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Detroit Auto Show steers toward better times ahead

10.01.10

DETROIT - The most famed car show in the world is dedicated this year to demonstrating only one thing: that autos and the automotive industry can act of kindness a corner.

Following the most tumultuous patch in the industry's history, the 2010 North American Universal Auto Show, which opens to the public Saturday in Detroit's Cobo Center and runs through Jan. 24, will target squarely on what's in the headlights, not on the mayhem in the rearview speculum.

And for Chrysler Group LLC - whose four area factories enrol thousands and which is less than a year removed from bankruptcy - the mud-covered orbit forward rolls through metro Toledo.

The automaker will vernissage at the show three new Toledo-based Jeep formation vehicles: a Jeep Liberty "Deserter," aimed at beefing up the Liberty's off-street bona fides, and several variations on the Jeep Wrangler, including a come back of an "Islander" edition and introduction of a new "Mountain" issue.

"The Renegade is a tougher-looking, more off-entr

Source: Toledo Blade

Next Chevy Aveo May Be Dramatic Improvement

08.01.10

The improvements confidential may be even more dramatic.  It’s more capacious in every dimension. Motor Trend adds, “Stitching on the doors, seats, trounce mats, steering wheel, shifter, and readily available brake boots and instrument panels is all done in dirty to match the exterior paint and pops against the matte dark interior.”  Designers tolerant of a motorcycle theme for the interior, complete with gauges designed to imitative the instrument cluster of a two-wheeler. “Show black and milled aluminum ricrac pieces are used sparingly so as not to overtax it. Blue backlighting on the various screens and controls completes the essence.”

Mechanically, the next Aveo will brag more power than the current car.  Edmunds Guts Line reports, “The five-voyager subcompact is powered by a 138-horsepower 1.4-liter turbocharged inline-4 locomotive linked to a six-speed manual despatch. The engine is the same one that will be available in the Chevrolet Cruze and provides a 30-hp buffet over the base 2010 Chevrolet Aveo building model.”

Source: U.S. News Rankings & Reviews

Readers debate American made theories

25.01.10

Neal Rubin Readers dispute American made theories Readers don't see colors in judging instrument by parts content

For a lot of people, there's still a very lucid test for what constitutes an American car and what doesn't. But this is the auto duty, where nothing has been truly simple since the Slant-6 machine in a '65 Dodge Dart.

"I cannot have the courage of one's convictions pretend this issue is still debated," wrote Justin Pfauth, 30, of Waterford. "Trail the money trail by focusing on the following headquarters, not the assembly line."

What prompted his and a convoy of other readers' responses was a underlying question last week with what strikes me as an increasingly casual answer. Clearly, an American-designed and Chicago-built Ford Taurus is an American car. But is a Ford Fusion that migrates north from Mexico more American than a Honda Correspondence from Ohio?

How about a Mazda6 built by UAW members in Precise Rock? Or a Toyota Tundra pickup, designed in Los Angeles, engineered in Ann Arbor and built in San Antonio? And what of the prevalent Chevy Aveo, born and bred in South Korea?

Source: The Detroit News