Drew Dowdell

I don't think the target audience cares one bit. The 33 mpg will be a bigger seller to them than 0-60. Which one of those two features would "mom" care about more? The Ford and Mazda can't be equipped to the same level for the same price. On average, it costs $2,000 more for the same interior features in the those two than it does in the Buick.

This is exactly who Buick is targeting, they said so in their presentation I attended in Atlanta. They want young professionals who are looking to trade out of their "first car" Scion into something more upmarket without spending a lot of money on a Cadillac, BMW, or Benz. They want DINKs who are mpg conscious but still want some utility in their car or are tired of wheeling around one of the large crossovers. They want empty nesters who are trading out of their Traverse or Explorer because they no longer need to haul 3 kids around anymore. Buick seems really focused on these three groups for the Encore, though they'll take anyone who walks in with a check, I think Buick has very reasonable goals set by only really targeting certain customer types.

Yeah, the new skin isn't ready for daily use yet.

A tri-tone Buick Rainier with a Trailblazer front clip and a Buick badge swapped for the bowtie.

Roger, Thought you might like to see this reply from Buick.

There's no replacement for 0.9 CI of displacement.

I think Ford already said no to F-150 diesels.

Really? A number of vehicles I've driven go into 6th well below 63mph... the VW DSGs especially. Driven normally, the DSG won't let you go above 2,000 rpm until you've hit top gear, which puts the VWs into 6th somewhere in the high 30mph to low 40mph range.

Beyond the fact that the defined cycles are not how anyone in the world drives, the problem isn't just that the EPA mileage is overstated (if often is), the problem is that it is frequently understated as well. There are very few cars that I've driven that have been exactly on the EPA mark (my '04 CTS was one of them, it got the EPA highway economy reliably on every trip and not an MPG more). Others have been well under (Our '04 CR-V that only meets its highway EPA rating going down hill, A/C off, with a tail wind). Others have been way over (300C regularly gets me 30mpg highway, Cruze Eco getting me 51mpg through the mountains, New New Beetle Turbo pulling into the mid-30s, Charger V6 pulling into the low-mid-30s, Passat TDI pulling well over 50+ mpg) Some manufactures play to the test and are only that efficient at those testing conditions (I'm looking at you Hyundai and Honda), but when people drive them for real, they make the Vtec kicketh in yo a lot more often. Others, notably the domestics, seem to be more willing to give up a few ticks on the EPA sticker to have overall better real world driving results (Ford hybrid flap not withstanding).