Blake Noble

This teaser has been out for a month: The one in the article just came out late last night:

This particular rumor has been floating around for a bit and the majority of it isn't exactly certain. What is certain is that the Challenger's replacement will be smaller and lighter. It’s interesting to listen to the rumors of what platform they’ll use next. Some people say the CUSW-Plus platform can accept a rear-drive layout, other people say it’ll be the new LH-like E-Evo platform that we’ve yet to see, others think it’ll be on a heavily revised LX platform. It's also true Chrysler's styling department has had many sleepless nights wondering where they can take the Challenger's design. The current car draws owes its entire design to the original and gets all of the cues perfect. How can you update a design like that and still keep it familiar? It's understandable then why someone can put a lot of stock into the idea of a Barracuda revival — the original fish car spanned three generations and that offers you plenty of different styling cues to mix and match from. It’s therefore less of a challenge for Chrysler’s design team to style a new Barracuda than it is a brand-new Challenger. However, I don’t think that’s really the end-all-be-all here. I’d say it’s also true that ChryCo’s aware of how Porsche has evolved the styling of the 911, how Volkswagen evolved the styling of the old New Beetle into the new New Beetle, and even how they evolved the styling of their own Viper. I’d say nothing’s off the table just yet and the Challenger can certainly progress in the same fashion the 911, Beetle, and Viper have. We have about a year, give or take, until we know what they’ve decided to do. Footnote: I should also mention Chrysler's had plenty of agony trying to resecure the rights to the 'Cuda nameplate. A smaller company now holds the rights to it and have refused to let Chrysler get their hands on it. This might also play a very minor role in if the Barracuda is revived or not.

G.Noble Editor/Reporter CheersandGears.com Monday, 20th February, 2012 Just last month Chrysler's SRT division served up their first teaser image of the upcoming all-new Viper, cloaked ominously in the shadows. Well, SRT now reckon the time is right to charm the big snake into the light and give us the first glimpse of its new, shiny skin. Okay, not exactly. While the Viper has finally slithered into the light, we're still just as much in the dark as we were before. What we can tell for sure from the newest teaser SRT just released over on their Facebook page is that we're looking at a scoop that's been crafted from carbon fiber. Since it is a carbon fiber scoop on a V-10-powered serpent, we can assume it probably directs cool air somewhere, maybe to the engine, maybe to the brakes. Oh, it’s also been painted red. We should know what sort of function the scoop serves in April at the New York Auto Show, where SRT is planning to officially pull the wraps off of the new Viper. Until then, we’re free to debate on what exactly we’re looking at and continue to wait out the next few weeks in slow agony. View full article

I've already posted my rebuttal. From the last paragraph of the original post: I want to make one thing absolutely clear — my rants about what’s out there to buy on the used car market today are not meant to be taken as insults to what you or anyone else drives. I'm not saying any one is taking them personal, but it sure seems that way. You can bet good money that I'd never turn down the opportunity to give any nice, clean, good-running Jeep a loving home for free. I also wouldn't pass up a good, clean LH car with less than 110,000 miles for a grand either. However, my luck hasn't permitted me to own a nice, free Jeep or decent mileage, good condition car for only a grand. In fact, the current state of the used car market prohibits any chance of that. I don't know. That's about all I have to say, other than I'll find someway to get back into college and I appreciate any earlier concern. I guess this post can be childishly marked down below the negative vote threshold now, since that's the way my posts always wind up in these threads of mine. If I weren't up and actually heartbroken last night, I wouldn't have bothered with this thread to begin with for that very reason.

You stumbled across a deal to be smug over. I hope it treats your brother well and vice-versa.

Out with February, out with winter, out with the Challenger. I will not be seeking an immediate replacement. The used car market in my area is a non-stop barrage of overpriced and high-mileage junk. Yesterday's retail prices have become today's wholesale values. Four-grand will only buy you an unlovable, worn out sedan or SUV with near or at 200,000 miles, a mange-riddled paint job, an arthritic suspension, and a catatonic engine. If you're really lucky, four-grand more will buy you a cramped compact sedan with 70,000 miles that's been built out of pure tapioca and subjected to a previous life of hardcore prostitution. If by the grace of God a realistic deal comes your way on something you could learn to live with, the dealer won't do business with you because you have a trade, have to finance with your co-signer, and can't pay for the difference in cash — it is tax season right now, after all, and he knows someone soon will pay the price for his shiny piece of inventory with real green. I refuse to derogate myself to owning and using what very little amount of money I have left to buy an unsatisfying hum-drum car or one that's beyond broken. Simple fact: there isn't a single reasonably affordable interesting car on the used market right now. What's out there compels me to totally forget about owning a car anymore, to be completely honest. Horrifically sad but blatantly true. The bureaucrats and anti-auto hate groups have won again; I will become one less driver under the age of twenty-five on the highway. I am no longer free; I am now a prisoner of my own home; I now have a narrow, limited future. I now have to beg for the hospitality of others; I now have to borrow cars; I now have to ask for a ride. I can now forget about going to college; I can forget about finding work. Winter may be on it's way out, but I'll still be left in the cold for many months — maybe even years — to come. Oh well. I tried. I'm sure this may sound like a bunch of melodramatic banter and I suppose that's mostly right about the latter half of this post. But I've had to let go of the only car I really felt I belonged in, that I felt suited my personality and made a statement about it and my individuality. I only had it for a year, but it grew to be a part of me. It's going to take a lot of time and more than some Chevroyota Civrolla to fill the two-ton hole it's left behind.

I was in the area and I thought I'd stop by and say hello. She's a friendly girl and quite photogenic if I do say so myself.

Although plenty of Wrangler Unlimited owners are converting their four-door off-roaders into two-door pickups at a quick pace, it still isn't everyday you get to see Jeep's unofficial new truck in the wild. Well, a local Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep dealer in my area would like to do their part in changing that. What you see above is a brand-new 2012 Jeep Wrangler Sahara Unlimited converted over to Scrambler-specs with the Mopar JK-8 Independence pickup kit. Aside from leather seats, it has everything on it — sat-nav, heated seats, power locks, the whole bit. What used to be the rear seating and cargo area has now been slathered in a coating of Line-X bedliner to certify the Jeep for hauling duties. They also fitted the suspension with a Rough Country lift and threw on some off-road fender flares to fit the meatier rubber that’s been mounted to a new set of color-matching rims. Basically, the hard stuff has already been done and all you have to do is buy it and drive it. Okay, I’ll admit that it needs the six-speed manual gearbox instead of the five-speed auto-tragic. I won’t lie, though — I really do love the living hell out of this thing. In fact, I love it so much I’m about to go into spasms at the mere thought of what it would be like to drive it. Alas, the window sticker is worthy of spasms as well — at a price of $59,990 this modern day Jeep Scrambler is more than guaranteed to scramble your finances. You also can’t help but to wonder where the extra money comes into play. The JK-8 kit only costs $5,499 without installation and the rims, tires, flares, and lift aren’t extremely costly items either. The original Wrangler Unlimited that became this truck didn’t carry a horrible base price as initially spec’d and it couldn’t have been the cost of labor to install it since any DIY’er can do it. Fingers crossed the price gets marked down. Way, way, way down.

I could be wrong but I think there's some new sheetmetal underneath the camo.

I think I read somewhere the naming scheme worked like this: (First Letter) = Vehicle Series (Second Letter) = Function/Characteristic (Third Letter) Bodystyle That means: ATS = A-Series Touring Sedan BTS = B-Series Touring Sedan CTS = C-Series Touring Sedan EXT = Escalade-Series Crossover Truck ESV = Escalade-Series Stretched Vehicle SRX = S-Series Reconfigurable Crossover XLR = X-Series Luxury Roadster XTS = X-Series Touring Sedan ELR means "Electric Long Range" and is a notable exception to this list. The name Ciel is also supposed to allude to the intials "C-L" meaning "Convertible Luxury." The following names are pre-Art & Science, so their meanings are obviously just a little different. DTS = Deville Touring Sedan DHS = Deville Hi-lux Sedan (long form: Deville High-Luxury Sedan) ETC = El Dorado Touring Coupe STS = Seville Touring Sedan SLS = Seville Luxury Sedan

This reminds me of a scene from an old episode of Family Guy ... It's like that. It's exactly like that.

It's actually driving us so mad we reported on it not once, but twice! XD

G. Noble Editor/Reporter CheersandGears.com Thursday, 16th February, 2012 This is it — the new upcoming small SUV from Porsche. No, it isn’t going to be named “Cajun” as previously thought. Instead, Porsche went with something a little less spicy for the name and decided to choose an Indonesian word meaning “tiger” — Macan. The sketch you see above was released this morning directly from Porsche, along with a and a press release mostly full of non-information regarding the new Audi Q5-based soft-roader. That means there isn’t any official word about what engines will wind up powering the Macan, but it’s probably safe to assume they’ll be Porsche-specific. The same will probably apply to suspension and braking systems as well. Additionally, if current rumors are to be believed, we may also see a hybrid Macan and a three-door model that’ll duke it out with the Range Rover Evoque.According to Porsche, the Macan is a key model in its business strategy that’ll lead it into 2018. It’s set to go into production in 2013. Hit page two for the press release. NEW PORSCHE MODEL TO BE NAMED MACAN New Porsche sports car in the sports utility segment has been given the name Macan The Macan will be built at the Porsche factory in Leipzig, Germany Production due to start in 2013 Porsche today confirms the name for its forthcoming new sports car in the SUV segment is Macan. The name Macan is derived from the Indonesian word for tiger and combines suppleness, power, fascination and dynamics – core characteristics of this new all-terrain car. "The Macan combines all sports car characteristics with the benefits of an SUV and is a genuine Porsche", said Bernhard Maier, Executive Vice President Sales and Marketing of Porsche AG. "The name of a new Porsche has to fit with the brand, sound good in very many languages and dialects and evoke positive associations." As a new addition to the Porsche model range, the Macan is a key pillar of the company's Strategy 2018, by which the sports car manufacturer wishes to expand its model portfolio. Porsche intends the Macan to emulate the success of the Cayenne. The new car will start coming off the production lines at the Porsche factory in Leipzig, Saxony, in 2013. The site is currently being expanded into a fully-fledged production plant including body assembly line and paint shop; with 500 million euro of investment, it is one of the biggest building projects in the corporate history of Porsche. In the medium-term, the sports car manufacturer will be creating more than 1,000 new jobs. Porsche names have an indelible connection with the corresponding model and its characteristics: the name Boxster describes the combination of 'boxer' engine and 'roadster', Cayenne stands for sharpness, the Cayman is snappy and agile and a Panamera is more than a Gran Turismo, capable also of winning the Carrera Panamericana long-distance race. View full article

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/u1TreGx-tXs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> ATP's cover of "Still of the Night" opens up a can of whupass all over the original. (Warning: don't let your boss see the video player if you're at work. Sorry, it's the only one up on YouBoob.)

Huh. Well, I learned something today.

Aside from that dashboard guage-pod mod, it's a cool old car. Gives a brand new meaning to "cherry ride."

I've always thought looking at a production Lexus is exactly the same as being in a coma and this is no different. The idea of an "F-Sport" package on the RX is hilarious. Like a stupid bodykit and some carbon fiber trim is somehow going to raise my pulse back to a healthy, responsive level.

The last-gen Bonneville had a pretty nice shape with some good lines. The GXPs really show that. Take good care of 'er.

Happy birthday!

I don't think electronic content matters quite as much as everyone is thinking. Granted it seems my generation really values a stereo that offers some sort of iPod/iPhone connectivity, but I don't think they're expecting a stereo with its own indivdual apps.

No thanks. It looks like something Billy Bob rigged up in his shed with an old welder, some tin, and a shower curtain. If the transition from cab to bed were smooth and there were tractor-trailer-like living quarters behind the seats, then maybe it would be neat. Otherwise, an extended cab GMT-400 offers as much rear seat leg room and space for the same amount of cash and looks way better to boot.

Agreed. The U.S. second-gen Colorado needs to come with the 2.8L Duramax. That could help to justify the absence of a half-ton diesel Silverado.

A two-wheel drive Jeep with a locking rear diff, meaty rubber, and a small lift really is all you'd need for light to mild off-roading. I'd go that route myself for my next Jeep, but knowing how I am I'd eventually start bitching about not having a transfer case and talk about needlessly expensive things like a four-wheel drive conversion. Mud will run paint, but that's why you wash it. A dirty Jeep may be a happy Jeep, but a well taken care of Jeep is a loving Jeep (or something corny like that).