Northstar

If the production LaCrosse resembles this inside and out, there's no reason it shouldn't be a smash hit. The outside shouldn't have changed from that. It's similar, but that looks way cooler.

I saw a Grand National the other day. Also been seeing a lot of new Silverados.

The 3.5 VVT will probably be around until Epsilon II, and maybe until the VUE dies. I don't see it going in anything else after the Malibu, though. The 3.9 is as good as dead when the Impala goes RWD.

I don't really like these features. I guess if they keep idiots from running into me, they're okay, but it seems to me that if someone is used to having these features in their Lucerne, and then hops in the Suburban for a family road trip and doesn't have these features, it's quite possible they'll forget to check their blind spot and cause more accidents because of it.

So the XE VUEs have plastic bumpers? Arggh. I agree with Dodgefan everything looks good except the E-Brake looks like an afterthought. Who knows if it feels cheap, but the design certainly gives a feeling that it would be cheap. The Astra will be a hot commodity, too bad they can only import what, 30k?

I agree with you 100%. Sometimes it's fun (and entertaining) to argue with him because it's so easy to prove him wrong.

But wait, he can't be wrong! He works at the plant that makes the Opel GT!

You mean all 2000 of them that are still left on lots? Yep, that's a ton, even by GP standards. The GP only puts 6000+ in to fleets every month, they're so easy to sell to retail customers. They hardly have any they can't sell to retail! If they could "only" get 30k GPs here (and the lowest estimate I've heard for the G8 is 40k, FYI), they'd still have to fleet some, because they wouldn't sell fast enough The only thing that will be needing any sort of fire sale is the GP, because they'll move even more slowly when the G8 comes and no one wants to buy a GP anymore because they're all picking the G8.

Let me help you out here... GP, GP, what cha gone a do, what cha gone a do, when they don't come for you? GP: I'ma go to the fleets! Going my mid-2006 figures, the GP had 74% of it's sales to fleet, and only sold 13k to retail customers. Yep, a little more than 2k/retail sales a month. The G8 only needs to sell about 30k cars (none will be to fleet, it's too good for fleets) and you can go eat some crow. Some people might give your GP a good ass-whooping too, if you ever dare try to line up against a G8 GT. So, who's laughing now?

As long as GM still makes cars that are more desirable to me I could care less what someone on the other side of the world is buying. It would be nice to be #1 in the world, but it's not the biggest deal.

That's ok, by the time his replacement comes Holden will have successfully fixed Pontiac and GM's RWD problems. I think that will make it rather hard for his replacement to get rid of Holden.

Cool, thanks for the comparo. I don't see any reason why the VUE won't sell huge; it's very competitively priced and I think it could seriously be best-in-class. The interior looks very good.

How does it compare to the CRV?

Ha! Lutz loves the GTO. Notice he didn't say there was anything wrong about it as a vehicle (besides the somewhat dated styling), GM just screwed up on how to sell it.

The GTO shares no body panels with the Catera or Omega. Just because it's the same platform does not mean it's the same design. IIRC, the Monaro was a concept at the '97 Sydney Motor Show.

Early 90s? Those cars looked like boxes, for the most part. More like early 2000s. Oh, and last I checked, your car has a Chevy engine put in an otherwise below average car. WOW! Why would you want to copy? Well, numerous mags have said that the new 5-Series, with all it's electronic gizmo's, is a worse driver's car than the last-gen (and has lost some of it's BMW heritage by doing so), which is what the G8 "copy's." In addition, the Commodore has been said to be very similar to the previous M5, which again, would be more like a true BMW than the current one due to electronic intervention. I think everyone knows you hate Holden and wouldn't drive one even if they were the greatest cars in the world. Therefore, your opinion of them is null and void. It's probably beaten the current 5er because as I said above, the last 5er (the "benchmark" for the Commodore) drives better than the current 5er. But don't tell you-know-who that.

You bought a GP GXP over a 530xi but wouldn't buy a G8 over a 530xi? :rotflmao: There are some very, very lose screws in your head.

The CX-9 is very close to on par with the Lambdas or possibly on par with them. The biggest difference has to be the door panels for me. The Mazda uses some sort of leather/leatherette type material while, as you can see, the Edge has a big chunk of (relatively hard) plastic. Other than that there isn't a whole lot of difference, though I think the CX-9 had better dashtop material as well, but the door panels made the CX-9 feel like a much more expensive vehicle. It probably made if feel like it was $5k more expensive, but it probably only cost what, $300 a car to make the door panels better.

Again, not going by switchgear quality and such, I felt the Edge's was comparable to the CRV's, both being pretty poor (I am talking door panels, dashes, other materials. Not switchgear and such; I'm sure the CRV's is better, but I didn't try it out. Really, there is not much of anything in the compact class with a good interior, but I did feel others were slightly better than the CRV. The CRV's is certainly not worth $30k when it's loaded up. Maybe $20k for a base model is reasonable, but there are much better options for $30k, I feel. And just FYI, my aunt loves/loved Hondas, and really thought she wanted a CRV when we went looking, but she was totally unimpressed with it, just as I was. She thought everything was rather cheap (again, I don't know what she thought of the switchgear, but she complained about the materials).

I was being sarcastic about the gauges and nav unit making a nicer interior, but I was being serious in the rest. Guess I should have used a smiley to make that more clear. As for the CRV, I rode in the current one, not the old one, back to back with the current RAV4, and felt, from a passenger's point of view, that the RAV4 was nicer, as well as the Santa Fe and others. Your statement that the CRV’s interior is nicer than the Lambdas and T900s is ridiculous. It may be equal to the Edge's, but I felt that sucked for the most part, too. There was one part of the interior that I thought was nice, and it was the upper part of the door armrest, the rest sucked. The dash sounded hollow when tapped, the plastics were rough and hard, and it was impossible to find a comfortable seating position. The only consistency I found was that most of the materials were consistently bad. As I said previously, your opinion has to be the most bias thing I have read in a long time. I did not drive the CRV, but I rode in the passenger seat. Therefore, I cannot comment on the stalks, dials, etc., which may very well be very nice and precise, but the materials, aside from the upper part of the door armrests, sucked (see above). The design is nice, but the majority of the materials certainly are not. Also, I sat in a $29k model, so it's not as if it had nothing on it.

:rotflmao: Because it has a navigation system and some generic gauges? That's without a doubt the most bias statement I've heard in a while. The CRV's interior is a piece of junk. Hard, hollow plastic everywhere, noisy, and cramped. RAV4, Santa Fe, and basically all other compact SUVs/X-Over I rode in while shopping for one with my aunt were superior. The CRV was close to worst in class.

Cheaper.

Funny, I've never had to see my Pontiac service adviser. The GTO is without a doubt the most reliable car we've ever had, and it without a doubt gets driven harder than any other car.

Most autos are actually faster than manuals from a dig. I'm sure the manuals would destroys the autos from a roll. For instance, a stock auto GTO will outrun a stock manual GTO in 1/4 mile most of the time (depending on how good the driver is in the M6) but the M6 will have a better trap speed, just not time. From a roll, however, the A4 would likely get destroyed unless it was right at the right MPH for an auto to really use the power. In the manual you select you gear and go, knowing you're going to be in the correct rev range. With the auto, it's a guessing game.

I'm pretty used to the sound of LS1's by now.