May 2009

2012 Ford Ranger Spy Shots

LLN grabbed some spy shots of the 2010 Ford Ranger mule.  There are both single and double cab versions, but the design is obviously temporary, and unfinished at this point.  The current Ranger isn’t availalbe as a crew cab in name, though the 4 door Explorer Sport Trac is based on the Ranger platform.  One [...]

Read the full article →

2010 Mustang 5.0 Coyote V8 on the way

Rumors of the legendary 5.0’s return have been nonstop since, well, the 5.0 left us way back in 95 or so.  Today an Australian Ford executive, Russell Christophers, has confirmed that the Blue Oval is building an all-new, all-aluminum DOHC 5.0 liter V8.  The codename of this project is “Coyote”, and the power output is [...]

Read the full article →

Mercury Sable Bites the Dust

After going from the Sable, to the Mercury Montego, and back to the Sable, with all the costs and trouble involved, Ford is finally going to axe the Sable once and for all.  The official announcement is reportedly going to come this Thursday.  Ford recently re-made the 2010 Taurus ( and if looks are any [...]

Read the full article →

Black Thursday and Friday

The past two days have been dark ones for the domestic auto industry.  On Thursday, Chrysler, LLC made a powerful announcement – they would not be renewing franchise agreements for 789 Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep dealerships.  The list was made publicly available, and can be viewed here.  To follow up that bad news, GM announced [...]

Read the full article →

2011 Toyota Sienna Spy Shot

Check out the 2011 Toyota Sienna – pictured to your right.  It looks familiar – and it should.  Much of the exterior will actually remain the same.  So what’s the big deal?  Well, an all-new chassis is the big deal.  The 2011 Sienna will ride on the “MC” platform – the same platform that underpins [...]

Read the full article →

GM loses six billion dollars, burns 10 billion

Though losing money is nothing new to GM, the magnitude of this loss and and rate of burn are stunning.  GM is down to $11.6 billion in cash, and that is only because the U.S. gov’t is giving away money to every one. GM’s Q1 results are spectacularly bad – there’s no denying that.  And [...]

Read the full article →

2010 Chevy Equinox expects a 32 MPG rating

Though the verdict isn’t *officially* in yet, GM is expecting a huge number from the 2010 Equinox.  32 MPG is the expected highway rating, up from the 30 mpg previously expected.  That’s an insanely huge number for a CUV type vehicle – especially when you consider the competition: Honda CR-V: 27 MPG highway Toyota RAV4: [...]

Read the full article →

April Auto Sales Lowlights

Shouldn’t that be highlights, you ask?  No, it most certainly should not, when you notice that every single major automaker suffered a drop in sales in April.  There’s no “best” and “worst” here.  Just Bad, worse, and worst.  So, who did just “bad” in April?  Let’s take a look-see. Bad Brands Subaru –6.69% : All [...]

Read the full article →