Drew Dowdell

Why can't Saturn/Saab/Hummer be spun off to one company? You'd have your everyman brand, your luxury brand, and your channel for trucks.

fixed

I don't know about US Bank Corp, but the lying by the CEO of Wells Fargo would make Ron Blagovitch blush.

I agree that the Malibu needs to match them in size. I'm saying they can't get any bigger without being called full size. Malibu does just fine with with it's 4-cylinder. Road warriors like us would want more, but your average Camry 4-cylinder driver will be fine with it.

The only downside is that even with the base engine the reviewers are going to expect GNX like performance and it'll get compared to some irrelevant BMW that costs $20,000 more and has the interior space of a Civic.

I think a subcription to TTAC should come with a free included.

1. Pricing hasn't been released for either. 2. You fail to account for the substantial tax credits on the Volt. 3. Sometimes people don't buy things just to save money. If I were cross shopping against the Volt (since I don't know the options that will be available), the Cruze wouldn't even be on my list. You're right that the CTS and Enclave would be the competition.... but that comes from someone who can actually afford any of the above.

Because I want a coupe and I like the looks of both. So there. P.S. Step the maturity up a notch. First verbal warning.

You're entitled to your own opinions, you're not entitled to your own facts. The CTS is in the same size range as the 6-series and Mercedes coupes. I doubt GM has any dreams of selling 50k of these a year, but if they want Cadillac to be a global player, they need the global body styles. A CTS is on my shopping list, a CTS coupe would be even higher. I've owned a CTS before, it's not unlikely that I will again.

It's not really a Dexcool problem but an intake manifold gasket problem. Dexcool is used in hundreds of thousands of other engines. That three engine types have coolant trouble while a multitude of others do not does not point to a dexcool problem.

Corollary: Nearly all of the mainstream imports had to make themselves more "American" in order to reach their current statuses. The current Accord is bigger than a 1987 Taurus. The 1987 Accord has more in common size wise with today's Aveo.

Chapter 11 won't happen without government financing. If GM is forced into bankruptcy and the government won't finance it, it's going to be chapter 7 and GM is done.

I don't buy that. Chapter 11 would have likely cost the tax payer more via debtor financing through the government.

I'd love to drive an old Eldosaurus like that.... but I'd prefer an '85 Toronado.

I'm not sure if you're agreeing with me or not. I'm saying that the Aura proves that having a "non-domestic" nameplate doesn't matter. Malibu is doing much better than Aura has and it's making a good name for itself. It was never going to beat the CamCordtima in sales in this first "very good" generation. Now Chevy has a whole bunch of new, happy, customers who don't have to be embarrassed to drive a Chevy. It took the Camry a few generations to get to the spot it's in now. This Malibu is a great place to start from and basically proves that Saturn is not needed as an "import fighter". Chevy can do the job just fine thanks as long as you give them great product. You don't beat the imports by trying to disguise yourself as an import. You beat the imports by being a superior domestic product.

uhm, aren't those a variant of the G8 wheels?

I like Saturn, but I have an issue with the idea that Saturn is there to "compete with the imports". Uhm.... Chevy is there to compete with the imports too. If anything, the Malibu and Aura show that you don't need a separate brand to compete with Honda... you just need great product. I think the direction they were taking Saturn was the right idea. Making it a Euro-niche people's car brand was about the only place for it to go. Something to compete with VW and low end Volvo/Audi.

SOX does cost a lot of money.

If there is minimal weight gain over the Malibu, I don't see why not..... but I would prefer the Turbo-Ecotec as the base engine.

Pontiac hasn't been it's own division for ohhhh 30 years now?

60% of renegotiated mortgages end up back in default in 6 months.

Correct, the commercial wave starts in the middle of the Option Arm/Alt-A pop. I hear the John Hancock tower in Chicago is in foreclosure already. Here is the difference between what has happened and what is about to happen. In the past 12 months, most of what has failed has been fairly standard adjustable rate mortgages. You get a $180k mortgage for a $200k home and get an adjustable interest rate that resets every year after 5 years or so. You paid the standard principle + interest + escrow. What has happened is the first bunch of homeowners who's mortgages reset could no longer afford the new payments. Some refinanced, but a good many went into foreclosure. The foreclosures put downward pressure on home prices. When this happened, even fewer people could refinance their homes because the values of the home often fell below the amount of the first mortgage. The vicious cycle started and that's how we got where we are today. Keep in mind that 12 months of that have brought down the largest investment banks in the country, put Bank of America, CitiGroup, and Wells Fargo on the ropes, and forced mergers of banks that never would have happened in a normal climate. Here is the fun part. With an Option ARM loan you have the option to make partial principle and partial interest payments. What you don't pay gets amortized back into the principle of the loan up to a maximum of 115% or 125% of the original loan value or once 5 years has been reached. Many people pick these types of loans because it was the only way they could afford the monthly payments on their McMansion. In the meantime, property values have fallen across the board making refinancing out of these loans virtually impossible. Once these loans are recast (similar to the resetting of the interest rate in an ARM), the home owner goes from making a minimum payment that doesn’t even cover interest to a fully amortizing payment that covers all interest AND principal. And remember, principal is 15-25% higher than the original loan balance. Most people with these types of loans also put no money down or got a second mortgage to pay for their money down. They owe 25% more than their home was valued at way back at peak housing prices. The resulting payment shock—imagine your monthly mortgage payment suddenly increasing 3x—leads these loans into default like none other. Now, with all that in mind. Lets look at the numbers. The end of 2008 was the time period where the highest dollar value of standard ARM loans was due to reset. At the peak, about 36 billion dollars per month in loans reset. There is a lag with standard ARMs because the payment shock is anywhere between 0% and 20% increase in monthly payment. Many families can handle it for a short while before they start falling behind. May/June 2009 is when the Option ARMs begin to reset. This wave has 3 small dips. The peak of the first wave hits us in December 2009 and reaches $25b per month in recasts. It drops off for a bit then shoots up to $30b a month in recasts around June 2010. Drops back to $20b per month in December 2010 and then surges to $40 billion per month in June 2011. Now when these loans recast, there will be a lot less lag time because the monthly payment will jump anywhere from 80% to 200% of what the homeowner is used to paying. With no way to pay and no ability to refinance, homeowners will throw in the towel much faster. Are you ready for the punchline? As of December of 2008, a stunning 28% of option ARMs were delinquent or in some stage of foreclosure. This is before any recasts have even kicked in! Remember, the banks have already failed and consolidated from just the first mess. Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup are already dangling on the cliff. GM..... all of us... have much bigger things to worry about than this committee. P.S. If this thread gets political it's getting moved.

None of it is going to matter anyway. GM needs to declare bankruptcy now. We're just in the eye of the storm. The worst of the current batch of bad mortgages has already passed. What isn't being reported is that there is a larger wave of what are called "Option ARM" and "Alt-A" mortgages due to start resetting en mass beginning late spring to early summer with the peak happening mid winter next year. If you thought the past 12 months were bad, wait till ya get a load of the next 18. *continued after I find a place to plug my laptop in*

Accord, Camry, and Altima have gotten too large. They are at the point now where you they can't make them any bigger and still call them mid-size with a straight face. An Accord without the sunroof is technically classified as a full size now. There needs to be less of a jump from the small car to the mid-size car.