Blake Noble

Decemeber 21st, 2011 black-knight CheersandGears.com There's reason to believe that the folks over at Chevrolet may have a huge New Year's party soon. The storied marquee turned 100-years old this year and, proving that age will not slow it down, is within reach of surpassing it's all time global sales record. At the end of November, 4.8 million cars worldwide were sold wearing the Bowtie badge and December doesn't show any signs of that pace slowing down. It's very impressive, no doubt, but the gravy train doesn't stop there. All of those sales equaled up to Chevrolet increasing it's global market share by one half of a point and sixty percent of all Chevy models are now sold outside of the United States. It's a major step forward for a brand that's now finding itself stepping up to become GM's major global brand, a distinction that was once held by Opel. Growth has been seen in Chevy's newer markets -- China, South Korea, Vietnam, and Europe -- as well as in more familiar markets like South America. Back at home in the U.S., Chevrolet's market share is only behind Ford's at 13.7 percent. But with sales nearing an all-time high and dealers only having a 17-day supply of the Chevrolet Sonic on hand, there's a chance Ford may find itself trailing Chevrolet soon. (Source: The Detroit Bureau) View full article

Jeers or Jeers? That's not fair. I like this one. A lot.

You're thinking of the LFA. This is completely different.

December 21, 2011 black-knight CheersandGears.com It was only last week that Buick offered us the first glimpse of their upcoming small crossover, the Encore, that's set to debut at the Detroit Auto Show this January. But apparently that one image wasn't enough of the Encore for Buick to reveal to world. So how did Buick decide to follow up the Encore's first act? By taking the show over to Facebook where, section by section, a full image of the new CUV would be totally revealed by January 10th. It still doesn't show much right now, but it's barely enough to sort of see that it won't be in anyway related to the Chevrolet Equinox or the old Saturn Vue. Update: Another block dropped today. View full article

December 20,2011 black-knight CheersandGears.com If you've been following the news about the upcoming Detroit Auto Show, you'd already know that Lexus was planning to pull the wraps off of a brand new concept car that would showcase their upcoming design direction for all future vehicles. Lexus previously released two teaser images that revealed the driver's side headlamp and a portion of the interior of the car. Thanks to Road & Track, though, you don't have to wait until next month to see the entire car. Someone blew the lid on the whole thing through R&T's YouTube account with a video that intended to preview the cover of next month's issue. What's revealed isn't a drastic change from Lexus' current design formula, but rather a significant evolution. Further details are sure to come at Detriot. The video from Road & Track has now been made private, but rest assured, it's still floating around on the internet. Update: Lexus releases some more View full article

I might look into trading the Challenger down for a Magnum next month. It all depends on how much I can cut the payment and term down to.

Well, it seems the internet shamed the owner into yanking the video from YouTube. Thankfully someone re-uploaded it. <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LZXBjVIrR08" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Wanna know a secret? This whole CAFE thing and the EPA's fuel economy ratings really don't amount to a lot. That's why I don't get up in arms anymore about these laws. You can choose what you want to think, but it's two parts substance and three parts vaporware. In fact, the EPA performs few mpg tests of their own and simply takes the automaker's word for it instead. Don't believe me? Well, let's visit the EPA's own webpage and you can see the proof for yourself: Yes, automakers have to use the complex mathematical formulas given to them by the EPA to calculate what mpg their cars are capable of, but no, the EPA doesn't employ a huge staff people to test the MPG of every car ever built. Actually, out of the seventeen-thousand people the EPA employs only a whopping eighteen of them work in the offices of their automotive department in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (I bet a lot of you here didn't know that the staff was that small.) It's obvious that there's no way a staff that small can effectively test all of the new or improved cars introduced in a given year, hence that's why they only retest 10 percent of cars (and those retests are usually random or if a car claims to be best in class in fuel economy or if a new model has new technology developed specifically towards higher mpg figures). Since the NHTSA enforces and regulates CAFE based on the EPA's scores, which are in turn mostly based on the data submitted to them by the automakers themselves, well ... I hope you can see the loophole that's been in these laws since the day they first came about. The government can raise CAFE to 73 mpg tomorrow and the automakers would still be very accepting of it. They would also have a way to still offer cars like the Corvette ZR1, supercharged V8 and all. To give a more specific example of what I'm talking about, a lot of naturally-aspirated cars have an "eco" mode that puts a car in a "low-power" state from doing something as simple as changing the throttle and transmission management through the PCM automatically during certain conditions (I should note that no two "eco" modes really work the same, but this is how in a nutshell the system works in my Dodge Challenger and similarly in a number of other cars) . An automaker can do a lot of their mpg tests in this mode alone, plug all of the data into the EPA's mathematical formulas, and -- presto! -- you can boost your mpg scores from okay to good and from good to great. That loophole I just described as well as the loophole discussed in the article above aren't the only ones. Of course I know you all know that GM selling the Spark here boosts the CAFE score of Chevy's model range. See, though, that's the thing: no one really has to buy it in order for Chevy's CAFE scores to go higher. Sure, there are people in the United States who have bought so much into all of this they'll buy a Spark just because they think it's so amazing on gas, but it doesn't matter if it's one guy who bought one or a thousand. (It was also designed primarily for markets that favor small cars meaning that, if it flopped here, it would still make GM money.) It also doesn't mean GM's entire portfolio of cars are going to be Spark-sized, front-wheel drive, three-cylinder micro-cars, either. Let's also not forget that the EPA's fuel economy guidelines are not regularly updated and still assume a car is burning 100 percent gasoline (most gasoline is ten-percent ethanol now). They also don't take into account how people actually drive cars. Don't get me wrong, though. We've seen more efficient automotive powertrain technology come about since EPA started all of this and the NHTSA and CAFE came along to enforce it, but the reason that we're not seeing the resurrection of a rear-wheel drive, V8-powered Chevrolet Impala built to 1968 dimensions isn't because of CAFE. It's really because GM simply doesn't want to build it for whatever reason they can think of. If you want to read more about what the EPA does, read this Car and Driver article from 2009 and click around on the EPA's site from the link I provided above. By the way, I sure as hell wished that someone posted that C&D article here when everyone was bitching about the then proposed increases in CAFE. I don't think the increases in CAFE are going to bring the radical changes we originally thought. tldr; CAFE and the EPA's mpg laws beg to be bent over and slammed right in their backsides. Go back to bed, this isn't the end of the automotive world like we thought it was going to be. Note: Sorry if this post lacks cohesion in anyway. Raise questions and I'll try to hopefully clarify them. Also, if I'm wrong, show me where and how and I'll gladly admit that I am.

I don't know if someone has already raised this point, but the 2.5L could also be there for buyers who might actually understand that a turbocharged engine requires extra maintenance. Sure, ATS buyers will have money, but sometimes people who have money still like to be sensible about how they spend it (especially misers). Extra maintenance means more money they'll have to spend.

It also wouldn't be out of place on a King Crimson record.

It just hit me -- this will probably be the everyman's version of the Infiniti JX, which is based on a stretched Murano floorpan. So, I'm expecting the new Pathfinder to be front or all-wheel drive and to seat seven at least. tldr; the new Pathfinder is a front-wheel drive, seven-seat version of the Murano.

December 19th, 2011 - "black-knight" - CheersandGears.com As we've mentioned before, teaser shots are all the rage these days with automakers. Defining details of future production and concept cars are deliberately hidden and buried by very low lighting -- such has become a signature hallmark of these photographs. Ford, though, is taking another direction for their latest teaser, this time of their upcoming EcoSport concept. Instead of a profile, front three-quarter, or rear three-quarter sketch or photograph that you can barely make out, Ford simply took a head-on shot of the car and cropped it to reveal part of the grille and a headlight, as well as the tumblehome of the glasshouse. They actually left the lighting alone for this one and what's left to look at in the photo appears to pretty much be standard-spec Ford design. Don't bother looking for the EcoSport at the Detroit Auto Show next month, though, because chances are Ford probably won't sell it here. Instead, look for this Fiesta-based small crossover to take a bow at the upcoming Dalhi Auto Expo in India and appear in the European and Central and South American markets in addition to the Indian market where it will replace the European Fusion and a Fusion-based crossover of the same name. The press release from Ford is on page two. View full article

It's threads like these that scare away new members. ... And with that said, I picked up this piece of irritating gravel in my shoe on the first page of the thread. smk, to be frank, your Clarkson impression sucks. Stick to your day job before you start using the word "torques" in all of your sentences. #lol@doublestandards

<iframe width="420" height="315" src=" http://www.youtube.com/embed/k9hEJHhw9hA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> The stupidity displayed in the video above leaves me with my palm on my face, snickering and almost speechless. Yes, that horrific clank of metal tearing through metal at the end of the video was a driveshaft jack-knifing it's way through the floorpan of a V6 2011 Mustang, effectively disemboweling the car. Yes, the driver was obviously exceeding the limits of his car and stupidly modified it to do so. Yes, the driver thinks that, just because his V6 Mustang packs three-hundred-and-some-odd horsepower, he drives an Autobahn-smashing speed demon. What's that? Has hilarity not yet descended upon you? Okay then, I'll just go straight to the horse's mouth and get the "facts" of the story from the owner: Wowwwwwwww. Just ... holy $h!, Batman. My palm is right back on my face again, only this time I can't stop laughing. Ford (via Autoblog) even had to step in on this one to just let everyone know that the V6 Mustang was designed to be "the ultimate in fuel economy and performance" and that you should probably buy a Mustang GT if you wanna go, like, real fast.

As we've seen in prior months, GM, Ford, and Chrysler all love to tease us with shadowy, vague photos of their upcoming wares. Now, Nissan is joining in on the fun by releasing a teaser of their upcoming Pathfinder concept, set to debut at the Detroit Auto Show next month. From what the teaser images show, the Pathfinder's sheetmetal moves from the rugged, boxy formula of the current model to a more flowing, aerodynamic design. There have been rumors that Nissan could be moving the upcoming Pathfinder to a unibody architecture (like Ford did with the Explorer), and there's no doubt the new styling along with Nissan's claims of a new platform for this new model will only serve to further fuel those claims. Nissan says the new Pathfinder will find it's way to dealers in fall 2012. Below is Nissan's relatively short press release: View full article

The EPA seriously underrated these cars on fuel economy. There are quite a few Challenger owners seeing numbers in the low 30s on the highway. Like I mentioned, though, 89 octane is a must to wring every last mile to a gallon of gas out of the 3.5L. I've had nothing but mixed results using 87 octane; on some occasions, there isn't any penalty in fuel economy, other times it'll just chug it down. I chalk that up to the inconsistencies of regular grade gasoline from different chains (Shell is probably the best 87 octane gas to run through the 3.5L ; regular gas from BP or Marathon goes through it like water). EDIT: Wait a sec -- when did Chrysler start back with the whole Lifetime Powertrain warranty? Or are you talking about a used one? Also, one final note: bouch, just for the record I bought my Challenger for around 20k brand new (sticker was a little over 24k). Of course, I bought my Challenger with a small cosmetic defect and from leftover inventory, but that's the key to getting a new car for the price of a used one. Just do a nationwide search for a leftover 2011 Charger through AutoTrader and see who has the cheapest one leftover. Then have your local Dodge dealer grab that car from that dealer and sell it to you locally.

It's time for me to put my biased ballot into the voting box: I say Challenger or Charger. My Challenger has been exceptionally reliable since I've had it. All 19,126 miles have been completely drama and worry free. The fuel economy is decent when you keep 89 octane gas in it -- I've seen about 32 to 33 mpg highway and about the mid 20s mixed. From what I understand, the same is true of the previous generation Charger. Also, if you like the styling of the new 2011 to 2012 models better, look for a used base model. If you are drawn to the eight-speed auto because of the increased fuel economy, well I wouldn't sweat it too much. The five-speed auto wasn't any slouch there, trust me.