Northstar

Voting is now closed. I'll get the results up as soon as I have enough energy... this week has been hell.

Reminds me of a miniture Infiniti M in the front (thought much less sleek) and the new IS in the rear. The interior is pretty nice for a car in this class, especially from Nissan.

Wow, the coupe is going to go 255MPH? I wonder how stable that will be... It got 0-60 in 2.25s... the Veyron does 0-60 in 2.5s. A few years back a old Lingenfelter Z06 got 0-60 in 1.98s, so I think that's still the fastest. I don't recall the 1/4 mile time on it, but I'm sure Lingenfelter will do something sweet with the C6 Z06.

Actually, I think the hybrid buses do save as much if not more than the Priuses. The buses save some huge amount, while the Prius is about 45 MPG whereas a Civic would be 35 MPG anyways. You wouldn't save a significant amount of gas because you're already getting pretty good mileage if you would have bought a Civic rather than a Prius. Buses on the other hand get such shitty mileage to begin with, that even a 5 MPG increase probably saves a gallon ever 5 miles... mulitply that times probably at least 200 miles a day the bus drives, and you save 50 gallons of gas PER DAY PER BUS (of course I'm just guessing what the bus gets, but it's probably a significant MPG % increase whereas the Prius is not). I don't remember exactly, but I think GM said if the 14 largest bus systems or cities converted to the hybrid buses it would save like 200 million gallons of gas.

I think the RL is a good vehicle, it just happens to be way too bland for it's class. The other cars in its class are much more striking and have a better road presence then does the RL. Maybe this isn't the case where some people live (there aren't a whole lot of imports around here, probably 30% or less) but when I see a GS or M35/45, it's much more striking than when I see an RL (which is hardly at all), and the STS, 5er, A6 are all more striking, while the less striking E-Class and S-Type are still much more stately than the RL. The TL on the other hand looks as striking as most anything in its class, and it racks up the sales.

It's unfortunate that the 9-6X got cancelled, but I guess that's one more reason to sell/kill Saab now. IMO, in times like these, GM doesn't need brands like Saab that just add to the red ink. By the end of the decade, GM could very well consist of: Chevy Cadillac Saturn GMC is redundant, Buick's sales are dwindling and their RWD cars got "delayed" until at least 2010, Pontiac has the Solstice, GTO, and what else that's not redundant (and the Sky makes the Solstice redundant), Saab bleeds red ink, Hummer probably makes money so it might stand a chance, and GM seems committed to Saturn (which is why it made the list of three brands that would survive). I don't mean to get off topic, but this seems to be the current state of affairs.

Saw an M45 and a GS430 today... rarely do I see either.

We'll you can get a STS4 V8 almost up to $67k (you may be able too, but you can get damn close if you can't) which is what the V-Series price would be, minus $10k.

I think we need to get back on topic here guys. The GM Performance Division (as has been said several times) is not Pontiac, it's the special vehicles group. If you want to argue about Pontiac this or Pontiac that, then start a thread to do so.

Yeah, somewhat like the DTS, the STS has the same thing but to a lesser extent (the headlights aren't "pushed" as far back).

Did anyone else notice the wood all around the steering wheel? I didn't notice that when I first looked at the pics (and I didn't read all the replies). I like it better as I see it more, and I do think it will look better in person. For whatever reason, vehicles with the headlights set somewhat far back from the grill (like the grill is pushed forward, sort of like a nose) seem to photograph oddly but look fine in person. I really hope the Escalade has a floor shifter, and I think it will since the interior is totally different (or at least it's supposed to be). I just think in a luxury vehicle you should have a floor shifter.

I don't think it really matters. They're only going to make 300-400 XLR-Vs anyways (10% of total production is the V Series) so they'll find that many buyers at $100k I'm guessing. I'm sure lots of regular XLR owners are looking to move up anyways. As for the STS-V, I would have liked $72.5k, but again I don't think it really matters. The interior is upgraded with the 100% leather center console (from the same supplier that Maybach gets their leather), and I think the top of the dash is leather too, so the interior gripes the regular one gets should be non-existant.

I think I like the Tahoe better, but this might look better in person. All in all, it looks like they took the current Escalade and softened up the lines.

Umm, I'm not so sure about it... It looks like the current Escalade but with a lot softer lines. I'm hoping the interior looks a bit different from the Tahoe, though I doubt it will.

That's definetly a chop based on the Opel Insignia concept of a couple years ago. It could be accurate, but I'm not so sure it is. Notice the similarity in the rear to the next ION, just like AH-HA said a while ago. I can't find the exact base pic they used, but this is pretty close:

I think he means why does it have it's own thread for sales, because Cadillac wouldn't have it's own thread for sales seperate from GM's sales. Anyways, it's seperate because the press releases were probably seperate, so Josh posted them that way. This quote made me laugh: "The RL luxury sedan also set a new September record with sales of 1,552, shattering the previous record of 1,385 units set in 1997. Year-to-date RL sales reached 13,446 units, up 282 percent compared to last year. So an increase of less than 200 units shatters a record? And it's pretty funny it's up close to 300 percent and it's only at 13k units after 9 months. :lol:

That's pretty good, I was actually thinking about doing a coupe, but I really haven't decided yet to be honest. This week is shaping up to be very busy once again and I'm not sure if I'll have time to make a chop.

It's probably months old, as the info they get is published very late. That's why they had a conflicting report about Zeta right when we knew it was cancelled/back on (can't remember which, I think it was cancelled). For the most part, I think they're just delayed with the Velite convertible being cancelled, but the sedan is still on I believe -- just delayed.

I forgot to add something that is related to what mrfunji said; with Reuss being an advocate of the Camaro and having openly talked about trying to get the Camaro done, I'd say him having more control over product development is a good sign for Camaro fans.

I thought everyone was mad because they thought that there wouldn't be as many cars like the CTS-V, Z06, TB SS, etc. But yes, as turbo and CSpec said, it's just the GMPD, not Pontiac.

I don't think this is really that bad. I'm pretty sure GM isn't about to back down in this power war, so I wouldn't worry about it.

You could totally change it, like change it into an SUV or something. It's not supposed to be the easiest thing you've ever done.

By Jamie LaReau Automotive News / October 03, 2005 DETROIT -- General Motors is shuffling top management in its performance division as it pushes to reorganize product development on a global scale. Mark Reuss, 42, handed over the reigns of the performance division to 25-year GM veteran Bob Kruse, 49, effective Oct. 1. Kruse retains his position as executive director of GM North America vehicle integration. Reuss replaces Matt Tsien, 45, as executive director of GM North America vehicle systems and a 25-year GM veteran. Tsien is now executive director for global central engineering. Reuss, who has worked for GM since 1983, had been executive director of GM's performance division since 2002. "Mark has a completely new job," says GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson. "His responsibilities now concern the development of the vehicle systems such as body chassis, interiors, electronic controls and software." Wilkinson says GM made the changes to position the three in areas of "critical development" as GM works toward global product development.

You can't sell cars in IL on Sunday either.

Ford sales were worse than GM sales in some cases, even though the losses weren't as huge. Ford just doesn't have a new vehicle like the HHR, H3, Solstice, G6 Coupe (which helped a lot apparantly) until the Fusion is finally ramped up. There's just very little good news is the problem.