avant1963

My wife's G6 has the 3500 - no issues with the motor (25,000 miles). It has enough power and has pulled around 34 mpg on a trip from NJ to Washington DC and back (all on 1 tank of gas), so I was VERY impressed with the gas mileage. No problem with the trans. I have a 2006 MAXX SS and I really like the car. The style and utility of the hatch, along with the sliding rear seat give the car a lot of rear leg room. It's a good solid cruiser. If you're looking to buy a used one, make sure that the two sun-shades for the rear sun roof work. This is a problem with the MAXX, as they sometimes don't retract. I've had one replaced under warranty.

My local Chevy dealer is getting a black HHR SS in next week. He's calling me so i can take it for a test drive. I'll let you know the outcome. He said the factory is not making 5 speeds yet, so this is an auto. If I bought one, it would have to be a stick.

How's "The Truth About Cars" GM Deathwatch series going? There's plenty of journalism over there huh?

I really can't see anyone thinking the Lexus-chunk styling of this thing is nice. It's breathtakingly bad. And if course it would be highlighted in a jackass of a movie like Sex in the City. http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/16/spy-sho...exy-in-the-city Awful.

I'm curious... and there is no answer I am looking for, just want to know passionate opinions: If GM introduced a Camaro RS/SS - It would be as fast as a projected SS. Would have no weight gain - actually have a near favorable 50-50 distribution, handle just as well, and come with all the bells and whistles on any other Camaro, except for one thing... A big honking V-8. This Camaro would have a souped up version of the Volt drivetrain - run completely on electric except for a little diesel (yes I stole that from the Opel version) that would kick in to charge the batteries. As I said this "imaginary" Camaro would have the same speed as a top of the line V8 powered car. Would anyone bite? All the speed and power without the mpg overhead. Can we motorheads accept something so strange? Can we accept giving up the rumble of the V8? Can we exchange that for gas $, pollution, less oil changes, etc. I don't know how I would even answer that, but I feel that a change is coming - and I certainly don't want it legislated, let the market run its course - and curious how we would react to a musclecar without the usual ingredient.

Water pump? My friend just replaced his and the sound it was making was like what you were describing - and there was no visible anti-freeze leaks.

It's not dead... The owner's father told the mechanic to patch it the best he could. The mechanic put "stuff" (not sure what it's called) around the head/block to try to stop antifreeze from leaking. It sat for a while to cure and now it is back on the road again. I'm sure it won't last, especially with the way they drive it.

It looks like it is going to suffer from Oldsmobile-itis as far as badging is concerned. No H's anywhere. You're not supposed to know it is a Hyundai.

Yuck. There is not one ounce of creativity in Korean design. I like the Chrysler logo too. http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/05/hyundai...ially-revealed/

Dodge Magnum SRT8 Grand Cherokee SRT8 Dodge Charger SRT8

Don't forget also, if you are not prepared to pay over sticker for the Camaro, you probably won't be able to buy one for the 1st year if the Mustang was any gage. I'll never pay over sticker for a car, especially one that will be built at 100,000 units a year, so I won't see a Camaro until at least 2010. And I might as well wait for the convertible, what I really want, so 2011. Some more stuff to chew on.

91z, I think you misunderstood z28's post. I did not sell it to anyone on the forums. I sold it to a local person who in 18 months had it impounded for selling pot out of it, where it sat for months before he was somehow able to buy it back, managed to get every body panel hit, smashed and ripped, and then drove the car so hard, that the head gaskets blew and now I believe that it is now completely dead and is sitting at the garage that my dad works at. The car, in the shape it is now, is not worth buying back. It would be cheaper just to buy another that was treated well I mine was before I sold it. Still makes me sick when I think about it.

After 18 months, every body panel has been hit, and it seems that the car was driven with no antifreeze, so I believe that it is now dead. The car survived with me for 10 years and looked like brand new, and now, she's dead. I should have kept her, but... Let us remember her in health and happiness: RIP

You should have gotten Gary Coleman's Saturn Sky - a bargain at $25,000 http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Saturn-Sky-...sspagenameZWDVW Happy B-day Brian.

T minus 12 months and counting until a loaded red G8 is in the driveway.

The overall design does nothing for me. Just another interior. The wood is awful, but I don't like wood inside a car at all. Carbon fiber or aluminum is much better. The wood on the steering wheel is awful too. This interior was not designed for me. For a Luxury car interior look to the new CTS or SRX for my tastes. There is more than "point of origin" for my hatred of Toyota.

It's those $h!-ass Toyota engines that don't allow me to accept the Vibe in the family. Replace them with ECOtecs and we'll talk. At least there is an option for a 2.4 with a little more umph than the 1.8 with a turbo that you had to rev up to hell and back to get any throttle response whatsoever. Still, under 160 hp for the GT is blah.

If you read the comments, someone from GM actually responded to this blog: Chris Preuss said... Speaking for GM, allow me to explain. The Volt shown here is a DESIGN concept vechile - as in, it's not a running vehicle. We never said it was a running vehicle and we would never display a running vehicle this early for the obvious competitive reasons. This is the exact same way we announced the Sequel and the Hy-Wire, and both of those were availed to the media in their "running" componentry about a year after the first showing. Sorry to throw cold water on the "scoop" here. We remain transparent and open to discussion. Please email me at [email protected] if you would like to discuss. We are dead serious about this program as a production vehicle. While I can understand the skeptics, those of you in that camp are simply are speaking without appropriate information. Chris Preuss Executive Director Product Communications chris preuss said... (Are you going to develop new battery technology in house or partner with a battery vendor? Or are you going to try and utilize existing technology to squeeze out performance, similar to Tesla) Okay, now I will be practicing without a license, but I'll do my best to answer this one. We have issued two development contracts with battery parterns (A123/Cobysys and JCI/SAFT) and have two more in the works. So, we will likely have a partner. As most know here there are several key challenges to tackle, the biggest being cost and thermal management. With the range extending generator, we won't need as big battery pack as what Tesla used on the TR, but the nature of the beast is that you must string many small cells together. We're essentially having a bake-off on what cell chemistry and arrangements work best. The next big question will be how to ramp up the production. This is one area that we know we can be a significant player in helping put all the pieces together for the company that gets the right cell. We've got several very promising "working" cells that are past preliminary bench testing and we're still very encouraged by what we see. Still, there's a lot of risk. But honestly, given where the company has been over the last two years, there's nothing to lose! We're actually doing a media program on how we are approaching the battery issue on Monday...I'll see if there's a way for our guys to post some of the materials or presentations. (As far as "not a running vehicle" remark is concerned, I have seen this car move on Bob Lutz's presentation and the atmosphere the presentation have successfully created did not even hint at the vehicle being so far off. I was honestly led to believe that this is something really close and maybe even roadworthy. Guess, not.) We are not that far off from the vehicle. We revealed the new Camaro at the Detroit show in 2006 and made a production announcement about six months later. It will come out in 2009. You can use that same math to get a fix on how we plan to do the Volt. The vehicle drive components are very far along...they're rooted in the EV-1 and have been developed over three generations of fuel cell vehicles. The ONLY issue in giving a firm production date is we don't have a firm timeline on the battery for the reasons stated above. But we will have those questions answered soon enough and will confirm production dates once we do. We will NOT drag this out and walk at the last minute by blaming the battery, as some are predicting. Internally, the development program is like the Manhattan project and we've bet arguably all our credibility on this one. We've got work going on 24/7 on three continents with several hundred engineers and scientists. The interesting thing on the Volt is what it's doing internally at GM -- it's become a real rallying point for a pretty embattled group. I can't say haven't earned much of the grief that many are and have heaped on us...I can only tell you that if there is a way to get this done...we're going to do it.

From the Edmunds test drive: http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drive...rticleId=123125

Lexus owners are tools just like their poser cars.

You got some brain surgeons there buying your trucks, don't you Toyota. You better stop offering hood scoops and ground effects because the elderly are easily confused. Stick to vanilla.

F Preston and Steve. O&A! O&A! O&A!

I agree with TYD, the 360 is the only system with some really good next-gen games, Gears of War and BioShock are worth the price of admission alone. I tend to buy every system (I even have a Dreamcast - and loved it), and I would have bought the Wii if it was available in the beginning of the year, but the 360 has made me a graphics whore, and the Wii is sorely lacking in that department. I will miss not having Samus to kick around, though. Maybe when it drops to 199 or 150 I'll pick one up. I probably won't touch the PS3 until someone makes a decision about the next-gen DVD format. If it is Blue-Ray, then the PS3 is a steal since the Blue-Ray player is standard and is worth it for that alone. But there really has been nothing on the PS3 that has made me want to buy one, and I have never been a Metal Gear Solid fan, so I see nothing in the future that is going to sway me. And yes, the Red Ring of Death has been plaguing some systems, but Microsoft has extended the warranty and the one person I know that had the problem got it replaced quickly and without hassle.

I think Chip and Dale are more into SAABs. They wear comfortable shoes.

There's a guy down the street from me who has a garage that deals strictly with G35/350zs. This car looks like one of his 350zs with a whole bunch of cheap-ass, poorly designed spoilers, wings and bad front and rear bumpers. To those that see something nice here, I am definitely looking at a different car. The only thing I can figure is that you are blinded by the history of the GT-R and the performance. This thing is not going to win any design awards. Yuck.