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In the Rearview: Chicago!

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Welcome once again to a somewhat belated edition of In the Rearview, where we bring you some of the top automotive news of the past week (well, starting from the Friday before last, for this one).

First off, it seems Martha Stewart is a little bit country, and a little bit arts and crafts, as she rode out the winter storm from behind the wheel of her F-250, plowing the roads of her ranch estate.

Then, Nissan-Renault is setting its sights on the top three world automakers, since its buyout of the struggling Mitsubishi gave it a substantial boost in reach. Who knew Carlos Ghosn would turn out to be the earthly incarnation of Emperor Palpatine, gathering power around him?

In new car news, we are about to see a brand in the US that we haven’t seen in decades–and it even has a snake eating a guy on its crest. Fiat-Chrysler is bringing back Alfa Romeo and betting hard on it, even airing three separate Super Bowl commercials to advertise the return.

The rest of our stories for the week are all about Chicago, as the News Wheel team traveled to the Windy City to scope out the auto show.

First up, we have the Chevrolet Redline Special Editions, which sound exciting, but are actually kind of just a small appearance package.

After that, though, Nissan arrived in Chicago apparently with unfinished business from SEMA, since they showed up with a handful of decked-out Titan trucks to show off.

At the Subaru booth, the brand showed off its new Legacy sedan, with a new look on the front and the back (although the sides aren’t that exciting to my eyes).

Hyundai got in on the new car fun by bringing a pair of its new Elantra GT hatchbacks to show off–the brand seems to be hoping that hatchbacks will offer some of the utility that its buyers have been looking for, since Hyundai is short on SUVs in its lineup.

Finally, Toyota brought some new TRD Sport editions, as well as the RAV4 Adventure, all of which are aimed at boosting the brand’s lineup.