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Autoblog Podcast #416

Episode #416 of the Autoblog Podcast is here, and this week, Dan Roth, Steven Ewing, and Brandon Turkus talk about the 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata, seeing the 2016 Nissan Maxima in the company's Super Bowl ad, and GMC's potential plans for a Jeep Wrangler fighter. Of course, the podcast starts with what's in the garage and finishes up with some of your questions, and for those of you who hung with us live on our UStream channel, thanks for taking the time. Check out the rundown with times for topics, and you can follow along down below with our Q&A. Thanks for listening! Autoblog Podcast #416 Topics 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata first drive 2016 Nissan Maxima previewed in Super Bowl ad GMC mulling Jeep Wrangler fighter In The Autoblog Garage 2015 Hyundai Genesis 5.0L V8 2015 Honda CR-V Long-Term 2015 Volkswagen GTI Hosts: Dan Roth, Steven Ewing, Brandon Turkus Runtime: 01:36:43 Rundown Intro and Garage - 00:00 Maxima – 30:48 Miata – 41:46 GMC/Wrangler – 59:14 Q&A - 01:11:13 Get The Podcast UStream – Listen live on Mondays at 10 PM Eastern at UStream iTunes – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Feedback Email – Podcast at Autoblog dot com Review the show in iTunes Podcasts GMC Honda Hyundai Jeep Mazda Nissan Volkswagen vw gti nissan maxima

Elvis Presley owned this GMC pickup. Now you can, too

Befitting his status as America's first rock star, Elvis Presley lived large. Among his many excesses, Elvis was well known for his prolific new-car purchases. Mostly, it seems the King favored Cadillacs and Lincolns — although, during his Army stint in Europe, he picked up a BMW 507 roadster. Here we have something different from the Elvis Presley canon: a 1967 GMC pickup. And this GMC will be crossing the block at the GAA Classic Cars auction on February 27. This GMC is one of three that Elvis purchased from Guy Caldwell Motors in Senatobia, Mississippi, almost exactly 54 years ago: on February 7, 1967. He bought a red one, a blue one, and this green one for use on his Circle G Ranch in Horn Lake, Mississippi. According to a badge on the glovebox door, this pickup is a GMC Cheyenne Super, which sounds like a fancy-pants trim level, although the truck still looks pretty bare-bones to our eyes. The steel wheels have dog-dish hubcaps, and the grille and bumpers are painted white rather than chrome. It's a standard-bed half-ton pickup and is powered by a six-cylinder engine with a three-on-the-tree column-shift manual transmission. The truck spent just over a year on the ranch before being sold off. It then went through a series of owners and several museum stints. Among the paperwork included with a sale is a letter from Elvis Presley Enterprises confirming that a GMC pickup with this VIN number was bought new by Elvis. It has now been restored, so there shouldn't be a whole lotta shakin' going on. The truck has been repainted green, although the side mirrors are different than what's shown in a vintage photo, and the chrome trim along the sides is missing. More notably, we'd like to see the "Circle G Ranch" logo it once wore on its doors be added. No pre-sale estimate is given. The final hammer price for this GMC will depend on the degree to which bidders are all shook up at the prospect of owning one of the more unusual Elvis Presley vehicles.

GM might outsource vans to AM General

General Motors will possibly boost production of the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon at the Wentzville Assembly Plant in Missouri by contracting out some commercial van manufacturing to AM General. Demand for the two midsize trucks continues to boom, and GM would like to take advantage of the strong market for them. The possible deal came to light in a letter to workers at the factory, according to Automotive News. "This potential partnership would free up production capacity and allow the organization to capitalize on our ability to build midsize trucks to further satisfy customer demand," a portion of the document allegedly said. AM General would reportedly only take over assembly of the cutaway versions of the Chevy Express and GMC Savana. Customers and critics have quickly embraced the latest Colorado and Canyon since their introduction. The Chevy just won back-to-back Motor Trend Truck of the Year awards. GM also had to add a third shift and extra workers in 2014 just to keep up with demand. The Wentzville plant even increased employment on the weekends earlier in 2015 to assemble an extra 2,000 of the trucks each month. While the two pickups boom, deliveries for the Chevy Express and GMC Savana are down 26.9 percent and 26.6 percent respectively through the first 10 months of the year. GM doesn't break out numbers for the cutaway versions, but they make up about a third of production, according to Automotive News. AM General built the Humvee for the US military and does some contract work with automakers. For example, the company's Indiana factory now produces the Mercedes-Benz R-Class for export to China. Here's hoping this potential deal will help both GM and AM General keep their factories humming. Related Video: