Northstar

I'd guess the estimates are wrong since it's supposed to be a pretty improved powertrain. I'll wait until it's official to bother worrying about it. The Aveo has piss-poor fuel economy now and leads the segment in sales, so I don't think fuel economy is the top priority as long as it's no like 19 MPG city.

I don't know if I'd say that necessarily. Ask people 50 and over which brand is the strongest and it's probably Buick. I think the results are the way they are because C&G is predominately young people who don't really have a calling to the types of cars Buick has. I've been thinking about all the whining over Pontiac not getting attention, but now that they've dropped the Aztek and Sunfire the only uncompetitive product is the SV6. The G6 isn't class leading by any means, but it's not garbage (the coupe is actually quite nice, IMO, and the convert will be the cheapest way to get a folding hardtop), the Solstice is already a hit, the GTO is a superb product, the Torrent really isn't bad (it's better than the Equinox which is doing great), and the Grand Prix is just old, so it's a bit uncompetitive now. However, Pontiac doesn't totally fulfill it's mission, IMO, which is what makes it weak to me. The Torrent is actually a relatively good product, it's just that there's nothing remotely sporty about it if it drives like an Equinox. The G6 isn't sporty either, and should at least drive as well as the Mazda6. The Solstice and GTO are right on target, but the Grand Prix needs a move to RWD and the SV6 needs to be cut.

Do you mean Nov. 1st? Oct 1st has come and gone.

Shooting Brake is just an European term for station wagon. It's not really very commonly used, but I think "Shooting Brake" sounds better than "station wagon."

Exactly what I thought.

So then OK City would move to Lambda production because there's no way in hell the Delta Township plant can produce the TB and three other Lambdas. They may even need another plant since Delta Township only has 250k production, and the next minivans are also Lambda. This is definetly a good move by GM, IMO, and is good forward thinking. I've never seen a TB towing anything and I doubt the majority of owners care if it can tow anything a Lambda wouldn't be able to, so probably 95% of current owners would be retained, and it'd have a shot at owners of crossovers like the Pilot, Highlander, and Murano. Also, with the Explorer still being BOF, the TB will have a significant advantage in ride and flexibility (third row seating should be better, fold flat seats would be possible, etc) and many Explorer buyers probably don't know what BOF and unibody even means, so they won't care if the TB is better. Damn good move by GM, IMO, as long as it still has that kickass interior.

I highly doubt they'd be producing low-profit or no profit rental HHRs when they have more orders from dealers than they have capacity to build.

I never heard that the Escalade interior was done by the same company that did the Maybach interior. The only thing like that that I've heard is that the added leather on the center console and dash (and maybe the whole interior?) in the STS-V is from the same company.

GM stock jumped $2.11 (7.5%) today (I assume because of this news). If there are no jumps in volume, GM has to cut 900,000 units of volume capacity if it continues to sell the same amount of vehicles as last year. I would assume GM expects to increase volume, but we'd still be looking at at least 750,000 units of capacity that needs to be cut. Getting rid of GMAC wouldn't be that bad, as GM's low credit rating is making borrowing pretty expensive right now, so GM isn't really making a ton of money off of it anymore.

My dad used to always save enough money up before buying a new car, but he's paying off the TB and Maxx now. I'm hoping to save up a good amount of money on a down payment to cut the monthly payments down significantly when I buy something.

It would have been a good idea and even calling it Monte Carlo would have been OK. I suggested a long time ago making the Monte a Impala coupe just for sales reasons. Right now, I say they might as well keep it as is. The new Monte isn't going to hurt the name anymore, and they can just look at moving it to the RWD platform when it's done if they really think they need a coupe in the segment. If the Impala moves to RWD then they could just make a coupe variant of it then or make a Chevelle or Monte off the same platform.

Are we sure this is real and not a Vince Burlapp photoshop? Maybe they put it through clinics and it didn't do well. I personally don't think it looks too good.

I don't hate Weis as a person, I'm sure he's a nice guy. I just hate him as a football coach because of his coaching style.

6 1

If GM wants to do a lot of V8 models and price it above the Mustang I think they need to call it Chevelle. IMO, a Camaro isn't going to sell as well if it's price in the 30s for the V8 like the GTO... unless they're pricing the V8 the same as the Mustang GT and just saving the V6s for some secretaries and fleet sales.

Welcome to Choppin' Competition 9! 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, October 22th, at 11:59 PM EST. Here is the pic to chop (click thumbnail for larger image):

Welcome to voting for Choppin' Competition 8! If you entered the competition, you MUST vote. Artists should also not vote for themselves. Artists who do not vote or vote for themselves will be assessed a 4 point penalty. You get two votes, 1st place votes receive 2 points and 2nd place votes receive 1 point. Here are the chops: 1 2 3 4 5 6

I think Reggie Bush won the Heismen in this game. He had like 16 carries for 189 yards (I think?) and three TDs. That first TD run was amazing the moves he made as well. On a side note, I hate Charlie Weis... when he was in the NFL the Patriots' games were never actually fun to watch except when there were under two minutes to go, and the game tonight really wasn't that exciting except for the final 3 minutes. His game calling took all the fun out of the game, I would have liked to see him open things up a bit more rather than short run after short run after short run. However, I do give him credit for keeping the game close... if he did open things up ND probably would have gotten walloped. Anyways, I thought SC showed they were by far the better team. Like I said, Weis's game calling took the fun out of the game somewhat and the way he called the game is what kept it close. Sure, it was a close game, but SC had the ball half as much as ND (timewise) and still managed to win.

I'm not sure if GM's totally decided at this point if the Camaro is given the green light what engines will be used. I'm guessing they're debating between the 3.9 and 3.6 for the base model. The 5.3 would probably be the base V8 engine, whatever they call it. I wouldn't worry about the top engine; GM doesn't lose horsepower wars.

I wouldn't worry about it if it's just 8 bucks. Just go to a different dealer next time... that's probably the best thing to do.

I talked to my salesman yesterday, and he said that there are currently more orders from dealers for HHRs then the plant has the ability to produce.

Automotive News / October 14, 2005 http://www.autonews.com/news.cms?newsId=13570 DETROIT --- The United Auto Workers said Friday it might be close to an agreement with General Motors on benefits concessions. UAW spokesman Paul Krell said that the UAW had notified locals by e-mail that an agreement is possible. A source inside GM says it is "very confident" but added that the automaker could impose unilateral benefits cuts this week if talks fail. Krell said GM has not raised the possibility of unilateral cuts in talks. A spokesman for GM declined comment.

Chrysler needs to get a new radio, the current one looks like junk.

Found this while searching the web: I haven't seen it yet, so correct me if it's already debuted or something. It's a Lexus hybrid concept that I assume is debuting at Tokyo. I don't have any info on it other than that though. Isn't the Lexus there supposed to hint at the next LS? If so, this should be pretty accurate I think. I'm not sure I like it because it looks just like a big IS, and I don't think the LS should look like an IS on steroids. I'd rather it looked like a big GS than a big IS. EDIT: here's a little blurb from a press release. Tokyo, October 12, 2005 — Lexus announced today that it plans to display its "Flagship Sedan Concept Car" and two other new concept vehicles; the GS450h, a premium sedan fitted with a newly developed hybrid system, and the LF-A, a premium, two-seater sports car, at the 39th Tokyo Motor Show. The show will be open to the public from October 22 to November 6 at the International Convention Complex (Makuhari Messe) in Makuhari, Chiba.

Next gen Escape anyone?