SalesmanSean

That's good to hear. You probably make more money on the trucks than the commercial vans anyway. 2-birds/1-stone - increase high profit truck sales, decrease excess commercial van inventory. We only bring in commercial vans for customer orders, not on the lot, so no worries there. I don't know we make on the GM mid-sizers because I have yet to sell one. I've gotten all the catch 22 buyers. They want to see it before they buy it, but it sells so quick they never get a chance to see it. I think most of the sales on those have been through our GM manager, and not through our regular salespeople. Ah, I have a few big lots near me that keep rows and rows of various Savannas and Expresses. Well, we carry all the GM makes, Nissan, Toyota, and Mazda as new vehicle lines, even though we have a good-sized lot (600-700 cars on the lot ready to show, more waiting to get ready), with all of that there just isn't enough room to fill up with commercial vehicles as well.

That's good to hear. You probably make more money on the trucks than the commercial vans anyway. 2-birds/1-stone - increase high profit truck sales, decrease excess commercial van inventory. We only bring in commercial vans for customer orders, not on the lot, so no worries there. I don't know we make on the GM mid-sizers because I have yet to sell one. I've gotten all the catch 22 buyers. They want to see it before they buy it, but it sells so quick they never get a chance to see it. I think most of the sales on those have been through our GM manager, and not through our regular salespeople.

I don't know who has a Colorado on their lot for 12 days, we can't even get them in for the lot. We order them for the lot, but they are already sold before they get here every time.

Nice review. We don't see a lot of Lexus around here (or any luxury brands other than Cadillac and Lincoln), so it's nice to now how some of them compare to non luxury options like the Avalon, too. I'm not going to lie, this sounds like a great tool to help me sell an Avalon if it is equal to or better than it's luxury sibling. Unfortunately we just don't sell too many of those, anyway. When we do they definitely trend towards an older crowd. In fact I would say the current Avalon customer is basically the old image of a Buick customer, since the ES has an even homelier visage I would imagine that it would invite an even older crowd yet. Sounds like Lexus needs to work a bit on their styling with this one. I don't worry so much about the handling bit, this wasn't meant to be a canyon carver and I'm sure it is plenty adequate for what it's meant to be (though I would be interested in how those bits compare to it's main rivals), so from reading this and looking at pictures it seems like the visuals are the biggest knock on this car, besides the way it is undercut by the Avalon. Great review, thanks!

I'll keep it in mind. I don't know if there's anything close by other than just a dirt track or two. I know where some drag strips are, but they're a bit of a drive.

The friends list will turn to a followers list (technically, they're different) once the new software upgrade is installed in a few months. It will change the way things work, but hopefully by that time you'll know who everyone is. Sounds awesome. Just the fact that you guys are actively working on keeping the forums in good working order and the software up to date is really great to hear. For MT forums "occasionally usable" would be a massive upgrade, and that particular upgrade may be a few years down the road at best.

You should take that back... do you know how bad it can get? Yes, yes I do, yet today I still find myself going back there and continuing to argue with 'Stang. I clearly must hate myself. Don't worry about it too much. We have community modding and while I haven't needed to use it often, I'm not afraid of the warn button. Just the fact that there is a warn button is a huge upgrade. I think MT had an if you can't beat 'em join 'em button as far as modding went.

Chelsea

That was the one thing I felt was missing also, scrolling up and down to try and work it all out isn't quite the same.

Talkin $h!? I love my V50. There is a reason why Everclear sang "Volvo Driving Soccer Mom" and not Chevy, Ford, Volkswagen, Saab, or any of many other options for that particular song.

They are just polishing the current truck. Which will probably make them a lot of money. It is still a good little offroad vehicle and has a strong following of people that will buy it without ever even looking in the window of the GM twins. Where I live, people will buy based on theoretical off-road capability and then take it through a muddy field or ditch twice the whole time they own it. That's one of the different things with our dealership, since there are so few options for small trucks, by carrying Nissan, Toyota, and GM on our lot we have the whole collection available for them to look at and compare (well, we would if we could ever get a Colorado and/or Canyon in to show instead of immediately being delivered to a customer) and I get to see the sales trends firsthand. Many people do seem to like the Tacoma, the biggest complaint I hear all the time is fuel economy. That is where I am hoping that the new Tacoma will be a big improvement over the previous one. I would say the Colorado and Canyon probably are and will continue to be overall better trucks than the Tacoma, but a lot of people put some serious stake in that Toyota name. If the new Tacoma hits some good MPG numbers I think the fervor for the GM twins will die down a little. I expect them to still stay well ahead of the Nissan, but because Toyota has the crown already they don't have to do near as much to retain it as others will in order to steal it. If they have a downfall it will be that the new Tacoma looks butt-ugly from the front (our Toyota manager remarked that the redesign looked kind of like a puffer fish). Even before the Gm twins released if someone came in asking for a specific truck it was always the Tacoma. People that just wanted a small truck and didn't have a make or model in mind (maybe they were used to Dakotas or Rangers, for example), would end up more evenly split between the Tacoma and Frontier, with a slight edge still to the Tacoma. I'm very interested to see how those numbers pan out once the new vehicles are all on the lot together for customers to shop.

I'm going a bit lighter today with a playlist of songs I like to/can sing along to previous track "Everything You Know is Wrong" by "Weird" Al Yankovic, currently "Nothing as it Seems" by Pearl Jam, up next "My Hero" from Foo Fighters.

Magazine

Logical thinking is a lost ability.

Probably one of the most attractive BMWs I've seen, but that's kind of like being the skinniest person at fat camp, it doesn't really mean much.

Mazda 3 or 6?

pistols

I'm very intrigued by that Nissan, it seems like a very boom or bust proposition with that one. I'm hoping for boom, because I would love to see that innovation rewarded, but there's an awful lot of uncertainty there.

I've got a mix of some of my soundtracks and compilations running right now, just switched playlists after listening to Vultures by The Offspring, currently playing Foo Fighters featuring Brian May's cover of Have a Cigar from the MI:2 soundtrack, up next God of the Mind by Disturbed off of the Valentine soundtrack.

I agree, their renewed focus will be good not only for them, but for the industry as a whole. They spent a long time as THE leader in sales with everyone trying to catch up, and it's everyone trying to catch up that leads to people innovating and trying to do better.

I don't know, but I'm betting I would still take two of him over a Badstang any day, and I hate Mercedes.

This is my concern with it as well. It may turn out to be an excellent vehicle, but until they've been on the road a few more years and we can better judge long-term reliability and resale value at a minimum, I just don't trust the vehicle and wouldn't consider it alongside the vehicles it is trying to compete with. Kia doesn't have the experience with this class of vehicle, and though it may seem pretty decent now, I just don't have faith that they've made something that will stand up to the test of time. Great write-up, though, it's a good read.

I like the new look of the Malibu that is coming, love the looks of the Mazda 6, don't really care for the looks of anything under the Chrysler brand name, 200 included, I don't hate the Fusion, it's just a bit meh, same with the Optima, though I prefer the Ford looks to the Kia just a little bit, I don't see a lot of Accords, so I couldn't really pick one out of a crowd, and I'm going to completely out my poor taste by saying I actually kind of like the looks of the new Camry in XSE form. I hate the bars across the grill in LE/XLE form, but I like the simplicity of the hex grill on the SE/XSE, add in the body side molding and the rear spoiler and it gives it a little bit of character. Although I wouldn't say they look anything alike, the way they redesigned the hood reminds of the way that Chevy redesigned the Impala hood to give it some character. I'm not saying it's my favorite, at best it comes in just above the Ford to me, but I know there is much hatred for the Camry so rather than wait to be called out I figured I would give my justifications right out of the gate.

I know that feeling. Working 12 hour days all week long I barely have the energy to do anything when i get home, and the little bit of energy I do have usually goes into keeping up with my 4 year old son. I try to find some time to game though, occasionally, just to be able to decompress a little. I don't get out of the house much, so I have very few outlets for relaxation and fun.

Du