Northstar

I agree about the haggle part, as well. However, some people do like the no-haggle experience (less stress I guess?) of buying a car. Not sure about the service part... I never take the GTO to the Pontiac dealer but instead the Chevy/Cadillac dealer. I think any GM dealer would be able to service the mechanically-similar Saturns.

But would you not be willing to travel 30 minutes to go look at a car that you were considering for your next car (aka making sure you get what you want when you're spending $15-30k)? We bought the GTO at a dealer about 45 miles away... People will go to where the best deals are, and while all Saturn dealers are going to have the same "deals" with no-haggle pricing, chances are people are will to go to dealers up to an hour away if it means they could save a couple grand by doing so.

Everyone says this, and while it may be part of the problem, it is not keeping them from selling a large amount of cars. Take, for example, 2005. Saturn sold 100k IONs and 92k VUEs (for comparison, 130k Equinox's were sold and 212k Cobalts and the Chevy's are much more highly fleeted). This year, Saturn is only on pace to sell 52k Auras, and even if the Outlook sells at the same pace for the rest of the year as it did in March (it's best month so far) it will only manage around 25k units (less actually). The Aura and Outlook are much better and more competitive vehicles than the ION or VUE ever were, they just happen to be more upscale and more expensive vehicles in segments that Saturn has never competed in before. Saturn could use more dealers, but they have enough and all are located in major areas (i.e. you aren't going to see a Saturn dealer out in the middle of nowhere but it's pretty common to see a Chevy dealer out in the middle of nowhere) that 85% of car buyers are within reasonable driving distance (45-60 miles) of a Saturn dealership. People will travel today to buy a car. I know there are people who travel through multiple states to get the best deals on GTOs (one guy went from Flordia to Michigan to get a new '06 for $24200), so I don't feel a lack of dealerships is the problem. There are only about 100k people where I live and there are 3 Saturn dealerships within an hour drive. A quick look at Chicago-area Saturn dealers yields at least 12 Saturn dealers in Chicago or in suburbs of Chicago. I think that 12+ dealers in plenty in a major metropolitan area. If there were only 2, or even 5, we'd have a problem. I don't think a lack of dealers is the problem because 1) The VUE and ION both have sold close to or above 100k units/year recently 2) The reason the "older" brands have more dealers does not mean they reach more people. There are countless Chevy dealers out in the middle of nowhere, and it's not worth it for GM to set up a Saturn franchise when they might get 2 sales/month in that location. If there are 3 Saturn dealers within an hour of where I live I think that reaches plenty of people.

How so? You want them to come and tackle him and force the gun out of his hands? He had 9mm clips with 15 rounds/clip and it's easy to change clips when one runs out... Also, he didn't just go up to them at point-blank range and shoot. At least how I picture this situation is that the gunman walks into the classroom, says nothing, and shoots the professor. Then opens fire on random people. I think if someone tried to run after him and stop him he'd have plenty of time to shoot them in the process. Or is that not what you meant?

AWD and GM's 1000 other brands will take care of snow state sales.

I was trying to figure out why the new Saturns aren't selling very well, and it occurred to me that the answer is more or less pretty obvious: People aren't used to going to Saturn to buy a family sedan or big family SUV/crossover. They also aren't used to going to Saturn to buy a roadster, but the SKY is so sexy people have taken notice. People are only used to going to Saturn to buy small cars and small SUVs/crossovers. Now, here is my theory: If the Aura was named "Intrigue," "Alero," or "Cutlass" it would be selling much better and the same goes for the Outlook if it were named Bravada (under the Olds name). Now, do I think eventually people will start associating Saturn with any sort of car as they do Honda and Toyota? Yes, but it's going to take a lot of time, effort, and money to do so. If Olds had not been killed but rather "combined" with Saturn into one "group," GM would be seeing much more success with the new Saturns. Does anyone else feel the same way? The Aura is the best midsize GM car, and the Outlook is a fantastic crossover, but they aren't selling worth a damn (and piling up on lots - so it's not a supply issue). People aren't used to shopping at Saturn for their family sedan or soccer mom vehicle, and therefore I think they don't even research if Saturn has a vehicle in those segments or even go to a Saturn dealership to see what they have. In the end, all will probably work on fine (5 years or so), but GM would be seeing much better sales from the Aura and Outlook if they were Oldsmobiles, I feel. It would be more profitable for GM now if they had kept Olds, and they wouldn't have had to spend billions of dollars shutting them down.

I don't think the Holden statement applies to Hummer. He says, "on various programs - not particular with Hummer - I'm in conversation with Holden on a weekly basis." I don't think that means that Hummer is in conversation with Holden, but rather GMNA is in conversation with Holden on various programs (Alpha, Zeta).

Yep, it's in km/h. I was only going 75mph, but there's a mode that switches to km/h on the same speedo... so it shoots up to 121 really fast... kinda fun to watch, actually. I just got rid of where it says km/h: I've thought about taking it to 200km/h then taking a pic of the dash. That's only what... 124mph?

I predict this incentive will go away soon. The Acadia had a $500 rebate at the start and now it has none. I don't understand why it would have an incentive at the start, unless they think that gets sales off to a quick(er) start.

No one has figured out the problem with the picture yet

It's red during the day, but at night it's goes stealth

I've only got four gears. See, on the bottom, it says I'm in D?

The interior looks like the Sonata, the exterior is ugly. Meh.

Ha, well, I get to drive it about once a week on average since I'm at school and it's the garage queen. So anyways, how fast would I be able to go before hitting the rev limiter (6200rpm)?

121 (Yes, this is the most pointless thread ever, I'm bored)

Maybe Alpha could go to Hamtramck and DTS/Lucerne/CTS/upscale Zetas to LGR. Then Oshawa would be building the Pontiac and Chevy Zetas (Camaro, G8, Impala, GTO(?), etc). I really don't see the need to have 3 plants capable of producing 1 million units (Oshawa 500k, LGR 250k, Hamtramck 250k (guessing)) produce probably 700k units.

50k/year is 4k/month. That's what the CTS does that costs much more. I think it would be easily done.

Maybe GM is just saying that to keep the union happy, because there's absolutely no reason to build it in Hamtramck when Oshawa will have 200+k units of capacity available.

At least the one sold in the US, yes.

Hmm, this is odd. Now it's only doing it when I'm not in a text box. I am almost positive it was doing it before when I was in a text box. Anyways, here is a screen shot:

We don't know how many G8's they're bringing over. I think we've heard anywhere from 40-80k. If 80k, this would probably be more retail sales than GP + Bonneville. Remember, the GP is well over 50% to fleet, so it's quite possible that it does no more than 40-50k/year to retail customers. If the G8 sells 50k/year, I bet it's more profitable than the GP is currently.

Nice, thorough review. What did you think of the quality of the interior (you touched on some of it but I just wondered what your overall impression was)?

So whenever I type an apostrophe (or attempt to) my computer pops up this "quick find" thing in the bottom part of the screen and it doesnt type an apostrophe. WTF is going on here? Can someone please help?

But thats not going to happen anyways. This article is not talking about the current Park Ave coming here... that is wrong. The next one is coming, not the one that just debuted.

Another awesome Acadia.