Drew Dowdell

Bad fuel?

Truck owner loyalty is legendary. Buyers typically pick one brand and stick with that brand for as long as they buy trucks. Indeed my own father has owned only one brand of pickup, the Ford F-series, since before I arrived on earth. In 2018, Ford moved more than 900,000 copies of its F-series pickups out of a total segment of 2,944,395. But have rising prices started to crack that loyalty? CarGurus did a survey and found that 70% of truck owners would switch brands if their truck raised prices by $10,000, that is up from 64% last year. While $10,000 seems like a big jump, even an increase of $5,000 would cause 42% of owners to ditch their current brand. Of those considering switching brands, 54% responded that it was due to price, and 47% cited fuel economy as a concern. More concerning for manufacturers is that 17% of current truck owners say they are unlikely to buy another truck, with Toyota and Ford truck owners being 43% of that total. We may see some strong incentive competition in the market soon if these trends continue. View full article

Volvo is planning on releasing an all-electric version of its Volvo XC40 crossover sometime later this year. This will be the first pure EV under the Volvo brand and the second one in the automaker group after the Polstar 2 that was shown at the Geneva Auto Show earlier this year. In addition to the all-electric version, Volvo will reportedly be offering a 3-cylinder plug-in hybrid version of the XC40, though no official specs have been announced yet. Two variations would be offered, at T4 Twin-Engine and T5 Twin-Engine. While the Polestar 2 is aiming for a 275 mile range, don't expect similar range from the taller and flatter XC40, but somewhere in the 225 area should be doable. Volvo is expecting 25% of sales to be plug-in hybrids, up from the 10% - 15% of sales today. Volvo's goals for electric vehicles is even higher, with an aim for a full 50% of sales by 2025. View full article

I went there a few times as a kid

I like Lane assist where is actually nudges you back in line.

Were they ever in beautiful condition or did you just mean a fine state of repair?

FCA isn't hurting with Jeep and RAM doing well. Nissan-Renault seems to be going okay too.

Yeah, I really wanted to try it. I'm told that the flights to get there are cheap, but everything else like food and hotel is expensive.

Cars like the Venue are the new economy car hatchback. But they sit a little higher so people can feel better about buying them.

This is the car above the Passat. Not in size, but in amenities. I used blind spot monitoring a lot in the Escalade Rental I just had. Absolutely needed... I lost an entire 4Runner in the blind spot of that thing.

Don't dance too much. It looks like it is going to be a sales slide for everyone. Early reports suggest we're going to see a lot of red in the sales ticker.

In some ways, old-school General Motors is still around. This time it is over the tone-deafness of placing a Mexican built product on display at Comerica Park in Detroit just months after announcing the shutdown of GM two plants in Michigan. GM said in a statement that it picked the Blazer, along with the Silverado, for display because the vehicle is brand new and the Blazer is an iconic American nameplate. However, people are upset with GM for the pick of a Mexican built vehicle when two plants in Michigan, Warren and Detroit-Hamtramck will be closing and thousands of jobs will be lost. Now, just days after being installed over centerfield at the park, GM is quietly swapping the Blazer out with a new Chevrolet Traverse at the park fountain. GM said they wanted fans to enjoy baseball without the distraction and further added that the Blazer will add $500 million a year to the U.S. manufacturing economy. GM recently announced a $300 million upgrade to the Orion Assembly plant and the addition of a new Chevrolet EV just says after Trump criticized General Motors and Mary Barra for closing the Lordstown Ohio plant. View full article

Hmm. The kona feels bigger, but numbers are numbers.

They're both built in Germany. I don't think they build them in China yet.

I was on the bus yesterday and spotted that. I decided I would need a picture like that in the near future, so a snapped a shot quick.

Still... even in BMW and Benz and even the Atlas I6... the motors long outlasted the vehicles they were in.

They don't even know where they are building it yet..!

Audi is like Buick. Sells better in China.

We recently reported that Daimler could possibly kill off the SMART brand after years of losing money. One of our own suggestions was that SMART expand into a regular car brand instead of staying in just the micro-car segment. Well, things change quickly in this industry. Yesterday, Daimler paired with Chinese manufacturer Geely in a 50-50 joint venture to bring the next generation of SMART vehicles to China. Part of that expansion will be a move up into the sub-compact market, a fast-growing market in China. SMART will remain an electric car brand and will be a joint development between the two companies. Though not disclosed at this time, it is possible that SMART will use the platform being jointly developed with BMW for its forthcoming i2 car. The current SMART cars are on a joint-venture platform shared with the Renault Twingo. Renault has not expressed an interest in renewing that partnership with Daimler for the next generation of cars. Currently, the ForTwo is built in Hambach Germany. After 2022, that factory is slated to build Mercedes EQ cars. View full article