6 posts tagged “chevy”
I'm a Chevy man, but Toyota's coming out with some VERY impressive ads. The first two remind me of the engineering in a couple of old Honda commercials.
This one freaks me out:
Stolen from Car and Driver:
It appears the “Blue Devil” Corvette already is so quick it has even outrun a freeze on large and powerful rear-drive cars at General Motors, and it’s not even finished yet.
“That one is too late to stop. That’s almost finished. It’s in the final stages of tuning,” Bob Lutz, vice chairman in charge of product development, told CARandDRIVER.com during a recent interview in which he outlined a series of rear-drive projects that have been put on hold until the auto maker knows how strict the proposed new corporate average fuel efficiency (CAFE) regulations will be.
Mounting casualties so far include migrating the next Chevy Impala to the Global RWD Architecture (formerly known as Zeta), an ultra Cadillac based on the 2003 Sixteen concept, potential plans for a rear-drive Cadillac DTS, and work on the smaller Global Small RWD Architecture to produce a baby Caddy.
But the Blue Devil is still on track, despite a gestation period that Lutz described as challenging, in acknowledging, for the first time, the car’s existence. “It’s a very difficult vehicle development. This thing has so much power that we have to explore a dynamic envelope that we’ve never explored before. We want the vehicle to be safe and we want it to be predictable, even at speeds that no mortal is ever going to attain in the United States. That’s our obligation. We’re really into a speed and power realm that General Motors has never been in before. We’re way up there with Porsche Carrera GTs and Ferraris.”
So, Ford has decided they screwed the pooch in dropping the Taurus and will now sell the Five Hundred as a Taurus. What could have been the clue? Was it possibly that the Taurus was the best selling car until about 10 years ago when Homer Simpson was apparently in charge of the redesign? I don't get it. It seems too often that car makers ignore a winning formula. It's obviously not just Ford that blow it and yes, the imports do it too. Here's some examples off the top of my head:
My beloved RX7. When the RX7 started out it was a screamer of a small,
affordable sports car. What was Mazda's bright idea when it was time
to freshen it up? Make it even more of a screamer (it did kickass!)
but make it much more expensive which pushed it out of it's segment.
</rant>
Stolen from TheCarConnection:
Chevrolet did a surprisingly good job of keeping a lid on its plans to roll out a Camaro coupe concept car at last year's North American International Auto Show. But when it comes to the Camaro convertible, leaks even the Little Dutch Boy couldn't plug are popping up all over the automotive community.
TheCarConnection has learned that a ragtop will all but certainly make its debut in this year. And we expect that, just like the Camaro Coupe, the cabriolet will follow soon afterwards as a critical piece in Chevy's production portfolio -- 2008 and 2009, respectively.
Both cars will aim to challenge the undisputed king of the pony-car segment, the Ford Mustang, and to gain traction, we're hearing both Chevy versions will be offered in a variety of powertrain configurations, from a fuel-stingy V-6 to a 6.0-liter, Corvette-derived V-8.
Senior design officials report that the production Camaro Coupe is staying quite true to the show car's look and feel, down to such details as the heavily-hooded headlights and the metallic door inserts. The challenge for the ragtop team will be to squeeze in a foldaway roof without disturbing the lines that won acclaim at last year's auto show.
Now, if only I could afford one...
2007 Chevrolet Silverado LTZ
The whole notion of what a pickup truck is, and what it is supposed to do, hasn't changed all that radically since 1918, when Chevrolet created its first pickup. Those first pickups came from car chasses and - wouldn't you know it? - today's GM trucks are circling back to cars for inspiration in their interiors, in their smooth and effortless power, and even in their fuel-saving technology.
Chevrolet's new Silverado takes the trend of truck refinement and carries it eons beyond the last rendition, which stuck around too long while GM dithered over its future. But while it's easily one of the most sophisticated trucks now on the market - and that includes the current version of the Toyota Tundra, the Ford F-150, the Dodge Ram and the Nissan Titan - the new Silverado is also one of the most capable when it comes to truck duty. New from the ground up for the first time since 1998, GM says the Silverado tops the full-size truck segment for fuel economy (20 mpg or more on the highway, they promise), interior room, horsepower (367), and towing capability (10,500 pounds).
Read the rest here.
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