ponchoman49

Does anybody know why the 06's dropped 2 mpg on the highway? They went from 25 to just 23 on the same 4 wheel drive model. I can't understand why they wouldn't get 25 or more mpg on a trip. They have the same 3400 designed engine as the minivans and have a newer more efficient tranny and about the same curbweight too. Add a 2.65 final drive ratio into the mix. The 3400 minivans are well known to achieve 22 mpg combined and over 26 on the road. Most everyone with an EXT lenght version seems to get these figures.

Putting a 3900 in the Colorado should be childs play. It is a 60 degree offspring of the original 2.8 which also spawned the 3.1/3.4/3.5 motors. Now everyone knows that the old S-10 and Blazers had the 2.8 and Camaros had 2.8/3.1/3.4 versions of this engine. So converting it to RWD would be easy. That engine would take up less room from stem to stern compared to the L5, produce more power and torque and probably get about the same fuel economy as the 3500. GM badly needs to install an alternative engine in these pickups as the 3500 engine is lacking in larger 4 door models and just sounds peculiar. My biggest peeves about this truck has always been the lack of V6 option, the cheap looking interior and sun visors, the weird sound of the engine, the low tow rating and the high prices. Also why can't GM put 4 wheel disks on better models as std.

I agree with you 100%. These silly new names are utterly forgettable. Things I would like to see dissapear from morern newly designed cars: 1) Dumb meaningless names and alphanumerics 2) A return to soft plush real cloth seat material instead of the fake synthetic garbage like in the New Malibu or Rendevous or Terrazza. 3) Bodyside door moldings should be standard or at least available on every model for us people that don't want door dings galore. 4) Glove box lights should be included on any vehicle that costs over 20K 5) Buick should have at least one coupe available 6) Axe the silly ranier ASAP. It is a rendundant model. 7) Have at least one rear drive larger size model available for Buick and Pontiac. Name them Roadmaster and Bonneville.

Those old G bodies were the best and remain one of my favorite older car styles and designs. It's a shame they never put more money into developing those cars so they stayed around longer for us to enjoy like Ford did with the 89-97 T-Bird/Couger.

I think for the absurdly high list prices of the Ultra Buick should have put in something better than a 1996 spec series II 240hp 3800 s/c. At least they could have installed the 260 hp series III or the already mentioned Aurora 4.0. Aside from that I really liked the 04-05 Park Ultra.

This was also the time when one could order other colors besides dull boring gray, blah black or tan in there interiors. These older cars always had a surprise here and there like that steering wheel or a standard tranny or a DOHC Quad 4 etc. It's a shame that the exterior stlying of the Grand Prix coupe never took my fancy though from 88-96. They were too radical a change IMO.

Actually the 06 seats are identical to the 04-05 seats. The LS and LT have the same seats as last years base and LS V6 and the LT has the odd looking half leather half lux trim like last years LT. Now if Chevy could make the seats like the Fusion/Milan that would give the interior a much higher quality flair.

The real Monte Carlo died in 1988. These front drive 2 door Lumina/Impala or whatever Chevy wants to call them are pretenders and bear resemblance in name only. The current Monte Carlo is a disgrace with it's heavily de-contented, front drive form with a great V8 engine behind a weak tranny and plain Jane doors that look like someone on the assmebly line forgot to install door moldings, Knights badge and Monte Carlo badges. The interior is equally lackluster with it's rock hard plastic door panals, silly plain looking floor shifter that is so obviously missing the shift indicator and too many carry over parts. If this car is going to succeed it needs a total rethink. With it's huge delay in getting to dealers it's as if Chevy doesn't really care about it either.

Wow another BMW wannabe. Why does every luxury car have this same plain slab sided look. No character line or door molding. These so called luxury cars are going to look utterly stupid in a few years with 20 door jams on each side after they get subjected to grocery store parking lots. I'm just waiting to see when BMW eliminates door handles period so the cars look even more blah. Press a button a presto your door may or may not open! After all BMW's quality hasn't been up to par lately.

Now all Buick needs to do is bring back the Riviera coupe, a full size rear drive called Roadmaster, install the 3.6 DOHC in the Lucerne as base engine. They should also bring back the Century as a lower price model with bench seat and 211 hp 3500 V6 and save the LaCrosse as the bucket seat floor shifter sportier model for the high end. And give the LaCrosse more distinctive front and rear end treatments.

Now if they could concentrate on giving it a better base engine we would really be getting somewhere.

Has anybody heard what the huge delay is with the 2006 Monte carlo? The Impala has been out for months now and everything except for the Lucerne has been introduced. I mean it's not like this car is all new!

The Lucerne will be quieter that is until the old 3800 is worked up into it's rpm band where it will make more noise than most Japanese V6's. But with most of the intended audience with this car, revving the engine will seldom if ever occur. GM had a golden opportunity to utilise there terrific 3.6 DOHC engine here but totally ignored the idea. Why they spent the money certifying this lower output, emissionized 3800 is mind boggling. Especially when it was just announced that this engine is going away soon. Must be trying to use up a huge stock pile of parts and engines in the Flint plant.

Chevy has done a good job updating the 2006 Malibu. But one sore point remains - the horrible seats and the cloth they are made of. If Chevy could only use the same material as the new Impala with it's softer more high quality feel I think this car would do even better. With the bewildering increase in sales of the Neon whos 4 cylinder will buzz your fillings loose and never win you a race with automatic transmission, I think the Cobalt may see a sales increase in the coming months wiht it's traditional coupe and sedan profile as opposed to the Calibres weird overly aggressive wagon like body and lower fuel economy.

Upstate, NY. Keep in mind these aren't houses on the lake or anything. Just your average nice neighborhood house with 2 stall garage with 3-4 bedrooms.

I would get a 06 Monte carlo but can't get over some of Chevys cheapness and bewildering way of packaging these cars. Spoilers are standard equipment on all versions now but plastic wheel covers are included on LS and LT models. The interior is still too much like the previous version with rock hard door panals and armrests and too much hard plastic on the dash. The floor shifter looks odd with no numbers or night time light on it. Why are exterior bodyside moldings not at least an option on any model? This is just too silly. Why is Onstar and an 8-way power seat being shoved down out throats as standard equipment? I would much rather have the option to get my Monte in base LS form without Onstar, rear spoiler and have the option to put alloys on it and door moldings. They did do a good job with the engines and styling upgrade. The V8 is nice too but begs for rear drive. I really don't see too much excitement with this car and predict dimal showroom activity in the years to come.

Wow for the bargain price of 100K I can have a tiny, cramped little roadster with a Caddy badge and a good engine. Or I can buy an entire house with a 2 stall garage in a lovely neighborhood. Hmmm lets see.... Just because a Mercedes is overpriced doesn't give Cadillac the excuse to overprice their cars. The STS has been about 10K overpriced since it's introduction for what your getting. A body that looks like a cheaper CTS. Plain jane styling. No exterior trim or moldings or even a character line in the doors. An interor that is below the class competitors average. Acceleration that is good but below several key competitors. Yes value pricing at Cadillac should be in force.

The basic engine design is good but GM tarnished the 95-2005 series II motors with more problems than it should have ever had. Upper and lower intakes and leaky throttle bodies were comon place failures. Several recalls involving new thottle body bolts, leaky steel oil pans and some engines that backfired into the plastic manifold were also in evidence. The fact that this engine remained at the same power levels from 1995-2005 just confirms my theory that GM gave up on this motor years ago. And the series III version only gained 20 hp in s/c version and remained 200 hp in base non s/c. I want so much to agree with everyone about how legendary this motor is but GM has kept me from feeling that way. I have owned 4 cars with this engine. 1998 Grand Prix, 2000 Impala, 2001 LeSabre and a 1997 Olds Delta. The Delta lost it's engine from intake failure and antifreeze being ingested into cylinder number 3. Both the 2000 Impala and 2001 LeSabre needed intake replacements out of warrenty to the sum of $500.00 a pop. The Grand Prix actually lasted till 120K but at that point the engine made a whine, was gruff sounding and noisy and started to slurp gas like a V8 and no one could figure out why. The LeSabre had the best 3800 in my opinion as it was the quietest and seemed to get the best mileage of the bunch.

Buick should be ashamed of themselves for re-naming one of there best selling cars, the LeSabre. GM is on this silly new fad kick to rename everything that wasn't selling in huge quantities last year. Why the LeSabre was included in this thinking is bewildering. Does Buick actually think consumers are being fooled by a new name and different sheetmetal built on the same chassis with the same old 3800, ancient 4 speed automatic trans and conservative aproach to interior design that older folks love? My favorite LeSabres were the 77-85 B-bodies with there quiet ride and V8 engines underhood. Now those were nice cars.

The rear end treatment looks like a Japanese car in my opinion. Only the front looks Pontiac. I would only buy one of these with the 6 speed manual and leather seats as the old outdated 4 speed auto and hard cheap cloth seats made this car feel more like a rental. I agree the 2-tone interior is better than the all black but Pontiac needs to offer more interior colors and 2-tone combinations. Something along the lines of the GTO would be nice. Those slight little color accents in the seats on the GTP version isn't enough. Also for goodness sakes Pontiac; make the exterior mirrors body color on the top of the line GT and GTP models.

I think there are too many models offered. Why for instants do we need the base LS and base LT which are almost identical save for the chrome rims around the guages and availabilty of more options. The LT3 also seems to be redundant. Just make the 3900 an option on the LT2 along with the already available leather seats. Better yet just give us 3 models like we had last year. Base with available options. LT with std 3900 and optional cloth like last years LS and the SS model. I hear much confusion over the 06 LS model which everyone thinks is the upper end version when it really is just a base model. Choice is good but confusion is bad.

I'm not so sure about the 3900 being barely faster than the 3500. I haven't seen actual test numbers performed yet but the G6 GTP should be way faster than the GT model with it's 3500 and auto only trans. The 6 speed should be in the low to mid 6 second range 0-60 and the auto with it's 3.69:1 gears should be less than 7 seconds. The Impala with the 3500 uses a lazier 2.86:1 axle whereas the 3900 version uses a 3.29:1 setup which I recon will shave close to a second off the 0-60 time. Real world combined driving would give the 3900 the nod over the 5300 V8 but it wouldn't be a surprise if the V8 got about the same or better on the open road. This is often the case with bigger engines in smaller cars. A 4 cylinder Malibu gets the same highway economy as the V6 but in the real world the 4 banger will probably be a bit higher. Can't wait to see actual tests with these new engines.

Why does a $2000 waste of money Nav system need to be offered on an entry level Buick? Save that for the 40K and up luxury cars that have drivers that can afford to piss away money like it was growing on trees.

Wow surprised GM & Basher actually didn't rip this car a new one for being a Pontiac on a old chassis with a V8 and front drive.

The wheels were an obvious was to cut costs a little but I must give credit where it is due. The 06 base Malibu which is now called LS beats out last years model by having body colored moldings and a nicer dash and steering wheel. Plus cruise is now standard. The LT which is last years LS now comes with body colored exterior mirrors, chrome door molding insert, leather steering wheel and more interior chrome accents. Haven't seen the LTZ or SS yet.