regfootball

on fuelly, the 2.5 equipped Malibus are showing very nice mpg. Upgrades over the 2.4 from 2012, and more or less similar or equal to the Eco 2.4's. Autoblog has a drive review of the 2014's covering all the upgrades to powertrain, suspension and steering, and the interior and stop start etc. With the improved characteristics and improved mpg, I think this Malibu may rebuild some cred here. I think this car has the chance of delivering 30 mpg consistent to a lot of drivers, and the 13 was nice to drive to me. If the 14 is improved in driving and I know first hand the looks of the front end are a big improvement, i think this combined with the Impala, Chevy will be ok in larger sedans. I like the notion of the 14 Impala with it's larger size but the 2.5 Imp renders only 31 mpg highway....the Malibu is 36 (they could have claimed 37 apparently), that is a fairly substantial difference. I still have no issue with eAssist in concept. Perhaps the reengineering of it again will yield some big results. As it was, it was too hard a sell for the money.

All our semi trucks run diesel, look at the govt cash cow for all that fuel tax........you think they'll give up that gravy train? If they know you'll get 30% more mpg, than of course they'll figure they are entitled to tax it more to make up that difference. It is true though, if the tax were the same, diesel FTW. Perhaps the euros are shooting for some crony capitalism here, if they posture for better diesel acceptance, than they would be the ones to score a big advantage due to their better execution of diesel and perception in the market. Clearly they would rather rely on diesel than hybrids. Not sure why it always has to go back to the diesels of the 70's and 80's, that is a long time ago. If diesel does make a big resurgence, I am sure the greenies will move to squash it again. Imagine a little 1.6l Sonic turbo diesel chugging away and making 50+ mpg like no one's beeswax.

As far as the larger phones and phablets, I think for someone who uses a phablet as a PDA more than as a phone, it makes sense. If you use bluetooth for phone mostly and seldom put it to your head, then it really is just a PDA with a bluetooth connection. But seriously, why not just get a separate tablet at some point? It is cost effective to just pay for the one device connection.

Me and my wife have had our new iPhone 5C's almost a week now. Wanted the 5s badly but none were in stock and she needed her new phone, and BBY had extra 50 bucks off. Hard to justify the extra 150 bucks ea for the 5s in this case. Anyways, both love the new phones. FAST, great battery. ios7 takes getting used to, so still learning that. My biggest beef is the size. That's right, the physical size is too big in comparison to the 3gs. 3gs fell perfect to the hand in every way, with the slight contour. The 5c don't get me wrong, feels very good. But the flat back and the fact that there is occasionally things you need to do with the second hand is kind of annoying at times, or you have to shift and move the phone a bit to reach something that your thumb could easily hit anywhere on screen on the 3gs. Home button in relationship to the rest of the case and screen on the 5c feels a bit too low. I am sure I will get used to the difference in more time. If the shell of the phone were less tall and a bit wider and had some slight contour in the backing, with the same height screen and a little more width in the screen I think we'd be on to something. I can not for the likes of me get how people can use something larger one handed or where the home button is way down at the bottom of the phone. I hate having to use a phone device with 2 hands. Wanted a green phone but my wife made some snide comment last minute about dudes and a green phone. So I choked and got a white one (all my past apple stuff was white). Now I am sort of ok sticking with white and the black case. Hers is blue with the blue case and it looks kind of kiddish already. The Apple case is so thin and narrow, I might get a different case later that is a bit thicker and wider. Really wanted the 5s but when its not in stock, not much you can do. 5s is a beautiful piece.

Silly Drew, she drives an RX, not an ES! CROSSOVER!!!!

Sonic's a nice rig.

love those big gm wagons

to an airhead anchor on CNN http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/business/2013/10/01/audi-pushes-diesel-intv.cnn.html

we insure 2 cars full coverage 250 deductible for 120 bucks a month at state farm. but, we have been incident and ticket free for the most part. same co. for 25 years or so. to me, that is not bad, especially in comparison to fuel, car payments and maintenance. when i was selling, we had to make sure insurance was set up before the car is delivered. teens and the under 25 set are getting hit hard. Maybe rightfully so because of bambi texting and driving, and in general a lot of teens not having to much clue how to drive......the insurance company should be able to charge a rate commensurate with the risk. But still, 200/mo to insure some of these folks........too much. Especially since you can't just get a 1000 dollar beater to reliably drive any more. It's 3,4,5 thou for a decent beater or minimum 200-250 car payments if you can get credit for an already ancient car. Our two car payments are 600/mo total. gas is amounting to 5-600 a month now with me putting 25k miles a year on. Running one car for a lot of folks, gas plus car payment plus insurance is like 700 a month. For some, they have to pay for parking too. That's too much. Your gas bill used to be much less than your car payment. SOme people now even with average driving, gas is 3-4 hundred a month. Of course, 30k for an average car is ridiculous. So is having 40k student loans upon leaving college. As is health care premiums, etc. Something has to give, cars are giving for a lot of folks. There is almost no cheap way to drive anymore. And don't say bikes. They don't work in blizzards. to me, if you have a big transit bill, then it is tough to also make that car payment.

I think this one will do better.

ah, to be held hostage by transit. yet, the cost of a vehicle is exhorbitant. the system gets engineered that way so you pay hard for your freedom. And if you don't get a car you still pay. Transit fees ain't cheap either. Once they get people hooked on that they can jack the price of that up but then subsidize it for a select group.

sexy car! knot

Possibly. Lots of GM cars seemed to have the issue from what i recall. The switch moves around a lot.

there is some side detail to this. My old b0ss (where i sold) runs the chevy dlshp where i got it fixed. Outside of my frustration with the notion of a lock cylinder failing at 50k, as I would expect, their service process was excellent. Was quoted half the price and 2 hours to fix vs. all day to get part and fix a bunch of other stuff for 700 bucks. The side story is i took the car in at 30k with the switch not working and at that time they said it was. So when i was there yesterday i reminded the SA of that and asked to look into it. I got quoted a price to fix it and that it may even be the motor and I said, no way, not gonna happen. When i paid to get my car when it was done SA said in passing, 'oh the tech was checking on that window switch and says it is working now, not sure how, but it's working'. I think maybe there was some good will there, or they just tweaked something to get it to work. Point being, why does a power window switch fail at 25k miles? Why does a lock fail at 50k miles. Junk is why.

this whole topic reminds of the misery i encountered selling suzuki....... here is the thing. to build a car brand, you need to sell some mainstream market models. then the other thing, you need to promote your brand like you will be there forever and that you are a player and are professional and that you have the customer's back. You need to be available with lots of dealers and convey the notion that you will not be selling them something that you won't be around to back up, even in 10 years. the dealerships that sell them need to be as sleek and inviting as the major brands, and have customer service and sales process that is to the same standard as such. As even Mazda is finding out, to survive, its not just the mechanical excellence, you have to provide meat and potatoes in the major segments to compete. 10 miatas in the showroom won't do it. A mazda3 (compact car) , mazda6 (midsize family car), cx5 (smaller crossover), cx9 (larger crossover) are sort of the major segments and if you want to survive and be taken as not a niche, you have to sell in those segments. Those segments have staying power and will be the basis for your selling operation for years.

well done all around, particularly the interior. Almost makes me want to own one and live in Texas and just drive around and burn gas all the time. Perfect to continue the aura of the Escalade.

350 bucks lighter. grrrrrrr

Yup a stick. Google 'cobalt cylinder lock recall reimbursement' or something like that. Your 2009 might fall under GM paying now. I was told I have to pay for the work. Gm may add this to the recall in the future and reimburse. I figure the chance of that at 40%. In the meantime, my crapped out drivers power window switch which I brought in under warranty not working and they said it was ( so they didn't fix it then) they gave me a price. Not gonna fix that. It wasn't working under warranty. It's also a cobalt issue. I realize I bought a super cheap car when I bought it, but overall now at 50k miles if this car is going disintegrate , in addition to being a crappy driver, I really don't want it anymore. The cobalt is about the most joyless car I have ever had. Since I did not pay much for it, it's not worth much now either. You sorta get what you pay for.

Guess where I am this morning! Chevy dealer. KEY STUCK in ignition. Happened once last week and today, no dice.

anyone think a hatchback Regal would do anything in the market? Buick, when the new Anthem arrives, will explode. Female buyers and crossovers........

update, as of an hour ago or so, i have her heavily intrigued on the Mazda3...............tried like hell on the Verano.....

sat in the Cadenza last weekend. It is a weak presentation all around. The optima in the same showroom is more interesting and less dough. I liked the shape of the dash, but again, the Optima is so much more interesting! rode in the borrowed Regal today, love the car! but it just doesn't make a splash with the public! Maybe all the Regals should come with GS bodywork. Right now to solve the coupe issue, Buick needs the Astra 3 door as Verano coupe! I doubt a Regal coupe would sell much but it would add identity to Buick. Brass tacks is would a Regal coupe take the place of the CTS coupe?

by July or Aug 2014, GM will slap 5-6k incentives on remaining 14 XTS and if you are lucky to find a base XTS, it will be a good buy compared to loaded LaCrosse or Impala.

a toyo diehard friend i have who currently drives an ancient solara is looking now to get something soon. She already said she is trying to pick 'between the corolla and the camry or maybe the Prius'. Wow, lots of choice! BUT perfect example of how toyo lovers think. Won't even try anything else. I suggested to look at the subarus if they want a toyota (for AWD) but also look at Verano, Fusion, Malibu, Cruze, Focus etc........

DI changed the game and made turbos da schizzle.