Oracle of Delphi

Assembled at the Wilmington, DE and Linden, NJ assembly plants.

Antique

Hmmmmm, gives a whole new meaning to Assholes! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPt8UVU7bXs

BY KATIE MERX • FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER • August 16, 2008 TRAVERSE CITY -- The Chevrolet Volt is expected to be the first of many electric vehicles General Motors Corp. will launch in the next few years, executives said this week. Top executives on the Volt and its E-flex electric propulsion system said they are working on the design and engineering of the next vehicles the automaker will launch with the range-extended lithium-ion battery propulsion system. "The significance of the project has increased," Frank Weber, the engineer and executive in charge of the Volt and E-flex system, said at the Center for Automotive Research's Management Briefing Seminars. The executives would not say how many vehicles they expect to run with the E-flex system, but Andrew Farah, the Volt's chief engineer, said the system is most likely to first be used on GM's global compact and midsize car architectures. The electric propulsion system would need to be greatly altered to work with larger vehicle architectures, such as those for SUVs or pickups, he said. In addition, Weber said his team expects major improvements to the Volt -- due in November 2010 -- to occur on a yearly basis early on. That is different from most vehicle lines, which typically offer major updates every three to five years. Weber said the automaker has already identified nine areas on the Volt where it expects to make major improvements or greatly reduce costs in the second year of production. It can't make those improvements in the first year, or it would delay the quick timeline the automaker is on for the launch of the car. Weber said the Volt program is quickly approaching the cut-off dates for changes to its design, powertrain and engineering plans. He said many of the Volt's suppliers already have been selected. The automaker will have a few Volt prototypes built with production-intent parts within the next 10 days and will have 50 of those prototypes by the end of the year. David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research, said there's mounting evidence that GM will meet its goal of launching a Volt that can drive at least 40 miles on a full electric charge before needing to tap a gasoline generator to recharge its battery-driven propulsion system. "There's a steady stream of little signs of things," Cole said. "There's some derivatives of the Volt coming. What that indicates is that their confidence is increasing that they can do this." Link: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article...ESS01/808160385

Penile as in discharge!

Fortuna dies natalis! (SPQR)

Cairo as in Egypt!

By Hannah Elliott updated 10:43 a.m. ET, Fri., Aug. 15, 2008 It might sound surprising, but all-electric vehicles are already on American roads. They just haven't quite made it to the highway yet. A growing cottage industry of Neighborhood Electric Vehicle manufacturers is spurring the development of cars like the Zenn, which has reached a state of vehicular enlightenment so advanced it doesn't even need a tail pipe. "We saw this car in May of '06, and all of us were just freaking out: 'Finally, a car!'" said Steve Mayeda, sales manager at Seattle-based MC Electric Vehicles, which sells 30 percent of Zenn's U.S. inventory, in addition to electric vehicles made by Columbia, Canadian EV, E-Ride and Miles. "Zenn was the first neighborhood electric car that actually looked and felt and drove like a real car. Everything else before that was either a converted golf cart or a car that was built from the ground up." Mayeda was referring to vehicles like the 36,000 ovoid GEM cars that Chrysler-owned General Electric Motocars has sold worldwide over the last decade. To be fair, the GEM, like most NEVs, is actually more than just a glorified golf cart. NEVs are silent, have no tailpipe emissions (or tailpipes, for that matter) and plug into electrical outlets like vacuum cleaners. They come in two varieties: Low-Speed Electric Vehicles, which have a top speed of about 25 miles per hour and are restricted to roads where the speed limit is 35 miles per hour or less; and Medium-Speed Electric Vehicles, which reach 35 mph and are allowed on roads with a posted speed of up to 45 mph. They're exempt from federal safety regulations that mandate impact-absorbing bumpers and airbags. But to be street legal, NEVs must have three-point seat belts, windshields with wipers, headlights, brake lights, rearview mirrors and turn signals. Doors are optional. The Zenn is among a new generation of NEVs that look like real cars. But a spin around Manhattan in one proves it has some growing to do before it can truly compete with automobiles. (Go to the “slide show” link below to read about how the Zenn held up in Manhattan traffic.) Cute as a button The 1,350-pound Zenn, which stands for "Zero Emissions, No Noise," offers a beguiling first impression for those inclined to fawn over bunnies and kittens. But don't let that button-cute persona fool you. "It's a tough little car," said Ian Clifford, founder and CEO of Zenn Motor Co., based in Toronto, Canada. He pointed to the fact that in France, the aluminum-frame Zenn has passed all government-mandated safety standards for the quadracycle class of vehicles, which are like NEVs and have a top speed of 30 mph. Onlookers seemed to like the Zenn, although its matte tones and boxy styling didn't get as many looks as expected. One older gentleman from Switzerland, in high spirits on a nature hike in Central Park, said America would do well to get more Zenn-like vehicles on the road. Taxi drivers loved the Zenn, too. At traffic lights they shouted questions and comments like, "Hey! What is that? What's the mileage?" and "That's cool, man!" Every one of them said having a 25-mph car in New York City would be "no problem, man." It seemed like the Zenn was living up to its name. "They're traffic calming," Clifford said, referring to their lack of speed. "And if they do get into a collision, the impact is much less severe." NEVs' slow speeds are also safer for pedestrians, he added. Dollars and sense The two-seat Zenn starts at $15,995. The model we drove had options that drove up the price. (Find out what they were and how much more it cost in by clicking on the “slide show” link below.) Zenns get the equivalent of 254 miles per gallon, Clifford said. It costs less than two cents per mile to drive, based on the average retail rate of electricity in the United States of 10.15 cents per kilowatt-hour. Regular cars cost about 10 cents a mile to drive, according to a 2006 report from the Energy Information Administration. "We've had no complaints. Everyone loves their car," said MC Electric Vehicles' Mayeda, who co-wrote Washington's House Bill 1820, which allows electric cars to legally attain speeds of up to 35 mph. If Clifford can get his Zenn cars to go a little faster, Mayeda said they'll sell like hotcakes. "We would be able to sell as many of these cars as they're selling Hondas and Toyotas," Mayeda said. "Even if they made it a $30,000 car, easily we could have Toyota numbers. There's enough people out there who are tired of paying high prices for gas, who don't like buying and supporting foreign oil." One of the biggest hurdles for NEVs, and all electric vehicles for that matter, is their range on a single charge. With its lead-acid batteries — just like those used in normal cars — the Zenn can only go 35 miles on a single charge and takes eight hours to fully recharge. The batteries will fill to 80 percent in four hours. NEV manufacturers like Zenn Motor Co., British Columbia-based Dynasty Electric Car Corp. and Norwegian-led Think Global argue that most Americans can get by just fine driving a small amount of miles each day at relatively low speeds. While that remains to be seen, the Federal Highway Administration reports that on average, the longest trips American drivers make each day range in length from 16 miles to visit family or friends to 11 miles for medical purposes. The average American drives 12 miles to work, according to the FHA. The Urban Transport Fact Book reports that the average "road network speed" in large American cities ranges from 24 mph in New York to 39 mph in Sacramento — speeds easily accessible by existing electric cars. Article Continues: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26140663/page/2/

Lumpy and dumpy looking 48 year old housewives appreciate it more!

August 15, 2008: 09:07 AM EST NEW YORK (Associated Press) - General Motors Corp. said Friday it will announce a multimillion-dollar investment at its Lordstown plant and release photos its Chevrolet Cruze small car next Thursday. The Cruze will be officially unveiled at the Paris Motor Show next month, the company said. The Detroit automaker has said it plans to add workers at its Lordstown facility, which makes fuel-efficient cars that are selling well. It has announced a multibillion-dollar restructuring plan, including plant closures elsewhere, to try and weather the shift in consumer demand away from trucks and SUVs to more fuel-efficient cars. Shares of GM closed Thursday at $11.35. Link: http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articl...775683b2604.htm

James B. Treece Automotive News August 15, 2008 - 11:24 am ET UPDATED: 8/15/08 1:08 p.m. EDT TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. -- Toyota Motor Corp. is "real confident that by 2020 we'll have hybrid models in each of our product lines," said Justin Ward, advanced powertrain program manager at the Toyota Technical Center. Toyota estimates its sales of more than 1 million hybrid vehicles have saved about 7 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions, Ward told the Management Briefing Seminars here today. "You can have a positive impact today through hybrids," he said. Ward reviewed Toyota's progress on alternative powertrains and the challenges that remain. Toyota's latest fuel cell vehicle -- the FCH-ADD, for Fuel Cell Hybrid-Advanced -- has a cruising range of more than 500 miles, double that of Toyota's previous-generation model. Toyota had set a goal of having the fuel cell function in temperatures as low as 4 degrees Fahrenheit. "It was far below that last winter," when the car "survived three freeze/thaw cycles" in cold-weather testing, Ward said. He joked that the car survived better than his test crew. When crew members complained about the conditions, he offered them a break: a chance to do several weeks of testing in the Mojave Desert. Mountains to scale Challenges remain. He said Toyota has made "huge progress" in fuel cell stack durability, but "we're not anywhere near where we need to be." The fuel cell stack is heavy, and costs are high. And questions remain, such as: "Where does that hydrogen come from? How do you store it and move it around?" Ward's presentation also took some subtle swipes at other carmakers' leading efforts in alternative powertrains. Turning to diesel engines, for example, Ward said that even with the coming Euro 5 and Euro 6 standards for nitrogen oxide reduction, diesels are "not going to be as clean as" the Toyota Prius in terms of NOx emissions. He also addressed plug-in hybrids, an area where General Motors is placing a huge bet with its Chevrolet Volt. Even if a plug-in hybrid gets its charge from carbon-neutral sources such as cellulosic ethanol and sunlight-based photovoltaic energy, other issues remain, he said. Those hurdles include the cost and life of the batteries and the car's range. "Is 40 miles all you need?" he said. "Is it 20, 50, 200?" The debate often turns to a study that found that 70 percent of commuters drive 40 miles or less a day, he said. Other technologies needed "That number looks fantastic," he said, "but you're only offsetting about 35 percent" of the total miles traveled and energy consumed because covering those daily commutes doesn't cover all the driving Americans do, such as weekend trips. "We're going to need other technologies that offset the other parts" of vehicle usage. In addition, he cited a study by Simon Mui of the EPA. It showed that if 4 million plug-ins recharge solely at night, that would take advantage of a significant dip in electric demand overnight. But, Ward noted, an examination of the source of that nighttime electricity shows that almost all of it comes from coal-burning plants. That reduces the positive impact on CO2 emissions from those vehicles. Said Ward: "We have to understand the true nature of where that energy is coming from." Ward is based at the Toyota Technical Center is suburban Los Angeles. The center is a unit of Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Inc. Link: http://www.autonews.com/article/20080815/A...paign_id=alerts

This will be my personal car when I replace the Grand Prix GXP.

Meat Wagon

Pyramid

The L car (Corsica & Beretta) is known for this problem, the reason is, in the engine bay the way it's designed, overheats the alternator and burns it out. The N car is based off the L car platform. A friend of mine puts a new alternator in his Corsica every year and sends me an e-mail about each time it happens. It has done this each year for the past 12 years. His is a 1996.

My wife likes this a lot, I guess we just found a replacement for the Nox when the time comes.

It's how airline food will be warmed in the future, to cut down on cost.

It's almost as big as my 2006 Ford Ranger Sport.

What? They didn't pick Borgermobile ? :rotflmao:

I have the 5.3 in my Pontiac Grand Prix GXP, now mind you I have a heavy foot, I get about 13 around town, on the highway I get about 22.

Welcome, do you like liver with some Fava beans and a nice chianti?

It looks like there will not be a Zeta replacement for the DTS. As for Buick think, Alpha & Delta II.

I'm a Meatatarian, it's a life choice!

Ahem, GME employee, well at least until September 1st. :AH-HA_wink:

My newest desktop background, there is information in there for those that can see the forest for the trees.