Oracle of Delphi

Not to worry, I have a new assignment starting September 1, 2008. Deutschland über alles!

Happy Birthday Gentlemen!

Now that I'm back in the saddle again, I keep hearing these persistent rumours that the KAPPA cars are dead. In particular I hear that the KAPPAS won't be moved to Bowling Green and that the next generation has been canceled. I am looking into it. Edit: Thanks to those who e-mailed me about this.

You're confusing me, with you!

Just don't put Chick Magnet on it!

Just the sticker or the actual Rusty Jones treatment?

I don't drink hot drinks.

Two Chevy Chevettes on the way to the airport yesterday morning.

Don't give up your day job 68! :rotflmao:

New website: http://microsite.spprod.com/opel/Insignia/...ndex.html?flv=9

Yes, sad but true, my vacation is over, time to go back to work. I leave tomorrow morning for Switzerland. On the bright side, Mr. Burns has given me a new job assignment starting on September 1, 2008. It will bring me back to the Fatherland on special assignment. I will be bringing my kilt with me, as I am in a wedding Edinburgh, Scotland on the 20th of September (kilts are required)! I plan to visit Rosslyn Chapel while there, it has special significance to me.

Posted by: David Kiley on August 17 The iconic Hummer brand could soon be in the hands of Eastern Europeans. Reuters is reporting that General Motors, which markets civilian vehicles under the Hummer brand has been in talks with Russia’s richest man, Oleg Deripaska, to sell the brand. Separately, sources have told Businessweek that Indian automaker Mahindra and Mahindra, as well as a Turkish private equity group have also inquired about buying the brand. GM announced last June that it was evaluating the future of Hummer, which is code for seeking buyers. GM is hurting for enough cash to see it through its current woes and economic downturn in the U.S. It lost more than $15 billion in the second quarter alone. Hummer, when gasoline was $2.00 a gallon and less, quickly became a hot brand, especially among a certain consumer that gravitates to gun culture, off-roading and adventure vacations. According to GM, the Hummer H2, when it launched in 2002, was a vehicle that many wealthy households would buy as a third, fourth or fifth car. The Hummer H2, and H3, are modeled on the Humvee military vehicle built by AM General since before the first Gulf War. That military vehicle became a star on TV coverage of the war, leading AM General to build a street-legal version. GM bought the rights to the Hummer brand for street-legal vehicles in 1998. Hummer sales are down about 40% this year. Besides higher gas prices, GM has seen Hummer become a kind of poster-brand for U.S. dependence on foreign oil. “Hummer Bummer” tee-shirts can be seen in many a U.S. city. Deripaska’s interest makes sense. Besides being assembled by AM General in South Bend, Indiana, the H2, which is built off the same chassis as the Chevy Tahoe SUV, the enormous vehicle has also been assembled in Kaliningrad, Russia, by Avtotor. The plant produces a few hundred vehicles annually, with sales limited to local consumption. While Hummer sales have declined precipitously in the U.S., sales and interest is holding up abroad, especially in Eastern European and Middle Eastern countries where gasoline is much cheaper and in some cases subsidized by the government. Too, audacious looking vehicles like Hummer, often decked out in expensive after-market equipment, are popular with the growing number of wealthy Russians, including the “gangster class.” The value of the worldwide rights to the Hummer brand vary depending on whom you ask. Analysts and executives familiar with GM discussions say it could be around $1.5 billion depending on how much cross-bidding there is. One thing is for certain, though, and that is the future value of Hummer is much more in overseas markets than the U.S. According to Reuters, Deripaska, an aluminum magnate who has bought a stake in auto supplier and contract manufacturer Magna International, is worth an estimated £14 billion. It would be simple for him to leverage Magna’s capability to build whole vehicles, which it does for companies like BMW, to manufacture Hummers. Hummer military vehicles are still manufactured by AM General. But the company’s future in that arena is somewhat clouded as the U.S. Army is reviewing new designs for a Humvee replacement. Industry sources have said in recent weeks that the company that emerges with control over the civilian Hummer brand may also be interested in acquiring AM General, which is privately held, as a way to be a bigger player in overseas military vehicle sales. That is especially the case with Mahindra, which is already in the military vehicle business, as well as Deripaska. Link: http://www.businessweek.com/autos/autobeat...uture_of_h.html

By Bernard Simon in Toronto Published: August 17 2008 19:18 | Last updated: August 17 2008 19:18 General Motors is planning to rebadge its Chevrolet Volt electric car as an Opel and bring it to Europe as part of the US carmaker’s plans to expand the model range of its highly anticipated new vehicle. GM is sufficiently encouraged by the development of the Volt that it has begun work on several other similar vehicles. EDITOR’S CHOICE GM shares fall on Moody’s rating cut - Aug-13Hybrid race heats up for carmakers - Aug-13Upbeat GM chief says group past worst - Aug-11US economy slams brakes on carmakers - Aug-01Video: Liam Denning on General Motors - Aug-01A not so happy birthday for General Motors - Aug-02Bob Boniface, the Volt’s design director, said more than two other models were at the scale-model stage of development. The Volt design studio, which employs close to 50 people, is being expanded to cope with the increased work. One of the follow-up models will be an Opel for sale mainly in Europe. GM is also looking at producing different types of vehicles to the Volt, a mid-sized sedan. The Detroit carmaker has staked its reputation on the Volt, heavily promoting each stage of the car’s development since a concept version was displayed last year. The redesigned production version is due to roll off the assembly line in late 2010. The Volt and its derivatives will share many components, including a five-foot-long 400lb battery, enabling GM to achieve economies of scale. Over the past decade carmakers have increasingly used a single platform as the basis for a variety of vehicles as a way of speeding up development and holding down costs. GM promises that the Volt’s lithium-ion battery will have a range of at least 40 miles with a minimum life of 10 years. The car will be recharged either by plugging it into a normal power socket or, when it is in motion, by a four-cylinder internal combustion engine. Petrol consumption is estimated at about 150 miles per gallon. Toyota also plans to unveil a plug-in car in 2010. Unlike the Volt, it will be driven both by the battery and the petrol engine. Toyota has said its design will cost far less while delivering almost the same performance. GM said last week that it would choose the Volt’s battery supplier before the end of the year. Two groups led by South Korea’s LG Chem and A123Systems of Boston are vying for the contract. Frank Weber, who heads the Volt project, said the batteries would have enough power. The biggest challenge is maintaining the cells’ stability. “Batteries are like human beings, they like room temperature,” he said. GM has yet to disclose the retail price of the Volt but is lobbying for some form of government subsidy to bring the car within reach of the average Chevrolet customer. Electric vehicles are ex-pected to have limited mass-market appeal in their early years. Robert Bosch, the world’s biggest automotive parts supplier, estimates 3m petrol-electric hybrids and between 300,000 and 500,000 electric vehicles will be in operation worldwide by 2015. Link: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/85393cf6-6c86-11...?nclick_check=1

Steven Cole Smith | Sentinel Automotive Editor August 17, 2008 In the market for a fuel-efficient car? Chevrolet offers a much-updated 2009 Aveo5 hatchback. Aveo's 1.6-liter, 4-cylinder engine is surprisingly smooth and quiet, and drivers will find generous headroom. (CHEVROLET / August 15, 2008) After trying, and failing, to sell cars in the United States under its own brand, South Korean manufacturer Daewoo went bankrupt. General Motors bought the company and then had to find an outlet for its products. And that's how we got the Chevrolet Aveo in 2004, which looked and felt less sophisticated than products from the other two major Korean carmakers, Hyundai and Kia. But the little Aveo filled the entry-level niche for Chevrolet, empty since GM stopped selling the Suzuki-built Metro in 2001. Aveo sales were pretty tepid, but you know what happened: The economy declined and gas prices rose, so suddenly, the Aveo is one of the hottest players on the General Motors roster. There are two Aveo models: The Aveo sedan, which has a conventional trunk, and the Aveo5, a hatchback that is almost 15 inches shorter than the sedan. For 2009, the Aveo remains mostly unchanged, but we get a much-updated Aveo5. And there's good news -- it appears Daewoo is catching up with its competitors. The 1.6-liter, four-cylinder engine is surprisingly smooth and quiet, and while gas mileage isn't great for a car this small, it's pretty darn good: an EPA-rated 25 mpg in the city, 34 mpg on the highway in our test car, an Aveo5 hatchback with the optional four-speed automatic transmission. If you are willing to shift for yourself, the manual-transmission version gets slightly better mileage, and you'll save $925. Headroom in the Aveo5 is generous, and rear-seat room isn't that bad, unless you have some long-legged people in the front seat. That room comes at the expense of luggage space in the back, but the rear seat folds down. The test model was a 1LT, slightly more deluxe than the base version, less luxurious than the 2LT. Our car had quite a few standard features, including air conditioning, side airbags, handsome 15-inch alloy wheels, OnStar and a 180-watt, six-speaker sound system. There were power windows, but not power mirrors. Options included the Japanese-built automatic transmission, keyless entry, antilock brakes and cruise control. Inside, for the most part, the Aveo looked and felt surprisingly upscale, but there were a few tipoffs to the fact that this is an inexpensive car: While the flip-down sun visors had vanity mirrors, the mirrors were uncovered, meaning that when the visors were down, they reflected you and everything behind the car. It was annoying enough that I'd have to use a strip of duct tape to cover them if I owned the car. On the road, the Aveo5 rode and handled as well as its most direct competition, the Hyundai Accent, Kia Rio and Toyota Yaris -- it's a real improvement over the first Aveos we saw. Acceleration won't win any drag races, but it's better than you'd expect. General Motors has some new small cars in the product pipeline, but until they arrive, the Aveo and Aveo5 give Chevrolet dealers a model to sell to people who need a low price and high mileage more than they need style and performance. Aveo sales were up nearly 15 percent in July over July 2007, so there must be plenty of those people out there. Link: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/classified/...0,6713748.story

All Low Carb of course. http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery...Params=Itemnr=1

Bloomers

Pentastar

Condom model!

It's not a taunt DF, I love wagons, if I were ever going to buy a Zeta, the Sportwagon would have been my choice. I have the CTS Wagon clearly in my sights for 2010 or 2011.

Enjoy!

I find it odd that nothing will be broadcast from GM Holden.

August 16, 2008 12:00 PM EDT DETROIT, Aug. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- On September 16, 2008, General Motors will mark the beginning of its second century with GMnext Day, a series of forward-looking activities that will focus on the future of automotive transportation. The event also caps a year-long global initiative called GMnext, through which GM engaged audiences in a dialogue about its next- generation vehicles and technologies and offered commentary from GM executives and automotive thought-leaders from around the world. "The GMnext program and our dedicated website, http://www.gmnext.com , have opened another door for consumers to connect with us and take a look at what's next from General Motors," said Bill O'Neill, GM executive director of communications operations. "GMnext Day will be the bridge that focuses on the people and vehicles that will lead us into our next century." -- Global Broadcast: GMnext Day will begin at 8:30 a.m. EDT with a live Global Broadcast from GM's headquarters at the Renaissance Center in Detroit and from four additional GM locations including Russelsheim, Germany; Shanghai, China; Mexico City, Mexico and Sao Paulo, Brazil. The Broadcast will highlight technologies, global products, GM leaders and future leaders from around the world, along with a few newsworthy surprises. The Global Broadcast will stream live on http://www.GMnext.com for public viewing. -- Live Chats: Beginning at 10:30 a.m. EDT, three GM executives will be chatting with the world in the http://www.GMnext.com chat room, speaking candidly about the day's events and what's next for GM. -- "Future of Transportation: The Next 100 Years" Roundtable: At 1:30 p.m. EDT, a number of industry experts will come together for the "Future of Transportation: The Next 100 Years" Roundtable, a candid discussion on what's next for personal transportation. Topics will range from alternative fuels and advanced propulsion systems to government regulation and infrastructure. The discussion will stream live on http://www.GMnext.com . Visitors to the site will have the ability to ask questions in real time. -- Chevrolet Everyday Heroes Event: Chevrolet will conclude http://www.GMnext Day with an event at the Renaissance Center at 3:00 p.m. EDT that is open to the public. Participants in the Global Broadcast will be featured in video segments, interviewed in an intimate setting and will be available to answer questions from those in attendance. Complete information about http://www.GMnext Day can be found by visiting http://day.gmnext.com . General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM), the world's largest automaker, has been the annual global industry sales leader for 77 years. Founded in 1908, GM today employs about 266,000 people around the world. With global headquarters in Detroit, GM manufactures its cars and trucks in 35 countries. In 2007, nearly 9.37 million GM cars and trucks were sold globally under the following brands: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Holden, HUMMER, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn, Vauxhall and Wuling. GM's OnStar subsidiary is the industry leader in vehicle safety, security and information services. More information on GM can be found at http://www.gm.com . SOURCE General Motors Corporation Link: http://www.streetinsider.com/Press+Release...ay/3920697.html

The more I hear about your father, the more I like him.

Exactly, just as we do the HUMMER.

I guess these guys never watched Deliverance, some of those Inbreds could pass for Big Foot too. :rotflmao: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/26228969#26228969