G. David Felt

I hope you are both right and I am way off on my sales estimate for this year. But even here in washington state where we have not been hit as hard as the rest of the country with this depression, I visually see how hard the auto dealerships have it as not much metal is moving off the lots. I suspect even those that want to buy one and have the cash are going to hold off and wait till closer to xmas before buying or until 2010 to see how things shake out with jobs and so forth. For sure there will be those that will not blink and buy but allot more will sit on the fence and wait.

Thanks for posting the pictures, those are awesome. I love road trips.

Just some examples of awesome deals that would be more than enough for 98% of all gamers and normal computer users: View Details F5A30HZF Select $519.00 Inspiron 518 Intel Core 2 Duo - 2660 Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium 640 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM) 4000GB Ram DVD/RW 56 MiniTower View Details EP37FGTF Select $319.00 Inspiron 518 Intel Pentium Dual Core - 2500 Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium 320 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM) 2000GB Ram DVD/RW Desktop Here are a couple of their XPS Gaming sytems. These are optimized for those who want speed and quick reaction for game playing online. View Details ZR7G44TE Select $1,409.00 XPS 630 Black Intel Core 2 Duo - 3000 Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium 500 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM) 2000GB ram DVD/RW 768MB Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra 56 Desktop View Details FXE13GZZ Select $1,279.00 XPS 630 Black Intel Core 2 Duo - 3160 Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate 500 GB SATA II Hard Drive (7200 RPM) 4000GB ram DVD/RW;CD/RW DVD Combo 512MB nVidia GeForce 7900 GTX;AGEIA PhysX Physics Accelerator Desktop Here is the normal but very nice looking XPS 420 that has an awesome case. You can still play all games and do anything else you want. View Details F5BXDR2Z Select $709.00 XPS 420 Intel Core 2 Quad-Core - 2400 Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium 750 GB SATA II Hard Drive (7200RPM) 4000GB ram DVD/RW 256MB ATI Radeon HD 3450 supporting HDMI MiniTower View Details DDBM3PTZ Select $989.00 XPS 420 Intel Core 2 Quad - 2330 Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium 500 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM);500 GB SATA II Hard Drive (7200 RPM) 2nd Drive 6000GB ram DVD/RW 256MB ATI Radeon HD 3650 1505 Wireless Card MiniTower Here is a listing of flat Panel monitors: Dell Refurbished SE178WFP 17-inch Widescreen Arctic Silver Flat Panel LCD Monitor Product Details (Part # PK256) 72 $109.00 Dell Refurbished SE198WFP 19-inch Widescreen Silver Flat Panel LCD Monitor Product Details (Part # GM778) 77 $129.00 Dell Refurbished E207WFP 20-inch Widescreen Flat Panel LCD Monitor Product Details (Part # TW956) 74 $149.00 Dell Refurbished UltraSharp 1908WFP 19-inch Widescreen Flat Panel LCD Monitor Product Details (Part # G435H) 79 $149.00 Dell Refurbished SP2009W 20-inch Widescreen Flat Panel LCD Monitor with Webcam Product Details (Part # R297D) 80 $179.00 Dell Refurbished S2209W 22-inch Widescreen Flat Panel LCD Monitor Product Details (Part # N764H) 77 $179.00 Dell Refurbished UltraSharp 2009W 20-inch Widescreen Flat Panel LCD Monitor Product Details (Part #) 79 $179.00 Dell Refurbished UltraSharp 2208WFP 22-inch Widescreen Flat Panel LCD Monitor Product Details (Part # H069H) 29 $199.00 Dell Refurbished SP2208WFP 22-inch Widescreen Silver Flat Panel LCD Monitor with Webcam Product Details (Part # RR268) 77 $229.00 Dell Refurbished S2409W 24-inch Widescreen Flat Panel LCD Monitor Product Details (Part # Y183D) 44 $259.00 I think I have proven my point, you can get some great deals by looking at the Refurbish outlet store and you still have full warranty and ability to upgrade as you wish over the oncoming years.

I think you need to review dells again. My system I got is a dual quad core with Nvidia Video card and Soundblaster 7.1 audio card on top of my Blue Ray / DVD burner so I am able to burn all 3 formats. Yes if all you ever buy is a entry level, everything is built on the motherboard, you have limited upgrades unless you buy the full size case where you end up with 4 PCIx and 3 PCIe x8 slots and a nice PCIe x16 Video card slot and then you have full ability to upgrade and make changes over time. Best part is DELL gives you full control in the BIOS to disable the onboard components. DELL unlike Gateway which I highly recommend people stay away from due to their grey market components use industry standard everything in their desktops and laptops. You have choice of ATI or Nvidia video cards. standard speed or high speed SATA drives, unless you want to go server class and move into 15K Speed SCSI or Fiber drives. Since I run a 15,000 square foot R&D test lab, I end up buying HP, IBM, DELL, Hitachi, NEC and a few others monthly to test and I have found DELL to be the easist from a server, desktop or laptop standpoint to use and support. On top of that even my basic low profile Dell desktop I use in the lap can play just fine all of my first person interaction shooter games. No problem kicking ass and taking souls from DOOM to Half Life and the rest of the crazy fun worlds we can play. It is always a personal choice, but if you do your research, you will find that DELL is one of the best sources and especially the outlet store can give you values that cannot be beat by NewEgg or Tiger. Good Luck. :smilies-38096:

I totally agree with Satty, Buy a DELL. I am a hard core gamer and a software developer. I used to build my own systems, but now you can get fast quality systems cheap from the big boys. I just got an email from DELL, $399 for a Dual Core desktop with 256mb vid card, 250GB HD, 3GB Ram and a 19" Flat Panel Monitor. that is really hard to beat. Check out their refurb systems also as at www.dell.com/outlet Most people do not realize even miss shipped new hardware cannot be resold as new but has to be sold as refurb and as such I have dual 24" Flatpanels that each one cost me $250 dollars. So you could pay over 600 for one new one or as I did 500 for 2 with full warrenty. Awesome way to shop is at the outlet. Enjoy.

:camarosmile: Count me in, I say they will sell 29,000 units this year give or take a few hundred. They sure are Pretty!!!

One interesting input, while I am all for using natural ingrediants such as cane suger instead of Corn Syrup, the Organic thing had become way overblown. Washington state did a study in 2007 if memory serves me correct and found that 1/3 of organic food produced was actually produced on poluted land and had much higher amounts of chemicals etc. Just because the organic trade group says organic vegitables are better for you is not a promise they are cleaner and truly healthier. I would be very careful about buying from farmer markets stuff labeled as organic which usually has a higher cost. They verywell could be worse for you than traditional commercial farming.

WOW, talk about too Funny. Thanks for the walk down memory lane. Both popular and fun songs from my past. The cross eye'd asian was way too funny.

WOW BV, Sorry to hear you were in an accident. like everyone else, very glad you did not get hurt, the auto did it's job and protected you. Now you can help our economy recover and buy an american Auto. Good Luck BV.

:rotflmao: This really shows just how ugly and cheap Honda has become and people say GM auto's are Plasticy cheap and ugly????

So you all might flag me, whip me etc. But to me GM needs to just Kill the Buick and Pontiac label here in NA and sell or close down the money loosing Saturn. To survive and grow, GM should only be a 3 tier Auto Company. Entry level auto's = Chevy Mid Level auto's = GMC Luxury Level auto's = Cadillac. That is all that needs to be. Rebadge existing auto's so you have a mid lux GMC car, Mid Lux performance and mid Lux Trucks. For those that would point out that Buick is big in China, I say your Right, so in China we have Buick with Buick Trucks, No GMC in China. You can run a 3 Tier product catalog with differant names so that you play to the strengths that names have in the various markets, but it would be clear to see what level each product came from. This way if someone from Chine did move to NA, then they go from buying Buick to GMC. Makes the best sense and saves a ton of money as you end up with just 3 marketing groups which will save on the much wider printing of docs, marketing etc due to the 6 current names in the US.

Wonder if I can get this engine turbo or variable turbo charged. It is a nice looking engine and would probably be kick ass fun in a light package as long as they do not detune it to be a gutless wonder.

STUPID STUPID STUPID Due to two kids in College, I have put on hold buying any other vehicle, but I really love the XLR and was hoping in two years once they are out of college to get one for my wife and I. GM will never get back to the standard of the world with doing idiot mgmt decisions. The XLR could be so much more and easily beat the SL from Mercedes. They truly have missed the boat about trying to keep every product line going when in the last 8 years they should have eaten the cost of closing down Pontiac, Buick & Saturn and focused on selling Chevy as an entry level, GMC as the upgraded mid lux level and Cadillac as the top of the world. They could have so eaten everyone lunch if they just changed and stopped moving at a glacial pace. I will miss the XLR and hope I can find a new one next year if I can make it work for the budget. Sad

Who cares that they are not Number one in sales, this just gives them more room to deal with growing sales. The whole I am number one is so over blown.

:rotflmao: I actually think all those auto's are reworked old versions from the 70's to 90's. i am not impressed by any of them. The Flex and Fusion are just sad, the MKS does have some potential, but still Ford cheapened up the interior. Then they do make a vehicle for everyone. :sign0200: Enjoy your Plastic.

Nice looking Car, but probably too small to fit me.

I must be missing the Koolaid bowl your drinking out of DodgeFan, I spent the last 3 days looking over the complete 2009 lineup of trucks, SUV's and Cars before Jerome decided to go with the heavy discounted 2008 Expedition EL. He could see very little differance and so could I between the 08 and 09 models. They all have hard plastic dashes, yes they all seem to get the Microsoft Sync which is cool, but except for techno nurds, you can not tell me that Ford has superior interiors than GM. They Suck. Worst yet is I was SO DISAPPOINTED in the Ford Mustang. Poor Quality all the way around, rusty parts on the cars. If this is their version of world class quality, then they need to make some major changes.

Change!

This is SO BIZARR, I just helped a 77 year old man who my wife works for replace his 1997 Expedition with a 2008 Expedition EL. Over all much better vehicle than the old version, but the one thing I noticed for a 40,000+ SUV is all the hard poor quality plastic. So many people Bash GM about the plastic interiors and yet FORD does it on their new auto's still. here they put a little wood on the steering wheel and fake wood on the dash over the Nav and yet everywhere else is a plastic hardness. Even the Vents are the same as they put in the Escort and new Taurus. The old man is happy with his new ride, but I have to say, FORD has a long way to go to have Trucks and SUV's that compete with GM. The only thing I will Bash GM on is that I did like the 3rd row electronic fold flat seats. That is way better than taking out the third seat in GM's vehicles. I do realize that that would have caused GM to change the rear wheel setup.

We still have to many brands in this global depression. Time for the weak to go, Chrysler needs to become history just like SAAB needs to go. Reality, I could see Fiat taking over and using this to have a quick build up of Fiat dealerships and get a Fiat Large truck line for minimal cost.

Personally SAAB is a brand that should have never been bought, it should have just died and become a part of history. There are still to many name plates / Brands in the world and with the economy going the way it is. It would be best to just take it off life support and let it go.

WOW, Some things are mind blowing Wonder what medical research group got his mind?

Sorry Guy's, I actually like the Cobalt styling way more than the GTI. I find this auto very ugly in my opinion.

Very Lovely Car, Course I could go for the Barracuda laying across the hood of that bad ass Red Camero!

Thanks for Posting this, I really like this Version so much better than what Bush rolled around in. Hopefully Obama will get the next one to in 4 years. Gotta love american built Auto!. If the GOP had their way, they would have killed this company and then probably gone to Mercedes and asked for a armored limo. Just what we need, our President being driven around in a foreign made auto. Awesome Job GM, Keep it up.