Drew Dowdell

Yay! Sonacamcord6 for everyone! GM should remember and take care of the people who love the company the most. GM needs to think and to innovate. The fact that GM has FlexFuel, a few different flavors of hybrids, direct injection, diesel, etc and then throws up it's hands and says "f@#k it! We'll never get to 35mpg" even though the due date is 12 years away is FAIL of epic proportions. A Zeta based Impala with the 2.9 liter diesel getting 35mpg highway and marketed right would do extremely well. It's all off the shelf parts. Why can't FlexFuel and 2-mode be combined in one vehicle? When are we getting an engine like the one in the Biopower concept? Why can't the new 4.3 diesel be used in cars? Capacity?? Stop building the damn 3800 and start building the engines we want! I know you hear a lot of armchair CEOing around here, but none of us are suggesting GM use technology that it doesn't already have. Why do these things seem so obvious to us, but so far fetched to GM?

What'd I do?

Bluetech does 23/32... keep that in mind.

The dealer will be more than happy to charge you $12,000 for 4 years maintenance and 12 years rust protection if you're that worried about it and must have a car that is priced the same as the BMW. Do you ever realize the idiocy of what you're saying... or are we just wasting bandwidth here?

A new, unrelated, Chevy FTW. So I'm driving down a 3 lane commercial highway when I hear this loud burble-burble. Up comes this tool in a previous gen Golf with about 400lbs of body mods and a fart can exhausts. From the *sound* of it, it was a standard 4-cylinder, I heard no turbo and.. well it sounded like a 4banger. He's being an idiot making all sorts of "look at me" noises with is fart can. I'm in the Avalanche at the light in the left lane, Golf Tool is in the center lane, and up pulls Gramps* in the right lane in a black current generation Impala SS. Golf tool is sitting there reving his engine but I don't know who he was aiming for because I'm in a truck and why would you pick a fight with some old guy. I'm sure you can see where this is going. Light changes to green and Golf-tool has surprisingly good reaction time and takes off out in front. Gramps wakes up and realizes what's going on and decides to throw the hammer down. Golf tool gets pwned. I'm following behind in the truck, not even trying, watching the whole scene and laughing. The 3 of us make it to the next light. Golf tool is irritated now and decides to try it again. Only this time Gramps is completely awake from his nap. Light changes green and they're both off.... The Impala SS is barking it's tires but he still pwns Golf tool again. Golf tool runs off down the commercial highway while Gramps and I take the on ramp to the interstate. I get up next to Gramps and give him a thumbs up... which he returns with a smile. *Basically, Lutz with darker hair.

not a compliment.

1. Available at your Cadillac dealer 2. A quick google search for "surround sound CD" and the first hit I come up with for a place that sells them is on page 3. I guarantee none of your current CDs have surround. - Red Herring 3. I hate these things, I wouldn't even want a manual one. 4. Red Herring - wear driving gloves... it's far classier. 5. I suppose ok on this one, Lincoln had it in the LS. I would be a minor upgrade that Cadillac could charge tools like you extra for. 6. You know, Cadillac used to offer heads up displays... before BMW or Mercedes ever did. They got blasted in the press for them... I'm not surprised they're a bit shy about including them even though they're cool now that BMW and Benz are doing them. I guess Cadillac should go back to column shift also. 7. eh 8. I suppose this is the reason I hate upper end BMW drivers yaking on the phone and drifting in and out of their lanes. shut up and drive. The visibility out of the CTS is already excellent and the mirrors are large. use your eyes. 9. My CTS came with a first aid kit... I dunno if it was dealer supplied or what, but I have it. The tool kit is what the blue OnStar button is for. 10. The seats fit me right the first time. Like Ron Popeil, I set it and forget it. 11. no thanks, pre-paid maintenance plans are notoriously a rip off. I'll take the $5k off the purchase price thanks. Cool that you fell for it though. 12. How many people are actually going to take their BMW in for rust repair after 11 years....? I mean come on. It's probably the 3rd owner by then and the warranty is invalid anyway. 13. fine, I'll give you this one... it really could use a telescoping wheel. 14. complete red-herring 15. Has it. 16. yeah, they could put a 380hp V8 in... or they could put a better performing, 400hp, V8 from the previous generation CTS-V and tune it more for luxury over sport. 17. already have a 2.9 liter diesel being built, just not yet certified for the US. 18. I will put up the GM 5-speed or 6-speed up against any of the 7 or 8 speeds from the competition in terms of reliability or smoothness. 19. So... wait... even though none of the competition offers both diesel and hybrid.... Cadillac has to offer both... just to stay even? How many times were you dropped on your head as a child?

because they share the same idiotic notions you do that price dictates class rather than size, performance, and features.

Oh no... I was off by 1 in each category if you include cars that aren't even in production.... I was only counting cars but fine. Escalade Hybrid. Isn't it telling that even to an enthusiast the GS400h is so forgettable? Cadillac is already producing a CTS diesel. It is just not yet certified for sale in the US.

Your member profile says you're located in Central NY. I'm sorry, we're going to have to ban you for false information in your profile.

*shrug* my insurance isn't too bad. $150 a month for the CTS and Avalanche combined... and I have fairly high coverages.

fixed for truth.

and by a Lienert no less....

I"m not really into Tatas...

Kudos: Cadillac CTS Named Top Safety Pick by Insurance Group ARLINGTON, Virginia — Cadillac's redesigned 2008 CTS on Wednesday earned the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's Top Safety Pick award for 2008. Other winners in the category of "large luxury cars" include the Audi A6 and the Volvo S80. This means the trio earned the highest rating of "good" in the Institute's front, side and rear tests and are equipped with electronic stability control. The news is especially heartening for Cadillac. The 2003-'07 CTS was rated "poor" for rear crash protection. GM redesigned the seats in the 2008 CTS to earn a better rating. The seats are standard in CTS models built after December 2007. "All luxury cars should perform as well as the CTS," said Adrian Lund, Institute president, in a statement. "It's a leader in its class for safety." What this means to you: The CTS not only looks good but is a pack leader in terms of safety. — Anita Lienert, Correspondent

you know what, we already have one. I should have put this in there.

You're harder to catch than a fly with chopsticks! Your points are all over the place and you try and dodge and duck every time I pwn you <which is just after most of your posts>. You said the CTS doesn't have an interior to stack up against the M5 and C65.... well I posted pics of that and you reply with "well the M5 is old... a new one will be here soon". Perhaps... but it isn't here yet and the CTS-V is still superior to both of them today. Where is the stitched leather dash? Where is the pop up nav on the M5? Why is the iDrive still in there... Cadillac's interface has been praised for being the most intuitive. Look at all that flat black plastic on that Benz! Oh wait... you dodged and ducked.... it's the CLS that the CTS-V is inferior to now? Looking at pics of the CLS interior.... I just don't buy that. It's nice and all but doesn't break any styling ground. And what of the weight of the CLS63? It's 4200lbs! Oh NoooS! Better not take it into any curves! This thing is a drag racing machine only. The XF has a very nice interior but isn't even in the same league as these cars performance wise. It makes 420hp out of it's supercharged version. 130hp less than the CTS-V. Does that mean a CLS <4200> and a curvy road are a bad mismatch? The M5<4100>? M6 Convertible <4400>? Audi S6 <4500!!>? Oooor... maybe they understand it better than you do. It wouldn't take GM very long at all to sell a CTS diesel in the US. It's already for sale in Europe. but you're right... they just don't understand the luxury market.... they're being pummeled by all those luxury hybrid cars <total: 1>, and luxury diesel cars <total: 1> on the market today.

Some of us are more concerned with total gas consumption rather than cost. The Prius is better at gas consumption than any other car out there. People pay extra for the best... and there is nothing wrong with that. It's the same reason some people buy their cheese at Wholefoods rather than Kraft singles at the local grocery. That said, I hate the Prius for it's pregnant shoebox styling... not it's technology. I really enjoy the Civic Hybrid I drive every week.

Super Soaker Inventor Aims to Cut Solar Costs in Half Twice the thermal efficiency of the most efficient solar sterling engines and almost 3 times the efficiency of photovoltaics. It also doesn't require light to operate, just heat. Meaning anywhere you have waste heat you can collect that heat and turn it into electricity with his invention. It uses hydrogen, but in a closed system so that hydrogen refueling is not necessary. Imagine: A Chevy Volt with an E-85 two cylinder that charges the batteries not only with rotational energy, but also the waste heat energy from the combustion process. The combined thermal efficiency would be unprecedented. Though the panels on the roof would minimize the need for the gasoline engine even further.

Grand Cherokee started in 1993.... Bravada in 1991?

If you won a CTS-V in a contest... it couldn't compete with an M5 and an E63 because you got it for free.... right? If you want to go down that route, why do you never see the Z4 and SLK compared to a Corvette?? They base around the same price but the 'Vette would positively pwn both of them. So why don't you see those comparos? Because it doesn't make any F#$%ing sense to compare dissimilar vehicles that just happen to share a price point! I'm trying to figure out how this is any more of an expensive interior than what is available in the CTS. No 40gig hard drive? No sky view sunroof? No pop up Nav? *scoff* I'm sure you'll counter with the 97 way power seats.... but that doesn't matter to me because the CTS seats already fit me perfectly. The Benz is even worse.... is that a Passat? So yea.... if those are $80k interiors, I'll stick with the $63k interior in the CTS thanks. How the hell would you know? The old CTS ran with the old M3 to the point where the differences between the two were up to driver error.

Then doesn't that mean Ford was late to the large SUV market? GM had the Suburban in place and available before the SUV market craze started. Not everyone can be first. Chrysler was first with the Mini-vans. Ford was first with Jelly-bean styling. GM was first with automatic transmissions and successful FWD. GM was first with 2-mode Hybrid. GM had the first luxury SUV <the Bravada>... Range Rovers of the day were "luxury" in that they were expensive and imported, but not in actual appointments. Edit: I disagree with F-O-G's statements about the Corvair, it was never really intended to be a sports car, rather it was supposed to compete in the economy class with the Ford Falcon. It was GM's answer to VW and Ford at the same time. As far as failed technology.... every car maker has some. GM's is most widely known because it's been the biggest for so long.

I don't need all that.... just 3 for me. Truck: 4-Mode Hybrid Avalanche Z71 with that new light duty diesel Everyday car: CTS-D Fun car: Saturn Sky with e-flex

whenever someone starts rattling about how much better Toyotas are.... I just ask them how many old Chevy Caprices <"you know, the old cop car" - if they can't remember> they still see around... and how many old Camrys. 100% of the time, the next words out of their mouth are "Yes, but..." How many 80s Cadillacs? How many 80s Lexus? - I know it's not a fair comparison....but they don't know that.

Whattya say we all chip in and buy 68 some Westley's Bleach White for the white walls on both his Buicks....