Toyota succeed 4x4

We're excited for the new, compact 2015 Jeep Renegade. But, will it go off-road? We called up Jeep's chief engineer and asked. He gave us exclusive, never-before-seen specs and details. The Renegade is an all-new Jeep, based on the parent company's new "Small Wide" platform, also used by the Fiat 500L. It's scheduled to go on-sale this December. Advertisement We're excited about it because, as a subcompact or "B Segment" vehicle, it promises to provide the frugality and urban practicality of a small car with the adventure capability of, well…a Jeep. Living in a city — Los Angeles — a small car makes a ton of sense for me. I need good fuel economy, a car that's easy to park and, since I spend all my money on motorcycles and camping, a low price is a big help too. But, I also spend virtually every weekend out in the mountains or desert, so I need a car that can make it down a difficult dirt road that may be washed out, full of deep sand or covered in slippery … [Read more...] about ​Will The 2015 Jeep Renegade Be Any Good Off-Road?

The car tariffs are starting to hit consumers, FCA’s new CEO has some very large shoes to fill and the trucking industry’s attempts at attracting new drivers await your rapt attention on The Morning Shift for Monday, July 30, 2018. 1st Gear: And Here... We... Go You know how it was only a matter of time before the cost of the car tariffs would get pushed onto the consumers? Well, that time is now. Advertisement Over the weekend, BMW told Reuters that, starting today, it’s going to raise the retail prices of the X5 and X6 SUVs by four to seven percent in China. This is because of the extra costs of tariffs on American-made car imports into the Chinese market. From the story: BMW’s move comes after China imposed new tariffs earlier this month on about $34 billion of U.S. imports, from soybeans and cars to lobsters, as part of a widening trade row. Beijing, which this year cut tariffs on all automobiles imported into China, slapped an additional 25 percent … [Read more...] about The Trade War Is Now Real

Last fall, after the Paris Auto Show, I hopped the Thalys train to Amsterdam. It was my first time on a TGV, and other than the fact that the loos stunk to high heaven and the whiny kid who caused the occupants off the carriage to cheer when he and his idiotic mother exited somewhere around Rotterdam, it was a wonderful travel experience. I grabbed a hotel room and set off in search of my pal Aziz. If in Amsterdam, Los Jalops recommend a visit to his shop, Independent Outlet, as it is simply the business. We spent the evening tooling around town on bicycles, hitting the city's rock 'n' roll bars. And then not an hour or two before the time bell rang, we happened upon a man with salt-and-pepper hair wearing a denim Turbojugend jacket. Aziz said, "Hey! Dave! That's Tony Slug!" Tony had written for Hit List, a punkzine I'd art-directed and written for back around the turn of the century. More importantly, Tony had penned the immortal line, "I'll fuck you in the ass with glazed ham, … [Read more...] about The Apocalypse Dudes: An Open Letter to Auto Designers

Remember Nissan? Yeah it’s still around, but you don’t hear much from it lately. That might have something to do with recent, erm, developments within its management. Nissan’s flagship sports cars have been around for almost a decade, god knows what it’s doing with Infiniti, and while Nissan is committed to the EV Leaf, not much else has come from its electrification. Honda and Mazda have already brought out full electric vehicles to market, Toyota is still dominating in the hybrid segment while still thoroughly invested in hydrogen fuel cells. What’s Nissan done? Since 2016, Japanese customers have been offered something called e-Power. Think of it as Nissan’s halfway hybrid transition to bring buyers from conventional hybrids into EVs. This technology is offered on two models: the compact Note hatchback and the Serena minivan. For now it’s a Japan-only offering but Nissan says it has plans to export the technology to overseas markets. What … [Read more...] about Japan’s Best-Selling Minivan Is Smarter Than It Looks

Once again, the legendary and iconic Volkswagen Beetle has gone out of production. I say once again, because, depending on how you qualify things, this will be the third or fourth time this has happened: first it ended in Germany in 1978, then in Brazil in 1986, where it restarted in 1993, and ended again in Brazil in 1996, then it ended in Mexico in 2003. Really, that was the true end of the original, air-cooled Beetle. Volkswagen ended production of the retro Golf-based Beetle in Mexico yesterday, and I’d like to commemorate this fact by talking about an under-appreciated role of the Beetle: as the gateway drug to the world of weird cars. While I’m sad to see that, for the first time in 81 years, Volkswagen will not offer a Beetle-shaped car anywhere in the world, I can’t feel too broken up because, like I said, the end has already happened. I did my mourning for the Beetle 16 years ago, and, while I was certainly excited when VW announced a retro-styled car based … [Read more...] about The Volkswagen Beetle Has Come to an End. The Original Was a Gateway Drug for Weird Cars