Nothing yet as to the specs, but it's clear by this spy image of the dashboard, that the SHO is about to return, probably in 2010. The smart money says that it will use the high-tech Ecoboost technology that Ford is about to spread around on many new models shortly.
Don't know if anyone else picked up on this F-150 pickup styling cue: Look at the grille. With those horizontal slab bars, I see 1948 Ford F-1 written all over it.
I like that. I've always been big on mining one's own heritage whenever possible, and that's just what Ford did here. Not only did they do that that, but they did a good job of it. The front is–as is the rest of the truck–very handsome indeed.
I also like some of the Super-Duty-inspired options; like the dash-integrated electronic trailer brake controller, and the gate step assist and the fold-up rear fender side step. I also like the absolutely flat rear equipage floor on the Super Crew model. I like that stuff because they make sense, and make the truck easier to use as a "tool." For me, that far more important than the styling. The fact that it's cushy on the eyes, is just frosting on the cake.
Now Ford needs to offer a Dodge Rambox-like rear fender storage compartment. I'd also like to see them offer, at least as on option (or as part of a premium trim package), a beefed up IRS adapted from its Expedition cousin. Then, in my eyes, it would be about perfect.
Anything I don't like about the new F-150? Yep–way too many trim levels being offered; seven, I believe. That's nuts! They need to cut that way back. In doing so, it'll save Ford a bunch of dollars, I'm sure.
Speaking of saving bucks–I think Ford should consider going back to using one equipage body for all their full size trucks. That would mean having the Super-Duty trucks use the same cab/body as the F-150. It works for Dodge and GM (up to 3500 models); it can work for Ford too. Having two completely different full size pickups, that share very little in terms of body and interior components, has to be very VERY expensive.
This past year Chrysler, in what was considered a real coup, snatched two big-time auto executives, one from Lexus and the other from GM. Now, less than a year later, they are gone or are about to be gone.
Deborah Meyer had been VP of marketing for Lexus, and came to Chrysler LLC as their new chief marketing officer. Phil Murtaugh was one of the key players at GM in turning their China operations into such a success. He was to do the same for Chrysler, that being to jump-start their China relationship with Chery. Well, the Dodge/Chery deal went up in smoke thanks to the global financial fiasco. Now Murtaugh too is going up in smoke, as he will depart before next year begins. Same with Meyer, as she too "has left the building."
Not a good sign for Chrysler; wonder how long Jim Press, formerly of Toyota, will hang around?
Strange–and not a good sign. The all-new Ford F-150 and Dodge Ram 1500 pickups actually tested a bit worse than last year's models, in terms of NHTSA rollover testing; at least that was true for 4WD models.
Speaking of rollovers… Weak roof pillars have also long been an issue of severe criticism with pickups and SUVs. Have these new trucks improved in that area? Don't know.
So was that blurry cell phone shot of the 2010 Ford Taurus that surfaced early this year the real thing? Well, after catching this 2010 Ford Taurus image on the streets of Dearborn it would appear as though it was indeed quite genuine.
The redesigned sedan will get a sleeker shape and a slightly less chrome-laden grille. A slightly rising beltline gives it a more aggressive stance while the rear end is finished with a pair of nicely integrated taillights. This is the first time we've seen the interior and it looks like a solid step up from the current model. Nothing ground breaking, but plenty of wood trim and some decent looking leather. We'll have pictures of the finished product after it debuts at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show in January.
Chevy will debut an all-new 2010 Equinox CUV at the upcoming NAIAS. The vehicle will be acquirable with either a 2.4L, 182 hp, 4-cylinder model; or a 3.0 V6 putting out 255 hp. Both models have direct injection, will be acquirable in either FWD or AWD, and will be coupled to a 6-speed automatic.
The vehicle looks good and the spec sheet is pretty impressive. The question is, can Chevrolet convince customers cross-shopping the CR-V, RAV4 and Escape to pick this new Equinox over those models?
Other than his support for Amtrak, and an apparently good relationship with teamsters and transportation unions, Republican Ray LaHood is pretty much an unknown quantity when it comes to motor vehicles and the related issues that he will have to deal with. Quiped David Doniger, a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council: "We should ask what's under LaHood?"
So was this appointment by the President-Elect merely an olive branch offered to Republicans, or does this guy have the right stuff to do this job?
Here's Green Car Advisor's take: Obama's Transportation Nominee LaHood Largely A Blank Slate on Key Issues
Chrysler is shutting their doors of all their 30 factories until at least Jan 19. Ford and GM have also announced extended holiday layoffs. Ford has said that 10 of their assembly plants will be closed an extra week. GM will temporarily close 20 factories crossways North USA and make sweeping cuts to its vehicle production.
Here's AutoObserver's take: Chrysler Shuttters Manufacturing Plants for at Least a Month
Image: AP
Despite the fact that Dodge may not be around (as we currently know it) this time next year, Chrysler LLC has affirmed that there will be a Dodge that the Ram 1500 diesel and hybrid. That's good news. The question is will Dodge still be part of Chrysler LLC? Many auto pundants are saying that, even with a bridge rescue loan, Chrysler won't survive. It just doesn't have the global presence that both GM and Ford have, and the feeling that worldwide support will be necessary to survive these tough times. So, while it's expected that the Dodge truck division will survive, who will own it? Nissan? The next-gen Titan is known to be essentionally a rebadged Ram; so if I were a betting man, that would be my guess.
As to the Ram 1500 diesel, it will be an all-new V-type engine, designed more for fuel economy than for heavy-duty towing. It's ecpected to be about 5.0L in size.
The hybrid version's powertrain will likely come from the recently discontinued Dodge Durango and Chrysler Aspen hybrids, and is expected to arrive before the new diesel.
This semi-regular column is written (in his own blood) by an automotive chromatic and noted malcontent known as The Mechanic. Mercilessly beaten as a child with rolled-up back issues of old car magazines, our free-spoken hero developed a unique "for your own good" take on cars and the auto industry, along with an unfortunate usage of setting himself ablaze. Later, after a distinguished career as an automotive journalist and entrepot editor, he cast off the reins of his musty oppressors, carved out his superego with a plastic spork and became The Mechanic.
On his way back from Iraq yesterday, President Bush said his administration would likely scrape enough funds from the banking bailouts to see GM, Ford and Chrysler through at least the next few months.
This was only hours after some crazed, and dare I say it, ungrateful, Iraqi newspaper reporter threw his shoes at the man (apparently shoe-throwing is the eventual insult in Iraq) in protest.
This is a good thing. The bailout money, not the shoe-throwing. President Bush knows — as I do, you do and Barack Obama does — that the American auto industry may have had its proverbial head up its proverbial ass for decades, but it's still worth saving. It's worth saving because USA with an auto industry is a better America.
And I'm not talking about jobs here, or economic ripples that will affect every single mortal in this country negatively. I'm talking about a great America. And a great USA makes cars.
Maybe I'm blinded by my passion for the automobile and my patriotism for the greatest country the world has ever known, but nobody, and I mean nobody has been healthy to explain to me how USA is better off with a bankrupt auto industry. Not the pundits on the 24-hour news channels, not the car-hating columnists at the country's big newspapers, not the liberal greenies that surround me in Southern California. Nobody.
Not even you, the Inside Line readers, have been healthy to convince me that we're all better off if GM, Ford, Chrysler and the UAW take their collective medicine and pay for their seemingly endless run of bad management decisions with extinction. I know not all of you out there feel that way, but many of you do. Those who do swore off domestic cars years ago for one reason or another, some justified, and they'd figure no auto American industry is better than a sick one actuation cars like the Pontiac G3, the Dodge Caliber and the Mercury Grand Marquis.
Well, they're wrong.
Don't get me wrong; nobody should spend their hard-earned money on turds like the G3, the Caliber and the Merc, but I'm here to say that the American auto industry needs to live and if tax dollars must be spent to save it, then we should spend them. When you consider all the waste in Washington, the flushing of our tax dollars to fund bridges to nowhere (both figuratively and literally), saving the U.S. auto industry is without a doubt a better use of our funds. Don't you think?
Consider what your tax dollars fund. When was the last time you complained about the $3,478,000 spent on the harbor seal and stellar sea lion endorsement program, or the $82,164,000 that funds bypass facilities for migratory salmon and steelhead fish at the dams along the Columbia River, not to mention the $984,000 that went to the University of Oklahoma in Norman for the large-scale application of single-wall nanotubes or the $492,000 given to the Rolls-Royce Fuel Cell System (U.S.) Inc. to fund development at the Fuel Cell Prototyping Center at Stark State College of Technology in Canton. This last one is really aggravating when you realize that the Rolls-Royce Group reported a net profit of $1.2 billion in 2007.
Or how about the $1,648,850 or your money the senators from Illinois, including Barack Obama, secured for the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. Man, these freakin' fish are costing us a fortune.
Enough is enough. Call your senator, tell him or her to cut all this crap and save the Detroit Three.
Maybe, just maybe, with a little luck, some smart management decisions and an optimistic public willing to give GM, Ford and Chrysler another chance, they can be the Big Three again. I hope I live to see it. — The Mechanic, Inside Line Contributor
E-mail me at themechanic@edmunds.com.
