Drew Dowdell

I too wonder what GM is going to do about commercial fleet in the future. They are missing out on the small commercial market even though they have the City Express (most of the profits flow to Nissan I bet) and the Express and Savana are already the oldest vans on the market. I'd like to see GM keep in the traditional van market but also offer a "EuroVan" like the Transit and ProMaster. The wildcard though is Nissan. They have been quietly building a strong commercial business and if GM's traditional vans leave the market, Nissan will be the only one left with a traditional big van with a V8.

I am going to hold off for the moment as the initial feedback is that it is different codes related to the EGR system. I will wait until I get the full feedback regarding what the issue is and what the fix is and I'll let you know if I would like to pull them in. I do appreciate the offer for help, though. That type of thing is one of the reasons I really like this website. You are always willing to help out. I've mentioned your issue to the Chevy PR guy before and they just want to make sure you are satisfied.

Again, I was making general statements and not singling out any one manufacturer. The assertion that Retail > Government Fleet > Commercial Fleet > Rental Fleet is not always true. Making a profit on rental fleets is good, and all manufacturers should, however rental fleeting damages residual values and thus hurts leasing. These are general statements. Which says a lot.. about the Ford name. It is the quintessential "truck company." I'm never gonna celebrate Ford having to play third fiddle behind a Foreign company.. but when arguing against Wings.. I often find myself hating Ford because of it's idiot Defender #1 If you're going to hate on Ford... hate on it for something they did... like Sync.... not for any of their fanbois.

It's almost all the F-150 though. If Ford gets their act together on that, they'll be back above FCA again. So any celebrating (why??) would only be temporary.

A lot of that pull northward is from the Escalade.

Good thing I have plenty of manhood so that I'm not threatened by a little knob..... and I also don't need to make up for any lack of feeling by grabbing a big thick shift lever.

I dunno why I indulge that simple mutha***ker, but when I get to have my cake.. and eat it too.. its worth they typing: GM's fleet sales made up 20 percent of its volume in June, down from 28 percent a year ago Ford's fleet sales made up 35 percent of its volume in June, UP from 34% percent a year ago What that means to Wings is that of: GM's 259,353, only 51,870 were fleet, leaving 207,483 retail. . Ford sold a total of 225,647, and 78,976 were fleet with retail being 146,671. Wait WHAT!!! GM sold almost as many Retail alone as Ford sold TOTAL????!!!! LMFAO For years now casa, I have been repeating the same fact, and for years now, you have been ignoring it, in that rental fleet is the worst fleet and commercial, government, etc......is the good fleet. Transit sales ALONE have spiked the commercial percentage, by design. You keep pretending that it is a mistake on their part to design and build and grow commercial fleet, and I keep spiking that ball in your face. Will you ever learn? So go ahead and show the rental percent for GM, which is only 6.3% for Ford. You know, for reference. 1) RETAIL > Fleet. Any Fleet. GM beat the $h! outta Ford on Retail.. by about 60,000 retail vehicles. Are U implying that Ford's Fleet vehicles.. rental, gov't. or commercial.. is better than GM having more Retail??? If so.. U are a drunk on Field's juices 2) Look at the numbers Dimwit. Hell even without the actual GM breakdown of numbers: Ford sold 18% of it's 35% Fleet.. to Rental. GM only sold 20% Fleet overall. I'm pretty sure that GM sold more than 2% of that 20% to places other than Rental. 3) your foolishness has always supposed that GM send all of its fleet cars to Rental for some odd reason. Despite all of knowing that the Tahoe, Yukon, Impala, Caprice, Malibu, Express Van are all known quantities in Gov't fleet What I do know is that GM favored Retail and commercial fleet sales over Rental last month. Sorry, gotta disagree with you here. I am not signaling out any one manufacturer with these statements. Government fleet and commercial fleet is usually pretty profitable. It also has the advantage of not damaging residual values 18 months later like rental fleet does. Retail isn't necessarily better than commercial or government fleet when there are large wads of cash on the hood to get them to move. 50 Retail sales with $3,500 in rebates aren't better than an order for 50 commercial vans at or close to invoice.

You keep making this statement, but it's not really true. The LX is roughly in line with the other big sedans in weight. You can't compare it to a 4-cylinder Impala or Taurus fairly. The Impala V6 is 3800lbs, the Charger V6 is 3934, Taurus SE V6 is 3917, Buick Lacrosse V6 is 3988. The Taurus can bloat all the way up to 4300lbs in SHO trim, the Charger R/T V8 is 4200lbs, the Lacrosse V6 AWD is 4100lbs and it doesn't even have the heavier engine of the two performance entries from Ford or FCA. Also again, there is basically nothing left of the 90s Benz. It's all been replaced.

I know, but I'm talking overall regional population.

Yeah, but we're in a large metro area right on the cusp of truck country.

Me too, and not just because I own own one. My dad's LTZ has some really nice details like the stitching on the wheel and power outlets everywhere, but the Ram just does things a tiny bit better-the wheel is a bit heftier, the trim just a little nicer, the power outlets a bit less chintzy-feeling. Nothing that would out-and-out ruin the experience, but it's noticeable.Also, the half-ton Ram uses a gear dial, not a column shifter. It's a bit strange, but you do get used to it. I prefer the gear dial. I'm driving a Durango this week that has it.

I def like the Ram the bestest

Have you met the general public? It's a pretty safe assumption.

Welcome. You can add your truck to the CheersandGears.com Garage I'm the ringleader around these parts... if you have any questions about the site you can post them here or send me a PM.

All three truck brands beat on each other all the time. Dodge beat on the new Explorer with the Durango a while back also..

Na, inventory is low. Friends of mine just bought an F-150. They wanted a very specific configuration. They couldn't get it... and the one they settled for still had to be shipped 150miles.

it's interesting. Elio has been going around to all of the states to get this classified as a car instead of a motorcycle. I would like to do an article about that. So what is gained by getting this classified as a car rather than a trike? I thought it was cheaper and easier to get on the road as a 3 wheeled trike than a car? No helmet laws.

XTS??? XTS. Magnetic ride control for when I want to be sporty. Air springs for comfort when I'm on a long trip.

I was referring to other parts of the world, like Europe, where people still appreciate driving and almost all cars offer manual transmissions--and with high take rates too. Also, technically it's the electronic/computer age making us fat not so much cars. The auto industry has been booming for much longer than the obesity epidemic in the US. People in Europe drive manuals because up until very very very recently, manual transmissions were much more efficient than automatics and provided substantially better performance in low displacement/low power engines. Also, automatics were a substantial upcharge in frugal post-war Europe. If you're buying a Vauxhall Astra, an automatic transmission could be 10% - 15% increase in sticker price. Europe's fondness for the manual has nothing to do with "appreciating driving" and everything to do with $10 per gallon gasoline (adjust for inflation as you go back in time). The only reason that manuals are still popular in Europe even though automatics have achieved efficiency parity is that old habits and opinions are hard to break. I'm pretty sure that's over simplifying. Otherwise why would European manufacturers, particularly German ones, pride themselves on sharp handling and dynamics? Why are automatics still typically relegated to older or disabled folks that can't comfortably work 3 pedals? Maybe at one point there was necessity, but it seems to have also spawned a culture of people that enjoy fun-to-drive cars and prefer to shift their own gears. There is always a subculture that likes crisp driving dynamics, but the firmer rides you talk about are more a byproduct of the better quality roads (at least in Germany). Prior to about 2000, only BMW did much with the really sporty driving. Benzes may have been crisper than your grandmother's 83 LeSabre, but they weren't what we'd call sporting... either today or in 1983. They were (are still) heavy, boaty, and back then saddled with slow diesel engines. I assure you there is absolutely nothing sporting about a 1993 Mercedes Benz C-Class with a 111 horsepower non-turbo diesel... so you can imagine what the 90 horsepower non-turbo diesel 1983 model was like. The Volkswagen Rabbits of the late 70s were extremely popular.... and they handle like crap. They came with a range of diesel engine sporting 49 horsepower, 53 horsepower, and an autobahn shredding 69 horsepower. Even with the original 3-series, most cars were sold with horsepower ratings in the double digits. The automatics in these cars were usually 3-speed autos while the manuals were typically 5-speeds (unless you got a really stripper Rabbit with a 4-speed manual) So no... it isn't over simplifying things. Manuals cost a lot less to operate in a time and region with high fuel costs, manuals cost a lot less to buy, and they enabled the driver to wring every last ounce of performance out of grossly underpowered engines. It wasn't out of some love of driving that the Europeans stuck with manual transmissions, it was just the most practical solution to the environment they were in..... and for the most part the Europeans stick with manuals more out of habit than anything else.

this. I have grown to really like these.

I was referring to other parts of the world, like Europe, where people still appreciate driving and almost all cars offer manual transmissions--and with high take rates too. Also, technically it's the electronic/computer age making us fat not so much cars. The auto industry has been booming for much longer than the obesity epidemic in the US. People in Europe drive manuals because up until very very very recently, manual transmissions were much more efficient than automatics and provided substantially better performance in low displacement/low power engines. Also, automatics were a substantial upcharge in frugal post-war Europe. If you're buying a Vauxhall Astra, an automatic transmission could be 10% - 15% increase in sticker price. Europe's fondness for the manual has nothing to do with "appreciating driving" and everything to do with $10 per gallon gasoline (adjust for inflation as you go back in time). The only reason that manuals are still popular in Europe even though automatics have achieved efficiency parity is that old habits and opinions are hard to break.

King Ranch started in 2001 - GWB had one for his ranch and Texas.

What do you mean by a chart? Currently I look at it and we have the list of stories and what I see as a traditional news letter, nice but I am thinking especially for smartphone use, if we have a chart at the top that lists all the hot stories and links so it jumps to those stories, people can then choose what they want to read rather than scroll down. I know in my engineering test cases, I always use excel and at the top of the document have a spreadsheet listing out what all is in the document and links so you can jump to what is of interest to you. Hope this makes sense, I am operating on 2 hrs of sleep so sorry if it is not clear. So you want a list of stories without the picture and teaser text? That is my thinking for having it be more mobile friendly. List of the stories and then you can have an expanded section with pictures and brief overview below for people on computers and tablets. Just trying to think on how we can cover both the mobile smartphone phablet area and the desktop/laptop/tablet users. Okay, noted.

I can't get past the new exterior design language. Well that and the CVT. I'd be inclined to at least try the Edge Sport at the same price point as the others. The CVT is super smooth and paired with the VQ is nicely refined. When you consider what the Murano is meant to be, comfy family cruiser rather than sports car, the CVT makes sense. I don't think CVTs ever make sense, so that argument falls on deaf ears. Of course if the gearing war continues at 9 speeds and beyond, my opinion of conventional automatics wont be any better. What doesn't make sense?

What do you mean by a chart? Currently I look at it and we have the list of stories and what I see as a traditional news letter, nice but I am thinking especially for smartphone use, if we have a chart at the top that lists all the hot stories and links so it jumps to those stories, people can then choose what they want to read rather than scroll down. I know in my engineering test cases, I always use excel and at the top of the document have a spreadsheet listing out what all is in the document and links so you can jump to what is of interest to you. Hope this makes sense, I am operating on 2 hrs of sleep so sorry if it is not clear. So you want a list of stories without the picture and teaser text?