regfootball

2002 Intrigue 3.5 44,000 miles I think i wanna test drive it! What does everyone think of the price? Presentation wise, the car is spotless. Checked it out this morning.

i think some of the fwd freestyles were lighter....the smaller 3.0, the lighter CVT.....less sound material and a little less structure. I do know the freestyles would routinely see 30+ on highway trips for some owners, largely due to the CVT and partially due to less mass. the taurus and X added mass over the 500/FS. once ford weens themself off the cheap steel and puts more and more high strength steel in all its cars, they can bring down the curb weights more and more. the P90 chassis is a brick, intentionally. It was meant to be tough and durable since so many vehicles would be built off it and its technically fords large car / large truck platform. But, 4400 pounds for a SHO is sort of embarrassing. 3 years ago, maybe not. But now, its really at least 10% too heavy. Fortunately the ecoboost makes up for it in power.

right now OTD you can get new fusions and malibus under 20g. i would say get one while you still can. the mpg is close to compacts and the next mali and fusion will prob go up at least 5g in price. that 2012 ford focus, ford is going to try get the average transaction price up above 20g. they wont want the fusion and focus in the same price slot. ford tried hard with the contour back in 95 to jack up the prices for a 'premium small car'....and it didnt go over very well. but ford will be willing to push the envelope as much as possible the first year to adjust people's thinking....so that after that the high ceiling is higher enough so that whatever they end up dropping to to get sales volume at least they still can make ROI and get some profit. Chevy I'm afraid won't be able to get the same prices for the Cruze that Ford will with the Focus, although I am sure they will try. In turn, that will drive down the prices of all the other Chevies under the Cruze too. And if the Malibu is still selling cheap then as well, its actually the prices and not the size so much I would be concerned with for Chevy. A lot of models all falling close to the same in real OTD prices.

considering how many car sales in the next few years will need to be in the lower price classes all i can say is GM can not be under-represented in these markets.

which taurus x you talking about? my t-rex has like a 4500 pound curb weight.

Ford will be big in Chicago. Explorer, to built there, new. 4 cyl. ecoboost announcement. Edge and Explorer get the 4 cyl. ecoboost.

the New Orleans Saints.

cute as a butt-on. super cute yummy! yeah it's controversy, but would any of us had known about this weeks cover unless a controversy was created?

lol..but the word here is 10 year 'legacy contract' to the twins at market rate with possibly some deferred compensation.

it's all functional but it really feels dated to me. i used to love the 'wraparound dash' and this is really a relic of that, and yet it just feels so plain and old. to be truthful if you examine all the entries in this segment, there really aren't any with better interiors, so that general observation is sad. From the Japanese brands in particular, they are all the same to me, the exceptions in comment are that the Accord's interior is brutally bad in cheaper levels of trim, and overall I think the Legacy interior is the classiest of the bunch. If I went Japan the Legacy is the nicest....although I have sat in a Kizashi and that is nice in a more elemental way. I like the layout of the Fusion's interior more, and the seats are way better. But elements of the Fusion interior are bland and old. So there is not a major advantage there. The Malibu actually has the most interesting design, but it is really let down by plastics quality, seat cloth and leather quality, panel gaps, too many seams, certain other accent materials quality. With regards to precise fits, the Altima does very well. Nothing felt loose, and look at how tight the center stack fits to the main plastic dash. Those who were pissing and moaning about the Equinox or Terrain or whatever would need to be a in room by themselves for awhile after seeing how well Nissan gets a lot of these dash parts to fit.

thanks, you're here all week. you didn't like the camo pants though? y'all see the 44 ounce drink in the cupholder? bladder buster! btw i plan to get the review up soon. i am using my speech to text on the iphone. quicker to generate text, but it takes a while to edit it too. plus then the kids whining, needing to be fed, diapers, etc.

and any day now Joe will be have a new 10 year contract extension for probably like 250 million......

http://twincities.bizjournals.com/twincities/stories/2010/01/25/daily40.html Joe is the MVP, his brother sells cars, guess what, now Joe's brother owns a chevy dealership! where'd he get the $$$$ for that?

Forgive the crotch shots, i didn't get a chance to fully take good interior pics.

Here it is with like 250 miles on it. In its plastic hub cap splendor.

i've read that the GS gets a 260hp 4 cyl turbo. you know, the regular turbo only has 220hp, but like 260 lb ft of torque. that figure alone says to me that even the low hp turbo will have some scoot to it.

agree.

so did any of Jan sales results give any indication of who is benefitting?

speculation on 'fleet' for Ford includes a lot of early sales for Transit Connect to businesses waiting for a while for that vehicle to hit market. that type of fleet vehicle (not hertz etc.) is good fleet sales and does not affect resale.

the article i read on lexus basically being so popular earlier this past decade was not because of their sedans competing with BMW, it was due to the RX selling so well and being the poster child of the Lux SUV boom. So Lexus may have gained sales, but no brand equity from pushing all those RX's.

first place -1 second place -3

takes off, as in accelerates by itself?

to me, i hope this raises a note of awareness to any of these states or cities that offer millions in incentives for a foreign carmaker to set up shop. because now its proof, they are fallible. Toyota needs to tread carefully here or the foreign backlash could be huger than was already underway since the market crash.

fox news has some total babe anchors. so there is benefit to fox news being on the air.

I think Hyundai stands to benefit the most, right at the time when they have several new models coming out this year. The Hyundai assurance, new Sonata, Tucson, and Elantra, (Genesis) and the general movement that had already started by the CR fanbois from Toyota to Hyundai will continue at a more brisk pace now. I predict a little more than 3 percent loss of share. Ford and Honda will otherwise benefit the most after Hyundai group. In the luxury arena, I think Infiniti gets a jolt from Lexus customers.