Drew Dowdell

That I'll agree with....

Oh geeze, they're mostly performance cars. All in the penis wagging segment. The fact that the Supercharged Riviera and Buick Roadmaster with the LT-1 are both sub 8 second cars with huge curbweights while using low<er> horsepower, high torque engines with 4-speeds proves that you can have great performance and still have a 4-speed. The Roadmaster and Riv were both good for about 27mpg. They were both designed in the early 90s. A CVT is a tranmission with an infinate number of speeds. That makes them great for an engine with a poor torque curve. Remarkably they're also only cars with low torque because of durability issues.

Not too sure of the top speed was but the top speed was Chassy/tire limited rather then drive train limited. Ever try to drive a car with Bias ply tires over 65 miles an hour? Any cop that didn't know better would pull you over for drunk driving. As far as the mileage, I don't know about new, but in 2004 we clocked 23mpg on a trip from Pittsburgh, PA to Richmond VA and back. We both felt that was remarkable for a nearly 50 year old car. The Corvette and CTS-V are performance cars and need every bit of speed advantage they can get. You'll notice that both of them have that skip shift feature to help them with fuel efficiency, effectively turning them into 4-speeds under normal driving. What we're talking about here is excessive number of speeds for a pair of sedate family sedans. I highly doubt that either the Camry's or Avalon's performance would suffer that greatly by having a 5-speed rather then a 6-speed. The transmission war above 5-speeds is just a penis wagging contest.

All it means when you have a transmission with 6 speeds is that you have a car with a crappy torque curve. A 1957 Buick with a Dynaflow 1-speed transmission and no overdrive could do 0-60 in the mid-7s.

ABS = necessary... even in dry weather. LSD = very nice performance luxury. For $195, it won't make much difference in your payment but it will make a large difference in the performance of the car. It would be the very first box I checked after the ABS.

Good to hear...... now we just need some E85 suppliers. 1 person driving an Avalanche 12,000 miles a year and fueling exclusively on E85 would save 13 barrals of oil. Start multiplying things out and one can see how the petrolium savings start to add up fast on a national scale.

WMJ, you still don't get it do you?

As for #2, that can be done via Bluetooth. What I would like to do, is look up an address on maps.google.com and sent it to my car. I would like to syncronize my Outlook contact list <consequently my cell phone contacts> to my hands free dialing in my car, and I would like to send some Mp3s to the car's hard drive for my trip. The best part... all this exists in current cell phone technology. I can do ALL of the above with my current cell phone.

Heh, in my household I have RWD, FWD, and 4WD. Each have their advantages and disadvantages. One of the top cars in my "dream car" list is a '66 Toronado. So I obivously can't hate FWD.

Why is anyone complaining?

It seems though that people are more interested in the fluff of an interior rather then the functionality and ergonomics of the interior. Sure they'll complain if the interior is uncomfortable, but if it looks good they'll sometimes overlook that. knock them all you want, but the W-body Cutlass, Intrigue, Regals and Grand Prix, were the most comfortable cars I've driven. The CTS is way up there to. When I sit in a W-body or a Sigma, everything just fits. The controls are all easy to reach. The headliner is mouse fur? What does it matter, I'm not looking at it while I'm driving. The radio is "GM green"? Ok? So what? They were easy to read 20 years ago and they're still easy to read today. The dashboard is hard? I'll write a complaint letter after the next time I sleep on it. Cars that I've found issues with that the interiors are usually praised: The Civic: 1. No I don't like riding with my knees up my nose. 2. Why did you put the cruise controll off switch on the left side, away from the rest of the cruise controll buttons? 3. Why did you not put the sun roof switch in the center where the passenger might also reach it? The Passat, my partner and I currently own one: 1. What were you thinking with that cup holder placement?.... really, you put it directly over the cigarette lighter, and right in front of the shifter. 2. The lever for the parking brake. Who's idea was it to make it so it hits the armrest when engaged. BMW 1. iDrive Toyota 1. Where did you get that clock.... Big Lots? Notice that none of my complaints are asthetic. To me, a interior can be great looking, but if it doesn't work functionally, it loses me. I much rather mouse fur and a hard dash in an interior that is functional and comfortable. Then a pretty looking one that is neither. There are interiors that are both: Aurora Audi A6 GTO BMWs without iDrive

To me, the supercharged Monte Carlo is kinda like a Riveria lite..... and that's not a bad thing.

The interior is better and the engine, though not powerful, is very smooth.

Agreed, I see more Terrazas then any other CSV. Uplanders being second and catching up fast, Relays being 3rd and I've seen two Montana CSVs ever. The interior of the Terraza is very attractive looking. It may not be the best van out there as far as utility or performance is concerned, but it definately has one of the nicest interiors and a fairly handsome exterior. In the luxury class, the utility of the vehicle becomes secondary. See also BMW X5.

Bob Lutz: Obviously a slight overstatement due to emissions such.... but why shouldn't we take his word for it? It makes a lot of sense for GM to do this. Why engineer two small cars when they can engineer one and slap right proper badge for the proper country on it.

Veronas are fairly popular around here. I see them enough that they are almost as unremarkable as Altimas now. They are quite popular with the less affluant crowd that really wanted a Camry couldn't afford it, but didn't want to buy a Kia.

Hey, if I had my choice, I'd run all my cars on E85 or Biodiesel. That isn't a possibility right now as none of my vehicles are flex fuel. The next Avalanche is flex fuel and supposedly the HF series will be flex fuel in a future revision. There's two E85 vehicles for me. I guess that leaves a Passat TDI for my partner. One huge problem for us. Even if we replace our current vehicles with flex fuel vehicles. There is no place for us to buy these alternative fuels in our area.

As the fossil fuels run out, we can switch even more to bio fuels. Though, if we start now/soon we can stretch out the timeline for fossil fuels by a lot.

How are you brakes looking back there? Is the parking brake releasing entirely?

Doing a retrofit on an older diesel is fairly minor to be able to use Biodiesel, but we're still talking about future vehicles. All current diesels can run biodiesel... and in you live in Montana, use fossil diesel in the winter months and biodiesel in the summer months. I think what I'm not getting through is just how flexible you can be with biodiesel/fossil diesel. I'm not saying eliminate diesel pumps or eliminate gasoline pumps. Have the stations offer all 4 varieties. You pick the fuel that is most cost effective for you.

Does the hiss stay when the car is at a stop with the engine still running?

Hmm... maybe you just got a bum one. 33k miles and none of those problems. I did hear about the rear differential issue on some '03s and '04s. Are there no other Caddy dealers in your area? Mine is great and they make sure I'm happy before I leave.

The point is, don't use just one type of fuel. Imagine if the US had a mix of petrol/diesel vehicles like Europe does. 40% of the vehicles could use two kinds of fuel <fossil diesel or biodiesel> 60% of the vehicles could use two other kinds of fuel <E85 or gasoline> It would lessen the volitility of the market. It would put a dent in the importance of the mid-east. Choice and variety is never a bad thing. The beauty of flexible fuel vehicles of both the E85 and Biodiesel variety is that you can run any ratio of Biofuel to fossil fuel. As the price of one goes up, you can begin using another.... without having to do anything more then pull up to the next pump!

unfortunately, people are stupid and greedy. They feel they should be able to waste as much gasoline as they want and it should be 79 cents a gallon. The true cost of SUVS is much higher then the purchase price. The damage to the roads and enviroment is substantially greater than a sedan with little to no reflection of that damage translated directly back to the consumer. I say this as an Avalanche driver. I need the truck to run my company, but I'm also very careful to only drive it when I specifically need it. Grocery runs or leisure travel are all done in a much smaller, more efficient car.

That's great! What I find remarkable from my personal observations, 90% of the Lucernes I've seen in the wild seem to be the 6 cylinder version. So much for the 3800 being a hinderance to sales, though I'm sure the 3.6 or 3.9 would only help.