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Comments
http://www.autoblog.com/2010/01/05/video-articulate-this-chainlink-4x4-is-fright- eningly-awesome/#continued
Yeah, purpose-built for sure, but no more so than other dedicated solid-axle rock crawlers.
Bob
I'm surprised it's not as heavy as a tank. Wonder how strong those chains are, also. Weird to see so much torque delivered so far away like that.
Bob
At least Ford turned around- a few years ago I thought for sure they'd go under!
tom
GM also seems to be making progress but I think it's almost time to start writing the epitaph for the Chrysler tombstone
-Frank
Those are two very nice but different cars. The G8 is the US market derivative of the Holden Commmodore which has been progressively developed over the last 30+ years from an original Opel design. In Australia, it is ubiquitous in various models and very long lived. They tend to be reliable for very high mileages.
In past years, I would have said that the trim level of the Subaru was better, but recently, they seem to have reduced the content a bit. At the same time GM have been making the Commodore and Pontiac G8 considerably more appealing.
Hope that you enjoy them and lets hear your impressions regularly.
Cheers
Graham
Bob
At least Ford turned around- a few years ago I thought for sure they'd go under!
Difference is that Ford mortgaged themselves to the hilt about 3 years ago. They didn't take any government help. Perhaps that is what people like about them right now.
http://jalopnik.com/358115/chainlink-is-rock-crawling-transforming-super-buggy
Bob
http://blogs.consumerreports.org/cars/2010/01/mercedesbenz-gl320-bluetecfeeling-- a-bit-adblue-over-spending-a-lot-of-green.html
$316.99 for seven gallons plus labor (filling the tank). YIKES!
Bob
I'm sure your classic MB dealer would be more than happy to sell you 8 gallons of this stuff for $300+. Thats what we call a MB sucker.
And this is what will come back to bite Ford if the economy and credit markets remain soft. Ford had (borrowed, really) the cash on hand to ride out 2008 and 2009, but they have an incredible amount of debt now. With GM and Chrysler literally starting fresh this past summer, their debt was predefined and relatively low. Everybody thinks Chrysler will tank, but the fact is, financially, they're actually in far better shape than critics want to admit... all they have to do is break even (which they already are) until the Fiat-platform cars start hitting the streets in 2012, and they're golden. In contrast, if you look at revenue and debtload ratios, Ford is in far worse shape than Chrysler, and will need several years of increased sales and corporate profit just to get their debt in line with Chrysler and GM.
kcram - Pickups/Wagons Host
IMHO, they are probably perceived by the public as the most viable company since they never asked for governmnet support and they brought in an outsider to run the company - the latter being an issue with GM and Chrysler, both considered old school companies.
Hopefully that perception will lead to success. Ford sales in December were up versus December 2008 while GM and Chrysler were both down.
Did anyone else watch that live? :shades:
I actually watched it live... How lame is that? lol..
All of the run-up and hype made me think it would be sort of crappy, but it was actually very entertaining...
Of course, the jump was engineered so well, it was like they slid the landing ramp under his wheels... Not even a jolt..
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One comment was surprising - C&D felt there was too much flex in the Forester chassis.
Interesting. There have been videos of 2009 Foresters stopped with only 2 wheels on ground (diagonally) and driver easily opened and closed doors. Also IIHS tests of CUV'S put Forester ahead of all but the Honda Element and VW Tiguan.
However, if C&D was defining chassis flex as a function of their Forester's rattles and squeaks, theirs has company, for all '09's I've driven rattle quite a bit over big bumps.
With Subaru out of WRC, I presume SoA would be out of Rally America as well.
No, they're different operations. As far as I know, SoA is still involved in Rally America, as is Pastrana.
Bob
One important thing to note is that this was strictly an on-road comparo. So the Forester's class-leading ground clearance, approach, and departure angles never came in to play.
Also, they griped about the gas mileage, but two of the 8 competitors were FWD, which isn't really fair. And the FWD models (including the Tiguan) got by just fine since they never really tested the AWD systems off pavement.
I am not surprised the RAV4 did well, I have that drivetrain in my minivan and can verify it's great.
The Tiguan was a FWD model, which is lighter, quicker, and more fuel efficient than one with 4Motion would have been.
What surprised me was how well the CR-V did. It finished just one point ahead of the Forester, but the slight power boost they gave it, plus the recent updates, must have impressed them.
Bob
But I see value in what he's doing in a different way.
His niche is not the rabid WRC fans, it's young americans watching X-games. He became famous facing Motorcross.
So now Subaru has a whole new, young following, watching a WRX perform stunts on New Year's Eve.
Arguably there's more marketing value in Pastrama here in the USA then there would be in Europe, especially since sales here in the US are up so much.
tom
Nothing wrong with making a living, though.
As for Pastranova - he did a few WRC races but was never really competitive IIRC.
Bummer for Subaru.
tom
My 15 yr old has heard of him (from moto), and I had no idea who he was..
Plus, I really like pastrami...
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This is big news. Finally, Subaru is now being considered by many who would never have thought about owning a Subie; really BIG news!
Bob
Rest of the time was great. Lots of boogie boarding with the boys and snorkelling with the whole family including our 4 year old (aka the mermaid) who took to it like she'd been doing it for years. Spent almost 2 hours in one morning at two different open water sites and she only came out because she was starting to shiver with the cold.
It was a nice break from work, but it did seem to take away from that low-pace post Xmas recovery period I'm used to.
I'm trying in a very subtle manner to finally steer Dra to a new Leg or Outback - we'll see how it goes.
Nicholas
Here's one of our holiday pics which I've named, "Gareth discovers the meaning of Shore Break"
For reference, the boy who is about to disappear is just under 5' tall. We couldn't believe how blase some parents were about their kids in surf like this. We saw more than one child less than 3 years old playing on the beach at the edge of the surf with their parents more than 10 yards away. They could have been swamped by a bigger than average wave and sucked out by the rip tide in an instant.
Our boys are all competitive swimmers and both Dra and I were certified lifeguards in younger days. Even Heather can swim 50m on her own but we make her wear a life jacket if there's surf and one of us is always with her while the other is watching the boys. Still, at one point I realized I was spending more time watching someone else's child than my own so I had to stop. Maybe being a former lifeguard makes you paranoid or maybe some parents are irresponsible. Is seeing danger in various situations a sign of getting old?
it just made everything too big
how do you fix that?
Boogie boards were allowed out there only if they had fins.
If the photo is portrait, you could go for a longer height, but no wider than 552....
I think the problem is that if the image is of a different ratio or is substantially smaller than the maximum allowable size, such code would distort the image.
*sigh*
Yeah, you can blame the economy, but I think it goes beyond that. I sense many if not most Corvette customers are aging baby-boomers, and many more older still. Their traditional customer base is starting to drop off the planet, and it seems the "All-American" and "Everyman" Corvette is not appealing to younger buyers like it used to. I'm not sure it's because it is expensive, as it always has been a relatively costly sports car.
Equally interesting is that Bob Lutz has dreams of offering a 4-door Corvette (a Corvette Panamara?) based off the Holden Commodore.
http://www.autoblog.com/2010/01/14/lutz-says-commodore-based-caprice-could-be-so- ld-as-high-end-che/
Bob
I also suspect that the portion of the article that referenced "aspirational" buyers was probably right on, and those were the people less likely to take the plunge due to the perception of unacceptable risk. Now, I doubt that the Corvette was the only car affected by this, but I do think that most of the drop in auto sales this year was from that group of people, and vehicles on the fringe of a price category are more likely to be affected than those perceived as a value and at a lower price class.
I wonder about the percentage drop in sales by trim level.
I think it's just the economy- the rich can still buy their Ferraris, but the Corvette is a much more attainable car, but in this economy just isn't a necessity.
tom
He was talking about the reason men liked cars like the Corvette was that it made you attractive to girls (chauvanist as heck, but consider that the target demographic).
Nowadays, the Prius (which he was testing) is appealing for the same reason, i.e. the world has changed.
The Hummer may be a better example - driving that gas hog used to be cool (to some people, at least), but more recently you were likely to get your Hummer vandalized just for parking it on a public street.
Today, with pricey oil and a weak economy, a Corvette flies in the face of reality for most people. People don't envy you, they get angry at you.
In more prosperous times, and maybe with cheaper fuel, that could change.