hyperv6

Friend Honda did not have to keep production up at plants to keep them open. It was too expensive to close them and pay union workers to stay home vs dumping the cars. Just not building the cars was not as easy as you want to make it as you have to factor in many issues involved here. God knows GM and most auto makers wished it was as easy as it is you your world. This should really no longer be as much an issue. Where did I say you said the Cruze was a flop? I said many people I never accused you. Based on what you just said you just joined the club LOL! The buyers of the Cruze have not been the traditional Cobalt buyers. Just look at who are driving them most are older and not what I would call limited or entry level income people as many Cobalt buyer were. Few are fleet and rentals. If you bet like you think you must lose a lot of money on Football. Hint don't bet on the Browns to win! LOL! Roth??? Very poor analogy Van Hagar sold many more albums and made a lot more money than Roth. Roth fans are just more loud and obnoxious not larger in numbers. The last STS and XLR were not finacial wins, since they both have been dropped I would say they were not what Cadillac really needed. For the most only the CTS and SRX along with the SUV are all that have kept Cadillac alive. As for Buick, your insult cars are of more interest to more people. I have seen more people other than my Parents and the friends get excited about a Buick. That has not happened for a long time. They for once are selling cars that interest people under 65 and that has not happend since the GN. Ford did sell the V6 engined but not in that great of numbers in the last 15 years. Most were V8 and on top of that they did not charge $1000 more for the v6. As for not being able to tow a load, That is a myth spread by uniformed people on the web. Near 50% of production is a real accomplishment and they should be commended for taking the risk of selling a premium engine at a premium price that was way out of the norm. Again many predicted it would never work but so far it is a win. You really have know idea where the meat of the Livery market is. Most Livery cars are not your streach limo. If you have been to LA, SF, Chicago NYC and other large cities there are a great number of black Town Cars in each city. These cars are used by companies and many paying customer to deliver them around town daily. Some are out of town visitors, some local company officals, Celebreties, VIP's etc. Most companies in the past used to own their own fleets of cars to take people from place to place and home and back. Today companies dropped these cars and now pay independent companies to do this for them. They are normally just stock town cars with tinted glass, no armor plate and no additions. These cars sold in great numbers and this in part is why Ford continued to build them as they were easy money. Livery cars are even used in good numbers in even smaller cities. I see many here even in Akron Ohio. These cars deliver tens of thousands daily in many cities. The Town car was the work force for this market. The 300 could take some of this but why should GM not try to take some of this market. The long cars and trucks are just novelties and are a small part of this market. Same for armor plated vehicles. Most of these today are SUV's. We sell a lot of parts to several firms building these vehicles and they amazing for what some of them are and can do. It would be too expensive to do much of this to a car. THe Hearse market is there too. There are very few cars out there serving this market. The DTS has dominated this one and I see the new car doing the same. 2,000 sales are not large but why give them away? While the XTS might not be a world class car in the eyes of some it will generate a lot of income by serving several rolls. I really don't expect this car to be around for long. It is a gap filler that was already started before the turn around at GM. I expect we will see a much better car to replace it in time. Cadillac like GM is not going to transform over 2-3 years. They will tranform over time and the ATS is really the first step of the major changes. I think this will will suprise many. It is not going to be just a small CTS.

A Turbo 2.5 cold eaily power a car like this and with a hybrid system could give good MPG but Gm would have to market the crap out of it to get people to try it before they judge it to the point they dismiss it before they even try it. I would say there may be a 2.5 here but fully expect a V6 engine to be the main player here. Will justy have to see what they offer. I think they will do a Lacross like drivetrain offering but with a little more power by the time this hits the market. People buying this car are not performance people. They are the ones often still looking for whitewalls. My inlaws have a DTS and are shocked at how few whitewall tires are still on the market. They are the also kind of drivers I often tend to see in these cars. Yes they used to only buy Town Cars too so GM is looking for the correct group of buyers. They may not be the most exciting but they have money.

I've always seen rentals as good advertising for car manufacturers... so I feel fleeting a last-generation product, like the Captiva, continues propagating the myth that GM cars are out of date and inferior to the Equinox. Its a double edged sword, the dumping of fleet vehicles onto the secondary market, but then again, if you are building cars people will go crazy for, even a glut of used will get snapped up at a reasonably premium price. Note that when GM had 45% of the market, the Big Three were virtually the ONLY cars fleeted to rental companies and GM did not have the resale problems from the secondary market they have now. Because back then, GMs were so compelling, the people's demand bid them up. I also question how much of GM's recent resale value resurgence is due to GM restraining themselves or due to the secondary market holding its value due to the economy being in the toilet. I foresee GM being stuck with unsold ATSes because it will not have the cachet of the 3 series for a long time, and the CTS is cheap enough to be a better alternative for many. For the XTS to "TOFTT" will just confuse the consumers who will see a bigger car being given away at relatively cheap prices and people getting the XTSes at the rental will still see Cadillac offering its Buick-mobile to old folks. Signs, yes, but I'm not convinced they are done their colossal mistakes. If rentals are to be an influance they better sell them better ones as the ones I have no matter the make are seldom the best example of make let alone the model. Also Fleet sales are a negitive most the way around. First off they seldom are money makers at least to the rentals. Often they are dumping grounds for slow sellers. Finally they are a problem for resale values for owner who bought them new. Case in point the HHR has been dumped on Enterprise and other service fleets to the tune of 40-50 percent the last few year of production. This in turn has made it possible to make a HHR LT1 that stickered at $22K be worth only $10-12K in a year or two. Now on the other hand the SS is not much more and never was leased and it still is sold used most dealers for $18-19K. Lease turn ins are nearly as bad for resale value on unless there is a greater demand for the car and a more limited supply like the G8 has shown. It's simple supply and demand. Dump a supply of any car on the market yearly used and unless there is a high demand the resale value drops through the floor. Ever notice how a simple Honda keeps their resale so high. Few rental dumps from fleets and good demand for used cars. To me this is how you treat customers and get them to continue to buy in the future. To claim victory or loss on the ATS is a little naive to call as we have yet to the full car let alone how the market will react to it yet. How many did we see claim the Cruze was a total flop on paper before it came out only to took like idiots now that the car is doing so well. Lets just wait and see the car and how the people take to it before we write anything off here. I think too you should wait to see the XTS first before you hang a Buick handle on it. While it may not be a full blown Cadillac flagship I feel it might supply a little more than a Buick can or will offer. Lets see it and then judge. GM is doing more right today than just a few years ago and I think the people there are a little smarter and being permitted to do what they can vs what they are told. It shows in recent product and I think will show more in the new clean sheet of paper post BK cars. Will them make any mistakes in the future? Yes as there is not a company out there that walks on water. Will GM make fewer mistakes and get more right than in the past? They are already showing that and I expect it will only improve. To be honest if GM did not fail somewhere that would tell me they are not taking enough risk to move ahead. As long as they calculate and get most of them right and few of them wrong it makes for a company that will lead the industry vs playing it safe and following. The Ford Ecoboost F 150 is a good example of where Ford took a major risk and it has paid off. In fact it has laid the ground work for smaller efficent engines in their trucks and more people being open to them. This will help sales once they start making the needed changed for CAFE. Where Cadillac will make a impact will be the livery maket and the Professional car market. There are few options out there for these cars now and GM can make it pay off on volume. These cars also get used up and seldom make a large impact on the used market.

Enterprise is going to buy what GM has no choice but to sell cheap... and thats going to include its fair share of ATS/CTSes. Only way to stop that is to refuse fleet sales. As far as the new photos go, the XTS still doesn't move me. I actually prefer the DTS. Fleet sales prices are set by GM and they can make what ever deal they want to Livery Companies or Enterprise. They have already shown restraint on some of their other models to help resale values. They also are selling Vehicles like the Captiva to support fleets but not at the expense of customers values. Here is some of what GM has said. They want to target Town Car buyers and for the last so many years that was mostly fleet sales and some private buyers. http://www.autoblog.com/2011/10/17/cadillac-to-market-new-xts-to-the-town-car-set/ If this is what they are doing it will enhance the value of owning a CTS and ATS as you know then they will not be dumping a bunch of used ones on the market. GM has shown they need to show value in owning one of their cars and Cadillac is the one that needs to show the most value as they have the most to lose. While it may appeal to the secondary market buyer there is little appeal in buying a CTS as the resale while better is still not what it should be. I see the XTS as the car to take one for the division and keep fleet sales up while they fix an hone the rest of the division. If they give Enterprise the best price on it thats the one they will buy unless they get stuck with a lot of unsold ATS but I don't expect that. GM has shown signs of selling smart and not whoring out like they used to have to.

Well... two turbos definitely cost more and brings with them a host of additional plumbing. The question is what advantageous do they bring? First let's get the myths out of the way:- Twin Turbos are not more efficient than a single larger turbo -- in fact, they are LESS EFFICIENT as larger turbines and compressors aerodynamically superior Twin turbos (in parallel) are not more responsive than a single large turbo -- V6es use two for the convenience of not having to route exhaust to one There are two advantageous to using two turbos in a 4-cylinder. Both applies ONLY to SEQUENTIAL setups... (1) Sequential, asymmetric, turbines offer improved low end response. Basically, you have a smaller turbo which spins up sooner and faster provide boost at the lowest rung of the engine rpm range. This turbo's exhaust and waste gated bypass flow feed a second larger turbo which is able to cope with the engine's higher rpm breathing. The most advanced single turbos of today can manage a torque plateau of about ~3500 rpm at a boost level of about 1 bar (14.7 psi). This gets narrower if you run higher boost. With twin sequential turbines you can extend this by about 500 rpm. In otherwords, with a single turbo you may be able to have an engine which makes maximum torque at 2000~5500 rpm. With a sequential setup you can extend this down to 1500~5500 rpm or up to 2000~6000 rpm. (2) Sequential compressors allow higher pressure ratios to be reached. A single stage compressor becomes very inefficient above a pressure ratio of about 2.5:1. That is, they start making more heat than compress air when asked to deliver more than about 22 psi of boost (about 37 psi of absolute pressure on an atmospheric input of 14.7 psi). By the time you reach a pressure ratio about 2.75~3.0:1 (26~29 psi of boost) more boost actually makes less power just a lot of hot air. This is why jet engines have many axial compressor stages and helicopter turbines usually have more than one centrifugal stage. With two sequential compressors you can efficiently reach 30~40 psi of boost. More if you insert an intercooler between the two stages! Realistically though, this advantage is quite irrelevant to road cars running on pump gas given that the static compression will have to be so low (~3:1) that the engine wouldn't run right if at all off boost And, if it did, would be quite lousy on thermal efficiency and fuel economy. So... really it comes down to the ability to create one of those engines capable of 1200 rpm torque peaks or one with a modest torque peak of say 3000 rpm but a plateau stretching to 7000 rpm hence making pretty impressive power. The question is whether that added 500 rpm extension of the torque plateau is worth all the addition complexity and cost. Remember, the sequential setup is NOT more efficient or more responsive than a single setup when the latter is within its already pretty wide optimal operating range. Also, the same broadening of the torque plateau and/or increase in power output can also be achieved by running about 0.2 bar (3 psi) less boost, using a slightly larger displacement and running slightly higher static compression. In fact, the latter probably yields slightly better mpg numbers due to improved off boost thermal efficiency from the higher static compression. You Rock!!! Thank you for the Great explanation, so for most applications it would be best from cost, MPG and overall efficiency to stay with a single turbo and maybe consider a dual scroll turbocharger would be a step up from the single. So if I am understanding your explanation, using dual turbo chargers really is a performance issue off the line only. How about if one were to consider dual – dual scroll turbochargers for performance with the proper intercooler for chilling to control thermals? Could one take an Eco 4 banger and create a monster with acceptable performance? The thoughts of what this could do for a small or medium size performance auto could be awesome I would think. For building a Eco here is all you need to know. This book tells how amazing this engine is and the part in it. It is a must read to really understand how good these little engines really are. http://www.summitracing.com/parts/NAL-88958728/

While I know this car has created a lot of debate I have a little different veiw in light of GM's latest statments. They have come clean and stated this car is to catch the DTS and Town Car buyers. We all knew that but they also stated this car was also aimed at the livery crowd that is wide open with the loss of the town car. THey also look to aim this car at the limo and profesional car market. To make a long story short here they did not call this a flag ship and it gives me the impression that his car will be as much for commercial sales as private. Think of it as Cadillacs Captiva. GM can build and sell this cars in numbers to who ever wants one but also on fleet or commercial sales and not hurt or kill the other and Future Cadillac resale values. This car will fite the bullet and really is a Cadillac while not really being the kind of Car Cadillac is becoming. Better to sell this car like that than a ATS< CTS or even an Omega based flag ship in numbers at fleet sales prices to Enterprise or a large livery company who will dump them on the market later and kill resale values. This car will improve on the DTS by a lot and will still be a nice car to anyone in the public that would want one but it is not the kind of car the rest of the line up will become. This one will take one for the team to help bring in money and still not hurt the resale of the rest of the company.

That is what they really do need. Imagine a SUV that could handle and run with the other sport SUV's from the other companies. A TT V6 at 430 HP or even a Tubo Diesel version with AWD. The tuners would love that. We already have tuned Cat Dodge Rams out running Vipers in the 1/4. Imagine a GMC with AWD tunner version runing faster than say a Z06. I think GMC is perfect for this as they are at the right price point to make it possible.

I saw a dark blue Lacross the other day that would look real good on this car. I love the new blue. Very elegant.

No argument LPE is not the company it was under his brilliant leadership, but no man is an island. There are other people carrying on the flame. John did not live to see the latest incarnations of the Hemis and LSx engines that LPE continues to sell kits for... so _somebody_ at LPE is still actively developing and testing new stuff. His Ecotec stuff should have been far enough along for it to be on the market in some form. In any case, others watched John's developments, and could have brought them to market. If the Ecotec is the new SBC, where is a performance rebuild kit for the LNF? Hotter cams? Better heads for the LHU? The only performance kit out there is the GMPP LNF turbo upgrade. Other than that, its all intakes, "HID" headlight bulbs and drilled clutch/brake/accel pedals. Johns work was not far enough for customer cars other than one off's at the time. Also 4 cylinders were not all the rage at GM at the time since the Eco was only a year or two old. There are Eco cams and other parts avail. Granted not as many as the V8. My point is the time is coming where people will be moving to engines like these as they will represent 95% of te market. Today a 4 cylinder car is already 75% of the market. With some of the comments being made I fully expect the next Camaro to have 4-6 and 8 cylindrs, I also expect the price of the V8 Camaro to go up and be more limited. You will be able to get one but you will have to pay a premuum for it. Ford has also give the same indications. The load will be shifted to the 4-6 cylinder cars. When you see companies putting turbo v6 engines in their pick up trucks and taking the risk you know we are in for major changes in all models including performancer. I am not sure if a Turbo V6 option will hit the C7 but I expext models like the C8 to have a V6 Tubo or at least option one in the standard model. The sheer numbers of these engines will drive people to build these. We never thought there would be a day where you could not find a 455 Pontiac in a Junk Yard but that time is here. The sport compact movement has stagnated but in the future the small engine market with the new Turbo 4's will grow, The Turbo engines are so easy to do things with. Get a dyno and a tuner change tome maps sensors and flash a computer you can easily add 50-100 HP depending on the engine. The performance market will change with the addition of Turbo chargers. We have already seen it in the Diesel market. We sell so many Turbo parts for truck now it is crazy. Keep in mind this is long term. It is not going to happen next year but over the next 10 years.

That sounds about right. Gm seems to be bring the things they had worked out before the BK up till 2014 and 2014 and on look to be the new things they started after the BK. I get the feeling the new C7 Vette will be the leader of a whole new wave of vehicles GM has said little about. This is where we will really see what their plans are.

I take MT's issues often with a grain of salt in most cases in relation to GM. I am starting to believe based on what I know of the Cruze and what I have driven this will be a well recieved car and will help Buicks image. While it is not a car for all I see many older people on limited incomes and younger people with kids and large house payments to find a car they can have real luxury in and not have to go over the average price of a car. In the 90's with a booming economy this car would have sat on the dealer lots but today in tight economic times everyone but the goverment is watching their money today. Many are down sizing to smaller and more efficent cars. The real problem there were few what I would call real Luxury cars this size and under $30K anymore. While this is not the kind of car Buick want to end up being it is a step into the direction they want to be seen in. I expect future products will be a little more diverse as they start with a clean sheet of paper and not just have to rehash an older Opel. I suspect this car may be replaced in 4-5 years with a more updated car that will move even farther away from the LTZ Cruze.

I think if they don't make a big deal about it in advertising, etc most consumers won't notice the difference. In the appliance market, engine size and # of cylinders mean little amongst the general public, I suspect. I have to totally disagree with you. My father has a colorado 5 cylinder and while he loves his truck, even he complains that the engine seems to run rough, never is as smooth as v8's or v6's he has owned and in riding with him, it is a noisy engine. Most people have noticed this about the 5 cylinder engines. My dad has taken his truck to 3 different dealers in the Seattle area and they all say the engine is within spec and runs just fine. One dealer did seem to get it to run a bit smoother, but still the engines are not the best balanced or have the best response. GM as well as all auto companies have a long way to go in getting 3 & 5 cylinder engines to run smoother and quite. Some day they might prove me wrong, but the only small engine I ever really loved was the QUAD 4. That engine could move and be custom built to race. Personally, the V8's have a long life ahead of them still. I agree the I 5 could have been a little smoother but it was better than any of the 4.3's I owned and had more power. The Quad was a good engine if you had one that did not warp the head. The present day Eco is a far better engine and stronger then the Quad. To modify that engine you had to do some major work where the Eco stop parts will take a lot in many areas before they need changed. The Rods and Pistons are the weak area and will take 400 HP with no issue per GM. The rods are similar to the pink rods or so GM claims. The V8 will be around but they will be even more limited to fewer models and I suspect they will jack the price up to prevent more people from buying them. I hate to see it but just get the feeling this will come to pass if they don't back off CAFE.

Yeah, we've heard this for 8 years... but why does LPE not list any engine packages for the Eco? Because he went into a Comma and Died before he could do anything with it played a big roll. He built a few customer engines and was looking into it at the time he had his accident. We sold the one we had a little while ago. They only did work on the Vette amd even sold his TT LS powered Somoma that was soon crashed and totaled after he died and the new owner has just added the Camaro and his own Firebird. LPE is not the company it once was. John had also started to work with the HV V6 for GM. The Cobalt he crashed was a Turbo HV car dipping into the high 6 second range. There are a lot of programs that died with John. I ran into him a Mid Ohio and he was looking at doing GM ALMS race engines for a team he did not want to say. More than not it was a V8 program and it never came about after his death. His team mate tried to carry it on but John was the engine guy and the loss of his knowledge hurt the program. LPE stuck to the basics for the most part after his death and till his wife could find a buyer. The distant cousin is doing his own projects today and does not have as wide of an interest as johm did. He liked new things and challanges. It would have been interesting to have seen what may have happened if he had lived not only with the smaller engines but even cars like the ZR1 and the new V8. He had told me his last TT Vette could be made to do 300 MPH if he wanted too. I asked if he would try it as he had just tested the one he had to 235 MPH and he said no. The Callaway Sledgehammer was all the faster he wanted to do in a street car and he wanted to keep racing as it was safer. The sad part is even the race car did not kill him directly, the seditive he recieved before surgery after his accident stopped his heart and damaged his brain.

I really wonder how the public would react to a 3 cylinder? The 5 Cylinder was not really bad but many people who never drove one often sneered if you said anything about it. Odd number engines at GM just seem to get a sigma about them, this also applied to the old Geo 3 cylinder too. I also never saw great love for the Audi 5 cylinder either.

The new car looked great last year when I saw it and after driving the Cruze I expect it will be a reall winner. The engine issues will work themselves out. This is not a sports sedan anyways and the new engines will address these issues.

There has beenn lots of reinvestment that would have never happened before the BK. New engines, updated plants including the Vette plant. Models selved due to the lack of money are now being brought to market while all new models are being worked on. Things may not be all the way there but they are not just sitting on their hands. A coupe here would be nice to give it a shot but it will neither make or break GM's future. Right now the economy is an issue for each and every MFG not just here but world wide.

That is pretty much what it is. This is why they just say not planned at this time but they never said there will not be one. They are either gauging interest or they are just planting the seed for what they may do in the future. We have seen this all before.

If I can get some spare time. I have just moved and added onto the new house. I have been working to finish my new Garage. We should meet at one of the Quaker Steak and Lube's.

Having worked on many of these engines many of todays small engines will go many many miles. GM's engines are well known for high miles as they have used many things like chain drive cams etc. Many of the imports too will go high miles but at times need things changed like timing belts etc. I have seen many Eco engines over 200,000 miles and easily out last the rust on the car. I have even seen many of the Eco Supercharged and Turbo engines already over 100,000 miles with few to no problems. I think few really understand how good the Ecotec engine really is. If the improvments make it better and retain or even improve its quality GM will have one of the best small engines in the world. The Eco is the new Small Block Chevy of the future. This engine will do a lot of things in a lot of models. The future of GM is going to be built on it since it will be in 80% of the cars they build world wide. This is one engine in recent years they did get right. Note famed engine builder John Lingenfelter loved this engine and had a lot of fun building them. He raced them of us and was up to 1500 HP with a stock head before it broke. He also built a Turbo engined Cobalt sedan for us years before GM did one. It was fast and durable. John had built winning BBC and SBC and loved this engine as much as was amazed at what he could do with it.

We have two plates in Ohio. The Govenor wants to lose them but the State Police want to keep them. They use them as targets for Lazer and they also now are using the new scanners that can read plates and the computer in the car picks out the wanted ones. No need for an officer to read them anymore. As for the Chevy nose. I really don't have an issue with it. It is far nicer than any Honda and Toyota and it says Chevy as soon as you see it. I just wish they would fix the Bow Ties as they get crappy looking. It is the brand image of the company and if it looks like crap what does it do for those who wonder about your quality? I do wish they would do something with the Chevy truck nose. The GMC is just so much better looking. The Chrome looks cheap and gets nasty looking with age.

Few cars today have the plate designed in. I fitted the plate on my SS by having the plate bracket left off by the dealer and installed an electric plate. http://www.summitracing.com/parts/APR-400EU/ When there is a will there is a way.

I have seen two Volts this week. Chevy has just finally gotten a limited number to dealers here. These are the first production ones I have seen here. Sad it took till Oct 17th to get them here in time for winter. GM really needed to get them here last July to really make a good impression. The cold will hurt the electric range for them right out of the box.

Ok dead is a little more than the term I would use here. They have said there are no plans at this moment for anything but a sedan. We have heard this before just as recent with the Colorado and other GM cars. GM has stated they will not do all body styles in one year and would stagger them out. Once the sedan is on the market and if there is good demand for them I could see this car coming a year or two later to spur some new interest in the line after the newness of the Sedan wears off. GM would have not shown this photo if they did not have any consideration that they may bring it later. They could still kill this deal if the Malibu does not take off but I would say chanced are still pretty good they still could do this in some form a few years from now. We also will not get the ATS coupe till later. Now the Convertible has been killed and they have say "No" to that one. Note they have not and will not show any pictures of that one to the public. If they do a coupe no limited numbers as this is a Chevy and that means high volume and lower prices. This is not a collectors car. GM and their big tease is wearing off. They have been using the same patterns and they are not fooling many people anymore.

At the rate things are going this will be the new Impala in 2030! Sad!

I wonder if he needed a Crystal ball for that one?