Well, the military is looking to replace the original Humvee with something new and more technologically advanced. It would appear from all the scuttlebutt that the two top contenders are the AM General JLTV (Joint Light Tactical Vehicle) and the Lockheed-Martin JLTV. AM General was the original creator of the Humvee and already has the experience and street cred. Lockheed-Martin has also produced a lot of successful projects for the military over the years. It is going to be an interesting development battle to say the least. I would like to think that no matter who wins this contract competition, that the real winners will be our soldiers in the field that will benefit from the protection of this next generation of tactical vehicle.

The faulty sensor is causing the ‘R’ on the dashboard not to light up when reverse is engaged. It is also causing the backup lights to not come on when reverse is engaged which could result in injury or a crash due to a safety issue. Ford is notifying the affected owners and will schedule a repair at the nearest Ford dealership. If you have any questions about this issue please call your nearest Ford dealer.

Born January 11, 1923 in Leesburg, Texas, Shelby’s love of cars manifested itself early on while he was attending high school in Dallas, Texas. After serving in the United States Army Air Coprs he adjusted to civilian life by placing himself behind the wheel of a race car. The rest, as they say, is history. In the 1950′s Shelby drove for the Aston Martin, Cad-Allard, and Maserati race teams. He was named Sports Illustrated’s Driver of the Year in both 1956 and 1957. He set 16 speed records in his now famous Austin Healey 100s, and in 1959 won the 24 hours of LeMans. He raced Formula One, he raced LeMans, he raced hill climb events… you can see where this is going. The man was born to challenge any car he could get behind the wheel of, and he did it extremely well. After retiring from racing, Carroll Shelby went on to help design, build and influence some of the greatest sports cars in automotive history throughout the years. It would be easy to mull over the enormous list of cars that he has been responsible for, maybe even to make a top 5 or 10 list of them. However, I think it is more fitting to remember the man not for the vehicles he helped to create, but instead, to remember him as a man that truly loved anything automotive and helped show us how to love and appreciate them as well. I don’t see anyone being able to step into his shoes to bring future generations to the joy of sitting behind a steering wheel, and that is a sad thing indeed.

The expedition started in Birmigham, England and wound it’s way around the world before finishing up in Beijing, China, just in time for the Beijing Auto Show. Along the way they even managed to become the first private vehicles to tour Chernobyl since the disaster over 25 years ago. And to top all of that off, Land Rover managed to raise just over $1.6 million for the Red Cross. All said and done, I would call it a very successful little jaunt around the globe. Congratulations Land Rover!

The affected production plants are scheduled to be close anywhere from 20 to 22 weeks. GM plans to begin the updating of their full size SUV line after the full size truck line has been updated and production set and underway. Dealerships have been increasing their inventory before the lull in hopes that demand and special incentive programs will increase sales. So if you have your heart set on the current model of Chevy Silverado or GMC Sierra now might be a good time to get a sweet deal.

As we said, the Ford F Series leads the way with 47,453 units sold for April, an increase of 4.4% over last year. The Chevy Silverado also had solid sales numbers in the #2 slot with 30,749 units sold, which is a solid gain of 4.8% over last year. The big surprise is our #3 entry. Ram scored a solid 21,126 units sold. The impressive fact with that sales number is that it shows a gain of 19% over last year! That is a huge improvement that Ford and GM will not be able to ignore. Looks like the pickup truck wars are heating up. We will have to keep an eye on things during 2012 to see how the big three cross that finish line.

Mark Fields, President of the Americas was quoted as saying: “Our engine plant in Cleveland is the first and only facility in North America to produce EcoBoost engines, and we are tripling production capacity to meet customers’ growing needs for fuel-efficient engines.” Cleveland’s plant No. 1 will be adding approximately 250 jobs for its third shift ramp up, some coming from the No. 2 plant in Cleveland. All in all it seems that Ford’s option to go all in with the Eco Boost is paying off handsomely.

Episode 6 of season 5 introduces us to Troy Downey, the owner of A.P.E. Wraps. Chris and Troy walk through all of the ins and outs of getting your vehicle wrapped. The episode shows the Motorz TV project Ford F-150 go through the entire wrap process from start to finish. It even covers the thought and work that went in to picking out and designing the new look for the Motorz TV project Ford F-150 and why certain choices were made. It finishes off by answering a lot of questions for those of you out there that are thinking about wrapping your ride but have some reservations. So head on over to Motorz TV and watch as Chris, Olivia and the rest of the Motorz crew give you the DIY scoop. This and all previous episodes of Motorz can be viewed at the Motorz website.

The Altitude Edition Wrangler exterior is available in either black paint with black trim or Silver Metallic, Cherry Red and Bright White with black trim. The interior gets the black berber floor mat treatment, black leather with red hand stitching, and a black trimmed dash. All of this sits on custom 18 inch wheels with black spokes. The matching body color hard top and Altitude badges seal the deal. There will only be 4,500 Wrangler Altitude models made and will be available starting in May. So hightail it over to your Jeep dealer now before they’re all gone.