G. David Felt

Sand

At least in the Pacific NW SAAB is one of those weird anomoly's that you see randomly from time to time. The few old SAAB's that I did see or have had a chance to talk to the owners they all talk about having to rebuild the engine and turbo within 100-150K miles. I understand the technology and what it can do for Diesels as that is well known and used here yet gas Turbo's are not common here and do not seem to hold up. Try and find an old Subaru around here, you might find a rare one that is still running but usually no old ones. My first experiance with Turbo was a Ford Mustang SVO 1984. While all maintenance was done following the factory recommendations, the motor still was replaced by Ford at 30K miles and at 65K the engine was toast again and It went out the door. Diesel being the lone exception, Turbo engines on cars from the 80's and 90's have left me with little faith and willing to let others be the test rats before I would go with one. I have more faith in Superchargers than turbo's. Superchargers like the 3800 engine GM made just last as long as the maintenance is done on them. Solid hard working Supercharged V6.

Could GMC and Chevy be due to the change over in Trucks and SUV's?

I could go for a rotory or Pushbutton shifter on the dash or on the edge of the center stack between chairs. That would continue to free up space for other items. Shifters on the center stack like my trailblazer SS tend to take away space for a basic drink cup.

The highest known mileage on a Saab was recorded by a guy named Peter Gilbert, from Wisconsin in the US. Peter’s 1989 Saab 900 SPG ticked over 1 million miles at the Saab Owners Convention held in the US back in 2006 with then-SaabUSA President Jay Spenchian in attendance. That car is now in the Wisconsin Automotive Museum. And if this was an easy repeatable thing for Turbo's we would have plenty of them still around today. One is awesome and great but does not instill in me the long term life of a small turbo engine compared to my pushrod V8 or V6 engines.

ROFL Semi Diesel trucks is an exception. I am talking about gas silly boy! Hot Rig, Love the Look!

LOVE IT!!!! One of the best looking dashes I have seen in a long time. Drew, I have to disagree with you on the shifter. They are in the way and take up valuable space being in the center stack. This is the right place to have it on a luxury SUV like this. Column all the Way. I love the clean but nice flow of the dash design. Should go a long way to having things nicely at the top of this segment again.

While this sucks, it is also a good thing for GM as it shows people realize they are building quality products and are demanding a quality American made, American Company products. Yes I know NAFTA means these get build in Canada, US and Mexico. But still North American Made and US headquarter company. Very happy they are having strong demand. Keep it up GM.

Yes if it is a Crew Cab then I can see it being Hotness, but the standard cab will look overwellmed.

I understand what you mean Drew. In comparing the two photo's you can see the new truck has an almost Jelly bean form compared to how up right the windshield is on older trucks. Surprised no one has just taken the fron of the hood to the top of the cab and give it that ultimate wind swept form like a Jelly Bean.

No, No, No, Nothing Old skool here at all, just plain ugliness.

Another reason I think my 2008 Trailblazer is my last new auto. I love all my auto's and especially my 94 suburban. Gotta get that back on the road since I am in the middle of converting it to CNG.

Still wonder if it will go the distance in mileage / life on the road.

2000 DTS, front wheel blew out on the way to work this morning so had to pull over to the shoulder right in front of my bus.

Erotic

Power uses gas but then could it also be that Turbo Charged Engines are not as Efficient as the Marketing Machine would like to tell us? I would rather have a DI Pushrod 4 or v6 over a Dual Overhead Cam Turbo engine. More reliable and longer lasting I think than what i still see for turbo engines. Show me when a turbo Engine gets to 500K and 1 million miles and that it can still pull like a quality pushrod v8, 6 or 4 can.

Sweet Truck Drew and your right, the porportions are much better on this truck.

WOW, Talk about total lock up, steering and wheels, everything just seemed to be locked. Wonder what caused it.

So we break the codes into the cars and sell them to the highest bidders for control of your personal transportation. Can I get an auto with Sandra Bullock like in the movie Demolition man?

Happy B-Day William, thanks for all the awesome writtings, hope you have an outstanding day.

farfignugen

I have a fully loaded 2006 Escalade ESV Platinum edition that I bought New and still love to this day. Sadly the new GM900 platform does not have the same sitting room as the 800 and so I will continue to hold onto mine as it is sharp, clean and does not have any problems. In regards to the old statement about kids trashing auto's so just get a subruban, I say grow up and dictate what kids can and cannot do. Until they turn 18 and move out to be on their own, it is a dictatorship and you train them to respect and take care of things all things including respecting a nice expensive auto. My kids never trash my auto's.

Sue Google, I guess....what about when cars eventually are fully autonomous...I can see parents sending a car to a school to drop off/pick up the kiddies... Death of Humanity as Parents become more and more isolated from raising their kids. Sounds like an Isaac Asimove book on robots being the parents and parents are all selfish on their own interest and never really raise your kids. Parents need to be involved in their kids life including picking up the kids from school and dropping them off. If you want kids you have a minimum of 24yrs to get them raised, college educated and a productive member of society.

But the GOOGLE Priuses in Arizona are being driven by blind people. So how do you deal with that when the car accidentally hits and kills someone?