Intrepidation

Actually I believe the windshield is more steeply raked, so its not the same. Honestly the Si's problem is that it has the ride height of a CRV and the wheels look small. Drop it and enlarge the wheels... and I think it looks good. Much sleeker and better proportioned somehow than the old one, and I like it better than the Cruze. If nothing else, those changes are easily doable in real life, unlike say, tweaking the Cruze's fascias. The Cruze mops the floor with it inside though. I still don't like the new coupe...it looks like it has a perfect arch roofline.

Why does it look so far off the ground? That's 4x4 ride height. I'll have to compare the changes, but the concept somehow looked much better. That interior, looks designed by a blind man, and the sheen off of the plastics suggest its also cheap. It doesn't look to me like Honda has really advanced its product, especially compared to the Focus, Cruze, and Elantra.

I've finally started on color. This is going to be a major PITA, but I think the way I'm setting up the base colors will make it easier.

Garbage article. The most successive business people didn't get their by doing the same menial task day in and day out, and neither did the most most successful companies.

I as looking for that one too. I'll see if it can hunt it down. I loved the "commotion" series. One of GM's best advertising series that I can remember. Edit: found it.

Its a good strategy when your own ads are completely forgettable. All I remember from them was the Volt was in an ad, and the Cruze had something to do with eco and old people. Now these were clever commercials. Some of my favorites.

Very nice visuals and guess the message across very well. Chrysler definitely picked out a good advertising agency.

I agree with cleaning it at regular service intervals of paper elements. With that said, the recharge kit costs a nearly half the price as a paper element, so it will still pay for itself. I forgot to mention that my experience with a K&N filter was also with a CAI setup. I don't know how much a difference you'll feel with a stock intake.

Should be interesting to see what happens with the next Terrain, size wise.

I do love artistic wheel pictures. Actually upgraded to dual screen monitors. Would be nice if the were both the same size or at least widescreen, but the price was right (free) and the extra working space is awesome. So 1440x900 for the main screen and 1280x1024 for the secondary one. It also means I can actually see and enjoy my many lovely wallpapers cycle through.

Love the Impala tail lights. Nice touch.

I can't speak for fuel economy, but you should notice a seat-of-the-pants difference. K&N filters are much more free flowing than paper filters, allowing the engine to breathe better.

As a matter of fact, there is an SRT10 convertible that frequents the store during the other seasons. They sound nothing alike. Read the owners manual to operate such a basic function? Really? How absurd is that. This isn't Gen I iDrive. Here's a thought: label controls. And what's with the rudeness dude? Because I have a different opinion then you makes it less valid and warrants that? When did I even say Dodge's turn signal stalks were perfect or compare to them? That's right. I didn't. Chill out.

Sorry, but I don't call having to reach around to turn on the washer jets VS pressing the end of the stalk in (which you can do without having to take your hand off the wheel) very intuitive. Some stalks have the end of the stalk act as a rotary dial for the wiper speeds, whereas the Colorado's has a dial mounted after the cruise on/off switch, forcing the wiper washer switch to be moved closer to the steering column. I shouldn't have to be familiar with 30 years of GM to have to know where coast is...as opposed to it just being labeled. That's not intuitive. The Cobalt's 2 stalk setup with wheel mounted cruise is far better, IMO. It's well labeled doesn't require prexisting knowledge of the switchgear to operate. However thanks for the info, I'll be sure to put it to use on my next delivery. And it sounds nothing like a Viper.

I actually don't mind the dash plastic. It's a work truck. I'm not expecting it to be a Phantom in there, and the design is basic but not ugly. My issues inside are far more basic. I drive these things almost everyday for hours, so I've had plenty of time to "bond" with them. I can't stand the multifunction stalk. It must have been design by people who had fingers a ten inches long. It's impossible to turn on the washer jets without taking your hand of the wheel, as you have to reach around the back out the wheel and tilt the switch forward. There's also lots of jagged plastic flash back there. This is really annoying in the winter when you use the washer a lot. The cruise control has no coast, cancel, or decelerate settings. Just on, off, resume, and speed up. Not being able to decelerate is the most annoying on open roads with varying speed limits. It also can't hold the same speed for life of it on anything but a perfectly flat road. There's no place to comfortably rest your foot left foot. There's no fold down center arm rest, and the bench seats have no support whatsoever. There's no padding anywhere on the door panel. It makes it rather uncomfortable on long drives. The I5 makes a huge racket at anything above idle, while sounding like a blender on high speed. For such a small truck I swear it has the turning radius of an aircraft carrier. The transmission really needs at least one more gear. While it has enough power to accelerate, it never wants to downshift and the ratios are huge. The brakes aren't progressive at all. It's like a switch: on or off. It's worse in one truck than the other but they both suffer from it, and so did a friend's Colorado I drove. I drove a `98 Dakota going for $400 which needed plenty of maintenance that had better modulated brakes. As an aide, I really wish the trucks we have had power mirrors and windows. Very annoying to have to get out of the truck or scoot very to the passenger side and adjust the mirror. The windows require so much force to crank I feel like its going to break off.

Good to hear, hopefully they'll make it much better than the current trucks.

Very handsome, looking forward to the unveiling.

The Journey: The general public seems to like it, as even with the crappy interior it had before, it was one of Chrysler best selling models. The Durango: In all fairness the dealer "warned" me that the Durangos had just come off the truck and weren't prepped yet. The 200: Rear legroom isn't nearly as spacious as the larger midsizers/ The 200 and Avenger are actually midsize cars, on the smaller end of the spectrum, whereas most of the other midsziers are classified as large cars. I don't think the 200 will do much to move the brand upmarket above Dodge, at least not in this generation. However $24k for a Limited with the 3.6, leather, the nice interior, and decent handling (so I've heard) is good value, so it may sell. Most important is that it's no longer ugly outside and cheap feeling inside.

2011 Chrysler Lineup Impressions Saturday I finally got around to checking out some of the new metal. Stopped by Salvadore Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep in Gardner. It was late in teh afternoon so the photos kinda suck due to lack of daylight, but it is what it is. First up is the Chrysler 200. In the flesh you can still see its Sebring routes, but its amazing what a nose job and a nice butt will do for the car. There's some nice detailing on the exterior, like how the chrome trim on the rear fascia mimics the grill trim. I really like the LED piping on in headlights, and the detailing of the tail lights. Inside, the interior is much improved. Gone is the cheap gray, poorly grained hard plastic and in its place are slow gloss, well textured plastics with many soft touch surfaces, including the upper half of the dash, upper half of the door panels, and the arm rests. The arm rests in particular are buttery smooth and a pleasure to rest your arm on. I've always been a fan of black on tan and this is no exception. IMO this interior looks just as upscale as the new Passat and in some ways more so,e specially in back where the two tone them e carries over, unlike the Passat where it's all beige. My only complaints are that the hand brake isn't leather (or at least vinyl) wrapped, and that its saddled with Chrysler's old Infotainment system (more on the new one later). Next up is the new Durango, which is extremely handsome in teh flesh. It looks great in photos but IMO they still don't do this handsome machine justice. Inside, the interior design is conservative but of a very high quality. Soft touch materials abound and everything is well put together. Plenty of legroom both in front and in the second row (didn't try the third). Leather was soft, despite being very cold. Really like the new corporate wheel Dodge has (I like Chrysler a lot too, and appreciate how they have their own wheel designs). Interestingly, the all new Durango gets saddled with Chrysler's old style key fob while the refreshed Journey gets a new one. Next up was a Dodge Journey. While the exterior has only been mildly refreshed (R/T's get an handsome, all-new lower fascia at least), the interior that really shines. The interior design is my favorite of any Chrysler to date (tied with the Charger). Unlike the other vehicles I looked at that day, which had carryover switchgear, the Journey uses mostly new swtchgear, including the new 8" infotainment screen (more on that later). I love how the Hazard and other buttons are integrated into the design, being part of the silver trim that curves from one air vent to the other, and neatly separates the screen from the HVAC controls. The controls are fully integrated. As with the other interiors the materials quality is great, with plenty of soft touch materials and low gloss, well textured plastic. Despite not being a range topping model the interior didn't feel cheap at all. Since I was cold and had the keys to it, I figured up the engine and warmed myself up via the heat and seat heaters. The 3.6 sounds very nice, has a bit of a growl to it. I love it when gauges do a little "dance" when the car starts up. It's not particularly new, but its a nice touch. I will say that while gimmicky, the start/stop button is pretty cool as well. Onto that screen... What's interesting is this isn't top of the line model. Cloth, no metallic trim on the steering wheel spokes, or navigation, yet the screen is here. If it's standard on all models that's fantastic, because not only does it look great but its a joy to use. The graphics are crisp and pleasant to look at, it's intuitive to use, and there's absolutely zero delay between commands. I really appreciate how you can control the HVAC from the screen, but Dodge also gives you redundant rotary knobs to adjust it. So you don't have to hunt through menus or look at the screen while on the go. However its nice that when you adjust it with the knob it will also display what you're doing on the screen. Very easy to see at a glance. I actually took a video that I'll try to get up later of it in operation. Can't wait for this to migrate to other Chrysler products. It makes the old MyGig systems feel positively archaic . By this time it was starting to get dark, however one of the salesmen had a Caravan out and asked if I wanted to have a look and get some pictures, so I happily obliged. Its worth noting that the new Caravan and T&C now use the same headlight assemblies, however the change is for the better and gives the Caravan a more assertive look along with the new fascia. The new tail light lenses also help break up the blockiness the old model suffered from. Really this van is just begging for some large wheels. I think it would give it a very athletic appearance. Moving inside, the hideous, cheap, designed with a ruler interior has given way to (you guessed it) well grained hard plastics and a healthy dose of soft touch plastics on the upper dash and areas where your resting arm would come in contact with. Reg will be happy to know you don't have to get the center console, although I prefer it (who walks through the narrow pass way anyway?). I really like the shifter placement and design. It falls right into place and unlike all of the other new vans on the market, doesn't get in your way. I prefer the gated shifter to the push button shifter from last year. I found the seats to be very comfortable and the seat fabric felt very nice to touch. Now, for some reason ILL complained about leg room and that Stow `n Go was complicated. I've never done it with the newer vans it you could seriously do it blindfolded. I folded down half of the rear seats and folded it back up while sitting in the other seat. It's that simple and easy. You'd have to have some sort of mental deficiency not to be able to do it. This feature alone would get me to buy this over other vans. If you ever use your van to haul people and stuff on a regular basis, there's really no alternative. Also, I'm 6'1" and fit in the 3rd row just fine. One final note about the new Chrysler: they have really nice, detailed gauges now. They're lovely to look at as well as photograph. Durango's Journey's Overall I've come away very impressed with what Chrysler has managed to do in a mere 12 months. They've gone from having the worst interiors in the business to interiors with better quality than several rivals. I look forward to being able to take one out for a drive soon, as well as checking out more of the new product. Click here to view the rest of the photos I'd like to thank the dealer for being nice enough to let me poke around their cars. Maybe next time they'll let me take one for a drive. I'll have to go back and see some of their other stuff (didn't get to check out a T&C they had). They also have a Chevy dealer right next door. I'm eager to have a look at the Cruze. To be continued!

It's got nothing on the A/S5

Are the brakes on your truck grabby at all?