1969 Chevrolet Caprice Base 5.7l on 2040-cars

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Kia Seltos, electric Cadillac and a looming Bronco | Autoblog Podcast #615

In this week's Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Senior Editor, Green, John Beltz Snyder, and Associate Editor Byron Hurd makes his ABP debut. This week, they start with the cars they've been driving: the Jaguar XE, Kia Seltos, Hyundai Venue and Ford Escape. Then they dig into the news, including an upcoming Cadillac EV, Lincoln and Chevy sedans and the Ford Bronco. Finally, they help a listener replace his Jeep Patriot in the Spend My Money segment. Autoblog Podcast #615 Get The Podcast iTunes – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Rundown Cars we're driving: Jaguar XE 300 R-Dynamic S Kia Seltos Hyundai Venue Ford Escape Cadillac bringing EV to New York Auto Show Chevy and Lincoln dealers say they still want sedans Ford tells dealers the Bronco is weeks away from its global debut Spend My Money Feedback Email – Podcast@Autoblog.com Review the show on iTunes Related Video: 2020 Ford Escape 2.0T #POV drive

UAW strike's three-pronged attack focuses on popular midsize trucks, SUVs

The United Auto Workers announced at midnight last night that they would begin targeted strikes at Ford's Michigan Assembly, Stellantis' Toledo Assembly and GM's Wentzville Assembly — all three home to midsize pickups and, in the case of Toledo and Michigan, popular midsize SUVs.  The Ford Ranger, Jeep Gladiator (just updated for 2024), Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon are all built on lines that have been shut down by the strike. The Ford Bronco and Jeep Wrangler, which share fundamental underpinnings with the Ranger and Gladiator, respectively, are also in on the party. GM's Wentzville Assembly also builds the GMC Savana and Chevy Express vans, neither of which is a big player in the retail market. While midsize pickups may not move in the quantities we see from the half-ton segment, all of these are fairly high-volume models. Ford sold nearly 120,000 Broncos along with more than 55,000 Rangers in 2022; Wrangler and Gladiator combined for nearly 260,000 units last year (181,000 of those were Wranglers) and the Colorado/Canyon represented more than 117,000 sales for General Motors. Throw in the nearly 80,000 units for Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana, and production from these facilities equated to more than 500,000 units sold in 2022.  Ford has been struggling since launch to deliver its wildly popular Bronco to waiting enthusiasts. With supply woes largely easing last year, the company caught up to a great deal of its pre-existing demand, but lingering supply chain and quality control issues have continued to plague the manufacturer even as general constraints have eased. Even earlier this year, Ford said it was selling every unit it could produce. The Ranger, freshly redesigned for the U.S. market, is still getting its feet wet.  Jeep likewise has been on a tear. Sales of the 4x4 have remained so steady that the Wrangler 4xe became the country's best-selling plug-in hybrid vehicle pretty much by accident. Jeep just formally confirmed this week that a 4xe variant of the Gladiator pickup is on the way by 2025 — and they said you couldn't sell hybrids to truck and SUV buyers.  At GM, meanwhile, the Colorado and Canyon are sporting fresh redesigns for the 2023 model year, with production of both still ramping up. And while the Chevy Express and GMC Savana vans may not be popular consumer models, GM still sold more than 77,000 of them last year combined.  Related video: Plants/Manufacturing UAW/Unions Chevrolet Ford GMC Jeep Truck SUV

2016 Chevrolet Colorado Diesel First Drive [w/video]

The first thing you notice inside the diesel Chevy Colorado is that it's quiet. Almost too quiet. A lot has been done to quell noise and vibration with this new powertrain, and it shows – or rather, doesn't. There's some characteristic diesel clatter at idle, but even then it's distant and practically disappears as you start moving down the road. At full throttle, when the engine is at its noisiest, the sound isn't particularly diesel-like, just a pleasant intake breath. The accompanying smoothness is almost eerie. When we ask where all the noise went, Chevy's engineers, marketing guys, and PR reps all explain that this refinement is what Americans want. We're still not sure. This is a truck, after all, and the diesel pickup customer is different from the guy buying a diesel Cruze for his highway commute. Chevy contends that they're also not the same as the buyer of a Silverado HD. Although this 2.8-liter Duramax four-cylinder has been in service elsewhere around the globe, its first US application is in the Colorado and its GMC Canyon twin. The engine puts out 181 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque, and it does so unobtrusively as a result of a lot of modifications for our market. To keep normal diesel sensations out of the cabin, the intake and oil pan both get acoustic treatments. A new, thicker material is used for firewall sound deadening. Redesigned balance shafts have tighter tolerances to increase smoothness. The diesel powertrain is smoother than the Colorado's gasoline V6. One of the more interesting and certainly unexpected vibration-reduction changes is a special torque converter from German supplier LuK equipped with a centrifugal pendulum absorber. This pendulum spreads from the center of the torque converter as engine speed increases and is tuned to absorb the four-cylinder's second-order vibrations, not just those in a narrow frequency band. It does an admirable job, especially considering the engine's biggish, 0.7-liter cylinders, which lead to bigger vibrations. The result is a powertrain that's smoother than GM's (not particularly smooth) corporate V6, which is available in the standard Colorado. It's quieter than a Cruze diesel and even out-softens some gas direct-injection engines on the market. Paradoxically, it may be the most refined of all of the Colorados. No vibration comes through the steering wheel, pedals, floorboards, or even the rearview mirror. But you can tell it's a diesel when you hit the throttle.