regfootball

LOUD APPLAUSE- Bold American format (large rear wheel drive car), all wheel drive option, Smooth and peppy v6 engine, Good ride, handling, braking, steering and suspension, lots of passenger room, especially the back seat. wide seats shaped nicely and comfy and firm. Vaultlike chassis construction. Great car for trips. Extroverted styling.. if you want it. Hemi and SRT options. Car is unique and unmistakable. OOHS AND AAHS- mp3 input jack, excellent rear hatch design, good value for the dollar. Gauges look neat at night. Hubcaps look alright, for hubcaps. Can get the steering wheel in the right spot on your lap. GIVES ME PAUSE- Cargo hold is a lot smaller than you would like to think a car this large and portly should have. Four speed automatic with manual mode would be much more pleasing and functional if it were a 6 speed unit and had paddle shifters. Lack of steering wheel radio controls. Would like quicker steering ratio. Gauges have never been this close to the steering wheel before. Key location on dash not handy. Door lock controls on door are clumsy. Key fob looks cheap. Mp3 plug input location not handy. Gangster/macho/same flavor as a cladded Pontiac monster styling. Extroverted styling attracts cops. FATAL FLAWS- Pancake roofline allows plenty of headroom but the view out of the bathtub with its high sills is extremely claustrophobic, abysmal interior plastics, dull, dated, blocky interior shapes and design, turn signal / wiper and cruise control stalks could not be in worse layout, steering wheel is too big, bad interior build quality (including rattles from the speakers and plastic trim), morbid seat cloth, any color you want as long as you like black, is about 5% too big and weighs about 500 pounds too much. Wheelbase is about 4-6” too long. They should have shaved that amount of length from the length of the hood. Bad cupholders. Did I mention the nasty cheap interior? People will need therapy after sitting in this dark tomb for the length of their payment book. Ever sit in a garbage can? I am very on the fence about this car. I am impressed by the way it behaves itself on the road and some of it's passenger virtues. However, the package it is in has no class and little sense of civility and is really just too in your face crude. To top it off the whole car needs a diet and should be about 5% dimensionally smaller to help it feel nimbler. This is what some folks will undoubtedly like about it. DCX really ought to tone the 'Hair of the Dog' schtick down and focus on making this vehicle more appealing to those besides the burnout bunch. I've driven the SRT8 300 and Magnum and find them fun, but not something that would be appealing every day. The v6 Magnum still is not refined enough to be on the wanted list, which is sad because it has so many of the basic virtues down pat. This car is like the guy with the bad disco perm, hairy chest and gold chain. It's just too much. And it feels downright cheap. I could conceivably like a version of this car (the 300 perhaps) with less 'gangsta', less claustrophia, less weight, a sunroof to lighten the cabin, and an actual interior that doesn't incite 'yuck' comments. I bet the G8 would be what i want.

I know you're up for proven technology but the W body will be 23 years old in 2010. Some of the posters here are inferring that they are fine with extending the W body for chevy etc. and that 6 year product cycles are ok. No effing way in today's market does 6 year product cycles with a MCE after year three years cut it. Products are perceived as dated after about 3 to 3 1/2 years. Customers lose interest in new products after about 2 years. GM is so toast. No one will be taking them seriously ever again if this is all true. At lease if they brought the Saudi Lumina over, the Holden Caprice, the Chinese Park Avenue, etc. we would have some sort of hope. the Corsa even too.

yet they are piling up on Saturn lots.

you must work in the oil business or defense contracting or outsourcing.

I predict at least a 50% increase. Ford will actually advertise the car for one. The engine change fixes the biggest functional complaint. The new front chassis and all the sound deadener will fix the other big complaint. The styling changes help enough also. They kept the price attractive and added lots of standard content. AWD will remain a popular option. AWD has a high take rate around here on the 500. Ford should actually fleet a few of these to get some folks driving them. Response at the auto show was positive. Folks never had an idea what the 500 was but the rebadged taurus was getting lots of compliments. Based on my Edge test drive, I can say the engine is sweet. Ford really needs to be getting test mules out to the press right now and get some buzz going. Only thing that may throw a wrench into this is if the Edge steals more sales from taurus then we thought.

BOISE is so YOU.!

NO!!!!!! NO!!!!!!!!! ok, I guess you're right.

yup. the taurus for 08 with the new engine should get some sales back.

the 2.7 exists because of Europe. Just like the 2.8 in the CTS. I got a Magnum SXT loaner for tonight and tomorrow (3.5v6 4 spd) so I am noting all the comments here and will compare notes. i started a similar thread. I agree with a lot of what Bob is saying. Especially the 'Gotham City' part and the whole idea of its kinda neat but i sure as heck wouldn't buy one. It's a period piece, big time. I should have more clear ideas tomorrow. There is just too much amiss with these RWD chryslers. I enjoyed driving the Edge and Acadia more than I did the magnum.

Well, my CV axle boot was torn on my 500 (not sure why) but they scheduled the service but didn't have the part. So, I got a loaner for a day. Enterprise dude picked me up in a Mazda6 but I made sure to do anything in my power to not get that steaming pile of turd hot carl to take home. So I asked and got the Magnum. I could have got a Grand Prix (should have) and the damn Kia Sedona got back in the lot just as I signed the papers Anyways, I'll try and sum it up tomorrow after I turn it in. It's a 4 speed v6. I'm gonna read Bob's 300 review too and see if there are any similarities. One thing I can say with certainly is that the interior is ABYSMAL. Terrible. God awful bad. More later. Aside from the disastrous interior, it's kind of a fun car. A heavy portly slug of a car, but kinda fun nonetheless. Nothing I would buy, because the interior is so brutally bad.

well sorry, i don't agree with you. next please.

GM, tripping all over themselves, taking forever to make a simple sandwich. this is getting so laughable it's not even funny. if they are using the $$$ to rush the volt to production, ok, but this just reeks of typical really bad management.

i think i tried a fake vagina once too, she had legs and arms attached to her and her name was Cheri and she was kind of bitchy on top of it all. she liked to pick at her teeth too

reminds me of an old MENTORS song....one line in it... "chicks with d1cks" maybe those are the kind that may raise an eyebrow?

well, that's fair to say I guess. it's just that you gotta market to the fans and non-fans both. But i see your angst.

the Lancer is a nice companion to the Mazda 3. Together, those 2 represent better options than the really ugly civic and the dorky corolla. With the gas prices, lancer hits the market at exactly the right time, and its Evo cred and semi sporty attitude should mean good sales. Between Lancer and Outlander is where they revive their sales. I would much rather see Mits remain and grow again instead of having to deal with Hyundai, Kia, Suzuki seeing success here.

CORRECTED FOR ACCURACY.

sedona, sorento, in the $h!ter.

the ones who felt they needed the fengshui of the infiniti showroom

the new sentra feels like a really cheap car, opening and closing the doors, sitting in it, it just feels cheap.

oh my. if you're telling this to me, it's preaching to the choir. You shouldn't need to forever pay for something that happened to her. 1 in 7 being violated may be an underestimate. And even though the trashy ones are easy 'to get into', you pay later on because of how messed up they are. A buddy is trying to get with a married chick who is in the process of her second divorce, and has i think its 4 kids by 2 or 3 different guys. think that's gonna pan out? As far as those professional women, oh yeah..they are head cases. or 'other' things. or they are just flat out princesses that think their beard don't stink and won't give it up for fun to anyone until that guy will give them a 2 carat rock so they can stay home and do nothing. more and more in today's world i find that lots of women have major problems with being a woman. there's still all sorts of penis angst out there fellas. if they have a career, they all too often get the man vendetta because they have been told the men are keeping the women down. Sex (teasing, dressing slutty at work, being bitches in general and having it be forgiven because they are 'a woman') then becomes a big tool to help them gain an advantage in the workplace. If men acted at work like women do we'd all be fired long ago. Catty sluts who dress like hos get promoted and with big pay raises and allowed to do their jobs without having to do much work. The ugly fat girls end up doing tons of the real work, aside from the men who are always busting their asses.

the sentra is a plagarized Ion, plain and simple.

no, the economy has been the $h!ter since 2001. It's just that up until now, the mortgage and home values industry could mask a lot of real problems. Now watch all hell break loose. Not even the bankers can engineer this to save us now. War, outsourcing, health care debacle, funding the oil industry's greed, declining wages (for most in this country) it's all gonna come to a head soon. We have to wait until 09 to look forward to seeing movement on fixing any of this, unfortunately. Looking at some of the other imports sales declines (20-30% on a lot of core models) I am even more impressed with GM holding its own. Tell me who has seen any prosperity or seen their situations get better in the US since 2001.

Yes. it has no performance appeal to it. the look suggests geeky commuter car. thanks to the borrowed Ion styling. this is true also. The Sentras biggest flaw is the horrific interior. It's an absolutely miserable car interior in spite of its huge amount of space. It's not driver oriented and its cheap garbage all around. The fabrics might be the worst I've seen. the seats look cheap. The plastics are abysmal and none of the materials play off each other. Ghosn's cost cutting destroyed any appeal this car would have. None of the design is integrated and its got the horrible shifter placement that is less car and more minivan or something. The Versa to many is more appealing and takes enough sales away to doom the Sentra. Another example of why the Mazda3 is the class of the field. Mazda did a bang up job on the 3. NASTY

haha, they had to give their spin based on 'daily selling rate' HAHA. the SPIN, the SPIN. Acura, in the crapper. Look at those Accord hybrid numbers! I wonder what all the greenies think of that. Not even Honda can make a business case for a hybrid now. The ecojerks think every car should be hybrid, but hey, who's gonna write the check for you? Look, the Ridgeline is going further into the toilet. Element is taking it in the shorts too. S2000. NICHE? YOU THINK? go kappa. Odyssey is even taking it in the shorts. And its a decent van. Maybe minivans are dead. Bad for DCX if that's the deal. Acuras sedans are taking it in the shorts too. Wow, 20-30% declines. Honda's PR didn't make it sound bad but look at the model sales and there is a buttload of reason to be concerned in Honda land. Take out Honda's cheaper established core models (accord, CRV, civic) and there is not much for Honda to be pleased about.