regfootball

critical! is the buick compact a rebadged cruze, or is it the astra?

Ford/Jaguar....consider the lineage. XF is a cool car but why its steel is kind of cheesy. Also, the XF's interior is not all that great. Materials are not bad, but the design of it is really dull. A horizontal dull dash. Not real original, or exciting.

if caddy makes the next esc a lambda, i think they should add a twin turbo to the 3.6. at one time the lambda was to accomodate a transverse small block. i am in the camp that thinks the sclade would lose its swagger if it weren't pro athlete sized on a truck frame. but cafe and the powers that be may push it otherwise. neighbors have a pilot and a cx9, its a struggle to watch them pack for a family trip. regardless of which vehicle they take, it seems like they hurt for space. perhaps they may have to get wise next time and get a lambda.

GM to Limit Buick Lacrosse Output because its not gonna sell like hotcakes or anything.

ABS has always worked just fine. pure stopping power is the biggest weakness. fade and feel are a part of that. my tires OEM were Goodyear Fortera, my replacements were Michelin Hydroforce or something like that, one of the higer rated tires on tire rack for wet and snow. In winter i monitor the tire pressure often. Overall i run about 36 psi frequently to keep gas mileage up. my front rotors are so small they are smaller than the rears on a lot of new cars today......

your first paragraph is along the lines of what my dad thought. i do not get any check engine light yet, however i can run OBD and see if i get any codes and go from there. i will try to 'air it out' and see if that helps at all. since we got the taurus x the aztek is just an intown errand hopper and we don't get to stretch its legs much. thing is, i don't want the hard shifting to deteriorate into an issue which requires fixing or makes it tough to sell once i need to. its worth some fair money right now still, i'd have preferred to have ditched it by now in favor of a new ride. but i may be forced to keep it which would force me to do lots of long term maintenance to it, which i have no desire to pay for or amortize.

its the 4 T65 or something. a 4 sp auto. thing is, i did full flushes and all that at 50k and 100k specifically to prolong tranny life. my dad was like 'i don't believe in doing tranny flushes, it just makes the problem worse'. it does seem the issue is fairly common for this vehicle. in fairness, 100k out of an automatic tranny is about all you can ask for most of the time. especially if you owned for example, a chrysler.........

thanks. yeah, the rear drums were barely worn, and you can tell they really do nothing for stopping the vehicle. the brakes all around are GM spec, i.e. cheap, small, undersized. my tranny has developed a hard thunk when shifting. on the forums it apparently is a solenoid problem in the tranny or much worse. Apparently the issues are common. I did not have this problem ever. Until after i flushed the tranny and all of a sudden, hard shifting. i'll check out the brembos and hopefully a pad that does not leave soooo much brake dust.

sarcasm.

Well, even just general advice on whether to expect that upgraded pads and rotors / drums would even be worth the cost. I am not keen on the idea say of replacing any brake lines or anything.

apparently though, this car still does not have OPEL handling, it still sounds like a puff cruiser, a marshmallow. thing is people spend big bucks on the ugly new maxima, so we might as well say its ok for this to exist also. myself, i would not have any interest in the low spec version of this car, and the high priced version, i could get that rwd impala SS. or a basic CTS. or an MKS or Taurus LTD that had a nice dealer discount and a rebate. I'll have to sit in one and then decide if they pulled it off. ----BTW, check out that curb weight. YIKES! its a fatty like my little baby.

Ironically, if 'LaCrosse' means 'pleasuring oneself'....wouldn't it make sense to still keep the name in Canada? It would imply a car that is a pleasure to take by oneself on the road for a drive. I mean, if a car can be so pleasurable to drive that it can do that for you........

This is actually a serious inquiry. the Aztek turned 105k this week and I am generally faced with the possibility of needing to keep the vehicle for quite awhile. Good, since its a slight few payments left and its all mine. WOO HOO. Anyways, it's been great so far. Good on gas (prob avg 21-22 mpg over the life of the vehicle). Immense utility. Great errand hopper and road trip vehicle. Quiet and comfortable. Oil changes, one set of tires, one brake job, radiator and tranny flushes for maintenance. Only.....ONLY...... repairs on the vehicle to date have been the two front wheel bearings, done under warranty. Also a recall on a wiring harness. THAT'S IT. All this in spite of its 'functional form'. Now, its a quiet cruiser, and easy enough to drive around town at a sedate pace. But every time i get out of the Aztek and into my Taurus X, I am reminded how low on the food chain the Aztek is as far as steering, handling, engine, tranny, and BRAKING. The braking of the vehicle can occasionally be at best, SCARY. A loaded vehicle, on a grade, in the rain or wet, full of passengers and cargo can make you actually pray to stop. Frequent hard stops, um, wow, the fade. Just a general unsafe feel to the brakes in general. I do not have the 4 wheel discs of the AWD version..I have disc/drum and front drive. If I am forced to keep the vehicle, I have other work to do....new belts, tune up and plugs, fuel filter, maybe even struts. Tires I am sure maybe by 120-125k. A/C charge at some point. I am just asking those to chime in if there is any ways cost effectively and perhaps with aftermarket parts, to do something, ANYTHING to help the braking performance of this vehicle. Enough so it is noticeable, and restores confidence. The brakes were simply underdesigned. Knowing this, is there any approach to this that is not a waste of money.....and something that could be recommended at the next brake job. Any websites, brands etc.....let me know.

i did like the writeup. the thing i have always maintained is that the genesiscoupe has no visual appeal of its own. sorta what he is saying, too. LMAO! he coulda used that line on many cars today but he saved it.....for this car....he obviously felt strongly about that. i do like the notion of this car having decent cargo hold and rear seat space though.

it was a bit of a letdown to sit inside a 2010 loaded NOX today. black interior. but the leather was horribly cheap and the plastic itself to me was not even Malibu or Traverse quality. rather odd, i think i wait for full opinion until i get to see a brown cloth interior. the dash is stylish and laid out nice, but it really is deja vu as far as the seating position and all of that for the rest of the inside. in truth, the Vue interior in leather is nicer, to me at least until i see like a beige one on the equinox. why does chevy leather look like vinyl so much? and why can't they learn that it pays off to put better looking plastic inside? really it dulled my enthusiasm.. still more of what i would like than the innards of a CRV though. or rav 4. one item of interest...that new steering wheel we will be seeing in our dreams at night because its in so many cars soon, is fantastic. nice to grip. leather feels great. buttons are slick. nice and meaty.

there should always be three of them.

truth is there is prob no better road trip vehicle on the market than the lambdas. this coming from a taurus x owner. taurus x is more sedan nimble. but overall the lambdas are the only real decent family hauler choice that is not a minivan. its sylish and roomy and has cargo space. (the cx9 is useless as a road trip vehicle). i have test driven the g8 in v6 form and GT v8 form and while its a nice drive, its not going to replace a hauler on a road trip. the aura you might have now is a good car, but does not have amenities of the outlook. the outlook handles well for a vehicle its size, but is not a sedan. basically its a simple question, do you want to hold out for a better sedan, with limited function....or do you take advantage of a good time to buy on a new family friendly hauler. and what does it cost you. i would say a g8 in any form is not going to be much cheaper to run than the outlook. they will get about the same mpg either way. the g8 will be a bit less to insure. the outlook will be better in crappy weather. both vehicles will have great passenger space but the outlook will have superior function. in my opinion, the interior where you spend more time, the outlook is better. really, having driven all three, if you were intending to get the g8 v6, i'd say don't waste your time on it. the outlook is faster actually. if you are talking g8 gt even then i would say the whole feature set of the outlook is better unless you are deathly tied to having a sedan. the g8 is a great car, but unless you can get the GT at a minimum, and get all you want with it, then get something your whole family can enjoy more.....the outlook. don;t underestimate the value of getting out of a lease scot free, and reselling a lambda vs. a g8, i think the lambda will have a better chance of selling private party than trying to trade in a g8. family vehicles are more in demand than RWD vehicles, or large obscure sedans. trump card. you might enjoy the g8, the whole fam will enjoy the outlook.

another example of why cali bitches about not having cool US cars but then they wont pay workers to have any assembly plants there.

solstice and sky are not failures. their plant overhead had more to do with cancellation than anything. did GM not lead sales in the compact roadster segment? these will be collectible for years. GM still should not have killed them. make the ecotec turbo standard and solve the interior and trunk issues. only because saturn and pontiac got axed is why we don't have them. no one in the US still WANTS small cars. so yes i even am apprehensive on how well $h!boxes (albeit good ones) like the fiesta will sell. Americans still love size. That said, i am a big Astra banger and I still don't have one, primarily because I will only pay so much for a small car, despite how good it is. I still believe in GM. Why? Because there is nothing REMARKABLE about toyota, kia, honda, hyundai. My vehicular history is laced with GM and now Ford product, and they are part of my history and my country;s history. Don't get me wrong, I had a Honda ATC 3 wheeler which i think was cool too, but GM deserves to be as relevant or even more relevant in the US than ever before. Global economy = nice. whatever. i am one of those folks that wants to keep it within the family. Even my $h!ty chevette scooter i loved as a car, and i would love to support GM Ford whatever. Lets give GM a chance. Last i checked, most folks in the US no longer have the method by which to buy overpriced and overhyped $h! like Lexus, etc. anyways. Man, i would love to go pound down and smoke a few with Lutz. He's not perfect, but he has cajones.

nice rebates and great financing. outlook and vue basically the same mpg. so more room is a plus. the outlook is sharp looking and has a nice interior. the lambdas are a bit big and ponderous compared to a sedan. you'd have to adjust to that. but they cruise well!

camaro is holding up fairly well by looking at that list if folks have been thrashing them as hard as nissan gt-r's......

the outsourcing in this country is just a big a problem. we need to implement penalties for outsourcing jobs to everywherebut here.com

its pretty easy these days for someone to launch a coordinated smear campaign. just like all that we post each day, there is no way to verify the truth of a lot of this stuff. and people who buy a camaro are going to be gnats ass picky. maybe some to the point of unreasonable. but engines and trannies should not have issues. not for awhile. a lot of the idiots like those who waited to get their solstice and then racked it up on the freeway because of probably overzealous driving and partial intoxication have no excuse for if its starts to fall apart. this can happen to any carmaker. like the latest gen camry and tundra, FJ etc.

genesiscoupe?

G8 is pretty compelling. Buick has potential if they keep pricing reasonable and offer interior quality and offer the opel products on the bottom end of its lineup. aside from that, there is not much hope.