Northstar

I never really got too into Facebook, so now that it sucks I don't care that much really.

That's kind of a weird warranty. I don't know many people who drive 100k miles in 5 years, so to me it's really just a 5-year warranty. I wonder how dealers will react? They might sell more cars, but in the future, they'll be doing more warranty work, and unless I'm mistaken they make less off of that than non-warranty work.

Ok, so now we have the two models with climate controls that aren't going to garner many sales, and now here is the Toyota one that will make up the bulk of sales: And the bulk of Silvy sales:

You want knobs? Don't worry 98% of Silveardo will come standard with knobs: It's not that people were complaining it had knobs, it's that they look cheap. To me, they look like something you'd find on a kid's toy.

You're getting 15MPG and driving conservatively? Yikes... I get 14.3MPG in the GTO and I don't drive too conservatively. In fact, I like to get on it quite a bit.

I think this works fine on luxury cars, but it wouldn't work that well if someone wanted a base G6 with a sunroof and nothing else, but couldn't get it without checking off an additional $5k in options. Now, I don't think that's the case, that's just an example.

21% of Azeras go to fleet. But, they sell so few to begin with that it's not a very big number.

But only by 2 points. The Escalade should have been 20+ in gotta-have-it-factor.

That's what the Aura has. The XE has a single cutout and the XR has two.

I drove through the Saturn dealership, and they only had one unsold Aura sitting on the lot. About a week ago they had multipul Auras, and none of them that were there then are still there. So, they seem to be flying off the lots around here. Anyone else notice how the Aura is doing in their area?

Saw a new 3er coupe today, looked pretty good, except that I didn't like the rear much. Also saw a black Aura XR on the dealer lot, with a sold sign in it. It looked GREAT. They also had a white XE that looked excellent as well. They seem to be flying off the lot, as they had multipul Aura's the last time I was there (a week), and now they are only going to have that white XE.

As Fly said, Ven and I were only laughing at PK's comments because first he claimed he needed to see it in person to judge, then later said it looked better than the GM trucks, and I don't think he's seen either in person...

Great news!

Yes, you said consistently, and the Torrent, G6, and Saabs are only bad because they're rebadges. The LaCrosse was out quite a while ago, and everything you listed that's good is what has come out recently. Therefore, I think it should be obvious that the newer product is good, and consistently so, because you don't have an examples of new-for-06/07MY vehicles being bad. 5. Sure, they sold GMAC, and look at the profit they made before one-time expenses in 2Q. I think that now that they can't rely on GMAC, they'll be better off because they'll be focusing on making a profit without doing so by operating like a bank.

Hmm... I could close the thread, delete the accounts, and we'd be over this, but then some people would be having less fun. Maybe I should discuss this with the other admins.

What you don't understand is that Lutz's products are just now coming out, and they're doing great, and the ones that aren't out look great (Lambdas). Lucerne, Solstice, Sky, C6, Aura, T900s, HHR, Aveo. This article was written a couple months after Lutz came on board, so you can put a whole lot of stock in it until you actually see all the Lutz products, and so far, they've been pretty damn good. Now, were his comments totally off-base and wrong? Yes. But what do you want him to say? Would you rather that he say something negative like "I don't see much good in the products that will be coming out, but later on when I have full control over a program from start to finish they will be great"? 1) The economy doesn't have a whole lot to do with GM making strides. Sure, if it tanks, GM would be done, but so would a lot of companies. The economy has little to do with what GM is doing right or wrong, other than maybe making decesions about whether to put more affordable vehicles in the pipeline or to put some more expensive ones in the pipeline. 2) Gas prices are falling now, but even if they're $4/gallon, lots of people need trucks for work. I don't see gas prices effecting PU sales, but it could effect T900 SUV sales. Silveardo sales are down, but some of that has to be in anticipation of the T900 and some of it is because of the Employee pricing blowout. 3) This won't be any issue for another year, and even so I think that they'll be able to work out a good deal with the UAW, they've been able to deal with them so far. Plus, the UAW seems to have recognized that they have to change or die. 4) What new product hasn't been consistently good lately? The only "bad" products I can think of that have come out recently would be the STS, LaCrosse, Equinox/Torrent, and the Saab rebadges. None of them are really terrible products either, they just have something missing here or there that makes them uncompetitive in a certain area against their competition (STS would be mundane styling, LaCrosse would be platform + powertrain, Nox/Torrent would be engine/interior). And, all of those were still mostly done under the old GM, not under the new GM that has been churning out the competitive products. 5) I have no proof that they weren't spent, but it appears that you have no proof that they were. So, I think this is a moot point until someone can say for sure otherwise, but I'm pretty sure it was spent wisely; GM is very tight with its money nowadays.

Was it the T2X? Sounds similar to what you're describing:

Nope, 'tis not razoredge.

I just noticed this, but the front overhang looks downright HUGE.

The front is okay, but the rest is bad. The side looks like a Cobalt with that hump from the Charger, and the rear looks way too similar to the Stratus.

Oh, I'm no longer curious, I know...

Even the performance-oreinted IS gets low marks because of it's steering feel and all the electronic gizmos that drive the car for you instead of letting you drive the car. I'm guessing that the supercar is going to have similar features, and therefore will get destroyed by the F430, Gallarado, etc.

Right... If that's the case, then I'd still rather be driving a lego-block truck that actually looks like a truck rather than something that looks like a big, ugly pig.

What a dumbass this guy is. He compares Ford's current state to GM's and thinks that GM is just as bad. Newflash: GM made about $3 billion last quarter before one-time expenses, I'd say they're headed in the right direction. Also, he needs to get his facts straight. GM had a 8% retail sales jump, not 3.8%. This guy is a complete dumbass! He thinks that because GM hasn't said, "On October 1, 2007 we plan to start productions of vehicles x, y, and z" that they don't have a plan? If he has such proof that there is no plan, why doesn't he reveal his secrets? Obviously, he's making the $h! up just as he claims GM is. If he wasn't being sarcastic, this would have been one part of the article where he was correct. GM sure as hell does NOT have to tell any lunatic journalists like this guy what their plans are. Why? He'd first go out telling everybody about their future plans, then he'd try to sink them before they ever came to life with factless and off-base articles like this one.