G. David Felt

Yup, my 2008 Trailblazer SS AWD has the Performance by GM badging.

Be interesting if the rumors I have seen in other stories comes true of a Plug-in Hybrid version of this truck.

I will say the more I think about it, the more I like TUNED by CORVETTE! The catch is you have to make sure it truly is tuned right and not just a badge job as GM in the Mid 2000's was starting to do with the SS badge on everything. TUNED by CORVETTE needs to only go on select limited edition auto's. Example is if GMC brought back the Typhoon and Syclone. These should be TUNED by CORVETTE. Trailblazer SS AWD - TUNED by CORVETTE Get my point? I think you could properly expand the corvette family and the branding done right.

Most Utes I can get into and have been pretty cool, but that white BMW Ute is just plain UGLY!

That is awesome to read, that while sales of number of auto's was on par with a year ago, they turned a profit in Europe and increased profit. That is all good stuff.

Yup you did self-vindicate yourself with Catherine Bach who I also loved and would have happily bagged. Samantha Fox did nothing for me. Brunettes over Blondes every day, Course I take Asian First all the time!

It is. And it's childish of Ford to not do it. Playing Devils Advocate, but if you were a company and you felt that some specific media / news outlets were being a bit heavy handed about some brands and a free pass to others and you felt you might not get a fair shake would you not also decide to ignore or decline those companies that you perceive to not be fair? I admit it is hard for humans period to be impartial and non-judgemental, but I think most of us find Consumer Reports to be very Asian Biased in comparison to American auto's. Why is this and is it due to what the American companies have done or some other reason? Point being, I agree with you and others that Ford seems to be taking a low road to pettiness. I think if you believe in your product you will stand up for it no matter how the review is and use said reviews to make your products better. With that said, I do not blame a company from not wanting to waste resources on a bias comparison that will not be at least equal if not gain something from it. That's the thing though. There is no evidence of said bias and given that Ford is doing this to more than one publication, it seems to contradict any bias claims unless they are paranoid enough to believe that all concerned are biased. And that Surreal is why I am playing Devils Advocate! Is this just Ford being Paranoid or is there a bigger issue with the magazines. We have all hear Drew talk about these auto mags feeling what I would call ENTITLED! This makes one wonder...........

It is. And it's childish of Ford to not do it. Playing Devils Advocate, but if you were a company and you felt that some specific media / news outlets were being a bit heavy handed about some brands and a free pass to others and you felt you might not get a fair shake would you not also decide to ignore or decline those companies that you perceive to not be fair? I admit it is hard for humans period to be impartial and non-judgemental, but I think most of us find Consumer Reports to be very Asian Biased in comparison to American auto's. Why is this and is it due to what the American companies have done or some other reason? Point being, I agree with you and others that Ford seems to be taking a low road to pettiness. I think if you believe in your product you will stand up for it no matter how the review is and use said reviews to make your products better. With that said, I do not blame a company from not wanting to waste resources on a bias comparison that will not be at least equal if not gain something from it.

Your Da Man of all things well aged! Thank you Balthazar, that was a great read and I am so glad it was found and restored to original loveliness. Amazing that this was considered a Buick.

I thought there was a company that was putting the Hellcat in the wrangler? Thought someone had posted that in one of the threads.

We should look at the history and see what the stock price was in may for all three companies and now to see who really won.

I read the multiple stories on this, watched the video of him and he is a master of deception. To me this master plan is for him to buy more time while they loose money. I will say that I think he is bailing out his cousin who is running Solar City which is struggling financially. http://abcnews.go.com/US/teslas-elon-musk-reveal-master-plan/story?id=40750247 I also think his research into the Tesla-Semi is due to what I posted here: Tesla of Semi's This is a start up by engineers who left Tesla as they felt the focus should have been on trucks rather than cars to make an impact in reducing green house gas. This will be interesting to see and I do agree with Musk that Autopilot needs to move forward rather than people being scared of it and passing laws to slow or stop the technology.

So one big or small salt lick?

Ill be reporter Who discussed this? When did this discussion happen? And... I wanna have this discussion again. I noticed that people are afraid of change...but change needs to happen in order to advance. If the rumors are true, the C8 will be mid-engined. Many cry foul at this trying to discredit the spy shots... Many say that this rumor has been going on forever and that no way this time is any different. Many say that that a Corvette front engine, rear wheel drive with a V8 and nothing more. Many point to the Porsche 911 and tell us that because Porsche has never messed with the 911's formula that Corvette should stay the same too... OK... Porsche has changed the 911's formula. From stop being a VW Beetle chassis to ending air cooled engines. From adding turbos and AWD. The Corvette has made only 1 change. From Chevy's Stove Bolt 6 to being a V8. The Corvette even has looked the same since the hatch version of the C3...yes...like the 911. But...The Corvette needs to expand... Why? Because 1 model has to do everything. And it cant. Its a formidable machine. But a Jack Of All Trades approach does not make it the best. It has to be a track star, it has to be a muscle car, it has to be an exotic supercar. The 911 has a zillion different configurations specializing in each and every category. And when the 911 simply cant be the best in 1 area, Porsche makes a brand new supercar that trounces everything. And in order to do that, Porsche expanded its models SUCCESFULLY both engineering wise and marketing wise and sells us SUVs to continue to make all kinds of wonderful sports cars. Corvette needs to be the best. Its awfully close now... but... When a car has a limited reach, it could only go so far. Budget and engineering limits.... The C7 Z06... It had or it may still have heat issues. The C7 Z06 has to be like the C6 ZR1 (muscle car) the C6 Z06 (track star) and also be an exotic supercar based on the C7 R race car. Porsche 911 has many versions to be all that and more...and Porsche has the budget to do so. Corvette C7 Z06 because of heat soak issues, is compromised. And...it being front engine RWD, it has reached its peak. OK, better than any other front engine RWD car ever built. Problem is that other engineering solutions exist and the Corvette is being limited just because we like to have things the way they once were... 24 hours of Lemans. We could cry foul at the Ford GT and the sandbagging and rules hampering the Vettes.... The Ford GT did get a 1-2 finish...from a mid-engine turbo V6 design.... Sure Vettes DOMINATE this series....but not this time around... The Vette in 2016 has an image like never before. States Side it was always a God. Outside this perimeter though, not so much. In 2016, the Vette WORLDWIDE is revered. Thanx to Corvette Racing and the 24 hours of Lemans. Its time to tap into that. Take advantage of that money. And maybe spawn many different types of Vettes in the process to specialize to DESTROY the competition once and for all... Listen, dont look now, but even the Camaro is nudging on the Vettes performance feet. You think that is a good thing for the Vette going forward when little brother Camaro is about to over take you? And maybe that is why the mid-engine Vette thing is real this time around.. And if that is true.. This opens up a whole new ball game for the Vette. The rumors of how many types of Vettes that could be sold along side a mid-engined one is all over the internet. There is no need for me to go into all that. (OK....Im awaiting for the -1 vote for this post) Excellent read, you make many valid points and I agree with you, there needs to be a diverse group of Corvette products.

-1 for you EV hater! You know the EV movement is anything but dead! Hell even the post on autoblog.com about the new Jeep Wrangler pickup states that it will have a plug-in hybrid pickup.

Awesome!

Found this lovely online today while reading about the Jeep Wrangler Pickup Truck on MSN from autoblog.com. Anyone know who built this lovely auto?

I don't know if it was "eliminated" but it hasn't been there. 2017 is what I was thinking. Which is only 11 days away from being "now". So just searched all of Washington and Oregon state called the local ford dealer to ask about the RS and was told they are not available at this time. Yet Ford has them on the web site as a buildable model. Something stinks in Detroit City!

Considering that it is only a 4 mpg re-thinking... Its still a victory for the "pie-in-the-sky weenies" rather than a slap in the face. 50-52.6 mpg is still a huuuuuuge number to attain. And if it is attained, Id say the "pie-in-the-sky weenies" have had their way.... Gas Prices and SUVs are not working in the Weenies favor! They might just have to take it up the Asssssssssssssssssssssssss! If I could remember the song that had that line I would post the youtube here but I am not good with that.

So why was the Focus RS eliminated?

Avalanches Rocked! So sad so bad that they were killed off. RIP

Yea, I bet even the 50 will be hard to meet without making everything go hybrid.

Very nice write up, bummer about the turbo lag but I wonder if you could use a custom tuner to address that issue?

“The regulations from 2019-2020 are going to be so hard that we would have had to find an alternative to a certain extent anyhow. The diesel crisis is forcing us simply to think about this earlier.” This pretty much says, we are done with diesel and will be doing other things, aka plug-in hybrid, hybrid, ev's, turbo petro, etc. I would say this is marketing talk but reality is do not expect to see diesels back in the VW lineup. After all they have to get regulatory approval and being under the microscope I doubt it will be easy or cheap.

This blows and the Gov should have taken a hard stance and said Buy them back and export them or destroy them. End of story, this allowing them to be here and pollute is not good. VW needs to pay for their crime.