Drew Dowdell

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

Ford is getting ready to introduce a new Escape for the 2020 model year on April 2nd. The compact crossover is one of Ford's best sellers, moving as many as 308,296 units in 2017. The growth trend has stalled though and sales dipped to around 272k units last year. The current generation went on sale in 2013 and was facelifted for 2017, but since then, new editions of the Honda CR-V, Chevrolet Equiniox, updated Jeep Cherokee, and Toyota RAV-4 have hit the market. Ford offered a teaser video via twitter today that gives some hints as to what to expect from the 2020 Escape. The 2020 VIN decoder shows that the current 2.5 liter 4-cylinder will not be making a return, instead replaced with the 1.5T that will carry over. The 2.0T also remains as an upgrade. Hybrid fans can rejoice because after a 7 year absence a hybrid will be returning to the lineup and will also be joined by a Plug-In Hybrid option like the Lincoln Corsair. No word yet on the range of the PHEV. We'll hear the whole story about the Ford Escape on April 2nd. View full article

With Jeep and RAM... the C part of FCA is in a better position than they've been in years. They really don't need to merge with someone if they make smart use of the platforms they already have. Make a small entry-lux SUV on the Renegade platform for Chrysler in the same formula as the Buick Encore. Make a large crossover off the Pacifica, call it Aspen if you like. Make an Envision sized crossover off the Cherokee for Chrysler. Build it in the US and take all the sales from Buick. Make a new 300, Charger, and Challenger, off the Guilia platform The next Dodge Journey can be based on the extended Jeep Cherokee that we don't get. The Durango remains as is, an extended rebadge of a Grand Cherokee but with more street intentions than off-road. Sell the Chryslers and Jeeps in China and the EU. Dodge and Ram remain brands for the Americas. Punt Fiat back to Europe and leave it there. Alfa can stay if it can make a business case for itself through platform sharing.

My dad's I6 in his F-150 will likely outlast the rest of the truck. I6es just seem to go on forever.

I did just fine in a RWD CTS with winter tires on.

The problem is that some brands are regional. The French won't buy Nissans, nor will the Chinese. They'll buy Renaults. Everyone buys Jeeps. Americans won't touch Fiats, but Europeans are fine with them. Nissan does well in the US with cheap financing. So there will likely need to be some heavy rebadging going on and each brand stay in its home territory.

It will probably be Nissan Kicks in size.

China is a very different market than what we have. They are moving to BEVs much faster. Will Daimler-BMW get to 500k units is anyone's guess, but I do think that China is where they will sell the majority of them.

I only had an Escalade for a week as a rental and I bragged about it.

FCA really has no debt to mention. One thing Sergio did before he died was pay that off.

I think Hyundai's thought process is that there will still always be a sedan market, and they want to be the default choice as the other manufacturer retreat. Kinda where the Pacifica and Odyssey are for the minivan market today.

Actually, Cadillac prices their V6 where the other guys price their Turbo-4. And they priced their Turbo-4 where the other guys priced their low-output turbo-4.

I have a carb, that's why I was wondering. But my carb has electronically controlled metering. It is said that this carb is sensitive to dirty air filters.

Seems like a smaller car though