Drew Dowdell

My week with a Lacrosse e-Assist driving to detroit and back runs completely counter to that. In fact, I would prefer that power train in the Terrain I have this week.

I don't doubt that the drop is there, but I'd like to see what I get back to with the new alternator first.

As you know, last night the server experienced some major issues again. Well today, I approached a person recommended to me by other people who run this same software. On the forum for IP.Board admins that I frequent, Gary is often mentioned as a savior. Well, today he did just that for us. The problem last night wasn't that Cheers and Gears doesn't have enough server. No, in fact, the server we have is way more powerful than we really need. By my calculations, we could be 5 to 6 times our current size and traffic levels.... if the server is configured properly. Essentially, we have a Z-06 engine under the hood here. And there in was our problem. I am an I.T. guy... but I'm not a Linux server specialist. My specialties are elsewhere. My bad habit of breaking C&G while trying to fix something on the server left me rather gun shy about configuring the server any more than what it comes with out of the box. Well what comes "out of the box" in a Linux web server is like a set of Pep Boy special 14" wheels and mechanical wooden brakes. With all of that power combined with base model server configuration, it was only a matter of time till bad things started happening. My solution in the past was to simply throw more power at the C&G server until it worked right, but it was costing me a huge amount of money for way more power than we should need. After last night's crash, I'd had enough. I knew that we had way more power than was needed to run a site of our size and traffic.. and I wasn't going to just throw more power at it anymore. Enter Gary. Now guys, this is where I want you to read. Gary does these repairs and tuneups for people on a completely donation basis. He asks no up front fee. All he asks is that people donate back to him relative to the level of service improvement they see. Gary worked for over 9 hours today, with almost no notice, first repairing our database, then tuning up the server to properly utilize its power, installing additional software that will enhance our speed, and installing a circuit breaker to prevent any one thing from bringing down the entire site. In short, both our speed and reliability will be like nothing C&G has ever had before. Gary has also offered to come to our rescue again should the need arise. Because of Gary's efforts, we will now be able to slash our server costs nearly in half. For the next few months, I will be sending him that half of our savings. I hope you all will leave Gary a note of thanks here and if you can spare $5 or $10, that you might send him some monetary thanks via paypal for his efforts here today. You can paypal him at GaryThomasUK at talktalk dot net - Format it as a proper email address before you send, I did it that way so he doesn't get flooded with spam. Click here to view the article

Toyota has been talking a lot of smack lately for a company that just got bitchslapped 18 months ago. I mean, when do you remember Toyota ever going around saying "Oh... next time we'll be better than Buick/VW/BMW/Fiat" ..... and all in one car.

LOL

What is with the new Japanese luxury models all looking like they are sucking a lemon? Infinity and Lexus both have this design element in their grills.

I'm not even certain that Opel has a problem. It is an accounting issue. GME should be charging GMNA GMDAT and GMAU for the use of the platforms it develops. That GMNA choses to keep the money in north america is entirely a Political/Financial move.

With a smaller Terrain, I could see a pumped up 2.5T AWD as a Typhoon edition. Metallic black, Windows blacked out, the suspension tweeked to ride tight and the monochromatic version or at least a black chrome version to give it that sweet Darth Vader look. well. I don't think they will turbo the 2.5 directly. There will be a smaller displacement engine of the same family that will be turboed. It might even end up being another turbo 2.0, but entirely different from the current one.

Walking into a Buick dealer in 4 years, the CUV lineup may look something like this. Buick Encore - Gamma GMC Terrain - Delta-Gama Buick Something - Theta-Epsilon - SWB GMC Acadia - Theta-Epsilon-LWB Buick Enclave - Lambda All premium vehicle with equipment above what you get in a same size/platform Chevy if one exists.

It was the new re-man alternator. The diodes were bad. What do ya want for $13? Ordered a reman A/C Delco with lifetime warranty. Should be here tomorrow.

I'm not sure the Terrain will ever get a V6 larger than the 3.0. The Terrain is going down in size/weight slightly for the next generation making room for a slightly smaller/lighter Acadia. I could very well see such a vehicle getting the 2.5/2.0T combination eschewing the V6 all together.

An executive who really is a car guy. Z-06 and I met him at NAIAS one year. The list of classics he owns would make most of this forum swoon. He knows his stuff. Just as brash as Lutz, just not as loud.

he is making fun of me being vegitarian for a week.

It's not dead yet.... it's just resting.

I'm not saying I'm not impressed with the V6. I'm just saying that for the fuel economy penalty, especially on the AWD edition, I would expect more torque and thus less transmission hunting on hills. Switching to the 3.6, even just tuned to 280hp like in the Lambdas, would be an improvement. The 3.0 has never been a steller performer for fuel economy in any vehicle it has been in. Going from the 3.0 to the 3.6 costs you nothing in fuel efficiency but gains you a lot in power.

Direct injection + turbo seems to be the killer combination. The DI-Turbo ecotec 2.0 and the Ford Ecoboost V6 both have all of their torque available way down low. The 3.5 liter Ford is something like 350 ft-lb at 1,750rpm (off the top of my head, but close). That makes the AWD Lincoln MKS Ecoboost launch forward like you just engaged warp drive. V8? What V8?

and yes... go into it assuming you'll eat tires and brake.... it is an SS afterall.... what price are they asking?

This and the 9-7x, despite not being very Saabish, are considered the two best incarnations of the GMT-360 platform.

Sports Activity Cross Coupe-Wagon

That concept has been done... just hasn't been put in production yet. The Volt is sort of a beta version in this regard. A better engine of smaller capacity would have improved mileage further. It would be even more amazing with a <1 liter turbo diesel.

I'm wondering why the developments to the ICEs haven't trickled into hybrids to make them even better. The Pruis, the current Fusion, the Volt..... none have direct injection. None have low boost turbo charging with direct injection. The new Camry Hybrid comes with the same 2.5 liter 4-cylinder as the base 4-cylinder, albeit slightly de-tuned. For real fuel savings, that engine should be downsized to somewhere around 1.8 liters with direct injection and light turbo added.

I giant case of so what. GME bleeds money like a stuck pig and has little hope of changing that while Opel continues to build cars. Which is more a case of poor accounting of allocation of costs on GM's part. You can't put most/all of the development burden on one division and then not reflect the profits from those developments back to that same division. Who gets to count the profits from the Regal? I bet it is Buick and not Opel... but close to 100% of Regal development was done by GME. It was even built there for the first year. The Verano is almost entirely Opel with some extra QuietTuning thrown in. Buick gets to count the profits from that even though GME did most of the development. That said, the same applies to the Camaro v. Holden and likely true with the ATS (though I believe the development of the overall car was more 50/50 split with GMNA) You don't give enough credit to GM-Opel for what they do to make the rest of GM profitable. Entire lineups of cars in North America would be missing without their work. Without Opel, Chevy would be - Impala, Camaro, Colorado, Traverse and GMT-900s. Buick would be Enclave. Blame GM's bean counters. They are the real ones at fault here.

Camino, there are rather rabid Reatta clubs out there. It's probably worth more than you think.

I'd hit it, but I'd have to find a way to change out that steering wheel....

Fit and finished has improved over the 2010 Terrain I had two years ago. Maybe I had an earlier production vehicle back then. The fit issues I complained about then aren't there on this one. Road noise isn't Buick quiet, but it is close. You can hear a bit more engine than in a Buick. I don't know there is any vehicle that you can drive for 10 hours straight and not feel worn out. On the open road, this feels fine. I'm not planning any roadtrips in it. This does have remote start. The blind spots aren't bad. GMC put the small convex mirrors on the outside to aide in that. The back up camera in this Terrain displays on the NAV screen rather than in the rear view mirror like Walt's. The V6 is nice and smooth across the RPM band, exhaust is oddly tuned so that it has a sound with a hint of 3800 in there. People familiar with the 3800 will notice, people not familiar with it wont. The cruise control works as it should, but here in hilly Western PA, the transmission still has to downshift more often than I would like for a V6. I would expect it for a 4-cylinder, but if I'm paying extra for a V6 both on the sticker and at the pump, I want the power when I want it. I'm mixed on the buttons on the center stack. Once you learn them they are fine.... once you learn them. $36k sticker and there are a few things I think are missing that should be there. I HATE lane departure warning and crash avoidance warning. I leave them turned on just to annoy me and remind me how much I hate them. I don't think it would matter what car I was in, I simply do not like these features. MPG may not be a fair test on this one as I'm using the remote start often on account of the very cold weather we are having here. Rear seat leg room is almost luxury sedan like.