jd2b

Croc, you are making an assumption that everybody who makes ~$65hr has only a HS education. Even if they did, there could be additional training to do the work, maybe not college style education but there are many people who for whatever reason beyond their control cannot attend college. I also believe that the $65hr number is inflated and not entirely accurate. If someone has been with the company for 25yrs I would hope that INCLUDING benefits they could make about that, but your entry level employee probably gets between 20-30hr including benefits. I have 6 years of higher education under my belt, but know that I would require a lot of training to do the work that most UAW employees do. I respect the work that they do, I believe that the situation at hand is extremely complex. Personally I think one of the best solutions is to unionize the foreign owned manufacturing plants. A more realistic approach would be to introduce a mandatory reduction of medical expenses. Just like attorney's are limited by statute in certain situtaions, physician's fees should be regulated. To aide the physcians the federal government should become the underwriter of med-mal insurance. These steps will reduce one of the major costs of manufacturing in this country compared to other countries. The union should also be realistic and take some reasonable wage reductions AND make sure that ALL of their employees are held to a very high standard. This means cutting blantently lazy employees and those that do not maintain high quality standards in their work product.

As much as I am a capitalist, I have to say I agree with Razoredge's assertions about where this country is headed. There are serious and I mean serious flaws with the general nature of desire for "lower prices." Free-trade has been an advantage for upper-middle class and above income brackets and for foreign populations. It has allowed wealthier people to benefit from lower prices, at the expense of the working class. I don't have time to put forth more at the moment, but I hope to add to this discussion in the near future.

Of course Derek77, aerodynamics have little to do in the city, but they do on the highway which is a portion of combined mileage. This increase in aerodynamics is claimed to help a lot. I apologize I should have been more clear, the ~20 is combined, not city mileage. The way I wrote it makes it appear as though it is. The 27 is the number that has been thrown around as the highway mileage on this forum.

I was just watching the official introduction and it was quoted that the combined fuel economy number is EPA!!!!! What an amazing accomplishment. Congrats to GM, and may your competitors weep this time around.

This is an absolutley eloquent vehicle. It appears that one thing that GM has done very successfully with the GMT-900 program is enhance the workmanship of these vehicles. I do not think anyone would argue that the GMT-800's didn't have some of the finest engineering and quality of construction, BUT the problem was that it did not show on the surface. This time around the outside package (including the interior and exterior) demonstrates the same WORLD-CLASS engineering that goes into the rest of the vehicle, ie. the hydro-formed construction, top of the class drive-train, and durability of chasiss. At first glance and with GM poor photography department, the GMT-900's appear bland in the side profiles, but with a careful eye the level of detail and panel fits is AMAZING. There is nothing bland about these vehicles, GM has a hit on its hands and its competitors are going to be caught with their pants down. Its about time because it has always seemed that the competitors did this to GM. Another key to remember if the 20/27 MPG numbers are correct is that they did not get all of those improvements from the drivetrain, extensive work went into the design to reduce air turbulance thus increasing the aerodynamic performance of these vehicles.

And the worse part is that Subaru was unwilling to share is best WRX technology for the 9-2X with GM, granted not many companies would want to share their top products but in Subaru's case only their top technology is of any use to GM. Quite frankly they would have more to gain from GM then the other way around.

Good! Fuji was not willing to share its technology and was somewhat of a pain in GM's side. It is however upsetting that Toyota picked up more shares. The only technology that Fuji had that was worth while for GM was a quick AWD application, but with Theta, Lamda and the Epilson II Utes we are so close to having GM's own AWD system improved and use expanded that it is too late for Fuji to be of any help.

If the Yukon and Denali are tomorrow, do we have any ideas of when the Escalade will be?

Congrats to a fine brand and the start of a great pedigree!

Understandable, but it would be excellent if it could be confirmed that there are spy pictures of the next gen. CTS floating around online.

Last night there was a spy pic with what appeared to be a new CTS rear-end. What has happened to that thread?

GM will be selling plenty of these, even with the increase in gas prices.

I really really like the interior, the gear selector could use a little chrome, but other than that it is very excellent for a car priced as this one will be.