Car FYI

Photo Credit: GMC/General Motors untitled   The announcement and unveiling of the GMC HUMMER EV last year sparked a great deal of curiosity towards how a macho electric truck will be embraced going against the grain of the traditional fuel-burning vehicles. A muscular style revisiting the military-derived aesthetic of the original Hummer models and marketing performance numbers such as 1,000 horsepower and 11,500 lb-ft of torque seems to have successfully drawn attention to the upcoming vehicle’s capacities. Ahead of the release of GMC HUMMER EV Supertruck with early models arriving in the United States later this year, a companion model with a sport utility body style is announced for early 2023. Boasting the same athleticism and tough design as the previously-unveiled truck variant, the 2024 GMC HUMMER EV SUV’s inclusion of an enclosed cargo compartment will provide owners access to as much as 81.8 cubic feet of cargo space. Integrated load floor s...

Photo Credit: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Celebrating 75 years as a brand in 2020, Jeep has always emphasized versatility in conventional and unconventional means. Though the four-wheel drive and impressive off-road capabilities initially defined Jeep’s identity, there was a long-running marketing push by the marque to present their vehicles as an upscale product that can reach peaks few sedans would reach. Starting in the late 1990s, a growing driving consumer base entered the domain of the Jeep brand.   First appearing in the 1963 model year, the Jeep Wagoneer was a longtime entrant in the sport utility vehicle category as a modern, premium product for its time. Sculpted by highly influential industrial designer Brooks Stevens, the original Jeep Wagoneer presented features attracting urban and suburban dwellers as much as drivers requiring a durable four-wheel drive vehicle. The SJ platform version of the Wagoneer endured the Jeep brand’s ownership by Kaiser Motors, American M...

Photo Credit: Ford Motor Company Recently demonstrated by the announcement of the limited edition Mustang Mach 1 , Ford Motor Company enjoys drawing on the vast reservoir of their past looking towards their future. For the 2021 model year, the automaker re-imagines the Bronco name for an exciting new sport utility vehicle. In 1965, Ford  was a hive of activity in motorsports as well as on the road. Fully invested in capitalizing on the instant success of their Mustang, Ford continued to find their affordable sports car was a sales darling in its first full year of production. Customers of larger vehicles were presented with an all-new Ford Galaxie as well as a reworked Country Squire wagon. Diverting from on-road to off-road, the auto company was putting the finishing touches on the release of their first compact sport utility vehicle (SUV). The Ford Bronco debuted in 1965 for the 1966 model year as something unlike anything the blue oval badge had been worn on up to this point....

Photo Credit: James Lipton for Dodge/Fiat Chrysler Automobiles When Dodge introduced the Hellcat moniker as an enhancement to the SRT version of the Challenger in 2015, the insane horsepower that erupted through the coupe’s exhaust was seen as astonishing. Shortly after the Challenger introduced the high performance variant, the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat made use of the same 707-horsepower, supercharged HEMI V-8 engine that made the Challenger SRT Hellcat a beast. In an announcement of their 2021 product line, Dodge’s parent Fiat Chrysler Automobiles unveiled a third member of the ferocious Hellcat family based on their Durango sport utility vehicle. The 2021 Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat establishes a new performance peak for the three-row passenger vehicle lineup for the American brand. A creation that was once difficult to conceive, the appearance of the Durango SRT 392 in 2017 for the 2018 model year paved the way for this even more aggressive take on the sport utility vehicle. ...

Photo Credit: Jaguar Land Rover Today, the Land Rover brand exists in a landscape it could not have predicted back when they constructed a Centre Steer prototype meant as a rugged postwar utility vehicle. Land Rover originally developed products directed towards more practical customers envisioning their vehicles on a farm or in other off-roading environments. Of course, today’s automotive customer is now attracted to the marque’s four-wheel drive vehicles as versatile and tough while also supported by premium equipment. The metamorphosis towards a more luxurious focused Land Rover product line largely gave way to its strictly purposeful presence in recent decades with exception of one model. From 1983 to 2016, the Defender nameplate stood alone in Land Rover as a less spoiled sport utility vehicle embodying the traditions of the brand’s original models first sold in the late 1940s. The Land Rover Defender maintained a charmingly bulky shape that included a proven off-roading c...

In writing my last post on 2015 model year vehicles that have undergone Canadian safety recalls in 2014, I noticed one group of vehicles from General Motors have endured the roughest exit from the starting gate. Going by the Tahoe and Suburban name wearing the Chevrolet nameplate, Yukon and Yukon XL when fitted to GMC badged vehicles or as the Escalade and Escalade ESV with Cadillac, five separate safety recalls have been issued relating to products built on the new truck-based sport utility vehicle (SUV) platform. Important to note these potential safety issues have or are being addressed by General Motors promptly, multiple recall notices are clearly not the way an auto company wants to welcome new buyers. This first recall in Canada affecting Chevrolet and GMC variations of the new SUV  came this past March relating to the six-speed automatic transmission. It was a concern that the transmission cooler lines w...