regfootball

can you believe there are 2,079 people who bought the crosstour? OUCH i may have an ugly in my garage but i surely didn't pay honda premium dollars to get it......

no i was going to blast it on its looks.

I like seeing the Legacy and Outback move up the charts because they fixed what was wrong with the product and kept what was good and they sell it at a price that does not gouge the customer. however, the forester sucks and should not sell like it does. Tribeca is getting its asshandedtoit.

hate the CUBE. HATE IT. look at the Maxima rebound? wow i never would have expected that. Nissan must really have loyal customers because their product is kind of dull these days......

truthfully, the Mazda6 IS NOT pulling its weight. esp when you consider the Altima Camry and Accord are all lame. the crossovers are keeping the doors open for Mazda. And of course, the MAzda3.

I acutally think the CC is smokin and VW's only real lusty looking car. Jetta doing well. I even think the numbers on the Routan are good. They have to discount the snot out of them to get them to move, but anyways they put Nissan out to pasture.

the wagon is much heavier than the sedan, which might explain the seeming lack of gusto.

i was mad, C/D has the Terrain ranked 6th in a new issue with a cute ute comparo. they tested the v6 BTW. RAV4-1, Tiguan-2, CRV-3, Forester-4, Outlander-5, Terrain-6, Grand Vitara-7, Escape-8 (where was the Rogue)? i have driven the forester it was possibly the worst vehicle I have ever driven. I rented a RAV4 and it sucked too. CRv's are not all that and a box of rocks. I liked the 09 Escape I test drove once. The terrain was done an injustice. this is not a sport sedan category.

Yeah I need to finish this up. In a bit. In the meantime, I got my Car and Driver today. Inside is a test of the Golf TDI. Handles mostly like the GTI but it lacks acceleration. In general. So I hope to test one myself some day. Perhaps the TDI will take care of the ride and handling issues I promise I will get to.

i like the x terra myself. i've liked the quest but its not been reliable. the sentra SE-r from 8 yrs ago was fun.

Nissan has been riding the early decade success of the Altima a bit too long now. Nissans large SUV and truck biz is toast. Maxima and Infiniti not strong. Sentra not up with the best. 370 is a great car but not a huge market steamroller. Murano and Rogue do well but not gonna take down Honda or Toyota. Nissan needs to be worried to be honest. Subaru is gaining sales and Mazda is arguably keeping their product fresh more completely. Nissan's boom came on their specialty products that are now in market segments that are tanking REALLY bad. Once the Altima goes stale they may be in huge trouble.

ok, twas the convertible.

buicks new product barrage is crucial and cannot fail. if it does, buick is toast in 5 yrs....and maybe GMC as well.....

Target Children's multivitamin.....no lie. I want to make up for the kids poor diet and make sure she gets enough vitamins, and in order to get her on a daily routine we started getting her the target equals to the flintstones. thing is, she will take them! so at least i know she gets iron and folic acid and beta carotene. If you check the label, they get most of what the adult vitamins get you. in the winter i will get C and D supplements. D especially can help fend off flu etc. 2000mg of D to blast it out. sometimes to make them edible i grind up the C and D and mix it in with smoothies. I used to take GNC vitamins but honestly they messed me up. too strong, and yes the nasty pee. Plus i would get ill like i was poisoned. the target kids vitamins are pretty cost effective too.

Interior. Recent history has shown that despite what can occasionally be called a not exactly bulletproof reliability record for their vehicles, VW does indeed get lots of praise for its interiors, and to this I agree with very much. The weird thing is that for 2010, the Golf gets all new interior bits, while the Jetta gets the same new IP, radio, and climate controls, integrated into mostly the same dash it has had for the last few years. The Jetta I drove had the vinyl -cough- leatherette seats, the Golf had the new cloth. I found both to be nice....with one beef on the Golf's seats. The seats were in both cases very supportive even if I felt the seat bottoms were a bit insubstantial, the shape and bolstering were very good. What I didn't quite resolve was why the Golf's seats seemed so much narrower and really forced my legs together. It really was kind of uncomfortable. I did not notice that in the Jetta. You kind of need some room there, really! I appreciated the power recline function present in the Jetta's seat. The old German diehard rotary recline wheel was at the helm in the Golf, and it just really depends if you like it or are simply used to it from other German vehicles. What was important was I seemed to for the most part be able to adjust the seat to my liking, with the handy height ratchet and the sometimes clumsy forward and back grab handle at the front of the seat that is typical VW. What really I found to be a knockout for the class on these VW products were the gauges and instrumentation and the new radio and climate controls. Just the quality and simplicity of them. The gauges in particular, with the blue lighting, chrome accents, and repeat digital display in the center (you will find you may not look at the speedometer at all with the digital display right there!). Just very well done and right in your eye's path....and framed by a dash made of impeccable plastics look and quality on the Golf and 98 percent the same on the Jetta. The radio is logically segmented and laid out, has very clear display and is just refreshing to look at. Similarly simple is the climate control. The knobs felt a bit flimsy and cheap, but that was not overly so for what I have seen in the segment elsewhere. I did not play with the turn stalks enough to grasp all they could do or how they did the cruise and wipers and such. They were a tish hard to see and find but they felt nice. It seemed like it might take a bit to acclimate to what was needed to do with them. On the Golf i totally loved the location of the mirror controls and window switches. All together, on the Golf especially, the controls were all where you wanted, simply laid out, and nice to look at and use. Everything is up high and in the line of sight and makes driving easier. The touch points and eye candy for the driver and primary passenger is all very well done and I believe this is the main virtue of the VW cars. I could simply go on for how good the seat heaters are even. Really a big plus on a negative degree day! One downside, I was let down by the cheap feel of the new steering wheel in the Golf. Since it did not have the multifunction switches or leather wrap, it just seemed like it was missing so much. It was thinner and lacked the decorative accents and attractive features of the uplevel wheel that is standard in the GTI and Golf TDI and higher levels of the Jetta. It really seemed downmarket compared to the rest of the interior and did not feel good in the hand. You just want the nicer wheel so bad you notice what you are missing so much! Passenger space is very good. Prior Jettas from early decade were majorly knocked for lack of passenger room. The future American Jetta will become larger still, but this Jetta and Golf seemed to me to provide good space and comfort for good sized people. Ingress and egress in the front is good for both cars. I think the door opening in the back of the Jetta is tighter than I like although a huge improvement over the early decade. Long legged folks might protest leg space if the front folks have the seat back too far, but overall I think the space in this car is alright in that regard. Caveat.......a little later. Another recent drive, the Kia Forte, to me I believe had a little bit more girth and space and legroom front and back. The Jetta / Golf is definitely larger than a Focus (of which I drove for 2 weeks back in 2008). It has a definite rear seat advantage over the Cobalt. Trunk space in the Jetta is exceptional. Large opening, great height, width, and depth, and it is trimmed out very nicely. The Golf's boot since its a hatch is smaller, but it is still very useful sized and of course you can expand the cargo hold by folding down the seats. GM fans may want to postulate about the size relation of the future Chevy Cruze. I believe the Cruze will have a trunk the size of the Jetta, and the interior room at least of the Forte. In that regard I think the Cruze may turn out to perceived as having possibly even more space than the Jetta overall. We will find out in a few months. Next part will be ride and drive and handling and overall impression and comment on value and position with VW and sub and compact class.

So, in general to repeat above, the VW products have good powertrains, although the five cylinder and diesel each have some things about them that would make one hesitate and want to consider other vehicles they compete against. On the five cylinder in addition to the comments above, that engine has also been slightly knocked for fuel economy that is a little less than to be expected in this segment. Perhaps it is a tradeoff of the higher horsepower, or less expensive, less exotic engine. In the diesel, the tradeoff is the running characteristics of a diesel to a nation that is not entirely familiar with the motor type or how it operates best, as well as its initial premium expense and relative obscurity. VW has obviously done the most with mainstream diesel in the US recently and I think personally in order for diesel to truly have a chance of proliferating again in other brands, VW has to do the dirty work and sell bunches of these TDI's. If the diesels take off again for VW, it may convince the buying public as a whole that diesel may again be headed mainstream. I am not certain the USA is really ready to follow through whole heartedly aside from all the hype people spout on car sites about 'Ford needs the diesel Fiesta' and so on. If the manufacturers really laid it all out there, I am curious just exactly how many consumers other than VW, and a few BMW's, Mercedes, and maybe Volvos would gain any traction in the market. All right. Exterior and Interior. Most of us are extremely familiar by now with the latest Jetta. Not quite yet refreshed as the Golf has been for 2010, yet the change is minimal for the Golf vs. the outgoing Rabbit. I found the new Golf front end updates to be extremely attractive and look forward to them making the Jetta sedan next year. The Golf I drove was quite the stripper in dull gray with wheel covers....it was not as sharp as the red Golf with alloys and sunroof in the showroom. In any case, the exterior presentation of the Jetta has been grade A for awhile now, and the Golf you can say is just as good. Both cars are a bit dull and conservative, but in a very precise and pleasing way...not a hodgepodge sort of blandness you'd find on say, any Toyota. Obviously style is an individual thing, but I would gladly drive either the Golf or the Jetta and be happy with its tidy conservative looks. The GTI of course is the more flamboyant Golf, and is available if you want. I can't say I found any particular exterior details that wowed me, although I really liked the Jetta's aluminum wheels, and the new grille and headlights of the Golf and the integration of small turn signal repeaters in the Golfs (small and oddly shaped) rearview mirrors. I always like the VW logo used as a hatch release on the back, very clever.

I would tend to agree with both statements as I have driven a few vehicles in the compact and subcompact segment. I will elaborate on your engine comment in a future post. I did not expect I would go 'frontpage' LOL. If I had known that, I might have asked for a format outline to do a review in, instead of a 4 am hackjob! LMAO.

it will become an 'Americanized' VW....i.e. decontented and diluted, no longer a true German car.

a nice feature for free and it's still lighter than the nox. Call it an advantage.

Test Drive: 2010 Volkswagen Golf 2.5 and Jetta TDI Stock Image Shown Got out in the cold yesterday and took out a couple VW's. A 2010 3 door Golf 2.5 / manual and a 2010 Jetta TDI / manual. I wanted a Golf TDI but none was available. I will add more to this tomorrow, since i forgot to get this up earlier Saturday evening. You would be surprised to know that I think my preference of the two is the gas model. I have driven the TDI Jetta now with the manual and the DSG and neither time did I come away thinking I would enjoy the vehicle long term, when i began to consider the main benefit of the diesel is basically fuel mileage....a benefit that comes at a greatly increased cost and therefore opens up a lot of interesting comparison issues based upon the car's price. Besides that, I found myself really preferring the revvability of the traditional gas mill and its power delivery more to my liking than the somewhat unwilling diesel. Keep in mind the behavior of the diesel may have entirely been because of the weather conditions, it was below zero and the car hadn't sat idling for like an hour to get up to operating temp. Diesels take longer to get smooth. I get that. I can only comment on what I experienced today and I hope to follow this up with a Golf TDI test drive down the road in better weather. The 2.5 is no refinement peach either, although its mid range grunt helped to keep it from having to be floored nearly as much as the TDI and therefore didn't feel like you had to beat on it like you did the TDI to get anything out of it. The major annoyance of the 2.5 was the lack of the 6th gear for highway cruising. 3000 rpm at 65-70 mph is a bit much IMO for a car with 170/177. The 5 cylinder is a growler as well, its not a harsh growl, its just an odd sort of groan that nice four cylinders do not make. I would not really call it deal breaker although most competitors have four cylinder motors that are more pleasing (GM that includes your Cobalt engine). I did find the gearbox on the 5 speed and its clutch to be smoother than the TDI and 6 speed, but maybe again the TDI needed more time to get comfy. I found the engagement point on the TDI's clutch harder to get right away than the very easy feeling 5 cylinder. The 5 cylinder shifted very snick snick and not much (just a little) notchyness. The TDI's shifter seems a bit fussier in comparison although I would not call it out as bad. Both would likely satisfy an experienced stick driver in that regard.... I just have determined the TDI diesel is really not my cup of tea. I felt you had to lay into it far too much to wake it up at a stop light or on roll on. Of course with one extra gear you can hook the powerband better, but to get the diesel to scoot you really need to prod it more. The diesel I felt should have quieted down a bit more at the 65-70 mph pace, at least it had the 6th gear. In the 5 cylinder you can still pass aggressively in 4th. With the TDI the top two gears you are not gonna get much passing power out of....you totally need to drop it to 4th to weave in traffic and get bursts. I suppose the 6th gear is how the TDI scores its mileage rating. I felt that with the exception of no 6th to bring the rpm down on the 5, that in fact had more flexibility in all driving conditions. Keep in mind I believed the diesel had similar traits when i drove it with the DSG. More tomorrow. What both cars needed IMO was one engine to share, a really good basic 2.2 litre 4 cylinder motor with about 155-170hp and a very nice well matched 6 speed. i.e. a very revvable behaved flexible four cylinder like the motor in the Cobalt, paired with a great 6 speed. Between that and the steering I hesitate to call either car a must buy. I would rate them good to very good, but I left thinking that neither was 'compelling' enough to make me not consider the myriad of other choices in the segment. One thing about the cars that is very well done to exceptional is the interior....although a couple beefs i had about that as well.

a few months back i test drove a 2010 fusion S (i think) manual. i was extrememly impressed and i used to hate the fusion. i prefer the fusion to the accord and over the malibu as well.

no bimmer here should be fwd. none of the US bimmers should have anything less than a turbo 4. i thought i saw a test that had a 1 series at 3600+ pounds. I will need to look into that. 2011 mustang v6 is under 3500 pounds and over 300 hp.

i would do tahoe suburban. that is your best chance of finding a well kept one.. sturdiest vehicle and it will still have appeal to a future buyer when you are done with it. how about an expedition or navigator? I have been considering one these days actually. all the crossovers have gone whacko price wise (go price and build an Ecoboost MKt), and some of the early decade big SUV's are so cheap it might just pay to have one to take long trips and haul with since the crossovers don't get that much better mpg. was their an Expedition diesel? that is what I have been trying to find out.. or was it only an Excursion? I would guess the Excursion would be a bit of a cockroach, built like a tank, could outlast anything.

over xmas busting drifts in the snowstorms with the taurus x, my wheelwells and wheels got plugged up with wet slushy snow and i really would have appreciated more clearance to be honest. it was undriveable actually after i had parked it overnight and they snow did not melt off in the garage. i got a horrible vibration until i beat the tar out of the wheels to get every last bit of snow out of the wheels, brakes and wheel wells. if the clearance had been more the chunks would have cleared out better on their own. curious as to how y'all think the base equinox front drive compares to the base fwd CX-7 and base fwd Subaru outback. all very similarly priced, actually.

very nice interior.