regfootball

i dont see coal going away, maybe no new plants but we'll still get a lot of electricity from it. volt type cars need to become more common. GM should put a voltec style powertrain as an option in all their bread and butter cars in the next gen. malibu voltec for example. a cruze volt with a 3 cyl 1.0 turbo and about 500 pounds less than the current volt at a cheaper price by thousands would start to mainstream this. if the combustion engine were flex fuel too would be interesting. I don't see CNG taking off. ANy alternative powertrain that becomes mainstream will have some component of electric propulsion. I dont believe we need the government to mandate this crap though. I'd rather the manufacturers build this stuff and convince the public through great product than the govt force feeding half baked ideas (which is what happens when it goes through govt)

they should separate out the engine and powertrain and electronics into two separate rankings.

thanks Drew

CTS rear to me could have been a bit better. It's like they grafted the older rears to a car that could have had some new razzle dazzle on it.

For me, ATS. CTS is hot, but there are a few overly exaggerated bits to it. ATS is clean all the way through. Like the XTS but it's too narrow. New Escalade is sharp but a little boxy. ELR is a bit cab forward. ATS is the sweet spot.

these low end german rigs are so obviously geared to status seekers. how cheap can i get the status. i get the part about some want nice compacts. But really, this is the equivalent to hollister and abercrombie is to clothes as to cars. pretty expensive verano if you ask me.

i see BMW+Aston+A7+Ford Fusion in it....even a little wazuki

the next vette in a few years will prob get a v6, so it would not surprise me to see them try to get people used to it now...... i think it was c/d that said though, in v4 mode for 25 miles they logged 35.8 mpg........

http://www.autoblog.com/2013/10/18/bmw-1-series-dead-for-2014/ gotta make room for the all the front drive 3 cylinder models apparently

nice car, but does it feel SPECIAL?

excellent article again! this car deserves props and Lexus is improving a lot. But I can't help but think I would pick the new CTS over this car 99 times out of 100, even as good as it may be.

Just read the new Car and Driver where they had instrumented testing of the CTS V Sport and new Corvette Stingray. Keep in mind that the CTS is several hundred pounds more than the Corvette. Yet the instrumented test times are not all that far apart. I bet if the CTS V Sport had the same weight as the Corvette, it's possible it may end up with better times. I really would like to see the new twin turbo in the Corvette. Vette traditionalists will scream bloody murder, that no v6 should ever be in the Vette. I beg to differ. If I were well to do enough to be in the market for the Vette, I would probably lean to the tt v6. This is not to suggest that the v8 is not a truly excellent motor and such. There is no disputing that the v8 is a tour deforce in many ways and a superb engine in the car. I will not be surprised to the see the tt v6 perhaps made as the base engine in the Corvette in the near future. I'd actually be interested to see the turbo four in the car too, but that's a whole nother topic. Thoughts on whether or how the tt v6 would do in the new Vette?

the car was engineered for different markets initially, I bet, such that the 1.4 was deemed adequate. I am assuming they orginally did not envision the encore being sold as a 30k piece in the US. the big sin is not the powertrain in the Encore, it's that the Trax is not available in the US

Looks awesome. I've always thought the intrepid was dodge's best design and even today it still looks more contemporary than a lot of brand new designs.

1.6 would be perfect.

Cool. Did you pick up smk for the ride? Lol. Interested in hearing the impressions of this rig.

they figure the risk of someone defaulting on a few hundred bucks a month is a lot less than that crazy home loan they would have been given 9 years ago. they want to keep sales up in the car market too, and not depress it permanently. I think it may be one of those deals where if you can breathe you will be able to get some kind of credit for a car loan. Maybe just not new all the time.

gives em plenty of time to fix 'the beak'

on fuelly, the 2.5 equipped Malibus are showing very nice mpg. Upgrades over the 2.4 from 2012, and more or less similar or equal to the Eco 2.4's. Autoblog has a drive review of the 2014's covering all the upgrades to powertrain, suspension and steering, and the interior and stop start etc. With the improved characteristics and improved mpg, I think this Malibu may rebuild some cred here. I think this car has the chance of delivering 30 mpg consistent to a lot of drivers, and the 13 was nice to drive to me. If the 14 is improved in driving and I know first hand the looks of the front end are a big improvement, i think this combined with the Impala, Chevy will be ok in larger sedans. I like the notion of the 14 Impala with it's larger size but the 2.5 Imp renders only 31 mpg highway....the Malibu is 36 (they could have claimed 37 apparently), that is a fairly substantial difference. I still have no issue with eAssist in concept. Perhaps the reengineering of it again will yield some big results. As it was, it was too hard a sell for the money.

All our semi trucks run diesel, look at the govt cash cow for all that fuel tax........you think they'll give up that gravy train? If they know you'll get 30% more mpg, than of course they'll figure they are entitled to tax it more to make up that difference. It is true though, if the tax were the same, diesel FTW. Perhaps the euros are shooting for some crony capitalism here, if they posture for better diesel acceptance, than they would be the ones to score a big advantage due to their better execution of diesel and perception in the market. Clearly they would rather rely on diesel than hybrids. Not sure why it always has to go back to the diesels of the 70's and 80's, that is a long time ago. If diesel does make a big resurgence, I am sure the greenies will move to squash it again. Imagine a little 1.6l Sonic turbo diesel chugging away and making 50+ mpg like no one's beeswax.

As far as the larger phones and phablets, I think for someone who uses a phablet as a PDA more than as a phone, it makes sense. If you use bluetooth for phone mostly and seldom put it to your head, then it really is just a PDA with a bluetooth connection. But seriously, why not just get a separate tablet at some point? It is cost effective to just pay for the one device connection.

Me and my wife have had our new iPhone 5C's almost a week now. Wanted the 5s badly but none were in stock and she needed her new phone, and BBY had extra 50 bucks off. Hard to justify the extra 150 bucks ea for the 5s in this case. Anyways, both love the new phones. FAST, great battery. ios7 takes getting used to, so still learning that. My biggest beef is the size. That's right, the physical size is too big in comparison to the 3gs. 3gs fell perfect to the hand in every way, with the slight contour. The 5c don't get me wrong, feels very good. But the flat back and the fact that there is occasionally things you need to do with the second hand is kind of annoying at times, or you have to shift and move the phone a bit to reach something that your thumb could easily hit anywhere on screen on the 3gs. Home button in relationship to the rest of the case and screen on the 5c feels a bit too low. I am sure I will get used to the difference in more time. If the shell of the phone were less tall and a bit wider and had some slight contour in the backing, with the same height screen and a little more width in the screen I think we'd be on to something. I can not for the likes of me get how people can use something larger one handed or where the home button is way down at the bottom of the phone. I hate having to use a phone device with 2 hands. Wanted a green phone but my wife made some snide comment last minute about dudes and a green phone. So I choked and got a white one (all my past apple stuff was white). Now I am sort of ok sticking with white and the black case. Hers is blue with the blue case and it looks kind of kiddish already. The Apple case is so thin and narrow, I might get a different case later that is a bit thicker and wider. Really wanted the 5s but when its not in stock, not much you can do. 5s is a beautiful piece.

Silly Drew, she drives an RX, not an ES! CROSSOVER!!!!

Sonic's a nice rig.