regfootball

seems to me GM has to have these brands somewhere globally (i.e. essential) Chevy Daewoo (not in US) Buick Opel (who gets the Opels in the US) next is a brand that i think somewhat is grey (the aussies can jump in here) Holden what's next is the deal. i have for a while now said pontiac could exist with a g6 line (torana?), g8 line (commodore), and the solstice. is this niche? to me, it says 'g8 remains' which also to me says holden big rwd cars will get a stay of execution for a few years. At a minimum, this buys time for GM to simply rebuild this brand over time without so much pressure. Maybe it will get cultlike status like Harley or BMW now? WHo knows. So i think Pontiac will stay in the US. What is less clear is Saturn. I find saturn's line to be the most appealing for affordable GM stuff as a whole right now. It's all good and now they want to tank the brand? Saturn has the best customer experience of nearly all brands and GM will throw it away? Sounds like GM. Anywho. So now we know the Opel Insignia is not a Saturn anymore most likely and rumor is its a Buick. I do not feel Buick can get Saturn buyers. The lines are fuzzy between what Pontiac had hoped would be their buyers and who Saturn's buyers are. Personally a know more than a handful of folks who have shopped Saturns lately but not many Pontiac buyers. Basically the critical part of the puzzle is who gets the Opels? If Saturn goes, which division gets the Astra, Antara, and Insignia and apparently no Corsa. Saab and Hummer are more or less inconsequential right now, although Hummer has tremendous potential and Saab i always have liked but lets face it, there just may not be room anymore. Without reading 37 pages of fluff, I am struggling to find how this fixes the product assortment (i.e. more desirable small and mid size cars, more choices to compete with Lexus, Infiniti and the Germans, and overall new products to market). GMC is all rebadges and hinges upon whether other brands are merged into Chevy's dealer network IMHO. With this plan, not fully knowing what to do with Saab and Hummer, they can still keep doing what they are doing which is to basically tack them on to Caddy showrooms. I almost wish they would sell damn Opels here, maybe in the Caddy showrooms. Then it would really clean things up. Chevy, Opel, Buick, Cadillac. Its starting to feel like Saturn is the odd man out but seriously that isn't getting rid of the overlap like it simply would to fold BPG into and on top of Chevy. Then ditch Saab and have Opel / Cadillac or Saturn / Cadillac.

beat me to it!

what is their name and number? the dealers here won't freaking budge.

absolute brutality

i would axe saab (even though i love saab). give saturn the astra, vue, or just change it all to opel / cadillac and be done with it. IMO, opel should be given the task of developing the next rwd small and big platforms for caddy and i feel opel deserves a rwd flagship.

maybe so, but the SLOOOOWWWWW 4 speed tranny and boat anchor weight on the front end in particular gives it the handling prowess of a snow plow in addition to the heft and feel of a loaded beet truck. translation, an 08 taurus fwd will wax it, i am fully convinced. 0-60 and at passing speeds.

wow, i am so bored with these tired threads and topics. is this becoming GMI? My God, I spilled milk when i was a kid, can we talk about that incessantly too? GM had to protect share because of their production expenses and legacy expenses. not only that, the sales jump start after 9/11 actually helped the country's economy. side note: go see how many JAP anese mfrs donated to helping and rebuidling from 9/11. GM gambled on a business model they felt they could sustain and got burned. So now, are we all going to cry over spilled milk, or are we going to turn our nation's largest industry (the largest?) and its profts and its market share in the global arena over to foreign countries?

i don't get why VW can't supply a non growly semi smooth non turbo four with good mpg and adequate power as a base rabbit motor here in the US. aluminum, even, one that can maintain combustion.

its fine as a cruiser. it excels in that regard. but my taurus x is faster, handles better even. no crossover should handle better than a cadillac. that northstar doesn't have much kick under the hood, either that or the 4 speed tranny is a real hindrance to whatever its got.

they're subtle, done in lieu of full coloring.

again. this is really the right idea. to me it hinges on GM combining BPG in with chevy. then caddy can be with saab (assuming saab stays). some suggest moving saturn into an entry level to caddy. i think if they were going to do that, why not blitz the saturn name and just kill saab and sell opel as a companion to cadillac. or keep the saturn brand to sell a small car and vue and then the opel product and then caddy. pontiac can exist on 3 models (solstice / g6 / g8) for awhile. buick should have about 4-5 models. if pontiac sold 125k and buick 175k for a short period, added on to chevy you could justify this. caddy needs to have two all new rwd bias but awd capable platforms in development. the two platforms can exist in smaller and larger incarnations. the small platform could exist for a range of cadillac products and also be shared with pontiac for the next g6 and solstice (although the pontiac would not share premium suspensions etc.). the larger platform should form the basis of the larger cadillacs, as well as the large holden products, the g8 line, the top level buick, and a new large flagship opel (above the insignia). aside from that, about 3 highly flexible fwd bias platforms which have some size flexibility could underpin a vast majority of GM's other volume models (excluding lambda).

i am debating if i should continue to maintain my highlights. i hate spending the dough on something so frivolous.

watched 'Dan In Real Life' this weekend. great movie. but man, Juliette Binoche. dear lord she is gorgeous. But Emily Blunt is in that movie too. She can make loins burn without a fire. My, i think tag team is in order.

well, when the sky falls and global warming melts the icecaps, it won't be iceland anymore.

the epsilons are more fun to drive and feel more refined. the w-bodies feel heftier though drove my dad's g body DTS this weekend. NFW i would ever drive that slug, much less buy one.

the transit connect is weird enough that i would consider one. the 010 milanfusion manual has me intrigued. makes me wonder if i shouldnt delay any action on my astra. i really don't like the current fusion but i have driven the 09 escape with the new powertrain, although that's a 5 speed.

had the taurus x on a jaunt this weekend, about 500 miles. mpg= WHO CARES! GAS IS LIKE A BUCK SEVENTY! DRIVE AWAY!

go to truedelta.com and othersites.....real world mpg with manual trans astras is mid thirties. draggers have gotten mid eights to 60 with astra 5 speeds. the astras motor is refined and smooth overall. smoother than the impreza i can tell you that with certainty and smoother than the rabbits growly fuel sucking 5 too. build quality is similar enough to the rabbit. as far as power, its more than the civic and corolla, eh? take one out for a spin, the apprehension goes away pretty quickly.

nice lookin g8

it is shameful the extent to which the banks are being given money without any standard to hold them to.

i set foot in an infiniti showroom last week because they had a used vehicle i wanted to try. all the new infinitis on their floor were over 45 grand. including the EX35 hatchback, which is no bigger than a mazda3 inside.

the wife goes sloppy on Antonio and Hugh. Benjamin Bratt too.

time to dig out the adam sandler CD, 'thankgiving song'!

we gotta talk

TMI! a buddy of my mine is the master of AIR DRUMS in the car.