Quick, when’s the last time you gave a thought to the Jeep Compass?
Probably several years ago when the last generation was introduced, right?
Otherwise, if you’re thinking about Jeep, you’re probably thinking about the Gladiator, Wrangler, Cherokee, or Grand Cherokee.
Chevrolet’s C8 Corvette has been in demand.
So much so that some dealers are commanding markups up to $100K over MSRP.
Hyundai’s Veloster is dead.
Mostly.
Don’t worry, performance fans — the one trim that lives on is the high-zoot N.
Last week, we wrote up the G/T trim level that will be added to certain Ram models. That trim is focused on minor improvements to on-road performance.
So, naturally, Ram also has a new trim for specific models that is meant to make mild improvements to off-road driving.
A little under two weeks ago, yours truly wrote about President Joe Biden’s plans for cutting tailpipe emissions and helping to encourage the shift to electric vehicles.
I laid out three basic philosophies that are at play in the debate as to how best move consumers en masse from internal-combustion-engine cars to EVs.
Today’s Rare Ride is a one-of-one – a light gold metallic and roof-free speedster. Underneath its considerably revised bodywork is none other than a 2002 Ford Thunderbird, a car Rare Rides has covered previously.
This very special Chip Foose design won at least one award in its day, and now it’s for sale (though not in Florida as one might expect.) Let’s check it out.
Sorry, diesel fans. Just three years after introducing a Power Stroke diesel for the F-150, Ford is dropping the diesel option.
And doing so with haste.
As I type this, it’s been less than 24 hours since Tesla announced v.9 of their Full Self Driving Beta. Full Self Driving, as the name implies, claims to use advanced artificial intelligence software along with a whole host of sensor arrays and digital inputs to get you and your passengers from point A to point B with minimal input – if any.
Tesla’s bombastic ring leader, Elon Musk, has called this latest version of his autonomous tech “mind-blowing”, and has touted the computing power of Tesla’s “Full Self Driving Chip” as the key to making all this possible. Since that chip’s reveal in 2019, however, Musk has become almost as famous as a pitch-man for cryptocurrencies on Saturday Night Live as he already was as a carmaker, which begs the question: could your Tesla really pay for itself mining for crypto?
Today’s semi-alliterative headline is courtesy of Jeep.
The company has already made Gorilla Glass available on the JK Wrangler. Now it will expand to the Gladiator and JL Wrangler.
Mazda had planned to bring back the rotary engine as part of a range-extender for an electrified vehicle.
That plan is paused, at least for now.
It’s Chicago Auto Show week around these parts.
You might not remember this, but there actually was a 2020 Chicago Auto Show — it took place before COVID shut the world down. This means that the Chicago Auto Show was the last one before the world fell apart, and will be the first one as we tentatively reopen and march towards some sort of normalcy.
It also means that enthusiasts and car shoppers get to gather in person to check out sheetmetal once again.
Today’s Rare Ride hails from the the much overused Cutlass nameplate at Oldsmobile. Just in this series we’ve had the Cutlass Calais and a Cutlass Salon, and today we head to the end of the Cutlass era, with a Ciera.
While Porsche provided the (relatively) inexpensive 914 and 924 to American buyers during the 1970s and into the early 1980s, the debut of the 944 here in the 1983 model year resulted in the price tag on the cheapest possible Porsche starting at $18,980 (about $52,240 in 2021 dollars). While the white-powder-dusted 928S listed at $43,000 that year (about $118,360 today), it must have pained the suits in Stuttgart to have nothing to compete for sales with the likes of the affordable Mitsubishi Starion and Nissan 280ZX. So, for the 1987 and 1988 model years, American Porsche shoppers could buy a 924 with a detuned version of the 944’s engine, keeping the cheap(-ish) price tag of the 924 while ditching the VW engine that— humiliatingly— went into American Motors economy cars and even DJ-5 mail Jeeps. This car was known as the 924S, and I’ve found this one in a San Francisco Bay Area self-service yard. (Read More…)
Lost in the shuffle about Stellantis’ EV Day yesterday — and the weird slogans, especially the Dodge eMuscle thing — was another bit of news we weren’t able to get to yesterday.
Ram has an EV truck planned for 2024.
I touched on it in the newsier post about used-car prices down below, but in normal times, scribes like us sometimes advise our family and friends who are car shopping to buy used, because a lightly used car can be in like-new condition and cost significantly less. And someone else has taken the initial huge depreciation hit.
These are not normal times.
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