Drew Dowdell

You know... the real news here is that they are calling the thing a Town Car.....

Cadillac needs to bring back the name "Northstar" even if has nothing at all in common with the Northstars of old. There is name recognition out there for it. It's just like Chrysler using the Hemi name again.

Caliber is dead already

Get a cat.

I have a Dodge Caliber as my rental for a few days with 40k miles on it. It is an absolute pile... the best thing Dodge could have done is take it out back and shoot it. But that got me thinking, even just since the Caliber, the quality of vehicles has improved dramatically. So sound off, what are the worst new cars in production and on sale today?

that requires comments only appropriate for the politics forum.

a 5 liter hybrid that gets 30mpg? I get 30mpg out of a Hemi on the highway.

A friend of mine's brother owns a company that modifies GTRs into insanely fast machines. I visited the facility a few weeks ago and the sights there were simply awesome. They are getting 1,200 hp out of these engines. (if you read Jalopnik, they did a story on the company a few weeks ago also). they are moving to a new facility soon, and I may go out to do a story on them and their new space.

We'll be doing a Roadmasters version of this car in a few weeks as well when Abert and I take a TDI on a 1,000 mile trip.

Why are you rebuilding it? Some problems will be fixed by rebuilding, but others can be adjusted out. Judging from your mechanical prowess, I would say try it. The rebuild kits are $35 and aren't as complicated as we think they are... I would also replace any vacuum or solenoid parts on the outside. I would check how much play you have where the butterfly pivots are... and see if the kit has bushings that can be installed, otherwise, this can become a vacuum leak once you clean out the carb. Buying a second carb for cheap might be a good idea if you think you have bent parts (or just rebuilding the second carb, so you limit your downtime). I've rebuilt 2 carbs in my days... about 18~20 years ago when I was much more the newb (and didn't have the Internet as a crutch)... the first one was a Monojet and it came out so-so... but the carb was really clapped out. The second was an older Quadrajet and it came out sweet. I would have rebuilt more, but my '80s cars didn't really need it... and then fuel injection became the norm. It was a very satisfying process. The reason for the rebuild is this: the throttle position sensor is bad and it is buried deep enough into the carb that if you're digging that deep you might as well do a full rebuild. This carb model also has an issue with gas leakdown requiring epoxy on 4 spots under the carb. I don't think there is anything drastically wrong with the carb other than being 30 years old and pushing 100k miles. The leakdown does make her run a bit rich and it isn't something you can adjust out.

Happy Birthday! Sorry I missed it yesterday, but I'm in NYC today till 3 if you'd like to go out for lunch.

Time for a carb rebuild.... I'm deciding if i'm going to tackle it on my own or just send it out.

well, I pushed the Malibu review out another week, I want to get a different car in ahead of it.

It's probably more telling that Kentucky felt the need to specifically outlaw the practice.

An imposter Opel?

If it isn't running the car won't either. The question isn't "is the fuel pump running?" It's "is it putting out enough pressure?" The test above addresses that.

As has been mentioned in other threads, the Nissan CVT is pretty much best in class.

As much as people hate on the CVTs and the Sentra in general, that CVT is a great feature of the car.

this.

I could see them re-using the 9-5 somehow. They still owned the IP to that car and that is investment being left to rot. I think the signals being crossed are what is being used as the "base"

Apparently, the 5.5 can be set up to be a DOHC unit also.... which could certainly make the LTS special inside of GM.

Why not just re-nose the 9-5 with an Opel fascia? 98% of the work and tooling is done at that point. Slap an Omega badge on it and off ya go.

Probably Probably just as well to wait for the Omega flagship and will allow them time to fix the terrible dealer network over there.

Just like with Land Rover, the Jaguar interior better be amazing because you'll spend all that time sitting in it waiting for Road Side Assistance to show up.

"Premiere, Select, Reserve, and Preferred" all statuses that frequent travelers have heard of.... I'm 3 of those on my different accounts.