Flybrian

Extremely light on info, but its a "V8 auto" (duh). Sticker on the window says $600 CASH I think. Hmmm... Clicky

Hey, if its worth it, Cort...I'll get up there and back. Again, the criteria for a car far away is that it can make it to its new home. That's it.

Will certainly do!

Got it and we're working on it.

Wow. Cool, though. You could always masquerade at night as CapriceMan, a dashing man who rights Michigan's wrongs in his swanky Caprice sedan...

What's your dead-end job?

And just for 68...

Yes. Please take a picture of piece of $h! Sebring. Just kidding! I'm actually interested...how is the cargo room in the trunk?

I humbly submit that we should wait for the crime to occur before we condemn and execute the accused. We haven't even seen a spyshot of this thing yet.

I heard for '07 the Rendezvous got the Series III.

$12,000 = CPO Civic, last year's Cobalt, etc...

They realize the tires are lousy track performers because they're low-rolling-resistance, right? Probably not because they don't seem to realize much. $100 less than the Prius? When have you seen a Prius go for MSRP? And why would you want to drive around looking like an embarasment in a cheese wedge? AURA qualifies for the $2000 tax rebate that the Prius won't in short time. They get low recorded fuel economy after flogging the $h! out of the car. Uh, guess what, most people don't drive a skidpad and do a track day all day every day, but that doesn't matter. Saturn still makes a piece of $h!. Better yet, read the comments in their own forum to get an accurate glimpse of this car... Clicky

I still hold out hopes for a five-seater GMT-355 successor-based Trailblazer.

Finally, a Chevy crossover GM rushes to fill the void in the brand's lineup Sharon Terlep | Link to Original Article @ The Detroit News Artist Conception by MJDecker DETROIT -- General Motors Corp. is winning over critics and customers with its trio of new large crossover vehicles for its GMC, Saturn and Buick brands. But when the automaker started developing a crossover strategy several years ago, it left out its top-selling Chevrolet brand, which had the well-established TrailBlazer SUV. But as the market shifted dramatically away from traditional SUVs, TrailBlazer sales cratered and Chevy was left without a crossover, which has become one of the hottest vehicle segments. It's a decision GM is hustling to correct. The automaker is in the late stages of developing a new Chevy crossover -- likely to be named the Traverse -- off the same basic architecture as the well-regarded new Saturn Outlook, GMC Acadia and upcoming Buick Enclave, according to people familiar with the plan. The Chevy crossover, which combines SUV features with a car-like ride and fuel efficiency, is slated for production next year. "It seems like they're realizing, 'We have a home run here, we'd better get these to our volume dealers,' " said dealer Steve Cook, who sells Chevrolet, Buick and GMC vehicles at his Vassar dealership. "With Chevy being my main line, it would help to have one." GM's course correction comes as the company is overhauling its product development system to allow it to react more swiftly to shifting consumer tastes and bring vehicles to market faster. TrailBlazer sales fall off The idea for a Chevy crossover was considered several years ago but discarded because GM was reaping big profits from the hot-selling TrailBlazer. But volatile gas prices and SUV fatigue sent customers away from midsize SUVs in droves. GM plans to stop selling the TrailBlazer by 2010. GM spokesman Chris Preuss declined to discuss product plans but said Chevrolet has a gap in its lineup. "With the decline in the midsize of the utility segment, we haven't had anything to fill the void," Preuss said. "The (crossover) package was so well done, they've appealed to customers." Seizing an opportunity to reach former SUV buyers, nearly every automaker has come out with a crossover in recent years. The Acadia, Outlook and Enclave, all built in Lansing, have been among the more well received. Ford Motor Co. has won praise and seen solid sales for its new Edge crossover. Monthly sales for the Outlook and Acadia have doubled since January. The vehicles accounted for almost 4 percent of GM's overall sales in April, compared to 1 percent in January. The Enclave is just now reaching showrooms. Chevrolet sales, meanwhile, have fallen 6 percent. A crossover might not have negated the decline, but the fact the TrailBlazer accounts for nearly a third of Chevy's sales indicated a crossover offering might have helped keep some buyers. Tenn. will build vehicle It wasn't until about two years ago, shortly before the public was getting its first look at GM's crossover concepts, that a Chevy version began to become a reality again. GM realized then that the TrailBlazer didn't have a future. Since designers had experimented with a Chevy design for the segment, GM was able to make quick progress. Last month, the automaker cut a deal with UAW workers at its plant in Spring Hill, Tenn., to have the vehicle built there. While acknowledging that Chevrolet would have benefited from having a crossover sooner, especially as fuel prices rattle car buyers, the situation isn't dire, said Troy Clarke, GM's president of North America. Demand for the crossovers is robust and GM is coming out with a slew of new vehicles in the next couple of years. Also important to consider is that crossovers remain a relatively small piece of the auto business, said Jesse Toprak, chief economist for Edmunds.com. The segment accounts for about 11 percent of vehicles sold in the U.S. Cook, the GM dealer, is driving an Enclave, and constantly fields questions from fawning friends and neighbors. But the Enclave is a bit pricey, starting at about $33,000, and Cook thinks a cheaper Chevrolet version could draw more business. "I think a lot of dealers felt cheated," he said.

Naturally, within driving distance (~30 miles) is preferred so I can take a peek and drive. It would have to be a special car with the ability to make it to Florida on its own steam otherwise.

Seriously, how can you get up in the morning, drive this outside of a golf course, and still respect yourself?

Smart Fortwo is lovable, but not the wisest choice By Dan Neil |Los Angeles Times Link to Original Article @ DetNews "Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is Man." -- Alexander Pope Want to know thyself better? Gauge your reaction to this car, the Smart Fortwo, a four-wheeled flea built by Smart -- a subsidiary of DaimlerChrysler -- to be imported to the United States in the first quarter of 2008. Measuring 106.1 inches long and weighing just under 1,650 pounds, the Fortwo soon will be, by an astonishing margin, the smallest gas-powered car on the market: nearly 40 inches shorter than the BMW Mini, a whopping four feet shorter than the Scion xA. This is car design as seen through the wrong end of the telescope. Cute? Oh my God, yes. It couldn't be any cuter if it were buried up to its neck in kittens. Attention-grabbing? Ice cream trucks playing "La Bamba" at 100 decibels don't get more notice. Likable? It's irresistible. The Smart is a rolling sight gag, like a fat man wearing a tiny bowler hat, or a Speedo. Safe? Can we go back to "likable"? At roughly one-third the weight of a large luxury sedan -- such as Mercedes' S-class -- the Fortwo would be at a profound Newtonian disadvantage in most any vehicle-to-vehicle collision. So, the first question potential buyers must consider is a cosmic version of: Do I feel lucky? The Fortwo -- sold in 36 countries and a familiar sight to anyone who has traveled abroad -- is supposed to be a very safe car. I'm sure it is, relatively. The cabin is surrounded by something called the Tridion safety cell, a highly reinforced steel superstructure designed to deform and redistribute crash energy away from the occupants. The cars coming to the United States will have anti-lock brakes, stability control, reinforced doors and front and side air bags. The trouble lies not so much in the car but with the American driving environment that, unlike Europe's, is filled with 3-ton trucks and SUVs, for which the Fortwo is no more than a snack. It is a dolorous fact of physics that when two vehicles meet head-on, the occupants in the lighter vehicle are almost instantly accelerated backward. Brains, aortas and other soft tissues do not care for this at all. The Fortwo's evident lack of energy-absorbing crumple zones makes this issue even more acute. The solution, naturally, is not to hit anything or be hit. In my short time in the Fortwo, I adopted the kind of hyper-vigilance/paranoia I usually reserve for riding motorcycles. The religiously minded may consider investing in icons of the plastic dashboard-mounted variety. Know thyself. Smart has taken a bumpy route to the United States. The Boblingen, Germany-based company -- formed in 1994 as an alliance between the Swiss watchmaker Swatch and then-named Daimler-Benz -- has lost piles of cash, somewhere in the neighborhood of $4 billion since 1998. The company had planned to come to the American market in 2006 with the Formore -- a tiny SUV based on a Mercedes C-class chassis -- but pulled the plug on that in 2005 as the Chrysler division's losses began to drag down the parent company. The current effort is a more modest enterprise headed by auto entrepreneur Roger Penske, whose company created Smart USA to market and distribute the cars. Smart USA hopes to sell about 20,000 cars in the first year through about 70 dealerships nationwide. Returning to Pope's admonition: If you find yourself drawn to the Fortwo, you are probably an iconoclast, a real dyed-in-the-wool-beret Europhile. Unless I'm much mistaken, the Fortwo is the first French-built car to come to the United States in decades (Smart's factory is in Hambach, France). In other words, to buy the Fortwo is to bite your thumb at old Bill O'Reilly. The Fortwo has the same sort of winning maneuverability and lowercased sportiness of the old Citroen 2CV. (Incidentally, Citroen's famous "Tin Snail" and the Fiat 500 are both being revived to satisfy Europe's growing appetite for super-thrifty city cars.) There is no getting around it: The Fortwo is a minor hoot to drive. U.S.-spec cars will have a 1-liter, 70-hp, three-cylinder engine wedged in the back under the cargo hold. The cars will come with a five-speed sequential gearbox with optional shifter paddles behind the steering wheel; this gearbox has an automatic mode that offers convenient although spectacularly sluggish cog changing. The Fortwo uses rear-wheel drive. Got that? A rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive two-seater, with manumatic shifting. Think of it as the world's dorkiest Porsche. Despite the lack of horseflesh, the Fortwo is a lively little cavort. The engine revs fiendishly to its 6,500-rpm redline and the gearing is such that the car can nick through city traffic easily. Block to block, stoplight to stoplight, the car's straight-line performance is a non-issue. The paddle shifters are a big help. When it comes to getting on the freeway, the Fortwo requires more patience and a cruel disregard for the squealing engine but it does manage to reach highway speeds in about 16 seconds. Once up to speed, the Fortwo will comfortably maintain 80 mph, which is just enough to keep you from getting mowed down on Interstate 5. As for handling, it doesn't, much. In order to make the ride tolerable in this wee wheelbase vehicle, the suspension has been set very soft; take a corner quickly and the Fortwo lolls and rolls like it's on old bedsprings. And yet, even this quality has a quirky fun factor. Inside the cabin, the Fortwo is not just roomy but positively spacious. The high roof offers lots of headroom and the transparent roof (in the upfitted "Passion" edition) lends the car an unexpected airiness. The cargo capacity is surprising. I piled 10 bags of groceries and two cases of water in the back without a problem. The Cabrio model has a canvas top that retracts electrically from between the fixed roof rails. Leg room and shoulder room are ample. From the driver's seat you could assume you were in any other compact car until you look over your shoulder to discover that, lo, it appears someone has stolen the back half of the car. There are three strong, perhaps insurmountable, objections to the Fortwo: First, the price. The base model (Pure) will run about $12,000; the Passion will run about $14,000. Unfortunately, in the time it's taken to get this car to the States, several other bigger, better-equipped cars have come in at around those price points -- e.g., the Kia Rio, Toyota Yaris and Chevy Aveo (which, not irrelevantly, got a five-star frontal crash rating from the government). Second, the Fortwo's greatest asset, its size, doesn't really have much of a payoff on America's broad boulevards and avenues. Unlike the back streets of, say, Siena, American cities are scaled to accommodate much larger vehicles. At the same time, it's not at all clear that municipalities will allow the Smart car to perform its neatest trick -- parking perpendicular to the curb. Last, fuel economy: The 1-liter car gets less than 40 miles per gallon in mixed driving -- good but not great, considering that the Honda Civic Hybrid and Toyota Prius return about the same mileage in much larger, more usable cars. The Smart was a revolutionary idea in the 1990s, but the revolution has swept past. It's winsome and fun and -- as I discovered -- a shameless chick magnet. But in the rapidly diversifying market, you can get more car for less. Smart, on the other hand, offers you less car for more.

UAW pushes to organize Kentucky Toyota plant Sholnn Freeman | The Washington Post | Link to Original Article @ DetNews GEORGETOWN, Ky. -- Dissident workers at the Toyota plant here gather at the Best Western Georgetown on Wednesdays between shifts to shape a battle plan. The workers are angry at conditions at this flagship Toyota site, where the best-selling Camry is built. The United Auto Workers has launched a big new push to organize the plant, trying to capitalize on fears of lower pay, outsourcing of jobs and on Toyota's treatment of injured workers. The stakes for the UAW intensified this month as a private-equity firm agreed to buy Chrysler, raising fears that the union will be unable to block cuts in jobs and benefits at a privately owned automaker. The Chrysler deal has underscored the UAW's diminished clout as membership has shrunk along with jobs at the Detroit automakers. The UAW has never succeeded in organizing a foreign auto assembly plant in the United States, but Toyota's emergence as the world's largest automaker has added urgency to this effort. The UAW will begin new contract negotiations this summer without any workers from Toyota. "We've got a lot of work to do," said Charles Lite, 41, a member of the organizing group, speaking of the effort at Toyota. "No more mistakes." The UAW and the workers have seized on leaked business documents from Toyota that detail a plan to put a lid on manufacturing wages in the United States. At a new factory being built in Mississippi, Toyota plans to pay workers about $20 an hour in a region where many people earn $12 to $13 an hour. The average Toyota worker at Georgetown makes about $25 an hour. Toyota officials say the increasing pressures of the auto business have caused the company to reevaluate worker's compensation policies -- a matter that has to be negotiated with the union at UAW-represented plants. Toyota today is one of the auto industry's most profitable companies, and officials think its continued success depends on controlling costs. "We think the historic American approach to things is to run full blast, pay out as high as you can in the short term while times are good, and then when times go bust, you lay people off, you shut plants and you destroy communities," said Pete Gritton, a Toyota vice president who oversees human resources at the company's plant. "Toyota does not want to do that." Gritton said adjusting pay scales would ultimately translate into stable employment for American autoworkers. He said Toyota is seeking to maintain cost-effective growth in the United States so it can compete with low-wage countries such as China, Mexico and Brazil. "We are the only major manufacturer of automobiles that is trying to grow and expand its business in the U.S. right now," Gritton said. "Everybody else is trying to collapse and shrink and send it to somewhere else for lower costs." Some Toyota workers agree. "I think the people I work with are not really for a union," said Tina Goad, who has worked at Georgetown for 13 years. She acknowledged that there have been some injuries and other problems, but added: "This is a manufacturing place. Things happen. If I was a secretary in a some bank for 30 years, I could get carpal tunnel from working on computers. They always want to blame Toyota." But others are upset, saying autoworkers are losing ground. Ed McKenna, 52, is part of the group fighting for a Toyota union. He said he recently came across a worker getting paid $8.50 an hour for a production job that is now outsourced. "It was the same job I had five years ago making $23 an hour," he said. "We can't tolerate that." Other workers complained about poor treatment after getting injured on the job. Jennifer York, 40, injured discs in her back and got carpal tunnel syndrome in one of her wrists from building engines. She was then put to work printing papers that tell other workers what parts go on which cars. York was put on lighter duty because of her injuries as a way to keep her on the payroll with full benefits, Toyota officials said. But for York, the job is as hard as any other in the plant. She also makes 20 percent less money and works an overnight shift that finishes at 2 a.m. She isn't satisfied with her new work arrangement and she's getting fed up with Toyota. "I have a crappy job. I'm on second shift. I'm in pain," she said. York says she is considering signing a union card for the first time in 19 years at Toyota. "It might just bring a new set of problems, but something has to be done," she said. "We need help." When it built the Georgetown plant 20 years ago, Toyota was "a middle-of-the-pack auto manufacturer, somewhere below Chrysler," McKenna said. Today Toyota is the highflying auto giant that recently surpassed General Motors as the world's largest automaker. "There are a lot of good, hardworking Kentucky people responsible for that success," McKenna said. Toyota selected the Georgetown site during a wave of Japanese factory-building in the 1980s that was meant to counter criticism from Detroit and in Washington of rising imports. Georgetown is Toyota's highest-volume factory outside Japan. It serves as a template for the other plants the company is building around the country, including a new $1.3 billion factory in Tupelo, Miss., that is scheduled to open in three years. About 7,200 people work at the Georgetown plant where the Camry, Solara and Avalon cars are made almost from scratch. Georgetown builds all its own engines. A plastics shop makes bumpers and instrument panels. The air is clogged with layers of industrial noise and music -- from stamping presses pounding out doors and hoods from rolls of steel, robots welding the different parts together and radios blaring country, jazz and soul music. Since the second half of the 20th century, auto jobs have been among the highest-paid in all of manufacturing. Steel wages and construction wages followed them. In rural towns, high wages put pressure on other local employers to pay more. "Instead of leading with $25 or $27, you have them paying $12," said Ross Eisenbrey, vice president and policy director of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington. "That whole effect is wiped out. For the larger economy, it's downward pressure on wages. There won't be a lift that auto wages were providing in the past." The dissidents at Toyota hold their Wednesday meetings in the Best Western's Avalon room -- named after the car built at the plant. Some wear shirts emblazoned with a UAW-Toyota logo. They say Toyota's hard-line positions prompted workers to seek help from the UAW. "We don't know how to organize," said Kenny Harper, who has worked at Toyota for 18 years. "We need professional assistance." On April 28, the workers' group and union organizers celebrated Worker Memorial Day with a service at a Georgetown park. They placed 2,000 small white paper bags with candles along a walkway surrounding a large pond. The bags represented the number of workers the union group says have been pushed out of Toyota jobs because of injuries over the past five years. They sang "Amazing Grace," read from the Bible and symbolically acknowledged some of the major injuries that affect manufacturing workers: tendinitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, connective tissue disorder, wrist pain, lower back pain, sprains and strains. Aileen Waugh, 51, said she had been on work restrictions for seven weeks because of torn cartilage in her wrist. She hopes the hand will heal, making surgery unnecessary. "I think we are past due for everybody to see the other side," Waugh said. "It's not just about building great cars."

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Thanks, Drew

As I've said before, DeVille sells well regardless of drivetrain configuration because its simply a better car than its closest competitor - the Town Car.

:rotflmao::rotflmao::rotflmao::rotflmao:!!!!!!!

My unlimited budget dream cars include true classics like Imperials, '58 Buicks and Bonnevilles, Ninety-Eights and the like from the 1950s and 60s. However, practicality almost always wins out in those situations. Sure, I could probably get a such a car for $5-8,000, but what do I actually have? A fifty year-old car with funny smells, unknown repair history, hard-to-find parts, and no real amenities...like air conditioning...is that even an amenity nowadays? Now, don't get me wrong, one day I wouldn't mind spending time, money, etc. on such a car, but right now, its just not at all practical. Plus, I do want something drivable on a daily basis if I so choose, which means decent comfort, reliability, ease of maintenance, and - yes - air conditioning. Cars of that vintage usually don't work out; cars of 1975+, though, usually do. Also, my taste in cars is - and always has been - very eclectic. I love the Aurora, Eldorado, Mark VIII; who doesn't love those cars? But if I could get my hands on a decent J-body Skyhawk for a low amount of money, you bet I'd take it...and who else would? I guess I like the fact that certain GM cars from the past 30 years have gone completely unappreciated and unloved and are therefore nonexistent today. You see plenty of Trans Ams and Corvettes, but when have you seen a Century coupe? A '79-85 Riviera in good shape? A fullsize B-body Bonneville that isn't slammed? An E-body Toronado? Keep your SS Camaro, I'll take a Berlinetta simply because they don't exist anymore. And I know many will call 'travesty!' on this, but I would rather have a Diesel Cutlass Ciera, an '87 Toronado Trofeo, and an AWD Pontiac 6000 over any Corvette of similar vintage. There are plenty of Corvettes and Mustangs around. Who is going to save those cars? They're part of GM history, too. And not quite so bad either. I guess I aimed a little bit low with the '80 Malibu here. The price would've made this car a steal in better condition.

Insurance is too much. Seats in BAD shape. Nevermind.

Eh, rougher than imagined. Could barely see the broken speedometer and fuel gauge through the yellowed plexiglas. Transmission bucked into gears, slipped. Reverse was questionable. Some rust through on the lower edges of two doors. Slight exhaust smell in cabin. Burning oil. Good eye, Ocn. It was hit a bit hard. Oh well...