regfootball

all that glass and black paint would really tax the A/C

the 08 exterior changes really give it more road presence, too bad the interior remains so bland.

HHR SS- work on getting a deal and you can be closer to 20 than 25, get the stick Jetta wolfsburg edition.......2.0t and DSG with sunroof for 23k a great gti alternative (more than your limit, but still a whole lot of good for the dough....i am tempted to drive one) cobalt SS base taurus- 18 and change. no lie. not attractive, not blazing fast, not fun. old mans car. just a good value. ( i know, snicker away ) mazdaspeed 6 how bout a used grand prix GXP? you might actually be able to find a new 07 or 08 GP for 20 grand or less right now. skip the g6 unless you can get a v6, the grand prix is a much better buy fusion is ok only if you want something more mainstream aura? big discounts right now skip the astra, nice car, no hp there is a cool element to the HHR SS i got sitting in one at the autoshow that has me at least thinking a lot about it lately. i think its the over the top style of it. in SS trim in red with red sport seats and the saab shifter it really is a bitchen presentation. and trust me the rabbit dont have HALF the luggage space. current gen mazda6's are cheap right now too.

here's a story for ya. i got the hail damage on my car estimated yesterday. it was at a dealer and so i went lot cruising in all the dealers nearby. the pontiac shop had 2 g8's. one in the orange which i just don't know........the other had cloth, which, the cloth looks like its kind of nice. ANYWAYS.....both g8's had massive hail damage. such a shame to see such a hot car with all that hail damage. they were both v6's i think.

mustang. cheaper, less weight.

i do find it weird that it exists still...there must be some sort of tax writeoff or something for this.

exactly. (don't forget its ugly cousin aztek, sans third row). maybe Buickman was on to something. the RDV may be ugly but it was well packaged. if you want to sit in a spiritual successor to the RDV's packaging, go check out a hyundai veracruz. Its almost the same thing in some ways.

great post

the virtues of a minivan are unbelievable. the issue here is the automakers have not figured out how to make them sexy. if they ever do (which is entirely possible if they just TRY) then i think the segment will rebound.

local off lease dealer i've bought from before has been getting batches of 06 and 07 sedona / entourage....most of them under 10k miles and the most recent batch of 07's they have been pricing around 15k. it kills me to consider korean pop cans but the sedona has good basic competence. At least you can manually shift the tranny and its kind of got a floor shifter. To me alone, that might be alright to be seen in one of those things. Maybe i should go test drive one again. Its been a couple years.

Is GM taking too much ill will from the markets and press and too much criticism? GM's every move is bloodied and they can't seem to do anything right in many's eyes. Yet Ford and Chrysler seem to be doing things and FOrd in particular seems to be sliding under the radar lately. Is GM taking too much of a hit? Are GM's issues WAYYYYY overblown?

minivans get better mileage than most crossovers, and they are cheaper, yet mommy isn't sexy at 36 if she drives one and no one has learned how to style one yet. to me also, vans do not have driver oriented interiors. they are like driving buses. lambdas are the best compromise so far. that said. no wonder GM has four of them. really though, reason number one. mommy can't play cougar on the side if she's driving around in a van. women are so obsessed with their sexiness even 15-20 years into marraige. they want to come off as divas and the vans don't work. don't worry, crossovers are headed to that place too. At some point, mom isn't gonna wanna be seen in that dodge journey either.

wolfsburg jettas out now are an amazing buy. sedans, but 2.0 and DSG + sunroof and nice vinyl for 22-23k. i think its even the turbo. how can one beat that?

try to squeeze another year or so out of your car now and keep it as a winter driver and then splurge on the new 010 mustang, by then i think it should have the 3.7 duratec instead of that whiny 4.0....unless you want a v8

update- VW's look good lately. A GTI, GLI, passat/wagon or jetta wolfsburg might be darkhorses or jetta wagon. Diesels may be too spendy. No Tiguan (too small a cargo area). Any Ford still is in the hunt with the Flex and Edge having the.....Edge. FUsion is off the list, but Focus might still be on. Taurus and Taurus X still on too. Only GM's at this point are HHR SS or Cobalt SS, used Saabs, and G8. Vibe maybe too. The LX chryslers might be a dark horse too, used. Not sure why but the HHR SS is standing out as a nice GM option lately. G8 would be a no brainer if AWD was optional. Forgot the Lambdas. Outlook and Traverse are big options. Can't wait to see Traverse pricing.

Bush and his bandits. 8 years of hell and destroying the lives of so many people in this country. Can't we just have the election tomorrow? Doesn't matter, the choices this time suck too. This country is so f-ked. Last 20 years of bush and clinton and reagan before that. No wonder its all a shthole now.

i've heard GTO's go through tires. not because of burnouts, just the way the suspension is set up.

and everyone wonders why farming is subsidized? if it weren't we'd outsource all our ag, too. then we'd be screwed.

in my thunderbird experience (last rwd car) buying separate snow tires and rims meant i also was able to use my OEM all seasons well beyond the 75k mark. Your gonna buy a second set of tires eventually, so why not get snows? Snows are cheaper than good all seasons anyways.

i'm sure they are only working on it if they compensated obscenely for it and it puts more notches on their resume.

again, there is just a certain group of people in this country that do not care. As long as they can get what they want and feed their mojo. If war time did break out, they'd want to grab mochas and sit in a conference room and 'brainstorm' their solutions for success in the 'global war arena'.

aura is a great car. vue is good too but they really have priced it out of the market for many who liked the old one.

ive seen a few 08 sts on the road lately and the front end changes really add presence to the car. the DI v6 makes for a hot rod. Problem is, same old dumpy interior. Where is the chinese STS interior? one example of GM's piss poor decision making. I'd enjoy an sts as my car but would be longing for something with a nicer interior.

you are not getting what i am saying. having the choice is valid. its the attitude of people, the arrogance, not even considering to give businesses of their own country a chance, especially considering they are probably making like bandits doing something that has till now not been been subject to the same level of consumer scrutiny, choice, and snobbishness. everyone here has a car and it creates a great marketplace that outisde countries can come in and set up shop and suck the money out. that's great. Cars are a very visible industry. There's a lot of other industries in this country that this could happen to but it hasn't yet because their industries are not about manufacturing where it is easy for the outsiders to use their inherent advantages to exploit our money flow. I can't wait for the day when for example, some high level marketing manager for a healthcare company has to stress out because half of what their company does is being farmed out to say, India, and the entire management team gets to pack their box and go home....because the customers decided for some reason the brochures were prettier from the other company. Even if it costs more. Or how bout a whole entire senior management for one of the nations top banks, lets say our people decided to do all their loans through first bank of Mexico. Now these are people that are adept at golden parachutes and such so they may not get screwed as they should, but my point is cars are an industry everyone is this country seems ok to dump on in the name of defending their choice but if other more lucrative jobs were getting dumped due to the same phenomenon, the uproar and bailouts would be off the charts.......

Journey - rerecorded Be Good To Yourself (w/ new singer)