1975 Dodge Power Wagon on 2040-cars

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Junkyard Gem: 1991 Dodge Stealth R/T

Chrysler's relationship with Mitsubishi goes back to the early 1970s, when the first Mitsubishi Colt Galants arrived from Japan with Dodge Colt badging. Plenty of Mitsubishi-built Arrows and Ram 50s and Challengers followed, and the joint Chrysler-Mitsubishi plant in Illinois began building cars in 1988. By the 1990s, you could find Mitsubishi DNA throughout the American Chrysler family, and the Mitsubishi GTO was brought over to become the Dodge Stealth starting in 1991. Here's one of those first-year Stealths, now residing in a Colorado self-service boneyard. Four grades of Stealth were available here in 1991, with the R/T Turbo AWD at the very pinnacle. This car, a regular R/T, is one step down from that model but still a pretty quick machine for its time. MSRP was $25,155, or about $55,370 in 2022 dollars. The R/T got this naturally-aspirated DOHC 6G72 engine, displacing 3.0 liters and making 222 horsepower. If you got the turbocharged version in the R/T Turbo AWD (or the Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4), power went up to 300 horses. The 3000GT (as the GTO was known here) was mechanically identical to this car but had slightly different styling. The GTO/3000GT/Stealth replaced the Mitsubishi Starion and its Chrysler/Dodge Conquest siblings, which were sold here from the 1983 through 1989 model years. The Starion was a rear-wheel-drive machine that competed for sales against the Toyota Supra and Nissan Z, while the Mitsubishi GTO was available with either front- or all-wheel-drive. As illustrated by this photo of the rear suspension, this car is a front-wheel-drive version. Americans loved automatic transmissions 30 years ago, nearly as much as we love them today, but this car has a proper five-on-the-floor manual. If you wanted the optional four-speed automatic, it cost 813 bucks ($1,790 today). The Stealth R/T AWD had a mandatory five-speed manual transmission. This car has been hit hard by junkyard shoppers and the ravages of time, but it was fairly luxurious when new. Air conditioning was standard equipment on the R/T, though not on the lesser Stealths. This car came close to 150,000 total miles, but fell a bit short of that milestone. The final year for the Dodge Stealth was 1996, though the Mitsubishi 3000GT remained available here through 1999. The Mitsubishi GTO held on through 2000 in its homeland. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Outhandles the Lotus Esprit!

Toyota, Lexus dominate KBB's Best Resale Value Awards

Toyota and Lexus stormed the 2014 Kelley Blue Book Best Resale Value Awards, winning a combined 18 categories including best brand and best luxury brand. This marks the third year in a row that both automakers have won the Brand and Luxury Brand resale value awards. In all, Toyota won 11 categories and Lexus won seven.
Honda made a good showing, as well, winning two segments (Accord Plug-In Hybrid and Civic Si) and putting one car on the top-10 Best Resale Value list (CR-V). Chevrolet did even better, winning two segments (with the V6 Camaro and the Corvette) and placing three cars on the top-10-overall list (again, the Camaro and Corvette, plus the Silverado 1500).
The other winners came from Jeep, Dodge, Infiniti, Subaru and Audi. To give you a clearer picture of the Toyota and Lexus domination, their 18 mentions represents more than half of the 34 awards (including the top-10-overall list).

2023 J.D. Power APEAL Study shows new-car customer satisfaction scores slip

J.D. Power survey results have been slightly up but mostly down for automakers this year, literally. In February, the 2023 Vehicle Dependability Study showed an overall decline compared the 2022 a month before the Customer Service Index Study did the same. The trend reversed in June with a better overall score on the 2023 U.S. Electric Vehicle Consideration Study than in 2022, then declined again the same month on with a lower overall score on the 2023 Initial Quality Study. The declines continue with the 2023 J.D. Power U.S. Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout (APEAL) Study, overall satisfaction among the 84,555 respondents down two points overall compared to 2022, to 845 out of 1,000 points. Because last year's score dropped compared to 2021, this year marks the first consecutive decline in the study's 28-year history. The study tries to "[measure] owners' emotional attachment and level of excitement with new vehicle" after 90 days of ownership by asking new owners to rate 37 attributes in 10 areas around the vehicle, such as the feeling they get when they hit the accelerator. Satisfaction with nine of the attributes is down this year versus last, fuel economy the only segment to show better results with 15 points more satisfaction. Styling and infotainment are big drags on satisfaction. Responses to new car exterior looks tallied 888 points, down from 894 last year, the largest drop in this year's study. On the digital side, less than half of those surveyed this year said they prefer using a manufacturer's built-in infotainment. From 70% of respondents in 2020 preferring to use a manufacturer's in-house software to play audio instead of Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, that's 56% in 2023. Going all-in on Google appears to have the best effect. J.D. Power said that vehicles with both Google's Android Automotive Operating System (AAOS) and Google Automotive Services (GAS) "score higher in the infotainment category than those with no AAOS whatsoever. AAOS without GAS receives the lowest scores for infotainment of the three categories."  Frank Hanley, senior director of auto benchmarking at J.D. Power, said, "Despite the technology and design innovations that manufacturers put into new vehicles, owners are lukewarm about them. While innovations like charging pads, vehicle apps and advanced audio features should enhance an owner’s experience, this is not the case when problems are experienced.