I just got off a call with Jim Press and Steven Landry with Chrysler, who were explaining their future plans. The big announcement here is that along with the sale to Fiat, Chrysler has filed a motion with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to reject 789 U.S. dealer agreements, meaning that they’ll be closing them down. So, what’s gong to happen to current owners who bought from those dealers being closed? As you would expect, they’re saying the customer will be taken care of by other Chrysler dealers… As far as current inventory, the 44,000 units currently sitting on the lots of the defunct dealers will be distributed to the dealerships who are staying alive, and they will also have the opportunity to purchase the old dealer’s parts. They mentioned that of the 44,000 units being redistributed, 4,000 of those are 2008 models, the rest 2009. As part of the bankruptcy, Chrysler is not producing any more vehicles right now, and Mr. Press said that he thinks the units will move quickly with help of current incentives. We’ll see about that. You find more information at ChryslerRestructuring.com , or download the press release (PDF) regarding the decision. © Gearhead Media – Please visit Automoblog.net for more great content. Here is the original: Chrysler Cans 789 Dealerships

Here’s some bone-headed, yet understandable news from Audi: They’ve decided to kill off the R8 TDI. Sure, times are tight, and maybe now’s not the best time to making another variant of any given company’s uber-sportscar, but if you ask me, now is exactly the right time to be building a car like the R8 TDI. Debuting at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show, the Audi R8 TDI concept car had been given the green light for production, and that was still the case when Audi went to the trouble of showing a slightly revised version of the R8 TDI later at the Geneva show. But LeftLaneNews says that according to Audi insiders, the German automaker has decided to terminate the project. Audi referred to soft global demand for high-end cars like the R8 in general, as well as weak response to diesels in America, and Audi was concerned that it wouldn’t be able to recoup its initial investment in tooling up for and making an oil-burner R8. When the R8 TDI was first shown in Detroit and Geneva, it was powered by a 5.5-liter, 500-horsepower engine based on the automaker’s R10 Le Mans racecar engine, which struck me as being both cool, and odd. Sure, using a de-tuned race engine is always cool and gives a road car a great amount of cache’ versus other automakers. But it also struck me as odd, because Audi, via VW, already had a big, whompin’, stompin’ V10 TDI on hand. For a brief time, VW was producing a version of the Touraeg, corporate sibling to Audi’s Q7 SUV that had a V10 diesel under the bonnet. As a matter of fact, that version of the Touraeg was quite the darling of the bio-diesel crowd when it came out, and was highly coveted in California, where new diesel sales were banned at the time. Anyway, going with the Le Mans sourced mill versus the off the rack option did sort of make sense. I chalked it up to engine architecture, and thought that it was great, one way or the other, that Audi was making a move like this. Sadly, Audi seems to now be backing away from that move. The engineers at Audi were difficulty fitting a production-ready Le Mans 12-cylinder diesel engine in the R8’s engine bay. The massive twin turbochargers were particularly difficult to fit, which is understandable (just ask any aftermarket obsessed kid...

2009 Audi Q7 3.6 Prestige quattro S-Line For this review, I’m going to try and tame my urge to make intermittent comments about my general distaste for large, overpriced, and overweight SUVs. I really like Audis, and my experience thus far has been that they don’t make anything that I don’t like. It couldn’t be all that bad, could it? After all, it’s undoubtedly one of the best, if not the best-looking SUVs on the road. Put it up against it’s siblings – the Porsche Cayenne and VW Touareg – and it’s a freaking supermodel. The 2009 Q7 is a pleasant drive, as I would expect it to be, and has your typical family-hauling SUV features and a few extras such as leather seating with heated front seats, dual-zone climate control (four-zone with the warm weather package,) bluetooth connectivity, lots of safety bits, navigation, HID headlights, 3rd row seating, a power liftgate, and Audi’s MMI interface. Many technology and luxury features come standard, and includes some features which aren’t available as an option on other SUVs. The Q7 is bigger than some competitors, and therefore has plenty of space for cargo and passengers. The large size, however, combined with Audi’s superior build quality and solidness, adds to the weight of the vehicle, which tips the scales at over 5000 lbs. This decreases fuel economy and acceleration, which is partially remedied by the newly available 3.0-liter TDI engine which burns diesel. I hope gets the attention it deserves, and people begin to realize they can get hybrid-level fuel economy out of a diesel engine. Despite its size, the Audi Q7 handles particularly well, and its suspension soaks up most bumps and potholes with ease. The Q7, which is classified as a large crossover SUV, is a pleasure to drive in-town in any weather, but I wouldn’t go too far off-road in it. Our review model was a 2009 Audi Q7 3.6 Premium quattro Tiptronic S-line . The 3.6-liter V6 engine is the smaller of the two gasoline engines, and provides 280hp. We found this to be adequate for most, if a bit underpowered for the Q7’s weight of 5080 lbs. The power ran through a 6-speed automatic “Tiptronic” transmission to all four wheels. The other available engines are a 4.2-liter...

In case you missed it, we’re giving away two copies of the newly-released Top Gear Season 10 on DVD. Winning is easy – just head over to the contest page , read through the rules, and let us know in the comments section what you think the guys from Top Gear should do for their next challenge. The answers we’ve received so far have been good, so make sure you think of something creative! The best two answers will win the DVD set, shipped right to your home. The contest ends on May 17th, so you only have a week left to enter. Head over to the contest page to give your best ideas for a challenge. You can give more than one! © Gearhead Media – Please visit Automoblog.net for more great content. See the rest here:  One Week Left to Win Top Gear Season 10 DVD

We don’t normally talk about racing much here at Automoblog, but since it is the month of May, and the racing season is really starting to cook, and this is something you don’t normally see in the racing world, it’s worth taking a look at. Jeremy Mayfield, NASCAR driver and team owner along with two others failed a mandatory drug test and has been put on indefinite suspension. Mayfield has been a NASCAR racer since the mid-90s, and recently decided to become a driver/owner, mainly do to the lack of rides being offered to him from more established teams. The two other guys involved, Ben Williams and Tony Martin, were not part of Mayfield’s organization but were busted during the same round of drug testing. Ben Williams was a crewmember of the #16 team and Tony Martin was a member of the #34. Mayfield is the first high profile NASCAR driver to be booted from the series for a drug violation, and let’s face it, this sort of deal is quite rare in the racing world. NASCAR has released scant specifics on the incident, saying only that “All three were found to have violated Sections 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing) and 7-5 (violation of the NASCAR substance abuse policy) of the 2009 NASCAR rule book.” And that’s going to be that unless the three guys involved release the info themselves, because the substances found get shielded by NASCAR’s privacy policy. Well how convenient. But hey, since this is the internet, we can speculate … and to me, this is going to be one of two things: either pot or steroids. NASCAR has had a real bee in their bonnet since day one about ANY illegal substances. They’ve been trying to shake that whole moonshiner image since before they started. So I can understand why, as an organization, they’d be predisposed to take a Nancy Regean-esque view on the subject. Now, banning a guy for having pot in his system strikes me as being particularly stupid, unless you have evidence that they’re on the track while high, And seriously, who in their right mind is going to race while stoned? Racers are, by and large, way too into racing to do it in any way BUT clean and sober. So, if it IS pot (and we don’t know for sure), and they were doing it off track, that’s...

Ferrari released some info on their F430 Force Feedback Racing Wheel for the PC, which is a precise life-size replica of the real steering wheel on the Ferrari F430. The “Engine Start” button serves as a directional pad for the games, and the Manettino switch – which in the real car selects driving dynamics such as traction control, steering, and brake force – does the same in the video game car, as long as your playing Ferrari’s own Ferrari Virtual Race game for the PC. Ferrari Virtual Race is – as you can tell from the name – a racing simulator that was just released. Currently you can drive the 599 GTB Fiorano, 612 Scaglietti and 430 Scuderia, but they will be adding more cars soon, such as the California, F430 or F430 Spider and possibly (hopefully) more. If you’re more of a console gamer like me but still want to drive Ferraris, you can pick up the official (and inexpensive) Ferrari Challenge game for PS3, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, or PS2, which lets you drive almost any Ferrari you can think of, classic and new. I’m a big fan of making racing games as realistic as possible, so I think this F430 racing wheel is great. It’s made from high-quality metal and rubber (not plastic,) and is a replica of the real F430’s wheel so you can be assured that the ergonomic and comfort aspect of the wheel will be spot-on. The included pedals are made from metal as well, and have magnetic resistance for a more realistic feel. The steering axle and ball bearings are also made of metal, ensuring the feel of fluidity and precision. Now, if they’d just make one with a clutch and shift knob. © Gearhead Media – Please visit Automoblog.net for more great content. Go here to see the original:  Ferrari F430 Force Feedback Racing Wheel

What do most car companies do in these troubling financial and economic times? They release smaller, more efficient cars, develop new and innovative ways to save fuel and spend less, and try to ease the financial pain of buying a new car by offering unbeatable incentives and warranties never before seen. What does a company like BMW do in this situation? They release a huge, snarling, expensive beast of a luxury car, which carries a twin-turbocharged V12 engine capable of 544 horsepower and 553 ft-lbs of torque. Sound about right? The new car I speak of is the new BMW 760Li, which will be released in September 2009 as BMW’s new Flagship model. The 760Li will receive their new eight-speed automatic transmission, which helps the car reach 0-62mph in 4.6 seconds – pretty good for a heavy luxo-car like this – and hit an electronically limited top speed of 155mph. As usual, the new 7-Series will come with all sorts of tech toys. Most notably is the Drive Dynamic Control which allows the driver to alter gear change, throttle response, power steering assistance, damper settings and Stability Control settings to customize their driving preference. All-wheel steering helps with turning radius, which a car with this much wheelbase surely could use. BMW’s night vision system with pedestrian recognition is also optional. Luxury features of note are individually heated and cooled seats in front and rear, with a built-in massaging function. Rear seat passengers get an extra 5.5 inches of legroom over the current 7-Series, and all occupants get an interior surrounded in nappa leather, alcantara, and burr walnut trim. The BMW 760Li will be available in September 2009. Prices will be announced closer to launch. © Gearhead Media – Please visit Automoblog.net for more great content. See more here:  BMW’s New Flagship – the 760Li