hyperv6

Wow I go to work and things go crazy here with the fear of fat people in over priced electric cars. The problem is here that too many think or expect electric cars to come out of the box cheap and able to do anything a gas car can do. The fact is little was invested into much of this since the Detroit or Baker Electic. I can name cars that were not cheaper than the transportation they replaced, They were not more durible than the transportation they replaced. They had an even more limited range than the transprotation they replaced. They often left their owners standed along the road out of energy or broke down.Many claimed they would never replace the horse but a few people bought them and more people invested in them to the point that they finally became reliable and cheaper. The Electric car is not a over night deal and it will take time for cheaper prices and longer ranges. This whole thing needs more time and investment and it requires a market to do this. The few buyers that are willing to bite the limited range and high cost bullet will provide the market that will lead to improvments. This is not anything different than the first gas powered auto buyers. If they had not paid the high prices and delt with the issues of the first cars we still would be on horses. Things will not change over night and electric cars will not be a dominate car for a good while. This whole deal is in flux and will evolve as time goes on. We will see more E assist like hybrids and more of the electric technology adapted to the gas powered cars. As for the Volt it is the only real electric for the average buyer. Yes there are a few who can live with a all electric but they are few. The only hold up on the Volt for the most part is price and it will come done in time. As they improve the Volt the money invested will also help imporve electric motors and batteries for full electrics. As with any new technology it will get better and cheaper as time goes on. Much is owed to those who are willing to pay more for th new technology in the early years to create these markets. It was the first computer buyers who help bring in a change on how we live today with cheaper and better computers. Same for Cell phones and many other products we have today. So it is important to understand development and the the time it will take for this market to evolve. We must keep this in perspective to understand where this is all going. The short and long of this is electrics will take more time to improve and get cheaper and gas engines will be around for most of our lives and not fully fade away. As for the other fuels there are issues with each and most have to do with refueling. Few of us are willing to take the time or the effort it takes to fill with Hydrogen or even propane. The fact everyone has an electric outlet in their home is why electric has a open door to all people. I even put a 220 Outlet near where I part in my new garage that I just built as some day it may need to be used to plug a car in. Till then the welder or plasma cutter will work well with it.

I don't know if the wheels are really that small or if the headlights and fender are that big.

The performance is not a issue and with most alterinitives the range issue and refil or recharge time is an issue. Even on like the Chevy Fuel Cell Car I drove thar performace was fine and up to waht we have today. It had better range vs an electric. But it would take nearly 30 mins to fill. The goverment and few companies have even made an attempt to provide more places to fill them and why should they if they have few customers. Until the range issue is up to 300 plus miles and recharge times down do less than a few mins the electric cars will always be at a disadvantage. As fro not makeing sense on the exports you have to understand that oil in the 70's became a globally traded commodity. Companies now trade and sell oil in global market governed by supply and demand. In the past it provided more money for our companies at a still low price. Now that the rest of the world is moving out of the third world status it the demand has gone up as well as the price and supplies get tighter. Places like Saudia Arabia can just step up production to lower prices that is if they want too. Hence why we try to stay on their good side. Iran id like that for China and Russia. That is one issue why China and Russia do not want anyone one to stop Iran from selling oil. Also if we stopped them the Chinese and Russians will just buy more from where we get it and drive prices up more. It is not really possible to just stop exporting oil with the way it is and even if we did the market value would still be subject to the global price.

The future is not going to be an all electric future that soon. Gas will be with us for a while yet but the hybrid systems like GM and others that are being offered now are going to become more and more the standard driveline for most cars. You have a admin right now the goverment right now is putting in place a 50 Plus MPG average for the fleet and there is no way the cars of today can do that on gas alone. The companies are looking for anyway they can to keep power, performance and size and these hybird systems are the only key they have found do far. The more they can get those who what these golf carts to be able to afford and buy them will ease up space for those of us who what something more. I also see a goverment right now that has no interest in trying to keep the oil markets in check and if gas goes up so be it. The average joe out there is not willing to pay a ton for gas so they will seek out other means to save on their gas bill no matter if it is a full electric or hybrid. While cars like the Vette seem to be safe.... for now we .......are seeing even some of the best sports car makers in the world working on hybrids. It is not because they want to but because they have to. I bumped you back to a 0 for the -1 as you should be allowed to vent. Like it on along with the electrics we will also get smaller and smaller engines. I just saw a Ford 1.0 with something like 173 HP. To be honest I am hoping the Volt technology takes of and becomes more affordable as I see this car as a win win for both groups. There is so much more they can do with this kind of system. The fact is there is still many many years of oil but with increased demand and without a equal growing supply will just make it more and more expensive. No matter if we pump our own or not oil is a traded resource and supply and demand contols the cost. Demand is only going to get greater and supplies will not grow much.

The reason they fool with these is two fold. the Green Movment is only getting stronger and stronger in many markets , Europe being the most notible. Jeremy Clarkson is my hero for speaking out as he does as it not a popuar message he sends. The second reason is the new regulations mony countries are now putting in place now that will effect all future production. The fact is if they could avoid all these crazy electric cars and add on's they woulb but they are desperate to find ways so you do not end up in a Chevy version of a TATA. So if you want car bigger than a toaster you will have to learn to accpet these crazy ideas and hope they keep improving.

I just have a feeling they will try to shoot for a price $25K-30K. Thecar is based an a produciton car with bits from the Volt. I think price is everything here. What is this car good for? Not much else other than the PR aspect that if you have it you are a good company and if you don't you hate the enviroment. Also the EV market has to start some where. It will contunue to develope till it reaches the point where these cars will have the batteries and faster charging in time. But with no market few suppliers will invest in these technologies. Kind of like Gasoline. When the first Gas powered cars came out there were no gas stations. You had to mix it yourself. As more cars hit the roads filling stations with better and improved fuels arrived. If it were not for those pioneers who built and sold the first mostly useless gas powered cars to vreate a market segment the develpment would have taken years longer. If no demad is created then there is little market to fill.

With the explosive publicity on the fires on the Volt I would think a name change would be in order here. Spark would be a bad choice of name if anything goes wrong. LOL! Great job Chris! Not only did you get a Spark but the EV one at that.

Yes now that I think of it it was Albainia. I had just seen a show on Armenia and it must have stuck in my mind. Sorry Armenia!!!! It was a good show.

I guess everyone missed the Top Gear where they went there to test cars. They pointed out most stolen BMW and Benz in Europe end up there. The guys had three cars. A Benz, BMW and a Yuqo If I recall. They did test like how easy was it to put a dead body in the trunk. The Yugo did not do well with the large Armenian who stood in for the dead body. I guess the Russian Mafia is very powerful there. Them not stealing Peugeots is really showing they have standards. If you ever catch this episode it is one of their better ones.

The Peugeot oil burners are well know and respected. I remember my neighbors grandfather had one and drove it for years. He had one of the only ones in this part of Ohio since they were not sold here. In the past few years their Diesel racing program has brought wins with a V12 at Lemans and Sebring over the Mighty Audi team. It is hard to say what these talks are about as it could be something as simple as a joint deal on taking the Peugeot engine technology and letting GM build them in greater numbers in their plants. It would reduce production cost for both and give GM some advanced technology. Otherwise I am unaware of anything GM would want from them unless Peugeot would want something from GM.

Word is that PSA, Peugeot & Citroën's entered the meeting with a white flag wanting to surrender. I see little Peugeot could offer GM other than Diesel, a world rally car and a old F1 car. Their street cars suck for quailty and styling. Only the French and 3rd world countries seem to love them. Even the Armenians won't steal them.

The key to CF in the future is to cut the production time and labor. Who ever does this opens the door to the future. Teijin GM's new partner has a way of making CF Thermo plastics and they can do cycle times in under one minute. Conventional CF Thermosetting composites take much longer and in this deal time is money and the ability to do great volumes are limited. I expect even more things will come into play. Even with the cost savings I expect the price of these new cars to climb with the need for these more expensive materials to cut weight. At this point they have no choice. Here is what GM put out to the media on their new partnership. http://media.gm.com/content/media/us/en/gm/news.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2011/Dec/1208_teijin

The 8 speed is a given and at last time I heard it will be ready for the into of the CTS and Camaro barring any unforseen delays. No mystery here. Same with the hybrid as GM is getting to the point that every model they make will have some kind of a hybrid version only the Vette is excluded at this point. I expect the Cadillac will be the most advanced of all the versions and it will expand down as volume increases. Call it trickle down technology.

I just hope the public takes to them. These people have to be given a good reason to fall in love with them. The issues will be Cost to buy This engine can't be sold at too much higher of a price. Cost to service and maintain. This engine can be more expensive to service. It need to be reliable. I expect it will but GM can not afford anything that hints of a failure in the NA Market. Finally diesel cost. With oil prices getting crazy again I hope GM does not go to all this work and end up getting stuck with Diesel fuel costing a lot more than Gas. This whole deal is a gamble that will pay off very well if it works and it will hurt if it fails. But I see it as a needed gamble as the pay off is too improtant.

depends if the new CTS wont be out for five more model years With the photo's of the CTS I would expect 2014 as a 2015 model. As for light weight cars it is the new thing for the entire auto industry. The Luxury cars and high end models will see more new light weight and expensive materials in use. We will see much more use of magnesium, aluminium and high strength plastics and molded carbon fiber. These will be added to the already expanded use of Boron Steel. GM is alreasdy investing big in a company that has perfected molded Carbon Fiber. They expect to use this in many areas and reduce weight and cost of these items. They already have shown mirror units other items that can be made at a reasonable cost. Thes items will show up first on the Cadillac line and as volume increases the prices will drop to a point where they will find their way to the lower models just as most new technologies. Lets face it they are not going to meet the new future CAFE without cutting weight even with a 3 cylinder in a ATS. They have a lot of other ideas and the E assist will also be improved and I would not be suprised to find a new improved system to become the norm in most models at some point. Luzt hinted loud this week about that. The industry is in no way ready to go all electric in the near future but electric boost will be a greater part every year. Even the new Ferrari Enzo replacment will have a 800 HP engine and a 100 HP electrivc motor booster. I expect we will see where the future lies when we see and hear more on the flagship. I expect it to be a good size car with power but it will not be just a gas V8 only. I suspect a lot of the new technology they are working on will first show up in this car. It will make a statment of where the market is going and GM will say it loud with that car. After that much of what it has will find it's way to the rest of the line up and then to the other brands. The new efficent technologies to come will rival things like FI, Anti Lock Brakes, Stability Control, DI, engine computer managment and other great advancements.

The Sigma was only what GM could afford and not what they so much wanted. They did the best with the funding they had at the time. The STS was like all other GM cars at the time about 75% of what it needed to be. Just like the 4 th gen Camaro it got all the driveline and chassie they could afford but then they had nothing left for interior and power windows that would not fail. The ATS ws designed from the start to be expanded and changed to different configs. The key to all of this will be the weight. No more heavy platform here. The Sigma and Zeta both were done in a way they could never remove the weight. They could remove a little but they had limits. The Alpha was designed to be lighter from the wheels up as they say. Also it is at the start of it's life. As for your critic on proportions it is nothing put your subjective opinion. The CTS will see a Turbo 6 and a new DI V8. You really need to look ahead and not at what is at hand.

The CTS will take the place of the STS in a way but it will not be the STS. Don't be so focused that that a larger CTS=STS. The Alpha will let it be the car the STS could never have been. If they can give you a CTS with more interior room, faster magnetic tuned suspension and more power than the present car at nearly the same weight or possibly less? Would you find that acceptable? This is what we know could be possible with this new car. This will be a car built on the new platform and not just a rehash of an old outdated platform that has it's limits to get anylighter or flexible. Step back and take a look at the big picture and what the Alpha is telling us that it can do. there is a lot to learn by understanding the thinking that went into the Alpha. This is GM platform they wanted a long time ago and could not afford to build. This time they got what they wanted. Lighten up on Buick as they are like Cadillac and only are starting to evolve to where they need to be. We have yet to dee an all new post Chapter 11 Buick and we have only seen the first Chapter 11 Cadillac. This will take some time to move up fully to the segment where they will live. Each new model will be a building block.

MYOPIA 1: a condition in which the visual images come to a focus in front of the retina of the eye resulting especially in defective vision of distant objects 2: a lack of foresight or discernment : a narrow view of something — my·o·pic \-ˈō-pik, -ˈä-\ I think I may start a chairity for suffers if this infliction. What color should the ribbon be? I see more and more cases all the time where many can't step back and look at the big picture for GM or the auto market. Sometimes they are wrong because they don't understand the market or interject personel wants before market wants. Also they don't account the reasons GM is doing something because they either don't know or understand the internal reasons for some of GM's actions. GM can not always just go out and do what they want as even they have limits. Desiging building and selling autombiles is not an easy task and it even trips up the sharpest minds at times. Even Lutz who is one of the few who has a pretty good grasp of the market as admitted his errors. The XTS is the best they can do short term and it is better than nothing. Even GM can make lemonaide out of a lemon. [Not saying the XTS is a Lemon] Time will prove who wins here witht he XTS. I think we all have placed our bets and will just have to wait and see who wins. By then the losers will remain quiet and the winners will forget about who said what as the next argument with new distorted facts will be on the table.

http://www.dump.com/2011/07/15/fascinating-1936-footage-of-car-assembly-line-video/ Here is a well done video of a plant making 1936 Pontiac's. You can see still photo's of this and it just does not make the impression the real moving line does. The robots of todays plants are amazing but the hand skill of the workers here are even more amazing.

Buick needs to grow in higher in this segment as does Opel and Vauxhall. GM now has Chevy in all the same markets and the only place for any of these to grow is up market. With Cadillac in time moving more up market it will give room for these makes to make their own space. We can not judge the brands as they are now as they will expand and change with each and every new model from this point on. I expect each and every new Buick/Opel/Vauxhall will be a step up in image, quality, luxury and price. All we have now are the salvaged models from the pre new GM era. There will be some suprises in store for each of these brands. GM has just taken the first true step into the future with the ATS with more to come for the entire GM line up.

Sorry I ment ES350 as it is nothing more than a warmed over Toyota. The whole thing boils down to the fact GM had the XTS done for the most part. They did not have a flag ship or any other RWD in the works till well after the chapter 11. Buick already has a Lacross. The simple fact is Cadillac has one car and only one more new one ready to go into production being the ATS. So do they duplicate the car over at Buick or do they add somethings to it that could not be had on a Buick and make some money with a third model for a few years? Cadillac has not been and still is not BMW or Benz. To become one of this class will take time and money. I feel it Cadillac will be better served with a left over FWD/AWD transition car vs living off one car and a bunch of chomed Chevy [but profitable] SUV's. Once Cadillac get the larger car ready we will see the XTS fade away. In time Cadillac will become what you want but till then they just don't have the finished product.

Sheep have money too. Many BMW's are sold to people who have no clue on the performance nature and just buy them for the image. In fact they made a crap load of money off the old 318's to people who had no clue. The XTS is short term as I do not expect it to be around forever. Even if it does last it may be sold as a fleet machine just as the Captiva and the Caprice. That is unless there is enough pubic demand GM could leave it avail to the public even longer. There are still a lot of people out there that love cars like this. Lexus has made a crap load of money off the 250. Either way it will be nice for Cadillac to have a 3rd car in the show room as it will still take some time for a flagship. This a no harm car and will bring in easy money. That is the point of selling cars is it not? At least with FWD/AWD/RWD there is no reason that anyone should leave the showroom looking for something that is not offered. You have to look at this big picture not from an enthusiast point of veiw.

With that rear window how long till some fool tries to say this is just another rebadged Relay. LOL! This is what the Traverse needed to be in the first place.

This one will be here and trailblaze the same path as the new Colorado. THis one is more in tune with the new Explorer. While the old one was ok it just was never right. The only one I would consider was the SS or Saab Version. The old one was too much of the pre L:utz design by commite. The LWB version was a mess stying wise and the roll back roof idea was neat till they really had to apply it to a real version. Lutz speaks of the failure on this one and admits he even made a mistake on it. I would like to see this one come and then have them take the Traverse in a different direction. Right now the Explorer and Edge are way over priced for what you get. I would like to see GM beat the Explorer on price with a better vehicle.

The point of the XT$ is money. The Town Car was a cash cow for Ford. GM already had much of the basic work and money invested in the XTS. They can sell this as the Volume car and target the other three lines to specific buyers who don't want to see their car in fleet sales. The XT$ may not advance Cadillac technology or Image wise but it will do no harm money wise. Lexus offers the 250 also as a car for those who demand FWD. For just being a tarted up Camry it still brings in money and does little harm to the image. Fact remains there are many who will not buy a RWD car. While it is smaller in this segment as most also have a suv at home for winter there are some who still want FWD. Their money is green too.