balthazar

I really don't get sick, I haven't had a cold in maybe 7 years. No flu shots or anything like that. My Constitution must be 18.

When, exactly, was the last time Cadillac officially defined 'CTS' as still meaning 'Catera Touring Sedan' ?? I don't recall for certain if that was ever official, but if it was, we're talking 2002-ish, aren't we? And clearly that was only meant as a transitional 'link' for 2 cars that shared nothing but a spot in the catalog hierarchy. It seems quite clear to me at least that 'CTS' stands alone at this point as a simple 3-letter 'name' as opposed to an abbreviation for anything else, esp with the name recognition 'CTS" has earned itself. I would assume that Cadillac would call the 2-dr a CTS also, rather than muddying buyers minds with yet another 'alpha' name, and instead play off the model recognition of 'CTS'. Many will likely point to how bmw & m-b do not recode their 2-drs from their 4-drs as the 'only right way' to do it (even tho that Pavlovian mindset makes me ).

>>"Safety, fit and finish, and interior quality should be good, as this is essentially a last-gen Accord with different front and rear styling."<< Is this literal or figurative ? Are the chinese refurbishing used accords for their brand, or are these merely asethetic copies? Because if they are only figurative 'accords'... I cannot imagine what could've caused you to make the conclusion they'd be even remotely comparable to a real accord in those categories...

>>"...a level of fit and finish that was superior to many of the other full production cars on display from China."<< And that says it all right there. emp- you must be grateful there wasn't a 2-MPH impact where all passengers would've been severely bent, spindled and mutilated... tho then again, if you did crash, at least you would probably have been exposed to the interior materials & chemicals (lead, formadehyde, etc) for a shorter interval.... hm-mmm...

WRT the B-59, no doubt that's my buddy 'Joe Buick', who lives in Wantaugh. I visited him about 5 years ago- I think that B&W house is his- he did have a fuselage Chrysler... tho I recall it being tan (who can remember in the face of a collection of 11 B-59s!). If the Chrysler is his, you can bank on it being exactly what he says it is- he's no BSer. Sixty- no way in hell would Joe sell one of his B-59 'children'- don't bother to ask.

I'm curious about the wording "...Buick shopper" - is this as opposed to Buick buyer? No doubt Buick's buyer age is going to drop, but the overall ABA is not rising because of the economy as much as it is because of the median age of U.S. consumers and prices that rise steadily.

VonVee- is this a Krause Publication?

Too bad no one organizes a petition to rid the neighborhood of toyotas. In most any locality, a vehicle is only 'commercial' depending on how you register it. Thusly, no reason a hearse cannot (and almost always is when collector-owned) be registered non-commercial, rendering any arguement against banning it, groundless & illegitimate. The '76 is neat, but too new for my tastes. Looked at a sweet '66 this summer, but it disappeared shortly after. I would love to get my hands on a flower car, preferable a western style, partial to '41s at the moment. Anyone who is generally against these type vehicles is an idiot.

Sigh... this design language was so stunning beautiful on the MKR concept, I can only be disappointed to see it vertically stretched into an SUV-ish proportion. Now... if I had never seen the MKR, about the only thing other than the slightly too-tall proportion of this is... I really dislike the rear quarter kick-up at the beltline, esp from the front 3/4-view. Otherwise, it's quite expressive. Oh, and there's not an ounce of 2nd-gen Seville in it for me.

Few long-term automakers have such an illustrious and encompassing history of the bizzare and handily outdated as citroen. The current ones are at least within a few pages of most of the industry (instead of a few volumes away) AFA design goes, but in the wiki pics, there's nothing there I can see to pull anyone away from whatever else they may be driving. Some of their recent concepts have been pretty interesting, but citroen doesn't seem to have it in them to bring any of them to market. All the pics I've seen of the fiat 500 remind me of a tumescent Neon; again, I see nothing attractive there... unless by chance this thing is so small it gets some takers who can't resist the 'cute' aspect to the point they overlook the styling. Then again, the MPG thing may be the primary (only??) factor potentially working here.

If produced, I wonder how much this will cannabalize sienna fleet numbers?

Except it doesn't appear to offer any advantage. The middle passenger still must constrict their arms to fit between the seatbacks of the outboard seats- this is no better than leaving the middle passenger inline with the others... unless, in fact, this car is so narrow (gee, I wonder) that the outboard passengers automatically overflow their seatbacks as it is. I for one, would be extremely annoyed to have the elbows & arms of passengers beside me overlapping mine. From the overhead pic with 6 adults, it sure looks like a bull&#036;h&#33; gimmick to me, tho it may have some small practicality for kids in the middle (tho I still doubt it). No way would I, were I in the market in this segment, go for such a cramped & unappealing vehicle.

The Enclave is not in the same category as the venza because 1 is a class-leading luxury vehicle and the other is a cheap-looking, yawn-fest, also-ran for Joanne Lunchbox. Oh what a feeling. Number of seats is irrelevant; you'd be hard pressed to coax even 1 more person besides the owner into the venza anyway.

I see what you're saying, and keeping in mind that this is merely comparing hybrid vs. non-hybrids of the same vehicle.... I assume the Tahoe Hybrid buyer is doing much the same thing that the prius buyer is- merely burning less gas, period. What it ultimately costs is valid, but another matter that doesn't often seem to be taken into consideration. If one needs/wants a Tahoe and 'being green' is important to that consumer, there's a hybrid version that saves up to $7600 in fuel costs over 100K. For most people, that's as far as they bother to take it. Given that, the Tahoe hybrid makes more sense than the non-hybrid.

>>"GM needs to promote the fact the the great new Buick is already being copied."<< This could only possibly be considered if the venza actually resembled the Enclave in any way, but thankfully it doesn't.

A camry in a fat suit. Looks cheap as hell, too.

>>"As for the number of cylinders it is just in your mind as the power output is key not the number of cylinders."<< Everything else being equal, more pistons will develop more power- there are more combustion events during the same # of crank revolutions.

>>"Nothing is worse than the f@#ktarded Dodge setup that required removing one of the wheels to access the battery through the wheel well. "<< Except porsche requiring removing one of the wheels to change the oil.

Yeah, I know what your saying, S, I don't disagree with you on the specs, but I do not see the advantages of going '1990s' in the least- it's just not neccessary in my book. All the plastic and... and plastic- blech. I hate it, I really do. Cars used to be primarily elemental: wood, steel, iron, rubber, glass... now they are primarily chemical: plastics. Then again, I was in a circa 8000-car junkyard today, a real good one; so my viewpoint is even more heavily skewed than normal.

I was parked next to a very recent E500 with '4-Matic' (for a long while I dismissively thought this referred to a 4-spd automatic; I wonder how many non-enthusiasts assume the very same thing- dumb-ass name), and I as I was on the phone, spent a good 10 minutes looking over the interior. While I don't recall everything, a few details stood out: there was a smooth, shiny plastic knob on the inside side of the front seats, just above average elbow height. The placement was bizarre to say the least, and the quality was commercial airline grade... maybe; it was almost painful to look at. If this large knob is some sort of manual front seat adjustment, the placement is a horribly unfunny joke; the driver would have to reach with his left hand under his right arm to grasp the knob, that is; if he could even bring himself to touch it. Same deal with the rear door door lock knobs- they're on the rearward edge of the door, requiring either another under-arm reach or an extremely acrobatic twist and elbow-hike just to grasp it. This is cheapness exemplified; placing the lock button right over the latch instead of putting it where decades of cars have- where the rear passengers can actually reach it. There, it's also out of reach of small children in the back. There were numerous other details that surprised me, given that according to some, this car is practically beyond criticism. In other words, if failed miserably to live up to it's hype. What would a prev gen e500 go for anyway, ballpark?

I've been spending far too much time this past week+ trying to get my DSL running- after running a new line/jack from the junction box, I believe either the phone co has the wrong wiring for my needs or the DSL modem is wrong. Sigh. There's a reason why I slogged along with DU for 8 years- doing so didn't cause me headaches.

I just cannot get into these late-model B-Bodies, growing up surrounded by old '60s Bs & Cs. Spent some scant moments in a '96 Brougham a few years ago, but could not warm up to it much, tho it was super comfortable. Good luck with it, S.

Paolino- in your opinion, if real wood feels like plastic, is it really any better than fake wood that feels like plastic? There's this Grand Canyon disparity of the feel of plastics, but never is the feel of wood ever discussed; undoubtedly a MUCH more rewarding experience than fondling injection-molded chemicals. Nope; if it's "real" wood (and in many instances, this needs to be spelled out by the manufacturer), it's fantastic, but just don't bother touching it. What gives?

Fun with gimmicks

Note that 66stang said "77-2000", SoCal. First gen Sevilles are excellent collectibility candidates, and I think the 2nd gen Sevilles would be too. Early Allante issues aside, they should also be strong collectibles in the future. I also always liked the '80s Eldorado ETCs, the basic '79-85 Es were beautifuld designs to begin with, but the ETCs were especially taseful, esp in black. Anyone for a Cimarron D-Oro, V-6 5-spd? :wink: