A Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) is a type of passenger vehicle which combines the load-hauling and passenger-carrying capacity of a large station wagon or minivan with features designed for off-road driving. They have been the hot car to own for the past 10 years, but lately they are regarded as gas guzzler and substantially dangerous because of high potential to roll over.
Jeep is celebrating the launch of the Grand Cherokee SRT8 on the European market with two custom-built versions of the SRT8 called the Ferrari Editions. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out that the SRT8’s transformation will be all about getting it to look like a Ferrari, at least in terms of colors and styling. Highlighting the transformation are exclusive Rosso Corsa colored exteriors, red leather interiors, and other odes to Ferrari, including being delivered to the Fiorano circuit in Maranello, Italy by Scuderia Ferrari Formula One drivers, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa.
The two special Gran Cherokee SRT8 units are painted in a special Rosso Corsa paint finish and then combined with a matte-black front grille and matte black dual-pane sunroof. The standout feature of the paint job is the race-inspired, glossy black driver’s stripe with a white accent going from the front bumper up through the hood, roof, rear spoiler, and ending at the rear bumper. The aggressive look of the car provided by the SRT-exclusive design and the Italian flag painted on the underside of the rear spoiler add to the appeal and are topped off with a new set of unique forged aluminum, 20-inch wheels painted black and a lowered (1.5 inches) suspension.
The interior of the Grand Cherokee Ferrari Edition comes with exclusive Ferrari Red leather inserts on the seats with sculpted bolsters. The leather-wrapped SRT8 steering wheel with mounted paddle shifters features red contrasting stitching, while the unique instrument cluster features yellow dials which give the cabin the look of the GT cars produced in Maranello.
If there was ever an SUV that could be categorized as automotive porn, the Jeep Grand Cherokee Ferrari Edition would be it. Unfortunately, the two shown in the picture will be the only two ever made unless a tuning firm picks it up somewhere. Hint, hint, all you tuners!
Of all the models in Jeep’s line-up, the one that doesn’t get a whole lot of love is the Compass. We know all about the Grand Cherokee, the Wrangler, and the Liberty, but the Compass isn’t given the same amount of attention.
Whatever reasons that may have, the new Mopar-tuned Compass "True North" model is giving the Compass some well deserved love and affection.
The enhancements done on the Compass are prevalently cosmetic, albeit a comprehensive one. On the outside, Mopar added plenty of modifications, including a new matte black-finished roof, wider wheel flares, black-headlamp and fog-lamp surrounds, rear fog lights, a new lower fascia, a new black grille with body color inserts, custom front and rear brush bars and custom rock rails, and a new set of 16" matte black alloy wheels wrapped in BF Goodrich All Terrain tires to go with a 2" lift kit from Rocky Road Suspensions.
Inside, the Mopar went to great lengths to give the Compass’ interior space with plenty of fine-tweaking. The most notable is a tie-up with renowned audio component manufacturer Kicker. For the ’True North’ model, the latter added a completely new audio system that includes front and rear speakers, an amplifier, a sub-woofer, and lift gate speakers. Outside of the audio system set-up, Mopar also added a custom center stack gauge pod that carries the pitch and roll inclinometer gauges. There’s also a new Mopar bright pedal kit, door-sill guards, a rear-cargo tray, a new shift knob and neoprene seats, all of which adds some serious flair and attitude to the Compass’ interior.
Availability for the Compass "True North" model has not yet been announced, although we expect to hear more about the details at the Chicago Auto Show this coming February.
When this Matthew Broderick teaser first surfaced last week, speculation ran rampant that there was a Ferris Bueller movie in the works. If you were one of those people that thought the same thing, you’re both right and wrong on that one.
First of all, there’s no Ferris Bueller movie currently in development, but there’s this Super Bowl commercial from Honda that brings "Ferris Bueller’s Day Off" back to life.
Some of you might be too young to remember the movie and the success it generated in the box office, but for those that remember Bueller’s clever attempts at skipping school and spending the entire day in Chicago just having some fun, then you’ll certainly notice all the movie references made in the two-and-a-half minute commercial where Broderick plays himself and decides to skip a movie shoot just so he could enjoy his all-new Honda CR-V.
Charming as the ad is on a lot of fronts, it does cast a generational tone to it, especially for those that never got the chance to see the movie and won’t understand what the big deal is all about.
It wasn’t that long ago when Tesla was on shaky ground in the industry, but now that they’ve regained their footing, the American automaker has suddenly become a little more aggressive in reworking and expanding their line-up. We already know about the Tesla Model S succeeding the Roadster as the company’s flagship model, but now we’re getting a first look at Tesla’s other new vehicle, the Model X.
The crossover is scheduled to make its debut next month so Tesla decided that now would be a good time to release the very first teaser image of the Model X.
We love a good teaser any time we see one, and this teaser of the Model X is no different. Taking a close look at the image, the Model X appears to bear some design similarities to the Model S, particularly the distinguishable hood lines, the aggressive fascia, and the headlamp configuration.
According to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the Model X will make its official world debut on February 9, 2012, which is less than two weeks away. We’ve waited a long time for the Model X to finally come to fruition so you can say that our excitement for it has been building up for a long time.
A few days ago, we reported that Lamborghini was bringing two vehicles to the Geneva Motor Show: the Aventador Spyder and another mystery model. At first, we believed that the company would be arriving in Geneva with the final say on what the third model in their lineup would be, but it now seems we have to rule that out. The good news is that Lamborghini has chosen their third model, but the bad news is that they have chosen to produce the SUV and won’t be debuting it until the Beijing Auto Show in China from April 23-24, 2012.
This news comes straight from Italian magazine, Quattroruote.it, which offered the first scanned images of the Lamborghini SUV Concept. From these images we can see that the SUV will adopt some design features from the Aventador supercar. It will most likely feature the same V10 engine from the Gallardo, but most likely, the production version will combine a combustion engine with an electric engine for a total of 700 HP.
The production version of the Lamborghini SUV will arrive in 2015 as a competitor for the upcoming Bentley SUV.
