Drew Dowdell

I've seen the Avensis. It's even uglier than the pictures show.

Plus a couple extra. Firefly, G3, Tempest... whatever that Tracker rebadge was.....

GM would already be losing the Aura. I'm not talking just minor suspension upgrade.... I'm talking Cobalt SS around the Nurburgring style upgrades. Any why not? GM is not going to beat Toyota by being Toyota. Just because Toyota makes the "Sport" model of the Camry doesn't mean it's sporty. I was referring to the 2.8T that will be in the SRX. It gets direct injection I believe. That should help the economy some... but who, buying a Pontiac anything GXP, is thinking about fuel efficiency first?

Regal is a restyled Insignia and would likely be too soft for Pontiac. Freshen the Aura's interior, restyle it into a Pontiac, sport up the suspension, regular ecotec base engine, turbo ecotec GT version, Turbo 2.8 <from the SRX> for a GXP version.

The midgate is brilliant. The bed is a 6 foot bed with the midgate up. To make an 8 foot bed with cab open to the air: 1. Flip both rear seats up. 2. Take out the rear glass and store in the slot on the front side of the midgate. 3. Lower the midgate. Since you removed the glass, the rear support bar automatically lowers with the gate. You now have an 8 foot bed completely open to the air. To make a completely enclosed 8 foot bed: 1. Flip both rear seats up. 2. Lower midgate. Since you left the glass in, the rear support bar remains in place to support the glass. You now have a completely waterproof 4x8x2.5 storage space. I found this particularly handy when hauling drywall in rainy Pittsburgh. I could leave the solid tonnue covers on and slide like 20 sheets of 4x8 whatever in the back and keep it all dry, even if it was downpouring. After I unloaded it, me and 4 friends could go out to eat. Yet the whole thing was as easy to maneuver as a standard cab pickup.

Move a restyled Aura over to Pontiac.

See?

Well it's official. Cadillac's midsizer interior > Mercedes Benz midsizer interior.

Well.... Camino did want something other than a sedan.....

I kinda liked "Drive Beautiful"

Yeah, and I hate it on most of them too, however, at least with a select few, they manage some form of "brand". The 200c concept manages to have nothing Chrysler about it. Shave the logos off... is it the new Opel Omega to slot in above the Insignia? Maybe it's Mazda's attempt to bring back the 929..... or maybe the next generation of Sonata now that Hyundai is moving up market....... no no! It's clearly a Blue Devil mule......

I'm seeing reports of unemployment approaching a true 18%

My friend's '57 Buick Century has it. I'm sure Balthy would be able to tell us when it stopped being offered.

Psst. I was making a joke. GM use to have push button start mounted on the floor under the gas pedal.

squished dustbuster van?

Might even still be produced but for Canadian market only.

Well, personally, I want GM to set it up where I just switch the car on and press the gas pedal all the way to the floor to start it.

So... they lose 1 vehicle from today, but it really just crosses the showroom over to GMC and Pontiac doesn't get a new model that was already planned (and sold at Chevy) but neither belong at Pontiac anyway? Am I missing something here?

The dash plastics look horrendous!

Two are fog lights, two are lasers used for de-icing the road directly in front of the tire path.

Could Alpha support roadsters? They probably wouldn't be Miata competition anymore though....

I agree completely.

Get an Avalanche then? This idea has been around since at least 2002. The ones in the Avalanche are lit and have a small drainage hole at the bottom. Fill the sides with a bag of ice and a case of beer.... I got your cooled cup holder right here. And I used the Avalanche as a real truck too. It would haul construction materials and tools, and I'd even load pallets of brick into it with a fork truck. I'm certain I took it over it's payload rating, but it took it no problem.

I loved the ones on my 2003 Avalanche. I always called them the "saddlebags"

Remind me what's going to be built at Oshawa again? Impala and Camaro simply cannot support the volume that these two factories are capable of putting out.