pow

This thing actually looks pretty good. What a difference a few styling changes make... Jeep® Patriot EV • Chrysler’s ENVI electric-vehicle technology meets industry’s most capable compact SUV • 400-mile total driving range • 40-mile all-electric range with zero fuel consumption and zero tailpipe emissions Jeep® Patriot EV joins the growing portfolio of electric-drive vehicles being developed by Chrysler LLC. As a Range-extended Electric Vehicle, the Jeep Patriot EV combines the electric-drive components of an Electric Vehicle with a small gasoline engine and integrated electric generator to produce additional energy to power the electric-drive system when needed. This provides the positive attributes of an Electric Vehicle with the driving range equivalent to today’s gasoline-powered vehicles. “The Jeep Patriot EV expands our portfolio of ENVI electric-drive vehicles and is just one more example of what is possible through the technology Chrysler is developing,” said Lou Rhodes, President, – ENVI, and Vice President, Advance Vehicle Engineering, Chrysler LLC. “Moreover, the Patriot EV provides socially responsible, advanced electric technology in the industry’s most capable compact SUV.” The Jeep Patriot EV features a refined and clean front appearance to match the refined and clean powertrain. The signature Jeep grille features vertical accents, and the front fascia is a separate component to help set the grille apart. The use of body-color paint, blended with matte black B- and C-pillars, visually creates a smooth and elongated profile. The unique wheel design and size gives the Jeep Patriot EV a wide stance which combines with the paint treatment to produce a sporty form. The interior of the Jeep Patriot EV features all of the elements introduced in the refreshed 2009 Jeep Patriot. The Jeep Patriot EV uses an electric-drive motor, advanced lithium-ion battery system and a small gasoline engine with an integrated electric generator to produce additional energy to power the electric-drive system when needed. Range-extended Electric Vehicles provide customers a no-compromise means of dramatically reducing their gasoline use and carbon footprint. The Jeep Patriot EV has a range of 400 miles, including 40 miles of zero fuel-consumption, zero-emissions, all-electric operation. The Jeep Patriot EV features a new ENVI Green Pearl exterior with a prominent “EV” graphic adorning both sides – top-to-bottom – of the vehicle. Jeep® Patriot EV – Vehicle Specifications Vehicle Type Range-extended Electric Vehicle, 5-passenger SUV Weight and Dimensions Length 173.6 inches / 4409 mm Width 69.1 inches / 1755 mm Height 65.7 inches / 1669mm Wheelbase 103.7 inches / 2634 mm Front overhang 34.8 inches / 883.9 mm Rear overhang 35.1 inches / 892 mm Track front / rear 59.8 inches / 1519 mm 59.8 inches / 1519 mm Approach angle 27.5 degrees Departure angle 31.4 degrees Turn circle 35.6 feet / 10.85 m Powertrain and Suspension Layout Front-wheel drive Motor Power: 150 kW (200 hp) Regenerative braking Battery Lithium-ion battery Suspension Front - McPherson strut Rear - Independent Range extender SULEV gasoline engine and electric generator Continuous electric power: 45 kW (60 hp) Wheels and Tires Tire size front P245 / 45R20 28.7 inches / 728 mm Tire size rear P245 / 45R20 28.7 inches / 728 mm Color Scheme Exterior ENVI Green Pearl Interior Dark Slate Gray Key Performance Attributes 0-60 mph (0-100 kph) approximately 8 seconds Standing ¼-mile low-16 seconds Top speed greater than 100 mph (approximately 161 kph) All-electric range 40 miles (approximately 64 km) Total driving range up to 400 miles (approximately 644 km)

Apparently five years ago, a wealthy sheik offered GM $10 million for the Cadillac Sixteen concept..

I heard kids would make a buck putting chains on other people's tires.

Found on the TIME magazine website before its debut... looks good: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages...1870797,00.html The 2010 Ford Taurus is a sleek, stylish update of a car that has been one of the mainstays of the Ford fleet, and it's turning heads at the show with its expressive lines and improved interior, including a new instrument panel with chrome ringed gauges. The Taurus also delivers more fuel efficiency. No fuel economy numbers are available as yet, though Ford promises that it will be 10% better than the 2009 Taurus. Besides the Taurus, Ford is also showing off the hybrid Ford Fusion, introduced earlier, and which the company describes as America's most fuel-efficient mid-sized [sedan].

Crushing? Smells of...

The ASTRA 3-door comes standard with 17" wheels and sports suspension. The ASTRA is slower from 0-60 than MINI Cooper, Toyota Corolla, and Mazda 3i. It has the best top-gear acceleration because in 5th gear, its engine revs at 4,000 rpm at 80 mph. That's like driving around in 4th gear all day. I think their concerns are legit for a "sports coupe" that starts just under $20K. At that price, consumers are looking for performance in addition to good looks.

Looks pretty good to me. The second-gen model was very recognizable as a "Lexus RX"; this new model incorporates the L-finesse design cues that started with the IS. The second beltline below the windows helps lower the car visually. I'm not a fan of the interior, though.

How about "[Your Name] Design"?

The interior manages to look distinctly American/Buick... I think because of the way the door panels meet with the dash. Wasn't the Riviera like that? The Park Avenue? I'm not a fan of that particular detail, but overall, the interior looks excellent. At 4,000 lbs, I know it's insanely heavy... but how about the Equinox's DI 2.4? Both weigh about the same, and the availability of a four-cylinder will improve fuel economy for those consumers who want it.

It could be a good thing. With the horsepower arms race coming to an end, Honda could focus on the other side of fun-to-drive: simplicity, efficiency, and less mass. The elemental CR-Z hybrid sports coupe looks very promising.

If Acura goes the way of Isuzu, it won't be much of a loss. Sure, the TL was once the second best-selling luxury car in America - only behind the 3-series, in fact - but the brand never had an identity distinct from Honda's, and their sales stemmed from the improvements made over normal Hondas, not the cachet of a chromed clothespin. Some owners have even been compelled to rebadge their Integras and NSXs as Hondas. Honda has an excellent reputation in the US, and their newer products are quite "premium", if not luxurious. Honda dealers have no trouble selling $35-40K Odysseys, Pilots, and S2000s. (The GT-R from Nissan isn't exactly hurting for an Infiniti badge.) And I don't think Acura owners look down on Hondas the way some Lexus buyers do with Toyota. It wouldn't hurt to combine some of their vehicles. Who needs a Civic Si if there can be a Honda Integra/RSX (in the form of a European Civic Type R, perhaps?) How about a Honda Legend to compete against large sedans like the Avalon, 300, and Taurus? Or Acura can continue being Acura - a small player in the luxury field, available only in North America, with no aspirations for the Big Leagues. Instead of big, extravagant full-sized RWD sedans, they could stick to the cars that made them successful: fun-to-drive hatchbacks and value-packed entry-luxury midsized sedans and SUVs. Instead, Acura is trying to make a name for itself - a legitimate luxury brand different from Honda - and in the process of doing so, they've made all their vehicles ugly. Acura is going in the wrong direction.

Maybe it'll look better in black, to give it that mini-Escalade look...

Not much of an improvement over the current SRX, hm?

My current love is the Lambo LP-560. In white. I think the CTS-V would look sweet in Lamborghini white as well, with all the exterior chrome painted piano black. It has that origami look to it.

At least Ford has the benefit of being a global brand, one that's fairly popular around the world. When I think of urban areas, I think of city cars... and Ford has a great lineup of them. The Fiesta is arguably Ford's most important upcoming car.

The Rendezvous and Aztek were GM's midsized crossovers then. Chevy should have gotten one to compete against high-volume vehicles like Highlander.

Few are being hired, leaving some students to switch focus. By Ken Bensinger December 15, 2008 On the same night that the Senate was killing legislation to bail out U.S. automakers last week, seniors in vehicle design at Pasadena's Art Center College of Design were putting on what should have been the show of their young lives. Standing in suits beside sleek, carefully constructed models of futuristic-looking cars and video screens with 3-D renderings, they smiled and handed out resumes, hoping to catch the eye of a car company recruiter Almost none were to be found. "Normally there are a lot of designers from the big companies, but with all that's going on, nobody is coming," said Julius Bernardo, 27, who has dreamed of designing flashy cars since childhood and spent about $100,000 on his education. "At this point in time, you have to start thinking about other kinds of jobs." In normal times, the senior show at Art Center, one of the world's top transportation design schools, is an employment gold mine, an auto-world agora where carmakers go to stock their studios with talent and put them to work on the vehicles of the future. Industry legends such as BMW's design chief Chris Bangle and former Aston Martin designer Henrik Fisker walked almost directly out of their senior shows and into automotive history. But with the industry suffering its worst sales decline in a quarter-century -- General Motors Corp. and Chrysler are awaiting word on $14 billion in emergency aid from the Bush administration, and Ford is only slightly better off -- these are not normal times. Carmakers, desperate to cut costs, have reduced or frozen hiring. Product planning and design have taken a hit, on top of layoffs on the assembly line, pay cuts in the executive suite and reductions on a host of expenses including auto shows and office supplies. Although designers make up a tiny fraction of the workers in the auto industry, their importance is immeasurable; without good design, cars don't sell. A car company without designers has no future. GM has cut its research and development budget and told Congress this month that it would eliminate eight models by 2012. Ford has cut back on plans for new truck designs. And Chrysler, which in March closed its advanced design studio in Carlsbad, Calif., has seen its design staff shrink by about 15 in the last year from about 75. "There's no question that this is a hard time, and there's no indication it's going to get better in the near term," said Larry Erickson, a former designer at GM and Ford and now chairman of the transportation design department at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, which rivals the Art Center in prestige. The Detroit college has long been a pipeline to jobs at the Big Three, and Erickson said that until recently, half of each graduating class, which generally ranges from 10 to 20 students, would land positions in carmakers' studios. But last spring, when the college's seniors had their big show, only one got a job at an automaker, students said. A second found work designing bicycles. The rest are still looking, or working in design jobs outside transportation. "They told us ahead of time, and they were right, that it was going to be a really bad year," said Mykola Kindratyshyn, the lone hire from that class. He turned down an offer from Toyota to choose GM, where he designs Cadillacs. "In the past, everybody got offers. If you didn't get a job with a car company, you were sure a supplier would hire you. Not anymore." Known primarily for architecture and engineering, Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, Mich., began offering a major in transportation design last year. Jessica Cojeen, a sophomore, said six students dropped out of her class after the first year, discouraged, in part, by poor job prospects. "We're extremely nervous," said Cojeen, whose father works in purchasing for GM. Her professors are encouraging students to develop skills outside vehicle design, such as designing shoes, clothing and other consumer goods."If you can't get a job for a carmaker, you could still get a job designing Hot Wheels," she said. At Thursday night's Art Center show, Sean Whang, who moved to Southern California from Seattle to get his degree, presented a car model he imagines for a Japanese anime character. But his display included the redesign of a blow-dryer. Although his fellow December graduates still hold out hope for a job at Toyota or Honda -- representatives of both companies attended the show but made no job offers -- Whang said he had his sights set on Samsung Electronics Co., where he'd like to design cellphones. "I learned to draw and think like a car designer, but now I'm going to apply it to consumer products," he said. Ralph Gilles, vice president of design for Chrysler, recalled that in 1991, the year before he graduated from the College for Creative Studies, a slow economy kept most graduates from getting offers. But Gilles managed to land a job at Chrysler when he finished school, and said that soon the company was "hiring like crazy." Gilles, best known for leading the design on the Chrysler 300, said aspiring designers shouldn't give up hope. "This is a cyclical thing," he said. This year, he's lost nearly 20% of his designers, mostly to voluntary buyouts, and has been able to hire only two people -- both experienced designers rather than fresh graduates. "At this moment, we are definitely leery." For students, one option has been more school. Whang and other Art Center students said five of their classmates elected to postpone their graduation by six months in hopes that the industry would be on better footing by May. In the fall, the College for Creative Studies will become the first U.S. school to offer a master's degree in transportation design, which may attract designers hoping to hold out for better times. Although designing exteriors is akin to having what one student called "rock star" status, the industry has a shortage of designers focusing on the dashboard, seats and other accouterments on the other side of the sheet metal. Ricky Wong, who is from Hong Kong and is on track to graduate in August, is interning at Fisker Automotive Inc., Henrik Fisker's start-up in Irvine, helping design the interior of the Karma, an $87,000 plug-in hybrid due out next year. "The economy is bad, so I'm focusing on interiors," said Wong. "That's what's hot right now." Eric Noble teaches at the Art Center when he isn't running his auto industry consulting firm in Orange. He said he and other faculty members had been encouraging students to develop their portfolios beyond cars and to be flexible. "It's tough," Noble said. "We're training way more designers than can be absorbed by the industry."

You could get a slightly used Jag XJ, Caddy DTS, or VW Phaeton, too. Lots of metal (or aluminum) for the money.

They look worse to me. I prefer the production model.

We have General Altimax HP on the Bimmer and Fuzion HRi on the Ody. We got both from TireRack and I'm happy with them, especially considering the price. General = Continental (made in France) Fuzion = Bridgestone (no label of origin)

Wow, it looks really good. Like the Malibu, it seems more expensive than it really is... I hope they don't overprice it. It probably doesn't hurt that it looks a lot like the $50K ML.

I like the beach more... but mountains are nice for driving through.

180-hp 2.4L DI is perfect for a cute ute like the Equinox. How about a DI 2.0L 150 hp as a base engine for the Malibu?

Looks good... reminds me of '90s Buick concepts, like a modernized Riviera.

Exactly. It's priced like an entry luxury car, and Cadillac themselves say it's a 3-series, A4, G37, and TL competitor.