Drew Dowdell

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.

I had hope that the Bulli would get released.... but then all of those "It Gets Better" videos were release to combat bulli-ing.

January 16th, 2012 - Drew Dowdell - CheersandGears.com In a statement released on Friday the American Automotive Policy Council (AAPC), a political action committee formed by General Motors, Chrysler Group, and Ford Motor Company, announced opposition to Japan joining the currently running Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade negotiations. The original members of the TPP formed in 2006 are Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore. From 2008 to 2010, five additional countries, Australia, Malaysia, Peru,United States, and Vietnam, announced they had entered negotiations to join the trade pact. On November 11, 2011, Japan’s Prime Minister announce his country’s intention to join the negotiations. AAPC’s objection to Japan’s entry into the negotiations stems from Japan’s closed automotive market. They claim that 70% of the U.S. trade deficit with Japan comes from the auto industry with 201 cars exported from Japan for every 1 car imported. The Japanese car market had sales of over 4.7 million vehicles in 2010, however only 225,000 of those were imports. Of that, only 8,000 of the imported cars were built in the United States contrasting sharply with the 1.5 million vehicles that Japan exported to the U.S. Japanese officials claim that the reason imported vehicles don’t sell well in Japan is because they don’t meet the diminutive size needs of the Japanese customer. Most Japanese parking spaces and garages will only fit sub-compact or micro cars which are not a specialty of U.S. manufacturers. While the Japanese claim against U.S. manufacturers may hold some water, that claim falls flat against manufacturers from other parts of Asia and the European Union. Indeed, South Korean auto manufacturer Hyundai stated in 2009 that they would withdraw from the Japanese market after only moving 1,875 cars per year. AAPC is suggesting a two year “time out” before Japan is allowed to enter negotiations. During which time AAPC wants to see drastic changes for rules regarding imports that honor an agreement signed by the U.S. and Japan in 1995. In Japan, the TPP is causing controversy as well particularly among the agricultural community. Japan protects its agricultural businesses with high tariffs on imported food products and subsidies for domestically grown ones. The tariff on imported rice is set a 777.7%, wheat is 252%, and sugar is 325%. The proposed removal of those tariff as part of the TPP agreement has been causing more headaches for the already increasingly unpopular Japanese Prime Minister Noda. On Thursday, 6 members of Noda’s own political party told U.S. officials that despite PM Noda’s enthusiasm for the treaty, they would vote against it and Japan’s Parliament would not ratify it. Source: American Automotive Policy Council, The International News Photo Credit: Gobierno de Chile View full article

well they've shared resources on transmissions before.

email sent this DIRECTLY effects the future of Cheers and Gears.

Oh noez!!! you got mud on a jeep!?!

Happy Birthday Croc

One of the nice things about being a webmaster is with the right tools you can find out what your visitors are interested in without them telling you directly. With these tools, I can learn what the people who visit this website are interested in by the search term they used on Google to lead them here. Out of all models from any brand currently in production, none bring more visitors to Cheers and Gears than people searching for information on the GMC Terrain. Armed with that knowledge, I requested one from the GM Press fleet and they delivered this 2012 Terrain SLT-2 with AWD and nearly every bell and whistle you can think of for your reviewing enjoyment. One of the first things that struck me about the 2012 model is how much firmer the suspension feels. We've had both a 2010 GMC Terrain and its brother a 2010 Chevrolet Equinox in the past. Both of which were noted for their comfortable, car-like ride. I'm not implying that the 2012 Terrain has an uncomfortable ride, but let us just call it more "Professional Grade". The Terrain is GMC's entry into the mid-size crossover segment. However there is no smaller CUV in GMC's stable. In fact, no brand from General Motors offers a CUV smaller than the Terrain/Equinox siblings at least until the sub-compact 2013 Buick Encore joins the lineup sometime early next year. This Terrain came equipped with a 264 horsepower, direct injected, 3.0 liter V6. While that sounds okay on paper, things aren't so hot when you read the torque figure. You get just 222 ft-lb of torque at 5100 rpm. That relative lack of torque means the transmission is on a constant Easter Egg hunt for just the right gear. Equipped with all wheel drive, the Terrain V6 is rated an almost GMC Acadia like 16/22 city/highway. So what are your other engine options? Well there is the 2.4 liter direct injected Ecotec 4-cylinder rated at 182 horsepower and 172 ft-lb of torque. That engine won't get you there faster than the V6, but you'll at least be getting 22/29 city/highway. While the V6 is smooth enough, I've had a good enough experience with the 2.4 4-cylinder to tell you to skip the V6 in favor of the 4 and pocket the savings at the fuel pump. So that's it for the drive for now. We'll cover the interior and other options in future updates. In the meantime, gear up your questions for this 2012 GMC Terrain SLT-2. View full article