Z-06

Based on EPII - the Insignia boasts a 18.5cu ft trunk. So Lacrosse should share more or less the same volume.

2 Down 1 to go.

Good writeup DF. The camera takes some great pictures. I like the level of detailing Ford has put in this vehicle. However the stereo looks like the GM piano black finish corporate radio from the Sky. But much less complex than Germans and Japanese (Acura are you listening - numerous buttons do not mean sophistication). I think I will go and drive one. I think with this car they are gunning for ES, TL and partly Audi crowd more than the RWD snobs. The rear looks like baby Bentley in person, which is not a bad thing. The car does look upscale in person. Yes it is a 3.7. It seems like Ford went with a less aggressive shift program with the 6-speed than GM did. I drove the Edge and Fusion, and boy those things take ages to shift up or down. When will this car have ecoboost? Late 2009?

Well DII Astra is not too far behind, it will be a good KO 1-2 punch globally.

Sly I was half right about someone asking you to take it off his hands. Missed that dollar mark.

Roger, TPMS systems are prone to problems, especially the early ones when they started installing in 2004/5. I think there was a TSB in 2007 please check that out as I am not certain. Thanks for clearing the mileage part. As far as I know, the gray truck should have had the 30k mileage maintenance schedule done too and should be listed on CARFAX. Ask the dealer if such has been the case.

Check the thread title and then check my statement. I am not making any comment about whether it matters or not. What I meant was both GM as well as Chrysler got indirect funding becuase of Cerebrus' stake in GMAC.

GMAC (& therefore GM + Cerebrus -> Chrysler) Officially Saved Fixed

The only detailed report is: 10/05/2007 Perrine Pontiac GMC Cranbury, NJ 609-395-5599 www.perrinecars.com Vehicle serviced Power steering fluid flushed/changed Maintenance inspection completed Washed/detailed Fuel injection system flushed/serviced Manufacturer's recommended maintenance performed Four tires mounted and balanced Alignment performed which is possibly the 15,000 miles service. What is conflicting is that you mention the vehicle has 30K miles, while the Carfax says 42K+, which one is the case? If it is 42K then probably there should be the 30,000 miles service which is considered to be one of the most important ones. Check those facts, otherwise to me the vehicle looks good.

If Honda would have shot for the Z06 -ZR1 price and performance category, may be it would have been a good decision to keep the vehicle. But they wanted more than that. I agree with you stang regarding how good the NSX was. If only they had taken the power equation off with a V-8 then, the vehicle would have been an instant classic.

Excellent choice dear sir. I am glad that you went with the Caddy. Now for formality: :useless:

Want.

I have seen one in past one year and that too two weeks ago.

Linkity Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 Out of nowhere, my car of the year It's been a quiet year for the world's motor industry. There have been no wrecks, nobody drowning; in fact, nothing to laugh at at all. But, hidden in the sea of normality and business as usual, were a couple of gems. We start with the BMW X6, which must receive my inaugural What Were They Thinking Of award. Have you seen one? No, and I doubt you ever will because in a world that's plagued with recession and run by people who believe the world's polar bears are up at the North Pole sipping pina coladas and slapping on the factor five, it is surely the most inappropriate piece of corporate thinking since Sir Clive Sinclair said: "Yes. The electric slipper. That's what people want . . ." However, I cannot say the BMW X6 is the worst car of the year, partly because I have not yet driven it and partly because it cannot possibly be worse than the Chrysler Sebring Convertible. Unless it smells of slurry and the radio is jammed on Rap FM. The Sebring is an extraordinary car. Ugly to behold and hateful to drive, it is not cheap, elegant, comfortable, practical, prestigious, clever, economical, luxurious, well designed, well thought out or, if the rental car I drove in America this year is anything to go by, especially well made either. Perhaps this is why the boss of Chrysler chose to go to Washington in his private jet. He knew that if he used a Sebring, it would break down on the way. Or worse, it would get there and he'd be a laughing stock among his business-mates from Ford and General Motors. Strangely, however, the Chrysler is not the worst car I drove all year. That accolade rests with the diesel-powered Kia Sedona people carrier. With the Sebring, you get the impression that the designers and engineers couldn't be bothered to make a good car. With the Sedona you are left with the distinct impression they simply didn't know how. I cannot conceive of how empty, pointless and lacking in ambition or style your life must be for the Sedona to be a solution. It is like alcohol-free beer, a pointless car-free facsimile of the real thing, and as a result, it can have no place in the life of a sentient being. The biggest disappointment of the year is a closely fought contest between any number of cars but the winner is Audi's RS 6. It promises much and on a racetrack it delivers a great deal. But to buy a five-seat estate car simply because it's so fluent through Becketts is like going out to buy a pet goldfish and coming home with a horse "because it's so good over the Chair". The drawbacks you will encounter in real life are too endless. The uncomfortable seating, the weird steering and a very real sense that in a car like this, 572bhp is a lot more than you will ever need. It's said you can't be too beautiful or too rich but you can have too much power. Because one minute you'll be overtaking a lorry and the next you'll go mad and want to invade Poland. Other disappointments are mostly centred on cars which aren't really as good as others that do broadly the same thing. The Ford Kuga, for instance, is not as good as the Volvo XC60 and the Renault Twingo Renaultsport is not as good as a Fiat 500 Abarth. And then there's the Vauxhall Insignia, which is massively better than the Vectra it replaces. But not quite as good as the Ford Mondeo. And who says: "Right. What I want to buy is the second-best four-door saloon with no badge prestige"? Actually, come to think of it; who wants to buy the best? My main gripe of the year, though, rests with seat designers who have got it into their heads that we only like leather – there's really nothing wrong with pleblon, especially on a day that's hot or cold, and doubly especially if there are any corners between your house and your place of work. Worse, though, they seem to think that what we really want are seats in our cars that are less comfortable than those in our kitchens. I know that cod liver oil is good for you. I also know you will go to heaven if you only eat weeds and you spend your evenings embroidering kneelers for the local church. But we are not all vegi-vicars. That is why we don't wear hair shirts and it's why we want the seats in our cars to have a bit of give. Are you listening, Vauxhall? Are you listening, Ford? Go and find yourself an old Renault Fuego Turbo. Check out the bean bags it came with and you'll know what I'm on about. And now we shall move on to the good stuff from the past 12 months. On television recently, I said the best car from the year was the Caterham R500 but it's important to remember that the criterion we were looking for was very specific. The winner had to do more than you could reasonably expect for the money. The Nissan GT-R was a contender because it costs almost half as much as a Porsche 911 Turbo and yet around the Nürburgring – and such things do matter with cars like this – it is faster. Then you have the VW Scirocco, which costs, as near as makes no difference, the same as the Golf GTI on which it is based. And yet it's so much more desirable. But the winner had to be the little Caterham, which is faster round the Top Gear track than the Bugatti Veyron . . . even though it costs about 30 times less. However, if you broaden the search engine and look simply for the best car of the year, the Caterham isn't in with a shout because it's ugly and geeky and I wouldn't have one even if the option was the loss of my right testicle. Best car, then? Hmmm. You cannot discount the Rolls-Royce Phantom drophead because it is exquisite in almost every way. Nor can we ignore the Fiat 500 Abarth because it's just so bouncy and wonderful and so full of enthusiasm. I don't think it would be possible to be in a bad mood while driving this car. And soon there will be a 200bhp version with a spoiler the size of Middlesex on the roof. That'll make the Mini Cooper look like a brogue. However, the car I've selected wins because it's just such a surprise. Over the years there have been a great many Corvettes, and none of them, if we're honest, have been any good. Oh, there have been some fast ones and some with great charisma. Mostly, they have been pretty as well. But to drive? No. They were the automotive equivalent of Big Macs. Cheap, plastic and at the right time, and in the right place, sort of just what you want. But like I said. Just no. And then out of nowhere came the ZR1, which has a supercharged V8 that manages to be both docile and extraordinarily savage all at the same time. I've been trying to think of a dog that pulls off a similar trick, but there isn't one. And anyway, this car is not a dog. Oh, it's not built very well. After just three days in my care, the boot lock disintegrated and the keyless go system refused to acknowledge the keys were in the car, but I didn't mind because there is simply no other car that looks this good, goes this fast – in a straight line and around corners – and that most of the time bumbles about like a forgetful uncle. And when you throw in the price tag of just £106,690 – lots for a Corvette but modest next to a similarly powerful Ferrari – the case for the defence can sit down and put up its feet knowing that the prosecutor simply has nowhere to go. It is an epic car and I'm only sad that unless the healthcare and pensions company that makes it can be turned around, it will be the last of the breed. Indeed, I worry that the next 12 months will bring us many wrecks, many drownings and absolutely nothing to laugh at at all. I shall therefore stop short of wishing you a prosperous new year. Instead, I shall hope that in our new-found poverty, we can still all be happy. Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 Engine: 6162cc, supercharged V8 Power: 638bhp @ 6500rpm Torque: 604 lb ft @ 3800rpm Transmission: Six-speed manual Fuel: 18.8mpg (combined) 355g/km CO2 Acceleration: 0-60mph: 3.4sec Top speed: 205mph Price: £106,690 Road tax band: G (£400 a year) Release date: Out now

One thing which GM should completely avoid is to offer FWD version of the SRX. It would not only be disheartening but media will jump on it like hyenas. Like the RDX, it should be full time AWD.

It is not a couple of cars in this case. It is piles of them. On another note, driver error might also be a possibility for those two buses.

Well almost nothing with pneumatic tires will stand chance on ice. But at least two buses are less than hundreds of people driving small cars falling like foliage. These environmental concerns sometimes are ridiculous. Have these people thought that the sands will wash into rivers and lakes too and cause sedimentation? Moreover, if the sand is not native, or is contaminated, it may even cause pollution.

Cadillac stands for someone ranting every single post and chiding every single day with tremendous focus. Sorry folks, had to get that out of the system.

If environment has such a prime concern, they should have forced everybody to use public transportation. Buses would not have needed to have the roads plowed and safety of individual drivers would not be a concern. With only buses and heavy vehicles operating, they could have the liberty of letting the snow just melt naturally, thus saving environment completely from the "harmful" chemicals.

So if we compare the Buick with the potential competitors: Property unit Regal TSX A4 MKZ S40 Passat Average Length inches 190.2 186.2 185.2 190.5 176.2 188.2 186.1 Width inches 73.1 72.5 71.9 72.2 69.7 71.7 71.8 Height inches 58.4 56.7 56.2 57.1 57.2 58.0 57.3 Wheelbase inches 108 107 111 107 104 107 107 Curb Wt. lbs 3428 3400 3527 3469 3363 3344 3422 Gas Tank gallons 18.5 18.5 16.9 17.5 15.9 18.5 17.6 Trunk cu.ft 17.7 12.6 16.9 15.8 12.6 14.2 15.0 Buick is bigger than the average in every aspect. I could not find any interior volume data, but my guess is it will reflect those dimensions, making Regal a larger vehicle in terms of the interior volume. The trunk and gas tank are definitely the pluses. Given the power of all the cars in this comparison ranges from 200-227 hp, with the exception of MKZ (263 hp), the detuned LNF making 215hp will be in the ballpark, but nothing spectacular. I think it should be punched to the 260hp range without significant loss of fuel economy. The average starting price of these cars ranges from $28,300 for Passat to $32,300 for the MKZ. While the average MPG city for the cars is about 21 mpg with Lincoln the least at 18 mpg to the most frugal Audi at 23 mpg. If the level of convenience that Buick will offer is on par or above that offered in these cars and if its price falls right in the above range, then Regal will be an important player in the segment. What struck me is that the fuel consumption at 90 kmph the website states is 5.6L/100 km i.e. is 42 MPG? Am I calculating that correctly? (100/5.6)*(0.621 km -> miles)/(0.264 liters -> gal (US)). If such is the case who needs a Fusion Hybrid?

Japanese economy was experiencing deflation back in late 90's and early 2000's. As much as we clamor about outsourcing, most of Japanese products were already outsourced to Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore and Indonesia. The strong demand for the electronics and automobiles kept Japan from hitting the curb. As a matter of fact I still remember an excellent post from WSJ back in 2001 when it said how US kept Japan going. There was an article in Autoblog last week, which mentioned that Honda blatantly asked the Japanese government to rig the Yen which the government was not doing for a while. Honda clearly stated that the high Yen was hurting its bottom line. The strong demand from US afforded Japan to keep the Yen low, but now with US in recession, Japan will definitely be hit hard.

Sounds like the Dierks Bentley song, Highlandy was a Ute from South Alabamer, Her Toyodur had a heart of a nine pound hammer, Think he did a little time in the slammer, What was GM thinking? As is always the case GM perceived the market incorrectly with timing.

Holy Snikes - ye forget Dod-ge CARAVAN? What about full size BOF or Unibody Utes and those e-vehicles of Chry? I personally think US has many brands, and adding Renault will be one more brand too many especially when it will bring nothing on the table for the company. Yeah granted you will make those B, C and D models above or below the Nissan's but it will be the case of Pontiac vs. Chevy or Saturn vs. Chevy like Carbiz says. I do not find the partnership working because other than increased market share and some truck input, Chrysler will have nothing to offer to R-N while providing them with liability as an added bonus. On that note, I think one of the reason why there was a strong motion for forcing GM, F and DC into bankruptcies might have been the fact that these foreign companies were forcing hands of the senators. Bankruptcies would have enabled them to get the Big3 assets without the burden of liabilities, a possible conspiracy theory for someone to validate. GM and F especially have great investment in R&D especially in engine tech, hybrid and alternate fuel resources despite of their economic health which would have been a great inheretence for Nissan which especially does not have a depth of R&D.

The guy GAVE you $500 for taking the POS off his hand .

Pristine.