Read This: Toyota donates engineers, not money, to country’s largest anti-hunger charity

Filed under: Etc., Toyota

The Food Bank of New York City

Key to production of any kind is efficiency – the ability to achieve maximum productivity with minimal effort or waste. Toyota has become a master of efficiency, with streamlined manufacturing operations around the world. In fact, the Japanese brand has become so well known for efficient operations that it now offers consulting services for organizations and companies outside the auto industry.

It also offers the same consulting for non-profits, free of charge. The New York Times took an in-depth look at the transformative impact that Toyota’s engineers had on the city’s charities, including The Food Bank, the country’s largest anti-hunger charity. The auto manufacturer helped revolutionize the way these organizations served the community, showing that there’s more to corporate philanthropy than just donating money.

Head on over to the Times‘ website and give the story a read.

Toyota donates engineers, not money, to country’s largest anti-hunger charity originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 01 Aug 2013 17:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Off-road Cadillac Escalade adds some extra bush country capability

Filed under: Aftermarket, Cadillac, Specialty, Luxury, Off-Road

XPLORE Cadillac Escalade

So, you’re a dyed-in-the-wool General Motors fan, but like the notion of a machine like the Hennessey Velociraptor. We have good news for you. Behold the Aria Coachworks XPLORE Cadillac Escalade. For a modest fee, Aria will outfit your Escalade with a custom suspension, BF Goodrich all-terrain tires wrapped around aluminum wheels, a Warn winch and a special exhaust. There’s even a snorkel option for those of you with aspirations toward deep water crossings. Consider yourself warned, however: unlike other GMT900 SUVs, the Cadillac only has an all-wheel drive system, not the more rugged four-wheel drive setup of the Chevy Tahoe and GMC Yukon). Outside, the luxury SUV gets matte paint, black chrome trim, XPLORE power running boards and a roof rack system.

The interior also receives a few fun changes as well, but we’re more interested in the fact that buyers can snag a power roof top tent. You know, in case you need to camp out at Best Buy for the PS4. There’s also a matching camp trailer and, our personal favorite, a matching BMW GS motorcycle. Bikes not your bag of tricks? That’s fine. Aria will also sell you a matched Airstream trailer or Old Town wooden canoes. As much as we want to hate this, we love the notion of bashing through the woods in a $100,000 Cadillac battlewagon with our GS in tow. Check the press release below for more information.

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Off-road Cadillac Escalade adds some extra bush country capability originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 26 Jun 2013 17:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: Next Chrysler minivan to be Town & Country only, fueling Dodge closure rumors

Filed under: Minivan/Van, Plants/Manufacturing, Chrysler, Dodge

​2013 Chrysler Town & Country S - front three-quarter view

Recent reports have suggested that Chrysler may soon phase out its long-running Dodge brand, and while the company remains mum on the subject, you can’t blame analysts for thinking that’s the direction the Pentastar’s everyday brand is heading. After all, Chrysler has shown a willingness to shutter brands, having killed off Plymouth back in 2001, and it’s putting big dollars behind its bid to build Fiat into a North American force. Chrysler also recently took the step of spinning off its trucks into the stand-alone Ram brand and relocated its halo Viper supercar under the SRT banner.

Couple that with long-held gossip that the full-size Dodge Durango utility vehicle and the Avenger sedan are both living on borrowed time, and you’ve got a dwindling product portfolio. That would leave Dodge with the Dart compact (a model that isn’t selling particularly well), the Charger (which has a mechanical twin in the Chrysler 300) and the Challenger, which could be supplanted by a rumored Chrysler/SRT Cuda. On the people-mover front, Dodge offers the aging Journey and the Grand Caravan, which is the twin to the bigger-margin Chrysler Town & Country.

Stories for some time have pegged Chrysler as only moving forward with one minivan, though there has been some waffling as to whether the next-generation MPV would wear the Town & Country badge or that of the Grand Caravan. A new report out of Canada – where the vehicles are built – says that the winner in the sippy-cup derby is the next Chrysler Town & Country, which will carry a 2016 model year designation. In addition, sources report that T&C production at the Windsor Assembly Plant will be joined by an as-yet-unnamed large near-luxury crossover for 2017, another long-rumored model that could be similar in concept to the long-defunct Pacifica. The brand for this new model? You guessed it – Chrysler.

Next Chrysler minivan to be Town & Country only, fueling Dodge closure rumors originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video: Why you shouldn’t steal a GT500 and drive through deer country

Filed under: Coupe, Performance, Ford, Humor

shelby gt500 hits deer

Ford Shelby GT500 meets a deer – Click above to watch (NSFW) video after the jump

The internet is an amazing place. There’s so much information available for free and people from across the globe can communicate instantly. A flip-side to the amazing power of the internet can be revealed by digging through any forum. While most forums are filled with people who enjoy discussing a shared passion, they also become home to folks who enjoy spouting off ridiculous falsehoods and creating a vision of reality that doesn’t quite exist. That practice can invoke internet justice, and one member of SVTPerformance.com found out this out the hard way.

A video was posted to YouTube, which showed a man driving a Ford Shelby GT500 down a dark road. Amidst the howl of the car’s supercharger, the occupants talk about what it would be like to hit a deer on this road… and then they hit a deer. The rest of the clip involves yelling, not safe for work language and the driver fleeing the scene after running an oncoming car off the road.

The sleuths at SVTPerformance.com identified the driver as board member “Grant218” (later changed to “Grant Theft Auto”). Grant explained that he borrowed his dad’s GT500, and the damage isn’t as bad as it seems. After reading through many (many) pages in the thread, we find out that Grand stole the car from a man he knows, put over 300 miles on the Shelby(!) and then tried to return it and hide the damage.

Moral: You can’t hide the truth from the internet. Click past the jump to watch the clip, then join us over at SVTPerformance.com as we continue to dig through the hilarity that is this thread. We’re going to warn you though, the language is NSFW, and the thread will suck up the rest of your life the day.

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Why you shouldn’t steal a GT500 and drive through deer country originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 18 May 2011 16:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: Chrysler Town & Country set to reclaim minivan sales crown from Honda Odyssey

Filed under: Car Buying, Minivan/Van, Chrysler, Honda, Nissan, Toyota

2011 Chrysler Town & Country

2011 Chrysler Town & Country – Click above to view high-res image gallery

Is the real swagger wagon of 2010 built by Chrysler? If you go by total sales, it is. The Chrysler Town & Country has been a player in the minivan market since its arrival in 1990. Now in its fifth generation, the Town & Country has just been refreshed after a comprehensive redesign in 2008. It’s not alone in getting an upgrade, however, as some serious competition arrived from Japan in 2010.

All-new minivan models for 2011 include the Honda Odyssey, Toyota Sienna and Nissan Quest, with each of them stuffing a ton of features into modern packages. The Odyssey, which has been the segment’s best-seller for the last two years, has had a strong year. Yet despite serious pressure in a surprisingly strong minivan market (2010 will see the segment’s first volume uptick since 2005), the Town & Country has climbed the sales board and is poised to take out Japan’s finest.

According to The Detroit News, the T&C is sitting on 102,495 sales through November, while its closest competitor, the Honda Odyssey, has sold 98,035 units. Trailing further behind those two is the Sienna with 89,509 sales so far this year. There is one month left but Chrysler’s, familymobile seems to be sitting pretty.

Gallery: 2011 Chrysler Town & Country

[Source: The Detroit News]

Report: Chrysler Town & Country set to reclaim minivan sales crown from Honda Odyssey originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 30 Dec 2010 13:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video: Frenzied cross-country race carried out… on Google Street View?!

Filed under: Technology, Videos

Google Street View video

Racing across the country via Google Street View – Click above to watch the video after the jump

Driving across the United States is no simple task. As our own editors John Neff and Damon Lavrinc recently found out, it takes a few days, a lot of planning and plenty of Red Bull to successfully motor across the good ol’ U-S-of-A. However, our tech-savvy culture now allows us to virtually experience the open road through the magic of Google Street View, and two men took it upon themselves to see if you could “drive” from California to New York only using Google’s street-mapping software.

It took 90 hours and 104,619 mouse clicks, but these two gents successfully piloted their way across the United States (San Francisco to New York) all through the magic of the internet. Some 2,958 miles were covered in this webtastic task, and you can check out a full recap of the events in the video, after the jump.

[Source: YouTube]

Continue reading Video: Frenzied cross-country race carried out… on Google Street View?!

Video: Frenzied cross-country race carried out… on Google Street View?! originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 10 Dec 2010 20:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Who pays the highest auto loan interest rates in the country?

Filed under: Car Buying, Etc., Earnings/Financials

Map
Map

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It’s that time of the year again, kids. Manufacturers are busy trying to put people in cars in order to move leftover stock and make room for incoming models, and many are doing so with ridiculously low financing rates. But who’s the fairest of them all? As it turns out, that depends entirely on where you live. The crew over at Kicking Tires has compiled average loan interest rates from across the country and organized the data into the incredibly handy map you see above.

As it turns out, car buyers in places like Los Angeles and Las Vegas are getting the short end of the financial stick when it comes to their loans, with buyers dealing with 9.55 percent and 9.58 percent APR, respectively. Meanwhile, those in places like Oklahoma City are shouldering a much more reasonable 3.65 percent APR.

The Kicking Tires study is based on a $22,000 loan for 60 months, with 10 percent down. It also assumes a borrower with a credit score of 700 or better.

[Source: Kicking Tires]

Who pays the highest auto loan interest rates in the country? originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 09:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Porsche celebrating 60th year in U.S. by searching for oldest example in the country

Filed under: Classics, Performance, Porsche

Sixty years ago, New York City businessman Max Hoffman began selling a diminutive German sports car with an air-cooled four-cylinder boxer engine hanging off the rear axle. Today, Porsche is one of the most highly respected performance brands in the world.

To celebrate its diamond anniversary in America, Porsche is inviting fans to share its favorite stories about the brand on an online family tree. Even better if you still have an old Porsche stashed away in a barn or garage somewhere, Porsche wants to hear from you. If you have the oldest car in each of a dozen model categories, Porsche will have it photographed for a special exhibit at the Porsche museum in Stuttgart. One car will be selected for display at the Porsche stand at the Los Angeles Auto Show in December. Head over to www.Porsche60Years.com to submit your story or car.

[Source: Porsche]

Continue reading Porsche celebrating 60th year in U.S. by searching for oldest example in the country

Porsche celebrating 60th year in U.S. by searching for oldest example in the country originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 16 Aug 2010 13:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Spy Shots: 2011 Chrysler Town & Country nip/tuck spotted

Filed under: Spy Photos, Minivan/Van, Chrysler, Dodge

Toyota and Honda may be improving the images of their minivans, but we mustn’t forget about the company that started it all: Chrysler. The very first Dodge Grand Caravan went on sale 27 years ago, and through all of the ups and downs that the automaker has faced over the years (especially in recent times), the Grand Caravan and Town & Country twins have always been a mainstay.

The current pair of minivans was introduced for the 2008 model year, so it’s only fitting that a slight mid-cycle refresh is on deck, and the folks at The Detroit News have snagged some spy shots of a Town & Country prototype out testing. In addition to modest exterior updates that include things like LED taillamps and a reworked rear bumper, expect Chrysler’s new 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 to be slotted under the hood. Combined with a six-speed automatic transmission, this should account for a healthy improvement in fuel economy, not to mention power.

What’s most important for minivan shoppers, though, is interior refinement, and the 2011 T&C is expected to get a host of cabin upgrades. More comfortable seats, higher-quality materials and an integrated center console will be on hand, and we’d expect the nifty Stow ‘N Go and Swivel ‘N Go seating configurations to carry over, as well. Look for similar improvements to make their way into the Dodge Grand Caravan, as well. Thanks for the tip, Aaron!

[Source: The Detroit News]

Spy Shots: 2011 Chrysler Town & Country nip/tuck spotted originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 23 Jul 2010 11:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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