This is a guided tour, albeit not in perfect order, of the upper and lower levels of the 2024 New York Auto Show. The upper level was the traditional car companies showing cars, with some interactive experiences; the lower level was the EV test track, miscellaneous exhibitors (including Lucid, which really belongs upstairs), and a large number of tuner cars and otherwise-modded cars (e.g. with paint, decals, and lighting).
For a long time, Dodge dominated police car acceleration, especially if you discount the turbocharged V6 Ford Explorers. Dodge is still planning police-edition Chargers which should leave those Explorers in the dust, but many departments are moving away from sedans and into crossovers and SUVs. Chevrolet’s new Blazer EV, shown at the 2024 New York Auto Show, may be stiff competition in that arena—both because of its acceleration and because of its readiness for police work.
For the first time, the New York Auto Show has dueling off-road courses outside, standing side by side. In the more visible place, where you can rise up well above street level, is the Camp Jeep setup. When it’s not raining, the massive hill provides a good view of the surrounding city—not as good as … Read more
Ford has found yet another way to cause car fires with the 2024 Maverick; the company is recalling just 217 Mavericks because the gas tanks have an open pinch joint, allowing fuel leaks. Owners are supposed to immediately park and cut the engine if a fuel leak is detected, which can be indicated by the … Read more
The New York region has traditionally been Jeep’s greatest strength in sales, but you’d never know it from the New York Auto Show at the Javits Center. Once neglected in a desolate land of taxi repair shops, in an island of subway-inaccessibility, the show is now right by the tourist attraction/residential complex Hudson Yards, with … Read more
This was a bad day for two companies making vehicles that have an off-road-ready aura. The Toyota Tacoma has a roughly 381,000-truck recall on the 2022-23 Tacoma, which appears to be roughly the entire run, because welding debris on the ends of the rear axle assembly could loosen the retaining nuts; the axle can separate … Read more
Honda is going to be having a rough time replacing airbags, as a wide variety of Acuras and Hondas are being recalled because the airbag may deploy unintentionally during a class. The recall covers 2020-22 cars including the Acura MDX, RDX, and TLX; and the Honda Accord, Civic, CR-V, Fit, HR-V, Insight, Odyssey, Passport, Pilot, … Read more
The good news: Two Mopar marques were rated as above average in the J.D. Power 2024 Dependability Study, which looks at problems per vehicle after three years of ownership. It is a better test of quality than the initial quality study, which only looks at around 90 days and is more heavily influenced by dealer and factory preparation.
The bad news: Chrysler was the absolute worst brand on the list, coming in even below Land Rover and Tesla; though the study covers the first year of the Pacifica PHEV, which had a rough launch. Ram came in below average, but still beat fellow truck sellers GMC and Ford.
General Motors (GM) made more money than they expected to in 2023, despite a larger loss at their Cruise self-driving subsidiary.While pundits and some Stellantis releases have claimed that the UAW deal made it impossible to (for example) attend auto shows, today’s revelations by GM show it may not have a dramatic impact going forward.Pretax … Read more
In the all-important pickup category, Ram lost some ground to Ford and GM. Ford sold 750,789 F-series pickups and chassis cabs, across all size and weight classes; GM sold 555,148 Silverados and 295,737 Sierras. As happens so often, GM handily out-sold Ford in full-size pickups, but the F-series wins the title since GM split their sales across the Chevrolet and GMC brands…
So far, every company reporting their full 2023 U.S. sales has reported hefty gains over 2022—though 2022 was a problematic year with global supply shortages stemming from even before COVID-19 hit.General Motors, once the world’s largest automaker and still the US’ leader, reported a 14% gain with 2.6 million sales for the year—though the fourth … Read more
Seemingly quite satisfied and flush with cash after the UAW and Unifor agreements, General Motors has announced a $10 billion accelerated share repurchase and its intention to increase its common stock divided by a third.
Ford’s attack on the Jeep Wrangler will resume in earnest as the Bronco plant returns to full production, with a UAW strike now in the rear view mirror (assuming workers vote their approval of the deal).While Ford leaders had said the company would be bankrupted by anything beyond their prior offers, the company quickly went … Read more
For all the crisis talk around the UAW strike, particularly from leaders of Ford, one might think that American automakers and Stellantis were in danger of bankruptcy. GM’s leaders don’t seem to agree; they announced no change in their dividend, set at 9¢ per share for the last five quarters (since 8/30/2022). Stockholders as of … Read more
The NHTSA has issued their weekly listing of recalls; this week was fairly light on the passenger-car front, only affecting GM, Ford, Volkswagen, and Mercedes. Stellantis/FCA US did not have any new recalls in the past week.GM had possible ruptures in roof rail airbags in the 2014 Cruze/Verano small cars. Ford had yet another vehicle … Read more
GM and Unifor, the Canadian union that includes former UAW workers, have agreed on a deal with increases of around 20% over three years. Over 80% of the union members voted to approve the deal, which also moves newer workers up to maximum wages faster and includes one-time bonuses of up to around $7,320 (USD) … Read more
