G. David Felt

LOL

Wow, both are amazing with potential.

WOW From a Liberal state of California, that truck has been worked hard and put away wet. I am shocked at the so called sales person.

I almost have that GMC beat. I took a truck-shopping trip with my dad earlier today and we stumbled across a four-wheel drive 2006 Chevrolet Silverado. The condition of the truck was pathetic; the interior reeked of cigarette smoke, old sweat, and stale farts; the exterior was marred with adhesive residue, random pock-marks, and deep scratches; the engine idled pretty lumpy. I understood why it was in the shape it was in, though, when I looked at the odometer and it read it had almost 181,000 miles. The price was a real punch in the gut. You might think you'd pay about $5,000 to $7,000 grand for a truck like that. Guess again. The dealer wanted damn near $13,000 grand. WOW, That is freakin amazing they would try to charge that much for such a clunker. Sad for the person who feels that is all they can afford and will not take the time to look around.

Considering how much inventory is sitting at the Fiat dealership in Kirkland Washington and has stayed that way since last year when it opened, I say they have a failure on their hands. The Owner of the dealership is right next door as a Dodge, Jeep, Chrysler and just last week, they pull all the fiats from the front line ad put auto's from those three brans out front since is appears Fiat is not moving. Dropped by to pick up my sister who was dropping on her 2006 Durango for service and in talking with sale person I met, a young man who said they have not sold one since early January. Most people come in and look at them and find something they like much better in th same price point in a dodge. Very interesting I think.

Very Bland styling, the continuation of DULL, DULL, DULL, but I bet they rant about how Safe it is. Wonder when we will see the real Chinese input happen.

Interesting, I have to say this does cover our lack of ultra cool but very different concepts. Now the engineering this would take brings up plenty of questions on crash/roll over quality and weather it can really handle being a performance sedan. I see allot of flex in that auto's center due to the weight.

That is fine, let them continue with their bland boring so called quality luxury auto's. They truly live in a fantasy world.

I understand the point being made in your writting but have to disagree with you, Cadillac needs to keep pushing the quality/engineering line with their auto's but they also need to be calling out the competition and making people think about it. With their driving clinics to compare cadillac to other luxury brands, I see allot of conquests that will continue as people realize America can and does build world class products, they just need to be shown the path. I think Cadillac is doing this right to call out the competition and make people think about it. Not everyone will but many who are not happy with their German driving machines due to defects and much higher cost of ownership will look at American and Asian auto's based on a commercial like this. Proud owner of a 2004 CTS, 2004 SRX, 2006 Escalade ESV and 2008 Trailblazer SS on top of my 94 suburban.

Good Luck

Both Crash900s comment and yours are the key point to giving SAAB any chance at all. The experiance gained at reviving Mini and the cash is what will allow them to succeed where I see the others only failing.

The inside pictures make me think this guy is blowing way to much weed smoke.

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.