car-based pickups with the Chevy XT-2 Concept Truck. Although we now know car-based pickups and SUVs lost the battle to large SUVs shortly thereafter, it appears the XT-2, an essentially ignored concept here in the United States, may end up winning the design war. galleryPost('89chevyxt2', 12, 'XT-2 To XTC'); The American SUVs on the market in 1989 were quite a bit different than the generation that would take over in just two years' time. We tend to focus on their crudeness and lack of creature comforts, but more importantly, nearly all "mid-size" SUVs before the 1990s period were two-door models. The exception was the Jeep Cherokee XJ , which was developed with extra doors...
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BusinessWeek's David Kiley had a fun idea to spend some time talking with some industry heavy-hitters about CAFE and fuel economy. He spent a few minutes talking to both former Toyota USA President and current #2 at Chrysler, Jim Press, as well as GM Vice-Chairman "Maximum" Bob Lutz. The topic was the fuel efficient topic of choice among greenies, hybrids. In the article, Lutz claimed the upcoming Chevy Vaporware Volt might end up with a sticker price at around $48K. Normally that would make a pretty spectacular lead for us, especially given it's a price tag that's betwen 33% and 60% higher than originally stated by the brand all about the 'merican revolution and the GM exec born from jets. Fortunately for him, his comments were eclipsed by Press on the Prius. And why not, as Press noted the inherent unfairness of competition from Toyota in the hybrid game, saying "...the Japanese government paid for 100% of the development of the battery and hybrid system...
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CES saw a plethora of cars showing off mobile electronic goodies this year. The trend towards bigger and louder continued unabated in the audio category, while stealth was the order of the day for the classic rides. We've put together some noteworthy display vehicles for you to ogle and we even went out of our way to break them into two categories - a no holds barred systems and classic steel. Be sure to check out the Impala in the classics gallery - twin turbos! The gratuitous booth babes are just to brighten the place up a bit. galleryPost('cessound', 6, 'In Car AV Wonderland'); galleryPost('cesavcars', 6, 'Classic Autos of CES'); Photo credit: Curtis Walker
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Though no automaker gets rich from producing police package vehicles, the market represents a chance to move inventory and put your vehicle in the public consciousness. That's one of the reasons Chrysler is aiming to steal some of the share from Ford/Chevy with it's hemi-powered Charger and Magnum wagon. The pair can outrun and outstop both the Vics and Impalas, and are also seriously mean looking (the Impala looks sort of cross-eyed). Ford still predicts it will carry 80% of the market, but it hasn't surprised us to see a significant increase in the Chargers around the Illinois (including for the Department of Treasury Police). Have you noticed any in your neck-of-the-woods? Many we've seen have been blacked-out with the smoke-colored graphics. [ WSJ ]
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