Drew Dowdell

The thing I like best about the Civic Hybrid that I drive with my Flexcar account is that the hybrid part makes up for the pathetic low end torque of the typical Honda 4-banger. It makes it a very pleasant drive around town and I don't feel like I have to flog the car to get moving. To me, it's simply a better performing powertrain that happens to get really great mileage.

Sometime... just sometimes... people buy hybrids for something other than saving money. The Tahoe is the vehicle for the person who wants to be as green as possible while towing his sailboat. I consciously make the choice to conserve energy even if it might cost a few more dollars to do so.

the 355s should play on the global scale, not just here in the US.... and for that reason should be updated.. especially if they'd include the 2.9 liter diesel.

The Monte Carlo was also an awkwardly proportioned front driver on a platform that made the car qualified for antique plates the moment it rolled off the line. I wouldn't use it as a valid comparison. The Eldorado hadn't been updated significantly since it's early 90's intro. The Mark VIII was riding on a platform eclipsed in age only by the Panther. It's not that buyers left the full size coupe market... it's that the full size coupe market left the buyers.

Not diggin it. Not diggin this whole design direction at Lincoln. "Lincoln: Now with more Baleen Whale look!"

Zeta North America/Europe = Build at Oshawa Zeta Asia/Pacific = Build at Elisabeth why is this difficult?

I'm hoping GM has learned from that mistake.

Are you expecting GM will run the Zeta platform for 14 years?

thaaaat would be a "no"

For review. CAFE stands for Corporate Average Fuel Economy. All GM needs to do is make every Zeta engine FlexFuel. Forget hybrid, forget hydrogen, forget fairy dust. It would cost an extra $100 per car to make them FlexFuel. CERTAINLY cheaper than spending a huge amount of money to fund development of the platform only to throw it in the dustbin. The idea that GM cannot make the ZETA up to CAFE standards is complete and utter BS beyond any shadow of any doubt. To those of you who celebrate the Zeta demise, you are shortsighted, unimaginative, and are clearly a danger to General Motors. Furthermore... unless GM is planning on having Zeta around for a W-body like amount of time, there would be two to three revisions of the platform completed by the time the 35mpg AVERAGE comes into effect. Do you think Ford was pumping out FlexFuel Tauruses and Sables in 1999 out out of the kindness of their dear sweet hearts? No, it was to raise their CAFE on the cheap. GM has LOTS of CAFE credits due to their production of FlexFuel vehicles. Additionally The new CAFE legislation has retained the extra credit provision for FlexFuel. In short, any argument using CAFE as a reason for canceling ANY Zeta vehicle is a complete Red Herring designed to deflect the truth about the internal political struggles inside of GM. Edit: A 19mpg EPA combined FlexFuel Zeta <this assumes HF3.6 and similar weight to '07 CTS> would be rated at 40mpg.

I really don't think cutting the zeta wagon for the US will have much impact at all on the overall zeta lineup. Remember, WE have CAFE, but GM still sells to Australia, the Middle East and China.

this really shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone. you can also blame the falling dollar for making the case for it even more difficult.

then why do BMW <6-series>, Mercedes <CLK> even bother?

MKC at best...

this is about as important as a final 500 Silhouette. and I say that as an Oldsmobile fan....

For a car bordering on Taurus size, that's great.

$4,000 will get you a very nice Toronado.... well... since everyone else is being a broken record, I figured I might as well too....

Not everything needs to be a sports car. Sometimes premium just means a nice, well appointed, front driver for daily use. What the Milan attempts to be. One of the things I like about the Milan is that you can get a 4-cylinder completely loaded.

So does GM. The CTS is already being sold with a 2.9 litre diesel in Europe.

HO-LEE-@#$@ SMK, you can officially bite me now if you have something to say about this car. This thing completely out styles anything from Germany or Japan.

I bet the Enclave ends up selling better than the CX-9 though.

I've wondered when we'd go to Lithium Ion batteries. They hold a charge better, they're lighter, and they aren't susceptible to cold temperatures like lead acid.

woot!

They need something along the specifications of the N-body again. The Epsilon has gotten too big and heavy and the Delta is still too awkwardly packaged. This is a hole in the lineup. Something the size/weight of an Alero with NA and Turbo 4 cylinders only could be a hot seller in both the Pontiac/Chevy market and the Saturn/Buick market. The old Alero with an old EcoTec easily gets 35mpg highway. edit: and FWD... before the "everything must be RWD" crowd gets here.

it's usually because your posts are so all over the place we only have the energy to respond to your most off points.