regfootball

"The quality level of the cars, particularly the New Beetle, was terrible. Owners who loved their car gave up because they couldn't take the repeat trips to the dealer. Possibly the quality has gone up, but when you've got that bad reputation, it sticks. It takes a huge warranty to win customers back - Hyundai's ten-year warranty did it - and VW isn't doing that."

car connection "But they are in the dumps again. VW has been losing $1 billion a year in America. Sales last year were down to 224,000 VW models from 256,000 the previous year. What's wrong?"

"The numbers are pretty stark, according to the numbers worked up by Merrill Lynch. In 2005, GM's spending on product development was $1611 per vehicle, while spending on legacy costs, including pensions and retiree healthcare amounted to $1338. Meanwhile, competitors are investing much more aggressively in future product than GM."

car connection "A new report from Merrill Lynch suggests that GM has been investing too little in new products for a long time and it isn't clear that even in the present crisis, the auto giant is prepared to change. "We believe GM will continue its historical pattern of underinvesting in product to the detriment of earnings and stock price," noted a new research report from John Murphy, Merrill Lynch's new auto analyst. "GM's market share losses are not new news. The company's consistent underinvestment is the primary driver of its consistent market share losses," the report says."

you don't think that's too expensive for a Dodge? Its just a pumped Hemi with bigger brakes and more stickers to go with the go man go the audi S4 is only a couple grand more......

visually, at least in the back seat it seemed to have more room than the Impala, but then, that ain't sayin much either. If folks want a luxury car, get a luxury car....not a faux (Korean) knockoff.

exactly

heath ledger gallery in the interest of "EQUAL TIME"

What you won't see is a third, equally lovely young actress, Rachel McAdams of "Wedding Crashers" fame. It seems McAdams arrived at the photo shoot and decided she didn't want to take her clothes off.

msn The Associated Press NEW YORK -- Pick up this month's Hollywood issue of Vanity Fair and you'll see two lovely young stars-of-the-moment, Keira Knightley and Scarlett Johansson, posing alluringly in the altogether. Open the foldout, and you'll even see Johansson's bare buttocks. AWESOME! can we see even more, please.....?

no, the MSRP of the one I saw was close 44k. there you go, there's your AFFORDABLE RWD performance car. there's a used 05 GTO by my house. 4,000 miles on it and a 6 speed manual. I'll take that and save 20 grand.

I think a gent who takes his kid to the same D/C I do works for Hyundai. He's always showing up with some Hyundai and special mfr. plates. Well, the other day he had a brand new Azera. In the limited bit of time I got to scope it out, here's what I thought. exterior-uninspiring. A very droopy, melted butter look and the rear fender flares seemed contrived, IMHO. Nothing about the face or tail was particularly standout. The overal shape was lacking of any sort of eyecatching ways. As a blandmobile, its not anything great either. interior-appeared to be spacious. The seats themselves looked to be of high quality leather and nice to look at and sit in. Of course, they look like Catera knock offs. The dash and door panels had the same knockoff/cheesy look to them that many Korean/Asian products have. You know, the 'something about it is not quite right / great for BIG LOTS' kind of look. You can tell they are trying, but its not near as nice as MOTOR TREND or some other of the 'experts' have said. Its like its already dated, by about 5-7 years. overall B- you can tell they are trying, but they just aren't there. Even with good runniing gear and great price this car lacks big time in the style and cache department. And if you're gonna try to compete in the upper price ranges, style is a neccessity.

OK, a Dodge at nearly 44 grand. I don't care if its 'got a hemi'. Give me the CTSv instead. Then, I can at least look at the car without having wince in pain. I didn't realize the price of this thing was so horribly high.

nice looking on the outside, nicely packaged as far as height, etc. could not get inside, but the plastics looked awfully cheap. The dash is boxy and plain, but everything seems laid ok pretty good. Leg room looked spacious and the height of the seats seemed to be appealing. The gray color scheme was a bit dreadful. Cabin is at least airy. cargo area looks small. It doesn't appear as though you can get items with much height or width back there. forget what it was priced at but it seemed decent. I will give it a pass since it has all new chassis and powertrains and at least in the seating areas seems to provide comfort. The user controls seem well laid out. The exterior styling is a hit, IMHO. I would consider buying one if I was looking in that class of vehicle. A solid B. The SRT version would be a hoot. Can't wait to sit in one at the auto show! As an aside, my guess is the Vibe has as much seating room and more cargo room. Of course, the Vibe has the cheesy Toyota 4 in it. I'm thinking the HHR has as much room for seating and more for cargo as well. Who cares about the useless Tuscon, its ugly and is plan crap. The Outlander has a nicer interior and likely has equal room or a tish more as well.

in all seriousness SATURN SKY SOLSTICE VETTE / Z06 for starters

it works for me. fold down those rear seats and it makes a great place for the lady to rest her arms. the tailgate is a great place to serve up a tasty 'picnic' also........

i don't ever want to hear any comments ever again from anyone about GM and their rebadging their cars. this proves that Honda does the same crap. TSX/*cough* accord anyone?

if it gets good mpg, and is cheap, Canadians are all over it.

yeah, I've been away for 12 hours, I just checked back, and I'm still laughing!

canadian driver a sad car, made even sicker with the rebadge

i hate them, but they might be on to something here since the specb took 2nd in a recent R/T comparo, ahead of the 325 even

that's the beauty of it. nothing to mess with. it just works. simple. 95% of computer users would rather not have to tinker with anything.

MAXX SS

All in all, the RL is a pretty pointless car. it doesn't lead in the styling arena it can't outmuscle any cars its too heavy to outhandle any competitors it doesn't win in the usable space department it has gadgets but sadly does not win the gadget trophy its price vs. what you get is in no way compelling so in the end we get an Accord AWD for twice the price.

and they don't have a lot of torque steer (yes I drove one)