The Current State of the US Auto Market

ateixeira

It's a jacked up 2+2 hatchback.

hpmctorque

If the Juke were a GM car I think its styling would be ridiculed in a similar manner as the Aztek's was.

dieselone

The difference is I doubt Nissan expects the juke to sell in big numbers. I think GM thought the Aztec was going to sell like 100k/yr.

ateixeira

I ridicule the Juke every chance I get. Boy is that thing ugly!

Jeep just had to go and steal its thunder, though.

The Aztek reigned as King of Ugly for a long time, so Nissan got lucky that Jeep rescued them.

tlong

If the Juke were a GM car I think its styling would be ridiculed in a similar manner as the Aztek's was.

No, you would need to add 250 pounds of plastic cladding to the Juke to make them comparable. :shades:

ateixeira

I told you a million times, don't exaggerate!

uplanderguy

To my eyes--and I'm not saying this to be funny/mean--the Juke, to my eyes, looks like a physically deformed animal. I can say a lot of negative about the Aztek, but I reserve the 'physically deformed animal' comment for the Juke.

ateixeira

Didn't Lutz call the Aztek an "angry kitchen appliance"?

Split headlights don't work. When you see a car head on, that's the face, so we expect to see a pair of eyeballs.

When you have lights up high, middle, and low, it really throws you off. Makes the front look busy.

Let me see if this will embed...



URL if you can't see it:

http://i12.ebayimg.com/01/i/001/10/bb/729c_35.JPG

fintail

New Acura flagship?

ateixeira

I guess that's the new term for ugly:

http://wardsauto.com/auto-makers/very-contemporary-cherokee-design-part-jeep-s-e- volution

fintail

I can see a link going back to the 1993 model anyway.

Lots of iffy design work on the roads today, so I guess it is "contemporary".

anythngbutgm

Agree, Spot on!





Thing about the Juke is at least it's somewhat cohesive. The Azwreck was just a big ol mishmash of designs and it just looked tacked together IMO

:sick:

anythngbutgm

IMO, this thing wasn't much better from some angles...



Those taillights are probably taller than the rooflines of some sedans back then. "Baby got Back"... :shades:

michaellno

You say "ugly"; I say "unique".

In a world of bland, wind tunnel driven designs, the Juke stands out. You certainly won't lose it in a parking lot, unlike some MB owners who need an app on their smart phone to find their car.

The wife really likes them; she's not a fan of the sedan style and likes to have either a wagon or hatch - she currently drives a Mazda CX-7.

I've test driven one (FWD with stick shift). Pretty quick and nimble.

greg128

I have noticed in the past some evidence of negative bias in Edmunds reviews of some GM cars, notably how Pontiac Solstice had a "reputation for poor reliability" which was not born out by their own reliability ratings of the same model.

I also just noticed the Buick Verano review had "mediocre base engine" under "cons". In the review the base engine had a 0-60 time of 9 seconds which they said was "slow for this class"

However their review of the Acura ILX had the same 0-60 time of 9 seconds which it said was "average" and had no mention of the lack of power in the "cons" section.

Incidentally, the optional engine in the Verano does 0-60 in 6.6. secs vs. 7.1 secs. for the optional Acura engine.

How about a little objectivity, Edmunds.

stever

I rather like the Juke too.

Chrysler announces 1,250 jobs, $374-million investment for Indiana plants (Detroit Free Press)

hoosiergrandad

Me too on the Juke. But what do I know? I'm on my second Crosstour......at least it shares in the powertrain revisions of the new Accords. We all have things we like the looks of that others can't stand, even if we're 500 grand-a-year automotive designers.

anythngbutgm

maybe they were referring to mileage when they claimed it as mediocre?

The Base ILX with it's 2.0 litre engine is rated at 24/35 while the small Buick is rated at a marginal 21/32. btw, a 2013 Honda Accord with a V6 is rated at 21/34...

Also, while I have never driven an ILX, I have driven the 2.0 litre in other Honda applications and in typical fashion it loves to rev and sounds great doing so. I've had numerous Rentibus with the 2.4 and while it's gutsy off the line, it gets raspy at higher RPM's. Not a fun engine to wind out at all...

The Buick's 6-speed is commendable tho, and I hope the ILX matches it in the future , although I forsee the CVT making an appearance instead.

ateixeira

Edmunds' list of Cons for the ILX is pretty long:

Cons

Options quickly make the ILX's price less appealing; smallish trunk; no automatic transmission or top-end features for sport-oriented 2.4L model.

Maybe they ran out of room.

anythngbutgm

Sure, those are legitimate deficiencies. The ILX was not a good effort by Honda.

But Gregs claims of Questionable "Objectivity" on the part of the Edmunds staff is IMO, exaggerated, if not completely false.

dieselone

Wow, the Fusion essentially matched the Accord in February 27,875 vs. 27,999 (granted the Fusion has much higher fleet sales). Regardless, the Fusion had a great month. Malibu lagging big time. Only 14,817 which is actually a drop from January and a drop of 5k units from last Feb.

ateixeira

http://media.chrysler.com/newsrelease.do;jsessionid=62EB257CB130180474693B1944C8- A74D?&id=13931&mid=2

Best Feb in 5 years!

ateixeira

http://media.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/news.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/201- 3/Mar/gmsales.html

With Caddy up 20%, too.

ateixeira

http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=37718

Fusion and Escape both set Feb records.

dieselone

Escape moved 24,110. Equinox/Terrain had a good month to with about 30k combined 20,649/9,802. The CRV as sold 20,668.

ateixeira

Man, that's a whole lotta Escapes! Wow.

uplanderguy

I swear that someone said here only a few weeks ago, that they were having trouble moving Equinoxes.

dieselone

I bet GM just threw a bunch of money on the hood;)

Looking at the sales, it looks like Equinox sales have been solid, there were a few months that were down, but the last 3 have been pretty good.

stever

GM hood money looks a bit down for February. Still has the highest average "of the majors".

Fuel-Efficient Vehicles Run Short on Incentives in February

ateixeira

Honda stand out, wow. Build it and they will come even with $300 less incentives per car.

Hopefully other conclude cost cutting does not pay.