Throughout the great front-drive flood, GM’s Holden division in Australia was the ark for big sedans with prop shafts pointed at six o’clock. Holden Commodores and Ford Falcons are a mainstay in Oz and have received continually updated engineering despite the small market. (A good Aussie sales year—a record 1.05 million new vehicles in 2007—equals [...]

The next generation Lucerne is currently under development by Buick. In our proposal, it will be getting a name change, to Roadmaster. Based on the Zeta RWD platform and built at the Oshawa plant in Ontario, Canada, the Roadmaster features the emotional styling language displayed on the Enclave luxury crossover, first introduced as a concept [...]

Debuting at the 2008 Geneva Motor Show, the Focus Coupe-Cabriolet parades Pininfarina design, a new front end, and, of course, a retractable hardtop. Inside the Italian-flavored body, Ford says the Coupe-Cabriolet makes use of high quality finishes, hard-wearing materials, and a new “binocular”-style instrument cluster. Power for the Focus Coupe-Cabriolet will come from a choice [...]

While searching for ways to increase our online authority we came across a unique post on The Beef Jerky Blog. Specifically it had a lot to do with increasing authority on Technorati. For those of you who don’t know, we post daily information on the automotive industry. Specifically we look for information we think our [...]

Powertrain Shared with Tahoe and Yukon Hybrids Like the Tahoe and Yukon gas-electrics, the Escalade hybrid will be a two-mode hybrid that supplements GM’s venerable 6.0-liter V-8 with power from two electric motors. At low speeds, the vehicle can run on batteries only, the engine only, or a combination of both. At higher speeds, another [...]

YOU’RE looking at Dodge’s answer to the Porsche 911 GT3 RS or Lotus Exige, a road car you can drive to the track, hot lap all day, and drive back home, tires, brakes, and ego intact. The Viper ACR is raw. It’s wired. And it’s probably the best weekend racer yet from Detroit. The ACR [...]

As the fourth Lambda-platform crossover from General Motors, the basics have been introduced already in the GMC Acadia, Saturn Outlook and Buick Enclave. The Traverse is a roomy seven (or eight)-passenger crossover with a well-organized cockpit, whose details differ only slightly from its platform sibs. That’s been GM’s M.O. thus far, so why should the [...]

Enthusiasts will be impressed by the earnestness of Chrysler’s audacious mission–dreaming up and building the kind of car that normally comes only from Italy or England. Cadillac demonstrated the notion of an American mid-engine exotic a few years back, but to date, the V-12-powered Cien remains just an idea. Another example that finally did make [...]

A popular topic in the mustang world is the 2009 Ford Mustang Redesign. The latest reports indicate that this redesign will actually be released for the 2010 model year. While all of the details are not out about this 2009 Mustang, some things are fairly clear. First, the 2009 Mustang redesign will still be based [...]

Dodge is bringing back the Challenger, Pontiac has the GTO and Ford redesigned the Mustang to look more like the 60′s Shelby’s. Could it now be Chrysler’s turn? In 1964, the Plymouth Barracuda was born. In 1970, it got the famed Hemi as a motor option, which brought forth the legendary Hemi ‘Cuda. Now, could [...]

2009 Jeep Wrangler JT Concept Another temptress for Jeep pickup aficionados. Jeep continues to tease us with pickup concepts, raising the expectations of media and enthusiasts alike, only to dash our dreams like a day on the Rubicon Trail without a skid plate. The latest temptress is the very, very production-feasible, Wrangler-based Jeep JT, a [...]

Why upgrade? Aside from the smooth new styling–check out the size of that wreath-and-crest badge!–the new Caddy has more power, more features, and a far nicer interior. Key bragging points include: a larger 6.2-liter V-8 with 403 hp (58 more than before); a six-speed automatic; a power liftgate and power running boards; standard stability control [...]