hyperv6

Congrats on the drive. I see you had a very similar drive as the others. It sounds like they have gotten a good handel on the engine noise and RPM. I had been told it maxes at 4,000 RPM and they hope to cut that down more by production. This car I feel will set the tone when it comes out and we will see fast upgrades with it and reduced cost in a short period of time. The technology in this car is no different than Anti lock brakes, stability control and electronic fuel injection. They were all only seen on the Cadillac or high end cars the first year or two and then migrated to all cars in a short period of time as cost come down with the increase of units sold. Good write up!!!!!

The way I see this. The Buick killing the deal was the best thing. Paying big money to s tranished celb would have only hurt Buick now. On the other hand the free Cadillac PR has been great. Every news cast speaks of Cadillac and even on network interviewed a Cadillac rep to see why the doors were locked after it hit the tree. The rep explained the features of the vehicle live on the network feed. Tiger has done for the Escalade that what OJ did for Ford with his white Bronco.

As far as I have seen I have never seen a great interior in a Honda and their styling on any model has never been great. What I mean is they just never stand out and have presents. They may be non offensive but you just can't get excited about them. Just looking at the inside of the Cruze the colors alone make it look like you spent more than you really did. I can see GM finally is getting it right with the More for your money and a good value.

I would love to see Roger but would be shock to see him take this Job. Now if he were to replace Ed?????? I have a hunch John Krafcik would be their choice. He is a MIT engineer and has a back ground with Ford and NUMMI. John also speak with the tone that many want to hear of restraint while he continues to build one of the fastest growing companies and improved. I would be shocked if he left Hyundia. Honda and Toyota are afraid of Hyundia should say a lot. Here is what John has said in Chicago in 09. Hyundai America CEO John Krafcik delivered a keynote address at the opening of the Chicago Auto Show media preview where he called on the industry to dramatically change the way it does business. According to Krafcik, for decades, extravagance has been the name of the game in the car biz – just as it has been in most of corporate America. In the past six months, however, things have started to change, with automakers cutting back on the overblown productions at auto show press conferences and in many cases eliminated such conferences altogether. But Krafcik doesn't think the swing has gone far enough. That's just one small part of the problem, though. Krafcik acknowledged that the industry as a whole is seen as slow and unresponsive as well as wasteful. He called on voluntary limits to executive compensation that are tied to some multiple of what the average worker gets paid. "What if our industry was the first to exercise a more inclusive form of capitalism that voluntarily restrained executive compensation to a reasonable multiple of average employee salary? And what if our industry adopted a uniform code of conduct regarding gifts, meals and business entertainment?" Krakcik wants his industry to be more modest and humble. Instead of fighting everything that needs to be done, he believes the auto industry must take the lead in re-shaping corporate America. Who ever they get needs to work well with Bob! That will be key from here forward.

I would rather expect you also could nake the Vice President by name too. You are in the minority of this country and be glad of it! Even the people who majored in Theology at Collage may not make a lot of money but at least they know why!

That one will just roll off the tongue. Few will ever catch the Play on joule in any part of the country. Most people can't name who the VP of the country is let alone know what joule means. I hope GM did'nt spend too much time or money on this little exercise.

For a guy tosse into a tough job at a very bad time he did as well as he or most others could considering. I just hope they get a good money man that will work well with Bob Lutz. We have the product and marketing in the the right direction we just need to get the business side moving in the right direction a little better.

Nothing needs to be said we know the truth.

The interior alone should improve sales. I am holding reserve on commnent till I drive the 1.4 Turbo. While the nubers don't jump at me I expect the torque will start low and have a very flat curve. If it does it should feel more powerful than it really is. this may be where they are getting the mileage without making it feel like a dog.

I think there would be a mrket for a good automotive magazine anymore. Most of the advertised ones are controled by their advertisers. I see it with my company in all the magazines we advertise in. When we spend money we get high profile spots and promotion in their stories. We do not get featured on Hot Rods cover by accident. As for CR they are like PBS. They say they are not biased but they are not livining on circulation alone. PBS may not comercial but they sure as heck take a lot of corperate money. Also Autoweek published how political the car of the year deal is at Motor Trend a couple years ago. The automotive world could use a alternative view magazine to spill the truth if someone could afford to publish it. The magazine business has been dying and with the economy of late they are dying faster than ever. While we have a free press that does not mean that there is no corperate or political influance here. It has been that way for years. Just look at William Randolf Hearst. Even in the 1800's it often was guided.

Condem a car for Chome Bezels? It is ok to bring it up but to rate a car lower just for that? I find it more a subjective thing thany anything. That is the issue with CR. They should rate cars objective vs subjective. Leave the Objective to Car and Driver.

So shiny bezels, narrow and slight sharp edge on the cup holder over rides Ride, quietness, powertrain, front-seat comfort, fit and finish, crash-test results? Dang them Koreans they have the lead on Cup holders and dull interiors and who cares how it drives or hold up in a crash. The funny part is if GM had built the wide car it would be too wide for easy driving. I think we here at C&G should rate CR as toilet paper. Pages are bit sharp and could cause Cheek paper cuts and the ruff paper could cause chafing and roids. We found the quality of the paper is too thin and could cause failure while wiping. We rate CR below average and should not be considered good enough to wipe your butt with. We recomend you should stay with the Sear catalog and We do not recomend CR for even for puppy training and it should be dispose of in the proper way buy use in the bottom of as bird cage.

I argee here 100%. The Solstice while nice was in need of a redo soon any way. The Alpha is not just a idea but now is a real platform that could make car better and more profitable shared with other lines. A friend of mine that is a Chevy brand manager told me he never expected the Kappa to last for ever. He said 2 seater other than the Miata and Vette usally sell in cycles of 5-7 years. They go away and come back in another form. The Fiero, Mazda RX 7, MR2 etc have all gone this way. Low volume sports cars sell strong the first year and fade after. It makes hard to make a case for a uydate. Also factor in the economy and soft car market. Sports cars and 2nd or 3rd cars are just not a strong market right now. Buick would be a good class for a new sports car in the future. They could get the price to make it a little better for profit. Sports cars are not cheap because of demand. Also Buick could use the Miata factor of selling this sports car world wide as one model with Buick, Opel, Vauxhall and Holden Badges on it.

I stopped reading it years ago. They have to be taking kick backs some where. I always found it strange how they could also say something great about one GM car and trash another built in the same plant and on the same platform. It most times was something related between the two also that made it stranger. Of late I find it strange how Ford is getting all the praise with about the same cars it has sold for the past couple years [less the Taurus even though we all know there is a 500 hiding under it] Now Toyota is gettling slammed for building the same old cars it got praised for just a couple years ago. This just feeds into my feeling outside forces pick and choose who gets the praise and who does not. Funny how George Soros who has a lot of control over money world wide is investing heavy in Ford? I am not really a conspiracy Nut but sometimes I start to wonder with the crap I see going on anymore with the way the money values are getting jerked around and companies getting slammed.

Sorry I translated it to American. You get away from the Border Stores and the meaning get lost fast. The sad part of digital TV is I now get many many channels but I no longer get Canadian TV channels. We knew about Hortons and Super Dave years ago on this side of the lake. Now we only get Red Geen on PBS vs TV from London Onterio and Kitchener Onterio.

Hey some advertising person some where look at the door count and filled the empty web space till the Chevy SS is available. At least it is a Canadian built car to make them happey. Horton any one ehh!!!

Buick needs to do a 3 door that could compete with the Mini. That would give them an upscale car with all the goodies like a good leather interior and electronic. Also it needs a more sporting nature. This is the kind of car Chevy and Cadillac can not sell. To expensive for one and not the image of the other. Also they should not sell a stripped down version. Leave that market to Chevy. In other words no steel wheels.

The hatch has been a hard sell to American car buyers but a Buick that is a real Euro car and targeted at the Euro car buyers in this country should sell. In time I would hope the hatch would catch on with other buyers. Nothing more of a pain is a small car with a small trunk opening that will not let you put a square box in it.

There are greater chances of us seeing more than just a sedan and just a Automatic. With this being a world car Buick can build these in smaller numbers here and still sell them at a profit. Lets face it if the Regal was not sold in China and Europe with the 6 speed man we would not see it here for 5% of sales. The numbers overseas make it possible to make that 5% happy. Look at it this way they can take a chance on a different body style here and if it fails it continues to sell in the overseas markets it is already strong in. Too few know or understand [people not on this web site] that now GM is selling pretty much the same car world wide we can now get those cars that we could not get before because the American market alone could not support them. Now with the help of strong sales in other markets we will see the OPC Regal, manual transmissions and the odd hatch. Now if they could do the same with the Diesels. The issue is the cost to emissions approve them until the average American understand these are not the Olds Diesels of the past.

I am not a fan of the 4 door hatch but there seems to be a growing market for them. the Mazda 3 has shown that. With the car being sold else where it would permit it to be made here and not have to carry the burden of having to sell in large numbers.

You need to add a rim shot after that one.

Well if it is going to have any Mazda 3 it is best to have the rear quarters. I am not a fan of the Buick waterfall grill but I will take it any day over the Mazda 3 grin. It is hard to make a 5 door hatch sporty and cool looking. I think they have done the best with the class they have. You make it too cool looking then nothing fits inside. The real sporty needs always goes to the 3 door.

I have been trying to find the story and have not found it. The rev if I recall went up whe under a heavy load or low under low battery power. I had expected the engine to be at the same RPM till I had read this. Even if it did rev I did not expect it to be a at a very high RPM. My suyprise I guess I just expected them to have this aspect already worked out at this point. I am glad to see the suspension sounds as well tuned as it has been stated by GM. This will be a very valuable selling point vs the Prius and many other vehicles in this class. Most suffer with the lack of tuning and very hard tires.

The engine noise and RPM was an issue awile back in the spring. I was hoping they has it fixed by now. The engineers had commented on this I beleive in AutoWeek back then. Other wise it sounds as if the rest of the car is well sorted out.

To get a better Idea how tall this car is, it is 4" lower than the CTS sedan. I think the tall trunk, and door panels just gives it that look in photos. It is not as tall as it appears here, wait till you see it in person. Also it is longer than it appears. The short back really makes you forget it has the same wheel base as the Sedan. Remember this was not a post Chapter 11 car and they had to fit as much of the Sedan in this car as they could. That limited some of their options. To clean the rear window all you need is one of the window wipes on a handel. I already have to use on in the GTP in the corners where I can not get my fingers. Any good design will leave have loving it and half hating it. As time goes on the half that hate starts to let the design grow on them. In the end three quarters ends up ok with it. This is the kind of car the the 63 Riv was. It will change the way GM designs cars in the future. It breaks many GM rules on sight lines etc and let them go places they have not been since Harley Earl. At least it is not a clone of a German car as so many are. The press will like it except for some comprimises with the roof line. GM will have no issue selling these. If anything it just raised the bar on the new AWD sedan we are expecting. If they can pull off a updated AWD Sixteen styled car it will place Cadillac back on the map. So far GM is proving many wrong on what cars they were going to bring us. Now lets just hope the people trust enough and love them enough to put down their money. One thing in Cadillacs favore is people are now moving down in cars. They are more often replacing cars with less expensive models. This plays right into Cadillac hands. WSJ had a story on the down spending a few weeks ago.