It’s no secret that most Chevrolet vehicles are dismissed out of hand because of the reputation they have earned over the last 40 years. That’s not totally unfair. However, in the last six to eight years, Chevrolet has been turning out some very solid cars, and this Malibu is one of them. In fact, we think it’s the best four-door family sedan Chevy has produced in the last 40 years.
Walkaround: 2011 Chevy Volt
There has been a lot of contriversy about the Chevy Volt, it is an electric car, is it a hybrid car, is it something inbetween. Who cares, what it is, is brilliant! We are in the middle of our week with the car, and we think it’s a 5 Star kind of car.
We will have more in a few weeks, but what we want to do now is take your for a walkaround of the car and have a look at some of the features and highlights. This video is a bit long, but it is very through.
Our thanks to Scott Vandekerckhove from ESI for helping us out and walking us through.
Chevy’s New Hotness: ZL1 Camaro
The name ZL1 Camaro is one of the most reveried in the GM history books. The COPO special was a hand assembled aluminum block 427, and only 69 were ever built. It was in the day when horsepower ratings were done with a wink and a nod in conjunction with the NHRA to slot into different catagories in either Stock or Super Stock racing.
This time the ZL1 name is pulled out as a 550+ horsepower LSA engine is slotted under the hood. The LSA engine is the same one that that powers the CTS-V series of cars, itself a slightly detuned version of the engine from the ZR1 Corvette.
This new ZL1 isn’t just designed for the drag strip, it is built to carve corners and tear up road courses. It comes with larger tires, a much larger brakes, short throw shifter, magnetic ride shocks, and a new limited slip rear end.
Pricing was not announced but we’d guess that this Camaro will come close to, if not surpass $50,000.
RoundAboutShow #24 The “Not So Fast” Episode
So, you’re a crook in Hoboken with designs on a couple Land Rovers that don’t belong to you? You think you have the perfect getaway planned, but not so fast. Those SUVs you’ve just stolen are probably driving about as fast as the Deja Vu Strippermobile down a crowded boulevard in Florida. But if you think that’s the only place you’re going to see a booty shaking out the back of a car, then you haven’t met the pink lady of NASCAR. All that and more in this ‘Not So Fast’ edition of RoundAbout. Plus we’re back with America’s favorite gameshow The Price is CORRECT, Miss MotorMouth has a doozy of a tale about when Malibu meets a train (standing still), and we’ll actually provide some useful car advice (what?!?) in our Tip of the Week!
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RoundAboutShow #23 The “Love-Hate” Episode
Is there more polarizing a holiday than Valentine’s Day? If you’re in a happy, stable relationship then you probably love it. On the other hand, you may be one of the legions who prefer to stay indoors with the windows shuttered, in which case you probably hate it. So, this week we bring you stories of automotive love and hate.
Turns out that despite raising the ire of environmentalists everywhere, the Suburban is the GM vehicle most loved by the youngsters. And, over time there are those noises and creaks in your car that you come to both despise and adore. One clever group of artists have composed a veritable love song made entirely from the noises of a Jeep. Plus we’ve got another installment of Meet Your Roadmates, this week the Dodge Edition, and we’ll get a Chicago Auto Show wrap-up from our guest Colin Bird!
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2010 NAIAS Wrap Up
Slide Show Day 1 North American International Auto Show
Here is a slide show of some of the sights from Day 1 of the NAIAS
Quick Morning Notes From NAIAS
We will have a much more in depth review of the day later tonight, but wanted to give you some quick thoughts so far today.
Ford had a nice production for their Focus intro of which you can see a quick blurb here on the blog below, general reaction form the jaded press corps was good.
GMC brought you the Granite, what they call an “Urban Utility Vehicle”, what also could be know as yet another Xb copy. 1.4 liter turbo motor and suicide doors. Interior looks good, this is one of those prototype not announced for production cars.
Buick showed off the new Regal and also the GS “Concept” Look for that to be announced for production shortly. Some big power numbers announced for the GS Regal, 255HP and 290TQ out of a 2 liter turbo motor.
As a side note GM needs to hire some new writers for Mark and Susan, the fake conversation they had to begin the presser was corny and awkward.
We skipped the Toyota presser and by all accounts it was a good thing, reports are people were falling asleep there, also Toyota needs some new writers as well, the jokes wouldn’t have made it at amateur night at the comedy club.
VW showed off a highbrid coupe which has been tagged as the next Jetta and Mercedes touted it’s highbrids, then showed off a Convertible E Class which has a spoiler that comes out over the windshield header to direct air over the back seat passengers. Seems like engineering for engineering sake.
We are taking a break, and will post notes later in the day, pictures to come as well.
Reviewed: 2010 V6 Chevy Camaro RS
As the weather turned to crap, we got this sunshine yellow Camaro in to test.
RoundAboutShow #12 The Leftovers
Every week like crazed amazons, we storm the mall of the internet, battling killer crowds in search of the best Black Friday deals, and if Montgomery Ward sells out of seven-dollar toasters, well, we settle for a cohesive, Zen-like theme instead — and a pretzel from the food court. During the siege we uncover an array of different stories and news bites that fit our theme, however useless or misfitting they may be. And whatever’s leftover, well, we buy it anyway, because if we didn’t, we’d miss out on the savings.
Don’t know about you, but even though we’ve still got a tryptophan hangover we’re really starting to eye those leftover mashed potatoes and turkey. So belly up to the table in your bathrobe and get some automotive leftovers with your favorite RoundAbout crew.
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