Northstar

The interior is pretty good, and I like the design, but there's something that just doesn't quite say luxury car to me. I do like the exterior except for the roofline. It's too curvy for the rest of the car.

I think the LaCrosse needs to be ES sized (192 or so inches) and then have something Lucerne sized above that. Maybe it's just me, but it just seems like having something between the two would create overlap. The next LaCrosse should offer the same interior dimensions as the current one but in a smaller exterior because it won't suffer from W-Body overhangs. Also, I feel the bigger-than-Lucerne market is mostly dead, but again, that could just be me.

Actually it's Street and Racing Technology, but thats okay You aren't going to find anything for the same price and as big, but unless you really need those extra doors and that third seat in the back, the GTO offers you basically the same package for $6k+ less. The GTO offers a 400HP LS2 Corvette engine (which is more easily modified than the Hemi, if you want to argue that the Hemi has 25 more HP) for $32k, and a pretty damn nice interior. Certainly better than the Charger's. If GM, who gets pounded for cheap interiors, can offer a nice interior and the same performance for $6k+ less, why can't Dodge offer a comparable interior when their vehicle costs more? Agreed the SRT-8 looks pretty good.

Sounds like a lot of good news... The Impala needs to go above and beyond the Camry, it needs to leave the Camry in it's dust. Let the Malibu take on the Camry and offer something bigger and better for about the same price (priced like the current model but with better looks, interior, handling, etc). I really feel that using heritage design is a way to lure buyers away from the imports and back into American showrooms. Sure, some imports are flashy and relatively good looking, but nothing is going to compare to a bold, in-your-face American sedan. It needs to be nearly as bold and brash as the 300, but without the "I'm a shapely brick" look at the same time. It needs to be nearly as mean looking as the Charger but without looking so polarizing. Without better design, there is no reason for many buyers to buy American. Design that brings out passion in a person is the only way to go. Reduced health care costs, job cuts, et al, may sustain a company and keep it from bankruptcy, but without great product, GM won't stay afloat forever. GM must bring everything with their new wave of vehicles. Everything has to at least match the Japanese, and the styling of the cars must blow them away. The only way to get conquest buyers into the showroom is by evoking in them a desire for a product, and the way to do that is through design. The current Impala isn't going to get many import buyers into showrooms based on design, because it's not much better than your average Camry and Accord; thus, no import buyers are even going to come into Chevy showrooms to sit in one. With better design, buyers will be lured into showrooms, and if GM delivers on the interior and ride, power, and handling, then and only then will buyers return to GM.

Should the sedan be bigger than the Lucerne then? IMO, there's not a whole lot of market for anything bigger than the Lucerne.

I didn't watch, so I missed the commercials, but I'd say GM definetly is the best it's ever been, other than maybe back in the 50s and 60s when it dominated the competition. However, those cars obviously weren't as good as cars now, but relative to the competition they kicked ass.

Apparantly GM is not selling all of its stake in Suzuki: GM says it has no plans to fully sell Suzuki stake

Reuters / March 5, 2006 - 4:15 pm http://autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?...1/1003&refsect= NEW YORK -- General Motors, responding to reports on Sunday that it is planning to sell its 20 percent stake in Suzuki Motor Corp., said it has no plans to fully unwind its current equity relationship with Suzuki. The economic daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported on Sunday that the world's largest automaker is planning to sell its 20 percent stake in the Japanese automaker. "In the event GM reduces its stake in Suzuki, it will be done in an orderly manner through an open market repurchase," the GM release said. Suzuki said in a statement that "GM and Suzuki will not completely dissolve their capital alliance," adding that the two partners would continue their "strong" operational cooperation. A Suzuki spokesman declined to elaborate on whether that was a denial of the report or whether it could signal a partial dissolution of their tie-up. Sources quoted by Kyodo news agency said it was not immediately clear whether GM planned to sell the entire stake or to whom it planned to sell the shares. Analysts have speculated GM might sell its stake in Suzuki as part of a wider asset restructuring by GM, which sold its stake in Fuji Heavy Industries in October. According to the newspaper, which said that GM's decision had been conveyed to Suzuki on Saturday, March 4, the price of the sale would be about $2.33 billion (270 billion yen). Last month, Suzuki posted a 5.5 percent rise in quarterly operating profit on brisk vehicle sales worldwide, and reiterated its forecast for higher full-year earnings. For the year to March 31, the maker of the Swift compact car stood by its projection for an operating profit of $928.4 million (108 billion yen), which would be 0.4 percent better than last year and would mark the sixth straight year of record profits. Shares in Suzuki, which has been boosting sales of motorcycles and cars in Asia and Europe, rose 4.0 percent during the three months to December.

LA is Chevy's number one market? That seems rather surprising to me, as I thought it would be Chicago or some other big city in the midwest.

I'd say he might have been able to walk away. When I got my GTO the salesman said some kid that used to work there wrapped a GTO around a pole at 70MPH and walked away.

Well, that's certainly not good news for Ford and the Fusion. It seems like a pretty good product, but I wonder how many families will turn it down because of its crash test results. So, this probably means the Milan and Zephyr aren't as good as competitors when it comes to safety. To me though, safety doesn't play a huge role. I'm willing to bet most of today's cars hold up relatively well in real-world crashes. If I was concerned about safety, I wouldn't have wanted a GTO because there haven't been any crash tests for the GTO.

I wouldn't be so sure about that... I feel Saturn will have the same type of success Nissan had. Now, it may be impossible for Buick or Pontiac to have a resurgence simply because they aren't going to have enough products to do that.

I'm glad I cancelled my Automobile subscription, I hated it. That sounds like some complete BS. The Enclave's wood doesn't look fake at all, and if it's "generic," what is your everyday Japanese car? What did they say about the Camaro and GMT900s?

I haven't heard anything, but I'm guessing any changes will be posted on the ordering guide within a month or two.

No, upgraded materials that you actually touch. I'm not talking about lower dash materials because you aren't touching those while you're driving. I'm talking about nice leather on the door panels (Charger has plastic on all models), leather steering wheel, etc. It's not totally different, but the overall feel between a Lucerne CX and CXS is much greater than that between your $25k Charger and $40+k SRT-8.

I assume you mean you don't think it is asthetically any better, correct? I agree it could look a little fancier, considering it's pretty similar to the Impala. However, I am happy Buick upgrades the materials when you go from $26k to $38k, whereas Dodge doesn't.

Why not? I don't see any reason to keep Suzuki... what does GM gain by it? Right now, GM needs money, and I don't think any resources Suzuki can offer GM are worth $2.33 billion. With that, GM can develop some kickass products.

Holden Commodore and Ute, the Astra, and the Monaro should have came over right away.

With news of Buick getting a RWD sedan, I have been wondering if Buick even needs another sedan. Currently, as we all know, Buick only has two sedans, the LaCrosse and Lucerne. The next LaCrosse will be moving to Epsilon II and the future of the Lucerne is uncertain because the future of the G-Body platform is also uncertain. The next LaCrosse will likely be smaller than the current model, as currently Epsilon vehicles are almost ten inches shorter than the LaCrosse, and W-Body suffers from long overhangs. We also have heard that Epsilon II will be slightly larger than Epsilon; so, let's assume the next LaCrosse will be somewhere around 190-193 inches. Now, both the Lucerne and RWD sedan would be positioned above the LaCrosse, but are two sedans above the LaCrosse even needed? The Lucerne is currently 203 inches long, which is pretty large by today's standards, and I see no reason for a Buick any bigger than the Lucerne, simply because I don't see enough demand to justify building something bigger. I don't think Buick needs 3 sedans. Chevy only has 1 sedan above their Epsilon, and Chevy is supposed to offer something for everyone. So, if Chevy doesn't have two sedans above Epsilon, I can't justify Buick having two. Anyways, enough with the rambling... I don't think GM would want to spend the money on two big Buicks when the same volume could probably be attained with just one. So, I think that either 1) The Lucerne and "Statesman" will co-exist for a couple of years until the Lucerne is phased out, or 2) (and this is what I think should happen) The next Lucerne simply goes RWD. The Lucerne is a very competitive vehicle in today's market, and I feel by the time it needs to be replaced its image with consumers will be very positive, so dropping the name and losing any positive image earned with it would be dumb. Also, by simply focusing on one model above the LaCrosse, Buick and spend more on one model (rather than spreading it out on two) and make a better vehicle. So, I propose that GM moves the next Lucerne to RWD, invest more heavily in it than it would if it had to spread the money around to two models, and use any extra money to spin a coupe and possible convert off of the Lucerne (Velite or Riveria). Maybe there would even be enough to spin a Buick off of the BRX.

I figured the Buick would be the next-gen Lucerne. Unless the Lucerne is to continue on the G-Body, what else could it ride on? The only other option is to put both the Invicta/Statesman and Lucerne on Zeta and simply make them be different sizes -- maybe the Lucerne could downsize and the Invicta could be slightly larger than the current Lucerne. It doesn't make much sense to me for Buick to go that route though. I think something around the size of the Lucerne would satisfy most buyers' needs.

Take this for what it's worth since it's from MT, but I figure that if they have news about it, it's been on for at least 2-3 months by now: Now, couple this with Lutz's comments, and it would seem that these vehicles (along with the GTO) that were "under serious study" have gotten approval.

Welcome to Choppin' Competition 15! Your task is to chop the photo provided below in any way you want. Change the wheels, background, etc. Please resize your entries to 768 pixels wide. Please copy + paste the link below into your browser (clicking it will not work) and download the pic: http://gm.wieck.com/forms/gm/previewpage?028266 Have fun and be creative! A deadline has not been set, but expect it to run for about 7-10 days.

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That's pretty impressive. I wonder if the Red Line version of the Sky will be similar.

Decka, we'll keep it open until you get your chop in. The site's getting updated tonight too so you can just submit it tomorrow morning I think.