Drew Dowdell

well... but then you'd also burn out the torque converter eventually.

I'm not certain they are that far off from one.

It took a looong time for the old one to grow on me... looks like I'll have to go through the same process all over again.

VW is running around 30% production in diesels. If GM makes the Cruze right, they'll find the love. Mazda too.

The XTS is a far better handler than the MKS Ecoboost and a universe beyond the ES. With the Magnetic ride control and AWD that can and does bias to the rear, GM can make the platform do whatever they want. You really need to drive the car aggressively like I've had the chance to, back to back with an E-Class.

this is someone's daily driver!?

If I'm a 28 year old shopping for a sedan and money is tight... am I going to buy the Altima which is ok looking and finances cheap or the Optima which is ok looking, finances cheap, and has a long warranty?

Have you driven one of these yet? They don't at all handle like a FWD car.. and in fact is noticeably more athletic feeling than an E-class.

The AWD XTS is a good drive now.. with 369 lb-ft on tap, I'm sure it will be a real hoot!

On noooess!!!

No.. I have one that is going to get a lot of people butthurt.... including a lot of people on this site.

well... in BK's defense, timing belts do suck... (Former owner of an Olds with the 3.4 DOHC)

52 mpg is diesel hybrid... nothing that remarkable by 2025.

Wow... you stirred up a hornet's nest here BK!

A 30-something with $30k to spend has, by my count, at least 4 V8 power cars to choose from (Charger, Challenger, Camaro, Mustang) and many more V6es than I care to count.. but at least 1 from every mainstream brand that offers V6/I6 cars. At the $30k mark, the V6 is not a rare option at all. GM was panicked about the V8 because at the time, quite frankly, their V8s sucked. By the mid '70s, the Oldsmobile 350 was putting out 160 horsepower and using a gallon of gas every 18 miles to do it... if you were lucky. The country just had its first two oil shocks, and the President was on T.V. telling them to put on a sweater and showing them how to lower the thermostat. At the same time, Datsun was putting out a 1.4 liter with 85 horsepower and a 2.4 liter I-6 that made 125hp. It doesn't take a mathematician to figure out that if Datsun can produce 85 horsepower at 1.4 liters (and get 27mpg), then Oldsmobile is in trouble using 5.7 liters to make 160hp. GM's response was to build another V8, the HT-4100, with just 10hp more. So.. yes CAFE was there... but the panic was (justifiably) over the import models.... it's even reflected in the commercials and dealer training videos of the time that Ninety-Eight has so kindly posted.

Really? REALLY!?!

GM didn't build the X-cars because of CAFE, they built the X-cars because people started buying Civics, Corollas, and Datsun 210s. GM's panic was in response to people (The Market) moving towards these small foreign imports on their own. Fuel Economy was foremost on everyone's mind at the time... CAFE was a symptom, not a cause. Chrysler got into their bad spot because THE MARKET stopped buying their huge gas guzzling cars, they Chrysler didn't downsize their vehicles quick enough to meet the demands of the market... CAFE had nothing to do with it. Blaming CAFE for what cars are today is a distraction. Yes the government rules are cumbersome, but the market is a far stronger force on the automotive landscape. If you're a mid-30-something with $30k to spend on a car, chances are you're buying a 4-cylinder FWD sedan rather than a Camaro SS. It's not some conspiracy... it's just where the market is.

The most important change there is the active noise cancellation system.... but it's gonna need to be pretty powerful. Shame the interior still screams "Civic Brougham" though..

Welcome back!

I think it may have been ordered already, but if not, I may take you up on it.

Post pics!

"The Skyactive-D hasn't been officially confirmed for the CX-5", the Mazda rep said to me with a wink and a nudge.

the problem for Nissan is that VW swooped in and stole a lot of thunder.

I didn't. I'm away from home for a while. The car runs fine for the moment.

It must be scary living in your worlds where you have to pop your hood each morning to check for a government bureaucrat counting your cylinders.... but they do make medication for that sort of paranoia. Where you see a vast government conspiracy, I see technological advancement and changing of automotive fashion. The full size SUV had a good run. It was the bourgeois status symbol from the early 90s through till about 2008. Back in 1996, every Suzie McMansion wanted a Suburban or Bronco/Expedition. When those weren't pimp enough, the Escalade and Navigator were born. You say back then you could get a loaded Suburban for $35k? Well that would also get you fairly well loaded 5-series as well.... both are now in the $60k range... but the 5-series hasn't gone out of style and the Suburban has. The fact remains that someone with 50 large to blow on a vehicle is picking the 5-series instead of the Suburban. That isn't the government's fault! That's how the market works! Why do we have the Spark? Because GM finally decided to make a sub-compact that doesn't suck. Sub-compacts aren't a new concept.... the Spark is not the first in its class. Sub-compacts pre-date CAFE by at least a few decades going back at least as far as the 1940s with Crosley and the Type-1 Volkswagen. You seem to think that sub-compact sales are taking off because the government is mandating it? No, the Spark is selling well because for the first time in over 60 years, someone built a sub-compact that isn't a total penalty box! (This next bit is related to an article I've been working on) This next statement won't go over too well on this website, but many of you have to have some reality splashed in your face. The V8 is no longer relevant to 95% of the car buying public. Trucks and Full Size SUVs not included in that.... yet. Oh, tell me how the government is forcing us out of our V8s and into 4-cylinders again. WRONG. For the general driver, there is an upper point of power output where the buyer will simply not pay extra for extra power regardless of the number of cylinders producing it. Technical advancements have let the 4-cylinder replace the V8 as the standard engine of choice, not because of CAFE or the Government, but because people just don't need the kind of output that a modern V8 produces. 4-cylinder engines are now out-powering V8s of 20-30 years ago and V6es of 5 - 15 years ago. Some examples: The best selling car of the early 80s was the Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. The predominant engine was the Oldsmobile 5.0 liter V8 producing about 140hp. Today, there isn't a 4-cylinder engine from 1.4 liters and up that doesn't produce the same to vastly more horsepower. The new GM 2.5 liter 4-cylinder is exactly 50% of the size of the Olds 307 yet can generate over 60 more horsepower. In 1993, Cadillac wowed us with their new DOHC, 32 Valve Northstar V8. In top form at release, it had 300 hp and nearly as much torque. It sucked on premium fuel and required 8-quart oil changes. Today, GM can produce that much power from a 2-liter turbo and have better torque delivery as well. 300 Hp? Nearly every run-of-the-mill V6 can do that these days and many can hit 30mpg while doing it. Oh Ford doesn't do many V8s anymore? They don't need to. The Ecoboost V6 produces more horsepower and more torque than any of their standard issue V8s from the past 30 years. Even before you get to the fuel economy issue, it is simply a cost/benefit analysis.... it is cheaper for Ford to slap a couple turbos onto an existing V6 to meet the desired power output than it is to try and engineer a V8 to fit in the front of the Taurus. It's not some big government conspiracy that created the Eco-boost program... it is simple accounting. What the V8s can do today is beyond the needs of most drivers... the market has spoken on that. Even the mildest V8 I can think of in a production car today, the 5.7 liter Hemi in the 300c, produces 363 horsepower and 393 lb-ft of torque. I love this engine in the 300c... it is constantly on my radar as a possible purchase in the future... but I have to admit that the 3.6 Pentastar with the 8-speed transmission is more than suitable for my needs and could purchase one with very little regret. So please... visit your doctor and see if Xanax is right for you....