MySpace Video: VW Microbus is better than you thought

Have you seen those Toyota commercials where the Tundra does impossible-looking stuff? Well, here's some news, Tundras suck. They get brake problems and aren't even really Japanese. What you got there is an American truck without the self-esteem.

On the other hand, the modest Microbus, is still a hardcore steel box that you just can't kill. Check out this amazing video from MySpace. Let's assume, for fun, that the VW in the video still works fine after a jump and a splash.

As for the future of the Microsbus, Volkswagen scrapped plans to produce a retro-rehash of the Type 2/Transporter VW van based on the 2001 VW Microbus Concept - in the spirit of the new Beatle.

So, for now, there's little hope for the man who wants a van that's fun too with no Mystery Machine contenders coming our way.

Hell Yeah! Jeep Wranglers back in the Army with a Pickup to Boot

You know we love Jeeps at Basic Transportation. I've even owned one. And now the cheapest and best 4x4 is going back to where it all started. War! Jeep has announced the J8, a reinforced, diesel version of the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited. And, for extra awesome, they're even making a pickup version called the JT. (Jeep Truck, 'tard). So, a 2.8-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine that produces 158 hp and 295 lb.-ft. of torque - that's a cool truck you can down with!


No word if the J8 will be available for regular, none shot-at people, but hard to imagine they'd keep it from us. Finally, back to simple, agricultural basics for the Wrangler and the long-awaited Wrangler pickup - though not really as cool as the Gladiator.

Check out the full story pic gallery and J8 press release on Jalopnik here.

This Week in Gas Price History: California's paying less, Texas paying more, but we're all screwed

To be precise, we're screwed at a rate of 20 cents since last year, about buck since this week 2004. So, really, the long-term outlook for being able to guzzle as much gas as we want is probably on the decline. So, again, I gotta ask - how much is too much - remember this poll? Vote now!

Opinion Polls & Market Research

Driving the 2007 Escalade - Cool, wrong, really badly made

There's too many car reviews online - so we hate doing them. But when given the chance to jump behind the wheel of a 2007 Escalade - the ultimate SUV - I said 'what the hell, let's do it.'

It goes without saying that the Escalade is sexy as hell and ridiculously roomy. But, of course, so is the Tahoe, which costs half as much. While they no longer share a platform and 95% of the parts, the two trucks are still the same size. The Escalade has an unnecessarily bigger, V8 and, most importantly, the constantly adjusted, futuristic-magnetically-charged shocks.

At one point, the Cadillac man that came along for the ride insisted, with no hint of sarcasm, that I try to flip the Escalade and - since it wasn't mine - I was happy to give it a shot. It didn't take long for me to get the four-ton bastard up to 50 on a surface street and, bracing myself for rollover goodness, I yanked the wheel for a hard left (after all, Tony Soprano flipped his Escalade and walked away).

The king of bling just turned into the parking lot where I pointed and screeched sideways like a Camaro. Expensive computers told one side of the car to become stiffer to make up for...physics. The truck was unflippable.

So, drivability is impressive and who doesn't like 22inch chrome rims from the factory. Quality is another issue altogether. Bare in mind that the $77 grand on the Escalade's sticker can buy a slew of different luxury cars. Before even getting a close look at the Caddy, I could see the seam of the drivers' door was crooked, narrow on the top and much wider on the bottom. This was without looking very closely - it didn't occur to me to check the body on a new car - I usually reserve it for salvaged pieces of crap like that Buick Riviera I had.

Crooked doors, on a brand new, $80K Cadillac. Seriously? Inside, the plasticky feel of fake wood panels glued onto pickup dashboard panels is a bit better than it was on the old, pickup-based Caddies - but not much better. The second time I went to backup, the backup camera had stopped working. The time before, it had shown the rear bumper on the navigation screen, which was cool. I put the car into 'drive' and then 'reverse' again. Nothing, the camera toy had gone too. Again, this Escalade had 40 miles on it at the time.

I was done. The Bose, 5.1 Dolby sound system also sounded like crap. The guy tried to explain that every Escalade's sound settings were adjusted at the dealer when it was purchased. 'So, it just sounds crappy from the factory?'

Maybe we, as a society, need to find a new pimpmobile? Maybe better-made and with better gas mileage?

What the Hell? The Fiat 500 is a small car I actually like.

OK, so, at heart, I'm a redneck, and as such, I like big, comfortable and cheap cars/trucks with V8 engines, hooked up to the rear wheels. Small cars are for people that can't afford those and girls, right? And, yeah, the Mini is a great car...for girls. Even the Scion Xb is pretty cool...and yet it's for girls and high schoolers. But, there's hope for my gas guzzling ways (maybe). The Fiat 500 coming out in our fifty-first state, Europe makes me think twice. The interior is so convincingly old fashioned like. The safety rating is so good (top score from the EU folks). And the ridiculously amazing gas mileage of the Fiat 500 (56mpg) is just mind boggling. Yes, it's over 10 seconds 0-60 and yes, that sucks from a standing stop at a freeway onramp - but damn!

At the end of the day, my car might easily be a Chevy Silverado Extended cab...yeah...with leather. Although a Mustang GT Convertible also whispers my name at night. But if the Fiat 500 comes to to the States (and there's a tiny chance it will), I might think about it for my Hollywood, green car cred.

Official Media Images of the Fiat 500

The Man With the Van now Has a Plan - 2008 Dodge Caravan

Does your pappy drive a van for work? His saws, hammers, drills and duct tape all neatly arranged in a pile - with old newspapers and water bottles sprinkled all over? Well, if he's still in an Astro from the 90s, it's because America's had a van shortage since Chevy killed the Astro, Ford killed the Aerostar and all dad had left is the Dodge Sprint - a rebranded Mercedes that only big, chain plumbers, carpenters and locksmiths could afford.

The rest of the van-driving dads had to get a pickup or keep fixing the old van. Well, now Dodge is striking a blow for the workin man by offering the 2008 Caravan with no-seats-in-the-back (read: commercial). The Crossfire ate doo-doo. The Avenger is ridiculous. Apparently what the Germans didn't understand is - Americans need vans!

Back in Cali: How much is too much for gas? Big Car vs. Small Car

Back in the Valley, 818, 106 degrees, lots of shiny new sheetmetal to gawk at from inside my unwashed-in-four-years Mustang drop-top. And I have to ask. How much is too much for gas? What will it take for you to get out of the sweet, sweet, Hummer and into something like....the new Mitsubishi Concept cX concept, premiering at Frankfurt next month.

It's a neat-enough, little car, I guess. And you know the gas mileage will be four times that of the H2 Humvee I so want. But when the Hummer H2 convertible arrives next year, how will you resist? I want to know if the good 'ol US of A will ever become Euro-like and drive tiny, personality-free hatchbacks that get like 50 miles to the gallon. Now's your chance to tell me and the world!!

Opinion Polls & Market Research

I'm a Redneck - what can Hyundai offer me?

Hyundai 'Considering' RWR Car-based Korean El Camino.

I'm an actual redneck. I like me some grillin and some beer drinkin. I enjoy watching TV in my underpants and baseball cap. It's not fitted. I got it for free.

Until now, if I was looking for a car/truck combination to do me some haulin - in the $8 thousand dollar range - I only had one choice. All my kinfolk and items I find on the curbside had to fit into an 1988 Chevy El Camino. If I the my goverment check had just arrived and the OTB was closed, maybe I'd treat myself to a GMC.

Ko Rean cars were out of the question. Plus I saw the way those po-lice beat that Rodney King fella in front of his stolen Excel.

Now, Hyundai is ready to give me yet another option. They've been doing some hootin and a holarin about their new, rear-wheel-drive Korean Kamino Koncept. Their new rear-wheel-drive platform will mean all kinds of Caprice-like gems with one of them ten year, 100,000 mile warranties. Your youngins and their mamas have never had it so good.

It probably won't happen anytime soon - but we'll be here - getting drunk and smoking crystal meth until those Korean fellas get their shit together. (link to Pickuptruck.com story)

Pickup Spot: Expensive gas, now James Inhofe and Korea - are Trucks screwed?

First, a bit of poli-sci background. James Inhofe was, until just after the mid-terms, chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Because he doesn't beleive in global warming, American drivers have cheerfully been left alone when it came to cutting down on ice cap-melting V8s. And that was pretty good...for us, not the ice caps. Screw those.

Now, James, who compared Al Gore's whale hugging, tree kissing, flick to Hitler's Mein Kompf, is gone. And a democrat is taking his place. Good for the environment, bad for big, fat, fun trucks. Are trucks in trouble? Will we still be able to highlight the quality with which we f*ck using the immense size of our truck? We'll see.

In the meantime, here's the latest in truckdom:

We've been looking forward to the H3T - based on the concept GM showed off like three years ago, before the H3 was even out (left). Now, it looks like we're getting closer to production. And the pictures just posted on AutoBlog (below) made our mouths fill with vomit, as dreams of our new Hummer H3T pickup fizzled away. Might as well just get a Ranger.



Jeep, meanwhile, also gave up its concept truck ambitions and settled for a bit of welding to chop down the Wrangler into a Wrangler with a pickup bed. Again, the concept - cool. The actual truck we'll be seeing soon? Well, you have to really like the front end of Wranglers (as I do) to give a crap. We've got high hopes for the extended cab. There's no room for stuff behind the seats in this one Plus, let's home a real-Jeep-style soft top is coming too. The convertible Dakotas are getting pretty old, we need a convertible truck! (SSR is not a truck)

Finally, check out what the Koreans are threatening us with now. No, it's not a brilliant white light being the last thing we all see before being vaporised. That's a different Korea. South Korea just plan to nuke America's truck industry. As opposed to Jeep and Hummer, this is the real demilitirized zone right here:

Instead of playing soldier, the concept sketches from Kia and Hyundai look like Titan-style pickups where you sit on leather watching big screens not playing G.I.Joe in a truck based on another truck based on a civilian version of an army truck.

Diesel Power

- Better than hybrids or just for eurotrash?

It smells like ass, doesn’t cost that much and usually means very little acceleration. No, it’s not Taco Bell's steak quesadilla. It’s diesel power! While everyone and their mama, including the latest consumer reports announcement, is jumping onto the hybrid wagon - diesel is still seen as being just for trucks and buses. The truth is, when USA Today (the thinking man’s toilet paper) drove a Prius and a VW Jetta TDI from Detroit to D.C. - the Vdub got six more MPG than the Toyota, which got 38. That’s also 6 less than Consumer Reports got out of their Prius.

I have a hard time advocating that people drive diesels. Compared to the futurism and political cache of hybrids, diesels don’t seem to have a lot going for them. In city centers, hybrids are the way to go. Diesel smoke (proven to cause cancer) spewing from buses and slow-moving traffic produces a black cloud that hovers at street level. London cabs are all diesel - go smell that place. Hybrids, meanwhile spew nothing at those low speeds. It’s a better technology for taxis, police cars, meter maids and buses.

Fair enough, but at highway speeds, like on USA Today’s trip, and most other USA driving, diesels make tons more sense than the overhyped hybrids. Diesel fuel costs around 15% less and the extra cost of the car is often as little as 300 bucks (in the case of the Passat). This is compared to the $2,700 you’ll add to your Escape XLT Sport to get the Hybrid. Diesels are also not quite as slow as they used to be. There's diesel bimmers in europe that make close to 300 hp!

Compared to Ethanol, there aren’t diesel versions available for most cars sold in the US. Instead, cars like the Volkswagen Golf, Mercedes E type and BMW offer diesel engines in the States - a BMW X5 diesel's coming soon - meaning you’ve got little choice but to go German. If that ain’t your thing - you have a wide variety of massive, American trucks to choose from! Ford, GM and Dodge make awesome diesel trucks in both regular and dually variety! There’s also the Hummer H1 and the International RTX (both pictured) to help reduce our dependence on foreign oil!

GM: Designing Disaster
-The Camaro Concept will be one of the last deck chairs General Motors gets to rearrange before submerging.
-Looking at the last decade, it's clear GM let themselves forget who really pays those pensions.


It’s proving an impossible task to look over any media coverage of Detroit’s North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) without seeing a picture of the Camaro concept on the cover or splash page. On the heels of bankruptcy rumors and frenzied industry pessimism, the stakes had never been higher for the one of the show’s legendary unveilings.


Those unable to make it to the show had to watch GM’s webcast of the unveiling, along with its baffling prelude. Only true car fiends were able to endure watching a high-school marching band doing their thing for five minutes before we could catch glimpse of the upcoming keeper of the famous pony car flame. And really, after seeing the concept which would hope to save GM, a marching band seems an appropriate introduction. The concept design is gaudy, obnoxious and without direction. Like the efforts of teenaged nerds dressed in white uniforms with big, brass buttons, the lines of the Camaro concept make a valiant effort to grasp for coolness and find it out of reach.


Online rumors already swirl around General Motors' Chairman and CEO, Rick Wagoner demanding a redesign of the concept car’s exterior in the 11th hour running up to the NAIAS - to make the car’s style "less retro" and more of an ‘interpretation’ of the unforgettable 60's Camaros. And that may very possibly be the problem. In recent years GM has almost has consistently failed to deliver the kinds of designs Americans have come to demand from their American car. While trucks have maintained the neutral stance that always made Chevy the choice of government agencies, GM cars in the last ten years have been renowned for their confusing design and polarizing looks. The ‘stretchy’ body-panel cladding of the Grand Prix and the rental-like ambivalence of late nineties’ Buicks came to replace the determined, function-driven designs of old-school GM staples.


The truck platform became the bread and butta of the product offerings and continued the downward spiral of design confusion. Pointless lumpyness and garbage can plastic misplaced on vehicles like the the early Avalanche assured that the conservative buyer on the lookout for his or her next grocery getter would be looking to Japanese rivals. They might stop to contemplate why a refrigerator built into the Pontiac Aztec’s center console should entice them to spend over $30K on the IHOP-shaped crossover, now relegated to the Edsel club (will be highly collectable for misguided, future, rich people). Meanwhile, Chevy badge heros like the Monte Carlo managed to miss all the marks buyers look for in a GT coupe, let alone the Monte. Front wheel drive and Lumina-derived re-design of the 1995 Monte Carlo assured that the drama and bad-ass cache of previous (83-88) MCs was replaced by a two-door rental car with low self-esteem and a 3.8L. It was barely able to capitalize on the NASCAR tie-in, let alone the pedigree of Monte Carlos of the previous 25 years.


Platform sharing seems to dictate everything the General shoves onto dealer lots, with SUVs leading the pack of near-identical platform-shared derivatives. Chevy, GMC and Cadillac are still stamping their name and bolting-on slightly varying front clips to the rapidly ageing Tahoe/Suburban. The new bodystyle for Suburban clones offers a bit of hope for the platform’s skin problems but we can be assured that the re-design will spread to GMC and Caddy with damn-near no differences in the exterior (and GM plug-in luxury on the inside).


GM also seemed to use the nineties to forget a crucial reason Americans had always made room for a Chevy or an Oldsmobile in their driveways. Car shoppers, especially in snowless states were being left with no option but to look elsewhere if they were in the market for an inexpensive, rear-wheel drive car with decent power - the former calling card of Chevrolet. Unfortunately for GM’s financial situation, this also included police departments that were now forced to opt for the historically inferior Ford Crown Victoria, with its less powerful and less-reliable engine and infamous safety problems. The Crown Victoria’s design faults have been conclusively linked to at least 18 police office and state trooper deaths . But it was now the only game in town and the only alternative to the smallish, front-wheel drive Impala which GM was trying to foist on law enforcement after they killed the Caprice in 1996. Even after an aggressive marketing campaign by Chevy, the 2000 Impala, another warmed-over Lumina never got mainstream take-up by departments counting on V8 power on the interstates. Cab companies were also left with no choice - and GM knew better than to attempt an Impala Taxi package.


Thus, the Camaro Concept, even when its distant relative hits showrooms in 2009, is unlikely to turn the confusion around. Camaro people will definitely snatch up whatever is on offer. And it's also likely that Camaro's reputation for being America's deadliest car will be resurrected too. But - just as marching bands do crap-all for winning the game - this thing will do little for regaining decayed market share for a car-maker that forgot about the car buyer.


As dozens of truck-platform products loose momentum - post $3.00/gallon - GM, their pensions burden and all, will only continue to struggle. With the only other GM concept introduced at the 2006 NAIAS being the Buick Enclave crossover, it’s clear that lessons aren’t being learned as thousands of GM workers continue to loose their jobs.

Getting back to basics doesn’t have to mean ‘re-interpreting’60s’models but refocusing on making the relatively simple, never slow and always affordable cars we associate with General Motors. Certain GM dreams will never come true. A new Buick will never appeal to consumers under 50 until they offer something as single-minded and inspiring as any sixties' Riviera (without ‘re-interpreting’ it), still popular with under 30s today. Other GM aspirations are more realistic, like maybe making a Malibu into a car people would buy even if a Mazda 626 wasn’t more expensive. The success of the now-dwindling H2 proved that dropping truly different bodies onto an off-the-shelf platform can deliver success instead of consumers using their budget to decide which brand's Tahoe they'll drive.

But the bigger lesson has to be that GM will always be shoppers’ first stop for red-blooded, big 'o rear-wheel drive cars. Now’s the last chance to stop shoving these good people toward Ford and Chrysler showrooms.