G. David Felt

STD

Lovely Project Car, would be a great to take it, strip it down and rebuild it right. If only I had spare money to go with my desires and drive.

That's just one detail...the glass door inserts have been around at least since the Lamborghini Marzal concept of around 1970. The BMW concept is as futuristic and strange relative to today's production cars as the finned fantasies of your decade were to the production cars then... It would reduce the center of gravity, probably have better handling...lots of concepts and mfgrs have been looking at motors in the wheels...it wouldn't surprise me to see a production car in the next decade w/ electric motors in the wheels... With Motors in the Wheels, not only do you have the added weight on the wheels for better traction both on road and off, you can truly become creative in the body design of the auto. Think of the ability to go rock climbing in your new Rubicon where each wheel has maximum traction and torque due to the engine being in the wheels compared to a high center of gravity with greater roll over possibilities. I can envision an auto body that sits up 48" taller than where the wheels are and the weight is all down low to keep the wheels connecting with the ground. The arms going from these motorized wheels could be hydrolic up to the body with the ability to raise or lower it to your liking for better visability. Think of the flexibility you would have being able to have sports car hugging properties with Offroad capabilities without loosing traction.

Hey, hold on... what's with throwing Armenians into this? (As one, it's just funny to see Armenians referenced on C&G.) Guess he was wanting to test if any Armenians were listening! Or maybe they are the new Polish Joke, but otherwise I am also interested in where it came from as it came out of way left field in regards to the thread. Do Armenians steel allot of auto's in Europe?

Saw on the News today that the SAAB dealerships here in washington have officially removed all logo's and in the case of the dealer down in Tacoma, they remodeled it into a new Audi Dealership which now sits between a Cadillac dealership and a Mercedes dealership.

The key to CF in the future is to cut the production time and labor. Who ever does this opens the door to the future. Teijin GM's new partner has a way of making CF Thermo plastics and they can do cycle times in under one minute. Conventional CF Thermosetting composites take much longer and in this deal time is money and the ability to do great volumes are limited. I expect even more things will come into play. Even with the cost savings I expect the price of these new cars to climb with the need for these more expensive materials to cut weight. At this point they have no choice. Here is what GM put out to the media on their new partnership. http://media.gm.com/...Dec/1208_teijin In the short term, yes prices will rise, but long term they will drop as the technology that is going into the total CF plan DreamLiner is being used to scale down costs and speed up creation of CF parts. I think with a solid work force, we will see this happen sooner rather than later. Check out the opening of the Moses Lake BMW CF plant. http://www.bizjourna...rbon-fiber.html Check out the pictures, the best are the one of the new BMW M6 bumper and the I3 Body made of CF. Really cool stuff. http://www.torquenew...t-moses-lake-wa That's pretty cool...interesting that BMW would open a plant in Washington..seems like an off-the-radar location for an auto-related plant...does carbon naturally occur there or something? Three big sources are here, 1) Both the University of Washington and Washington University have special programs that had considerable input from Boeing on Carbon Fiber Engineering and Manufacturing. AKA Why the DreamLiner became reality 2) Reliable, cheap Hydro Power since it takes lots of power to create/manufacture CF. 3) Cheap transportation of raw materials on the rail lines going through Moses Lake.

Cool, I will give Kudos where it is deserved that VW did a great job IMPO on the creation of the W12. The tight engine design I think has many good ideas that can be pushed down to smaller engines on this design.

In thinking about this, I think GM could do more with staying Focused on their own Duramax Diesel Line than to bother with this garbage company.

Hands

The key to CF in the future is to cut the production time and labor. Who ever does this opens the door to the future. Teijin GM's new partner has a way of making CF Thermo plastics and they can do cycle times in under one minute. Conventional CF Thermosetting composites take much longer and in this deal time is money and the ability to do great volumes are limited. I expect even more things will come into play. Even with the cost savings I expect the price of these new cars to climb with the need for these more expensive materials to cut weight. At this point they have no choice. Here is what GM put out to the media on their new partnership. http://media.gm.com/...Dec/1208_teijin In the short term, yes prices will rise, but long term they will drop as the technology that is going into the total CF plan DreamLiner is being used to scale down costs and speed up creation of CF parts. I think with a solid work force, we will see this happen sooner rather than later. Check out the opening of the Moses Lake BMW CF plant. http://www.bizjourna...rbon-fiber.html Check out the pictures, the best are the one of the new BMW M6 bumper and the I3 Body made of CF. Really cool stuff. http://www.torquenews.com/397/bmw-opens-carbon-fiber-plant-moses-lake-wa

Are there really many dealers left? I don't see any positive value in the brand name. So I called today the only 3 dealers in washington state that still are listed with the SAAB name and they are all dealerships that have Cadillac's and they say they will service SAABs as any place would but the SAAB dealership is dead. So I would have to think that the dealerships across NA is mostly dead at this point. In regards to VW being preceived as a Premium car line, I have to disagree. VW is considered a competitor to Chevy. An entery level car line with some Buick Level auto's. I have yet to run into anyone that considers them premium here on the west coast. If they were there would be more dealers than just the couple that are around. I see the point being made for a mid level small to Medium FWD auto division with a couple of CUV's so that BMW does not dilute their brand. Assets being what they are, there might be value to be had, but I think it would truly have to be for pennies on the dollar to pick up all the assets and make a go of it.

Yes- I see the exact same unit in the '78 sales brochure as an option (across the board)- brushed aluminum plate & crest included. This one allowed you to change the channels with the hand unit instead of on the head unit- had a digital channel readout on the mike. Cadillac also had a rather utilitarian Delco-tagged unit that was just a standard mike. Cadillac had 6 different sound system options that year. Thank you Balthazar, this is very cool indeed to know. Guess Smokey and the Bandit had a major impact on Auto's that I did not know about at the time. Wish my parents had gotten the CB with the 76 Old Delta 88 Station wagon. I remember all the trips down to visit relatives during the summer in Huntington beach CA and ridding in the rear facing 3rd seat was awesome to watch all the truckers. Back to our regularly scheduled program. The Seville is still a great car even if they did put or change labels and tail lights. I remember helping my dad do many swaps on the GM Diesel engines and the infamous 4/6/8 V8's that did not work then due to the electronics not being ready to truly manage this approach. Glad to see some things have come back with proper computer management.

That's primarily underhood changes- a different attraction totally from the visual of a concept car. The stereotypical concept car revolves on a roped-off turntable, untouched by consumer hands but positively ravaged mentally. The stuff of dreams and aspirations, The Next. I respect what you are saying but I must disagree, the Underhood technology will I believe change the way Auto's can be made and shaped and this will allow new wild designs that due to limited thinking in todays young auto designers is lacking. I get the impression that due to the standard under the hood stuff they have to stay with in this dull jellybean shape and just use the front and back ends to make small changes and say wow we have a new concept. Just as we saw in the 60's, 70's and 80's with wild hotrods that had dual engines, 6 2 barrel carburators and wild trunks, fins, etc The Electric motors with battery packs that can be packaged around the wheels to keep the weight on them yet allow radical designs to the whole nose of the auto and rear end I think can reboot the true visually stunny Concept Cars. My favorite way to imagen an auto is to take the Capital letter H and lay it out with the H having it's opening in the front and back of a car and then just attach 4 wheels and put seats across it's mid section and then fashion a body around it, you can have some wild off road rides and some extremely low wind resistant road rides. I challange people to take a letter from our Alphabet and design an auto around that letters shape. We can truly deliver many stunning designs that I believe would inspire new ways to model auto's especially if you do not have to have the engine in the front or rear.

At least from what I can make out this is better than the ugly monster Car and Driver had in last month edition saying it was the new Viper.

HyperV6, I agree with your whole listed statement of new technologies. BMW is almost done building their new Carbon Fiber (CF) Manufacturing Plant in Moses Lake Washington. They have also built a small test track there and have stated that they will be starting with building CF parts for their M line of auto's and will expand it as cost go down. They seem to be wanting to get their hands on Boeings CF part engineers and manufacturing employees at their CF plant there. I see CF parts becoming more common on all vehicles as a way to greatly reduce weight. DreamAuto in our Futre?

Can anyone comment on the Cadillac badged CB radio? Did caddy actually have this as an option?

Sweet, Looking forward to reading it.

Cubical, I see the point in regards to the customer base, manufacturing facilities and peopl with experiance building midsize to small size FWD auto's. Yet, will the Unions be willing to give up pay/benefits and scale back the number of employees to make it profitable? Big if here I think. Dealers as far as I see on the west coast are all closed and gone. The two that I would drive by in Washington are boarded up, no product to sell, no customers. History, so I do not see any value in the dealer base. I am sure some dealers are still open more as a used car lot, but I again wonder if there is any real value there for BMW to get. Like I said I could be wrong here, but I get this gut feeling that this is not a road to success for them.

I can only imagen the insurance premiums on a E-Superlight MB.

BMW has plenty of spare cash and really needs a brand that would allow it to sell more small to medium-sized front-wheel drive cars without diluting the brand image of Mini or BMW and without over-crowding the BMW portfolio. Saab could be that brand at a fire sale price, provided BMW presents a solid buisness plan. Medium-sized cars aren't a good fit for Mini and small front-drive cars are a bad fit for BMW. In fact, I don't think BMW is exactly happy about their decision to make the next 1er a front-wheel drive model, only making the choice light of new fuel economy regs. I see your point yet, why not pull a Scion then and have BMW badge their FWD auto's on a new name and sell it through the BMW or mini dealership. They could easily have built a show floor within a showfloor for this market. No differance than a GMC/Buick Dealership or Toyota/Scion dealership. I do not see enough good karma in SAAB to buy it up even at fire sale prices and try to bring it back. I see it as a black hole, but then I coud be wrong. Would not be the first time.

Very interesting twist, wonder if GM will finally cut their own staff to get losses undercontrol and then get profitable with the alliance.

I totally agree, people should save up and then if they want to use a special credit card to purchase a vehicle so they get their miles or cash back % and then pay it off at the end of the month. People do need to learn to be better with managing money and living within their budget. My parents allways told me and my sisters, save up and buy something a bit better than you normally would so it will last longer than normal and in the long run reduce your costs. Cars are the worst investment, yet if done properly, they can last a very long time. I still have my 94 suburban.

I agree with what you have said here. My personal thoughts are that until we get battery technology to be smaller but denser and can get electric motors to be stronger with a wide range from very Eco to High performance with rapid recharge or very tiny, less than 1L in size generators, then we will see another evolution with both concepts and production vehicles.

I personally see what people are thinking of in tying up wih BMW, but in reality, This is a company that should die and just let the assets go to a company that is already successful and can grow more. I really do not see any reason for trying to keep this brand alive. The wasted millions it would take to rebuild their image and build out a new dealership, etc. Rather see BMW put it into their own successful Family of products.

WOW,Talk about a big build up to nothing. Seems to cut people into the I love it or hate it camp based on the comments on the web site where the pictures are posted. Over all, Buick has nothing to fear, this car is a let down and I do not see sales going up at all but just selling to existing people who already drank the coolaid. This is NOT a conquest auto. Hyundia and Kia are doing better than this Camry warm over.