The Chevrolet Colorado hasn’t been much of a sales success recently. Despite competing in what many feel is an untapped market, the Colorado’s sales numbers in 2007 slipped by almost 20% compared to 2006. The solution? Possibly offering a truck below the Colorado in size that combines a small footprint with a fuel-efficient engine.

Mike Levine over at Pickuptruck.com sat down with Chevy’s General Manager, Ed Peper, and asked if there’s a market for a vehicle similar to the Toyota A-BAT concept bound for Detroit. Peper thinks its might be feasible in the future. What form it could take is open to debate, but Levine maintains that if it slots in below the Colorado, it might as well carry a New Mexico badge.

[Source: AutoBlog]

People love older classic cars because of their excellent craftsmanship and timeless styling. Others prefer modern cars for their greatly enhanced safety, engineering and reliability. What about having their cake and eating it too with the benefits of both the old and new? Sounds great, but there are a few people out there who can afford to manage it. For those who can, Classic Reflection Coachworks (CRC) is there to build what its customers desire. In this particular case, we’re looking at Corvettes, America’s only classic sportscar. By classic, we mean that it’s been built since the early ’50s and has gone through six easily identifiable generations. One of those classic generations can be replicated on a much newer C5 chassis by CRC, and we’ve got lots of photos of the resulting transformation. Along the way, the original fiberglass body is replaced with a new carbon fiber shell, which was designed to look similar to a 1962 Vette. The cars you see in these photos belong to Keith Loyd from Scottsdale, Arizona. The black car will be auctioned off in a primetime spot at the upcoming Barret-Jackson auction, so if you belong to that rarefied group who will be bidding there, keep your eyes peeled for that.

[Source: AutoBlog]

Once upon a time, General Motors’ mid-sized models were the perennial top-selling passenger cars in America. Within my own lifetime, the Oldsmobile Cutlass topped the sales charts for years on end. But somewhere along the way, it all went pear-shaped for GM. Its cars went from being perpetual sales leaders into a perpetual sales decline. As GM’s car sales tanked, the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord picked up the slack and are now considered the standard by which others in the class are measured.

The first signs of a real revival in the GM sedan lineup appeared in 2006 when the Saturn Aura debuted to decent reviews though somewhat lukewarm sales. Then, last January at the Detroit Auto Show, GM debuted two new production sedans, the Cadillac CTS and the car that just spent a week in the Autoblog Garage, the 2008 Chevrolet Malibu. The Malibu is here now, so let’s find out what it’s like to live with for a week.

Source[AutoBlog]

Back in the 70s, GM was looking to take its much beloved Corvette to the next level. The General charged John DeLorean with investigating the possibility of putting a mid-engine rotary under hood, and the 1973 GM XP897 was the culmination of his efforts. The steel-bodied Vette was built atop a Porsche 914 chassis, and GM poured millions into R&D. The problem was that the Rotary engine was just as thirsty as America’s much loved V8, and it was an emissions failure. GM deemed the XP897 a lost cause, and the Pantera look-alike was relegated to an eternal parking spot on the 10th story roof-top of the Vauxhall design building.

Luckily for Corvette lovers everywhere, Englishman and Corvette historian Tom Falconer went out of his way to save the car he loved. Falconer received a phone call from former one-time Jaguar design chief Geoff Lawson about a steel-bodied Vette that was about to meet its maker. To save the XP897, Falconer flew to Detroit to beg GM execs to let him keep the Vette for his own. Luckily for history, Falconer succeeded, and to this day the mid-engine Rotary Vette sits in his Snodland, Kent museum. Since Falconer received the vehicle without its engine, it currently draws power from a Mazda 13B two rotor engine mated to a front-drive auto from Cadillac. With the recent unveiling of the 2009 Corvette ZR1, we see just how far the Vette has come since 1973. but the mid-engine debate still rages on. Can and will GM one day succeed where it failed 35 years ago? As long as the General keeps pouring money into the Corvette, we’re all for taking chances.

[Source: AutoBlog]

You’ll soon be able to get General Motors’ 6.2-liter V8 in all three flavors of GMT900 truckness. GM announced today that the 380-horsepower/417 lb-ft eight cylinder will be available in the Tahoe LTZ beginning in 2008. If you’re like us (and by “us” I mean “me”) and you think that the Tahoe is the best-looking of the 900s, this is good news, as you’ll be able to get Denali power (this is the exact same engine found in the top-of-the-line GMC) at a presumably lower price. This engine also powers the Escalade, where it’s tuned to produce upwards of 400 horses. Like its GMC and Cadillac brethren, the Tahoe LTZ’s 6.2 is hooked up to a six-speed automatic with manumatic tapshift buttons mounted on the column shifter. And yes, using said feature is about as awkward as it sounds. Maximum towing capacity with this powertrain is 7,900 pounds.

[Source: AutoBlog]

Reader Ken Gesel did a double-take as he was waiting to pick up a friend at Miami International Airport. Amidst the merry-go-round of Crown Vics snagging fares coming out of Arrivals, there was something different. You can almost hear your favorite Sesame Street personality breaking into “One of these things is not like the others” as your eyes take in the 18-inch alloys, SS badges, and twin exhaust outlets. Yep, it really is an Impala SS taxicab, and Ken snapped off a few phonecam shots for us. Had we been walking out of the terminal, bags in hand, we’d have picked it over one of the garden-variety converted police Vics with black steelies. Next, we would have told the driver that that it was imperative he put that 5.3L V8 to work and get across the MacArthur Causeway as quickly as possible. After all, the sooner you get checked in to your hotel, the sooner you can get yourself to an outdoor table at Larios for some Churrasco and people-watching.

[Photos: AutoBlog]

As the 2009 Corvette ZR1 was unveiled on the very same day that President Bush signed into law a new energy bill, the obvious question is where do we go from here? The most prominent part of the bill was the first increase in corporate average fuel economy requirements in over two decades. By 2020, most manufacturers will have to achieve a sales weighted average fuel economy of 35 mpg for their fleets. Note that was “most” and not “all” manufacturers, a subject we’ll return to in a moment.

At the press preview of the new LS9 engine, GM Powertrain VP Tom Stephens was asked about gas guzzler taxes and how the energy bill would affect the future of cars like the ZR1. Stephens acknowledged that the ZR1 would have a gas guzzler tax, although the final mileage numbers weren’t done yet. As for the future, it’s too early to tell. In the past, the death of performance cars has been predicted repeatedly and here we are at a new high water mark. Corvette VLE Tom Wallace said at the car’s debut that the ZR1 would last at least through the C6 model cycle. No decisions have been made about the C7 and beyond. Keep reading after the jump.

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