Drew Dowdell

I've been buying up GM stock. I'm no Kerkorkian, but I do expect it'll be back into the mid-30s again. Besides, you're still getting $2 a share dividend on a @$24 investment.

Nissan: Murano, Pathfinder Toyota: 4Runner, Highlander Ford: Freestyle, Explorer

@ 2,000,000,000 rpm

Can't afford to do that when you have to pay every GM worker that still lives + pay for their healthcare.

oh who cares about HP!?! Really people it's Torque that is important. In the previous Jetta, the standard 4 cylinder had about 115 hp. The TDI had 90hp. They both did 0-60 in about 10 seconds. Say "227 hp is just pathetic" three times and then stop and think at how rediculous that sounds when the Camry is 189hp. Another point. Stop comparing engine displacement to HP. You want a 220hp Honda S2000 engine in your G6 convertible, be my guest. I'll be laughing at you growing smaller in the rearview mirror driving a "pathetic" Lucerne V6 anyday.

A woman in her 50s who wants a BMW simply wants a BMW for status. There is no way she's buying it for the "sport".... plus, really you live on Long Island. Can you ever actually get up past 45mph regularly anyway? She probably would be a prime canidate for a CTS or a Zephyr. Eh, let her suffer with a BMW on those awful streets..... she'll wish she got a towncar.

And a big congratulations goes out to the UAW for making this possible. </sarcasm>

I think it's great!

Enclave

I fully expect that Saturn will take Old's place. They've had the transition on going for years.

It means that Chris is probably going to be having a very prosperous new year since he probably sold the pics to some magazine for a fairly hefty price.

Ah... I'm not exactly sure if I count then. Young, male, professional sure. Not a current Buick owner... sure. But my idea of cross shopping is walking from the Olds side of the dealer to the Cadillac side of the dealer. I've only owned one non-GM vehicle, a 1985 Lincoln Continental. Thank you for the compliment though.

I realize this may be a joke today... but GMC really doesn't have the cache that Buick does. People may step out of their Navigators or LX430s into a Buick Rainier, but probably not into a GMC Envoy.

Ascender and 9-7x are better? I'd cut those two first. The Ascender simply because Izuzu is dead in this country and the 9-7x because it doesn't fit with Saab's lineup. The Blazer/Jimmy/Bravada triplets did ok for years. I see no reason Trailblazer/Envoy/Rainier can't do equally as well or better.

There are some wierd distortions going on in those E-bay pics. Buick is having "unveilings" all over the country. Call your Buick dealer and see if you can get a pass for one. If nothing else the free food and cocktails are good.

I won't really write up about the LaCross because I don't think it's a good enough car and I'll end up offending someone. The W-body is just past it's expiration date.

It's a shame that Buick is going to drop the Rainier. It really is the most handsome of the GMT-360s. I suppose the Enclave will take it's place, but it is still a good looking SUV. Everything seemed above average quaility, but the gaps in some places were kind of large. Tighten up the interior a bit and they'd really finish polishing it.

Someone like me? I tried to keep track of what car each person I talked to currently had. There was one guy there who was waiting for the Lucerne to trade in in 1999 Deville on. A few people with Park Avenues, some Regal and Rendevous owners. The most excited people seemed to be the LeSabre owners. Most people I spoke with indicated they would be interested in purchasing a Lucerne for their next car. They had every Buick model except the Rendevous at the event. The car that got the least attention? The LaCross. Even the Terazza and Rainier were getting more play then the LaCross. The Terazza has a much too handsome interior for a minivan. The seats in that thing are wonderfully comfortable and beautifully stiched. It feels about as classy as you can get in a van. Most of the controls felt good enough with the exception of the steering wheel mounted controls. They felt cheap and when you pushed one button, all the buttons on that side of the wheel would move slightly.

Aren't they already having trouble keeping the new Vue on the lots? We around here don't really like it, but what do we know? Few of us here like the Camry and it's the best selling sedan in the country. I was at a Buick "unveiling" tonight for the Lucerne. Nearly everyone there I spoke to had favorable things to say about the look and feel of the car. The leather is excellent. The control knobs are top notch. The LeSabre owners will be perfectly comfortable with the 3800. The Park Avenue owners will enjoy the step up to the northstar. The back seat is extremely roomy. The quiet tuning really works. Considering I was in a loud reception hall with maybe 300 people and a jazz band playing. I got in the car, closed the door, and it all went away to a faint murmer. It's almost disturbing how vault like quiet it is. All the Lucerne has to do is sell at the pace of the LeSabre and Park Avenue combined. I think it will do that easily plus get some conquest sales from Lexus, Lincoln, and a few disgruntled Chrysler Concord owners.

Not really. Though ugly, the Aztek was one of GMs most verstile vehicles. That is widely panned around these parts.

Unimpressive because a much more powerful, much more capable, V8 Silverado does about the same. Moving a few grocery bags around to get to the spare is a lot less tedious then moving a truckbed full of dirt/rocks/mulch. Oh look, he caught some.

And when was the last time you saw an Olds ad before their death. Maybe once or twice for the Intrigue, but nothing else. GM didn't even try. They simple expected to know to go to the Olds dealer. You know I've never ever seen an advertisement for the second gen Aurora? I see the same freaking Passat commercial 5 times in an hour TV program. Advertising the Intrigue with the X-files? They're going for the 28-34 male geek segment and wondering why they can't sell cars. No, there was nothing wrong with Oldsmobile that wasn't also wrong with the rest of GM. They had the best of each platform. Olds was simply neglected by the GM marketing machine.

What your co-worker is experiencing is disappointment through misleading advertising. What Toyota and Honda are doing with their upper end hybrids is using the hybrid system in place of a supercharger. It's a way for them to get better 0-60 performance without any sacrifice in efficiency. Honda even admits to this when talking about the Accord. They are giving the customer what their cake and letting them eat it too.

Well lets see at it's death Oldsmobile was widely regarded as having: The best of G-bodies in the Aurora, also thought to be GM's finest at the time. The best of the W-bodies, the LaCross only comes close in it's highest levels of trim. The most luxurious of the vans and GMT-360s. Just try telling me that the 9-7x and Rainier combined are outselling Bravada. Oh and splitting the vans from three models to four models.... splended idea. The best of the N-bodies, though admitedly, the Grand Am didn't set the bar too high.

Of course they didn't. Olds had a unique position within GM. They weren't "Grandpa" like Buick. They weren't "Boy-racer" like Pontiac. They weren't "lower-class" like Chevy and they weren't "too expensive" like Cadillac. They were tastefull and understated. There was, and still is, nothing to directly replace Olds in the lineup. Put it this way, if Ford killed off Mazda, would the former Mazda customers automatially start buying "sport Mercurys"? I don't think so.