regfootball

Is Michigan relevant anymore to house a couple of the world's largest auto companies? -Michigan is not supporting the automakers a whole bunch and they may get more support if they were in other states -UAW influences are too prevalent in that part of the country. Moving could be a nice way to thumb their noses at the union bunch -other carmakers are locating plants in the south, etc. where labor is more favorable -perhaps a cultural hotbed like California or a more businesslike city like New York would be more appropriate for such global companies or closer to wall st. -many Americans feel GM etc. are isolated in a state like Michigan and think of GM as a more global or national company if they had a presence elsewhere in the US -it make make sense to move closer to more influential political centers -they may attract more and better employees in other states that people want to live in more and have less industrial culture -they might be able to become more connected in technology if they officed where the tech hotbeds are -marketing and advertising centers are elsewhere -the Detroit Lions stink just some thoughts. Has being in Michigan become irrelevant, damaging, or otherwise a liability for the Ford and GM and lesser extent DCX?

yeah, there really aren't any big dificiencies. some interior bits are a bit cheap, but that can be said of all vehicles in this class. I would like the direct injection motor, but I understand if it takes them a bit to get it in there. When I gripe that the Acadia doesn't have Sirius backseat TV like the new DCX vans or lacks the features of the Ford Sync or lacks the ability to playback DVD-A multichannel audio like the Acuras can, its reaching pretty far.

i would guess large asian families might be good to sell them a 10 passenger dodge sprinter.

LOL

malibu pics are nice!

i have a very similar routine. keys and wallet are hard to keep track of. In my teen years, i lost one or the another too much to the point where forever after that point, the items HAVE TO be in a certain location. do BM's at almost exactly the same time everyday count as an anal retentive habit? This has been going on lately. We're talking within like 15 minutes of a set time, each and every night.

that letter was selected to point out its inherent import bias being in line with their editorial bias.

some JERKOFF wrote the 'letter of the month' to motor trend, ragging on the Lambdas as being heavy fuel suckers. Then ,he professed his undying love to the Honda Pilot as being so much better. I want to find that prick and shove my dirty socks in his mouth and duct tape over it. showing him all the road tests that flat out say the lambdas are better overall than the pilot. first off, the Lambdas are like Tahoe sized vehicles, yet have more space and more utility and do it weighing a BUNCH LESS and getting much better mpg. GM has taken one of its huge sellers, and has managed to create a new package just like it, with carlike handling and huge reductions in mpg and weight. if 100k people who buy lambdas instead of tahoes for moving people will save 42 million gallons of gas year with no sacrifice in people utility. secondly, the lambdas are much more useful than his ugly ass Pilot. More room, more utility. That's why they weigh more. They are much larger than a Pilot. And they are more solid and safer. Less frail. Third, the Lambdas get better gas mileage than Pilots do, in spite of its weight. This I know for fact because I have two of my groomsmen who have new 06 Pilots and in both cases they rarely exceed 15-16 mpg. I have seen plenty of road test with poor Pilot mpg also. I recently read a road test in the paper for the outlook which it got 19.4 as tested mpg for an AWD 3 row vehicle that weighs 5000 pounds (fully loaded with huge heavy sunroofs and gadgets)! Even C/D got like 17 and we all know they drive the snot of their vehicles. Both of Hondas new CUV's, the MDX and RDX struggled to crack 13 mpg being tested by major magazines. Lastly, the 'Honda is better' letter writer should know if you compare the weights of the FWD Acadia and FWD only Odyssey in loaded configurations they are pretty damn close. Honda is not any better in packaging 3 row transport than anyone else. I want to find that loser who wrote that letter and key up his hondas. each one of them.

people are always so misled on size and cylinders being the big factor in mpg. its not. two things are primarily responsible for what your real world mpg will be. ok, 3. -the WEIGHT of your car -aerodynamics -your driving style and whether its city or highway driving. aside from that, there is not much any automaker can do to get mpg down. someone driving a small 1.8l turbo 4 passat that weighs the same as a larger but light v6 car is gonna get about the same mpg. MPG will not come down with traditional drive systems unless we move away from using heavy but cheap steel and go to light weight aluminum and carbon fiber which is spendy. and even then, some folks would be scared to drive a light car no matter how large it is because a light car feels skittish on the road to them and would make them perceive it as unsafe. any effort to reduce car weight would have to be made up for with even more safety equipment. we all want 5 star crash tests so that is why car weights are going up. no manuf. can sell a car with poor crash ratings, or a real light expensive car, but they can sell a heavy fuel sucking car with great crash ratings.

first part of your quote, agree. all we need to do is check real world mpg of current CTS. fueleconomy.gov reports 23.6 mpg avg and a range of 21-28 mpg from 4 users on the 2005 CTS with auto and 3.6. second part, RWD is a better drive, but the markets in snow states and canada have proven over and over that FWD or AWD is what consumers want day in and day out for all weather practicality. Go ask car salesmen or the sales manager/guy that orders inventory. the best way for carmakers to cover the wants of consumers is to offer all platforms.....FWD and RWD and make them so they can also sell AWD variants of either. electronannys do not make up for inherently more winter friendly drive setups. don't believe that hype about trac on a RWD car being exactly as good as a more climate friendly drive setup. I do agree that snow tires help tremendously and have had them myself on RWD car in the past, but FWD/AWD with snows is still better than RWD w/ snows and in the end the customers do not want the added expense and hassle of tire changeovers each year anyways. Even tho RWD is a better 'experience' most folks in car shopping land would rather have better basic functionality and convenience over a better experience. Only 'enthusiasts' care enough if their handling is incrementally better with RWD. And that's a small group. and most folks find doing 'smoky burnouts' on a RWD car to be juvenile in this day and age anyways.

tell us your favorite things about the Lambdas. one of mine, sliding armrest. SO much nicer than a flip up. I know if I showed that my wife, she would go..."COOL"! another of my favorite features......real adult sized third row seat that is fairly easy to get to because of Smart Slide. what is it that you think makes LAMBDA successful?

perhaps the best looking CUV on the market. ok, tied with acadia.

one reason the rendezvoous sold so well, the aztek/rdv had extra large cargo areas compared to tradtional trailblazer/explorer type suv's. it was a nice bridge between the huge cargo area of a minivan and the small cargo areas of hip suv's.

right. you hit the nail on the head with this one panther. the accord is a nice device, but when it tries to glam up and be fashionable, it stumbles badly. if honda wants to play in the style set, then it should bring some actual style to the table. Of course, Honda is the same way in motorcycles. Watered down design chiches of whatever is hot at the time. The 1st gen G35 coupe, that at least had some style for a rice coupe.

what diff does it make what we do with cars? once india and china ramp up even more coal fired energy plants, that's where the real problem will lie. they have no incentive to build things clean. No laws, no incentives.

yeah, like as in the last / current accord coupe looked like it had a mercedes back end when it came out and it was supposed to be the best coupe since sliced bread and last i checked it didn't set the sales world on fire.

Since you have been able to sit in and drive both the 2008 Malibu and 2008 Accord already is how you can say that.

George Will

this thing is like the A5. hardly spectacular. but because it has a trendy brand import badge on it people pull adjectives out of their ass to make it look better than it is. If this said 'Pontiac', response would be lukewarm. I'm not saying they mailed it in COMPLETELY, just saying this is not anything worth raving about. Only people obsessed with a "T" or an "H" will care.

I agree, she's a horrible ugly vindictive troll, but a word of advice, you can't mention Rosie around here or start any topics on her because for some reason you get it deleted.

altima front fenders TL style crease in doors G6 greenhouse maxima tailights Ion trunk lid basically a dud. next!

i don't like the interior. it's funny. lot's of crossovers have the tall trucky look, but this one dangerously straddles the low wagon look. it's just tall enough, like the CX-7 to 'not be a wagon' but not as blocky as most other crossovers. so is this a 'sports crossover' then? (new segment?) i mean, it does kind of look like a sedan with a truncated trunk that is just 'enough' taller than a true 'car'. Inifiniti really nailed the proportions to make it look appealing to crossover shoppers and sport sedan buyers, IMHO. too bad the interior ruins it. if it were more G35 and less Jaguar i might like it. this really shames the acura products on looks BTW.

kinda coming around on the exterior design. it's at least CRISP. the rear bumper resolution looks a bit basic to me but overall i guess i am warming to this vehicle. the sirius backseat sat tv and dual dvd sound cool. the dash is ok, i still don't like the shifter location. the center pod is a bit too high. seating looks comfy. swivel and go is a gimmick but some folks will really like it. i think the new 4.0/6 speed combo is what will make this a nice ride.

edsel

hmmm, i don't think the 08 corolla is too bad. the exterior is bland but the interior looks nice in the black.