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Hatchbacks
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Written by Jeff Zurschmeide
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Thursday, 25 June 2009 |
It felt strange to spend a week driving the Dodge Caliber while Chrysler was in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings. I kept waiting for someone to shout “Dead Man Walking” or at least “Dead Car Driving” at me.
But it’s a new day, and Chrysler’s merger with Fiat and the UAW is now complete and they’re firing up the assembly lines again. I wouldn’t say Chrysler is out of the woods yet, but it’s a hopeful sign and I, for one, hope that they make it. The world would be just a little more drab without Mopar in it.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 25 June 2009 )
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Sedans
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Written by Jeff Zurschmeide
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Wednesday, 17 June 2009 |
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When automakers get ready to bring out a new car, they’ll frequently get all the competing models from other brands together and bring in some more-or-less randomly selected members of the public to compare them. They don’t tell the people who’s paying for the exercise, and they don’t show the brand names on the cars - at least not at first.
They have the subjects look over each of the cars, its price, and its specifications. Then they ask the subjects to rank the cars in order of preference - which would you most like to have in your driveway? It’s a blind test, so the automaker gets a good sense of whether their car is desirable compared to the competition.
Then they unveil the brand badges on the cars and ask the subjects to rank them again. That tells the automaker how their brand reputation affects people’s perception of their product.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 25 June 2009 )
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Sedans
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Written by Jeff Zurschmeide
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Wednesday, 17 June 2009 |
Back in 2002, Cadillac made a bold play to shed its image as an old man’s car by introducing the CTS. They even picked Led Zeppelin’s iconic tune “Rock and Roll” as the theme music. I have never in my life felt so squarely targeted by a car company. You see, when I was in high school in the late 70s, Led Zeppelin was It – the only band you cared about. And I had just turned 40 and in all my adult life, never even considered buying a Cadillac. Long story short, Cadillac did it right. The CTS is a great success story and probably dropped the average age of a Caddie buyer by 20 years. The CTS is also a successful racing platform, and it has established Cadillac as GM’s new performance brand.
So, fast forward to this week, and I’m driving the new Lincoln MKS. This is Ford’s answer to the CTS, and it’s a good start. They even picked an iconic rock tune (Peter Schilling’s “Major Tom Coming Home”) as the theme.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 17 June 2009 )
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Sedans
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Written by Jeff Zurschmeide
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Monday, 01 June 2009 |
When I first encountered the new Dodge Charger back in 2006, I was impressed with the sheer size of it. For a car that Mopar was trying to sell as a sports car for guys in their 40s, it was…..not a sports car at all.
 Nice Looking Big Car
But over time, the big ol’ Charger has grown on me a bit. I’ve driven one for a week every year, and I have to give Chrysler their props – this is a nice car. It’s also a powerful car. This year I had the SXT all wheel drive version of the Charger, which features Dodge’s standard 3.5-liter V6 engine. That engine makes 250 horsepower and 250 pound-feet of torque, and it gets a modest 17/23 rating for fuel economy.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 17 June 2009 )
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SUV
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Written by Jeff Zurschmeide
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Wednesday, 27 May 2009 |
It’s hard to know what to say about the Ford Flex - it’s not quite an SUV, certainly not a diminutive passenger car, and nothing at all like a minivan. In a week of driving it around, it reminded me most strongly of those big station wagons of the 1960s and early 70s that so many of us recall from endless family vacations. How many hours did I spend pleading with my dad to turn on the A/C as mile after mile of desert highway rolled away?
 Funky-Cool Looks
Yet even the comparison to the old family wagon falls short, until I realized just what the Ford Flex really is - it’s the reincarnation of the classic Ford Woodie Wagon. It’s tall, like a 40’s Woodie, it’s capable of hauling a tremendous amount of stuff inside or a trailer with its optional class III trailer hitch, and it’s just all-around big. On the outside, it looks like the Scion XB, the Nissan Cube, and the Kia Soul, but it’s at least twice as big as any of those.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 01 June 2009 )
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