1970 Dodge Challenger on 2040-cars

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Toyota Corolla Cross, Audi Q4 Sportback E-Tron and which beers are like which cars | Autoblog Podcast #635

In this week's Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Consumer Editor Jeremy Korzeniewski and Senior Editor, Green, John Beltz Snyder. They're thirsty this week, but first, they talk about the Subaru Forester and Lexus NX they've been driving. They dig into the news about the Toyota Corolla Cross, Audi Q4 Sportback E-Tron and J.D. Power's surprising Initial Quality Study results. A longtime Autoblog Podcast listener suggested our editors try to relate some of their favorite beers to their favorite cars, and they happily oblige. Finally, they help a listener choose a new car in the "Spend My Money" segment. Autoblog Podcast #635 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 Long-term 2019 Subaru Forester 2020 Lexus NX 300h News Toyota Corolla Cross is headed our way Audi Q4 Sportback E-Tron concept revealed Dodge and Kia lead J.D. Power 2020 Initial Quality Study Cars and their beer counterparts Spend My Money Feedback Email – Podcast@Autoblog.com Review the show on iTunes Show full video transcript text - Hey, everybody. This is Autoblog Podcast producer Eric here. I'm just hopping in quickly at the beginning of the episode to let you know that this episode of the Autoblog Podcast is brought to you by these SoFi Daily Podcast. Reaching financial independence starts with having the right information. So every weekday morning, SoFi keeps you up to date with important business news and stock market happenings and how they affect your financial life. So get your money right and search for SoFi-- that's S-O-F-I-- wherever you get your podcasts. On with the show. [THEME MUSIC] [ENGINE REVVING] [CAR DRIVES AWAY] GREG MIGLIORE: Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Autoblog Podcast. I am Greg Migliore. We have a great show for you today on this hot, sizzling Thursday afternoon in July. Joining me today is senior editor for all things green, John Snyder. What's up, man? JOHN BELTZ SNYDER: Hey. Just trying to beat the heat with some iced coffee today. GREG MIGLIORE: Sounds good, sounds good. My coffee is just cold because I haven't microwaved it in a while. And chuckling at that remark-- charitably, I guess-- is consumer editor Jeremy Korzeniewski. How you doing? JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: I'm doing good. I-- I mean, unlike you guys, I stopped drinking coffee about an hour ago.

Zombie cars: Discontinued vehicles that aren't dead yet

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.

Values snowball for legendary Tucker Sno-Cats, latest toys of the super rich

Here's a fun-sounding vehicle perfect for the cold and snow that's currently gripping much of North America. Tucker — no, not that Tucker — just marked its 75th anniversary making the Sno-Cat, its orange-painted, four-tread snow vehicles that have inspired backcountry skiers, collectors — and increasingly, the super rich. Bloomberg in a recent story writes that demand for the Medford, Ore.-based company's products is soaring on demand from the wealthy, who need a way to get to their backcountry mountain retreats. They're also in demand from collectors and gearheads who also love snow, like two anonymous collectors who are believed to have amassed more than 200 vintage Sno-Cats. The value of vintage models has reportedly tripled in the past five years to well over $100,000 for a fully restored rig. Tucker Sno-Cat Corp. claims to be the world's oldest surviving snow vehicle manufacturer, launched by E.M. Tucker in 1942 out of a desire to design a vehicle for traveling over the kind of deep, soft snow found in the Rogue River Valley of his childhood. It was four Tucker Sno-Cat machines that helped English explorer Vivian Fuchs and his 12-man party make the first 2,158-mile overland crossing of Antarctica in 1957-58. While many of the company's competitors either shuttered or adapted to serving ski resorts with wider, heavier treads, Tucker has stuck to its formula of making lightweight vehicles to travel over deep snow. Many Tuckers use Chrysler's flat six-cylinder engine, or its Dodge Hemi V8 for larger Sno-Cats, mounted rear or centrally, with basic, no-frills aluminum cabins. Sno-Cats all have four articulating tracks that are independently sprung, powered and pivoted at the drive axle. Track options come in three different types: conventional steel grouser belt track, rubber-coated aluminum grouser belt track, and one-piece all-rubber track. Steering is hydraulically controlled by pivoting the front and rear axles for smooth movement over undulating terrain with minimal disturbance of the ground cover. The company today makes 75 to 100 Sno-Cats a year for customers including the U.S. military, oil-drilling crews in cold places like Alaska and North Dakota, and utilities. But demand is so high that it's launched a profitable service reselling and refurbishing old machines. E.M. Tucker's grandson, Jeff McNeil, now head of this division, scours Google Earth for abandoned Sno-Cats rusting in backyards that he might be able to acquire and fix up.