Drew Dowdell

He was a lazy shifter in that he wouldn't shift up to 6th gear whenever he could. We would be in 4th or 5th for long stretches and he would use engine breaking to slow down.

Best month EVAR!

and then there are those who buy a Toyota because their "uncle who knows everything about cars" said it gets better mileage than some American car.

I"m not suggesting that at all. I"m suggesting that Infiniti manages to command a lot of respect even though it only has one car that sells really well <while the DTS, CTS, and Escalade are doing well at Cadillac>. Cadillac *does* have a car to aspire to above the CTS. XLR and XLR-V.

when I was in France I noted to my friend that the Europeans prefer manual shifters yet have roads that require more shifting while the Americans prefer automatics while having roads that require less shifting. My friend responded that manuals are more efficient than automatics, thats why they prefer them. The next time it was his turn to drive I caught him leaving the car in 4th or 5th gear <out of 6 possibilities> for long stretches of road. This was in a diesel which thought nothing of being in 6th gear at 45mph. I pointed out to him that manuals are only more efficient if you're not a lazy shifter.

Lexus pulled that out of their asses.

Oh that's right! Why aren't there 0-60s and skidpad numbers in this review? Biased media?

Only 1mpg better than my Avalanche?

Couldn't the same be said of Infiniti? Where does one go after the G35? Sales figures show they aren't going to the M or Q.

it's been around for a while and isn't mine. feel free.

I love this line.

Ugly little critters that not even the Germans like.

In reviews for the 2007 DTS I still read about how terrible the Cimmaron was or what a mistake the one year only Cadillac 8-6-4 was. Why do we not hear about the SLX during Acura MDX reviews? Why is it not mentioned that the MDX is platform shared with the Pilot and Odyssey? Why is there no mention of the G20 or J30 during G35 reviews? Why is there never a review that goes something like "BMW has come a long way since producing that ok handling econo-box tin can 2002 from 30 years ago" or "Mercedes has certainly made great strides since their days of building cars that couldn't get out of the way of the black clouds of soot they produced". Why does any Infiniti review not covering the G35 NOT start with "Attempting to improve their slow selling ____"? Answer me that.

IT"S ALL PERCEPTION!!! IT's THE SAME REASON YOU DON'T BUY JORDASH STONE WASHED JEANS ANYMORE! IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH PERFORMANCE OR QUALITY!

Resale is based on perceived value not actual value. The resale for the CTS-V and STS-V is low because they don't have blue and white emblems on their nose... it has nothing to do with the configuration of the engine. <STS-V is DOHC btw>

There are going to be less conquest buyers because there are lots and lots of happy '03-'07 CTS owners out there that want the next model. I know I plan on getting an '09 to replace my '04. That's one less conquest buyer <I conquested from Lincoln technically>

best friend's partner just got a Lucerne V6... he's 38 years old. Prior to my decision to move to Germany I've seriously considered a Lucerne V8 to replace my CTS. It's not that the CTS isn't a great car, I'm just more into a softer ride. I'm 28.

yeah, Ford doesn't seem to be able to bring ANY of it's hot concepts to market

Just another day around here.....

It took two gin and tonics before this hit me. The Northstar has had cylinder deactivation since 1993... it just wasn't used for fuel saving purposes. For those of you playing at home, the Northstar is DOHC.

GMs pushrods can also shut down half the engine when only partial power is needed.

I never understood what was so offensive about them....

There wasn't a lot of leftover '07s left on dealer lots. There are NO '07s left on my local Caddy dealer lots as of 2 weeks ago.

Cadillac isn't a world player on the level of BMW yet... but it's not because of their engines.

Australia?