April 1st, 2010 • by David Zatz
Company insiders claim that Dodge, frustrated with leaks that allowed the blogosphere to see the future names for its CUV – Dodge Durango, then Dodge Magnum – has dropped both names in favor of a heritage name.
“We considered using Power Wagon’ but Ram called dibs on that one,” said Ralph Gilles. “We also looked at Sportsman, which was used on full size vans, but the Ram guys yelled ‘dibs’ again, so we had to look further. I wanted to go back to Suburban, but General Motors took that one a while back.”
In the end, Gilles picked the name Reliant.
The Plymouth Reliant was available in a popular wagon form, as was the Volare before it, and the Valiant in its early years. Unlike the Dodge Aspen, whose name was adopted for the Chrysler version of the Dodge Durango, Reliant has not been associated with quality gaffes and premature rust.
“Nothing says gas mileage like Reliant,” said Gilles. “We did not feel Aries had the same positive associations,” he added. “Reliant is the car that saved the company.”
A special edition model with luxury features will be dubbed the Reliant K.
The Dodge Reliant will be powered not by the Pentastar V6 used in the Grand Cherokee, but by the four cylinder World Engine. They will have a six speed automatic transmission and an optional five speed manual transmission. A police version will use a turbocharged Pentastar V6 to compete against the front wheel drive Ford Police Interceptor.
Oh… and happy April Fools Day.
»crosslinked«
March 30th, 2010 • by Curtis Redgap
Motor Trend reported that Chevrolet engineers are hustling to fix the shift selector location in the upcoming Chevrolet PPV Caprice. In our preview of the PPV, we made specific reference to the console location of the transmission shift selector on two different occasions. We were skeptical about it at that location. Whether it is booty, bottles, bodies, or bombs, things tend to get tossed into center sections of Police Cars. Certain implements, like gear selectors, would be interfered with there!
Chevrolet bragged that they had expended two years on development of the Caprice PPV vehicle front seats. They should have spent about 6 less months and worked on fitting a steering column mounted gear selector a la Dodge Charger instead. Now they are scrambling to get it fitted. Things like machine tools, production lines, training installers, and costing take a bit of time to accomplish, given when engineering is done. Looks like the cops have scored another one. But, they know what works in their equipment.
Speaking of cops, the new Ford Taurus Police Interceptor has been unveiled. It was widely rumored that this was the vehicle that Ford intended to utilize to try to capture the loss of the Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor when production ends for it in August 2011. It should be pointed out, to date, not one: REPEAT: NOT ONE police agency has used a turbocharged engine as their standard patrol vehicle. They break, as all police vehicles tend to do occasionally. A turbo just costs that much more to fix, and police chiefs and vehicle management folks really don’t appreciate the costs associated with those fixes. Ford might better find ways to improve the power of the V-6 in normal aspiration forms, and hope it would be able to run up near the Dodge and new Caprice (and possibly Carbon) in 2011. Or, start working on a V-8 that will fit the Taurus. We don’t think it will work, unless perhaps Ford tosses in FREE turbocharger repairs if you buy one.
Curtis Redgap is a retired Sheriff’s lieutenant.
