92 Ram 250 Cummins Turbo Deisel 2wd Heavy Duty Axles, Nice Clean, Solid Truck on 2040-cars

Auto blog

China's Great Wall confirms its interest — in Jeep, or all of FCA

HONG KONG/SHANGHAI — Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor reiterated its interest in Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV on Tuesday, but said it had not held talks or signed a deal with executives at the Italian-American automaker. China's largest sport utility vehicle manufacturer made a direct overture to Fiat Chrysler on Monday, with an official saying the company was interested in all or part of FCA, owner of the Jeep and Ram truck brands. Automotive News first reported the news, quoting Great Wall Motor President Wang Fengying as saying she planned to contact FCA to discuss acquiring the Jeep brand specifically. Those comments sent FCA shares higher but also raised questions over the ability of China's seventh-largest automaker by sales to buy larger Western rival FCA, or even Jeep, which some analysts value at as much as one-and-a-half times FCA. Great Wall sought to dampen speculation on Tuesday. It confirmed it had studied Fiat Chrysler, but said there was "no concrete progress so far" and "substantial uncertainty" over whether it would eventually bid. "The company has not built any relationship with the directors of FCA nor has the company entered into any discussion or signed any agreements with any officer of FCA so far," the company said in an English-language stock exchange filing. It did not give further detail. Fiat Chrysler stock dipped on the statement on Tuesday. Great Wall said trading in its Shanghai-listed shares would resume on Wednesday after having been suspended. Fiat Chrysler declined to comment on Great Wall's statement. On Monday, it said it had not been approached and was fully committed to implementing its current business plan. FLUSHING OUT RIVALS? Great Wall Motor, which was early to spot China's love of SUVs, had revenue of $14.8 billion last year and sold 1.07 million vehicles - but that compares with FCA's 2016 revenue of 111 billion euros ($130.6 billion). Analysts said Great Wall would need to raise both debt and equity to complete any deal, meaning its chairman Wei Jianjun could lose majority control. One possible scenario, according to analysts at Jefferies, would see Wei keeping a roughly 30 percent stake, while Great Wall would raise $10-$14 billion in debt and $10 billion in equity - hefty for a group currently worth just $16 billion. Ultimately, politics could be the clincher.

Bull leads Texas police on four hour chase

A bull leading police on a chase through a Texas town may sound like something out of a country music song, but police in Arlington, Texas recently had just such a situation on their hands. According to WFAA, on the afternoon of May 9, a young bull got loose from his pen and decided to take a stroll through the streets of Arlington. "There was a cow walking down the neighborhood," said Arlington resident Jillyan Nance. "It trotted down my home and cut across our yard into the neighbor's yard." Arlington police were alerted to the escaped bull and, in a scene more Texas than Steve Earle drinking a Shiner at the Alamo, they attempted to chase it down with police cruisers. For the next four hours, police engaged the creature in a sedate, low-speed chase through Arlington, Dalworthington Gardens, and other neighboring towns. The bull, for his part, largely ignored his pursuers and the throngs of people coming out of their houses to watch the strange scene and post pictures to Facebook and Instagram. With numerous police cruisers in not-quite-hot pursuit, the bull ambled along the shady streets, stopping here and there to munch on some grass and take in the views. Eventually, a friendly local rancher showed up and lassoed the bull in Dalworthington Gardens just before 9:00 p.m. Police have not released the name of the bull's owner or any motive for its escape. Perhaps, like the unicorn that escaped into a California orchard back in February, it decided that it had had enough of working for a living and was looking for something else. Related Video: News Source: WFAA Humor Weird Car News Dodge Police/Emergency Videos Sedan police chase cow bull

2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Widebody First Drive | Same snarl, more bite

By now, you've read a lot about the Dodge Demon, including our driving impressions from the drag strip. You've also heard a lot about the Challenger Hellcat, which we've had the pleasure of driving at Portland International Raceway, Willow Springs, and on our home turf of Woodward Avenue, both during the Dream Cruise and for an episode of AutoblogVR. Last week, Dodge and SRT invited us out to Indianapolis to sample the Demon, as well as the Durango SRT. Sandwiched between those two launches, however, was another distillation of Dodge's retro-cool coupe, the 2018 Challenger SRT Hellcat Widebody. The Widebody shares most of the guts of the standard Charger Hellcat, but went to the same cosmetic surgeon as the Demon. The Hellcat 6.2-Liter V8 with 2.4-liter-per-rev supercharger, producing 707 horsepower and 650 pound-feet of torque, is unchanged. It comes standard with a six-speed manual transmission, but our tester had the optional eight-speed automatic with steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters. It's 3.5 inches wider (look at those fenders!) than the standard Hellcat, though, which allows it to accommodate 20-by-11-inch "Devil's Rim" wheels. It shares its front splitter with the Demon, but retains the Hellcat's rear spoiler. The Widebody also features an electronic power steering system with selectable drive modes. It just slightly outperforms the standard Hellcat, as well, with better cornering grip, improved acceleration, and better braking (even though it shares the same Brembo brake package as the standard Hellcat). Dodge claims that the Widebody does the quarter-mile 0.3 seconds quicker, dropping it just out of the 11s to 10.9 seconds. 0-60 miles per hour drops from 3.5 to 3.4 seconds. Lateral grip increases by 0.04 G to 0.97 G on the skid pad. On the company's 1.7-mile road course, Dodge says the Widebody drops two seconds off its lap time compared to the standard Hellcat, finishing about 13 car lengths ahead. We spent our time with the Hellcat Widebody on the infield road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Sliding into the car, the seating position is cozy and comfortable even with a helmet on, and we have no trouble adjusting our chair and steering column to ideal placement. The infotainment display shows us our drive settings for the next few miles: the transmission and suspension are in Track Mode, steering is set to Sport, with traction set to Street. We fire up the car with an instructor in the right seat, and head out of the pit lane.