regfootball

I wonder if Toyota owns Consumer Reports. And how many Kevin Bacon degrees you have to go to to put it together.

wait, sorry, I meant charger. I like the looks of the magnum mostly. it's done alright for a wagon. my big magnum beefs are interiors related. its the charger that is offensive to my eyes. We all know the Magnum was just a knock off of this, anyways, it's just too bad that if they were gonna copy it that it didn't have the airy greenhouse of the Audi.

it is true the economy is in the crapper and GM is doing alright in spite of it. The housing industry problems are real and are coming to roost after 5-6 years of being propped up by the banking industry and such that cannot afford to do it anymore. Consumers won't buy anything because their real wages are tanking, (well, most people, the upper classes continue to prosper) and people know there will be no force of change until Jan 09 at the earliest. There is no hope for improvement before then, unfortunately. People are concentrating on getting by without new house or car purchases until there is a change in direction/ leadership in this country and everyone's wages are are going to stop being pilfered by the crooks in oil, government, and health care. I used to think Detroit and big oil were in bed together but really in the last 5 years or so big oil stepped out on its own and said, "we are better off without you" and thus all the huge gas price increases. Detroit got stiffed and hasn't figured out how to evolve and make it on anything besides bigger cars yet. Big oil will get their cash however they want to. If we keep driving big cars, they will make big bucks. If we all drive small cars, they will raise the price even more (which is what the ecoweenies don't understand). If we all drove Prius our gas prices would double (and so would our insurance rates). Nothing will change until we develop a real alternative to the monopoly that is called gasoline. No one in government will aloow us to do that. Otherwise, we'd have all sorts of big funds available to advance science and techonology to ween us off it. GM is somehow treading water in spite of the big waste our country has turned into, for most Americans' pocketbooks. Pretty encouraging, actually.

repeat Toyota came in below 50 percent because nearly half of the vehicles it sells in our country are imported (this is roughly the same percentage of imports Toyota had in the 80s before it began “investing in America”). toyota as a whole...under 50% I agree US automakers need to branch away from michigan and go more global but that is a separate issue from toyota trying to project a [pedigree of being American and they simply are not being American. No one would call them on it if they didn't try so hard to cover up the fact that they are not American.

Reliability -recalls too safety- no better than anyone else. well ok, the tundra is not very safe compared to the ford and chevy resale- only until the next wave of camry's hit auction considering how many fleet cars toyota has these days design- yeah, um, no fit and finish- they can assemble a car sure materials- thinner sheet metal? you can't judge all materials based upon the gloss level of the plastic refinement- their 4's might still be better but T and H's v6's are no better than anyone else's these days fuel economy...when you sell more 4 cylinders of course your mpg will be perceived as better. because tehir v6's are too pricey is maybe why

closed circuit to siegen...... there are far to many hondas with 20-30% drops. that's why it doesn't matter whether it's reported 'per sales day' or by any other method, Honda is taking it in the shorts. The RDX is not worth it for a four cylinder SUV to be 38 grand. Maybe they should have got a clue and put a v6 in it. The MDX is a well turned out piece that unfortunately is too expensive and tries to aspire in price range that really only Euros deserve, considering it does not have the panache of a Euro. Plus it has no cargo space and lacks mpg. Otherwise, it's quite nice. Too bad they abandoned the RSX type cars which helped define their brand. Where Acura is failing is in simple things. their cars lack power and styling and ultimate performance compared to what everyone really wants (Euro cars). Where Honda is failing is over-relying on products/experiments like the Ridgeline and Element which have seen declines. The Civic's appeal is too narrow. The new Accord will make a good splash when it comes out, but right now its getting drowned by the Camry. Personally, I hope the new Accord kills the Camry and takes back some sales from Altima as well. I bet the secret braintrust back in Hirosaki or wherever are colluding in Japan right now to try to negotiate which brands should gain back sales now that Toyota is cannibalizing all the other Japanese brands. The folks over there must know that the folks here are starting to awake to Toyota's big bucket of fluff and the backlash will soon ensue, and that Toyota excelling too greatly will actually endanger the other Jap anese brands at some point.

it would be as simple as taking a photo every day as a drive by the hertz near my house.......lately it's mostly hyundais and toyotas. always a camlee or three on that lot. the sonata is music, music for the manager of the hertz store. he knows he will never run out of cars to rent.

note: the outlook, you can have tan leather. funny how in the GMC you can't. See, that's not a rebadge I dislike plood.

my biggest magnum beefs are the front end styling, the greenhouse styling, the rear quarter styling, and the back end styling. The G8 is far cooler, inside and out, and doesn't try to be a 4 door version of an old muscle car. Too bad the G8 is not here yet.

Toyota, masters of perception/deception

lot's of previous gen vue buyers got the manual, i would be surprised to see saturn be that stupid to get rid of it.

after seeing the new Vue at the auto show, i must say, they likely can compete with these higher prices, assuming they get the word out about how well appointed this thing is.

finally, a politician willing to draw attention to the 'toyota issue'?

free press http://www.knollenberg.house.gov/blog/?p=55

i visited the dealer i got my aztek from this wkd and talked to my salesguy. the dealer sells chevy/BPG/Caddy/Saturn and he said the acadias are basically gone the day they get them and the outlooks tend to sit on the lot awhile in comparison. if i were buying, i would get the GMC, because i prefer the interior and the grille. but either seems to be a good choice. I think the GMC might hold resale a bit better.

Cruising a chrysler lot this weekend, i noticed that the Charger is now available in AWD. They had a Charger v6 SXT AWD for 28k list price. I would choose a Magnum over a Charger though.

right. I forgot. when Moses went up to the mountain, instead of coming down with the ten commandments etched in stone, he came down with a year's worth of Back issues of Consumer Reports and the annual car issue. should be interesting to see what will happen to camlee values considering Toyota is a fleet whore now. At least Honda avoids that. As far as features, Camlee and Accord do not really offer up anyting else the others don't.

half those DCX cars are fleet. In the case of Avenger and Sebring, probably lots more. 500 to taurus with new motor will gain 50% sales. I think the 07 Altima is looking like a dud. I don't think it's doing what Nissan hoped although its still a big seller. Looks too much like the old one. I do not get why the Accord and Camry sell in such huge numbers. They are quality built, but they do not offer anything more than what so many other excellent products in the segment already provide. I'd like to see that number get cut in half. We know Toyota is becoming a bigger fleet wh0re all the time. Fusion is encouraging. That still needs the 3.5. Not sure what will save the Aura. No one knows about that car!!!!!!! I bet most folks still think Saturn only sells small pastic bodied S cars! Maybe we won't see an image boost on Aura until Vue and Astra hit.

gray mazda 6, horrible gray plastic interior, mouse fur seats. Mazda6 is better in other color combos. This one was definte yuck. I couldn't stand to be in it.

Yup. exactly. This is why Chrysler is at 50% fleet. I like the car, the way it drives. Spacious, comfy, decent value. It's just the nasty cheap and dark interior and mailslot windows is so repulsive, the bad stuff stands out more than the good. Fix a few things, give me some windows, raise the roof a bit, make it feel less like its pulling a sled behind it, and I could see having a magnum in my garage. Nah, it looks like I am thinking of a G8! it was either here or GMI i saw someone had posted some cellphone pics of a bright red G8 prototype just this week. It had the new pontiac logo in silver and the grille had been cleaned up. Now that's a sweet car. I hump the desk thinking about it. DCX is where Pontiac was during the cladding years to many people. Just....over the top boy racer tacky. The designs and interiors of most of the Chryslers have zero appeal to women, also, which may be accounting for some a lot of their downfall lately. They are putting all their eggs into one style basket. Boy racer and gangsta guys. And that market is very limitied and already looks to have been tapped out. Where is my Chinese Park Avenue?

let's put it this way. sure it's aggressive. but that red magnum looked awfully at home last night in my garage parked to my red aztek. they looked like two peas in a pod. almost like blood relatives. one was just longer and shorter than the other.

it's RALLY, spelled without the "E", thank you jeez, chrysler can't even get an original idea now.

sure, it's clean and aggressive and it's the main contributor along with darkness of death plastic to a claustrophobic interior. styling is nice, but if it detracts from the rest of the car, it's not worth it.

E class wagon styling puts me to sleep. Guess I need an 08 CTS. or G8.

the 2006 ford FWD 500 as listed on myford500.com is 3643 pounds. Dodge.com lists the RWD SXT as 3896 pounds. So ok, you're right, the weight diff isn't 500 pounds, its 250 pounds.......(over 6% of 4000) but man it sure feels like its at least 500 pounds heavier. Its a wagon, but it lacks cargo room, so that extra size does nothing. The 500's trunk is just as big. The magnum does drive better and feels more solid and roadworthy, sure. I defintely can say that. But it feels too big, and it's wheelbase is too long. They should shorten the engine bay about 6 inches and it would have no effect on the rear or front seat space. The v6 don't need the wasteful space of the hemi. Conversely, GM can shoehorn a nice v8 in the shorter G8. Then the car wouldn't feel so damn big and would react to steering inputs quicker. it was only a 4 speed because that's all the higher the manual mode went to. I could not shift up from 4 to 5 and the car did not shift itself up after 4 either. dodgefan, it had a manual mode. Manual modes with 6 speeds like on the Aura are fun because you have a lot of range of gears to work with. On 4 speed cars, you never use 1 except to get away from a light. You don't drive aggressively in top gear, so you are left with only 2 gears to shift back and forth from. On a 6 speed, you get at least 4 gears for aggressive drving around town. So the manual becomes more useful with the 6 speed. the v6 was nice, peppy, but i think the car could be even more fun with another 50 horsepower. No need for a Hemi. i gotta tell ya, like I said, I am on the fence about this car. Its maddening. It rides and drives nice. Its just got a nasty interior and is majorly claustrophobic. All the cheapness. And the boy racer styling, meh. Enough to take a fundamentally nice car and turn it into something uncompelling.