2QuickZ's

It's interesting to hear you say the reviews have not been favorable for the Tiger Paws. I researched them back when I bought them and was specifically looking for a good, not too expensive tire and I found a bunch of positive reviews including on various car forums. Let me clear: they are not the best tires money can buy. They seem like a pretty good value for the money to me, though, and other than being a little louder than the factory Hankook's on the Flex, they out perform them in every other way. I think while they are not a top of the line tire, they fall in the "you get MORE than what you pay for" category. They even perform reasonably well in the snow. http://www.tirebuyer.com/tires/uniroyal/tiger-paw-touring-nt/p/style/61303 http://www.viewpoints.com/UNIROYAL-Tigerpaw-All-Season-Tires-reviews My vote is still for the General Altimax HP's, though. I hope you can find someone to quote them for you. My local tire stores did not stock them either but they all were more than willing to order them in for me and they must have been in a local warehouse because they arrived the next day. If you can get them for a reasonable price, I would be surprised if you weren't happy with them. Just keep in mind they are unidirectional so your rotation options are limited. I also really like the Firestone Firehawk GT's that came from the factory on my Charger. They are surprisingly good in the snow. So good that I dropped my plans to buy winter tires for the car after the first snow storm I drove in. I drive 25 miles each way to work and have driven it to work through every snow storm (especially this crazy Michigan winter) and never came close to getting stuck or feeling uncomfortable. I didn't mention them before because they are more performance oriented and while I have not priced them out, I would suspect they fall in the higher cost category along with the Conti Extreme Contact DWS. The tires I'm not a big fan of? I've had factory GY Eagle RS-A's on a couple of cars and was not a fan at all. They did not perform that well in any conditions. I also hated the Fuzion's that came on my Saab when I bought it used. In fact, even though they were fairly new tires when I bought the car, I replaced them almost immediately with the Conti Extreme Contact DWS tires. The afore mentioned Hankook Optimo H725 In the end, I think it unfortunately comes down to the combination of the tire and the car, not just the tire. If you take a look at the Hankook's that came stock on my Flex, they are reviewed horribly when they are installed on a Ford. Ours wore out in around 30K miles. On just about any other car people seem to like them and say they last a long time. I think the same is true of the Firehawk GT's on my Charger. You read reviews from folks that have them as factory tires on a Charger or 300 and they are very positive. You read reviews of them on other cars and the reviews are not as good. Unfortunately tires aren't something you can really "try on" before you buy so you are just going to have to pick something and keep your fingers crossed! Edit: I accidentally referred to the Hankook's as Kuhmo's. It was Hankook Optimo H725's that came from the factory on my Flex. I have corrected it in the body of the text above.

What I hate most about this is GM's lack of naming consistency. Pick something and stick with it for crying out loud!!! Why do the names have to change every generation or two? There is no brand equity built up with this lack of consistent naming over time. Now that the product is better and there hopefully is no negative stigma associated with a name, STICK WITH IT, whatever it is. Just make up your damn mind already.

Shouldn't the price competition be between the different automakers and not be between different dealer franchises selling the same product? The automakers are going to compete on price with each other. That is why vehicles have incentives on them. I guess i don't see where dealers competing with each other helps anything. I personally don't like the negotiation process (and I'm betting most other people don't either) so having fixed sale prices that fluctuate month to month via incentives would make the process more relaxed and less stressful for the majority of buyers.

If you want all seasons, you can't go wrong with Continental Extreme Contact DWS. I had these on my Saab 9-5 Aero and they were EXCELLENT tires. They weren't cheap but they performed VERY well in all conditions and were very quiet. The car had a new set of Fuzions on it when I bought it but they were super loud. The Conti's only lasted 25k miles but that was due to how the Saab's suspension was set up and the fact that I didn't rotate often enough. I wound up wearing out the inner edge (maybe it was outer, I don't remember) of two of the tires. The main width of the tire still had plenty of tread left. 100% my fault and a very expensive mistake. I now make sure I rotate every 5k miles on all of my vehicles.

I think the basic idea was that it was started back when a couple of automakers completely dominated the market. Now, we have bunch of automakers from around the world that all have a decent slice of the market with no dominant OEM's. We also have the threat of the Chinese coming over which is not a case of if but when. My personal opinion is that in this climate, it would be better for the consumer if there was no middle man involved in the sale of a vehicle. As we all know, it is not about consumer protection any more, though. It is about franchise owner protection and politicians lining their pockets.

I don't really understand the usefulness of dealer franchises to the consumer in the modern business climate. It was a model for a different time and I'm convinced the only people that benefit from it are the franchise owners themselves. What other product HAS to be sold through a franchise? Does New Jersey allow home builders to sell direct? Do they have any Apple stores in NJ? Where is the push to ban them? I'm sure there are many manufacturers in NJ and the other states pushing these franchise laws that are allowed to sell direct to the consumer.

Touring or Grand Touring tires all the way. I had General Altimax HP tires on a 2002 Bonneville and those were great tires! I didn't have the car long enough to judge tread life but they performed well in all road conditions, including MIchigan snow. I wouldn't hesitate to buy them again and they were at the lower end of the price scale. At the time I bought them 4 years or so ago I think they were the #3 rated Grand Touring tire and the two that were ahead of it were at least 50% more expensive. It looks like they have slipped a bit in the rankings on Tire Rack since then but at the time I bought them, they were a great performance value. I really recommend them and had ZERO complaints. If you want something a little less sporty, we put Uniroyal Tiger Paw touring tires on our Flex about 6 months ago. They are much better than the factory Hankook's in every category (much better in snow) with the exception that they are a little noisier. From what I have read they are a legit 80K mile tire.

I just wanted to provide some early feedback in regard to the Chevy MyLink infotainment system. I'll start by saying I don't use half the functions of a cars infotainment system. With that said, I am a little surprised Chevy MyLink has gotten as much bad press as it has. Maybe the latest software in my car was a big improvement over earlier versions but mine is pretty intuitive and functions well. It is tough to compete with the UConnect 8.4 system in my Charger as it is one of the best in the business but here are some of my comments: - I like having buttons and knobs for full climate control and seat heaters. UConnect has many but not all the hard buttons I would want. My Cruze has them all. - The soft buttons for the Radio stations are legible and responsive but they either need to be made bigger or moved further up away from the bezel opening. - The voice recognition works 100x better than the Sync in our Flex but it still lags behind UConnect. UConnect rarely ever hears a command wrong. I have more frequent misunderstandings with MyLink. - One other thing with the VR for MyLink is that if you have both the first and last name in your phone for your contact but you only say "Call Steve", MyLink has no idea who "Steve" is because you didn't say "Call Steve Smith." On my UConnect, you can still say "Call Steve" and it will know who you mean or if you have more than one Steve in your contacts, it will ask you which one you want to call. I'll have to try the latter with MyLink to see what it does. I have at least four "John's" in my contacts so I'll have to test it out. - The car came with a quick reference card that told you how to pair a Bluetooth phone to MyLink. With the card, it was quick and easy (only a couple of steps) to pair a phone either with soft keys or VR. Even still, if I went out to the car right now to pair a phone, I would have to stumble around to find the right feature or to remember the voice commands. With UConnect, it is 100% intuitive and I paired my phone in a matter of seconds without even looking at any instructions. It was so simple through the touchscreen that I have never tried it through the VR. The Sync in our Flex (not MyFord Touch) is pretty abysmal for phone pairing. I had to pair a phone quite a number of times before I no longer needed to dig out the manual to do it. Even now after almost 3 years I still have to fumble around through the menus for a few minutes before I remember how to do it. Overall I think MyLink is a pretty good infotainment system, at least without navigation. I still need to try some Bluetooth streaming and maybe some music off a USB flash drive to see how it does with those. I also need to dig a little deeper into the menus to see how they are set up. I just haven't had time to play too much with it yet.

I may be in the minority here but I actually really like the styling of the Colorado. I definitely think the GMC Canyon looks more classy and upscale but still think the Colorado is attractive. I quite honestly would park either one in my garage if I were in the market for a small pick up.

I didn't wait to fill up after all. I just went ahead and did it tonight. Here are the details: Mileage = 478.9 Fuel = 13.45 gallons MPG = 35.6 I'd guess 75/25 to 80/20 city highway split. Per the VIC my average speed was 31.3 mph. That included my 25 mile drive this morning that took 1:20 because of all the snowy, crappy roads.

I have to actually fully disagree with you on your statement. It is NEVER that Simple. You can have the Customer first all along and until you build it and go through a extensive QA process, you can miss simple things and then due to Government regulations have to go back and re-engineer something that can actually make a product a money losing item. Yes, there is plenty of History to support the Bean counters and Lawyers and Executives protecting their HUGE bonuses and paychecks when if they had properly served the customer with a quality item to begin with the mess would not have happened. Yet there are also plenty of times that small items just might be ok to let it go and correct it in the next round of product building. In this case, GM should have started the product but then immediately made changes to the item in question here to address this and changed it out mid way through the first year. In this case the old guard of the old GM failed in their job for what they were paid for out of pure greed. I'm not saying I don't see how this made it into production. Trust me, I know that can happen. You are very correct if you were saying that design and development is not that simple. Every automaker has many, many tests they run their vehicles through as part of development and many, many more they run individual components through. What people often don't realize is that those tests are constantly evolving based on lessons learned from new designs. I can guarantee you GM learned their lesson on this issue a long time ago and have been testing all new ignition switches for this issue for a while. My post was in reference to the fact that they new they had a problem along time ago, at least outwardly appeared to know it could be a serious problem (hell, they were buying vehicles back), had a redesign in place to address the issue and then killed it for some unknown reason.

I agree with others in that if they kept it midsize, and I mean truly midsize, it would be tapping an under served market segment. The key would be to keep it appreciably smaller than a full size pickup and at least be able to compete on price. That might be tough in the lower range trim levels but I would think it easy in the higher ranges. Or, come with a small, fuel efficient diesel. I have owned two Chevy S-10's and two Ford Ranger's and while I would strongly consider another small pickup, I can't envision myself ever being in the market for a full size. They don't fit in my garage, aren't convenient for parking and would rarely be used to tow or haul anything.

While I can respect the things GM is saying right now, had they put the customer first all along they would not be in this mess. It really is that simple.

The more I drive the car, the more I like it. I have driven a few diesels before but never owned one. I like the relaxed demeanor of the driving experience, even when you are driving aggressively. I have around 400 miles on the car and it still shows 1/4 tank and the VIC shows about 140 miles to empty. That is with three remote starts totaling 20 minutes of idle time plus a traffic jam that took me 15 minutes to go 1 mile. The tank will probably wind up in the 34 - 35 mpg range when it is all said and done assuming the latest snowmageddon in SE lower Michigan doesn't result in massive traffic jambs tomorrow. Pretty impressive for the first tank and with a split of somewhere around 70/30 city highway for the tank and a somewhat aggressive driver. I'll post the actual first tank MPG in a couple of days when I fill up.

I thought I read it's a B-segment vehicle? The Compass and Patriot are C-segment. If it is intended to replace them it is not a direct replacement. Maybe based on interior volumes there is some overlap? I think I found the explanation in this The Car Connection article : "Jeep is splicing the Renegade into the Jeep lineup just below the Patriot, and it’s careful to note that it’s not replacing the Patriot. There’s not all that much of a difference in size, though. At an overall length of 166.6 inches, a width of 71.0 inches, and a height of 66.5 inches, the Renegade is only about seven inches shorter in length than the Patriot—although it’s actually slightly wider and taller, overall. Cargo volume is 18.5 cubic feet with the rear seatback up. Fold it down to the quite low cargo floor and you get 50.8 cubic feet." http://www.thecarconnection.com/overview/jeep_renegade_2015

So far, so good. I really like driving it but until we sell the Flex the miles are going to go on pretty slowly. My wife won't drive the Charger in this weather and it is a lease that is up in October and I want to make sure we use all the miles. It just hit 150 miles on my last drive and the fuel gage is still showing 3/4 tank! I'm liking that a LOT and it should only get better as it breaks in and as the weather heats up.

I kinda like it. The Jeep purists seem to hate it which means it might actually sell in pretty decent numbers! If the Cherokee can sell what it is selling I see no real reason this thing won't be a hit. The 1.4T engine is not a bad engine. I've driven both a Dart and a 500L with one though both had manual transmissions. I think it was more the DDCT that killed the 1.4T in the Dart than the engine performance itself. I've read conflicting reports on available transmissions with it though. Some have said manual only while others have said the 9 speed will be an available option with the 1.4T. I would think the 9 speed would really help that engine out!

I meant to say: Are we not able to edit our own posts or am I just so tired tonight I can't figure it out? I really need to get some sleep one of these nights.

It is hard to believe that a car company that does so well in the rest of the world just can't seem to figure out the U.S. market.

I did my part for the monthly increase in Cruze sales! I can honestly say I probably would not have bought one if it wasn't available with a diesel. I know the SS was intended to be a low volume niche car but I would have to believe they were hoping for more than 300 sales per month. Wasn't it targeted for around 1K per month or am I confused? Perhaps they just haven't been able to get too many shipped over. It could be a future collectible with Holden closing up shop soon. I doubt GM will transfer production to a U.S. plant for that small of a volume but they may surprise me. Buick is doing quite well. I'm betting the Verano and Encore are both out performing expectations. Cadillac on the other hand... I really don't understand why they aren't doing better with the ATS and especially the CTS. Hopefully they can refine the turbo 4 a bit for next MY and that will help.

The Avenger and current 200 can't sell out fast enough for Dart. I saw a dealer advertisement locally for a relatively loaded 200 Limited V6 for just under $17k employee price. Even once you add back in the rebates 99.9% of buyers aren't going to qualify for, it would still be hard to pass that deal up to buy a lightly optioned Dart instead. I would assume the Avenger is similarly discounted though I am too lazy to check. I actually like the Dart and had it not been for the Cruze offering a diesel, that probably would have been my next car instead. Cherokee sales are still very strong! Caravan outselling the Town & Country again by a pretty wide margin. I'm kind of surprised to see all the big RWD cars down but I guess it makes sense since it has been a particularly harsh winter.

How is Mazda not doing better? 3, 6 & CX-5 all get great press and seem to get good word of mouth. It never ceases to amaze me how many Sentras and Crapollas are genuinely good cars like the Mazda3 don't do any better sales wise. How has the Mazda6 not generated any traction yet? It is a very nice looking car and has gotten great reviews? People holding out for the oft delayed diesel version?

No but I want one. The dealership part department couldn't find it listed as a part and I did a quick google search last night and didn't have any luck figuring it out. I need to do a little more digging because I really would like one. Surprisingly only a couple of the cars in my area came equipped with them and they tended to be loaded cars. Mine is a base, no option car.

Very nice! I really like the Focus ST. They are a nice looking, great performing car. Congratulations!

I brought it home last night. Here are a couple of crappy cell phone pics I took as it was getting dark. You can't see the color too well but it is Blue Ray Metallic. This morning was my first real drive in it. I was curious how it would start in the -7 degree weather but it remote started just fine. It also heated up fairly quickly and it blows much more heat than I expected so it must have a good auxiliary heater in it. It is surprisingly quiet inside and is a nice little cruiser. So far, I really like it. It's no race car but it accelerates plenty quickly and due to the low rpm diesel, it does so in a very relaxed manner. My initial impression of the fuel economy is that it will be quite good. I have 78 miles on it, all but 3 of which I put on myself. Approx. 6 miles of that is on the interstate with the remainder on surface streets. It also has a 5 minute remote start on it. According to the trip computer, I am right at 37 mpg. The fuel gage is barely off full. My Charger would be at 3/4 tank after 78 miles. lol I'm guessing for my 50 mile round trip commute I am going to average around 40 mpg. That is with a 85/15 city/highway split, though admittedly 20 miles of my round trip drive has lights that are very well timed and I typically would only catch a half dozen red lights or so. For reference, my Charger R/T averages 19-20 mpg for the same commute.