Robert Hall

I assume they are going for the FWD/AWD subcompact and compact premium market where BMW is going and Audi already is...these models are primarily for Europe and other markets w/ high fuel prices. No...aspiring to build the highest performing luxury sports sedans is consistent w/ the goal of building the best engineered cars available. 'followed'? Cadillac has been doing the following... Mercedes had their AMG sports sedans long before Cadillac had their V-series models. As far as 'non-luxury', maybe true 50 years ago, but in my lifetime Mercedes has been at or near the pinnacle of luxury cars...(w/ the S-class, SL, etc).

wood

Wouldn't that intrude on Cadillac's ATS plans?

On '60s-70s musclecar restorations in recent years, the steelies w/ dog dish hubcaps seems to be a very popular trend..esp. w/ Mopies. I see a lot of them in the mags and at car shows.

It looks better than plastic wheel covers, IMO. For some reason, I see a lot of Nissan Versas this way. I did this myself 20+ years ago in college--in the winters I ran my Mustang LX on 4 snow tires on black steelies..looked good w/ the dark gray paint, IMHO. The rest of the year it had the factory wheels which were strange non-alloy alloys. As far as this look from the factory, I esp. like the black steelies w/ small hubcap look on the Crown Vic PIs and old Impala 9C1s.

Saw a silver CTS coupe today, first one I've seen in the wild. Sharp.

Turned out to need a new coil pack along w/ 1 spark plug. Got that fixed today along w/ the passenger front window--the regulator was broken and the motor dead.

arachnidism

I've been in the hobby off and on since childhood...my older brother got me interested in it when he gave me his old '60s vintage builtups around 1978. I've had some periods where I've built a lot and years where I didn't finish any... starting from about 200 kits built from '78-88, after grad school in '97 I started buying kits again--new ones and old unbuilts and old restorable kits...I have about 1500 unbuilts now and another 300 or so old restorable builtups and unbuilts, going back as far as the AMT/SMP annuals from '58. I love the hobby, really need to spend more time building kits than buying them... I'm not really into customs or hot rods, my favorite types of kits are stock '50s-70s domestic cars (esp. full size), muscle cars, European cars, F1 race cars, some Japanese subjects. I'm pretty active on three of the biggest online modeling forums (Scale Auto Magazine forums, Model Cars Magazine forums, and Spotlight Hobbies message board) and go to local shows/swap meets (and a few national ones like the NNL West now and then). I'll post some pics of some of mine soon..

Saw a black '11 Grand Cherokee this morning, first I've seen on the street..very sharp. Also saw a very sharp black '10 Taurus SHO w/ dark window tint and a set of subtle aftermarket rims that had black spokes.

case

Hmmm..I don't think I've ever photographed the engine compartment of any car I've owned. I think my Jeep has a lot of dusty oily black and silver stuff under the hood.

Nice, but unfortunately they are 1000s of miles away and worlds apart from GM NA's FWD reality.

That old money pit looks like it would need a $30k resto or more to make it nice. Oddly, I like IH Loadstar stake bed and Ford F700 stake bed farm trucks from around 1970. They give me the warm fuzzies..must be part of the idealized memories of childhood in Ohio, or I've been playing too much Farmville. If I had a lot of land or a big barn, I'd like to have one. No idea what I'd use it for, though.

Interesting..the car Oldsmoboi posted has the turn signals between the headlights, like a '67-68 Cutlass. Different trim level (Delmont 88 vs Delta 88)?

Ahhh...there was one of those down the street from me when I was a little kid in Steubenville, Ohio in the '70s...a black '67 Delmont 88 2dr ht. I've seen one of those Auburn replicas, the giveaway to me was the smaller diameter, wider modern wheels and tires (15 inch rims w/ radials instead of the huge '30s style bicycle tires and larger wheels)

I still remember getting rear-ended and broad sided (two hits, same accident) in '94...and seeing it about to happen in the rear view mirror w/ nowhere to go...

Saw the black Audi A7 again yesterday (3rd time in a week, very striking car). Also saw a bight red Pontiac G2...muy caliente Excitement!!! from Mexico!

That is one seriously homely looking truck.

Cool..I have the blue ones and matching blue masks. Wear them when picking up dog doo from the yard at 5:30am the day that the yard guy comes (he doesn't like mowing through poo for some reason).

The good thing about wearing gloves is you don't leave fingerprints.

I'd keep whatever is running and reliable and get rid of the broken stuff.

The are preparing for The Future. China and India are growth markets, the US isn't. With the increase in the CAFE standards coming, the inevitable rise in gas prices down the road, and the greening of consumers, small cars are going to only increase in demand. Today's Malibu shopper is tommorow's Cruze shopper, today's Cobalt shopper is tommorow's Spark or Aveo consumer..

They had money, they spent it all on trucks and SUVs which were the profit centers then and ignored cars.

Back in '02, they were running down the golden path of profit w/ trucks and SUVs, ignoring cars. Lots of woulda, coulda, shoulda...