vonVeezelsnider

I wonder if the 2013 Verano will have the 2.5L instead of the 2.4L. That would certainly be a swaying factor in my decision over say a Cruze.

2012 is when (I'm hoping) things should start to finally turn around for me. Lots of big stuff happening this year *Graduate with finance degree in December and hope to have job lined up before then (although things are still not quite looking up) *Start the long slog towards gaining the prevailing professional designation in my field *Continue to save money up for new car and for real estate acquisition in not too distant future, hoping there is a market correction soon as the real estate market here is still somewhat overvalued.

Likely replacing the Canada-only CSX which is a rebadged Civic sold as an Acura with much more kit and power, then expanding that to the US market. The TSX is more of a Regal/S40 competitor Pretty much.

Production 140:

I love it from bumper all the way through halfway between the B-Pillar and C-Pillar. Then it all falls apart in a bad way.

That thing would scare small children.

F Yeah

We have two E85 stations in Canada and they are both in the Greater Toronto Area. Thus, despite having a Flex-Fuel car it does me no good in Calgary. Never used it. We don't have E-15 either as there are no ethanol subsidies in Canada. I guess based on a pure subsidy-free environment there's not much demand.

The JFK hearse was parked just inside the glass at the Barrett-Jackson showroom on Scottsdale Road when I drove by today... Caught it out of the corner of my eye and had to turn around to see a piece of history up close. Too bad they were closed or I would have gone in.

Absolutely love this trim level. I especially like the matte wood.

My educated guess would point to the contributing factor as our comparatively low population density, quite a bit less then even than now, coupled with an even more rural based population at the time. In Canada, especially then, the "next town" was not as close by or handy. Same reason there was a Mercury truck line. Small farming communities often could not support two franchised dealerships and these standalone dealers complained to head office about not having a complete product line that they could offer that met a greater amount of the needs of their rural customers. That meant cheapo Mercuries and expensive Fords, a bargain-basement Desoto, Mercury trucks, a Nova clone for Pontiac dealers, and of course, a gussied up Plymouth sold as a Dodge. I guess they could afford the overlaps. There was also a trade barrier / high import tax that ended around '70 IIRC. Prior to it's end, there were a host of 'shuffled' brands in Canada: Pontiacs on narrow Chevy chassis's with anemic 1bbl I6s (and a few hairy 427s), and such. Once that/those barriers were removed, the nonsense stopped. Makes sense- if your U.S.-built Plymouth gets heavily taxed crossing the border, mix-n-match Corporate parts, assemble it Up North, give it a new model name and BAM!, a 'Canadian' car. Ah yes, the 1965 Auto Pact.

My educated guess would point to the contributing factor as our comparatively low population density, quite a bit less then even than now, coupled with an even more rural based population at the time. In Canada, especially then, the "next town" was not as close by or handy. Same reason there was a Mercury truck line. Small farming communities often could not support two franchised dealerships and these standalone dealers complained to head office about not having a complete product line that they could offer that met a greater amount of the needs of their rural customers. That meant cheapo Mercuries and expensive Fords, a bargain-basement Desoto, Mercury trucks, a Nova clone for Pontiac dealers, and of course, a gussied up Plymouth sold as a Dodge. I guess they could afford the overlaps.

Just browsing the classifieds and saw this one for sale and figured I'd share it. The Dodge Mayfair had a Dodge body and a Plymouth interior and components.

I would only consider Broughams/Fleetwoods from this generation which have the 368 Cadillac engine or the 350 Chevy motor.

Mine gets near that already on the highway. Last big trip I took last summer got almost 36MPG

That Chrysler is boss.

I understand why it might be bad to have more power than the LaX but when it comes to the ATS comparison it's important to note the Impala is going to be about ~203in long and ~74in wide and the ATS is going to be comparable in size to a BMW 3-Series.

I would bet that the 2.0T will be the std. engine making around 250hp with optional 3.6L V6. The reasoning is they want to make this thing competitive with the Taurus and I doubt that they would have 70-80 less horsepower than a standard Taurus which makes 260 horses.

Current wheelbase is 110.5 and the LaCrosse is 111.7 Should have same wheelbase as the XTS. Part of the problem with the back seat in the current car is that the seat cushions in the front are so low it's hard to get your feet under the seat in front with shoes on.

This vehicle in the pictures is longer than my car, with a longer wheelbase too. Also it will probably have similar width to the LaCrosse, probably 73-74 inches. This is about comparable to the current car. The issue I think, is more about how airy the space is. It will likely have a bigger back seat since there's ~2 inches of extra wheelbase, but I don't like the idea of a body hugging center console and IP.

Here is the Opel version that got leaked http://www.burlappcars.com/2011/12/2013-buick-encoreopel.html It's obvious that this and the Encore are basically the same if you look at mirrors headlights etc... Obviously the Buick has higher-spec lights and a slightly tweaked fascia up front (and judging by the Opel looks out back, hopefully there too). Otherwise, this is the car, gents.

At least in Canada, I can say with confidence that the Taurus and Impala have a very similar base MSRP.

If I recall correctly from those who had seen the design of the Zeta Impala it was evocative of the 1967 Impala incl. the tail-lamps and certain elements on the front front end. Bob Lutz happened to mention that when they cancelled the RWD Impala program and switched it to Epsilon that many of these styling cues were easily portable to the FWD car. I don't know what bankruptcy did to the program (changed it or just delayed it?) but perhaps that's what we're seeing here. The placement of the fake lights on this mule here with the backup lights in the middle and brake/running lights flanking that on either side, if that is how they intend the lights to be patterned on the production car, would suggest a pattern similar to this: The Taurus interior is stylistically nice but I think they bench-marked the hell out of this thing. Looks way more well finished than the Taurus. This new car will certainly not be fleeted as much as the current one (that will become the Malibu's job) so I would have to say that this one probably won't outsell the Taurus 2 or 2.5-1 like the current one does. It will be much more interesting because retail will be much closer to a dead heat methinks.

I know the camo can be tricky but now that I look again on the C-Pillar it looks to me like a 2 window per-side greenhouse. I don't think it has opera windows in the C-Pillar.

1000x yes.