Satty

I wonder what the guy with the hair is up to now. The other three are probably insurance salesmen somewhere, but that guy, he has to be up to something great. Or he's dead.

Because I have no clue, I'm going to say its a BMW C1 because...um...I want one.

punch to the face

Yeah, I got to that part of the page and was like "wow" thats just awesome.

big hair

Then they need to advertise the hell out of it. Mitsu isn't a blip in the market because they pop up in buyer's minds right behind Subaru, long after Chevy, Ford, Toyota, Dodge or Honda. Even Hyundai is starting to get into the mind of the mainstream buyer. That happens one of two ways. Either the company has such an established record (like the domestics) that if you ask them where they will start their new car search, they'll bark out Chevy or Ford before you finish the question, basically they've been conditioned to think of a company that they've heard about their entire lives from parents, grandparents, great grandparents, whoever. The other way is to be like Hyundai and advertise the hell out of you cars, bang the low prices, improving reliability and loads of equipmet into the minds of buyers. Mitsu has been in this country 3 years longer than I have been alive, so that long standing track record isn't there, plus a lot of the cars they have peddled over the years have been pretty $h!ty. So that leaves annoying the buyers until they actually consider the product. I haven't seen a Mitsu ad on tv in who knows how long, the only ones I hear on the radio are the ones for the dealership that will sell you a Raider and give you a Galant free, not the best marketing tool. Plus they have the same 5 Raiders up front that they had when the promotion started.

Cyndi Lauper

GM has some spare 3.9s laying around I assume.

Did I say the smaller cars will sell better? No. I said smaller cars are more maneuverable. And the numbers are there for you to look at, the CTS cannot outsell smaller competitors at the same price point. Why do the smaller cars sell better? Your guess is as good as mine.

Fly, a foot is not a few inches. I'm not saying it makes someone a better or worse driver, it just makes it easier, especially in confined spaces.

Seriously, less length makes a car more maneuverable in EVERY situation, like in a parking garage, merging onto a highway, or driving your lazy suburban ass around McDonalds to get to the Drive-Thru window. Do you not comprehend that point? Because thats the one I've been trying to make. Smaller cars are easier to drive in everyday situations, and a foot is not a minute measure of length.

grape smugglers

I've taken test drives on public roads at dealerships. Believe me, you can tell when a car is long in the first two minutes. If you want to bring 3er sales down and Cadillac sales up, why the hell wouldn't you offer a car that actually competes with the 3er? The CTS is 5er sized but starts $14k less. Sure if you buy a CTS over a 3er you get a larger car for the money, but thats not the same as getting more car for the money.

3 inches off brings it down to a hair over 187 inches, still almost 10 inches longer than the 3er, I'm sure it will be wider and taller too. Cut a foot off and offer it up to the guy who doesn't need the back seat for anything other than a dog or his wifes shopping bags or something.

cologne

This brings up a question, where does that leave buyers who want a 3-Series at a 3-Series price? Something closer to the 178in lengther of the 3er than the 190in of the 5er or CTS. My Solara is 190 inches long and it can be a bitch to parallel park and drive in heavy traffic, though the huge blind spot doesn't help. So why not go down in size and cater to a market that obviously exists?

The Camaro is not going to be a high profit vehicle, its not going to single handidly bring GM back into the black, its sole reason for being is to.....satisfy Camaro enthusiasts I guess. So dont be surprised when GM cheaps out on this and that, 3.9 over 3.6, 4-speed auto over 6-speed auto, and a dozen or so little things could mean the difference between losing money on the car (and making it more likely to be dropped when sales fall after the first year or two) and making money on it.

In the case of the Panters its more like, "Almost dead and kind of poor" Ford, "Almost dead and less poor" Mercury and "Almost dead with a nice retirement fund" Lincoln.

Too bad Mitsu probably wont be around in the US by the time the warranty is up. Is it a good car? Probably, there really aren't any bad cars on sale any more. Are there better cars? Definately, if you want better family transportation, any number of companies will be happy to show you something with a better reliability track record. If you want something sporty, Nissan and Honda can show you something with a big V6 and a stick, and Pontiac can show you a Grand Prix with a fat V8, as long as your kiddies dont mind the cramped headroom and low bench in back, why bother with the Mitsu? If this car doesn't sell well in the states (which it wont) its because there are better offerings that trade the super warranty for other advantages over the Mitsu.

How long before Ford sells fewer Lincolns than BMW sells 3ers? I bet they already do if you take out fleet sales.

Steal it

Informer You know say daddy me snow me-a (gonna) blame A licky boom-boom down

Non-dealerships will let you detail but wont let you drive the cars. I was reffering to dealerships. Honestly, if you want to make the most money at it, start your own car detailing service. I did it my first year in college, I'd charge people $60 or so, then they'd go with me to a local car wash, I'd go over the car until it was spotless, inside and out, with my own cleaning supplies, which is probably why I pissed off the dude who ran one of the car washes, the only things there I would use were the vacuum and the sprayer for the water, since both were hard to come by in a dorm.

I'm going into the third trimester of a pregnancy (ok, my girlfriend is, but her pain is our pain, blah blah blah) so summer is going to be interesting. I'm going to make the best of it dammit.

It was $2.59 earlier today, I paid $2.74 to fill up with 91 octane Sunday morning.