As Fall Carlisle waived goodbye to its final vendors earlier in the week, the 2019 central Pennsylvania schedule for Carlisle Events concluded.  The five-day event offered a little bit of everything for everyone, including record breaking heat on its first day followed by rain, wind and cold on day two.  By day three, normalcy returned to the Carlisle PA Fairgrounds with aisles and vending spaces alike packed with people and all things automotive.

With thousands of vending spaces filled with millions of items, numerous cars in the car corral and many more in the auction, Fall Carlisle proved once again that its historical significance in the automotive world is justified.  Leading up to the event itself, vendors spent days setting up shop by covering the fairgrounds with all types of automotive pieces and parts.  In addition, car owners hoping to move their ride in the car corral lined the area with over 1,000 cars of various makes and models.  With the gates opening Wednesday at 7 a.m., the influx of attendees was non-stop throughout the weekend.

The fairgrounds fun wasn’t the only entertainment option for showgoers.  Auction cars were available for preview at the nearby Carlisle Expo Center too, all while the Carlisle Auctions staff prepared the facility for its prime time showcase Thursday and Friday.  On grounds at Carlisle, the vendor/customer interaction was non-stop as individuals and companies alike offered show-only specials, with deals and discounts to be had everywhere.

As the sun shined down Friday and Saturday, guests also had the chance to enjoy trivia Friday evening, while Saturday played host to the annual vendor appreciation dinner.  The aforementioned auction saw 500+ consignments cross the block, with just over a 50% sell through rate and $3.6 million in total sales.  The top selling auction car was a 1986 Ferrari Testarossa, moving for a cool $88,810.  The top five overall included two Corvettes, a Cadillac and a Buick.  Additional auction information will be presented in the coming days.

With Fall Carlisle in the bag along with its auction, Carlisle Events and Carlisle Auctions turns its collective attention to Sarasota, Florida and the all-new Sunset-Carlisle two-day auction.  This two-day offering (November 8-9) will feature 400+ consignments coming from a market ripe with classic and collector car enthusiasts.  All the fun in Sarasota starts at 10 a.m. each day.

For complete information on 2019’s Fall Carlisle event including images and the post-event survey, visit www.CarlisleEvents.com.  While online, learn about upcoming 2020 events, special displays, themes and more.  Speaking of 2020, Carlisle Events gets the season up and running January 17-19 with Auto Mania at the Allentown Fairgrounds.  

Fall Carlisle is a heritage event in automotive circles, dating back to 1974.  The fall auction, powered by Carlisle Auctions doesn’t quite go that far back, but it brings enough tradition to the table that buyers, sellers and spectators alike recognize it as a premier event within the region.  As such, the Carlisle Expo Center was packed for two days (October 3-4) for the Fall auction and the team at Carlisle Auctions delivered once more! 

With a bidder total that exceeded last fall’s registration and a lot of 500+ quality consignments, the table was set perfectly for two days of classic and collector car excitement.  Trucks, cars, trikes, bikes and motorcycles all crossed the block.  Fall even offered a 60’s themed “power hour” as a tribute to a decade of automotive excellence more than 50 years ago.  The theme, combined with the overall event and excitement by its participants, helped tally $3.6 million in sales and an over 50% sell through rate.
Of the $3.6 million in sales, $328,902 came from its top five sellers.  The top five, outlined below, included a Ferrari, two Corvettes, a Cadillac and a Buick.  All sales data quoted includes applicable fees.  

1) 1986 Ferrari Testarossa - $88,810
2) 1966 Chevrolet Corvette - $78,830
3) 2016 Chevrolet Z06 Corvette - $68,212
4) 1954 Cadillac Eldorado - $65,270
5) 1955 Buick Super 88 - $57,780

While more than 250+ consignments sold, that means about the same amount did not.  Those cars are “still for sale” and a Carlisle Auctions team member is available today to help negotiate a sale if buyer and seller can agree on a price point.  Some of those cars are currently showcased on the Carlisle Auctions web page.  

For complete information on this auction, its results and those cars that might still be available, contact Carlisle Auctions at 717-960-6400 or online at www.CarlisleAuctions.com.  You can all connect with Carlisle Auctions to learn more about this event or future auctions too.  One such future event is ALL-NEW and takes place November 8-9 in Sarasota, Florida.  Sunset-Carlisle takes place in partnership with the Sunset Automotive Group at their spacious facility, located at 6061 Sawyer Loop Rd. 

October is many things to many people.  It’s when most feel like Fall has finally arrived, it’s picking pumpkins, traversing corn mazes and of course it’s trick or treating.  For Corvette lovers and fans of the Miller family, not only is October 27 the late Chip Miller’s birthday, it’s also the wedding anniversary of Lance and Michele Miller.  Oh…and this also happens to be the same day that the Carlisle Expo Center in Carlisle, PA, plays host to one last central PA car show AND the last Chip Miller Amyloidosis Foundation event of the year.  One and all are invited to Carlisle to support the CMAF, honor Chip Miller and enjoy the 11th Annual Corvettes for Chip car show.  

Designed for Corvette lovers and lovers of Chip Miller alike, the event is as much a car show as it is a fund raiser, weaving equal parts fall fun in with Christmas cheer; after all, Santa will be there!  2018’s event raised over $8,000 and this year’s fun hopes to top that total, all while raising awareness for a great cause.  

The new date offers the same great fun, including the standard 8:30 a.m. start time.  Those interested in registering their Corvette for judging and review have two hours to do so, so by 10:30 a.m., registration closes.  Just before that, the event officially gets going with a 10:15 a.m. playing of the National Anthem.  Once all the introductory “stuff” has concluded, it will then be time for registered car owners to get together to review the agenda of the day.  Over 100 Corvettes are expected and all available eras of production will be on-site.  

There’s also some other special happenings leading up to the event.  The National Corvette Museum is hosting a special Corvette racing event at the AACA Museum, Inc. in Hershey in the days leading up to Corvettes for Chip.  There, the #3 Cunningham Corvette will  be on display.  Plus, at Corvettes for Chip itself, another famous #3 will be on-hand, the iconic yellow Corvette race car that Dale Earnhardt Sr., Junior and Andy Pilgrim drove at Daytona in 2001 just days before his untimely death.   

Regardless of what is happening during the Corvettes for Chip event, the backbone of the day is Amyloidosis awareness and fundraising for the CMAF.  The giving nature of the event also helps bring Santa Claus to town.  A late October get together may be more fitting for Jack Skellington, but he’s more a taker than a giver.  Time with St. Nick is a great way for family and friends to also support the annual Toys for Tots drive.  Talk with Santa, donate a toy and even pick up tickets for the 50/50 raffle.  

No event honoring Chip Miller would be complete without a ceremonial revving of the engines.  At the mid-point of the Santa meet and greet, car owners will fire up their beloved Corvettes at 12 p.m. for an audible tribute to a man who played a vital role in Carlisle’s automotive history and Corvette history too.  

Corvettes for Chip concludes with a raffle as well as silent auction opportunities.  There’s a 2 p.m. awards ceremony for the cars and their owners plus even more fun like a bake sale, food and drink, a DJ playing music, a silent auction and more.  

Registration is $25 for anyone who pre-registers online at www.corvettesforchip.com OR $30 the day of the show.  Parking is available indoors or out, but space inside the Expo Center is limited and at $60, is available on a first-come, first-served basis.  Again, to be indoors, pre-registration is required.  All registration fees are tax deductible!  Celebrate a super special day for the Millers and join us in Carlisle!  Complete information on this event is available at www.chipmiller.org or by calling 717-243-7855 x113.

Currently the 7th top-selling vehicle in America – the 3rd best-selling crossover – the 2019 Rogue is also Nissan’s top-selling vehicle. Rogue debuted in 2007 for the 2008 model year as Nissan’s entry-level compact sports-ute, and began its second generation in 2013, earning a solid rep among buyers as it climbed the ranks of top-sellers.

Sporty and versatile, the 2019 Rogue follows extensive enhancements last year by adding tech and cosmetics in each trim level. Expanded technology includes standard Lane Departure Warning, Intelligent Lane Intervention, Automatic Emergency Braking, with Pedestrian Detection and High Beam Assist, across all grade levels; Rear Automatic Braking and a Rear Sonar System have been added as standard on SV and SL grades; an Innovative Rear Door Alert was added to all grade levels -- reminds the driver to check the back seat before exiting the vehicle; the SV trim gets a new Premium Package with 18-inch aluminum-alloy wheels, ProPILOT Assist and available electronic parking brake; and the S trim gets a new Special Edition Package -- 17-inch aluminum-alloy wheels, heated exterior mirrors with integrated LED turn signals, leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob, heated driver's and front passenger seat, and chrome exterior and interior door handles and roof rails.

Offered in three well-equipped grade levels, S, SV and SL -- Rogue eliminated its third row of seating a few years back, but it fits the demand for an upscale compact crossover  with dimensions of 184.5 inches in length; 72.4 inches in width and 66.6 inches in height on a 106.5-inch wheelbase. Minimum ground clearance is 8.4 inches (AWD), and curbweight for the AWD in SL trim is 3614 lbs. Assembled in Smyrna, Tennessee, Rogue’s unibody construction utilizes corrosion-resistant and high-strength steel, with a premium look and feel from its signature “V-Motion” grille and headlights to its LED boomerang signature taillights.

Rogue’s refined interior presents a premium look and feel, and is enhanced with a D-shaped steering wheel and leather-booted sport-mode shifter, available heated steering wheel, memory for driver's seats and mirror, and remote engine start. 

Interior sightlines are impeded by thick rear roof pillars, but Rogue’s cabin is roomy for a smaller SUV with 41.6 inches of front headroom and 38.5 inches in row two. Interior legroom is comfortable in front at 43.0 inches and relatively comfy in row two at 37.9 inches. Shoulder room is 56.6 in front and 55.9 and in the rear.

Rogue continues to offer one standard power source, a transverse 2.5-liter inline-4-cylinder DOHC engine that provides 170 horsepower and 175 lb.-ft. of torque. Coupled with an Xtronic CVT® (Continuously Variable Transmission) with standard Sport Mode and Eco switches, Rogue is EPA rated at 25mpg/city, 32mpg/highway and 28mpg/overall, and a week of mixed-use testing averaged of 26.6mpg. From a stop and also at speed, acceleration is uninspired but predictable, and uphill grades and passing at speed require some strategy. Steering seems stiff, and the electric power-assisted power assisted rack-and-pinion steering exhibited understeer during quick maneuvers. Track times were finished off in a 9.3-second zero-to-60mpg sprint and a perceptibly slow 17.4-second quarter-mile. 

The driving experience is smooth for the niche, with firm on-pavement engagement from independent strut front suspension, coil springs and an independent multi-link rear, though Rogue does not appear to be suited for severe off-road challenges.

Earning top marks for safety, Rogue Safety Shield technologies include radar-based Blind Spot Warning and Rear Cross Traffic Alert. Additionally, Rogue is constructed with zone body construction with front and rear crumple zones; energy-absorbing steering column; hood-buckling creases and safety stops; body side reinforcements; shift interlock system; vehicle security system; vehicle dynamic control and traction control system. And you get the Nissan Advanced Air Bag System with dual-stage supplemental front air bags with seat belt and occupant-classification sensors, driver and front-passenger seat-mounted side-impact supplemental air bags, and roof-mounted curtain supplemental air bags with rollover sensor for outboard occupant head protection for all rows.

The 2019 Nissan Rogue starts at $25,020 for the base S trim in FWD and $26,370 for AWD. The SV trim adds 17-inch aluminum-alloy wheels, Nissan Intelligent Key® with push button ignition, blind spot warning, rear cross traffic alert, dual zone automatic temperature control and a 6-way power driver's seat to the base S, and starts at $26,440 in FWD and $27,990 in AWD. The top trim Rogue SL I tested starts at $31,490 in FWD and $32,840 in AWD and gains Nissan Door to Door Navigation with Premium Traffic, Intelligent Cruise Control, Automatic Emergency Braking with Pedestrian Detection and Leather-appointed seats. Hybrid models start at $27,700 and run to $32,990 before options.

My test 2019 Rogue SL added the SL Premium Package for $1820, which included a power panoramic moonroof and LED headlights. The SL Platinum Reserve Interior Package, for $250, added leather-appointed seats with quilted leather inserts and Piano Black door finisher; roof rail crossbars added $365; four splash guards added $170; and a chrome rear bumper protector was $165. A cool and high-tech 360-degree exterior impact sensor added only $125 and a moonroof wind deflector also added $125. With destination and handling charges of $1045, my 2019 Rogue SL-as-tested came in at $36,905.

Written by Mike Blake, former editor of KIT CAR magazine, joined Carlisle Events as senior automotive journalist in 2004. He's been a "car guy" since the 1960s and has been writing professionally for about 30 years. 

The GMC Acadia was launched in 2006 for the 2007 model year, and was re-engineered for 2017 as a second-Gen mid-size crossover that is smaller, lighter, and more technically and cosmetically advanced than the original, with hipper styling cues. Offering greater maneuverability than the first-generation model, this second-Gen sports-ute is a sibling to the Chevrolet Traverse and shares the same platform and mechanical components with its midsize sister, but most everything else, from grillework, to interior styling to equipment, differs, as Acadia is more trendy, round and intuitive inside, while Traverse seems to be more pedestrian.

New for 2019 are the Acadia Black Edition that is available on SLT model and includes 20-inch machined aluminum wheels with black accents, black grille insert , black surround, black headlamp and taillamp details, and black mirror caps, roof rails and additional exterior accents. Also new are a 17-inch wheel design and P255/65R17 all-terrain tires available on All Terrain, as well as new exterior colors: Dark Sky Metallic, Pepperdust Metallic, Red Quartz Metallic and Smokey Quartz Metallic. 

Vehicle highlights include: Traction Select that allows driver to adjust vehicle performance for various road conditions; active upper and lower grille shutters; power programmable liftgate; three rows of seating, including second-row captain’s chairs or split-folding bench; tri-zone automatic climate control; standard GMC Infotainment system with 7-inch-diagonal color touchscreen, and an available 8-inch system with navigation. Other Acadia amenities include Apple CarPlay and Android Auto phone projection capability; Teen Driver is standard on all models; Keyless Open and Start is standard on all models and an available Tow Vision Trailering System, which uses the rear-vision camera to help line up the hitch with a trailer.

I tested the upscale Denali, built at GM’s Spring Hill, Tennessee assembly facility with 65 percent U.S./Canadian parts. With body-frame integral construction, the structure incorporates press-hardened, high-strength steels, which allows thinner components in some areas offering comparable or better crash performance than conventional materials as well as providing reduced curb weight. 

A refined mid-size crossover, Acadia measures 193.6 inches long; 66 inches high and a widebody 75.4 inches wide on a 112.5-inch wheelbase. Ground clearance is 7.2 inches and curbweight comes in at about 3956, though the upscale versions with the 3.6-liter engine should exceed 4000 pounds.

Acadia offers two engine choices: a 2.5-liter Inline-4 engine that provides 193hp and 188 lbs.-ft. of torque and an EPA rating of 21/city and 26/highway; or a 3.6-liter V-6 engine mated to a Hydra-Matic 6T70 six-speed automatic transmission. The system delivers 310 hp and 271 lbs.-ft. of torque, for an EPA rating of 18/city and 25/highway. Mated to a 6T70 six-speed automatic transmission, my 3.6-powered Denali was attentive, responsive and confident, and averaged 21.1 mpg with long stretches of highway cruising making up the largest part of my tests.

Providing a sporty and comfortable driving experience, Acadia’s electric variable-effort power steering with Active Return Assist was predictable, and minimized body roll and understeer in corners, while the MacPherson strut front suspension with direct-acting stabilizer bar worked well with the five-link independent rear with coil springs and stabilizer bar to level highway and city road irregularities. Softroad excursions were fun, but I am not sure Acadia is a true off-roader.

Generous and well-appointed inside, the Acadia cabin provides seating for five, six, or seven passengers depending on model and configuration. My six-passenger Denali offered a roomy 40.3 inches of front headroom without a sunroof (you lose about 1.2 inches with a sunroof), and 39.6 in row two. The third row allows 37.2 inches. Legroom was 41 inches in front and 39.7 in the second row and a child-worthy 31.1 in row three, while shoulder room came in at 59.4, 58.7 and 54.3 Cargo volume was 41.7 cu.ft. behind row two if row three is eliminated.

Safety features include standard head curtain side air bags with rollover protection for all seating rows and roof-mounted head curtain air bags, Front and Rear Parking Assist, Lane Change Alert,  Front Pedestrian Braking, Low Speed Forward Automatic Braking, Forward Automatic Braking, Following Distance Indicator, IntelliBeam automatic headlamp high-beam control, Surround Vision camera system, Forward Collision Alert and more.

Acadia’s base SL trim starts at $30,195 and runs through six levels to get to the top-of-the-line Denali that I tested – starting at $46,695. In the lesser trims, you pay about $1095 for the upgrade to the larger engine – Denali comes with the larger plant as standard. You also pay from $2000 to $5000 to upgrade from FWD to AWD depending on trim level, the higher the level the less the increase, so with Denali, we were only hiked by $2000 for AWD. Red Quartz Tincoat exterior paint added $495 and the outside was mated to a Jet Black perorated leather interior. The Technology Package that is a “must” for the safety conscious was also included for $1495, consisting of advanced adaptive cruise control with full speed front automatic braking and a surround vision system. The Interior Protection Package for $300 added all-weather floor mats and cargo mats throughout. Rear seat infotainment with DVD player would have added $1995, but my ride was without that option, though we did add Wireless charging for $375. With an additional $1195 for Destination charges, my final sticker-as-tested was at $51,460, but cash allowance incentives of $4250 brought the MSRP to $47,210, so check with your local dealer.

<I> Visit www.CarlisleEvents.com for more on the automotive hobby.

Mike Blake, former editor of KIT CAR magazine, joined Carlisle Events as senior automotive journalist in 2004. He's been a "car guy" since the 1960s and has been writing professionally for about 30 years. </I>