Robert Hall

The key to CF in the future is to cut the production time and labor. Who ever does this opens the door to the future. Teijin GM's new partner has a way of making CF Thermo plastics and they can do cycle times in under one minute. Conventional CF Thermosetting composites take much longer and in this deal time is money and the ability to do great volumes are limited. I expect even more things will come into play. Even with the cost savings I expect the price of these new cars to climb with the need for these more expensive materials to cut weight. At this point they have no choice. Here is what GM put out to the media on their new partnership. http://media.gm.com/...Dec/1208_teijin In the short term, yes prices will rise, but long term they will drop as the technology that is going into the total CF plan DreamLiner is being used to scale down costs and speed up creation of CF parts. I think with a solid work force, we will see this happen sooner rather than later. Check out the opening of the Moses Lake BMW CF plant. http://www.bizjourna...rbon-fiber.html Check out the pictures, the best are the one of the new BMW M6 bumper and the I3 Body made of CF. Really cool stuff. http://www.torquenew...t-moses-lake-wa That's pretty cool...interesting that BMW would open a plant in Washington..seems like an off-the-radar location for an auto-related plant...does carbon naturally occur there or something?

That's just one detail...the glass door inserts have been around at least since the Lamborghini Marzal concept of around 1970. The BMW concept is as futuristic and strange relative to today's production cars as the finned fantasies of your decade were to the production cars then... It would reduce the center of gravity, probably have better handling...lots of concepts and mfgrs have been looking at motors in the wheels...it wouldn't surprise me to see a production car in the next decade w/ electric motors in the wheels...

I wouldn;t be surprised if it was aftermarket. car mascots, much like flags, are always supposed to be charging. Most likely...pretty sure the Vanden Plas and 'VDP' badging usage are bogus also, IIRC Jag had a Vanden Plas version of the XJ but not the X-type....and Vanden Plas was a coachbuilder and a car brand long ago..

And saw a white iQ this afternoon, along w/ a bright green Spark...

Yes, same with accessory companies, parts suppliers, etc...there are many companies that get early access to new cars...I would think there would be NDAs involved, but there will always be leaks..

'Eldorado 2-dr Seville' ??? Unless you're talking about '56-60 (and I know that you are not), that's rather mixed-up. A 2-dr Seville would be as much an 'Eldorado' as it would a Camaro. You are being too literal...not badged as a Seville, but a 2dr coupe variation badged as an Eldorado. After all, the Seville and Eldorado were essentially 4dr and 2dr versions of the same car (with styling variations, but the same dirty bits, common dashboards,etc) for 3 generations...('79/80-85, 86-91,'92-98/02). What if Cadillac had downsized the Eldo in '75-76 to use the Seville platform? Picture a 2dr coupe version w/ a crisp roofline w/ Eldo cues like the quarter window shape, narrow vertical taillights, etc... I've seen some custom built 2dr coupe and convertible 1st gen Sevilles but they were all amateur hour with short 4dr doors...the nicest conversion was the San Remo convertible, I remember one a magazine years ago.. http://autocollections.com/index.cfm?id=3229&action=details&tab=sold

Lots of visually interesting concept cars in recent years, one that really stands out I can think of is the BMW i8...very futuristic and strange... or the red Ford something concept last year...

Are there really many dealers left? I don't see any positive value in the brand name. Probably most of the dealers closed by now, but they could be reopened. The brand had it's fans....better than creating a new brand from scratch...

Aren't the BMW Intelligent Dynamics i products (i3, i8) supposed to have a lot of CF in them?

I could see SAAB as an entry-lux FWD brand for BMW, functioning like Acura, Buick, and Lincoln do today for their owners....

Everything had CB radios as optional in the late '70s....IIRC, my Dad's '79 Lincoln Continental had one..

Nice...don't see these very often in any condition...there are a couple ragged ones I see bombing around occasionally but that's about it. Always liked the proportions of these cars...too bad they didn't do an Eldorado 2dr version..

PSA has JVs already w/ Fiat for MPVs, Mitsubishi for SUVs, and Toyota for minicars..sounds like this could be something like that for unspecified hardware or product.

BMW has plenty of spare cash and really needs a brand that would allow it to sell more small to medium-sized front-wheel drive cars without diluting the brand image of Mini or BMW and without over-crowding the BMW portfolio. Saab could be that brand at a fire sale price, provided BMW presents a solid buisness plan. Medium-sized cars aren't a good fit for Mini and small front-drive cars are a bad fit for BMW. In fact, I don't think BMW is exactly happy about their decision to make the next 1er a front-wheel drive model, only making the choice light of new fuel economy regs. I see your point yet, why not pull a Scion then and have BMW badge their FWD auto's on a new name and sell it through the BMW or mini dealership. They could easily have built a show floor within a showfloor for this market. No differance than a GMC/Buick Dealership or Toyota/Scion dealership. I do not see enough good karma in SAAB to buy it up even at fire sale prices and try to bring it back. I see it as a black hole, but then I coud be wrong. Would not be the first time. SAAB is an existing brand with existing dealers and existing customer base...probably much cheaper to pick up an existing brand than try and create one from scratch...and SAAB has manufacturing facilities and people w/ experience in midsize FWD models.

Sort of an E 'Green Series'. Now what would be interesting would be a E-superlight w/ the AMG drivetrain...2800lbs + 500hp...

Carbon fiber chassis and body, and possbily a fuel cell powertrain. They expect to only make 20,000 globally per year. So it will probably be $150k...back down to earth, we could expect a normal $50k E-class to be 3500-3800lbs or so?

M-B has been working on active suspension for 25 years or more...I remember reading articles on in the late '80s...good stuff.

Saw a red Scion iQ this mornign...strange tiny car. Also saw a very clean pale green w/ black top '74 Olds 98.

Speaking of odd badging, was behind a current style F150 today that had Z71 decals on the rear fenders...

They'd better offer it with a manual...

depends if the new CTS wont be out for five more model years MY 2014, I think..

Nah, Swiss car builder Franco Sbarro...responsible for such wild ideas as these..

Rinspeed always has something wild to show...often as nutty as the concepts from Sbarro...

Hmmmm.....a Mini/SAAB/BMW/Roller range actually sort of make sense...

I just ran the same search for your area within 50, 100, and 200 miles and couldn't replicate the madness I'm seeing out here on the East Coast. What the hell is up with that? I guess dealers out here must be extra-super evil or something. Well, the East Coast has rust, fewer in clean condition (assuming all the pricey ones are very clean). And they are less common (less demand) here (a lot more Hondas and Toyotas in general out here).