Truck

The invasion by foreign car manufacturers on the United States continues. The latest "army" to join the combat will be Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) of India with its plans to release a range of compact pickups and SUVs in the U.S. in early 2009. Plans call for five models, like ...    Read more

Ford F-Series, America's truck leader for 30 consecutive years, sets the standard for strength and toughness -- with more trucks on the road with over 250,000 miles than any other brand.Ford continues to raise the bar to give truck customers more of what they're looking for. The 2008 Ford F-150 ...    Read more

ChangAn Automobile Group is China's third largest automaker. Recently, it has made a deal with Tiger Truck LLC, a private U.S. truck manufacturer based in Dallas, Texas, for Tiger to manufacture its trucks. The first model to be offered will be ChangAn's 1021 series of light trucks (pictured is the ...    Read more

Auburn Hills, Mich., Jul 9, 2007 - Dodge announced pricing today for the new 2008 Dodge Dakota, which features six trim levels, new exterior and interior styling, many best-in-class capabilities and the most power of any pickup in the mid-size segment.The new 2008 Dodge Dakota is available for $20,080 for ...    Read more

Remember the small, compact pickup trucks of the 1970s and 1980s? Japanese manufacturers virtually owned that segment of the market at one point -- Toyota's small pickups were ubiquitous on both college campuses (they were cheap and dependable) and as delivery vehicles for small businesses. Nissan made them; Mazda had ...    Read more

Have you ever entered a freeway and quickly think, "Gosh, I didn't check my tire pressure!" Well, not to worry. Technology steps forward again.A company called MAXAIR has come out with a tire pressure device for cars, light trucks and SUVs that monitors the tires to ascertain if ...    Read more

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (June 14, 2007) -- Habitat for Humanity and Nissan North America Inc.(NNA) announced today a one-year, $1 million partnership that includes house sponsorships, the donation of 10 Nissan Titan trucks and the support of current Habitat projects. Through this partnership, Nissan will sponsor and build a total of ...    Read more

TONAWANDA, N.Y. -- General Motors Corp. will introduce a new, state-of-the-art 4.5L V-8 Duramax turbo-diesel that improves engine fuel efficiency by 25 percent, reduces CO2 emissions by 13 percent and cuts particulates and NOx emissions by at least 90 percent for North American light duty trucks and the HUMMER H2 ...    Read more

The debate between the auto industry and the environmentalists and consumer advocates has definitely been nasty. Last week, the Morning News reported that the Arkansas Climate Awareness Project, the Arkansas Public Policy ...    Read more

Ten years ago, when the concept of portable in-car navigation devices was just beginning to be introduced, manufacturers would have to deliver long explanations of what the device was capable of to baffled onlookers."That's nice," they'd say, but immediately dismiss it as a gimmick. Or else they'd say that they ...    Read more

Michael Bloomberg, the current mayor of New York City, is exploring a new idea that, in attempting to reduce pollution caused by hundreds of thousands of vehicles idling in traffic jams, would charge a fee for all vehicles that enter it. The plans is called "Congestion Pricing." The city of ...    Read more

The first test I participated in was the trucks' towing and trailing capabilities. For this test, a 9,000 lb trailer (approximately 4 tons) was hooked to each vehicle. I tested, in order, the Ford F-150, the Toyota Tundra, the GMC Sierra, and the Chevrolet Silverado.All the vehicles performed smoothly on ...    Read more

As I mentioned in the Introductory post, I drove the all-new GMC Sierra, its Chevrolet Silverado sibling, and their competitors at General Motor's Milford Proving Grounds. GM covered the flight, food, and housing. Though new to the Truck Challenge and, to be honest, to any such events, I ...    Read more

If the Ford Ranger was a human being, he might be expecting a retirement banquet and that gold watch from the company president for work well done. But the Ranger is a vehicle made by Ford, so its drive out to pasture may take a while. But all the signs ...    Read more

Last week, I attended the the GMC Sierra/Chevrolet Silverado Truck Challenge at GM's Milford Proving Grounds. There, I had a chance to test-drive not only the all-new GMC Sierra (Denali trim) and Chevy Silverado, but compare them to the Ford F-Series, Nissan Titan, and, of course, the all-new Toyota ...    Read more

One of the problems of being "Number One" is that everyone suddenly scrutinizes you?and your products?much more closely. Toyota Motor Company recently surpassed, however briefly, U.S. automaker General Motors as the world's number one automaker in terms of sales. Since then, the Japanese giant has been suffering hit after hit ...    Read more

DEARBORN, Mich., May 23, 2007 -- America's best-selling, most capable full-size pickup now delivers the horsepower to make it one of the most powerful half-ton pickups on the market. The 450 horsepower supercharged Ford Harley-Davidson F-150 Super Crew 4x2 hits the road this summer. Born from tremendous customer reaction ...    Read more

SAN ANTONIO, May 18, 2007 -- The new 2008 F-Series Super Duty will go down in history after completing Bold Endures: America's Toughest Road Test, the longest non-stop test ever recorded, after logging the final mile of a 150,000-mile adventure earlier this month. The historic journey, part of a massive ...    Read more

One major problem concerning the use of E85 ethanol to power our cars and trucks is that there are not enough filling stations that carry it. Slowly but surely more and more stations are now coming on line. The newest station, reports the California Farmer, in Maryville, Wisconsin, ...    Read more

Congress is now on track to mandate new miles-per-gallon standards. A bill introduced in the Senate calls for automakers to raise the fuel efficiency their cars and trucks to an average of 35 miles per gallon starting in 2020. Also, automakers vehicles have to average 28.5 mpg by 2015 while ...    Read more

DAYTON, Ohio -- General Motors Corp. (GM) announced today the production of its one-millionth Duramax V-8 turbo-diesel engine at the DMAX plant in Moraine. DMAX Ltd., a joint venture between GM and Isuzu Motors Limited, was established as a diesel engine company in 1998. GM first introduced the Duramax diesel ...    Read more

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (April 24, 2007) -- Nissan today announced pricing on two new 2008 vehicles, the Nissan Titan full-size pickup and Nissan Armada full-size SUV. Both go on sale today at Nissan dealers nationwide.2008 Nissan TitanOriginally launched in 2004, the Nissan Titan pickup lineup expands for 2008 with the addition ...    Read more

It is always a good idea for a domestic company to watch the international trade news. If the company knows how to use the new agreement, they can reap all sorts of benefits. Well, executives at Hyundai have been reading the papers. The South Korean government and the U.S. have ...    Read more

Diesel Power Magazine blog posted news that Ford Motor Co. is recalling over 37,000 of its new F-Series Super Duty diesels due to reports that flame is shooting out of the pickup's exhaust pipe.The issue is caused by a fuel leak near ...    Read more

The all-new Toyota Tundra took a hit in reputation recently when it secured only 4 stars out of 5 on crash tests administered by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The less than full rating means there's an 11 to 20 percent chance of injury in a frontal crash ...    Read more