G. David Felt

Riding the bus home from work in Downtown Seattle, was passed by half a dozen Panameras, 3 of the GL500 SUV's AMG editions and a ton of BMW M3 and AMG 63. Course with all the Tech money in this area, more common for high end auto's than an entry level Fiat. Bellevue High School average car in the kids lot is a 325.

Portifino concept was bery cool in it's day and I still actually like it now.

Very Cool Chris, Nice Catch. So is that Rear Suicide doors as I do not see any handles but it does look like the rear portion behind the front door opens. I have to say that I like this look much better than the Leaf and for me, the Spark name does not bother me even with the Almost zero volt fires. People who are hung up on this due to what was extreme impact hits way beyond normal are crazy. A normal gas car can explode if hit right also and burn. Spark way to go, you should be a hit for those of average height and needing a city commuter car.

I see this as setting the stage for a summer drive event with ATS at various trim levels going up aginst BMW and AMG in the same equal trim levels. Let the drive do the talking and I still think this is a perfect start for a vehicle that has high expectations. It will DRIVE the Engineers and Manufacturing to make sure they launch this one right!

WOW, Land Rover has won me over with this beauty.

How is 881lbs 40% of the curb weight of 5670? Me think someones math is a bit off. Is this not more like about a 15.5% reduction in weight?

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.