thegriffon

These engines are primarily for developing markets such as India and China. Europe gets an unrelated new Fiat 1.8 DI Turbo, and the 1.4 Turbos.

Not everyone gets Delta II the same year. You can expect the Delta II Buick to be delayed at least 6 months behind the Cobalt, so probably 2010 CY, not MY as it's considered in the US.

It's 370Z

I didn't mean successive years either, but a "series" like your star chief example. The Toyota example was only ti show that other manufacturers do the same thing (not so often as Toyota perhaps). Partly it's consumer driven—how many people call a Firebird a Trans Am, or even know that it's really a Firebird and that TransAm was just a sub-type.

The 2.4 is not being turboed. It is the 2.0 L. and JDM-spec versions of the STi get 300+ hp from a 2.0 L turbo as well. The 2.5 Turbo was initially for US customers demanding a larger (not more powerful) engine, although the rally versions use the 2.5 L now as well.

Neither, but there isn't a one-one correlation between models and model names, or between a model series (different models in a related series of vehicles) and a model name. Sometimes one model series will get to two separate model names (Century and Regal), sometimes some models in a series will get an additional name to distinguish them (Electra Park Avenue, Lucerne Super), sometimes a model name will be shared by different model series (as Oldsmobile did with Cutlass), with or without a secondary name (such as Regal) to distinguish them. BTW Toyota does the same thing. The Celica XX becoming the Celica Supra and finally the Supra. The Corona MK II becoming the Mark II and now the Mark X, the Corona Premio becoming the Premio, the Camry Vista becoming the Vista etc.

This March was quite a short month in selling days, on a daily sales basis sales were up more than 7%.

You know these sites (C&D did it as well) realy ought to run their April fool's gags on April fools, and not in March

The Metal Worker's Union had the cement shoes ready just in case.

That's the new M200 Matiz, not the 1998 M100 model currently built in China.

In June 2007 the 2.4 in the G6 was decreased to 164 hp, carried over to the new Malibu and the introduction in the Aura. In late August the output for the Aura was increased to 169 hp again, and the Malibu followed in Sept. The G6 is still listed as 164 hp.

The increase dates back to Sept 2007. It was 164 hp earlier in the model year.

Despite being down-rated in 2007, the 2.4 L was still more powerful than both the Impreza and VW 2.5 L engines. BTW VW USA still hasn't figured out that PS are not the same as hp—the 2.5 L I5 produces only 168 hp, not 170.

Power was reduced for the 2.4 L across the board in 2007. For the Epsilon sedans that meant down to 164 hp, at which the 4-speed autos are still rated. The reason given was a change in cat for reduced emissions, which increased back pressure and reduced power.

The pickup, if this is it, is a project of VW Nutzfahrzeug (which translates as Commercial Vehicles, although it's closer in sense to utility vehicles), which builds the Caddy and VW Transport vans etc., so it's intended as a working truck, not an alternative passenger vehicle.

Oh, power is back up to 169 hp for the 2.4 L engine, at least with the 6-speed auto standard in the Aura and optional in the Malibu (LTZ) and G6 (sport pack)

Are there enough people in Montana to support a car dealership?

Unlike any other Chinese compact for the next 10 years, the 550 should be the equal to any Japanese or Korean rival, if not as good as the European Focus, C4, 308 or Bravo. It's major limitation will be engine variety as, unlike Chery, SAIC is being careful with its money.

Uhh..., stagnant growth, still two generations behind in crash worthiness (Kalos, Rio, Accent), still using old engines borrowed from Mitsubishi etc.?

Mahindra is completely unrelated to TATA, so, he'll be waiting a long time. Signing up dealers is what these companies are good at—delivering vehicles, yeah right.

The MPV that will be built in the US, not necessarily sold there.

Do many new Chinese models look well-engineered? Well so they should, since the development was done by the same European firms which subcontract for part or all of some western development programs. Chinese firms may have less money to spend, which shows in the results, but what can you do when you have no idea how to do it yourself? Of course Daewoo was also dependent on European engineering and design firms after GM pulled out (to a lesser extent than most Chinese companies though and at least had existing GM platforms to work from), but then you know what happened to them.

Labor is an increasingly minor component of product cost. Chinese enterprises are notoriously inefficient (in general), logistics are poor, low quality leads to high levels of wastage etc. etc. The Brilliance BS6, despite it's shortcomings and noticeably lower quality materials, actually landed in Germany at a price higher than the Korean-manufactured Chevrolet Epica and Kia Optima. Must be all the money they paid Porsche and other European engineering firms to design the thing (almost no cheap Chinese engineers involved, and that's typical). Chinese pickups may appear cheap, but they are 20+ year old designs with 20+ year-old engines. You're lucky if they have fuel injection. Now, given how cheap the Ranger is now, how cheap do you think it would be if was more than 20 years old? Yopu can save a lot of money if you don't spend anything on product development. BTW these companies don't actually build trucks, they assemble them from kits—an of-the-shelf chassis, is mated to an off-the-shelf body, with an of-the-shelf engine and powertrain (all from other companies supplying all the small local truck makers). "Product development" consists of slapping on a new grille design and a new badge. This makes them cheap, but then production capacities are low (typically 30,000 p.a. each, often about half or less of which is used), and the possibility of re-engineering the chassis and body to western safety standards is oh, close to zero. How many stars do you think a Chevy LUV would get in NCAP testing? Well, that's the era of truck being built in China right now. An S10 would be bleeding edge (actually a D22 Frontier with the engine from an '89 Quest is state-of-the-art for Chinese pickups, and Dongfeng Nissan keeps that to itself). This isn't like Russia either, where Lada can pay Porsche to engineer a new sedan and build 200K per year for more than 10 years. Chinese companies are spending big on western engineering firms with western development costs, but most will be lucky to sell 30,000 a year, even medium-sized firms like Geely will still lose market share. China is cut throat. There are a lot of players, and almost all the companies with money to burn are busy building more and more foreign cars in joint ventures. Even Chery, which is a relatively big player (400,000+ pa from models in almost every segment except pickups ad SUVs) is struggling to amortize the vast amount of money spent on vehicle and powertrain development,and they know they are 5-10 years away from being ready for current western market regulations (Euro4 is within reach but EPA tier II remains a dream), and of course by then the goalposts will have moved on considerably (Euro5 and Euro6 emissions). They need to sell engines in vast quantities to other companies, but aside from an unfulfilled deal with Fiat (which may never eventuate with Fiat accelerating its own programs) have been unsuccessful, and are turning to joint ventures to help pay the bills. It could all go pear-shaped very easily.

Just find some yellow snow.

I wouldn't hold your breath. The company bringing them in isn't exactly a well-established vehicle distributor. Their "established network" is the one they organized to sell Chinese vehicles which didn't materialize.