Drew Dowdell

Pontiac Aztec

In don't think I stated, anywhere in my post, that Cadillacs were the fastest or best handling. They, clearly, were not. The 4100 was a boat anchor. and, yes, I have driven, back to back, Cadillacs and Benzes of the same era. Luxury was measured by a different yard stick in 1980. Luxury was having the most sumptuous soft leather seats, wood or plood everywhere, lots and lots of chrome, wire spoke wheels, super smooth ride and as little noise in the cabin as possible. In short, it was meant to feel like you were driving a leather couch in an upscale gentleman's club. I've owned a 1985 Toronado. While I had the advantage of the 307 over the 4100, much of the rest of the car is the same as the Eldorado. I've also driven 79-85 Rivs and Eldorados at the local Lambda car club. At the same time a friend of mine, with a masochistic streak, owns an 85 or 86 <can't remember> Benz 300E. Over all it is a solid car with many, many minor issues, but it is not a luxury car by 1985 standards. The wood is chipped or pealing and the vinyl feels like an upscale version of the stuff used on my dad's old '83 F-150 bench seat. Have luxury "standards" changed since 1985? Youbetcha! Today the luxury is measured in harsh rides, stiff seats, monochrome interiors with as little wood as possible, and cramped spaces. Are 5-series nice cars? yes, but they're premium sport sedans, not luxury cars.

'Remember'?? With a few million on the road, I doubt remembrances are neccessary.I didn't care for the look initially, but it's not haphazard, convoluted & bloated like toyota's body undulations & tacked on bling-supreme grille. 215397[/snapback] I actually always liked that look. It gave it an aggressive appearance without the "big rig" look like the Ram has.

that and the complimentary copy of consumer reports....

Uh, I was primarily comparing to the Ridgeline and my numbers reflected such. The Pilot would be compaired to the GMT-360s or the Tahoe/Yukon.... and again, it gets similar mileage to those trucks while both of the GM models have more power, more towing capacity, equal seating capacity, and in the case of the 900s, more cargo capacity.

The only reason they were still making these two in 1996 is because someone forgot to shut the factory down way back in 1991.

bitter old queen

an electric razor?

The '85 Seville, while stylistically polarizing, was still the epitome of luxury while BMWs and Audis were still minimalistic, quirky, non-luxurious cars that were only desirable because they were expensive and European. It sold in great numbers. The Allante, also stylistically polarizing, has almost a cult car status now.

Why? The base engines of it's competitors are all 4-bangers. While the 3.4 that is currently in there isn't exactly a barn burner, it's no slouch.

It's a South Park joke.

I think the point here Siegen is that the mileage range for Avalanche, Pilot, and Ridgeline overlap yet the Avalanche is a substantially more capable vehicle than either of the Hondas. The Ridgeline has 247hp V6 and 5-speed while the Avalanche has a 310hp V8 and a 4-speed yet both get between 12mpg and 20mpg depending on driving styles.

yeah, I know the spelling. I slipped with the Firefox spell checker. Infiniti has to hope that no one remembers the G20, J30, I30, Q45, and QX4, all substantially more recent than the 8-6-4. Even the worst Cadillac hater acknowlages that the 8-6-4 is ancient history. Heck, they've had equally as bad <but not as notorious> engines since then. Other than the G35, are they really doing all that well? DTS still easily outsells the Q, even if you subtract fleets. STS probably runs neck and neck with the M. Escalade completely clobbers QX. SRX does well in the compairisons against the FX, the FX does outsell it though. XLR has no competition from Niss....Infiniti.

19.5 mpg round trip to Harrisburg with Buick Roadmaster parts in the bed of the Avalanche.

This of course &#036;h&#33;s all over the idea that the reason the current STS is the size it is, is because they couldn't lengthen the platform anymore then they already had.

Even 3-series kool-aid drinkers will admit that a 1956, 60, 76 Cadillac convertible is a cool car. Anyone under the age of 30 will have no first hand memories of the 8-6-4 and most non-car people under 40 will never even have heard of it. They didn't play Iggy Pop. They played Teddy bears <unknown swedish electronica band> featuring Iggy Pop. Best of both worlds. The issue there was that the media are import lovers, so to the car rags an I35 was still superior to a Northstar equipped Seville. Infinity has no heritage. They are new money. That's the point of this ad. If Infiniti tried an ad like this, they'd get stuck in 1991 and have to stop and we'd all be saying "Great 3 second ad there Infinity". Cadillac has the heritage. To their credit, Mercedes did a similar ad for the SL showcasing every body style of SL ever produced.

The song was recorded in 2006 by a group called The Teddy Bears. They invited Iddy Pop to make a song with them. It's not an old song meant to grab old people. It's roughly equivalent to Tom Jones recording a song with Dave Mathews.... only about 10000x better.

Torrent + 300hp = a lot of people rolling them

so... it's a torrent with a 275hp 3.6....

Anyone else notice that the price range of the SLS directly lines up with the 7-series?

many times laptop manufacturers will produce power adapters specifically for the car. That brick that you have to carry with you is a power inverter so if you plug that into a power inverter you're just going up in voltage and than back down again. Most laptops run off a voltage range of 12-19 volts. I'd check with your manufacturer to see what might be available.

what he said.

We already have platform overlapping...across divisions even. Why buy an Intrigue, Grand Prix, Lacross, Impala when you could buy an Intrigue, Grand Prix Lacross or Impala for the about the same money? G6, Malibu, 9-3, Aura, NG Lacrosse, BTS.. Face it, the Epsilon has become the next W-body, whored out to whoever wants it. What I'm proposing, keeping the smaller B-P in mind, is one platform for the division. Still make 5 cars off of it like you do now, just brand them all Pontiac.. or all Buick.. or all Cadillac. What you're saying about the Zeta v. Sigma thing is happening now. Why buy a DTS when you can get the Lucerne for less? At least with unique platforms for the divisions you would get unique product in the segment. This would give the divisions a reason to continue But face it each version of the Epsilon has been better than the previous. So nothing would change except that Pontiac could be Pontiac... and not just a badge engineered Chevy. I completely disagree with any self imposed design/performance restrictions like those you mentioned.

Well, chevy is a bit of an exception as they would probably need two or 3 platforms to cover their entire lineup. I'm thinking in terms of a more modern GM where Pontiac, Buick, Saturn and Saab aren't full line manufacturers The Buick full size sedan would be substantially different then a Chevy full sized sedan... and that's as it should be.