regfootball

and are becoming almost non existent in many parts.......

but you hit the nail on the head because THAT'S WHAT SELLS CARS to 80% of the population these days. interiors consumer reports reputation among friends GM has never understood how to tap into the market they call women, and 'intellectuals' and guys who are effiminate, or just flat out don't like cars.

either is fine, what would be cool is for the user to be able to program what buttons are for what funtions and then have the buttons to be 'dynamically labelled' and set to each driver's preference. touch screens and large flat panel displays would make that a cinch.

read an article last night that said hyundai is selling THIRTY PERCENT of their new Sonatas to fleets. must be true, there's one at the local hertz every day, right next to the Sienna, Camry, and Corolla. Not to mention the big incentives on them.

let me take the opportunity to point out then just how many Americans drive buttloads of miles every day and on rural interstates and high speed in town freeways. On horribly beat up roads and in an extreme hot and cold temps. About 3 or 4 hard MN winters on frozen potholes and that Fit is toast, I bet. I bet the majority of Americans are averaging at least 18,000 hard miles a year on their cars or more. Aside from my wife I know of at least 4 others off the top of my head who exceed the 25,000 a year my wife is racking up. My one buddy is pacing 30k a year on the used Volvo he bought. Another buddy has racked up over 45,000 in 18 months on his Astro (which by the way is getting quite beat). you hit it on the mark 'occasional highway use'. i.e. its an 'occasional car'. in that light, 109hp is fine, its more than the lawn mower. Oh wait, the neighbors forced you to get a reel mower....hmmmmm. I am just basically pointing out how we are NOT Europe. Fine if they bring it over as is then, just realize we are spread out a lot more and in order to keep up with traffic that is frequently 15mph over posted limits.....well, you get the picture. the extra 20hp you need to get out of the way before the Excursion T bones you may indeed be neccessary someday. It certainly wouldn't hurt Honda to adapt to our market and at least pump up the hp a little as an option. then at least the car is usable for more than just trips to the psychiatrist down the street. I do commend Honda for making the handling sport oriented, its quite welcome in this segment. Sure, if the fit is a 10,000 mile a year car or is your second or third car, then its a good deal. I am just saying all this attention on this class right now is not because this is what people actually want continually, its because of a large upturn in gas prices.

and then the boneheads put the 3.9 (not the 3.6hf) in the G6 GXP and prove otherwise. until the beancounters all have their heads converted, real balls out progress will still be slow.

if GM is to survive and be large scale, they do need to still make mainstream products, not just retro AMURCHAN mobiles. so Gm and ford do still need to take stabs at the UJS's......that's where the market is

buickman, you need a blackberry.

or some 80's hair band videos

yeah, they aren't worth sh1t until you can store all sorts of hard core p0rn on them. yah know, lunch break at work, pull out the Blackberry or whatever and watch a little LOOOOOVVVVVEEEE that, or like star trek episodes.

oh yeah, they are so good for our economy.

you mean they haven't been held for ransom at gunpoint

i think those CSV's are really going to take off soon.

Lutz: "dammit guys, that G6 needs the 3.6hf powerplant. get it done" Accountant: "um, yeah, Mr. Lutz, we need to talk to you about that. you do those TPS reports yet?"

if all you've driven is a GM car and never been out further than the cornstalks you probably would never know that

THE POINT IS THE BUYING PUBLIC'S PERCEPTION IS HEAVILY IN FAVOR OF OHC's in PERFORMANCE CARS OF THIS ILK digital compact cassette mini disc digital audio tape betamax laserdisc functional technologies that died because the public didn't want them because they wanted something else. buyers in this segment are looking for certain features in their engine technology the caminblock is fine in the base and lower priced GT. A GXP G6 deserves top notch stuff.

wrong on two counts here, bud....first off, if you can buy a new VW TDI for 18 grand, i will pay Carmen Electra to fly on a jet to your house and sex you secondly the previous Jetta TDI had no room and the new style Jetta TDI is not here yet. the new camry has an assload more room than the space challenged Jettas. the TDI's are fine products....however, VW knows it and prices them accordingly. If you could even find a 2 year old TDI for 18 grand and under 40k miles you can be president.

if your just driving from your overpriced little urban 'loft' LOL.....to the grocery store in the suburb once a week (because everyone knows there are no supermarkets in the hood) then sure, if you never go over 50mph and never venture onto an interstate or freeway then yeah you can likely get by with one of these deals

i have wood over the wood they have on the console and dash

damn! this could be the perfect sedan! oh i suppose it might be pricey. The styling appears to be quite awesome! i absolutely love it from those glimpses though. I would 'big-O'/soil/fill my pants if they told me it had all wheel drive and a 370hp twin turbo direct injection DOHC v6 in it.

my prizm weighed as much as the fit but had btter times and more power (125hp) but yet was inadequate for all the types of driving I and most people do. 8.7=too slow It currently cute and trendy for the road to be sold now with little crackerboxes because gas went up so much last year. Go back 5-10 years ago when everyone decided they needed large SUV's. Now its just an SUV backlash + high gas prices. The small car thing is just a reaction to the SUV and high gas prices. No one really wants cars like this long term. Inevitably it will cycle around again and most folks will remember the middle (mid sized vehicles) is where they want to be. Real usable power on freeways and interstates, adequate passenger and cargo space, and long term durability and good crash safety. If anything in crackerboxes like this shows the need for more speed to avoid accidents.

7.3 0-60 and 37 mpg combined. numbers like that in a midsized car is the formula for a mass buying revolution. this could generate a future of mostly hybrid cars for the next 10-15 years.... and GM is still trying to cut costs with pushrods. it's gonna take 10 years for very many competitive hybrids to penetrate GM's lineup.

LOL....EXACTLY

the compass is such a p*ssy vehicle.

dude, there's a lot of truth to what your saying, but as long as the folks who have money to buy cars more frequently buy toyotas instead of ford or gm, then GM will have to resort to ruthless things and draw lines in the sand in order to compete and have a chance of winning customers back. the divide in society now here is that if you ARE somebody, you buy foreign. If you're NOT somebody.....then you are stuck buying an incentivized domestic. Its ok to buy korean, because its asian and you still get a deal. The divide is wider now so those that are NOT somebody can't even buy new cars anymore while German and Japanese lux and near lux and premium mainstream cars sell at increasing record numbers and prices. GM is forced into selling less advanced hardware in order to have a chance at hitting affordable prices. At some point, they must adjust their cost structures to allow them to not get behind in hardware, material quality and feature content. The public perception these people hold is 'why should i buy GM it is paying for someone's inflated labor contract, not what's going into MY car'.