This week, it seamed like every automaker had something to say.
Everyone’s eyes are turned towards Frankfurt Motor Show where new announcements and premieres aren’t lacking. The show is almost over and although it’s mostly gunned towards European market, some news will certainly impact folks in the U.S. of A.
Besides Frankfurt International Motor Show, which got the most of attention by the media, Ford had some pretty big news, and so did Toyota. Chevy also showed it’s teeth and we have a lot of news for the people that love simple algebra that is “4×4″.
In the article, all news are split by car and truck manufacturers, so let’s start with an interesting milestone.
Toyota produced millionth truck in Texas
Although some people aren’t keen on admitting this fact, Toyota Tundra might be more American than some of the trucks from The Big Three. We covered this subject couple of times and our conclusion was that it really doesn’t matter where particular vehicle is coming from as long as it’s built well and it serves well it’s driver, for whatever purpose it may have.
Toyota Tundra debuted in the United States in 1999., when it was designed and developed for American market. It quickly rose to the top along with it’s smaller sister, Tacoma which was doing even better. In 2006. complete Tundra production was moved to San Antonio plant in Texas which is today proud to announce that it produced one millionth Toyota truck.
Toyota planned carefully what will their millionth truck be, so it was announced that Toyota Tundra 1794 Edition will bear this title. If you are wondering, that “1794″ stands for the year when the ranch, where Toyota’s plant in Texas is placed, was founded. Nice nod to the past.
In other Toyota news, Joe Clifford of Toyota UK prepared great article about one of the Toyota’s favorites, Land Cruiser. The article did a great job on summing over sixty years of history of this model. If you want to, you can check it out here.
General Motors shows their new SUVs, Chevy beating its competition
While everyone is waiting for the premiere of General Motors’ new mid-size trucks 2015 Chevrolet Colorado and 2015 GMC Canyon, which is bound to happen soon, GM used the opportunity and showcased their new line up of SUVs for the next year – 2015 Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban and GMC’s 2015 Yukon, Yukon Denali XL and Yukon XL.
All of the SUVs share same bodies, platform and mechanical components and even though GM tried to differentiate them between themselves they will also share visual resemblance. They use traditional body-on-frame architecture that seams to fit them perfectly, having in mind their SUV nature. GM did promise the new EcoTec3 engines that should be more fuel efficient but that still remains to be seen.
Engineers at the GM redesigned interiors of the named Yukon, Tahoe and Suburban SUVs, too. They now offer more space, keyless entry and number of new technologies that could ease driving in every possible way. What’s important to note here is that all five models will start their North American journey in the first quarter of 2014.
In the past weeks, though, it became clear that real battle in auto industry on North American market is in pickup trucks category. There, it seamed that GM is particularly eager to take the crown as the best of the best.
While Ford is busy redesigning their F-series, Chevy leads open battle against Dodge Ram, and the newest Consumer Reports just shifted the gears in this never-ending race for the number one spot among US automakers. According to them 2014 Silverado just beat Ram 1500 in photo finish. The analysis said that 2014 Silverado became the top-rated full-size truck on the market, beating Ram 1500 with only three points, mainly because of its better towing, payload capacity and better fuel economy. On the other hand, Ram is dominating with it’s smoother ride, mainly because of coiled spring rear suspension.
Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra also won the crown for the trucks with highest horsepower and pound-feet of torque on the market, with 420 HP and 460 lb-ft. Its competitors, Ram (with 395 HP and 407 lb-ft) and Ford (with 411 HP and 434 lb-ft), aren’t that far away from achieving this goal, but for now Chevy has the best specifications.
GM probably won’t jump into diesel battle any time soon, though. Following recent announcement from Ram Trucks, Nissan and probably Toyota, GM’s representatives said that they won’t use diesel engine in their Chevrolet and GMC trucks other than their HD line, any time soon, but if there is enough interest for that move, they might change their minds. Recent rumors claim that GM might be closer to doing so, than they claim, partially because they have good share in the company that is already supplying similar engine to Dodge Ram.
One Ford truck is sold every 42 seconds!
It’s no news that Ford’s F-Series trucks are bestsellers on American soil. Even we mentioned it more than a few times. However, the newest sales figures revealed some impressive results. Past month was the best for the Ford since 2006 and a big return to the pre-financial crisis success of the company. While car markets on other continents aren’t doing well, most of the companies selling vehicles in US marked high sales numbers in previous period.
To illustrate how good it’s going for Ford, representatives of the company noted that one Ford F-Series truck is being sold every 42 seconds, 24 hours a day.
Ford’s sales are great for their high performance truck F-150 SVT Raptor, marking 14-percent increase in sales in 2013 and staying not a single day more than two weeks on dealer lots across country even though its price isn’t one of the best on the market (well, with the price tag of $44,000 that’s putting it lightly). Sales might be bumped because of the recent Ford’s decision to cancel F-150 Harley-Davidson Edition, which probably helped. Either way company decided to increase production to meet newly found demand.
Chrysler’s turned the spotlight to Jeep
Even though everyone expected some sort of official response to recent Cummins news from Ram, this Chrysler’s department remained silent about new Nissan’s deal.
Instead Chrysler turned it’s head towards Jeep developing one new model and bringing another to the United States.
At the Frankfurt International Motor Show Jeep brought early winter with Wrangler Polar editon. This model is, for now, is reserved only for Europeans and it is mostly intended for harsh winter conditions. Those beautiful blue and black colors, and 18-inch black wheels will come with either 3.6-liter Pentastar gas engine or 2.8-liter turbodiesel engine early next year.
Jeep Wrangler Dragon Edition was shown for the first time during 2012 Beijing Motor Show but the manufacturer only now decided to bring it to the North America. Wrangler Dragon Edition will hit the showrooms this fall and it will start from $36,095. Are those details amazing enough to pay this sum of money? We’ll leave it up to you to decide.
Have you ever seen 690 hp, 4 ton truck?
Now you have.
In a totally unrelated news, famous tuner Brabus, decided to build version of Mercedes G 63 AMG 6×6 with higher performances and they succeeded in that! B63S-700 6×6, how they renamed it, has tuned engine to get 154hp more than original, squeezing everything out of this already impressive engine. With it, this model is able to achieve 60mph in less than 7.4 seconds (that’s still 4 tons truck) with maximum speed of 100 mph. We’ll just let you enjoy the site.