Texas is the largest truck market in the country, and Jeep is celebrating it with the new 2021 Gladiator Texas Trail. Based on the Gladiator Sport S trim, the Texas Trail will only be sold in Texas. Jeep also added two Texas trails to the Jeep Badge of Honor program: Black Gap 4×4 in Big Bend … Read more
The Slant Six Club is having a meet in 2021, on October 3, rain or shine. They are starting at noon, and meeting at the Olive Garden at 510 Woodbridge Center Drive, Woodbridge, New Jersey. (Photo is from a past event.) Contact the Slant Six Club for details.
Consumer Reports is the most popular and most trusted name in general-population reviews, but how good are they with cars? The magazine and its annual car book have been both praised and critiqued for years; I did a large critique on Allpar one or two decades ago, and recently revisited it. Not to turn this … Read more
According to a story in today’s Automotive News, the compact Alfa Romeo Tonale crossover is being delayed because the hybrid powertrain could not even get the power and range of a far cheaper Peugeot 3008. Alfa Romeo is being presented as a premium brand, above Dodge or Chrysler, and comparable to BMW. The Tonale, as … Read more
Bob Rodger died in 1971, of leukemia, at the height of the muscle car era. Among his contributions to Chrysler was the 300 “letter car” series, hailed by many critics as the absolute best Detroit had to offer—on part with just about anything in the world; and, for that matter, the 200-mph Dodge Charger Daytona. … Read more
Vauxhall was owned by General Motors for decades, selling a lineup of Opels and sometimes Chevrolets under their own badge. Nobody seemed to complain about the arrangement then, but with Stellantis in charge, some people are having a problem with it now. When Vauxhall started running TV ads concluding with the words “British brand since … Read more
General Motors may not be selling any Hummers until next year, but they’ve just reposted the specs. Shall we compare it with the top Ram, the supercharged-Hemi-powered Ram 1500 TRX? Stay with us as we see if the TRX can beat the Hummer — and compare the Hellcat to GM’s new electric pickup. (There’s also … Read more
The Rocky Mountain Automotive Press named the 2021 Ram 1500 TRX “truck of the year,” the latest in a long line of accolades for the hot pickup. The group narrowed the candidates to four new pickups, and the TRX won a vote to win the award. The Rocky Mountain Automotive Press is a group of … Read more
Recently, a Chrysler employee posted part of an internal brochure, and it reminded me of the time when Chrysler came back with a vengeance. This was not the first time, as most readers know; the company has had an absurd number of comebacks under charismatic leaders—under Walter Flanders, Walter Chrysler, Lee Iacocca, Bob Lutz, and … Read more
First, the very good news: Stellantis out-sold Volkswagen AG in Europe, to be the best-selling automaker on the continent in its first quarter as a company. That comes with the caveat that Volkswagen is likely to make a comeback, but Stellantis may still have some tricks in store, with (among other things) clever hydrogen technology that … Read more
Sources within Stellantis announced today that they are working on building the GME straight-six turbo (T6) engine, a Dodge Magnum wagon based on the Charger, battery-electric cars, and six new cars—two each for Fiat, Chrysler, and Alfa Romeo. A Stellantis spokesman said, “We don’t talk about future product.” An unofficial source, on the other hand, … Read more
The “completely new” 1949 Dodges, like the lower Plymouths and the higher DeSotos and Chryslers, were created to the specifications of Walter Chrysler’s protegé, K.T. Keller. K.T. was a great wartime leader for Chrysler Corporation, ordering daily miracles for the United States military; the company did an incredible job of producing anti-aircraft guns, aircraft parts … Read more
Dodge’s hottest cars, the Charger and Challenger with the 392 (6.4) or Hellcat 6.2 V8s, are getting a software update which will let owners restrict the engine to idle speed—675 rpm—with a peak horsepower of roughly 3. That’s less than 1% of their usual power. The update is available back to model-year 2015, and should … Read more
This year’s Easter Jeep Safari concepts are a pretty diverse bunch—though all based on the Wrangler/Gladiator body. The Magneto concept is battery-powered, with an axial flux electric motor running up to 6,000 rpm, connected to a six-speed manual transmission. That’s right, a manual transmission electric—something for the rest of us. Its power is about the … Read more
The Jeep Wrangler PHEV’s official fuel economy numbers are out, and they are a bit of a bummer. The EPA rates the 4xe as having a 21-mile all-electric range, and a 22 mile electric-plus-gasoline range, less than the expected 25 miles. That is enough for a typical driver to go to work and plug in, … Read more
The good people at Ram are recalling ProMaster City commercial vans from the 2020 and 2021 model years, because the antilock brake module may have a bad internal part that renders it useless. The bad joke on Ram: only four vehicles are estimated to have the problem, all of them made from August 15, 2020 … Read more
