CARBIZ

The 4 door Aveo was merely 'facelifted' last year. The 5 door gets the major redo with new engine, facia, interior, etc. That vehicle has not hit the stands yet. At least around here, GM didn't really support the Aveo and pushed the snot out of the G5/Cobalt, which has catapulted to the #2 selling vehicle in Canada this year. GM's timing with the 'new'Aveo is excellent for the Great White North, plus these are going to be built in Mexico, which will cut the order time by about a month. The Equinox is getting old. Sad to day, after only 4 years, but this is a very crowded market. The Rondo, Sante Fe, new CR-V, facelifted Escape, new Jeep offerings. Frankly, I am surprised the 'Nox is selling at all!

Let's not be too harsh on the 'ignorance' of consumers. Although CR and others are pushing hard for the hybrids, the fact of the matter is that even after 10 years of sales, the hybrids are a fraction of the car market, let alone the over all vehicle market. More and more I am seeing consumers confused and even frightened by what is happening out there. On the one hand, they hear a lot of things about hybrids, but they are naturally wary of new technologies. Having personally weather the 8-track/cassette-beta/VHS-laserdisc/DVD wars, I can say from a degree of authority that jumping on the bandwagon of the 'next big thing' can often lead to ruin - or at the very least financial frustration. I see people asking a lot of questions and really thinking about their next vehicle purchase. I think that is a good thing. At $5.25 a gallon, Canadians are becoming more gun shy. A customer who purchased a Maxx from me 3 years ago is frustrated because every car he likes runs on premium gas. He told me today his next car will be a CTS because he is 'sick to death' of the the imports building cars that only run on premium. He told me a story about a co-worker who was crying the blues because his Audi only runs on premium. My customer was flabbergasted that people don't ask the right questions. I guess at $2.50 a gallon, those questions didn't matter, but at $5 they do.

The ugly truth in Big Business is that too many 'top' business people sold their souls to the Devil a long time ago. Although Wagoner & Co. do have a lot of their own personal fortune tied up in GM stock, undoubtedly he would not lose his multi million dollar home if GM went belly up. That much is regrettable. Corporate America suffers because the 'owners' no longer 'own' the company. They can just jump ship and run something else - and they have the contacts on other Boards to do just that. Henry Ford did not buy GM stock just in case his company didn't do well. There are a lot of GM 'supporters' who are talking out of both sides of their mouth. On the one hand, they proclaim they 'support' GM and 'hope' it will do well, but really they just bash and bash everything GM does. Makes one wonder what hat they are really wearing. IMO, it is these companies that have grown in good times to control several or even dozens of dealers that are part of the problem: in catering to all the brands, they are loyal to none. If GM goes down, they don't care. Odds are, the property their GM dealer is sitting on is worth more than last year's sales, so they can sell it and continue to sell Hyundai or Toyota or Honda or whatever other make they have jumped into bed with. THIS IS PART OF THE PROBLEM. One of the most successful GM dealers in the Toronto area is successful because the owner owns nothing else but that dealer. All his eggs are in one basket. He is known to greet customers in the service drive-thru in the morning. When is the last time some President of a 15 dealer network did that? Look at it from GM's point of view: a lot of these 'dealer companies' were built by GM, but now that GM has hit the skids, those same dealer bodies are bitching from the sidelines. How much credibility do these guys really have?

I thought Chrysler's overseas operations were negligible. Am I wrong? More than anyone, Chrysler could have used an international link, like Daimler, for example. I am sure Cerebrus is freaking out, but I doubt they would throw in the towel so soon. They, more than many others, should have a better feel for where the bottom of this current market situation is. I've lost a few grand in my mutual funds this past month, but I am not ready to bail just yet.

So why don't we all just lay down and play dead, then? If all we want to do is sit around and bitch about everything that GM has done wrong I can pick up any damned newspaper or magazine for that. Analysts and media types only get paid to sell and nothing sells like negativity. You, of all people should know that! Hell, with the amount of negativity you spew, I am surprised you aren't President, for Gawd's sake. There is a difference between pointing out what GM is doing right or wrong and simply $h!ting over everything that comes out of Detroit. Frankly, I am sick of your hate-on of Wagoner and his cronies. We could just write your diatribes for you: BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH....FIRE RICK WAGONER....BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, FIRE RICK WAGONER. That is so bloody helpful.

The U.S. current account drain of the past several years has finally come home to roost. For example: if I don't have a job, but max all my credit cards to keep buying groceries and paying my mortgage, all is well as long as the banks keep extending me credit. Sooner or later, my debt equity ratio becomes intolerable and the banks will balk at giving me any more loans. This is the essential position the U.S. has been in for several years: borrowing money (ironically) from Asia and the middle East to finance your positions on buying imported goods from those same countries. This closed loop works until there are no more savings left in America to back the loans, or collateral (property values) start to sag. Both have occurred recently. This had to happen sooner or later. Wall Street has been shuffling the papers for a couple years now to hide the losses and now they can no longer hide them. This mess is going to get very ugly. Can you say twelve million annual car sales?

Everyone here is acting all tough and puffed up. Just wait until $8 a gallon comes, then see attitudes adjust...ever so slightly.

Drive the new Yaris and then the '09 Aveo back to back, then you can talk...............

How about McCain makes an alternate energy research fund equal to the amount the Japanese government spent on the synergy drive for Toyota. From that fund, the Big Three can dip into to further their research into alternate propulsion sources.

GM should pay for his retirement going away party - on Mars.

Mangled English, for the most part, around here.

My family moved from Vancouver to Toronto in '71 in a '63 Ford Econoline. The engine was between the front seats! Kinda warm in the summer. Still, that old beastie dragged our 5 sorry asses, and U-haul full of crap through the Rockies and north of Superior with no complaint. My stepfather built a wooden bench with a foam cover for us kids to sit on. Those were in the pre-seatbelt days, of course. The poor van met an untimely demise when it caught fire in our shed where my stepfather was working on it. By the time the local volunteer fire department arrived, my father had managed to push it into the driveway and it pretty much burned to the ground. No loss, IMO. It was replaced with a much newer and much cooler '66 Pontiac wagon.

Not likely. If the BF needs a car, I'll give him the Optra and take a demo. A nice Camaro would do. Fat chance! I only bought the Optra 5 to get the manager(s) off my back for all the dog hair in my demos. (At least that is what I told them it was.!)

Luv the color! Congrats! Glad you're staying in the GM family!

1. My Optra 5. But I've sold over 1,000 - does that count?

Define 'cheaper.' The Rio is being advertised at $9,995 in Canada, but with freight, taxes, fees and bank rate financing, the Aveo (0% financing, 72 months) is far cheaper at $12,995. I doubt many Rio buyers have cash. In any case, this study is probably not entirely accurate. How many 5 spds with no a/c do Kia or Chevrolet sell? I would venture to say not many. The variables in studies like this are all over the map: individual insurance, driving habits, climactic conditions, and other variables could greatly the effect of an individual's outcome. Still, it does tend to strengthen what I have been saying all along: one cannot assume the imports are 'better.' Every case is different.

Interesting article. I am of two minds: 1) there were lots of interesting tidbits in this article on how to maximize your fuel economy, but 2) who actually drives like that? On the one hand, people who would fork out the extra bucks for Prius, for example, probably would and do drive like my Great Aunt. On the other hand, the average 25 year old who buys the Focus or Cobalt because it is all he can afford is not likely to drive the way they did in this test. Anyone who drives on an average freeway in any large city knows you cannot drive like they do in this test. If you leave more than 5 feet in front of you, someone will squeeze in, so you are forced to gun the engine every time the 'accordion' opens up. Again, every driver is different. I will be the first to admit that I drive my vehicles like I stole them and it is for this reason that the smaller engines suffer. I would submit that if gas prices get much higher ($1.33 a litre is painful enough!) virtually everyone will start driving like my Great Aunt, including me, in which case the Civic and Corolla will definitely shine through.

Women tend to be very practical, which is why they would choose a $25k minivan that gets 30 mpg over a $40k SUV that gets 25. The Traverse may end up being the 'new Tahoe' as gas prices soar, but I doubt these will sell all that well in Canada, where the Acadia has already soaked up whatever demand there may have been. Since the minivans have always soundly outsold the SUVs here, in the land of $5.50 a gallon (we passed $4 a gallon 18 months ago, boys and girls), the promised minivan that should be in show room floors by mid-'09 is much awaited up here in the hinterland. We've been trying to reinvent the station wagon for the past 25 years.

:AH-HA_wink: We were advised of this a couple months ago. The '09 Aveo will show a 7-10% fuel mileage improvement, which will elevate it to the rest of the pack. The trouble, IMO, is this is not a GM transmisison. The Yaris also has a 4 spd auto, but gets better mileage. The '09 Aveo will have quite a few engine improvements, but I wish they would ditch the tranny for something else. But the naysayers will still say the Aveo is a piece of crap.

To accomodate the John Deere lawn tractor under the hood.........

Probably because THEY had to pay a lot more for the Corolla, which is usually the case.

Too little, too late. As a Trailblazer replacement, fine. But this thing needs a 2 mode hybride NOW. I'll wait for the new minivan in 2nd quarter '09, thanks.

There are many parallels between the decline of General Motors and the decline of America. I find it ironic to the point of hilarious that it is nowhere but in America that America's premier car company is shunned the way it is. Brazilians love Chevrolet. Brits love Vauxhall. Germans love Opel. What is it about self-loathing, self-hating North America that makes us sacrifice our neighbors on the almighty alter of Choice? Why do we shop at Wal-Mart, knowing damned well they destroy neighborhoods, exploit children in south Asia and import pure crap from China? Why do we spend $4 on a coffee that is no better than the one bought at the corner donut shop? Why do we mortgage our homes to buy a $60k car that we don't even know how to drive, but our neighbor said it was 'good.' The greatest irony of all is that we have financed what will prove to be our biggest competitor internationally: China. They ship cheap (defective) goods to us, push up the value of natural resources and now we are all reeling from the cost of oil - yet we helped them to put the price of oil up there! This would make all the trappings of a cheap Crichton novel if it weren't TRUE.

Neat pics! Europe has some of the coolest - and some of the fugliest cars on the planet. Strange dichotomy, indeed.

1) Can't get Malibus (see strike) 2) Can't get 6 cylinder Malibus (see GM blaming 18" wheel shortages on LT2) 3) Ford is giving away the Fusion. There is no deep discounting on the Malibu at this time. (See #1, #2) What I think is super silly around here is the ads Ford is pulling out with huge discounts on the F-150. Why are they bothering? Nobody in Ontario has any Silverados or Sierras, so effectively Ford owns the market, yet they are still blowing their brains out on discounting. Foolish, very foolish.