prinzSD

The automotive landscape is getting ugly for us car enthusiasts. We are being pushed into ugly small front wheel hybrids or something. I am disgusted that they are eliminating choices for me in the cause of global warming and shrinking oil supplies. If I want a V8 and gas is at $10 a gallon, it is still my choice if I want to spend that kind of money. At least allow some cars to continue to have at least an option for the V8, that way the majority of buyers can opt for a V6 to save money and the enviroment and I can have my V8. EDIT: besides I take the train to work so my carbon footprint is smaller then most of the enviro weenies that complain about my car.

+2 I was trying to find a way of putting it down in words, but when I read VanSeattle's explanation I said to myself "forget about it", I caould not have said it any better. I do think the dummies out there might confuse it with the Malibu, I certainly got a little Malibu vibe when I first saw the pics. The interior is a knock out and GMs interior are starting to become consistently nice looking and great places to be in when driving. Past GM interiors have been horrible.

When I am driving one of my TAs and I get "That's a great looking Camaro!"

With Toyota annpuncing it will lose money in 2009, Honda canceling the NSX, I was wondering if Toyota is still moving forward with the Supra and what ever super car was destined for Lexus? Just wondering because the C6 Corvette will soldier on until about 2012, maybe 2014 and I was wondering what competition from Japan, Inc (excluding the Nissan GTR which is here) it will have to compete against? Maybe Siegen or ToyoGuy have some tidbits for us.

The front end looks like it is squinting and the slot below the grill looks ridiculous. The interior looks horrible and is a big step backwards. Somehow it looks cheap which is not good in this class of cars. I think the interior will turn off a lot of people. We got used to the 2 nd gen RX eventually after we saw them on the road and driving them when our car was in for service. I don't think my wife and I will ever like this 3rd gen.

Agreed. It is so common place that my wife and the kids use to play a game when we went for a drive. We would count how many RX, Corvettes, Bugs and Azteks we would see and assign points value to each car. The one who had the most point would win. On long trips to Disneyland it would keep the kids amused, busy, and distract them from complaining "are we there yet". Because everyone and their mother had an RX, we allocated 2 pts to.

I am sure he will come along and chime in "I told you so" while pontificating on his hidden agenda.

First they said they would never bring the wagon version and now they cancel the ST version. What goobs GM policy makers are. Now, I can not think of another GM product that will be car based, rw drive, V8 powered that can carry a load and the occasional lawn mower. There goes my reason to buy an "airsoft equipent carrier module" (AECM). It may be a good reason to kill it off perhaps because of the Congress bailout deal, but I am starting to care less for GM and it is getting to the point where I am less likely to defend GM in debates among family and friends. Maybe Wagoner and company really needs to go. Pick a plan and f**king stay with it for christ sake and stop changing the ship's path midstream.

I spend too much time at CorvetteForum.com, but it is entertaining with questions like, "who uses their windshield wipers" or "who drives thies Vette in the rain". The Z51 badging wars are a hoot as well. There are just too many topics too list.

They must have had to beef up the chasis and body to eliminate all the flex that was inherent in the third gen f-bodies if my 85 is any indication. Still, I enjoy taking out the 85, removing the t-tops and going for a cruise. Despite the car being 23 years old, it still gets attention and comments from people. My 93 handles better and is faster than the 85, I still enjoy the 85, and stylistically the third gen Trans Am has withstood the test of time better then third gen Camaros with their more angular surface treatment.

Not sure if this applies but yesterday an Audi dealer reported that someone went through the parking lot las night and keyed a hundred or so brand new Audis...ouch. The same street has a Pontiac, Lexus, Mercury and Hyundia dealerships. Strange that they just targeted an expensive forign luxury brand but then Lexus went unscathed so maybe it was a disgruntled customer.

Well said.

Exactly. My wife drives an RX300. The Rendevous was a weak attempt of making an RX300 competitor and we never considered it as an alternative. Had the Enclave been around it would have been a different choice. The Enclave is a much better looking vehicle and more elegant then the current RX330/350 and that would have been or be my choice. However the big sticking point with my wife as a realtor would have been that Buick is not as reliable and does not have the cache or status that her over glorified Toyota has.

That may be true in hindsight but it would not have worked. Many customers in the early days walked into Saturn dealers and bought them for their then unique characteristics and never new they bought a GM car. Had they known it was a GM car they would probably not even have looked at Saturn. Plus this experiment was easier to develope outside of the beauracratic GM. Apply no sales haggling, etc. too let's say Chevy, because of GMs reputation the public would have stayed clear of Chevy. What is truely sad is once the early successes of Saturn were established, they starved Saturn of product but even worse did not apply what they had learned from Saturn to other brands. For example when I brought my Saturn SL for routine maintanance or any service, they vacumed and washed my car. Meanwhile back at Pontiac, when I brought my Trans Am that cost 3 times more then the Saturn, not only would it not get vacumed or washed but I would occasionly get it back with grease smeared on my leather seats and carpet. What a maddening experience. GM lost a golden opportunity with Saturn as well as implementing techniques they learned from the Saturn experience throughout GM's structure. I do miss my SL but I still enjoy my Pontiacs and now a Vette..

And to think my mother in law believes only Japanese cars can break the 200,000 mile barrier.

As an owner of Pontiacs, Buick was never in my radar even with the GNX Grand National nor will it ever be on my list. There are many other brand I would consider befor Buick would appear on my list of must have cars.

Nice, you are about to break the 200,000 barrier.

And I bring my 185,000 mile 1993 Trans Am with the original motor and tranny to represent late model GM acheiving high mileage on original parts. It might not look pretty because as a daily driver it has slightly faded paint.

The scary part is I just read an article that was saying the Republicans don't want to give the loan to Detroit because it will give Obama a victory. their logic is by not giving out a loan,when Obama takes office in January he will be starting off in a major negative. Problem is that we may not have an auto indusrty left by January-February to save. If in fact the Republicans are attempting this political move, then they will lose 2 Republican voters (myself and my wife). There is no more time for the Pubs to be pulling this bullsh*t. Our elected politicians need to play ball with each other instead of party politics.

I think it also is the east coast-west coast mentality that the fly over states are not worth anything so they don't care about middle America, after all Madison avenue and California infuence everything from design, fashion, entertainment, etc.

Do we have the email address of this student so we can educate him on the realities our auto industry? edited for spelling

On Sunday my wife yells down from our bedroom upstairs to change the channel to channel 3. So I change the channel and I am greeted by the NYT hack Friedman on some debate about our auto industry. I immediatly yell back to my wife, don't listen to him, he is a Toyota humper who once said America would be better off if Detroit went under and we bought Toyotas. He one stupid idiot.

DONE!

True but if you have read the emails he has posted over the last several years everytime he diece on the domestics you would notice a lagre number of anti Detroit crap. it's almost like they think they would be imune to the coming catastrphy. They also do not forgive Detroits transgressions while it is okay to buy Hyndai when they were POS when they first came here (ask me how I know), yet they are given a free pass. Many of Detroit' products are just as good as the imports yet the humpers recite the same old crap and don't even try them.

Same here. It is the first thing I read on Wednesday mornings, even before my email. He has been critical of GM since the beginning so he opinions have merit unlike the clown from the NY Times... Friedman or what ever the Toyo humping freaks name is.