Flybrian

My assessment is a combination of my experience (objective) and my opinion (subjective) in late-models Hyundais. For the record, I find cars like the current Malibu equally boring though ergonomically-superior. I would certainly pick a Malibu over a Sonata, for example, for my own various reasons, but I'd rather have neither. Nowhere did I indicate domestics were better or worse. I'm not saying they cannot make cars that they intend to compete with luxury marques and the like, I'm arguing that it will still take time to convince the general public they are anything beyond a manufacturer of mediocre transportation. To clairfy, I'm referring to the American marketplace. Your examples are valid, until you realize that the Phaeton was an utter failure attributed to badge stigma and the major Japanese manufacturers needed a new branding to successfully launch into the luxury arena. Hyundai and Kia will need the same as people have a preconceived notion on how much a brand's product is worth. Note the gulf between Acadia and OUTLOOK sales to see this as people are (today) wary of paying that much for a Saturn-branded product, but will spend even more on a GMC-badged vehicle without hesitation. With few exceptions - namely Land Cruiser, Corvette, and certain Mustangs - mass-market brands have a price ceiling they cannot breach. I suspect because of this, Hyundai and Kia as marques will never compete in the $35k+ MSRP arena. Detailing and styling on cars above the Sonata's price range (Azera, Amanti) do matter and do deserved to be sweated over. The lack of thought that has gone into these products so far leads me to my belief that Hyundai/Kia has a way to go beyond competing in the mass-market, despite the fact that they have been manufacturing large luxury cars in their own market for at least a decade. Again, I never mentioned GM in a way you're trying to protray. I did notice you said that and acknowledged the fact previously. Thank you for noticing. Also note the great progress Chinese manufacturers are making. Yes, thier products are largely trash, but recall ten years ago, they had no products besides kei-style city cars and rehashes of ancient Audis and GAZ Chaikas. How long do you think it will take them to begin competing with relevent product? Apparently, the Japanese matched our cars in 30 or so years, the Koreans are 3/4 of the way there after only 20. I admire your ability to point out my ignorance in every paragraph as that is a skill I certainly don't posess (or rather, choose not to use), but answer me this relevant question: If you're going to afford the Koreans such credibility, what about the Chinese? And, if the Chinese are afforded such, where is the impending battle 10-15 years from now - Korean vs. traditional midlevel marques or Chinese vs. Korean?

The fact that any given Sonata to roll of the line has a near 50/50 chance of being rented by you, me, or anyone in spite of the car being a little more than a year old speaks volumes to me. I agree it is basic transportation but that's all this generation will ever be. The car has no style, no personality, and rather cheesy build quality (one I had for a day squeaked all over the place with 5k on the clock). The interior design is just laughable, too. If it weren't for the warranty, no one would ever buy a Hyundai or Kia. Period. When GM brings styling and powertrain combinations to the forefront as it has in the past, it is the Japanese Big Two who retail the everyman blandmobiles that ought be worried. Also, regarding the Cee'd, its still completely unimpressive IMO because I know what a Mazda3 looks like (honestly, I find most modern compacts unattractive). Would I underestimate them? At this point, I wouldn't underestimate anybody, but I'll hold my tongue on lavishing praise onto them so quickly. Yeah, they advanced quickly - when they started exporting cars in earnest, they had ninety years of European, eighty years of American, and thirty years of Japanese prior experience to look at and build on. If you don't see a night and day difference between the Sportage and the Tuscon, they have a serious problem. However, even their latest products suffer from this utilitarian malaise that makes Korean products utterly undesireable. Even the much-vaunted 'LeSabre-killer' Azera falls far short in interior design and layout. Its still going to take another absolutely infallible generation or two (or three) of Korean cars for people to say, "Wow, that's a great car" without quickly adding, "for a Kia." And by that time, the Chinese can certainly bury them if they get their scattershot ideas together and form a real consortium to produce actual cars and export them here. The Euros, domestics, and Japanese have their own brand loyalites; Koreans have none and faced with the prospect of having a lame, boring, mediocre, derivativly-styled Hyundai with a long warranty for $25,000 or a lame, boring, mediocre, derivativly-styled Red Flag (or whatever) with a long warranty for $17,995, what would you choose?

That actually raises an interesting question - is Lexus going to treat the new LX as its own special model, worthy of unique refinements and features like the GL or Escalade or is it simply going to be a cheap and dirty rebadge of the Land Cruiser? I would really think Toyota would be better off moving the next Sequoia off the truck frame to a fullsize crossover platform and sharing some underpinnings with a real refined LX. This way, you eliminate the Sequoia (which no one will miss anyway), replacing it with a relevent vehicle and give Lexus something worth a damn in the segment.

Jerry Flint and his wife drive the very first hybrid...

Holy crap, another one...one that runs. 1983 Diesel Ciera

Kia needs to rival a 1991 Regal first, then we'll see what happens from there.

A turbo six would be music to many's ears and be worthy of a T-Type badge.

Judging assembly quality on a junkyard specimen is impossible. I'll give you a hint as to why panels were loose - wear and tear. The car you're looking at is 13 years-old with God knows how many miles on it. My '96 looks worse inside today than when I bought it three years ago. I broke a fan louver, cracked the decorative gearshift shield, loosened a console panel that won't tighten again, and my girlfriend broke one cupholder with her ass. Is that poor assembly quality? No. Its wear and tear.

And yet it is... Nuevo 2007 Chevy Cheyenne Seriously...that's a damn awesome animation sequence.

I've seen the Value Edition Accord before. It has two speakers. Its more or a less a gimmick model for Honda to advertise stupid low $199/mo lease rates to get the buyer onto the lot, then upsell them into a more reasonably-equipped Accord. The Civic DX is similar in that it doesn't have air conditioning at the completely based price. You really have to be a special kind of fool to buy that over an LX or a myriad of other midsize cars. A savvy shopper can, for example, find an '07 supercharged Grand Prix with leather, 8-speaker stereo, alloy wheels, dual-zone a/c HUD, and a moonroof for around $17.5k.

GM's Globe Crossers Global group of small crossovers planned Link to Original Article @ AutoWeek | Updated: 03/12/07, 1:48 pm et GENEVA - General Motors may produce a family of crossovers based on its global small-car architecture. The five-seat vehicles will be sold in North America as a GMC model but not built there. The crossovers would be smaller than the Saturn Vue and marketed under different brands in North America, Europe and possibly emerging markets such as Russia, India and China. "Variants could be configured with different exteriors for Opel, GMC and Chevrolet," GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said at the Geneva auto show. GM could build the vehicles at low-cost sites in Thailand, India and Mexico, although no factory location has been chosen. The annual global production target is 200,000 units. The plans require board approval. Executives say the crossovers would not be in production before 2010. Last spring, at a design event in Germany, Lutz hinted that GM was working on a small crossover. He said production could begin 37 months after an architecture and assembly site were chosen. Lutz said the crossovers cannot be assembled profitably in North America or western Europe. GM's smallest crossovers now are based on the Theta architecture. They are the Saturn Vue, Pontiac Torrent, Opel Antara and Chevrolet Equinox and Captiva.

Who honestly thinks Americans, English, French, Germans, Italians, and young Chinese as a whole can not look at a car as something grander than an appliance? And who also thinks appliances are immune to being used as status symbols? Stainless steel fridges, anyone?

No, since the Escalade still gets far better highway mileage (12/19) as well as being about 5,221 gallons cheaper.

What's sad is that the interiors in the mid-90s very actually rather good for their time. I know certain people like to fondle themselves over the gauche 'tortoiseshell' steering wheel on the 300, but the overall layout and material quality is below today's average. Throw some more shine on the LHS at top and its more luxurious than the current 300. Just because the outside of the car is blocky doesn't mean the inside needs to be as well.

2008 Ford Escape, blue, rental.

He raises the valid point that subcompact, small, and compact cars still have rather pronounced orange peel, most notably Asian-manufactured ones. Compare a Cobalt to an Aveo or this Sentra to a US-built Accord. There is really no excuse for it. The two new NA-built cars we purchased in recent memory had very little to no orange peel. And Earl Scheib...:rotflmao:

The only people who buy these are stupid Americans and African warlords.

Larger Titan Trashed Nissan may dump heavy-duty pickup program By RICK KRANZ | AUTOMOTIVE NEWS Link to Original Article @ AutoWeek | Updated: 03/12/07, 2:30 pm et GENEVA - Nissan Motor Co. has suspended development of its heavy-duty pickup and may scrap the program. It also will abandon some of its body-on-frame SUVs, replacing them with lighter, more fuel-efficient crossovers when those SUVs are scheduled to be replaced. The Infiniti QX56 and the Nissan Pathfinder and Armada use body-on-frame construction. "Not all but part of the SUVs are going to shift to monoque, unibody," Carlos Tavares, Nissan's product development boss, said in an interview at the auto show here. No timetable was given. "We suspended our heavy-duty truck program because, from a business perspective, we thought that the risk was too high," Tavares said. Sales of heavy-duty versions of the next-generation Titan truck platform were to begin in 2009 or 2010. Three-quarter and one-ton models were slated, say supplier sources. A heavy-duty pickup requires a dedicated frame, suspension and transmission to handle higher weight loads, Tavares said. A diesel engine would be mandatory. "If the market is so-so, you could lose a lot of money," he said. "There are a lot of places in the world where we can spend our money." Maybe, Tavares said, "we don't have to do that one." No timetable was given for a decision. Toyota had been expected to launch a heavy-duty pickup in 2009, using a vehicle developed by its Hino Motors Ltd. affiliate. But suppliers say the project has been halted indefinitely.

Searching for Inner Beauty Chrysler aims to improve interior quality By RICK KRANZ AND BRADFORD WERNLE Link to Original Article @ AutoWeek | Published 03/12/07, 7:47 am et 2008 Chrysler Town & Country With an eye on its competitors, the Chrysler group has created a separate studio to make its interiors more attractive. Previously, a single studio designed interiors and exteriors. The move follows criticism by dealers and journalists that Chrysler's interiors need work. Mentioned in particular: the textures, tones and abundance of unattractive plastic trim. The concern is that "you can get to a point where maybe your cars aren't really competitive anymore because the interior is not as good as a competitor's," said Andrew Dyson, senior manager of Chrysler's product design office. "That could be the customer's deciding factor. "Our aim is to raise the bar in terms of fit and finish. We've had good themes in the past, and we want to go even further with our themes, use really good materials and really get to a higher level." Dyson was interviewed at the Geneva motor show. The interior studio was created in October. Tim Annes is the chief designer, overseeing a staff of about 25. As Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles are redesigned or restyled, the interior will be upgraded. The first upgraded vehicles probably will be 2011 models, Dyson said. Dyson said the automaker has been admiring the interiors of Audi, Volkswagen and a "newcomer." And "we are quite impressed with what General Motors is doing," he said. He said the cost of interiors will rise, and that will mean cuts elsewhere in vehicle development. Dealers reacted positively to the prospect of better interiors. "As the industry reaches a greater level of parity, those amenities and creature comforts are going to be more important," said Chuck Fortinberry, owner of Clarkston Chrysler-Jeep in Clarkston, Mich. "They'll help take us to the next level and differentiate us against the rest of the pack." Said Thomas Vann, owner of Team Hillsdale Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep in Hillsdale, Mich.: "We've seen drastic improvement in the cleverness of the interiors and the fit and finish. This was a problem for years. "Even in the '90s, when they got on the cutting edge, the fit and finish was horrific. Door panels would pop out and just creak and groan. There would be three of us driving in minivans trying to figure out where the noise was coming from." Fortinberry agrees: "You go back to the old Chrysler interiors - holy cow, we had some ugly stuff. If you look at Jeep Grand Cherokee and some of these other vehicles now, they've got a lot cleaner, more European look."

Sorry, but for a 'concept,' that thing is a sorry excuse. Zero originality and typical Hyundai derivations.

Supercharged Grand Prix. That generation of Maxima is worth consideration, though. Older S60s are mediocre and the Altima is a joke from a dime-a-dozen perspective. Everyone thinks its a 4cyl anyway.

There is absolutely no advantage to this. The exception being certain preversions of society like child rapists and sexual offenders.

Seeing a LaCrosse CXL, two Audi A4s, an Impala LTZ, and a V6 Altima outside the local Enterprise lot recently, I wouldn't be surprised. People are tired of renting strippers. Well. You know what I mean.

The Canucks are coming! The Canucks are coming! Nissan X-Trail SWB Montana SV6 Allure CXL - the guy driving this one looked like Norm Macdonald Mary Kay DTS - I know its 'pink,' but the pearlescent hue is very lovely Have you realigned a Ford...Lately?

You're wrong, Koree. More wrong than you'll ever know. You're Kok's beacon of hope, his divining light, his northern star, his lighthouse in stormy seas. You guide, you provide, you care, you share, and you love with a passion so strong no man can refuse. You are the wind beneath his gossamer wings. FIN