turbo200

IT must be your time of the month again.

Agreed. That's why I think it would make a perfect Pontiac G8. It looks hot, seriously hot. I will wait to make comparisons till I see the real thing. The black covering the C-pillar is most definitely hiding sheetmetal, it doesn't make sense that it's anything else.

And to all here, this conversation will be much more constructive if respect can be shown for the information Hudson, evok, Hogansheroes, chazman, thegriffon, guion, and fbodfather have to share. They know what they are talking about.

hehe

not at all disturbing. the nature of globalization. unfortunately, for americans, costs are not competitive, in AMerica, with other American workers, so union American workers must lose thier jobs until the balance exists. china is just another market the company is doing well in. to that, i salute.

In essence, nothing's changed. Still no new Pontiacs for the forseeable future. Also, Camaro and Impala still a long way's away. Where's the good news?

Okay, I was going to argue your earlier post about Camaro and its impact. But I can see your projections are in solid territory, though I don't ultimately agree with the numerical value you've given. This is the way I see it, just humor me. Camaro in the context of having no world-class sedan is a bad situation. That is why I think, as usual with GM, Camaro is coming at a seemingly bad time for the company. To have no sedan that can even be considered amongst the top, and to be left so far behind in the biggest category, is humiliation without a doubt. This is the context of why Camaro is bad. Camaro is an icon, will make an impact, and will begin a tide of change back towards GM products, if only begrudgingly because of good style and value. Camaro has a great impact, but it is no Mustang. Camaro is however a great looking sports coupe, something to compete with 3-series, truthfully, albeit at a lower price point and with lesser content. But on a driving level, could begin to be considered as a, distant, but still significant, ompetitor, to that car, because of power and American style. I think it will co-exist nicely with the Mustang, stang at around its current levels, or some less, and camaro at around 150k sales, after first year demand. This is of course pending reasonable gas prices, call me for a reevaluation if prices reach and level at $4. Then all hell breaks loose.

This is something I strongly agree with but I have to put it in context. In the '90's there was a lot of context left. The Japanese were up and coming, and GM still had good equity left thanks to some solid products along the way. In the 2000's and until now, they haven't had a good solid hit, or a good comparable car. Not truck, car. This has severely damaged equity. When they stopped being relevant is some time after they stopped producing relevant product. The product situation has been dire for some time. Poor in every sense, and nothing worth the price of entry. Nothing that could command a premium hurts big time. Like the guy that went on a test drive with me today, "Americans [products] are rubbish." Unfortunately, that was succinct and correct in too many ways to begin to dissect.

that was surprising to see.

it's pretty awesome isn't it. it was taken, amazingly, by GM press photographers out in Dallas. i think i'll just start posting random noises just to see the picture.

It's not a good first impression, but it'll do. The quality and design look good enough for the segment. I'll wait for a better view and different trims.

I believe he does read the site, but has never personally posted anything. Or has he?

that's because the PR is spin.

As for possible Kappa variants, I would not like to see any more roadster from GM, unless it's a soft top Z4 competitor from Cadillac. Worth the price of entry with an incredible interior with the highest quality materials, with a turbo 300 hp engine standard, and with SMG as an option. License the damn technology if you can't build it. Build this car off Kappa, KEEP THE WEIGHT DOWN, and price it around 40k-46k. Make sure the damn interior is super incredible! Sit in recent new Hondas to see the quantam leaps that are happenning in the auto industry in terms of materials. Civic has better materials choices than the damn STS!!!!!!!!!! for Christ's sake. Seek excellence. Do this and you will have a hit. Other than that roadster, a hardtop coupe like previewed by the Saab Aero-X would be awesome, and with the right features and power, and interior, could fetch a high starting price. Like say, 35k. Limited volume, though, is it worth the investment? With Kappa being so unflexible, I don't see much of anything else happenning. It's a shame, really.

Are we saying boot the damn Kappas? Or are we saying, make Solstice/Sky, but on a better, more flexible platform. How flexible was Sigma, and every other freakin platform, promised to be, and yet when reality comes to it, they really are not flexible. And I agree with Croc's assessment on the profitability of hybrids. And they can potentially affect a lot more of the population than Kappa's current form.

One more thing to this comment. This element of this site is what makes it wonderful. That we can all be this candid and neutral with each other. We are totally constructive and helpful with each other, where if this was another site with different people, they would never handle each other with such tact and care. There is something to be said for that, and Josh you can include yourself in there.

Just a question, but who exactly has you on thier $h! list? If you think it's me, cross me off. I just feel the extreme need to address you when say somehting stupid and assanine. I never called for you to give up your position, all hail that position, blah blah. I still respect you, and will give you a chance. But sometimes I'm sitting here, and I see something you say, Josh, and I'm like oh he didn't f@#king say that again. You've got this ego that needs to be worked on. Again, my tone is more like I wanna give this guy the respect he deserves but damn is he putting his foot in his mouth.

Sorry, I am not trying to offend you. It counts for almost nothing. Any JMoe Shmoe can become a car salesmen. I am gonna be one. I am training now. It's not hard. And I will sell a lot. I'm 21, with no experience, and I will do extremely well. Possibly at least one car a day, on average. Based on the traffic and how good I am. I am passionate and I talk lovely to people. It's a gift. It's not hard, trust me. So, no this doesn't count for much. And the car sales side on this side of the pond is going gravy.

I don't know if we have already seen all the variants of current Kappa. From what we know of it, it is very inflexible, and can only produce, feasibly, a car with a rear center tunnel, if back seats are to be incorporated, and for any real volume to happen, they must. I would love to see a Pontiac in the vein of the Mazda RX-8 and think it would be a great sales success, as well as product that GM needs, like enzl said above, to convince the country GMs are not just for rental agencies.I do not think GM will or should be able to increase production on the current lineup of Kappas. No way, no how. sales will prove demand is limited, and every other GM cars has supply that outstrips demand. For once, I'd like to see GM take the honorable route. Well, if more variants were produced on the current Kappa platform, and were not produced in the same scope as the Solstice/Sky, meaning they were not limited by volume or otherwise small market cars, than that would improve the business case for this platform, thereby pacifying our request for better volume because of the potential of a small RWD platform. So the answer is yea. It's the potential of what could come off of a small RWD platform, someone said above all the RWD variants that could come for Pontiac, and I have been saying this for YEARS, literally I was the first to call for this, you can ask anyone around here, YEARS, I have been asking for RWD cars for Pontiac, give me RWD G4, G6 wagons coupes verts sedans. The potential of what this platform could have been had they taken the time is what gets me.

biking, when done correctly, will work your lower torso, inner/outer thighs, calves, hamstrings, gluteous, and your lower back. It's a good excercise, and can be very effective. And it's relaxing. I don't see what the problem is? There are always more effective excercises. Swimming laps is about 5 times more effective than running, and it doesn't impact your joints as severely [relatively] as running does. Whatever floats your boat, get your butt in motion.

I saw a freakin Saturn Sky! I saw a freakin Saturn Sky. Could be some mag testing it. But it was on the road on the 405 in the middle of heavy traffic. I also have been seeing LOTS of GTOs, in fact, it's the Pontiac I most consistently see on a daily basis. Thinking of writing an article about it..

so basically the insiders have already said the two shots are not of the NG Vue. The bottom shot is, but the top is of the Chevy Captiva. This is confirmed if you listen to them, and if you check both photos they have a different number of spokes on the wheels. Different cars, the front end shot is not representative of the new Vue.

can you elaborate on what you found to be unappealing/appealing in the Aura?

To add to this; Corvette has been around for fifty years, and already a solid platform in the late '90's that was pretty much just extensively reeningeered for the hardtop XLR, and reworked for additional stiffness and such. This platform was already in existance. Constrast this with Kappa, which comes at a time when GM is more desperate than ever for good product, AND is losing money hand over fist, and you can begin to see why this is such a precarious time for GM, and why evok would say Kappa is a waste of engineering dollars. Bottom line, something more flexible, while still timely and able to produce stunning roadsters, is what was needed more than what we got. As it is though, Kappa is working to create good will for the company. BUT that is a different debate from whether it makes good business sense.

Conan is awesome, easily the best talk show host out there.