2024 Gmc Sierra 1500 Slt on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Autoblog Podcast #343

George Kennedy from Boldride.com, BMW i3, NACTOY long list, Bentley SUV
Episode #343 of the Autoblog podcast is here, and this week, Dan Roth and Steven Ewing are joined by George Kennedy, Autoblog alum and Editor-in-Chief of Boldride.com. Topics include the unveiling of the BMW i3, the 2014 North American Car and Truck of the Year long list, and the green-lighted Bentley SUV. As always, we start with what's in the garage, but then answer some of your questions before diving into the week's news. For those of you who hung with us live on our UStream channel, thanks for taking the time. You can follow along after the jump with our Q&A. Thanks for listening!
Autoblog Podcast #343:

Daily Driver: 2015 GMC Canyon

Daily Driver videos are micro-reviews of vehicles in the Autoblog press fleet, featuring impressions from the staffers that drive them every day. Today's Daily Driver features the 2015 GMC Canyon, reviewed by Seyth Miersma. You can watch the video above or read a transcript below. Watch more Autoblog videos at /videos. VIDEO TRANSCRIPT [00:00:00] Hey, guys. This is Seyth with Autoblog, and I'm here in the 2015 GMC Canyon pickup truck. The version I'm in is about as bare bones as this truck gets. We've got a convenience group package, which means I have things like a remote lock and unlock. I've got a spray-in bed liner and then I've got the very tiny but still useful infotainment system, which allows for things like hooking up your phone, [00:00:30] Bluetooth streaming music from my iPhone to the sound system, things of that nature. Really there's not a whole lot here. What you see is what you get. The interior is pretty basic. We've got gray plastic. We've got black plastic. We've got these gray cloth seats which I actually kind of dig. They've got a cool shape. It's comfortable in terms of the interior but it's certainly not fancy at all. You go back and look into the segment and you look at offerings from Nissan and Toyota and you'll see that this really feels pretty [00:01:00] plush certainly compared to their base level trucks. We've got the 2.5-liter 4-cylinder in it. Still makes 200 horsepower and 191 pound feet of torque. It doesn't feel completely slow but I'll admit that some of that has to do with the fact that I have a six-speed to play around with. I'm revving it up a little bit higher than you normally would with a pickup truck. It's not fast. It doesn't mean that it's not a little bit fun to drive. [00:01:30] We've come so far in terms of overall ride quality, noise vibration and harshness and things of that nature in all pickup trucks that it's frankly surprising to see something at the very bottom end in terms of price of the market be as good as this is. I think that you're going to get a lot of people who are into the truck lifestyle who like the look. You're going to get a lot of people who are moving down from bigger trucks that still want to have a little bit of capability. Then with things with a truck of this nature where you're talking about a [00:02:00] sub-$25,000 price point, you're just going to get a lot of people who want a vehicle of any kind, kind of a budget vehicle.

GM also sheds parts from its pickups to boost payload ratings

The row between Ford and Ram over who boasts the best-in-class tow rating for heavy duty pickups has revealed a number of things. Chief among them is a report that Ford removes items like the spare tire, jack, radio and center console from its vehicles in a bid to lower its base curb weight and therefore keep the truck's gross vehicle weight rating down.
For those that need a refresher, GVWR is the vehicle's curb weight plus its maximum payload. A lower GVWR allows Ford to station its F-450 among the so-called Class III pickups, despite the fact that internally, it has the makings of a more brutish Class IV truck.
Ford explains away these deletions, saying a customer could order their vehicle in such a manner. It has also come to light that Ford is not the only automaker to engage in such practices.