Northstar

Jeeze man, what's wrong with a little fun. It's not as if I played it off as if it was a real quote or anything. If this was a pure news site, it'd be a lot more boring.

Yesterday it was 2.90 here; I filled up the Alero at 2.70 the other day. Someone said that in a city about an hour away that they were up to $3.50 a gallon. That's not a good sign at all.

I've yet to see any HHRs on the road, though they look pretty good at the dealer. I just had a thought: what if instead of having a Car Spotting thread every month, we had one for each year? I could edit the original post to be "Car Spotting, 2005 Edition" and then we could start a new one when 2006 comes around. It might be fun to see if we could get to 100 pages in a year, as we've gotten 6 pages in under 2 weeks here.

Yes, I think the lounge was always the busiest part, although I'd like other forums to be busier than the lounge.

I think the problem only occurs on Firefox and on computers with the resolution set to a setting other than the 1024 x whatever pixels.

By Greg Migliore Automotive News / August 30, 2005 http://www.autonews.com/news.cms?newsId=13195 DETROIT -- Automakers are opening their vehicle fleets and wallets to help victims of Hurricane Katrina. General Motors said it is donating $400,000 to the American Red Cross hurricane relief fund, and the GM foundation will match employees' collective donations up to $250,000. GM also is making 25 vehicles available to the Red Cross to deploy as needed, according to Hilary Spittle, GM's spokeswoman for corporate responsibility and philanthropy. Ford Motor Credit Co. will allow customers affected by the hurricane to defer two vehicle payments. The automaker says all customers who live in counties declared a disaster area by the Federal Emergency Management Agency are eligible. Ford also will match employee donations to the Red Cross. Spokesman Alvaro Cabel said Ford's Atlanta plant, which makes the Taurus, is not affected by the hurricane. DaimlerChrysler Financial Services said it will work with customers individually if they have problems making payments because of the hurricane. Nissan North America Inc. said Tuesday it is donating 30-day leases for 50 full-sized trucks to assist the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. The automaker said it will extend the lease as needed. Nissan spokeswoman Katherine Zachary said the company also has a continuously running program that matches employees' charitable donations. Zachary wrote in an e-mail that Nissan had not determined as of Tuesday afternoon if its Canton, Miss., plant would resume production for the night shift. The plant stopped during its day shift Monday. American Honda Motor Co. Inc. said it does not have a specific response to the hurricane, but it has a standing donation with the Red Cross of 20 generators that are used in emergencies. The each generator can produce 12,000 watts, and Honda maintains them at its own expense. The automaker said its Lincoln, Ala., plant did not lose any shifts or power. GM said it is giving OnStar subscribers in a six-state area affected by the hurricane the system's full range of services, regardless of their subscriptions. General Motors Acceptance Corp is giving "special consideration" to customers affected by the hurricane but did not have details as of Tuesday afternoon. The Red Cross has 10 GM vehicles the automaker made available in the aftermath of Hurricane Dennis in July, and the GM Foundation donated three Hummer H2s last year to the charity. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My revision to the article: Apparantly Toyota, with their gobs of money that they don't even know what to do with, is unable to help out the victims of Katrina. A Toyota spokesman sighted that Toyota was more focused on taking the hurricane victims' money when they returned by selling them new cars rather than helping them recover from the aftermath. "Toyota is in business to make money. We are not in this business to donate and give money back to our customers when they are in a time of need," the spokesman said. :Toyota:

Reuters / August 30, 2005 DETROIT (Reuters) -- General Motors, which will soon roll out a new lineup of full-sized pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles, acknowledged on Tuesday that it was worried about high U.S. gasoline prices. Paul Ballew, GM's director of global market and industry analysis, said the impact on sales of fuel-thirsty pickups and SUVs was something the world's largest automaker was "wrestling with each and every day." Speaking to a meeting of investors and Wall Street analysts he also said GM -- which is struggling to return its North American auto business to profitability -- had wrongly been portrayed as saying that high gasoline prices had little or no effect on truck and SUV sales. "We are sensitive to it," Ballew said. "We're spending a lot of time with our customers, as well as other consumers out there in the marketplace, to really try to understand how it's affecting their behavior today and how it might affect their behavior going forward," he said. Ballew said GM sees oil prices easing from their current levels to not much above $50 per barrel in the next couple of years, however. And he predicted that sales of big SUVs and pickups would continue to be an important source of profits for GM. "The (light truck) market is still important, the market is vital for us," Ballew said. "We realize as we look at the market that we aren't anticipating the growth that we saw in the category, certainly for large utilities (SUVs) that we saw in the previous generations. But it's still a great place to do business, still a very important place for us to do business," he added. GM officials have said the company's new pickups and SUVs, which start making their debut early next year, will get about one more mile per gallon on average than the models they replace. That is not a big savings, perhaps, but Ballew said GM already has the most fuel efficient trucks on the road. He was referring to traditional body-on-frame, or truck-based pickups and SUVs, and not the car-based "crossovers" that are lighter and tend to go much further on a gallon of gasoline. "GM leads the segment, leads the category in terms of fuel economy and is committed to improvement in fuel economy going forward," Ballew said.

Saw a 06 Malibu in red; looked pretty good. And then about 15 seconds later I saw an Aston Martin Vanquish. I'm not sure if it's the one my neighbor owns or not but it was the same color (and it was near my house).

It's funny how the BMW, Audi, and Lexus (probably C&D's three favorite brands out of the group) are all over $40k in a $35k Sport Sedan comparo (the S60R was $47k!? too). Most of the others can be priced to $40k and beyond (not the G35 or TL, but the others can I think), so I don't see why they couldn't turn it into a $40k sport sedan comparison so there isn't such a big gap in pricing. They complain that the CTS doesn't have all the features of the other cars (and it gets a few points taken off because of it), but if they would have allowed it to be $40k like half of the other cars, then it would have had them :rolleyes: I think the CTS looks good with that body color grill, that's the first time I've seen it like that. I find it hard to believe that the CTS only did 0-60 in 6.9 when last year it got 6.6 with the automatic. Here's a major WTF: How does the TL, the only FWD car in the group, score the best in chassis performance, especially when they list the lows as "Jittery ride, steering gets squirmy when you goose it"? Just scanning the results tells me that all the new CTS will need is a better interior, upgraded engine, and a tuned suspension.

'67s and '68s are ok, but I don't much care for the '69s. It's funny because I like the '69 Camaro the best of the first gen, followed by the '68 then the '67; it's completely opposite.

I wonder how underrated these upgrades are; the Cobalt is underrated to begin with, so I'm wondering if these are underrated as well.

Yep balthazar got it. 1969 Holden Hurricane concept.

For anyone who has to side scroll, what is the resolution of your screen? Changing it to the 1024 x 800(?) setting makes you not have to side scroll. I don't know what the problem is with Firefox.

So basically if someone's leaning back in the seat while driving, it could automatically recline on them and probably make them jerk the steering wheel one way or the other because of it. The LR3 thing does sound bad, I'm wondering if it's just something to do with effecting the fuel gauge. The GMT800 one is not too good either, but at least it still stops. Who knows, maybe the people just had brakes with 200,000 miles on them and they're worthless now.

That one looks much, much better from what I can see. I think that will do well if it's the next VUE.

I'm guessing it's either so that you don't have to put the top in the trunk if you're alone or so you can haul more stuff in the trunk if you're going to the grocery store or something.

I think it looks pretty good except for a detail here and there, and I don't like the headlights wrapping around to the side of the car too much.

The Yaris is the new Echo, or possibly the replacement (not sure if they'll keep the Echo name):

Welcome to C&G! I'm sure you'll enjoy your stay.

Pontiac cut 5 models? Aztek, Bonneville, Sunfire, and what else? Buick cut Century, Regal, Park Ave, and LeSabre. GMC cut the XUV and what else? And there were more than two added: G6 coupe, Solstice, Torrent, Lucerne.

I didn't see that. Maybe it was a rental if it was white. Oh well, if it got crushed then maybe the people will buy another new one if they were happy with it, resulting in another sale for GM (yes I realize this isn't a very good way for GM to get a sale, but hey :P )

It looks pretty good so far TOXIC. I'd finish it up.

August 29, 2005 -- Torrance, CA -- Toyota Motor Marketing Europe (TMME) will stage the world premier of the all-new RAV4 sport utility vehicle (SUV) and unveil the all-new Yaris three-door and five-door liftbacks, at a press conference at the Frankfurt International Motor Show. Both vehicles featured at the press conference will have European specifications. Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A., Inc. will launch the all-new RAV4, its most affordable SUV, this fall for the 2006 model year. The completely restyled and reengineered third generation RAV4 will feature significantly improved performance and a larger, more refined and modern interior when it goes on sale. The all-new Yaris, which replaces the ECHO, will launch next spring for the 2007 model year. As ToyotaⳠmost affordable passenger car, the Yaris will feature contemporary exterior styling and a surprising and upscale interior. The RAV4 and Yaris will debut in the U.S. at a press conference at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas on Wednesday, November 2. Rav4: Talk about bland... Yaris:

Nope not an AMC concept. I'm going to wait until Rich replies (unless he doesn't reply in a day or so) and see if he knows. He knew the other one that no one else got.

I saw a new 911 in red today. Looked pretty good.