balthazar

Why does Jag tease us (well, smk, mostly) with a dynamic concept, then give us a watered-down, generic '90s taurus body with subaru headlights?? Jaguar- the perpetual bridesmaid.

Yep- there they are. Totally unique as far as rim design goes. Nice clean '87!

Hey Cort- recall those 'checkerboard' rims the circa '81 Monte's had? What years were they avalable? They were pretty neat (in my mind)..

I'd be nice if ANYTHING on the production XF was more like the concept.

Sounds like the lock cylinder is wearing out. If this has only happened twice, you don't have enough data to determine how problematic this can be in the face of a long road trip. My old F-150 has about 146K on it. I used one key the whole time- it's very worn. However, I know it's the lock cylinder there, because my brand new back-up key does the same thing, ie; regularly the key initially won't turn beyond 'OFF' with either key. Sometimes just inverting the key does it (it's a... 'mirror image' key). But it's happened enough I know the parameters of it, and I can still take it anywhere. I'd lube the cylinder well, and I'd also poke around on the net and learn how to 'jump' the car should the key not work on you. '69 has column ignition, unfortunately; not as easy to replace/access as in-dash.

No no no no no. Needless. No money to R&D it either.

>>"Toyota reduced the goal to 200k and then failed to meet this reduced goal. The truck has glaring design flaws, and was trending down in sales even before the oil crisis hit. Not to mention the billions spent on development and all new plant (the second plant is cancelled at this point, if I recall correctly). Toyota has now swung and missed three times with this product. Yes, it is their biggest mistake - and a very expensive and embarassing one at that. The Tundra, simply put, is a POS. "<< Very true. allow me to add to this: tundra debacle also had major warranty issues and very high incentives. Plus- no way did toyopet make $6B profit on the tundra alone- don't forget whatever slim profit the tundra may or may not have made, the plant/ tooling and all major pieces of the tundra were brand new- none of that is paid off. PLUS the plant ran overbudget to construct by millions. This truck, taking into account the potential future of the segment, may take a decade to make a profit. And finally- the cherry on top is, even tho it's only 2 yrs old (or whatever) - toyopet is already pulling the tundra from the factory to build priuseessees, so add retooling to that ever-growing figure.

I bought my '04 from the first owner, who beat on it, I'm sure, more than I want to know. I have maintained it religiously since I got it. Bought it in the summer of '06 with 46K on it, it just turned 70K this weekend. DuraMax 2500HD Crew Cab, 4x4, 6.5' bed. I had the lower steering column bearing replaced (this, I've heard is an occasional issue), and one front bearing/hub. Truck has had no other issues, run very well, built like nothing else. Not sure just how much interchanges with 'lesser' {snif} Silvies. I get 17 around town, and tho I run injector cleaner every few tanks, I still think 1 injector is a bit off (Injectors in this era are warrantied for 7y/200K). Highway trips have netted mid-19s. This is the LLY 310/605 mill / 5-spd Allison / 3.73s. Just a killer truck. Buddy has an '07 1500 RC/LB V-6- zero issues so far. Brother has an '07 3500 EC 4x4 DuraMax, put his utility body on it, tows trailers/skid steers, zero issues. Brother-in-law has an '07 3500 EC dually DuraMax- zero issues. These trucks are everywhere.

>>"The V series will be a world beater for sure, but Cadillac is late in the game anyways and the others have already moved on."<< So the AMGs and Ms are all cancelled? That's some shocking news! CTS-V is 4 years old and counting. If that means late to the game, what is the A7's timing vs. the CLS?? How late to the game is porsche with their sports sedan ?? I hear what you are saying- things could always be better, (IMO, the BMWCS should've been the Bangled 7-series years ago), but I see no reason to seemingly 'dis' the CTS-V because it didn't appear the same year it's competitors first did. Hopefully Cadillac will spread the CTS/SRX/Escalade segment successes throughout the portfolio.

+1

Sorry; we in the U.S. look at hyundai as fourth class, just approaching third. No one who's shopping Cadillac will cross-shop a hyundai- ridiculous. No one buys a car by counting the # of speakers, ridiculous. Skidpad numbers are routinely dismissed as primary markers for handling : what is the hindend's slalom or lane-changing numbers? As if it really matters- it's a cush-mobile at best, not anything with sporting pretensions- it's an avalon w/ RWD & a V-8, tho I suppose it may make a big impression on the set of "I LUV the '90s' due to it's cribbed styling efforts.

Sure, and there is an example of every type & level of... 'hangup' if you will. I'm sure, somewhere, there is a driver who will never buy another Ford because FoMoCo killed 'his' Edsel.

Tho the cost of transportation is well up, take into the account the fuel cost per item; tens of thousands of item put in multiple shipping containers on a freighter, the per item cost of fuel may still be under a penny- where before it was hundreths of a penny.... or something along those lines, who has any figures?? There's a 'railroad' commercial running on radio that says considering payloads, a freight train gets something like 460 MPG (I forget the parameters of the figure, but the number is right there). This 'surge' in transportation costs may well still be far below labor costs saved by shipping it around during manufacturing.

>>"Tata turns a couple billion a year in profit and their revenue grew 29% in 2007. They are a growing and profitable company, Tata can get Jaguar turned around."<< If money was all it took, why was the tundra so uncompetitive and a sales dud? Why are tacomas breaking in half and costing billions to buy-back? Why is the land cruiser such a dismal unwanted dinosaur? Not that I really care, but I would find it far more creditable if tata had an admirable portfolio of tata-developed vehicles under their elbow... do they ??

I still have my first car out in the shop. One vehicle I miss was my '57 F-250- went to North NJ circa '94 - hope it's safely tucked away in someone's garage and not coming back over as another worthless sh!tpile hyundai. I really wonder where 2 of my buddies' cars went: '53 Merc 2-dr sedan (north NJ again) and '59 Pontiac Star Chief.

I love Rollins, but usually don't agree with his lib political tendancies. Still, I'd be willing to put him in as an international ambassador for a trial run. He has common sense in spades. Would LOVE to see a chart/ list/ account of exactly when, where & how many barrels of oil we've gotten into our cache' from fighting in Afghan/Iraq.

You're welcome to say so.... assuming you enjoy people looking at you with one eyebrow raised and their heads tilted slightly to one side. In reality : do you think even 15% of the consumer pool knows where a given car was "developed" ?? Or is influenced to buy solely by such ?? A car's nationality is determined by where it's corporation headquarters' are/ where it is legally organized. Period. When people start calling the mercedes' & bmws SUVs assembled here, 'American', we can argue this further. Development location is immaterial here, IMO.

Nah- I used to regularly rewire hot boxes (it only takes 1 good scary ZAP to make you take the time to throw the breaker, tho, and I can't say it isn't smart to do so)... and I'm still around with no blackened toes.

>>"One sure measure of an enterprise's worth is the answer to the question: if it didn't exist, would you launch this business today? The answer in GM's case is that the world would function perfectly well without it."<< Do you know HOW MANY BRANDS worldwide this question applies to ?????? Every single one, IMO

Yeah- I've seen the XF in magazines & online- the concept was truely aggressive, it looked like it was leaping forward, predatory... but what the hell happened to the production sedan ?? Upright, ridin' high, slab-sided, subaru headlights = yawn on the exterior. Didn't go NEARLY far enough to erase the malaise of the last few decades. And where have I seen that steering wheel before? Egads- the '04 GP !! (XKR has the same parts bin wheel). Rest of the interior is BO-RING- too conservative. I realize concept car interiors are too expensive for production cars.... but there's NOTHING in the production car that was shown to us in the concept. The xf's is not going to pull anyone away from their preferences based on design. Oh yeah- it has jag iDrive, too. XKR seems VERY long in the tooth- has this identical car been around since the late '90s, or is it longer than that? '09 upgrades shouldn't even ripple the water. Car just doesn't pass off as expensive at the curb; looks like a stretched fastback miata. And you'd think for $87K you wouldn't have to pay another $5000 just for the 20" wheels. Still seems pretty messed up over there in Mumbai.

Official name is VentiPorts... or was for many many years. 'Portholes' is informal, the 'street term'. I would say it was 'OK' to put a indellible, decades-long Buick styling cue on a Buick that didn't wear them from the factory, but on anything else short of a true custom (not a spoiler/ wheels/ 'aero' kit job)- it's no different than putting bmw pig nostrils on a mitsu and calling it 'nice'.

Jag has little image in europe anymore: based on decades-old archaic underpowered sedans that spend the bulk of their time getting overpriced repair work done. Last coupe (XK??) was a dud, x-type was an embarassing rebadged dud, no one bought the only decent-looking model, the s-type. Jag has been in a real stinky funk since the E-type was canceled. No one is going to cross-shop even an upcoming jag with an amg or rs, nevermind any current ones- it's just not in that class, the image is too damaged- jag's rep was all built in the '40s & '50s, and into the '60s with the E-type... after that, the primary public face of jag was the XJ that carried the same design from the late '60s to today. I was behind one recently, I believe it was from the '90s (who can tell) but the taillights still had exposed screws going thru the lenses to hold them on, with fat exposed rubber gaskets squeezing out. Unrefined bullsh!t like that is more in tune with the 1940s; at least it is in the American luxury market. C'mon: 1968: 2008: Same damned car!! Can you imagine if Cadillac was selling a 1968 SdV on 20"s and calling it a 2008 ?? We'll see how the new sedan shakes out, the one with subaru headlights, but there's a lot of baggage to overcome there to get back to where Jag once was.

What about the whole CAFE shakedown?? If Hummer must go because of fuel prices, Saturn is semi-logical to stay, at least for that reason. If the Outlook is discontinued, what would Saturn's current MPG average be vs. the other divisions? IMO, the whole idea of renaming Saturn 'Opel' will fail, as has every other thrust of Opel product into the NA market short of the late '50s.

I need to carry my camera around on the road. Everything wears them, including BMWs & mercedes. Oh yeah, and I've seen a bunch of maserati's wearing them, too!

a couple of years is far more reassuring than a couple of months.