CSpec

Yeah, looks sort of like a fancier and bigger Cobalt.

I'll say again in this thread that the interior is still very boring. The console especially is very lame.

Are these American dollars? Ouch.

AHH! ImageShack can transload images...

Obama had better be able to stand up to the more idiotic factions of his own party. Have they never heard of incentives? If you want less gas to be consumed just make it more expensive! Then the carmakers will make cars people want instead of cars the government forces them to make.

No way, Obama is a fan of big organized labor.

GM's argument is that they're on the cusp of fixing the problem, and when the new healthcare agreement comes into effect next year they'll start raking in the cash. They just want a loan to last that long.

I also voted for Saab. Good reputation and excellent product when given the resources.

There had better not be a competition to raise trade barriers and tariffs. That would hurt everyone and exactly the same strategy fueled the Great Depression.

I like this guy and his writing style. He makes some good points, but the short-term ramifications will be quite severe. Sure competitors would come in and replace GM and Ford, but the buffer period will be rough. It is true though that the financial institutions were quite healthy before the meltdown, whereas GM has been limping along for years.

Or maybe they could get Bill Gates to ride into Detroit. After all, didn't he say something to the effect of "if the carmakers were like PC makers, cars would get 100 mpg and cost $1000"?

Remember when Cadillac tried to use the old Cadillac One as a "preview" for the new DTS? Great idea, it looked terrible and nothing like the real thing.

I'd rather have GM and no convertible than a convertible and no GM.

GM seems to lose its focus when it comes to picking out trim levels and options. It's like they have a suggestion box at the factory and every worker puts in their ideal option combination, and then they just make all of them possible. Cadillac especially shouldn't be messing about with these stupid and obvious shortcuts to save a few bucks.

Apparently hedge funds got killed by the insane price increase.

I think the Cruze's styling will be pretty stale by 2012.

Follow the money Merging the two sickly car firms makes little sense—except for one thing OBJECTIONABLE, but necessary. The description by Hank Paulson, America’s treasury secretary, of the federal rescue package for America’s banks, is a mantra that may soon be repeated in boardrooms across the land as recession-hit firms survey their dwindling options for survival. Few areas of the economy have been battered harder or for longer than the car industry, especially Detroit’s Big Three. So the news which surfaced at the end of last week that General Motors (GM) and Cerberus Capital Management, the private-equity outfit that was paid $700m by Daimler to take Chrysler off its hands just 17 months ago, had been talking about a possible merger between the biggest and the smallest of the Big Three was a surprise, but hardly shocking. GM and Chrysler have been on the critical list for months, as has Ford, which also recently had some short-lived preliminary discussions about a tie-up initiated by GM, its bigger (but sicklier) rival. All three firms were in the midst of far-reaching cost-cutting and restructuring plans when they were hit by surging oil prices and tightening credit. This hurt the carmakers in three ways. First came a catastrophic drop in demand for the gas-guzzling pickups and sport-utility vehicles that have accounted for most of Detroit’s profits in recent years. Then came a collapse in earnings from leasing, as the residual values of fuel-thirsty vehicles plummeted. This was followed by the drying up of credit to fund new-car purchases. The carmakers’ finance arms, usually good earners in bad times, have more or less shut up shop. That Cerberus should be desperately seeking an exit from its ill-judged foray into the car business is understandable. The deal it has proposed to GM is said to involve swapping Chrysler for the 49% of GMAC (GM’s lending arm) that Cerberus does not already own. Cerberus no doubt calculates that GMAC will be eligible for some of the government’s bank-bail-out money and that its fortunes will eventually improve—whereas it probably sees no future of any kind for an independent Chrysler. It is rather harder to see what the attraction of absorbing Chrysler might be for GM ("merger" is a cruel euphemism). GM already has too much of all the things Chrysler has to offer. It certainly does not need more brands, for example. With nearly a dozen of its own, GM already has too many for its shrinking market share. Although Cerberus might claim that Jeep still has resonance, the Chrysler and Dodge brands are damaged goods, worthless outside America. Nor does GM need more truck factories, when it is cutting its own capacity as fast as it can. To make matters worse, notes Jim Hall, an industry consultant who used to work for GM, most of Chrysler’s 3,500-strong dealer network would, under American law, have to be bought out at a total cost of well over $1 billion. And Chrysler does not have any compelling new models in the pipeline that might make it seem a more attractive proposition in the future. Having just launched (with almost hilariously bad timing) the new Dodge Ram pickup, Chrysler will have nothing fresh to sell until the small, Nissan-made Dodge Hornet arrives in 2010. Meanwhile, Chrysler has announced that it is working on three electric vehicles, two of which will use similar range-extending technology to GM’s keenly awaited plug-in hybrid, the Chevrolet Volt. But GM is a lot further down that particular road and Chrysler admits it only has the resources to apply the new powertrain to existing models. Cynics suggest that the main purpose of Chrysler’s electric-vehicle programme is to allow it to snag its share of the $25 billion loan package agreed on by Congress last month to speed up the development of fuel-efficient cars. A further consideration for GM is whether it really has the stomach for the opprobrium that is sure to come its way. Closing down much of Chrysler would enrage government, the unions, the dealers and the automotive-parts suppliers, all of whom GM depends upon. David Cole of the Centre for Automotive Research, an industry body, thinks it might just be worth it if the terms of the deal were right. "The trick is making it through the current period," he says. "But you have already taken out a lot of capacity and that is going to help restore pricing power in the industry for the first time in more than 10 years." Maybe, but GM’s rivals would enjoy the same benefit while enjoying a free ride. The real prize for GM might, however, be something much more tangible. In August Cerberus claimed that Chrysler still had $11 billion in cash from loans raised earlier. There is speculation that it might be willing to throw that in, and add some more, in exchange for a stake in the merged entity. GM, which is currently burning through more than $1 billion a month, had access to $21 billion in cash and $5 billion in credit at the end of June. Brian Johnson, an analyst at Barclays Capital, thinks that the carmaker needs a further $10.3 billion to get it through to the end of next year, when cost savings and recovering demand should start to kick in. As one of GM’s rivals observed this week: "We think it’s cash that’s driving this pony."

You mean Chase?

Yeah, saying Obama palls around with terrorists is taking the high ground. Still, McCain has shown he isn't afraid to make bold moves, so it should be interesting to watch.

I think the difference is that McCain is too old to run a country day to day, and more than that his running mate is completely inexperienced and has a relatively good shot of taking over at some point.

True enough, but the two do not look similar. The Cruze just looks like a refreshed Lacetti (yawwwwn) whereas the old WTCC+ looks bold and modern.

Economist Greg Mankiw at Harvard has been proposing this system for a few years now: hike up the tax on fuel, and then mail out a refund of the average amount of damage done by the tax hike to every American. People will not become any poorer, and they will use less fuel.

This is obviously the Democrat version of the Swift Boat Veterans! Those cheeky bastards. Palin should defend herself by going in front of the panel and answer every question by posing her own and then answering it.

The old WTCC+ was fantastic, and Lutz said that it previewed the Cruze. It looks like this one actually does.

Bush would call him a traitor while simultaneously cutting a new deal with Libya.