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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.

GM and Isuzu to partner for medium-duty commercial truck

General Motors is returning to the medium-duty truck business in the US for the first time since 2009 thanks to a new deal with longtime-partner Isuzu. The arrangement brings the Isuzu N-series models to Chevrolet dealers with the Bowtie's branding on them in 2016. There are six medium-duty Chevy models arriving at dealers in regular cab and crew cab bodies: the 3500, 3500HD, 4500, 4500HD, 5500, and 5500HD. The trucks will be sold as a bare chassis for buyers to outfit to their needs. Depending on model, customers will have the choice of an Isuzu-sourced 3.0-liter and 5.2-liter diesel engines or a 6.0-liter V8 gasoline-fueled engine from GM and six-speed gearbox. According to company spokesperson Bob Wheeler to Autoblog, the diesel models will be built in Japan and the rest assembled from knockdown kits in Charlotte, MI. This kind of vehicle sharing isn't uncommon for GM in the commercial segment, and it already partners with Nissan to use the Japanese brand's NV200 as the City Express van. The General also once owned a significant stake in Isuzu, and the two have remained collaborators even since then. Isuzu and GM Enter Commercial Vehicle Collaboration Agreement in the U.S. 2015-06-15 DETROIT and FUJISAWA, Japan – General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) and Isuzu Motors (TSE 7202) have reached an agreement on a U.S. commercial vehicle collaboration, allowing Isuzu to strengthen its product lineup and GM to expand its commercial vehicle portfolio. Isuzu will produce low cab forward models for GM, based off of the Isuzu N-Series. The vehicles will be distributed by participating Chevrolet dealers in the U.S. market starting in 2016. To strengthen the product lineup, GM and Isuzu will explore the use of GM commercial vehicle components for Isuzu low cab forward trucks and GM will continue to produce and supply the 6.0L V-8 gas engine and six-speed transmission for Isuzu gasoline-powered low cab forward trucks. Isuzu and GM have maintained a strategic partnership for more than 40 years, producing collaborative business opportunities throughout the world. This agreement continues that tradition and reinforces a long-term relationship that helps to explore future collaborations in the U.S. commercial vehicle business. About General Motors General Motors Co. (NYSE:GM, TSX: GMM) and its partners produce vehicles in 30 countries, and the company has leadership positions in the world's largest and fastest-growing automotive markets.

Autonomous tech will drive motorheads off the road

While autonomous technology could make car travel much safer and more efficient — and automakers and marketers are salivating over the prospect of a "passenger economy" that could potentially generate $7 trillion by 2050 — those of us who enjoy driving are not so stoked. Experts have predicted that as autonomous vehicles are deployed in large numbers, human-driven cars eventually could be outlawed on public roads due to the carnage they create, which is currently more than 41,000 deaths a year in the U.S. alone and climbing. Such scenarios have driving enthusiasts envisioning a "Red Barchetta" style nightmare becoming reality, making Rush lyricist Neil Peart a clairvoyant as well as one of rock's most badass skin-pounders. But there could be a couple of refuges left for motorheads, and they won't be on public roads. As Popular Science's Joe Brown points out in a recent editorial, we're seeing a wave of vehicles being offered by legit mainstream automakers that aren't made for public roads. The poster child of this vanguard is the 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon, which comes with a crate full of goodies that lets you turn the already formidable street-legal muscle car into a drag-strip dominator. Brown also notes that two out of five of the Ford GT's driving modes are for use on the track, "catering to the $450,000 machine's club-racing clientele." We're also currently enjoying the heyday of production off-road-ready pickups that kicked off with the Ford Raptor in 2009. The latest salvo in this escalating war of overachieving trucks is the Chevy Colorado ZR2 that can take on the likes of California's Rubicon Trail without issue. Brown also gives a shout-out to his magazine's Grand Award Winner, the Alta Motors Redshift MX, which "isn't even allowed on public roads" and is "meant for bombing around motocross tracks, big backyards and single-track woods trails." If you follow Brown on Instagram, you know that he's also a two-wheel aficionado, and he points out that sales of off-road bikes are leaving street machines in the dust. Sales of off-highway motorcycles rose 29 percent between 2012 and 2016, according to the ­Motorcycle Industry Council — compared to 6 percent for road-bike sales during the same period. "That's a nearly 400-percent drubbing," Brown remarks.