G. David Felt

Hello All, So since there is no generic section in the 2012 autoshow section, I am posting my pictures here allong with my take of the autoshow. First off let me start by saying the Seattle Autoshow is about 1/3 smaller than it has been in the past. It was really a shock to see almost no 3rd party auto vendors or alternative nicnack vendors. I arrived excited to check out 2 auto's I was told by local dealers would be there. Honda CNG Civic GX and a GM Bi-Fuel CNG truck. Sadly both were a no show. Course I was hoping to stand around and do free selling of the auto's while handing out business cards for CNG appliances for home fueling. None of it happened. New to the Seattle Autoshow, they had a test drive area. All vendors were required to have auto's on hand for test driving. I have never seen so many california, Michigan, Texas and Canada plates on the auto's along with the funky looking Mexican plate. Clearly telling you where all these test auto's came from. So to start off with, they had a beautiful white with silver strip Corvett ZR1. I got an over head shot, but then the crowds moved in and it was no go to get any better images. I moved onto the 2013 ATS which was beautiful. Amazing fit and finish and I have to say. BMW will be in for a rude awakening. The line to test drive the ATS was crazy long and everyone coming back was very positive on the car. After this, I spend considerable time on the Buick Encore. Fit and Finish is extremely tight. Over all layout is clean and for many people I heard nothing but positive comments and better yet, many asian and Indian people were looking at it and loved what they found. In regards to me at 6'6". No one can sit behind me. I cannot sit up straight as I like due to no headroom and the back seat has me slumped over as I cannot sit in it. The car while very nice is clearly for the average 5'8" tall crowd. A few other 6' tall people could not get comfy either but we all liked the package and feel it will be a hit with smaller people and with woman. BLOWN AWAY - I spent so much time going over the new 2013 Acadia. In fact, I wish I had gotten picture of the new Buick Enclave as the fit and finish of the Buick was sad compared to the GMC. My dad and others that were around me were just shocked at how nice it was compared to the Buick. No seams around the doors, the finish works on the body was freakin amazing and the fit and finish inside made this one of the BEST GMC auto's I have ever seen. The updated GMC Terrain are also just as amazing. My dad fell in love with the Iridium Metallic color and the Black Diamond. He likes it so much that after I droppeed him off, he left with my mom to go test drive on with here as a replacement for his Colorado. All of them had the new 3.6 VVT engine. I talked with a few around me that were looking at it and one couple had a 2 year old terrain with the v6 and they loved the new one so much that they were seriously considering trading it in as the wife loved the size but loved the new interior and color. The guy was excited about the new V6. Over all, I was suprised at how many people were all over GM products. Allot of buzz this year. Walked through the Lincoln area as my dad has always been a towncar lover and he did not see anything he liked. I was actually surprised at how dated the cars all looked. The only thing getting any interest from younger people was the Navigator and people my age in their 40's who were looking kept making comments about how dated it looked. The rest of their line up was mostly being looked at by Baby Boomers with Oxygen tanks and walkers. I took pictures of the MKz Concept they had and to me it was nothing special. Most baby boomers did not like it and everyone else was pretty much ignoring it. I saw nothing positive in the Lincoln camp. Due to my 72yr old father pooping out, we headed to the exit through the Chevy entry level cars and I snapped some pics of the new Spark while my dad took a rest. Have to say for a $16K dollar car, I see people looking at it for a commuter car and not much else. I could not get comfy inside, way to small for me, but too be expected. I will say that this car in comparison to the Honda Fit is very nice and way better fit and finish than the Honda fit. GM should have a hit on their hands with this car.

I love this auto and with Diesel or CNG it would totally ROCK MY WORLD!!!

No not really, both of these could have gone away and it would have helped the obesity to go down maybe. You do realize you were eating 95% food grad wax with 2% chocolate and 3% other stuff. Nasty no matter how you look at it.

Hello Dan Akerson, FYI, stop drinking the punch drunk stupidity and wake up to the reality that those that follow and have been loyal to GM for the last 30 years have seen the nothing but losses of Opel/Vauxhall. 1) Cut the freaking Union payroll. They cannot have jobs for life. Too much capacity and not enough profit. 2) Close excess plants 3) Export CNG auto's to the US. 4) Consolidate Engineering, Sales, Marketing, etc. If you cannot clean up this mess that has been nothing but a drain on GM ever since you bought it, you are the WRONG Person at GM. We are not here to be a social safety net. There is no gaurantees and if you cannot understand this then you are lost.

Love that 572 engine, put it in the two door of your choice and no one and no snow will be stopped by you!

Both are Freakin AMAZING!!!

I have to say that MAACO does a decent job if you go in knowing what you get. I have had a number of auto's done by them. I went in and removed all chrome, trime pieces that they would tape over, etc. then I block sanded the whole auto myself. For small dent, I got Dent Wizard to do the no paint pull out and then any major body work, I either replaced the parts myself or where real quality body work was needed. Took it to a good body shop and then brought it home to continue my work and later took it to Maaco and paid to have a specific color, multiple paint layers with clear coat done. The work is great and I have not had any problems, but I did go in knowing what I wanted and the work I would do myself.

Here are the Nice Large size Photo's and Concept drawing of the MB Ener-G-Force!

G. David Felt Staff Writer Alternative Energy - CheersandGears.com November 16th, 2012 Every year, the Los Angeles Auto Show hosts a challenge among automotive designers to concoct far-flung ideas about the future of transportation. This year's theme asked what the law enforcement rides of 2025 might look like, and the sketchers at Mercedes-Benz were so enamored with their design they built a life-size version, creating a Gelandewagon for the end of the world. http://autos.yahoo.c...-160342336.html View full article

There is a federal tax credit for buying a new CNG auto. Since they have EPA conversion kits, you can buy a new auto of your choice, have it converted and get the federal tax break. BRC Fuelmaker who I am a distributor for has been working very hard this year to put a distributor in each state that can build up a reseller network. This way, people can buy a CNG auto and purchase a CNG appliance for their house. Great thing is that the American Investment company that owns MTM Italia which is the parent company of BRC Fuelmaker is finishing up the new Fuelmaker manufacturing plant in Michigan and instead of me having to import and pass on those expenses to the customer, I will have the CNG Appliances made in America and get lower cost. It is coming and the future is green for CNG!

Working on that very issue. I see AT&T just ordered 1200 CNG Vans from GM.

They call this news????? Guess Toyota is really scraping to find a way to expand Prius purchase pool. I think most green already have their fill of this ufly little car. The Honda Civic GX is a superior car that beats these all to heck.

CNG actually is making great strides and we can now go coast to coast with driving CNG auto's so it is becoming more common than you might expect. There are many ways to see where the fast fill stations are and most people clearly see that it is not a problem with worring about blowing up. CNG is actually safer than a Petrol car. http://www.altfuelprices.com/ you can find places and prices for all forms of alternative energy here http://www.cngprices.com/station_map.php You can find CNG stations and price just by entering your zip code here. I can see the CNG is the next logical step for America.

Very cool

Good Analogy, people rarely custmize their mouse. Maybe the Ball but never the mouse.

Can we say Nock Off BMW!

It is amazing how many people I have seen texting, playing with their Ipad, eating bowl of ceral, changing cloths, doing everything else except safe driving. We need comprehensive driving school that pounds in the importants of paying attention to driving. If a person does not want that responsibility, then use public transportation and pay a fair fee to cover the cost rather than expect the tax payers to pay for you. This is not an attack on poor people but the system does have to pay for itself and not be a leach on the people. We need to get the people who fear driving and speed off the roads as they are more a hinderance to the safety of all.

Agree, the new Supra will not be the lite weight speedy little fun car people remember. It will be bloated and it will probably be either a step up from the FRZ or an alternative energy speedster.

That's the South American Chevy Montana...called S10 in some markets apparently. FWD, based on the platform of the Chevy Agile. It really is freakin ugly.

Too true, the world has got to come to terms that the over spending social way of life is at it's end and the future generations are the today generation that has to pay for this crazy spending. You cannot have everything and not have to pay for it. GM needs to find a long term solution and that could mean closing down Opel and walk away and come back in with a new org and line of product. I doubt most counteries can afford to pick up and save a bleeding company now.

Answer to this is CNG auto's, they can have all the green clean emission and power with this great advanced fuel.

There was. Lots of things. That is an understatement. The only good model was the 91 Escort GT built by mazda which was a great pocket rocket, but was attacked by the insurance industry. That era of Escort had those awful motorized seat belts, though. The '84 Escort I learned to drive in and drove to school some was a 5dr diesel w/ a 5 speed, and 52 horsepower! It felt faster than the '86 Mustang LX 4cyl I had, which was a 4spd manual w/ only 96 hp... Yea it had the mazda motorized seatbelts but it did not bother me.

Came across this out of country Chevy S10

This is so sad the very cool auto's that have been destroyed by Sandy. RIP for this Chevy Trailblazer SS.