Robert Hall

Great tribute, my condolences. Sadly, both pair of my grandparents passed 30 years ago or more, so I only knew one grandmother until I was 8 and my other grandparents until I was 6 and 7 (one grandfather died before I was born). They were tough, hardy, hardworking people from Appalachia (eastern Kentucky mountains). My father passed from cancer in '99 at age 78, my mom is still going, seemingly healthy as a horse, at 77 now..

Not that useful, though...Holden only has the Commodore and Statesman/Caprice lines as unique...the rest of Holden's line is FWD Daewoo crud and Opel rebadges... we have the Commodore as the G8, and the Statesman/Caprice is more of luxury sedan suitable to Buick.

Hmm...I have a saving account with BofA, credit cards w/ Citibank and BofA, and an IRA w/ Wachovia.. and IRAs with Vanguard, Schwab, Fidelity, etc..

Well, as I always say, I'm not negative, I'm realistic. It's not a case of the glass being half full or half empty, there is no glass!

Yeah, sadly, that doesn't seem to fit with GM's mantra of all FWD generics, all the time (except for Cadillac and the Camaro and Corvette). GM is going back to the way it was in the late '90s, I think... all brands with many lines of overlapping FWD blandmobiles.

A coupe could be cool... a small MPV would be nice also...strangely, no one is doing hybird or electric MPVs or minivans in NA yet..

Unfortunately, Pontiac has drifted from any natural mission...the G8 and Solstice are the only models they have of significance, the rest of the line fullfills the current (and future, apparently) mission of providing cheap, sporty FWD rental cars.

Yes..the Volt could supplant the Prius as the hip geek's car of choice... I know plenty of computer geeks that buy Priuses not just to be green, but for the technology..

Caddy needs a coupe and convertible to be competitive w/ the 1 and 3 series, though, as well as the IS and G37 (both of which have convertibles coming).

Yes...Prius seats 5, IIRC. I went out to lunch a few times w/ a coworker w/ a Prius, I'm pretty sure we fit 5 comfortably.

Yeah...drive away and it shuts down...I wonder what 'teh fail' mode for these is?

Maybe it's under the tab that says Volt with some sort of icon on it to the left of the 'shifter' thingy

One neat exterior detail I read is that the power cord plugs in on either side, in front of the mirrors (behind the Volt logo?). Apparently, it can plug into 120 or 240... I wonder if the power cords are like a laptop with the big rectangular thingy that gets hot.

Why? The best Rivieras were RWD... Yes, but remember, GM's brands consider each other competition.... I can't see them cross-shopped either, different target demographics..

Yes...saw the headline on CNN this afternoon....coincidentally, I had listened to about 5 hrs worth of Pink Floyd yesterday afternoon. Will have to listen to more this week...been a fan for about 20 years. He will be missed.

Invalid. The X5, X6, and Z4 come from S. Carolina... The 3-series is not built in the US.

Yes, esp. since they are going to be in the same showroom.. a sporty compact RWD model for Pontiac makes more sense than a RWD entry lux model for Buick.

If you factor out the fleet sales, it probably isn't, though.

Well, Chevy, Pontiac, and Saturn are probably all getting Delta IIs---does GM really need 4 FWD compacts in NA?

Unfortunately, Pontiac is most likely the next to go the way of Oldsmobile...

It has a lot of potential, though.

Well, Cadillac is 2nd only to Chevy in importance...Chevy's the volume brand, Cadillac is trying to grow into being a competitive, world class luxury brand..

I'm surprised...I had assumed Alpha would get cancelled and GM would do something predictable like a Delta or Epsilon II based small Caddy..

Perhaps it's the brand that is hurting it? The target consumers aren't considering a Pontiac? Pontiac isn't exactly known for modern RWD, V8 sports sedans...

I miss Dana Carvey as Perot and Phil Hartman as Ross Perot's running mate on SNL.