haypops

Although I have recently gotten out of the habit, for years I listened to the auto. editor of consumer guides. I find him a unequaled source of automotive information. Whether interview Banks of banks engineering, Roush of Mustang fame, or GM engineer of the 3.8 L. development project, he was always knowledgeable and unbiased. He was no domestic shill nor an import hater. His road tests always included reasonable comparison with other choices in the market and a fair estimation of durability.

An interesting find. Of the two upcoming technologies predicted at the annual stock holders meeting, I think the 1.4 L. 40 mpg cobalt replacement may be the more successful in the near term.

When the Camry generation before the present one first came out, Toyota made a big deal of saying the previous generation was too good - too expensive and they were dedicated to cheapen it out. I think they succeeded.

Well said. Sometimes just good enough really is good enough. I think that GM's just good enough cars like the Cavelier and Cobalt have something more to offer than other "just good enough" cars. It used to be called "body by Fisher". Now it just presents as an an inexpensive car that really feels "grown up". That is not always the case in some of the older Japanese cars.

I read that SUV owners are having an awful time trading in their vehicles. GM could get some real good-will and real good press by giving these customers special incentives to get into GM intermediates.

Well be older and poorer my experiences are at the Trader Joes (supermarket/health food/local food producers). I usually see a nice mix of American trucks and SUVs and Japanese mostly midsize cars here in Pasadena. However, one morning my wife and i went to the market early. It really was shocking. Mine was the only American car there. There were multitudes of Toyota and Honda vans and four Prius (s).

I prefer this one:

click here This is a simple to understand explanation (with additional material at the end of the story) of Solar Thermal Energy.

India has price control of gas, diesel, and home cooking oil. They just raised the price of these commodities while dropping much of the tax on them. Still consumer are furious and the government is expected to be defeated soon. The world is really being hit hard by the price of oil and many political changes are near.

Well that too. My concern is that China will stop buying Buicks and other large cars because of the increased price of gasoline. Unlike the United States, they have little domestic production and a their heavy industry demands more energy than our service/IT related industries. Their banking system is deep into US$ so that do has them hard pressed.

I have great concerns that the China part of GM's empire will be a future headache instead of a bright spot.

The 54 degree six in the L series Saturn and Cadillac were 100,000 miles belts. I think there are many others?

Although that is commonly done, why do it. The customer doesn't care about the size of the wholes (borexstroke) that are manufactured into his engine. Comparison of external dimensions and weight of the power module would seem more appropriate. By the way, do you have intententions of changing your screename to "the L.V."

You'd be surprised! link It's not exactly the same, but people do some wilder cross shoping than many assume.

where is atabloke when you need him? :AH-HA_wink:

link here

Carbon dioxide has no energy content. Perhaps I'm reading the author to literally. Then again if the author is complaining about fuel consumption at 80 mpg in the volt, then perhaps I'm just reading the author too much ... period.

I drove a workmate's metro with over 100,000 miles on it. Everything felt solid. Very impressive.

I have always thought the P-B-G sales arm was a good move. However, I never believed the brand charateristics of rear drive performance, trucks, and luxury cars was the way to go. I see age as a determinate for these three brands. Pontiac 20=30 year old singles, GMC 30-50 year old family type vehicles, and Buick for empty nesters after that. Lutz says the electrification of the car is the future. Do you think he means lit hood ornaments for Pontiac? Pontiac took a nice side trip to performance in the 60's and 70's, but it isn't the only part or the sustainable part of it's heritage. This whole topic has been a little too depresing. enjoy some good times

The pedulum swings two ways. The subprime mortgage thingy has caught many European investors with big looses. Perhaps the Chineese too? The chineese do hold a lot of investments in U.S. dollars and these have been heavily devalued. By the way Caterpllar is doing big business there and will be opeing up factories there.

True, although there are too frequent cases of their selling us adulterated crap. Our falut for not having testing procedures in place.

My son inlaw's brother had lots of problems with his Blazer, too. My "96 Sonoma has had one alternator replacement, but the paint, tires, everything else is original.

One ton tacomas are infamous for rear differential problems. Here in the northern suburbs of LA the T100 is the hot set up for gardners. By the way I have taken to hide my 1996 Sonoma so as not to be bothered with people knocking on the door wanting to buy it.

Thanks for the heads up on the video.

Toyota has dealt with the union for decades here in California!