Intrepidation

Oh yeah. :useless:

Go to a Saab dealership?

It pays to have done web work for a patent attorney. I asked him today about looking up names to see if they were taking and found a giant, gaping loophole I can use to my advantage. See, he pointed me to the US Patent and Trademark Office website. I can do a database search for all or part of the name I want to use, and it will tell me if nothing shows up, if a name is active or dead. So as it turns out, none of those sites with "Forward Slash" in the name registered it with the US Patent and Trademark Office, so if I do, I legally own the rights to the name. Even better, he said he would do the paperwork and pay the $350 fee for me!

There's a LOLcaption for that I'm sure...

You're welcome!

That is one strong puppy!

I found out today that when the shop found mucky oil they did a compression test. The results that cylinder 1 was reading 55 psi...which is 45% below what it should be. I forget what #5's readout was, but it was also well below what it should be.

It's still my favorite slogan Cadillac has used. Nice to know at least the CTS lives up to it. If I were GM I would put that slogan on every CTS-V ad.

Completely agree.

Only if you look at it from certain angles.

Well part of the problem is that even though the new Malibu is every bit as good as the Camry, GM has to undercut the Camry's price in order to entice skeptical buyers...because the last few generations of the Malibu were less than inspiring....to put it nicely. I would think that if the last 2 generations of the Malibu matched the features and perceived quality of the Camry and Accord, then GM could get away with charging at least the same price, rather then killing itself with 3,000 off incentives after the first year to move them.

Probably not, but you've seen photos of my car, it doesn't look like a scrapheap.

See, I was interested in driving a Charger some months ago, they asked if I was buying...I'm liek well I don't know I'd have to drive it to see if I like it first. Never did get to drive one.

Get that Buick going and there you go.

So, do you just walk into a dealership and say you're interested in test driving one of their cars? I never know how to approach that. I want to take one for a spin, as well as a Challenger, Camaro, and Mustang. The Genesis is without a doubt Hyundai's best offering. It's a design that can stand on its own and not be picked apart saying "oh it looks like this and this and this" and it seems actually fun to drive.

I just don't get how you can sit there and basically make excuses for why they didn't build better cars, and why it was a good idea to pump money solely into trucks and SUVs. (This goes for Ford and Chrysler too) Why the hell wouldn't you want all of the products to be good? They're not a niche company, they are GENERAL MOTORS, up until recently the car largest company in the world.

Those may be advantages, but they have another : they built good volume cars and over years earned a reputation for it.

n2a Motors have made quite a name for themselves over the past few years, designing and building unique coachbuilt cars like the 789 and more recently the Anteros. They were kind enough to send us some renderings and clay model photos of their next upcoming project dubbed the "Stinger", which takes styling cues from the '63-'67 Corvettes. Like the aforementioned 789 and Anteros, the Stinger will be based on the C6 Corvette and utilizes its chassis and powertrain. That's where the similarities end, though, as the car receives all new carbon composite body panels, custom interior, wheels and exhaust system. The standard Corvette with its 430-hp V8 is used for the base model, but customers can use a Z06 or a ZR1 as a donor vehicle, as well. n2a is currently taking deposits to reserve a serial number, with production planned to start in October of this year. More details in the press release after the jump. Autoblog PRESS RELEASE: n2a Motors announced today that it is accepting deposits on the Stinger, the latest model in their line of critically-acclaimed coachbuilt automobiles. Slated for January 2010 delivery, the Stinger is inspired by the 2nd generation 1963, '65, and '67 Corvette Sting Rays and is built atop the 2009/2010 C6 Corvette chassis. The '63-67 Corvettes are among the most revered, iconic, and beautiful cars in automotive history. The Stinger pays homage to the historic 2nd generation Corvette with a sleek, carbon-composite body featuring the front end and hood scoop from the 1967 Corvette, a mid-section reminiscent of a '65 Corvette, and the famous split-window rear end of the '63 Corvette, and has a level of performance and safety that engineers of the era could never have dreamed possible. Utilizing a new Corvette donor car, the Stinger achieves 0-60 in 4.3 seconds with a 430 hp/424 lb.-ft. torque LS3 V8 engine rated at 16 MPG city and 26 MPG highway. Since the chassis and safety equipment remain unmodified, GM's 100,000 mile powertrain warranty remains completely intact and the Stinger can be serviced at any GM dealership. n2a Motors starts by removing the donor Corvette's body panels and installing the new carbon-composite Stinger body, a process that takes over 800 hours for n2a's coachbuilding craftsmen to complete. The interior is entirely new with re-contoured leather seats, leather dash, wool carpeting, and leather-wrapped interior panels. Wheels and cat-back exhaust are removed and replaced with n2a's custom-made components. The n2a moniker stands for "no two alike," referring to n2a Motors' policy of building unique vehicles for each customer. No two vehicles will be built with identical color combinations, ensuring that each customer receives a unique car customized to his or her tastes. n2a Motors has reserved serial numbers 001,002, and 003 for ZR1-based Stingers. Featuring the 638-hp LS9 engine, the ZR1 is the fastest and most powerful Corvette ever produced. Stingers built on the ZR1 platform rocket from 0-60 in 3.4 seconds with a top speed of 205+ mph. Serial numbers 004-010 are reserved for Z06-based Stingers, which are 505 hp with a 0-60 time of just 3.7 seconds. n2a Motors is accepting deposits to reserve a serial number and a place in the production order. Production is expected to commence October 1st. The Stinger is n2a's third model, following the successful 789 and Anteros models that debuted in 2007 and 2008, respectively. Both are built on the C6 Corvette platform and utilize carbon-composite bodies, a carry-over from n2a's background in stealth technology prototyping for military contractors. About n2a Motors n2a Motors was founded in 2004 to revive the art of American coachbuilding. The n2a moniker stands for "no two alike," referring to n2a Motors' policy of building unique vehicles for each customer. No two vehicles will be built with identical color combinations. Kanter Concepts, n2a's parent company, produces concept cars for Detroit and foreign automakers and stealth technology prototypes for military contractors.

Isn't that what driving a hybrid is all about anyway? To see if you can beat your top score?

See, that's the sort of thinking that got GM where it is today. Funny how companies like Honda, Toyota, Nissan, etc. managed to produce both trucks and cars, and funny how the cars didn't you know, suck. You talk as though the car market didn't exist in the 90's until a few years ago when trucks and SUV sales started to slide. The market foe cars was, is, and always will be a plenty large market. You take money you make from the cash cows is spend it on making them better as well a s volume cars, so when the market changes people will be much more inclined to stick with the brand, and not go off to Toyota. GM had plenty of money and several decades to get small and midsize cars (hell, large cars too) right. If they had got them right sooner they wouldn't be in nearly the shape they are today, because while most companies aren't doing well now, most aren't about to go bankrupt. Why is this so hard to understand? Having a balanced product lineup full of quality, near or at the top of the class vehicles ensures a company can adapt to changing market demands. Of course now it's almost too late because there's no segment to make money in (unless you're Hyundai). However before the economic collapse there WAS time and opportunity to make money on cars and good crossovers.

That's the problem tough, for years all of the money has gone to trucks and SUVs and the cars were half assed products at best. Because of this imbalance, when the market shifted away from big trucks to smaller cars and crossovers, GM was left with good trucks and crappy cars compared to much of the competition. Chrysler and Ford are guilty of this too. However Ford at least is showing a real move to balancing out its portfolios.

I'm not one to get hung up one the number of doors so much as the design of the vehicle. It can have however many doors it wants if it looks sexy.

Aveo, G3, G5, Canyon, Colorado, H2. I know it's 6 but I can't choose 5 between them.

I agree. The Astra could have been a real success had GM not half assed it like so many other products/launches.

The U.S. Transportation Department today will mandate the first passenger car fuel economy increase since 1975. The 2011 model year will require a fleetwide 8% increase above 2010 model year requirements to 27.3 MPG. The Obama administration's 2011 model year standard will require the nation's cars and trucks to meet a fleet average Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) of 27.3 MPG — that's 8 percent above the 2010 model year requirement of 25.3 MPG, an administration official confirmed Thursday night. The regulations for the 2011 model year are final. But wait, there's more. The Obama administration opted to finalize only the 2011 model year standards partly due to a requirement under a 2007 energy law to wrap up those regulations by Tuesday. Administration officials will spend the next year reviewing the 2012-15 model years as they seek a comprehensive emissions policy. So what does this mean — can automakers reach those targets? In a word, yes. We'll let David Shepardson from The Detroit News explain: But the next two model years are not where this story ends — the Obama administration's expected to decide before May whether to give California and 13 other states permission from the EPA to impose a requirement of a 30% decrease in tailpipe emissions by 2016. If that regulation goes through, it would have the effect of a fleetwide fuel economy of 34.5 MPG by 2015. Yay! We all get to drive econoboxes! Jalopnik