siegen

Escorts and Cavaliers of the 90's both deserve their bad raps, IMHO. But everyone will have a difference experience with the vehicles. I can tell you that the 1.9L Escort engines are a huge pain in the you know what to work on. It's almost as if the engineers designed it to be difficult on purpose. Even easy tasks such as replacing spark plugs are needlessly difficult. Working on a '99 Integra and '97 Escort is a night and day difference, literally.

i really just skimmed over it. That link is an interesting one. IBM had 3,149 patents for 2007. Wow. Honda had the most patents for 2007 among the big automakers, however the pipeline score for GM was the highest. Given how much smaller Honda is than GM, it is interesting that they filed so many more patents. The Pipeline Impact score is neat, I wish I could see the numbers beneath it, as it indicates how many other company's patents cited their patents.

The article is a bit vague. Saying GM has the most patents means nothing. GM has been around a lot longer than most other automakers, but that doesn't mean all the patents they've filed in the last 100 years are still relevant today. We need examples. Why not list every piece of green unique technology GM is producing currently around the world? Is GM the number one producer of green bus and train power plants? If so, that's the kind of information that has weight to it.

I just hope they mean it and it isn't just fluff. If they make it through this they need to kick it into high gear. Not only do their products need to be great through the entire lineup, but the whole company needs restructuring. Flexible production facilities, consolidated model lineup, removed legacy costs where possible, more accountability at the top level, new business mission and goals, a change in management style, empower the employees more, and give the engineers and designers more room to work.

Toyota is the "image" of a perfect business model, or facade I should say. I think the news outlets and mags just gloss over the fact that Toyota relies heavily on fleet sales and incentives, and it has gotten worse and worse over the last 5-10 years. Toyota has pumped large quantities of their profits into marketing, and have grown and overexpanded too fast. At first news outlets attributed the recalls, cost overruns, and other problems to "growing pains", but now it should be clear as day to even the glossy eyed people. Toyota is off 13.7% year-to-date, while Honda and Nissan are off 5.8% and 9.5% respectively. Toyota is closing the gap with Ford even (down 19.7%), and it appears to just be falling apart more and more every month for Toyota. 0% financing didn't even so much as slow down the fall. Honda has always had a better run business, among the japanese. Slow and steady wins the race. Toyota got greedy and it's going to cost them, I hope. I want to see GM and Ford pull things together, overhaul their businesses, and reclaim some of the lost ground against Toyota. I just hope they can manage it in time.

Full article @ autoracingsport.com Racing series everywhere are taking big hits. Can't say I really care too much about NASCAR though.

Full article @ Seattle Times ALMS CEO Comments @ americanlemans.com It will be sad to lose one of the racing series best competitors. Just as Acura is planning to join LMP1 too.

Article @ formula1.com It truly is sad, given 2009 was set up to be a return to success with new leadership and a new engine. Unfortunately it will never materialize. And given the last 2 seasons, it would have almost been better had Honda pulled out after 2006, which was a fairly good season. The way F1 was going, towards more regulation, budget caps, and even possibly standard engines across the field, had most of the manufacturers pretty pissed off at F1. It was no surprise to see manufacturer teams pulling out, I'm just surprised Honda was the first, and how abrupt it was.

Hmm, the 0% didn't seem to help them much.

Doc: "No wonder this circuit failed. It says 'Made in Japan'." Marty: "What do you mean, Doc? All the best stuff's made in Japan." Doc: "Unbelievable."

Mildly funny.

The throttle could have been stuck. I wouldn't rule that out. I was half expecting the Camry to drive up and over the police cruiser. I guess this is why it's important to have a standard size and height bumper. Imagine if you took the cruiser and rammed into the back of the Camry at speed. Would it flip the Camry up and over like in video games??

http://blogs.edmunds.com/straightline/2008...ch-control.html

It's like a teenager riced out his xB.

Smile!

That first pic gave me a last-gen TSX vibe, from the sides. I like it, except for the grill and the tail lights. The grille is really overdone, and the tail lights look insubstantial. I have a feeling the grille will grow on me though.

The Scion tC is kind of nice and a little sporty. But it is pretty bland looking at the same time. The interior is a typical Toyota poor design. The Lexus IS is also kind of nice and sporty, but also suffers from a poor interior, and the exterior hasn't aged well. Toyota is just such a boring company, I think I'm ready for a nap now after talking about them... ZZzzzzz.....

It's difficult to compare the Prius and Corolla, because the Prius is a larger and "higher end" car than the Corolla, so you're getting more than just better mileage (supposedly). Try comparing the Civic and Civic hybrid, Camry and Camry hybrid, and Escape and Escape hybrid, and see what you get. Edmunds, I think, compared the Prius to the Fit, and then later the Civic Hybrid to the Fit. In both instances the Fit's versatility and price won over the hybrids, in their opinion. I still think hybrids have a ways to go to make more economic sense, but they're close. I think the new Insight, which is said to only have a $2,000 price premium for the hybrid components of it, will make more economic sense than current hybrids.

Yeah I noticed that too. Tisk tisk mr. web designer.

That's something that a lot of people tend to get confused. Our national debt is a running debt from every year's budget deficit. The last time our debt was paid off or very close to be paid off was 1835, lol. Here's an interesting article from 1999 that's definitely worth a read. Back then we had yearly budget surpluses and the democrats had the idea that we could pay off our national debt if we kept a yearly budget surplus for the next 10 years and used it to pay down the debt. Congress even made this nifty projection: Hmmm.... somewhere along the lines things didn't go as planned.

The dealerships are privately owned and can do whatever they want really.

If you guys elect me admin, I will bring to office my record of being a maverick on the topics. Going against the grain of the forum by starting such topics as "Toyota world's most respected company!" and "Honda sneaks up on Big Three". I will reach across the PC-lines and be an equal opportunity offender.

My Integra has the soft-touch plastic in the same areas as well (not sure exactly what it is, feels like a mix between leather and plastic). The only hard plastic is the lower dash, center console and center stack. Maybe a couple other areas too I can't think of. Sitting in the new TSX and I do notice that there is more hard plastic. It is likely an industry wide cost cutting measure, if everyone is doing it. Damn that's right, I meant to go test drive the '09 TL today. Whoops. SH-AWD model just came out and my local dealer also has a used Integra Type R on the lot.

Damn that Tiberon is ugly. It might be a little cheaper and offer more bang for the buck, but who really wants to be seen in that? It defeats the whole purpose of buying a coupe. The Genesis sedan is ok though.