5th Gear: I realize this is a blog and The Morning Shift at that, but I wish people would stop parroting The New York Times articles on the “trade war” with China and do some objective journalism.

Nobody is going to buy a 1/2 ton diesel if it costs triple the price of a base V8. Ram figured that out and still only had a 20% take rate. I honestly do not see the benefit if the market is heading towards BEV development and with diesels costing more in routine maintenance. Just give me a cheap, bulletproof gas V8…

Second: GM does not care about the bailout, those loans were paid back, and Mexico gives them something they will never get in the US - cheap labor. They began preparing Ramos Arizpe to build the Blazer five years ago. They can’t just ship all the tooling and equipment up to Poletown and completely rebuild the paint…

Superb article. Very well-written and concise. The fact is that diesels are not suitable for light-duty passenger vehicles and never will be. They became popular worldwide due to the cost of fuel, and in the US due to the Great Recession and associated rise in fuel prices. Automakers should have pivoted to PHEVs and…

TL:DR, it’s an RV engine. Big torque at low rpm, reliable for years at idle. No cam phasers or timing chain guides to wear out, no DI to coke up the valves, no turbo to overheat and wear out. It’s a winner for the commercial industry and RV market. I’m just wondering how they’re going to meet emissions with a…

This car has a Big Red Sports and Imports dealer sticker on the tailgate. It’s a dealer located in Norman, OK and was the only place you could find both Ferrari and Isuzu sold in the same spot. Back in high school, there were tons of those little 1995 Isuzu pickups running around our school from Big Red, mostly…

This scene alone is the reason why License to Kill is the best Bond film, and the scene where 007 resigns when he finds out about Felix and his wife is the reason why Dalton was the best Bond ever. It was the darkest film until Casino Royale was released.

I had a 4x4 2-door Blazer that was a year older than this one. Drove it all through law school in Nebraska and traded it for an HHR in 2005. All in all, it was a good car, got me back and forth to school even during heavy snow, but had little electrical gremlins from day one. I wouldn’t mind having one again, and I…

“Its workers deserve not merely fair contracts and officials who won’t steal their money to rent crappy houses, but ones who have a modicum of self-respect.”

Just give it a Viking Funeral down the Yangtze and let it go. There are plenty of good XJs in the world that don’t need to be shipped around it.

So, when is Mahk going to show up in the video? Hope he remembered his safety vest and glasses.

Re: 2013 Miata with 51k miles.

There’s a semi-retired, part-time parts guy at our local AutoZone who pretty much does the same thing. Great dude. He drives his ‘62 Vette, unrestored, to the AutoZone in a questionable neighborhood and just parks it outside for a few hours while he fetches brake pads and sundries for other shadetree mechanics. Most…

Every single vehicle on the train is going to be scrapped. Pour one out on Copart.

The Cutlass Supreme was the best-selling car in America until 1987. Then the Honda Accord and Ford Taurus battled it out through the late ‘90s when FWD sedans, minivans, and truck-based SUVs became the hauler of choice. These were nice cars back then. Velour seats, tasteful wood and chrome, and parents loved the coupes…

5th gear: Most women I know, including my wife, hate getting gas for the car. It’s really inconvenient, smells bad, and nobody wants to break a nail on the pump handle or drip gas from the nozzle on their shoes. Electric cars you can plug in every night when you get home should be a clear winner.

I’m not sure if the author was actually alive in the 70s and 80s to recall any of the history cited in his article, but if “Senior Reporter” means anything, I would hope that he was. Parsing words from a WaPost article to create a hit piece on someone who factually saved and brought American automobile manufacturing…

Ram is flooding the market with Classics that won’t hold their value on the used market. Our local FCA lot has 2019 2wd Hemi Classics going for $20k out the door with all the cash they’re putting on the hood. The redesigned model is going for $33k after rebates, which is about what Chevy is doing on both versions of…

Tachometer on an automatic transmission. Yet they provide a warning light for coolant temp and oil pressure.

If you want to employ Americans with your car purchases, Honda and Toyota are your best bet, even compared to American companies.