Jeep Made in China

First off, no, Jeep is not made in China. As far as I can gather, Jeeps that will be sold in America will be manufactured in America, and that is the way it will stay. Hooray! I'll get to more on that in a minute.

In the conclusion of my last little article, I mentioned Mitt Romney. I'm not claiming in position in politics. And I don't mean to make any sort of statement in that regard. The reason I brought that up in the Tesla article, is because Romney had referred to Tesla as a failed government energy project. Obviously wrong there.

The Romney camp was wrong again when it came to its claims about Jeep. During last year's election, in a late effort to rally some votes in the always hotly contested state of Ohio, Romney's campaign ran a television advertisement implying that Jeep, which has always been an American-made icon, will be moving its production to China. According to them, this was simply an effort to portray a loss of jobs to China, a nation that competes with us in the marketplace. They say that they weren't insinuating real facts, but rather that this "will be" happening, like in a future-tense, hypothetical, metaphysical sense. Or something like that. 

As you can figure, the goal was to scare voters into thinking that they were going to lose their jobs to China, and somehow the Obama administration had caused this.

They continued to run the ads, and their inaccurate information scared and confused a lot of people.

(This ad campaign later won the Huffington Post "Lie of the Year" Award 2012, simply because it is nothing but untruth.)

Sergio Marchionne, Chrysler's CEO (above), promptly responded. In an e-mail to Chrysler employees, many of which were actually becoming concerned with their own job security because of Romney's false statements, Marchionne wrote, " I feel obliged to unambiguously restate our position: Jeep production will not be moved from the United States to China. It is inaccurate to suggest anything else."

He went on a bit more in the memo:
"North American production is critical to achieving our goal of selling 800,00 Jeep vehicles by 2014... We also are investing to improve and expand our entire U.S. operations, including our Jeep facilities."

Right to the point- you have to like this Marchionne guy.

Mr. Marchionne later said that the efforts made by Jeep as a part of the Fiat-Chrysler family would only strengthen Chrysler in the U.S., not weaken it.

“Jeep is one of our truly global brands with uniquely American roots. This will never change,” he said.

AMERICA

Australia Wins

I have been quite intrigued lately by the new push in NASCAR to return to actual stock car racing. What I mean to say is that the cars that are being used in stock car racing this year are closer to actual production cars used by Chevy, Ford, and Toyota. Personally, I love this. I feel like its a bit of a revival. The rebirth of something that had been killed by the inception of those cookie cutter so called "stock" cars that were all essentially the same but held different badges on the front.

However, I am not going to ramble about on NASCAR racing. What I have been recently excited by with all this is the new Chevy, the Chevrolet SS.

There it is. The right one, of course, is the one I'm mostly talking about here. The fact that it is similar to the racing car is simply a nugget of extra excitement for Chevy fans.

Here's a few other reasons that I can't wait to see more about when this car is released for public sale:

• 6.2L V8
• 6 speed automatic transmission with TAPshift - we'll have to see if that actually works at all.
• Front Brembo brakes
• Sport Suspension - which is probably just a bad thing.

Here's the spec sheet if you're curious yourself.

http://www.chevrolet.com/content/dam/Chevrolet/northamerica/usa/nscwebsite/en/Home/Chevy%20Culture/News/PreReaveal%20SS/02-PDF/SS_HeroCard.pdf

Let me tell you something else that is of great concern to me: The new flagship sports sedan for Chevrolet is designed by a group of some Aussie horseback riders.

Yes. Holden, the Australian subsidiary of General Motors has designed the Chevy SS.

Here is the Holden Commodore SS.

I do not feel that I need to argue this point any further. they are identical.

I simply find this to be rather intriguing, since within the next two years, I expect that many middle aged American men will be so excited to talk about their new personal 4-door race car that, to them, should be really be associated with Steve Irwin and Outback Steakhouse.

I am sure that the BBC Top Gear three just love this. The Americans stealing from Australia to have a decent sedan.

I am also fearful. Why you ask? Because, as a traditionalist American, I hate cars that have stupid designations like the LP640, or the MP4-12C. There is a simple reasoning behind this. I feel that cars are not just things. They aren't washing machines or robots. They have personalities. We can connect with them. I have only known one person to be okay with calling his friends C3PO and R2D2, and even then, they weren't his best friends. When it came down to it, Lando and Chewy were more personable.
So, I am okay with calling my car a Commodore, or a Stratos, or even a Fiesta. They are names that add to that character. I fear that Chevy will become like Infiniti or Lexus, who give their cars only these sort of code sequence designations. I don't want Chevy to let go of this character that they have had forever.

That's neither here nor there. 

I am genuinely, very anxiously, and hopefully anticipating the release of the bow-tie SS in the States. I think that it will be a good, solid little replacement for the SS Impala and SS Monte Carlo that Chevy has recently done away with entirely. 

I will be posting more later to confirm my happiness over what is likely going to be the best, somewhat reasonably priced GM car to have been released in the US for several years.

Until then, if you would like to make a commentary in regards to Australia becoming invested in middle-aged Americans, feel free.

The Viper

Lets start with a video about the history of the Viper, from its creation, up until today. 

http://vimeo.com/39664078

Right. So here's a little list of reasons why the SRT Viper is great.

1. Its roots: The Viper started basically as a dream, that took shape with a couple of guys with a passion for genuinely great, fast cars, working after hours for pure enjoyment. The Viper was born as a commitment to American muscle, but not in the way that we see so commonly, sacrificing handling and grip for tail-happiness and straight-line speed. The Viper is the American supercar.
2. The maker: Street and Racing Team, or SRT, has taken on different names since they first conceptualized the Viper in 1989, but their goal has remained the same: build a supercar that, while rooted in American muscle, can win against the best on a track
3. The performance: The engine is just a massive V10. The power that the Viper's engine puts out was enough to break the record time for an American production car around the Nürburgring in 2011 - only second in all "production" cars to the Gumpert Apollo. The Viper ACR of the same year also broke lap time records at Laguna Seca and won numerous events Le Mans.

But all those records was the old Viper. That is in the past.

This new 2013 Viper, is almost definitely going to be even quicker - take a second to think about that.

A picture comparison: notice the body styling and and the lines. They have barely changed.

This car was released for retail sale in 1991. Not far off a Ferrari 599. In truth, it looks so modern that I would buy this if it came out today. The Viper's production team was a group of visionaries.

Now two little things have changed that have drawn some complaints; the lights and the logo. The lights have been changed  due to new government mandates, that require headlamps to be a certain height. The logo was voted in by current Viper owners. Beautiful customer involvement strategy, SRT. Outside of those little things, the meat of it is the same. The engine and tuning is about the same, but apparently this one is going to handle better and be more grippy while cornering.

You may want to hear what is realistically wrong with this car, after all, the Americans could have never actually built a supercar that is any good, could they? Oh yes. They have done just that.

The only real complaint I heard that may be of concern to prospective buyers, or car enthusiasts was from racing car driver Randy Pobst, who, while taking the Viper around a track test at Laguna Seca, said it is "fun and satisfying, but you better be on your game if you're going to drive fast in a Viper." So okay, maybe its still a little bit of a bear to drive,  but I think that SRT weren't going for the same target market as Hyundai and Kia. 

Pobst also said that the "ride is terrible, but who cares on the track." He's exactly right about this. Viper drivers aren't into their speedy investment because is comfortable or plush. 

That, to me, is what's great about the Viper - unashamedly loud, uncomfortable, and blazing fast. And in addition to that, this can serve to silence all of those European petrol-heads, who seem to think that Americans can't make a proper supercar.

The old Viper was undoubtedly a wonderful car.
The new Viper is just as fantastic, but improved in terms of grip. I can't wait to see some of the records it'll break.

indisputably

GREAT CAR