balthazar

One excellent way to track down a possible bearing noise; a solid wooden dowel pressing against the parts in question and your ear transmits sound very well. I was able to confirm bad alternator bearings on a running engine that way, where feeling around isn't overly advised (with a whirring fan) and the concert of noise makes it very difficult. I have this antique 'ear scope' thing I found in my travels, German-made IIRC, has some interesting illustrated instructions, a multi-section chromed 'rod' you can add lengths to, with this trumpet earphone end.... wonky piece.

Actually, if you look at their ratings across the line, they really don't. According to edmunds list, there's exactly 1 model that squeaks over 30 highway. hybrid s-class is the same as the bottom V8: 19/25.

12/19 is a real embarrassment.

I have no horse in the Chevy / GMC ute game- they both had 'em (for a short while in the case of GMC), and I'm not a Chevy super fan. GMC has a real opportunity to reall 'professional grade'-up their trucks AFA work-centric features. They have a bunch, bit there's room for a bunch more. Flexibility is how GM (and Dodge & Ford) have crushed the japanese in pick-ups; frankly it's amazing how badly they've performed in this major category. Roger- you bring up a good question WRT how the fleet breakdown is orchestrated. Someone should stop in their local dealer and find out the story there.

I would have no problem dropping TV (satellite here), as I rarely watch it and find the programming boring. The rest of the household seems hooked on it tho.

Aside from the last few crazy years, GMC has mattered. Sales steadily climbed & climbed over the decades since GMC lost it's own engineering department (not a major factor anyway). The buyers were obviously the ones that knew they had a GMC- they pushed the DIvision to nearly 600,000 units less than 10 years ago. But absolutely; GMC needs to be the trickle-down source for truck engineering- it's time someone at GM told Chevy Truck to go pound sand. I see an awful lot of commercial GMCs- these companies are chosing GMC over Chevrolet for tangible reasons. Build on that.

mercedes design is so homogenized, I really doubt I would've notice had I walked right past it.

I wasn't speaking of GM personnel, but members here (and other armchair critics).

'Cadillac need not be the highest volume' is very true, yet we all read that here incessantly as if it meant all.

smk4565 ~ >>"Fleet sales don't hurt Mercedes in Germany or anywhere else in the world either."<< They why does mercedees have the lowest private ownership rate in Germany?? Why aren't europeans clamoring to own mercedes? Face it- MB relies heavily on fleet sales for volume, because the private market is NOT carrying them there. You cannot claim you are a luxury segment leader when the vast majority of your sales are low-end, fleet jobs- that's the same angle the Impala uses. This is why MB is lumping the Sprinter in with their retail sales- they are in the relentless pursuit of volume. Yep- I know it's volume isn't huge, but it's the #1 sales grower in the portfolio (up 162% vs. June '10). >>"If fleets sales were hurting them so much in Europe, Lexus or Infiniti or Cadillac would have broken into the market."<< Like I said: close-minded. Toyoyo/lexus already smashed mercedees & BMWs sales records here in the U.S., but we're far less biased here. Were it not for toyoto's quality implosion over the last decade, lexus would likely still be #1. Thankfully for mercedees, their quality lapse has been far less severe & lengthy than lexus's. They also have 97 models, of different design 'languages', and are in most every segment out there vs. lexus, which has some really rotten fruit on the vine.

WRT Bentleys - I see these frequently around here, have driven right by them in the next lane. I know what they are immediately and they are 'Saturn-bland' from the outside. No character, bare minimal detailing, no language, no trim or brightwork, head & tails are simple holes in the sheet metal, with lenses plugged in. Brooklands is FAR worse; an anachronistic portrayal of 'Generic' with a horse face. Interiors is another topic, but there's simply nothing concrete on the exterior to drool over. Being a rare coupe will catch your eye, sure... but to really judge the styling- take a look at the sedan version: bland, bland, bland, bland, bland. Yeesh. One thing I'll give VW credit for is that the GTs seem larger than they really are, which I like, but once you get halfway around them, they are smaller than a 5-series. And for the prices charged- these should be rolling sculptures, cars that radiate exclusivity & leading edge inspirational design, cars that inspire immitation, not ones that confuse the bystanders or render them indifferent. I've pointed these out to a wide cross-section of folk who have yet to have anything beyond a 'meh' reaction. They I tell them the price and they laugh it off. IMO, VERY disappointing for the position & price (interior, too). VW should strive for a balance of elegance & power with a strong dose of exclusivity. Hopefully the next go-round will offer some of that.

GMC needs to cut down the overlap w/ Chevy and stay to the HD side of the line. The Granite, while a neat concept, is too much in the people-mover category; not ideally fitting for GMC and too much Chevy's territory. I don't have a quibble over the Silverado/Sierra, because the demographics there are strong, but Chevy needs to drop the 1-ton trucks and leave them to GMC, and GMC should get heavier versions back. Also, the All-Terrain is an excellent sub-direction, but Chevy shouldn't get any. Of course, this is quite academic in light of GMC's volume & profit, but it's fun to fix the 'mistakes'.

Fleet sales don't hurt mercedees HERE, because consumers here, tho open-minded, aren't particularly interested in what goes on over there. Fleet sales in GERMANY, tho far more closed-minded there, have resulted in an image that does not match the lofty one mercedees enjoys here... because we don't see the stripper taxis and garbage trucks here. No; those do NOT add to the image of mercedees being a top-shelf luxury make. Cadillac is certainly not standing still in the meanwhile, hoping mercedees' fails.

Two image aspect Cadillac enjoys over mercedees- far higher private ownership here than mercedes can boast in Germany and vice-versa; far lower fleet sales. Not that anyone in the U.S. cares about the state of affairs for mercedees in other markets.

Waiting at a sidestreet light: a cherry red '57 T-bird, white convert top. Right behind it, a cherry red circa '02 T-bird, black convert top. I was sure this was the local '57 'bird commonly seen at a gas station- but a mile down the road; there it sat; cherry red '57 T-bird, black convert top.

Fair enough, I was off by a cube. I hate when that happens. I've also worked on the 366 before; swapped one sluggard out of a C60. Just not sure you are aware how your posts are a bit of a challenge to sort thru sometimes >>"Not a typo of just a mistake"<< Did not mean to come off as rude, but typos are NOT strangers to your posts, and that just a fact. No matter. -- -- -- Did the 305 make GMC, GMC? I'd say so : proprietary engines are indeed a hallmark of autonomy & identity. In that category- it's more than they've had since the '60s.

You mean like this? ... Maybe this: ... Maybe it was this: ... Maybe this? ... or this? I love it when people pick out a random, singular feature and declare the 'cause of death' all due to that- almost always quite entertaining. I just love it when some deflect when they have a weak argument. You know as well as the rest of us there are many things involved. The point here was taken from Bob Lutz and his perspective on one of the major issues at Saturn. He was just pointing out how GM did not know their market or customer and tried to force on the public their preceptions of what they thought they felt the needed. Except I haven't presented an argument here, nor defended Saturn. In your earlier post, Olds simply picked your singular Lutz reason -'faceless, bland styling'- and neatly put it into period context, showing that was no reason at all, but a stylistic trend. The fact is, Saturn sold a million vehicles in less than 5 years, and 2 million in 8- very impressive for a brand new company with zero history. How has scion done? Wonder what their stylistic mistakes have been and how much toyota did not know about their market ?? Personally; I'm in the camp that firmly believes the Saturn experiment cost the core Divisions greatly, and financially, never should have been green-lighted. -- -- -- You have to realize that even an insider's viewpoint is not immune from agenda and subjectives, and as such, cannot always be taken at face value. If Lutz had a laundry list of Saturn cause & effect, then it would behoove the discussion to state more than "faceless styling" as the only example.

You mean like this? ... Maybe this: ... Maybe it was this: ... Maybe this? ... or this? I love it when people pick out a random, singular feature and declare the 'cause of death' all due to that- almost always quite entertaining.

The 366 was a V-8, but I'm sure this was your frequent typo-itis and you meant 306 V6.

^ average s-class incentives is $13,000, that's a whole Fiesta, now that's scary.

I just spent some time tooling around youtube, helping me ID the screech owls that have been hanging around the house at night, trilling to each other. They'd undoubtedly enjoy some bunny....

^ Sales numbers = superiority. Which is exactly why smk thinks the 1st 5 generations of S-class were inferior to the Fleetwood / Brougham / 60Special.

If anyone took note of Dwight's blue text, the proposed ATS advertising did NOT mention valvetrain configuration anywhere. The whole idea here is to pitch the whole package, and not rest on the laurels of a half-handful of specs. That would start the re-education of the consumer..... that tiny percentage who are interested in internal engine specs. In fact, DOHC is hardly a selling point; as mentioned- just about everything has it, rendering it mass-production mainstream generica. >>"The public as a whole are fools but you need to cater to them. Give them what they want or they will go else where"<< So where are the 80% of 1-series buyers going to go once they find out BMW sold them a RWD car instead of the FWD car they paid for ??? Where are the 30-40% of 3-series buyers going to go ?? Lamar nailed it- lux cars are sold on reputation/badge 90% of the time. Specs are irrelevant. -- -- -- >>"There is no generalities here better is better"<< Define "better". Your 'better' is not everyone else's 'better' and it never will be.

A far greater percentage of general consumers understand piston count better than IBC vs OHC. Really, these swirling generalities help nothing. 'Better styling' is always subjective, so is 'better interiors'. These, stated thusly, are meaningless. Unfortunately, when puddle-jumpers offer NAV & the same roster of tech options/features the lux cars do, it's the gimmicky crap that's left to quickly differentiate the lux segment from the rest. This has been the problem over time with the contraction of differentiation between what was the much larger, much better equipped lux sedans, to a MUCH smaller dimension & equipment differentiation we struggle to sort thru today. When you factor in that all the basics and then some have been around for years, stoic design hampered by so many outside rules, and very very little truly new appearing, it's the unnecessary that's left to spur any conversation. I wish it were otherwise.

My brother had a small German Shepard- it killed everything that moved, esp ground hogs. He has a pit bull/boxer mix now, strong as anything, this one likes to gnaw on turtles; gnaws on them until all the color is blanched out of their shells and they're basically white. I don't think she kills them all; what a terrifying ordeal that must be, eh?