VenSeattle

Indeed I am, the point I'm making is if these people are so educated, how the hell did they come up with something so......stupid?

Ever heard of the phrase "Hell is paved with good intentions"? We'll, Seattle was paving Hell and then it froze over.

It’s my understanding, Bellevue and several over nearby cities (including WADOT as mentioned in the article) used salt and other chemicals to de-ice the streets (thankfully.) Seattle became a frozen island for a few days. Sad thing is, international environmentalists blasted Seattle for the move because salt will dissolve, but sand just turns into sediment... an environmentally dangerous situation in Seattle for creeks & streams. As Siegen said, this doesn't happen often. We're sea-level and the snowline rarely falls this low. Salting the roads once wouldn’t have dramatically impacted the area. I was told Seattle did finally test the concoction mentioned on the roads and it worked pretty well. We’ll see how Seattle does the next time.

Oh well. We ended up with approximately 15” at my house. I worked remotely for a few days. When I did venture out, my Buick performed fantastically. I almost became stuck in a parking lot once, but disengaging Traction Control took care of that issue.

We made it into town to see ‘The Color Purple’ at the Paramount Theatre, but missed ‘Seven Brides for Seven Brothers’ at 5th Ave Theatre due to the snow & ice. Grrghh… Christmas was white. All things considered... not too bad.

It's no secret that Chrysler is in the fight of its life, and the Auburn Hills automaker is pulling out all the stops to keep the lights on -- even if it means closing the doors. Chrysler is shuttering all of its plants for one month, beginning December 19. In a short release to the media, Chrysler blamed the continued credit crunch as the main reason for the shutdown, and is trying to better-align its vehicle stock with customer demand. Dealers have notified the Pentastar that they've got plenty of perspective buyers, but an astonishing 20-25% of customers are unable to obtain financing. Ouch. On the bright side, Chrysler plant workers will have a really, really long Christmas break at 95% pay, which can't be too horrible.

Chrysler's move is far from unprecedented, though, as GM announced on Monday that it would be cutting production by 250,000 units in Q1 2009. GM has also delayed production of its Flint engine plant. Toyota has also delayed plans to open its unfinished Mississippi plant, and Mitsubishi is closing its Illinois plant for seven weeks. This is one depressed automotive market, and Chrysler may be getting hit worst of all. Hit the jump to see Chrysler's mini-release for yourself.

PRESS RELEASE

Due to the continued lack of consumer credit for the American car buyer and the resulting dramatic impact it has had on overall industry sales in the United States, Chrysler LLC announced that it will make significant adjustments to the production schedules of its manufacturing operations. In doing so, the Company will keep production and dealer inventory aligned with U.S. market demand. In response, the Company confirmed that all Chrysler manufacturing operations will be idled at the end of the shift Friday, Dec. 19, and impacted employees will not return to work any sooner than Monday, Jan. 19, 2009.

Chrysler dealers confirmed to the Company at a recent meeting at its headquarters, that they have many willing buyers for Chrysler, Jeep® and Dodge vehicles but are unable to close the deals, due to lack of financing. The dealers have stated that they have lost an estimated 20 to 25 percent of their volume because of this credit situation.

The Company will continue to monitor the production schedules of its manufacturing operations moving forward.

Amidst a troubled global economy, Honda is actively scaling back its operations, and its performance programs are sadly bearing the brunt. After canceling its participation in Formula One and the AMA motorbike road racing series, the Japanese automaker has reportedly announced that it is nixing development of the next-generation NSX supercar.

The unfortunate news will undoubtedly come as a stunning disappointment for the loyal legions of Honda/Acura sportscar fans. The new NSX, which looked to be nearing the end of its development on the road to production, was slated to be the most powerful car ever made by Honda, driven by an anticipated 560-horsepower V10.

According to Autocar, the goal-line audible came from none other than Takeo Fukui, Honda's CEO, who dropped the bombshell as part of a end-of-year speech to the troops. The news also means that Honda is suspending plans to finally bring the Acura nameplate to Japan, and it also calls into doubt the fate of the V10 engine itself, as well as any long-rumored V8 powertrains.

Honda hasn't ruled out the possibility of picking up where it left off once business is back in order, but in the meantime the original NSX, which ceased production in 2005 after fifteen years on the market, will have to remain without an heir.

Update: Acura spokesman Mike Spencer has confirmed to Autoblog that the NSX has indeed been canceled. We'll now never know how good it might have been.

Well... It goes along with what we were told a few weeks ago: Pontiac will become like what Corvette is to Chevrolet... apparently that means a one-model brand. So, are we talking about the final realization of a Pontiac Banshee? IMO, the only way for GM to actually achieve this with a minimal investment would be to help spread the development costs of the C7-Corvette by including Pontiac.

The beauty of this idea is that Pontiac could get away with using a turbo 4-cyl, a V6, and/or a V8. (I don't believe we'll ever see a Corvette with a turbo-4 or V6, but a Pontiac version of the Corvette would allow for a variety of powertrains.)

Just my :twocents:

Wasn't there a movie recently made about her?

Everyone talks about the success of the Enclave, they are on pace to sell under 40,000 of them this year, that isn't that great for a $32-45,000 SUV. The Acadia is priced the same and handily outsells it, the Pilot and RX350 outsell it by a wide margin also. The Enclave is the 3rd best selling vehicle on it's platform. Plus it was down 40% in November, while the industry was down 30-35%.

1st thing: Enclave has already sold over 40,000 still with one month to go in 2008!!! Do you even check numbers????

2nd thing: The Enclave is the 2nd best selling CUV on its platform:

YTD Sales:

Acadia: 62,729 (down 4% for the year)

Enclave: 41,416 (up 68.6% for the year)

Outlook: 23,986 (down 24.1% for the year)

Traverse: 4,521 (new)

3rd thing: The Enclave is the only Lambda now being exported outside of North America (It's now offered in China.)

4th thing: You compare sales of the Enclave to the RX350 & the Pilot???? Good Grief... apples to apples SMK. Your selective/biased comparisons are always worthless. Let's have some consistency... Pilot does not compete with the RX350 or the Enclave. Compare the premium CUV segment. Enclave is doing very well, especially for the market climate:

YTD sales:

Lexus RX350 Sales: 74,249

Acura MDX Sales: 41,994

Buick Enclave Sales: 41,416

Lincoln MKX Sales: 26,962

Volvo XC90 Sales: 17,338

Hyundai Veracruz Sales: 10,055

VW Touareg Sales: 6,226

Truth be known, the RX350 is an anomaly... not the norm. The Enclave is doing very well in the premium mid-large CUV market. If it's not, then what is your excuse for Acura, Lincoln, Volvo, Hyundai, and Volkswagen?????

When I wrote about the bailout blunders of the auto industry two weeks ago, I thought the Big Three had most likely topped out on the political outrage meter. But that was before the shady story of Cerberus, the uber-connected private equity firm that owns Chrysler, reared its three ugly heads over the weekend.

Buried on the business page of The New York Times Saturday were the details of Detroit's biggest snow job yet--literally as well as figuratively. Turns out that Cerberus CEO John Snow, who spent three-and-a-half lackluster, and some might say lap-doggish, years as President Bush's second Treasury secretary, is leading a who's who of crony capitalists in a lobbying campaign for a taxpayer bailout to "salvage Cerberus' investment in Chrysler."

That's right. Not to save the jobs of Chrysler employees or America's disappearing manufacturing base, mind you, but to prevent "one of the world's richest and most secretive private investment companies" from having to take a relatively modest financial hit and use some of its own capital to prop up the smallest of the major automakers.

Of course, Cerberus is sparing no expense to spare their investors any exposure. Together with Chrysler, it has spent $7 million to hire such high-rent lobbyists as Dan Quayle (who runs one of Cerberus' international units), former Sen. John Breaux (D-La.) and former Bush legislative liaison David Hobbs. Their goal: $7 billion from the auto industry bailout package Congress is working on now and another $8.5 billion in loans from the Energy Department that have already been authorized.

The more I dug into this private duplicity, the more nostalgic I got for the PR stupidity of the Big Three CEOs and their corporate jets. It smells that bad of boondoggle. And even worse, somehow this stink has largely escaped the detection and scrutiny of the bipartisan leadership of Congress. Indeed, both sides seem ready to compound their complicity in the lousy deals that Henry Paulson cut in the Wall Street bailout by handing over billions more to Chrysler without forcing the Snow men at Cerberus to show why they need it.

At a bare minimum, there is something deeply unseemly and unsettling about one influence-peddling ex-Treasury secretary using his special access to personally lobby his even more bank-beholden successor for favors. If I were running the House or Senate banking committees, I would be asking some tough questions about this conflict of interest cornucopia before giving Chrysler a dime--starting with what kind of financial connections Paulson's old firm, Goldman Sachs (nyse: GS - news - people ), has to Cerberus.

But that's the least of it. I am not a finance expert, but what makes this episode so outrageous is that even a casual observer can see what a taxpayer ripoff Cerberus appears to be getting away with--but Congress and the Bush administration somehow cannot or will not. Why are they unable tell the obvious difference between General Motors (nyse: GM - news - people ) and Chrysler? GM is broke, can't get a loan and is actually facing an emergency. Via Cerberus, on the other hand, Chrysler has access to loads of capital, and the only thing collapsing is its credibility.

It probably doesn't matter what the interior looks like because it's unlikely that Buick will get conquest sales, and only cling to their dwindling customer base of senior citizens drawn in by $3500 cash back and 0.9% APR.

Buick's average buyer's age continuing to drop disagrees with your outlook of Buick.

Your dig at discounts driving sales is universal and is not exclusive to Buick, domestics, etc... Toyota can't increase sales with $4k discounts or 0% financing...

As Buick's line-up consolidates between US and China, Buick's image will 'continue' changing. It has already started with the Enclave. The Chinese Regal is far better than our current LaCrosse. That should indicate to everyone how much the NG LaCrosse is moving upscale.

Thank you for finding the pic of the two-tone Insignia interior with wood trim. I was actually looking for it when you posted it!!

I see no problem with that interior being a Buick Regal interior.

GM's position often doesn't match up to market reality. They may aspire for the Regal to compete with imports but it will likely be a Malibu, Milan competitor (assuming the Mercury is still alive then). Buick still fleets sedans at a pretty good rate, Honda is only 2% fleet.

Honda is the only mainstream import manufacturer with low fleet sales... Even then, about as many Accords go to fleets as LaCrosses...

Try comparing actual numbers from Toyota, Hyundai, Kia, Chrysler, Ford, etc... to Buick.

EDIT: Here's help if you need it...

Jan'08-June'08 Fleet sales

LaCrosse - 4,546

Accord - 4,302

Slumping sales have pushed Mitsubishi to schedule a production stoppage at their Normal, Illinois plant early next year for a period lasting more than 40 days. The facility, employing 1,568 workers, manufacturers both the Galant and Eclipse. When the assembly line lights go dark between February 16 and April 3, it will signify the longest halt of production since the facility began operation in 1988. The news obviously isn't good, but it thankfully doesn't carry any immediate word about layoffs. According to Mitsubishi, all employees will remain on payroll during the shutdown and be shifted to other non-production jobs, including maintenance and training.

We've seen so many spy shots of the upcoming 2010 Mercedes-Benz E-Class that these official images hardly move us. Yet here they are, three images leaked onto the web that reportedly reveal the final production form of the 2010 E-Class, which makes its official debut at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show in March.

The new E-Class was previewed by the Mercedes-Benz ConceptFascination that debuted at this year's Paris Motor Show, and we can see now that the front of the production car was heavily influenced by the concept. Gone are the round, quad headlamps, which have been replaced with new light fixtures that still number four but are more contemporary and clean. Strips of LEDs can also be had as fog lights in the outermost intakes of the lower front bumper, which must be a German thing as Audi and Porsche have placed the advanced lighting tech in similar areas on their cars. The soft lines of the current model have been chiseled into a crisper shape that shares creases with its big brother, the S-Class, and the new profile appears to be more forgiving of tall passengers in back. The unfortunate looking Galant-like rear end features large, rectangular tail-lights that cross over a rather voluminous-looking trunk.

We expect the new 2010 E-Class to be loaded with more advanced performance, safety and entertainment technology than ever before, including the ability to read road signs, monitor driver fatigue and see in the dark without its lights on. In Europe it will be available with engines that range from four to six to eight cylinders large and are fueled by either gas or diesel. In the U.S., we should expect what we have now: a V6, V8 and AMG model.

I loved the picture Autoblog put up... and I agree with it 100%

Tell that to Enterprise, I can rent a Lucerne for $40/day

You know better than this... You've read the umpteen topics and threads discussing Buick's fleet numbers and percentages.

I did not say Buicks are not sold to fleets... but the numbers are lower than many competitors (inside and outside of GM.)

No idea..financial constraints, probably. Anyone know when is the Insignia-based Regal going into production in China? 2009?

It's already on sale.

http://newregal.buick.com.cn/

http://www.buick.com.cn/regal/index.aspx

So...

And WHY-O-WHY is it positioned against the Camry and Accord? Isn't that Chevrolet's job?

One could argue it's positioned against the Malibu, since the BPG dealers are competing against Chevy more than other automakers..

Because GM still really does not get it.

That statement was based on comments made by "industry sources"... not GM. GM will not be positioning this car directly against Accord or Camry. YES that is Malibu's job.

I'm sure GM's official position of the Regal will be more aspirational.

Well, it does provide fresh product for Avis..

The whoring of Buick to fleets ended a few years ago.

:sign0200:

The first step to unify Buick's line-up has been made. Enclave is now officially offered in the US and China.

http://enclave.buick.com.cn/

The Regal definitely looks the part as a Buick and carries the family resemblance well...

http://newregal.buick.com.cn/

Buick homepage

I've enjoyed my Cobalt rentals too.

Notice that this is the 2nd or 3rd time GM has had to apologize for manager problems and lackluster products that are pre-Wagoner?

Road to Redemption 2.0

It's short... but you can tell they're leading up to the debut of the 2010 LaCrosse.

From the early days of William Durant and Walter Marr to current overseas success, Buick has been at the forefront of automotive design. With groundbreaking features, the line was one of the driving forces behind the creation of General Motors. Now, a hundred years later, Buick is set to make an impact with the premiere of the 2010 Buick LaCrosse.
Revisiting the past to debut the future, GM's current head of design, Ed Welburn, gives us a tour of Buick's history – discussing the first ever concept car and some of the key design elements over the last century.

In the first of a two part web series, Welburn not only takes you through the past but also explores the future, showing how the history culminates in the design of Buick's latest offering.

Because if we punish Japanese firms the Japanese will punish American firms wanting to do buisines in Japan.

Much better would be laws leveling the playing field so that American vehicles could be sold on a fair basis in Japan.

Chris

See... I then misunderstand the situation. I thought those laws were already in place?

That's not setting Buick's sights high enough, I'm afraid. This does nothing but increase GM's glut at the middle pricepoints of the market. Cadillac's survival and prestige is dependent on one of GM's brands moving up a price bracket to give it breathing room, and IMO it might as well be Buick. If Buick can move into the 30k-60k price range, Cadillac can finally move to the 45k+ bracket where it belongs.

"But M-B and BMW have sub-40k cars!" you say? Well, have BMW and M-B been strengthening or diluting their brand's image and prestige over the past decade? I think you know the answer to that question.

Well, Buick should receive the premium Delta-II because we all know Cadillac will not be receiving one. (As it should be...)

So, what ever pricepoint a premium/luxury Delta-II can command, that should be Buick's starting point. The Delata-II Buick needs to lean towards the formula of the TSX though (either 1st or 2nd gen) since Buick is trying to attract new/younger buyers. The content of the TSX is spot on for an entry-level premium 4-cyl sedan.

I still think there's room for two Epsilon IIs for Buick... there's a world of difference between the TL and the ES350. Buick could offer both flavors.

The SWB Epsilon II (Insignia/Regal) could target the TL but with 4-cyl & V6 offerings.

The LWB Espilon II could target the ES350 (which can go up to $50k loaded) but at a lower pricepoint.

The RWD sedan... regardless of platform, would be the low volume flagship sedan and give Buick a justifiable luxury-priced car to confirm Buick's intentions/aspirations.