KillFort

Anybody know what happened to the website?

Yes, it is the green body plant in Lansing on Verlinden Ave next to the Craft Centre. Lansing Car Assembly From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Olds Motor Works, about 1910 Lansing Car Assembly was a General Motors automobile factory in Lansing, Michigan. It contained two elements, a 1901 automobile plant and the 1920 Durant Motors factory. The Lansing plant was the longest-operating automobile factory in the United States when it closed on May 6, 2005. A new plant at nearby Delta Township, Michigan will start production in 2006. Lansing Assembly began in 1901 when Ransom E. Olds moved his Olds Motor Works to the city. He set up his plant on the site of the fairgrounds next to the Grand River. The Durant plant on Verlinden Avenue opened in 1920. After the demise of Durant, it remained closed until GM purchased it in 1935. It restarted production for GM's Fisher Body division, later becoming the Buick-Oldsmobile-Cadillac factory. Lansing Car produced the Chevrolet Malibu/Chevrolet Classic. It also built the Pontiac Grand Am, which was the final vehicle built there. All Lansing Car products used the VIN code, "M".

Demolition of the GM plant to last build Oldsmobiles will start tomorrow in Lansing. Plant #6. It is the body plant known as Lansing Car Assembly. It's a sad day. So many lives and cars passed through over the 80+ years that plant has been around.

I agree. The Intrigue was the best W-body execution. I own one and couldn't be happier. It's the only GM mid-size sedan I like right now. Maybe the Saturn Aura will change that when it comes out. I like think of the Aura as Intrigue v2.0. I would have loved to see what Oldsmobile was going to go with the Intrigue.

I'm looking at buying one in 2 years. My dad said he wants one next year when his lease is up on his Impala. GM should have had this far enough in the pipeline to do what DCX is doing with the Challenger. Too slow, regardless of whether the Edmunds date is right or the original slated 2009 date. I'm hoping all these dates are wrong and it'll be here sooner than expected. There is another poster on caranddriver named Yo who constantly adds the reply to any domestic related thread "Go Team! Wait till next year! Wait till next year!" as a taunt. I used to think he was annoying but it makes sense often when it comes to GM. I guess I'll reserve any judgement until further notice.

That's twice I've heard Evok say that Toyota has much more up its sleeve than we are all seeing right now. Has me slightly worried. Can you shed any light? Thanks in advance.

LEDs are beneficial for many reasons: 1) They use much less energy and generate much less heat. 2) They have a lifetime of several 10,000s of hours. You will never have to replace them during the lifetime of the vehicle. 3) The light up more quickly than filament bulb, thus allowing other drivers to know you are braking sooner and gives several extra feet of safety. 4) They allow a more unique lamp design. Those are all reasons besides looking cool, which I agree, they do look cool. It would be nice if the Aura offered HID though. It is illegal to retrofit a vehicle with HID unless the reflector housing was designed to hold and HID bulb. The glare is too much and it won't have the correct cutoff or beam pattern. Otherwise, I would have done it with my Intrigue (although I've seen it done on some Intrigues at cardomain.com). I instead ended up fitting some Hella driving lamps next to the stock fogs and put Toshiba Halogen Infra-Red bulbs in my car (used in the Dodge Viper Highbeams, Japanese Camry, and Avalanche). The stock 37 watt foglights suck and are so recessed in the bumper the light is mostly lost. I would like to see more GM vehicles offering HID as at least an option besides Cadillac.

Late 2007? That's still about 2 years away!

Harris returns to head GM public relations Jamie LaReau Automotive News / January 31, 2006 - 12:26 pm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DETROIT -- Beset by bad press and a skeptical Wall Street community, General Motors is bringing back its former public relations chief, Steve Harris. According to an internal company message, Harris will resume his former job as vice president of global communications on Wednesday, Feb. 1. He replaces Tom Kowaleski, 54, who took that job after Harris retired in 2004. Kowaleski is leaving GM to pursue other interests. According to a company insider, senior GM executives have concluded that Kowaleski -- who is known for his product expertise -- is not well-suited to be GM's spokesman during its financial crisis. Harris, 59, was widely acclaimed for his pr skills at GM and the Chrysler group. He will hold GM's top communications job for 18 months or so while GM grooms his successor ... rest of article here: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti...9/1003&refsect=

I ask this: If patriotism doesn't sell cars today, then why does Toyota insist on using it?

Aura was at NAIAS but it was labeled as a concept. Nobody was even looking at it. Camaro held the entire crowed.

WOW! Must start saving now.

IMO, I don't understand why so many like Frank Sinatra. I feel like anyone can "sing" like him. It's more like he's just talking, and not singing. Once again, just my honest opinion. Shoe-bedobedo.

Same "eggs in one basket" thinking as usual. Everyone I've talked who have seen it or know people who have seen it say the NG Malibu was going to do great things for GM...

Looking forward to seeing it in person. I am very curious as to how much will translate to production.

Great post with a nice tad of sarcasm. We do know its fact that the Japanese Gov't and its people would never allow GM, let alone any other foreign company in. Ford tried building plants there once... Japan said "It's not in the best interest of our people. Sorry, go home Ford."

No I see the irony, but the Camry is the epitome of boring which makes their excitement that much more overdone.

What's really crazy is the way people are getting so damn giddy over on that toyotanation.com thread. Insane! It's a friccin' Camry--the most boring car known to mankind, and they think it's some kind of gift from the gods.

I'm sure the review would have been less favorable if it weren't for the Honda engine under the hood. The reviewer was just happy to be able to tie Saturn to something Japanese.

If you have the money, you don't need to wait for Lutz and company: http://money.cnn.com/2005/11/09/Autos/funo...dex.htm?cnn=yes

Nice :)

Simon C, thank you. I just don't know why so many people in this country are turning their heads the other way that health care and wages going down is a good thing. Do they think that by doing so they might get a larger part of the pie or something? Do they think that will make them more secure because everyone is getting a sh*ty wage? WRONG. If one group of workers loses their standard, those jealous people will be next. For instance, let's say $20/hour is the standard for group one and group two is getting $9/hour. Then let's say group one, (i.e. Delphi) goes down to $9. You think group two will stay at $9? Hell no! The company that group two works for will see that as the new standard and lower the employees down to $6 or just close shop because it's not even worth doing business anymore. They will be able to do it too because there won't be any Unions. The whole hierarchy of the middle class will continue to slide down. This country is becoming a joke. We used to own 2/3 of the world's wealth. That's what I call the standard of the world! Meanwhile, other countries will continue to laugh all the way to the bank with their nationalistic pride (i.e.) Japan and protective laws and look at how dumb we are for infighting with each other and not taking a stand to them. By that point it will be too late. Looks like it already is. It's dumb to take a stand against each other when we should be taking a stand to India, China and Japan. When China started hurt Japan, they got pissed and made some laws to protect themselves. Meanwhile, we just whine about our neighbor making more money? How lame is that? Let's complain that our neighbors across the ocean are doing better than us not that our neighbor down the street is. That's just too small minded in scope in this so called "Global Economy". Who has the answer? We do, as the citizens of the United States, to tell Washington that this country is heading full speed in the wrong direction. We need to keep this country great! We need national health care reform and protecting of our companies against the global threat. We were once the envy, now we are becoming the joke.

Because it is a global economy, the accountibility must be shifted. The parties involved have moved past the company vs. Union argument. The war is now the U.S. vs. the World. The burden must be shifted. We as a country are losing by being sold out. We are becoming 3rd world. If everyone says "Great, now the Union must accept $9 an hour, let's be happy." Then we all must be happy with $9 an hour country wide, occupation wide. I believe nobody deserves $9 an hour. We must all demand a higher standard of living rather to keep this country as the standard for that the world aspires to rather than infighting amongst ourselves. Why would you want your fellow Americans who were once the standard at $20/hour to move towards 3rd world when we should all be demanding stronger foreign policy to protect us all and make that the standard for everyone? The small minded folks here should be ashamed and rather than put down their fellow American, should be pissed that they are not receiving the same benefits for their hard work and direct their demands at the government. It is time to take the argument to the government and demand that we be as strong as the other countries in their demands. Don't think of it as being auto workers/Union being strong and you the jealous person as being weak, think of it as China, India being the strong player and the U.S. being the weak player. We as a country must get jealous of other countries, not of each other. Infighting won't make us feel better because if we keep shooting each other down, our wages will ALL SUCK and the other countries will continue to rise. Let's not go backwards in all that we fought for to be great, to have the American Dream that other countries are jealous of our middle class.

Original mileage figures were estimated at 30 MPG for the Lambda crossovers. Now the actual figures are 25-27 MPG. Interiors are said to be fantastic.