G. David Felt

I totally agree, I have been working with my son for his first new car purchase and he finally got it down to the following 3 CUV's Ford Escape Jeep Compass Chevy Equinox Now all were right around 22K MSRP for your basic AWD, 4 banger motor, etc. We were looking last night on the web pages again and noticed all 3 had a considerable bump in price with the Chevy being the most expensive. They now only have 2 options on the base Equinox AWD LS and it now starts at 25. The variety of options is now gone and they seem to have gone to here is our 6 versions, 3 levels of FWD and 3 levels of AWD. Select which one you want and decide if you want the Protection package or towing package and the rest is standard equipment. Not truly having a base stripped down level for people to buy will keep people from buying. As much as I hate Toyota, I will give them credit that the Scion way of buying the base car stripped and adding what you want would be a very good thing for the US auto Makers to take to heart. My Son would love to buy a base high milage AWD CUV and add to the auto as he makes money. Purchase a NAV unit down the road, add other features. I think the First maker to take the base way of Cars but do it on more then just econo boxs will find a very willing and excited market of buyers. Think of this lineup: Base small size truck 2wd and 4x4 Small AWD CUV Small 4 door car They all come in with the only difference being 2 or 3 engine choices. Then they have a consistent base interior and you can then purchase 3rd part items to customize the inerior. I do not believe it is law that you have to have all these air bags and nanny devices. So the cost of these auto's would be low and allow people to truly customize their ride as a first auto and as they made money, they could come back and purchase modules to install into their auto.

Yes I am focused on the generation itself, I read this once and went to lunch and instead of going with coworkers, I went by myself so that I could just sit and observe. I notice that the older you are, the less you are mesing with electronics and the more social you are with people around you. Being in a very Hi-Tech city of Seattle. I could not help but notice the large amount of 20 something people in groups, but all would have a few words to each other and most of the time on their smartphones. Due to myself being crazy about auto's and loving road trips which my parents did most weekends growing up so that we could see the state of washington and learn about the world we live in, I had not really paid much attention to other young adults as m own kids grew up and while my son and daughter do not care much about the over all auto, they both require 4x4 / awd cuv's so that they can go camping, up the mountain to snowboard and live for the most part a very active life style due to how my wife and I kept them busy. Friday to sunday my daughter is out with her friends doing things and my son 7 days a week is always out after work. He put more miles on the Dodge Dakota I gave him that I bought new. I turned it over at 76K miles and now it has 212K miles. My other observation of the Y generation is that the more plugged in they are, the more over weight they seem to be. Not everyone, but thee does seem to be a corrolation about out living life as an active life style and being sedetary on your computer or phone plugged in. I think it needs to come from the 30, 40's and 50's generation to get the 20's out of their comfort zone and see the world. Auto's are a freedom machine. The Auto Industry can benefit by doing as Balthazar said. Unbundle these fully loaded Auto's and get back to a basic simple auto for transportation.

Very interesting points made, It is sad to see people think they have freedom being on a phone or computer and not getting out to see this amazing planet we live on. Sad commentary of the Y Generation. This tends to tell me that Big Brother has won in telling you where to live, what to do, what to see and generally how to live life when people are not willing to get out and see the world. The experiance of seeing the world in person cannot and never will be made up from being in front of a computer.

H'mmmmmm Am I the only one that sees this as a BAD thing? At least in my web search of how the company's did under LaSorda's controll, he does not have that great of a track record. How does a guy that has a track record of burning through cash and building so so auto's get onto a new company like this. Wish someone would pay me bunches of bucks to build so so products and not be responsible.

Except for small Diesel cars for other than NA markets, I am having a hard time finding any reason for this. It will be interesting to see why they would do this.

Interesting Engineering Exercise, but otherwise useless auto that the police would never let on the road. Reminds me of how they have coupled engines in off shore racing boats. Jeers, they should have completed the nose as everyone else has stated. this is a half ass effort.

PitchFork

I have to say this is one ugly turd of an auto. Yes there are clear hints at the BMW body style, but it does not mesh well with the freakin ugly front on this car. I hope the interior is nice as the exterior gets an F for Failure in my book.

Thing 1 & Thing 2

I have nothing against this viewpoint of the writting, I just disagree with in what some call fog lights or what I call them as Perimeter lights. The ford he has listed above I do not find as a fair example as the Ford web site does not have any fog lights listed for this auto, the lights show above are referred to by the web site as safety lights. I think this is Fords version of DayTime running lights

I understand the point you are making, but very few auto's have active headlights, only a couple that I can think of off the top of my head. Most cars and tucks have traditional headlights and so called Fog Lights. To me, the should be talking about the safety of perimeter lights with their traditional lights for better vision while driving and safety of being seen.

Should be a good competitor to the CTS-V wagoon.

I find this write up very interesting and will no doubt end up being very debatable. I have read and heard all thse issues brought up many times that it begs the question, does G.Noble even drive a car in any other condition than in a city where I do agree most 3rd party fog lights are installed wrong and end up being additional glare in the face of drivers coming towards you? Fog lights installed properly to highlight the road on a snowy pass at night or even a back country road helps out greatly in letting you know your close perimeter. Head lights will never be good at illuminating the closest 10 feet in front of your auto and then also still light up 50 to 100 feet down the road. Spend any time driving the highways going through various weather and you will find that the so called Fog lights do server a very important function for lighting up things close to the auto. Fog Lights will probably stay the naming choice for marketing when in reality these are perimeter lights. Yes like many I hate the so called rear single fog light on Audi, BMW, MB, etc. It makes you think they have a bulb burning out. Yet the so called Fog lights installed properly on a SUV in the back and front help out greatly when manuvering around in tight areas and not to mention lighting up the world in reverse. I find they are more useful than is given credit here. If you want to talk about wasteful / Fabulous Flops, lets talk one item that Cadillac puts on all their Platinum Edition SUV's. Heated and Cooled Cup holders. Yes My Escalade ESV Platinum edition came with these worthless items that do not really cool or heat your drinks. I have found them on other vehicles both as an aftermarket addition and as regular item for fully loaded models and they still do not work.

that

I have to honestly say this is far better looking than the drawings.

WOW, Gotta love th media for trying to keep things going during a lul in Auto News.

POW

Homestead

When the Fiat dealer opened here, same owners as the Dodge, Chrysler and Jeep dealer, they spent over the next 30 days some serious cash with Newspaper ads, Television ads, etc and yet clearly this market is not interested in these coffins on wheels. Seems people would rather drive the Hybrid Coffin on wheels Prius compared to the Fiat version. Maybe it is cause we are closer to Japan compared to the east coast being closer to Fiat's home territory.

Been listening to Heart and Barracuda

Riding the bus home from work in Downtown Seattle, was passed by half a dozen Panameras, 3 of the GL500 SUV's AMG editions and a ton of BMW M3 and AMG 63. Course with all the Tech money in this area, more common for high end auto's than an entry level Fiat. Bellevue High School average car in the kids lot is a 325.

Portifino concept was bery cool in it's day and I still actually like it now.

Very Cool Chris, Nice Catch. So is that Rear Suicide doors as I do not see any handles but it does look like the rear portion behind the front door opens. I have to say that I like this look much better than the Leaf and for me, the Spark name does not bother me even with the Almost zero volt fires. People who are hung up on this due to what was extreme impact hits way beyond normal are crazy. A normal gas car can explode if hit right also and burn. Spark way to go, you should be a hit for those of average height and needing a city commuter car.

I see this as setting the stage for a summer drive event with ATS at various trim levels going up aginst BMW and AMG in the same equal trim levels. Let the drive do the talking and I still think this is a perfect start for a vehicle that has high expectations. It will DRIVE the Engineers and Manufacturing to make sure they launch this one right!

WOW, Land Rover has won me over with this beauty.