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27,692 posts, and zero from Balthy. ? You guys can use a vacation thread from me. ?

I'm not going to retail places often, my wife goes to the regular grocery store and Korean grocery store once a week each, and I go to the bakery and fruit/veggie market each week. Other than that a couple times to garden centres and hardware stores over the last few months. So we are not using our masks much, just making do with reusable multi-layer cloth ones. They are not that comfy outdoors now with the heat, should probably get some disposables. I carry a small hand sanitizer with me on my walks to the stores, not much of a shortage of those around here any longer either. We put a soap pump outside next to the hose bib to wash our hands before going in the house. We try to be careful with my inlaws isolating with us in our home during this period. My wife works at a hospital and is given two disposable masks a day to use there.

Mercedes owner came into my buddy's shop a few years ago- said her brakes weren't working well :

Marketing is an issue since GM does not advertise all that much with cars these days. There is also a product issue. If the Bolt were the size of an Equinox, sales would be triple what the Bolt has sold since inception.

https://www.buick.com/future-vehicles/2021-envision

Thank you SO MUCH

I cannot imagine any car person who would not love to own this. 1970 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser 442 1973 Chevrolet Chevelle Laguna 454

It was not that long ago that Mazda was selling the B-series which was based on a Ford Ranger. No surprise that Mazda would do this again.

Seems that the BT-50 is sold in international markets (Australia from what I can tell), and this is just the next generation. Doesn't seem to indicate it will be coming to the US.

Continuing watching 80s movies the last 3 nights...3 w/ Eddie Murphy--48HRs, Beverly Hills Cop I and II...funny and lots of neat 80s cars and car chases. Love the music in BH I and II...

Love at first site!!! 1965 Pontiac 2+2 One I will always think fondly of is the 1993 GMC Typhoon. 0 to 60 in 5.3 seconds, AWD and faster than a Ferrari 348 of the same time periof.

WOW, Some very cool news and I know some will really like, looking @ocnblu will love this confirmation. BRONCO to have 7sp manual transmission with a Crawl gear for the 4x4. https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/2021-bronco-s-seven-speed-manual-will-boast-a-low-range-crawl-gear/ar-BB15lMbd?ocid=msedgntp Ford Executive is now saying the Bronco will be superior in every way to the Wrangler. https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/enthusiasts/ford-exec-talks-smack-says-bronco-will-be-superior-to-wrangler/ar-BB15jACj?ocid=msedgntp More Leaked photos's of the Bronco. https://www.motor1.com/news/403527/2021-ford-bronco-leaked-again/?utm_source=msn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=msn-feed https://www.motor1.com/news/403191/2021-ford-bronco-possible-leak/?utm_source=msn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=msn-feed 1969 Chevrolet Kingswood with 427

HEY HEY WE'RE THE MONKEES!!!

I think they are SUPPOSED to disinfect the high touch areas. I was dropping off only. I would again wipe down the steering wheel, dash controls, and door handles. Also, fabric seats would fare better than leather seats in this scenario. I would also leave all the windows down partway to make sure the wind while on the road moves any stale air out of the car. I'd figure that, in about a day, the car would be my personal airspace. In a funkier neighborhood or if there was weather, I might not crack the windows as much ... or at all.

I was thinking developing densely populated countries with areas of mass poverty like India and Pakistan would fail to control the spread the most.

Are you finding that you are o.k. with masks? I now have 3 boxes of them (2 with 10 and 1 with 50) and am still working on the first box. The supermarkets and drug stores are now pushing them. And, I still have bandannas. Are you finding that you are o.k. with hand sanitizer? I now have small bottles in each room which I accumulated as I checked out of grocery stores. I have disinfectant wipes in the bathrooms and in the console of my car, not to mention my travel bag. And, I have 2 mini bottles that are meant for a backpack or whatever, one of which was given to me free as a courtesy when picking up some office supplies. How supply and demand have changed in one month!

10 000 dollars for a Bolt is a GREAT price. You know what? 10 000 dollars for a brand spanking Corvette C8 new from the showroom floor is ALSO a GREAT price. In both scenarios, 249 a month for 36 months is NOT too much for people to afford. But we all know that such a low price for either is not reality. The thing is, the technology involved does not lend that to happen, right? Not yet at least. PS: I thought GM was losing money on the Bolt that was sold at 349. Yes, marketing and lack of qualified sales people hold back the Bolt, but prices for EVs for the masses is not yet in line for them to be sold at and for the masses...

Choices are what made cars fun!! ?

GM's failure in Europe AND USA is why they had to rely on China. I'm not terribly bent out of shape about GM's failure in Europe anymore. If Fiat and PSA are still building cars, that says something...low standards....apart from the homerism to BMW, Merc, VWAG. GM's pending failure here in the US is partially a product of not producing in the US as much as many other issues.....downsizing interiors and engines, styling miscues, product class miscues, marking huge miscues, caring more about autonomous vehicles and CAFE.....and electric..... GM can probably offset some losses in China if they lose share there, by growing in other parts of the world not called Europe, and I think they are chipping away at those new opportunities. But then they give up AU...with Holden..... Really at the end of the day, Buick could be a huge contributor to increasing their US sales based on crossovers, and by building them here. GM's overall size and class strategy still confuses...is this smaller than the current Envision? Is it more like the XT4? The Enspire I HOPE is still coming, and that it is Blazer sized. A mid-large 2 row ala Edge / Blazer with premium status WOULD help Buick a lot, esp if built in the US. BUT it also has to look good and GM can't be trusted to put out well styled vehicles but maybe half the time these days.....

I completely understand.

A co-worker has an account with a local general contracting company. They bought a bunch of the little NV200 vans. Every time one was brought in for collision repair, the employee dropping it off mentioned how much they all hate them.

So true. It's all about the sharp pencil. I am not asking that they offer 7 colors for your vehicle's interior like they did in '77 (when they had green, blue, and burgundy). However, they make enough Malibus, for example, where they should offer the conventional three interior colors: black, gray, and tan. If you do the "build and price" on one of those, even up the ladder to LT, the only interior you can get for most exterior colors is black. Similarly, on the base Dodge Charger, they only offer a black interior, probably to keep the price at $ 29 K. For the price difference from a decently equipped Malibu LT, the Charger is quite a bit more car, so I'd work around the one interior color choice on that one.

It was a conventional gas engine (ICE) and it was a 2.5 L 4. It was a rental. I was supposed to have an intermediate, like a Hyundai Elantra, but they did not have cars. Just trucks/SUVs/CUVs.

Pretty sure that is a good thing.... ?

Did ya try the Rav4 Hybrid, everyone I know says it is night and day different than the rest of the Rav4's and once you drive one, you wonder how you could ever drive a traditional ICE version let alone many of the competition products. I am interested to know if you did test drive one what you thought compared to the commercial reviews. Or the less options is due to the bulk of society wants a certain image, certain jones jones competition of being seen in the same type of auto. I use my 4x4 / AWD all the time off road and up on the mountain passes during winter and yet the bulk of the folks in my cul-d-sac never go out especially if it is a little icy here in the suburbs. As such, very much a jones jones thing has led to the death of the car over the bulk of everyone wanting a cuv/suv or truck.

100% my thoughts on every point you touched. Im not one to discriminate against a country. (I said country. I never discriminate against the people.)(and there are a few countries to which I have saltiness for) China’s political leadership stinks. From their bullying of certain territorial waters to their bullying of doing business in China and especially their cover up of Covid 19, I think GM should reconsider wtf they want to do in China going forward. I understand that China has billions of people and GM sees dollar signs, but at what American cost does that mean? And yes. I sees plenty of Mazda in this. But then again, its a CUV. They all look the same anyhow.

I would have liked to see interior pics since that is where the real experience is. I do wish that the Envision came with a V6 but emissions requirements and displacement taxes in China make that almost impossible.

From a marketing course I took in undergrad, the chewing into each other's market share was termed cannabalization. If you grab market share from outside GM, that would be a good thing. If you grab from across brand lines, not so much. However, I think it was common. Many people's tastes took them to Chevrolet or Pontiac, and the price points that went with that. My dad seemed to focus on Buick and Oldsmobile, with the perception that Buick was a notch better. I found that debatable. Our Olds cars were always better looking than our Buick cars. With the exception of the early odd-firing V6 we had, the Buicks lasted a little longer. So, these cannabalizers are a stable captive audience that will be deciding on a vehicle within GM's stable. GM knows that there's a large batch of these loyal customers. What it will always need to do is pull people in from the ranks of other brands. After recently spending some time behind the wheel of a Toyota RAV 4, there is no doubt in my mind I'd be back at GM looking at an Acadia or similar, even with the base engine and just FWD. The Toyota was a slight disappointment.

You could say exactly that about MOST of the CUV segment.

it's unoffensive / attractive but yet you could almost throw any badge on it. No real 'Buick' cues whatsoever. But at least you get FOUR cylinders!!!!

Hey, just saw this, did not realize Mazda is coming back to the truck market. It is an Isuzu based truck and will have a turbo diesel along with gas that @ocnblu should like. https://www.motor1.com/news/428154/2021-mazda-bt50-teaser/

when we see the specs on this vehicle we will know if its an XT4 clone or not. the XT4 is a lot smaller inside than the envision. Now, if the new Envision is on the XT4 platform, but has been legnthened and widened, such that it comes out with the same interior space as the current Envision, that is my hope. I really like the current Envision (no contest vs Equinox and Terrain) apart from where it is built but that is with a deal breaker / caveat.....the dashboard and all its plood is hideous. Also, the pricing on the Envision can be quite comical. The pricing and trim packages as GM usually does them is what ultimately dooms the product on the sales chart. Priced way too high, the cars sit on lots for a year until GM throws rebates at them. There are still many XT4's from 2019 needing a home, with ridiculous MSRP's that now they have to look at DEEP discounting before anyone will pop.

WOW ? https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2020-coronavirus-cases-world-map/

I have to say I like the look of it! Much better than the current one.. But lack of news kinda shows how important Buick is here in the US sadly.....