Auto Shows (Page 8)

OPINION AND ANALYSIS: With VW Group’s accelerated plans to cease gas car production sooner, Bentley needs to ask itself what kind of car company does it want to be? If Aston Martin stuffed battery packs inside the seats and boot spare tire wells and fenders of a Rapide, why there isn’t something similar done inside a Spur or a Mulsanne? Bentley isn’t doing that; they’re running counterculture to their heritage, and risk losing what they worked hard to get after leaving Rolls Royce: not becoming another Cadillac.

OPINION ANALYSIS: Rivian Automotive, the once Clandestine now Maverick Electric Pickup Truck Maker added another BEV to its portfolio, a full sized three rower SUV called R1S. I’m so glad they made it nice and boxy and conservative and all BEV. All they need to do now is stretch that battery tray and back seat room, bespoke it out, make it LWB, send it upmarket past Bentley and Rolls, and let it sit next to Rover SVAutobiography, to let their brand take off, and let the doe roll in.

OPINION ANALYSIS: America’s first plug in hybrid, a segment opening PHEV was put to death recently, the Chevrolet Volt was a cutting edge trailblazing vehicle that bridged the gap between siphoning off gas and waiting for battery technology to improve before pushing on to an all electric car world. So cancelling it seems counterintuitive. It is not. Actually Volt was a great accidental/incidental transition vehicle who’s time came and was way gone.

Ford Motor Company shared the image above of the top of the engine of the 2020 Shelby GT500 Mustang along with confirming the debut date and the build location of the supercharged V8 – all while putting the bed the rumors of a factory twin turbo setup.

The 2020 Lincoln Aviator that has been called the "baby Navigator" has finally touched down. It was unveiled at the Los Angeles Auto Show and Lincoln has finally designed an SUV to satisfy people who like sedans.

Cadillac is giving the 2019 Escalade a new blacked-out sport edition. It is perfect for the buyer that wants to add some mystery to the luxury SUV.

After all sorts of speculation and rumors, Ford Motor Company has made it official that the 2020 Shelby GT500 Mustang will make its grand debut at the 2019 North American International Auto Show in Detroit on January 14th – ending the long wait for the big-power pony car.

Unveil Review: Rivian Automotive, the Michigan based startup that for ten years carefully, but secretly planned to find the right vehicle, at the right time, and at the right moment, to launch an all BEV the world hasn’t seen, seemed to find the right recipe to unveil that vehicle NOW, as they launched something that Tesla had expectations of doing first: to launch the first all electric pickup truck in the world. And Rivian did it. Not Ford. Not Tesla. This is a game changer . . .

It was around this time twenty years ago that the now legendary Cadillac Escalade started hauling the ruling class and celebritydom on the streets of the big American cities as if they were elegant stage coaches of the Victorian or Edwardian Eras over 100 years ago. So after reading a story about the disastrous 2009 hybrid I decided to do a flashback ode to the iconic 20th century truck that lives on today.

With the L.A. Auto Show set to begin next week, another automaker has announced it will introduce a new model. Audi will intro its e-tron SUV when the show kicks off in a little over a week.

D Day Reversed! As Tesla prepares for Cheap Model 3 “Production Hell,” the competition takes a Last Stand: Hyundai is ready to unleash a manufacturing fury of a “Production Hell,” with Kona to invade America via the Pacific. While VW and Ford sign a war pact treaty to enact their diabolical anti-Tesla master plan to unleash triple flanking fury coming soon from Dearborn, Chattanooga, and from the North Atlantic shores.

One would have thought that Porsche might have withdrawn from major auto show participation after the drawn-out diesel emissions scandal. That's the case, though, as the automaker will use the L.A. Auto Show to display the 2019 Macan.

We’re now about a few days away from the launch of Rivian’s new mystery trucks, and instead of debunking myths, conjecture, theories, legends, and rumors, Rivian, purveyor of “electric adventure vehicles” only heightens them and with mystique. This time Rivian publishes a second teaser video showing their truck wading through 3 feet of water with 3 seconds of footage.

The media got a preview of the new Subaru Crosstrek Plug-in-Hybrid. See where the new Crosstrek PHEV will make its debut.

Chevrolet used the 2018 SEMA Show in Las Vegas to showcase what the company called a concept front end design, but with reports claiming that this will actually be the production front end very soon, we wanted to give you a look at the two designs side-by-side.

Lincoln is hoping to expand on the Navigator's popularity in 2019 with all new Lincoln Aviator. The California market is especially hot for the Navigator and the Aviator has new bells and whistles sure to please the energy efficient market.

In my frustrating effort to keep pushing the movement toward full electric cars, I often get frustrated by the lack of enthusiasm and missed steps the legacy car makers have taken. If they really were enthused and eager to adapt to electric cars, they would have an all electric option for both their halo sports and pony cars. They don’t. Still. With lackluster Camaro sales, Chevy needs a “comeback kid” car. The eCOPO Camaro is it.

The Los Angeles Auto Show issued a press release this morning and in it, the organizers announced that the long-awaited Jeep Wrangler pickup will debut in California, ending speculation as to when the trail rated truck will finally meet the world.

The organizers of the 2018 SEMA Show in Las Vegas have announced their annual awards and for the ninth-straight year, the Jeep Wrangler was named the Hottest SUV at SEMA – an award that it has literally never lost.

Ford Motor Company has claimed three of the four awards given out by the organizers of the SEMA Show in Las Vegas for 2018, with the F-Series, Mustang and Focus being the most popular model in the truck, car and sport compact segments.

The biggest surprise from Chevrolet at the SEMA Show thus far is the introduction of two new COPO Camaro drag cars – one being the 2019 production car and the other being an all-electric, 9-second concept.

Unofficial reports indicate that the concept front end on the Chevrolet Camaro SS show that set to debut next week at the SEMA Show could be the new production front end very soon.

We will soon see classic Chevy muscle cars cruising the streets with the 755-horsepower LT5 from the C7 Corvette ZR1, as Chevrolet Performance will soon be offering supercharged V8 in the crate engine portfolio – with the official announcement coming later this month at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas.

Chevrolet has previewed the first of their customized Camaro show cars that will debut later this month at SEMA and in addition to a handful of components from the brand’s accessory catalog, this car introduces the world to the new “Shock” exterior color – coming to dealers early next year.

Four years in the making and now its second year of production, the first European full production full electric response to Tesla is a British SUV already on its way in Jaguar fashion toward iconic status. If this represents the latest theater of battle in the cultural British invasion of America between David Beckham, tea and toast, the Mini, Elton John, James Bond, Range Rover, fish and chips, the BBC, Duran Duran, Bentley, the Beatles and so forth, then bring it on!

Although the annual Orange County International Auto Show is the eighth largest auto expo in the world, it’s not the show New York, Geneva, Paris, Frankfurt, Tokyo has. What the show does do, however, is it gives you quality time for serious car shopping, and for us all a preview of the chicks to hatch without giving away the auto henhouse. That’s what the annual LA Auto Show is for, just eight weeks and 30 miles way.

In a segment that was once considered exclusive to Americans only, that no foreign pedigree need apply, the French automaker in a bold and daring attempt to go where no foreign car maker has gone before, produces a concept in electric form with a warning to Ford and Chevrolet, that there’s a weakness with their own muscle pony cars, and Peugeot is ready to take advantage it, in the electric car market.

9/24/2018 UPDATE TO ORIGINAL STORY: A source apparently close to Chrysler is indicating that the rumors that Chrysler is looking to cancel the 300 and Charger sedans are not true. And instead of building the Portal minivan Chrysler is looking to have the Dodge Grand Caravan replaced by a mini MPV based on the Portal Concept instead.

With Type 1 Beetle Mark 3 in its swansong, VW decides in good timing that it’s ready to try its luck and good fortune on another storied halo, that some say as a van, has more potential of being even more popular and longer lasting than Beetle, even as an electric. Let’s hope Samba reaches its 100th Birthday in 2049 that Beetle almost made in 2038 (or earlier?), but didn’t quite live as long.

2013 was only a few years ago, a long time for most, lightning fast time in the electric car universe, and after all the talk, the drafts, the drawings, the concepts, the rumors, the prototypes, and camouflaged pre-production vehicles since, Audi finally presents its first full electric car. With a price point of about $80,000 USD, the Audi e-Tron Quattro aims to take its throne as a heralded German electric, while finally taking on the American Teslas.