Drew Dowdell

will it be front page news?

this isn't even rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic...

WTF? How hard is it to navigate that turn?

The voice of reason enters....

Who wants to bet that the Prevue concept will be NG-Theta

Keep in mind, I wasn't disputing the fact that ethanol is subsidized. I completely agree that it is. What most people don't think about is how oil is subsidized. If you think about how much we spend on mid-east wars and payments to mid-east countries to help pay their security forces the subsidy is much greater, though indirect. Perhaps you would like a link to the U.S. Department of Energy then? It says the same thing.

No no... you misunderstood. Only 30% of their fleet are diesel cars.

*toddles off to play Civ IV.*

None that I know of.... I support both equally. I think E85 is more realistic in the short term simply because it requires the least amount of change over. I like diesel... but even the diesel loving europeans only run about 30% of their cars on diesel.

As you requested....

I can do that in the CTS in non-sport mode. Tap the throttle enough to kick it down a gear then let up suddenly and the poor confused transmission says, "Now wait a minute here, I thought you said.... damnit.. ok!" In sport mode, it will actually hold that lower gear and keep the engine revs high in anticipation of some more spirited driving. It'll only upshift if you cruise like that for a while or take it out of sport. I think any automatic can be tripped up if you're trying to trip it up. They can't know when you're with them.

hahahha.... The other day someone came around asking for donations to a charity that tried to prevent alcoholism in teens. I told them I was drinking all I could so the kids wouldn't get their hands on it. the dude wasn't amused.....

Then level the playing field? I suggest that GM imediately switch to the same healthcare and retirement setup that Toyota North America uses. Then I'll sit back with a gin and tonic and watch the UAW cry about it on T.V.

Charger, you've been a great addition to C&G with many great ideas and insightful posts...... this isn't one of them. Let's start with your errors: 1. You can't make the blanket statement that it takes 3 times as much energy to produce Ethanol then it does to produce the same quantity of gasoline. Ethanol can be made from many many different plant sources... each one takes a different amount of energy to get ethanol out of... it takes more energy to get ethanol out of woodpulp then it does switchgrass.. for example. 2. You're not burning "food".... that is unless you eat sawdust, grass, waste sugar cane, or rotten apples. Yes it can be produced from corn and wheat, but it isn't like we can't grow more. 3. You say that the cost of ethanol is artificially low because of government subsidies. I say the cost of oil is artifically low because it doesn't take into account the amount of money we spend in the Middle East. Where would you rather your tax dollars go to subsidize your fuel... the Middle East, or the Mid-west? 4. I think you're mixing up some statistics. There is around 30% less "energy" or BTU in a gallon of Ethanol then there is in a gallon of petrol. Currently, because our infrastructure isn't set up to produce large quantities of ethanol, we don't achieve the same economies of scale the petrol producers do. Some facts: 1. Ethanol is completely renewable. 2. The plant sources for ethanol are very flexible. Just some of the examples are: Corn, Potatoes, sugar cane, wood pulp, saw dust, rotten fruit, fruit pealings, switch grass, hemp, peanuts <amongst other nuts>, grains, cheese whey, waste sucrose, potato waste, brewery waste, and food and beverage wastes. So... have a bum crop of corn this year? No matter, call up the folks at Budwiser and see if they have any brewery waste they'd like to get rid of. 3. Ethanol is as close as we'll ever get to having a Net 0 CO2 emissions vehicle without going to solar powered cars. The amount of CO2 emitted from an ethanol burning car is never greater then the amount of CO2 absorbed by the plant while it was growing. Petrolium on the otherhand pumps dormant/stored CO2 up from the ground and releases it out into the air. 4. More agriculture in the US is a good thing. It improves the quality of your air and keeps the money you spend on fuel local <at least on the country level>. 5. Ethanol is water soluble, non-toxic and biodegradable. Making the envirmental cleanup of a spil as simple as a rain storm. I suggest you check out E85Fuel.com for more information.

mostly

Nope, no oil leaks on mine. There really was nothing wrong with it other then the fact that I got out run by a VW Rabbit diesel.

Turbo charger

and the Toyota sales person will even help you sign up for medicare plan B while they process your credit app.

All but one of my previous cars.... 1985 Oldsmobile Toronado Caliente 1985 Lincoln Continental 1994 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Convertible 3.4 DOHC uh... someone else can take the 1983 Chevy Caprice with the 3.8.

I won't generalize because there are always exceptions, but yea, I'm not a hatchback kinda guy. Gimmie a big coupe any day. I'll take a sport sedan in the event that a decent luxury coupe isn't available.

With their grandfather?

Where would GM be without the UAW? About 100 billion richer....

GM should get the credit <and often does> for making the most effiecient of the full sizers. That they can also run on E85 should be trumpeted from the mountaintops... even if people can't fill up with E85 locally. It's about perception, they may never buy E85, but in their mind they could..... just like they *could* use that 66k new Escalade to go offroading in.

Oh no!!! not him! Kidding..... congrats man.... I try bribing them with money and I still can't get any respect around here [/dangerfield]