PurdueGuy

peak hp & peak torque doesn't tell the whole story. You'd need full dyno graphs. If the new one makes a tall, flat torque curve while the old one is peaky, then that's a big difference. You assuming that horsepower should do nothing but go up? So we should all have like 600 hp by now?

how do the torque curves compare? How does the weight compare? How does the reliability compare? How does noise & vibration compare? Comparing only horsepower is like comparing houses based on the number of bathrooms and nothing else.

pretty much guaranteed not. lol Shame, cuz I <3 manual trannys. Drove a "manumatic" (or whatever GM's term for it is) Pontiac G6 this weekend. I suppose if I had to drive an automatic, it'd be an ok feature, but it is nowhere near a substitute for a real manual transmission.

cars are only gonna get more expensive... thank inflation and CAFE.

I think they're introducing a dealer option armrest soon, though some early buyers are getting them from sellers in europe.

plenty of older cars and trucks (especially trucks) wandering the roads out here in ID, you could come join us.

Would a dealer selling both new chevys and pontiacs get in trouble if it offered dealer-installed bowties and el camino badges? lol Probably... but it'd be a fun twist. I forsee it happening in the aftermarket.

perhaps better than?

it's options, why complain about options? No one is forced to take advantage of these programs... though some of them seem biased, like the one that is specific to the Prius. My first though was how much the guy who just bought a small, fuel-efficient car right before getting hired is cursing up a storm. lol No incentive for youuuuu!

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Not that plans can't change, but they were planning on giving Saturn the Corsa. How does it compare size-wise, and platform-wise to the 9-1? I was under the impression that Alpha was more of a small car sized platform, not Mini-sized. I agree that it's too big a step down in size to give something that small to Buick.

I agree for next gen - squeeze more mpgs out of the 1.8 and keep offering it, offer the VVT 2.4L for a "sport" engine, and a redline offering in the 220-240hp range. Though it's going to be interesting to see what they do with that turbo engine they're planning for the US small cars, and whether it's a performance or economy engine.

The 2.4L isn't an engine available at the factory where they're building the Astra. This is a stopgap product, and they weren't interested in reengineering the car just to bring it over for a couple years. Wait for the next gen, and hope that CAFE doesn't castrate it too badly.

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If I HAD to pick one, it'd be the Outlook. However, it surely doesn't cost that much for GM to supply Saturn with the Outlook since it shares so much with the Acadia, and Saturn can use the full lineup. I agree that it could be replaced with the Zafira, though. Next gen Astra needs a sedan offering.

I've also had frustrations with the cupholders between the shifter & dash on my saturns, but accidentally found a solution in my gold car. Short throw shifter. The shifter doesn't move far enough forward for the cups to be an obstruction, plus I love being able to shift with practically a flick of the wrist. The stock shifter feels like rowing a boat now. lol

here's a pic of the ion interior lol @ bumper car steering wheel. Some Ions had a better steering wheel... but yeah.

I'm sure we'll hear people whine about the cupholder for years (especially in saturn enthusiast circles). It's the downside of a stopgap product. If cupholders are a dealbreaker for a customer, they they probably should buy something else. It doesn't make the car inherently bad, but it could certainly be a daily frustration for some drivers. Of course there will be car reviewers that hate the whole car because of little things like this.

The next gen Lucerne, or whatever replaces it, needs to be better. My in-laws traded in their Park Avenue on a Lucerne, and they regret it. The Lucerne isn't substantially nicer, and even with the 6cyl gets worse milage. What I've seen of it, it's nice, but not nicer. Next gen needs to be as nice or nicer, and with better fuel economy.

I like my 3 door saturns. (pictured car not mine, but identical configuration) That throw enough wrenches into the terminology?

PR, ability to run on it in the future as it's more available (it's all over the place in some areas, though it's not here where I'm at yet), standardization, bragging rights

It's ok, they'll still have the hot little roadster in the Demon. Oh wait, they took a crap all over that and made it a FWD Chinese car. Nevermind...

exactly. Doesn't seem that hard to do, and it would be a very nice PR item / bragging right. I could see each GM commercial with a small reminder at the end: "and remember, no matter which GM vehicle you choose, you are getting a flexfuel vehicle capable of running on normal gasoline, E85, or other ethanol blends." or something like that. Or they could do it by brand: "plus, no matter which Buick model fits your lifestyle, you're getting a flexfuel..."

looks hot in black.

I would think they could do better than that, but *shrug*