Northstar

At the car dealership I used to detail cars at, we would just wash the engine bay like any other part of the exterior. We would power wash it and then take a wash mitt (probably good to dedicate one to the engine bay so that you don't get all that dirt and grime scratching up your paint) with car wash mix and wipe it all down, then power wash it off.

It was 3.62 yesterday, 3.99 today. WTF?

If nothing else, the DOHC V8 developed for the C7 would be a good engine for Cadillac to use in their vehicles as well (ATS-V?) Of course this assumes that it's even true. There are always so many wild rumors when a new Corvette is about to debut.

Wow, that would be really cool.

Olds LSS - black Chevy Cruze Eco - Black Trailblazer EXT - White GTO - Silver Civic - Grey

i had a guy come in last night to check wasookis who had JUST checked out a 2012 Civic. If his reaction is the same as a lot of shoppers, there will be a lot of unimpressed Civic intenders looking at other cars............Cruze may get hit by the Focus, I don't think the Civic is gonna blow the doors open. Mainly the bad impression on the Civic was the price. Stratospheric....and otherwise the new Civic was underwhelming by that account........to some degree the Focus is the same way as far as price but the Focus has lots of kit that the civic does not. I am blown away by the still strong lambda sales. lucerne is up? lol. overall very impressed by GM's numbers. good job GM. 25k units / month = 300k a year! How is the Civic pricey? It's $24.2k with everything (including NAV). The LX (which is what most people will get) is $19.4k with automatic transmission. A Cruze 1LT with cruise control (which is standard on the Civic) is $19.7k. I think not updating the car's looks, inside or out, will hurt the Civic more than anything. The pricing structure seems about as largely unchanged as the car...

Wow, 25k Cruzes. Impressive. I wonder if the Malibu is up because the ridiculous incentives (it's basically priced the same as Cruze after incentives) or because of fleet sales.

Check this out, I'm pretty sure I found the complex based on the reports about the complex being about a mile and a half from the PMA (Pakistani Military Academy) complex and being much larger than any of the surrounding buildings, plus being right next to the hills. Go to google maps, copy and paste this for location: 34.169815,73.264187 2.5km from the PMA, that's just ridiculous. Pakistani officials had to know he was hiding there. And based on the video of the burning helicopter/complex, it sure looks like the same building to me (white, walls around the perimeter, even the little porch overhang sticking out but not extending all the way to the wall).

Should be interesting to see the NG ZR1 and Viper battle it out, as it appears the Viper will have a large HP advantage on the Z06.

Is a new Tacoma coming anytime soon? If GM can hit the Colorado out of the park they will have a big advantage on all other makers in the segment, and considering the price of rising gas prices, that is very good.

The Sonic is nothing special from what I remember at the Chicago show, but I doubt the Accent is any better inside. Cruze/Elantra would be much better buys, IMO.

Something to compete with the SLK and Z4 is what I would like to see most. A 3er competitor would be nice too, but the Z4/SLK would allow Cadillac to move a bit more upmarket, IMO.

I'd rather see this as a Chevy than a Buick. It's a car for 20-30 something buyers. That simply doesn't fit Buick's image. The Verano isn't so sporting in appearance.

Wow, that's pretty impressive.

Well of course a supplier makes the seats and sends them to GM. That doesn't mean GM doesn't design the seats and then the supplier makes them. There's a difference between GM designing the seats and sending them out for bid and simply buying a current design from a seat maker (which I'm pretty sure is what they did with the CTS-V and Recaro).

I really don't think it's necessary to outsource seats for the Corvette, to Recaro or anyone else. It makes sense for GM not to design a brand new seat specifically for the CTS-V. The CTS-V uses the normal CTS seats and the Recaros are optional. The normal CTS seats are designed with a much broader array of buyers in mind, sort of a happy middle ground between performance and luxury. But then for the more hardcore enthusiasts, who are going to opt for the CTS-V, the option of Recaros is made available. I don't know the take rate on the Recaros, but it probably doesn't make sense for GM to develop an all new seat themselves for just the CTS-V. The Corvette, on the other hand, should have performance-oreinted seats (a la Recaros) standard in all of its trims. Might as well design one good seat for the Corvette rather than buy seats for every Corvette made from Recaro or a similar company. It's not like the Recaros in the CTS-V are a free option, they cost $2400. No need to add that to the base price of all Corvettes.

I don't see how you can make this argument... maybe if you could replace "Edge" with "Viper" then you could... The Corvette is a niche product that is basically in a class of it's own aside from the 911, but even still is much less expensive in terms of performance per $$. And the Edge? It debuted way back as a 2006 model year vehicle, in one of the most competitive market segments. Of course it's going to get a new interior in it's 6th model year. It simply makes no sense for the Corvette to get an all new interior for a year or two when there's a brand new one coming out relatively soon.

I already do have a Roth IRA with $11k or so in it, definitely plan on investing the $5k/year in it when I have the money to do so... If I have $2200 after housing costs, invest $400 a month ($5k/year), spend $300 a month on groceries, $500 on entertainment (including eating out, seems like a very high estimate), $200 a month on clothes (is that really necessary?), that leaves $500 for savings and car + insurance. I ought to be able to spend $300 of that on the car + insurance and save $200. And really I could find a place for much less than $800 a month if I wanted to, which I will probably decide is a much better idea. Here's a question: If I get a job and go 3 months before buying a car to see what I'm spending, and have $750 a month leftover in addition to the $400 a month for the IRA, am I doing anything wrong by spending $500 a month on a car?

I'm really not sure what the LSS costs. It hasn't needed a repair in quite a while, it's just in really poor shape and not something I'd want to drive outside of the area if I had to go somewhere. It's also not something I'd want to drive people around in... it's been in several accidents and has simply gotten beat up from being on campus... my sister backed into something so it has a big dent in the trunk, scratches all over the place (it is a black car so they show easily), someone ripped off one of my outside rearview mirrors, there's other damage from a couple accidents that wasn't repaired 100% so to not total the car, interior is really falling apart, etc. All I really do is put gas in it, but I don't drive anywhere except from my campus apartment to home (which is very close, 10 minute drive). This is a tough question as well. I really don't know how much I spend. I don't spend a ton of money on food. I normally come to my parents house and eat something there at no cost to me. I do not have any debt at all. I definitely will be looking into used cars rather than new cars. One reason to look into new cars, however, is that my parents have like $3500 in GM card credits. My sister just used $3700 + $500 bonus on the Cruze, but they have two cards (now one) both with basically the same amount. I am sort of thinking I would take out a 60 month loan at something I know I can easily afford, and then after making the payment for 2 or 3 months, see how much I am able to save versus how much I need to save, and start paying off the car more quickly.

So I've taken a few months off to just relax after graduating in December, but it's time to start looking for a real job (I work at a campus bar right now). With that, comes the exciting prospect of shopping for a car. The '95 Olds LSS has served me well, but it's in bad shape after spending the last 8 years on campus (sister and then me) and it's not something I'd want to trust to get me to and from work all of the time. The average salary for my major from the school I went to last year was $61k, but I'm guessing most of that was in Chicago. The two jobs I am going to send my resume to are both in my hometown and $61k in Chicago translates to $50k here, so I think that's about what I can except, $50-55k. Going with $50k leaves me with $37.5k after taxes ($3125 take home per month). I haven't started looking for my own place yet, but I think $850/month would be at the top of the range for around here (for a 1 bedroom), and I could easily find something cheaper, especially if I were to find some roommates. So let's say after housing costs I have $2200/month. Obviously need to save some of that, food, entertainment, gas costs, shopping costs, etc. What I can realistically afford per month for a car?

When I worked at the dealership detailing vehicles, when new vehicles came in the first thing you did was tag the keys and put the stock number in the window. You put the extra set of keys in the case for the owner's manual and along with the owner's manual you gave them to the secretary to put wherever they went.

Yuck, that bumper and lower grill is horrendous. It will obviously be incredibly fast, but I wish it was more go, less show. Something that would make a Cayenne driver say, "wait, is this the Jeep I'm not supposed to race?" at a stoplight, instead of, "oh crap, that's the Jeep that's faster than my Porsche."

They only released 3 pictures? Pretty lame.

I think it looks great, and that C-pillar has really grown on me... reminds me of the Audi A5.

I don't think I care too much for the greenhouse, based on the picture of the blue one. Still need to see more pictures, however.