Drew Dowdell

I don't know if you have a Meineke up your way, but they do free brake inspections down here. I took the CTS in because it was near 40,000 miles and thought it was time for brakes. They told me I had ceramic pads and they were a 10 out of 11 on their life. <shrug> Shocks should easily last 100,000 miles.

If I have 45k to spend, how is a 5-er or E-class not competition for my dollars? Lets, see I can spend 45k on the CTS and check every box except AWD OR I can get the same size car over at the BMW dealer with 230hp, "leatherette", no Nav, no sunroof OR I can get a Civic sized car that gets all the same equipment as the CTS except still has "leatherette", and no better gas mileage. Usually when you pay more, you get more. That's why people buy a ES over an Camry. Between Cadillac and BMW 5-er, you can pay the same as the Cadillac and get less... or with the 3-er you can pay the same as the Cadillac and get less equipment and room but get to 60, 1.3 seconds faster while having nearly the same handling. In order to simply match the equipment and room as a completely loaded CTS AWD with DI, you'd have to spend $10,000 more at BMW for a 5-series. The BMW simply isn't as good a deal.

My point was that having NAV available hasn't helped Ford in this price class.

I bet it would be insanely easy to integrate Turn-by-Turn into onscreen nav. Have the Onstar operator find the route in google maps then download a small export to the Nav system over Verizon's EVDO system.

Great, now since we're comparing based on price, compare a 45k CTS to a 45k 5-er, 45k E-class, and 45k Infinity M. you know... the cars the CTS is actually the same size as.

Don't worry, they'll use a seventy twelve gazillion speed transmission.* *only speeds 2,3,5, and 7 will actually be available.

So... with all that torque, if you leave the parking brake on, does it just twist the bed off?

part of me is tempted to buy the Cutlass just to rescue it from him.

So... 5.3 then? Because if the 535 RWD gets the same 0-60 as the 550i..... then there is something seriously deficient about the V8 in the 550. I like the pure speculation you're using against Cadillac though. Classy move.

Good god! You do know that there is more than just the 3-series right!? Even the OLD GTO ran with the 5-series of it's day. Compare 5-series sized cars to the 5-series! If not, I'm going to start bitching about how the 7-series can't out handle a CTS. Quit humping the damn 3-series and realize there are OTHER cars and classes that BMW covers as well. BMW just happens to be one of the most expensive cars in it's SIZE class. You act like handling is the only thing that sells the 3-series. It's not, there's also pretentiousness, snobbery, and group think to name a few. You keep spouting off about how well the 3-series sells worldwide, but you never say that MOST of those sales outside of this country are 320 diesels with cloth seats and hand crank window. It's just a RWD Volkswagon Jetta TDI everywhere else.

cleaning the carb won't help with dieseling issues if the carb is out of adjustment. the smoke out the back means it's probably running a bit rich... and that is supported by the dieseling. you definitely want to check the thermostat like OCN said, a stuck open or closed thermostat can cause lots of problems, and it's a cheap and relatively easy fix. How is the coolant level? is the coolant fresh? not enough coolant and your heater is the first thing that goes. get the transmission fluid AND filter changed. I bet this car can easily be saved for a lot less than what it will take to get the Millenia back on the road.

I think it depends how they are folded in. Mazda sales are not counted with Ford for example. I'm sure Toyota will do what it take to make sure they around counted together though.

Damn another great Kate Walsh one...

if I could make it flashing... I would

In breaking news, the Mini-Cooper beats the Crown Victoria in performance handling. We compared the two directly because they share price points. Do you somehow expect Cadillac to magically overcome physics? You'd say you want the Cadillac to be 3-series sized, but in the same breath say it has to start at $25k or else you wouldn't buy it because it's a Cadillac. You can't have it both ways ya know.

Compare a CTS AWD to a BMW AWD please... and stop trying stack the numbers like you always do. Base RWD CTS is 3874, Base RWD 535i is 3704. It's only 170lbs difference. The 550i doesn't have AWD so it's hard to make a comparison there. The BMW 535xi is only 60lbs lighter than the AWD CTS... so stop trying to call the second fattest girl at the bar "skinny". That said, both need to go on a diet.

There isn't a *huge* performance gap between the CTS and 3-series. The performance gap would only be noticed on the track and in *some* stoplight drag races.

Didn't they rate the G35 better than the 3-series also? The CTS is 5-series/M35 sized. Of course it's going to be heavier than the 3-series/G35. When you get a bigger car it tends to weigh more. :doh: Don't tell me we're going to start rating cars on pounds per dollar....

Malibu will get people who normally wouldn't consider a chevy into the showroom especially with reviews like that Edmunds review which basically calls the Camry stale. If they end up in an Impala instead...so what? Dealers need to be shed. If Toyota can sell at it's volume with less than half the stores, so can GM.

also... how has just having NAV available worked out for Ford on the Fusion, Milan, Taurus, and Sable?

Sorry, offering a $2,000 NAV system on top of the $22,000 the car is already going for is not going to push sales over 300k... especially in the economy we're heading into. Just file it under notgonnahappen

Are you kidding? That's been a forecast for about 5 years. Just no one listened.

Toyota sold 448,000 Camries last year. Wake me when Malibu sells better than 2/3s of that.

and yet won't significantly effect sales...