New Car Scoop

Then you haven’t seen anything yet! As reported on Jalopnik recently, the following story transpired which resulted in a car dealer attempting to shovel a $413,000 price tag on a brand new, yet to be build Corvette ZR-1. Despite putting down a deposit on the car over two years ago, one reader was told that to actually get the car, he’d more likely have to pay 2-4 times the MSRP of the ZR-1. The story goes a little something like this:

“I put a deposit down for the 2009 ZR1 about 2 1/2 years ago at “my” chevy dealer from whom I have bought many GM cars, including trucks, vettes. I have probably bought 15+ GM vehicles over the years. I was told 2 1/2 years ago that the price for this “iffy” car would be around the same ratio as the 5K overcharge I paid for my 2006 Z06.

I was called to order my ZR1 yesterday since I was #1 on the allocation list of this dealer’s 4 allocations. I was told that by the way the price would be between 2-4 times the MSRP. Tadge Juechter, the Chief of Corvette Engineering, has urged GM ZR1 dealers to respect the MSRP. I am very upset with the greed and disregard for customer loyalty in a down economy. Is there any recourse?”

I can’t say that I’m surprised by a  car dealer doing this, as we’ve seen it before from other more pretigious marques like Ferrari and Porsche with their super cars. However, never before have we seen this from a domestic car maker. I hope that after contacting GM directly, the user will get some satisfaction, or else demand some satisfaction. I am all in favor of full on capitalism, but when a loyal customer puts down a deposit on a car that might not even exist two years ago, I tend to think they need to honor his trust with a reasonble markup.

Source: Jalopnik

How cool would it be to take your 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T to pickup your 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT-8? Keep reading and after the story you’ll see how cool. Jay Leno, proprietor of the coolest garage in the history of car ownership, has finally got the call from Dodge to pickup his new car, the #4 Dodge Challenger SRT-8. While we’re not sure who got the first 3, we can assume one of them is going to be in a Mopar museum and the other two probably went to some NASCAR team, Chrysler corporate officers or some charity for auction.

I’ve got to say, I agree with Jay in terms of how far the American cars have come. It’s an almost 4100 lbs car that handles well, stops well and goes well too. It’s no M6 or Mercedes CL600, but I could see someone who would otherwise be looking at a 645i or Audi A5 and say, “Man, I remember what it was like to have one of the originals when I was a kid” and take the detour to the Dodge dealer and save himself $20,000. The car’s chassis, as with most of the GT type sedans Dodge makes, is still based off the old Mercedes E-Class so you know you’re getting a solid machine. It looks mean as heck in black (and one of the best looking machines compared to the new-retro Mustang, Camaro and Charger). All in all, props go to Chrysler for making this car. It’s way more exciting than the Charger and I hope sales will show this to be the case. Now for the video:

Or click on the link: Jay Leno Gets A Challenger

Car doors for the most part have remained the same with the exception of Lamborghini doors and the DeLorean doors. However, if I had unlimited money to blow on an exotic car, this would be the next upgrade I would get for it.

I think I’ve fallen in love again… my only question is, how do these hold up in crash tests?

It seems as though the crew working on the Transformers 2 movie is doing less and less to worry about concealing the cool cars for the up-coming sequel. As you can see in the following link, Hollywood’s fleshy stars aren’t the only ones who get makeovers. There has been widespread talk around the net that the Bumblebee Camaro has gotten a new face for Transformers 2 and you can see some of that in these on set shots from a local whose apartment is adjacent to one of the shooting locations.

Isabel and Shia have apparently been in a fight of some sort. Isabel seems to storm off, come back, storm off again with some sort of glowing green goo on her (speculation says radiator fluid). Due to the angle of the car and the apartment where the pictures are from, we can’t get a great front vantage point, but you can tell that is one good looking car. Thanks to Zacklur for some awesome pictures!