regfootball

they decided to make the ugly ass Charger instead.

i still vacillate on this car. If you are alone on a Chrysler lot, looking a bunch of new 300's, this car is very attractive. Classy. But seeing them in traffic for two years, many fo them dubbed out, and some of them beatne up, they look tired old and faddish. The fat chunky thing is clearly old news new. The Lucerne has a much crisper silhouette. Car design is becoming so faddish so quickly. Even a car like the Fusion which was considered crisp and fresh for a brief time is now considered dumpy and old.

while the cobalt interior still has some upgrading to do in terms of plastics quality, overall, the car is palatable for the price class it sells in. Now, if they could convince the cost cutters to simply upgrade the sheen and texture of some of those plastics it would help a lot. But honestly, as much as we have continual problems within GM and Ford for rampant cost cutting, the fact is this sort of mentality is rampant in American business. Trust me, I work for a developer contractor after years of doing 'for public bid' work on schools and let me tell you, once the motivation of the company selling the product becomes profit for the good of the company, the financiers take over. In America we have glorified those in business who only focus on numbers. Most often the easiest way for the company to exist as a company and continue to gurantee fat salaries for the decision makers and movers and shakers is to simply cost cut the project, but market the hell out of it. It seems that over time then, the Japanese approach of trying to actually improve the product has caught on to some degree with the buying public so that they are now quite sensitive to the perceived quality on the surface. Yet, our decision makers in Detroit cannot commit themselves to fully respond to that yet because they are all still very conditioned to think cost cutting first. And in truth, a big part of that is their challenges with health care costs and union labor that Korean makers do not have for example. Now, that does not mean its an excuse for GM to cost cut, but it is a motivation. Clearly it works part of the time and a lot more recently seems to be failing them. So the term that is used every hour on the hour in my buisiness of slapping cheesy box buildings up is 'value engineering'. Do you think in an atmosphere such as that, do you think the customer is honored as the ultimate person to be pleased? DO you think the designers and engineers are given the ability to fully protect the quality of the end product? No, because in America, the bean counters and MBa's with no concern for anything other than their own paycheck and corporate standing could give a flying f@#k about whether the low-mid income American family can actually afford an Uplander with nice plastic. They figure they need the van no matter what, and if they market the snot out of it, they will sell it no matter what. It's easier to slap a cash incentive on it than it is to add the overhead in the manufacturing end. That's a business decision. I am one of the few people on this board that has ever owned a Toyota. I owned a 99 Chevy Prism which we all know was a Corolla. It was the first new car I ever bought. My choices at the time were Cavalier and Prism. That's all the budget I had. The Prism was defintely the more refined piece when it was new. But after 3 years with it it felt like every bit the $h!box it was. Nothing broke down, but at the same time it felt flimsy and cheap and really some of the superficial things we all bitch about on here like plastics quality, it did not wow me after 3 years like it maybe did when it was new. I was left thinking the car was more flimsy than refined. So different virtues about a car surface when it is new versus old. In terms of quality feeling over time, some imports still feel and look ok and some don't. I've seen plenty of older Hondas that look like $h! over time and feel like beaten up wet noodles. Yet, my father in law's Old's 88 has a body that is still stout and rigid at 165.000 miles....even if his plastic is cheaper and he's had to fix the tranny. As far as the Cobalt I am not sure it is worth any more development. In reality, the Cobalt needs to be upsized to be on par with the new Sentra and Elantra. Compacts now are supposed to feel more spacious. Even the Mazda 3 feels spacious. So the delta is already out of date. GM should $h! can this platform soon and get a real global new compact platform on line that is larger than the current one and has actual leg room in the back. The Jetta right now is about the perfect compact car in size. The Aveo could then grow in size a bit to be like a Yaris. More on plastics. I scoped out an Outlook tonight for the first time. through the window glass, it still looks like the general is not 100% matching the best in plastics quality but it appeared to be much more acceptable than before. So its obvious that the beancounters still have the highest regard. They are all just trying to find the right amount they have to stick into it so it won't get ripped and not spend so much and so that no one comments on it. Even Toyota's new Camry has been getting ripped for interior cheapness so its easy to say that now that they conduct business here they are not immune from the poisoned ideals of American business culture. If you want real change in how American companies design and build things so that the end focus is what the customer wants in terms of quality, the business model has to change a bit to allow the designers and engineers and customers to be the end winners. But we glorify the pricks in business so much and they have figured out how to make a living stripping others of what they should get so such is life.

The cobalt's interior is not that horrible. It's not top drawer, but its not as bad as a cavalier.

like britney...lol

seriously, she ought to scope out the freestyle and the edge. i bet she would like the edge, if she could get a mildly equipped one for around 26-30k. the edge is nicer than the vue or equinox. the freestyle has discounts and 3 rows and is very carlike. would she like a Murano? What about waiting for an Outlook? No laughs, would she like an Endeavor or a 2007 Outlander? Save $$$$. A new 06 AWD Bendover at around 23k after discounts with the added room would be a good buy for her. And its a pretty well built vehicle, if a little futsy looking. I had one for a loaner and it was very carlike and solid. Maybe she's X3 material.

as in, what if that civic crashed into a cement truck? Hehe, i witnessed the aftermath of a cement mixer that steamrolled a small car before. Pretty ugly. I am sure a semi truck or school bus can be easily survived by that Fit driver.

but that's the whole point. someone competing to an achievement that is somewhat based on ethics should not be doing this in public. Private, I'm all up for that.

let's not drag the priests into this topic..........

i think those girls are BI lingual. I am very impressed with Miss Nevada's tongue. Gene Simmons looks like a schoolboy in comparison. She looks quite well practiced with that thing too. The rest of her is quite smoking. WOW. That's a darn nice rack. Nice tight little tummy, too. She's an obvious wh0rebag though. I'm not against this sort of exhibitionism at all, just don't try to be Miss beauty pageant. If the pageants allow winners like this then just either do away with pageants or just make them what they really are, TOP SLUT PAGEANTS. Make them all girls gone wild with wet tshirts and mud wrestling and such. Encourage girl girl affection. Might as well be honest about it. If the whole point of girls entering these things is to be 'I'm the bigger slut' then let's make that the central theme, and milk the hell out of it. They all want attention and affirmation this badly, might as well get some mileage out of the event, since they are willing to do it.

if given time, i must say CVT's would be right for most folks. I still love sticks, but not in traffic. DSG's sound great, but maybe they will never become mainstream.

"you're fired!"

What full lives Reagan and Ford and Nixon all had. Ford was likely a good president, all things considered at the time. RIP.

google Katie Rees. and she thinks she deserves a second chance? LmAo!!!!!!!!

empowah has an odyssey he wants to sell you. recently serviced. ready to go.

you should really tighten up that list a bit.

do the clowns get to box today too? LMao

i thought this was a thread about matt millen's motor city kitties.

because that's the agenda of the magazine writers. force a new brand on the public to make things interesting and new.

BECAUSE honda blew Csere and handed him a check.

dammit that car is sexy

freestyle's nice but it should be called 'nostyle' and it needs an engine and more cargo space. trust me i test drove about 3 of them b4 i got my 500.

CVT's are nice if set up properly. Its nice not having to feel the stepped slushbox. And it sounds like they have this one tuned well. Although I hear flybrian cringing as I say that. He SO misses that Murano.

lol, by reading the headline i thought chrysler was bribing customers to buy cars.

new headlights are nice.