ccap41

End of March Tusk has planned to show off the auto even if only in pictures and give more details about it. Hope it is not the same ugly profile of the S model. They really need something a bit more exciting. So really no clue on the size of it then..? Dang. I like the Model S's looks but they need a little change because a "new" car that is already 5(?) years old won't cut it, imo. I think "exciting" to them would be a low aero drag coeficient..lol..but seriously.

What was it doing that it felt bad?

Yeah I understand why they don't here. There just isn't a ton of space. I mean as it was it wasn't like they left gaps or anything. It was filled up. It's just annoying when I see 3 CTSs and no CT6. Why do they need 3 CTS? Oh that is in addition to the CTS-V, BTW. Things like that is what annoys me. So even had the G3 came there just wasn't space for them... Oh yeah, I forgot about the ILX. I really like that little car! In the lesser trims the seat felt "extra flat" but in the higher trim it felt good. I thought it looked good inside and out and knowing it has the 2.4 @ 201hp it would be adequate along with their 8spd auto. I think that would be a very enjoyable car to drive/own(on a realistic level).

This is actually quite exciting to know an affordable Tesla is closer than I thought. With that price range I could see myself seriously considering something like this in the next few years as a daily, why not? Have something like this as a daily, and something powered by 100% petrol as a secondary. I'm glad Tesla's affordable car is almost here. Anybody know about how large/small this will be?

My point was your GM fanboy-ism saying "trust me" weighs little when you're trying to hype up a GM vehicle. Put the two next to each other and I doubt 2 non-car-people would be able to differentiate the two or pick which is the new one and which is the old one without looking at the interior.

Last weekend my closest group of friends drove downtown and went to the St. Louis Auto Show. It had been a handful of years since I last went so it was set up a little different not in a bad way just different. Well, first of all I volunteered to drive because there were 5 of us and we thought 2 cars and paying 2 cars to park was unnecessary so we all packed into my Escape. I am by far the smallest of the guys who went. Me: 5'8" 180lbs, Guy1: 6' 240lbs, Guys2-4: 5' 8-10" weighing from 250-290. Guys2-4 are twins and their dad.. I knew if I wasn't the driver I always get stuck sitting "bitch" with those guys so I volunteered to drive. I also knew where we were going the best as it was only a block from where I work. As I expected none of the big G3 were there. The "closest" was VW, which the friend of mine who also had a Mach1 at the same time I did is now some weird V-Dub fanboy. He bought a GTI(2012) and now VW makes the best cars on the market..weird, right? We'll see how true that is once it's in the shop and paying the stupid German prices for things.. anyway..that was quite of topic! Anywayyyyyy, of the Luxury automakers; Cadillac, Lexus, Acura, Lincoln..Probably another but I can't think of them. FCA was the first up as you walk in. Right up front was a Ram 1500 3.0 in Ram's highest trim(it was like $65k). While none of my closest car-guy friends are as up to date on this stuff as I am they didn't know Ram offered a small diesel in their 1500 or in the Grand Cherokee as well. They had a few Scat Pack Challengers and Chargers(okay, one of each) and damn that is one good looking car. For the money, a Scat Pack Charger/Chally is one heck of a car.There off against the wall, on the ground, but roped off, was a Charger HELLCAT! Weird enough they had the front facing the wall to where the majority of people would only see the rear 3/4...I thought that was odd. ALFA! I didn't expect to see it so it was my first surprise of the day, they had an Alfa 4C Spider there, roped off, of course. Freakin' gorgeous car. There were too many people around it to really get a good look of it all the way around but it definitely had the body lines that I expected. Then I moseyed over to Jeep where I knew I would do it but I love almost everything about the Grand Cherokee. The size, the interior(at least in higher trims), and of course they sport some nice powertrains as well. I got to check out the Titan XD and wow, while the exterior is kind of sketchy the truck as a whole as some serious presense if you ask me. Big, some-bitch. I checked out a very large majority of what was there, most of it wasn't note worthy but still awesome to see in person and get to sit in and feel some things. One of which was the new Tacoma and Colorado. I'm not sure what it is about the Tacoma but I love what they did with the new one. The interior looks great the exterior already looked pretty good so a little face lift was necessary and the small one did the trick for me. The Colorado seemed a little less impressive from the looks and interior department. Neither was bad by any means but I just like the set up of the center stack/console better in the Toyota. The one thing I wasn't crazy about in the Tacoma was the sitting position...you really do sit more stretched out than upright in it, it's kind of awkward. Come to think of it, it's actually more sporty because you're legs are stretched out but in a weird way.. I also didn't fiddle with the seat adjustments to see if it can go up any but if I recall the reviews said it doesn't go up. Camaro. Mustang. Honestly, the first thing that I think of when I think of the two for a comparison is VISIBILITY. I couldn't drive the Camaro. The door went roughly 6 maybe even 8 inched over my shoulder before there was glass to see out of, the hood/dash still seem very "guessing" where the front end is. Checking your blind spots is impossible in the Camaro, not very good in the Mustang either but impossible without some nanny feature to tell me there is a car there. I don't know how much I would like it if I owned one but I thought the dial for the temperatures and vents was actually really cool. It had a good feel to it which I didn't expect. It didn't feel like a normal vent, it carried some weight to it which I liked. While I was stoked to see one in person and get to check it out there were a lot of people around so I didn't get to fiddle and oogle the body lines too much, but it definitely looked very 5th gen to me, which many people liked. I just was never a fan of it. It did look pretty good from the front but the back looks super-ultra bland to me. Whereas the Mustang's rear 1/3 looks like the best third of either vehicle hands down, imo. CT6, wasn't there.. I was quite annoyed with the vehicles that will be in production very soon(or already are) that weren't there. GT350. Also not there. Raptor. Nope. There was however..a Continental. Gorgeous car. Too bad it was up on a spinning pedestal so you could only see it so much. I will agree with the people who've said that it has a "presence" to it. The interior looked like it knows how to pamper with the best, will it? We will find out soon enough. I was surprised to see a 2017 Escape there. Again, it was roped off but on the floor so I couldn't check out the updated interior. I was originally really liking the 2017 face lift but now I'm not 100%. It looked "okay". I did really like bits and pieces though. Like the new lights the "top" of them are tinted black(some people on the forums already paint them black or tint them themselves). There were other pieces that are usually chrome that were painted black that I thought looked good. 2017 Fusion? Nope. Focus RS? YES! You guys know how I like my cars, right? Black on black. Exactly how this RS was. It was on the floor to oogle and oggle at but the doors were locked so no sitting in it. That was fine as they had an ST right next to it..same car from the driver's seat. The ST had the optional Recaro seats and so be honest I didn't know there was such a seat that could be too snug. Well, found it. The side bolstering was so high and so tight I honestly didn't like it. To be honest, it was borderline smashing my man parts and I'm not a hefty guy(5'8" - 180lbs). They seemed as if after 20-30k miles the seat would be showing wear because there is no way to get in and out without smashing the outside bolster on the bottom. Back to Cadillac. V-Series! Mmmmmm There were actually 3 V's there. 1 CTS sedan, 1 ATS Sedan, and 1 ATS Coupe. I'll give it to the coupe, I haven't been a fan of how Cadillac makes their coupes but the ATS looked pretty sharp. I'd still go for the sedan but the coupe didn't look as awkward as I'd seen in pictures. Of course the CTS-V was gorgeous and gnarly all built in to one luxury mobile. They had one section of all roped off cars that was pretty cool to see. I believe they are all owned by a local dealer(s) but there were 2 Huracans(I wish one would have been an Aventador but I'm not a Lambo guy so it's no biggie), 2 Astons(they all look the same - gorgeous - but no clue what any of them are called), 2 Bentley's(also..all *almost* all look the same), and a Convertible Rolls Wraith. Holy $h! that car is massive. The hood is as tall as my Escape's. Talk about "presence", that car has it. Oh yeah, one of the best parts of the day was as we were walking to the convention center/dome we were stopped at an intersection when 20-25 guys on mini bikes/pit bikes/ super-motos and one guy on an R6 all rode past doing wheelies. It was hilarious. 9/10s of them were on the pit bikes going all slow and doing wheelies. So damn funny looking. Well that was my Saturday and why I missed the beginning of the Daytona 24. I'm sure I missed something and I'll come back to it later.

In you opinion there's a lot of a difference.. Unless they are next to each other they are easily mistaken for the same car.

Then would it not have been $10.8b in income, right? If they are counting 100% of their deferred liabilities and not spreading the cost over the years of being paid back then they will have long term sloping numbers..I would think, as it plateaus. This information should be relatively easy to look up if either of us cared.. It's all public information that an investor should know about. As an accounting student there are a million different ways to decrease taxes(really the only goal of an accountant..lol) that will make their profit numbers look better or worse than they really are.

Usually it's a safe bet of 30% of taxes is a good estimate. There's no way they only paid $1.1billion in taxes on $10.8b.

Wow man, it looks unfreaking believable. An ST wagon?!! I just wish for once, people would NOT buy a crossover and buy this thing, or others things that compete directly with this thing. You get the style of a sedan, with the utility of the crossover, with the exclusivity of hero vehicle. Like if you were a soccer mom, why not? Hero mom. If you were the soccer day, why not? Hero dad. If you had pets - Fido would love to snuggle in the hatch.... Like you win-win-win, and 100% full win. You are made of win if you drive this. Yesh. I read that it's only like 53lbs heavier than the regular version as well! so you're probably not losing much performance at all! I think it looks so awesome.. I've never been a wagon fan but if this were available here I guarantee I would have gotten it over my Escape.

Uhhhh just found out they make Focus ST's in Wagon form over in Europe. Not my thing but still really awesome. Check out the color of this one as well. Surreal, this might be right up your alley. If I've ever seen a good looking wagon, this is it. I should say "reasonably priced" because the CTS-V and E63 wagons look great as well.

Dang, most importantly, I'm glad you're okay and you caught it early! Rest up and take it easy AssFace.

Wow, Buick up 45.5%! What the heck happened there????

Shoooooot, it's almost been spring time here already. This past weekend Saturday and Sunday were sunny and high's in the low-mid 60's. Crazy weather.

It was some of the best overall racing I've seen in awhile. Some of it because it was for 1st, some of it was teammates, some of it was how clean they were, some of it was just knowing all of the variables that faced both teams and after 23hrs they were bumper to bumper. No the team said to let them race but keep it clean. Fantastic orders to hear after all of the "team" debacles in other forms of motor sports watering down the overall product. " "You don’t spend 23.5 hours working this hard and not let those guys continue to race.” Fehan assured Garcia once he moved into second that there would be no team orders. After that, the battle for the win was on in the season-opening IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race. Once he shed the No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR of Earl Bamber to take second, Garcia set his sights on Gavin and the two ran nose-to-tail over the final 20 minutes. With three minutes remaining, Garcia briefly passed Gavin entering turn one, but ran wide, allowing Gavin to retake the position. “All I could think about was my boss, Doug Fehan and what he would say if we did touch,” said Gavin. " http://autoweek.com/article/imsa/chevrolet-audi-oreca-join-honda-atop-rolex-24-daytona-podium I definitely admire the team to not order a sit behind 1-2 finish but to let them go at it.

Did you get to watch that last hour-hour and a half of racing?

New update on the near-instant oil change. Aston Martin Vulcan has adapted the system. http://blog.caranddriver.com/under-the-hood-of-aston-martins-vulcan-a-plug-and-play-oil-system/ "The idea is to ensure the right quality of oil is being used and to cut maintenance times, especially for cars like the Vulcan that may well be stored for extended periods between track outings. A secondary benefit is that, as the exact type of oil is known, it is easier to recycle after it’s been removed from the car. According to Castrol the box can withstand sustained 1.8-g loads and can handle flow rates of over 150 gallons a minute." "Castrol is also serious about introducing a version into more mainstream machinery and is working to persuade carmakers to share its vision, the corporate prediction is that we’ll see a Nexcel-equipped production vehicle within five years. "

oh man what a great race. i felt so bad for the delta wing team though, they showed a lot of potential. GM had an outstanding showing this year. i honestly had hope the ford gt would have had a better showing, but as the way it goes with a brand new car on such a race. chevrolet had the same issues it seems with the c7's and the corvette daytona prototypes. good job honda for an overall win as well. that came as a shock! http://bangshift.com/general-news/car-features/chevy-car-features/how-long-will-chevrolet-chevelle-lagunas-be-underrated-this-gorgeous-1974-model-is-begging-for-repairs-and-the-big-block-it-deserves/ also... mid 70's cars seem to finally be coming into their own... It was a great finish! Those Corvettes were racing so hard it was amazing to see that kind of finish after 24 hours of racing and all of the possible variables that they both encountered. I definitely felt terrible for the Delta Wing. It had extremely great pace(from what I heard) and was running top paced lap times, correct? Of course prior to running into the stopped car in what looked like turn 1(replays). I was definitely a little disappointed in the Ford GTs but at the same time before they had some tire and transmission issues they were running with the pace of the GTLM leaders so very promising. I thought this was a good quote about the GTs, "The good thing about it all, and the thing we are pleased about, is the car is showing some pace, it is showing some opportunity, and overall we are happy that we have a fast car and we need to work on reliability. That’s a lot better than having a slow car that’s reliable, but you don’t know how to get speed out of it." -Autoweek " “We’ve got the right team, drivers and partners, we just need some time to get miles on the car and sort out those issues. She’s fast and she’s pretty, but she’s temperamental right now.” " -TopGear

I just don't want Mazda mixed up with this Sergio guy.. Mazda seems to be putting out spectacular vehicles for their respective classes. They don't need to screw anything up now. Don't do it Mazda.

I went to the STL Auto Show this weekend and there was no CT6... I was quite disappointed but I hadn't realized how large the CTS is now either. The first CTS that I saw I briskly walked over to it and realized it was a CTS not a CT6. The CTS is a very large car now, imo. Good looking, and large. They did have an ATS-V and CTS-V.

24hrs of Daytona has an hour and a half left if anybody wants to catch the end of it.

Developing all-new platforms and models isn't cheap...at least 3 new plaforms in the last couple years (F-series, Transit, Mustang)... Makes sense. Hadn't thought about that, or anything in particular to be honest. I just wasn't sure.

I read the first paragraph where it says they still use carburetors and that isn't true. They went to fuel injection for the 2012 season.

No, the fact is YOU do not like the reality. You bitched about their engines, their new 4s will be out this year, then it was hybrid tech, oops, look at that a hybrid Pacifica and Plug-in with 80MPHe in a MINIVAN, oops, and again, they are not stopping production of the 200, the statement is simply that the next one will be based on a platform from another manufacturer. It is dollars and cents (sense.....). Use your brain. With Alfa going all RWD and Dodge basically doing the same, Chrysler is left with only Chrysler needing FWD. Without the sharing it becomes an expensive proposition that would price the car out of it's competitive set. Use your brain, basically every midsize car from the Fusion, to the Malibu, to the Camry has platform mates under their mothership umbrella to share amortization costs and manufacturing costs with. It becomes much more of an issue if you have only 1 or 2 vehicles under the same umbrella to try to spread all of the development costs, tooling, and manufacturing costs with. The do need a lighter platform for their midsize/compacts and in this case that is simply the most cost-effective way to go. It is the same reason Ford used he Mazda 6 platform for the Fusion and GM and Ford teamed up fr the new 10 speed auto. Seriously, if you actually think about it,it makes sense. You are just too busy singing Chysler death knell sto see that. Chrsler is putting out their first hybrid in 2017, right? How far have GM and Ford come in that same time? I know Ford's had a few hybrids and obviously GM has had some, and they have a full EV next year as well. Ford's Fusion was 09 and Escape in 2004! The Volt came out in 2010 and a Silverado/Sierra with a hybrid system in 2005 as well. So yes, Chrysler will finally have a hybrid in 2017 a mere 20 years after Toyota, 13 years after Ford, 12 after Chevy. Good job. The Dart's engines weren't tops in their class when it came out, or top 3. That is a fail when you introduce a BRAND NEW vehicle to a class and you aren't class leading in mpg, or any performance metric(be it efficiency or 1/4 mile - doesn't matter, it wasn't very good). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Wait, Chrysler? Screw that, let's get back to talking about the sweet and sexy CT6! Any ideas if the new ttV8 will be a V Series? or VSport? or just a badass engine before a V Series..? 2009 Chrysler Aspen Hybrid There it is!!! I knew something had to be missing.. but I honestly couldn't find anything. Terrible research on my part, lol ..In my defense I'm working and I shouldn't be googling things..

No, the fact is YOU do not like the reality. You bitched about their engines, their new 4s will be out this year, then it was hybrid tech, oops, look at that a hybrid Pacifica and Plug-in with 80MPHe in a MINIVAN, oops, and again, they are not stopping production of the 200, the statement is simply that the next one will be based on a platform from another manufacturer. It is dollars and cents (sense.....). Use your brain. With Alfa going all RWD and Dodge basically doing the same, Chrysler is left with only Chrysler needing FWD. Without the sharing it becomes an expensive proposition that would price the car out of it's competitive set. Use your brain, basically every midsize car from the Fusion, to the Malibu, to the Camry has platform mates under their mothership umbrella to share amortization costs and manufacturing costs with. It becomes much more of an issue if you have only 1 or 2 vehicles under the same umbrella to try to spread all of the development costs, tooling, and manufacturing costs with. The do need a lighter platform for their midsize/compacts and in this case that is simply the most cost-effective way to go. It is the same reason Ford used he Mazda 6 platform for the Fusion and GM and Ford teamed up fr the new 10 speed auto. Seriously, if you actually think about it,it makes sense. You are just too busy singing Chysler death knell sto see that. Chrsler is putting out their first hybrid in 2017, right? How far have GM and Ford come in that same time? I know Ford's had a few hybrids and obviously GM has had some, and they have a full EV next year as well. Ford's Fusion was 09 and Escape in 2004! The Volt came out in 2010 and a Silverado/Sierra with a hybrid system in 2005 as well. So yes, Chrysler will finally have a hybrid in 2017 a mere 20 years after Toyota, 13 years after Ford, 12 after Chevy. Good job. The Dart's engines weren't tops in their class when it came out, or top 3. That is a fail when you introduce a BRAND NEW vehicle to a class and you aren't class leading in mpg, or any performance metric(be it efficiency or 1/4 mile - doesn't matter, it wasn't very good). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Wait, Chrysler? Screw that, let's get back to talking about the sweet and sexy CT6! Any ideas if the new ttV8 will be a V Series? or VSport? or just a badass engine before a V Series..?