Car News in the Rearview: Happy Birthday to Chevy Trucks
Hello, and welcome to In the Rearview, where we bring you a down and dirty roundup of the week’s top car news.
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This week was the start of the new month, which means a downpour of sales reports. Feel free to peruse specific brands at your leisure (the search bar is right up there for you), but the bottom line is that aside from special cases, sales are up over last year, though most likely because so many people’s cars were wrecked by the hurricanes.
Speaking of which, we checked in with how Puerto Rico is dealing with the aftermath, and it’s not great. The island has such a strong car culture that almost everyone drives their own vehicle, with little public transit, so for a bit, getting gas was a several-hour ordeal, although luckily conditions are improving as stations reopen.
Switching to a more forward-looking topic, General Motors has announced it will be coming out with a full 20 new electric vehicles by 2023, with two to come by 2019. This is a bit of a shock, considering that by car development terms, this is like saying, “Yeah, sure, we’ll have that over to you next week.”
Of course, that’s probably a good plan on GM’s part, because China wants those electric cars, and it wants them now. This week it announced some highly aggressive quotas over top of automaker protests that will force carmakers to sell enough “New Energy” (aka electric or plug-in hybrid) cars to make up 10% of their total, or else face the fines.
Speaking of efficient cars, though, a new study is out that found that if a house with two cars has a hybrid or electric in one side of the garage, the other side probably has a big ol’ gas guzzler in it, which somewhat defeats the fuel-saving purpose of the efficient car. On the other hand, though, there are still gas savings from that, so at least it’s a step in the right direction–just not a big one.
Now, then, it’s time to sing Happy Birthday to your Silverado, because it’s the 100th birthday of Chevy’s trucks. The brand is throwing a big party with special-edition models, special programs, and even a swanky stand-alone classic Chevy bowtie emblem for your new truck.
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Finally, we indulge my childhood sense of joy at James-Bond-like gadgets, because an Ohio sheriff’s deputy recently used GPS darts that he fired from his patrol car onto a fleeing suspect’s vehicle to follow him and stop him without a dangerous car chase. It’s not giant news, but still made the kid in me clap his hands in glee.
The News Wheel is a digital auto magazine providing readers with a fresh perspective on the latest car news. We’re located in the heart of America (Dayton, Ohio) and our goal is to deliver an entertaining and informative perspective on what’s trending in the automotive world. See more articles from The News Wheel.