regfootball

Enough political BS Let's get light. Here's some advice i need. My 500 lease goes back in a week or so. To cover myself in the wake of a scarce credit scenario, I bought a used Taurus X a couple months ago. Now it seems like a good move. So, replacing my 500 is done, and I don't have to be forced into a bad deal now, when credit is tight and good deals are also few as well. The thing is now I am driving the 2004 Aztek. Wife has the new rig. The dilemma I face is its a nice daily driver. Quiet, spacious, 20 mpg, functional. Drives like a dump truck and its not fun per se, but its a good cruiser. Its in decent shape. More on that in a bit. It has 95,000 miles on it now. Its been trouble free. It had wheel bearing fixed under warranty and that's it. Tires and brakes at about 70k. Tires still look pretty good. Did radiator flush and tranny flush at 50k. Brakes have always felt weak on this vehicle and are underdesigned. I don't know if i can improve this. I owe about 3k money on it and think I can sell it for 6-7k on the open market now. Once it crosses 100k, the value drops and its hard for a buyer to get money on a vehicle over 100k. I've revisited the notion of the keeping it and driving it into the ground, what with it close to being paid off. At the same time, the struts need to be replaced as its riding tough. Aside from that it will likely need general maintenance to keep long term. Tune up and plugs, radiator and tranny flush....electrical and A/C check, fuel system change filter. Belts, hoses, etc. And dear God, it needs a stereo and speakers. the stock unit is dreadful. Aftermarket units now have USB and bluetooth to make in car tech easier. The body's in good shape. A couple dings, but it looks great otherwise. The car has heated seats installed and remote start so its a champ in winter. I'm torn on whether to dump money into the vehicle which is otherwise riding fine. If i invest in the maintenance and struts then I need to pay it off and drive it 2-3 years. My other recent scenario was that i had all but purchased a new Astra, and I would have sold the Aztek. The Astra is fun and woulld have been cheap to operate with better mpg and a friendly payment. GM pulled incentives on that car now, and I am screwed. I have a nice lease offer sitting out there on a demo 9-3 combi but its an automatic. GM is offering me an extra 2k on my competitive lease ending soon and that offer ends when i turn my lease in. There is also a G6 I can buy at a great price and that car is a good inexpensive ride as well. Ford has no good deals. So i need to decide in a week or so if I take advantage of any newer rides out there, or sink 2 grand into the tek and drive that for 2-3 years and 30-45k miles. The total incentives GM has for me right now is 4500 dollars extra (lease end incentive and GM card) Just want some points of view on this. I hate spending money on cars. But i hate spending money on maintenance and fixing them even more. Whatdya think?

i think plenty of Americans hate the prius. as for the magnum, rabbit, A3, all very good cars. I severely doubt anyone hates them. Jaguar is a good car. The Galant is even a very good fun car. Jeez. this is pure and simple, piss poor journalism.

death sentence for Jim! and lots of trips to India and Africa.

I might have to look into an Aveo5. I've developed a serious aversion to having a big second car payment now, and the Aveo is cheap. With the new improvements, my only reservation now is crash safety. Maybe Carbiz, you can chime in here.

that was clinton's mandate, BTW. Agenda. whatever.

ricer was right on points one and two. Very true. we'll swing way too far left. I see some serious damage being done by a lefty congress and president. think its bad now? so yes, we'll have repubs back in 2010. i would prefer we never see Hillary ever show up again. all that said, i just am not sure i can vote for mccain. old and creepy and not seemingly having direction. Palin is hot, and seems to have skill, but she needs more grooming. Maybe in 2012. The repubs need to develop some younger, more middle of the road talent, who don't scare the pants off of people. Funny bit, my lefty buddy sent me an email the other day....'Palin took off her blazer at a rally the other day!' OK, aside from me wanting to see that....slowly, to music, if that is the notable thing we say about her as a candidate, then its safe to say she needs more time. I forgot to ask him if she let her hair down, too. LMAO

gas was 2.66 at the pump today. if gas stays close to that for the next few months, there will be no diesel.

well it comes down to this. do they want the tools to move the metal? in the case of me, 99% good to go on a GM car on Sept 30, and now on Oct 1-15 on a 2008 closeout model that is NOT selling, it's 2500 higher. lack of rebates, lack of financing incentive. Ford, same thing. Like I told the guy at the dealer on the phone the other day....I fully expected to roll right into a new lease on an equivalent product. But you give me no options to get the same deal. So, bye bye. It's their call as to whether they want to move the metal. there is plenty of other aggressive competition out there that will lease to me or give me a loan. GM only lost 16% lost month while toyota lost like 30%? This month toyota is 'saved by zero'. GM pulls back like a turtle in its shell. Can't wait to see GM get creamed this month.

read car and driver's review they pretty much wonder the same thing i do. i.e. what's the point. if you want cargo space you don't get a mini, not that the clubman actually has any of that.

sexy wagon for sure!

hey, seriously, GM doesn't want to sell cars aside from that. Look through their incentives, they were much better last month for 2008's. How is GM supposed to sell any cars when the incentives are not as good AND they tighten up the credit?

LMAO. OOPS! fairness to VW, the sto n go captains chairs are unuasble by humans. to get rid of sto no go in lieu of habitable seats is an ok trade off i think.

the dodge vans have 8k in discounts. new vans as low as 17k-18k. routan is not there yet.

wamu won't let me pay my mortgage on the internet unless i set up auto pay. f@#kers. of course chase bought them, and my new car is chase. plus chases wants to grab my credit card debt too.

i used to not do breakfast, now my almost daily breakfast is a target of 250-300 calories in the form of either a quaker 25% less sugar peanut butter chocolate granola bar and a caribou choclate mocha granola bar (250 cal total) or a peanut butter sandwich on one slice of bread or apple or banana and one granola bar or small PB sandwich. i like oatmeal also but it makes ya gassy and you can't eat it on the road.

i actually don't get why saturn couldn't sell the insignia as is, side by side with the current aura. the insignia is premium in comparison. the aura could cover lower prices and have greater volume. the insignia could be the top of the line and could bear a little higher price tag. aura can't totally compete with the likes of the new mazda6 (trust me, sit in one, and you understand that). insignia could actually one up the mazda6. If saturn is serious about going toe to toe with imports, then they need to have the best model available. also, the insignia will just not come off well as a buick. the next astra has similar styling to the insignia. it all makes sense, yet GM won't do it. it wouldn't hurt for them to import 20-30k of them a year, to build the brands image if nothing else. the aura still can be the volume and value car, but the insignia would give it real cred. don't knock the saab/caddy pairing until you've seen them share a showroom. it seems to work IMHO. it means each brand can feed off each other, and it means saab can move down in size if they want. it also means saab can remain fwd based and leave rwd to caddy. i think once the 9-4x and next 9-5 hit the market saab will uptick, unless GM decides to push their pricing even higher. 9-3 should do alright if they would adjust that pricing also. i have ideas regarding chevy and bpg to fit around this but i think i am hlf asleep as i type this. already. saturn wanted to be opel north america...however, they already have butchered the antara interior, they muted the astra's offerings and now they will neuter the chance of getting the best car, the insignia. basically, GM doesn't have a f*cking clue how to keep their head out of their ass (or bankruptcy, take your pick).

if GM buys chrysler does that put them in a position to dissolve dealer agreements? (i.e. cut dealers out of their franchises and consolidate brands?) i could see GM considering this to eliminate ram trucks as competition and gain access to an ungainly minivan chassis. to me the best thing that would come of out of this is putting the avenger and sebring out of their misery and off our roads. In any case I think the best thing for GM to do would be to consolidate Chevy with BPG. this would allow them to cut rebadges and cut number of models from Buick and Pontiac. I would allow those two brands to survive, but allow them to be special and unique and carry the torch for more expensive models in a chevy showroom. Cadillac should be able to be set up and marketed however they see fit. I believe Saab should stay, but I hedge on whether it should be paired with Saturn or Cadillac, I see advantages to either. Saturn needs to continue to be the GM Europe outlet in America (insignia and all). To me though the key is merging BPG with CHevy. Chevy needs the upscale models and BPG needs to be folded into volume oriented setting to survive. At this point, fold Chrysler and Dodge and be done with it. Part out Jeep.

but its a Japanese car. surely they don't ever break down.

wow. someone had their cheerios this morning. all that kinda made sense.

and today we read how lutz says the insignia will not be the aura. translation- the US aura will be cost cut. it becomes really easy to HATE GM for this.

got this in an email the other day, whether its fluff or not, you be the judge...but it is interesting.

that is an unreasonable customer. but i am sure he should at least be able to ask for invoice minus rebates and maybe a little bit more right now.

an email quote from the saturn dealer that only includes payment quotes and not an actual quote on the price of the car? where is the straight forwarded ness there?

to me, from the presentation i saw and sat in, you'd be pushing it to push the prices above 18k on ANY version of this. But I'm cheap. The SX4 by the way feels much more solid and more of a piece as far as interiors and tactile / visual inspection. The Fit has a slight Korean aura to it. Magic seat and all, I'd get an SX4 over this. Of course, I'll need to drive the Fit to substantiate it however.

i suppose mcD's thinks they need to do this to protect the market share of Happy Meals.