VenSeattle

No disrespect meant towards your 1999 Plymouth Breeze. The Breeze was chrome free and did not make it past the refresh. The refreshed cloud car sedans (Sebring & Stratus sedans) are really the only two that have a slight resemblance to the Aura. Even then, they don't look as sophisticated or expensive as the Aura.

It's actually a very awesome luxury coupe that Subaru put out. The dash is covered in suede leather and the center stack hides behind a real wood door panel. The window-in-window design was very unique... but made drive-thru windows a pain in the ass. Friends of mine rated it best interior for luxury coupes two years in a row while it was out (when I was a teenager, we’d go to the Dallas Auto Show and rate the cars.)

Saturn is becoming GM Europe (Opel/Vauxhall)... much of the styling cues are not new to GM... just to the US market: 1995 Vauxhall Vectra 1995 Vauxhall Astra Convertible 1999 Vauxhall Astra Van Sportiv 2000 Vauxhall VX 220 So I wouldn't say GM checked out any of the Japanese for styling direction... GM found everything Saturn needed in Vauxhall.

It's funny. All of my other cars have been boys, but both of my Buicks have been girls. Go figure... I can't explain it.

The Park Avenue is an absolutely beautiful car. She'll turn 3 years old this month. I'm in love with her today as much as I was when I bought her. The new-for-2003 Grille, portholes, wood trim, etc really make a difference. I just hit 31,000 miles. The interior & exterior have held up very well. Insurance won't kill you. Tune-ups won't kill your pocket book either like several imports. I love the color of the Park Avenue in your pics. Mine is black. Probably the only thing I've experienced of an annoyance is that my paint job hasn't held up 100% to detailing and cleaning. I have buff marks here and there. If I decide to keep her instead of using her as a trade-in, I'll consider having her repainted. The Park Avenue is a great choice. The only advice to give is: You take care of her, and she'll take care of you.

I doubt several of you would be sooo passive if this was Rick Wagoner or Bill Ford.

WE'RE MOVING! Hey guys! The migration has begun! Hopefully, you won't notice much downtime. If you do, you should get a message at cheersandgears.com stating that we're moving. We plan for most (if not all) topics/posts to be safely moved to the new host. However, the last ones accessing the site might not be transferred over... so post now at your own risk :AH-HA_wink: See you guys soon!

Josh PM'd Flybrian in March that he will pay for the site through June (based upon the original influx of donations received during the push back in February.) Afterwards we (the admin team) will be responsible for the costs and hosting... this has been long in the running. Josh's statements are very slanted against the admin staff here. ------------------------------------ You know what... Let's set the record straight. Josh resigned from running day-to-day Admin responsibilities last year and placed Flybrian in charge. We had another Crash... lost everything... and then Josh took over hosting and paying for the site. Walt continued (and continues to this day) to own the Cheersandgears.com domain. That has not and will not change. Then Jan 17th comes around. With no provocation, warning or explanation Josh notifies the Admin Team that he's resigning from any and all responsibilities for the site: So the Admins had to pick up all the slack. Josh did not assist in the transition of responsibilities. We had to figure things out on our own. Then The OUTLOOK story happened. That's right. The OUTLOOK fiasco happened after Josh already resigned. Josh notified us in the Admin section that he had a huge story and he didn't know what to do with it. This is what he posted: In an almost unanimous decision (not everyone responded), we wanted Josh to let the Insiders know in order to obtain some type of validity to the story... or at least get feedback. Josh took it upon himself to run with the story without notifying us or placing it in pre-publish for everyone's review. He presented it as a "C&G" Exclusive and used "We" at every opportunity. None of us really appreciated that because we were against blindly publishing something without being verified. Most of us here respect our insiders very much and prefer to seek their council when it's of a serious nature... like the Outlook issue was. This resulted in Josh's "Public" announcement to the board that he was resigning... despite that he had already done so in January, and many of the changes had already occurred behind the scenes. He leveraged the Outlook issue as justification, but that was not the truth. We left it be for the sake of a single/unified reason without all the drama. Oh Well. So much for that. Site problems were rampant. The site had long down times and there were overages for the hosting plan that we were on. We all decided to switch hosts. We asked C&Gers for suggestions and started forming a plan of attack. We started a topic in the Admin section. Josh never responded to the questions, Fly asked Josh to respond and participate: No reply from Josh. Then, Josh PM'd Fly. Fly posted the PM in the Admin section: So...okay... So, the migration to the new host site became our problem, not Josh's. He gave us a deadline (4 months... June'06). This is why we had to drop all other plans until we could migrate the site to a new hosting company. We've selected and created a new host plan with the current admins donating towards the initial costs and we're hoping to have this done very soon. A notice will be placed on the home page when we migrate. We're hoping for this weekend or next. We'll see if that holds. So there's the story.

It is absolutely ridiculous. Nissan has duplicated the same problem the 300ZX eventually had... priced out of reach.

I love the color for Buick Gauges. The Seafoam Green in the sedans and the Teal used in Rendezvous are definitely among my favorites. LEDs would look great 24/7 day/night driving with Seafoam green. I want Buick to become consistent in certain areas to maintain "brand identity" without looking identical. Instrumentation is one way to do that.

I think 380hp is perfectly fine, but I wish GM would develop multiple variations... a 4.3l V8 with 340hp & a 5.0l V8 with 400hp+ would be perfect in my eyes. Let the V12 be 6.0 or higher with 500+.

I think Aura styling is more European than a sad attempt at copying the cloud cars at Chrysler. The cloud cars original intention were to look more European afterall. Regardless, the Aura also looks noticeably more expensive than the Cirrus/Sebring or Status/Avenger... lets leave Breeze out of this. Aura Stratus refresh Cirrus refresh (renamed Sebring) Sorry, but the Aura puts both generations to shame... The Aura is not a 1990's throw-back.

LaCrosse: 3.8L 3800 V6, 200 hp @ 5200 rpm, 230 lb.-ft. torque @ 4000 rpm Lucerne: 3.8L 3800 V6, 197 hp @ 5200 rpm, 227 lb.-ft. torque @ 3800 rpm ------------ Cananopie, I read that too. I'm thinking it's speaking in the way of each Buick is available with over 200hp... because it goes on to add that the V8 Lucerne is closer to 300hp. ------------ I'm still trying to make my way through the site. I think it's fantastic.

At today's exchange rate, isn't that about $2.7 Billion?

Toyota's 4th-Quarter Profit Rises 39% on U.S. Sales May 10 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp., the world's largest automaker by market value, said fourth-quarter profit climbed 39 percent to a record, buoyed by a stronger dollar and rising U.S. sales of Avalon sedans and Scion compact cars. Net income rose to 404 billion yen ($3.6 billion) in the three months ended March 31, compared with 291 billion yen a year earlier, Toyota said in a statement today. The company predicted profit of 1.31 trillion yen this fiscal year, down 4.1 percent from last year when it had a gain from the rising value of its stake in Japan's biggest bank. Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe, 64, plans to spend almost $1.2 billion a month this year as he completes new plants in Texas and Russia to meet global demand and make earnings less affected by the yen exchange rate. The company's market value surged 70 percent to $218 billion since he took charge in June, 15 times that of General Motors Corp. ``The prospects are so good for Toyota,'' said Graeme Maxton, managing director for Asia at Autopolis, a London-based consulting firm. ``Its major competitor is dying and it is ahead of the others in terms of quality, production and technology.'' Toyota, based in central Japan's Aichi Prefecture, sold 7.97 million vehicles in the year ended March 31, up 7.6 percent from the previous 12 months. Sales may rise 6 percent to 8.45 million vehicles this fiscal year, excluding sales by ventures in China and Indonesia. The forecast is within 500,000 units of surpassing GM as the world's biggest carmaker by that measure. Raising Dividend Toyota said it would pay a second-half dividend of 55 yen a share, raising the year's total payout to 90 yen, or a yield of 1.35 percent relative to its share price. Nissan Motor Co., Japan's second-biggest carmaker, paid 29 yen a share, a yield of almost 2 percent. Toyota may join Honda Motor Co. in paying quarterly dividends. Toyota's operating margin may be kept at about 9 percent, Watanabe said. The automaker plans to raise its annual dividend payout ratio to 30 percent in the next three to five years, from last year's 21.3 percent. Toyota shares fell 0.7 percent to 6,680 yen in Tokyo before the earnings report was released. In German trading, Toyota shares traded at the equivalent of 6,680 yen as of 11:31 a.m. in Frankfurt. The carmaker said it would buy back up to 200 billion yen of its own shares by June 2007. Profit Forecast Net income may drop to 1.31 trillion yen this year as it increases spending by 1.3 percent to a record 1.55 trillion yen, Toyota said. The forecast, the first by Toyota, is based on a yen exchange rate of 110 per U.S. dollar, compared with an average rate of 113 yen in the past fiscal year. ``Earnings could disappoint in the short term'' because of a changing U.S. market, stalled growth in Japan and Europe, said Edwin Merner, who oversees $1 billion of assets as president of Atlantis Investment Research Corp. in Tokyo. ``Life may be made difficult by the strong yen.'' Current profit in the year ended March 31 was also boosted by a 143 billion yen gain in the value of Toyota's stake in Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. Stripping out the one-time gain, Toyota said its net income was 1.3 trillion yen. Sales this year may rise 6 percent to 22.3 trillion yen, Toyota said. Detroit-based rival GM is trying to cut costs and increase sales after reporting a $10.6 billion net loss last year. Toyota's operating profit, or sales minus expenses and the costs of goods sold, may rise 1.2 percent to 1.9 trillion yen this year. Current profit, or pretax earnings from operations, may fall 5.6 percent to 1.97 trillion yen, the carmaker said. Increase Earnings ``We hope to be able to increase earnings by the end of the year'' ending in March 2007, said Toyota Senior Managing Director Takeshi Suzuki at a Tokyo press conference today. ``Our cost reduction efforts have been offset by rising material costs.'' Toyota's cost cut fell to 130 billion yen in the year ended March, from the previous year's 160 billion yen because higher prices of rubber, steel and other materials increased cost by more than 100 billion, Toyota said. Toyota's sales rose 18 percent in the fourth quarter to 5.75 trillion yen. Full-year revenue climbed 13 percent to 21 trillion yen, while operating profit rose 12 percent to 1.88 trillion yen. New Models The company may release at least nine models in the U.S. this year, including a redesigned Camry sedan introduced in March and the Tundra pickup truck. ``Record oil prices push consumers to switch to fuel- efficient vehicles sold by Japanese carmakers, such as Toyota,'' said Yasuhiro Matsumoto, an analyst at BNP Paribas Securities Japan Ltd. in Tokyo. It spent 1.53 trillion yen last year to expand in markets including Japan, China and Canada. A new factory in San Antonio, Texas, is set to open this year and Toyota's first Russian plant will be completed in 2007. Watanabe, who cut costs by 1 trillion yen in five years as head of purchasing, was promoted to president after his strategy of scrutinizing the price of every Toyota part, eked out savings. His new plan, dubbed `Value Innovation', lumps engines, brakes and steering systems into modules, simplifying an engine that typically has 600 parts to reduce its cost. Toyota's redesigned Corolla will be one of its most profitable models when it reaches Japanese dealers this fall, with the engine block 30 percent cheaper to make. Toyota Special? ``The cost reduction plan does make Toyota special,'' said Atsushi Osa, who helps oversee $4.1 billion in investments at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management Co. in Tokyo. ``The company and its affiliates have a close relationship that helps Toyota to make one of the most cost-competitive, high-quality products in the industry.'' Toyota today promoted Vice Chairman Fujio Cho to chairman and made Chairman Hiroshi Okuda its adviser. Watanabe said the automaker plans to appoint a senior managing director who will be responsible for maintaining its quality. The appointments take effect after a shareholders meeting next month. Toyota is basing its forecasts on 135 yen per euro for the year ending March 31, 2007. A stronger yen would erode profit in the U.S., where Toyota overtook DaimlerChrysler AG last month as the third-biggest carmaker. The yen weakened to an average 116.9 per dollar in the three months ended March from 104.55 last year. Toyota's full-year operating profit falls 20 billion yen for every 1 yen that the Japanese currency gains against the dollar, according to a February estimate by Credit Suisse Group's Tokyo- based auto analyst Koji Endo. The favorable currency rate added 300 billion yen to its operating profit in the year ended March, Toyota said. ``The only issue on Toyota's horizon is the exchange rate, which was in its favor this year,'' Maxton said. To contact the reporter on this story: Kae Inoue in Tokyo at [email protected] Last Updated: May 10, 2006 05:34 EDT Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=100...id=avTJrtkfjWwE

biceps

Very cool resource for Buick information. http://friendsofbuick.com Friends Of Buick Offers Fresh Perspective On Storied American Brand New website launches and evolves at http://www.friendsofbuick.com Ann Arbor, MI (PRWEB) May 22, 2006 -- In celebration of Buick’s 103rd anniversary, Michigan-based organization Friends of Buick is pleased to announce the launch of FriendsOfBuick.com. Nearly a decade after Buick became the first automaker to launch a car on the Internet, FriendsOfBuick.com presents a cyber-based, evolving look at the brand's esprit de corps. The new website examines the Buick traditions of ergonomics; grace; power, and reassurance. "The automaker that invented the valve-in-head engine went on to become the automaker that built the first American mass-produced V6 and aluminum V8, among other innovations," Friends of Buick noted in a statement upon the launch of FriendsOfBuick.com. "Much as Buick has through its history, we expect to continuously improve. "Among its core attributes, Buick has evolved the art of not simply interior space, but also that of correct ergonomic science and of holistic ergonomics, most recently evidenced in its QuietTuning efforts. "The Buick's graceful, timeless presence has regularly met dynamic grace in the linearity of its primary controls and its chassis response. Buick is among the few whose vehicles' dynamic gait – striving to gently cushion, yet also to respond fluidly to the road’s imperfections - is an integral part of its brand. "Buick has produced the fastest production car in America twice in the past fifty years, and additionally counts in its heritage the third most powerful muscle car ever built. "Buick has ranked at or near the top of consumer quality and loyalty surveys for much of the past fifteen years, and has recently posted exceptional results in customer service. Meanwhile, the modern Buick's craftsmanship largely surpasses that of its peers inside and out. "FriendsOfBuick.com is an evolving effort to articulate, as best we collectively can, the virtues of Buicks past and present," the group added. Those new to the site might start at http://www.friendsofbuick.com/about.html, an FAQ section which delves into both Buick's magnanimity, and the perception gap, among other triumphs and challenges. FriendsOfBuick.com is neither affiliated with, nor endorsed by, General Motors Corporation. Link: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/5/prweb387497.htm

wax

Not to disagree with you... but I've read several times that Buick wanted the 4.0l V8 and Oldsmobile refused to share it with anyone. As for the 3.5l Shortstar, I do remember reading that the development and cost to build were way over budget. So, perhaps Buick and Pontiac did decline the 3.5l. However, Oldsmobile still went through with the development and production of the engine. Why? Don't know. From what I've read GM's current High-Feature engine family is more flexible and less expensive to build than the Northstar derivatives. Evok! THANK YOU for that info! There are still tons of holes in the story. Every bit helps! I do have a question though, If there wasn't a real replacement for the Gen-1 Aurora, then was the Gen-1 Aurora's model life originally 2-3 years longer? It seems odd that enough time lapsed to the point of needing to skip a model year for the rebadged 88 replacement(Gen-2 Aurora).

The Aura wheels are growing on me. Seems to be a European thing:

I like the STS-V's interior. I wish they'd make it standard on the STS. It would correct a lot of short-comings. Leather on the Dash, Chrome touches, and metal finish on the steering wheel + dash. The wood looks great also.

Louie (the Lightning Bug)

Maybe it will be used so Zetas can be competitive in Europe?

Satty

Not your Father's