1955 Dodge D150 Pickup on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Dodge Durango Hellcat teased in 'Fast and Furious' spot is real, headed to New York

The Durango Hellcat teased in a Dodge commercial appears to be the real deal, according to a report that surfaced Monday afternoon, and we could see it as soon as the New York International Auto Show in April. The horsepower Gods are smiling upon us.  Motor Authority says that a Dodge insider was able to confirm the existence of a Durango Hellcat, and suggested it will make its public debut at the New York show this spring. "Hellcat all the things" has become a bit of a meme, and it appears Dodge is either in on the joke, non-ironically committed to the concept, or maybe a little bit of both. A commercial FCA debuted to coincide with the release of the trailer of the latest "Fast and Furious" film gave us our first brief glimpse the new supercharged Durango SUV. Credit for the original find goes to the fine (and eagle-eyed) folks at Road & Track, who spotted the fender badge at approximately the 17-second mark in the embedded commercial. The tease left little to the imagination. The badge is shown prominently on the fender of the mystery vehicle, which isn't much of a mystery at all. It's a Dodge and it's not a Charger or Challenger; no need to overthink it.  Immediately after, the camera cuts to what is obviously a Durango silhouette, but we can't see a whole lot in the glare of its headlights.  It also makes sense from a product cycle perspective, as the Durango is well past the point where it has received its AARP card and we're not necessarily expecting a replacement. The three-row slot in FCA's lineup may go exclusively to Jeep once all is said and done.  We know (or have heard rumors) that other variants of the family SUV are in the pipeline, making it clear that FCA plans to milk the aging three-row for all it's worth. The Jeep Grand Cherokee, which rides on the same fundamental platform but with a shortened wheelbase, has already gotten the Hellcat treatment in the Trackhawk, so porting this engine over for three-row duty should be a snap.  More importantly, a mild facelift may accompany other updates to the Durango, which would conveniently explain why Dodge obscured the Durango's front end in the teaser.  If there's any downside to this, it's that FCA is going to run out of vehicles eventually. With the Ram Rebel TRX well underway and now this, there just aren't many vehicles left in FCA's various brand lineups that can physically accommodate a supercharged, 6.2-liter V8.  Hopefully they have Sawzalls. Related Video:    

Autoblog Podcast #317

Mitsubishi Mirage, Toyota thinks of beefing up US production, Marchionne on Alfa, Dart and minivans, Ford Atlas concept, Honda Gear concept
Episode #317 of the Autoblog Podcast is here, and this week, Dan Roth, Jeff Ross and Michael Harley bookend the other podcast topics with a pair from the Montreal Auto Show, the Mitsubishi Mirage and Honda Gear concept, and in between we talk about Toyota building all its US-market cars stateside, Hyundai building a Nurburgring test facility, Sergio Marchionne's latest words about Alfa Romeo, Dodge Dart powertrains and the future of Chrysler vans. Some chatter about the Ford Atlas concept finishes up the meat of the 'cast and then we wrap with your questions. For those of you who hung with us live on our UStream channel, thanks for taking the time. Keep reading for our Q&A module for you to scroll through and follow along, too. Thanks for listening!
Autoblog Podcast #317:

Fiat Chrysler's next-generation Uconnect is faster, built on Android

If you're a regular reader of Autoblog, you know that for a long time we've liked Fiat Chrysler's Uconnect infotainment system for its bright, clear, responsive touchscreen interface. Now, according to the company, it will be better than ever with Uconnect 5, the latest iteration of the system. It has upgraded hardware and a revamped graphic user interface (the stuff on the screen). Looking at sample screens shown above, there are characteristics shared with the old system, such as the time, status and shortcuts at the top and the menu icons at the bottom. In the middle, the major change is the addition of home screens that can be customized with favorite menus and readouts that are always available. Each of these home screens can have up to four functions and you can have five pages to flip through. The graphics themselves feature more legible fonts and updated icons. Each car brand will get its own set of icons, colors and textures to help create unique experiences. And while each Fiat Chrysler product will be able to have Uconnect, including Alfa Romeo that has until now lacked Uconnect, each brand has the ability to make small tweaks including the screen orientation. The system will support displays in landscape, portrait or square, so different brands may choose different shapes. Powering Uconnect 5 is a processor Fiat Chrysler says is six times more powerful than what's in current systems. It features 6 gigabytes of RAM and 64 gigabytes of internal storage. The processor also supports screens as large as 12.3 inches with as many as 15 million pixels, or nearly twice that of a 4K resolution TV. The system can display information on up to four screens, too. Uconnect 5's firmware is built on Google's Android operating system, joining a few other automakers in using Android as a base for their infotainment systems. Uconnect 5 brings with it a number of new features. It brings full Alexa integration, so you can use it just like you do at home, provided you have a data plan for the car. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto continue to be standard, but now they can be used wirelessly. You can also now connect two phones via Bluetooth wirelessly so you can access content from both. Navigation gets real time information and updates from TomTom. Users can create five profiles with unique climate, radio and instrument settings, plus one for a valet.