Tweet All photos by Randy Stern Santa Claus is an icon in many ways. For children across the globe, his is a surrogate grandfather who listens, manages the worst behaviors and rewards the nice ones with gifts. For parents, he is a savior to help manage bad behavior at malls or wherever the jolly big …
Tweet All photos by Randy Stern The Dodge Dart has just about reached its final destination – the showroom. It is a cause for celebration. The transition of Fiat's C-EVO architecture to become Chrysler's CUSW platform has now been framed into production form. Fiat and Chrysler's CEO Sergio Marchionne reiterated once again that the Dart …
What’s under those sheets in the 2013 Nissan Altima commercial?
In the aftermath of the New York Auto Show, Nissan released a television spot with the upcoming Altima driving around covered in a sheet. Though it signifies the coming of Nissan’s sales leader in the fall (or sooner), it also begins the process of an ambitious revamp of the lineup within the next 15 months. While the Altima’s sheet is released into the air, four other vehicles remain covered.
Hence the question needs to be asked.
The past month saw three Nissan vehicles residing in the V&R Garage. By now, you’ve probably read my impressions of each one. There is a common theme to all three – a link.
You would not be surprised that I am a former Nissan owner. In 1987, I traded in my old 1979 Mazda 626 coupe for a brand new Nissan Hardbody pickup. It did not last in my care, but it was quite memorable. It was proof that Nissan builds bulletproof machinery. That little truck was damn solid – from engine to everything else. I will admit that it became quite uncomfortable, due to its vinyl bench seat. Truth be told, I’d own another Nissan.
Tweet Chevrolet Code 130R (above) and Tru 140S (below) Concepts. All photos (c)2012 General Motors To be up front here, I'm not a fan of concept vehicles. I understand why they were created. Either a company wants to play around with a design language that will eventually appear on production models, or to tease us …
Remember the Dodge-Alfa Romeo compact I "speculated" a month or so ago? Well…it's got a name…
Much to the glee of everyone even remotely not in the automotive industry, the Dart name is a throwback to a simpler time. The nomenclature's reappearance was received with such joy never seen of any automobile in a very long time. It received huge media coverage – one of the television outlets in the Twin Cities had a piece on the Dart's return.
Perhaps I should explain why everyone went absolutely ecstatic over Chrysler's announcement of their new compact's name.
The quote above was tweeted on Tuesday while in the midst of taking photos across downtown Minneapolis and fielding a round of press releases on my Blackberry. When automotive journalists get news from the industry, we try our best to analyze it for you. Some opinion comes out, but only based on analysis rather than pure editorial.
When the year began, fuel prices scaled up towards the $4.00 a gallon threshold. The result was a rise in smaller vehicles – passenger cars and crossovers.
If you've seen "The Sound of Music" a few times, you have to wonder why these nuns would have a problem with Julie Andrews in the first place! Then again, she would become the nanny for the Von Trapp family, have their children deal with their absentee father by becoming a world famous signing troupe, and then escape the Nazis out of Austria so they could live freely somewhere else.
With the compact market climbing into prominence in the past year, there is still a feeling that something is still missing from the party. But, what would be missing here? Or, rather, who?
It’s not true. As much as we know about this industry, we can analyze, criticize, express opinions and make recommendations to the companies. Yet, we do not have the power to actually change anything.