Speaking of the LX platform, Chrysler has resumed production of the AWD variants of the 300C and Magnum after a two-month effort to determine and fix the cause of a low-speed vibration. The problem is said to have surfaced in the transfer case, a component sourced by Magna. Incidentally, that company has been
A Chrysler 300C Touring passed us on our trip from the airport to the hotel on Sunday, and we all rubbernecked as the wagon zoomed by. A 300C wagon? Yup, Europe’s got one and it’s basically a Magnum with a 300C front end. It’s an odd sight to those who haven’t seen it before, but [...]
Filling a market niche that was never there to begin with, the California company Lexani Wheels is manufacturing rims wrapped with ostrich skin as part of an L.A. dealership’s special edition Lincoln Navigator. I couldn’t find any pics of the exact Lexani, but I dug up an image of an Asanti wheel that also makes [...]
It’s time for the Dodge Neon to say goodbye, as it prepares to be replaced by the Caliber wagon next year. The last one supposedly will roll off the assembly line this coming Friday. This car, of course, was one of many American small cars that was said to be the answer to Japan, but [...]
Reader Erik pointed out in the comments of yesterday’s recall post that Hyundai will be recalling 240,000 Elantras. The problem is with the airbags, specifically the occupant classification system. It can mistake a child seat for an adult, which may result in a passenger’s-side deployment during a crash. That would not be good. Nobody should [...]
I was totally excited about snapping the first pic of a Mercedes hybrid hidng in a trailer outside the Frankfurt Motor Show. Of course, the pic was only significant for a day until Mercedes had its press conference introducing not one, but two hybrid concepts: the “Direct Hybrid” and the “Bluetec Hybrid”. Both use the [...]
DCX is getting serious in China. You might already know it recently got the green light to produce Mercedes sedans in its new plant outside of Beijing, and earlier this week we reported on its joint venture to build minivans in FuZhou. Now comes news that it will start building Chrysler 300s in late 2006, [...]
I did a double take when I saw the Citroen C6. Personally, I’ve never been a fan of French cars, but this is one slick sedan. The Citroen C6 is a long and low luxury sedan wrapped in very unique styling. After seeing all the cookie cutter sedans in America, this oddity looks rather attractive. [...]
Paul and Anita Lienert check in with one of their typically weird reviews, this time of the Mercury Milan (a sibling to the Ford Fusion). To be fair, it’s not that weird by their standards. While I wouldn’t have made any connection between the Milan and the epynomous Detroit-area drag strip, they did at least [...]
Consider OPC the European equivalent of SRT or SVT. They take run-of-the-mill Opels and turn them into credible street machines. We saw the debut of the Opel Vectra OPC today, which earns its OPC name with an all-aluminum 2.8L turbo V6 that makes 255 hp. That’s enough to take this Opel with an attitude [...]
GM is now officially saying that Zeta, its new RWD platform developed in Australia, is once again an active program for North America. Jim Queen, GM’s VP of global engineering, states that no product plans have been approved and that any programs that might end up on Zeta are still in the design process. In [...]
I was aware that a 2006 Dodge Charge SE would be arriving. I was also keenly aware that this would not be the chest pounding Hemi-equipped bruiser the Charger is painted to be. Our tester would be fitted with Chrysler’s 3.5-liter 250-horsepower V6. In this day and age, the fuel economy offered by choosing a [...]
Fortunately, the Charger was in the AutoMK Garage right when we needed to take a 600 mile trip into the mountains and back. This kind of extensive long distance testing is not always possible, and it is well suited to the Charger’s character.
The Charger effortlessly handled the highway section of our trip. [...]
