Cheers and Jeers for 2007

[bobo]

It’s time for the sixth annual end-of-year list of the best and worst of C&G, General Motors, and all things automotive. But before beginning, a quick recap of what else went on in the world the past year:

It was the year of wide stance, thanks to Senator Larry Craig, and Barry Bonds breaking Hank Aaron’s 755 homerun record and then getting indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice regarding steroid use. It was the year of the mortgage meltdown and of Chinese toys getting recalled for lead paint. There was a horrific mass-killing at Virginia Tech and nonstop Presidential campaigning—will it ever end, and are these the best candidates the country can offer? Turmoil continued in the Middle East and South Asia. A good portion of Southern California was on fire. People got used to paying $3 for a gallon of gasoline. Al Gore got a Nobel Prize to go along with his documentary’s Oscar and Emmy. Passings included Jerry Falwell, Norman Mailer, Luciano Pavarotti, and Anna Nicole Smith.

For GM, it was not a year of constantly dripping bad news like in 2006. But they are not out of the woods yet by a long shot. GM sold off Allison Transmission and weathered a short UAW strike. They entered into an agreement with Navistar to sell them their medium-duty truck business. Bob Lutz’s mainstream vehicles finally showed up in showrooms to rave reviews. In other automotive news, the merger of equals dissolved with most of the hapless Chrysler being sold to the hedge fund, Cerberus Capital Management, which had picked up half of GMAC last year. The great minds behind Daimler-Benz ran Chrysler into the ground with their sheer incompetence.

For many members of C&G, 2007 could not end soon enough. It was a year of much heartbreak, broken relationships, and a lot of crashes. But for others, it was personal successes, moving up, or moving on. For the more sheltered of us on C&G, we learned what two girls could do with one cup. And much worse.

And now, time for the Cheers and Jeers:

Cheers to GM for producing bona-fide, world-class products. With the CTS, Malibu, Enclave, and G8, GM proves that it can be more than competitive when it tries, and good press will follow. Thank you, Bob Lutz, for following through with your promises.

Jeers to GM for introducing models with ever-increasing road-hugging weight. With more features and better structure, the newest GM vehicles are gaining hundreds of pounds over their successors. Light-weight alloys are costly, but added weight gives penalties to fuel economy and handling.

Jeers to GM for inadequate mid-cycle enhancements. Vehicles need updates by their fourth model year, even if it's some minor exterior freshening. The SRX got an incredible interior last year, but the exterior looks tired. The Cobalt soldiers on with few changes, with its lack of refinement becoming more apparent which each new competitor, the turbocharged engine notwithstanding. The GMT-360s needed updates long ago, but the updates were canceled. Yes, updates cost money, but so do lost sales. When MCEs are done, such as on the Buick LaCrosse, or when submodels are developed, such as the Lucerne Super and Pontiac G6 GXP, make sure that the money is well-spent rather than making questionable aesthetic changes.

Cheers to GM for Best Concept, the Chevrolet Volt, and then following its introduction with the announcement that it will be produced. Amid the huge hype, GM will need to deliver.

Jeers to the C&G Curse. FlyBrian started out the year with his yearly run-in with a Toyota. Other victims included Dodgefan, Sixty8panther, Scharmer5, YellowJacket894, ocnblu, and regfootball, among many others.

Cheers to the Staff Member of Merit, Oldsmoboi, for helping to get the forum onto a stable server after two years of excruciating error messages.

Cheers to Ford for bringing back a real car name, Taurus, on the updated Five Hundred. Enough with the alphanumeric nonsense.

Cheers and Jeers to Toyota for beginning to implode yet manage to grow sales. For them, it was a year of losing Jim Press, a botched Tundra launch, almost weekly recalls, and bad reviews. Still, they achieved higher sales than ever. And Toyota is no longer being coy about wanting to be the number one automobile manufacturer in the world. Is Toyota a runaway train or a train wreck? Even Consumer Reports is saying some not-so-nice things about some Toyota models. Will unbridled expansion be Toyota's downfall?

Cheers to the Best Post by our favorite spy, the lovely and talented Chris_Doane, on his humorous take on NAIAS. No one does auto shows better than Chris. link

Cheers to the Best Post, Part II by !!!TED!!! for the 2008 Ford Taurus Heritage Edition. The sheer genius behind this post justifies it having more than just an honorable mention. It delivers biting commentary and parody. link

Cheers to the Poster of the Year, Pontiac Custom-S. Love him or hate him, you couldn’t ignore the injury-prone PCS unless you had the “ignore user” function activated. He made his mark on the forum in the last year with his Opel-loving, Holden-hating persona with a sprinkling of insider information and incessant TICK-TOCKING.

Cheers to Schuby87 for the Best Spypic by someone other than Chris_Doane for his catch of the Dodge Challenger: link

Cheers to blackviper8891 for Best Concept for his rendition of the C7 Corvette.

link

Honorable mention goes to Burns for his vast improvement in the quality of his drawings and renderings. Even MarioBro88 improved a lot.

Jeers to the Worst Styling Cliché, fake fender vents. When BMW put fender vents on the M Series vehicles and Maserati on its Quattroporte, they lent a sense of style. Buick’s ventiports added a small touch of class. Even the current Escalade’s fake side vent was ok. But now everybody has gone mad with fake vents, with even the Ford SuperDuty pickups having them, for goodness' sakes. Enough already. Dishonorable mention goes to the Cadillac STS for further cluttering the front fender with a poorly integrated side marker light.

Jeers to the Worst Poster...Typically the worst poster is a troll who is gone by the end of the year. There are a few posters who are still around and grate on members’ nerves. There’s nothing wrong with a difference of opinion, especially when backed up with thoughtful discourse. But there’s a limit to everything, especially when there isn’t anything to back something up. I won’t point out the worst offender because that wouldn’t be polite, but most people would probably be in agreement on who it is.

Cheers to all the staff and members who continue to make Cheers & Gears our favorite place to hang out on the web. Besides the breaking news, the diversity of both the opinions and membership is what keeps the place enjoyable and worth spending our time here.

Hope everybody has a safe and Happy New Year.

[Charger4U]

thanks again for the great read bobo... but damn didnt get in there for word association haha

Edited January 1, 2008 by Charger4U

[knightfan26917]

I was a waitin' for this, bobo!

Simply awesome ... thank you for posting it .

Cort:34swm."Mr Monte Carlo.Mr Road Trip".pig valve&pacemaker

WRMNshowcase.legos.HO.models.MCs.RTs.CHD = http://www.chevyasylum.com/cort

"Nothing can take the place of being there" ... Marvin Gaye ... 'Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing'

[Oracle of Delphi]

Well shucks, I never won an award before! I want to thank the GM Board of Directors, my family, and all the little people along the way ... :AH-HA_wink:

[Delta Force79]

Going into my 3rd full active year on this board and I havent made the list once...not sure if thats a good thing or not...but I'm beginning to feel unloved if it's all the same

Well thanks anyway bobo

Edited January 1, 2008 by Delta Force79

[2005 EquinoxLS]

This was certainly a year of cheers and jeers for me. People are likely tired of hearing this but here goes anyway.

Cheers for my Dad and I spending time at the Chicago Auto Show in 2007. He was very impressed with the new Malibu and even was looking at the new Aveo as a replacement for my sisters tired 1995 Cavalier with 200,000 miles on it. Dad and I always enjoyed spending that time together.

Cheers for getting a brand new house. August 15th we moved in and couldnt be happier with it. Havent had to call them back to fix anything.

Cheers for my aqquiring a nearly showroom 1985 Chevrolet Caprice with 117,000 miles. Needs the A/C worked on and HIGH on the climate control doesnt work. Other than that it is nearly flawless with only a couple of little nicks. The inside other than a few marks on the climate control is like brand new.

Jeers though for how I aqquired it. My Dad died June 7th after knowing he had liver-lung cancer for 1 week. He just didnt feel good and that was what they all found. He got to see the basement of the new house before he died. Why we got a new house brings us to another jeer.

The City started negotiations to buy our old house in July 6th of 2006 because we lived on VERY busy corner where semis need to make the turn to go to the paper mill. They are redoing the road on 2008 and are making it 4 feet wider and maing a right turn lane right about where the house sat. We had just put new siding on it and a new bow window in the living room. New kitchen and bathroom floors and a lot of things. The house dated back to 1901. We looked at a few houses but didnt like what we saw. So we looked at a few new ones and found what we liked. Money wasnt a problem though the city gave us the bare minimun and didnt pay us for the 2nd mortgage taken out for the siding and window. Found a lot in March and work started in late April. Moved out of the old one August 21-24. I wont even get into the movers. Gave it up on August 31st but I told them I wanted to see it get torn down so I could have pictures. Before it got torn down though the 2 neighbors have nearly identical houses so we gave them the oppertunity to take stuff that would benefit them. The new siding, gave a friend the bow window in exchange for building the new shed at the new house. the other took the furnace and A/C and the front and back doors. Water heater, garage and shed. So I get a call from a friend on December 19th that our house is fully torn down. The city never told me they were going to do it. But I did get pictures of the rubble before they loaded it in the dumpster.

Sorry this was way too long. It tells my year. I am looking forward to finishing the garage in the new one and getting a furnace in the garage. Also getting the yard done and a little finish work on the shed. and getiing the A/C on the 1985 fixed. And the fan switch. Getting the headlinder done on the Bonneville and if that A/C doesnt work.

[ocnblu]

Another great summation, bobo. Thanks for putting the year together for us, once again. No offense, but I really hope to not be mentioned in the same way next time around. Here's to new beginnings!

[CSpec]

Cheers to bobo for another great list!

[K.C.]

Great job on the list Bobo. I am disappointed there is no "most annoying newcomer award" here on C&G. I was hoping for that one!

[knightfan26917]

Cheers for my aqquiring a nearly showroom 1985 Chevrolet Caprice with 117,000 miles.

*nods*

Absolutely cheers to that, but yes, jeers to how you acquired it .

BTW ... did you ever figure out how to post pics of it here? I know you sent 'em to me, but don't remember if you posted them via attachment here...?

Cort:34swm."Mr Monte Carlo.Mr Road Trip".pig valve&pacemaker

WRMNshowcase.legos.HO.models.MCs.RTs.CHD = http://www.chevyasylum.com/cort

"I want a 2-tone Chevrolet" ... BJ Thomas ... '2-Car Garage'

[Cory Wolfe]

Congrats to those who made the list... or in some cases, pity.

[Camino LS6]

Jeers: To Congress and the president for acting like CAFE does a damn bit of good.

[Drew Dowdell]

:sign0200: I made the list this year!

[Chris_Doane]

Post of the year! :dance: Heh though I'm not sure how I feel about Bobo calling me lovely....

Hmm...how will I ever top last year's post. Maybe this year NOS will get a companion to walk the floor with....

[NOS2006]

Jeers to NOS2006 for not contributing enough.

[NOS2006]

Hmm...how will I ever top last year's post. Maybe this year NOS will get a companion to walk the floor with....

Oh $h!.

[!!!TED!!!]

Oh $h!.

lolz

Cheers to bobo for including me yet again.

Jeers to fake fender vents, like those on the new Focus and Aveo hatch.

[VenSeattle]

Very good read! Cheers to Bobo... and for all to have a Merry C&G 2008!

[2005 EquinoxLS]

Knightfan. I have to do that yet. Havent had time to investigate this. Plus I need engine pictures of the 2 cars.

[aaaantoine]

I haven't been around much lately, so I have a couple of personal ones to add.

Cheers to my discovery of Ubuntu Linux in July. It's good to know that there is an alternative and free operating system to Windows, for when I'd rather not bow to Microsoft overlords.

Jeers to my mild brush with the C&G Curse. At one point, while my wife was unloading my son from the car, a strong gust of wind blew the driver's door open all the way and put a 3" indent on the very edge of it. It can probably be hammered out, but still...

Cheers to my influx of handy gadgets for 2007. A new laptop, a new desktop, a camcorder, and a Wii. I love gadgets, what can I say?

Jeers to my former health insurance company. "Oh, you moved to UPSTATE New York? Sorry, we won't cover you there." Jerks. Here's hoping I won't require medical services while I look for an affordable plan...

Cheers to living with my in-laws for a full year without going on a killing spree. Maybe I can find / afford my own place in 2008.

Jeers to the February car accident that took the lives of both of my cousin's children. Also, she suffered a second car accident a few days ago. She was hit from behind, and though only mildly injured she was left in hysterics. Her husband had to explain to the cop why she was crying over a fender bender.

And, last but certainly not least, Cheers to the birth of my first child in October. He just turned 3 months. I'll have to post pics sometime, but I don't have a whole lot on me at the moment.

[Drew Dowdell]

Jeers to my former health insurance company. "Oh, you moved to UPSTATE New York? Sorry, we won't cover you there." Jerks. Here's hoping I won't require medical services while I look for an affordable plan...

Your member profile says you're located in Central NY. I'm sorry, we're going to have to ban you for false information in your profile.

[76ChevyTrucker]

Bobo thanks as always for bringing the year officially to a close. Glad to see I wasn't mentioned in there although the Curse did reach out and touch my Impala right at year's end. Cheers to all whom deserve and Jeers for those whom also deserve!

[aaaantoine]

Your member profile says you're located in Central NY. I'm sorry, we're going to have to ban you for false information in your profile.

D'oh!

I have a habit of calling everything beyond NYC "upstate NY". Comes with the Long Island upbringing.