2008 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Sahara on 2040-cars

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Watch a Jeep CJ get disassembled and reassembled in minutes

Movie buffs! Remember the scene in the James Bond film 007: The Living Daylights where Timothy Dalton's character slices the floorpan off a police Lada using a laser, and when the driver hits the brakes the Lada's body simply jumps off its axles? That scene was immediately brought to mind as I watched this clip of eight Canadian mechanics disassembling a slightly modified Jeep in a matter of seconds. Having driven the Jeep to a complete stop, the technicians start unbolting it until the body lifts off the frame and the engine can be hauled away. It only took half a minute to turn the Jeep into just a chassis on wheels. As repair manuals say, refitting is the reversal of removal. Apparently the technicians have now honed their mechanical choreography to the point that the Jeep can be disassembled and reassembled in two minutes and 39 seconds; while I expect a great number of bolts having been removed beforehand and the likelihood of the Jeep falling to pieces with a sharp braking being significant, it is definitely impressive. It also reminds me of someone driving an old, dodgy car, having learned all its kinks to be able to keep it running. According to a Reddit thread, the pre-modified "Jifty Jeep" has been built (and taken apart, and rebuilt) by the School of Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (RCEME) for exactly this purpose. The team travels all around Canada to practice their show, trying to shave seconds off their record. There are worse hobbies.

2020 Jeep Gladiator pickup revealed: class-leading towing, diesel option, much more

Even though we've all pretty much seen the Jeep Gladiator, it's still exciting to finally see the officially unveiled pickup truck. And it does indeed look like a simple Wrangler pickup. It has fully removable soft and hard tops, doors and a folding windshield. The doors are the same as the Wrangler Unlimited's. It has round headlights, chunky fender flares and nearly the same interior. But it's more than that, blending much of the beloved SUV with some unique features for the pickup truck. For starters, the Gladiator features a new frame not shared with Wrangler that's a whopping 31 inches longer than the one under the Wrangler Unlimited. The wheelbase of the Gladiator is also 19.4 inches longer than a Wrangler Unlimited. The Gladiator continues to use solid front and rear axles, both of which are Dana 44s in two available track widths, but the rear five-link coil suspension is a unique design developed for better ride quality. Propelling this chassis initially will be the 3.6-liter gasoline V6 from the Wrangler with either a six-speed manual or eight-speed automatic transmission. It makes 285 horsepower and 260 pound-feet of torque. In 2020, Jeep will start offering a 3.0-liter turbodiesel V6 that is a thoroughly redesigned version of the engine found in the outgoing Ram EcoDiesel. It's down in power compared to the gas engine at 260 horses, but it more than makes up for it with 442 pound-feet of torque. The only other diesel in this small to midsize truck segment is the Colorado and Canyon diesel trucks. Their diesel four-cylinder engines only make 181 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque. All Gladiators with either engine send their power through a selectable part-time four-wheel drive system. Fuel economy for either engine option has yet to be announced. On the subject of capability, the Gladiator has some impressive towing and payload numbers. Maximum towing capacity is 7,650 pounds. That's 150 pounds more than the next best gas-powered truck in this segment, the Ford Ranger. Maximum payload capacity is 1,600 pounds, which isn't the highest in the segment, but falls right in the range of the Ford Ranger and Chevy Colorado gas models. The bed is 5 feet long and is made of steel with an aluminum tailgate. It has various tie-down points and power outlets. Regarding the towing and payload numbers, it should be noted that the top towing capacity is only available on a Sport trim with the 3.6-liter V6, eight-speed automatic and 4.10 final drive ratio.

Zombie cars: A dozen discontinued vehicles people still buy new

Car models come and go, but as revealed by monthly sales data, once a car is discontinued, it doesn't just disappear instantly. And in the case of some models, vanishing into obscurity can be a slow, tedious process. That's the case with the 12 cars we have here. All of them have been discontinued, but car companies keep racking up "new" sales with them. There are actually more discontinued cars that are still registering new sales than what we decided to include here. We kept this list to the oldest or otherwise most interesting vehicles still being sold as new, including a supercar. We'll run the list in alphabetical order, starting with *drumroll* ... BMW 6 Series: 55 total sales BMW quietly removed the 6 Series from the U.S. market during the 2019 model year. It had been available in three configurations, a hardtop coupe, a convertible and a sleek four-door coupe-like shape.   BMW i8: 18 total sales We've always had a soft spot for the BMW i8, despite the fact that it never quite fit into a particular category. It was sporty, but nowhere near as fast as similarly-priced competitors. It looked very high-tech and boasted a unique carbon fiber chassis design and a plug-in hybrid powertrain, but wasn't really designed for maximum efficiency or maximum performance. Still, the in-betweener was very cool to look at and drive, and 18 buyers took one home over the course of 2021.   Chevy Impala: 750 total sales The Impala represented classic American tastes at a time when American tastes were shifting away from soft-riding sedans with big interior room and trunk space and into higher-riding crossovers. A total of 750 sales were inked last year.   Chrysler 200: 15 total sales The Chrysler 200 was actually a pretty nice sedan, with good looks and decent driving dynamics let down by a lack of roominess, particularly in the back seat. Of course, as we said regarding the Chevy Impala, the number of Americans in the market for sedans is rapidly winding down, and other automakers are following Chrysler's footsteps in canceling their slow-selling four-doors. Even if Chrysler never really found its footing in the ultra-competitive midsize sedan segment, apparently dealerships have a few leftover 2017 200s floating around. And for some reason, 15 buyers decided to sign the dotted line to take one of these aging sedans home last year.