regfootball

agreed. Tony has other issues to work on.

don't worry, your Chevy diesel experience is better than BMW "one should avoid BMWs that are out of warranty." http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/2014-bmw-328d-xdrive-diesel-wagon-long-term-wrap-review

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_Medium_Diesel_engine there is also a good article on the to be new 1.6 diesel motor but its on 'another site'. very informative about the specs, extremely promising for diesel fans. I can't not see that 17 diesel NOT cracking 50 mpg highway. Here is a Vauxhall Mokka test drive of the diesel motor too http://www.carscoops.com/2015/03/vauxhalls-mokka-gets-new-16l-diesel-and.html known as 'whisper diesel' http://www.vauxhall.co.uk/vehicles/ecoflex_models/cars0/1-6cdti-spec.html

i do agree with what you say here. but lets for a moment look at Subaru, its exploding sales, and their prices are damn close to chevy. With the AWD included. i don't feel a Cruze should have AWD myself. But there really ought to be a Cruze sized crossover. To me, the Trax is snug. I love how the Cruze is in fact very much the size of the old Grand Am. In fact way back in 11 I think i said the Cruze is the new age Grand Am. Really the spirit of the Grand Am lives on in the Cruze. or is it the spirit of this.....

i have to throw in something here, i do agree in principle with your post here. but i did recall seeing a loaded to the gills malibu a few months ago where the msrp was pushing closer to 36k than 35......i may have to try to build one myself and see wth you gotta do to load it up like that. is the 2LZ trim more than the LTZ?

this really the XT5? it doesn't quite have much more presence than an equinox....or captiva

this time offer the diesel in lower trims. that would help. I'll be interested heavily in that diesel if i don't have a 14,15, or 16 limited diesel by then. i do think the 16 Limited will retain the 2.0 diesel. Chevy has to resist pushing up the MSRP so hard. If they price it too high, they will not get the market share this car should get. I see no mention of a 1.8 NA in the base car either, is it gone? Hope so. Maybe the base L or LS will be a good buy with the new turbo mill and 6 speed stick. Cruze gets the diesel, Malibu gets the hybrid, VOlt gets the plug in. Nice job spreading the tech around. "where is the diesel manual all wheel drive wagon"

No one is going to buy the Continental

yes they have! imagine if every GM car was a home run like this. 5 stars, A+. Sign me up, perfect car for me. I might even do the 5 door. 2017, diesel 1.6 too, bet that cracks 50 mpg. This really is my kind of ride, economical, fun, has more oomph now. WHY WOULD ANYONE GET A SENTRA OR COROLLA

MULE this looks like a Chinese company practicing faux design YUK

my opinion remains that the Continental concept is a turd.

yuk

C/g doesn't need any mgscros

Drew's pretty spot on on this thread. I tested an escape recently. Can't believe I hadnt. It's pretty good. Now I do say an MKc is missing a nice interior.like the mks it still has cheap ford plastic and bits. But using the escape as basis for an MKc here is alright. Crossover buyers don't need alpha platforms. Lincoln needs to upgrade the interior and justify its price more. But sales don't lie. Where are the new Cadillac crossovers ??????

Wow the sixteen concept still looks amazing.

Cadillac has some issues with why the current models are not selling, apart from the fact they aren't German. Styling, not stunning even if ok Can't do art and science without doing it full bore so the softened art and science look doesn't register Odd grille front ends Interiors improved but still don't match Audi (and have a lot of borderline tacky bright work ) seat leathers still look lesser GM and instrumentation is not wow. Cue has been railed in the press Ambitious MSRP push has backfired can't move up prices like that No good lease deals ever And perhaps most importantly. Cadillac has always been about large and comfortable, especially to the traditional Cadillac demographic. Now you have people who won't buy Cadillac sedans because they are not large enough inside , particularly the backseat. ATS CTS they want to be volume sellers but middle age white men who caddy has relied on for sales won't even look at an ATS because they can't fit in the back or it's still a bit small in front. CT6 finally brings back the hope that a Caddy will have ostentatious size and it will outprice the market there. That may bode well for the chances of a Buick Avenir sales wise. CT6 out of the gate has a price issue. And the same oddness in the front end. I can tell Caddy is trying to create some edgy look with small headlights and an understated grille but they just haven't nailed the formula here yet to get a new signature look. CT 6 does look low and lean and long that is going to be ok. CT 8 will need to look taller and bulkier. I think they will expect and need 15-20k yearly sales in the US from the CT 6 and I think in the end they will adjust price to get it. Also to move to push the sales of the brand in other markets as much as possible. CTS AND ATS should both be moving 40k in the US. If Caddy cared, they would change the sedan ATS to the ATS L body with extra length and then give it a new dash. Put it the new powertrains. Then, create insane lease deals to move the car. CTS, fix the front end and interior bits that need it. Move the 3.0tt into that car. Adjust pricing and lease deals. Get these cars out there. In the end after you do that and try to plug in some niche models, the big elephant in the room is the lack of Cadillac crossovers. My boss now and my last boss both drive Cadillacs! Which one? SRX. in one case traded his CTS coupe for it. I am guessing the women in their lives had something to do with it. Audi and now Mercedes and even Porsche kill with crossover sales. Caddy can do all it wants with sedans which you think the mid age to old white guy core market has been for caddy. But the market today is dictated by women and their preferences and so you get people shelling huge bucks for Q5's etc. and now the guys are getting older and finding out there is something to sitting up higher and not having to bend and contort , you just slide in. We can talk all we want about Caddy sedans but they have to address the big crossover problem more than anything. They need to get a buyer base that is something other than older white men. Don't discount this either. The recession wiped out the ability for a lot of Cadillac intenders to get that next Cadillac ever. And the economy the last 6 1/2 years has been so crappy to the people who would have been their customer base. These people have given up on the idea of ever getting a caddy again because of no financial hope to. BMW and the likes get generations in with cheap leases and now watered down models like the CLA. Tesla has maybe taken some luxury intenders away too. Simply put, Cadillac is forced to find basically all new demographic base of buyers and they simply have done nothing of the sort. The move to New York may help some with this. But it's not going to solve the fact that they have no idea how to go out and capture the hearts of all the people that actually can throw away money on a car these days. Nobody exists today like they did 40-50-20 years ago who can and wants to throw it at a Cadillac. In particular too. Very very few women register with Cadillac.

when the stuff hit the fan in 09 and everyone was trying to save Chrysler but trashing Saturn and Pontiac, I said we needed to let all of Chrysler die. I didn't predict this playing out then and now, but to me it was never a good idea to let Fiat take Chrysler when it was better to preserve what GM had. It would have cost less and screw Chrysler fans IMO.

i think the 4.3 from the Silverado would be a nice engine option in this thing too.

apparently Hyundai is schlepping Sonatas for zero down and 200 a month now, that explains why i see so many of them now, despite their nothingness.

Wow. Great mpg. I bet the diesel will top 30.

great write ups, thanks, keep posting more! A young Asian dude passed me on the freeway last week, in a new ATS coupe. The young buyers I assume is what Caddy is hoping to get with the car. It was a sharp looking car in coupe mode. I hope Caddy pushes them and they get snapped up.

Yeah, never in any Hyundai have i gotten the sense that they have crossed that line and joined the big boys.

DRIVEN: 2015 Ford Focus SE 1.0 Ecoboost 6MT hatch, msrp a tish over 20k (my fave colors for Ford, Tectonic and stone interior) HIGHS: Sleek hatchback shape New physical controls in center stack for climate, radio, etc, overall nice dash layout and gauges, driver oriented Nice plastics with the dark and light in most places, stone interior really lightens up the interior Nicely composed and quiet for an econocar at speed, feels solid and stable Finally gets a six speed! Very good shifter, snick, snick Feels exactly like the Fusion MT, same powerband, same road feel, just a smaller version NO vibration from the powertrain. Seems impossible, but almost entirely creamy smooth, and revs freely. Once wound up, provides decent momentum that belies its displacement. Low rpms at higher speeds due to gearing. Capless fuel filler!!!!! LOWS: The original Focus had class leading room and felt very spacious. This body style, is closed in and tight. All metrics are tight. Dash intrudes on what space you may have from the arms down. Roof intrudes on everything arms up. Smash down roofs and claustrophobia on these cars these days is getting old. Interior feels cheap in places if you start to nitpick, yes its a low cost car. But the seats felt weak and thin and unsupportive in the lower back. You have to work the shifter to keep the car on the boil if you want to keep up in the stop and go and freeway merging Shifter is tall, and too far back. The Cruze shifter is perfectly placed and the perfect size. This misses the mark some. Tiny trunk considering its a hatch. The three cylinder, which is shockingly quiet most of the time, makes a uniquely crass and disturbing sound during harder acceleration and from a stop that lets you know its an odd bird. Ultimately, its really missing a cylinder, makes you feel the car is missing out providing its worth compared to MSRP. SUMMARY: A cute curiosity this car is. Keep in mind there was large me and sales guy in the car during the test drive. I really wanted to take this out myself, because with only one litre of dispacement, i know every pound along for the ride would make a difference. If you were a 110 pound college girl driving solo, your results may vary. The numbers on this engine are paltry, but surprisingly overall it felt nearly as fast as my 2.2 Cobalt. But it is way more refined as you would expect. Overall I am calling the car refined. The 3 popper is amazingly quiet at certain speeds or rpm and the car is REALLY smooth most of the time. It is not however a really good stoplight to stoplight car. It really is meant for long cruises and higher speeds. This is directly opposite of my Cobalt. The Focus would be a perfect car for my situation that recently ended (driving 90 miles a day almost all interstate or 4 lane roads). I would be able to put this 3 cyl Focus into 6th and rack up big mpg due to its gearing. And furthermore, this Focus felt exactly the same as the Fusion 1.6 MT i drove before....just a smaller version. Ford is doing a good job at making a consistent feel across their vehicle line of world cars. But despite the refined feel, ultimately there is enough of the 3 cylinder showing its spots with a nasty sound when working hard....and there is a lot of extra shifting in traffic. THe clutch i think is good but i wasn't able to drive it smooth...it would take some time to get used to. It can seem exceedingly fussy at times (maybe not if you ever owned a Geo Metro or Suzuki Swift of yore). Ultimately you wonder, the Cruze Eco gets better mpg and has burst. It has a fourth cylinder. I think the good qualities of this Ecoboost 6MT Focus would also be similarly enhanced if it were not missing the cylinder. Everything about the car is livable and even a bit rewarding. But I think that three cylinder noise needs to be toned down and they need to beef up the drivers seat. A 1.4 or 1.5t would be perfect for this car, and probably make it a little rock star. A GOOD 8 speed dual clutch might be a better tranny choice too. If the car had the fourth cylinder, I would give it a B+. With the price it is, and the need for more go juice down low and less thrash when working it hard, I might have to give it a B-. Maybe we say B since Ford was willing to try something daring and new, and the Tectonic color is cool.

Drove a 2.0 AWD today. Was a bit cranky because i told guy i wanted to try a FWD SE 2.0. The 2.0 had nice extra burst, like expected. A bit of lag, though. I was able to feel the extra heft of the AWD system and other junk, I really wanted to find out the zip on the FWD. With the extra weight, it did not feel as nimble. In all, the 2.0 should satisfy the needs of anyone looking for more burst than the already sprite 1.6.

DRIVEN: 2015 Hyundai Genesis RWD 3.8, msrp around 38k. No options, i believe HIGHS: Looks good on its own, but especially for a Hyundai Big car chassis and RWD, a rarity these days, and in that regard, at a decent price Wide and long, low center of gravity, we need more cars to come back to this Feeling of heft and being anchored to the road Engine has some guts to it......steps down alright when you gas it. Nice muted snarl Simple interior layout and hints at luxury that exists in other marques Nice interior convenience features Lots of features and tech, including 4g Leather is nice and has nice stitching Seats were firm and supportive Decent view out to the road Very quiet on the road, does an ok job of absorbing the bumps Spacious trunk luxurious quiet 'thunk' when shutting the doors CHEAP lease deals right now SERIOUSLY if want a lot of MSRP for your lease payment LOWS: No part of the drive sets itself apart in a dynamic way. No compelling vehicle dynamics. Dead steering + thin steering wheel = this doesn't feel like a lux car Large RWD cars are supposed to glide. This car doesn't do that either. Feels confused as to whether it should be a soft cruiser or a faux sport sedan wannabe. Didn't feel like a barge but did feel heavy, not athletic (and this was not the AWD) I would think the plastics and parts of the dash would be nicer in quality if this car aspires to compete in the luxury arena Firm and supportive seats are hard and could have more cush really Rear seat doesn't have as much leg room as you would think for the physical size of car Powertrain was not liquid smooth either No sense that any exceptional engineering went into this car. Extra features rack up the price very quickly I didn't exit the drive of this car with any OHMYGOD feelings or any desire to really want to drive it every day I was impressed driving a 2.5L ATS and would enjoy and look forward to driving that, why am i not impressed by this? At the end of the day, it is still a Hyundai. No compelling reason to want this car. SUMMARY: I might fill in more on this later, but really the above sums it up pretty well. For the right person, this car would be a good value and enjoyable. But it is not fun, not cushy, and not anything aspirational. I think if Hyundai would pick a direction (cruiser or sport sedan) they could refine the heck out of this thing. Right now its neither. To me, it is still classic Hyundai. You buy it because it is supposedly more stuff for the money, even if its second tier. I give it a "C", ok, a "C+" due to a bit extra props for nicer than expected styling.