Rock Solid Shifts.com

According to Left Lane news the South Korean court has found Chung Mong-Koo, Hyundai CEO, guilty of protecting managerial rights knowing it would hurt the company and bring about financial loss.  The courts fined him 60 million dollars… holy crap.  But that doesn’t even come close to the amount desired, which was $480 million according to the lawsuit documents.  The losses had to do with sales of shares of Hyundai affiliates Hyundai Airspace and Aircraft Co. and Hyundai Hysco. At first... (more...)

If you are like me, there is no “best car” per se.  If I had my choice, then I would have a line up of twenty cars and in the morning think to myself “hmm… which car do I feel like driving today, the Tesla Roadster, my Toyota FJ Cruiser, or the Camaro?  But of course, Motor Trend must be a little more realistic than I am because they realize that that doesn’t happen.  For 2010, they picked the Ford Fusion.  Let’s find out why. To sum it up, it’s economical,... (more...)

Toyota Symbol [Rock Solid Shifts]With surprisingly little press from the danger that is created by a sticking gas pedal, eight Toyota models have been suspended from sales and even from being manufactured, a drastic safety measure taken until the problem of the unwanted acceleration can be fixed.  The source of the problem are parts made by CTS Corp. and manufactured in Ontario, Canada, and maybe just a by product of former President of Toyota Katsuaki Watanabe’s super aggressive growth strategy... (more...)

Are we re-living history?  Twenty-five years ago the release of the Buick Regal T-Type and Grand National sported V8 power with V6 fuel economy.  And that may be understated.  These cars’ economic V6 engines utilized turbochargers to boost power past that of V8 engines.  These engines were powerhouses, just ask any drag racing veteran.  They will tell you.  And don’t forget, this is all while reducing fuel consumption. Nothing new right? Well, Ford has come out with technologies... (more...)

Chevy Volt Review Rock Solid Shifts – What exactly is the Chevy Volt?  A swirling array of rumors and claims confuse many, which lead them to ask this question again.  A better question would be what does this car mean to me? And what does it mean to the future of the automotive industry? First, the 2011 Chevy Volt solves the problem electric vehicles have always faced: limited range.  Unless you are far from the norm, you understand just by looking at your own driving habits that most trips... (more...)

A video from CBS’s 60 minutes unmasked a hidden danger you may not know about when buying “new” tires.  Parents of a family mentioned in the short news clip sent their sons on a road trip assuming they had a safe vehicle to drive.  However, on the way to their destination, they experienced a fatal accident.  The cause? Tires recently purchased for the car broke apart and caused the catastrophe.  The odd and dangerous part of this is that the tires on the car that were thought... (more...)

[RockSolidShifts] For those of you who are unfamiliar with this car, this is a Fiat 500. Romeo Ferraris, a Italian tuning firm and racing car builder, build this puppy.  Originally 94 Horse power, the Italian firm turned the 1.4 liter engine into a freakin mean machine packing in 360 HP.  Thats over 257 horse power per liter.    Not my style at all, I have to say.  However, I have to admit, it is very intriguing.  It makes me want to take it for a spin. I mean… what does it feal like... (more...)

[Rock Solid Shifts] Flying through the dirty “out back” in Australia, with your now dirty sports coupe, you swing by to watch bikini models as they wash your car by hand. Not exactly… You pull up and see male nudity!  four dudes were caught naked washing themselves with their cars all while their girl friends were taking pictures of them… Thats wierd, or maybe they just finished watching the episode of Jackass where the guys strapped themselves to the hood of their cars and... (more...)

2008 Ferrari 612 Staglietti Those are two words that you might have thought would never be in the same sentence.  However, Ferrari has confirmed that they have been experimenting with hybrid technology and plan to use it in a few years.  What?!? is Ferrari trying to be conservative and go green?  Not a chance.  In fact it’s the opposite.  They are designing something even more extreme.  The hybrid system, according to the source, will be used to improve the performance in the handling... (more...)

Nissan Cube I saw this thing on the road the other day, and I almost threw up a little bit in my mouth.  I looks like a two color rubic’s cube put in front of one of those image distorting mirrors.  I don’t know why anyone would pay money for that thing.  It’s classified as an “affordable small car”(although I wouldn’t really call it a car).  Is that why the car maker made it so ugly?  Because if Nissan sold an actual, normal, ok looking car that was at that... (more...)

Rock Solid Shifts – A Generation III General Motors V-8, build by Wheel to Wheel Powertrain, reached a 6.86 second quarter mile pass at 205 mph, a new benchmark for the community of GM V-8s to beat. This is quite an accomplishment, but how long will this record last? Probably not very long.  That isn’t the point though.  The Gen III’s V-8s have been a hit ever since they came out first in the Corvette, Camaro and Trans Am.  This “new and redesigned” engine was simply... (more...)

I have been wanting to feature this car for along time but haven’t gotten around to it. What’s over looked is the incredible Hyundai Genesis Coupe 2.0T turbo engine similarities the Genesis’s 1998cc four has to the Mitsubishi Lancer’s (almost 300hp) Evo engine. These two engines being products of Global Engine Manufacturing Alliance between Hyundai, Mitsubishi and Chrysler is the reason for their commonalities. This fact, combined with the $22,000 and some price tag, makes... (more...)

Nope.  They still don’t.  Maybe I am publishing this just as a reminder, bringing to the forefront the real facts through all the talk about green initiatives and advancement, not to mention all the misleading advertising.  I don’t think we are as far along as most think, and here is why.  This article from Autonews refers to a study that reveals the true “green” status of electric cars.  Half of the energy produced in the US still comes from coal.  So, while there is... (more...)

UGLY is hopefully on its way out, along with crappy driver’s experience, for green automobiles.  Nobody ever said what we should drive and what we want to drive had to be different.   Although that is how I personally felt with the Insight and the Prius.  Things got a lot better with the release of Hybrid versions of existing models.  That’s for sure.  Honda’s CR-Z, however, is a different kind of step toward integration. It takes us further away from “green inconvenience”,... (more...)

CEO Fritz Henderson’s annual salary is being cut by twenty-five Percent to $950,000 as part of the Obama administration’s  mandated pay reductions for some of the top executives of companies that received government bailout money.  It’s reported that the top 175 execs’ salaries of seven companies that were given help were all slashed.  However, the US Treasury did not report the identities, only the salary numbers were listed.  Evidently Henderson was identified by a... (more...)