pow

I wonder if Toyota will ever be to America as Ford is to Europe. Most Europeans consider their Mondeos, Kas, Focii, Escorts, and Galaxies to be European, based on where they're designed, engineered, made, and sold. Hell, in Britain, a (Ford) "Transit" is synonymous with "van." Would any of you guys consider a Ford Mondeo to be European? Or is it still an American car because the badge is American?

All you need now is to trim the B-pillar down.

With that said, I love the wheels and paint... Something about it just makes it seem so crystal coooool.

WTF!!! Sometimes (actually, 99% of the time) GM really deserves special criticism. They moan and bitch about Saab... well, HELLO! What are they going to do... change it to a G6 cabrio instead?

Audi Q7 in black... surprisingly nice, IMO.

This seems to be the anti-Bangle... it's not artistic at all, but instead, very plain and parts-binny, even though the switchgear is unique to the X5. Some elements of the control layout remind me of the upcoming Aveo, scarily enough.

A midsize, entry-level, luxury-oriented sedan, or in other words, the next LaCrosse. Base it off a common low-budget FWD platform like Epsilon, but give it a truly luxurious interior, elegant styling, a good amount of sound insulation, and tons of gadgetry. It will be a lot cheaper to build than the CTS, and probably sell more, too. The best-selling $36K luxury cars are tastefully glorified $18K Camrys and Accords.

Or the Astra or Zafira or Grand Vitara, if those count. The upcoming CTS is definitely getting it; wonder about the '07 SRX.

Meh, I would have preferred a 5-series dash. This is too agricultural for a $50K SUV.

Wow, that's impressive. We currently use ~680 kWh/mo, which will require a $34K 6 kw system, and we don't even have air conditioning!

That and I'm not a fan of the gauges--where the numbers aren't horizontal--they are angled around the speedometer.The rest of the interior... just perfect--absolute beauty... so beautifully designed. The steering wheel and instrument "hood" coincidently look like the $70K Jag XK's, which really isn't a bad thing. http://www.jaguarusa.com/us/en/vehicles/XK...915_407x860.jpg

Also, an EV1 (plugged into a grid; non-solar) that travels 16,020 miles/yr produces 3,558 lbs of CO2 anually (119 MPG, theoretically), according to BP. (A 55 MPG Prius produces 7,262 lbs of CO2 anually on 16,020 mi/yr.) An EV1 on solar produces nothing, and theoretically gets infinite MPG. Of course, this doesn't take into account the energy required to manufacture an EV1, batteries and all.

Not exactly scientific, but something to ponder on... A second-gen EV1 (NiMH) should use 0.179 kWh/mi. A 2 kw solar system should make 239 kWh a month. Therefore, an EV1 running on the 2 kw system can drive 1335 miles a month, or 16,020 miles a year. A 2kw system now costs $11,212 after rebates and tax credits in CA. After 80,100 miles in an EV1 using home solar electricity, the cost of "fuel" is $.14/mile. ($11,212/80,100 miles) After 80,100 miles in a 23 MPG (gasoline) car, the cost of fuel ($3.35/gallon) is $.15/mile. Some EV1s were leased for as little as $299/mo. Sure, an EV1 was a lot smaller and more inconvenient than a typical 23 MPG car, but this really shows the possibilities of a feasible zero-emission car.

If that's it, makes you wonder what took so long.

I checked for myself, and nope, not true.

It's probably similar to the G5's, the steering wheel and radio interface.

Two of our neighbors have Nissan Altras, which are the first EVs to run on lithium-ion batteries. Here's a review... http://www.altfuels.org/events/testdriv/altra.html

"Spurred into action by the 2001 California energy crisis, Mark Jensen plugged his house—and car—into solar electricity." http://www.homepower.com/files/featured/113_16.pdf

Hell... why not? According to CarsDirect, a base CTS costs $25,972. Decontent it and cheapen/simplify some of the parts, and you'd have a nice, affordable RWD sports sedan. What makes Zeta so much cheaper than Sigma anyway? Front suspension?

It wouldn't be out of place in an exotic supercar. Let's hope there are more creative color choices besides the typical grey, cashmere, and charcoal. Different woods would be nice... how about a matte cherry or piano black?

Well, the only other way currently is to make it from natural gas, and that's not going to please the anti-imported-fuel crowd. Utilizing "waste" hydrogen, as GM is doing at a chemical plant ("stationary fuel cell"), is another possibility, although limited in extent.

Looks great... I love the sport grille. No swirl marks under the sun, right?

Same technology, different name.

The normal SKY is actually cheaper than a comparably-equipped Solstice. This doesn't seem to be the case with the higher-performance versions; the Solstice GXP comes standard with ABS, limited-slip, and power windows, all options on the standard Solstice. The SKY Red Line, however, is $1900 more than a Solstice GXP, yet it doesn't have any additional features. Still, it's worth it. This is easily my favorite Kappa.

I know TTAC isn't very popular among C&G'ers, but I'm starting to like the blog more and more. The Lucerne review was well-written, and its thoroughness was certainly better than most rags. The comments section was also nice... it didn't suffer from first-grade-fighting-syndrome, like on AutoBlog.