Northstar

I don't think buying only American products is like buying only something made by white people. There are white people making things all over the world, so saying you won't buy something made in Canada because you want to buy American cannot be equated to "I will only buy things made by white people." I think what most people are saying is simply that they want to support their fellow Americans, as they would want fellow Americans to support them if they were competing against an overseas company. I think of his "strangers in Detroit vs. strangers in Juarez" comment like this: If you had the ability to buy food for an acquaintance (not necessarily someone you would hang on with but rather just someone you happen to know) who was broke or some random person on the street if you could only buy one meal? Certainly, you'd buy the meal for the acquaintance before the person on the street. I don't think it's necessarily wrong to buy products overseas, and by making things cheaper the workers who lost their jobs to someone overseas has a relatively good job of getting a job somewhere else because businesses would be benefiting from the cheaper prices and have the ability to higher more people. One thing that is really important to take from this is how important a good education is today. If you simply have a high school education, you can go work in the factory or in a coal mine, but your job security is much more risky. If it becomes more profitable for your company to ship your job overseas, then you're out of a job and are going to have to find something similar, and chances are that job may get shipped overseas too. If you get an education and are working in an office, even if the company has to cut you, you have a very good chance of getting another job because chances are that the job is still needed and it just so happens that the company you worked for is shrinking and another company is growing. Therefore, the growing company needs more workers and your company doesn't. What I just said above is much like foreign companies hiring American workers here. I don't necessarily like it because I'm somewhat bias against those company, but it is quite obvious that the Big 3 have been getting smaller and cutting jobs and the foreign companies have been growing and hiring more people. Buying GM is buying American, and buying Toyota is buying foreign, IMO, but I think many of us apply this to everything. I don't have any feelings towards company A that went out of business because company B in China could produce things at lower cost, but I do have feelings for GM so I don't want to see Toyota run them out of business; however, I think this is more because I like GM products a lot better than Toyota products than because I'm worried that some jobs might be lost by Americans. My friend's cousin just got a job as a Mechanical Engineer at Toyota making $90k a year. I'd certainly rather work for GM, but if I can't get a job at GM because they're not hiring or they're paying half as much, I might have to get a job at Toyota or somewhere that pays more because that's better for me. Doesn't mean I like Toyota or dislike GM, but it could just so happen that working for Toyota and buying GM makes me better off than working for GM and buying GM.

Certainly they have the production capacity for the Lucerne. The Aura, Malibu, G6, and Lambdas are all going to have it. Like you said, that was his excuse. Doesn't mean it's true. I think the reason is the people who buy the Lucerne like the 3800 and couldn't care less if it had the much more costly 3.6. No one else produces as many vehicles as GM. If Toyota had to switch from 1.5 million 5-speed autos to 1.5 million 6-speed autos for their trucks, and about 500k of them switched one year, and the other 1 million switched the next, I highly doubt each vehicle would have the 6-speed. The Tundra is supposed to do 200k and it doesn't have the 6-speed in all the models, so how would you expect them to put 1.4 million MORE six speeds in their vehicles? If one two two year's time is not a significant "lag" then you're simply not being fair to GM. The 6-speeds will be out of the T900s in one years time in the pickups and 2 years time in the SUVs. Happy now?

What vehicles were the 3.6 left out of when they hit the market that should have had them? The CTS didn't get it the first year because it wasn't ready. SRX, STS, and LaCrosse all had it right away. Would Toyota have had the production capacity to produce ~1.5 million 6-speed autos for it's SUVs and pickups? I think the problem is that GM can't just turn it's 4-speed plants into 6-speed plants overnight, and when you're dealing with 1.5 million units (T900) it's not very easy to do. A few days downtime and they'd be way behind, and it usually takes a few weeks to convert the plants. The 3.5 didn't go in the GS right away and didn't go in the RX right away. Was this because Toyota thought they shouldn't have it in a brand-new product (GS) while the competition all had much superior engines, or was it because they didn't have the capacity to build any more than they already were ? And, did they just leave it out of the RX for a while just because they felt like it, or did they not have the capacity to build more 3.5s? Sure, in a perfect world GM would have had the 6-speeds ready to go as soon as T-900 production started, but what happens to all the T800 trucks needing transmissions then? Do they sit and wait a month or two to get a new 6-speed while GM loses tons of sales and billions of dollars?

See, I think that Proton can do well for GM. If GM just uses Daewoos a rebadges them as "Protons" then it will be of very little extra cost for GM to do, they'll have a new place to build them at low cost, and I really don't see how it can't be profitable. Aside from buying them, GM would have little to no investment other than paying the workers and changing over the production line when new models are made.

That wasn't really an option for Buick. They couldn't produce LeSabres they were changing the line over to produce the Lucerne. With the G8 being built in a different plant it's a lot easier to do.

I get MT and Car and Driver. Used to get Autoweek, Autonews, Automobile, and R&T too, but I decided I don't have the time to read that many magazines, plus most of the stuff available in Autonews becomes available online shortly afterwards at Autoweek.com as well as the stuff in Autoweek, so I didn't see the need to spend money on them.

I would much rather see GM buy Proton than Chrysler. Their cars may not be very good, but it would be extremely easy to re-badge Daewoos (which seems to be working everywhere else they're doing it) as Protons and call it a day. Plus, it gives them a cheap place to build cars. Buying Proton (assuming it is for relatively cheap) makes sense in as many ways as not buying Chrysler does.

The newest pic looks pretty damn nice for a entry-level vehicle to me. Good materials too, judging from the pictures.

I'm not sure either, but the first 4 words in your quote are: "Dodge 2006 Challenger Concept" so I figured it was the concept. As Brew said, those aren't official numbers, so we'll have to wait and see.

I wouldn't repair the Accord. My Aunt had a similar situation with her Subaru (oil leaking from lots of places) and it was a '98 with 72k miles. It was undriveable, basically. She sold it to one of the mechanics at the Subaru dealership for like $7k I think. There's no way she would have gotten that if she were to trade, but if she were to repair it and then trade she probably would have gotten less overall than just trading it without repairing it. Basically, what I'm saying is this: It will probably cost you $1500 to repair it, but it's only going to cost the dealership probably $500 to repair it. If you just trade it in they may give you $1000 less because it has the bad trans than if you were to repair it, but you're really $500 ahead because you didn't have to pay the repair costs.

Why would this not be allowed? Those are the concept's specs...

I would wait for March Madness unless you really need it now. I don't see how you could get a worse deal if you wait.

Who gives a $h! what they do. Everyone who wants more power can just modify their vehicles as they do now. There's no way they can regulate that. Perhaps smog tests and such could get you in trouble, but you'd just have to be careful about that. Would this mean GM wouldn't be able to produce crate LS7s? I sort of doubt it. Basically what I'm saying is that if there's a will there's a way.

Camino, not sure how much the Ramjet costs, but... http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2004-LS6-Z0...094333278QQrdZ1 I mean, your SN is Camino_LS6, afterall.

Those are Cragar's. I believe Body's wheels are called Junkyard Dogs, or something to that effect. Edit: the Boyd's are Smoothie's, not sure where I got Junkyard Dog, perhaps Foose or another Boyd wheel. Edit again: Boyd has the Junkyard Dogs and they're similar, too.

Ok, here's what I came up with: Edit: looks like NOS is here. I'm sure he'll do much better.

Camino, what did you want done to it? Some different wheels? I can do that if it's that simple (NOS is not on right now) in a couple minutes.

Very cool! Do you have some more pics?

I doubt it actually looks like that.

Cool, but did he find one with an LS6 or something? The LS6 was never put in the F-Body's, only the Z06 and CTS-V, so perhaps it is a conversion he's looking at.

I don't think we'll see a V8 in the new LaCrosse. Probably the 3.6 standard, and maybe the DI 3.6 as the optional engine. If they give it the same version of the 3.6 as the Lambdas with 275HP, that will be plenty.

Hummer is worth $6,693,120, that's the highest I found so far. Interestingly, Chevy is worth less the Pontiac, Hummer, and Cadillac.

Wow, that's interesting.

Hmm, not sure what I think of all the extra little add-ons. I think I like the last gen better.

Oh, I thought if you meant you were buying one new from GM.