Car Throttle

Right off the bat with that title, I'm lying.  The Chrysler 300 is the product of a company that's more than half-owned by an Italian company.  The point of final assembly is Brampton Ontario, Canada.  The engine's from Mexico, and the transmission is from ZF in Germany.  The rear suspension is based on an old E-Class Mercedes design, and actually only 59% of the Chrysler 300 is made of "domestic" parts: and for some reason Chrysler counts Canada as being domestic.  Want an American car?  Buy a Honda Accord. Still, this is an old and tired argument.  It's easy to poke fun at diehard domestic fans who trash talk the (built in Texas) Toyota Tundra for being Japanese (despite being designed and engineered largely in America,

It's either bizarre or sad, depending on how you look at it.  I'm talking about Lancia, of course.  Amidst the hubbub of the Fiat/Chrysler merger (or takeover, depending on your views), we've been hearing a lot about Chrysler, Dodge, Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Ferrari, and the tech sharing that will occur between them. The 2013 Dodge Dart is an Alfa Romeo Guilietta underneath.  The Dodge Journey is making it's way over to Europe with Fiat engines (including diesels), new nose, and a slightly refined interior as the Fiat Freemont.  The Fiat brand has returned to the US after an almost 30-year absence, selling the 500. Supposedly the next-generation Viper will include some Ferrari technology mixed in with it's traditional big-block badassery.  The Ram brand will be

The Detroit Auto Show actually starts Monday.  But in this business, all the news arrives before its due date.  That's the case with the Dodge Dart, which they've been teasing for a little while now.  We've had some preview posts on the Dart before, which you can find here and a snarky editorial on the Dart's EPA-pleasing 9-speed gearbox here. The full press release on the Dart will likely drop Monday (or before), but they've released a batch of images showing the R/T (Red) and Limited (White.)  Finally seeing the whole car for the first time, I'm pleasantly surprised.  Mainly because they've ditched the goofy pseudo-SUV look of the Caliber, which never really worked, but it's a decent looking little car on it's

In order to keep you, our reader, more abreast with current news without taking up an inordinate amount of your time, I'm introducing this column - "News Bites."  One paragraph and picture per topic of today's automotive news.  One article.  If we were a paper publication, we'd say we were going green.  Let us know what you think! Fiat has dropped a load of new photos of the 3rd-generation Panda supermini today.  This pint-sized product (which I still believe Fiat should be selling in the US pitched against the Fit, etc) debuted at the Frankfurt show in September, and is going on sale next year.  Engines are all tiny, ranging from an 800cc TwinAir 2cyl up to a 1.3L diesel.  Full high-res gallery here.

Pictured: ZF's 8-speed Automatic for BMW's, about to be "old hat."

Luddite.  The term originated from England during the industrial revolution in the early 1800's.  Luddites went out at night, destroying wide-frame fabric looms that were taking away the jobs of skilled textile workers.  It was a man-against-machine revolution that got to the point of military intervention.  Technology was minimizing their usefulness in society, so the solution was to destroy the technology.  A noble fight, but today the term Luddite has been boiled down to mean someone not fond of technological advances. I am not a Luddite.  There's plenty of technology I'm fond of.  I like fuel injection.  I even like direct injection in some forms, particularly Toyota's D4S direct and port system.  Twin-clutch automated

We've known it was coming, but now we have all the details on the US-Spec Fiat 500 Abarth.  Following the regular 500 and the 500C quasi-convertible, the 500 Abarth packs more of everything:  power, grip, brakes, and attitude.  Here's what to expect. We've known the US Abarth would be getting the turbocharged 1.4L MultiAir I4, but we didn't know whether it would arrive in regular (135bhp) or EsseEsse trim (160bhp.)  Thankfully Fiat realized that we love power, so the turbocharged Italian will arrive in full-strength form, packing 160bhp and 170lb-ft of torque under the hood.  The Abarth version gets goodies like forged connecting rods, piston cooling jets, and lower-compression 9.8:1 pistons, down from 10.8:1 in the normal 500.  The small turbocharger breathes

I'm back in North Carolina now, where you can swing a dead cat without hitting a Bentley.  On one hand, it sucks.  I like seeing exotics constantly.  On the other, it's nice that exotics remain exotic. I walked around LA the whole time with my camera around my neck for you guys - so I'll continue now with day two and three of car spotting in LA.  Hope you enjoy it! Classic cars, especially older Japanese cars, seem to have a much longer shelf life in California's relatively mild, dry climate.  This 240Z would have a lot more rust bubbles over here in North Carolina.  I could do without the period window louvers, but YMMV. You could do worse for your commute than driving an

Abarth was relaunched in 2007 and since then the performance arm have covered some of the latest range of Fiats with their magic. They first got their hands on the Grande Punto and upped the power from the 1.4L T-Jet engine from 118hp to 148hp and then extracted even more power from it a year later with the Essesse kit. Later in 2008 they had the very popular Fiat 500 to play with and gave it a turbo changed 1.4L petrol with 133hp and a maximum torque output of 152lb-ft. Now Abarth have revealed they're currently tuning up the latest Panda. Sounds like a mad recipe doesn't it? The very humble and practical Italian city car with crazy Abarth technology. Unlike the rest of

One of the stars of this year's Frankfurt Motor Show was the smallest car there, the Volkswagen Up. This is VW's latest city car replacing the old Fox and challenging rivals such as the Ford Ka, Fiat 500 and Citroen C1. The big news now though is that Volkswagen have made a GT version of the Up that promises to bring back the spirit of the Mk 1 Golf GTI, a small, fast and cheap hot hatch. This little VW comes with wider front grille to help more air get to the engine which promises to produce around 100bhp. Attached to each side of the wider front grille are cooling ducts which have the job of keeping the brakes chilled and also house the LED daytime

Do you want a retro-styled hatchback with some turbo thrust, but the idea of a Cooper S makes you uncomfortable?  Well, if you're in the US, you'll finally have a choice early next year.  Fiat released two images of the US-specification Fiat 500 Abarth today ahead of the car's official debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November.  If you're familiar with Fiat's European lineup, this won't be a surprise.  If you're a fan of the 500 in the US (such as myself) but were waiting for one with more power, the wait is nearly over. The Abarth show car Fiat is sending over is black.  Very black.  Black paint, black wheels, black tint - oh, and red racing stripes and mirror caps.  It turns