Drew Dowdell

That is the whole thrust of the lawsuit. Spyker alleges that the deal with Youngman was structured in such a way that GM no longer had the right to interfere.

I still maintain that GM's woes in Europe are not directly capacity related but distribution related. Their dealer network there, across all of the brands they sell in Europe, is woefully inadequate compared to the natives. If anyone has a source of dealership numbers to confirm, I'd love to see it, but my feel is that Opel dealers are outnumbered by VW 4 to 1 in Germany and twice that outside of Germany. In France, Citroen, Peugot, and Renault dominate (of course) but I don't recall seeing a single Opel dealership in the week I was traveling around Paris while I saw multiple installations of the French brands.... and this was one of two Chevrolet dealers I spotted. While I love the vintage Olds, shouldn't there be a new Cruze in the window?

Why? I bet he can charge 25% more or more for one of his mowers that goes through his restore process. If he is making money on it (hope he's turning a good profit) then he's smart, not sick!

We haven't allowed unregistered guest posting for as long as I can remember, so at this point it is just an experiment and have no idea what the results would be. I would only allow it in the brand forums and reviews where MudMonster does most of his posting and we do most of our promoting, not anything like Lounge.

the idea is to encourage more people to post, we have 1,200 visitors a day or more, yet only a small handful of those post anything and most aren't even registered.

they are either deleted or just remain hidden to the general public.

I'm toying with the idea of allowing unregistered users to post to certain forums. The posts would not be visible till after a moderator approves the post. What do you think of the idea?

Thanks for the advice. I did already rebuild the carb. None of the gaskets were able to be reused as they came off in chunks. Internally, the carb looked to be in good shape and clean. I haven't reinstalled the carb on the car yet, that happens tonight.

The choice is obvious... obviously. You want a personal luxury coupe and you're a successful salesman pulling in lots of commission, BUT ostentatious displays of wealth are an easy way to turn off potential customers. You can't get the Eldorado because you would turn off those customers. Get all of the luxury with plenty of subtlety in the Oldsmobile Toronado. I'm not so sure the Fury and Matador belong on the list....are they really luxury coupes?

... or CNG

Daft.

Didn't I read a while back that the 3.6 could be enlarged up to 4.0 by swapping out cylinder sleeves? Chevy could have the 3.6, Buick could have a 3.8 for historical reasons, Caddy could get a 4.0. Boom! The impression of unique engines with minimal cost.

It's only a matter of time.

Isn't the 2.0t putting out roughly the same power as the V8 the last Town Car had though? Running it through a 6-speed auto instead, it should feel roughly the same in power as the outgoing sedan.

Saying that they are the same is akinned to saying the the Toyota Tundra DOHC V8 is the same as the IS-F or LS460 DOHC V8 just because they share the same valvetrain configuration. Why would anyone want to buy a Lexus LS460 or IS-F when the Tundra Pickup uses a DOHC V8?

You know... the real news here is that they are calling the thing a Town Car.....

Cadillac needs to bring back the name "Northstar" even if has nothing at all in common with the Northstars of old. There is name recognition out there for it. It's just like Chrysler using the Hemi name again.

Caliber is dead already

Get a cat.

I have a Dodge Caliber as my rental for a few days with 40k miles on it. It is an absolute pile... the best thing Dodge could have done is take it out back and shoot it. But that got me thinking, even just since the Caliber, the quality of vehicles has improved dramatically. So sound off, what are the worst new cars in production and on sale today?

that requires comments only appropriate for the politics forum.

a 5 liter hybrid that gets 30mpg? I get 30mpg out of a Hemi on the highway.

A friend of mine's brother owns a company that modifies GTRs into insanely fast machines. I visited the facility a few weeks ago and the sights there were simply awesome. They are getting 1,200 hp out of these engines. (if you read Jalopnik, they did a story on the company a few weeks ago also). they are moving to a new facility soon, and I may go out to do a story on them and their new space.

We'll be doing a Roadmasters version of this car in a few weeks as well when Abert and I take a TDI on a 1,000 mile trip.

Why are you rebuilding it? Some problems will be fixed by rebuilding, but others can be adjusted out. Judging from your mechanical prowess, I would say try it. The rebuild kits are $35 and aren't as complicated as we think they are... I would also replace any vacuum or solenoid parts on the outside. I would check how much play you have where the butterfly pivots are... and see if the kit has bushings that can be installed, otherwise, this can become a vacuum leak once you clean out the carb. Buying a second carb for cheap might be a good idea if you think you have bent parts (or just rebuilding the second carb, so you limit your downtime). I've rebuilt 2 carbs in my days... about 18~20 years ago when I was much more the newb (and didn't have the Internet as a crutch)... the first one was a Monojet and it came out so-so... but the carb was really clapped out. The second was an older Quadrajet and it came out sweet. I would have rebuilt more, but my '80s cars didn't really need it... and then fuel injection became the norm. It was a very satisfying process. The reason for the rebuild is this: the throttle position sensor is bad and it is buried deep enough into the carb that if you're digging that deep you might as well do a full rebuild. This carb model also has an issue with gas leakdown requiring epoxy on 4 spots under the carb. I don't think there is anything drastically wrong with the carb other than being 30 years old and pushing 100k miles. The leakdown does make her run a bit rich and it isn't something you can adjust out.