Drew Dowdell

Build fewer G6es/Malibus/Aura.... and when you have enough, stop. Don't just keep the line running and then have to dump them at firesale prices to move them...... but that would require some flexibility from the UAW..... A more flexible platform lineup would be better also. I've thought a lot about going back to division specific platforms.. Chevy gets Delta and epsilon two wheel bases each. Pontiac and Buick get the Zetas and Kappas, 3 different wheel bases. This also means no Camaro. Firebird and Transam instead. Cadillac gets Sigma or whatever is replacing it. 3 wheelbases. Saturn, Opel, Saab get their own two platforms to muck around on. this would be the new "Euro" Division. Holden just picks whichever platforms it likes best and slaps a Holden badge on it. in the U.S. only Chevy/GMC, Buick, and Cadillac get SUVs/CUVs

I like the idea. But the Oldsmobile guy in me sees more '68 Toronado than '72 Firebird in that front clip. Good looking either way

I've been with you for a while that Rick W. needs to go.

I gave it back at the end of August. It was causing friction between me, my friend, and his BF.

You must have missed my thread from about this time last year.

The CTS ties with the XF, yet doesn't have a credible entry in the mid-lux segment..... or Edmunds, Motortrend, and SMK can't get over their badge snobbery enough to realize that the CTS can run with those big dogs. They drove both cars through the Alpe-Maritimes. I've driven those roads and they are some of the most fun, most challenging, best driving roads I've ever been on. The CTS did it's job and did it well. I did not say that the G8 was supposed to compete with the 5-series in the market. I said it handles with the 5-series. It has an acceptable interior for a family sedan. Not class leading, just acceptable. That it can perform like one of the best performing luxury sport sedans on the market makes it a great value. You've been back less than a week and you're already getting on my nerves.

Of my own doing.

I can sympathize.

And every review of the G8 GT basically says that it's 5-series performance at 50% off. But there you go expecting a 5-series interior in a car that is 50% of the price. To put it another way, you could buy a GX GXP + a Solstice GXP and still have change left over for the price of a 550i. Oh yeah, and the G8 won Edmunds reader's "Most Wanted" Oh wow. At Motor Trend, the XF won a comparison test against the 5 year old 5-series, 4-year old GS, and 3-year old E-class. That's a real tough one. The Edmunds test bravely throws the 4 year old A6 in place of the GS. What you're not going to like... The Winding Road pits the XF against the CTS and calls it a tie.

My personality failed to register on the scale.

You mean like that XF which is on an updated version of the old S-type DEW98 platform which was based on the Lincoln LS and now underpins the Mustang yet after all that somehow ends up looking like an MKS Vanden Plas? That Jaguar?

Just needed to be said again and bolded.

The platform is old enough that they've wrung all the kinks out of it.

My assessment is this. My driveway drops 12 feet in 48 feet. In the CTS, if I didn't have snow tires on and we had even just a 1/2 an inch, I couldn't get up the driveway. With the Dunlop WinterSports, it was no trouble.

They would spin it thusly: "This new RWD system by Toyota brings an even higher level of sophistication, comfort, and reliability to the already top of it's class Camry. It's a shame GM is so far behind the curve switching it's platforms to RWD."

So was Terri Schivo

That flushing sound Link to post AIG posted a nearly $62 billion fourth quarter loss. So far, AIG has received $150 billion in taxpayer money and as of a plan announced today will receive and additional $30 billion of your dollars. .... To put the size of this in perspective. The government could have purchased 98% of General Motor's liabilities for the same amount it has given to AIG. At least GM has a chance of surviving.

Detroit's outlook falls along with home prices Link to Chicago Tribune DETROIT — It may be tough to get financing for a new car these days, but in Detroit you can buy a house with a credit card. The median price of a home sold in Detroit in December was $7,500, according to Realcomp, a listing service. Not $75,000. Remove a zero—it's seven thousand five hundred dollars, substantially less than the lowest-price car on the new-car market. ...... On a positive note, Detroit's homicide rate dropped 14 percent last year. That prompted mayoral candidate Stanley Christmas to tell the Detroit News recently, "I don't mean to be sarcastic, but there just isn't anyone left to kill."

I don't see it. Better interior quality. Worse on road noise, power, HVAC capacity. On looks it's a wash. The Cobalt is bland in non-SS trim. The Fit is dorky in any trim. If there is one thing the Germans and Asians haven't yet "Americanized" it's the capabilities of their HVAC systems.....

I'm so glad those Honda 4-cylinders are so smooth at high RPM....considering I have to rev it up to 4,500 RPM just to get up a very modest incline at 65mph.

Should we consider this our invite?

It's a question of more control over less.

This is one of the few posts ever where I'll agree with SMK seeing as we live in the same city. There are plenty of rear drivers here in Pittsburgh. I got along just fine in my '04 CTS with 4 snow tires. As far as snow tires just on the rear..... I guess you people don't need to steer?

Yay for 1990's Lincoln technology.

I understood that it was. Just no products using Zeta+AWD yet.