Drew Dowdell

Good for at least 7 hp right?

I'd love a hybrid avalanche that can run E85. That said, I do actually need a full size truck. I only use my current Avalanche for actual construction hauling.

Rates GM a sell? Why would you do that? GM stock has no where to go but up. Last I looked, their market valuation was less then their net assets.... which is just because people are scared they'll declare bankrupcy. This is why we don't listen to analysts folks.

They lost 10 billion last year and the markets adjusted GM's stock price to reflect that. GM lost $323 million in first quarter this year.... losing money at a rate much slower then 2005. They also had record revenues... so sales are going up. Once they can get their costs under control, they'll be very profitable again. I've been buying GM stock every month since it tanked just before Kirk started buying in. $20 a share for GM stock is a steal! Once they're profitable again, the stock will rise back to it's previous levels or higher.

ABS is important in the summer when you have idiot drivers out. It has saved me more then once. I wouldn't consider it optional.

*snicker* [/geek humor]

He'll never have torque steer in a Solstice. It's RWD.

Enter yourself on "Queer eye".

Sales of hybrid vehicles. Vue, Aura

Uh... around here we call that Toyoguy.

Yeah... you're an ass... You know what gay guys do to asses.... right?

Small cars. The new Aveo, cobalt sales are increasing, pursuit will be joining us soon. They'll be doubling their entries in the affordable roadster market.

Honda, Audi and Saab have them now too.

What is with this new style of the lights on the trunk being 3/4ths the height of the lights on the fenders... I don't get it....

size queen

So should a Rainer be a GMC, Chevy, or Oldsmobile? A Rendevous should be a Pontiac. Mini and Rolls Royce Phantom should be BMWs. Things get really scary over at Ford.... is it a Ford, a Lincoln, a Volvo, or a Mazda?* *Hint: Crown Victoria, Mustang/Thunderbird, Five Hundred, Fusion

There are skip shift removal kits out there.

In my experience driving the Roadmaster over the mountians 345 ft/torque @ 3100 RPM means you don't need to downshift nearly as often. Remember, it's not a vette, it's an Avalon competitor. <in purpose it's purpose> My point is, have a huge amount of torque, way down low in the RPM band, and the number of gears become less important. 23mpg out of a V8 1957 Buick with a 1 speed dynaflow is fairly impressive. I've often wondered what the result would be if someone developed a modern dynaflow since it is really just a CVT from the 50s.

I agree that skip shift, as it's currently set up, isn't a really graceful solution. Would a 1-3-5-6 shift pattern work better do you think?

If the 6th gear is a taller overdrive gear, then that'd be great. As it is the 5th gear is usually 1:1 and the 6th gear is a standard ratio overdrive somewhere around .79:1

That I'll agree with....

Oh geeze, they're mostly performance cars. All in the penis wagging segment. The fact that the Supercharged Riviera and Buick Roadmaster with the LT-1 are both sub 8 second cars with huge curbweights while using low<er> horsepower, high torque engines with 4-speeds proves that you can have great performance and still have a 4-speed. The Roadmaster and Riv were both good for about 27mpg. They were both designed in the early 90s. A CVT is a tranmission with an infinate number of speeds. That makes them great for an engine with a poor torque curve. Remarkably they're also only cars with low torque because of durability issues.

Not too sure of the top speed was but the top speed was Chassy/tire limited rather then drive train limited. Ever try to drive a car with Bias ply tires over 65 miles an hour? Any cop that didn't know better would pull you over for drunk driving. As far as the mileage, I don't know about new, but in 2004 we clocked 23mpg on a trip from Pittsburgh, PA to Richmond VA and back. We both felt that was remarkable for a nearly 50 year old car. The Corvette and CTS-V are performance cars and need every bit of speed advantage they can get. You'll notice that both of them have that skip shift feature to help them with fuel efficiency, effectively turning them into 4-speeds under normal driving. What we're talking about here is excessive number of speeds for a pair of sedate family sedans. I highly doubt that either the Camry's or Avalon's performance would suffer that greatly by having a 5-speed rather then a 6-speed. The transmission war above 5-speeds is just a penis wagging contest.

All it means when you have a transmission with 6 speeds is that you have a car with a crappy torque curve. A 1957 Buick with a Dynaflow 1-speed transmission and no overdrive could do 0-60 in the mid-7s.

ABS = necessary... even in dry weather. LSD = very nice performance luxury. For $195, it won't make much difference in your payment but it will make a large difference in the performance of the car. It would be the very first box I checked after the ABS.