We at Speed:Sport:Life are fans of the pickup truck. This is a good thing, because we seem to find ourselves behind the wheels of them quite often. Our keys of the week belong to the Tundra CrewMax Platinum edition.
Tag - GM
Driven: 2016 Cadillac CTS
I’ve been eager to get my hands on the latest CTS ever since the car came out. For those living under a rock, Cadillac’s gone...
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Speed Read: 2015 GMC Canyon
When I drove the Chevy Colorado earlier this year, I found it to be an extremely viable alternative to the dominant Tacoma in the...
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Driven: 2015 Buick Regal GS
Having spent a bit of time in Europe, I recall the new Opel Insignia I rented once from an airport counter a few years back. That...
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The current truck market is hot ? you can tell because I’ve heard from friends that many people are deciding to look into 4WD hire in Australia to try out all of these awesome trucks. The combined competence of my recent spate of pickup loaners can attest to that. You can also tell from the significant efforts (and development dollars) truck makers have been throwing at these “cash cows” over just the last year. The GM twins, the Chevy version of which you see before you, were brand new for 2014. Ford recently introduced an all-new 2015 F-series at the Detroit show, photos of which can be seen further down our front page. The RAM models received a light freshening, and a six-cylinder diesel was introduced for the light-duty 1500 model ? a combination capable of achieving 28 mpg on the highway, a feat considered decent even by small sedan standards not so long ago. The Toyota Tundra, which I sampled a few months ago, also benefited from a significant revamp for 2014, and to take on the stalwart Tacoma ?tweener, GM is bringing the like-sized Colorado and Canyon twins back from the dead for 2015. It doesn?t take a rocket surgeon to see that the pickup market is back with a vengeance, and there?s plenty of room for manufacturers to line their shareholders? pockets. Nothing wrong with that.
by Byron Hurd
The pilot episode of “The Wire” opens with a scene between Baltimore City homicide detective Jimmy McNulty and a young eyewitness sitting on a stoop, overlooking a murder scene. The victim was shot after running away with the pot from a dice game. The witness explains that the victim, “Snot Boogie,” would come to the game every week and let the pot get thick, then pull a snatch and grab. Normally, the other players would chase him down and kick his ass for trying to make off with the cash, but this week somebody got tired of the routine and shot poor Snot Boogie dead. McNulty is puzzled, and asks the witness why they continued to allow Snot Boogie to play if he always ran off with the money. The witness looks at McNulty and then back at the body, then says, matter-of-factly, “You got to. This is America, man.”
Forget everything you know about the Aveo name and how bad it was, as Chevy has pulled the sheets off the Aveo RS Concept which will debut next week at the Detroit Auto Show. This new Aveo RS Concept is a slightly over-the-top look of what’s to come for the Aveo badge in the near future.
We’re told that while the Aveo RS Concept won’t be destined for production, about 80% of what you see will make it to dealer showrooms, including the very nicely done interior, and agressive body lines. This concept version of the Aveo is powered by the same 138 horsepower 1.4-liter inline-4 Ecotec engine which will make its way into the Chevrolet Cruze. The new Aveo will be slightly smaller than the Cruze, but larger than the new Spark which is also expected to bow at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show.
While this is just a concept, we’re already impressed with what GM is doing with future product, and can’t wait to see the new Aveo go head to head with Ford’s new Fiesta. Rumor has it that the Fiesta ST will be hitting our shores in the not too distant future, in which case an Aveo RS would make perfect sense. We can only hope.
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GM is continuing their streak of hot rod new models with the unveiling of the Buick Regal GS which will make its world debut at the 2010 North American International Auto Show next week. Sized just below the LaCrosse sedan, the Regal is roughly the size of the Lexus IS, BMW 3-series and Audi A4.
Though being called just a show car right now, every bit of the Regal GS would be easy to put into production since it is largely a carryover of the high performance European Opel Insignia OPC. One big differentiation between the Buick and the Opel is that the Regal GS is powered by a turbocharged Ecotec 2.0L four-cylinder which makes 255 horsepower rather than the 325 horsepower 2.8L turbocharged V6 found in the Insignia. The engine is mated to a six-speed manual transmission which transmits power to all four wheels via a Haldex AWD system.
For more in-depth details, hit the jump. We’ll have full coverage and photos from Cobo Hall starting on Monday January 11th.
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This past Friday, I was seated in a long-lead briefing for another auto manufacturer when the whispered word was passed down the line of seated journalists: “There’s an emergency conference call regarding Saab in ten minutes.” Not too long after that: “Saab is dead. There’s no deal.” All around me, I saw men with their heads cradled in their hands, though I could not tell whether it was from sympathy, misery, or simple world-weariness. From the seat next to me, a sorrowful, poignant comment: “I don’t want to live in a world where the ES350 is a best-seller and Saab is dead.”
What a perceptive statement! For there were more than fifteen long years where people willingly deluded themselves into believing that this world was one where the Camry-by-Lexus could rule the sales roost and, yet, Saab could live. With evidence to the contrary literally surrounding them, Saab’s incompetent, careless stewards at General Motors continued to push the lie: Saab is premium, Saab is luxury, Saab can compete with the Japanese and Germans on equal ground. By the time Saab’s lifeless body finally thumped against the ground, the story had assumed the mantle of tragedy. And like most tragedies, it began with a misunderstanding.
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