Northstar

Oshawa is not ready? That's fine... Oshawa doesn't need to be ready. Last I checked, the G8 was being produced in AU for the first 3-4 years before a NA-designed car was able to be built. Can't Oshawa be ready in 3-4 years? I would hope so... and who says only Oshawa can help Pontiac. Hell, they could make the Alpha cars just about anywhere. The original plan was for the Grand Prix to stop production in the middle of 2008 and I have documentation to prove it. I'm not going to post said documentation, but I'm going to go by what it says. Perhaps it changed, but at one point in time a while ago it was set to end then... so even if it was moved up after that, it only got pushed back to the original date. You say the Camaro is top priority, and it may very well be, but not so much that it's way ahead of everything else. The Impala is schedule to start production 3 months before the Camaro convertible, and only 7 months after the Camaro coupe. There may be no Pontiac, but that's because the G8 is getting produced in a couple months in AU, and the Alpha Pontiac isn't coming for some time. With that in mind, GM plans to refresh the interior and exterior of the G6 for the 2009 model year, and give it a new engine for the 2010 MY. Again, I have documentation to prove it, but I'm not going to post it. That gives the G6 a refresh for the 2009 model year, meaning it likely needs to live on that refresh for 3 years until Alpha arrives. Obviously, it would be better to have the Alpha Pontiac here earlier, but that's just the way it's going to have to be. GM also has set a date for the NG Solstice. I'd say that's a good sign they don't plan to kill the brand yet.

It has good lines, but it's not my style really. It seems to look rather feminine in the front. What I see is basically a bigger, smoother, rounder, Mazda3.

Drive the T/A and see how much you like it. I would never take the GTO to school, so in your case I'd probably stick with the Focus and wait until I was done to get something I really wanted. If the GTO got lots of dings and scratches as most cars that "live" on campus do, I'd be pretty pissed, and I assume that you'd be the same way with the T/A. With the Focus, you obviously wouldn't be happy, but I don't think it'd mean as much since the Focus is "just a car" and the T/A actually would mean something to you. So, I guess if I were deciding, I'd stay with the Focus and get a T/A or something after I got out.

What prevents the production to be moved to Oshawa? Holden seems pretty valuable to GM if it is providing vehicles to all those different markets and has only one assembly plant... All that is needed to save Pontiac is: A cheap 3-Series (hmm... Holden is developing Alpha) A cheap 5-Series (hmm... Holden developed the G8) A cheap Z4... Solstice is already here A cheap BMW-like coupe (hmm... Holden provided Zeta for the Camaro, what's so hard about providing it for a GTO?) *Note that cheap means cheaper than a BMW in price. A "poor man's" BMW. Looks like Holden CAN supply all that's needed to save Pontiac. It may not produce all Pontiacs, but it's practically going to develop them all. 4 vehicles may not seem like a lot, but if Pontiac is going to target the performance market specifically, those 4 vehicles listed above cover everything besides the high-end sports car arena, and Pontiac's not going to get something in that...

Congrats! Hope you have many happy miles with it!

There's little reason to make a V4. Since most minicars are FWD-based, the engine is going to be transversely mounted, so if the hood of the car is very short it would actually be worse for space efficiency.

What are redlines? The wheels are 18x8 all around. Staggered would have been cool, but I didn't want to spend the extra money on new ones. GTOs are very hard to find wheels that work (correct offsets) and ROH makes 18x9s that work very well in back, but this is what was available (they were used). 245/40/18 all around for tires. Had these been staggered, I would have ran 275/35/18 out back.

For cars I would actually drive: Buick: 0 Pontiac: Solstice GXP, G8, GTO (assuming you could still find one) Saturn: Sky RL GMC: 0 Chevy: Corvette, Camaro Cadillac: CTS-V, XLR-V, CTS 3.6 DI Hummer: 0 Saab: Perhaps the 9-3 convert Now, for which cars I'd like my family to have (for other members of the family, but not me personally)... cars that do something for me but aren't ones I'd actually want to drive: Buick: Enclave Pontiac: same as above Saturn: Sky RL, Outlook, Astra, Vue GMC: Acadia Cadillac: same as above and SRX, Escalade Hummer: H3 Saab: 9-3 convert Chevy: same as above, Tahoe

C&D only picked the Mazda because it was significantly cheaper than the other two.

Looks awesome. I can't wait until they start showing up at the local dealership.

I got them for $500 shipped. They were used, but in good condition. New they are about $1200. They also make them in gray. I think mine are powder coated. Not sure of the advantage of power coating vs. painting, but I'd look into it before deciding to do one or the other, if I were you.

Is KY a no-fault state? The other people's insurance ought to cover your rental unless it's a no-fault state.

Well I picked up a set of ROH Drift-R wheels. They're made in Australia and ROH actually manufacturers wheels for Holden, so these fit very well on GTOs. I also got some all-season Pirelli PZero Nero M+S tires, which are spectacular and totally transform the handling of the car vs. the stock BFG KDWS. They grip the road very well, and are hard to break lose (I have not broken them lose yet, but I have not gone at WOT yet. Still, the stock BFGs would have broken lose at some instances since I've had the Pirellis on). Anyways, here are the pics:

Clearly it was not designed that way... that would mean the key fob would have to stay in the car all the time.

CR picked the Tundra over the Silverado, though they still rated the Avalanche significantly higher than either of them. That, however, is not what I thought was BS. Under reliability, the Avalanche and Silverado are rated as "new" (and therefore do not have a real rating) but the newer-than either of the Chevys Tundra gets a "very good." I guess since it says Toyota on it it gets a free pass. And people say CR has no bias...

So basically a fancy TBSS. I guess it's okay, but just kill the damn thing already.

I guess it gives you a rear door and an area to place an advertisement, etc. Good idea I guess, though I think it looks sort of weird.

If you want to go faster, the CTS-V will go 0-60 in probably 4.0. The 535 does it in 5.5 and the CTS does it in 5.8... not much of a difference. No car in the CTS's class will take a 50mph corner with zero body roll. Get real. The CTS is bigger than the 335i by a significant margin, so you can't complain that the 335i gets better mileage. The CTS will get a hybrid, and a diesel is well. So, it seems like you have little to complain about there. Wow, nice to see some common sense! TY!

I would think that could be done. A 2.4L version of the 1.8L would make 185HP on paper.

At one point the Cobalt was scheduled to begin production in August of 2009. I have not seen anything to suggest that it was delayed.

Holy $h!! That must be an all-time record for a first year truck.

It appears GM is making improvements to the Lambdas to keep them at the top of the class, excellent! Astra makes 140HP out of 1.8L, very nice!

1. Well in that case how can you compare a basically totally electric vehicle to a gas powered one? 2. What gearbox do you suggest? What do you actually want in this 2.8 DI engine? First you say make it have the same power as the current 3.6 and better mileage. That would require 92 HP/L, or 7+ HP/L more than the 3.6 DI makes. That means you have to had some higher-performing part elsewhere, which usually doesn't lead to better mileage. Then you say you want it tuned for mileage so that it gets 30MPG. Well, which do you want? A 2.8 DI would make 235HP on paper (based on the same HP/L as the 3.6) and I see no reason why it would get any more than 1 MPG more than the 3.6 DI. The CTS is a heavy vehicle at ~4000 pounds and unless you go with a hybrid powertrain I don't think you're going to find many 4000lb vehicles with 260HP that get 30MPG without a hybrid system.

Yep, also expect the 6-speed to be at least optional with it.

1) Because the Mini weighs 2500lbs and the Malibu weighs 3600. Fuel economy has a lot to do with weight and less to do with horsepower. The Mini Cooper probably also has a ridiculously tall top gear to achieve that mileage. 2) Cost. The 2.8 DI would cost about the same as the 3.6 DI. It's the same block, same components, just smaller heads and cylinders. The 3.6 non-DI has to be cheaper than a 2.8 DI. Also note that the 2.8 gets the same mileage as the 3.6 in the current CTS, so I'm not so sure the 2.8 DI would get that much better mileage. Again, mileage has more to do with weight than power. If you put an LS7 in a go-cart, it'd probably get 200 MPG because it only has to rev to 2000 rpm to make it go 500 MPH in 6th gear.