Now that’s Italian! I am speaking of the new 2015 Ram ProMaster City, the newest member of the commercial vehicle lineup at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. The Ram ProMaster City is a Class 1 commercial van perfect for the small business owner and the urban driving/delivery environment. The new little van offers flexible cargo and passenger configurations while delivering excellent mileage.
One issue I have had with device cases that contain battery packs is the bulk and weight added to your device that you carry on your person. I really don’t want that bulge or all that bulk in my front pocket. TYLT offers a solution in the form of the ENERGI Sliding Power Cases available for a host of devices.
Chevrolet says they are no longer going to compete in the midsize sedan segment. Instead, as they debuted the all-new 2016 Chevrolet Malibu and Malibu Hybrid at the New York International Auto Show this week, they said they are going to win the segment with this car that is longer and lighter, has more interior space and improved efficiency.
Volvo again? It certainly seems I am on Volvo’s preferred reviewers list or something as the brand populates this test driveway quite often. In the past year or so I reviewed all the new models of the automaker’s middle class in the form of S60, V60 and XC60 and now I add to that 2015.5 versions of S60 and XC60.
Dodge, the performance brand at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, is celebrating its 100th birthday this year. As part of the festivities they threw themselves (and 2,000 of their closest friends and fans) a little party in Dallas that featured a huge Dodge and Mopar car show, Viper drifting, Challenger drag racing and a concert by a little band called Mötley Crüe.
Whether you stayed up into the wee hours of the morning to order your new iPhone 6, or you plan on being one of the first in line when they hit stores tomorrow, have you thought about accessories yet? Rokform is ready with its updated line of cases, armbands and docks, including the Sport v3 model with Rokform Mounting System.
While many automakers have chosen to remove the frame from underneath their midsize SUVs lately, Toyota takes a different approach by delivering two medium-bodied sport utes – one with a frame and one without. We’ve already looked at the latest unibody Highlander, and now we’ll spend quality time with the 2014 Toyota 4Runner frame-based SUV we first saw last fall.
General Motors has finally taken the wraps off its next-generation full-size SUVs as they introduce the all-new 2015 Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban and 2015 GMC Yukon and Yukon XL in a trio of events Thursday. Designed to demonstrate the automaker’s leadership in the segment, the new models show off new styling, new technologies and new powertrains. While GM held separate events on each coast to introduce its newest Chevrolet and GMC full-size SUV models, they brought the family together for a global family launch party in Dallas, Texas, not 20 miles from the Arlington Assembly Plant where they will be…
Chevy Volt, loaned to me for the week of South by Southwest Interactive for review purposes When it comes to car reviews, Gear Diary has some experienced people to check things out for you. But this time, neither our intrepid (and superlative) car reviewer David Goodspeed — and how excellent is that a name for a car reviewer, right? “Goodspeed”? Awesome! — nor our fearless lead editor, Judie (who has done car reviews before as well), could attend South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) this year. On the other hand, ol’ Doug lives in Austin. So I got the chance, for the…
South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi)–my first foray into trade show/events in a while I don’t go to many trade shows or other events. Gear Diary’s editors, such as Judie, Dan, or CarlyZ, are usually the ones who take on that burden/honor. It’s not that I don’t want to; I rarely have the opportunity. But Chevy is running a promotional event about their hybrid Volt during South by Southwest Interactive (i.e., SXSW Interactive), and as Judie is on vacation and our go-to superlative car guy David Goodspeed couldn’t make it, your humble news guy was asked to step into the breech….
I’m here in Detroit with David Goodspeed (boy, does that man know his cars!), thanks to Ford, who brought us out to Motor City for the North American International Auto Show as part of #FordNAIAS. We spent this evening at the Henry Ford Museum, and we were given the opportunity to simply wander the museum on our own. It was nothing short of amazing. As our friend Paul Strauss of The Awesomer put it, it felt as if we were in a sequel to the film Night at the Museum. The Henry Ford Museum truly is an awesome place. If you…
This is the story of how a sensible, middle-aged guy fell from sensible car grace. Have mercy on me. Let me be honest right up front here: I am most assuredly not a “muscle car” fan. I was a nerd/geek/dork in high school (in spite of doing two sports–do you think being in Drama and the Computer Club had something to do with it?), and the guys who had, or wanted to have, muscle cars were the kind of guys would give guys like me wedgies, stuff us in lockers, turn us upside in trash cans, and all that kind…
Gear Diary v1.0 circa 2006, courtesy of the WayBack Machine Five years ago, I stepped off a virtual precipice and left the safety of my regular writing gig at The Gadgeteer to start my own personal blog, an idea that was born while riding on the back of an elephant in Thailand. With the help of Joel Evans, formerly of Geek.com and now with CronkSoftware.com, I learned how to work with WordPress, a relatively new blogging platform that was totally different from the “Ruby on Rails” system I was used to. My first Hello World post on Gear Diary ran late at…
David Goodspeed writes amazing articles about cars and the automotive industry for Gear Diary, and I love reading them. Personally I am fairly utilitarian in my auto pursuits, but my statistician avocation makes me sit up and take notice when what looks like inherently contradictory data comes along. In this case it is Toyota and their public image. First off they find themselves along BP, airlines and others on the ’15 most hated companies’ list. Toyota had what could be described as a ‘rough’ 2010 in terms of public relations, to the point where the former leader of product quality…
If you see a friend with a gadget fetish carrying something different, chances are it is something new and trendy. Gadget-heads are seen as fickle and trendy, and bitterly loyal … for about 30 seconds until the next bright & shiny object comes along. But I have typically held on to the stuff I loved the most, and recently I’ve been alternating between 4 PDA/handhelds – my Axim x51v, iPod Touch, Psion Revo and HP200LX. Made me wonder – what sorts of ‘old school’ stuff does the rest of the Gear Diary staff use? So I asked the question –…
Last week I had the opportunity to not only take the all new 2009 F-150 for several grueling test drives, I also got to see its creation from the frame up. Grinding Gears editor David Goodspeed and I met with other journalists at the Ford Rouge Plant in Dearborn, Michigan. Our day started at the Henry Ford Rouge Factory Tour…
OK, granted it is now Friday, but we could not bring you the entire story of the all-new Ford F-150 before today due to embargo restrictions. The GearDiary team of Judie Lipsett and David Goodspeed spent two days in Michigan for a first-hand, full-tilt experience with the latest version of the world’s best-selling vehicle.
This week I had the opportunity to spend a day at the Texas Motor Speedway test driving 2009 GM Collection. There were so many gorgeous and impressive vehicles present, I would be hard pressed to say which was my favorite; but of course I had one…
UPDATED: Words added after the walkaround! Grinding Gears editor, David Goodspeed, with this week’s Wednesday Walkaround of the 2009 Mercedes-Benz SL550.
Over the past week, Grinding Gears editor David Goodspeed has been privileged to drive a pair of all-new vehicles from Ford and Lincoln, both of which will arrive in dealerships this summer. The first stop was Washington, D.C., for the 2009 Lincoln MKS. That was the trip whose highlights included a visit to a winery, a sneak peek at a future Lincoln, outrunning tornados, a dead turtle and not quite making it back to our starting point. All-in-all a very memorable trip. And a great new Lincoln. Next stop: LA – Santa Monica to be precise – for the launch…
[THIS is a monster post with lots of photos – so give your browser some spinning wheel time!] GearDiary was invited to join traditional media and automobile journalists to experience the launch of the redesigned Ford Focus and Ford Sync™. Hosted in Seattle, Washington by Ford Motor Company and Microsoft, the program included significant drive time with the Focus vehicle, demonstration of the Sync technology and a visit to the Microsoft campus to view the House of the Future. Geekness and coolness personified ❗ . Sync is the newest mobile technology to emerge from the Ford-Microsoft relationship. Debuting in the…