bobo

Dodgers

Honda has had more misses than hits when it comes to styling. There's almost always something that's a little off. But it's the driving dynamics and smooth engines that usually make Hondas more desirable than the competition.

Cheers & Gears came to life in November, 2001 on the old Snitz board. I joined February, 2002.

Congratulations on the new car. Of the remaining Ws, the LaCrosse is clearly the best, and the 3800 is about as bullet-proof as you can get. I thought you would get a more expressive color, but it should be easy to keep looking new.

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butter

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bird

The styling is an improvement, though it's unfortunate there's no side molding. The ridiculous Mega Cab is replaced by a normal Crew Cab, a good thing. The interior is a huge improvement.

It looks like a Saturn Vue with a bunch of Cadillac design cues thrown onto it. Which it is.

I support Kucinich, but Barack Obama came out on top. I feel pretty good about that since Kucinich doesn't have a chance.

Not a whole lot from that era will be collectible, I think. The barge-like '77 and '78 Eldorado has some potential, particularly the "last American convertible." Yes, the '76 to '79 Seville. Pristine condition '79 to '85 Eldorados, but there are some troublesome engines beginning model year 1981. For more modern vehicles, the Allante, '92-'97 Seville, and '93-'02 Eldorado, but these would be expensive to maintain as daily drivers.

Congrats on getting the MAXX. It's always been one of my favorite cars.

I don't really do resolutions, but I suppose there are a couple things I could work on. First, work less, because the 12-hour days will eventually kill me. Secondly, I managed to put on an extra five pounds last year that I need to shed.

It’s time for the sixth annual end-of-year list of the best and worst of C&G, General Motors, and all things automotive. But before beginning, a quick recap of what else went on in the world the past year: It was the year of wide stance, thanks to Senator Larry Craig, and Barry Bonds breaking Hank Aaron’s 755 homerun record and then getting indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice regarding steroid use. It was the year of the mortgage meltdown and of Chinese toys getting recalled for lead paint. There was a horrific mass-killing at Virginia Tech and nonstop Presidential campaigning—will it ever end, and are these the best candidates the country can offer? Turmoil continued in the Middle East and South Asia. A good portion of Southern California was on fire. People got used to paying $3 for a gallon of gasoline. Al Gore got a Nobel Prize to go along with his documentary’s Oscar and Emmy. Passings included Jerry Falwell, Norman Mailer, Luciano Pavarotti, and Anna Nicole Smith. For GM, it was not a year of constantly dripping bad news like in 2006. But they are not out of the woods yet by a long shot. GM sold off Allison Transmission and weathered a short UAW strike. They entered into an agreement with Navistar to sell them their medium-duty truck business. Bob Lutz’s mainstream vehicles finally showed up in showrooms to rave reviews. In other automotive news, the merger of equals dissolved with most of the hapless Chrysler being sold to the hedge fund, Cerberus Capital Management, which had picked up half of GMAC last year. The great minds behind Daimler-Benz ran Chrysler into the ground with their sheer incompetence. For many members of C&G, 2007 could not end soon enough. It was a year of much heartbreak, broken relationships, and a lot of crashes. But for others, it was personal successes, moving up, or moving on. For the more sheltered of us on C&G, we learned what two girls could do with one cup. And much worse. And now, time for the Cheers and Jeers: Cheers to GM for producing bona-fide, world-class products. With the CTS, Malibu, Enclave, and G8, GM proves that it can be more than competitive when it tries, and good press will follow. Thank you, Bob Lutz, for following through with your promises. Jeers to GM for introducing models with ever-increasing road-hugging weight. With more features and better structure, the newest GM vehicles are gaining hundreds of pounds over their successors. Light-weight alloys are costly, but added weight gives penalties to fuel economy and handling. Jeers to GM for inadequate mid-cycle enhancements. Vehicles need updates by their fourth model year, even if it's some minor exterior freshening. The SRX got an incredible interior last year, but the exterior looks tired. The Cobalt soldiers on with few changes, with its lack of refinement becoming more apparent which each new competitor, the turbocharged engine notwithstanding. The GMT-360s needed updates long ago, but the updates were canceled. Yes, updates cost money, but so do lost sales. When MCEs are done, such as on the Buick LaCrosse, or when submodels are developed, such as the Lucerne Super and Pontiac G6 GXP, make sure that the money is well-spent rather than making questionable aesthetic changes. Cheers to GM for Best Concept, the Chevrolet Volt, and then following its introduction with the announcement that it will be produced. Amid the huge hype, GM will need to deliver. Jeers to the C&G Curse. FlyBrian started out the year with his yearly run-in with a Toyota. Other victims included Dodgefan, Sixty8panther, Scharmer5, YellowJacket894, ocnblu, and regfootball, among many others. Cheers to the Staff Member of Merit, Oldsmoboi, for helping to get the forum onto a stable server after two years of excruciating error messages. Cheers to Ford for bringing back a real car name, Taurus, on the updated Five Hundred. Enough with the alphanumeric nonsense. Cheers and Jeers to Toyota for beginning to implode yet manage to grow sales. For them, it was a year of losing Jim Press, a botched Tundra launch, almost weekly recalls, and bad reviews. Still, they achieved higher sales than ever. And Toyota is no longer being coy about wanting to be the number one automobile manufacturer in the world. Is Toyota a runaway train or a train wreck? Even Consumer Reports is saying some not-so-nice things about some Toyota models. Will unbridled expansion be Toyota's downfall? Cheers to the Best Post by our favorite spy, the lovely and talented Chris_Doane, on his humorous take on NAIAS. No one does auto shows better than Chris. link Cheers to the Best Post, Part II by !!!TED!!! for the 2008 Ford Taurus Heritage Edition. The sheer genius behind this post justifies it having more than just an honorable mention. It delivers biting commentary and parody. link Cheers to the Poster of the Year, Pontiac Custom-S. Love him or hate him, you couldn’t ignore the injury-prone PCS unless you had the “ignore user” function activated. He made his mark on the forum in the last year with his Opel-loving, Holden-hating persona with a sprinkling of insider information and incessant TICK-TOCKING. Cheers to Schuby87 for the Best Spypic by someone other than Chris_Doane for his catch of the Dodge Challenger: link Cheers to blackviper8891 for Best Concept for his rendition of the C7 Corvette. link Honorable mention goes to Burns for his vast improvement in the quality of his drawings and renderings. Even MarioBro88 improved a lot. Jeers to the Worst Styling Cliché, fake fender vents. When BMW put fender vents on the M Series vehicles and Maserati on its Quattroporte, they lent a sense of style. Buick’s ventiports added a small touch of class. Even the current Escalade’s fake side vent was ok. But now everybody has gone mad with fake vents, with even the Ford SuperDuty pickups having them, for goodness' sakes. Enough already. Dishonorable mention goes to the Cadillac STS for further cluttering the front fender with a poorly integrated side marker light. Jeers to the Worst Poster...Typically the worst poster is a troll who is gone by the end of the year. There are a few posters who are still around and grate on members’ nerves. There’s nothing wrong with a difference of opinion, especially when backed up with thoughtful discourse. But there’s a limit to everything, especially when there isn’t anything to back something up. I won’t point out the worst offender because that wouldn’t be polite, but most people would probably be in agreement on who it is. Cheers to all the staff and members who continue to make Cheers & Gears our favorite place to hang out on the web. Besides the breaking news, the diversity of both the opinions and membership is what keeps the place enjoyable and worth spending our time here. Hope everybody has a safe and Happy New Year.

The Olds logo probably helps in bringing in Olds owners for service. Nice to see it still there. The Malibu looks much better in darker colors.

Mission Impossible

I would take about anything with a 3800 over a Northstar. It would be a good move to pass over this thing.

I've never heard of the term "Upper Liberal" before, but I guess it makes sense that it's the Saab's base.

Ouch to the tooth and the pocketbook. Hope you have a speedy recovery.

Prince

If Toyota produces it, I'm interested. What I really want is a hybrid Lambda pickup.

Judy

In upmarket trims, the interiors don't look half bad. It's the exterior that need a lot of work.

Cali