American Cars Archives

GM has announced the pricing for the 2014 Chevy Spark EV, which starts at $27,495 or as low as $19,995 after the available federal tax credit and as low as $17,495 if you include the state credits. Buyers can also lease the 2014 Spark EV 1LT model for as low as $199 a month for 36 months, with only $999 due at signing.

With all of the accolades that Tesla has received for the its new Model S and posting its first quarterly profit, Tesla is having a great year. NowTesla has just announced that it has paid off the entire loan awarded to the company by the Department of Energy in 2010, nine years early. In addition to payments made in 2012 and Q1 2013, today's wire of almost half a billion dollars ($451.8M) repays the full loan with interest. Following this payment, Tesla will be the only American car company to have fully repaid the government.

Yay summer is here, but while most of us are looking forward to taking some much needed time off, Ford's workforce won't be as lucky. Ford is going to add an additional 200,000 units of annual straight-time capacity this year. In addition, Ford will produce an extra 40,000 units by idling select plants for only one week during what has been the traditional two-week summer shutdown.

Are you a huge fan of the Ford F-150 SVT Raptor pickup, but wish that Ford would create an SUV version for your family? Well Hennessey Performance has answered your prayers. What we have here is the Hennessey VelociRaptor SUV, which is an SUV conversion of the popular F-150 SVT Raptor.

According to sources Chrysler is currently working on a new supercharged HEMI V8, code-named Hellcat for the Dodge Challenger. The 6.2L supercharged engine will give the Challenger what it needs to compete with the Camaro ZL1 and the Ford Shelby GT500.

The 2013 Ford Fusion Energi plug-in hybrid has earned the highest possible "five-star" Overall Vehicle Score from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The Fusion Energi plug-in hybrid joins the Ford Fusion and the Fusion Hybrid which already received five-star safety ratings. NHTSA has elected to test plug-in vehicles separately from vehicles powered by gasoline engines as the market share of electrified vehicles is increasing.

Chrysler has delayed the production kick for the all-new 2014 Jeep Cherokee by at least a month, but remains confident that inventory will be strong by the fall. We did start with an initial scheduled plan of the third week in May, and now we are into mid-June," Mark Chernoby, Chrysler's senior vice president of engineering, told the Free Press. "That is just due to a wide range of issues."

Today GM is talking about the amount of time that it spent with the all-new 2014 GMC Sierra pickup in a wind tunnel to benefit both its fuel efficiency and interior quietness. The photos also give us our first look at the 2014 GMC Sierra standard cab, which up until now had not been unveiled.

Dodge has announced that two new 2013 Dodge Dart "Special Edition" packages and a new Rallye Appearance Group are available. The new packages are available on Dart SXT and Limited models, combine features and content both exclusive to the segment and most frequently ordered by Dart customers.

Cadillac has announced that the 2014 Cadillac XTS will be available with the same twin-turbocharged 3.6L V6 as the new 2014 Cadillac CTS. Even though the XTS is available with the same engine, its output will be slightly less than the CTS at 410 horsepower and 369 lb-ft. of torque. The turbocharged engine is mated to a six-speed automatic transmission and on the outside the turbocharged XTS will get a unique grille and deck lid badging.

General Motors and Nissan have announced that the companies have signed an agreement for Nissan to produce a small cargo vehicle that GM will sell in the United States and Canada. GM expects the 2015 Chevrolet City Express, which is based on the Nissan NV200, to be available for sale in the fall of 2014.

Yup you read that right. Tessa Baughman a GM engineer recently took the 2014 Chevy Cruze Turbo Diesel to Arkansas, where she drove 900 miles on one tank of diesel fuel. The Cruze Turbo Diesel is powered by a 2.0L turbo-diesel engine and is officially rated at 46 mpg on the highway, but Baughman explains how it's possible to squeeze out even more mpg.

Consumer Reports has announced that the Tesla Model S has received a rating of 99 out of 100, which means that it's has been rated higher than any other model recently tested. Back in 2007, the Lexus LS 460L also received a score of 99 out of 100, but since then no other model has been able to achieve the same rating.

GM is introducing a special edition of the all-new 2014 Chevy Silverado, the Silverado Texas Edition, which recognizes the strong bonds between Texans and their trucks.

Automotive News is reporting that GM North America president, Mark Reuss would love to add a high volume rear-wheel-drive sports car to the Chevy lineup. The modestly priced coupe would go head to head with models like the Subaru BRZ and Scion FR-S coupes.

GM has unveiled the new 2014 Chevy Silverado High Country, which will join the LTZ and Z71 models in the Silverado lineup this fall. On the outside the Silverado High Country gets a unique chrome grille with horizontal chrome bars, projector headlamps, body-color front and rear bumpers and chrome body side moldings, door handles and mirrors. It also rides on unique 20-inch chrome wheels.

GM has announced that the new 2014 Corvette Stingray will serve as the Indianapolis 500 Pace Car on Sunday, May 26, at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This year marks the 12th time the Corvette has served as the Pace Car, starting in 1978.

The all-new 2014 GMC Sierra pickup arrives this summer and when it does it will arrive with safety features like Forward Collision Alert and Lane Departure Warning. The 2014 Sierra also gets a new Safety Alert Seat system, which transmits a vibration through the surface of the driver's seat bottom cushion to direct the driver's attention toward a possible concern on the road ahead.

Ford has announced plans to add more than 2,000 jobs to support high demand for Ford F-150 plus the planned production of the all-new Transit family of commercial vehicles starting next summer. Ford is adding 900 jobs and a third crew in the third quarter to build F-150. U.S. sales of Ford's F-Series trucks increased 24 percent in April and 19 percent year to date. Ford also is adding another 1,100 jobs starting in the fourth quarter to prepare for the introduction of the all-new Ford Transit full-size van in 2014.

In addition to showing off the upcoming 2015 Cadllac ATS coupe at a national dealer meeting in Las Vegas last month, GM also gave dealers their first look at the new 2015 Cadillac Escalade. The 2015 Escalade is expected to be unveiled sometime this fall, with production kicking off in January.

The sales numbers have been finalized for the first quarter of this year and with that it's now being reported that the Tesla Model S outsold the Chevy Volt in Q1 in North America. Tesla expects to report that it sold 4,750 Model S sedans in the US and Canada, which beats the 4,421 units of the Chevy Volt that were sold during the same period. The Tesla Model S also beat the Nissan Leaf, since Nissan only sold 3,695 units.

GM has released the pricing for the 2014 Corvette Stingray, which starts at $51,995 for the coupe and the Corvette Stingray convertible will start at $56,995. "The 2014 Corvette Stingray perfectly embodies Chevrolet's mission to deliver more than expected for our customers," said Chris Perry, vice president, Chevrolet marketing. "The Corvette Stingray delivers a combination of performance, design and technology that very few manufacturers can match, and none can even come close for $52,000."

Next year is the Ford Mustang's 50th birthday and Ford is already kicking off the celebration. Ford is teaming up with Shinola, a Detroit-based luxury goods manufacturer, to celebrate 50 years of the Ford Mustang with the release of a premium 46-millimeter wristwatch with Swiss movements.

The 2014 Chevy Spark EV now sits at the top of the retail electric vehicle segment with an EPA-estimated 119 MPGe rating. The Spark EV also has a combined driving range of 82 miles on a full charge. The 2014 Spark EV will also reach 0-60 mph in under eight seconds thanks to its electric motor that generates 130 horsepower and 400 lb-ft. of torque.

It's being reported that Cadillac previewed the upcoming Cadillac ATS coupe and new Escalade SUV to dealers last week. Although the media has yet to see either model, we do have a few more details about what we can expect from the ATS coupe.

It's been years since the Ford Escort was sold here in the US, but Ford has decided to revive the name for a new C-segment concept car in China. The new Ford Escort concept was just unveiled at the Shanghai Motor Show and according to Ford, it's designed for "Chinese consumers seeking a fun driving experience and high level of technology, consumers who also value exceptional roominess, uncompromised functionality and sophisticated design."

GM has taken the wraps off the new New Buick Riviera concept in Shanghai, which is a follow up to the last Riviera concept we saw in 2007. The lastest Riviera concept previews Buick's future design direction and is powered by a plug-in hybrid system.

Ford is celebrating the milestone of one million Mustangs being produced at Ford's Flat Rock Assembly Plant since production moved there in 2004, which also happens to be 49 years to the day after the Mustang's 1964 debut in New York. Ford has built Mustangs near its home base in Dearborn, Mich. for 49 years. The car was built at Ford's famous Rouge factory, just a few minutes from company headquarters, for four decades before moving a few miles south to Flat Rock in 2004.

GM has announced that the 2014 Chevy Cruze Clean Turbo Diesel has been rated at 46 mpg on the highway, giving it the highest highway rating of any non-hybrid passenger car in the US. The Cruze Diesel is powered by a 2.0L turbo-diesel engine with 148 horsepower and 258 lb-ft. of torque that accelerates the sedan from 0-60 mph in 8.6 seconds. It also has an overboost feature that increases the engine's torque to 280 lb-ft. for short bursts. The Cruze Diesel gets 4 mpg better on the highway than the gas-powered Cruze Eco.

Ford and General Motors have signed an agreement that will see both automakers jointly develop an all-new generation of advanced-technology nine- and 10-speed automatic transmissions for cars, crossovers, SUVs and trucks. The collaboration enables both automakers to design, develop, engineer, test, validate and deliver these new transmissions for their vehicles faster and at lower cost than if each company worked independently.

Traditional steering wheel paddle shifters allow the driver to manually control a car's transmission, but in the 2014 Cadillac ELR, the paddle shifters will enable the driver to temporarily regenerate energy and store it as electricity in the battery pack for later use. ELR's Regen on Demand feature is unique to the compact luxury coupe.

Earlier this week there were reports that Ford is going to introduce a new 1.5L EcoBoost engine in the 2014 Fusion. It was reported that it would be a three-cylinder 1.5L engine, but instead it is actually a four-cylinder, since Ford has officially confirmed the new engine. The new 1.5L EcoBoost engine is now the fifth EcoBoost engine in Ford's lineup.

Ford has announced that the Ford Explorer is being produced from the ground up outside of the United States for the first time in the SUV's history. The first full-production Explorer has rolled off the assembly line at Ford Sollers Elabuga Assembly Plant in the Republic of Tatarstan for the Russian market. Previously, only knock-down versions of Explorer had been built anywhere outside of the United States, including Elabuga, since 2012. Knock-down production means partially assembled vehicles are imported from the home plant - in this case, Ford's Explorer plant in Chicago - along with the parts needed to complete them, and then fully assembled at the local facility.

Ford has unveiled a new special edition version of the popular Ford F-150 SVT Raptor. The 2014 F-150 SVT Raptor Special Edition adds adds unique new touches to Raptor's existing Luxury Package, including a Ruby Red Metallic exterior color and box-side graphics. Interior upgrades include Brick Red seat bolsters with black inserts and cloth honeycomb highlights, console top finish panel, and center stack and door panel appliqué accents.

With all of the focus on electric cars, hybrids and new CAFE rules in the news everyday, you might think that the days of the muscle car are long gone, but are they? While it's no longer common to see a large V8 stuffed under the hood of an everyday car, there are a few models that are still around to satisfy buyers that value horsepower over fuel economy. Enter the 2013 Cadillac CTS-V. It packs a supercharged 6.2L V8 with a whopping 556 horsepower that propels the CTS-V from 0-60 mph in an insane 3.9 seconds!

It's being reported that the 2014 Ford Fusion is going to be offered with Ford's new 1.5L three-cylinder engine. BlueOvalForums was able to get a quick look at the order guide for the 2014 Fusion, which shows that the new engine will be offered in the Fusion for the 2014 mode year, with late availability.

Ford has announced that the final 2012 Polk global market registration data has been finalized, which reports that the Ford Focus was the best-selling passenger car in the world 2012, with the Ford F-Series pickup coming in third and Ford Fiesta coming in as the best-selling subcompact.

The Toyota Camry has been the best-selling car in the US for over a decade, but is it's top-selling crown up for grabs? The Camry is still currently the best selling car in the US for the first three months of this year, but last month's sales may preview a change by the end of the year.

Last week Cadillac took the wraps off the all-new 2014 CTS sedan in New York. The current CTS is offered in three versions: the sedan, coupe and wagon. There have been several reports that the wagon may not return for the next generation, but what about the coupe? It looks like Cadillac is still trying to decide the fate of the coupe.

The next-generation Tesla Roadster is still a few years away, but Tesla boss George Blankenship has already provided some details about what we can expect. Blakenship told Autocar that he expects the next Tela Roadster to have over a 200 mile driving range since EV technology continues to evolve. The next Tesla Roadster will also reach 0-60 mph in under four seconds.