pow

I shorten, lengthen, and don't really..... Odyssey, BMW, Passat -> Ody, Bimmer, Asspat

The only concern with pushing the CTS upmarket is that the mid-lux market is essentially dead, in a sort of limbo state where aspiring managers stick with Baby Lexus leases and the big guns go for the LS, leaving the GS unloved. But then of course there's lots of brand equity from the CTS name...

Agreed. I would still categorize the CTS as entry-level luxury, which itself is a diverse segment made up of everything from focused sports sedans like the 3-series and G37 to larger, luxury-oriented sedans like the ES and MKS. The CTS, TL, and a few others seem to fit right in the middle of this luxury-sport equation. The CTS is moving upmarket, though, inching towards middle-lux. Several European magazines have called it a 4-series competitor, if there were such a thing, and average transaction prices are higher than before. If the next CTS grows a bit in interior width, available cylinder count, and MSRP, and an Alpha Caddy comes along, it should easily be a mid-lux player. The level of sophistication in the CTS-V is definitely moving in the right direction. It has the 14-way seats that show up in smk's wet dreams, so it easily competes against the M5. And at $70K+, the variance in pricing doesn't matter to the super rich buyer.

Saw my first Crouton yesterday. It looked soggy in the rain.

True that. There are lots of ~15K mi G8 GTs for under $20K. Compared to a new four-banger Accord or Malibu, that's a good $3-4K to spend on fuel and warranty.

http://www.iihs.org/news/rss/pr121708.html This round of tests, there are no new Top Safety Picks ("good" front, side, and head restraint performance, plus ESC availability). All cars had good frontal crash performance, while side crash performance varied, usually depending on the vehicle's age. Side performance... Suzuki SX4 - Good Toyota Matrix/Pontiac Vibe - Good MINI Cooper - Acceptable Chevrolet HHR - Acceptable Ford Focus - Acceptable Saturn ASTRA - Marginal Hyundai Elantra - Marginal Chrysler PT Cruiser - Poor Most of the cars had "acceptable" structures but were let down by high torso injury measurements - front passenger torsos for the HHR (marginal) and Elantra (poor), rear passenger torsos for the MINI (marginal) and ASTRA (poor). The Focus had low injury measurements all around, but it had a weak structure - marginal, an improvement over the old model's "poor". The increased ride height probably helped as well. Here are the IIHS Top Safety Picks (previously tested)... Honda Civic w/ ESC Honda Fit w/ ESC Mitsubishi Lancer w/ ESC Scion xB Subaru Impreza Toyota Corolla w/ ESC Volkswagen Rabbit http://www.iihs.org/ratings/summary.aspx?class=40

The way I see it... if I'm going to spend extra for a "premium" brand, that vehicle better have some obvious advantages and improvements over the standard mainstream equivalent. For instance, I love Volvo. It's far more interesting and far rarer than, say, Honda. But I'm unconvinced that an S60 is any more of a car than a well-equipped Accord, so if it were my money, I would ignore the Sven Eriksson IKEA garnish and go for the cheap one. I think lots of buyers feel the same. I haven't looked at the Insignia in person, but from what I've read and seen on the interweb, I wouldn't pay a penny more than what Honda, Toyota, or Mazda charge for their midsize sedans, ~$27K for a leather-lined four-cylinder automatic model. Perhaps to differentiate the Regal as a "premium" product, Buick can forgo the low introductory base prices of the mainstreamers ($22K for wheel cover, cloth, and manual A/C) and only offer well-equipped models.

Who knows... the Corvette is its own "make" in Europe. Maybe in the future, when people ask, "What do you drive?" and you say "A Pontiac", they'll know exactly what that is.

And buying an Aveo, G3, Epica, or Optra won't?

It's a good read... FEATURES: 2009 Hummer H3T Alpha vs 2009 Nissan GTR - Over The Hill By Ezra Dyer Photography by Brian Konoske The idea sprung, as so many great ones do, from the Dukes of Hazzard. How many times have the Duke boys evaded Rosco or made it back to the farm just in time to beat the foreclosure guy? Many. And how do they do that, other than by driving fast and jumping over barns? Exactly - they take shortcuts. The Dukes are masters of driving off into the woods, blasting down a suspiciously well-graded trail, and then slewing back onto the main road, having cut critical minutes off their journey. Is it possible, I wondered, to use that strategy in the real world? In all the millions of miles of asphalt in this country, is there anyplace left where the quickest point-to-point route would be the path unpaved? I find my potential answer on a map of Colorado, a state bisected by 14,000-foot mountain peaks. For instance, there is no paved road that runs directly from Telluride to Lake City, because the terrain between those two towns-about 50 miles distant-includes 13,509-foot Telluride Peak, as well as Darley Mountain (13,260 feet), Engineer Pass, Palmetto Gulch, and countless other remote locales where you'd expect to see mountain goats idly gnawing on the bones of ill-fated prospectors. According to MapQuest, it's a 166-mile drive between Telluride and Lake City, as the pavement takes the long way around all that daunting topography. However, my trusty Colorado recreation map says there's another way: up and over, via seasonal four-by-four trails. As the crow flies, more or less. So if a car averaged about 50 mph and an off-roader averaged about 15 mph, we might have a photo finish on our hands. And maybe, just maybe, we'd find that there's still a place in the U.S.A. where a low-range transfer case and big, knobby tires are more than a sad affectation for highway-bound suburban commuters. And, to be frank, I want to go bash around in the boonies with a jacked-up truck before somebody decides that that sort of thing is really so much fun that it should be illegal. Next question: Which vehicles? For the four-by-four, we settle on the new Hummer H3T Alpha. Before you begin formulating your anti-Hummer letter to the editor, allow me to remind you that the object of this exercise is to traverse 50 miles of rugged mountain trails without getting stuck, breaking down, or puncturing a tire, all while driving as fast as possible. And the H3T Alpha has available 33-inch off-road tires, underbody skid plates as thick as manhole covers, and locking differentials front and rear. Also, the Alpha packs a 300-hp V-8, which means that the H3 finally has something in common with hundreds of thousands of other trucks and SUVs that somehow don't incite the same radical-conservationist urge to firebomb dealerships. For the H3T's nemesis in this challenge, we choose none other than the Nissan GT-R, our new Automobile of the Year and quite arguably also the titleholder for the crown of "fastest car on any given road in any given condition." If a BMW is the ultimate driving machine, the GT-R is the ultimate passing machine. No passing zone is too short, no line of dawdlers too long, for the GT-R to dispatch with violent malice. In the case of the H3T, you could say it's picking a fight with the meanest guy in the prison yard. That's how you cement your rep. West Coast editor Jason Cammisa selflessly volunteers to pilot the GT-R in this grand showdown, and we meet a day early in Telluride to take stock of both the trails and the area's roads. On the trail up out of Telluride, heading toward Imogene Pass, it's immediately clear that the Hummer will be able to make good time, as the path isn't too rough in most places. What it is, occasionally, is narrow. On the way back down, we encounter a Jeep coming up the mountain, and I squeeze over as close as I can get to the cliff wall. The Wrangler, meanwhile, is essentially treading on the edge of the clouds. This doesn't perturb the driver, who stops to chat and ask how my day is going, but it's evidently more nerve-racking for his passenger, who is peering out the window at nothing but sky. "Did you see the woman in the passenger seat?" Jason asks after I drive away. I reply in the negative. "Well," he says, "she was crying." In my favor, the paved roads in this area have their own challenges, and after a recon drive in the Hummer, I have abrasions on both elbows, from bracing myself against the center console and the door panel on the constant switchbacks of the San Juan Mountains. If averaging 50 mph sounds easy, try doing it when you've got 25-mph hairpins, an endless parade of logging trucks, and no passing zones for miles. What's more, the high altitude seems to have afflicted the GT-R with a massive case of turbo lag, such that the Hummer is now actually quicker than the GT-R off the line-at least until the dual turbos whip the thin air into usable boost. It's a small advantage, but against Godzilla, I'll take what I can get. The next morning, I stop at the San Miguel Country Store-which rents Wranglers to tourists-to get a little advice about my route. The guy behind the counter suggests that I take Engineer Pass out of Ouray, rather than the seemingly more direct Black Bear Pass. "If you go on Black Bear, bring a spare pair of shorts," he says. "And a body bag. People die up there." You know, I think Engineer Pass will work just fine. Jason and I fill our respective gas tanks and meet at the trailhead at the top of town. I edge the Hummer's tires onto the dirt, Jason backs up the GT-R to the edge of the pavement, and after a quick countdown we're away, the H3T's V-8 bellow commingling with the rapidly fading scream of the Nissan's high-strung V-6. For the first couple miles, I'm confident bordering on overconfident. Jason has a lot of ground to cover, and I'm going as fast as 40 mph, bombing along what's essentially a rough dirt road. I'm gonna Baja 1000 this sucker and beat him by a mile. So when photographer Brian Konoske, riding shotgun, asks to jump out to take a photo, I say, "No problem." Soon, though, the trail narrows, and it becomes clear that there's a contingency I hadn't expected. Although I assumed Jason would have to deal with plenty of rolling roadblocks en route to Lake City, it hadn't occurred to me that I'd encounter traffic on the trail. Besides the ubiquitous Jeeps and ATVs, my path becomes clogged with bikers, hikers, walkers, sightseers, joggers, meanderers, and general human speed bumps. And you can't just blow past them in a cloud of dust, because this is Colorado and people have guns. So, for example, when we encounter two women walking up the trail ahead of us, I have to wait patiently for them to acknowledge my presence and step off to the side. As I pass, one of them leans toward my open window and calls out, "Hey!" I slow to a crawl and prepare for a fusillade of abuse, since I came up behind them at about the speed of the landslide that I was probably causing in my wake. But she edges a bit closer, peers into the interior, and says, "We like your truck." Well, that wasn't what I expected. But perhaps a Hummer in its element draws a different critical eye than one crowding into a parking space at Ikea. At mile 4.7, we encounter a sign: "Recommended-high clearance, four-wheel drive, short wheelbase." Ummm . . . define "short wheelbase." Because we've definitely got a shorter wheelbase than a lot of things, like a crew-cab Ford F-150 or those fire trucks with a separate steering wheel on the back. But within an hour, we're up over the 13,114-foot Imogene Pass and heading back down toward Ouray. There's been nothing so far that would threaten the Hummer with getting stuck, but we have affirmed that off-roading, like brain surgery and tantric canoodling, is an activity best approached at a leisurely pace. The way I'm driving, we won't get stuck, but we might well suffer concussions from bouncing our heads off the roof. We roar down into Ouray and, after a strangely soothing mile or two on the pavement, cut back onto a trail called the Alpine Loop for the second leg of the trip. We're a couple hours in, and I wonder how Jason is faring. I imagine him stuck behind a wedding procession in some Podunk town, banging his fists on the steering wheel and wondering why he ever got on the wrong side of a Duke boys shortcut scenario. As we wend our way up to Engineer Pass, my phone rings. It's Jason. Probably calling to forfeit because he's so far behind. I gleefully answer, "Wanna give up?" "No," he answers serenely. "I'm there." No. This cannot be true. He cannot have covered 160-something miles on insane mountain roads this quickly. I ask how fast he went. "Well, I probably averaged seventy," he replies. This scarcely seems credible, given the dastardly roads around Telluride. "Once you're away from Telluride, the road opens up a lot," Jason explains. "I probably passed 150 cars. There were places to pass everywhere." If the first stage of grief is denial, the second is anger (maybe anger is supposed to come later, but for me it comes second). "You and your damn photos!" I yell at Brian. "I never should have let you stop to take photos. Stupid!" I grab his camera and scroll through the day's shots. "One hundred thirty-six photos. I declare this competition null and void on the grounds of photographic interference." Brian pleads some nonsense about just doing his job, but we're high up in the wilderness and we just lost and I don't want to hear it. Boss Hogg got to the farm first and now Uncle Jesse's gonna be foreclosed on, and-did he say 150 cars? Little did I know that I sent Jason and the GT-R out on the frickin' Coloradobahn. We meet at a gas station in Lake City a mere, oh, two hours later. Jason is talking to an old-timer wearing a cowboy hat, explaining our ill-matched showdown. I say that I've just come from Telluride via Ouray while barely touching pavement the whole way, and he replies, "I reckon that if you two had started in Ouray instead of Telluride, you'd have got here right about the same time." Well, thanks for the advice. I pull to the opposite side of the pumps and begin filling the H3T alongside the GT-R. My pump stops at 6.5 gallons, but Jason's keeps running until it clicks off at 9.7 gallons. So there is an upshot to my performance, after all. "You may have gotten here first," I tell Jason, "but if you cared about the environment, you'd have driven a Hummer."

71 and sunny right now in LA.

They're not that different...

Agreed. In China there's a 2.4L four-cylinder (164 hp) and a turbocharged 2.0L (217 hp). The 2.8T AWD is a gas-guzzler in the 9-3.

You could always get the two-tone beige interior with fake wood to make it more "Buick"-like. Maybe the US Regal will come with an analog clock on the LCD screen. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of the interior, but it's good enough if it were available now. It's certainly better than the current US LaCrosse's. edit: I just noticed the Regal has a Buick steering wheel that's different from the Insignia's. I like it.

Tonight when I was driving home, my dashboard beeped and scared the crap out of me. It wanted to tell me that it was 39F outside. It was the first time it ever happened... I don't think I've ever driven on snow or ice.

I love white. A CTS-V in Lambo sparkling white would be my dream car.

Apart from the tacked-on fender vents, looks good to me... it'll make a wonderful Buick and like change Americans perception of the brand...

Regardless if it'll be a Buick, Pontiac, or Saturn, why didn't GM NA plan this from the get go? 2011 is waaay too late. The new Regal, assembled near Shanghai, is already in Chinese showrooms. Same thing with the new Fiesta, which is locally produced in both Europe and China.

Green innovations are cool... but IMO it's more noteworthy when produced in mass scale (e.g., Toyota's Prius, 1 million sales; GM's flex fuel vehicles, 3 million).

I can see the list being applied to other ethnic groups as well... +1 on the New Balances. I love my 768s (made in the US) with superfeet insoles... whenever I wear my Vans or anything else it feels like I'm walking around in leg shackles. It's a shame they look so dorky. The 420s and 574s aren't too bad.

The Volt is MY 2011 and, according to GM, will arrive November 2010.

The sort of people who whine and complain about emissions and sprawl in California are certainly not the ones driving BMWs or Audis or "import SUVs." No, they are the ones who want to see the total elimination of the automobile and are disgusted and embarrassed by the concept of an automobile-based city like Los Angeles. They listen to people like Chicagoland, and then say, "See, we should only have anti-sprawl city centers, bustling downtowns, walkable communities, narrow streets, community farms, and lofts. Cars are evil."

Wow, I never knew that. The LS seems so much bigger in person, both inside and out.

Wow, that actually looks very good. The Lucerne is unnecessarily large and space-inefficient; I think this new LaCrosse will be good enough to replace it in terms of segmentation. Hopefully there will be a Regal (Insignia) to slot underneath it.

I like that idea - a scaled-down Saab brand modeled after MINI. Saab can focus on small, eco-friendly niche cars, while Cadillac can take on the sports sedan and luxury SUV market. There's nothing wrong with having multiple brands, so long as each one makes a profit. I assume Saab's current operations are simply too large and too costly relative to their sales, so downsizing seems like a viable option, more so than abolishing the brand altogether and incurring Oldsmobilian costs in the process. It's the same for Pontiac and Buick - which can be even leaner than Saab, by not having core products of their own to develop. There are many fine Holdens and Opels appropriate for the two brands. In theory, having just two brands - one mainstream, one luxury - would be most efficient, but GM has obligations to fulfill and history to reckon with.