By AARON COLE
Managing Editor, MediaOne of UtahTurns out California saw the second coming after all.
It may have been months after the projected date, and not exactly as predicted by an 89-year-old prophet, but the return of Dodge performance was nothing less than apocalyptically awesome.
The 2011 Dodge Charger SRT8 is not a return for the once-beleaguered and nearly bankrupt carmaker, rather an arrival of something wholly biblical and monumental we had been waiting for just the same.
In the interest of full disclosure, Chrysler flew us out to California to witness the arrival of their newest brand, the SRT division, headed by former Dodge brand CEO Ralph Gilles — and to sacrifice much gas at the altar of horsepower. Read the rest of this entry »
2012 Dodge Charger SRT8: Power play
August 5th, 2011
Trucks returning to what made them popular
October 24th, 2011By AARON COLE
Managing Editor, MediaOne of Utah
The chassis is really a canvas.
Of all the vehicles available for purchase, pickup trucks by far offer more possible combinations than any other model.
Most manufacturers offer at least three different engine options, two different powertrain options (four-wheel drive or two-wheel drive), at least three different cab configurations, at least two different box sizes, and that’s even before you start talking about the color of the paint on the outside.
“A full-size product lineup is about the most complex of anything out there. We’ve tried to keep our product offerings as simple as possible, but still provide enough diversity to meet the need of a broad range of consumers,” said Richard Bame, national brand manager for Toyota. “Trying to shop on the web is particularly intimidating … for those very reasons.”
Of all the vehicles in any automaker’s lineup, pickup trucks need to be the most complex by sheer virtue; a full-size pickup can be purchased and used by just about anyone, for any amount of money — luxury or economy.
“The truck segment is very complex,” said Bob Hegbloom, director for the Ram truck brand. “We’re the only segment where on one end, you can get an entry pickup between $15,000 and $20,000 and on the other end find (a truck) that goes all the way $65,000. That’s a $50,000 difference you don’t see anywhere else.”
The lineup can be a bit daunting as a result.
Sandwiched between prices and sizes are superlatives that can dizzy customers. “Best in class towing,” “Best in class payload,” “Best in class hauling.”
Tom Wilkinson, spokesman for Chevrolet trucks said consumers should answer a few basic questions when shopping for trucks.
First, he said, it’s important to know what the truck is going to be used for. Is the truck going to be used for work or more of a family vehicle? Next, powertrain. Then perhaps the interior amenities and luxuries.
Wilkinson said most of the “lifestyle” buyers — people who are buying because they like the look, not because they need the capability — have mostly left the market.
“Those people have moved on, perhaps into the pony cars like the Camaro, so that’s not a lot of shoppers now,” he said.
Instead truck makers are going back to what made trucks popular in the first place, capability and usage.
Thusly, full-size lineups now court those particular niches with specified offerings. This week Ram announced additional Outdoorsman offerings, which cater to hunters and fishers, in addition to Power Wagon varieties, trucks built for off-roading enthusiasts.
Perhaps the most visible of the niche full-size trucks has been Ford’s SVT Raptor, a wildly schemed desert truck that wowed buyers three years ago when it was unveiled.
Marc Lapine, Ford F-150 consumer marketing manager, said the SVT Raptor is built to match customer demand, and right now the demand is enough that Raptors aren’t staying on lots for too long.
“We’ve modestly increased production of the Raptor this year, which is good,” he said. “But compared to the overall F-150 production, it’s still very small.”
Wilkinson said Chevrolet trucks — and by extension GMC trucks — are offering more on the interior to accommodate more affluent buyers.
“We’re seeing the truck market is changing somewhat,” he said. “Truck buyers tend to hang on to their trucks much longer so they want a little bit nicer interior … for the life of the trucks.
“I think you’re seeing all truck brands moving more to meet the needs of who’s buying the trucks … and that covers a lot of people.”
Once a work truck, now a play and everyday truck too
October 24th, 2011By ANDY STONEHOUSE
Special for UtahRides
The pickup truck arms race has yielded some wild and wooly choices for manly men and their burly machines — but, really, do you need a high-powered pickup that’s tough enough to race the Baja 1000 or pull a 17,000-pound trailer?
The rock-crawling monster truck might appeal to the kid inside you, but occasionally, the issues of practicality need to guide you in your choice of four-wheeled finery.
For the contractor or weekend nail-pounder, there are still plenty of rudimentary trucks on the market that will carry a load and take a severe beating yet still come back and love you, without moving into outlandish pricing territory.
Plain as the day is long (and, for cheapskate masochists, still available with vinyl seats and an AM radio), the entry level versions of the major players will reliably do all the things that trucks were born to do. These include the Chevy Silverado and its clone, the GMC Sierra, the Ford F-150, the Ram 1500 (Dodge’s new sub-brand for trucks) and the relative newcomers to the full-size market, the Toyota Tundra and Nissan’s Titan.
Shop around and you can find a brand-new edition of any of the four domestics for as little as $23,000 (make that $28,000 for the Toyota and Nissan), though 4×4, crew cabs, navigation systems, custom bedliners, rearview cameras, running boards, satellite radio, rear DVD entertainment screens and leather seating all considerably change the scope of the game.
But 23 grand does get you two doors, a boxed-in bed and the ability to carry more Home Depot larder than even the most humongous SUV. Around town, consider if you really need 4×4 or not; in most cases, simple upgrades such as cloth seats, a basic stereo and an engine option considerably less than a 400-horsepower V-8 will not only take care of business but save you on gasoline (and car payments). You can proudly bang and scratch up the bed and the rails and the tailgate and not be consumed by worry, like a suburban poseur.
You’ll also have to suss out your needs regarding the crew cab: If your only major worry is locking up your toolbox, that might be safe behind the seats of a two-door model, though if you’ve got kids or coworkers to haul around, the extended and full-cab versions of every manufacturer’s truck add versatility and space.
And if you’re a true working guy, consider a couple of other customizable options: the all-new Nissan NV delivery van, which sort-of looks like the world’s largest pickup but comes with 234-cubic-foot self-contained box, or the Sprinter Van, now sold by Mercedes-Benz, both of which can be outfitted and painted for commercial duty.
Do your needs call for exceptionally heavy loads, hauling a huge trailer over the passes or even adapting for some wintertime snowplowing? Only the U.S. carmakers have you covered here, though the stakes are higher. Every model of the Silverado HD line is rugged enough for a plow, and with the 6.6-liter Duramax diesel V-8 — a $7,000 option, mind you — even the 4×4 version of the machine can pull 16,700 pounds of trailer.
The Ram 3500 and its optional High-Output 6.7-liter Cummins diesel yields 800 lb.-ft. of stump-pulling torque and can haul a Herculean 22,750 pounds. Both feature in-cab electronic trailer brake controls and more bells and whistles than a Stealth fighter jet.
Other truck owners now really do want a vehicle that’s both rugged and as comfortable and well-fitted as a Cadillac on the inside, and there’s a multiplicity of options there, as well. The King Ranch editions of Ford’s pickups sport sumptuous leather front and back, and for a mere $72,000, the F-450 Crew Cab version takes the pickup world into the stratosphere.
In this increasingly well-packed arena, look for creature comforts including heated and ventilated seats, new-edition navigation systems, theater-quality sound systems and leather-topped center console boxes large enough for a basketball.
Then there’s the ever-increasing world of what we might call the Fantasy Truck. Even the lowliest of drivers can be transformed into someone special behind the wheel of the inconceivably rugged Ford Raptor, standard issue to Border Patrol agents; Chevy’s Z71 off-road package for the Silverado also makes it a venerable player in the backcountry, complete with Rancho shocks (or opt for the plush White Diamond edition, with 20-inch wheels).
On the smaller side, Nissan’s upscale PRO-4X version of the Frontier is straight out of “Baywatch” and is thoroughly suited for showing off. Toyota’s also just released plans for a limited edition Baja Series Tacoma, two inches taller and parked on Bilstein shocks and rugged off-road tires.
Trucks take unbeaten path to better fuel economy
October 24th, 2011By AARON COLE
Managing Editor, MediaOne of Utah
Few vehicles are asked to do as much as pickup trucks, but consumers are asking truck makers for one more trick to their repertoires.
Fuel economy has leapfrogged into the top spots in many car buyers’ minds thanks to $3-something gas these days. And truck makers are responding.
But it might not be in the way that you’re thinking.
“If you go back to the mid-2000s, when we were doing our research on capability vs. fuel economy, you’ll find that buyers weren’t willing to trade capability for fuel economy at all,” said Bob Hegbloom, director for the Ram truck brand. “Now, we ask, ‘Would you sacrifice those the capabilities?’ And the answer is still no. People are more aware of it now … that’s really all.”
Hegbloom’s sentiment is echoed almost universally among truck makers: People would like better fuel economy, but when it comes to pickups, it can’t be at the cost of performance.
Bame said that pickups are different from passenger cars when it comes to fuel economy. Typically, he said, it’s easier to get better economy from a passenger car by compromising performance or price to add fuel-saving technology, but he said, those luxuries don’t exist with pickups.
“People are buying these trucks because they need them for one reason or another. You can’t sacrifice performance at all, because that’s why they’re buying them.”
That doesn’t mean automakers aren’t responding to growing concern over the cost of gasoline.
Perhaps the biggest shakeup in recent years has been the addition of the EcoBoost engine to Ford’s F-Series. EcoBoost, first introduced into passenger cars two years ago, is a twin turbocharging system that engineers introduced into the F-Series for 2011.
Critics have said that the system is only marginally more economical, and may prove to be more finicky than normally aspirated engines. Ford has said that the engines undergo rigorous testing and that EcoBoost engines are just as reliable as their non-turbocharged counterparts.
Criticism aside, EcoBoost has been a big seller for Ford, namely because the engine matches up favorably with even the 5.0-liter V8. The 3.5-liter, twin turbocharged 3.5-liter churns out 365 horsepower, 420 lb. feet of torque and can tow over 11,000 lbs. while delivering over 20 mpg.
“To be honest when we saw gas prices rise in ‘08, after the time we began development in EcoBoost, (fuel economy) wasn’t making top 10 list in buyer concerns,” said Marc Lapine, brand manager for Ford. “Now we hear buyers say they’re thinking about things like improving fuel economy, and saying ‘Give me more fuel economy,’ there’s no reason why we wouldn’t do that. The tricky thing, especially in the truck segment, is that consumers aren’t willing to compromise. If they really only wanted fuel economy, we could do that. But you need truck capability, too.”
Ram also has employed different engine methods to increase fuel economy. Starting several years ago, Ram utilized cylinder shutoff mechanisms in a way to save on fuel.
Previous attempts at cylinder deactivation by several automakers in the past led to spotty results, but Ram is confident the technology and others will pay off for consumers.
“With every one of our power trains, we get 20 mpg or over on the highway right now,” said Bob Hegbloom, director for the Ram truck brand.
Hegbloom credits that to improved cylinder deactivation technology, a newly available six-speed automatic transmission and torque converter in Ram pickups.
But like Lapine and others, Hegbloom admits the full-size market may be slow to adopt newer technologies because consumers aren’t willing to forgo big-hauling figures for fuel economy on the road.
“As we go out, we’re looking at a number of things including reducing weight and others … to improve fuel economy.”
Richard Bame, manager for Toyota’s Tundra line, said it’s a fine line that he and other automakers must walk when it comes to fuel economy in full size trucks.
“Fuel economy is the Holy Grail if you can get performance and economy, right?” he said. “If you can show me a way to get fuel economy and performance together, the world will beat a path to your door.”
That may be why Toyota has been slower to adopt methods like cylinder deactivation and turbocharging, because Bame said the automaker is cautious not to adopt “unproven” technology.
Click and Clack: What’s the real story with the timing belt claim
August 30th, 2011Dear Tom and Ray:
About a year ago, I had the timing belt replaced on my 2003 Subaru Outback. Then, last week, I had the head gasket replaced at a different shop. When they replaced the head gasket, they looked at my timing belt and said I needed a new one! The reason was because they could not see any writing on the belt, and they said if it was replaced last year, there would still be writing visible, as it takes 40,000-50,000 miles to wear the writing off a belt, even an aftermarket one. So, now I am wondering, Did they really replace my timing belt last year, or did they rip me off? — Jim Read the rest of this entry »
2011 Kia Optima Hybrid: No longer just a pretty face
August 30th, 2011By Steven Cole Smith
The Orlando Sentinel
Perhaps the most astounding story in the automotive world is the success of Kia, which only entered the U.S. market in 1993 with the little Sportage SUV, then the Sephia, an anonymous-looking sedan. In 1997, Kia declared bankruptcy, and a majority of the company was sold to the other major Korean manufacturer, Hyundai. It wasn’t until 1999 that Kia vehicles were available in all 50 states. Read the rest of this entry »
2011 Chrysler 300: Big car, big changes
August 30th, 2011By AARON COLE
Managing Editor,
MediaOne of UtahThe gangster is gone.
That is, of course, my perception of what the 2011 Chrysler 300 presents. Once the darling of dubs and titan of tint, the 300 was a smash hit with an unintended audience and became a sedan-sized life raft for Chrysler during their rough waters.
Out of bankruptcy and back into profitability, the aging 300 found itself among the first to be nominated for an Extreme Makeover: Chrysler Edition. Read the rest of this entry »
Taking the first step: Wide Open Wednesday attracts all comers to Miller track
August 30th, 2011By AARON COLE
Managing Editor,
MediaOne of UtahTOOELE — This is how it starts.
All England Lawn Tennis Club isn’t open to the public on weekdays. The field at Cowboy Stadium is not open for your passes. Yankees batting practice pitcher Paul Schreiber is not waiting for your cuts.
But the bends of ribbon-laid asphalt at Miller Motorsports Park are eager to take your turns. Access to a major-league facility like this doesn’t come without a high draft pick in other sports. For $25 here, you can run onto this Wrigley Field for your short time, line up in the back and do it all over again until it gets dark. Read the rest of this entry »
Click and Clack: Shop responsible for damage from bad oil change
August 5th, 2011Dear Tom and Ray:
My wife had the oil changed in her 2010 Camry at Walmart. One week later, as she was finishing her 25-mile morning commute, she noticed a noise coming from the engine while she parked the car. She called me to report it, and said she also noticed a small amount of oil dripping under the car. Upon restarting the car at lunch, the sound was much worse. So she shut off the car, and had it towed to the dealer where it was purchased. The dealer said that the oil-filter cartridge was installed incorrectly, so the oil ran out and the car’s engine probably is a total loss. I will be going to the dealer and also speaking with a Walmart manager tomorrow. How do I ensure that Walmart will make good on this, and won’t try to weasel out of paying for my new engine? It’s going to cost thousands of dollars. Thanks for your advice. — Tom
TOM: Well, you can’t prevent them from TRYING to weasel out of it, Tom. The manager wouldn’t be worth his salt if he didn’t at least try to claim that the oil was abducted by aliens while you were walking the dog.
RAY: Actually, what they may argue is that your wife shares some responsibility for the engine failure because she had an obligation to notice that the oil light was on. And that once the oil light was on, she should have stopped driving before the engine was ruined completely. If she did drive some distance with the oil light on, that argument has some merit.
TOM: But whether she shares responsibility or not, your job now is to lock down your evidence. So, when you go to the dealer, you want to get his statement, in writing, of what he found, when he found it, what he believes happened and how much your new engine’s going to cost. Take some dated pictures of the incorrectly installed part, if you can, and get the names and phone numbers of the individuals who examined your car. Ask them to agree to testify in small-claims court someday, should that be necessary.
RAY: And by the way, I would ask the dealer to specify a new or remanufactured engine, rather than let Walmart repair your engine. Here’s why: The worst of the damage — to the crankshaft and the bearings — will be obvious when they take apart the engine. But when you run out of oil, there’s subtle damage to every other part that’s supposed to be protected by oil. And that damage may not show up for 50,000 or 75,000 miles, when you start burning oil and belching blue smoke.
TOM: And while that’s not a problem for a car that already has a lot of miles on it, your car is practically brand-new, and you have a right to expect another 100,000 non-oil-burning miles out of it. So ask the dealer to write down that the engine needs to be replaced and cannot be satisfactorily rebuilt.
RAY: Once you have all of your evidence collected — the receipt for the Walmart oil change, the dealer’s statements, the pictures with circles and arrows on them — trundle over to Walmart and calmly lay out your case. Basically, the more you’re able to convince the Walmart manager that resistance is futile, the easier a time you’ll have getting your money from them.
TOM: The good news is that just about all repair shops have what we like to call “bonehead insurance,” which covers us for the stupid things we, or our employees, inevitably do once in a while.
RAY: Well, it covers us for the stupid things we do while working on other people’s cars. It won’t cover me for agreeing to write a newspaper column with my brother, unfortunately.
TOM: But Walmart either has insurance to cover its employees’ mistakes, or it self-insures and covers the cost of the errors itself. Either way, you have to let them know that they’re going to have to make a claim and buy you an engine.
RAY: If they try to give you the runaround, then you have to take them to small-claims court. Or, if the small-claims damage limit in your state isn’t high enough to cover the cost of the engine, you’ll have to pay a lawyer and use the regular court system.
TOM: But in front of a judge, the expert testimony and contemporaneous evidence you collected from the dealership should win the day. And hopefully the Walmart manager, or his or her higher-up, is experienced enough to know that in advance. Good luck, Tom.
In their pamphlet “Should I Buy, Lease, or Steal My Next Car?” Tom and Ray break down the strategies for buying a car, so you can make the most of your money. Send $4.75 (check or money order) to Next Car, P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475.
Get more Click and Clack in their new book, “Ask Click and Clack: Answers from Car Talk.” Got a question about cars? Write to Click and Clack in care of this newspaper, or e-mail them by visiting the Car Talk Web site at www.cartalk.com.
2011 Nissan Juke: Little, Nissan, Different
August 5th, 2011By AARON COLE
Managing Editor, MediaOne of UtahThere are no words to describe the world the Nissan Juke comes from.
It doesn’t come from an alien planet. It doesn’t come from the future. And it doesn’t come with an apology.
The Juke must come from France.
And indeed, we can partly blame the cheese eating, rally monkeys for delivering the most unique CUV on this planet. Where else would style trump substance, form overthrow function and fun march all over common sense faster? If the Juke had been sent into Belgium, it would have given the Germans at least reason to pause while traipsing through the Ardennes. Read the rest of this entry »
2011 Toyota Yaris: Hitting a higher mileage mark
August 5th, 2011By AARON COLE
Managing Editor, MediaOne of UtahDespite my best efforts, I don’t think gasoline will ever flow like Salt Lake’s floodwaters into your basement. And OPEC changes its mind fewer times than Rupert Murdoch changes his cartoonish Droopy dog facial expression.
Truth is, gasoline’s dependable combustibility is matched by its unreliable supply and addictive qualities that makes it more akin to heroin than any natural resource. High octane is a hard habit to kick, it turns out.
Where does the 2011 Toyota Yaris come in? It’s like a patch for gas junkies to a world of smarter, smaller cars. A harbinger of tomorrow’s future, powered by the fossilized dinosaurs we find today. Read the rest of this entry »
