smk4565

They won't put a manual in a Buick. This car is to replace the G6 and Aura basically, and GM needs loads of 4-bangers for CAFE because they make the Silverado. The big question I have is how do they tune the suspension, size and price this will overlap with the Malibu, so do they make it sportier, which doesn't fit with Buick's image at all, or extra soft and quiet.

People that want speed don't buy Buicks, so a 2 liter turbo is fine. The Passat is a 2 liter turbo. The Lucerne has 227 hp, so 220 hp in the top end Regal makes sense. I imagine the Malibu will lose the 3.6 liter in favor of the 3.0 V6 or a turbo 4 in time as well.

I read in the past that the Regal would be 4-cylinder only. Likely the 2.4 liter, and a 2.0 turbo. The Insignia and the Chinese version both have a 2.0 turbo version making around 215 hp. I doubt the 3.6 liter ends up in the Regal, maybe the 3.0 V6, but GM is downsizing engines, even the SRX, Equinox, and Terrain don't have bigger than 3.0 liters. The Regal isn't going to get a better engine than a Cadillac SUV.

Hooray! I hope they have a Joseph Abboud edition with 2-tone seats. Really, the 2011 Saturn Aura, has become the 2011 Buick Regal. Proof that GM had too many brands and dumping some doesn't hurt them at all.

The Corvette does have a lot of middle aged man to baby boomer appeal. If they get to the point where only guys in their 50s are buying Vettes, it isn't going to be a cool car for long. Price is a bit of an issue also, I know price has gone up on everything, but $48,000 base is a lot for a Chevy with an interior comparable to a $24,000 car. Either quality and refinement have to go up, or price has to come down.

Diesel is pretty commonly available around here. That is something they should equip the Caprice with, they could beat Carbon to market with it. Assuming Carbon does get up and running. The government is on a big fuel efficiency push, and governments pay for police cars. Caprice needs The Ford ecoboost makes 355 hp also, that will look attractive to police departments looking to keep fuel cost down or appease the gov't greenies.

I like the big touch screen console. But I think that company in Atlanta with the purpose built police car is going to be a strong option, since it designed with police duty in mind, and not a retro-fitted family sedan. Plus they have a diesel that gets over 30 mpg and still has strong acceleration. This car is a huge upgrade over the Impala cop car, gets them level with the Charger, and Taurus SHO. But if gas prices go back to $4 a gallon, that diesel at 30 mpg is going to look great compared to the 20 mpg Charger and Caprice.

Have you driven both? Drive a Genesis 4.6 and you may be surprised.

My point is GM does not make money. They lost $70-80 billion dollars since 2005 and needed another $60 billion from the government to avoid liquidation and closing down forever. That is a combined $130 billion dollars spent, if they were making the best cars in the world, they wouldn't lose that kind of money. I know Hyundai doesn't have GM's legacy costs, or old, outdated plants and equipment, but who's fault is that? GM put themselves in the situation they are in. Hyundai has good management that is my point. A company with good management will keep growing, while a company with bad management will shrink and eventually go out of business.

If they make $650 million in one quarter, that would be $2.6 billion in profit over a year. Although the first quarter they made around $200 million, but that is still $850 million over the first half of the year. Pretty good considering GM hasn't been able to make just $1 over the past 5 years. An 11 year old with a lemonade stand runs a more profitable business than General Motors does.

I didn't mention anything about GM rear drive vehicles. I simply said I give credit to Hyundai for taking a chance making a rear drive sedan, which is way out of their comfort zone. And even more so, they got the Genesis right, it has won more automotive awards than any other car in the past year. Hyundai is making serious money; here is a New York Times article from July 23, 2009: "Hyundai Motor outshined its global rivals by reporting a record quarterly profit Thursday, another sign that the once middling carmaker from South Korea was translating the global economic downturn into an opportunity to catch up with American and Japanese auto giants mired in losses. Hyundai’s net income for the quarter from April through June soared 48 percent from a year earlier to 811.9 billion won, or $650 million, the carmaker said Thursday. That compared with 546.9 billion won in net profit a year earlier and a 225 billion won profit in the first quarter of this year." http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/business.../24hyundai.html While Hyundai was making money, GM and Chrysler were going bankrupt and taking taxpayer money to avoid liquidation. One of those three companies has better management than the other two.

But Buicks are cheaper, the LaCrosse and Lucerne are under $30k and the Enclave starts at $35k. A Lexus GX starts at $47k, an ES350 starts at $35k. Somehow a Lexus LX starts at $76,000, I have no idea way anyone would buy that monstrosity. And Mercedes operates at a much higher price point than Cadillac or Lexus. And maybe Cadillac should have worked on a small car 10 years ago rather than wasting money and time on Saturn, Pontiac, Saab, Hummer. If they had the ATS and nailed it, it could sell 5,000 units a month.

Taurus up 60%, Fusion doing well and the Fiesta on the way. I like the Transit Connect but it needs a 5-speed (or 6-speed) and the 2.5 liter 4-cylinder, or an ecoboost 4, but perhaps that is in the works. How sweet would it be if they did a luxury Transit Connect with 2 leather full reclining seats in the back, glass roof, curtains, mini-fridge, it could be like a Maybach back there!

Their sales are up, they make profit, who cares how they do it. Someone has to sell cars to fleets, and apparently Hyundai can make money doing it, and grow their brand. I am sure any exec at Ford, GM or Chrysler would love to have Hyundai's income statement instead of their own at the end of the year. I give Hyundai a lot of credit for trying, Chrylser has tons of outdated product and it seems like they don't even care. Hyundai at least took a chance on a rear drive luxury sedan, and the 10 year warranty, and trying to get the Sonata on par with the CamCords of the world.

The Government put $60 billion in. At GM's all time stock price high during year 2000, they had a market cap of $56 billion. And that was a time when GM was selling a lot more cars and the economy was in better shape. They would be lucky to get $20-30 billion back from the IPO. I think the government should tax GM's profits at 100% until the money is paid back, if they ever make a profit again.

Lexus sales: 17,939 Mercedes sales: 16,985 BMW sales: 15,047 Cadillac sales: 11,339 Chevy was down 40.7%, there is no way that is good. Even with the success of the Camaro and Equinox, and products like the Malibu and Traverse which are still pretty new, they still dropped that much. Plus Pontiac and GMC were down over 50%, Saturn down over 80%, Chevy must not be picking up those sales if they themselves are down 40%.

Same old, same old. This is 10 or 12 months in a row of declines around 45% and GM's PR people trying to put a positive spin on it. I wonder if they are ever going to make money again, and how does the government get some of that $60 billion back.

Not surprising, they don't have any good products.

How about the Buick Snooze for their small car, the Buick Mundane for a small crossover, and the Buick Insipid for their midsize car. Although Buick Prosaic and Buick Prehistoric I like as well, so they may need some more models. The CX trim will be replaced with the Vanilla trim, white walls, plastic wheel covers, and cloth bench seat for all!

Go to a Chevy dealer. Outlook is a mechanical twin to the Traverse, Aura is a mechanical twin to the Malibu, Vue is similar to the Equinox's platform, and has the same engines as the Malibu, Sky has the same engines as the Cobalt. Only the Astra had a unique engine, but it is still an ecotec on a Delta platform. Or go to auto parts stores, the parts there are often much cheaper than what the dealer will sell it for.

I was surprised Penske wanted Saturn in the first place. I see this as good news, it is less competition for Chevy.

Good point on the Chevy website, it is really bad. All white background and silver cars, how boring, and it is slow, and specs and feature lists are hard to find sometimes. I also noticed a lot of GM sites don't publish the weight of their cars, or make you download a PDF for simple specs. The Equinox in a way is replacing the Trailblazer as well as the old Equinox, so going into the $30s isn't so bad. Traverse replaces the minivan and 7-seat Trailblazer and compensates for the shift away from BOF SUVs like the Tahoe.

The current CR-V has 180 hp, and weighs 400 pounds less than the Equinox. The Rav-4 is also 400 pounds lighter than the Equinox. All GM vehicles need to get on a diet.

Makes sense to build it since they have the engine already. But I suspect demand for $45,000+ Camaro will be really low. It gives them a Shelby GT500 competitor, but these are really low volume cars.

It could be the styling, because the Camaro looks bigger than the GTO to me, but they are about the same size. 190 inches long is pushing it for a 2 door though, that's nearly as big as a CTS, I still think they could have gone a little smaller. The V6 Mustang is around 3400 pounds and will have 315 hp next year, so that 200 lb gap for equal power will become 400 pounds which is a lot. Although the Camaro has independent rear suspension which gives it a big advantage over the live axle Mustang.