Drew Dowdell

Who needs a V12 to sit on the freeway idling? He said luxury commuter car, not personal jet.

Top speed of the Lacrosse is higher. A Corvette can out accelerate a Concord jet liner from 0-60, but I'm pretty sure we can all agree on which one is faster. Who said Cadillac isn't getting a hybrid or two?

It was never the content, but the tone that mattered.

Now I know I made a joke about the Volt being powered by 200 cans of Red Bull..... but basically, the Volt battery technology is the same concept as what Tesla is doing. It's a series of lithium ion batteries strung together.

actually, it violates some old stupid law that Jimmy Carter signed back in the 70s because they thought Pebble Bed reactors would lead to nuclear proliferation due to their relatively small size. Congress could rescind the law.

I didn't buy. I'm just borrowing the Roadmaster long term till I leave for Germany. My friend Dominic has something like 7 cars, so he's letting me take the beat up Roady Wagon.

The drydock you see in The Motion Picture is part of the San Fransisco yards as they orbit over San Fransisco. The Utopia Plenitia yards get their name from the Utopia Plenitia area on Mars above which they orbit. The Intrepid class... much later.. which I doubt the original Constitution was fitted with.

I can see dropping the Outlook. Saturn clearly does not have the dealer network to support the sales. I'd keep the remaining 3 however. There are still lots of people out there who would never buy a Buick but be ok with a GMC. And there a lot of GMC owners who would never "step down" to a Chevy. If the Traverse's base price is low enough it just may win over the former minivan buyers who can't afford the GMC or Buick.

CTC-D for ME Viva La Deutschland! er.... yeh...

Well, I think it's more a symbolism than anything else. The whole premise of the website is that it's under construction. Besides, it looks as if the ship is being built on land... Newport News maybe.... the Enterprise was actually built in space.

here ya go

Higher top speed. I think the GNX is still fastest to accelerate.

I think my TC is more aggressive than yours. I'm pretty sure GM backed the aggressiveness down after the '04 model year. I burned through the original Goodyears in about 10k miles at which point I switched over to snow tires for the season. The Dunlop Wintersports are rated just as good as Blizzaks but are a good bit cheaper. Around here, snow tires are a must. I won't be into the Roadmaster wagon until after the primary snow season is over, so I won't have to deal with changing the tires over on that ever.

I am quickly moving myself to be debt free except for property mortgages. I'm not playing the credit game any longer.

Actually, the Lacrosse Super does have a much larger engine over the lesser versions and is the fastest Buick ever built. Handling is also said to be top notch for a large FWD V8. Sadly, the Lacrosse Super ends up having more claim to "all new" than this RL.

again with the stupid stupid stupid gear shift location. Hey Chrysler, you brought the Hemi back from the dead. Reach back into your history and bring back pushbutton transmissions for your mini-vans!

The tesla motor weighs 70 pounds the batteries weigh 900lbs. How much does an HF3.6 + 6speed weigh? Why would you want to limit choice for those of us who would like to see that technology advance?

I guess I shouldn't have assumed this was a diesel.

1. In the Tesla video test I saw, they did 90 miles of hard driving while out accelerating an Audi R8 and still had 30% battery left using the 1-speed transmission. That works out to be about 130 mile range... again with a 1-speed... while outpacing an R8. It's not hard to see how the Tesla could get 200+ miles per charge when it's not driven like it's stolen. 2. The Volt will weigh more. However, not so much more that 40 mile range without using the ICE is implausible. 3. Why do you keep insisting that the 2-mode and E-flex are mutually exclusive? This is E-flex version 1.0. I expect the 2-mode will consist of the bulk of GM's fuel saving technology for the foreseeable future. Prius versions 1.0 and 2.0 were test beds for Toyota's technology. It wasn't until late in Prius 3.0's life that Toyota expanded the technology into other platforms like the Camry and Highlander. 4. It's mere months away. It's done. 5. The 4-speeds are only in platforms that are due to die very soon <G-body, W-Body, current Delta>. Any of the more modern platforms with a 4-speed also have a 6-speed available <Malibu, G6, Aura>.

1. Batteries are already getting 220 mile range in the Tesla today.... and that is geared towards performance. In the video of the road test it was out scooting an Audi R8. 2. Volt's expectations are that it do 40 miles before the ICE kicks in... the Volt can't be THAT much heavier and THAT much faster than the Tesla 3. Why can't 2-mode and E-Flex co-exist? It's not like E-flex is ready or will be ready to be release company wide in 2 years. While an E-flex Tahoe might be nice... it's not gonna be here in 2011. 4. 2-mode is here today... which means development started at least 3 years ago. 5. The release of the Volt is not going to automatically switch over all other platforms to this new technology. When the BAS or 2-Mode were released, did we see an immediate deployment to all cars on all platforms? Of course not. The Lucerne and DTS are still using 4-speeds!

SMK doesn't count products over seas unless they support his argument. <V6 S-Classes, etc>. I'm doing the same. if you want to include overseas products... then yes, Cadillac does in fact have a smaller 4-cylinder car in the BLS.

fixed

Infiniti - no hybrid, no diesel, no 4-cylinder Acura - no hybrid, no diesel, one 4-cylinder Lexus - 3 hybrids, no diesel, no 4-cylinder BMW - no hybrid, no diesel <here>, no 4-cylinder Audi - no hybrid, no diesel, two Turbo-4 that gets craptastic gas mileage due to weight and Quattro Jaguar - no hybrid, no diesel, no 4-cylinder Saab - no hybrid, no diesel, two turbo 4-cylinders Mercedes - no hybrid, 2 diesels, no 4-cylinders Volvo - no hybrid, no diesel, no 4-cylinders I just would like to point out, that the most fuel efficient car in this list is GM's Saab 9-3 Turbo.

You said it yourself... the big hold up on the Volt is the batteries. In reality, other than the powertrain, the Volt will also just be another unibody car. GM already knows how to do the electric motors..even if all they do is apply modern technology to the EV-1 motor design. They've had a fairly decent success rate at the internal combustion engine since about 1908. They've been arranging larger versions of this powertrain configuration since about 1930 <EMD>. And those batteries.... oh yeah... they're entering the final R&D phase. I'm not sure how the 2-mode hybrid enters into any of your doubts.. it's just a parallel technology. Despite the PR, the Volt really isn't that ground breaking. A Prius hybrid is 10 parts ICE and 4 parts EV... a Volt is just looking to change the ratio to 4 parts ICE and 10 parts EV. The Volt also looks better doing it.

based on......?