All Entries in the "Auto News" Category

Chrysler Hyundai Truck Partnership – Pros and Cons

Earlier today, we evaluated Hyundai’s desire to become a full-line automaker. While that analysis showed that Hyundai can’t expect their success as a car company to carry over to selling trucks, it doesn’t evaluate the idea of Hyundai selling re-badged Rams.

A concept of a Hyundai Ram 1500

Here are the pros and cons of a Chrysler-Hyundai truck partnership (HINT: It’s not going to happen).

Hyundai’s Interest in Selling Full-Size Trucks

PickupTrucks.com, the best truck site on the Internet, uncovered evidence that Hyundai is quietly investigating entering the North American full-size truck market earlier this week. According to Reuters in Korea, Hyundai approached Chrysler earlier this year about partnering to build a Hyundai version of the Ram 1500. Evidently, Hyundai is interested in becoming a “full-line” automaker.

This is what a Hyundai version of the Dodge Ram could look like.

The question is, why would Hyundai consider such a thing?

Toyota Unintended Acceleration Scandal Update – 255 Days Later

On Friday, August 28th, 2009, Mark Saylor and his family died in a fiery wreck, the victim of unsecured and over-sized floormats in the Lexus ES they were borrowing from a local dealership. Saylor’s story was compelling because he was a California Highway Patrol officer, and because of a panicked 911 call recording Saylor’s last moments where Saylor said that his throttle was stuck.

The crash that lead to an international scandal. Image copyright NBCSandDiego.com.

The death of Sayler and his family gained national media coverage, eventually growing into a full scandal. Groundless accusations of malfunctioning electronic throttles combined with greedy and inept Toyota execs combined to tarnish the reputation of Toyota. In the 255 days since Saylor’s crash, the following has occurred.

SNL Toyota Acceleration Gag Video

The comedians at SNL did a nice job of lampooning Toyota’s perceived unintended acceleration problems – check it out:

It’s definitely a good laugh, and it speaks to a much larger issue – Toyota’s success and reputation is being co-opted by Ford (at least in the eyes of the public).

Five Reasons Car-Based Pickups Will NEVER Sell in The USA

To some, the pickup truck design goal of the decade is to come up with a ‘workable’ small pickup truck that’s small, inexpensive, and decent in terms of fuel economy. Many smart commentators – including Car Guy Dad most recently – have advocated for this type of truck.

See these images of this heavily modded Scion xB dubbed Scion El xBamino.

However, there are at least 5 reasons that we’ll never see a successful small, car-based pickup in the U.S.