Curtis Joe Walker offers up a great sharks fin soup of blue sky and puffy clouds mixed with Detroit metal.

Nice!

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Instead of having bloated inventories sitting in their yards that beg for consumer incentives to help turn on the ignition keys to move them, Detroit might be taking a new tack in 2008. With the “R” word projecting in the minds of many sleepless execs; it appears production cuts may replace incentives in 2008.

If the market continues to sag, and recession looks like it may become imminent, incentive won’t go away totally, but if dynamics warrant, look for less cars coming off the line to maintain internal costs, stablize prices and lighten inventories.

It could be argued it was fate that I would lead me to write about the automotive industry: my first word was Volkswagen…at least that’s what my mother claims. Dad claims it was “automobile,” but you see the general direction my life was headed in at an early age.

Like most people who grow up in and around Detroit, my parents worked in the auto industry. My dad retired from Ford after 33 years and my grandfather spent 20 years with the Blue Oval. I’ve written about the auto industry for nearly 15 years. I’ve covered everything from monthly sales figures to auto shows around the world to asking celebrities what kind of cars they like.

I’ve done all that for newspapers, magazines, web site and I’ve even help author a book about the history of General Motors.

I find the business of the auto industry to be fascinating mix of politics, business and art. Few things in this world capture and hold the attention of folks as much as the auto industry and I’m glad to have a window to watch how the industry is changing.

Car enthusiasts love concept cars. Journalists love concept cars. Chrysler loves to build concept cars! In fact they are dedicated to building the Coolest of Cool concept cars. In reality, every designer and every manufacturer thinks that their concepts are the coolest. Not every concept is a driver though and the Chrysler boys and girls try to make most of them runners. the even get them out on the road for journalists to have a go at. Not long ago, one lucky guy got to take the new Challenger down a drag strip!

It has been 20 years since Chrysler began taking this approach and they are pretty proud of some of those cars. Rightfully so, as a number of the cars on the list went on to production and a full model life. Viper, Prowler, Ram, Neon. These and more have been important to Chrysler fans all over, not to mention the company.

More images and press release after the break
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It looks like Ontario is set to become the muscle car capital of North America. Following The General’s decision to build the next generation Camaro in Oshawa, Chrysler has announced that it’s new machine will be built at it’s Brampton plant. When production begins in the summer of 2008, that will bring the total models built in Brampton to 7. It’s a good time to be an autoworker in Ontario these days.

For someone who spends a good chunk of time reading automotive stuff, I missed the fact that Chrysler is about to lay off 2000 people at Brampton. Perhaps not such a good time to work for Chrysler, even with exciting products coming down the pipe.

Chrysler press release after the break
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As the weather gets cooler, it’s time to start planning for next year’s auto show circuit and the North American International Auto Show has launched their new web site to give you a head start. 2007 marks the 100th year for Detroit’s big show and organizers are gearing up for another great year. On the new website they are offering a free screen saver with images from the history of the show, along with travel resources and lists of local attractions for visitors from out of town.

Press release after the break

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There have been a few spy pics of the 2007 Land Rover Freelander floating around the net lately, but now we have an actual image of the new model thanks to worldcarfans.com who have found this leaked brochure copy.
While it was rumoured that the truck was going to debut at Detroit this year, but didn’t surface at the show. Now it is believed that the Freelander will first be seen at the British Motor Show in July.