Related Articles: GM-Chrysler: A Lemon Of A Deal

• Running on Empty

  Keith Naughton 7/3/2008 12:00:00 AM

  I am driving a dinosaur this week. No, I'm not Fred Flintstone working in the rock quarry. Rather, I'm test-driving a Ford F-150, Harley Davidson edition pickup truck. It's got a big supercharged V8 engine that rumbles to life like a Harley hog. It's got a cool two-tone copper and black paint job, leather captains chairs embossed with the Harley logo, satellite navigation, moon-roof and power everything. This fully loaded ride has a sticker price of $50,035 and it's wicked fun to drive. But it also gets 12.8 miles per gallon and costs $123 to fill up. It's just the sort of big rig suburban cowboys couldn't get enough of back when gas was cheaper than bottled water (as they used to say in Detroit). But these days, this model is going nowhere. And neither is Detroit.

• DRIVING FORCES │ Keith Naughton

  Heavy Metal?

  Keith Naughton 3/20/2008 12:00:00 AM

  Inside the fortress-like Jacob Javits Center this week, the outside world does not bother us. Oh sure, just down the road Wall Street is in turmoil. So is Main Street, as gas prices shoot up toward $4 a gallon and home values continue to collapse. But here at the New York Auto Show, nothing is slowing down the parade of muscle cars taking the stage. Chrysler is showing off its reborn Dodge Challenger, with a screaming V8 hemi engine. GM rolled out three hot-rod Pontiacs, including a car-cum-pickup truck inspired by the El Camino from the 1970s. Nissan rolled out a new version of its smoking hot Maxima sport sedan, with a 290-horsepower engine. Every other auto show this year has been overrun with futuristic plug-in electric Chevys and switchgrass burning Biofuel Ferraris. But here, it's green be damned. Like an infamous Yankees pitcher, the New York Auto Show is all about the juice. The only difference: Performance enhancement isn't denied, it's celebrated and glorified at the Javits.

• 

  Can Detroit Go Green?

  Keith Naughton 1/13/2008 12:00:00 AM

  This year's Detroit Auto Show, which opens to the media Sunday, will be so overrun with green concept cars it should be renamed the Detroit Lawn and Garden Show. Hot off the wheels of its Washington Waterloo over the tough new gas-mileage regulations, Detroit is anxious to show the world that it finally gets green and is working hard to engineer cars that sip instead of guzzle. They'll roll out hydrogen-powered concept cars with names like ecoVoyager and fuel-friendly engines like the EcoBoost (eco, apparently, is the new i). There's just one problem with this eco echo chamber: The most important new model introductions at the Detroit show are actually two hulking pickup trucks, the redesigned Ford F-150 (with a grill inspired by steel girders) and the Dodge Ram (with what its creators call "get-out-of-the-way" styling). That sure throws a monkey wrench into this garden party. [Editors' note: For show complete coverage, visit our blog.]

• Driving Forces: Driving Through the Looking Glass

  Keith Naughton 1/10/2007 12:00:00 AM

• Curtain Calls

  Keith Naughton 1/11/2006 12:00:00 AM

• Putting Detroit in the Shop

  Keith Naughton

No related partner content.

No related web content.

No related blog content.

No related audio content.

No related video content.