regfootball

http://www.edmunds.com/apps/vdpcontainers/...17/pageNumber=1

some of this needs to be cleared up. first off, the accord may statistically be full sized now but the truth is it still has a tight feel to it in some ways. the extra width is welcome and beneficial, however, it really was making up for the fact that it was too narrow before. Plus, the new accord has a low roof and constricting windshield angle. the current impala which i cross shopped when i got my 500 a couple years ago is also deficient in the cabin. rear leg space is tight and front seat space is tight due to wheel intrusion and low dash and firewall. however, it doesn't feel dreadfully cramped. It just feels like a semi roomy midsize. The previous impala actually felt bigger due to the more upright roof and such. Trunk space is ok. the car with major space transgressions is the new Malibu. As pointed out above, its highly deficient in width and you really do feel it. It's inadequate in width for a midsize and that is in spite of it matching up in leg room and such with the impala. The new BU's shape is a knockout, but it's a bitch getting in and out of that car and getting around the steering wheel and dash requires big time olga korbut moves. the new BU feels constricted in many ways despite the stats. Rear leg space might be the only area where the new Bu has ay sort of feeling of space. The roof and A pillar bear down on you like the roof has already been crushed in a crash. Coupled with the girth deficiency, it makes a like sized car like the Mazda6 feel limo like. The new Malibu's trunk is even nearly as bad as the accords, not very high, not much usable width, and much of it is hard to access under the rear window. of course, i am spoiled by my 500(taurus) because it gives you adequate room in most ways. I actually wish it was 2" wider and had a bit more knee space in front, but as sedans go, the taurus is actually a usable car. Most other sedans are not. The only other sedans I think provide adequate space that I can think of right now are maybe the DTS, the galant, and the 300. Pretty much nearly all other sedans lack real space or the feel of it (and this includes Lucerne). funny, but the 86 taurus had packaging figured out. spacious cabin, good trunk. GM never has mastered sedan packaging. big overhangs, low seating, lack of leg room. Perhaps the 92 bonne was the one other GM sedan I can recall aside from the late 80's early 90's caddies that were comfortable sedans and efficient in their packaging. scratch that, the catera was well done in terms of space. i expect the g8 to feel spacious like the catera did. to get back to the point.....the malibu needs to gain space next time around. it is a small cramped mid sizer, but can be excused because of looks. the impala is ok if iits shopped as a midsizer, but the next impala needs to be bigger t match the taurus and 300 in accommodations. I still think the holden caprice would be a nice chevy caprice here. I think a RWD impala would be nice too. But a large FWD may work if done right. I think for cops and cabs chevy needs to have something available with space and that can take a lot of pounding . taurus sales have crapped due to looks, marketing confusion, and pricing...and the edge and taurus-x cannibalizing sedans. judging by the wows i get when people ride in my car, they love the space. if the car was attractive and the price was adjusted, the large size formula would work, and i think chevy has the potential to understand this segment better than anyone.

G8 XUV lol

well, to expand on that, it really goes to show you how unable Germans are to throw a car together when there is actually a budget to adhere to and a limit put on how much frickin ballast you can put in the car.

You did the right thing. It is appalling they treated you in that fashion. And to call the kids bastards? Those people have no understanding of what it is to be human and to be compassionate and respectful of others. To stoop to their level and involve kids much less in the bashing is unconscionable. You should be proud you stood up for yourself. I raise my glass to that. Stand proud, man.

hold out if you can for what you want. otherwise, hey, you can assume my 500 lease til its up (nov 08) or maybe my dad would part with his 92 seville with 80k on it. I've kind of eyeballed trying to pry that from him to drive for a couple years. My father in law wants a new car but can't quite figure out how to pay for one, until then he keeps driving his olds 88 with like 175k on it.

a dire omission in the market right now for GM is cabs and cop cars, and really for that reason alone there should be a RWD biased chassis large car in Chevy's lineup. Now, should that car be cloned from the holden statesman or imported or whatever? Clearly, the charger and 300 are not all that cops want or they still wouldn't be buying crown vics. Much like Ford needs a crown vic replacement (HELLOOOOO....INTERCEPTOR) GM needs this value priced durable large car in their lineup as well. There is no way to argue against it. My stipulation is the car should simply be large and made from a chassis that can take major abuse. This is where the taurus / 500 fails for ford right now and I think an Eps2 would fail in this capacity as well. A RWD/AWD Zeta variant chassis would be the cake for a car like this for Chevy. Aside from that I would be fine with a G8 pontiac and a Park Avenue Buick (with available AWD) on Zeta as GM's only other RWD cars, aside from Cadillac's premium and unique platforms. Alpha should exist too for a Pontiac and Buick product also. Maybe we will see a chevy alpha (next solstice is rumored to be on alpha?), but chevy's mission is mainstream and value and most of Chevy's products aside from pickups and tahoes should be on simpler FWD/AWD platforms. You can cover most chevy products like this.....Malibu, Equinox, Cobalts, minivans, etc. Camaro deserves a RWD platform and I don't think a Camaro needs an AWD option. Corvette's market has evolved such that a higher level variant of the vette would benefit from performance AWD as an option but now we have XLR to share platform engineering with there. long story short, cops and cabs are reason enough for chevy and ford to still fill the large RWD bias segment if their FWD bias platforms do not provide the function and utility and durability that is required. Hell Chevy could engineer a new line of light commercial vans on a large sedan platform and use that to amortize development. GM is still not aggressive in product development. It seems as though they are still being way too tight fisted and stay out of too many segments, while Toyota keeps entering more segments every year. GM gives up segments they use to be huge in.

wrongo. the law that was passed was for SMOG like NOx. CO2 is not a component of the smog agreement. Correct me / clarify if I am misunderstanding what I read elsewhere, but CO2 is not a component of what they have permission to regulate on their own in that agreement. Attempts to regulate CO2 on their own is merely a back door attempt at global warming political posturing, and since CO2 is related to gas consumption as well, its also a poolitical posturing to mandate MPG too.

admit it, it was the heated cupholders that did it. and the mood lighting around them. ever need to sand a piece of wood? Just take it out to your avenger and rub it against the door panel for awhile. Be sure to vacuum up the dust when you are done.

actually the easier fix would be to just shut down and pay off all the dodge and chrylser dealerships. It would probably cost them less money.

simply put, mpg is mostly a function of vehicle WEIGHT. the assault on our cars is to get cars down in size and weight, not so much engines per se. We could be more responsible to repackage the cars we sell into better engineered lighter versions, although durability, economy, and safety might suffer. Think of this. GM has spent the Lutz era pumping out CTSv's, Turbo X's, HHR SS, Camaro's, Impala SS, Escalades, Hummers, Lambdas, a whole buttload of fuel hungry or performance vehicles that not a lot of mainstream buyers can afford. (although curiously, you still cannot buy a MT 6 cyl front or rear drive reasonably priced GM sedan, or even a 4 cylinder MT one for that matter). Yet, Toyota has booming sales, and offers a wide range of smaller 4 cylinder cars like the Xd, Xb, TC, Yaris, Corolla, Camlee, Rav4, etc. All these vehicles sell decently. What does GM have? Cobalt and G5, Aveo. Count the G6 4 cyl if you want to be nice. New malibu is a credible 4 cylinder effort. The Vue/HHR/Vibe. Now Astra. My point is GM hasn't exactly represented themselves the best in the less expensive more fuel efficient segments. For all the resources they have diverted to the fuel thirsty and expensive vehicles, they really should catch up and be better represented in the fuel efficient segments. In the global era, a maker like GM needs to be represented in all platforms and sizes of engines continuously so as to not be like Chrylser and get caught pants down investing only in RWD fuel suckers. Or not get caught pants down only investing in tiny cars. I think you may always find v8's it's just the options may be scarce. Hybrids hold promise as does diesel. But hybrids need to become less pricey and diesel needs to not be .60 / gal more than gas. I will be interested to see what the twin turbo ford 4 cylinder puts out for mpg and power. It's like a 1.8 that gets 30/40 in the fusion and still has like over 200 hp. Even blu may buy a Ford like that. Saab holds promise as GM's mpg tech advancement division. 9-3 already gets great mpg. Saab place in GM should be for advancing our tech in alternative fuels and reducing consumption.

redoing the interiors alone will not fix the car, regardless of how badly it's needed. let's start with brutal interiors, brutal exteriors, subpar engines, undersized for midsize class (these cars are classic 'tweeners'). lastly, Avenger is a really bad name for a car in this segment. There was nothing wrong with Stratus. Note to Bob Nardelli: here's an even quicker fix. Pay Mitsubishi to redo the Galant interior and sound deadener and rebadge and regrille a bunch of them as Intrepids or Stratus. Put the Avenger and Sebring out of its misery now. Then you have a real midsize front drive car to sell, with a new interior. It would not be a class leader, but it would be much more credible than what you are throwing out there now.

cut the crap. the aero chrylsers were never POLARIZING. they were MAINSTREAM. the late 90's 300 aeroform design was stunning and yet not at all polarizing. it was very much in form with many of the other aero cars of the genre. the original intrepid enjoyed big mainstream success and the 98 redo merely expanded on it. the magnum sure has been selling......to fleets. i love the magnum to a point but i NEVER see women driving any newer 300's, magnums, or chargers. They are the type of car and design most women avoid like the plague. and women buyers have driven the car market for like 20-25 years now. wow, the pro chrysler spin in the last few posts makes me need to bring out the waders and wade through all the ....poo....that has been slung around. When Gale and Lutz left, and Chrysler was handed over to the Germans, they began a massive design and execution free fall they could not recover from.

i think if they keep the impy FWD but simply make it much larger than the malibu then there will be no conflict. BU=4 cyl and 6, mid sized Impy=6 cylinder and 8 large. But I do think RWD and yes AWD add more driveline loss, but I doubt it's so much to cause a big diff in mpg, at least not for RWD. Don't kid yourselves, what else it at work here.....if chevy gets RWD, what does Buick get? I think something in this has to do with the park avenue coming here, and guranteeing the success of the G8. Any RWD chevy may simply be a threat to the BPG group. Personally, I think the malibu should be the larger midsize front driver and the Impy should be large RWD with a Caprice option. I also feel the market has reached a point where all vehicle platforms should be designed and sold with AWD available on nearly all cars. For example, the G8 should have AWD ready to go at the start. I believe in 10 years, AWD will be an expectation that at least half of all cars sold will have an on demand all wheel drive system. Available anywhere in just about any car.

Chriminy. There is not a big problem with selling 40-50k a year with say, a holden Caprice here in the US. That would take care of the RWD big car crowd and would not hose up cafe much. Chevy effed themselves because the malibu is so small. to make the impala RWD only would kill sales on the larger car. Simply put, chevy didn't plan right for their larger sedan. The impy should be larger than it is now, and should either be FWD or RWD/AWDoption. instead, impy is mid sized and front drive only. someone check, does the charger get the same mpg as say, the impala now or the lacrosse 3.6? taurus could pick up those sales if it weren't unattractive.

is this an "SVT" version?

I wonder if an Ebrake with console button is in the future for the CTS. I love handbrakes, although most non enthusiasts don't like the extra clutter in the console area.

upsizing this was smart, but it does underscore how badly they botched the tribeca. I wonder if Saab at one time was to have gotten a version. New Forester? GirlGirls of the world are ecstatic. Will we get a turbo again?

CA, if you want increased standards, set up taxation to pay for it yourselves. Leave the 90th percentile of the rest of the nation with an attainable national standard and stop taxing drivers in other states paying for your bull$h!. I'm sure you can each pony up 1000 bucks a year to pay for the effort YOU so need. Stop dumping on the automakers. Regulating CO2 is not a tactic of reducing smog, its a backhanded way to try to fight the 'theory' of global warming (the earth is flat, remember) and mpg. At the core, this is simply politics and agenda. You need to approach this a different way. Build consensus in 50 states and work to something everyone can agree to and implement. In fact, a global emissions standard would be nice. NOT A CALIFORNIA one. You created your own mess with excessive population and such. You did not create good mass transit nor have you created your own car companies that sell cars with 50mpg nor have you created electric vehicles. You have contributed nothing of notable consequence to the automotive landscape in terms of manufacturing and production. You do not make 1 million cars in your state that do these things. You do not even seem to be able to create the infrastructure to create and distribute enough electricity in green ways to satisfy your propulsion and other lifestyle needs. I am not going to even talk about water and needing to beg from other places to get it. Try not to bite the hand that feeds. Learn to play nice with the people that build all your cars. All you are just finding out with a hack job like Tesla motors, it is HARD to build a car, certify it, make it run and last, etc and make them in factories. And not just 2 seaters. For once, get off your own throne before the earthquake takes it down and puts it in the ocean. Let's start by taking away everyone's BMW's, sports cars, Mercedes, Lexus, Range Rovers etc, and make them all drive Yaris and Accents. I bet you all would look so awesome pulling up into Spago in a Yaris hatch.

i read the rogue owner reviews on edmunds the other night. some REALLY happy drivers.

way too many the last few days.....including today. on way home from rellies and like 3-4 cars in ditches or off off ramps.

good job dumping the honda for the pontiac! sorry you had to sacrifice and drive a caliber. I tested one once, and it felt crude and cheap.

sure, but at least they have enough torque to maintain constant cruising speed......at least 4k on the tach.

well, the toy debacle has spooked so many people here, 'baby just licked thomas the train and keeled over dead, why not go driving in a CHinese car and die too!'

if i recall, towards the end of the nineties, the stratus/cirrus and intrepid were both top 10 sellers in the US. you could have said that about the stratus a couple years ago, if you meant 'top 10 enterprise purchases' http://thehollywoodextra.blogspot.com/2007...ney-prices.html sorry, but this is pretty indicative of the blanket of comments I have read on many sites across the internet. so, I am not alone in my journey interior bashing. seems fairly universal that they blew it on that one.