Goodyear's SilentArmorGoodyear has added a new tire to its Wrangler line featuring what the company calls "SilentArmor" technology. Aimed at the "on/off-road pickup truck driver," according to the company, the new Wrangler features steel and Kevlar belts, sidewalls reinforced with Goodyear's Durawall rubber compound, and traction ridges between the tire's tread elements to improve its traction in wet and muddy conditions. The tire is also certified for severe snow usage. Goodyear has released the new Wrangler in 24 sizes, for rim diameters from 15 to 17 inches.
Like a Stake in Pw's HeartRap star Nelly has a new energy drink called PimpJuice, and it supposedly is the same color as the new Electric Lime Green paint available on Jeep Wranglers and Unlimiteds. As such, his P.R. folks decided to use one to promote this new drink and had Reuther's Jeep in St. Louis outfit it with decals and green lights. Plus, if you like this ride you can eventually bid on it on eBayMotors.com. To find out more, visit letitloose.com. So far there is no word on a yellow TJ being built for Editor Pw's favorite drink "OldGuyJuice," also known as Corona, but we'll keep you posted.-Fred Williams
Tacoma, Dakota Earn Five-Star Crash RatingsAs a result of its 2005 evaluations of front- and side-impact crashworthiness and rollover risk, the NHTSA has awarded the Toyota Tacoma and Dodge Dakota five-star ratings for both frontal and side crash tests, the highest rating a vehicle can earn. A four-door Dakota earned five stars for protecting its driver but four for passenger protection.
This year marks the first time the government agency has actually physically tested trucks for their resistance to rolling over. (Previous rollover risks were computed based on a mathematical formula.) CNN/Money reported that only the Dakota has been tested so far, but the agency found scant difference between two- and four-wheel-drive versions. Ironically, the two-by, with a 19.1 percent chance, had a slightly greater risk of rollover than the 4x4, which earned a 17.9 percent rollover chance.
This Just InWant a four-door Wrangler? Looks like there's one in the works, according to a report by Automotive News from the New York Auto Show. Joe Eberhardt, Chrysler group executive vice president of global sales and marketing, referred to the fact that next year's redesigned Wrangler will remain a very different vehicle than the Liberty, even though both will have four-door models. The Wrangler will retain its "classic, iconic design," Eberhardt said, to maintain its appeal to male buyers; the rounded look of the Liberty attracts more females, he noted.
Bad news for GM: Market share is dwindling, rebates keep getting bigger to help move vehicles off dealer lots, and now one of its trucks, the two-door compact Blazer (which is no longer in production), has been found to have the highest driver death rate of any vehicle on U.S. roads. This cheery piece of news comes from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, which found in a study of '99-'02 passenger vehicles that the Blazer experienced driver deaths at a rate three times higher than the overall rate. In a reply, GM said driver fatalities have "...more to do with behavior than with the vehicle," saying it was "impossible to know" how conditions such as drunk driving and driving without a seatbelt contributed to these statistics.
So what is GM doing to solve its problems? One solution is to move up the launch date of its redesigned midsize SUVs. Bringing to market the next generation Chevy TrailBlazer and GMC Envoy six months sooner means high-profit vehicles are in showrooms quicker. Automotive News also reports that the General will cancel a mid-cycle restyling of the Hummer H2, which was scheduled for 2007.
Environmental & Political WatchOur friends at SEMA are doing a great job watchdogging legislation that could be harmful to our hobby. For example, SEMA reports that an emergency petition was filed with the BLM to restrict off-highway vehicles in the Factory Butte area in Central Utah. At question are 166,000 acres of land located east of the Capitol Reef National Park, of which only 3,800 acres are currently closed to OHVs. Environmental groups want nearly 50,000 acres to be closed on the premise that OHVs are crushing endangered plants and accelerating soil erosion. The petition responds to the BLM's preliminary proposal to close only 4,700 acres, maintain 6,000 of open unrestricted use, and permit limited use on the remaining 156,000 acres.
In better BLM-related news from SEMA, the agency has released two 30-year desert management plans that are intended to balance the needs of recreation, development, and wildlife in the Mojave Desert and Imperial Sand Dunes in southeast California. The BLM plan for the western Mojave Desert encompasses 9.3 million acres and distinguishes between land targeted for development or conservation and protection of more than 100 endangered plant and animal species. The plan adds more than 800 miles of Mojave Desert roads to the off-highway inventory, increasing the total to 5,098 miles. The plan for the Imperial Sand Dunes, also called the Algodones Dunes, covers 160,000 acres. It would open more than 85 percent of the dunes to OHVs, reversing a five-year-old temporary court order. Under both plans, builders, miners, utilities, and others could develop at one location if they set aside or pay to preserve wildlife habitat elsewhere.
SEMA also tells us both Massachusetts and Pennsylvania have recently introduced legislation that would ban the use of aftermarket exhaust systems. Of the two, Pennsylvania's proposed law seems stricter, as it would prohibit the use of exhaust systems other than a "factory-installed muffler" or a "muffler meeting factory specifications." The pending Massachusetts bill would outlaw exhaust systems that have been modified "in a manner which will amplify or increase the noise emitted by the exhaust." Either way they're bad news. Contact your local representative to voice your opposition to these bills.