CARBIZ

I wonder how much of what is being publicly said is for the benefit of the UAW/CAW. The recent announcements of closing the Windsor transmission plant, the Oshawa truck plant, etc. all sounds very dire, but isn't that what negotiating is all about? Make a low-ball offer and see what the counter offer is?

Ah, Chrysler was the last to react to the oil shocks of the '70s and nearly went bankrupt. GM started downsizing in 1977 while Chrysler continued producing bloated beasts. Although Chrysler was the first to come out with a FWD transversal engine configuration (the Omni/Horizon), it only did so with a VW engine. GM led the pack in the '70s and made daring decisions. Ford and GM beat Chrysler with their own 'small' cars in the '60s, too. The Valiant came out after the Corvair and Falcon. Chrysler has been lucky in the past because it has always been the smallest of the Big 3 and, consequently, the easiest to turn around.

God, strike me dead, I find myself agreeing with aatbloke. We Canadians are trapped between America and Europe in so many ways. We are already sitting at $5.50 a gallon here. I am a big believer in technology. I am currently engaged in a war of words with our city's mayor because he wants to tear down our only expressway into the city core. He thinks we would all be better on bicycles. Yeah, like that's going to happen in January when it it - 10 C for weeks on end! We don't have to go back to the horse and buggy, either. But certainly gone are the days of cheap oil, and unless we plan to spend 1/3 of our household income on energy costs, we have to start re-imagining things. I remember my father cursing when gas jumped to 50 cents a gallon and it cost him $20 to fill his Chrysler 300. I remember all the doom and gloom of the late '70s. Guess what: we are all still here and we are all still driving infernal combustion engines. The 'truck bubble' of the late '90s is regrettable, but I guess Detroit found a way around CAFE and convinced many people that a 4,500 lb SUV was the only way to get to work. Otherwise, we probably would have fun to drive 45 mpg cars here, like they do in Europe. Fortunately, GM seems to have a lot of efficient vehicles on the books. Let's hope they can get them to market quick enough to make up for the lost truck production. Already the Toyota Star is predicting GM will be gone from Canada soon because all they build here are gas guzzlers. Funny, no one complained when the Silverado and Impala were #1 in their segment and the over time checks were pouring in. With the P-B-GMC amalgamation under way in the U.S., and with Lutz forcing GM to take advantage of their world wide experience and world wide production capacity, hopefully we can avoid the worst of the '80s rebadges. I don't see why Pontiac needs the Aveo. It has the Vibe. Can the Vibe not be reconfigured to accept a 1.4 turbo, or something like that?

While I agree wholeheartedly about he rebadging concerns, I take exception to the 'easily breakable garbage from Korea' remark. I bought a new Optra 5 11 months ago. I have put about 7,500 trouble free miles on it - and I can assure you, I beat on this car pretty hard. I treat the 2.0 litre engine like a 6 cylinder. I'm not overly enamored with the non-GM 4 spd automatic (you can tell it is not a GM tranny, believe me!) but this car has been a trooper. Other than 2 oil changes and a tire rotation (oh, an replacing the window because my car was broken into Monday morning ), this car has been great. I have sold easily 100 Aveos by now and none of my customers have complained; in fact, a few have already leased their SECOND Aveo. Wait until you see the '09 improvements to the 5 door with the (finally) ecotec engine improvements. This is not the Daewoo of 10 years ago. GM has had a lot of influence on the line since they bought it and each generation has distanced itself from its lowly Daewood DNA.

Let her slip across the border and buy one up here. The Pontiac dealers up here managed to make a lot of noise to get 'fair' treatment with products, which is why Chevrolet as stand alone stores are closing in droves north of the border. Since Oldsmobile went away (they were always 'married' with Chevrolet up here), I have never understood why the P-B-GMC stores continued to get rebadged Chevrolet product that was not sold south of the border. Madness. There has always been a Pursuit/G5 sedan up here. Lots of cheap ones available used, I am sure.

The body looks good for Ontario. I assume you looked underneath, checked out for trouble spots. The Acheiva can be a safe bet because of the way the original owners look after them - as opposed to a Cavalier Z24, for instance. Keep it six months and get $750 from Car Heaven on your NEW GM.

It looks like Tacoma and Tundra sales are a wash, although I can't believe all the fools still buying the Tacoma with all the bad press....wait a minute , what am I thinking? What bad press? Still, Canadians are following each other off a cliff: Toyota's sales up 15.5% for the month.

It's interesting that Chrysler is doing poorly in the U.S., but is up 6.2% for the month up here. I wonder why Canadians seem to like Chrysler better than Americans. Chrysler is nearly 2 points higher than Ford for market share so far this year and climbing.

For most people, they won't be able to afford $6 gas AND tempermental technology like hybrids. Their only choice will be to downsize. This is why vehicles like the '09 Aveo and the new 'secret' car coming out next year will be so very important for GM. I wonder how GM will weather the transition from it high priced/high profit trucks to lower priced/lower profit small cars. It looks like GM is going to be positioned well in the small car market, but how are they going to replace the profits of the trucks?

Yeah, the news ain't pretty. I think GM is down almost 3 points in market share this year to 21.7% in Canada. Toyota is up just over 1 point to nearly 12.8% in Canada. I think Ford and Chrysler responded more aggressively to the rise in the $C. I see a lot of print ads for Ford and Chrysler, mostly paid by dealers, which at least give the impression their prices have dropped. Then again, with Chrysler selling the new Grand Caravan for $20k around here - who the heck would want the Uplander RWB for $2k less? GM hasn't started their 'summer sell down' yet, but I don't think there will be much fanfare this year. Most dealers are carrying half the inventory they normally do. As I have said before, at $5.50 a gallon, the world stops spinning on its axis. We can't keep Cobalts, Aveos and HHRs in stock. Suddenly everyone wants 4 cylinder Malibus. (Maybe GM was right about that one.) Chrysler is actually up 5% for the year in Canada; whereas GM is down 7.7 for the year. Ford is kind of coasting. There is a lot of dealer consolidation going on around here. Two more GM dealers 'merged' this past couple weeks. We keep hearing that the Canadian economy is going to escape the firestorm that will afflict south of the border, but with 1 in 8 Ontario jobs related to the auto industry, it won't be pretty around here.

If a new, small car can be on the market by mid-year next year, then GM can 'whore' out the Cobalt to keep the plant running. I'd love to have a $9,999 base car sell, like we did the Cavalier in it's last year. Why can't Pontiac have a true 'performance' version of the new small car? Chevy can occupy the lower rung of the ladder, and Pontiac can have a sportier version that is priced several hundred higher and slightly less gas mileage - that way, at least, they won't be directly competing.

There are quite a few armchair critics trashing this vehicle when they've never even seen one up close, let alone driven one. Taken in the context of the early '80s (I remember the panic and hysteria over gas prices - worse than now, believe me!) A Cavalier in those days was typically auto and a/c only. It was very rare to have power windows or any other amenities in them. Of course the shape of the cars was a clear rebadge, but the Caddy was quieter and had more (read: any) creature comforts. Believe me, I am not defending this car, but it certainly wasn't the horror like the Pacer, Vega or Fairmont of its day.

This is great news. FOG, choice is good, no? We are north of $5 a gallon here, and let me tell you - a well built, well designed car that gets 40 mpg or better will be welcomed with open arms here. A turbo sounds interesting, too. Why would it have to run on premium? This vehicle shouldn't be tuned to be a rocket. Enzl, over to you....

Where are you hailing from? Km? Are you in the Great White North? The Malibu 4 cylinder was selling NEW for $17,999 a year ago, so I would keep that in mind. $13k doesn't sound outrageous, but it does sound a little high.

That doesn't negate the fact that a 1.5 litre engine, pushing a 2,800 lb car and 1500 lbs of people would be a sight to behold! What would it get? 12 mpg? That's the beauty of the Japanese Myth: throw tiny engines in cars and, voila, you have impressive numbers on paper and the Masses eat it up. Now put the 2.0 litre ecotec engine in that minivan - then you're talking!

Well, that's the point: if I were to buy an 'old' car, it would be one that I like. I wouldn't give a damn if it went up or down in value. That's why I prefer the late '60s tanks, like the Mopar 300s, the big Dodges, etc. I never liked the Chargers, Challengers, Cudas, etc. when I was a kid, why would I want one now? The trouble with 'collectible' cars, is that they often make awful drivers. I drove a '57 T-bird not too long ago. Yech. When I seek out 'old' cars on E-Bay, etc., I first look to see if the car has power windows, a/c, etc., which is why very few vehicles before the mid-60s interest me: those toys were very, very rare. I may desire to tour around in an old 'classic,' but I sure as hell am not going to give up my amenities either! Living without cupholders would be insufferable enough! As I worked for a Cadillac dealer in '81/'82, I remember the Cimarron well. What I liked about that car then was the fact that they were loaded. So, if I was looking for a cheap, economical daily driver for a couple grand, I doubt the Cimarron could be beat. Seriously. Where else would you get a car with power windows, locks, leather, a/c and 30 mpg for a couple grand? It certainly would be better than a Datsun 210 that I rented in the summer of '82 that couldn't even pass a dump truck on a hill!

I've never seen hail that big. I wish you'd taken pics of that CR-V. I could've forwarded them to my mother. She just picked up her brand new CR-V on Friday. I'm probably the only son on the planet who works in the car business whose mother does whatever the hell she pleases. And she wonders why I haven't talked to her in 9 years.

Yeah, I can't wait: 1.5 litres and 8 people on the way to Dairy Queen. Great. Finally something to make the SmartCar look peppy.

We can laugh at Cadillac's feeble attempt at replying to high gas prices, but what goes around, comes around and suddenly we are seeing historically high gas prices again. If I was looking for a daily driver that was good on gas, this car would be a bargain and a half. Of course Cadillac could have done more with the original J-body, but Ford didn't do much better with the Versailles (a warmed over Monarch) and pitted against the crappy LeBarons, Camries and others of the day, the Cimarron is not really any worse than many others. The early 80s was a ghastly period. I know. I lived it.

Does make you wonder sometimes. No sunroof option on the Yaris. No armrests on the Fit. Makes me wonder what the marketing folks/bean counters do in their spare time.

Don't you know any good body shops?

No, no, he has sampled the steak on his own plate, but he hasn't sampled anyone else's. Too bad, really. I prefer eating off other people's plates.

Oh, we've beaten this one to death before, too. We can focus on the high paying assembly jobs if we want, because that is easy, but the greater issue is who owns (controls) the patents, technologies and systems? That's right: Japan. So when your kid is working for McDonald's and the highest he can ever aspire to become is shift manager, you will know why. Think about this: China and India produce more engineering graduates in a single year than the United States has university grads. Chew on that for the future.

It could be bad for resale values on the street, too.......

My guess is a '2007 Tacoma........ Well, aren't they worth about $2,500 or so now?