Drew Dowdell

if they can make it ride to American's desires..

,,, I think I accidentally edited your post instead of replying with my own... weird.

Nope. I actually got tired of pre-bankrupt GM's build quality every time I made a gear change. My Hummer had a squeaky ass shifting from third to fourth. And second to third. And fourth to fifth. And first to second. Thanks. Aside from tinting the windows, I don't think I'll be doing much of anything to this car at all. This Dart has the 2.4 Tigershark. I hated it in the 2015 Chrysler 200 with the nine-speed automatic, but it's terrific in the Dart with the Fiat six-speed manual. Go figure. Less weight to lug around.

Can you try another browser? I used Dolphin for a while on my Galaxy Tab 2, but I've gone over to Chrome now. I just encountered too many hiccups with Dolphin. Can you try another browser? I used Dolphin for a while on my Galaxy Tab 2, but I've gone over to Chrome now. I just encountered too many hiccups with Dolphin. I'll give it a try on Silk, but that browser is crashy. Try Chrome. It's what I use, so I know it works on stock Android.

The idiots are winning.

The '08 Malibu could have and should have been just refreshed rather than do the car we have today. Update the front/rear facias. Update the engines. Freshen the dash. It would have been far better than what they've got now if only for passenger room concerns. They may not have beaten the Camry, but they wouldn't be taking a negative 7% hit in sales growth. Buickman is in the comments of that article talking about how the car just isn't marketed properly... but that's bull. It is a severely compromised car when compared to the competition. I don't even like the Fusion, but I'll still pick one over the Malibu. Which is sad because I really liked the '08. Yes, I've driven them all.

Well another reason for the XTS was that when the 9-5 died, there was a lot of dev work already done and paid for but a good chunk of the amortization evaporated with Saab. They had to push the XTS into production. Aside from not having the DTS and STS anymore, they still had to try and make some money on the platform that they already invested in.

Okay... where I was going with this (but got distracted and didn't type) was that the old B-Bodies were speed limited to 143mph for the Roady/Caprice/Fleetwood and 153 for the Impala SS. The old Park Ave Ultra's top speed was 140mph without a speed limiter (I imagine the 3800 was near death at that point). Though I can't imagine doing 143mph in a Dynaride '94 Roadmaster....

1998 Oldsmobile Intrigue Why the Intrigue? Genuinely wondering here.. compared to it's rather stodgy contemporaries and predecessors it had a more revolutionary look. A 98 Impala looked like a Malibu with smoked headlights. The Century and Regal both looked really "old people". The Grand Prix looked like a rounder version of the prior model. GM's other midsizers were the Malibu/Cutlibu, the N-Body Alero and Grand Am were brand new, but even though the Alero shared the same theme with it's bigger brothers, it didn't wear it as well..... if you think about it, "the most dramatic midsize from GM" really isn't a very high bar to cross. Honda/Nissan/Toyota were still (are still?) suffering from G.A.S. Over at Ford, they still had the bug-eyed Taurus and Sable. Chrysler was fairing better with the attractive new LH cars, but those don't meet Mark's qualifier of "from GM". The Intrigue was the rather revolutionary 1994 Aurora look applied to a mid-size car that most people could afford. Nearly all of the commercials showed the car in black (it's best color IMHO) and made vague references to the idea of stealth and tied it in with X-files which was popular at the time. I'd say that the newest Impala would rank up there as better, but I believe that is considered a full size car now, nothing else since the Intrigue from GM would even qualify and meet the criteria that Mark set.

yeah, but who ever really gets that fast in the US?

Can you try another browser? I used Dolphin for a while on my Galaxy Tab 2, but I've gone over to Chrome now. I just encountered too many hiccups with Dolphin.

Volt will get a 12% bump in range and stronger regenerative braking... that's about it on the electric side of things. Most of the improvements they can make at this point will be on the regenerator.

Which engine?

Well, the thing is that we have one more tab coming... so I needed to condense things down a bit.

^^^ Still can't read a CTS/CTS-V/ATS review without the Cimmaron or Catera or 8-6-4 being brought up. I imagine it will be the same if Cadillac ever offers a diesel... "OMG!!! THE 1977 DIESELS WERE TEH SUCK!!@!"

1998 Oldsmobile Intrigue

Funny how mercedes requires no "protection" from taxi sales, but Cadillac "needs" such from black car sales. Ignorance again. Mercedes doesn't have the fleet sales here, and in Europe it doesn't hurt them. American and Japanese luxury makes have not made any impact on Europe. Mercedes is strong in China also, they are posting record sales and record profits year after year. Cadillac has a fragile image, a lot of luxury buyers in the USA see Cadillac as the old person's brand still. The XTS has an old person's image, it should be turned into a Park Avenue Buick, let them use that for the livery car even. Cadillac should have 2 retail sedans that cost the same though, that doesn't make sense. Watch out SMK. Here in Pittsburgh more and more black car services are using E-classes for airport duty. I just saw two brand new E-classes with the transportation permit sticker on the bumper this morning on the way into downtown. The XTS doesn't have an old-person's image... it has almost no image at all. It is relatively unknown to anyone outside of automotive forums. GM does next to zero advertising on it.

Interesting, I didn't know that about white rubber. I always thought they only used it for the white wall part of the tire, not the whole thing.

I think it's the same unit the Chryslers are getting but turned longways.

The only fleet(wood?) XTS I've seen, the primary passenger didn't care about brand perception anymore....

15s for my Toronado are difficult to find... especially in white wall. The problem is that it is the same tire size as the old S-10/Sonoma, so most of the tires that I do find in the proper size are actually truck tires and not at all suitable for a vintage luxury coupe... eventually I'm sure I'll have to go to Coker tire, but that is a long way off. I have okay tires on it now with low miles, but I'm not exactly happy with them.

It depends on what a customer considers better. I prefer the comfort ride of the air Springs on the XTS and on the VSport model, a quick button push will tighten up the magnetic ride control to be as tight as the CTS. Only on the track would you find any difference between the two in performance mainly owing to the XTS's awd and CTS's lack of it. I also prefer the room of the XTS. Nothing wrong with a CTS, the XTS is just more me.

I can bump that out if people like, we just have too many tabs at the top

It an Electra Park Ave... which means it has to be an '87. It was the only year that had both composite head lamps and the 2 door. Yes, the earlier K-Car was available as a coupe... but I was thinking of this. And there was never a 2-door model of that. The 2-door Lebaron in these years was actually on Chrysler's J-Body and was much sleeker... as far as late 80s Chryslers go.

And just saw this during a quick run for groceries. I wasn't wearing my glasses and at first I thought it was a 2-door LeBaron K-Car until I realized they never actually built such a beast.