Drew Dowdell

February 14th, 2012 - Drew Dowdell - CheersandGears.com Michiganers will soon be able to get around a little faster without risking a speeding ticket. The US Department of Transportation has approved Amtrak to run 80 miles of the 97 mile section between Kalamazoo, MI and Porter, IN at 110mph, the first such service outside of Amtrak's North East Corridor. This move comes after the successful implementation of Incremental Train Control System (ITCS) along this section of the route. The two routes that use this section of line are Amtrak's thrice round trip daily Wolverine service, service Ann Arbor, Detroit, and Pontiac to the east and Chicago to the west, and the Amtrak Blue Water train with daily service east to Lansing and Port Huron and west to Chicago. Amtrak began upgrading this line above the Federal speed limit of 79mph in 2001 to 90mph with an additional limit increase to 95mph in 2005. The new 110mph service will take 10 minutes off the current schedule and is an improvement of 20 minutes over the 79mph schedule. Amtrak President Joseph Boardman pointed out that this is just the first of two 110mph spokes from Chicago, the other being a planned line from Chicago to St. Louis. Further development of the Michigan line will include 110mph service from Kalamazoo to Dearborn Amtrak ended its fiscal year 2011 in October with a record 30.18 million riders. The Blue Water and Wolverine ridership ended the fiscal year up 18.6% and 4.4% respectively. Revenues for the trains were up 22.3% and 11%. Updated schedules are to be announced at a later date. Source: Amtrak Media Relations View full article

Price it closer to the CTS-V coupe and I'd give it a hell yeah, but knowing there the price is likely going to fall and comparing performance per dollar, I can only give it a "meh" and then wander back to the Cadillac display.

A few of the big trucks are exceptions just because they have such large tanks. The biggest sellers like Camry, Accord, Corolla, Sonata, and Cruze top out between 350 - 400 miles cruising range in non-hybrid form.

Well, I could... but I agree with you on the naming.

Why such a high bar for electrics to surpass? 1,000 miles on a charge? Our CR-V barely gets 260 on a fill-up around town. I don't think most Americans expect more than about 350 miles to a tank.

all this does is get the look in line with the rest of the lineup, it really adds nothing much new to the game.

Actually some of the funniest things about the Versa were the sounds it made. Please do share, after all we do find sounds especially body function sounds to be funny in the US. Just watch Rocket Man to see how funny sounds can be. Chris and I were actually talking about doing a video of all of the bad noises it makes..... all before turning the key.

I wonder if 2.5 production can't be ramped up fast enough to cover all of these vehicles at once.

Happy Birthday CD

A what now??

There is a lot more to performance than 0-60 measurements. In normal driving, the gearing is such that you'd think there is a small 6 under the hood. Perhaps you're talking about the eAssist Regal, because I've driven the base version and thought it was incredibly sluggish. Nope, and even BV will back me up on this one.

ok, I had to read that 3 times and I'm still not sure I got it.....

It doesn't have DOHC which is what all the Germans are doing and they are the bestest at everything so this automatically must suck. If cars were meant to have turbines, BMW or Mercedes would have invented it first.

Kia, you haven't market tested that name in the US have you? That said, the designer Kia stole from Audi clearly has eyes on BMW.

Officially? I don't believe so... only side talk

just over 5'10"

So, verse the CTS-V: All those extra cams and valves and turbos get you.... 4 more horsepower 50 lb-ft less of torque 0.3 seconds slower to 60 verse the auto (in spite of one extra gear) 0.1 seconds slower to 60 verse the manual And keep in mind that the 650i coupe is already the exact same weight as the CTS-V, adding all the extra M junk will make it weigh more. And for the privilege, you get to pay twice the price. Thanks, I'd rather have his and his CTS-V Coupe and Wagon for the same price.

February 13, 2012 - Drew Dowdell - CheersandGears.com Earlier in January of this year, General Motors' North American President Mark Reuss tipped his hand a bit with regards to the upcoming Chevrolet Coloroado suggesting that it would be a "lifestyle sport truck" in the vein of the Honda Ridgeline but with all of the capability a buyer would expect of a Chevrolet truck. Though the Colorado won't be released in the US until around the 2013 time frame, it has already begun being marketed in Thailand where it is available with a drool worthy 2.8 liter V6 Duramax. Over the weekend, one of our readers, Ocnblu, sent us a tip about a few Chevy Colorado promotional videos that showed up on youtube. We have to say, that the Colorado is clearly the best actor in these commercials, so ignore the rest of the cheese. You might want to turn the volume down a bit on these. Chevy Colorado - Best of the Century Isuzu D-Max V-Cross 2.8 Duramax Technical Overview Click here to view the article

Not any smaller or lighter than the ATS.

And before that, they had a RWD appliance...

I drove a mini-clubman on friday with 25K miles. It was a rattling pile.

Electronic content like sync doesn't matter if it is in a car like the Fusion. It's a "mom" car.

uh, the government forced no one to take a loan. Again, Fannie and Freddie had lending requirements that the private banks did not. They were still more restrictive than private banks even after they got the regulations lifted. I'm not saying they were innocent, but they certainly were not the cause. Now Today, they are being used as vehicles to bail out the banks. The banks are dumping their toxic mortgages on F&F with the government's encouragement.