regfootball

saving it up for detroit i think.

exactly. which is why those fresnoheads are being overly sensitive here.

lame movie, for sure, but let's talk bison football. pulled another one out of the hat last night, eh?

the toyota lot i cruised today had lots of 16-17k yaris'. so maybe a 24k focus would sell?

so the BU i saw today had the brick/black interior. actually getting to sit in it got me closer to the fray and in brick the plastics did seem less nice than the cocoa/cashmere scheme. and the whole interior with the dark leather and dark plastics and such it just didn't resonate like the tan. to top it off, actually wedging myself in the car was a pain just like the aura. GM no longer builds cars for big and tall. it's a hassle to try and mount this car. it's low, narrow, and the roof and high sill intrudes. And you cannot get that steering wheel anywhere where you can easily get around it. what then was odd was i went to the saturn dealer across the street right after and found myself really liking the light tan interior on the aura xr i wedged myself into. so i guess all the malibu really has on the aura is the little bit nicer exterior. the trunk in the malibu was embarassing. tiny, not high, hard to access. just like the new accord. no doubt the malibu is a well done car but this example i looked at today really made me check my hype at the door and realize, yes, it still is a stopgap product with deficiencies. it does not make it a bad car at all. but i think if you enjoy the space in the current malibu, the confinement of the new one may be a change. GM is getting really bad with this whole cars that don't fit thing. the grand prix with its pancake roof and tiny back seat. the lucerne which you have to wedge into under the a pillar. and all the tiny epsilon cars. now i know why the w body lives on. it has the bases covered for those need something with a little more width, height, and such.

oh, it has NAV so it should sell.

bling.

in fairness, can't some people take a joke? people are a bunch of wussies. this PC crap is out of control.

gotta do an about face of some that i said. checked out another one today...was less impressed. will finish writing up why later. still nice, but not wetting my pants anymore.

you are correct sir, and that is what folks don't get. aura, astra, etc. it's a lineup filler until the next round of more refined products hit. it builds momentum and history for model names and in the market. think of all the crappy old tundras. now they keep improving it in theory, but they eventually gain more sales. people rip the aura for sales but recall the L series was no seller. the ion sold, sure, but it was saturns only car. they needed a full line to exist. chevy is the volume player. saturn needs to sell like 50k of each model to move forward and keep the doors open. i would make the argument for folding saturn but no cobalt will ever be as fun as the astra so......

Apparently Toyota doesn't know how to build cars and trucks. This is what happens when you do not understand business. You may understand engineering. You may understand manufacturing. But you do not know business or people. The arrogance in the dude's quotes is enough for me to hate them even more. If this sort of trash doesn't wake up people, then I guess I don't know what will. Toyota is like an NFL coach who does not bend the system to work within the players he is given. Success is only possible when you understand your tools and your team and the game, and every stadium and opponent is different. Plain and simple, companies like Toyota may be methodical and relentless but they lack broad vision and cannot fight adversity well. Take away all of Toyota's advantages of the last how many years with currency and home country etc. and its pathetic that they resort to this to make excuses for the crap tundra. I hate Toyota even more now and will use as many opportunities as I can to tell the story about their crap products and condescending attitude towards the US and their customers. The article forgot bed bounce, inadequate crash performance and cheap plastic too.

my comment is on gmi.

I'll be fair and say in SS trim with a black interior the old BU was passable. But still not a stopper. My one interior bitch on the Malibu. The power window swtich on the door pillar f-king sucks. Get the damn think on the door as God intended. Don't even get me going on the HHR and G8 window switches.

to those who haven't checked one out. you gotta see it in the flesh to understand. it's not so much about the quality of the materials and that, it has more to do with the design concept for the interior is so strong and so interesting that the interior materials don't have to be Lexus quality. It's a very intimate interior, and the twin cowl design is what is unique and inviting. Little things like the graining of the leather and splotchy coloring of it are what is fun. The gauges behind the steering wheel, you don't grasp how cool looking and three dimensional it is until you see it in the flesh. I can only imagine at night with the ambient blue light its even cooler. Camry sucks. The Accord interior looks dated by 10-15 years in comparison, even though its plastics and fit quality might be better. There really isn't any of the dull 90's matte black thing going on in the Malibu's cabin. The Accord's cabin is bathing in that cheap matte black look. The Accord's cabin is like going back and listening to crappy 90's music like Dave Matthews or something in an endless loop. The malibu's cabin has an elegant futurism to it. Accords cabin is airy and open. The Malibu's is more secluded and private feeling in comparison.

yech

i have great luck with VIOC but unfortunately the jiffy lube is real close to my house.

i saw the malibu interior today. do not take it off your list until you see it. pretty snazzy.

it's 'Jan' from 'The Office'.

i went over to the chevy dealer over lunch. i am blown away by the charisma this malibu has. I was doubtful but after seeing it and opening up the door, i'm convinced. it even that much better than the aura. i am not sure how they will sell auras now. I guess the old farts will be stuck with the Impalas now. it really makes the camry seem bad. compared to the new retro-rice korean 2008 accord its more desirable. I would have to pick this car over a Maxima even. the one i saw was tan with cocoa/cashmere leather LTZ. Aside from my standing gripe about the epsilons being 2" too narrow, the only criticism I can level at this car is that the interior plastics could be upgraded. they don't NEED to be, but it could have even been more fantastic had they done so. The center stack was cool. The car really has a Germanic aura to it (sorry). It is fair to say there is probably too many cut lines on the dash, but that's being picky. Maybe in time, they can redo the taillights. I truly believe the sky is the limit with sales on this car. I guess I can see why some folks would be bummed out about NAV and Bluetooth on this car, because the rest of the car is so nice, to not have the extra toys if you are plopping down cash, would be a bummer. I still think the key is to have the ability to integrate NAV with On Star or not and offer it as a 500 dollar option. Not 2000.

i cried when they cancelled terraza and relay

the return of the gt and awd and new engine. all welcome. the odd thing is even though they say its all new, it's like the corolla or altima, it looks terribly similar the model before it. the side windows look near identical, even though the sheetmetal is obviously changed. the dash has been revised, but everything is in the exact same spot and even the vents are the same seemingly. the vibe exists because its 300k sales. it prolly shouldn't be a pontiac but no way are they going to mess with that. it brings women to the brand. the mpg doesn't seem good and some options seem like it will get spendy. so many of these small crossovers barely get 20mpg. so we'll have a pricey small crossover with poor mpg. doesn't make sense but pontiac is not the only one. i've always liked the vibe so i may check this out when it arrives. it is cooler than the awful matrix, but the toyotaness on the interior is offputting.

the politicians would not be against cars if they had like 4 manufacturing plants in their state. or who knows, maybe they still would. if GM ford and chryco decentralized I think they would get more empathy from the bloodsucker politicians. People hold a lot of venom against automakers because they think its self serving for Michigan and some industrial states. But, who lame here? California as a state is the biggest bunch of bitchers and whiners and set the most useless laws, but never in the last 50 years have they stepped up to the plate to develop breakthrough mass scale technology for cars and neither have they stepped up to the plate with radical new infrastructure or manufacturing breakthroughs. yet they consume and consume and consume. And bitch. They could be a huge part of the solution on the 'fix the problem' side. All they've done is pass the buck and pass legislation. That's politics for you. They have enormous potential to fix the mess they created.

the toyo dealers here ad like its going out of style and advertise healthy discounts (up to 8k off tundras) and dirt cheap leases and 'plenty in stock'. toyota is whoring as much as anyone these days. moreso, perhaps. the 08's on carsdirect.com are already 1500 bucks off. even the commission free, one price places that post their new car prices on the net have big discounts. available to many, first come, first served.

young uns a couple years out of school and with their first real job which they are getting overpaid for might be fine with blowing their wad on a compact because they have never had a real car otherwise but cadillac buyers tradtionally have requested some size in their car along with style. performance is the new part of the equation for cadillac. people have always forgiven sparse interior environments on their BMW's in exchange for top performance. if I came into a bunch of dough and decided i wanted a lux car in this sort of price range, i might look at the BMW but I would probably need the size of a 5 series. the current 3 is too tough to wedge in and out of. The previous 3 was ok in that regard. But for my money, the extra commodious nature of the CTS more than offsets its discrepancy in performance. I'd also know and bet the Caddy is engineered for Michigan frost potholes and such the bimmer may be a bit underdesigned to take on a continual basis. I would guess I probably would like the CTS to shed a couple hundred pounds, sure, but the car has a lot of stuff in it and is comfortable. I've sat in recent 3 series and it simply does not feel accomodating. The dash is blah, the door panels are cheap. The 5 series just is too expensive. the reviewers always come at it from a track racing perspective and i guess that's fine, but really it's annoying. Not every buyer is concerned with the incremental performance differences. especially if the cadillac is a better long distance cruiser or is more comfy and striking for a night on the town. which brings me to the G8. i get the feeling the G8 has enough interior wow for me and would allow me to save some cash over all the cars compared here. I'd kind of like the G8 to have AWD available though.

we'll need some music in the background.....boom, chick, boom, chick, wocka, wocka, woooooo!