1966 Chevy C10 Stepside Short Bed Custom on 2040-cars

Auto blog

First 2016 Chevy Volt commercial rocks us to sleep

The 2016 Chevrolet Volt, with its thorough restyling and increased all-electric range, is an exciting evolution of Chevy's groundbreaking plug-in hybrid, so it's only fitting that the commercial campaign to sell it to the masses also be engaging and vibrant. Well, the first ad has just been officially released and it rocks... us to sleep. Now, we get that General Motors didn't want to repeat past Volt-commercial mistakes. No one wants to see dogs licking feet or dumb (and weirdly horny) aliens again. Nor would it be smart to slam all-electric vehicles, since it now sells the Spark EV and has just revealed its 200-mile Bolt concept. So, what does that leave? How about a mostly computer-generated spot that relies on cliche images and an upbeat synthetic soundtrack to communicate that the Volt is now as boring as other four-door appliances? An intro, featuring a lightly-bearded gentleman peering at his tablet through designer glasses launches us into the action as the Volt makes its way across a city bridge, then a curvaceous country road. Chevrolet doesn't include voiceover to inform you that the new Volt has a 50-mile battery-only range. There's no mention of its gas mileage once its electric charge is depleted – items that just might be of importance to hybrid buyers. The ad also makes no attempt at establishing an emotional connection, either through drama or comedy. There are, however, lots of fast cuts of the new, normalized interior, including a two-second detail shot featuring the windshield wiper switch. We imagine that this is only the first in a series of spots that will tell the Volt story and motivate potential buyers to run down to their local dealer, hopefully the next spots will be more interesting and informative. View 16 Photos

Watch this time-lapse build of the Chevy SS for NASCAR

There's only about a week left until we get our first look at the production version of the 2014 Chevrolet SS sedan, but Chevrolet NASCAR teams have been looking at the race version of the car all winter. Autoweek has posted a really neat time-lapse video showing just a portion of what it takes to build one of NASCAR's new Gen6 stock cars.
Though the video is quite brief, it does show almost the entire build process starting with just the car's nose, and it gives us a good look at how integral the template is to the final product. As a bonus, Hendrick Motorsports also provided some videos showing two of its teams performing pit stop tests over the winter. The second video shows some of the more detailed aspects of the racecar's rear end, including the stock-looking trunk cutout and a newly mandated rear bumper extension that will be used on super speedways like Daytona and Talladega.
To see what Team Chevy has been up to all off-season, check out all three videos posted after the jump.

Diesel details: Comparing Ram 1500 EcoDiesel, Chevy Silverado Duramax, Ford F-150 Powerstroke

With specifications for the 2019 Ford F-150 Power Stroke diesel already out, and the details on the 2020 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel and Chevy Silverado Duramax (and its GMC Sierra twin) trickling out, we felt it was a good time to start comparing the full-size trucks' light-duty diesels. Bear in mind, we've only driven one of these new diesel trucks, so we'll be sticking to numbers for now. Some numbers haven't been announced yet, either, but stay tuned, because we'll be updating this post with additional specifications as they become available. And if you want to compare any other versions of these trucks with other vehicles, be sure to check out our comparison tool. Now let's start comparing, starting with our big chart of numbers below. As we can plainly see, these trucks are quite closely matched. Each one has six cylinders, a displacement of 3.0 liters and a turbocharger to boost it. The output of each is somewhat close, too. The Ram 1500 EcoDiesel is the torque king at 480 pound-feet, 20 more than the GM trucks and 40 more than the Ford. The GM trucks win on power, though, with 277 ponies, 17 more than the Ram, and 27 more than the Ford. GM does report that you get their trucks' peak 460 pound-feet of torque from 1,500 rpm to 3,000 rpm, whereas the others only report peak torque at a particular point in the rev band, but all of these trucks should have wide, flat torque curves as you would expect from modern turbodiesels. 2020 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel View 8 Photos Engine output is only one part of the truck performance equation. We also have towing and payload capacity, as well as fuel economy. With towing, the Ram 1500 is the current leader with a maximum capacity of 12,560 pounds. That tops the Ford F-150's 11,400-pound tow rating by well over 1,000 pounds. The F-150 can carry 2,020 pounds in its bed, but we don't know yet whether that's better or worse than the Ram or the GM trucks. We also don't have numbers for the GM trucks' towing capacities. View 9 Photos As for fuel economy, the Ford F-150 manages a thoroughly impressive 22 mpg in the city and 30 on the highway with two-wheel drive. Choosing four-wheel drive drops those numbers to 20 and 25 respectively. The fuel economy numbers for the Ram, Chevy and GMC haven't been revealed yet, but for some comparison, we can look at the old Ram EcoDiesel. That truck's best fuel economy was 20 in the city and 27 on the highway with two-wheel drive.