Z-06

I guess you are light on work.

I still think there is a lot of dollar and speculation to do than supply and demand regarding crude oil prices. Once alternate money making options are available to the speculators and oil nations, this will abate. I still firmly believe that oil needs competitor and once that is done, it will be a price war between those two, and car manufacturers will have no option but to produce both. Unless we build them in sweat shops or offer for free.

I thought they do charity work too. I mean come on, we are not paying them to post on our measly sight are we?

The Best- 12 Tatas. That is 12x35 = 420hp. From a 7.2L, 24 cylinder combo. Don't like it throw it. You can arrange them in series to tow trucks, cargo or any other thing. If you want to beat the crap out of a vehicle, that is the one, and it will cost about $30,000. Almost the same a ST would have cost.

And not designed by Mariobro and/ or Peugeot206

I stand corrected.

That is what I thought. Is it for midgets?

At least there was a ray of hope existing after seeing the Camaro and Zetas and Alphas. I will not be surprised now if Alpha gets canceled. After we are hyped up about it, GM will put a hammer on the excitement. They are already groaning about 1mpg in the other article PCS posted.

If what Mr. PCS is true in its own cryptic sense. Time to buy Hondas and BMW's and older GM. Because they can build better driver's cars than Appliances we will see from GM.

I like it. Good car. It is on your face. Take it or leave it no middleground or appeasing claims for import intenders or pretenders. A good ol' American Machine.

Yes 355's need to be updated along with the TrailBlazer.

W body is a living legend.

IPOD center stack. Grab, pinch, nudge, caress your vehicle.

CAFE. Build the biguns out of here.

Have you thought this way that people are gravitating to midsize because: 1. Those big sedans still in production are utter pieces of junk. 2. They have not been advanced technologically to make viable sense. 3. Some are forced to downgrade because of the lack of choices in that category.

Sorry to know about the death in your acquaintance. The first question you need to ask is how close was the person who demised. If they were not close you can request your mom that you stay home because of the test. If they were close, you need to ask YOURSELVES if you can go to the wake and yet study and make it well in the exams through time management and/ or burning midnight oil. If not still request your mom if you can stay home and study. Does your mom know about your tests? If she does not, may be now is the time you sat with her and tell her about how important it is.

As you said, I have always believed it is those product planning and anal-yzing middlemen in GM are forcing them into loosing market share. As much as they think they are looking at the bigger picture. They are ending up micromanaging. They constantly think: 1. Not getting 2% of share because of X nix it. We will introduce something else. 2. BOF small trucks and SUVs tanking? Let us abandon the market altogether and bring another FWD Lambdas and they will take care of that. In the mean time let the market share go down. This future product will bring us VOLUME. In all the strategies I know and have seen, you cannot lose a ground altogether and expect to win a war when you are having upperhand. Abandoning markets is one of the worst mistakes. It is same as people selling stocks because of bad news. That is not foresight. Rather than shoring defenses, GM removes whatever defense they have. Look at BMW after being slammed on their 7 series for being butt ugly, they changed it within two years. Have you seen any GM product getting any tremendous mid cycle makeover to keep them going? They still believe "Oh the name has been maligned let us DUMP it." That shows lack of faith on their own system. Look at TOY. Three failed generations of Turd, yet they are trying. In contrast media slamming the TBlazer and Colo-Canyon. Four years into the cycle and we are yet to see any refresh, even the V8 is dumped. GM has partly maligned their own vehicles and their own Brands upto a certain extent. 3. Zeta wagon will have only 4% share. Why bother? Don't invest now. While we have invested 1.5B in its development which may not be recovered because of this shortsightedness. 4. Why GM needs stick shifts in trucks, mid size cars, or SUVs, when their market is only 4%. Why GM needs to have navigation when their market share is only 2%. Why GM needs to have Bluetooth, because the marketshare is only 3%. The right question should be WHY NOT? These habits were in the 60-70's and it still persists today in GM. In yesterdays those strategies made sense because people wanted to transform themselves very many times and GM's market share commaded that to justify you lose some but gain more. Cars were yet to see the glory days and create fanbase and loyalties. In today's world people want change with reputation on their back. A little market share is dog eat dog world. In someways I am glad that GM ditched the old habit of renaming the Malibu after going through the transformation. You cannot reinvent yourself altogether in today's world. There has to be some "reputation" for people to fall back on to know who you are. Flamboyance is not key, it is appliance and macromanaging through microsteps. The more you look at the automobiles the more you see they are hardly bringing anything new to the table other than outdoing others. For outdoing others you should look for details and it is devil in the details. Which means even 1% share of a small segment is a detail. Lutz may be bringing spectacular products, but in a wholistic picture the middlemen are still having a last laugh for their crummy ideas. GM's transformation will truly take place by removing these midgets who are too strong to GM's good and too weak to get removed.

A Mogul king had the following phrase written on his ring. "Even these days will go." Good or bad these days will pass and there will come a time when Zeta 2 will rule and gas will be $1/gallon because of competitive energy methods being invented and brought. Keep the Faith Camino and hang in there.

Would be true if wussy boys are of our age then who know automobiles as appliances having a 200 mile range on charge and burn water.

You may have had earlier right?

Z, I am not denying that they need to have a Balanced portfolio. A RWD large car with limited number of bodies including coupes, pickup bed, wagon would have made a perfect balance in US. There is a market for RWD large cars. With this decision they are going back to square one where they did not have any strategy. Small cars are good. But they will not be seen until at least 2012 (the way GM development works). They have already invested a lot in the Zeta, and the volume is not going to come unless some cars find their way into US. Australia, middle east and China cannot support the Zeta platform into profitability. The way this news sounds like that it is in conceptual phase, so forget getting that platform in next year. Plus, some wise guy in GM will also think, hey we already have Delta II in advanced design phase, why not blob these three more in "since RWD<FWD in fuel economy" and out will go the Alpha.

What if they gripe and say RWD Alpha is dead because of "Fuel Economy"? We will see nothing but FWD small POS. GM needs to survive through the CAFE, but they are becoming extra defensive.

Infiniti's interior quality is crap. The G35 feels like the plastic melts everytime it is in sun. Even Car and Driver acknowledged it.

The appliancefication of the automobile has truly begun in the United States.

Although I do not have a strong affinity for zeta. I definitely agree with you that GM is being extremely shortsighted about killing the Zeta.