smk4565

They do have Jaguar, and the XF is the best mid-size luxury sedan on the market right now. Edmunds.com and Motor Trend comparison winner, Car and Driver 10 Best, Automobile Magazine All Star. Does Jim Press know that a 300 starts around $25,000 and the full size Mercedes starts at $90,000? Or that BMW and Mercedes aren't using the same V6 from 1997 in their 2009 cars? Or that M-B and BMW don't sell 60% of their cars to rental car companies?

Toyota doesn't own all of Subaru, and Dihatsu is rather small. I was comparing GM's 8 to Toyota's 3 in North America. GM has Opel, Vauxhall, Holden too, which is more baggage than what Subaru or Dihatsu are. Toyota posted an operating loss, but their net profit for 2008 is expected to be $550 million. Which isn't good, but they kept it in the black, which hardly any other automaker will do this year. They make generic, mediocre cars, but their culture and business strategy kills GM's. Toyota's brands are strong because they continually provide them with new product and market them constantly. GM's brands have to take turns getting new products, so certain brands and models get dated and create a poor image.

Toyota has been cleaning their clock with 3.

MKS starts at $37,600, $39,500 with awd. It will never boom because of its size. It is 204 inches long and the Lincoln website doesn't even list weight because it is no doubt high. When the economy turns and the Town car is gone and it picks up some of those sales, maybe they'll hit 3k a month. 35,000 sold in a year is probably the best they can hope for.

Not sure, but the 2011 300 gets a refresh and a new interior. Problem is that car came out in 2005, so it will be getting a mid-cycle refresh at 6 years old. Sebring came out in 2007, maybe 2013 is their MCE year.

Jim Press is delusional, never in a million years will the best Chrysler product be on par with the worst BMW product. Chrysler can't even build a product as well as Hyundai, how will they compete with Mercedes. Chrysler will serve out the next couple years as a top supplier to Avis and Enterprise before going into liquidation.

The new Equinox is a mid-size (as was the old one), this will be getting the old Trailblazer/Envoy crowd and competing with the Edge and Highlander. I am guessing they make base price around $24,990 and run it to $35k with features like nav system and back up camera. It is too big and will be too pricey to compete with the Escape or CR-V. Which is fine, mid-sizers do well, and I suppose the HHR will serve as their compact utility vehicle.

"We have a very successful consumer brand with Saturn. We need to find the right business model," said LaNeve, adding that the company has received hundreds of letters from Saturn customers supporting the brand. "We are completely behind Saturn." The brand has never turned a profit, that isn't success. They have had 18 years to find a business model and have yet to do it, too late now. GM management may be behind Saturn, but their bank account is not. This is discouraging to me because it shows how much GM is refusing to change. They still want to keep all of these brands and think they can be viable with them. Market share is 19%, they don't need 8 brands or even 5 brands with that little amount of market share.

I too like the Gran Turismo a lot, it is a phenomenal looking car. The front on this looks pretty good, but the back is too Lincoln MKS. The front looks like it should be on a coupe, not a sedan much like the Aston Martin Rapide and the Porsche Panerama don't look right. Some things work on 2-doors, but not on 4 doors.

What they should look at and copy is: Ford-Mercury-Lincoln Honda-Acura Scion-Toyota-Lexus Nissan-Infiniti Mini-BMW-Rolls Royce VW-Audi-Bentley (and Bugatti and Lambo) 3 tier brands work. 8 brands with 5 or 6 operating in the same segment of $20-$30k cars does not.

They sold 1,958 MKS in November, it was Lincoln's best seller that month. They have sold 11,000 to date. I suppose that is as good as it gets for a big front driver in a bad economy. Buick would only get $40k for a car if it was fully loaded with stuff like back up camera, head up display, maybe adaptive cruise control, ultraview roof, etc. The average sale price of the car would be low $30s. Much like the Lucerne now, it can touch $40k, but the bulk of the sales are closer to $30k.

The 3-series, A4, C-class, IS250/350, Jetta, Mini, TSX, would disagree om there not being a market for small premium cars. The 3-series outsold the Cobalt the last couple months. Even the 9-3 and Volvo S40 and S60 find buyers and they aren't even good cars. I agree though that any thing with Buick written on it could be a tough sell. Buick's small car shouldn't be aimed at young people wanting a racer like the GTI, but rather the middle aged demographic that wants something comfortable but doesn't need a big family car. They can target people that had a Cobalt or Civic and are trading up, or people that had a CamCord but don't need as big a car, but want some luxury feature. Gas will likely go back to $3-4 a gallon one day, so a small premium car will find buyers. If GM doesn't have them, it will be a repeat of the summer, when GM truck sales died and they had no desirable fuel efficient cars to sell. Autoblog is reporting the LaCrosse will be the biggest Buick, and the Lucerne will die.

Saab is as good as dead, there probably won't be a next 9-3 or 9-1 or anything else.

I think they should have done some evolution of the rectangular headlights that the Trailblazer has and Silverado used to have. It looks too rounded and like a Saturn up front, Chevy trucks used to look at little more rugged. The headlights look like they are from a Pacifica or Acadia, the Equinox could get lost in the crowd a little bit. Same with the Traverse, it doesn't say Chevy to me.

The profile view and C-pillar on the new Equinox is similar to the first generation Lexus RX as well. Ford website lists the Escape as an SUV, not a crossover, but I looked up the CD2 platform which is a unibody design.

This Equinox is 187.8 inches long, the Edge is about 186, an Escape is only 175. Size-wise the Edge and Equinox are very close. All 3 tow 3500 pounds, but the Escape is body on frame, the other two are crossovers. Most people won't know the crossover vs SUV difference though, to me they are all SUVs and crossover vs suv is splitting hairs. We'll have to see what the pricing on the Nox is. Escape starts at $20k for a really basic version with manual. Edge starts at $26k.

I too was just thinking from the side it is really similar to the ML350, so that can't hurt.

I am not a fan of the C-pillar and rear window design, but I don't really like any SUVs. The plastic on the door panels looks a little cheap, this is a weakness of the Malibu as well. Massive improvement over the current version, but I think the Edge is slightly nicer. 4 and 6 cylinder options should attract a wider range of buyers though. The Saab, Cadillac and GMC versions look like they share some sheet metal, this is going to be the Lambda quadruplets competing with each other part 2.

Pontiac is going to be phased out eventually. They'll drop to G8 and Solstice while they close down Hummer, Saab, Saturn. Then around 2012 I suspect Pontiac will go also. They just can't close every brand at once. GM will be better for it also.

I wasn't impressed with the interior plastic on the door panels, this is a weak spot of the Malibu as well. The new Equinox is a massive improvement over the old, but I think the Edge is a little better. I am not a fan of the C pillar or the center console. The exterior looks much more expensive than the current model, but it looks too much like the Vue or Acadia up front.

Bottom line is the date on the bankruptcy filing will read March 30, 2009 rather than December 30, 2008.

The Regal is larger, it is identical in size to the Aura, the 9-3 is about 7 inches shorter, and sportier I can't see Saab being alive in 3 years though. I think Saturn will be dead also, so the Regal basically takes the place of the Aura.

I agree Chrysler is done for and headed to Chapter 7 liquidation. Wagoner even admitted that in 2007 GM spent $8 billion on labor costs, while Toyota spent $4.5 billion. UAW contract is a problem that needs torn up.

Agreed. This doesn't solve the problem, it just delays the day of reckoning. What if they haven't become "viable" by March 31st and the government recalls the loan, there is no way they will be able to pay it back then.

I have 2 concerns with Cadillac sharing Alpha with Chevy. First is people will be able to knock the BTS and say it is on a Chevy platform, just as the Lexus ES gets knocked because it is a Camry. 2nd, if the platform has a low enough cost to be in a Chevy, is it going to be as good as the 3-series platform? And by the time Alpha gets here, BMW will have an all new 3-series. Cadillac is already sharing the 3.6 V6 with the other brands and will share the 3.0 V6 as well, which is okay on a low end Cadillay, but they have to have some exclusive, leading edge stuff to pull buyers in. If you buy a BMW, you can't get that engine in any other car. If you buy a CTS you can get that engine in a $24k Chevy.