PurdueGuy

Green SW2 in my garage - finish stripping any parts I want to keep or think I can sell, call a junker to pick it up and get half my garage back.

White SW2 (business car) - fix squeeling AC compressor, replace squeeky radiator fan, fix 2 non-working power windows, check wire that sometimes comes loose that controls the rear wiper.

Gold SC2 (project car) - replace front end suspension components, install poly bushing kit

Red SL2 - drop engine & trans in, bleed brakes, fix a couple other little things, and sell it.

Regular maintenance on the wife's SC1 and our Suburban.

Should be an awesome squishymobile. I'd rock one.

Hope everyone is alright.

Plus side, GM now knows something not to do, or a condition to prevent. Better to learn that now in a lab than in a car (or truck, or bus, or ?) later on.

I'd rock it for the right price.

I looked at a cube once. It struck me as cheap, but roomy, and a front seat that made me think more of a couch than car seating (which has pros & cons). It seemed like it could be an ok choice for someone who has no enthusiasm for driving, and wants a vehicle that's different for the sake of being different. I could also see it as ok as a business runabout, with vinyls all over the outside. A rolling billboard of sorts. It's probably the last choice for any kind of performance.

Yeah, if it's MySQL based, you can get a FULL backup by doing 2 parts - database (SQL) and the files themselves.

I have seen people who do their own oil changes and other work on their car and do a messy job with letting oil drip onto areas that get very hot, etc end up with Engine fires, but 2 cruz out of the thousands sold does not make me feel this is a worthy investigation. Now if they had 10-12 then I would think something else is causing a problem.

I do think that the wrangler needs to be looked at as 8 2010 Jeeps with engine fires is a starting to become a bit much.

8 is more than enough to look into the wrangler, but for the cruze it needs to be 10-12?

I have no issue with looking into something with two incidents, the trouble is that people hear of an investigation and they jump to conclusions.

The Astra design is interesting, but where are the sun visors? Seems like it would be awful to drive in rush hour...

If I remember correctly, the headliner moves to help provide shade.

Yup, check the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpUO_A4iDeE

The current generation Legacy also gained about 3 inches in width and height, and that adds to the visual bulk. I like the Legacy, though it has a lot of fussy styling details.

I was gonna say, it may not be much longer, but it is noticeably larger. It's not a wagon, it's a CUV/SUV. Thing is, I really want to like the Legacy/Outback, I grew up mostly around Lafayette, IN where it's built, and almost had a teaching position during grad school at Purdue's educational facility there.

Standardized tablet stand/mount + inductive charging built in + bluetooth interface = win.

That would be geek heaven. But wouldn't Bluetooth restrict more bandwidth intensive programs? When my tablet is tethered via BT, it's woefully slow.

I believe the new Bluetooth 3.0 is capable of much larger bandwidth. At any rate, some kind of wireless interface seems like it would greatly improve standardization, so that all the dock needs to do is hold the tablet, not have standard location connectors.

I'm all for cool features as long as the software is locked down enough so it's not possible to access the more distracting/advanced ones while the car is in gear.

That's probably fine, I'll just wait the approximately 4 days it'll take for someone to crack the nanny features & make sure I can make my own judgments.

I want an Astra-esque panoramic roof

I could also go for a fixed transparent roof, but the sliding roof shown here doesn't go back far enough to be worthwhile IMO.

Still not a fan, the last gen was a much more handsome car IMO.

+1, still looks too big & bulky

I think this is just an MCE of the cars that have been around since MY '09..

Pretty clearly is, it has the same overall shape & look. Sad thing is, cars rarely reduce in size, so the outback will probably continue to be an SUV that used to be a wagon.

Standardized tablet stand/mount + inductive charging built in + bluetooth interface = win.

Still not a fan, the last gen was a much more handsome car IMO.

+1, still looks too big & bulky

Your kwh charge sounds a bit low. It sounds like you're only counting generation and not delivery charges and taxes. Your overall premise is right, but I think your calculations might be using rates that are too low.

Here in Idaho we pay 4-5 cents per kwh.

One plus side to the name changing - if you say "I have a Cobalt", you know exactly what they have (outside of particular specs).

Still, since most of the public doesn't pay enough attention to cars to keep track of the gazillion different model names, I agree that it is probably very helpful toward image building (and thus marketing) to stick with the same names long-term. That way when someone says "I love my Impala", it may help sell a new one, even if the person who said it was talking about their early 90's car that has absolutely nothing to do with the current model.

They still can't hide away the satellite antenna & ditch the little shark fins? (see impala pic)

From the image itself, or from the metadata?

Looks good to me.

So let me get this straight... the Forester, Subaru's small SUV, is now going to be smaller than the Legacy/Outback, their car/wagon? I'm so very disappointed in the bloated ugly thing the Legacy/Outback has become, maybe the Forester will actually remain a nice vehicle.

It's a lotta money, but it's also a lotta cool.

How many fires have there been? I'm only aware of one in a wrecked vehicle, and one in a house with crappy wiring and a home-made electric car parked next to a Volt...

I will be seriously considering picking up a low mileage used one of these in a few years when my wife's worn out her SC1. Congrats!

Michael Green, you complained about the Volt's cost, then complained about the amount of domestic content/assembly of GM cars. There's no quick or easy way to have 90-100% US content in GM cars and keep costs at a reasonable level. You can't just have your cake, eat it too, and dictate the ingredients without some kind of sacrifice. I too would like to see an increase in domestic content, but there is a limit to what's reasonable without tradeoff.

I respect the work, but the car itself doesn't do much for me. No cheers or jeers, just meh.