Northstar

I felt like doing it just for fun... 1) You have $30,000, no more, to buy a new vehicle. What do you get and why? Probably a 2006 GTO. I'm very happy with mine and don't see and reason to buy anything else unless gas reaches $5/gallon. I'd probably look at a G35 too and maybe other sport coupes but I don't see any reason why I'd buy anything else. Mustang is a bit too retro, the interior is below average (and incredibly inferior to the GTO), the Challenger is much too big and too retro, and I don't think I could live with the 350Z's interior. 2) What do you consider the most significant debut in the US market over the next 12 months? This is hard because I feel there are many. The G8 is not very significant to GM as a whole, but Pontiac's life may rest on its success. Same goes for Buick and the Enclave, but again GM isn't going to make it or break it from either of those. The Malibu could be a choice, but again GM doesn't rely on it to line the coffers. Therefore, I'd probably have to go with the Accord. If it's a bust, Honda's profits will go down the drain, but if it's a hit it could probably overtake the Camry and the Malibu won't do too well if it's vastly superior. Not only does Honda's success rely on the Accord, but I would say pretty much every other manufacturer's success in the midsize segment will be based on what the Accord does or doesn't do. 3) You see the Saturn Aura is not taking off and doing as well as expected. Inventory levels and incentives are rising, what course of action would you envision GM take? I think there are three very real problems with the Aura: marketing is poor, you can't get a "deal" on one, and it's V6 only. I think GM will re-launch their ad campaign, perhaps Saturn will up the incentives, start allowing people to use their GM Card credits on it (and other Saturns -- the Outlook is not starting off so hot either), and they'll stick the I4 in it (hopefully with the 6-speed at least optional). 4) What do you see as a the next big trend? I see two trends: 1) SUVs that get good gas mileage. Whether it be from diesel or hybrid powertrains (or both) or some other breakthrough in technology. One way or another manufacturers are going to have to start vastly improving fuel economy in SUVs, and the first manufacturer to do so is going to reap huge profits from it. 2) I also think those "smart" polymers and alloys are going to be huge. They'll be the next thing that make people impulse buy cars, I think.

If you don't want to discuss the topic of the thread, go elsewhere and discuss what you want. This is fair warning to everyone to stay on-subject. Thank you.

Saleen Mustang (a real one). It sounded sweet (could definitely hear the supercharger) but I think the money would be better spent on something else, if it were mine.

That doesn't look bad, but there's a lot of stuff I'd take over that for similar coin.

That is reasonable to assume, but it's not as set in stone as he makes it sound. Anything after 2012 or so should say "possibly" in front of it. Hell, it is possible we will see a 2015 Cadillac Cien with 6 turbos and 1500HP to put the Veyron to shame

This all seems possible but there are certainly some parts that are not correct. Also, I don't see how anyone, Bob Lutz included, knows what's happening for sure past 2011-12. All of that is still in the debating process. This guy claims they already have the 2nd gen BRX figured out. Well, the first gen BRX doesn't come out for quite a while.

Enclave on the dealer lot. Spectacular. It was silver with basically every option... $43,7xx. I want to see it in something other than silver to make sure the unpainted area near the bottom of the vehicle looks okay then (it blends in with the silver).

What would the Malibu be doing in the Zeta design room? It's either the Impala or a proposal for the Impala that didn't get accepted.

I went to one yesterday, too. I rode with a guy with a red 05 GTO, it was tons of fun riding along, though it was very confusing which way the track went and I think it would take a while to figure out where I was going. He said it really wears out your tires (he has racing tires) so I'm not sure I'd really want to do that, seeing as I don't have much expendable cash for tires to go auto-crossing with. There were quite a few ricers here as well, one guy in a Legacy wagon, and old, old Accord coupe, a few POS Civics, and then of course there were the more serious cars... WRXs, EVOs, Z06 (old one), Solstice, GTO, SVT Cobra, and others.

If it's that old, I doubt it's anything. The front sort of resembles the SSR, though it clearly is not an SSR. The silver car sort of looks like the Motor Trend Impala from one of the recent issues. My guess is that it was an Impala design proposal, but it's not the one they picked.

I was just scanning MSN when I saw this piece of BS: Eventually, you get to the Delorenzo article "Hell Freezes over," but first you see a picture that says, "GM: What went wrong. Here's why Toyota became #1 and is likely to stay there." So, apparently GM is now "dead" because they are no longer #1 (for the first quarter, I might add). WTF? This is the most deceiving headline I've seen in quite a while, and to say that GM is now "dead" because they were outsold by Toyota by a relatively small margin in the first quarter in global sales is ridiculous. Ford, Chrysler, Honda, Nissan, BMW, Mercedes, VW, and every other carmaker besides Toyota must be dead too. And until recently, Toyota was not crowned #1, so I rule that they just now rose from the dead and are alive again Oh, the media... I'm sending them a comment and suggest others do as well.

The 6-speeds not being standard is a huge disappointment. I believe GM said they would have them in the 2008 models, did they not?

No one is preventing you from posting it... I'm guessing Pontiac's fleet numbers will drop by about 15% when the G8 comes. No more GPs will be going to fleet (75% of which go to fleet) and the G8 will sell more retail sales than the GP (assuming they import 40k). As for Chrysler... it's not that surprising. They don't have a whole lot of appealing products, and even their most appealing products, 300 and Charger, have 27.5% and 34% of their sales to fleets. Even the Magnum, which was supposedly so hot, sells 49% to fleets. I believe that ~50% of the LX cars are said to be Hemis, and I doubt many Hemis go to fleets, so very few non-Hemi Magnums go to retail.

I don't know, but I would assume there are still Chevy, Buick, Pontiac, etc., studios, and then there are also Delta, Zeta, Epsilon, etc., studios. With GM becoming more global I'm guessing more stuff is designed together.

I just checked the caption on the photo:

Forgot this before, but I saw a '53 Skylark in PERFECT condition.

Perhaps it was, but regardless there were pics of an orange '08 CTS.

The STS drives quite a bit differently than the CTS. It's more of a cruiser with a bit of sport than the sport sedan that the CTS is; it appeals more to the older clientele, though that's what the DTS is for, and probably why one of them is dying.

There were pics on R&T of the '08 in orange, though. But yes, Sunburst was an '03-only color on the first-gen.

Went to an autocross event tonight (didn't drive/race in it though). I rode with a guy with a red GTO, but there were quite a few cool cars there. M3s, and SVT Mustang, old Z06 (which had the fastest time), and some other fast cars. Then there were some dumb cars (old S-Series Saturn, old ass Accord, a couple POS Civics... basically dumb ricers). It was quite fun, though it really tears up your tires so I'm not sure I'd want to do it.

What happened to orange? I'd probably go with blue chip and cashmere or black raven with ebony.

I think it has to be the Impala (if it is anything important at all). It was in the Camaro design studio, which would be in the Zeta design studio.

Impala?

Wow, what an idiot. He didn't even have the presence of mind to step of the brakes when he started moving towards the wall? Maybe he had never driven at all before?

436/428! Awesome! I will be very surprised if it really takes 4.3s to get to 60. I thought the LS2-equipped C6 could do it in 4.2? I'm glad to see GM is improving the Vette, now how about actually making the XLR competitive?