siegen

The new TSX gets better mileage than the old one, I'm sure that helps. The 2.2L clean-diesel TSX is right around the corner too, which should be a great vehicle. The European-market 2007 diesel Accord returned 34/44/53 (city,combined,hwy) real-world US MPG in Manhattan driving in this article. That's as good as the Civic hybrid. The new TSX weighs 150 lbs more or so, which will impact the mileage slightly, but it should be able to give similar figures.

Yes, the Civic was the #1 selling vehicle for May. The Civic, Camry, Corolla, and Accord all beat out the F150 last month. The Lancer is more "rally inspired" and racy than the Civic, but as we all know Vanilla sells. The Lancer also gets pretty poor mileage for a compact.

The new TSX is off to a good start. And holy $h!! 53,299 Civics. Accord and Fit waay up. Last I heard there were next to zero incentives on the Accord also, almost no fleets. I bet even Toyota is wishing they had Honda's car lineup right now. (although Toy sold quite a few Camry/Corolla this month) Light trucks mostly down, which isn't a surprise. I am surprised the CR-V is still selling so well, after a couple years.

I grew up around Fords and liked them probably because my Dad loved Ford trucks and we owned several Escorts that were good little cars. I disliked imported cars, especially Civics. Not sure when exactly my opinion changed, but the 5th gen Civic body style grew on me (92-95), and after owning one I never looked back. Honda of course appeals to me because of its engineering and racing heritage, and simply because they do things a little different than others.

Pontiac is REBADGE

I don't know about you guys, but Global Warming sure keeps me awake at night!

The car would weigh less than that. I figure it if came to the US it would weigh around 2,600 lbs, perhaps 2,550 in base trim. This is essentially a slightly longer Fit with another row of seats. In Japan it might weigh less if it is less feature-laden or with less safety equipment. 8 average Japanese people would likely add around 1,000 lbs, if you figure 50% male/female. So around 3,500 lbs loaded with people. It is a bit on the heavy side, but with proper gearing (also remember it has electric P/S and A/C pumps) it is sufficient for their streets. Now if it came to US shores, it probably wouldn't be configured as an 8 seater. It may be a 7 seater with the back row reserved for children. Figure 900 lbs or less for occupants. Would a 120~hp 1.5L be sufficient to power a 3400-3500 lbs car? I don't think so. Now if they swapped the 1.8L Civic or 2.0L Stream R-series engine into it, that would work quite well I think.

I think the most badass wheelchair wouldn't have wheels at all, but mech legs.

This car is too expensive for a Nissan. If I'm going to spend $31-38k on a FWD Sports sedan, I'm going to buy a TL. Hell, a TL Type S with 6-speed manual or 5-speed auto (Nav standard) is only a few bucks more than the loaded Maxima, and it doesn't take a genius to guess at which vehicle comes with better service or standard equipment. Not to mention it doesn't look like an overgrown Yaris with a few mutated genes. What? Why not give them "extra points" if they use an electric P/S pump and do it right? Don't give them "extra points" for using old tech that has been around forever because they don't want to deal with making the new tech work well. I guess the editor was too caught up in the new Maxima to realize this dumb comment.

This is a leftover article from April 1st, right?

Honda is planning on selling 500,000 hybrids per year globally from the 4 different hybrid models. Toyota has sold approximately 1.25 million hybrids since the original Prius in 1997. So at Toyota's current rate Honda will eclipse them very quickly. However, Toyota is planning on increasing hybrid sales to 1 million per year by the early 10's. I don't think Toyota can significantly increase hybrid sales unless they come out with a very affordable option soon, like Honda is doing with the ~$19,000 hybrid. Is the next Prius going to be less expensive than the current? Is Toyota going to come out with a cheaper model?

I am most excited about the CR-Z, especially if they offer it with a 6-speed manual transmission.

It's about time the global warming fad ends. We have more to worry about from the next ice age than we do global warming. If you think 3°C hotter than normal is bad, try 8°C below normal. The scary part is that, the next one is right around the corner! Oh no! I wonder how the media will deal with the impending ice age?

Wow, that person paid $7,300 for an older Metro. I would rather walk the 100 miles... or sleep in the office. Seriously, sleeping in the office and coming home on the weekends seems far more livable. A 92-95 Civic VX with similar mileage would be livable. With manual transmission, they aren't that slow. A manual-transmission Insight will get 60-70mpg easily. Probably really hard to find though. I don't mind other people owning Geo Metro's. I prefer it over trucks and SUV's.

Toyota is likely sticking with nickel-metal hydride batteries because of cost. They want to produce a cheap competitive Prius hybrid, not a limited production non-economically-priced hybrid, which is what GM is doing with the Volt, at least initially. When the li-ion batteries become more economically feasible, you can bet Toyota will switch over. GM doesn't necessarily have to compete with anyone when it brings the Volt out, as it is more of an image builder than anything. Toyota, on the other hand, has to compete with Honda, who is releasing a sub-20k new dedicated "Prius-killer" hybrid next year, and you bet they are going to market the hell out of it. This is not something that is usually advertised. Before we know it, GM will be advertising new vending machine purchases at their factories and touting how much they increase worker happiness.

Or midgets with attitudes.

The problem is that you are looking for Toyota's.

Your guys' general dislike of Toyota is more than likely the cause, and it has nothing to do with the type of people that buy Toyota's versus other makes. You see a Toyota tailgating you, and it registers more negatively than another make tailgating you. The reality is, there is no difference between makes or models, as far as plain-jane family sedans or SUV's go. Now sports cars and other more niche vehicles are a different story. I am equally as guilty as you however, and I often find myself spouting derogatory statements or generally thinking more negatively towards Toyota drivers, because of my dislike for the brand. "F'in slow-ass Toyota, only going 5 over the limit, wtf", while if it was another make I would say something like "Damn slow-ass" leaving the brand-name out of the insult.

I do agree with what the article says about flex-fuel. As far as Ethanol doing more good than harm, I think that is very hypothetical. We have seen the harm, but we can only guess at the alternative. Things may have been much worse without ethanol, or they may have been better. Either way, we should not be using a source of food as fuel; getting alternative sources of ethanol online and working, in mass quantities, is the only way to create any sort of competition with oil.

What are these advances exactly? Corn ethanol? :AH-HA_wink:

There's nothing unrealistic about what we pay for gas. Our price fluctuates just like all other commodities do based on supply and demand. You are right to assume that most Americans have never had to pay gas prices that most Europeans pay. You are wrong to assume that our prices are unrealistic while yours are realistic. Our gas is not taxed unlike many nations, and there are plenty of nations that pay considerably less than we do. Perhaps you need to think on this sentence for a minute.

You mean "Cadillac Yuque", to give it that French feel. Of course the XLR has always looked like a Corvette with Cadillac body panels hastily slapped onto it. It's going to take a complete FMC to fix that.

Can you ask your Focus to find the nearest 5-star restaurant and will it tell you how to get there? If you ask your Focus to please not play michael bolton, will it still play it because the word "not" is not programmed into the system? Cause that would be annoying.

CarA has 2.2L, is faster, gets better fuel economy CarB has 1.8L, is slower, gets worse fuel economy. But handles better!!! :AH-HA_wink:

It doesn't matter what the perspective of other countries are, as the car is competing in this market. It wouldn't matter if this market was the world's smallest, to sell successfully here the product should be tailored to this market. We don't want to deal with slow cars, and offering more smaller engine choices here would not be a good opportunity cost decision --at this point in time--, as the "cost" would be considerably increased overhead and the need for more tooling at the factories or more imported engines and cars; while the "opportunity" would be only a marginal increase in sales in a segment where the domestic manufacturers are already running slim profit margins as it is. But now we are waaaay off-topic. So to restate my point, 138hp is good and average from a n/a 1.8L compact vehicle in this market; however, in the Saturn Astra, which weighs around 2,860 lbs and has a 4-speed auto, it is too weak and results in a slow vehicle that returns poor mileage. Weight and gearing may not be the only factors, however on paper it is all we can assume at this point. From a packaging standpoint, I do not feel that this Astra is a good buy. It is on the expensive side of compacts, yet offers acceleration and fuel economy that are both at the very bottom of the pack. That isn't to say plenty of people will not buy it, but it will not likely become a sales success.