China's JAC Does it Again with Ford F-150 Pickup Truck Clone

We've seen this play before and before that and before that, but it never gets old: Chinese automakers replicating vehicles from western automakers. One brand that keeps popping up on our cloning radar is Jianghuai Automobile, more commonly known as JAC Motors.

It's latest accomplishment is the JAC 4R3 pickup truck that makes no attempt to hide the fact that it's a styling copy of the Ford F-150. Of course, as with other Chinese doppelgangers, the similarities begin and end with the appearance as it's too costly for automakers to extend the cloning to the mechanical hardware.

The 4R3 will reportedly make its debut at the Beijing Motor Show in April and will then go on sale in China where it will be offered with a 2.8-liter four-cylinder diesel engine pushing out 108-horsepower and 240Nm (177 lb-ft) of peak torque.

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Chevy Takes a Stab at Ford with its New Super Bowl Ad for the Silverado

And the claws are out! Chevrolet makes no apologies for its new commercial on the Silverado pickup truck that will air during the first quarter of Super Bowl XLVI on Sunday.

Set in a post-apocalyptic world that draws on the Mayan predictions, the ad shows a group of friends that made it out alive and who all happen to be Silverado owners.

Once they assemble, they notice that one of their buddies didn’t make it to the meeting point – the missing friend happens to own a Ford…

You can take a look at Chevy's "2012" Super Bowl ad in the video after the break.

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Power Play: Watch Four Chevrolet Silverados Tear Down a Building

While some GM dealers go around destroying old cars to inaugurate their new premises others use the company's new vehicles to demolish their old buildings like this dealer, who judging by the name used to upload the video on YouTube, is John Thornton Chevy, located in Georgia.

The Chevrolet dealer hooked up four Silverado pickup trucks to the building's columns and the GM models didn't disappoint.

Head over the jump to watch the impressive take down in the video that follows.

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The Top 10 Best-Selling Cars and Trucks in the USA for 2011

We have already seen the sales numbers for automakers in the U.S. for the year that just ended so it's time to take a look at the list with the top 10 best-selling cars and trucks of 2011, which was compiled by Car's Kicking Tires.

What's interesting here is not so much the vehicles that appear in the list but the ones that are absent this year as it was more or less expected that the Ford F-Series and the Chevrolet Silverado pickup trucks would once again take first and second place respectively and that the Camry would be the best selling passenger car.

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New Study Reveals the Most Profitable Vehicles in the USA

All carmakers want their vehicles to sell in big numbers. And they make a big fuss out of it when they succeed, especially when they top the sales charts in their respective segments. However, high sale numbers don’t necessarily translate to high profits, especially with the discounts that have become a common practice to draw customers to dealerships.

A recent study conducted by Max Warburton of Bernstein Research, a market trends and analysis firm, reveals which models sold in the U.S. are the most profitable for automakers.

Despite being blamed for almost anything, from the greenhouse effect to the costly bailout a couple of years ago, the study shows that Detroit’s Big Three light-truck models lead the list of the most profitable vehicles in the U.S.

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GM Invests US$275 Million in Ft. Wayne Plant to Build New Chevy and GMC Full-Size Pickup Trucks

General Motors announced on Wednesday that it plans to invest approximately US$275 million at its Fort Wayne assembly plant in Indiana to build the next generation of GMC and Chevrolet full size pickup trucks.

The latest investment is part of a US$2 billion plan that was announced back in May, which will create or retain around 4,000 jobs in 17 of GM’s U.S. factories over the next 18 months.

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GM Idles Pickup Production Once Again to Reduce Inventory

General Motors announced that it will temporarily halt production at its Fort Wayne plant in Indiana for the week starting November 7, in order to reduce its inventory of pickup trucks models.

This is not the first time that GM has stopped production at the plant where the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra are manufactured. Even though pickup sales in the US have increased from January until August by 9% to 1.1 million units, compared to the same period last year, GM seems to have badly misjudged demand for its models, resulting in an inventory of 122-days.

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The Chevrolet Farm Truck is One Sleeper You Don't Want to Mess With… [Videos]

Sure, there are many stupidly fast sleepers out there, but how many look like a 40-year-old rust bucket with wobbly bits and pieces hanging from the body?

Enter the world of "The Oklahoma Farm Truck", a 1970s Chevrolet C/K truck that has been modified from within to create a straight-line slayer with hugely deceiving looks.

The big-block V8-powered monster from Oklahoma comes with a nitrous punch and a huge set of slick wheels at the back.

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