RideLust

If I asked you to name the quickest-accelerating vehicle you could buy in 1991, which car would you pick? A Ferrari 348 or Testarossa? A Porsche 911 Turbo or 928? A GMC Sonoma pickup?

If you guessed either of the Ferraris or the Porsches, you’d be wrong. In fact, the quickest vehicle you could buy twenty years ago was a GMC Syclone, a (heavily) modified GMC Sonoma pickup that featured a turbocharged 4.3-liter V-6, good for a (rated) 280 horsepower and 350 lb.-ft. of torque. The Syclone was good for a 0 – 60 time of around 4.5 seconds, and could turn a quarter mile in the low thirteens. Read More…

2012 Chevrolet Silverado LTZ Crew Cab Pickup. Image: © GM Corp.

Costco is a great place to shop for stuff like food and wine, and the warehouse club occasionally has good deals on stuff of interest to gear heads. You can’t beat their prices for bulk shop towels and microfiber cloths, and they generally have decent pricing on Mobil 1 motor oil. I bought a “disposable” hydraulic jack there about 20 years ago, and it’s still going strong (even if it does weigh more than the center of the earth). Read More…

The 2011 Corvette Z06, now with free insurance in WA and OR. Image: © GM Corp.

If you’re buying a GM vehicle in the next two months and you live in Washington or Oregon, here’s some (potentially) good news:. GM will pick up the tab on a year’s worth of MetLife auto insurance, above the minimum coverage levels specified by the states. I say “potentially good news”, because the deal comes with certain caveats, like applying only to personal (non-commercial and non-fleet) vehicles, being non-transferrable if you sell the car and being non-refundable if you opt to get your own coverage. Read More…

I received a phone call this weekend from a buddy who is in the market for a new car. He’s got three small kids and was wondering what would be the best choice for his next new vehicle. His current ride (believe it or not) is a 2006 Ford Crown Victoria and while it’s the size of a house, it just doesn’t offer the versatility that he and his family need. Now, while he admits to needing more space, he doesn’t want to go down the minivan road just yet as he simply feels that at 36 years old, he’s still to young. Over the course of our 45 minute call we went over the particulars of what he needed from a financial, utility and usability standpoint until we narrowed down his choices to either a new cross over, a full-sized SUV or the dreaded (not really) minivan.
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PRO’s: Great comfort, wonderful usability, all-weather capable, good power.

CON’s: Sub-par interior materials, sluggish handling.

FINAL THOUGHT: The 2011 GMC Acadia Denali is a good looking, 100% usable vehicle that brings big room and comfort to the table. In short, this is what a crossover should be.

In the past every crossover I’ve driven has suffered from an identity crises. They’re not trucks, so off-roading is out of the question, and with a general lack of space for both passenger and cargo, using them as a full-on family truckster generally isn’t in the cards either. So what then are they actually good for? Well, up until now I hadn’t found one that was good for anything, until that is, I met this guy – the 2011 GMC Acadia Denali. The first thing you notice about this baby is that it’s a big vehicle. In fact it dwarfs just about everything else in the crossover segment. Its rugged good looks, stance and all-weather capabilities make it feel more like a truck, thus making it more attractive to male buyers who don’t want to drive a minivan or standard crossover. It also has power, storage space and all-wheel drive which makes it not only practical, but enjoyable to pilot.
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When Ford released their Raptor off-road truck last year it pretty much made every other factory off-roader completely obsolete. You see that thing has the ability to tackle just about anything the desert can throw at it, while at the same time coddling you in air-conditioned, cruise controlled comfort. It’s big, hairy chested and aside from its optional great pumpkin’ orange paint job, is pretty damn cool. Because of this manufacturers like GM and Chrysler have been put on scramble alert to try and bring something to market that can compete with Ford’s off-road hammer.
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GM has been using crash test dummies for more than 35 years and with each new variation of dummy created, our cars become safer and safer. The newest of GM’s dummies are being utilized at GM’s Anthropomorphic Test Device (ATD) lab in Detroit, MI and when you hear about the amount of technology in these guys I have no doubt that you’ll be properly amazed. You see each new dummy is equipped with 70-80 sensors each, which in turn transmits crash data at the rate of 10,000 times per second back to GM’s safety systems. The data collected tells GM engineers exactly what kind of punishment that the dummies endured during the collision tests, which in turn helps them design and build safer automobiles.
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Lila Sawvel and Leighton Kohn, in GM's Flint plant. Photo: © GM Corp.

Here’s something you haven’t heard in quite a long time: General Motors is looking to hire approximately 1,000 engineers and researchers in Michigan, in an effort expand their electric and hybrid vehicle development. GM’s CEO, Dan Akerson, wants to make the company the industry leader in electric vehicle technologies, including extended range EVs like the Volt and parallel hybrids like the upcoming Buick LaCrosse with eAssist. To date, GM has spent some $700 million investing in eight Michigan facilities that support Volt (and future EV) production.

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Car companies are great at making fun of themselves. For years they’ve had a tongue and cheek attitude towards their cars and are generally great at throwing a little humor into the mix. GM has now released a new ad campaign for their new HD Silverado pick-up trucks that includes the comic talents of Patrick Warburton (Max), and Craig Robinson (Al). Two large personalities that fit perfectly with GM’s new ideas for their heavy duty trucks equipped with the new Duramax diesel V8 engine and Allison transmission.
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There are very few vehicles out there that make you feel like you can take on the world. The new 2011 GMC Sierra Denali 2500 however is the exception to the rule. First off this sucker is made of pure testosterone with a side of viagra thrown in for good measure. It’s big, uber powerful, comfortable and at the end of the day will pull the flippin’ moon out of orbit if you can find a big enough tow chain. In short, this thing is just flat out cool. Here in beautiful Queens, NY a rig like this is as useless as tits on a bull, but if you happen to live in a place with some wide open spaces well then you could have some serious fun with this real life Tonka toy.
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