Jump to content
News
Reviews
Discussons
Activity
Create New...
Close

Drew Dowdell

Editor-in-Chief
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    55,976

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    543

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Drew Dowdell

  1. Drew Dowdell
    Being media has its perks... sometimes the manufacturers bring the cars to you. Yes, it was pretty impressive, but the sticker was rather eye popping too. I will say that it was probably one of the few minivans I could see driving as a daily without being embarrassed about driving a minivan.
  2. Drew Dowdell
    Every week or so, Autotrader emails me when one of the 4 I listed above comes on the market with the specs I want. There are plenty of deals out there, so I'm not in a rush to pull the trigger just yet.
  3. Drew Dowdell
    Drove the Pacifica Hybrid, it is astonishingly fast for a minivan... or a hybrid.... or a minivan hybrid. Drove the MDX hybrid the same day. While it was good, it didn't leave me with the wow factor that the Pacifica did mostly due to price.
  4. Drew Dowdell
    Congrats on the better paying job! Send some of that over here!
  5. Drew Dowdell
    Agreed. Should be an option for the Enclave Avenier also.... (god that name is so clunky)
  6. Drew Dowdell
    While I too want a 3.0T, I don't think it will matter that much. The Fusion Sport is fast, but it's not a great handler (for the price). The current GS handles very well but doesn't have the engine to match it. Even just the 3.6 would probably be sufficient in reality. I don't think the 3.0T will be used though, but if they do offer it, watch for it to show up in the XTS and XT5.
  7. Drew Dowdell
    I call shenanigans on the Tacoma. That's only after they've had a full frame replacement due to rot. One of my tenants who garaged his 7 year old Tacoma had to do the full frame replacement. It was never right after that and he traded it on a Silverado.
  8. Drew Dowdell
    I'm all over the map on what I want to do. Part of me wants to go with a new Tahoe lease, another part of me doesn't want that kind of payment since I'm having some misgivings about the economy in the next few years. I know I can find Rainiers, Bravadas, 9-7xs, and Envoys with <50k miles on them for $10k. I could theoretically pay cash for that and not have this 125k mile CR-V costing me $500 every other month. Put a new Android Auto head unit in and I'm set. I no longer put lots of miles on my cars, so I wouldn't see 100k in something like that for 5 to 6 years. Even if I did want to finance part of it, my credit union only charges 3% interest on used cars and doesn't ask questions about the year of the car.
  9. Drew Dowdell
    I think for the last of the Grandpa market the new base engine is fine. I hope the eAssist smooths out the 2.5 though, it's not a great sounding or feeling engine. The old LaX with the 2.4 eAssist was decent.
  10. Drew Dowdell
    Gosh, it only would have been like $700 to ship it.
  11. Drew Dowdell
    I wouldn't mind owning a recent Benz as long as someone else is picking up the repair bills.
  12. Drew Dowdell
    Yes it the same interest rate, but you pay more interest overall because you are paying on it longer. If you're comfortable with the 60 month payment, just pay that.
  13. Drew Dowdell
    I was referring to a high octane, high performance variant. It would have to be power train certified which costs a lot of money. There would need to be some economy of scale to do that. The mount of the engine has nothing to do with bias in an AWD system. Haldex has been able to send 90% of the power to the rear wheels for more than 10 years. Most modern AWD systems with even a whiff of a sports badge (Chrysler 200s, Focus RS, Regal GS) can do over 60%.
  14. Drew Dowdell
    You've got DI and I don't in my Encore... but from my observation, I get no change in performance or fuel economy. I nearly always fill up at Costco, so I'm staying in the same brand and just switching from 87 to 93.
  15. Drew Dowdell
    Well yes... but those were larger versions of the car.
  16. Drew Dowdell
    It looks like the eAssist is 8-speed and the V6 is 9-speed.
  17. Drew Dowdell
    I was mostly being snarky. I didn't finance for 84 months, but my credit union didn't even ask the year of the car when I bought out the lease. They do 84 month "second chance" financing as well, so that's not for people with good credit.
  18. Drew Dowdell
    I like the expansion of the AWD availability. I dislike the expansion of the use of the 2.5 liter 4-cylinder.... hopefully the eAssist tames the NVH a bit.
  19. Drew Dowdell
    You've gotta keep in mind the economies of scale. If they do a hi-po transverse 2.0T, they need to find other places to use it. If they do it in the XT5, then they've gotta put it in the Regal, Malibu, etc. Unless you're talking the normal 2.0T that they already build..... then I'd have to disagree. I don't have high hopes for it in the Traverse.
  20. Drew Dowdell
    Yes, the CLA is the cheapening of Benz. Benz really needs to have a lower brand to work with... or maybe even expand SMART to include normal vehicles.
  21. Drew Dowdell
    Yeah, I could see a 3.0TT in place of the 3.6 in most cases. I'd leave the 3.6NA in place for the XT5 as a base engine and the 3.0TT as a buy up engine. Make the 3.0TT the XTS's base engine with a buy up to the 3.6TT. The 3.0TT would be detuned in both of these cases when it made the transition to transverse layout. Buick could then have the 3.0TT as a buy up engine in the Lacrosse with the 3.6 as base.
  22. Drew Dowdell
    Because what's the point? You'd only want that in performance cars because of the octane requirement. No way they'd put that into the new Traverse when a relatively tame 3.6 liter can do the job on 87. So what's left? Camaro, ATS, Regal GS, Malibu 2.0. Aftermarket will take care of those who really want it.
  23. Drew Dowdell
    Yes... the handling was well regarded and on par with the Germans (because it was German). The 3.0 was indeed weak, but DOHC humpers like @smk4565 had to have DOHC. The main reason the 3800 wasn't used was that there was no 3800 production in Europe and these were built in Germany for US consumption. Before we ever got the Catera, Opel made a crazy for 1991 horsepower levels 372 HP / 411 lb-ft of torque 3.6 liter V6 Omega tuned by Lotus.
  24. Drew Dowdell
    But you couldn't get to the next stoplight in 4.2 seconds dontchaknow....
  25. Drew Dowdell
    I'm not even that big a fan of the Audi... but I'd go with the Audi by a country mile. My biggest hangup is the interior of the Dodge. I have in the past tried really hard to like the Magnum SRT, but I just Could. Not. Do. that interior. Put a 2015 Charger interior in a Magnum and I might have been convinced.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.

Hey there, we noticed you're using an ad-blocker. We're a small site that is supported by ads or subscriptions. We rely on these to pay for server costs and vehicle reviews.  Please consider whitelisting us in your ad-blocker, or if you really like what you see, you can pick up one of our subscriptions for just $1.75 a month or $15 a year. It may not seem like a lot, but it goes a long way to help support real, honest content, that isn't generated by an AI bot.

See you out there.

Drew
Editor-in-Chief

I've whitelisted
Continue without support

Write what you are looking for and press enter or click the search icon to begin your search