ocnblu

A hawk hunts and kills, it flies, it's good looking. A masculine, aggressive boid. A lark sits on a branch and warbles. In another connotation, a lark is a whimsical adventure. Um yeah. I could see this car with a waterfall in black chrome, tri-shield badges, and two ventiports per side on the hood, a la Verano. This is a place Buick has been before, and did fairly well in the 70's and 80's. I think most people who bought those old ones are dead now, or at least in a home. No witnesses left who matter.

Not to be negative, but it's positively shocking how little I care about electric personal transportation modules.

peel

The "Certified" used car programs are for marketing purposes. I've worked at various dealerships for 18 years. They're not any better prepped for sale than any other used car, except you have a warranty, which you may be using quite a bit, depending on how the people before you treated the car. If the "Certified" car wasn't sold at your purchasing dealer new, that's another complication, that dealer cannot know the car's complete history. It is the murkiness of the car's history that concerns me about buying used. I know how I treat my vehicles... I have no way of being sure to my satisfaction about the history of a used vehicle. So many one-year-old used cars are off-rental vehicles that have been beat hard. Buying a used car is like playing roulette, sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't. I prefer putting a sizable down payment on a new vehicle, which helps overcome most, if not all, of the payoff/market value ratio at trade-in time. Be careful when considering a used vehicle is all I'm saying. You might be all to the good, but you might be in for a bad surprise. Check thoroughly for peace of mind.

Thanks for the update, Chris. I can see a slow ramp-up of sales for the car that way, maybe that's a good thing. Fleet managers and regular people interested in keeping the car past the warranty period should be more interested in the 2.5L.

Agreed on the little Pontiac comment, and the 2 and 3-door comment above. As a Buick, it could work, though. If it is to use a heritage name, I prefer Skyhawk over Skylark for this model, as it conjures up a more athletic image, a hawk being a bird of prey.

Oh God!

Perhaps the emoticon board needs a colonoscopy.

shoulder

A very thorough article, well done, although it appears something happened in your "Fuel Economy" paragraph, at least as it appears on my screen. I must be in a seriously small minority who wishes for 3-door versions of these cars.

lubrication

Kia has gone in more of a European direction. Much nicer looking.

Not sure how they could have done that. The cuts were correct, just too far down the shaft of the key... the key has to go in to a certain point to release all the tumblers and turn.

Prolly the nicest ION I've seen.

Yup, all true. And I'm up to 1400+ miles already. Havin' a ball.

Yup, I think IIRC the X-cars came out in Spring 1979 (1980 model year) and the Js came out in Spring, 1980 ('81 model year). Of course, just like on my face, there could be fuzz growing in my memory. EDIT: yup, I was thinking it was Citation in Spring '79, Cavalier in Spring '80 and Celebrity in Fall, '81... but the J-car did come out in the Spring of '81 as an '82 model year car. Fuzz indeed.

Was at "my" Ford dealer yesterday morning, they have 5 new Foci. One was an SE Sport sedan in Red Candy with the 17" black rims, looked good. Another one caught my eye, though, a Kona Blue SE Sport hatch with 5 speed manual and the silver 16" rims. Optioned up to $21+k though, with sunroof, winter pkg and one of the spec packages. Best combo I've seen on these, so far, but the price, whew, I haven't been shocked by a sticker like this since the J-cars stormed onto the scene in 1980.

Went to pick up my new vehicle on the evening of March 15th. Was greeted by my saleskid as I got my last few things out of the truck. Was cheerfully handed the key to the car as he went inside to ready the final paperwork. So I went to open it up... transmitter wouldn't unlock car. Key wouldn't unlock lock cylinder in door. (Dealership has two locations, my car came from their other store 15 miles north). Turns out, wrong spare key was sent along, so key had to be ordered from FoMoCo. No big deal. A Euro-style key with internal cuts, local dealer has no cutter for it. Primary key works, of course, that's how they drove the car to my selling location. Two weeks ago, after not hearing anything, I called them and was told the spare key was in. Has to be programmed to car like most modern keys, a 2 minute procedure. Was given an appointment for yesterday at 8 am, a rainy, cold day it turned out, for the programming. Got there at about 10 of 8, took a seat in the lounge. 8:20, overheard the technician come up and tell the service advisor the key would not work. Waited another 5 minutes in lounge watching CNN, went to counter and was told the key was not cut correctly, the cuts were too far down the shaft. (I used to cut keys when I worked at the GM dealership, it happens sometimes.) Another key has to be ordered by VIN from FoMoCo. So it was a wasted trip, about 12 miles. But the advisor gave me a card good for a free oil change, which I'll use at the 5k mile mark. A decent gesture that I appreciate. And I got to eat breakfast on the way with a bunch of old guys at McD's. A couple of things though: spare key was never located at other dealer location. It was probably given to another Fiesta buyer as a spare, and has not been discovered yet. Also, Fiesta and 2012 Focus will likely use the same style key, dealer needs to get a key cutter for these vehicles. And, what if a Fiesta person lost their key and needed to call roadside assistance? Would they be without their car for 3 weeks while the dealer waited for a key from Ford? So, all in all, even though it was not a success, at least it was not the complete comedy of errors I went through with my Colorado seatbelt buckle.

I went with portion control over the expense, complication and environmental harm of an EV. I'm very happy with my choice, latest tank, 35.2 MPG, and I paid $16,111 for the car, which is simple, fun and well equipped. Still love the old stuff, too, and if I had a place to keep it and the money to maintain it properly, I'd own a weekend/summer toy in the blink of an eye.

The Nissan guy making apologies for the new Versa is going to eat his words. Maybe when the first-gen Versa hit this market, subcompact buyers had different expectations. Now is a different story, however, with everybody else out there giving buyers snazzy stuff to chew on. The Versa looks like an old, frumpy, forgotten Renault.

Duly liked, sir!

It more closely resembles the Fiesta (only uglier) than the smoother, bigger i30. I think the first-gen Focus is turning out to be a classic, it started this whole high-taillight hatchback look that has spread far and wide. And "do the math" was a rude statement, answered with rudeness. My comment was harsh, but true (re: school). I've supported blackviper8891 in a lot of things here at C&G, don't forget that.

VERY interesting... it was going to go into a Holden Torana and the Pontiac G6!

Much more interesting than the current mainstream car. With its new lightness and fuel efficiency, plus an easy prediction as a top safety pick, this will sell. In the past, the AWD was a great feature, until one noted the MPG figures... too much of a trade-off. Now the fuel mileage bogey has been dealt with.

I'd like to see something like this in the Equinox/Terrain as an option.