Flybrian

Gotta get used to this.

For the record, a good number of these LX/Land Cruiser "sales" are going straight to Russia and South America via dummy lease companies in the US. Believe me, even Toyota-loving Americans aren't stupid enough to spend good money on those piles.

Is this all because I want to marry you after I make my atheist illegal-immigrant cocaine-addicted girlfriend abort her second baby because she cloned her first one for the tax benefits and burned an American flag in anger?

Yeah, the 6-cylinder is a deal-breaker for me. No wonder why it only has 25,000 miles; who wants to drive a gargantuan B-Body LeSabre with NO power?

WARREN -- General Motors Corp. plans to recycle or reuse all production waste and garbage at half of its factories around the world by the end of 2010, a move that could pour millions of dollars into the automaker's coffers from sales of scrap metal and recycled materials.

The commitment to having more than 80 of its factories become landfill-free generates money for financially-strapped GM and dovetails with its commitment to environmentally friendly policies, company officials said during an announcement Friday at the company's transmission plant in Warren.

Selling scrap metal generates almost $1 billion a year for the automaker, and GM makes about $16 million from selling recycled cardboard, wood, oil, plastic and other materials. Those figures could increase as more facilities become landfill-free.

"Environmental performance is linked to financial performance," said John Bradburn, a GM environmental engineer.

GM has 43 manufacturing facilities -- including Warren Transmission -- that are landfill-free, which means those locations recycle or reuse more than 96 percent of waste materials. An additional 3 percent is converted to energy at waste-to-energy facilities.

The other five Michigan facilities are in Ypsilanti, Livonia, Wixom and Flint.

Recycling is an ongoing challenge. Finding a place for old batteries, for example, will become increasingly important after GM unveils the Chevrolet Volt, an extended-range vehicle that could travel up to 40 miles on electric power alone. GM plans to start building the Volt in late 2010.

The Volt will have a gas engine that powers a generator, which recharges the battery and keeps the vehicle running when its lithium-ion battery pack is low on power. GM is working on finding a way to reuse or recycle those batteries.

"As we develop new solutions in vehicle propulsion, GM is also making significant progress in reducing the impact our worldwide facilities have on the environment," said Gary Cowger, GM's vice president of global manufacturing and labor.

There are several benefits to GM's green strategy aside from profit, said auto analyst Jim Hall, managing director of 2953 Analytics LLP in Birmingham.

GM can get ahead of any potential legislation dealing with land management and redevelopment, and benefit from existing tax incentives in some communities, Hall said. Green policies also appeal to buyers and it could be easier to redevelop or sell those manufacturing sites if operations are cleaner.

"Those places can get funky," Hall said. "I'm not saying you've got Superfund sites here ... but if you're cleaner, it gives you more options."

This year, more than 3 million tons of waste materials from GM plants worldwide will be recycled or reused and an additional 50,000 tons will be converted into energy.

There are a variety of uses for waste materials. GM sends waste aluminum to foundries and reuses it as engine and transmission components while used oil is reconditioned for use in GM's facilities.

By recycling and eliminating waste, the automaker will prevent the release of 3.65 million metric tons of carbon dioxide this year.

"It's the right thing to do for our business and the environment," said John Buttermore, vice president of GM's Global Powertrain Manufacturing

About time.

God, it makes me want to buy a dump truck and drive to Alaska.

Task Force '57 - Alcan Champs!

Thanks, guys! More cool stuff from the Corral...

1978 Silver Anniversary. 44,xxx original miles. Still has the 8-tracks!

2006 HHR 2LT. Nothing real unique, but I've just really fallen for these things. Awesome ride and lightyears ahead of the dumpy PT.

1990 Mercedes 560SEC. Last of the old hardtop Benzes.

Feast your eyes on one of under 2000...

And also this Autoway Chevrolet parts truck that is just damn cool.

Shockingly attractive for a mid-80s convertible. And definitely rare.

Reminds me of the '88 Cutlass Ciera XC we took in on trade that I subsequently sold to my friend for $400.

Funny how you NEVER read anything harping & moaning over future hyundai resale in any articles, eh? Rental this, generic that, piss-poor resale.... Everyone's all breathless how the offerings have gone from abyssmal to mediocre... annnnd; that's it- the rest is all good.

Kia Sedonas in particular are a growing secondary finance favorite. We recently purchased two '03 EXs with full load - one with a sunroof - with 30/60k miles and didn't spend more than $10k for both. They're perfect finance vans - late-model, low-mileage, and have the appearance of a decent van. Too bad one averages 15MPG if you're lucky.

We used to buy quite a few Kias and Hyundais but not anymore. They're poor values for even our cost, have limited book, hold up like $h!, and most people still look at them cockeyed.

I love the fact that the SDV still has the padded roof. Wow.

Well, through a series of unexpected events, myself and my General Manager from LOR Motorcars ended up with some old friends of his from Plaza Dodge at their lot in Hudson, Florida called Auto Corral. These guys are wholesalers who buy new car trades from big dealers and resell them at the local autctions. For retail, that means we get the cars cheaper and they mostly always good Florida cars. I'm the ISM (Internet Sales Manger) of three stores now - Auto Corral, Sunshine Motors (literally around the block), and AC Motorsports, which has a large inventory of motorcycles, scooters, ATVs and other randomness. Between the two stores, we have over 100 vehicles, including weird stuff like COE box vans and a '61 Chevy Apache. The guy who owns the lots is a Corvette nut and a C4 'Vette is actally part of our logo for some reason. We have about a dozen Corvettes from 70s to C6s, so that's always fun.

Anyhow, I just wanted to share some of the cooler things we have and that I get to drive - at least for a quarter mile so I can photograph them in a nice neighborhood!

1972 Chevy C10 with a 454 crate motor under the hood!

1989 Corvette convertible. An automatic, but gorgeous inside and out. Black on red on red with 90k miles. Beautiful cruiser, especially if it were the 90s.

1990 Chevrolet 454 SS. All original, 90k miles. A beautiful truck and, God, what a tire-shredder!

1995 Chevy Forward Control van. Nothing that special, but I've never seen one before.

2004 Corvette convertible with a procharge supercharger. 6-SPD and super fast.

1961 Chevy Apache. Nicely restored and just plain cool

1997 30th Anniversary Camaro Z/28. 180k miles but incredibly clean!

1984 Porsche 928S. A bit edgy, but charming.

--Being in the used car end of the 'biz' gives me the opportunity to road test a variety of late-model cars for longer periods of time than a normal test drive would typically allow. Though these reviews may lack the excitement of being a first impression of the latest 'car de jour,' it provides a unique opportunity to see how a car performs with a little bit of wear and a little bit of age on it. This allows you to see just how well these cars hold up over the years and miles and also represents what the other half of America - i.e., the used car shopper - has to select from. Consider this a long-term test of a car whose previous drivers may or may not have given a damn.

I've driven well over 100 different vehicles over the past year for various lengths of time and distances, sometimes shortened prematurely by the vehicle itself. There are some memorable stories to tell, too - the 2005 Grand Am that liked to shut off mysteriously on highways and inclines, the 110k-mile 2001 Prius that died every 30 minutes, the 2003 Civic Hybrid that got 23MPG, and the '94 Sedan DeVille whose horn honked when you flashed the high-beams. So don't let those - hopefully - exceptions to the norm cast a spector over the entire line of cars, but let these reviews instead represent instead a general idea of what to expect and give you an idea of what an automobile is like after the new car smell is replaced by the sweet odor of used.--

The Basics...seriously basic

Introduced for 2005, the Cobalt is Chevrolet's Delta-based compact car. And despite the decieving nomenclature on this Cobalt LS, my car is a basey, basey, base, base model. Its options include an automatic transmission. That's it. That means this car has manual windows, locks, mirrors, no antilock brakes, no fancy alloys, no side airbags, and no cruise control. Considering my daily commute is a round trip of 70 miles, the lack of cruise is the most lamented option followed by, well, everything else. I do applaud Chevy for making lemonade out of lemons by making what you have to do manually easier with a control stick for the passenger-side mirror and window crank handles that are easy to rotate.

A second round of applause is deserved for the surprising amount of unexpected equipment standard. Automatic headlamps, a digital driver info center, 4-speaker AM/FM/CD stereo, an an A/C filtration system are all standard. For those used to GM's usual plethora of conveniences, things like the auto lamps and DIC make you feel at home despite the downgrade in size and price. A power trunk release is concealed below and to the left of the steering wheel column within a small storage cubby; brilliant, especially when the competition seems to love those doofy floor levers that clutter the floorboard and eventually snap off. The DIC reads out ambient temperature, oil life, two tripometer readouts, engine temp, and - most importantly - fuel economy. One wonders why so few economy cars in this range feature such a display since high MPG is usually the imputus behind the purchase of such a car.

..........More to come!

How exactly is an oil pressure gauge 'useless'? And how exactly does do several car 'experts' come to such a conclusion?

I have a commercial "dealer" account now, so let me know.

A close personal matter involving my family. I'm not really in the spirit to go into details right now, but suffice it to say that things are on the upswing.

Sold to a gentleman in Louisville, KY. Time to drive a 2002 Axiom XS now.

Buick Reatta w/out VIC.

68,408mi to be exact.

Haha...I honestly never thought anyone would hit that level so quickly. Yeah, it was a little easter egg of a joke. No offense meant, naturally.

Can I offer you one of these?

An '83 Turbo ZX. She's so much fun...

Jaguar. They speak for themselves.

Its not the Camry wagon itself that makes this memorable...