Northstar

Please do explain what makes the G8 timid compared to the Charger? I am guessing after driving a G8 you wouldn't think it was any too timid. People bitched that they slapped the Charger name on a four-door, not that it wasn't retro.

The GP is not that much cheaper similarly equipped. If you get the Sport package (still with only 16 inch wheels), the Security package (G8 has that stuff standard), and the Premium package (dual zone climate, front bucket seats) you are at $26080, and still probably don't have everything besides bigger wheels plus the G8 interior is much, much better.

(All figures from 2007): Sept: 6416 Aug: 3887 July: 3825 June: Could not find on GM's media site May: 4555 April: 4644 March: 4881 Feb: 3042 Jan: 2843

I think this may fail for the same reason the SRX did: it looks more like a tall wagon than most crossovers.

How do you explain a jump from 3800 units in August (historically one of the best selling months) to 6400 units in September? It's not like the incentives went up from August to September.

So how did the CTS fair in its first month on the market? Spectacular. Certainly, some of the sales were of the '07 model, but a good number of them had to be from the '08. Let's compare it to the competition: CTS 2007 Sept 2007 sales: 6416 BMW 3er sedan Sept 2007 sales: 7251 Infiniti G35 sedan Sept 2007 sales: 3841 Mercedes-Benz C-Class Sept 2007 sales: 6052 Acura TL Sept 2007 Sept 2007 sales: 4324 Lexus IS250/350 Sept 2007 sales: 3757 Audi A4/S4/RS4 sedan Sept 2007 sales: 3437 As you can see, the CTS outsold everything but the vaunted BMW 3er sedan, and only missed beating it by 835 units. I'd say there's no doubt the new CTS is a grand slam!

The new CTS is already selling extremely well. Despite very low supply, it sold 6400 units (more than new C-Class, IS250/350 (by a lot), G35 sedan and coupe COMBINED (and 2600 more than the sedan), 3000 more than the A4/S4, and only 845 less than the 3er sedan! How's that for a first month with limited supply? Almost first in the market! My dealer has only had 2 in so far. One of them lasted 1 day, I'm not sure about the other. Cadillac Sept 2007 vs Sept 2006: Up 4.9% BMW Sept 2007 vs Sept 2006: Up 2.8% MB Sept 2007 vs Sept 2006: Up 13% Lexus Sept 2007 vs Sept 2006: Up 1.6% I'd say Cadillac isn't doing too bad.

Some info I have received seems to indicate this, at least in the Lambdas. Expect the Chevy Lambda to launch without a black tie radio, and expect all '09 MY Lambdas to not have black-ties. I would still expect the '09 Malibu to have it most likely, but the phase out is certainly starting. So, for new '09 MY and up vehicles, expect none to have black tie radios. ---------------- Click here to see what the future holds for GM's post-blacktie era radios. Integration, here we come! -Flybrian

Ugh. The Enclave doesn't need to be rollin' on twenty-fo's.

I see probably one every week or two. I would guess the reason you're seeing more is because there are now probably around 40k on the road vs. 20k on the road not that long ago.

The Charger SXT also appears to have more standard features to me. I would guess GM purposefully priced the V6 high in hopes that more V8s would be built. The Charger is a much more high-volume product, so the V6 needs to have a bigger price advantage over the V8. The G8's target of 30k/year is probably lower than what the Charger R/T sells by itself, so GM could probably sell all V8s if it wanted to.

GM's new products are certainly carrying the company. The Lambda's are lower than what I had hoped for, though. The CTS is going to sell like hotcakes, it appears. The VUE is starting to take off, and the T900s are still rolling right along. The Aura appears to be catching on slowly, as well. 8.5k/month would give them their 100k target, and they were at 6.2k this month.

What is the point of the V6 unless you want to get better gas mileage? 100 more horses plus more optional equipment for $2400 is a steal!

Why then, do GM trucks consistently outsell the competition?

What do you mean?

No way this starts at $23k. Perhaps $25k is possible. The Malibu starts at $20k with a 4cyl, 4-speed, and a cheap interior. That estimate is also more than they were planning on unless they upped their target. It will be built at both Spring Hill and LDT.

The Malibu's interior looks quite disappointing here. Almost like it should be in the Cobalt instead of the Malibu. The design is not bad, but it lacks cohesiveness and looks cobbled together. The exterior still looks very good, however, and I see no reason why it won't do better than the current one. It should sell on exterior looks alone to some people, like the old Altima did. GM's last chance to win over midsize buyers is the EPII sedans. It all starts with the 2010 LaCrosse in early '09. If that car is not best in class, we might as well give up.

Holy crap! Only minor injuries after that?

Yeah, the Cobalt is staying on Delta ("Delta II" to be exact). All this is saying is that Alpha and Gamma vehicles are going to be produced at Lordstown instead of Delta vehicles. It sounds like we are getting a coupe and sedan off of Alpha, I would guess it's a Pontiac. I can't see them producing a Cadillac at a rather old plant that is also going to be producing the Aveo.

So let's here the curb story How much of a gain do you expect and don't you need to get a tune after all this stuff you're doing?

Visually the changes are nice, but I'm not a fan of the exhaust note. Sounds like a weedwacker to me.

Making cars in Canada has to be somewhat more efficient when you consider the Canadian government pays for health care. That's a $2500 advantage to building cars in Canada right there.

You can download videos off youtube (and other places that don't let you download) with the Mozilla VideoDownloader: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2390

Search youtube? Something like "enter car name here" 0-100 or such.

Exactly. No one would force them to stay at the job. I would bet at least half of them are willing to keep their jobs for a reasonable pay cut because it would still be the highest paying job they could get. Making $25-35 an hour to hand thing to a machine is ridiculous (I realize they do some more important stuff, but still, it is quite easy). What about people such as teachers that go to school for 4 years or more so they can teach these people's children so that their children can get decent jobs? The teachers could just as easily take a union job and make more money than they would be making through teaching, yet they go to school (paying big bucks) so that everyone else can benefit from it. What I am trying to say is that by giving these people such high wages for what they do and such great benefits, it's setting a terrible example. Sure, we do need people like this, because otherwise we wouldn't have cars being made, but making $70k/year + having great benefits does not set a very good example for high school kids to go to college to become something that makes that same amount in the end. These workers should be making a good chunk of change so that they can support their family, but what did they do to deserve to have the best benefits of almost anyone and make quite a good paycheck? Fail out of school and become a scab? I'm sorry if I offended anyone, but that's how I feel about assembly line workers making such good wages.