hyperv6

I find it sad. It was one vehicle that really was starting to change the impression of Chrysler cars and it is left to rot and now pushed into fleet service down under. If FCA had updated this car when they got a bailed out Chrysler they could have easily competed on a higher level and easily surpassed Lincoln in status. Now it is a heavily discounted car, fleet car and now appears it may not be replaced by FCA when the run is done. So much wasted potential and what could have been. Thanks Sergio!

I really do not see this working out well for a while yet. The issue really is where you mix normal cars with self driven. Self driven cars are programed by computer people and they do not think like a deviate that thinks it is fun to make radical moves with is pick up to make the self driving car shut off or swerve in some radical way for a laugh. The other issue is liabilities. While this could reduce deaths the problems that will come from this is liabilities. If a car makes a mistake is it the owners fault? Is it a fault of the company that made the car? Is it the fault of the programmer? Etc. The cold harsh reality is people will still die in crashes and the liability will be moved to a MFG and just how willing are they going to be in this to accept the responsibility? The Tesla death was only the first in a semi autonomous system the full on is coming as well others. The details are where this gets bogged down. Now I do see a lot of use with this even to a higher degree than we have now. Farms, Mines etc where large equipment has a set path and set plan in a controls environment could work with little interference and little liability. This will be where the most wide spread use will be. Till then we will only see enhanced system that will require the driver to remain engaged with the car. Their hands may be off the wheel but they will not be reading a paper or on the phone as they will be required to remain engaged in the car by facial recognition.

China would survive but they will feel the pain and this is what opens dialog to reach better terms for us. This not a game it is diplomecy that we have sorely lacked. There will be some pain both ways but it will open talks and give us some leverage. We have rolled over for too long. like it or not we need each other and we will find term both agree on. This is how you wedge boarders open. The goal here is not to retun every job. Yes we would like some back but we also would like to open their market to more of our product to increase new jobs. Same with Russia we need to open talks with them after the foolish reset. Our state department has done a lot of damage and now is a time to try to recover from their deals and make better ones. The trouble is some of what they did are difficult to fix at this point like Syria and Iran. if there is a war it will be Iran and they will be after Israel. We gave them all they needs to finish the weapons they have wanted. Then most our allies are in major trouble in the Euro union and they are out of money with their programs and immigration.

We just got done with the kitchen rehab. It was painful and expensive. But I did get the wife on record as saying it is ok to look for a Corvette once our son is done with school. Right now it will be a 59-61 but that could change later depending on prices and the C8. Get things done and get back here. we need a good sound board to bounce our crazy ideas off of here and you were one of the boards in the wall.

Here is what is going on. Trump as like most business people negotiate deals and the first volley is always for more than you will settle for. We will make demands China will make threats but in time China will negotiate a deal as they need us as much or more than we need them. China's economy is not all that strong and they need a place to sell their goods. They also know while it is not painless we could return to be self sufficient if needed. We have the people, the natural resources and the technology to do what ever we need to do. We have been for too long caving to everyone else and losing our place of leverage in the global market. We have apologized and conceded for the last how many years. What many people do not understand but the world has been at war in WW III for a good while as it has been a fiscal war. What else must be understood we neutralized nuclear weapons with Mutual Assured Destruction the same is being done with Mutual Financial Assured Destruction. We go down China goes as well as the rest of the world. The key to this now is to negotiate your deals and get the best one you can. This is what will go on as we have failed in making deals globally for the last 8 years and you can see the damage for our negligence. Trump is much smarter than some realize or want to realize. He is setting up many things and has sent strong signals but many people miss them. Want an example? Just as I just explained here. Trump at all his rally's would play the Rolling Stones you can't always get what you want but if you try sometime you get what you need. This is how he thinks and works. Some may not like him and I am sure he will fail in some ways as if you do not fail you are not trying. But the big picture here is to put America in a better place in the glob to hold more leverage over things we should be in control of. Our future will call for the same things we saw in WW II as we need to stand up, work together and there will be some pain and sacrifice. We need to teach out people how to work again. They need to learn to pass a drug test, they need to learn to show up everyday. If our people worked with the same ethics over seas they would starve to death. You are not going to get rich working at Mc Donalds. You should not get rich working at Mc Donalds. We are going to see a new working class started here call No Collar Workers. The tech fields need more workers and they are now looking to the non collage workers. These will be places where people who work hard will be able to move ahead in their lives. It is an opportunity that some will take and many will fail at. China has gotten away with murder literally. They are doing and taking what they want and what do we do? Nothing. they build island bases at will. They tell us who we can and can not talk to. They let the nut job in N Korea do as he pleases when they could shut him down in a day if they wanted to. They sell arms to Iran and are now working again with Russia. What have we done to leverage anything on them? It took an obnoxious business man from NYC to let them know we are no longer going to take it up the &^%$% vs the do nothing politicians. This is why they have always said those who can do start business and those who can run for office. This is not going to be about winning this is about have some say in what goes on. The truth is if we cut off China it would be painful for both but we here would survive and they would not. But it will not come to this as both sides now neither can afford to go that far. Deals will be made and we will get a little better deal than we have had. It it time to stop labeling Americans just because you disagree and start to look out for our country before we fail. What we have been doing was failing and at this point we need to do something different.

Just the ecotec turbo in my SS is great ad affordable. The Solstice up grade went to 290 HP and 340 Ft lbs. My SS was limited by the trans axle. Lingenfelter was running stock blocks and heads to 1500 HP. The drifting Solstice did 500 HP with no tear downs all seasons. So the protetial is there.

Here is the problem today. In the past they could take an economy car and pop in a Corvette engine for pennies and make it a cool fast affordable car then. Then the Insurance cost came into play. Now we have economy cars now that are small FWD cars that are 5 times the cost of the economy cars of the past. Most are FWD and if you apply AWD and a decent engine to it the price jumps to $40K and they now can not afford the payment as well as the insurance. The older people do not cramped small cars even if they are fast as they can generally afford better. Lets face it most kids with these cars are limited to mom and dad bought it or they just happen to be lucky to get a decent job or work all the hours they can to afford it. Kids today have really lost that dream of owning a really cool car. They can no longer attempt to work at a gas station and have dad cosign for a Corvette or GTO as they did in the 60's. They do not have the option of buying a used Big Block performance car for pennies on the dollar like they did in the 70's and in the 80's the used performance market was there but was edging farther and farther away with cost and insurance. So kids now turn to video games and cell phones. It used to be cars were your connection to a social life and it represented you and got you to the mall where you hung out. Today the malls are closing down and the kids are linking up on their video games and Facebook. The goal today is not to have a 6.6 but a I Phone 7 Plus. The cars today with good suspensions start at $25K and run to the mid $30's. You add a better engine and it jumps to the high 30's and goes to just over $40K. Too often these cars used are well used and often trashed due to poor modifications and poor car. Try to find a good Cobalt SS today with low miles or in decent condition same for others. Ford and Chevy have tried to make some real options in the Camaro and Mustang with smaller engines but yet potent like the 1LE V6 Camaro that can be had for a decent price and is a prime car. But again it is mid $30's and again insurance. Kids also have a difficult time getting work in many areas as the entry level jobs are drying up and the raise in min wage has killed what was left. There are also no gas station jobs for anyone under 21 years old due to the sale of alcohol and no more pumping of gas. The only real way to do these cars is globally. Even the Mustang and Camaro are making moves to go overseas now. Lets face it one of the best buys is the GTI but it lacks the engine till you move up in price. The ST is a waste of time. The future just looks weak here. The one area I think is being over looked is a sport truck. The ZQ8 was a real option as it was lower priced and you could option it from base model to loaded and the after market really made it easy to do what ever you wanted to do with it. I would like to see a mid size and full size sport model in 2WD offered in 4-V6 and in the full size Various V8 models. I had a Sonoma ZQ8 that was a dream. It was like driving a Z/28 and an El Camino. It could have used a little more engine than the 4.3 as it was sorely under powered. It was a good deal compared to many cars. My HHR SS also is a fun car to drive. Frustrating that it is FWD and hard to get it to hook up. But AWD would have driven the price way out of the realm of worth. The aftermarket really did a good job of giving the engine what it needed for only a couple hundred dollars. The Camaro 4 needs this package and about 320 HP. Then you have the false notion that RWD cars can not be driven in the snow. We did it for 100 years with no issues. Limited slip and good tires do the work and today with all the electronic aides you can get anywhere. I would just avoid it just because if I had a new Camaro I would not want it in the salt. To sum this up there is no easy answer that adds up here economically. Even if they take the Cruze and make an SS it will cost too much for the target customer if you do it right. How much will someone pay for a Cruze? I think the best bet is to take the Opel OPC hatch make it a Mini killer and sell it at Buick and target 30 somethings. This would give them a fun car, a car they can afford and option it to where it is worth the price. That way you can do AWD and the things you need and get the price you should.

A little more torque and HP is not going to increase the cost that much. As for the other models it is up to the owner how much they want to spend. The S2000 was never really in the picture here. They were sold in such small numbers and only had two seats. This was more of a car for someone getting out of collage that just got a new job but still paying a loan off would be able to afford and insure. I call not for anything over the top but a little more HP and Torque would fix this a bit. The one issue is still two doors as younger people really have little care over coupes anymore. We would not want caught dead in a sedan but today given the choice that is what most will pick.

The 800 pound Gorilla is in the corner of the room. Even with Trump in and odds are some regulations may be relaxed the problem will be some states will do their own agendas. Also Trump is only here 4-8 years and it will change again at some point. An automaker needs to have all irons in the fire as regulations can change faster than they can react or afford.

Well to be fair this has been a tough market for coupes. Not just under powered ones. But Toyota did really miss the mark here. This car needs a little more power. It could be done easily with such a light weight car. They did not need to add a V8 but they did need to add some more HP and some more improved performance options in the suspension. Let people build this car to suit their needs not just pose as a fun car missing the fun. Now Keep in mind I am not saying make it 500 HO but another 40 HP would have solved many issues.

This was what I was considering on the way home. OPEC has gotten an agreement with the oil market countries including those outside OPEC to decrease production. Add along with this the increase of the economy and increased production in MFG that increases the demand of oil and it will drive up the price. The man they were interviewing was retired from an oil company and said by the first of the year $77 per barrel could be possible again. This would really damage an automaker with no real viable small cars or range of cars at would help support them. The staggering is something most MFG have practiced for a long time but it is planned ahead. GM for many years plan their models with staggered introductions to spread out the cost. But what FCA is doing is they are delaying products that were planned not staggering the intro. This is a sign of cash flow weakness and the lack of money for development of these programs. We know it is a common fact FCA has been in money trouble from the time they took over Chrysler. The hope was the take over would give Fiat the Volume to lower development cost. The fact is they have more needs than they have money. Let get this in the open. Who here thinks Chrysler products outside the Jeep line and to a lesser degree Ram is up to date with the market and very competitive in the segment it is in. Where are they challenging or even competitive in the segment? If so please point out the models and where they are leading other than the nearly dead Minivan market. Chrysler has the LX that is in major need of updates with a new modern platform that does not necessarily mean it has to be a small 4 seat car. They can make something similar to what they have just lighter and stiffer. The small cars are dead or nearly dead. That is it. No real offerings that are current or competitive. The 300 could own the segment and hold great ATP but it is selling for prices that are embarrassing. Great for a good deal bad for image and resale. The Trucks are an important model for volume and profits. In todays market you can not delay much anymore as all segments are needed for profits. Jeep has done well but that is about the only bright spot to focus on. Alfa has more work to do than Cadillac in the segment they are in. Maserati is not going to save Fiat. And Fiat as it is is something they are starting to wish never came to America. Now a partner could help but who. GM and Ford want nothing to do with this mess. VW would have been interested for the trucks and Jeep but now lacks the money to consider it. Toyota, Nissan and Hyundai have no interest. Mazda could use a partner but they want one that is stronger. Mitsubishi has been mentioned but they are not much better off than Fiat. Does the Chinese come in? Is this entry into the American market with an American name? This is a real mess and it is going to get worse before it gets better. I look for Sergio to try to find a way for the Agnelli get out and make money and they don't care what happens to any of the companies. Branching off Ferrari was a sign of the ship going down and they only put Ferrari in a life boat Everyone else it is every division for themselves. Is there anyone here other than Stew who thinks Fiat buying Chrysler was a good move?

Grand Wagoner also is said to be delayed over at Autoblog too. There is no naysaying here. If GM was delaying as many programs and cutting all their small cars we would be saying the same thing of them.

For FCA to survive it will need more volume. They have a large company and they need to make more cars. Fiat is not going to increase volume. Alfa is never going to meet Sergio's projections Maserati is going to always be that car for those who do not conform but are ok with leaving the car for Service. Jeep will continue at its pace. It is a true global car as overseas it is seen as a Jeep not a American brand. Ram I fear will begin to fall behind with less money coming to them. Chrysler and Dodge will continue to try to reinvent their old products till either a partner is found or they die. Ferrari is at risk of over exposure under Sergio. If that happens the Ferrari may become what Porsche did in the 80's a common car. To fix the ship here they need to put money into Chrysler and let them do the work and not put the new product on old Lancia platforms. Get the volume up and update the product to where it is relevant in America again and competing on all levels. As it stands now I can see a possible failure of the FCA corporation now that Ferrari was set free. Jeep would be sold. Ram may be sold but no where at the price it could have been by the time they get there. Alfa and Maserati could be purchased by Ferrari at pennies on the dollar and sold at low volume. Fiat could fade away as does anyone really care anymore? The key to survival is though Auburn Hills but I just don't see it being done under Sergio.

We have impacted the iceberg captain and we are taking on water in the first 5 compartments. Should we ask the head of the line Sergio what he would like us to do now? This is getting more and more troubling to see. Also troubling is the need for a partner to join them and how long it has been that no one appears to want to work with them. Not even a Chinese MFG has even been seen as wanting to opt in here. I do not know how bad or good things are here but at face value things are going on well run, stable and solvent companies just don't do.

Sergio strikes another blow to Chrysler. Sad! No North American company should have nothing for Detroit.

In this society of instant gratification people can not wait for nearly anything. We have smart phones, chat and E mail to give new ASAP because we can not wait. We have fast pass at the amusement parks because we can't wait in line. We have so many things to speed up the pace of our lives and unless you just happen to be some place that has charger and you plan to be there for a period of time few people will want to be bother to wait for the charge even on the faster charges. Travel it is out the window as who wants to spend a couple hours just off a free way in their Leaf? The reality is we are not to the point these cars are for everyone or even the majority yet. In time we will get there but we are still not there. As they imporve the advantages will increase and the disadvantages will disappear but again we are not there yet. Once the EV gets to the point you can charge it as fast as a tank of gas that will be the one major tipping point. The next will be the ability to Charge it any where you can gas up even in Booger Hole WV. [I did not make that up]. Yes they have a gas station but now chargers there. Go figure. It was not all that long ago they may not have had electricity. This is like Cell Phone coverage. At first we would travel and the cities had coverage but out in the country large areas of dead space as we traveled south. It took about 10 years and now there are few dead spots. This is the same on an even larger scale. Investment is difficult as there are so few cars and there are so few cars as there has been so little investment. Can you hear me now? It is not just this but even Hydrogen powered vehicles are great and I have even driven one. But fueling up takes time to fill, It can be very cold and it is not on every corner as there are so few vehicles using it. Time is money or time is a killer as it stops the pace of some peoples lives. When I first got into shipping to customers it was just good enough to get the products to them with in a week. Then it was in a few days now they want things 2 days or less at no extra charge. They place the order and if it is not shipped in an hour and they have not gotten a tracking number they are emailing or calling as they want an answer now. Even if the part is not in stock and needs drop shipped which would speed things up they get upset if the MFG does not ship till the next day. I even get people who order on Monday and call on Tuesday wanting to know where their 2 day package is and want to argue that it was two days when UPS does not count Monday as a shipping day and you point out next day would be Tuesday. This is the mind set in the public domain. Can't wait for much anything. from fast food to fast shipping. In the early days the same thing was seen with the automobile as so often they broke down and got stuck. The first two decades it was more a play toy for most buyers as a horse was still more reliable. Over time advancements came and it adapted to more life styles and areas of the country. We will see the same but much is relying on the advancements of charging times and batteries. Two observations here. I never though about it but WV is VW backwards and if only flux capacitor was real. God I need to get to bed earlier tonight. LOL!

Yes i know that but it will take years and billions to bring the rest of the country to this. Even then you have many more places like TX, OK, WV and other places where a 1.5 hour drive to the closest McDonalds or Walmart is not uncommon for 10's of thousands. Case in point GM made trailers for Pontiac to hold training equipment for Rual dealers in in the fly over states. They could go to the dealer open the trailer and had everything from work benches to video. They though people would not drive two hours to the nearest large city to get training. Well the program did not work as well as they though as people were willing to drive 2 hours for training and even one trailer went totally unused. You get away from the West coast metro hubs and in places were things are spread out people will drive hours just to go to a favorite restaurant. There going to be places the electric car will thrive and there will be places it will never be seen at least till some issues are worked out. Even Tesla with their Supercharger system here in Ohio. We have three in the entire northern part of the state and I and none are on the way to any where most people go unless you drive the Turnpike daily. For a daily beater to work and home I could live with one here but there is no way as a only car could I manage. The reality is I am the Majority in this country. .

I would love the bolt for a daily beater to work and back. But the rest of my life where I bug out to Charlotte, Indy, Detroit, Charleston or Columbus It is a no go as I do not want to spend the time charging the car just to get where I am going or have to go out of my way to even find a place to charge. Most people when they travel only stop for two reasons Gas and to Piss. Both take less than 10 min as you multi task the slurppy as you pay for the gas. You jump in and make it to where you are going. Americans are the kind of people who drive to Florida non stop and brag about how few hours it took them to drive from Detroit to Orlando. You tell us to stop at that big rest stop in southern WV for a couple hours and we will tell you where to go and it will not be down the road. What I described here is the common driver in the mid west. we are not tourist as we have been over this ground so much we know all the pot holes on I77. We get annoyed when a large gas line ruptures and closes the road and cost us a 30 min detour in WV. [true story as was the 12 our trip back from WV to Ohio in flood on the interstate that took us back to WV and up I79 and back once we got out the stopped traffic of several hours. People like this are common and they drive 500 miles like Daytona as any stop is seen as only extending a already too long trip. We are the people what when we had duel tanks we straddled the pumps and filled from both sides. LOL! Oil monitor here and I change the Fiero by the years as I drive only to shows and Pontiac events. It gets old and I change it and my buddy puts it in his car as it is normally still clean.

Yet they have the inconvenience of having longer refueling times that use much more time than any oil change or filling of a gasoline tank. Not everyone is going to charge over night and when on a trip a lot of wasted time in BF Egypt waiting to continue the ride. Drew to the average driver the EV is a life style changer as you have to plan your trips around charging station. You have to plan your time around charging times and if you should cut it too close you are not going to just get a can of 110 Volts and dump it into the car and get home. Don't get me wrong as I support the Bolt and having theses cars but to the average person they see things they do not have to do and extra time and money spent and they would rather spend the time at the 10 min lube. The bottom line yet is the EV is not to the point it can fully replace the expectations and needs of the average buyer in most cases yet. To own a EV you need to make the bigger commitment on price and install of a charging system. The need to plan your life around it differently and in many cases to have a back up car in case you do not have a full charge in the car and have a need to travel unplanned or to take a long trip in the fly over states where charging stations are as common as a Lamborghini Miura's. So while I get your point and we will get to that mark at some point we ain't there yet. It still take commitment and adjustment to own one of these models yet for the average person.

The problem is while gas prices are not the focus of all it is the prime focus of most if you plan to grow beyond the Green fans. Low energy cost kill even small car sales with gas engine let alone electric that has an even smaller audience. There are often more reasons not to buy a EV too for many people. This market is like growing a crop. You may want sweet corn in May but you have to let the field grow and harvest it when it is ready.

I rather think GM will may loose a little on this but it will be more of a closer to break even kind of deal. You have to consider that not only are they going to keep the losses lower but they will take advantage of every write off that is a loss from their taxes. We do that at work with as many things as possible so the total loss in the end is neutraled. They will also target the markets where these cars will sell the best. The more liberal areas and places where Green customers can be found will get most of the distribution. You need to play to your strengths. I expect GM is not expecting or wanting to see so many that it would put them in the negative either. Like the Volt first gen they will reach a number that will be good for them and they will move on to the next stage. Tesla is only making it on high prices to this point and the same thing will happen with the 3 as while a base car will come in at 40K plus the options will add up fast. I just saw a X model tested with 68K in options or so it was listed.

Skoda would be the Scion of VW and we all know how well that worked.

When you have lemons you make lemon aide. In other words you are a auto engineer with little budget and a very old car so what do you do? You take what you have and make the best of it. We saw this very same thing at Pontiac when they put a V8 in the FWD GXP GP. Not a great car but considering they had no money and an old W body to work with it was better than nothing. Note the GXP was on the road to the bail out.

Here is the Skoda problem. #1 it is unknown to most Americans and would have to be established. #2 It would be joining a very very difficult segment of the market that lives on Volume and it would not see that for a while. #3 They are not really see as great cars even in their home markets. Decent for the money cars but not great cars. #4 The VW thing is not going to impact them as long or hard here in the states as some would like to think. Also the deals they are offering present owners on their Diesels are pretty good and most will remain. My boss is going to come out ahead and may go from a Passat to a CC just based on the deals. #5 They for the first few years would only under cut VW market more than any other brand. Also the ATP per car would be even less. #6 if it fails then you have the cost of eliminating a whole dealer network at great cost after setting one up at great cost. This would be like a Saturn was to GM. Duplication of resources at a higher cost over all. Now if you wanted to sell them though a VW dealer as a optional model or two that would be fine. If you wanted to expand it you could and if you wanted to kill it the cost would be low. Just study the cost of Hummer to GM and the dealers vs. what it would have been if it had just been made a GMC model.

It does not have to go that way. But it can be made into a modern lighter and stiffer platform that would make it a even better and more competitive car. Here again it is a failure of Fiat not so much Chrysler. Just imagine this. We know what they have done with an old over weight car. Imagine the same people with the proper amount of money doing a much more modern car that is still in the same vein as what we have. You can stick an engine in and you can add AWD but a clean sheet of paper platform can deliver so much more.