ImpalaPete

1. 07 Altima 2A. Accord 2B. Aura 2C. Passat 2.0T 3A. Milan 3B. Fusion 4A. Cam-lee 4B. Impala 4C. 07 Sebring 5A. Mazda 6 5B. Malibu SS 5C. G6 5D. Galant Ralliart 6. LaCrosse 7. Grand Prix 8. Subaru Legacy 9. Chery 10. Sonata 11. Kia Optima 12. Susucki Verona From that group, there is but one choice for me: Sube Legacy GT Limited Sedan, manual

Of course they didn't like the Corolla because its spongy. Tokico and Hellwig cure that problem rather easily. They praised the Elantra as being spacious and a good commuter but its a flopper. No surprise. It does not pretend to be sporty. The Civic is an acquired taste. Has been since its inception. the Mazda is a good car but it didn't win because of red dash lights. Always good to hear that C&D is using such unquestionable criterion to choose the best small car. C&D must be chummy with the folks at CR. The Rabbit is the best overall. For sportiness, probably so. But for reliability and dealer/service satisfaction? Hmm... They claimed that no Focus or Cobalt with stick was available to test. Meaning that none of C&D's staff bothered to look at the twenty or so nearby Ford and Chevy dealers. My guess is there were dozens of shiny new examples within a 25-mile radius of where they tested. For that matter, since three of the cars tested cost north of $18K and one car tested is the dated Corolla, then why not test a 5-speed version of the recently-facelifted Impreza? The Impreza will run rings around most of the cars in the test and sweetens the pot with standard AWD.

10. Chevrolet Aveo The Aveo does not pretend to be anything other than what it is. A very inexpensive, reasonably well-built, reasonably-reliable econobox. In that segment of the market, it is no better or worse than most everything else. It is basic transportation. End of story. Move along... 9. Lincoln Mark LT The Lincoln Mark LT is a puzzling beast. It makes almost no sense at a combo Ford/Lincoln dealer. It is way too over the top for the average pickup truck buyer. It is too low brow for the Cadillac-aspiring (perhaps bling-oriented) truck buyer. I suppose it could be argued that it has its own niche in between Ford and Cadillac, but that seems to be a niche where the general public does not want to be, no matter how much FoMoCo tries to convince Joe and Jane Public that they need to be there. 8. Saab 9-7x Yep. It's a Saab Trailblazer. It makes sense as something for Saab dealers to sell when the dealership does not carry one of the GM twins. Otherwise, it makes little business sense, perhaps other than to make a few corporate execs feel all puffy chested about their "new" design. 7. Subaru B9 Tribeca Ugly is as ugly does. Checked these out tonight at the Scooby dealer with the wife while looking at lower-rent Subes. The wife hates everything about it. It is cramped inside. I felt a bit claustrophobic just looking in from the outside. I am indifferent to the styling, but it reeks badly of Edsel. Strangely, in person, a nearly identical grill treatment on the Impreza looks rather nice. FHI missed the Feng Shui boat in a big way with the B9. All of the Legacys (Outback and regular) and Foresters make way more financial and practical sense than the B9. A loaded Legacy, especially the Outback wagon, is just as nice as the B9 and far better suited to the average daily grind. 6. Chevrolet Monte Carlo Puzzled me from the day its styling hit the showroom floor years ago. A strange combination of ungainly and impractical. Aimed at a small demographic looking for a mediocre coupe with FWD and nothing special. If I wanted a coupe, this would not be on my list, even if my list had 50 cars on it. [Psst. Don't tell anybody. But I really do have a list of 50 coupes that I would like to own. The Full Monte ain't on my list.] 5. Hummer H2 It's a Hummer, in the truest sense. Big. Bad. Bold. Horrible gas mileage. A bit short on interior space. It is everything that the Hummer crowd wants and expects. If you don't like it or understand it, too bad. Move along. There is somebody bolder and braver than you waiting to buy it. 4. Chrysler Aspen What were Chrylser execs thinking when they decided to reuse the Aspen name on this? Too many vacations in Colorado? No knowledge of corporate history? The Aspen is almost universally recognized as Dodge's poor-man, semi-equipped, mid-sized econobox from the 70s. Granted, those old econoboxes were/are very reliable, as evidenced by the hordes still on our roads, most of them minus the lower half of the rear quarters dissolved eons ago by rust. This new Aspen has nothing endearing or special about it. Just another semi-luxury SUV to get lost in the slow-moving, lot-filling, low-volume crowd. 3. Buick Rendezvous An invisible, dated ho-hum in a giant field of competitors. Rather awkward looking from day one. Keep moving along... 2. Jeep Compass It's ugly. No, not just regular ugly. Horrible ugly. The Compass looks like a half-melted Patriot on undersized roller skates. I can't imagine picking the Compass over the Patriot, even though both ride on the same Caliber platform. If the Compass’ “puffy cheek” look is something, it is anything but attractive. The Patriot looks world's better and can be had in a Trail-Rated version. True, the Compass might attract attention from a crowd who would otherwise ignore Jeep. But it also devalues the invaluable Jeep marketing persona and risks sending some of Jeep's bread-and-butter crowd off into the alternate manufacturer wilderness in protest and disgust. 1. GM Minivans It's a minivan. A hopelessly utilitarian, uninspired, wobbly box on wheels. What else is there to know? I never met a minivan I didn't hate. A hate that knows no manufacturer or brand name boundaries.

No kidding. That hill is only three feet tall.

There I am. Way up there. There I am again. Way over to the right.

Exactly. I see more than a few mail carriers driving RHD vehicles, various manufacturers and models. It definitely grabs your attention when you first notice it. One of my mail carriers drives an old RHD Chrysler K-car wagon.

I saw premium going for as high as $3.31 a gallon on way home tonight. Yikes!

I see the vans for sale at the county fair every year. The things are so small, they look like you could roll them on their side with your bare hands. Definitely not street legal, though. Too bad. Trick it out the right way and it would make a really cool commuter vehicle that gets great gas mileage.

22 mpg for the Escape is not too bad, considering it is an SUV. Around 29 mpg would be more like it, though. 22 mpg for the Accord is awful. GM can probably do better than that with a non-hybrid Impala V8.

Sure looks look a chop of the new Rav4 to me. I love those Daihatsu microvans. I always check them out when I am down in the Caribbean. I think I would buy one if they were street legal here.

That sounds about right. OPEC breaks out cases of champagne the day afterwards when business doubles.

The GM recall must be because of the rusty ABS sensor problem that some customers have been reporting for a few years. The ABS sensors get rusty, don't work as well, and ABS kicks in before it should. I encountered the exact same problem on my Prizm. ABS kicked in way too soon when braking at slow speeds and increased my stopping distance by quite a bit. It almost felt like I lost my brakes. It is a common problem for many vehicles with ABS in the rust belt, regardless of manufacturer. The fix is to scrape the rust off the sensors and apply a sealant to prevent the rust from coming back. I assume that the post 2002 vehicles have corrected sensors.

When I first read the title of your post, it sounded like your bike is having any identity crisis. LOL!

It's nothing unusual where I live. Huge garages are not uncommon. One of my neighbors has six garage bays. People in nearby neighborhoods have 10+ garage bays. I know people that own 15-20 cars at any given time. If that's what makes you happy and you can afford it, then go for it. For what it's worth, I was up to five vehicles for awhile earlier this year.

I am starting to see Elises driving around everywhere. I can't wait to go check out the Exige.

Say what? Nobody better try to tell me that the PT Cruiser and HHR are not "trucks"! Heck, the PT Cruiser and HHR can each tow one yard cart, two empty 13-in TV boxes, and three fatties. ^_^

I often call my Chevy Prizm a Chevy Corolla, which causes odd reactions in some people. Quite a few people have insisted that my Prizm has nothing to do with a Corolla. I point out that both vehicles have nearly all parts in common and were made for years on the same assembly line at the NUMMI plant in CA. Some people continue to argue that such things are impossible. A few have even argued that my car looks nothing like a Corolla. Ugh!

At a car show with my '65 Mustang. A woman walks up to me and says "That's a beautiful Chevrolet". :wub: :unsure: :blink: :wacko:

It seems inexcusable that Honda has yet to fix this problem after so long. Is Honda waiting for owners to get burned to death or what? Why not just release a simple fix (shield or whatever) and have it installed before the vehicle is sold or whenever an existing owner comes in for an oil change. It seems to me that any of the Big 2.5 would have released a good, inexpensive fix long ago, especially to avoid any threat of class action litigation. Honda must be full of itself to do nothing to prevent these fires.

Nice Goat. Kind of scary how the right front tire has almost rolled over onto the rim, though.

The worst place to park your car is anywhere outdoors! http://www.cheersandgears.com/public/style_emoticons//AH-HA_wink.gif