BigPontiac

I'm a big proponent of cars with manual transmissions and I found no joy when I test drove an HHR with the manual trans. Awkward placement of the shifter, clunky gearbox, vague clutch engagement. If you want a stick, go for the HHR SS where they reworked the design and implementation shortcomings of the base car.

Sounds like a good "dry run" opportunity to test out that "storm the gates at castle PCS" plan :AH-HA_wink:

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Re-doing the wagon as practice and then moving on to the Mothertruck would seem to free up time & money for Project Camino and beyond... Having the storage and work space is half the battle!

Nice. It's good to see you looking at starting a project car to fill up some of your free time and make use of all that empty barn space....oh wait :AH-HA_wink:

If you like your current car and it's not giving you any problems, I would hold on to it and resist the temptation to charge right out and put yourself in debt so soon after graduation. If you're making good money, pay off any credit card debt first, then start working on student loans. Given the state of the economy, etc I'd attack any debt which might be hanging over your head first before buying a new car. Just my 2 cents...

My mom had a '70 Pontiac Catalina wagon, then a '74 Chevy Bel Air wagon (455 I'm told), then a '78 Buick Century wagon [much like your Regal] -- ALL were some shade of green. My mom went off script and got an '83 LeSabre sedan when the Century was traded, so my dad got the '85 Skyhawk when it came time to trade in his '80 Buick Skylark (canary yellow!) Thankfully, the Skyhawk was light blue. Being a child of the 70s I guess you develop a fondness for wagons...

Well, I already have a '68 Bonneville Conv with the same drivetrain, so gas mileage etc are know quantities. However, this one might be a more "dog friendly" classic...my German Shepherd is banned from the convertible. While semi-lame to acquire a 2nd '68, the part interchange and familiarity (and boatload of spare parts in my basement) make it an appealing option...also that it's only 2hrs away. I need to do some more research. Possible matched set:

So I was scanning eBay today and came across this: LINK I'll have to keep my eye on it. A far cry from the '85 Buick Skyhawk wagon I borrowed from my dad in my early driving years, but I still think it's cool!

Article EYES ON THE ROAD By JOSEPH B. WHITE Top Car Dealer Says High Gas Prices Are Good for the U.S. Auto Industry AutoNation CEO Says Increase Will Drive Demand For Hybrids, Electric Cars and Other Alternatives June 9, 2008 Detroit's big auto makers are slashing jobs, closing factories and undertaking costly revamps of their product strategies to cope with $4 a gallon gas. What's the worst thing that could happen now? Gas could get cheap again, says the man who runs America's biggest auto retailer. "For once we actually have viable alternatives and exciting technology that are really game changers" in the effort to wean transportation from petroleum, says Mike Jackson, chairman and chief executive officer of AutoNation Inc. "However, if the price of petroleum goes down … it undercuts the viability of new technology." Mike Jackson, chairman and CEO of AutoNation, poses at Mercedes-Benz of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "You have to tell the American people the truth," he says. "Energy costs will be higher." It might seem odd that America's leading car salesman would want gasoline prices to stay high, given how much damage the recent surge in pump prices has done to demand for the big sport-utility vehicles and pickups that once powered sales at many AutoNation stores. But Mr. Jackson's point of view about energy policy and the auto industry isn't based on concerns about this month's sales. What has him worried, he says, is that in the future he -- and by extension the whole auto industry -- will be stuck trying to make sense of a fundamentally incoherent national energy strategy, which was mirrored by the seemingly incoherent product strategies that the big U.S. auto makers were pursuing until $130 a barrel oil blew them up. Mr. Jackson confronts a daunting challenge trying to read American culture and make intelligent bets about what consumers will want to drive. If he looks in one direction, he sees a widespread consensus that, for a combination of environmental and national security reasons, Americans should consume less oil. To that end, Americans want the auto industry to speed production of electric vehicles and high-mileage, gasoline-electric hybrids, while substantially improving the mileage of conventional oil-powered cars. Here's the big news: The auto industry finally appears willing and eager to respond. It's entirely possible that a decade from now, we'll realize that this was a pivotal moment in the auto industry's history. This could be the moment when a century of relying almost exclusively on petroleum to power personal mobility gives way to a new model, in which electricity powers our transportation. Indeed, there's a case that consumers who want to buy into the next generation of transportation technology shouldn't buy a new car until 2010 or 2011. By then, General Motors Corp. has promised to deliver its hybrid-electric Chevrolet Volt; Nissan Motor Corp. has said it will begin offering electric cars; Honda Motor Co. and several European manufacturers have promised to launch in the U.S. new, advanced, high-mileage clean diesel cars; and Toyota Motor Corp. might have a whole family of hybrid vehicles based on the next generation Toyota Prius. A gaggle of small companies such as Norway's Think Global AS and Silicon Valley's Tesla Motors Inc. are all gearing up to expand the electric vehicle market if the big guys won't. But the excitement over projects like the Tesla Roadster can't compare to the significance of the shift in mindset among the people who run the world's biggest auto companies. This isn't a crowd given to green idealism, but they have come to the conclusion that remaining totally shackled to petroleum is bad for business and are re-gearing their future vehicle plans accordingly. But when Mr. Jackson looks in the other direction he sees a widespread consensus that Americans shouldn't have to pay $4 a gallon or more for gasoline, and a Congress that in an election year has put driving down gas prices at the top of its agenda. Further, he confronts the inertia of more than half a century of automotive marketing investment in teaching consumers that size and power are what make a vehicle desirable, and worth more money. Mr. Jackson, like others of his baby boom generation, remembers well what happened in the 1980s, after the last big oil price shock. Through a combination of conservation and new production, the U.S. turned the tables on the oil producers. Gas prices plunged, sales of gas guzzlers took off and the table was set for the crisis the U.S. auto industry faces today. "We are highly skilled at selling size, horsepower and speed at a premium price, and giving away fuel efficiency," Mr. Jackson says. "Now, going forward over the next 10 years we are going to have to convince consumers why they should pay more for a smaller engine…or some new technology that is going to give them a tremendous benefit on fuel efficiency. That's a completely new world for us." "I'm a good car salesman," Mr. Jackson says. "If I have high gas prices and an open-minded consumer, it's very doable. There is a connection between their needs and what we have to offer them. If we have cheap gasoline, it's mission impossible." Send comments about Eyes on the Road to [email protected].

No stick, no sale. I think the package size of my BMW 330i is a very good overall compromise. If you can't "fit" an alternative to finding a bigger car might be to join a gym and make yourself smaller

I'm surprised that some of the changes announced didn't include some pay cuts in the executive compensation (again).

Buy used G8 ST auto, buy wrecked G8 GXP manual sedan, convert.

The 2.0L DI Turbo used in the HHR SS runs on regular gas, not premium. So odds are this new engine won't require premium.

TICK TOCK. At this rate, just put Pontiac out of its misery.

Yikes, sorry to hear that. Time to get that BMW 1-Series you've always wanted...

The tapered rear roof line doesn't make it appear to be a dog friendly vehicle, which would be my whole justification for getting the wagon body style. No mention of available manual trans is also a miss for me.

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Gas prices for 87 are already over $4 here. Current range in my area is $4.09 - 4.17. Diesel is about $4.89/gal. When I filled my truck up with 87 this week the pump reached $75 and stopped. I had to re-swipe my credit card to keep going!

I'm more partial to the '65 and '68 fullsize Pontiacs. :AH-HA_wink:

Link to Article Chevy Volt: Traveling Public Roads and Hitting Its Mark May 14, 2008 By Michelle Krebs WARREN, Michigan -- General Motors inched closer to making the Chevrolet Volt a reality in November 2010 as the vehicle's innovative gas-electric powertrain is being test-driven for the first time on public roads and is hitting its target of 40 miles on pure electric power. "Today is a big day," GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz told Edmunds' AutoObserver in an exclusive interview Tuesday. "Today is the first day it is running on the street on battery power." Lutz said the Volt's powertrain, comprised of an advanced lithium-ion battery and a small gasoline engine, was installed into a mule vehicle and is being driven on public roads around the automaker's proving grounds in Milford, Michigan. More important, Lutz said, the battery is hitting GM's goal of 40 miles on pure electric power. "It is reliably meeting its objectives," Lutz confirmed. "Even with a rough calibration, even with the wrong drive unit, the wrong body, etc. etc., it has been hitting its 40 miles on electric power." Tuesday's road test comes after last week's testing of the Volt powertrain on a dynamometer that simulated real-world conditions, such as varying road surfaces and changing ambient temperatures. Proving Lithium-Ion Batteries The successful test of the lithium-ion battery is a giant step in making the Volt a reality. Many critics insisted lithium-ion batteries were a huge risk. However, since GM announced its plans to use a lithium-ion battery in the Volt and signed development contracts with battery makers, others have followed suit. Only this week, Renault and Nissan announced plans for an all-electric vehicle to go on sale in 2010 using a lithium-ion battery. Mitsubishi already has a fully electric vehicle in Japan running on lithium-ion batteries. Germany's Audi plans to use the batteries in its upcoming hybrid. At the same time, Toyota has said its next-generation Prius hybrid, reportedly debuting at the Detroit auto show in January and going on sale in 2009, will stick with nickel-metal hydride batteries instead of lithium-ion though the Japanese automaker is known to be working on the more advanced battery. "The reason we point this out (others using lithium-ion) shows the fallibility of Toyota and the American press, which is totally enamored with Toyota," said the always outspoken and opinionated Lutz. "When we say lithium-ion is good and Toyota says they don't trust them and they are unproven, people say we're taking a huge risk." An assumed risk of lithium-ion batteries is its thermal properties. Frank Weber (FAY-ber), imported from GM's European operations to be global vehicle line executive and chief engineer for of E-Flex Systems Development Team (E-Flex is the GM word for the Volt's gas-electric powertrain), told AutoObserver last August that the biggest challenge is to manage the thermal dynamics of the batteries so that the batteries are the same temperature. And Lutz insists the lithium-ion battery on the road has passed that test. Lutz, meantime, won't confirm which supplier's battery is in the mule being tested. GM has development contracts with multiple battery makers. Lutz confirmed that in GM's dynamometer tests last week of the Volt's lithium-ion batteries, engineers raised ambient temperatures and shut off the cooling system. The result was what GM had hoped: The battery showed only a slight rise in temperature and the heat was consistent across all of the battery cells with no pockets of intense heat. Challenges Other Than the Battery Remain "I can almost say the battery is the least of our problems," Lutz told AutoObserver. That's not to say GM doesn't face huge challenges in making the Volt work. The challenge now, Lutz said, is the smooth integration of the battery with the gasoline engine that, unlike traditional hybrids that use a gas engine to power the vehicle, kicks in to generate electricity to feed the battery. GM engineers are grappling with such questions as: When does the gas engine cut in? How long does it stay on? Is it better to run at lesser power and charge the battery slowly or run at peak power and charge the battery fast? How does it deal with extreme cold days in Alaska or North Dakota, which require the gasoline engine to start the car and warm the battery? If the car's GPS or OnStar tells the car it is close to home, is there a way for it to tell the engine to charge the engine just enough to get home and plug in versus charging the whole battery using gasoline in the last 15 minutes? How does it handle wide variations in temperatures with accessories on? "All of that requires reams and reams and reams of software," Lutz said. "Our task would be simplified if we didn't have the range-extending gasoline engine and the only question would be how fast can we productionize it. Then we could devote all of our time to optimizing the battery. But then we wouldn't have an extended-range vehicle. "And then," he added, "you'd be back to the thing that has limited the acceptance of electric vehicles: It only gets 80, 100 or 120 miles of range and buyers worry 'what happens if I run out and I can't walk to the nearest gas station to get a 5-gallon can of electricity?'." Target: November 2010 Lutz said the successful dynamometer and road tests increase GM's confidence that the Chevrolet Volt will debut in November 2010. "Three months ago if you asked Frank Weber 'November 2010?' he'd get flustered and say he wouldn't answer until he knew more," said Lutz. "Now if you ask him the same question, he's calm and relaxed and says unless we encounter some completely unforeseen obstacle - November 2010 looks good." Intense Interest at the Highest Levels Indeed, Lutz said, that's the answer Weber gave GM Chairman Rick Wagoner in his monthly update on Volt only Tuesday morning - November 2010 looked good. "I'm pleased to say there's no other project Rick spends as much time on than Volt," said Lutz. "He gets a monthly two-hour update from the Volt team. He's as close to Volt as I am. In fact, I have to run hard to stay ahead of Rick in my knowledge level so that I can still answer questions." Indeed, Volt could be a game-changer -- and the vehicle that defines the legacy of both Bob Lutz and Rick Wagoner.

Pontiac Song for your listening pleasure...

Today was a much better day for driving...though my car has CHUNKS of pollen all over it! I need to hit a car wash ASAP, this is gonna bug the crap out of me! The Bimmer rocks on road trips though. Investing in an EZ Pass was a great idea...though I need to get a suction cup mount for it (I held it up this trip). However the Escort wagon that hit the MDX tied up the Garden State Parkway this afternoon. Pitting for gas in Fairfield County CT set me back $4.25/gal for Premium Unleaded.