avant1963

This concept is only on paper and is ONLY created for the LA Show's design challenge. Every year, to have LA stand out, they challenge designers to come up with a "way-out-there" design that would only be on paper. This year the concept should encompass the LA Adventure. Many other concepts at this link: http://www.laautoshow.com/2006/designla/de...enge.htm#popGmc

She knows you have a crush on Jake Glyglalsafjjaskffhdal wearing nothing but a 10 gallon hat.

"It's funny because it's true." -Homer Simpson When will the "Sheeple" see Toyota's BS marketing?

Automotive News is reporting that the EXT/XL is dead citing a GM source. I thought they'd move the tooling to the other GMT360 plant, but that porves otherwise.

The first GM plant to cease production is the Oklahoma City plant that currently makes the extended wheelbase GMC Envoy XL, Chevy Trailblazer EXT and Isuzu Ascender EXT. Also, the re-engineered Envoy and Trailblazer has been pushed back a few years. All eyes turn to the Lambda crossover architecture which may very well replace GM’s body-on-frame mid-sizers. There are currently 2400 employees at the plant, a plant in which GM spent millions to rebuild after a tornado destroyed parts of the building in 2003. Is a Lambda crossover in the future for Chevy? http://newsok.com/article/1697250/?template=home/main

Rick Wagoner pretty much hits the nail on the head, there’s nothing to gain and everything to lose if Delphi strikes next year. While no one can be happy with the 60% pay cut for Delphi workers (there must be a better salary/benefit combo) and “Steve” Miller comes off as a pretentious ass, only fueling the UAW anger, change in the unions pay and benefit packages are inevitable. A strike by workers would put Delphi down for the count and GM up against the ropes and not change much for the hourly workers. I am not as confident as Wagoner is in this Detroit News piece about Delphi workers not striking, he may be underestimating workers that will be dropped to near poverty levels at $9 an hour. The next few months will be very interesting and will shape the domestic auto industry for the future. Detroit News Story

Cadillac was flying through 2005. The CTS was selling at record numbers even though the car is four model years old, the Escalade was keeping steady and the STS was beating the Seville sales by over 200%. Then October came and took a 7.9% year-over-year gain and turned it into a 4.9% gain. Ward’s Auto World talked to Cadillac’s General Manager Jim Taylor about Cadillac sales worldwide and optimism that Cadillac will gain 5% in 2005 and another 5% in 2006. Will the V-Series cars and 2007 Escalade have enough “umph” to add an extra 10,000 units next year? Ward's articleWard's article

It's a TBSS mating dance, rarely caught on video. Crikey! It almost ran me ova!

When C Van Tune left. The rag has gone down hill since then.

Just wanted to throw a little tid bit on the 2005 Nextel Cup winner Tony Stewart. While yesterday’s race was not a stellar one for Smoke, he did what he had to do to win it all, and with a much better attitude than 2002. Chevy also won the NASCAR manufacturers title in 2005. The “boo” of the day goes to Dodge. Some Dodge teams actually brought the 2004 Intrepid bodies with them for the Homestead race since the flying brick-suckerfish of a Charger just wasn’t getting it done. And imagine if it was real stock car racing and you had to use the Charger’s actual silhouette? http://www.nascar.com/2005/news/headlines/...d.ap/index.html (And yes, if it was real "stock" car racing I'd rather have a RWD to go around the track other than a FWD MCSS or Fusion. I'm just making a note that the 2006 Dodge Charger is, from a 200MPH wind tunnel perspective, not the slickest piece of metal.)

Current ride is the 1996 Z28 Convertible toward the center of my sig. Everything else around it is past vehicles from either my father or myself. My wife and I also own the 2006 G6 and a two-door 1994 Blazer (and the only non-GM the 1963 Stude).

JazzyChef, If you mean the Spring Edition: http://www.cheersandgears.com/forums/index...?showtopic=2678 We scooped it weeks ago.

Those that were with us during the NY Auto show know that I met Scott there and he proved to be everything people say about him and more. It's great to know there is such an enthusiast working at Chevy, especially one that spends so much time with other enthusiasts on sites like this one. Scott took time out of his busy day (I watched him put of a few fires while I was there) to allow me to get up and personal with the TBSS, Malibu SS and 2006 Impala and MC, all of which were fenced off for the general press. Scott is a guy that you can sit and BS about cars all day. Thanks, and I hope to see you at NY in 06. -Walt Keegan

No falling out, just couldn't survive ($$$) working there full time. I had to get back out and get a 9-5 job and get all my things in order. I'm curious how Autoblog will pan out now that they are owned by AOL. It will be harder to keep the "blog" spirt with the "man" looking over their shoulders.

The off-road track was at the NY show for the Commander debut. Chrysler had a "street" track at Chicago to show off the Charger.

Yeah, for a spare tranmission and a trailer to keep it close by!

Maybe we’ll finally get some respect for Buick with the 2006 Lucerne. It has been getting great reviews from the press (and so has its sister, the DTS) and now Buick is killing the Dream Up campaign and focusing on “Precision”. Three new TV ads will debut with the new “Beyond Precision” tagline focusing on precise panel gaps, heated wiper fluid, and “Mr. Aachen Head” a device that Buick uses to capture interior noise levels. Thanks for waking up GM. The problem is the first commercial I saw for the Lucerne was at the end of a “Red Tag Event” spot, even though the new Buick isn’t included in the sale. -Walt Keegan FROM GM: Mr. Aachen Head (and Tom Bosley? Yo Mr. C!) “Beyond Precision,” a new brand positioning and advertising campaign for the Buick division of General Motors, will break with television commercials on Nov. 21 for the 2006 Lucerne, an all-new luxury sedan. The campaign focuses on Buick’s quality by showcasing Lucerne’s luxury features and benefits including QuietTuning and other technical innovations. The advertising’s new tagline – “Beyond Precision” – speaks to the care and exactitude the designers and engineers put into the Lucerne. “Beyond Precision” exemplifies qualities that resonate with people who want a car to reflect their intelligence and that thrives on scrutiny with compelling attributes. “The people who design, engineer and manufacture Lucerne are some of the best in the world, and have a near-fanatical way of looking at Lucerne’s details,” said Margaret Brooks, Buick marketing director. “We want advertising that shows the fruits of their labor and spotlights some of Lucerne’s finest details.” Three new television commercials from Buick’s national advertising agency, McCann Erickson’s Birmingham , Mich. office, were created. The commercials, focused on product attributes, are: “Precision Millimeter” (craftsmanship) – From its gracefully sculpted exterior design to its smooth yet responsive ride, Lucerne reinforces Buick’s reputation for attention to detail inside and out. In this execution, a camera slowly pulls out from inside a tight panel gap to reveal the Lucerne . The voiceover says, “Someone understands the difference even a single millimeter can make in the way a car looks, drives and feels… And we just wanted you to know… You’re not alone. ” The voiceover relates the fanatical approach of the Lucerne ’s engineers to the high level of quality today’s demanding new car buyers also seek. “Snowflake” (heated wiper fluid) – A delicate snowflake meets its demise in this spot featuring the Lucerne ’s heated windshield washer fluid dispenser. The wiper fluid is heated to 149 degrees and eliminates the inconvenience of scraping ice and grime from windshields, a problem that has afflicted drivers since the invention of wiper blades 75 years ago. “Mr. Aachen Head” (QuietTuning) – An “Aachen HEAD” (pronounced Ah-Kin) is a digital recording tool that hears sounds inside and outside of a moving vehicle. Buick Lucerne engineers regularly use the Aachen Head, which mimics a human head of an average-sized man, to capture sounds within the Lucerne ’s interior. Lately though, “Mr. Aachen Head” hasn’t been very busy, because Buick’s QuietTuning greatly reduces sound levels inside the vehicle, as “heard” in this spot. “The new spots tell the inside story about the engineering of the Lucerne in all its obsessive, brilliant glory,” said Marianne Fey, executive vice president and group managing director of McCann Erickson’s Birmingham, Mich. office. “We wanted to highlight compelling product attributes that show this discerning target what separates a true quality vehicle from the rest of the pack.” New Buick commercials will be seen on a variety of news and lifestyle programming. A series of print ads will launch on Nov. 22 in USA TODAY and Nov. 23 in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal; and will run throughout the year in a variety of magazines and newspapers. Interactive inserts, coined “Buzz Prints,” that feature product attributes of the Lucerne will begin running in publications in February. Additional campaign components include online advertising and promotional placements on some of primetime’s hottest shows.

Good talk with LaNeve. http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosinsider/0.../C01-386225.htm

It looks like Chrysler wants something even bigger than the huge test track that they had at last year’s show and GM has “agreed” to split up their brands at the now 1.2-million square-foot Chicago Auto Show next year. Cadillac, HUMMER and Saab will be moving into the North Hall, along with the luxury imports. We can look at this two ways: it sucks that GM, which has been on a bender to remind everyone what brands are GMs, has to split up their luxury marques BUT having them nestled in with the import luxury brands could be a boon for Sabb and Cadillac. http://wardsauto.com/ar/auto_chicago_auto_show_6/index.htm

Bone Yard 80s Fungus Lucy Ethel Squizz Comedy 150 Air America

The incentive war is on. Chrysler's Miles of Freedom incentive ups the ante. The program offers: A debit card for $2,400 -- the amount of money Chrysler calculates is needed to buy 12,000 miles worth of gasoline for two years at the Chrysler group's corporate average fuel economy rate of 21.8 mpg. The plan is based on a $2.15 per gallon price of gasoline. Free scheduled maintenance for as many as 24,000 miles. A five-year, 60,000-mile full mechanical warranty, compared with the standard three-year, 36,000-mile warranty. Excluded from the program are the 2005 and 2006 Chrysler 300; Dodge Viper, Magnum, Charger and Sprinter; and all SRT8 vehicles. Customers can choose existing Chrysler rebates instead of the program. Those rebates range from $1,000 to $7,000 cash back on 2005 and 2006 models. Reuters - http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/051117/autos_chrys...tives.html?.v=2 AutoNews (sub only) - http://www.autonews.com/news.cms?newsId=13848

This one... And BV, if you have never watched the original Japanese version of Intial D, you should find it. Don't waste your time with the dubbed American versions. You need to get the originals. You have to love cartoons that contains racing lesbians in their 240

MGOBlue2, It was heading towards Jurnee Mill Road (on main street in Sayreville) so if it was heading to a local yard, it going in the right direction. BTW, I lived in Old Bridge for about 4 years and now in Spotswood. Grew up in Sayreville.

I wish I had a pic for this one. I know where the car was probably going, so if they park it close to the fence I can get one this weekend. My father saw a totaled black Solstice on a flatbed this morning going through Sayreville, NJ (anyone reading this who might know of a Solstice driver that totaled one in NJ let us know). Nose blown off, top down and it's raining today. There's a salvage yard next to the Starland Ballroom (those that know the area in NJ, it used to be Hunka Bunka) that only sells whole cars and I bet that's where the car went. I'll take a drive by and see... Otherwise just an FYI that one Solstice (maybe a first 1000) is now off the list.

That airbag light is exactly the same one in my G6, but on the G6is placed much lower on the center stack. So this is now using stock parts so my guess is it is getting darm close. Yeah, the center of the steering wheel looks like it no longer lights up.