PurdueGuy

The big question is what Johnson Controls will do with their purchase, and what about A123 made it unprofitable. My initial guess as to what will happen is that JC will continue production, but possibly at a higher cost to the manufacturers. However, if the battery business only made sense as long as gov't subsidies flowed, and if those subsidies are drying up, costs for the car manufacturers may become high enough to really hamper some of the push for hybrids & electrics. Time will tell.

Very nice, I'd rock one in a heartbeat if the price was right.

For best profits, GM needs to be lean. That means minimizing overproduction, which means not having to push a bunch of extra inventory to dealers, but instead dealers stock a basic inventory to provide examples and vehicles available for customers that prefer not to wait on a custom-tailored vehicle to be built. Minimal inventory means they won't have to put huge incentives on the vehicles to get rid of a bunch of pre-configured cars they cranked out.

With proper lean practices, more custom options isn't a big problem. Yes, there are times that packages can get upsales, but push that through incentive, not by lack of option. As we've seen in this thread, you can lose a customer if they feel like they're being tricked or forced into things they don't want. Instead, take a "have it your way" approach, which you can market the crap out of, but then offer savings if you bundle options, and get the upsell that way.

140hp in a 2700lb car sets a pretty low bar for a "sleeper". By that criteria, my 3100 powered Chevy Corsica was a sleeper (160hp/2700lb), and my DOHC Saturn S-Series (124hp/2450lb) are sleepers.

Anyone else seen these new RAM ads that say something along the lines of "When you only build trucks"? Anyone else have trouble holding back from yelling at them? Hey "Ram", we all remember that you just dropped "Dodge" from in front of your name, and we all know you're part of Chrylser, who builds a heck of a lot more than just trucks. /rant

I think I'll be happy with my ivy bridge i7 for a while. Still, I really want AMD to stay competitive - it's excellent for the consumer, and I've generally been just as happy with AMD and Intel products, and don't lean too much toward a brand. Instead I always look at bang for the buck at the time of each purchase. Unfortunately, at the time of each of my computer upgrades (work desktop & work/personal laptop) at different points this year, Intel won out with the i7 both times. AMD, step it up!

a turbo 1.0 three plus 6 speed or CVT would be the bomb on this car.

I drove a fiat the other day. the spark is about like sized. i can see how this kind of car can be the bomb in the city.

Imagine if they simply dropped in the same 1.4T they're putting in everything else... zoom zoom!

The Spark has grown on me some, but I still hold firm that it'd look a thousand times cooler as a 2-door.

I'm a day late on the discussion, but modern lean manufacturing processes should be making it easier & easier to allow for line-item custom ordered vehicles. Some of the options groups I've seen when playing with configurations are silly. Grouping so many options together is either laziness or an attempt at forcing larger upsells, and I suspect it's more the latter one. For example, if the bean counters think that a number of people are going to want a sunroof, let's group the 20 speaker $1,000 stereo system option with it. Enough people will be set on the sunroof that they'll be forced into the upsell.

Saw one yesterday. Didn't look as bad as I'd feared, but it could certainly look better. *cough*2dr*cough*

It's an over-the-top car, I think the over-the-top hood is fitting. I wouldn't be surprised if it's mostly functional, providing more space for extra bits on the top of the engine, and providing venting for the heat produced by 1,200hp. I hate hoods, scoops, and vents like that when they're not functional, but when a car is just flat out that extreme to need it, I like it.

So many better colors it could be in, but the shape looks great.

No SC2?

Is this a "which one would you like to have", or a "which one would you spend your hard earned money on" question?

Today my Chevy truck ('98 Suburban) sat in the driveway while our Saturns did commuter duty.

Yesterday, my Chevy truck hauled 6 adults and gear comfortably and with space to spare while towing a trailer with a pontoon raft through the mountains to a stretch of the Snake River for some white water rafting.

Here's a pic of the 6 of us on the river (me up front with my hand in the air): http://www.snakeriverphotos.net/p471678683/h414f394c#h414f394c

Why is GM not selling this engine in the USA?

I would assume it's the same reasons as usual:

a) The US regulates emissions very differently from Europe, so it's likely to not pass as-is

b) The US changes diesel regulations way too frequently, so spending money getting something to pass is often not worth it, as the regulations end up changing almost immediately after the product is ready for market, so there's no time to recover costs and make a reasonable profit.

What is the current price per kwh for solar?

For my area, I can get $0.0707/kwh for "100% clean energy" which is blended wind and hydro. With the employee discount I get through work, I can get "dirty energy" for $0.0679/kwh

Yeah, cuz hydro is dirt cheap. You willing to pay 2-4x as much as you do for a large percentage of solar?

What is the current price per kwh for solar?

The issue with many of the renewables is that they can be contributors, but most or all of them just aren't capable of being energy *solutions*, and the cost per energy unit of things like solar is still far too high to make commercial sense without heavy subsidies. Some folks need to get their heads out of the clouds & realize that some of these techs are going to have to remain in small scale use for another 20 years before they're even worth looking at when talking about national scale needs. Of course, it would be unwise to get all our power from only one or two sources anyway. That's the beauty of electricity - there's so many ways to make it! Nuclear is really borderline between non-renewable and renewable, especially if breeding and recycling are on the table.

That doesn't look like a temporary dash wrap to me, I've never seen GM go that far with their camo. The dash mats you refer to only go along the top of dashes - this is a single piece wrapped around the center cluster, the glove box, along the entire top of the dash... unless the whole dash is a prototype, I'd say that's an un-camo'd production dash.

The "moving-up" theory is just that. No one comes into, for EX, BMW on the 3, then moves thru the 5 to the 7. I mean, if you like the 3- enough to purchase one, why would you care if there was a 7-series - what does that have to do with the 3-series? BMW's owner loyalty is only about 30%. They bring in new buyers, but don't retain them or move them up.

But would the buyer of the 7-series make that purchase without knowing someone who had a good experience with a 3 or 5 series? I think you may be right about the moving-up theory not really working, at least now how you stated, but I do think a brand can better sell at a price point if they've built a good reputation at a lower but adjacent price point already. For example, a company that's built a good reputation selling $30-40k cars can probably somewhat easily sell a new product (or even a higher optioned product) in the $40-50k range, but they won't do nearly as well to go from selling $30-40k cars to offering a $50-60k car. Even tougher if they tried to jump to $60-70k. Big jumps don't generally work.

Keep taking good care of it, it's a good looking car.

The left side grill does say caddy now that I think about it, but the right side due to the angle the mirror reminds me of the Camero concept

Camaro

The 1.4T in the Cruze puts out just 2 horsepower less than the 5.0 in my Toronado..... though my Toronado does make up for it in torque. I'd need to get a Cobalt SS engine to exceed the torque I have now.

Yeah, you have to be willing to wind up an n/a 4cyl to get the power, but they can take it just fine anymore.

My general impression has been that 4cyl engines (at least in american cars) weren't worth having until at least the very late 80's & early '90's. Weak, overworked, and unreliable was always my general impression. Now it's a completely different story, with turbo 4's reliably pushing more power than you got from many 80's 6 (or even 8 ) cylinder engines.

IMO, Electra is a great name for a Buick version of the Volt.

But IMO, GM shouldn't do a Buick version of the Volt. Chevy & Cadillac only. Though I guess if they're targeting China, where Buick carries a lot of weight...

That wasn't fake looking at all... [/sarcasm]