Drew Dowdell

Cruze easily for me - I value the smoothness and quietness that it has which both of the others lack (though the Civic is close in engine smoothness)

Can I ask why the 4-cylinder would remain iron block?

No more than $70. Roll of dimes is $5, and you're not getting more than 14 rolls of dimes in a mason jar.

I don't understand what really would need to even be changed for retail sale. I'm not saying that GM should advertise it and market it like the Malibu. But the people who want one should be able to walk in and buy one. If there is enough of a business case to import the thing here for the police fleets, there is enough of a business case to load a couple extra on the boat for civilian duty to be sold at full MSRP. The repair parts will have to be made available soon for the second hand market anyway.

check the robustness of the front inner fenders, they have a tendency to rot and wouldn't pass inspection that way.

The "uphill" part may have been what killed me...... btw, I didn't say it wast a fast race..,.

I was wondering where you disappeared to. I'm hearing rumor that Buffalo's Central Terminal is going to be added as part of a high speed train line from NYC to Chicago. You hear anything about that? I figure my next big trip will be out west... not sure how I'd manage doing that in a train. Maybe get the GF on board (no pun intended) with a hybrid train trip out there, and a road trip back in some newly-acquired rust-free California classic. I have been living in Marriots for most of the past 3 weeks. I've been in Dallas, Houston, Chicago, back home and Chicago again. If you go out west (or take any big Amtrak trip for that matter) talk to me first. I have all the tips and tricks on finding good deals on rooms. Right now the Empire Builder that runs from Chicago to Seattle is closed indefinitely due to flooding. There is no proposed high speed line between Chicago and NYC that is even passed the "dream" stage at this point. Almost all of the new high speed work is going to be radiating out of Chicago for now because Chicago and Illinois have the vision of increased commerce and travel into the state. The first line to be completed will run from St. Louis to Chicago in 2:45. You can't beat that with an airline. The other one will be a mid-highspeed rail (not true HSR, but still 110mph) between Detroit/surrounding area and Chicago.

I'm thinking it was gearing. It was my great grandfather's car. Despite being quite wealthy and president of a large company, he was also very frugal. It was a mildly optioned Caprice Classic, and I can see him in 1982 after the fuel crises ordering the V6 Caprice with the tallest gearing possible so as to get good highway mileage.

I"ve seen that too. There was an old B-Body website years ago that had that. The owner even swapped out the steering wheel and airbag covers with ones from an 88 I think.

*shrug* I dont think many people would. I see them in person around Detroit all time and they couldn't look more bland. Past that, the cost of importing them would really harm the business case. I think the point that I was trying to make was that GM is already importing them for Police use. If a few people are willing to pay $35k for a "detective" unit, GM should take the money and run. Why would they care where the money comes from as long as it's green? As for parts, the parts will already be here to support the police departments.

If people will buy it, why should GM say no?

GM's "DUH" meter is at redline.

Only 52mpg? He must be racing it. As an aside, it was when I was passed, up hill, by a similar vintage Rabbit diesel while I had my foot pinned to the floor in my '83 Caprice 3.8 litre that I resolved to be rid of that car ASAP....... but it did get 30mph highway.

problem solving, trouble shooting, inventiveness. I've been on the road for the most of the last 3 weeks. I came up with an invention during the trip that would be something GM in particular would be interested in that improves efficiency of an engine. I already know that it works, I just don't know how to go about developing the idea.

Here's the point. It has a better torque curve (peaks @ lower rpm, overall flatter) than a Northstar V8 at less than half the displacement.

For comparison's sake again: Subaru Impreza WRX STI*: 17/23, 305 hp Mitsubishi Lancer Evo*: 17/23, 291 hp Honda S2000: 18/24, 232 hp Dodge Caliber SRT4: 19/27, 285 hp MAZDASPEED3: 18/26, 263 hp Regal GS: ??/28, 270 hp ... and I'd venture that the Regal GS is more liveable day-to-day than any of these five cars... and not just because it's a size class or two bigger, either. * - yes, they have AWD. But yes, they're still lighter than the Regal. What Camino is saying there is that a 3.6L DI could have been very well used in the car to give the desired or better results of performance with equivalent fuel efficiency, contrary to what general perception is being filtered about turbo-charging smaller engines to have equivalent power numbers of a larger engine to see tremendous gain in fuel economy. and utterly destroyed the very good (for a FWD) weight balance that the Regal has.

No TSA for me whenever possible. I just did a round trip to Chicago for work on Amtrak. Got a great night sleep each way. The steak is great and the french toast even better..... both are included with the room charge. Most of the trip was done in my sleep.

Finally a Camino good looking enough to drive!

If you're not wanting to row your own, definitely wait for the 2012 Cruze Eco.

Congrats!

In my area, you'd be looking at a $40 a month increase in your electricity bill. If you fall within the "average commuter" guidelines of the Volt and rarely use gasoline, that $40 would be substantially offset by gas cost savings. Best Buy will probably be doing a "free charge with purchase" type of deal. But even if they charge for a charge, it wouldn't cost more than a couple bucks. The Volt can only take 3.5 KW an hour of charging. Even at 15 cents a KWH, Best Buy is only looking at a 52.5 cent cost for an hour of charging. (that is only counting the energy costs, the installation of the charger is more of course)

There was never enough product differentiation between Benz and Maybach. Just like this isn't an Imperial

it's a shame we only had one entry.

No one said it could not be done. A well trained driver and the Vette is not full less electronics. It may not be to the over kill extent of the Nissan which is good but the Vette has systems that can make a average driver a much better driver. I am begining to think this is high school again? There is 7 pages of posts in the other thread of people saying that the Corvette couldn't be competitive unless it goes DOHC. I also didn't say the Corvette didn't have electronics (however, it does have a competition mode that lets you shut most of them down.) The Nissan has 3 computer controlled differentials... that's a bit more computer intrusion... and the only way to get those numbers in the GT-R is with those computers. The Corvette + skilled driver performs better without. It's not highschool. It's proof that the "DOHC ONLY" drumbeat isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Well it's not so much of a "which is better" discussion, because different people have different needs. This is more of a discussion about people worshiping at the alter of Steve Jobs, calling these upgrades great innovations, when in fact they've been available on a competing platform for a while. It's kinda like SMK praising BMW for coming out with heads up display, night vision, and automatic high beams.