The H3 Might Be Going Bye Bye

Back in 2013 I bought my '07 Hummer H3 after my girlfriend suggested that I move in with her.  She live further north and at that time my only car was an '07 Mustang GT.  Moving meant a longer commute in heavier snow.  There was no way I was doing that in a Mustang.  I saw the H3 for sale while I was getting some service done, it looked big and bad ass.  I thought, "There's the solution. A big Hummer would get me through any snow Ontario has to dish out, and I can park my Mustang in the winter. So I bought it.  I had big dreams with the H3.  I was gonna start off-roading, we were gonna camp more, go biking.  It was all justified.

Now it's 2017 and I did none of those things.  All I did do was drive it to work and twice a year to the States.  It certainly lived up the my first assumption that it would do well in the snow.  It hardly acknowledges any weather exists at all.  It effortlessly climbs through any snowstorm or flooding I encountered.  But I never did the cool off-roading or backwoods camping or anything.  I just ground away on those expensive tires commuting.

As it aged it of course started having issues, mainly electronic.  One day you start it up and there would be an message about some failure, then the next time you start it up it was gone.  I dumped an additional $4000 on maintenance and various emission sensor replacements.  Then last week I was driving to work and I got a message saying, "STABILITY SYSTEM FAILURE." What the heck is that?  I looked online and it said it's a blanket warning that covers many different things.  Okay that's enough.  With an exhaust leak that I was told could cost anywhere from $300 to $3000, new electronic problems, and big $2000 tires that need replaced I think it might be time to take a serious look at how much this vehicle was costing me.

I grabbed a pen, paper and calculator and was pretty shocked to discover that just in gas the Hummer was costing me $520 CAD a month!  Just in gas!  That's approximately $67 each time I fill and I was filling twice a week.  Pile on insurance and other expenses I was just $200 short of a Ford Focus RS payment.

Imagine a Ford Focus RS as a daily driver rather than an H3.  I figure it would at least cut the gas in half.  Most of my commute is highway and while the Focus isn't spectacular at fuel economy the H3 is awful.  Okay maybe I'm just trying to justify buying a Focus RS but it is better gas mileage than my Hummer H3.  It is AWD for snow, and it does come with a set if winter rims and tires along with summer rims and tires.

I've already talked to one Ford dealer that could get me the deal I wanted but only had a Nitro Blue care available and I'd rather have the Stealth Gray.  Today I spoke with a different dealer that says he can get me a Stealth Gray Focus RS.  If he can give me what I want for my Hummer I could be driving a Focus RS around as a daily driver.

The Hummer was awesome for what it was and I'm probably going to miss it but the expense and the fact that I never used it how it was meant to be used make me feel this is for the best.  I'm a speed guy, my brother is the offroad guy.

Another Shelby Summer

Spring is coming and so my Shelby can be released from its winter cocoon.  This leads my thoughts to the question of how much to I plan on driving it this summer.  This is something many people don’t care about, they drive and drive without any concern for miles.  I am not one of these people.  I didn’t really buy the car as a money investment but I also don’t want to quickly devalue a low miles car. 

This dilemma starts with asking will the car hold its value?  I bought the car from a company that specializes in “special” cars.  They of course think every car is amazing and full of value at least until they sell it.  But I had the unique opportunity to have gotten along really well with the guy that put together my loan and he happened to have changed jobs and gone to a different dealership.  So when he messaged me that he had moved I said, “Hey, now that you’re not at the place I bought my Shelby you can be honest.  Was it a stupid investment?”  He replied, “No, the Shelby’s are a pretty safe bet.  Out of anything that you could purchase they hold their value best.”

This was great to hear but I believe it also matters how it compares to the other hot Shelby’s out there.  My 2014 was the last year of the big 5.8L Trinity engine with a supercharged 662 hp.  This is great but everyone is waiting with baited breath for the next GT500 which has been guess to have 755 hp.  This would certainly have an impact on the value of my car just like the ’13 and ’14 had an impact on the previous year GT500s.

If I ask for the opinion of people on most of the Mustang forums they all say, “Dude, just drive it.”  But I don’t know.  I feel more like a caretaker of the car rather than an owner and don't really want to drive it into the ground.

Welcome to YouTube

American Motoring just started a YouTube channel.  So please feel free to follow us.  We'd appreciate it.  To start off the channel we posted a quick video or our 2014 GT500 Shelby Cobra starting up and backing out of a garage.  It's short but we hope you enjoy the sound of 662 hp.  American Motoring YouTube

Hell's Bells: Dodge Has Been Trying to Conjure It's Demon for Awhile

With all this talk lately about the Dodge Demon / Challenger thing does anyone remember this concept from not so long ago?  Seems Dodge really wants something to get named Demon at some point.  This 2007 concept is miles away from what they are currently boasting.

From Wikipedia

The Dodge Demon was a concept made by DaimlerChrysler, designed to slot in under the Viper as a more affordable sports car from Dodge. The Demon was first shown at the 2007 Geneva Auto Show, and is was considered for production. It was conceived to compete with cars like the Pontiac Solstice, Saturn Sky, and Mazda Miata. Unlike many other concept cars, the materials and construction design of the Demon were such that production would be feasible.

Technical specifications

• Engine: 2.4 L gasoline World Engine

• Power: 172 hp (128 kW) SAE @ 6000 rpm

• Torque: 165 lb·ft (224 N·m) @ 4400 rpm

• Transmission: Six-speed manual

• Drivetrain: Rear-wheel drive

• Overall Length: 156.5 (3974)

• Overall Width (max. @ body): 68.3 (1736)

• Overall Height: 51.8 (1315)

• Wheelbase: 95.6 (2429)

• Overhang, Front: 30.6 (777)

• Overhang, Rear: 30.3 (769)

• Curb Weight (estimated): 2600 lb (1179 kg)

• Tire Size, Front/Rear: 58.7 (1491)

• Wheel Size: 19 x 8 in

• Outer Diameter: 25.2 (640)

My Patient Plymouth

Many of you may not know I have a project car.  Well it’s a car that needs work which I don’t have time or space to start.  It’s my first car that I bought when I was 18.  It got me through many street races in high school, I lived in it for two weeks until a girl took pity on me, and it carried me into adulthood.  It’s my 1970 Plymouth Duster 340 4-barrel with a 3-speed on the floor.  Bright yellow with black racing stripes, everyone of course called it the bumble bee.

In about 1991 I parked the car in a nice cement floored building on my mother’s farm with the intention to restore it.  It had started burning some oil and needed an engine overhaul at the very least.  I got as far as pulling the engine and disassembling it.  During the process I found the issue which was a broken piston ring.  I had the engine bored and cleaned up but then I stopped.

One day I thought, “This car is going to cost a lot to restore.  Maybe instead of spending money on that I really should get out of my stupid factory job and go to college.”  So that’s what I did.  I started saving up for college, quit the factory and graduated with honors.  After college I moved to Los Angeles,  8 years later to Wisconsin, then 8 years after that I moved to Toronto Canada.  All the while my Duster waited.

Most places in the Toronto area seem to have one stall garages and Canadians don’t even seem to use their garages for cars very much.  My landlord here curiously asked me once why I put my car in the garage like it was a bizarre thing.  Certainly there are houses with two stall garages in Toronto but not at all as common as they are in the States.  So having space for a project car is not something I have the luxury of. But I really should get some momentum happening with the Duster.

For a time I felt I had a clever solution.  This was to rent a space like a garage or a barn or an old gas station as a workspace for my project.  Just some space nobody was using. It would give me a space to work and also get me away from the house for a little escape, perfect right?  However I quickly found that places renting these kind of spaces assume you’re going to start a business of some sort and charge rent accordingly.  In most cases the cost was higher than my living space.  So my next brilliant idea was that I would find a bunch of likeminded people and together we would rent one of these spaces for our projects.  But finding like minded people really became looking for like minded strangers, and strangers that would have access to my tools and parts.  Suddenly that didn’t sound like such a good idea.  So my beloved Duster remains in storage patiently waiting for me to get my act together.

During its wait I’ve dreamed of going many different directions with the build.  Of course there is the stock restore option but frankly a Duster isn’t the premier muscle car and mine wasn’t an original 340 car, it was a 318 from the factory so there really wasn’t much value in that.  For a long time I wanted to make it a vintage autocross car to join in those retro Trans Am races which is still in my head.  It would certainly be a challenging build to get a Duster to handle corners.  I’ve always loved the ’67 through ’69 Barracuda and my 340 would live happily in one of those.  I’ve also even thought a couple times of just selling it but I don’t know, the idea kind of hurts my soul.  One thing has always bugged me about the car though and it’s the lines.  I always felt to me it should be a fastback.  So I started playing with Photoshop and I think it works!  I’m not certain how I would handle the rear window but I think it could be good.  What do you think?

Anyway none of this is going to happen if I never find a workspace for it.  Do any of you have similar dilemmas?  Did you find a solution to space issues?  They say a real car guy can work in the driveway in any weather but “I’m getting’ too old for that”

The New 2018 Dodge What??

UPDATE: Did Dodge take down the teaser video??

So Dodge put out a teaser video for a new Challenger model.  The Dodge Challenger SRT Demon?  Huh? But the Dodge Demon and the Dodge Challenger are separate cars?? It’s like calling a car Dodge Charger Challenger SRT R/T Demon Duster Hellcat Ram.  So from the extremely lame video it shows presumably a Hellcat drinking racing fuel and becoming a Demon?

I'm sorry Dodge but you lost me.  Are you saying it will be a track only car since it's drinking racing fuel?  Are you saying this is a Dodge racing car you'll be using in race events?  I can't imagine you're saying it's a model above the Hellcat because nobody needed 707 hp so why would they need even more??

1971 Dodge Demon

To be clear the Dodge Demon came out in 1971 and was originally like a faster version of the Dart so it was kind of a Dart Demon much like the Duster was a variant of the Valiant which is why 1970 Dusters say Valiant and Duster on them.  In no way was the Demon any relation to the Challenger.  The Demon was what they called an A-body car and Challenger was an E-body car.  I own a Duster 340 and I admit the Demon is a cooler variant but frankly they are the same cars.

However as we've seen in the past Dodge has no respect for it's heritage and will slap any logo on anything which is how we end up with a Caravan R/T.  So the fact that they screw their names up even more doesn't surprise me.  What does surprise me is that they feel they need a more powerful car over the Hellcat.  I guess the Hellcat was the biggest buzz they've had in awhile and want to repeat it but who know's what they heck it's gonna be.  Hellcat is supposed to be the code name for the engine so maybe they are saying a new hot engine to replace the Hellcat? As you can see below the logo is clearly a variation of the Hellcat logo.

The coolest thing that could happen with this (but won't) would be if they somehow dropped the Hellcat engine into one of the new Darts and called it a Demon.  That would follow heritage at least but would be an insane monster car.

Low Ball GT500 Offer

The Shelby is all put away for the winter but this summer I took it to Barrie Ford here in Ontario for service.  It was no big deal, just a oil change but since then I would periodically get a message from the dealer asking if I'd be interested in selling it.  I know this is just a tactic to spark an interest in trading in your car for something new but after three of these emails I was curious what they would offer.

So I replied to the last email they sent asking what the offer would be.  They said, "Well it depends on your VIN and miles but the number would start with a 5 or a 3."

A 5 or a 3??  So $50,000 or $30,000??  Are they nuts?  You can't find them here in Canada for anything near that price.  I searched and searched to find the one I have and that was listed at $68,000.

So my curiosity is now satisfied. Yikes!