Flybrian

It will be a dealer-installed option.

The Cadillac CTS: The Future of Rock 'n' Roll in Cars By Bill Howard | Link to Original Article @ Technoride I've seen the future of rock 'n' roll in cars—and its name is the 2008 Cadillac CTS. Ditto for the future of classical music, hip-hop, and country. Unless Cadillac screws up royally between now and the car's launch in August, the CTS will have the most versatile audio system ever developed for a motor vehicle. I could tell at today's press briefing, just from sitting in the car—parked in an outdoor courtyard at a fancy New York City restaurant—and tinkering with the center stack. The CTS is Cadillac's small luxury/sport sedan, sent out to do battle with the BMW 3 Series, Mercedes C-Class, Audi A4, Infiniti G35, and Lexus is350. Though it's fully renewed for the 2008 model year, we don't yet know how well the CTS handles driving through mountain passes. But when you're cruising on the highway, nothing is going to beat Cadillac for breadth of audio sources and musical entertainment. Here's why: Cadillac's center-stack design team (the engineers responsible for what goes in the middle of the dashboard) thought it through better than anyone else has so far, and then implemented every possible feature you could want. In this category, you need solid electronics hardware, to start with. Cadillac teamed up with Bose, which should delight all but the worst of the audio snobs (who think Bose is forty years of hype). The navigation module comes from Alpine, one of my favorites. The hard disk comes from Toshiba, and what's important to us is the 40GB capacity. Roughly half is available for ripping music. (The other half goes for navigation data.) Satellite radio? XM is included. Line-in jack? Of course. USB socket? Check. iPod compatibility? Part of the USB configuration. Database for music lookup? The latest version. Touchscreen display for ease of use or cockpit control knob for tech buffs? It has both. Plays MP3, WMA, and AAC files off CDs? All of them, and even rips (transfers) MP3 CD data (some cars with hard drives rip only music from the original CDs). So far, so good? There's more. Cadillac added a TiVo-like feature that caches a rolling hour's worth of audio from the radio or satellite radio. So if you like a song and want to hear it again, just hit the rewind button. With satellite radio music, the recorder uses the track/artist/time-of-day information to insert bookmarks at the start of each song, so you can find what you want quickly. (For AM/FM radio, the skip feature works in 30-second increments.) There are a couple of gotchas: If you change from satellite to radio, or even station to station, the cache flushes. And Cadillac won't let you save favorite XM satellite songs to the hard disk the way the Pioneer Inno handheld XM receiver does. Why not? "Because they [Pioneer] are in litigation," explained engineer Charles Massoll. But bless the engineers: The feature was engineered into the audio system but not activated, so if the recording industry ever decides features are good if they get music fans to listen to more music, it's ready and waiting. The CTS uses a new generation of Gracenote tools. There's the usual artist, song, album data called MusicID, which lets the car add that information when a CD plays or is ripped to the hard disk. In addition, says Vadim Brenner, a Gracenote senior product manager, there's additional editorial information about each CD and song, such as era (when the music was recorded), artist type, region of origin, and genre—not just rock, classical, and jazz, but 1,600 mini-genres. That allows for a "Play More Like" button that finds all the music on your hard disk (or 2GB memory key) just like the music you're now hearing. The navigation system has one nice feature. When you identify a favorite—say, McDonald's—and press one of the six onscreen buttons to assign it as a favorite, the nav finds not that McDonald's but the nearest McDonald's, or similarly, Home Depot, or Hooters. You can restrict the search to not just the nearest favorite but the one that's on your route if you're navigating. So if the closest Waldenbooks is two miles behind you on the expressway, it points you to the one five miles ahead in the direction you're headed. The nav system also has XM NavTraffic, with traffic updates that can be overlaid on your map—nice, but not unique to the CTS. You can even get the multi-day forecast for the city you're headed to. The Cadillac CTS comes closer than any other car I've seen to date in providing the kind of entertainment features and telematics tools the driver and passengers want. But here's what the CTS missed on: Limited recording capability. Cadillac could have let you record individual songs off XM for your enjoyment, as noted above. Okay, so they'd get sued by the recording industry. No Bluetooth. Incredible to believe, but the CTS doesn't integrate Bluetooth. No integration between Alpine navigation and OnStar Turn-By-Turn navigation. With TBT, you call an operator (OnStar Advisor) and tell the operator where you want to go, and the route instructions are downloaded to the car. If you can press a button, you can use this kind of navigation. Unfortunately, the instructions are shown not on the 8-inch widescreen LCD but on the simple multi-information display next to the speedometer, and there's no way to use the OnStar download to program the route on your real navigation system. "Soon," says Cadillac's Massoll. No transflective display. The display pops up from the dash and looked plenty bright under the shade of several trees in the restaurant courtyard (this is not your usual New York City eatery). But when you've seen a transflective display, as on the BMW 3 Series convertible, you're spoiled for how good a display can be in direct sunlight. Other than Bluetooth, these are relatively minor issues. Cadillac appears to be in the lead, at least on audio entertainment technology, with the new CTS. We'll drive one the minute it's released.

:rotflmao:

2004. Optional only on the 4cyl GX trim (coupe and sedan).

Member Deleted

Bill Richardson. Period.

I love the iPhone because its rolling out on middle-rung 2G technology yet idiots are waiting days in line to buy one. Go ahead and get your overpriced non-ergo "phone" device while I get my 3G-capable phone for a fraction of the price and be able to stream video and not be locked into a 2+ year service agreement with AT&T.

GM Developing Small Engine in Korea, China New motor partners with Daewoo, Suzuki By ALYSHA WEBB | Link to Original Article @ AutoWeek | Published 06/26/07, 12:03 pm et SHANGHAI -- General Motors is developing an engine in Korea and China that may be used globally to replace GM's 1.6-liter engine, say supplier and other sources. The engine is being developed jointly at GM Daewoo Auto & Technology, which is a GM subsidiary in Korea; and the Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center Co. in Shanghai. It will be available in 1.4- and 1.6-liter versions. GM Daewoo said it will not comment on future programs. The new engine would be useful in the United States, where GM does not have any engines under 1.6 liters, says a consultant familiar with the project. As gasoline hovers at historically high prices in the United States, sales of small cars with efficient engines are rising. GM's smallest engine in North America is a 1.6-liter inline four-cylinder in the Chevrolet Aveo, which is assembled by GM Daewoo. The engine being developed in China and Korea is based on a GM Daewoo engine now being produced at Shanghai General Motors, GM's joint venture here. That engine is derived from a Suzuki design. Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center is owned jointly by GM and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. Production of the new engine will start in 2009. Sources say it will be produced at a GM engine plant in Qingdao, in the northeast China province of Shandong.

Thank you. That told me everything I needed to know. Your knowledge stuns me.

Well, I know the right fender is from an Electra Limited...

So...any of you vintage ironheads want to educate a fuel injection guy a little on how to rebuild a carb?

Clock work?

? Definitely grey market. I saw an older, Mercedes-badged SMART at the local SuperTarget last week. Had some attorney's face plastered all over it.

Chances of a Mid-Engined C7 Corvette? Link to Original Article @ Winding Road This issue of Winding Road showcases a discussion with some analysts and experts about the direction the next Corvette is going to take and while its all but certain that the C7 will be a front-engine rear-wheel drive car as it has been for over a half century, the possibility is entertained that a mid-engined 'Vette could be sold alongside a tradtional one. Click here for the article in its entirety. Quick notes: Final designs have been submitted to Ed Wellburn from design teams this June. C7 (GMX711) will debut in 2011, coinciding with Chevrolet's centennial. One possibility is for a mid-engined platform to be shared between Chevy (s/c V8) and Cadillac (V12). Due to hamstrung V8s in the mid/late-1970s, designers heavily explored mid-engined V6 powertrains for the C4. Many of those concepts ended up in the Pontiac Fiero.

I will say, though, it gives you something to read.

Make me a badge that says, "Large Chrome Badge."

The Escalade hybrid gives people the ability to be green and cool, not cool in a greenish way. Prius is faux-cool. If it had a 1.8, everyone would laugh at it even more. This shows one doesn't have to compromise.

Bonnie's all about the excess.

Actually, let's. Because Toyota continuted to advertise the Avalon at this specious 270hp rating for quite some time though it had absolutely no reason to be using a clearly false figure.

New Camry badges are all woefully misaligned. Also, some the tailgate badge on the back of the Ranger is about a billion times too large. I also like the small-penile V8 TITAN badges.

Soaring Wrangler sales anchor slumping Jeep division David Aguilar | Associated Press | Link to Original Article @ DetNews DETROIT -- Apparently, the Jeep Wrangler is rugged -- and capable of hauling an entire division out of the swamp. The popular two- and four-door sport utility is coming off its best-ever May while buoying a slumping Jeep division beset by declining sales. According to Autodata Corp., Jeep sold 12,332 Wranglers in May, up 114 percent compared to the same month last year. For the year, 54,699 Wranglers have been sold, an 85 percent increase compared to last year. Strong Wrangler sales also helped fuel an overall 20 percent May sales increase for Jeep and a 12 percent year-to-date increase compared to last year. "The Jeep Wrangler is the icon of the brand," said Chrysler Group spokesman Markus Mainka, adding that no incentives have been offered since the vehicle was redesigned and released last September from a retooled Ohio plant. Based on Autodata figures, the Wrangler accounted for about 29 percent of Jeep's total May vehicle sales and 27 percent of the division's 2007 sales to date. Wrangler's strong showing last month also boosted the Chrysler Group division's market share of U.S. light vehicles from 2.4 percent to 2.7 percent last month. For 2007, Jeep's market share increased from 2.6 percent to 3.0 percent. Industry analyst Alex Rosten said redesigning the Wrangler was the key to Jeep's recent success. "Now they can't make enough of them," said Rosten, an analyst for EdmundsObserver.com. "It's always better to expand existing product lines than create a new one." But the Wrangler's success contrasts with slumping sales for other Jeep products. According to Autodata, every other Jeep vehicle for which comparative statistics were available posted negative marks, led by the Liberty's 39 percent sales decline compared with May 2006, and its 28 percent year-to-date decline compared to last year. Grand Cherokee sales fell 18 percent in May and 20 percent for the year to date, while Jeep Commander sales fell 9.7 percent in May and 10 percent so far this year. According to Jeep officials, May sales for the Compass totaled 3,735, while 4,505 Patriots were sold. In 2007, Jeep has sold 18,812 Compass models and 10,336 Patriots. Both vehicles are in their first year of production. "We develop each vehicle to appeal to a different kind of customer," said Chrysler spokesman Dan Bodene. He said introducing the Compass and Patriot was an attempt to enter new markets by leveraging the company's recognizable nameplate. Bodene said Jeep will work harder to deliver the message about its core products and may offer new incentives. Rosten said that might not be enough. He said the Grand Cherokee is "too old," while new models like the Compass and Patriot are "too redundant." "Jeep has shot itself in the foot by releasing the Patriot and the Compass," he said. "By doing so, they have cannibalized other products, like the Liberty." On Tuesday, Jeep canceled its scheduled announcement of a new advertising campaign developed by Cutwater, a San Francisco-based advertising agency. Chrysler officials said the postponement until later this week was due to a scheduling conflict and had nothing to do with recently released sales numbers.

GM cars play action heroes in 'Transformers' Ann Job | Link to Original Article @ DetNews HOLLYWOOD, Calif . -- The folks at General Motors Corp. are walking around a little starry-eyed these days, with an extra spring in their step and Hasbro toys in their hands. In a product placement coup, four GM vehicles, including a new generation Chevrolet Camaro due out in 2009, won starring roles in the heavily hyped new action flick, "Transformers." While automakers regularly wheel and deal to place their cars in films, GM's vehicles are cast as shape-shifting action stars in the expected summer blockbuster directed by Michael Bay. "This is a wonderful opportunity for General Motors to get its product in front of millions of people," said Tim Calkins, clinical professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. "It keeps (GM) current; it builds awareness." While vehicles starring in a movie won't necessarily "drive people into showrooms like a rebate program will drive them into showrooms, it will reach people in a very different setting," he said. The other GM stars in "Transformer" are the Pontiac Solstice, a Hummer H2 and GMC TopKick pickup truck. "We're the heroes, all four of our vehicles are good guys," said Dino Bernacchi, who oversees GM's movie deals. "They all are cool cars that fit the personalities of the characters." GM officials will be on hand for today's Hollywood premiere of the DreamWorks Pictures and Paramount Pictures production. The movie opens Tuesday. If you're not up on Transformers lore, it was a popular toy line and TV cartoon in the 1980s and has a cult following worldwide. Good autobots battle evil Decepticon robots, with cars and trucks transforming from vehicles into giant robots. More than meets the eye GM officials didn't have to search out this film opportunity. Hollywood came to them, even before the automaker's executives had decided to show a Camaro concept coupe at the auto show in Detroit in 2006, and later to put the new Camaro into production. "This is the ruby of rubies for a car company," said Michael Bay, "Transformers" director. Bay previously worked with GM on "Bad Boys II" and "Armageddon." Still, GM wasn't a shoo-in for the prime vehicle roles. In fact, Bay initially was considering another carmaker for at least one character. The original Bumblebee autobot was a yellow Volkswagen Beetle. But the yellow Camaro concept became the inspiration for the movie Bumblebee after Bay saw a picture of the concept car and later a full-scale model. It's a perfect fit because "it's a muscle car and still state of the art," he said. "The biggest problem was that the car wasn't being made." This didn't stop Steve Tihanyi, who was then overseeing GM's movie deals, and the automaker's design staff from using whatever they could to create the Camaro and fiberglass shells in time for filming in 2006. Tihanyi is a Cadillac regional/divisional marketing manager. Pontiac's Solstice won the role of Jazz, which was played by a Porsche in the cartoon. The Solstice also had to be created because GM was only selling it as a convertible as filming began. Bay wanted Jazz to be a gray, hardtop Solstice. Search-and-rescue vehicle Ratchet is played by a Hummer H2 that's painted a fluorescent light green and modified with a winch and brush guard in front, shovels on its sides and off-road lights. And rugged off-roader Ironhide is played by a GMC TopKick pickup truck with a Duramax diesel engine. Ford Motor Co. also has a presence in "Transformers." A Saleen Mustang police car, complete with light bar on the roof and a push bar, is a Decepticon. Endless possibilities The film is poised to attract a wide audience, which means the exposure for GM's vehicles, especially the Camaro, could be huge. "The fact is, we're showcasing really exciting products, like the Hummer, like the Solstice and the Camaro, and they can be cool and hip for a new generation worldwide," Tihanyi said. GM won't release details of its studio financial arrangement. The film's debut is just the start of marketing opportunities. "Transformers" is expected to be out on DVD before Christmas, and Hasbro already has crafted toys of the film characters. "You're talking about a film that should bring in $700 million to $1 billion across the globe. You don't always get these big, blockbuster opportunities," Tihanyi said. It may be only the beginning for GM's "Transformer" stardom. The movie's ending leaves plenty of room for a sequel.