regfootball

"your design sucks" -signed, customer "Ok, we're still going to use it anyways" -signed, marketing

after looking at a base 13 Escape this weekend.... cloth, 2.5, much lower price, a couple things register for me. in basic trim the interior looks simpler and not as complicated, a fair amount cleaner. Perhaps bland even, though...not enough color contrasts. But totally interesting and passable at that level of trim and price. center stack is much cleaner and less distracting. in that situation, I give it a thumbs up. For under 23 grand it makes a lot better case for itself. trunk is large by the way. In general I see lots of room for future refreshes and improvements on the Escape so maybe it will have a 10-12 year run like the old one. The front end obviously can be butched up. My major beef is really the D pillar and window shape back there..... I don't think the hofmeister kink works on an SUV. More hood and a less hatchbacky proportion would have been nice. But most egregious to me is that back side window size and shape. If these leased well I would consider one in base trim. I'd like a stick but we all know it ain't getting one.....

sweet!

my neighbor stopped by to tell me the other day he traded his suzuki (his wife's)...i had no clue they were shopping (sales guys are never at home to know that stuff)... well they told me they went to look at the new 13 escape but they decided on a 12. liked it better.... i imagine it's gonna be a split for shoppers....some like the old box and can't picture it as anything else....others want to move on and be current. i am taking in an almost new escape on trade soon for a new wazuki so i will get my revenge that way. by no means am i an expert or superstar, doing what i am doing these days. But here is the deal.... it's always going to have some bearing on luck of the draw and how will your personally can work with Joe customer. Sometimes you hit it off, sometimes you don't. In any instance, it pays to play it straight and be professional. SOme shoppers just come out solely to take shots at the product while simultaneously being curious about it. My job is to emphasize the positives and find out what the customer is most excited about. If a customer really starts getting neg about what I am presenting then it really does everyone the best service to just shake hands or whatever and remain friends and not put much more into it. Re: the escape...yeah, Focus hatch 2.0. Ford's overly sleek designs will have some fans and others not. FOrd has to play in Europe too, which is used to this stuff. I actually don't much care for the 13 Escape interior....the dash is overdone and difficult looking. I much prefer the simple and attractive dash on say, an Outlander Sport in comparison. the rest of the interior, packaging wise it's nice and efficient. I've had quite a few new shoppers lately who have burned me, not because of the point of contact guy, bet because of the spouse, etc. Stuff like... -wife can't see the gauges (so demonstrated that you can actually adjust the steering wheel tilt and telescope in addition to 10 way power seat...if you can't see the gauges with all the adjustments then you are too lazy to take the time or you are just using it to stymie your husband's wish). Husband badly wanted the car, wife wasn't gonna give it to him. -just like caddy i had the tape measure folks recently. Had to measure hip points vs. existing vehicle and such to give an exact number on how much higher the new seat was vs. the toyota they already drove. also had to fit their bike the vehicle, and other stuff. Again, the husband (3 visits) wanted it bad, the wife decided to be bad cop and say no. -today was a conversation regarding fuel economy. "your car does not get 40 mpg". No $h!. Neither does that elantra or cruze automatic you are looking at..... Hyundai has so many buyers fooled..... no, mr. customer, that Hyundai warranty is only for the first owner, no mister customer, you'll be lucky if the elantra cracks 30 mpg much less 40 mpg. ANother conversation yesterday was similar on the 6 cyl. (in this case a grand am with a 3.4) vs. a typical 4 cylinder. Of cars of the 8-10 year vintage there is maybe 3-4 mpg between a focus 4 cyl and a grand am 6 cyl. To top it off, the grand ams can be bought for less. Total cost of ownership will probably be the same and all that. Focus on the condition and such of the car at hand. Some people have no analytical skills....of course how else is toyota so popular... I've sure learned a lot. I am sure the new Escapes are prob a tough sell right now with the new style and such but 12 Fusions and Escapes are being whored out by Ford with ginormous rebates and lease incentives, so people who pick a 12 over a 13 might be doing so because of the thousands saved........ My best success is with customers who appreciate the knowledge aspect of guys like caddy and hopefully me. Thing is there are so many LCD (lowest common denominator) folks out there that overall, knowledge doesn't always pay off as much as you'd think for selling. It's best that you have knowledge and act in the ways like caddy says above. My two cents, I don't think the top sellers are really always people that are product experts as much as they are experts manipulating people and processes and situations. Customers or fellow employees. disclosure, this is still sort of a hobby........ blu if you were my customer we would make a day of it and i would roll out the red carpet.

drove it today, it was glorious..... the hood was so long....it was like a perfect frame for the horizon into infinity..... had to give it a few touches of the gas to fire it up....smell that fuel burning.... you can't turn the wheel too many times, the car will still not turn quickly no matter what you do. boy does it glide. doesn't matter what is on your schedule. just put it behind you and enjoy the ride for awhile. everything else can wait. so smooth..... definitely we maybe need a return of a few vehicles like this. what a lovely experience. runs great!

I'm not sure this is as big an issue as others think....here's why. Rollouts of any new GM product are typically very slow. Had they waited, the chances are good they would not have rolled that many more in 6 months than the Eco has rolled out so far. In this instance, to roll the car out with the odd duck powertrain to me is not a terrible idea. Gm usually has quite a few glitches on new cars.....if the model is out but not in many people's hands they can stall an epidemic in case something bad happens. They know the Eco is not going to sell a lot but it will get out there a little and be seen and raise eyebrows on the road. Secondly, GM has a history of rolling out the new models and continuing a production overlap of the existing. Chevy Classic, the 04+, and now the 08+ Malibus all have gone on now, while their successor was being built. Impala will also do that now. THird, whatever is left of the current bu can go to fleets galore and also sell dirt cheap against all the dirt cheap Altimas and such going out of production soon. You can always catch buyers on the fence who are resistant to the new model. I already can tell you for fact three people I know closely who popped on 12 Fusions or Escapes despite being interested in the 13's....one in particular saw the new Escape and backed up and saved huge money on the 12. Really this first half year with the Eco lauch is nothing more than a beta testing marketing buzz creation tool and it gets people interested.

and so many want to aspire to be like Sweden, Norway etc. The 9-3 is ancient! good car, maybe there will be a plug in BLS sedan!!! Yeah this reeks of govt propping up to save jobs....lol but how is this different than here? at least it keeps the brand............ sucks ass that the 9-5 is not continuing..... I test drove one and really loved it.

SHO's now are AWD and previously were never RWD. Malibu, Chevy compromised a lot. They did not want to intrude on the guts of the Impala so they shortened the wheelbase, which did a disservice. It surely did not decrease weight much. Passats and Altimas now are 3200 pounds. Chevy gets smaller and is major heavy. Regal has decent toe space and foot space, why did they f@#k up that crucial element on the Malibu with the non-existent leg room and toe and foot space? Chevy is so stupid. It's a family sedan for crying out loud. Neither the Cruze or Malibu have adequate rear space for legs and feet for their class. REAL WORLD SPACE. (see, mazda6 or accord). Design wise, the new look is decent, but it could have been way better with the same theme. There is not enough glass, the overhangs are too long, the wheel base is too short, windshield needs to come ahead some and the back decklid is too long (rear deck needs to come back some more). All they really needed to do was keep the wheelbase or only cut it a tish. The old Malibu which was a beautiful design (but now is tired) which really only had one flaw....visually it was too narrow. The aggressive new design is cool but i only give it a B because it could have been a hell of a lot better in terms of proportions and overhangs and amount of glass on the sides. Interior is nicely improved but still I think there are a few pieces here and there that could be nicer. The corporate woodgrain steering wheel is already looking tacky, for example. I've sat in this car, the textures and plastics are pretty good. SOme of the center stack is a bit cheesy but that's nitpicky. Overall it's a bit of a busy look but really that keeps it from looking Camry dull. The seat cloth could be better but the leather is bang up. I think GM needed to pay for some amortization on the start stop BAS so they have tried to weasel it into the cars that they can in enough volume to recoup some development costs. Over time like everything else it will get revised and I think they see lots of potential for it in volume production over time. So you got to use some owners as beta testers now. I do believe the 2.5 will probably have the same mpg and better acceleration etc..... and I bet they won't produce any more eco malibus until another year or so and try to mate it to the 2.5. Same in the Regal, Lacrosse and maybe Verano also. One last word, the Astra....er, Verano, the backseat is easier to get in and out of and feels a bit more legworthy off the bat.

there is usually enough difference in the interiors of all those german cars that they don't look like the same t shaped stuff the new 3 series interiors is actually quite stunning in most trims, the more you dig, you see some really neat details. and the 3 series interior is not duplicated in other BMW's. the new 3 interior is crafted insanely well with many tight gaps and insane textures and finishes and even subtle sweep lines and such in the plastics that you don't really get into until you're in the chair.

haven't ridden in it yet, but i guess it GLIDES. it's a FRONT DRIVE luxury car! should be able to take a spin tomorrow i hope

it looks like a cobbled hodgepodge parts bin of the same ATS XTS and SRX bits and really i was hoping for something more designed, more driver oriented, and unique and different.. not just another variation of the same $h! they have going on in all the other cars. the CTS will be a flagship for now, I don't see originality here. and it's too gaugy compared to the very precise and austere German cars.

only the republicans and the 1% can have speed i guess (SARCASM)

they got the crappy car part right, i can tell you those fornzas were not good...lol didn't some volvo's have in line 6's plus fwd?

GM Will do just fine with building a better ME TOO for a while. Right now GM is in the mode where they have no great need to take any silly multibillion dollar risk. They have good product and better coming. The Me Too thing is all industries anymore. we get one Reality show on the life of cross dressing Amish then we get 5 more from other networks. It is just a sign of a tight market in an even more tight economic time. The difference of being here is just one failed project for many anymore. My company has bailed out many companies in the perfromce area because they took a great risk and failed. Once GM gets things done like a Flagship for Cadillac. More produce for Buick and Chevy fully revamped then they can take a look at some risks once the economy improves. Till then they need to put some profits under their belts. Even then the risks need to be calculated. The bottom line is the Atlas is an old engine that would need a lot of investment, would have limited use and too few people crying for it let alone know about it. On the other hand the Cruze Diesel is a risk but is calculated. It is already in great use in Europe and elsewhere. They plan a slow roll out in a Cruze to test the waters and educate the public. Things like this may or may not work but you can still take a risk and limit the damage if it failes or gather the profits if it works. The idea of an inline 6 in a FWD is just a poor one right now with most cars getting smaller and smaller. The packaging just has little chance to work even in coming cars like the Impala. Why re engineer all your cars for something that is more difficult to fit when you can come out with the best TT V6 on the market and put it in anything you build now and in the future win no need to redesign anything. GM (dat) already is the FWD transverse inline 6 master!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

cruze eco wowed me when i drove it, for what it is, and how it's just fun besides that.

message me if you want to know more! I can get you into this!

Fit is tinny, and loud and ugly and cheap inside. The engine for its size puts out well, but it's not a refined car. If the Fit ran at 2600 rpm at 70, had a 6 speed and say, a 140hp motor.and some sound deadener...it would likely get the same real world mileage and be a much better car. The versatility of the interior is amazing and it's got lots of room and such. Ultimately people still only pay so much for these small crackerboxes when you can upgrade to Focii, CIvics, Cruzes for not a lot more. Sonic is well done also. Good design for that class of car, feels real I hear...... lots of competition also....Fiesta, M2, Rio, Accent, etc. VW needs to occupy this segment.

i'd prefer the denali be a 3.6 only but at the same time 4 cyl. is what many customers are choosing. a used 4 cyl FWD denali on the used market in 3 years will be cheap and a good buy for a lot of bling.

with a base + turbo they could catch more customers at the bottom from other mfr's..... and still not lose any of the regular Buick intenders. Also, there is no other 250hp, manual trans turbo GM car that is affordable. think wolfsburg jetta or similar

so why can't I get a base verano with simply a turbo engine and manual trans? and I'd like it with the Astra taillights. and maybe in coupe form. also.

even though i like to some degree the new Cadillac interiors, they are a little more gaudy than purposeful. And it doesn't seem they've really been big on controlling gaps and fit as much as they just throw a bunch of showy surfaces out there to distract you from noticing how tight it fits.

personally, i have never been terribly impressed with the G series. And I've driven many of them now. To me, it's like, just get a German car already.

in related news... you can lease a new G25x for 249 a month with 2k down right now.....

i've only driven a few older mustangs but really i don't get the appeal other than just straight line performance. but the latest ones have refined new engines and such so I thought they would be more interesting. My recent BMW 135 spin made me believe the smaller RWD package should be a nimble fun time and is probably more where the pony cars should go....although the current Camaro at least I think will be as is for a long time, and it's a big car. Maybe the chevy 130 concept was testing the public reaction to the package more than anything. Camaros and mustangs really are an old paradigm, one that lots of folks like sure, but to survive the future i think we need shorter hoods, less girth, more nimbleness regardless if its FWD or RWD. So GM using alpha for a future Camaro makes sense. Perhaps it will even be lighter than the ATS but hopefully smaller and more flickable too.

ford's base v6 is good. the ecoboost is good also. yet ford has the v8 side covered also. It's probably high time GM looked at a six cylinder for the truck line that is more powerful and fuel efficient, turbo or not...i think the market will move to a fair size of units sold with v6. perhaps chevy can develop the 5.3 into two states of tune....one for lesser power but more mpg and one just balls out power and all the vvt and stuff. too bad the 4.2 inline never made the silverados. chevy needs to deveop a new mid size truck line that is far better than the colorados. i'd like to see a full size with both a six and an eight diesel. a smal;l-mid truck with a 4 diesel would rock.