Those wacky guys over at The Truth About Cars have been having some fun lately picking out the top ten worst cars sold in 2007. They put the word out to their readers who then began submitting the nastiest of rides. Once a great big list was compiled, they narrowed it down to 20 and then readers voted for the bottom top 10.

The Top Ten Worst Cars of 2007, as chosen by TTAC’s readers are:
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Way back in, oh, 1990 or so a customer came into the drive through at the Dodge dealership I worked at and began ranting uncontrollably. Once we got him settled down enough to string together a sentence we figured out the source of his ire. His Dodge Shadow did not have a unique key! It seems the gentleman had exited a shopping mall, hopped in his car and drove away only to discover that his ashtray was clean and his cigarettes were missing. He returned to the spot he had vacated, only to discover his own identical Shadow parked in the next aisle. Of course his next stop was the dealership where he demanded that all his locks be changed and he wanted a guarantee that his locks would be unique. This did not happen.
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Understandably, GM has called off the Ride & Drive event for the 2008 Chevy Malibu due to the recent fires in California. The event was to take place quite near one of the areas that was hardest hit, so it likely doesn’t make sense to hold this type of event. They have more important things to worry about at the moment, like getting people’s lives back on track.

I’m sure that other invitees are disappointed, as I am, but in the grand scheme of things this would seem a tad frivolous. Our thoughts are with all those who have been affected by the fires.

General Motors and Chrysler are done and Ford and the UAW are saying nice things about each other, but the question remains: will these deals ensure the survival of the Big Three?

Consensus is no.
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Welcome to the Canada Day edition of the Carnival of Wheels! It’s been a busy couple of weeks in The Garage. We are in the middle of three weeks of track action and we’ve picked up a new to us SUV, so our work here in The Garage has been pretty self centered. Don’t worry though, our selfish posting will continue, as there are still tons of photos yet to be edited from the VARAC festival and next weekend is a double header. First we’ll have 2 days in the pits at the Steelback Grand Prix for Champ Cars and then on Sunday, Miss Shelby has her first race of the season. Elsewhere online, autobloggers have been busy churning out all manner of hot content, so sit down, strap in and get ready for a smoking hot lap of the blogosphere while you watch the French Grand Prix.

First up we’ve got another visit from Hello Kitty Hell, with a truly frightening tuner mod. This poor guy’s wife has actually installed this happy feline exhaust tip on their car! Be afraid, be very, very afraid.
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The folks behind Jay Leno’s Garage are hard at work bringing us new and exciting content every week and that means new videos every week. With GM backing, these are slick, well produced vids that offer some great fun. For the first time, they are offering them up to us to share with our readers. So here goes. I haven’t even watched this one yet, I thought I’d watch it in The Garage the first time too.

video after the break
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Remember the first Dakota? It was one of the first mid size pickups, maybe even the first. Much larger than the little offerings from Japan, but much smaller than the full size trucks of it’s domestic cousins. It was a great truck for the small contractor who wasn’t carrying a huge load or towing much more than a utility trailer. The new 2008 Dakota has been revealed and it certainly exceeds anything those old trucks could do. It even beats most of the basic half tons from the eighties too. This thing has a tow rating of a whopping 7,050 pounds, all the while carrying the whole family in four door comfort. It looks great too.

Get all the details from Dodge and tons of photos after the break.
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Insert twisting analogy here.

Over at Positive Ape Index, Coop has the goods on this 70 Stang that’s been stuffed full of 1100 cubic inches. This monster v8 was originally designed for Sherman tanks in WW2, so it develops an ungodly amount of torque. Like, say 1050 ft lbs of twist!

That poor old pony doesn’t stand a chance when this thing fires up later this week!

The Garage has never really had a place for anything from GM. Over my years in the car hobby and in the car industry, I’ve always felt that GM and their dealer network have had this attitude of invincibility. We are The General. That attitude is perhaps more evident here in Durham region, where one of GM’s top plants is located. That attitude is what has led them to lose their market share.

In the past year or so, I’ve watched GM try to reinvent itself and for the most part I’ve been pretty impressed. They are reaching out to consumers in all sorts of new manners, with a steady stream of new products. I discovered another one of those new methods today. GM now has a video feed site & have opened their feeds up to bloggers to post video. Below is an 18 minute video of Chevy’s launch of the new Volt electric car concept. GM seems intent on showing the consumer their new direction in new ways. Let’s just hope their new products can keep up with those from their competition.

We’ve watched The General trying to reinvent their marketshare and there is no question that they’re working hard. Here in The Garage, I’m wondering if they are about to make a giant brand image blunder. The rumour floating around is that they are close to launching a V6 Corvette coupe based on the Kappa platform. This platform is the base for the Saturn Sky and Pontiac Solstice. Wow, talk about diluting the strongest brand in GM’s arsenal.

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