Northstar

I hope we hear about it soon.

We'll see it at one auto show or another this season. Perhaps Chicago again. Production starts in ~9 months.

Quite impressive. Is that 911 Turbo right above it the current model? It likely would have beat the S4 if it wasn't raining.

As for G8 production... Make up your mind... is PCS a reliable source or not. :AH-HA_wink:

Well, I don't think he'd actually want to confirm that, so it has to be true.

Fleeting...Extensively.

Just like the PT it rips off.

As I've said before, the illusion of GM's sales turnaround was exclusively a Fleet issue. Note the numbers have been poor in each month that GM mentions Fleet sale reductions and magically improves when the Fleeting issue is absent from the press release.

Coincidence that the 'good months' coincided with the release of horrible GM write-offs of $37B?

It's time for Rick and Fritz to jump out the windows with their Golden Parachutes! Fresh ideas are needed at the top to stop the bleeding while they still have a company to save.

Did you even read the press release before your came to your conclusions? "Chevrolet HHR retail sales were up 60 percent."

Come on now...

Let's just look at some of the information recently announced:

* Kappa moves to Bowling Green in 2011 (the plant will have 4+ products instead of 2 like at Wilmington)

I don't think that is true... do you have a link? The union contract says the Kappas stay in Wilmington until 2012. I also have another source of info that, while not as recent, says the NG Kappas are to be built at Wilmington.

* No confirmation that G8 manufacturing will be moved to the US

Not according to CD, and PCS confirmed it later in the thread.

The G8 will be built in NA in the not too distant future.

(From HERE)

* Alpha will be going to Chevrolet, not Pontiac...

I emailed Lutz about it, here is what he said (hopefully he does not care, he didn't care another time someone posted something he emailed them):

"Totally untrue. Don't believe everything you read on the internet! Valuable advice! Even in politics...or esecially!"

Everyone needs to keep in mind that this is from MT. I think that's a HUGE factor. I do think that it is quite possible Chevy is getting one, but for markets other than the US. The Pontiac could very well be done like the G8 -- the Chevy will a different front end and perhaps rear fascia.

* Buick to have more models added (stated by Lutz)

I can see this being interpreted two ways, but I would definitely still be surprised if Buick didn't get more than 3 models. What I was saying about interpreted two ways is this: The NG Lucerne wasn't too far along, and perhaps the Enclave's success made it a definite go when it was possibly on the "It's time to either kill or green light this project." "Adding models" could mean deciding to give one the go rather than the ax. It's also possible they'll bring the Delta Buick here, though I haven't seen anything solid about that. Perhaps a Zeta coupe could also get the go and/or a Statesman model above the NG Lucerne. Perhaps a TE too. Again, we haven't had anything solid on anything of those, but I wouldn't be surprised if 2 of them (or perhaps more) were approved.

* GMC gets TE SUV

Torrent should have never been a Pontiac, this is a good move. Pontiac is getting the UTE and wagon G8 for cargo-moving capabilities instead.

* Pontiac getting Vibe from NUMMI

What is wrong with this? The Vibe has always come from NUMMI.

* Union Contract negotiations... any Pontiac product included in the commitment? No. What we got:

Pontiac G6 continues through 2013.

The Solstice also has "continues until 2012." The Alpha vehicle is also on there, though I happen to think that is the BTS or whatever it is called. It corresponds with the end of production for the current BTS more or less. It does say 2 styles, however. This could mean a sedan and coupe or wagon, etc., or it could mean 2 different brands. Note that the document says LGR gets two Zeta styles, and I'm 99% sure those are the DTS/STS replacement and the NG Lucerne.

----------------------

Again, for everyone to see, here is Lutz's quote about the MT article:

"Totally untrue. Don't believe everything you read on the internet! Valuable advice! Even in politics...or esecially!"

Take it for what it's worth. Also please realize where the info is coming from in the first place, Motor Trash.

AAS - your car probably has a limiter at 158 if it's the same as the GTO, I'm sure it is capable of more. 180 seems rather high for the Cobalt considering the LS2 Vette's top speed was 186.

There has been a lot of discussion recently about rising gas prices and how it will affect sales of vehicles that don't get great gas mileage.

Here are my thoughts on the issue:

1) We haven't seen a huge decrease in sales of big SUVS that get terrible mileage. Why is this? It has been proven, more or less, that owners of big, gas-guzzling SUVs have the income to support the cost of gas.

2) Most cars that get poor gas mileage are more expensive than cars that get good gas mileage. What does this have to do with anything? People who can afford more expensive cars can, in most cases, afford to pay more for gas, just as owners of the big SUVs can afford to pay more for gas.

3) There are going to be a number of people who simply aren't going to care if they have to pay more for gas. This is evidenced on this board. Some people simply don't care if they have to make a sacrifice somewhere else.

4) Many of the vehicles that get poor gas mileage, other than big SUVs, offer versions that get decent gas mileage. The volume of the model as a whole is propped up as a result of the cheaper, more fuel efficient models.

My theory is based upon some assumptions, as any theory is; I assume that:

1) People spending $40k on a car make more money than people spending $25k on a car most of the time.

2) The percentage of one's annual income vs. the amount they spend on a vehicle is within ~10% in most cases. For clarification, if the average person who makes $120k a year spends $40k on a vehicle, then the average person who makes $75k a year spends $25k on a vehicle (the price of the vehicle is 1/3 of each person's annual income).

Let's say someone buys a Malibu 2LT V6 for $25k and another person buys a Charger SRT9 for $40k, and yet another person buys a Cobalt for $18k. If each person drives 8k miles in town each year and 4k miles on the highway, and gas at $3.20 per gallon, here are the mileage calculations: The Malibu would require $1998 for gas, and the Charger would require $2680. That's a difference of less than $700 a year, or less than $60/month. The Cobalt would require $1576 per year for gas.

Now, assume both cars are financed for 60 months at 5% interest (not including sales tax, however): Malibu would cost $437.50 per month, the Charger would cost $700 per month, and the Cobalt would cost $315 per month.

If we assume that the Charger owner makes $120k/year, then they make $10k/month. $700 is 7% of $10k. Gas costs $233 a month for the Charger, or 2.23% of $10k. In total, the Charger owner would spend 9.23% of their income on their vehicle.

If we assume that the Malibu owner makes $75k/year, then they make $6250/month. $437.50 is 7% of $6250. Gas costs $166.5 per month for the Malibu, or 2.66% of $6250. In total, the Malibu owner would spend 9.66% of their income on their vehicle.

If we assume that the Cobalt owner makes $54k/year, then they make $4500/month. $315 is 7% of $4500. Gas costs $131.33 per month for the Cobalt, or 2.92% of $4500. In total, the Cobalt owner would spend 9.92% of their income on their vehicle.

If gas were to go up to $3.50 per gallon, the Charger owner would spend $255 on gas, or 2.55% of $10k , the Malibu owner would spend $182 per month on gas, or 2.91% of $6250, and the Cobalt owner would spend $143.5 per month on gas, or 3.19% of $4500. As you can see, the percentage increase for the cost of gas is greater for the owners who make less money.

As evidenced by the numbers above, an increase in gas cost affects owners of less expensive vehicles more. Now, those numbers are purely hypothetical and based on some assumptions, but I think the assumptions are pretty accurate (as I said, within 10%). I don't see someone who makes $54k a year buying a Charger for $40k, and I don't really see someone making $120k a year spending only $18k on a Cobalt. This isn't going to be the case all of them, and I could see someone making $120k/year on a Malibu, but I don't think they would chose the Malibu because they can't afford the extra $60/month on gas.

Perhaps I am wrong, and we shall see, but I think the fact that the vehicles that get worse gas mileage are, more often then not, more expensive vehicles and bought by more wealthy people is too often overlooked. Big SUVs are prime examples of this. The prototypical Tahoe driver makes a good sum of money each year, and I think it's obvious they can afford to pay for the gas since big SUV sales haven't fallen off that much.

Now, the case can certainly be made that the buyer of the Charger would still not buy the Charger and buy something else for $40k that gets better mileage, like the CTS for example. That will remain to be seen, and it could very well happen.

Discuss.

My TIC-TOC was in respone to this statement below, meaning any car with this combination of factors is doomed to extinction, hence the TIC-TOC. So if you have crude at a high price + gas guzzler taxes + V8 it will equal extinction of that vehicle.

Oh and yes I know the Challenger and the G8 are different, however you seem to always think when I talk about V8's and RWD, I'm talking about the Holden G8, oops I mean Pontiac, thats why I was letting you know I don't have to bad mouth the car, it will fall all on it's own by the exchange rates alone, if GM doesn't do something and soon.

Why have the Charger and 300 not failed then? They both sell thousands and thousands of V8 units each month. Fact is, there are plenty of people who can afford to pay a one-time gas guzzler fee AND afford to pay high gas prices. Tahoe sales are doing quite well, and it gets worse mileage then the Challenger and costs more. Why? Because there are people who can afford to pay for it. Yeah, they don't want to, but they can. Guess what? The people who are buying $15k Cobalts so that they can get better MPG or a $24k Malibu so that they can get better MPG don't want to pay for it either, and I don't think it takes an accountant to realize that the people would can afford to pay $40k for a Challenger can also afford to pay more for gas.

Yes Chris, we are in agreement on that, no matter what Holden says! :AH-HA_wink

Sounds like the TIC TOCK clock on the G8 has stopped ticking.

wait doesnt the vette escape the gas guzzler tax?

Yes, the Vette gets good enough gas mileage to escape it. The Challenger's weight really hurts it in MPG.

Did I say every RWD? The exchange rates will either kill the G8 or GM will be forced to move the G8 to North America, sooner, rather than later. The crude oil price is just icing on the cake. And yes TICK-TICK, it's coming! :AH-HA_wink:

So then what does your original tick-tock post have anything to do with the Challenger if that's all you're implying? The G8 and Challenger are totally different vehicles and the Challenger having gas-guzzler tax has nothing to do with the G8 and exchange rates.

TICK-TOCK! :AH-HA_wink:

Because every RWD car that has optional V8 power is going to have gas guzzler tax. Yep, really Tick-tock here. Those V6 and I4 Pontiacs are surely going to have gas guzzler tax since this 4000lb 425HP V8 Challenger does. Yep, the two go hand in hand

Perhaps it could refer to the number of doors. CT5 would be a wagon, but what would CT6 be? CT2 would be a coupe...

Those names are dumb, but if the product is good it won't matter.

I'm still not sure the new CTS is for me...the G8 might be a better fit when it comes time to replace my 330.

Word of caution: I think Cadillac uses the same Summer Tires with FE3 that my BMW has, replacing 1 rear Michelin Pilot Sport tire cost me $350+!

$350?!?! The CTS I believe has 235/40/18, which are ~$250 at tirerack.com

Personally I'd say you might as well go with the Pirelli PZeros for that price. They are even more expensive ($285 for the CTS's size) but there's a reason the Gallardo, F430, R8, and countless other exotics are using them.

Not a bad price. I think it would have been better to keep it under $35k, even if that meant taking away some standard features. The GTO was $33k and it had similar performance.

Panasonics are very good digital cameras. My mom has a Panasonic Lumix DMC FX-07 and it takes better pictures than my sisters Canon (both 7MP cameras), IMO.

When I went I stayed in Hotel Ponchatrain and it was literally right across the street from Cobo. It was maybe a 90 second walk. Very convenient.

Most importantly of all, will it fit in a '90 CRX?

Why does it have such big rear tires? CRXs are FWD... wouldn't the front tires need to be the big ones so it could get good traction... those rear ones would just add unneeded weight.

I think the most important question is.... will it fit in a CTS?

Of course it will fit in the CTS. A non-hand-built and less powerful version is going into the CTS-V.

Grand Prix is a G and then 8 letters.

I'm not sure if the Fairfax Assembly has the capacity to produce 360k cars a year (and it also produces the Aura, though that's only selling at about 60k/year). They are planning on producing some at Orion too though, so that should help. I would hope between the two plants they would be able to do 30k Malibus/month. The Aura isn't taking much capacity up at Fairfax and GM would much rather sell Malibus near sticker than G6s for thousands off, I'm sure.

Camry has been #1 selling car 7 years in a row, 2007 will be #8. They didn't pull that off with a month of 3,000. I haven't looked at sales of each month, but they have topped 400,000 a year for 7 years, that is over 30,000 a month. They sold 50,000 in a month one time, getting vehicles to dealerships was never a problem for them. It shouldn't be a problem for Chevy either.

What do you call the Camry's launch month, September 06 for the current model, or back around 1980.

The difference is that (correct me if I'm wrong):

1) The Camry is sold at multiple production plants. The Malibu is sold at 1. GM doesn't have a problem keeping Silverado sales up when it switches to the new model.

2) When a new Camry comes out, there is probably at least a month supply of the old one on the lots. Therefore, it may seem that the new Camry sells 30k the month it comes out, but it's possible over 20k of that is from the old model. The Malibu will probably sell over 10k in November, but only 3k of that is the new one... see the similarities?

I doubt that. The LS7 is hand built and blue printed. I'm pretty sure this has basically the same bottom end (a little modified for compression and such though) as the LS3 and probably won't be hand built. Parts sharing cuts cost, so does building it on an assembly line. I don't see this one costing any more, if not much more, than the LS7.

The LS9 is going to be hand built...

found a nice pic of the blower:

after seeing this i would definatley ditch the plastic cover if this is what would be shining underneath!

Agreed, the black plastic is unnecessary, and I'm sure it will be the first mod for many ZR1s.

The dealership should notice the noise before the ever place the car for sale. I forget what the process is called where the technician goes out and test drives the car and makes sure everything works properly, but my dealership's first CTS had this problem and only went on sale after it was fixed.

1080P is not at all necessary under 32", most companies don't even offer it because you can't tell the difference.

There are 30" 1080i Samsungs at Best Buy for $550. That's about the best deal I could find, though I didn't look anywhere else. If you really want 720p your best bet is probably to wait until close to Christmas because there are bound to be big deals a few days before, though the best deals seem to be on the bigger models, where there is more price to play with.