Robert Hall

It would be interesting to see if GM could produce something of similar size, weight and performance.

The next Compass/Patriot is supposed to be based on the current 4x4 Panda, I think?

Hopefully they aren't working on using the Fiat 500 platform for the next Wrangler...

The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection for Lexus, The Relentless Pursuit of Ordinary for Toyota.

Toyota remains the people's choice...no surprise.

That Eschelman Sport looks more like a child's car than anything roadable. The video for it on eBay is pretty amusing.. Speaking of that Tiger van, there is a 4dr pickup of a similar sort parked at a business I drive by everyday...thought about stopping to see what it is, but it's on the opposite side of a busy 6 lane street..

Haters gotta hate, that's how they roll. Anyhoo, the Destino idea is quite interesting..maybe GM could acquire Fisker...the Destino could be an interesting Panamera competitor for Corvette if modified a bit....(the Karma reminds me a lot of what a 4dr Corvette could look like).

The line 'The three Chryslers and two Dodges will become Fiats' says to me they want to expand the Fiat presence in NA (and also re-introduce Alfa-Romeo). This could be part of a plan to turn Dodge and Chrysler into smaller niche brands like SRT....or the minimizing of platform sharing w/ Fiat could be so they can be sold off or folded if needed. Likewise for separating Ram from Dodge a couple years ago...

Liberty was a misguided attempt to cash in on the 'America, rah-rah' faux patriotism of the '00s, IMO.. keeping it Cherokee here would have made a lot more sense.

That's on my to do list...I've driven many spectacular roads in Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico, but that one seems to in a class by itself. I've driven some incredible roads near the Columbia River in Oregon...pines and snow capped mountains...

If you drive 400 miles per day on a routine basis, then the Model S isn't for you. For the 99.9% of the population who don't, then it's a fine car that will deal with all sorts of real world driving conditions and easily handle the occasional day trip thanks to its network of Superchargers. Chances are, if you can afford a $60K luxury car, the time costs of spending 8 hours on the road in a day are too great. Six hours are about the limit for me, and even so, I'd need to stop for food. Anymore than that -- I'm flying. Yep....I'm not going to waste a day getting to my destination unless it's a road trip. Last year I went to a number of races (Indy 500, Sonoma, Fontana, Long Beach) and other trips (San Diego, San Francisco, Ohio, Denver) that I didn't want to waste vacation days on driving from Phoenix when flying + rental car is cheap enough....maybe it's easier for some in the East where everything is close together but the West is very spread out and driving long distances is dull and time consuming. I might take more road trips if I lived in LA or Chicago or the East Coast, but in Phoenix it's a minimum of 400 miles across the void to any place I'd be interested in going, so I usually always fly.. Hell you have to be nuts to drive to anywhere from Phoenix to anywhere other than Vegas. Back east here in many cases with the way the airlines work you can get to many cities faster driving than flying. Direct flights to some cities are not alway cheap. Going to CA I will always fly but once I am there I drive. Too many places to stop and visit on the way to many of the places I go. I normally hit many of the Race shops and companies we deal with in CA, Give me a week and I can cover a lot of ground. I know the freeway system pretty good. Also the drive up the PCH is one not to be missed. Never driven to Vegas..flown there a couple times.... if it's more than 3 hours to drive somewhere, I'd rather fly unless the drive was part of the objective...usually I'm on a 3 day weekend and the target location is the objective... usually it's something like a race weekend w/ a side trip to the wine country, a weekend at the beach, a weekend in SF or Denver, or visiting family in Ohio. When I went to the Indy Car race in Fontana last fall, though, I drove over since I had side trips to Santa Monica and Palm Springs planned. But I rented a Yukon since I wouldn't drive across the void in my own vehicles which have over 100k miles. Driving the PCH/Hwy I is fun, I've driven parts of it..I've enjoyed driving San Diego to Newport Beach and Monterey to San Francisco and northward. I'd like to take a road trip sometime from San Diego all the way up to Washington..I've driven some of the Oregon coast before.

I try and never watch the Super Bowl ads until the game itself... more fun that way.

If you drive 400 miles per day on a routine basis, then the Model S isn't for you. For the 99.9% of the population who don't, then it's a fine car that will deal with all sorts of real world driving conditions and easily handle the occasional day trip thanks to its network of Superchargers. Chances are, if you can afford a $60K luxury car, the time costs of spending 8 hours on the road in a day are too great. Six hours are about the limit for me, and even so, I'd need to stop for food. Anymore than that -- I'm flying. Yep....I'm not going to waste a day getting to my destination unless it's a road trip. Last year I went to a number of races (Indy 500, Sonoma, Fontana, Long Beach) and other trips (San Diego, San Francisco, Ohio, Denver) that I didn't want to waste vacation days on driving from Phoenix when flying + rental car is cheap enough....maybe it's easier for some in the East where everything is close together but the West is very spread out and driving long distances is dull and time consuming. I might take more road trips if I lived in LA or Chicago or the East Coast, but in Phoenix it's a minimum of 400 miles across the void to any place I'd be interested in going, so I usually always fly..

heh-heh..with that one, the plate refers to the car probably, for me it would refer to my work life...though w/ my current consulting gig, I don't have a cube...

Well the Dakota has been gone for a while, so I think it's closer to the midsize and fullsize approach Toyota and Nissan have.. the new Colorado is still not as big as the Dakota, Frontier, or Tacoma, though...if these dimensionsfrom Wikipedia are accurate: Wheelbase 3,096 mm (121.9 in) Length 5,367 mm (211.3 in) Width 2,132 mm (83.9 in) Height 1,785 mm (70.3 in)

On my commute this morning I saw a gray Nissan Cube with the license plate I should have registered---'Cubical'.

Neither car is the answer but the ELR is more inline with working with the daily driving needs and single car needs of the real world driver. Cadillac will not only offer the market the ELR but we will also have a nice choice of the ATS, New CTS and LTS. Next the new Escalade, SRX and small SUV to be anouncesd. There will be more than just these according to the reports. People who need to travel across the U.S. usually fly. The Model S's range is plenty for any sane human being with a bladder. True enough....I enjoy road trips, but in reality when I need to get somewhere 400, 500, 1000, 1500 or more miles away, I fly..driving is too time consuming. Real world use for me is at most 50 miles a day. I rarely go on trips in the 100-400 mile range because I've already been there (desert void).

How large is it compared to the competition..i.e. the Tacoma and Frontier?

There is something seriously screwed up when a full size truck w/ v8 is that cheap yet the cheapest RWD V8 cars are more than twice that..

Speaking of the Encore, I was presently surprised when I checked one out at Barrett-Jackson last weekend...very nice interior, seems well put together inside and out. Juke seems more targeted to the kids, who would be cross shopping the Kia Soul and Scions..

Lexus will probably get a version. Toyota already has the 'xd', but it's not as out there styling wise as the Juke.

The Ford B-Max (or a version w/ more ground clearance and mini-Escape styling) would make sense here also..the mini-CUV niche seems to be growing.. Maybe call it 'Evasion' to fit w/ the Escape naming theme..

I was thinking Juke competitor in terms of size and spec, agreed it's not as edgy styling wise...

Chevy has a Juke competitor, but is afraid to sell it in the US (probably concerned about it cutting into Equinox and Encore sales).

Congrats..