Monthly Archives: February 2020
Check Out the New Harley-Davidson Pickup Truck
There’s a new Harley-Davidson pickup truck this year. However, it no longer carries the Ford badge. The vehicle is now reborn as the new 2020 Harley-Davidson GMC Sierra.
Like its predecessors from Ford, which uses the F-150 model as a base, the Harley-Davidson pickup is assembled by Tuscany Motor Co. It is made in partnership with GMC and Harley-Davidson.
Exterior
The truck uses the Sierra 150 SLT trim as a platform then it imbues some of the signature biker features of a Harley-Davidson big bike inside and out. The exterior of the auto takes an orange-bordered front grille, orange tow hooks and LED lights below the bumper, large scoop on the hood, and custom exhaust. Harley-Davidson badges can be found on the front, rear and sides of the vehicle. These are topped off with Harley Fat Boy-inspired wheels measuring 22 inches wrapped in 35-inch off-road tires.
Interior
Going inside the special edition pickup reveals motorcycle-grade leather seats with orange cross-stitching. Meanwhile, the dashboard gets a high-gloss look, and the pedals come from Harley-Davidson bikes. There are also the logos of the motorcycle company in the cabin.
Engine
The Harley-Davidson pickup keeps Sierra’s 6.2-liter V8 engine. The modified exhaust does not offer additional power to the auto’s 420 hp and 460 lb-ft torque engine, but it does amplify its sound a bit.
Price
The new GMC Harley-Davison Sierra pickup starts at $94,995. The truck is not as common as its Ford F-150 version because it is only limited to 250 units. It is available in Summit White, Satin Steel Metallic, or Onyx Black finishes.
Launch of Next-Gen Ford Mustang Pushed to 2022
A new job posting by Ford reveals the fate of its next-generation Mustang. It says that the S650 will be launched in 2022 as a 2023 model year car.
The American automaker’s ad can still be found on LinkedIn . It says that they are looking to hire a “Wind/Road Noise and Air Leakage Plant Vehicle Team (PVT) Engineer”. The engineer will be stationed at the Flat Rock plant of the company in Michigan.
The current-gen Ford Mustang (S550)
The new hire will be tasked with overseeing the quality of the current-generation Ford Mustang (S550). The most exciting part though is where it was mentioned in the post that the person will also be responsible for delivering the “final sign off on the Ford 2023 Mustang S650 vehicle program before it goes to the customers.”
Furthermore, the ad said that among the other tasks of the engineer include the “On-site launch lead for Wind/Road Noise and Air Leakage attributes when S650 launches in 2022 as a 2023MY”.
It only means that the supposed launch of the seventh-gen Ford Mustang will not proceed this year. Therefore, we will have to wait two more years until we see the much-anticipated Pony car.
The Ford Mustang remained as America’s best-selling sports car in 2019. A total of 72,489 units of the vehicle were delivered to customers in that period. The auto has held such distinction for the fifth consecutive year. Despite its position in the market, it should be noted that the figures were 4.4 percent less compared to the sales of the unit in 2018.
Hyundai Entices Customers with Free Maintenance for New Vehicles
Hyundai Motor America oils up their deals with free maintenance for their new vehicles. The freebie runs for three years and limited for a 36,000-mile run.
According to Automotive News , the company will launch its campaign for the new Hyundai Complimentary program on the Super Bowl pregame show this Sunday. The sweet service deal is available for brand new 2020 model-year Hyundai vehicles purchased or leased on February 1 onwards. It offers scheduled oil, filter and tire rotations maintenance for three years but limited on a 36,000 mileage.
Barry Ratzlaff, the chief customer officer of Hyundai America, said that the Complimentary Maintenance will help dealers ensure that their customers will have peace of mind on their new purchases. The free service comes with the company’s existing five years roadside assistance and three years of Blue Link connectivity. It is also packed with Hyundai’s 10-year or 100,000-mile powertrain warranty.
Hyundai will showcase its free service maintenance scheme together with the new 2020 Sonata sedan and Remote Smart Parking Assist on Super Bowl Sunday. The “Smaht Pahk” ad for the Sonata’s new Smart Parking Assist features popular personalities in Boston such as Marvel’s Chris Evans, Saturday Night Live’s Rachel Dratch, and The Office’s John Krasinski. It demonstrates how the auto can be parked automatically even in tight spaces with just a click of a button on its remote key.
Hyundai enjoyed a 4.7 percent increase in sales last year amid a 1.2 percent industry decline. However, Hyundai Motor America CEO Jose Muñoz believes there’s still room for improvement in terms of brand familiarity and customer satisfaction.
Mercedes-Benz X-Class Pickup Truck Gets Axed From Production Line
For a vehicle that just made its debut in 2017, the Mercedes-Benz X-Class luxury pickup truck is relatively new in the automotive scene. Before it could even get a mid-cycle facelift though, its maker officially announced that it will be axed from the production line this year.
In 2019, Mercedes managed to deliver 15,300 units of the X-Class worldwide. However, the numbers fell by 1,400 units compared to its sales between 2017 and 2018. The figures may be impressive for a niche product, but these failed to impress the Daimler board. As a result, they have decided to strike down their future plans for the pickup. As of the moment, those who will visit the website of Mercedes will already notice that the X250 and X220d models of the vehicle have been removed from its online configurator. Only the X35d, a V6 diesel version of the auto, is available on the site.
Mercedes also revealed that the X-Class is only important in some markets like Australia and South Africa. There used to be a plan that the vehicle will be assembled in Argentina for South American buyers too but it was scrapped citing that it was no longer “economically viable”.
The company explained that the pickup was just too expensive compared to its rivals and the vehicles whom it shares underpinnings, namely the Nissan Navara and the Renault Alaskan. Crunching the numbers, the X-Class starts at €48,790 in Germany, which is €16,000 more than the price of the Navara and €4,000 up against the cost of an Alaskan.
The days of the Mercedes-Benz X-Class are numbered. Mercedes will discontinue the unit in late May of 2020.
Demand for Cybertruck is More Than What Tesla Can Produce in 4 Years
The reception of the Tesla Cybertruck was mixed when it was unveiled. However, Tesla CEO Elon Musk appears to be very confident with the demand for the electric vehicle inspired by steampunk movies.
As of November last year, Musk revealed through a tweet that the orders for the Cybertruck have already reached around 250,000 units. Although there are no official updates since then, the company CEO strongly believes that they will not be able to meet the demand for the product in four years.
If the numbers remained the same, Tesla would have to produce at least 62,500 units of the pickup yearly. Judging the character of Musk, if there have been significant changes in the figures, he certainly wouldn’t have missed the chance to boast about it.
Gene Munster of Loup Ventures asked Musk about the number of Cybertrucks that they could deliver and its production costs. The Tesla boss simply answered , “We don’t comment on those detailed numbers, except the demand is just far more than we could reasonably make in the space of, I don’t know, three or four years, something like that.”
Musk cited several factors affecting their electric pickup truck production. First is the limited capacity of the Fremont plant. Although he does not have a direct solution to address this predicament, he said that they will just try to make as many Cybertrucks as they can so they could meet up with the strong demand. The second problem lies in the number of batteries that they have.
“The thing we’re going to be really focused on is increasing battery production capacity because that’s very fundamental. If you don’t improve battery production capacity, then you end up just shifting unit volume from one product to another and you haven’t actually produced more electric vehicles,” Musk pointed out.
