balthazar

>>"But yes, regardless of what Balth says I do not agree, if Saabs were still built in Sweden, they would be Swedish. Aston Martin is owned by Ford but they are Brit. Now GMs on the other hand are becoming no longer American and Asians cars are becoming American."<< You completely realize, of course, that you contradicted yourself, right?? What is a BMW built in North Carolina- German or American?

>>"The all-new LS sedans offer the Advanced Parking Guidance System (APGS) as an option to assist with parallel and back-in parking. With this optional technology, once the driver has correctly positioned the car and identified the desired parking spot via the nav screen, APGS utilizes the back-up camera, parking sonar sensors and electric power steering system to automatically guide the car into the spot, while the driver controls speed via braking"<< Further enabling of the selectively functional...

It theoretically can be, but seldom if ever is in the NA market. No foreign brands have loud, obnoxious sales events centered on foreign holidays, just American ones. Showrooms likewise do not highlight country of origin. 'Company appeal' is not branding and image is different to every 3rd person. And I would like to see some nationalistic automotive graphics, if you have the time.Most foreign brands are frantic to eradicate any sentiments of being foreign; they know where their profits lie. There is some national pride in German-based automaker advertising (and saab), but that's about it.

I've (unfortunately) spent months driving 2 different (older) sentras; even then a mere commute was borderline torturous. When a 6-yr old kid can pick up on a car's glaring shortcomings, you know you're in for it. I cannot imagine volunteering to live in a sentra unless I was seriously into pain or in the cast of Jackass III.

CARBIZ: however, don't forget that back in the '60s, for example, all options were available individually (plus different engine/axle/trans options, etc)- making the possible combinations likely much larger than today. I believe I once read that Cadillac by the late '60s could nearly build their entire annual production run without repeating the exact same car, factoring in colors, options & models. This would be in the neighborhood of 225,000 units. Pontiac, early '60s: regular fuel 2bbl, hi-comp 2bbl, 4bbl, 3x2bbl, 2x4bbl, 389 CI, 421 CI, 3-spd manual, HD 3-spd manual, 4-spd manual, 3- & 4-spd automatics, 2.56, 2.69, 2.87, 3.08, 3.23, 3.42, 3.64, 3.90, 4.10 gears, standard brakes, HD brakes, aluminum finned brakes.... Today, there are no optional axle ratios or brakes and only a very few optional engines or transmissions, unless you're in the higher-end sports car class (for the most part).

Which must mean the "big" Silverado V-8 is likewise has 'strong off-the-line torque and great power all the way to redline.....!', especially considering the SS's undoubted weight penalty. I would think that was impossible, what with pushrods and an IBC and all.

According to Jim Cramer, the stock's performance subsequent to the York announcement has everything to do with York's resignation and not KK's likelyhood of selling off his stock. York has an impressive resume as a cost-cutter and reformer for a handful of major companies (IBM among them)- he is the catalyst here.

"branding" is a perception, and a weak one at that. An intangible. Motor vehicles have steadily become more & more homogenized WRT design/styling. In other words, if you knew nothing about cars whatsoever but knew at least some about different countries, you would not be able to tell where a toyota vs. a hyundai vs a mercedes came from.

Oh; they are. Loads of pristine GNXs and '76 Eldo converts in garages. These oddballs just stand out more.

Anyone know if the pending 6-spd HydraMatics are going to be double-overdrives or not?

Majority ownership (in this case 100%) by General Motors has rendered saab: American. Where the cars are assembled would not determine 'ethnicity', tho of course the perception that it's 'swedish' will continue to linger.

I am now leaning toward not going. I am too wiped out: between 2 jobs and family commitments, I don't think I have 4-5 hours of round-trip drive time in me. Can't get off tomorrow, either. This sucks royally: I opted out of Fall Englishtown, the local steam & tractor show, it rained Lead East weekend... and now Hershey scratched. I haven't gone to a show/swap meet since spring. Bummed.....

Yeah, I've been to Hershey the last 3 years- they start packing up after lunch Saturday, but I've still walked the entire day; you know how many vendors there are- plenty to see. I would love to go Friday but I can't get off work (I may find out differently tomorrow....)

NOT ALWAYS! GM's Allison 6-spd is a double overdrive unit that never sees 6th gear except on level interstates. 1st thru 5th are the same ratios as the older 5-spd Allison. Some other mega-gears autos are also double overdrives, yet we still read comments like 'why does it still have a 5-spd instead of a 6-spd?!?!?' Big gear counts may get some all sweaty & squirmy with lust, but the cold reality outside of press-releases is that often it's an intangible for those living outside of Nevada.

Not that the car even remotely appeals to me personally, but Chevrolet did sell just shy of 2 million Vegas in only 7 years. Not made from 1970's Japanese-processed steel??

>>"The so called 4-door coupe is actually a 5-door hatch. "<< No; it's actually neither. It's a 4-dr hatch.... and I say this not because I know the car, but because it's just.... right.

Good point- forgot that one. The Chrysler does earn the name, especially since a second windscreen comes out of that slot between the passenger compartments:

>>"...looks like a mimic of a generic US GM car from 10 years ago."<< I'm 100% with ocn here. Assuming it gets a new nose & tail on the exterior and little else, it's the '04 GTO all over again. Great mechanicals alone are not going to make a hot seller; it needs passion. The basic design is just not progressive enough for an aspirational Pontiac, ala the Solstice. Ocn- it may be that those who only know Pontiac from the '90s due to young age can't see Pontiac in context....

The coachbuilder-to-automotive glossary has modified to some degree, and there are exceptions as I stated earlier, but by & large the transfer seems more consistant than inconsistant to me. 3-drs/5-drs... what is the necessity for have such a distinction? What is a 1980 VW Rabbit; a 2-door hatchback or a 3-dr sedan? The size of the hatch doesn't seem to change the fact it's not used for ingress/egress in any case.

Entry doesn't seem to dip to the regular low levels of accuracy at wikipedia- not bad. It does bring up another irksome term: the 3-door or 5-door car. Doors are for entry/egress. A hatch -while physically being a door-is not used for that purpose. Early on in this bodystyle, manufacturers used more common sense here. Of course that soon went right out the window under pressure from marketing: more 'doors' must be 'better'- right? After all, no one counts windows when totalling the number of doors in a room in one's house...

Most relatively recent drivers never learned how to drive RWD in slippery conditions, thusly they need the 'hand holding/coddling' that FWD provides (to an extent). I've driven RWD my whole life (thousands upon thousands of miles in FWD too, tho I never owned any) and never had any problems beyond one notoriously light-in-the-rear RWD vehicle.

I'll be in Hershey for Saturday.... I need to see if I think I can sleep in the back of the folded-flat Crew Cab comfortably; if I can I may do Saturday/Sunday.

Curious to see ball --as opposed to roller-- bearings... less drag? Interesting development- maybe we'll see this in everyday items around the year 2075.

And the japanese didn't??? toyota, mazda and datsun were primarily or completely RWD in '80, but primarily FWD 5 years later. Mitsu was already primarily FWD by '80. It was an industry-wide trend, esp in the affordable/ economy/ family classes. The propaganda was seldom if ever pitched from a roadability standpoint- the consumer conception was one of economical superiority due to the economy models being so rapidly switched over to (or already being) FWD. Being the gas crisi was still so fresh in consumer's minds, FWD -by erroneous association- gained a deep foothold in the market. Naturally, what works by perception for econoboxes has a strong chance of adding to the bottom line in larger vehicles in many instances.

'Coupe' and 'sedan' terminology as defined by interior volume comes (relatively recently) from the Environmental Protection Agency- not an entity I am particularly motivated to recognize as the New World Order in motor vehicle terminology. There is a tremendous bank of evidence dating all the way back to the carriage age that has cemented the terms from a standpoint of physical configuration. Interior volume --a completely meaningless spec that may be useful to inflated balloon delivery persons if anyone at all-- has never entered into it. The EPA's formula is an unsolicited & strictly arbitrary declaration for fuel economy classification/comparison purposes- and nothing more. That said, even the time-honored terms have been misused numerous times, tho I struggle to recall an example in history so badly misnamed as mercedes' "4-door coupe" (or VW's "phaeton" for that matter. The last phaeton that I can recall was the one-off Cadillac Cimarron PPG car of circa '85.) "Coupe" is an abbreviation of 'close-coupled', and for the most part indicates a closed bodystyle with no rear quarter windows, AKA the Corvette from '63 on, for example, or the Viper. Ocn- yup: Chevy built both a full-size 2-dr hardtop ("bubbletop")and a 2-dr sedan in that era; some enthusiasts nickname the # 2311 2-dr sedan the "batwing" sedan for the 4-dr flattop-style roofline. In '61, Pontiac & Buick also offered that distinctive roofline on the 2-dr sedan. I believe Chevy may have had this same roofline exclusively into '62. Here's a '61 Pontiac Catalina (Super Duty) 2-dr sedan with the "batwing" roofline: moltar: the '42 Flxible/ Cadillac Innovation is a coachbuilt funeral car with a true coupe roofline and 4 doors- this is the only real "4-door coupe" bodystyle. The floral coaches often had 'close-coupled' rooflines, a single bench seat, yet retained the rear pair of doors with no glass/upper structures; they opened onto below-beltline storage areas behind the passenger compartment. This style was built by numerous coachbuilders on numerous makes' chassis's over a period of roughly 30 years. Not regular production; no. But an actual existing 4-dr coupe; yes.