pow

It needs to have a face-off with the Fiat Multipla... http://www.veoh.com/videos/v348414tFeZcdYz

"PRIMATE THEME..!!!:

IMO that's because outward visibility in the back is poor, it's narrower inside, and I have to slouch to get enough rear headroom. But yes, the CTS is hot and no-excuses good-looking.

Speaking of midsize fun-to-drive, the Fusion is underrated IMO. It drives a lot like the last-gen Passat - soft suspension tuning, but good steering and light on its feet. If anything it's even better, because the back end feels a lot more planted, not in the form of stiffness or damping, but in individual wheel control (?). Perhaps the rear multilink design allows a soft ride and control, avoiding the floatiness found on many twist beam (old Passat FWD) or strut (Camry) cars.

... at the expense of ride quality. It might get better numbers on the test track, but the Accord has a better ride-and-handling compromise. The EX 4-cylinder I drove reminds me of a 5-series, in that it was firm and communicative but still very comfortable and composed. The SE-tuned Camry is on the jittery side, IMO, especially in the back. A pet peeve I have with the Camry is the amount of steering kickback, while not providing any real steering feel.

I don't remember off the top of my head, but there are definitely stats on CO2 emissions from ports. In LA, a third of NOx and something like 40% of PM come from ships idling on bunker fuel. Yes, those aren't GHGs, but they indirectly contribute to warming, and thei immediate health effects are far more serious.

Yep, proposals range from $20 billion in low-interest "Green Vehicle Bonds" for domestic automakers to battery R&D funding, increasing the competitiveness of domestic cars in the American marketplace. Of course there is the argument that people keep cars much longer than food items, and that over time, the emissions from shipment may be offset by differences in fuel efficiency.

Nope, we want to #1 over #2, don't we?

The choices are still there. In addition to deciding who to buy from based on cost, quality, convenience, and so on, you can also factor in food miles. Sure, some hold the mindset of only buying domestic (food) as a directive, but not all.

Yeah, I found out the Odyssey had one... by mistake... On all our other cars, including the Bimmer with a 5L40E, there isn't one. It's sealed for "life", but if you want to check the ATF level, you need to park on level ground, climb underneath, unbolt the fill plug, and take a peek. If there's too much for any reason, it'll drain out.

Probably an MPG-equivalent in terms of CO2 emissions from electricity produced from coal. From what I remember reading GM-Volt.com, a discussed test procedure is driving the Volt until the electricity runs out, then doing one cycle (6 miles) with the generator on. So if, say, the Volt gets 75 "MPG" over 40 miles of electricity and 50 MPG over 6 miles of gasoline, it averages 70.4 MPG.

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drive...rticleId=123695 Vehicle Tested: 2008 Chevrolet Malibu LTZ 4dr Sedan (3.6L 6cyl 6A) MSRP of Test Vehicle: $27,245 Price It!! What Works: Handsome styling inside and out; fit and finish jumps a leap forward; sure-footed chassis; not-too-hard/not-too-soft ride tuning. What Needs Work: Noisy power steering; rear seat feels compartmentalized for 6-footers; one-dimensional mpg-oriented transmission. Bottom Line: The new Malibu jumps smack in the middle of most consideration lists. It might even sell well to the lost generation in California. A Lot More Than "Most Improved" By Dan Edmunds, Director of Vehicle Testing Email | Blog Date posted: 11-28-2007 STORY TOOLS Print thisPrint this Save thisSave this Digg this storyDigg this! Email thisEmail this Most PopularMost popular del.icio.usdel.icio.us Ever experience the Law of Automotive Similarity? You know, whatever you drive, you'll see it in great numbers? Well, we've been driving a 2008 Chevrolet Malibu LTZ sedan around for a couple of weeks now, and we've not seen very many other examples of any Chevy Malibu from recent model years. The irony is deafening, as our offices are close enough to the real Malibu, California, for us to dash there for lunch. And it's no illusion. Based on figures we've heard recently, the 2007 Chevy Malibu is struggling to reach a total of just 1,000 sales for the year in the entire state of California. (That's 37.7 million people, more than 12 percent of the nation.) Yikes. The Chevy brass knows it has to do something significant to put the 2008 Chevrolet Malibu on the shopping list of Americans from coast to coast (much less in California), and take advantage of the way in which stratospheric gas prices are pushing consumers back into sedans. Just One Look On looks alone, the 2008 Chevrolet Malibu LTZ represents a giant step in the right direction. Sleek and handsome in the Dark Gray that Chevrolet has chosen as the car's signature color to help reinforce its upmarket aspirations, this car looks like the fitter, hipper younger brother when parked beside a dowdy '07 Malibu (still to be sold to commercial fleets as the 2008 Malibu Classic). And its straightforward design makes some of the Japanese competition seem downright quirky. Much the same can be said for the interior, where a sweeping bi-level design theme replaces the featureless wasteland of the current Malibu. GM designers have succeeded in creating visual interest without crossing into distraction. Opinions split over our test car's two-tone Ebony-and-Brick interior treatment, partly because the Brick dash panels seem a tad too orange and don't look as authentic as the matching leather seat inserts. Still in all, the Malibu shows us that improving interior design has become a broad priority at GM. Climb Inside Front seat occupants will find that head- and legroom are good, and the flowing design hasn't imposed obvious restrictions on the control layout; everything pretty much works and makes sense. The steering wheel tilts and telescopes, and the pedals slide fore and aft. If you can't fit here, you're probably making too much money as an NBA forward to care. We can't say the same of the backseat. In a word, it's tight. Despite a 6-inch wheelbase stretch to 112.3 inches (the longest in its class), the 2008 Malibu still offers almost an inch less rear legroom than before. The Chevy matches up well on paper against its competition because of a deep clearance channel in the front seatbacks, but this cutout is narrow enough to box our 6-foot-2 person's knees together. Our big guys also disliked the looming proximity of the rear doors. Rear shoulder room trails the main competition by at least 2.5 inches — a result of a relatively narrow width (70.3 inches overall), a high rear beltline and other styling considerations. A fold-down center armrest to lean on might have helped, but there isn't one. Drive Time These and other basic dimensions come straight from GM's Epsilon chassis that the 2008 Malibu shares with the Saturn Aura. So it's no surprise that our top-level Malibu LTZ carries the same 252-horsepower 3.6-liter double-overhead-cam V6 with variable valve timing that we've seen in the Aura. Unencumbered by the low-revving pushrods and restrictive two-valve heads of last year's 3.5-liter GM V6, the LTZ sprints to 60 mph in an energetic 6.6 seconds, finishing the quarter-mile in 15.1 seconds at 92.9 mph. A silky-smooth six-speed automatic is the only transmission paired with the 3.6 V6. But fuel economy considerations make it determined to get into high gear and stay there, so it dithers between cogs when climbing hills and lacks grade logic to keep speed in check on descents. At least the Malibu's brakes are solid, as stops from 60 mph use up only 124 feet of real estate, which puts the LTZ among the best sedans in its category. Nifty dual-action shift paddles that move with the spokes of the steering wheel are welcome at this price point, but pressing them only does something when we commit the console lever to Manual mode range. Other carmakers have recognized that certain driving situations are helped by letting the driver command a temporary downshift while the lever remains in Drive. Despite the best efforts of the transmission, the EPA-certified fuel economy of 17 mpg city and 26 highway remains a couple of points shy of the class-leading 2008 Honda Accord V6. We averaged 22.5 mpg over nearly 2,600 miles of combined driving, including a long-haul trip from Memphis to Los Angeles. Our Malibu weighed in at 3,643 pounds — within two or three bowling balls of an Accord V6. Cruising Correctly Our Malibu LTZ's ride slots comfortably between the extremes of too hard and too soft. There's enough control tuned into the MacPherson strut front and multilink rear suspension to keep things interesting and composed on back roads, but not so much that the ride becomes harsh and tiresome. The occasional bump will come through along with a hollow impact sound, but our drivers always got the impression of a crummy road, not a sloppy chassis. The cruise from Memphis provided ample opportunity to verify that Chevy's claim of top-notch noise abatement is largely true, particularly in the area of wind noise. Full-perimeter door seals and double-layer window glass for the front seats do indeed keep the ruckus down. In fact, the wind noise is low enough that some of us felt the Malibu makes what would otherwise be an unremarkable amount of road noise more noticeable than you'd expect. But the picture isn't all rosy, as the NVH fairy forgot to bless the hydraulic power steering. Pump flow noise and vibration are apparent at idle and get louder with subtle steering inputs. It's the same complaint we've had with our long-term Saturn Aura. We've seen it done a lot better than this without resorting to electric power steering. Smoking Up the Track During freeway cruising, the steering seemed wooly and lifeless, with little on-center steering feel, although the actual steering response is linear and the effort builds up well in corners. A veneer of friction stops us from saying the steering has good feel, but the overall performance of the Malibu's rack-and-pinion steering is solidly midpack for the class. So it's no surprise that our LTZ slithered through our slalom course in a composed and unruffled manner at a respectable 64.5 mph. It also hurtled around our skid pad at 0.80g — better than most similarly priced sedans. And that's no smokescreen. But a cloud of smoke billowed from our Malibu's tailpipe during its clockwise run around the skid pad. Further investigation revealed that some oil had been slung past the valve cover breather and into the intake tract. We've tested our long-term Aura XR V6 the same way and have never seen this behavior. And we were unable to replicate the smoke by flinging the Malibu at a few freeway cloverleafs we know. Dollars and Sense The price of the Malibu has gone up, but the overall design and quality impression has gone up more. Including destination charges, our test LTZ stickers at $27,245: $26,995 for the base LTZ plus $250 for a rear 110-volt power outlet. As before, this puts the bottom line of the Malibu a couple of thousand under the competition, yet the surprise is that the Malibu no longer feels a couple of thousand less good than its rivals. As it stands, the 2008 Chevrolet Malibu deserves a place alongside the class leaders on the shopping list for mainstream sedans. And real greatness is within reach if Chevy puts just a few dollars more into refining one or two specific areas, like the steering. We'll know the 2008 Chevrolet Malibu is a hit when it starts to be a common sight in, er, Malibu. The manufacturer provided Edmunds this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.

How is pulling up to a farmer's market, buying a bag of oranges, then leaving "restricting" your life any more than pulling up to a supermarket, buying a bag of oranges, and then leaving??

Point taken, but these people aren't telling rural residents to move into urban environments. Rather they look to existing urban-but-low-density (suburb) residents to consider more centralized, higher-density living when appropriate, as a means to mitigate some of the urban sprawl and traffic. Los Angeles is the ultimate example of freeway-driven urban sprawl from everybody wanting a piece of that pseudo-countryside life.

You can drive whatever you want, pollute however much you want, IMO, but you should be responsible for paying the true cost of these actions, which for sure shouldn't be subsidized.

+1/Agreed/Spot On/Amen! Also try making better food choices. Food production, distribution, and consumption have enormous implications on the climate. Buying local, organic (when appropriate; e.g. not organic garlic grown in China), trying out a farmers market or CSA when feasible, won't result in testicular shrinkage, nor will it turn you into a "Starbucks-sipping", "tiny eyeglass-wearing" CR-V driver. It will, however, reduce food miles..

No one is advocating a utopia in which everybody must live the colorful, adjective-laden world of regfootball's brain. No, people are advocating incremental policy changes that encourage and allow people the option to live closer to their workplace, use the most suitable form of transport, buy local (aka American) when possible, and ultimately reduce their carbon and pollutant footprint.

Cars in the US alone account for 5% of anthropogenic CO2. Here was my response... Yes, but as we know from the carbon cycle, nature's release of CO2 is balanced by biological and physical processes (i.e. natural sinks), that remove nature's CO2 from our atmosphere. It is this unaccounted 4%, the 27,000,000 thousands of tons humans emit annually, that exceeds the balancing effect of sinks, resulting in the measured increase of atmospheric CO2 concentration (currently at 380 ppm). IMO the fact that one nation's automobiles are responsible for *five percent* of the world's net CO2 is staggering. We need action, whether it's higher fuel economy standards as Congress proposes, or higher gas taxes as this author proposes. Of course, we need cooperation from other emitting nations as well, but developed nations have the greatest potential for reducing GHGs. It's odd how we're so skeptical about things we don't like, yet we completely gloss over the misleading when it's something we agree with.

I just came back from a conference on the health impacts of the goods-movement industry on communities, and believe me, cars are just one of the many pollution-reduction sources people target. In LA, it's all about ships that burn bunker fuel 1,000 times dirtier than ULSD, ports that waste energy through inefficient cranes and other equipment, the consequent water quality degradation, the nasty semis still on the road after 15 years, and China. As car enthusiasts, it might seem as if the public focuses too much on cars, but scientists, advocacy groups, and legislators tend to look at it holistically.

Auto industry backs CAFE deal I love how impossible the industry made it seem, predicting dire consequences, extreme costs, the loss of thousands of jobs, and so on, yet the moment they realize their lobbying efforts ineffective and the results inevitable, they openly embrace it. Companies naturally fight change, preferring to stick with what's easiest, while opposing interest groups apply pressure, ultimately creating a nice check and balance that results in a happy compromise. With the end of cheap oil, fuel efficiency will improve anyway. Frankly I'm optimistic we'll exceed these goals, and with this change from fighting to cooperation, CAFE merely signals the start of a more concentrated effort. We can DOOO it!

Here's their test of the LT 4-cylinder model from November... http://www.caranddriver.com/shortroadtests...-malibu-lt.html

The Altima and Maxima have different wheelbases, overall lengths, widths, heights, engine outputs, and interior dimensions; hence they're not called twins. I have no problem calling the Acadia, Outlook, and Enclave "the Lambda triplets" as together they were released as a game-changing set of CUVs from the beginning. It's the same story when GM rolled out the GMT900 SUVs - they're even more differentiated than the Lambdas, sure, but they're undeniably from the same family. As far as ES and Camry, the Lexus occupies a different segment and price from the Toyota, through additional amenities and higher quality. The Lambdas, on the other hand, occupy the same segment and differ minimally in price, and preferences are made based on taste and personal inclination. Do you prefer a youthful Saturn, a contemporary GMC, or a traditional Buick? If you can be bothered, some comparably-equipped Lambdas... Lightly optioned... Acadia SLE FWD 3SA w/ US9, PCM: $31,235 Outlook XR FWD w/ PCU, TVD: $32,335 Enclave CX FWD w/ US9, ABC: $33,475 All include: - 18" alloys - 8 passenger seating - XM - leather-wrap wheel (leather/wood on Enclave) - wheel-mounted radio controls - Xenon headlights (except Acadia) - Foglights - Auto A/C - 10 spk 6-disc CD - Autodimming mirror (except Acadia) - 6 way power driver seat (8 way power on Outlook) - 2 way power passenger seat (except Outlook) - Homelink (except Acadia) Pricing is nearly identical once you factor in the few differences in equipment availability (i.e. if you could add $1,100 for Xenon, Homelink, autodim on the Acadia). Nearly fully-loaded... Outlook XR AWD w/ UZR, C3U, U42, PCQ, PCZ, PDC, PDD, PCU, TVD, ABB, DK1: $43,550 Acadia SLT 4SB w/ UZR, C3U, U42, P64, DK1: $44,635 Enclave CXL AWD w/ UZR, PCI, C3U: $43,330 All include: - Xenons - heated leather - 19" alloys - 7 passenger seating - 2nd row console - navigation - rear DVD player - hot windshield fluid - park assist - remote start - 8 way power driver seat w/ power lumbar and memory - 4 way power passenger seat w/ power lumbar - dual sunroofs - power folding, driver-side dim mirrors (Outlook)

In the same way IIHS puts in small print "with optional electronic stability control" for the Taurus, Sable, Legacy, Impreza, and Forester, the IIHS should put in small print "with 2WD models only, or 4WD models in 2WD" for the Tundra.

No, it won't, because the Shadow does not come with ESC.

Yes, it will, because the 1998 Eldorado ETC came with Stabilitrak, which is GM-speak for ESC.