G. David Felt

So very true, if they merged, they could actually have a nice wide portfolio of product and be able to grow. But I see all 3 of these companies on LifeSupport.

CTS-V Coupe CTS-V Sedan XLR-V ZR-06 Trailblazzer SS GMC Terrain - customized to be my New Typhoon Buick Encore for the wife.

I agree, that makes it very hard, but if I had to choose a car, guess it would be an SUV still but maybe a FORD which I would not feel bad about rusting out due to the RoadSalt. I would hate to have this happen to my Escalade.

SWEET, That is a freakin awesome car. My grandpa had a corvair, factory stock in mint condition, he bought it, drove it for a couple hundred miles and then kept it stored. I was supposed to get it, but in his 90's he decided to sell it to a collector for the money to support himself. Cannot blame him. It was a light blue.

WOW, Imagen the mileage with that weight!

No Not at all, they use small hooks on the plywood and then build the bricks up in front and every so often you have a tab that gets imbedded into the brick wall. Sadly when you run into it, the brick will fall down like that and leave the exposed subwall. Amazing, looks like a Georgia plate. Silly southern boys, they should know better than to try parallel parking in front of the house.

Sweet Pic

Sorry to hear Ocn, That really sucks. Have you considered relocating? Seattle has had a cool wet summer, the body shops are busy here.

I agree Ocnblu, this is the best looking of all the fiats to date. I hope when Jeep takes the foundation of this small vehicle and builds a small trail rated 4x4 that they nail it with quality.

But who cares if they cannot get them built with Quality. Being at the bottom of the Quality pile based on the JD Powers Report, 157 defects per 100 cars built. That means at least 2 defects per car on 50% of them built. That is terrible. Now they are going to build this and it implies to me that the defect level will go up. I have little faith they can build a car to last. No wonder I see so many 1 or 2 year old mini's on dealership lots. My wife loves the size and style, but I would not risk her life in one ever with their lack of quality. Plus as I told her, it is not American made. English made but not American.

While the EVO has a cult following, I would say that both Mitsu and Suzuki are two car companies best left to a quite death. Yes variety adds spice, but these companies no one would really miss if they went out of business. Makes you wonder how much of the Yakuza are involved in keeping struggling businesses like this afloat for some alternative reason.

This will be interesting as it might based on the Autoweek single picture of it in silver be the first model that I might like. Course they should have left out that it is being built at the plant that used to build Yugo's. Not a great way to build credibility when you have a plant known for building the worst built car and you have quality problems of your own. Good luck to them, they will need it.

I have to disagree with your statement. The German trio have a few cars that are above the CTS with interiors that are very nice, but in the same size/price range, the current CTS is very competitive.

Some people like sports cars, some don't. Porsches are all about the driving experience...they drive great. I wouldn't mind having a late model Boxster, Cayman or 911 at some point.. I love a driving experience, but I do not see Porsche bringing anything better than what I have already gotten out of my friends M3 or an amg version of MB. Guess I just do not get the Porsche thing.

I know I am bigger than the type of person who actually buys and fits into a Porsche. But I still do not find the attraction to this car? Yes they have a rich history of racing and their design language is decades old, but for me most of the porsches are just OK looking and the interior I do not find any better than what I have seen on mid level american cars. Good thing there are different strokes for each of us as I do not see myself ever buying one and my history is all German, yet I would rather have a MB or BMW or even Audi over a Porsche.

Well I didn't really mean to compare the GT-R to a Mustang or Camaro, just saying that Magnetic shocks may be good, but there are still better suspensions out there. So Cadillac might as well use them like crazy because at least it sets them apart from the mainstream cars and gives them something unique. Well you did compare. Ok what other suspension can make a 4100 pound car run lap tiimes as fast as a much lighter sports car and do it with less power? The Camaro already has a good suspension and with the Magnetic shocks it becomes world class inspite of it over weight high center of gravity. Cadillac is already using them and we will see more use thorugh out GM on the top models in many classes over time. It already took the older Cadillac CTSV into the 7's at the ring. Imagine what a 800 pound lighter ATS could do with a V series engine package added to the car. The nice thing is the Magnetic Shocks on the XTS show that they are able to provide a great ride and still give you a confident handling car vs the floaty boat. THese are not just all about max handling they also can provide a good ride and a proper luxury experience. Very True, Magnetic Shocks can give a world Class ride and still allow the occasional racer to dial in for a crazy fun fling. The ability to have the suspension adjust far faster than nitrogen shocks or even traditional shocks will always give the upper hand to the magnetic ride car. I forget, but I thought some supercar company was using magnetic ride now in their car or had their own version of what GM has created due to how fast the suspension can respond to road / race conditions. Found it on Wiki: Automotive and aerospace If the shock absorbers of a vehicle's suspension are filled with magnetorheological fluid instead of plain oil, and the whole device surrounded with an electromagnet, the viscosity of the fluid, and hence the amount of damping provided by the shock absorber, can be varied depending on driver preference or the weight being carried by the vehicle - or it may be dynamically varied in order to provide stability control. This is in effect a magnetorheological damper. For example, the MagneRide active suspension system permits the damping factor to be adjusted once every millisecond in response to conditions. General Motors (in a partnership with Delphi Corporation) has developed this technology for automotive applications. It made its debut in both Cadillac (Seville STS build date on or after 1/15/2002 with RPO F55) as "Magneride" (or "MR") and Chevrolet passenger vehicles (All Corvettes made since 2003 with the F55 option code) as part of the driver selectable "Magnetic Selective Ride Control (MSRC)" system) in model year 2003. Other manufacturers have paid for the use of it in their own vehicles. As of 2007, BMW manufactures cars using their own proprietary version of this device, while Audi and Ferrari offer the MagneRide on various models. General Motors and other automotive companies are seeking to develop a magnetorheological fluid based clutch system for push-button four wheel drive systems. This clutch system would use electromagnets to solidify the fluid which would lock the driveshaft into the drive train. Porsche has introduced magnetorheological engine mounts in the 2010 Porsche GT3 and GT2. At high engine revolutions, the magnetorheological engine mounts get stiffer to provide a more precise gearbox shifter feel by reducing the relative motion between the power train and chassis/body. As of September 2010, Acura (Honda) has begun an advertising campaign highlighting its use of MR technology in passenger vehicles manufactured for the 2011 model year. Magnetorheological dampers are under development for use in military and commercial helicopter cockpit seats, as safety devices in the event of a crash. They would be used to decrease the shock delivered to a passenger's spinal column, thereby decreasing the rate of permanent injury during a crash.

There was a story that all Automakers were on the hunt for QA software engineers. This was their biggest area of growth. Part of the problem in software engineering in general is it seems very few people actually like doing QA work..those that are very good at it and enjoy it are tough to find. I know as a developer and architect I prefer to work on the design, implementation, and deployment aspects... True, but for those of us that love to test, we can make a very good living at it finding the bugs!

YoMama

Could the VOLT and ELR benefit from a Aluminum/balsa wood tub or better yet Carbon Fiber tub like what BMW is doing for the next M3? This would totally rock as the amount of weight loss would truly help push up the pure electric numbers. I would think some of the corvette weight saving mechanical ideas would be used in the volt to reduce and increase the electric range. Before anyone says anything, NO I do not see this taking anything away from the Corvette by using parts from the light car.

I agree that GM does not use Magnetic ride control enough in their car's. They could lower the cost by using it in everything and giving people quality driving machines.

There was a story that all Automakers were on the hunt for QA software engineers. This was their biggest area of growth.

Very good sales month. I have to say, I have seen allot more Audi's in the Seattle area than I used to see. Very common place now. So I wonder if they will keep up the sales drive or cool off?

Awesome read, Amazing is that last year, the dealerships had volts on the lots in Seattle, but I saw NONE on the road, this week alone, I have seen 3 volts all different color and yesterday on the bus ride home from work saw two more. Could have been the same as I saw earlier, but still 5 volt sitings in a matter of 3 days compared to none up till then does show the car is growing in popularity. Forgot about the volt I saw on my weekend road trip with the wife. Funny we saw it and then pulled in for gas and at the gas station was a California Licenses prius and they were putting Oil into the engine and Tranny fluid in also. They told me it has been that way ever since they bought it new. Always used fluid but does not leak on the ground, so not sure where it goes, but their toyota dealership could not find any problems, so they just check every time they gas up and they now are approaching 80K miles. For me, I would have demanded a new car as that one is clearly a lemon. Back to the volt, we ran into the one that I passed at a winery in Eastern Washington. Owned by a woman who just loves it. She said she gave a fair test drive to both the Volt and the prius as the Nisson Leaf did not meet her needs of being able to go anywhere. The prius was nice but to small inside and she felt the Volt was and now proven as it was her second weekend out on road trips with friends since buying it. There were many people there that looked at the womans car and liked what they saw. To quote one guy. Seems america finally got a good mid size car to compete against those tiny imports. If people can get this kind of positive, then we will see more people supporting American Made auto's. GM keep up the drive for Quality built products.

Why would he do that when you can get fullsize vans, Pickups, Crown Vics, etc. running on CNG fairly cheap? Better yet, why would I give up my SUV's when they have EPA certified Conversion kits and I can get a sweet running ride that is Greener than now! Yeah, but how much do they cost after a EPA certified tech installs it? And is it a situation where its certified for a L92 but not a L76. True, installation can run from 5K to 10K depending on the make and model, but if you are holding onto your auto for a long time, then the cost truly is returned in the savings of CNG and clean emissions you run.

So the latest report came out with software bugs being the biggest complaint now. One interesting note is that Mini is still at the bottom of the quality pile and for those that talk about how Great MB and BMW are, Caddilac again beats them on Quality. So what gives, is this just bashing to bash or is the study that flawed? http://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/key-car-quality-study-ranks-software-bugs-most-170243393.html Sound off and tell me what you think!