I'm no longer going to express any shock that my island city continues to provide a seemingly inexhaustible supply of street-parked vintage cars and trucks; we got to 150 Down On The Street posts late last year, we're up to 200 as of today, and I've got enough photos in the can to get us to 250, no sweat.  read more »

First we find out that Chrysler is going to build pickup trucks for Nissan in Mexico and that Nissan is going to build a small car for Chrysler. Then, we learn that Chrysler is in advanced talks with Italian carmaker Fiat , a deal that could result in Chrysler building cars for Alfa-Romeo in North America. The next call Chrysler LLC CEO Bob Nardelli is going to have to make to owner Cerberus Capital is to allocate more money for foreign language training for its engineers and product planners. They never did do a good job of learning German. Maybe theyll do better with Japanese and Italian. Germans. Italians. Japanese. Hmmmm. What does this make me think of? Seriously, these deals that are shaping up for Chrysler look smart, at least on paper. Chrysler has way too much manufacturing capacity for its own sagging market share. It makes a lot of sense for the companies. And as Center for Automotive Research executive director David Cole put it, its good for Chrysler to do a lot of dating with other manufacturers, one of whom may just want to buy Chrysler from Cerberus after it does some more of the heavy lifting on cleaning up what the Germans left behind. One cant help but grin at the prospect of a Chrysler-Fiat tie up. Chrysler making Alfas? My mind goes back to the 1980s when Lee Iacocca (maybe hell come out of retirement to run Fiat-Chrysler? Or at least let him throw out the first pitch, or pizza, in that game) struck an alliance with Maserati. That deal produced a Maserati designed Chrysler TC , which was more full of quality and production problems than the Clinton campaign. I can also remember how Bob Lutz, then of Chrysler and now of GM, used to scoff at the idea of Chrysler linking up with Fiat as a potential black hole of cash and foolishness. That was then. This is now. Today, Fiat is a comeback story if you believe Italian accounting standards. The Italian company is mounting a comeback to the U.S. for its Alfa-Romeo brand . And the Italian carmaker is considerably healthier than Chrysler. But one has to wonder where Chrysler would build Alfa Romeos. Its not as if they are going to be grafted on top of Dodge Avenger platforms. And I wasnt aware that Chrysler had that much flexible capacity. How will potential Alfa buyers react to the Italian cars coming out of a North American Chrysler plant? It sounds a bit like buying Nebbiolo wine made in Pennsylvania. It doesn't sound good on the ear. Part of the allure of the Alfa brand in a crowded premium car maarket is the whole Italian thing. Right? Alfa was thought to be also talking to BMW about getting some of its production space in South Carolina, but BMW is moving as much of its own production there as possible given the weak dollar. That would have been, I am guessing, an easier pignoli to swallow for would-be Alfa buyers. How about Volkswagens Mexican plant? No dice. Fiat and VW are too much the rivals in Europe. Should be interesting to watch. Audi is looking to build capacity in North America?  read more »

Though there was much gnashing of teeth over the Land Rover Defender last week, the British stalwart marched triumphant into the Jalopnik Fantasy Garage, with a convincing 82.8%. We now have 43 slots down and a mere seven left to fill. Things are beginning to get tight, so let's move on to something better able to fit in the tiny and uncomfortable spaces we've got left. With a wind-sculpted shape and dominating track record, purity of concept and unwavering devotion to engineering, this week's long-awaited entry proves that might does not always make right. Indeed, sometimes the victor is he who carries the lightest burden.  read more »

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A full reveal of the production-ready 2011 Chevrolet Volt took place in September after we were teased with glimpses of the electrically driven car for months. Detailed information about the Volt was finally revealed, including a production start date of...Joe Bruzek

Remember Gran Turismo 5 Prologue? You know that glorified full-priced demo of GT5? The car and feature list is now available, and I am mighty impressed for the semi-real-game nature of GT5 Prologue. Some of the interesting features include a drift mode where drifting is judged based on multiple variables, in-depth car tuning, two-player split screen racing and a few new race events for online and offline play. Click through to see the full list of cars and check out the new trailer that is so beautiful the dragons from the fantasy games perk up their ears in anticipation.  read more »

A week in the Volvo C30 T5 (pictured here) and the official debut of the Mercedes-Benz CLC Sportcoupé (pictured after the break) has me thinking about hatchbacks. The hatchback body style has never really flown with American car-shoppers. Oh, sure, there have always been low-buck liftbacks for "entry level" buyers — the Ford Escorts and Dodge Omnis and Hyundai Accents of the world.  read more »

Audi Q7 is our clear favorite, compared to the utes that share its running gear, the Porsche Cayenne and the Volkswagen Touareg . The Q7s the only one with a third-row option, for one, and its suave styling trumps the plain look of the Touareg and the dowdy, ungainly Cayenne. And when we road tested it last year, we favored the Q7 over the BMW X5 , saying Despite its beefy stats and tons of equipment, Audi s first true SUV is a lighter, nimbler piece than its data sheet spells out. Among its colleagues,ews only the Range Rover Sport approaches its sense of style and deft blend of on- and off-road personalities.  read more »