Northstar

For $20k I'm guessing the interior isn't bad. Especially considering everything else they give you for $20k (convertible, pretty good engine, 18s standard, etc). They have the cost cut somewhere unless you want them to raise the price another $5k.

Buick drops Aerosmith song New tag line will stress engineering By Jamie LaReau Automotive News / October 24, 2005 LAS VEGAS - Buick is retiring the "Dream Up" marketing tag line it introduced barely a year ago to appeal to younger, wealthier buyers, according to dealers. Buick's new slogan is "Beyond Precision." Dealers say Buick's marketing general manager, Steve Shannon, announced the tag line at General Motors' 2005 Dealer Business Conference here last week. Dealers say that the change will take effect in November or early December and that Buick will drop the Aerosmith song "Dream On" from its TV commercials. A Buick spokesman would not comment. The new tag line is designed to convey the message that Buick exceeds customers' expectations through precision engineering, says John Pitre, general manager of Motor City Buick-Pontiac-GMCin Bakersfield, Calif. "'Dream Up' was a perception-changing campaign," Pitre says. Buick wants to use the campaign to position itself "just below Lexus but head to head with Acura," he says. Adds Dana Tidwell, sales manager at John Rogin Buick in Livonia, Mich.: "The reason they're doing this is to show that Buick is going one step further and giving (buyers) a little more than what they're asking for." Dealers say Buick executives showed them a rough cut of a new "Beyond Precision" TV spot. Tidwell says it has "a Cirque du Soleil feel." Pitre says the spot shows a Buick Lucerne in a hangar. Lights shine on the car from every side. The car barrels toward the viewer and speeds away. The commercial's narration emphasizes that Buick is concerned with maintaining engineering and design tolerances on the car as close as 0.5 millimeter. More: http://www.autonews.com/article.cms?articleId=54995

By Jamie LaReau Automotive News / October 24, 2005 LAS VEGAS -- General Motors revealed the names of two of the three crossovers it will launch for the 2007 and 2008 model years at its Dealer Business Conference here last week. The GMC crossover vehicle will be called the Acadia, dealers say. The name was confirmed by a GM source. A concept version of the Acadia will debut at the Detroit auto show in January. Dealers will receive the Acadia as a 2008 model after they get the new GMC Sierra pickup next fall. The Saturn crossover will be called the Outlook, GM told dealers, confirming a previously rumored name. The Outlook is due next fall. The Buick version, which replaces the Rendezvous sport wagon and Rainier mid-sized SUV, has not been named, dealers told Automotive News. It is expected for the 2008 model year. The Acadia will be bigger than the mid-sized GMC Envoy and will come in front-wheel- and all-wheel-drive versions. The vehicle will seat eight people, dealers say. Dealers praised the crossovers' styling. "The Buick mid-sized luxury sport 'ute' is a jaw dropper," says John Rogin, owner of Rogin Buick in Livonia, Mich. "It is dramatic."

By Jamie LaReau Automotive News / October 24, 2005 DETROIT -- General Motors has big plans for the smallest truck in its Hummer lineup. GM intends to offer V-8 and diesel versions of the mid-sized H3 SUV. Two sources inside GM say the automaker is in the early stages of preparing to offer an H3 with a 5.3-liter V-8. "It's another couple of years out," said one source at GM, who asked to not be named. Hummer will add a diesel engine to the H3 later, the source said. The SUV comes with GM's Vortec 3500 3.5-liter inline five-cylinder engine, which delivers 220 hp. More: http://www.autonews.com/article.cms?articleId=55033

If you copy the shortcut (don't click on it) then it will take you to the page to download the pic.

I saw a tan Fusion at the dealer about two weeks ago. It's still sitting there, and for good reason, the gap under the grill looks terrible, and the front looks much too upright and narrow, especially in tan.

I think the Lucerne's engine will give 95% of buyers as much power as they would ever want in a FWD application. It'd be nice if it had the higher output version, but then there'd be no reason to buy the DTS.

I think the Impala's interior has a few hard surfaces here and there that don't feel that great because there'd be little reason to buy a Lucerne or DTS if you could get the same quality in the Impala. The DTS (from what I felt just touching stuff through the window, I didn't feel like sitting in it) had much better materials and everything felt pretty solid and substantial. Maybe that's GM's biggest problem: if they made all Chevys as nice as Buicks and Cadillacs, no one would buy Buicks or Cadillacs.

I think it's a good idea to stagger them simply for production reasons. It's a brand new plant, with brand new vehicles that none of the workers have ever assembled before, so I think it's best if they get used to building one and then another. I think it would cause some confusion if they had to learn how to build all three all at once.

knightfan: I'm not really sure when I'll be there, but probably on the weekend sometime. It really all depends on when I have basketball practice/games and how the auto show schedule works into that. I'm in Champaign BTW.

Was he actually able to sit in the Yukon, or was he just saying the materials looked decent?

That's a very positive sign. The problem is I don't think Bush has shown much interest in helping out the auto industry, but maybe if he gets a lot of increased pressure then he'll do something.

Since I'm running behind anyways on getting the results posted and getting a little burned out myself from doing all the comps, I'll just extend it until Tues and then extend the GTO one an extra week.

Do they usually have new stuff at Tampa, Fly? If so, that should be one of the first shows to have the Escalade, as it debuts in early Nov. I probably won't be going because I'll probably have a lot of basketball stuff to do, but I'll be able to go to the Chicago show, which should have even more new debuts.

Isn't that his daily driver? I thought RP/Fbodfather said it was. And I take it that you're saying he wants a new Camaro that looks similar to the '69 http://www.cheersandgears.com/public/style_emoticons//AH-HA_wink.gif

Do you still have the comp you did it on? I remember looking at an cached google page of your chop because I wanted to look at it after the site went down but the pic didn't work. Did you post it anywhere else?

From what AH-HA's been telling us about the Lambdas, they'll blow the Freestyle out of the water in about every way. Plus, they are supposed to have a standard 3.6L HF V6 with an optional 4.7L UV8.

Welcome to Choppin' Competition 10! Your task is to chop the photo provided below in any way you want. Change the wheels, background, etc. Please resize your chop to 768 pixles wide. Contestants that do so will recieve a bonus point as it takes me a long time to resize all of the entries that are not the specified size for the voting thread. The deadline for entries is Saturday, November 5th, at 11:59 PM EST. Here is the pic to chop (please copy + paste link into browser): http://gm.wieck.com/forms/gm/previewpage?012572

Well it's a '95 with 105k miles, so it's probably legit. They want $2100 for it, I doubt it's worth much more than that.

Interesting, did he say anything about what the front looked like? Did it look like a '69?

I think it's pretty impressive Texas is beating the #10 team by more than USC is beating probably somewhere around the #100 team. #2 Texas vs. #10 Texas Tech is the same type of matchup as #1 USC vs. #9 ND. I think USC would probably win if the two teams meet in the National Championship game, but if anyone could contain Bush and company I think it'd be the Texas defense, they're pretty damn good. With the losses USC took last year on defense I'm not so sure that Vince Young could be contained.

It is my understanding that the planned GMC is a "sub-Theta" meaning it's pretty small; a Buick would be basically the same as the Equinox is size.

I think the 5.3L will be making around 340HP or more by the time a 5th Gen comes out. If it had the same hp/L as the LS2 then it'd be at 350+, and with the improvements in technology, I don't see why that couldn't be possible. I think the top engine will probably be a supercharged LS2 or the 6.2L.

The Cobra never outpowered the 4th Gens until the 4th Gens were dead. And, Ford wasn't able to outpower them without forced induction either; if you were to stick a supercharger or turbo on the LS1 it'd be making well over the 390hp of the Cobra.

Washington's a cupcake. They're 1-5, with the lone win coming again Idaho. I would hope USC would have an easy time with them. Texas on the other hand is beating #10 Texas Tech 31-10 at half, which is a lot more impressive considering Texas Tech is 6-0 right now.