Drew Dowdell

Well I guess one of my main fears for this car has come true. The wheelbase has shrunk substantially, and it looks to all have come from the front wheels. Even with the larger wheels on the concept, they were almost entirely ahead of the base of the windshield. This is a substantial factor into why the concept's proportions look so good in spite of being front wheel drive based. On this prototype, the wheels appear to have shifted rearward by a good 3 to 4 inches. The rear wheels seem to have just about stayed put... maybe moved forward very slightly in relation to the roof-line. I like that they've kept the overall look, but the side profile view with the wheelbase shrinkage really tempers my enthusiasm.

Thanks... took it out for a quick run to the store.. I had test drove it with her, but had not gotten behind the wheel myself. Nice lil Whip. 1.4LTurbo actually moves this baby quite nice.. and thus far.. since Saturday at least.. when I hit the Average FE button it read 25.6 in mixed That's about the same for us in mixed driving too. Road trips we can tickle 33mpg.

Jesus Tapdancing Christ! They invented THAT history too! Balth has already posted cars that came before Benz's glorious "invention". If people wanted "bold" looking, they wouldn't buy S-Classes, instead they'd buy the predator mouth LS. You are so focused on the Turbo-4, yet it will most likely keep pace with any of the 6-cylinders offered by the competition and the 6-cylinders will keep pace with the base V8s from the competition.

So the G-Wagon isn't even built by Mercedes... just like the R-Class isn't built by Mercedes now either. I suppose it isn't a surprise about the G-Wagon... all of the parts can be ordered from JC Whitney. Mercedes "invents" their history... like how they claim they pioneered the airbag, ABS, and traction control.

I'm typically 2 large mugs of Earl Gray tea each morning till about noon and then a follow up mug... right about now to get me through to 5pm when I stop all caffeine.

Well, how can I apply this to me?!?! Be a recent college grad senior citizen in the military in rural Indiana with a competitor lease and same brand vehicle newer than 2009.

The National lot in OHare can double as a Nissan storage lot.

With regards to the Q50... I've driven it a few times, and it fails to elicit any passion at all. Like a white collar middle manager who has been in their job for 15 years, the Q50 is competent at everything it does but excels at nothing.

Nope, we're only getting the Infiniti QX30 apparently.

there are some pretty good deals on there if you find one that applies to you

The Escalade is why there is a 1.5T Malibu, Malibu Hybrid, Volt, Sonic, and Spark.

Voltec has battery packaging issues still. that was the deal killer for him with the regular Volt.

Is that a good thing? 8 or 9 years is a long time considering Rolls and Bentley will offer a real fullsize, (yeah I know...not in the same league price wise, but for now, the uber rich still buy 'Slades, Cadillac may not have to lose to Rolls or Bentley regardless if they have the cash to buy a Rolls or Bentley, retaining the cool factor by being seen in the 'Slade a should continue to be a priority for Cadillac) considering that Lexus might actually offer a brand new one, and Lincoln too, and Lincoln's 'Gator will have aluminum panels and there is still name recognition in the Navigator...8-9 years away for a new 'Slade seems to me like a Lincoln maneuver that left the 'Gator rot on the vine... I"m sure it will get upgrades and refreshes in the meantime. I'm not sure many have noticed, but Cadillac is making rolling changes/upgrades to their cars every year for the past few years. They're not letting them sit around. Escalade started with the 6-speed auto, then moved to the 8-speed auto, it's getting the CUE upgrades this year, it will probably get the V8TT when that comes out. They're keeping their vehicles fresher.

I'd guess that we're still 8 or 9 years out from an all-new Escalade. The current one still has a few years to go and probably an MCE for another 4 or 5 years.

I wouldn't call this co-worker a hypermiler, but with a commute like his, I understand why MPG is a priority. I tried to talk him into a Volt as there is a garage connected to our building with chargers and he could just make it end to end without using gas, but he said it was too small for his family.

Huge differences in visibility.

UP: BNSF: NS:

No no... not UP, those are BNSF and NS.

I most likely see this as the preamble to moving the Escalade off a body-on-frame platform and not sharing it with the others.

So now that we have the Tesla talk out of the way (ahem), here is an example of why the Hybrid matters. I have a co-worker who drives the 2008-2011 Malibu. Loves the car, but it has 170k on it. I helped him pick it out when he bought it new a few years back. He claims to "only" do 20k a year on his car, but clearly that is a bit low. Ever since he saw the new Malibu, he's been itching to trade into it. He loves the look. I've suggested other alternatives as well (Subaru Legacy, he lives way north of the city in the snowy area), but he keeps coming back to the Malibu. He went and looked at a new LTZ 2.0T for $32k over the weekend that just came in to his local dealer. He likes it, but he doesn't care about speed, just fuel economy. He has a very long commute that starts in traffic, then open freeway, then back to traffic again. I let him know this base price of the new Malibu and the MPGs. $28k is right in his target price, so if he can wait till they get on the market, he'll probably buy one, otherwise he'll end up in the 1.5T. Does it make absolute financial sense for him to go with the Hybrid? No, but then most car purchases don't. There are just going to be people the like the car and want to get the best fuel economy period.

On the Model-X, if they wanted to do that other stuff with Gull Wing doors and Zombie defense mode, wait till the "normal" cars are already rolling down the line... get the bread and butter money makers out on the market FIRST and then do the crazy stuff.

It's the fall that'll kill ya.

The Avenger Journey still sells decent, and just a year or two ago was over 100k units a year... so it's competing with something. It's CR-V/Nox priced but with a third row for tiny tots, and it actually comes with a V6 which the CR-V/Rogue/RAV-4 do not. So it has its place. I don't think Encore sales and Renegade sales are very interchangeable. While both vehicles are in the same size class, they appeal to very different types of consumer. I would expect a Chrysler CUV of that size to appeal to an Encore consumer rather than a Renegade consumer.

You're forgetting the Journey. But yes, I think a lux version of the Cherokee would be a nice Chrysler. It's just that the small CUVs are the hottest new segment right now, so get in while they can with an Encore/Trax car. Easier to win customers when the segment is new. In the CR-V segment, people just turn in their CR-V and lease another without thinking.