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carlover23

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Posts posted by carlover23

  1. I'd say it would be a GREAT bet.

    With all the good press GM is getting for the (lack of) NVH in the Malibu L4, I'd think having the 6-speed would only make it better. Better fuel economy, most likely improved performance, etc.

    Like someone else said.....makes the Malibu Hybrid kindof pointless......

    Why can't they put the 6-speed in the Hybrid, wouldn't that make it more efficent?

  2. On top of that, the Saturn brand still has a smaller dealership network then Buick. Especially with the Buick/GMC/Pontiac dealership merger, you get more foot traffic and thus, more cross-shopping.

    Refering to Northstar's comments that the Saturn's numbers are disapointing, I think if you look back and remember that Saturn was practically on it's deathbed just a couple years ago.. it's quite remarkable that there is an increase in sales at all let alone leading GM's gains this year by selling over 10,000 more cars then last year at this time.

    Also, I think it's also linked to the Saturn no haggle pricing strategy, the price you see is what you get and there many people who see that they are not really getting a deal for their Saturn as much as other cars. The XR is 25K, you'll pay that much regardless of what you say to the salesman. But the flipside is that GM is making more money on the Aura than any other vehicle because it's not discounted as much and they are getting the list price. It's not like walking into a chevy dealer and seeing a malibu for 21,500 and getting it for 19K just because you negotiated a lower price from the dealer. You can't with a Saturn. Give it time it will catch on, especially with GM being more aggressive with updates and redesigns, I can see Auras being sold at 100K or more a year.

  3. unless more and more hybrids are made, 4% will be quite tough and cause lots of inflation in the auto market.

    other wise vehicles will have to be sold with anemic engines with the way safety and everything will keep adding weight,

    hopefully we will never see a castrated vette put to market just to meet mileage requirements.

    What everyone is missing here is that American would scream and moan if gas prices go up $.25 because of something the government did, increasing taxes on gasonline would be political suidcide, period. No this is not a really solution and yes it is punishing the companies who are making products that people want, but it is not politically incorrect to do so. Americans like to blame industry for making the world a worse place, but not take responsibilty for their own actions. I remember hearing someone taking about pollution and blaming factories and then driving off in a huge SUV, somehow they couldn't equate riding a V8 powered SUV with increasing polution or dependance on foriegn oil.

  4. Evok, I agree the USA needs to do more in school, but, it's all coming down to money. Money is why we are going to India and China. Not education.

    And guys, we can't all work at McDonalds and get paid $6.50 an hour and support a family, own a home, and help send your kids to college.

    We need to keep jobs in AMERICA!!

    Does anyone out there agree with this???

    I agree wholehartedly with the above statement, I think people are putting too much stock in Indian and Chinese people being so much better/smarter than americans. My wife is in a Masters program with people from India who claim that their education is so much better than everyone else's but when asked if everyone in their country is given the same opprotunities to succeed, the answer is no, and that means the doctors, lawyers, etc. you see are the best of the best from those countries where the parents push them very hard, the average person from India is not that. You have money and influence, you get better education better opprotunies. That would be the same in any country/culture.

    The bottom line is not that multinational/global companies are setting up shop because the workforce is better educated that their American couterparts, they are setting up shop because they are taking advantage of the economic difference between the second and third world country and the US.

    I also have a co-worker who has had a knee replacement and had someone tell her that stopped using a particular companies plastic knee because once the company outsourced to India the quality of the product also got worse.

    And in cases of Dell and tech firms who also outsorce their tech support, their customer service suffers, it is not in most instances better employees, but cheaper employees.

  5. In all honesty, I do not know if that will be such a great idea, when you bring over European market cars and engines, you have the propensity to be have realiability issues(VW) and space issues(ford Mondeo/Contour) and even safety issues (Fusion). I would hate to have cars based because of their lack of backseat space, headroom, power, or poor crash scores. The only way I can see it working is if it's some kind Niche thing, like Mazda is, to a degree. The different engines are good idea, only dealership mechanics are able to repair and service correctly (catera). It would be nice to have a disel option, other than the germans. Do we have someone on the forum that is familar with Opel/Vaxhaul and is able to enlighten us as to how these vehicles perform, hold up over a period of time?

  6. EXCELLENT!

    Nice to see the 2 'damaged brands' in there ;) and I wonder how much the new Impala is helping GM reduce fleet sales.

    So basically Saturn and GMC brought the numbers down... GMC's numbers are NO DOUBT a product of the new Yukon launching. As for Saturn, well, at least they have lots of new product coming.

    Interesting... The two divisions that EVERYONE wants GM to rid itself of.

    Once again, this is what happens when GM actually stops STARVING a 'damaged brand' of good, image changing product.

    Good news!!!! GM definately shouldn't have introduced those GMT900s right now (much sarcasm implied)

    The Torrent is doing EXACTLY what it was supposed to do... Giving Pontiac VOLUME.

    Seems that the Vue has ALWAYS been a hit!

    NICE, between Lucerne and Lacrosse Buick seems to be gaining more and more retail steam.

    Not sure what that means.

    Yep, that G6 was such a failure..LOL... I'm in a college town and I see more G6's than Cobalts... This thing has SERIOUS potential if GM would just fix the details.

    The Colorado needs a quick fix, much like the H3. Better motor and value pricing..... Great to hear about the Lucerne!

    ***On a slightly related note, a friend of mine has a VW passat (Newer one) and is finally tired of the bad quality. She said she's going to get a Pilot begrudgingly because she can't afford an Equinox... She said that's what she really wants and she could've afforded it during the employee discounts, but not now. And this girl is the type of person that it seems would NEVER consider a domestic.

    (I always thought the Pilot was more but whatever)

    sure she's not getting it confused with the CRV or is she talking about a used one?
  7. I see two possible outcomes, Toyota, Nissan, and Perhaps Honda and Hunydai Perhaps creeping into retail sales of trucks, but won't have an overrall effect on market share, this has much more to do with the amount of company fleet purchases and government contracting. There are so many tie-ins that GM/DODGE/FORD have with companies and governmental entities that the net outcome would be minimal with these kinds of purhcases, also you have to into account the amount of configurations availible, the Asian marks simply don't have as many and would be priced too high for a small business to purhcase on and moderate scale. What I think would happen is that simply more trucks will be sold, not any real loss in market share per say.

    This is like saying that we will see Police departments with Camries/Maximas/Accords/Altimas or taxis as Avalons/Azeras/etc, simply would not happen because of costs.

  8. Well it makes sense to me. And its not just about what C&D or Motortrend write about them either. It's about what I hear people saying about them. I know a Ford family that wants to go out and buy either a GTO, or a Solstice. I hear people talking about the CTS, and obviously people are buying them because their sales have gone up since the first year, even with the mags complaining about them. The Solstice has been put down for trunk space mostly, but better than reviews of say.... a Lacrosse or the new Impala. I dont think I need to defend the GMT-900s, or the Corvette at all. They are just the best in their classes right now. The FWD midsizers are all propped up by fleets. I swear I think every Grand Prix I have seen in the past 2 weeks(no joke) have been rentals. However,that doesn't mean I think every RWD car GM made is great, and every FWD GM makes sucks.

    [post="81189"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]



    And that is main source of the problem, most people cannot afford to buy the new cadillac or specialty Corvette, Solstice, GTO, etc. But the mainstay of GM the FWD cars get outclassed by the others or the perception is that they are. Look at the W-body, The new Lacrosse and Impala are nice, but have an atrociously small backseat and that really doesn't make since considering the size difference between the GM w's and Camries, Accords, Altimas. You have a vehicle about 198 inches long or even 202 inches long and has less backseat volume that a Camry or Altima that's only 191 or so inches long. This is were I see a principal problem with GM and needs to be corrected.
  9. No bailouts, no tax breaks, no help from taxpayers.  Comments like, "Bush is a f@#king moron," et al, really show a lack of depth on the subject, not to mention immaturity and a lack of credible arguments.

    Edit:  If my tax dollars go to bail out the Big 2 I would be even less inclined to purchase their cars.

    That's what the Japanese government does for their companies.

  10. 97, maybe my point wasn't clear:  of course, Buick won't sell 135,000 Enclaves and they don't need to.  Chevy should have a minivan and so should GMC, but it makes no sense to have 4 off the same platform that all look the same and that all overlap in price.

      Regardless of what the whiny dealers want, the consumer is confused and the competiton is laughing.  Gone are the days when a person will drive over to the Pontiac dealer after finding out they can't get a Vibe at the Chevy dealer - now they just drive over to Toyota and get something else.

      This silly rebadging of the same vehicle over and over again is hurting sales, not helping. It also pits dealer against dealer.  When a Pontiac guy tells the customer the Montana is better because of more sound insulation, better ride, etc.  (which is total BS), then it just muddies the situation.

      The Enclave is a serious step in finally differentiating Buick from Pontiac and from Chevrolet - the way it should be.  I understand development money has been tight and that it takes time:  my point is that I am glad to see it is finally happening and I HOPE it isn't too late.

      There are 41 GM dealers in the GTA and 12 Toyota, yet they both have 16% market share each.  Blood is in the water and, of course, the dealers are going to whine - they should be!  You have dealers who used to sell 50 cars on a Saturday (not so long ago) now lucky to sell 50 in a month!

      I am encouraged to see GM getting its act together, but just today spent some time with the new Civic and I am depressed.

    I agree with this statement, I think that strategy should be Two minivans and three Crossovers, There should be a Lower priced Crossover, Chevy/GMC, a midlevel, Saturn, and then an upscale model; Buick. There should only be two Minivans, a budget model like Chevy and an upscale one, maybe Buick or Saturn.

    The Minivan market is dwindling as people are purchasing more and more crossovers as they become availible. It does not make finanical scense IMO to release 4 minivans and 3 crossovers. Plus Crossover can be sold at a premium VS there minvan counterparts, because they do not have that Soccer mommy stigma and are the hot thing because they aren't as thursty as a BOF SUV.

  11. remember the LaCrosse likely as absurd sticker prices that are likely higher the 300 and need market adjustment.

    I do think the Intrepid/Concorde/LHS/300 outsold the latest LX cars, but I would need to look that up again.

    [post="8529"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]


    you're right they did, however, Intrepid/Concorde/LHS/300 had to sell at serious discounts. Used 300s with the 2.7 V6 are still selling close to sticker, at least around here in NJ/Philly. I like the LaCrosse, however, the fact that the backseat is smaller than the competition despite it being a longer vehicle is unacceptible. The fact that you can get a more fuel efficent Chevy Malibu/Impala with the same or more HP is crazy. Shouldn't buick be an upgrade over other Non-Cady GMs?
  12. I saw a white one on RTE 30 in Straford, NJ yesterday, pretty nice, the rear window looked odd, though, almost like it had no rear headroom. I does look at lot more sporty than the outgoing model. a pretty nice package considering you are getting a Luxo-car for less money than a LS430 and the like. It would be nice if Caddy had more features for it.
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