Northstar

I think the evolution is fine for the segment, don't think it hurt the Altima. If it's not broken, you don't have to fix it (much).

That's a good lot of car for that monthly payment. The gas savings alone should offset a lot of it.

Yeah, she calculated that she got about 18mpg on her last tank in the Alero, and that is mostly highway driving, too. Pretty bad. The Cruze should get about double that, considering we were getting 42mpg with 4 people in the car, and before break-in. If gas stays at about $3.80, she will be saving over $1300 per year on gas if she gets double the mileage of the Alero in the Cruze, and I don't see why she shouldn't be able to get close to double that. That's more than $100 per month in savings. So the car should cost her no more than $150 a month, unless gas drops drastically, when factoring in the savings she will see from using half as much gas. That, and if she kept the Alero I wouldn't be surprised if it had another $500-1000 in repairs in the next year.

She took the car home last night. Dealer closed at 7 but the salesman, manager, and financial person who did all the paperwork on the sale and loan stayed until 9 to get the deal done. We essentially got the car for invoice minus $3775 in GM card credits, minus $500 GM card bonus on Cruze, minus $500 auto show bonus cash, minus $2000 trade (for a vehicle that has had a ton of problems and has 105k miles on it, 2001 Alero). So basically she got the car for $6775 less than invoice after trade, bonus cash, and GM card + bonus. My parents also decided to give her $500 for the vehicle as additional down payment, so she's only going to be paying $240 a month for 60 months for a vehicle with sticker price of $21605.

Well, she may end up taking the car home today. We haven't finalized anything, but she decided she likes black granite the best for color, and the dealer got a call from another dealer wanting one of their vehicles. Amazingly this dealer had a black ECO with everything on it that she wanted, and with us in mind the local dealer traded for that vehicle.

So we will see what happens, but she will most likely be purchasing the ECO either today or Saturday. Hopefully I will be able to take some pictures of it.

I wish the front end wasn't so much of an evolution of the current vehicle, but I guess it has worked well.

It looks plenty stylish for the class, and the interior is what sells vehicles in this class, so that will be the key.

So I took a trip to visit a couple of my friends who live 85 miles from where I am. Ended up taking the Civic, which my brother drives, because I don't trust the '95 LSS on the highway for that long, and I figured I'd save quite a bit of gas... On the way there I went 80-85 most of the time with a group of cars. The tank wasn't full to begin with and the Civic does not have a mileage calculator onboard, so I have no idea what mileage I got on the way there.

However, on the way back I filled up about a mile from the interstate, set the cruise to 61mph (I decided I should cruise at 2000rpm, don't know why I thought that was a good number to pick, just did). I was by myself, but had 3 sets of golf clubs in the trunk (I don't know why he left them in there, but he did), so it was probably the equivalent of 2 people in the car, with no luggage. After the 85.5 mile trip back, I pulled into another gas station to fill up again and see what type of mileage I got. I was hoping for 40, since the car is rated for 36. I only needed 1.849 gallons to refill the tank, resulting in 46.2mpg. I was quite surprised and very impressed. Would be interesting to see what I would have got at 55mph.

After telling my sister about this and explaining that I was confident the Cruze Eco could do similar, she decided she'd go look at one. The Alero only gets about 20mpg (don't know how, guess it's not running too well or something) from what she calculated on her last tank, despite driving the majority of her miles at 55-60mph to work, 250 miles each week. If she could double that she'd save $80-100 on gas.

Anyways, she liked it quite well and my parents are going to add her to their GM card so she is able to use their GM card points if she goes ahead with the purchase. I'm guessing she will pull the trigger this week. She didn't want white so they're going to locate her some other colors with the options she wants (Driver's convenience package, connectivity and cruise package, automatic transmission). MSRP was $21,130, but they had a price of $20,500 on it, plus an additional $500 off because of an auto show in a city that's nearby. We have $3700 in GM card credits, and a $500 bonus for that as well, which she may or may not be able to used because it may only be eligible to anyone who lives at the address the bonus coupon was mailed to and she does not live with my parents. Plus she can trade in the Alero.

Anyways, she's looking at something in the $250-280 out the door (60 months), which considering she will save $80-100 a month in gas cost is somewhere around $150-200 extra cost for the vehicle. Considering the Alero is falling apart and has had a lot of problems in the last 18 months, I think she will end up pulling the bullet this week, as the auto show cash expires a week from today.

When in the Cruze with my sister and parents, we got 42.2mpg over about a 5 mile stretch going 60mph. With break-in and with only 1 person in the car most of the time, I hope she will be seeing 45+ mpg.

Very nice, congrats!

Very nice. To go along with your planned black/green look... what about tinted windows, tinted side markers, tinted taillights?

Happy birthday, ocean blue!

Saab better hope that the 2.8L's don't start blowing up like they did in the SRX. My dad's friend bought one and it blew up within 3 days of driving it, after like 300 miles.

Happy birthday, have a good one!

Thanks for all the bday wishes guys!

Was the Civic taken to the same dealer that sold it? If so, those items they're charging you for should have been replaced before you bought it. I've never heard of a new car dealer not sending their used cars through the shop to make sure everything's cool before putting them out for sale.

And yes, that service package price is outrageous for a car with only 27k miles on it. Cobalt, Focus or Caliber don't require that much maintenance that early, do they?

I'm going to check my maintenance schedule book for the Fiesta.

No, we bought it from a Mazda dealer in Chicago (2 hours north) because the price was so good ($4-5k under book value). They did put new tires on it before putting it on the lot, but the filters were not changed.

It's an '09 Civic with 27k miles.

The $19.95 was an "early bird special" only available if you take the car before 9AM.

Picked up my filters this morning and installed them in the parking lot in no more than 3 minutes, then drove over to a local tire and lube shop, where the car is now. Drove the GTO home after my dad picked me up on the way to work and am currently waiting for them to call me whenever they finish it.

All in all, going to save $210. The tire and lube place also does an "inspection" in addition to the oil, oil filter, and tire rotation for the $19.95, which is basically what the Honda B 1, 2 servicing consists of, besides changing the air filters.

Also, for anyone who buys an interior air filter, you might need to cut off the end of the plastic or whatever the material is on each side of the paper. It fit in the Civic, but if I had scissors I wouldn't have had to jam it in there. Going to take it out and trim it when I get it back so that it fits better. Funny when I took the old one out there was a dead fly in it.

Let's first say that this is the first non-GM product my family has owned, and the GM dealership where we always take our vehicles gives us very fair prices.

Anyways, my brother's Civic had it's first service warning light and code come on this week (I guess all Hondas do this). The code was B12, meaning the car thinks it's time for an oil change, air filter change, cabin air filter change, and tire rotation (plus inspection of whatever). My dad called the Honda dealership to see what the code meant, and then scheduled an appointment. They told him it would be $260 to do everything the car "needed."

Now we've only put 3k miles on the car since buying it, and the tires were new when we got it (I could tell because they still had the speed rating dots on them), so rotating the tires seemed unnecessary. That was the first red flag. Second (or first?) red flag was that they said it would be $260! As a result, I did some research. Turns out you can buy Purolator filters from Advance Auto Parts for $26.84 (for both filters, with tax), and it takes literally 2 minutes to change each filter. I took both filters out and inspected them to make sure they actually needed to be changed. They were quite dirty, but it takes no longer than 5 minutes combined to change both, and it probably costs the dealership $20 for these filters, if not less.

So in a few hours I'm going to pick up my order from Advance and install them in their parking lot probably, then take the car to the Honda dealership for an oil change only, and save $200, assuming they don't charge some absurd amount for just an oil change. I plan to check beforehand and will take it to somewhere else if it is a ridiculous amount. I can take it to a local tire and lube place and get a rotation and oil change for $19.95.

I think it looks pretty damn nice. It definitely has a bit of Asian styling in it, but it still looks like a Chevy for the most part.

Now if only it'd get to NA before 2013/2014.

and here I thought OOD would pick up a police Caprice........

He already has a G8 GXP, probably doesn't need another 4dr.

I thought he has a Grand Prix GXP?

Hope those Michelins work out for you. I was going to suggest that you could play around with the width and sidewall ratio on the M/S 2's and see if you could get it to where your speedometer wouldn't be off by much, but too late now I guess.

Those energy savers got surprisingly good reviews for wet and snow traction, and some of the tirerack user reviews said they saw 2-3mpg increase. Personally I'd probably go for those. I'm guessing the F1 A/S are overkill just based on their name. The Michelins are also the cheapest.

What did you end up with on the Envoy?

Isn't it supposed to be on SWB EPII? Which would make the wheelbase shorter than the current vehicle?

Perhaps I'm wrong there, but the rear overhang seems really long, the rest is fine.

I think this car needs to be a Buick, but perhaps that change will take place when a real S-Class fighter is made in the future.

I think the proportions look promising. Hopefully the exterior looks advanced to match the interior.

That's almost $12 per mile, not counting gas!

What about these on the G6: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Michelin&tireModel=Energy+Saver+A%2FS

Pretty cheap compared to the other prices you were quoted, and rated 3rd in class. Also many of the reviews claimed a nice increase in MPG.