G. David Felt

Totally agree, would not kick any of them out of my garage. Right now I really like the Ram Power Wagon. I am a full size person in trucks even thought I do like the ZR2 and wish GM, Ford and Ram had a true Mini Truck EV that would sell well in inner cities and to city governments I believe.

Totally agree, with today's modern trans that have shift paddles, manual is no longer needed.

In regards to your 2nd question about steering, I have never had one have to be replaced, but then I have had limited experience with the W-body auto's so I leave that to others here that might have more experience with them. Keep in mind if you are bouncing around the road and having to make corrections, then the looseness in the steering might justify replacing linkage or the box itself. In regards to your 3rd question, ball-joints are easy to see and safety check review especially when the tires are off. Older auto's it was very easy to see when the grease bag had worn out, grease all over and clearly needed to be replaced, todays modern ball joints are a bit more tricky from a visual look but still also easy to check. This is based on a 1998 Bonniville, but should help you out in regards to GM rear ball joints. https://www.gmforum.com/howto/1998SM/suspension rear.pdf This Wikihow is excellent on checking the ball joints with pictures and what to look for: http://www.wikihow.com/Check-Ball-Joints Also plenty of good videos now on how to check: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=gm+2008+w-body+ball+joint+inspection+procedures&qpvt=GM+2008+W-Body+ball+joint+inspection+procedures&FORM=VDRE This I found to be an excellent ball-joint tolerance and wear sheet: http://www.mshp.dps.missouri.gov/MSHPWeb/Publications/OtherPublications/documents/ballJointTolerances.pdf Good Luck

In regards to your questions, lets start with where you are located, West, East or mid west in the US? Better question is there lots of salt on the roads from the winters? Salted roads can wear out struts faster than unsalted. If like me you are on the west coast and not in the mountains, then I am surprised they are going spongy at 70K for a 2008. With that said, I have used Ranchero, Monroe, Sears generic and for most applications, everyone seems to make decent struts. If your wanting something a bit stiffer, more customizable that is a different story and I would say Ranchero or Monroe. I like a stiffer performance driver ride, this is really a personal subjective view so you have to think about how you like your car to handle. Driving on rails or lazy boy float, or somewhere in the middle? Here are some sites that have good product reviews on the struts: http://www.autoanything.com/suspension-systems/shocks-reviews.aspx http://www.shockwarehouse.com/news/shock-guide.cfm Top 20 Struts for 2017 Review https://topbestprice.com/top-20-best-selling-shocks-struts-suspension-system/

No pushing silly, this is my own stupid state that is doing this. The idiot Gov who cannot think for himself is just letting the tree huggers extreme make his agenda. I was as surprised as you to see the story and read it in our local news. Ya know for an Ostrich, you need to pull your head out of the sand once in a while and look around. We missed your sarcasm here!

G. David Felt - Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.cheersandgears.com States Leading Charge to Ban ICE Auto's. The last 48 HRS has been very interesting as we have a story that is developing. Washington state in it's battle to reduce climate change is considering following other countries by setting goals to phase out ICE auto's. Washington state has stated the following for this: We used a record 2.78 billion gallons of gasoline in Washington State in 2015. Every gallon of gasoline releases 20 pounds of carbon dioxide. Cars and trucks account for nearly 45 percent of our region’s carbon footprint. Washington spends more than $6 billion annually on gasoline, most of which goes to out-of-state fossil fuel companies to finance drilling, fracking, pipelines and destructive environmental practices. Driving electric vehicles will save the average Washington family about $1,200 a year in fuel costs. Washington has clean and low-cost hydroelectric power, making electric vehicles a sensible and cost-effective solution. Car and truck exhaust is responsible for 53,000 deaths annually in the United States. Washington State and Olympia should implement the following policies: Adopt a phase-out date of 2030 for the sale of new gasoline and diesel vehicles, consistent with the global trend. Plan for and build the charging infrastructure necessary for mass electric vehicle adoption. Create incentives to spur the sale of electric vehicles including preferential HOV lane access, lower tolls, vehicle registration discounts, and preferred parking. Increase funding for infrastructure for public transportation, bicycling and walking. The governor who has signed off on all climate change legislation is wanting to lead the USA in being the first state to start the process of phasing out ICE auto's as he joined New York and California to abide by the Paris Climate Accord. This will create an interesting business climate of how auto dealerships will survive if the auto companies are not building enough EV's for the public to buy. So many questions and not enough answers are brought on by this. While I am all for EV's, I do question this aggressive approach for the state that I live in. Washington State Phasing Out ICE Auto's

Cool, thanks for posting, I missed this. I really hope the also do an EV Pickup Truck. I see big potential in the inner cities and with city gov's for an EV Pickup.

Interesting, Wonder how this will hold up when people for the same price can get a V8 corvette with stick. So many questions and yet so early that all this could change. Course I still wonder if the Supra is to be a $50K car, how people would justify spending that money on a turbo 4 or turbo 6 compared to the V8 options out there for the same cash.

Have to laugh at this only because of the story link, Thank you for posting and how the writer says the new auto has such an edgy design. Clearly they need to get out more and visit other auto makers as VW is anything but Edgy. I do agree all VW should be on their MQB platform and that includes their upcoming EV's.

Will Agree while it would be sad to see Chrysler and Dodge die, there are way too many name plates and you might as well just consolidate and clean house. Europe loves the stupid terrible Fiat, so that will not go but then FCA could have saved a bundle on not wasting time with Fiat or trying to bring back Alfa and just invested in Dodge for the US. Jeep and Ram are and should be here long term. I question the future of Dodge and Chrysler. Time to bite the bullet and clean house if FCA is to survive.

WOW, considering I will stay true to my roots, that means American built only EV's. Chevrolet BOLT Tesla X Ford Focus Elcar - Gotta Love these quirky EV's. Citicar by Sebring-Vanguard another quirky EV.

Love your post and would give you the laughing smiley too if I could. Pontiac should have been GM EV platform back in the days, now I just hope GM does not let the VOLT / BOLT technology rot on the vine and everyone else pass them up.

I know some VW fans will glow over this auto, but really, this is what VW considers sporty? Red lines are butt ugly, should have just left the grill all black. Where is the body sports kit? This really looks bland!

Truly a last Hurrah for FCA as I expect many EV CUV's in the next year to Trump this Trackhawk. Then they will have to cut the price in half to just sell them.

Cool info, ya know the standard Tesla 3 is out there for someone to find and post, just everyone want too show off the higher priced version and say look it beats everyone. lol

Sounds like the Hyper Loop would serve the people proud!

Sweet rides, Hope the person who bought it loved it as it is weird that it was never really driven. Wonder why?

Rock on AWESOME Will say I find it funny that they have listed Rhino color as Exclusive when you can get it on the Altitude edition as my son has it. Also, surprised by some of the options. I would have thought these kinds of options would be included in this as a no options top of the line ride. Honestly who is gonna race this as a stripped SUV race auto? Still love that this is available.

GMC Wins! The look of the Ford is just not good IMHO. That GMC Rocks I also agree with you, not a fan of the Ecoboost V6.

Me think if I had the cash, take my 94 suburban, convert to in-wheel hub motors as an AWD EV and the front would get converted into a frunk! So cool

August 21st will play hell with self driving cars too.

Very cool Model A and his Ford Truck, Love your GMC version! that just Rocks!

Be interesting to see how they handle tumbleweeds. A storm of Tumbleweeds crossing the roads. Might just freak the little electrons out!

GM Skateboard Baby, Always been an innovator in technology. Amazing is that another company has built many EV platforms trying to get OEM's to buy their setup to use in EV auto manufacturing. Trexa, they started off with their Tube design and then now have their own skateboard design.

I can see the extreme heat waves causing issues for the cameras on the autonomous auto's.