Leaderboard

I was checking out automotive websites yesterday, on the hunt for any news of an impending Dodge Charger redesign. Somehow, I find myself at the Chrysler site. And, to my surprise, the Chrysler 300 is present this year. I was surprised to see that. I thought it would be gone by now. Has the discontinuation of the 300 been confirmed? In print? In looking at the "gallery" photos for 2020: what a fine looking interior environment. Nice! It would be great if they kept both the Charger and the 300 going with the next refresh, but I doubt that will happen. Still tapping my fingers for any news to break ...

That is actually adorable, and I am a vehement Toyota hater.

Yaris Cross

There is logic, you just do not want to read or dig into the details to understand. Logic is a multi year plan for clean water, air and quality of life. Nothing is free, unlike the only care in some areas in the midwest and especially east coast is making a dollar at the expense of human life. Especially the ground water pollution and air quality destruction of the coal states. Eventually we will get everyone educated.

Not true. According to this article here, 70% of all automotive air pollution is caused by Class 8 trucks (think tractor-trailers and the like). The mandate starts in 2024 but the mandate is not 100% until 2045. https://arstechnica.com/cars/2020/06/california-set-to-ban-all-heavy-diesel-trucks-and-vans-by-2045/ https://www.thedetroitbureau.com/2020/06/california-regulators-order-massive-shift-to-battery-hydrogen-power-for-trucks-vans/

That Yaris Cross here in this market makes a lot more sense than the current Yaris. Arguably for the same reason Ford and GM have largely abandoned cars for CUVs and SUVs.

So after all the last few years of my harassing, and shopping, test driving, sending pictures ....my uncles let my mom know of a 2011 DTS for sale in the small town and where my parents had bought other Cadillacs before. Got a build sheet from GM and a Carfax to check it out. I could tell mom had found what she wanted . And less than 80,000 miles. I told her if she didn’t buy it today that I would. Maybe Cadillac needs to refocus on the large comfortable cars again. She got a good one, the interior is almost new condition. She wishes the dash top wasn’t so dark, I told her with used cars you get what you get. ?

daimler-trucksnorthamerica.com https://daimler-trucksnorthamerica.com/innovation/ states the 'eCascadia' is "PLANNED to enter productiong in late 2021". That's far from "now".

Here's the link to Daimler's HD truck site, read the block next to the 3rd picture (viewing thru the windshield): https://www.mercedes-benz.com/en/vehicles/trucks/eactros-heavy-duty-electric-truck/ The EV daimlers are in a 2-yr beta testing; I can't go into a dealer and buy one Monday morning.

The new one is really nice. Would love to have a 3-door ST if I could simultaneously keep my truck.

I'm not going to check them all but; Lion, Tesla, Nikola - not in production currently Daimler - 20 customers currently running test units. Not in production. Techcrunch states Nikola will "eventually produce" their truck. What that means is anybody's guess. Peterbilt's truck is only good for '90 to up to 200 miles' [depending on model] but there's no MSRP or manner to build/order/purchase currently. That means NOT available for purchase. 'Pre-orders' is not 'in production' nor does it incorporate 'purchase' as defined by 'taking ownership of'. It's improper to state it otherwise. Sure, the IDEA is for that to transition, but that always takes longer than intended. Tesla opened pre-orders for the Model 3 in the end of May 2016- took them 16 months to deliver the first one, and that was a small sedan.

The Fiesta ST is supposed to drive quite nicely from what I've read.. this trim looks decent..though regular Fiestas seem to be the usual subcompact gray plastic despair hell inside. I really don't like small cars, but this looks like it could be fun..manual, zippy.

Might is the key and so far the Fiat's that new out of college coworkers bought, they quickly traded in within the same year of buying as the interiors sucked due to cheapness and quality problems. Mini, has a fan base, but unless your part of that hard core fan base, they really are over rated attempts by BMW to sell a cheap subcompact at luxury prices with nothing but garbage interiors to small people. The Seattle area has seen the independent Mini dealers all go away as they were sold and merged into the BMW dealerships and are now just a side foot note for that small crowd of people who have European Fantasy about their summer trip with a rental Mini in Europe. Honestly, I think Mini as well as Fiat will be gone by 2030 if not 2025 in the US.

I honestly have not seen a Yaris on the road in a long time (like, several years). Too many RAV-4s and CR-Vs instead. Only in the USA is a subcompact treated as a penalty box, especially in light of the used car market. Nobody wants a subcompact car.

They are quite sweet and loving with their humans, but wary of strangers. Yorkies have Napoleon syndrome, I think. As far as take your pet to work, I've never done that...though at a couple small consulting firms I was at people did that...I just wouldn't feel comfortable bringing my 6 to 10 pound dogs in an office w/ big dogs. Wouldn't want to have them sit in a crate all day. Though w/ Yorkies I'd probably be getting attention from the ladies all day probably...

They were in the 25th. I made a thread for it.

The most recent US-market Yaris was a rebadged Mazda 2, probably drove better than previous Yarii.

Montezuma's Revenge

Yeah, like the big Mercedes..when she drove the Zs in the 80s, she loved Mercedes S-classes, so bought one years later when it was cheap...but it was a money pit. A great car to drive when running, but a money pit. There are quite a few '70s-90s cars I'd love to own, but I can appreciate them from a distance...

Yikes- not quite signs that it was loved.. ? I agree with that...anything in the rust belt doesn’t last long body wise, though we did get nearly 17 years out of the wife’s Cavalier. My Cobalt is starting to rust a decent amount around the rockers, but the rest is hanging in there. My 16 year old Cavalier project is still rust free- it has seen salt maybe 2-3 times in it’s life. I’ll have to take pics of the underbody...still very clean. Same with my Equinox- plans are to keep a winter beater around for that reason..... It’s crazy what you find in the car when you get it. My Cobalt came with packs of smokes hiding everywhere...

I’ve always liked the styling of that generation STS and the 2nd gen CTS. Crisp and clean. It’s still a smooth, quiet comfortable car when running. She’s had an interesting history with cars—first car was a new ‘76 Pinto my Dad got her for HS graduation, followed by 4 Datsun/Nissan Z cars (from a ‘77 280 to a ‘90 300ZX Twin Turbo (all manuals), a Corsica, a Saab 900 Turbo, Acura Legend coupe, Explorer, Liberty, a couple old Mercedes, a DTS, and now the Trax and STS...

This is what I laughed at. And what you said is quite true. Thanx for the reply. Yup. That pic of the STS confirms of what I think now. And that is: I think Arts and Science peaked with those years and has started to go downhill from there. I know Johan has tweaked it and he is the one to start weaning off of Arts and Science, but I also believe that Cadillac's current design language has no real direction... Sure, they are nice, but not jaw dropping like Cadillacs should be. PS: those are A LOT of issues. You are correct in your analysis of it being a money pit. LOL But it was a hooptie... That coolant leak...I hope its not a blown gasket... The rest of the issues you could live with, but not that one.

3.6. She's had it almost 2 years. 139k miles. It was a $4000 hooptie for when she had a job on the other side of the state and was driving over and back each week (she doesn't like driving her Trax on the turnpike). Current issue happened right after I drove a couple months ago. The transmission gear position sensor that communicates w/ the ignition failed, so it thinks it's not in park when it's in park, so the ignition button stays in the accessory position and runs down the battery overnight. It also has a small coolant leak and the airbag light is on. It's got new tires, new brakes, new struts/shocks, new fuel pumps, the usual underhood maintenance (belt, hoses, etc). I fixed the 6 disc CD changer, loose inner fender trim, loose underhood trim (got a bunch of those push plugs and a tool to remove them) and a broken glovebox latch. It does drive nicely when everything is fixed. But like every old high mileage luxury car my sister has bought over the last 20 years, something always breaks...she never learns.

Just saw a silver STX floating around Dearborn with no camo....have to say I like it....

Those taillights tho...

It's those funky taillights that are similar..

Yeah- the 4 tires ARE similar.

Am I the only one wondering if this set of ratings will be the same three years from now? Especially when today's vehicles are subject to the dependability ratings for 2023?

It's all about CEO compensation. Ever since the early 80s, CEO compensation has been tied to stock prices. Basically, the CEO tells everyone to cut costs at all costs. Hence: make it cheaper, make it common. Do SNAFUs exist in design and engineering? Yes, see head gasket issues in the Northstar. Can there be assembly line issues? Yes. But the majority (I would say vast majority) of problems point to poor management and short-term thinking.

Mom may be picking up a 2011 Cadillac DTS this weekend. Fingers crossed. The 2002 DTS was going to have to be replaced SOMETIME console and tailgate wars! that self folding shifter is absurdly awesome. the girth of that center stack is simply majestic.

How has nothing been posted here about the new F150 yet? 2021 F150 shifter.mp4

Tucker 48

Add 3 inch of lift with 2 inches of plastic body cladding, raise price $5k and call it Yaris Active Cross X and you have sales fire!

Styling-wise, my favorite year of '70s GM B/C/E models is 1971, followed by 1972...before the bumpers got too big and they still had 2dr hardtops.

The '75 Grand Ville convertible was a sweet looking car...really like the front end w/ the rectangular headlights that year. My other favorite biggun of that year was the Buick Electra coupe.

Yes, that's it. Look how off road and rugged it is. They could sell those for double the price of a Yaris because it has plastic cladding and a black roof.

Dreamworld is still dfelt's reality, I'm afraid.