Poll: Foose/Deere 4020 vs John Deere 620 Orchard

Filed under: Etc., Work, Specialty

Chip Foose’s John Deere 4020 is pretty kickass, but the reality is this: You needn’t enlist the services of a famous pro rodder to get a slick-lookin’ John Deere tractor. Take, for instance, the John Deere 620 orchard model shown above. Standard-issue 620s have a traditional tractor look to them, but the ones fitted with the additional orchard equipment have a streamlined appearance that looks like it’s a set of giant-sized moon caps away from making a land speed record run at Bonneville.

In fact, all that extra bodywork has nothing to do with aerodynamics or improved performance; its shielding designed to let the tractor operate in an orchard without the tires causing damage to the the tree branches. So, not only does this 620 look great, it does so for totally functional reasons.

And so, we come to tonight’s poll: Which one of these tractors would you rather have? Follow the jump and declare your Deere.

[John Deere 620 image via TractorClocks.com]

Continue reading Poll: Foose/Deere 4020 vs John Deere 620 Orchard

Poll: Foose/Deere 4020 vs John Deere 620 Orchard originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Car Buying, Wagon, Saab

Saab has released pricing details on its 2010 9-3 lineup, a newsworthy action in that it wasn’t long ago that “Saab” and “2010 models” appeared to be mutually exclusive terms. Now that Victor Muller and Spyker have graciously relieved GM of the Saab albatross, it’s onward and (ideally) upward for 2010 as the new company, Saab Spyker Automobiles, chases after the profits that have perennially eluded Trollhättan. The most noteworthy ride on the just-released the price list? That would be the 2010 Saab 9-3X, the Allroad/Outback style jacked-up, all-wheel-drive SportCombi. Parking one in the garage at your ski home in Aspen will set you back, at minimum, $37,800, including destination. You can check out more high-res pics in the galleries below.

[Source: Saab]

Continue reading 2010 Saab 9-3X U.S. pricing announced

2010 Saab 9-3X U.S. pricing announced originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While Chip Foose’s bread and butter is rodding, building and customizing cars - often models that have distinct and fervent followings, like Camaros and Mustangs - it would appear that he’s more than happy to tackle projects outside that comfort zone as well. Foose has just completed a special project for John Deere (a brand whose followers are as dedicated as any Ford or Chevy might have), and the result is going to be given away.

The tractor you see above spent decades as a workhorse like any other John Deere 4020 (a trendsetting model manufactured from 1963 to ‘72), before it underwent transformation in Foose’s shop. Frankly, we think it’s beautiful. Now, Lord knows we wouldn’t know what to do with it if we were to win it, but we’re enamored enough that we actually Googled to see where our local Deere dealer is, so that we might actually enter the sweepstakes. (You can do so through June 30, 2010. The drawing takes place a month later.) Follow the jump for a series of making-of videos.

[Source: MachineFinder.com, John Deere]

Continue reading Video: Chip Foose gets agricultural, hot rods a John Deere 4020

Video: Chip Foose gets agricultural, hot rods a John Deere 4020 originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 07 Mar 2010 11:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Etc., Videos, Humor, South America

What happens when you combine a flooded underpass, a traffic-jammed overpass, and a passenger train in Buenos Aires, Argentina? You get a real-life Six Flags water attraction. Those people standing near the train tracks? They need towels. Hope everyone up on the road above had their windows closed. Follow the jump to watch.

[Source: YouTube]

Continue reading Video: Standing water + train = car wash!

Video: Standing water + train = car wash! originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 06 Mar 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: New York Auto Show, Spy Photos, Performance, Wagon, Cadillac, GM

Well, it sure looks like it. All credit for this one goes to one Aaron P., who emailed the following to us:

So I was walking down Grand Avenue in Downtown LA, and they were shooting a Caddy commercial. There was a covered car, which I thought was the CTS Coupe, but the wind blew off the cover and there was a CTS-V Wagon. I only had time to snag this pic before they put the cover back on but you can see the wagon lines. I hope that means its coming cause that would be an amazing car.

Hmm. Seems like Aaron got awfully close for this pic, a curiously *perfect* upskirt teaser, but regardless of the circumstances behind it, reports of the Cadillac CTS-V Wagon being given the green light date back to September of last year. It’s basically been a guessing game of which show will provide the backdrop for its formal unveiling.

With New York the sole remaining major show on the U.S. circuit this year, and Bob Lutz’s retirement scheduled to begin exactly one month after that, we’ll bet our whole chip stack that El Generalissimo Roberto Maximo goes out with a bang, introducing the CTS-V Sport Wagon at the Javits Center, because the car in the above photo is most definitely a wagon, that is most definitely the “V” badge, and those are the correct wheels. Very badass, indeed.

Thanks to Aaron for the photo!

Peekaboo: Cadillac CTS-V Wagon spied in L.A.? originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 06 Mar 2010 08:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Motorsports, Marketing/Advertising, Renault, Russia

Renault F1’s got itself a new sponsor: Lada. The Russian automaker’s logo will appear on the R30 racing cars, as seen above, as well as the driver and crew uniforms. The announcement was made at a meeting held this Monday in Moscow, attended by Vladimir Putin, Carlos Ghosn, new Renault F1 pilot Vitaly Petrov, and a gaggle of other functionaries.

If you think the Lada sponsorship has anything to do with Renault F1 bringing the Russian rookie on board as the full-time #2 driver alongside lead guy Robert Kubica, you’re right. It pretty much has everything to do with it, as both Genii Capital (the majority stakeholder in Renault F1) and Renault-Nissan (25% stakeholders in AvtoVaz, Lada’s parent) actively work to advance their interests in Russia.

Petrov’s hiring is part of a broader overture toward Russia (on Monday, Ghosn came right out and said that Petrov’s nationality played a role in his selection), and the Lada sponsorship is obviously a reciprocal act. And it may not be the last one, either, as Putin indicated during Monday’s meeting that Russia (i.e. Lada) could increase its sponsorship involvement in the future.

Clearly, the most important takeaway from all this, however, is that the idea of a shirtless Vladimir Putin, watching the Monaco GP from the deck of a Typhoon-class sub moored among the superyachts in Monaco Harbor, no longer seems completely outlandish.

[Source: Renault F1, Government of the Russian Federation via Autoblog UK, Crash.net]

Renault F1: Sponsored by… Lada! originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Etc., Videos, Toys/Games

Remember those Choose Your Own Adventure Books from when you were a kid? Awesome, right? Hot Wheels has applied that approach to a web video promoting its new series of Custom Motors vehicles. Basically, the Custom Motors rides all feature interchangeable parts, so you your kids can put together some fun, outlandish stuff. The more cars you buy, the more parts you have to work with. The truck models include pull-back motors, too. We saw these in person a couple of weeks ago at Toy Fair (where they had a Custom Motors version of Batman’s Tumbler displayed, in addition to the regular cars and trucks) and can report that they’re definitely cool toys.

Anyway, back to the Custom Motors Cup video on YouTube: When you start with the first one, you choose a vehicle and are then prompted to modify it (thus showing off the customizable nature of the toys) before sending your selected car or truck into a series of nifty stop-motion-animated races. How well you fare depends on your mod choices, each of which sends you down a different video “branch.” Fire up your own racer after the jump, and check out the Custom Motors toys in greater detail in the photo gallery below.

[Source: Hot Wheels]

Continue reading Video: Hot Wheels lets you choose your own adventure

Video: Hot Wheels lets you choose your own adventure originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Sedan, Performance, Truck, Wagon, GM, Pontiac, Holden, Australia, Rumormill

It’s sad enough that the dizzying, platform-sharing, don’t-call-it-rebadging upcoming product extravaganza General Motors unveiled to the Twitterati and media last week did not include the terms Zeta, Pontiac, G8, or any derivative thereof, but if a new report out of Australia is accurate, Holden is about to pour salt in America’s wound - with an iodine chaser. Carsales.com.au claims to have an internal Holden memo stating that our friends Down Under will not only be able to purchase a Pontiac G8 SS-V sedan, but Wagon and Ute variants as well. (SS-V is the equivalent trim level to the U.S.-market G8 GT.)

These final Pontiac G8s will reportedly be offered through Holden dealerships (natch) as special limited-edition models. The reason? Simple: a final run of G8s made specifically for the Aussies will allow Holden to clean out some of the remaining Pontiac G8 part stock it currently has sitting around with nowhere to go. Dealer sources told Carsales.com.au that they expect the total run to be in the neighborhood of 1,500 cars, with the breakdown split fairly evenly among the three body styles.

Pontiac G8: the car that didn’t deserve to die, that no one wants to see die, and that, so far, refuses to die quietly. Thanks to Stephen for the tip.

[Source: Carsales.com.au]

REPORT: Pontiac G8 Sedan, Wagon and Ute to be sold… in Australia originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 19 Aug 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Etc., Marketing/Advertising, Chevrolet, GM, Nissan, Alternative Fuel

Not content to let General Motors grab all the shiny happy tree-huggy headlines today with its 230 mpg claim for the Chevy Volt in city operation, the gang manning the NissanEVs Twitter account needled GM’s range-extended EV messiah, tweeting:

Given that the methodology of how the feds will ultimately arrive at the official mileage numbers (or mileage equivalents) for many of these next-gen greenmobiles is not yet finalized, we’ll take all the hype and scoreboard pointing with a grain of salt until we see actual, final numbers posted at FuelEconomy.gov. (Nissan says its 367 mpg figure was derived by using the Department of Energy formula.)

In any case, a Twitter spitball fight between GMBlogs and NissanEVs over this stuff would be kind of entertaining to watch. Sorta like the nerdy opposite of the ZR1 vs. GT-R debate.

[Source: Nissan EVs onTwitter]

Nissan pokes fun at Volt, claims 367 mpg equivalent for Leaf EV originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 11 Aug 2009 13:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading about Nissan pokes fun at Volt, claims 367 mpg equivalent for Leaf EV

Filed under: Aftermarket, Sedan, Performance, Pontiac, Design/Style

Thanks to a tipster who shall remain anonymous, we have a set of photos showing what kind of fun you can have if you’re the lucky owner of a Pontiac G8 GXP. This California car has been fitted the Aussie-market HSV front fascia, rear spoiler, hood, and wheels, but the vanity plate lets other motorists in on the Arrowhead-shaped secret. Any way you cut it, it looks good — better even than the way the G8 GXP looks rolling out of your soon-to-be-defunct local Poncho store. So, hit the gallery to see the rest of it, and thanks to our tipster for the pics.

Pontiac G8 GXP spotted wearing HSV duds in Cali originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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