regfootball

how about a simple GOOD LOOKING mid-large sedan with a manual transmission option and 5/6 speed automatic std, front wheel drive, 240 horsepower overhead cam engine, decent sport tuned handling, four wheels ABS discs with trac control and stabilitrak standard, and multiple airbags standard with a better warranty. For under 25k. I heard nothing in Lutz' riff to address mainstream cars. Every G6 GTP manual I've researched at gmbuypower has been about 29 grand which is a big time rip off, espeically with a pushrod motor. The LaCrosse underwhelms vs other like priced products. The new Impala still has the old W body shortcomings. We haven't seen an all new competitive true midsize platform in far too many years (epsilon is not true midsize). The new 5.3v8 option is great but its tied to packages and is therefore too spendy. Hyundai has standard everything and huge warranty for less. GM needs some huge scores in the sedan market and nothing Lutz hints at makes me think anything else besides typical mediocre GM. Aura isn't going to do it. It lost its aggressive show car design and gained a pushrod motor. Yup, the honda and Toyo fans of the world will love that. I like the Lucerne, but look at how lame the base motor is. I hope GM doesn't get cuaght up into building so many image cars and leaving all their volume sellers to be dogmeat as usual, on 10 year product cycles.

Considering the bang up press the Fusion is getting this month in the buff books, I'd say its not at all a bad idea. Ford put a nice front end on their car and made it an equal to the Accord. GM puts a killer fish face on their car (Malibu) and other foibles and it takes almost 2 years for it to ramp up to popularity. Besides, it sounds like Opel and Daewoo are doing most of GM's engineering now these days.....so I'm not sure what your point is there. I'd rather have Volvo and Mazda engineering my cars than Hyundai, or Daewoo, or Chery or whoever GM has doing for them now. Thankfully GM is finally going global now, its a good thing we're not shipping all those pushrod v6's, bench seats, and rear drum brakes off to Europe. If we did, there'd be a revolt.

the 500 and Freestyle and fusion were cheap to design and build since its mostly the Volvo S80 and Mazda6 already. Those cars cost less to design and build than you think. BTW, Mazda 6 is up 60% and Mazda 3 continues to sell well. I am amazed at how the Mazda6 is increasing. The car had been out on the rest of the planet for like 2 years before it got HERE, and is already a tired desgin, but it has lots of rebate support now from Ford and its a great value now. Lesson, value still sells.

Planned capacity for the Fusion is like 300,000 units. The Five Hundred plus Fusion sales will more than make up for lost taurus sales. No car will be a huge volume leader anymore, at least until we rid the planet of those ghastly Camrys and Accords that the boomer loser crowd loves so much. Freestyle + 500 + Montego = 22156 Add Taurus and Sable to that and that's not at all shabby chic. And GM does well with the Impala/Malibu combo, although it takes lots of cash on the hood to move em.

the 500 and Freestyle + Montego sold over 22,000 units!!!!!!!! HOW IS THAT A FAILURE??????? like some auto journalists say? 22,000 UNITS! Freestar and Monterey sold over 9,000 units!

Altima badly needs a redo.

Magnum and 300 are both DOWN, but Magnum + Charger + 300 = better than last year's 300 + Magnum, so I'm not sure what to make of it other than these cars to me are 'large niche' products....and in my own mind its proof enough that killing the FWD Intrepid variant for Dodge was a huge mistake. Well, it was a good 18 months or so.

ONE per household.

disagree. Because of the upcoming gas crisis debacle, Pontiac needs the Pursuit, and fast. But, they should differentiate what they can versus the Cobalt as much as possible and go for sport tuned suspensions, larger wheels, and different interior colors, fabrics, and accents. Example, how about a 'G4' GXP sedan with a supercharged stage 1 or 2 ecotec and 6 speed manual, with charcoal interior (can't get that color interior on the Cobalt sedan) and other niceties............ HELL the G6 should get a stage 2 ecotec option on the base model with a sport package.

[quote name='HarleyEarl' date='Aug 28 2005, 08:30 PM'] Here's the Kia Grand Carnival.....suspicious, I think so...sounds like 'Grand Caravan' kind of. Very sneaky. well, it figures. Have we ever known an Asian carmaker to have an original thought? Damn Asians (automakers) couldn't come up with an original idea to save their lives. All they know how to do is copy from everyone else. It must give them an incredible sense of pride knowing they can't do anything on their own power. I hope Dodge takes them to task on that.

that's exactly why they do it. so they can single out drivers in traffic 'who bought the cheap ones'

at day care this morning, another mom i know said that when they bought their bravada, gas was 1.08 a gallon, they could afford the 15mpg. But now, its getting spendy for them. I think the low prices years ago set us all up for this.

my God, if I plunked my Aztek's body on a body on frame rear drive v8 and took 'spy photos' of it, you'd all be creaming in your shorts.

wash your mouth out with soap son! Alcohol is the quicker path to gratuitous sexual escapades! (sometimes).

sure, if the bis are hot chicks like the waitress at the bar tonight. oops, my wife wouldn't like it anyways.

Obviously, it's gotta be MiG. He's got the name, got the looks, and he's got the theatrics. He's no MICHAEL HUTCHENCE, or BO BICE even....(kidding, Bo has nothing on even the worst Rockstar contestant) "i.............wannabeinsideyourho-even" "i'm your VEE-HICK-YULE babay" Ah, you gotta get on Brooke's good side if you wanna win it all. Wait, that's not Brooke's best side he's working on! TURN AROUND, BROOKIE!!!! I did like Marty for awhile, and he's got THE LOOK, but he's kind of a BIG DULL DUD. Brandon was strange. JD is Canadian, so that's just wrong. Plus, he butchered suspicious minds. Only Elvis and Dwight Yoakam can do that song. Ty belted out a couple of INXS songs just perfect, but, what else does he bring? Obviously, none of the skanks, er, chicks can win this. Suzie did great tonight, but lacks star appeal. Exception to skank status, Jordis (from nearby me!) is an awesome singer, but usually picks bad songs and her image does not find the band anyways. She will do better in a solo career. What is the deal with Dave Navarro and his Prince retro look? He so cool, all the time! almost, not. He needs to get snippy, like SIMON.

there's two things we CANNOT have on this website. -PICTURES OF BUICKMAN. (thank GOD the server crashed so those pics will never be found again) -VISIONS OF MANBOOBS, much less mine. If you like, I could find some more nice Kate Winslet pictures......now demsum boobz worth seein......

damn, no blu nipples posted tonight? DAMN!

love it! what's the mpg?

yup. the best.

Canadians love the Echo. the rav4 interior/dash looks like new Eclipse mated with an Accord.

it would be so much easier for any automaker right now if they had superior gas mileage.

:rolleyes:

"road and track has no cred, silly"

oh my baby its so good i think i soiled myself.......