A Horse With No Name

Actually I really like the Astra. For what it is, and its price, it is hard to beat. Don't faint, I actually like it much better than the Civic and the Mazda 3. Car handles well and is very well built. To me it is really worth the premium over a Cobalt. Chris

We have an old Nash like that driving around the South end of Columbus. Cool car, keep us posted. Chris

Random thoughts... Actually, I've had a few good deals with car salespeople, but what burns my ass is that you get an 18 year old kid with no product info and about no people skills when you walk into most dealerships around here. It also burns my ass when people lie about things. My sister bought a Honda minivan and was shown a clean carfax by the Honda dealer. Told by the dealer that it had never been in an accident. After they had it six months they found issues relating to a previous accident. The people that fixed it...the body shop at the Honda dealership they bought it at. I do kind of like the Saturn approach, more of an educational approach. Worst dealer treatment I've gotten-being asked "what the hell are you doing here?" as a customer greeting in a local dealership. (not kidding about this one. I was wearing work boots and and work clothes, but they were clean.) When I told them I wanted to look at a car for my wife they replied that they were too busy to deal with me. Other funny thing happened when we went to our local MINI dealer to look at a MINI. I asked the salesperson if he owned one, salesperson said "NO" Sales person then told my wife that his own MINI had been so poor in reliability that his wife had never forgiven him for buying it. Way to sell my wife on a car, eh. My local Chevrolet dealer "lost" my work truck for three days and couldn't find it until I drove over there and showed them where it was sitting on the lot. (right in front of the showroom). They then lost the key, and I had to drive over yet again with another key when they locked my keys in the truck and they couldn't get them out. As I was leaving, I got a hard sell from a salesman about how I really needed to buy a new truck and how I really needed to trust their first rate serivce department. (not making this one up) That being said, there are only 2-3 dealers here in the Columbus Metro Area that I would do business with, and none of them are GM dealers. Every time I think about buying a GM car I get halfway serious about driving to Toronto to buy it from CARBIZ or going to the GM dealership near my parents in North Carolina. Yes, my local GM dealerships are that bad. I enjoy going to look at cars with my family, and I am honest with the salesman when I am "not in the market." Sometimes I just like to browse. However, between the hard sell buy a car today and the being treated rudely I almost dread walking into a dealer showroom anymore. Sorry about the rambling rant. Chris

...don't know if he does but it is on my short list. As soon as I can pay off the Scion I plan on buying another car. Joel had his appendix out, which was $23,000+, even with decent insurance it was $4500 out of pocket for me. Christina (youngest daughter) Ear surgery, 45 minutes in the operating room was almost ten grand, about $2,000 out of pocket for me. Elizabeth, oldest (17) just had her wisdom teeth yanked, about $1500 out of pocket even with dental insurance. Pretty much shot me out of the water for a new car this spring, hopefully fall. Chris

Ditto. You know it's what you really want. Chris

Just be glad the Duramax has decent fuel economy for a fullsize truck. I've often thought it would be cool to build a medium sized truck like a Colorado/Canyon with a diesel. Chris

+1 Chris

Was higher than that coming home from work tonight. Chris

...wasn't saying it couldn't happen, was saying that it would be a sad day in mudville if it did happen. IIRC Oldsmobile had one hell of a heritage also. Chris

Which is why we have people like enzl, CARBIZ, and the like...to be the C&G reality police. Seriously, that is what I like about this place. Once someone starts with an irrational line of BS, someone politely calls them on the carpet. Chris

Sweet. Chris

Seriously, CARBIZ is right. When this thing goes to the Euro expect oil to hit $150 a barrel. Reality sucks but it never stops being reality. Chris

They aren't selling cars...no wonder with the price of fuel. Viper, 300C, Charger, the discontinued Magnum, the Jeep Wrangler, the Grand Cherokee, the trucks..all cool vehicles...with an average fuel economy of about 14 mpg if one is lucky. Chrysler needs to replace the lackluster Caliber/Sebring/Avenger/et all with world class product. Until they do they will keep loosing customers and market share. They need to bring in the guys that did the Intrepid/Concorde and give them free reign in the design studio... Chris

Pontiac has way to much heritage to do away with them. Chris

I'd love to get the Mach 1 (a 69 I believe) that was in one of the pics... Chris

Which is why we need to have GM working on new/refreshed small cars now. They need to be a leader, not a follower. Please, Please, Please GM let some of the goodness of your other product drop down to the compacts. One can only wonder what GM might have done had it not had its private parts slammed in the door back in the 60's with the Corvair. They might have found small cars profitable and continued to build great/creative small cars. BTW, (off topic altogether) the Yenko Stinger (Yenko Corvair) would outrun a shelby GT350 on a road racing track... End of rant Chris

It just sucks that buying gas supplies cash to Whabbi Saudi groups that want to undermine our culture and nation. Chris

Quoted for truth...but GM needs to refresh the Aveo badly to keep up with the Fit. Chris

Scion, Suzuki, Mitsu, all will go. Scion may go back into Toyota. Hyndai, Kia, et. all are here to stay. VW is a little iffy, but Diesels should help them. Chris

...if you want a sunroof I have a sawzall. But seriously, your right on the Mustang thing. Chris

...and I am jealous. The G8 is hot. Chris

...if this is GM Kool-Aid then I want some....the Cobalt SS is a hot car. News flash, GM is winning races in sports car. Go watch the Solstice, Cobalt, Corvette, CTS-V, et. all do their thing. at an SCCA race. Gm cars have some serious MOJO when it comes to the left-right-left thing in road racing. And once Junior and company get their MOJO in Nascar we'll have even more to party about. Chris

Actually I still like the GTI. Chris

I dig his car too. I dig it so much that I want to Dig a hole and bury it. Chris

Actually, I am kind of glad in a way to see it. We won't see conservation and other energy ideas used unless there is an economic reason to do so. Paying $4.25 a gallon for gas in July...painfull.. Showing the raised center finger to both the Arabs and the Oil companies...priceless. Chris