Robert Hall

What will be interesting is to see what my generation (X) gets into restoring as they get older...my old car interest is definitely the cars I grew up around from the '70s and '80s...I like many '60s cars also, but the '50s and before are just too far out of my context for me to really get interested in...they are fun to look at at shows, but I don't think I'd want one. My old cars are my '69 Mustang (which my dad bought new and is one year older than I am) and my '87 Mustang GT that I've had since new...I need to drive them more (and not be 1300-2500 miles from them..

I like the interior design...I figure the exterior also is pretty close to production design--add door handles and maybe tweak the wheels and lighting.

What else would it be built on??? SAABs have always been FWD, and the Epsilon II is the newest GM FWD platform.... Wake up. SAAB is too small to get it's own dedicated platform.

Driving from Phoenix back to Denver over the last day, I did see occasionally some oldies...I saw a car hauler near Las Cruces, NM with a load of oldies--red '59 Caddy 4dr, a Metropolitan, a '56 Ford 2dr ht, a late '50s black Corvette, and a lt green '60 Dodge 4dr. Along I-25 in NM, I saw many interesting old cars from the '50s-70s in various states of decay, either in people's yards or abandoned in fields. There is an interesting Shell gas station in northern NM that has a little roped-off car display in it's travel shop with a '51 Chevy Bel Air convertible, '57 Chevy Bel Air convertible, '59 Ford Skyliner, and '53 or '54 Chevy hardtop. Out back they have a purple '51 Chevy sedan delivery.

Well, the # of folks into the 30-40s-50s cars is dwindling (since that crowd is older than the baby boomer muscle car crowd), no doubt, so the shows are going to be reflecting what people are into.

That would have been nice, but I suspect Cadillac would have prevented Buick from having anything that would intrude on it's turf..strong, RWD models from Buick can only hurt Cadillac.

For more trunk space, maybe GM should consider the radical idea of offering a wagon bodystyle on some of the midsizers...maybe Chevy and Saturn (since the Insignia will no doubt have a wagon for Europe).

Yes, I've read that..the wierd thing is in Mexico currently they have the Malibu and the Vectra. And the Astra and Optra, but not the Cobalt...

It looks about as short as the GS or CTS, maybe shorter...such is the trend of the day...I think long decklids went out w/ the Crown Vic and Grand Marquis.

What artist has multiple songs about cars and driving (sometimes as a subplot or reference) including one implying laws are being broken in it's title? This should be easy...this artist's songs often reference his home state.

There is a similarity in front end shape between the Malibu and Insignia, but the details are all different..probably not one exterior part interchanges. To confuse the matter further, though, I wonder if there will be a Chevy Insignia version for some markets, the same way there is a Chevy Vectra in some markets now..

By the way, the dimensions quoted from the USAToday article are: 194.2 length, 114.5 wheelbase, 73.8 width.... the '08 Malibu is 191.8, 112.8, and 70.3 by comparison. Article claims a 2 liter turbo 4cyl with 250 hp w/ 6spd auto (I assume for the US it will be watered down to a 3.9 pushrod V6 w/ 4spd auto -- J/K).

It does look like they will all have different sheetmetal and unique greenhouses, though...like the current Epsilons.. As long as GM isn't sharing exteriors across brands in NA models, that's a good thing.

I hope not...according to Wikipedia, the T-platform lived until 1994 in Brasil. The Vega/Monza/H-cars were NA only, AFAIK... they died out in 1980. The T-platform was pretty versatile, with many body styles and numerous brandings, some badge-engineered, some w/ unique sheetmetal... brands included Chevy (multiple models for different markets, incl. the US), Pontiac, Opel, Buick, Vauxhall, Isuzu, Bedford, Holden, GMC (Argentina), Daewoo and Saehan (S. Korea), Aymesa (Ecuador), and Grumett (Uraguay)...never heard of those last few..

Yes, a modern well engineered RWD 'T-Car' would be interesting..outside the US, the Chevette/T-Car had lots of body styles. Problem is, today, the buying public worldwide is used to FWD in subcompacts and compacts and small RWD cars tend to have poor space utilization (the hump, rear axle, etc takes up space, as does the north-south engine alignment compared to transverse).

True..w/ my cars, I never change the position of the wheel...I could understand if two or more people shared a car, then an adjustable wheel w/ memory settings for it, the mirrors, the seats would be a nice convenience. But with a typical power seat, I can find a comfortable position, so I'm not sure why I would want to telescope the wheel..

Cool..will have to watch for that..

I saw a white '60-61 Falcon today..

Ooh..haven't listened to those guys in ages..

True...if it were RWD it would have some desirability and legitimacy...otherwise, it's just another decent Avis appliance to me.

Maybe 7 Europeans..they are generally smaller than bloated Americans..

Interesting..never had a telescoping wheel....I've had normal tilt wheels and as long the seat adjusts up/down/back/forward/etc I don't see how useful a telescoping wheel would be.

I wouldn't think changing a bunch plastic crap like a fascia, headlights, & grille would require retesting if the underlying structure is unchanged...

Yes..it's like they are stuck in 1992 or so..

That's just marketing talk, though..they will never realistically compete with Lexus w/ pushrod V6s and 4spd automatics.