torque_r, you know as well as I do that GM, has excepted the challenge and has offered competitive powertrains for the money. 367 hp. is competitive and the Denali offers 400 hp and the EXT respectively offers 403 hp. w/ 417 lbs tq.
Hey, where is everybody hiding since they cut out the save GM forum.
It is tough for GM not to have incentives with Ford and Chrysler now in the straits they are in. Chrysler really has way to much stock and Ford really needs the sales to get some profit. It is going to be a tough year in 2007 again. BUT GM is sticking to its guns and it is helping the bottom line. They are cutting out the unprofitable rental fleet sales and the profit stealing incentives. Fortunately they are/were able to cut out the extra plants. We will have to see where the UAW bargaining goes next year. With the above changes GM will probably drop to 24% US sales (still way above Toyotas US 15% sales) and level out there. It is Ford and Chrylser that, at least in the next year, will lose sales to Toyota. Nissan is down also but may gain sales with the new cars they have coming out.
Ford has made the announcement that with the demise of the Taurus they will cut their fleet sales by a huge amount at least through '08 (the Taurus was 35% of Ford's car sales in October? OMG!).
Question: who will pick up the rental fleet slack? Will GM be too tempted by this opportunity to resist? I hope not. Lots and lots of Grand Prixs and Lucernes have been flowing to the fleets this year, and of course Impala is a fleet queen. I think it will be either GM or Hyundai (with the "all-new, whoops it didn't prove as popular to retail customers as we had hoped" Sonata) that picks up the slack.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Where the Car Nuts Chitchat, Share Their Photos and Blog
By BOB TEDESCHI
IT’S not easy for a guy who was raised in a family of General Motors workers in Grand Rapids, Mich., to find kindred spirits in his adopted hometown, Dumas, Tex., where the G.M. emblem does not carry as much emotional weight.
Fortunately for Rocky Lee Bellenger, the displaced Michigander, he has the Web. Mr. Bellenger is among the many thousands of people who have been trying their hand at social networking. This is not through MySpace, Facebook or any other virtual stomping ground, but through new services devoted solely to car fans.
With online properties like CarSpace, CarDomain, Yahoo’s Autos Custom, among others, G.M. fanatics, Ferrari lovers and even defenders of the lowly Trabant can exchange advice, trade industry gossip or find like-minded souls.
“You really get to know these people, and they get to know you,” said Mr. Bellenger, who works for the United States Department of Energy in what he called a classified position, and who earlier this year set up a personal page on CarSpace.com, shortly after it was introduced in February by Edmunds.com, the auto research site. “I’ve made some really good friends on there.”
CarSpace is like other social-networking sites in that it gives users a free place to post pictures and videos, personal information and a journal, or blog. Members can visit one another’s personal pages and leave comments or invite other members to become friends. They also receive an e-mail account that they can use on the site to circulate news among their cohorts, or alert them to new photos they have posted on their personal pages.
Mr. Bellenger has posted pictures of his 2002 Cadillac STS before and after a crash that sent it to the junkyard, as well as photos of a 2005 Acura that he bought in a lapse of disloyalty. A counter on his CarSpace page said it had been visited nearly 250 times.
Sylvia Marino, who runs CarSpace, said that Edmunds created the site as an evolution of its online forums, where users post messages about a topic. The forums still exist, both on Edmunds.com and CarSpace. “But with social networking, we’re putting the people front and center, so you can find someone who knows a lot about Mustangs if you want,” she said. “This gives users new tools to communicate with each other.”
Ms. Marino said that 26,000 people had created profiles on the site. Twenty percent of them are women, she said, which is considerably more than most other car-enthusiast sites attract. That is partly because the site reviews all new pictures and postings to weed out potentially offensive content, she said. Pictures of bikini-clad women sprawled on the hood of a Viper, for instance, do not make the grade.
Editing procedures are but one factor helping to define auto social-networking sites. Take CarDomain.com. The site says it has one of the most active online car communities in the industry, and it can be used for making friends, said Alex Algard, CarDomain’s chief executive. But it was created more for communication about cars.
“Too often, social networking calls to mind users who connect just for the sake of meeting,” Mr. Algard said. “People on our site come across others they have something in common with, but the focus is really on the cars themselves.”
Indeed, CarDomain is meant for people who are searching for specific carmakers and models or photos that have been highly rated by other members.
Among the most highly rated galleries posted recently were a 2001 Subaru Impreza with an intensely customized body and engine that claims to reach 260 horsepower.
Besides Subarus, there are 457,000 other cars featured, including 2,260 Corvettes, 471 Hummers, 89 Shelby Cobras and a light brown 1976 Pacer left lovingly unrestored by a CarDomain user known as MulletBoy76.
Yahoo, which in the last year focused more heavily on social-networking services, has added a similar service to its Autos category. Autos Custom gives people a place to post photos, comments and, if they wish, contact information.
Karl Sparks, the owner of a 1963 Studebaker Avanti (given to him on his 21st birthday by his father) has offered restoration advice to other people who have the same model through the Yahoo site, among other online domains where he has posted pictures of his car.
Friendly as those connections tend to be, Mr. Sparks and others say that social networking can also yield more adversarial interactions. When Mr. Sparks put a set of flashy 20-inch rims on his classic Studebaker in April, purists who saw the photos on Mr. Sparks’s Yahoo page shared their outrage via e-mail messages.
“They’re pretty hard core,” said Mr. Sparks of the postings, adding that he was accustomed to such comments. More constructive criticism was welcomed. When one person suggested that Mr. Sparks’s car would look better if it were lower to the ground, Mr. Sparks dropped both the front and back ends by 1.5 inches. “He was right,” he said. “It looks better.”
Tips and stinging criticisms are, in this stage of the car social-networking trend, less common than brief, benign commentary. But the breezy nature of such public exchanges belies the more useful connections that can be forged. Ms. Marino of CarSpace said the site’s users often got together offline — be it to compare mileage on their hybrids or to drive to races together.
Mr. Bellenger, the G.M. fan, has not met any of the friends he has made on CarSpace yet, but he said that could change in January, when the Detroit Auto Show opens. Another CarSpace user, named Lemko, may make the pilgrimage as well, riding from Pennsylvania either in his 1980 Buick Park Avenue, ’89 Cadillac Brougham, ’94 Cadillac DeVille or ’02 Cadillac STS.
MELBOURNE, Australia — Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) has announced that it will launch the VXR hatchback, a turbocharged 2.0-liter performance car sold as a Vauxhall by GM in Europe, in a limited edition on its home market.
But you would be wrong. Those details in the show car pay homage to the original model. Even the Evil Kneivel paint job is retro 60's.
The only thing tacked on may be the lower lip spoiler and the deck lid spoiler. The car itself looks fantastic. The Saturn Sky looks like it's been Bastardized for the next installment of Fast and the Furious...
I think the Camaro caters to that crowd AT LEAST as much if not a bit more... Heck, every 90's F-body that I see (still running) has either the guy peeing on a Ford symbol or an "Eat your Import" kind of sticker plastered on the back window.
Can't get much more tacky than that garbage... The blower is a bit much, but I think it accompanies the wheelie bars in the rear.
The Edmunds editors missed the big impact: with the Astra VXR being farmed out to Holden, it also becomes more likely that it may show up here as the Saturn Astra Redline.
I must admit, it's been pretty quiet around here without Rocky. We missed you dude!
I sincerely appreciate it pal. I missed you guys perhaps even more though.
Do y'all think Rocky is really a secret Edmund's staffer who singlehandedly drums up forum posts?
These forums would have less specific topics "the old way" and the discussions would be broader. However we need to make the best hand out of the cards dealt to us. Perhaps a re-deal lies sometime in the future ? :surprise:
GM models dropped from “Recommended” list · Rendezvous (performance test scores lapsed) · STS (reliability dropped to below average) · Monte Carlo (insufficient reliability survey responses) · Avalanche, Suburban, and Yukon XL have been replaced by new models with no reliability data
Overall GM's volume vehicles did well. Cobalt is the big one that is missing. Any others that stick out?
Vehicles added to the Average or Better Reliability list · DTS & Lucerne - better than average reliability · HHR – average reliability · Malibu – average reliability · Tahoe and Yukon (GMT921/922) – better than average reliability · Torrent – better than average reliability · VUE, TrailBlazer and Envoy improved to average reliability
"Avalanche, Suburban, and Yukon XL have been replaced by new models with no reliability data"
That's odd. If they dropped those models from the "recommended" list due to a lack of data, why is the all new GMC Yukon (GMT922) on the "Recommended" list?
That's odd. If they dropped those models from the "recommended" list due to a lack of data, why is the all new GMC Yukon (GMT922) on the "Recommended" list?
Also...all the powertrains are carry-overs. The "all-new" in the GMT900 models is mostly in the chassis and interiors. So they have several years of powertrain reliability data.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
father in law traded in his 1999 jeep grand cherokee laredo for a SX4 nearly 4 weeks ago( 4 weeks this upcoming Saturday). He already has over 2000 miles on it, and will have 500 more by Saturday(his works requires a ton of driving, 500-600miles or more per week). Overall, very nice, indeed. Best Suzuki Yet! It is on par of the better Hyundai/Kia(and maybe others) crossovers. Price? well, less than 15K for AWD(FT) AWD(PT, lo-gear, up through 36MPH) or FWD(FT). He avgs over 28+ MPG(mixed). Said he figures low 30's if he did all hwy(and drove normally, versus hitting 80+ MPH ,on back roads ,during his demonstration of his SX4 to his guests last weekend). Corners sharply, if needed. Brakes are above avg. Comfort is good. Up front, my brother inlaw(6'4", 275lbs) had 1/5 inches(or more) of headroom, leg room was great, no qualm about seat comfort. either. There are some mid-sized sedans he is not as comortable in! Unless you're a giant, or something, you can easily, and comfortably, fit 4 people in this thing, 5 for a (very) short trip to town. Rear seats flip, then fold "flat"(almost) against the back of the front seats(they should have included something to take them out completely, or is that some TM of Chrysler's PT, and other vehicles?). If Suzuki continues to improve the whole line-up this way, they will do fine. I am hoping they improve the Reno(or do their own version of one) as wella sthey "fixed" this Aerio replacement.Like night and day!
link a little less, and make a little more commentary please! :-)
I am very curious to see if Toyota can get to its eventual sales target of 250K annually for the next-gen Tundra. It out-dimensions the Chevy and Ford, and out-tows and out-hauls them too. But Nissan already accomplished that and it didn't net them much of the segment. Of course, I am betting that Toyota won't build the next Tundra with the miserable reliability and constant problems that the Titan had, so the Nissan experience might not be a good gauge.
Tundra is at about 120-130K per year in sales now, in its sixth year, so the 250K target represents a healthy bump percentage-wise, but not a huge portion of the segment overall.
GM sold just shy of a million 1500-type full-size pick-ups last year, including GMC and Chevy. I think GM has every reason to remain confident. I am rather rooting for Tundra sales to surpass Ram sales in the next few years though.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Comments
Rocky
It is tough for GM not to have incentives with Ford and Chrysler now in the straits they are in. Chrysler really has way to much stock and Ford really needs the sales to get some profit. It is going to be a tough year in 2007 again. BUT GM is sticking to its guns and it is helping the bottom line. They are cutting out the unprofitable rental fleet sales and the profit stealing incentives. Fortunately they are/were able to cut out the extra plants. We will have to see where the UAW bargaining goes next year. With the above changes GM will probably drop to 24% US sales (still way above Toyotas US 15% sales) and level out there. It is Ford and Chrylser that, at least in the next year, will lose sales to Toyota. Nissan is down also but may gain sales with the new cars they have coming out.
Rocky must've FINALLY gotten his computer fixed!
Yeah! Edmunds is saved!
Question: who will pick up the rental fleet slack? Will GM be too tempted by this opportunity to resist? I hope not. Lots and lots of Grand Prixs and Lucernes have been flowing to the fleets this year, and of course Impala is a fleet queen. I think it will be either GM or Hyundai (with the "all-new, whoops it didn't prove as popular to retail customers as we had hoped" Sonata) that picks up the slack.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
By BOB TEDESCHI
IT’S not easy for a guy who was raised in a family of General Motors workers in Grand Rapids, Mich., to find kindred spirits in his adopted hometown, Dumas, Tex., where the G.M. emblem does not carry as much emotional weight.
Fortunately for Rocky Lee Bellenger, the displaced Michigander, he has the Web. Mr. Bellenger is among the many thousands of people who have been trying their hand at social networking. This is not through MySpace, Facebook or any other virtual stomping ground, but through new services devoted solely to car fans.
With online properties like CarSpace, CarDomain, Yahoo’s Autos Custom, among others, G.M. fanatics, Ferrari lovers and even defenders of the lowly Trabant can exchange advice, trade industry gossip or find like-minded souls.
“You really get to know these people, and they get to know you,” said Mr. Bellenger, who works for the United States Department of Energy in what he called a classified position, and who earlier this year set up a personal page on CarSpace.com, shortly after it was introduced in February by Edmunds.com, the auto research site. “I’ve made some really good friends on there.”
CarSpace is like other social-networking sites in that it gives users a free place to post pictures and videos, personal information and a journal, or blog. Members can visit one another’s personal pages and leave comments or invite other members to become friends. They also receive an e-mail account that they can use on the site to circulate news among their cohorts, or alert them to new photos they have posted on their personal pages.
Mr. Bellenger has posted pictures of his 2002 Cadillac STS before and after a crash that sent it to the junkyard, as well as photos of a 2005 Acura that he bought in a lapse of disloyalty. A counter on his CarSpace page said it had been visited nearly 250 times.
Sylvia Marino, who runs CarSpace, said that Edmunds created the site as an evolution of its online forums, where users post messages about a topic. The forums still exist, both on Edmunds.com and CarSpace. “But with social networking, we’re putting the people front and center, so you can find someone who knows a lot about Mustangs if you want,” she said. “This gives users new tools to communicate with each other.”
Ms. Marino said that 26,000 people had created profiles on the site. Twenty percent of them are women, she said, which is considerably more than most other car-enthusiast sites attract. That is partly because the site reviews all new pictures and postings to weed out potentially offensive content, she said. Pictures of bikini-clad women sprawled on the hood of a Viper, for instance, do not make the grade.
Editing procedures are but one factor helping to define auto social-networking sites. Take CarDomain.com. The site says it has one of the most active online car communities in the industry, and it can be used for making friends, said Alex Algard, CarDomain’s chief executive. But it was created more for communication about cars.
“Too often, social networking calls to mind users who connect just for the sake of meeting,” Mr. Algard said. “People on our site come across others they have something in common with, but the focus is really on the cars themselves.”
Indeed, CarDomain is meant for people who are searching for specific carmakers and models or photos that have been highly rated by other members.
Among the most highly rated galleries posted recently were a 2001 Subaru Impreza with an intensely customized body and engine that claims to reach 260 horsepower.
Besides Subarus, there are 457,000 other cars featured, including 2,260 Corvettes, 471 Hummers, 89 Shelby Cobras and a light brown 1976 Pacer left lovingly unrestored by a CarDomain user known as MulletBoy76.
Yahoo, which in the last year focused more heavily on social-networking services, has added a similar service to its Autos category. Autos Custom gives people a place to post photos, comments and, if they wish, contact information.
Karl Sparks, the owner of a 1963 Studebaker Avanti (given to him on his 21st birthday by his father) has offered restoration advice to other people who have the same model through the Yahoo site, among other online domains where he has posted pictures of his car.
Friendly as those connections tend to be, Mr. Sparks and others say that social networking can also yield more adversarial interactions. When Mr. Sparks put a set of flashy 20-inch rims on his classic Studebaker in April, purists who saw the photos on Mr. Sparks’s Yahoo page shared their outrage via e-mail messages.
“They’re pretty hard core,” said Mr. Sparks of the postings, adding that he was accustomed to such comments. More constructive criticism was welcomed. When one person suggested that Mr. Sparks’s car would look better if it were lower to the ground, Mr. Sparks dropped both the front and back ends by 1.5 inches. “He was right,” he said. “It looks better.”
Tips and stinging criticisms are, in this stage of the car social-networking trend, less common than brief, benign commentary. But the breezy nature of such public exchanges belies the more useful connections that can be forged. Ms. Marino of CarSpace said the site’s users often got together offline — be it to compare mileage on their hybrids or to drive to races together.
Mr. Bellenger, the G.M. fan, has not met any of the friends he has made on CarSpace yet, but he said that could change in January, when the Detroit Auto Show opens. Another CarSpace user, named Lemko, may make the pilgrimage as well, riding from Pennsylvania either in his 1980 Buick Park Avenue, ’89 Cadillac Brougham, ’94 Cadillac DeVille or ’02 Cadillac STS.
Rocky
Rocky
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Rocky
I told him someday we'd all like to meet at the Detroit Auto show, or designate.
Rocky
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=117353
WOW !!! :shades:
Rocky
P.S. lemko, what do you think pal ?
Rocky
P.S. I like this also
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=117352
Rocky
Rocky
Rocky
P.S. I'm very impressed, what else could I say ?
yawn.
Rocky
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=117401
Rocky
P.S. pretty impressive
The only thing tacked on may be the lower lip spoiler and the deck lid spoiler. The car itself looks fantastic. The Saturn Sky looks like it's been Bastardized for the next installment of Fast and the Furious...
Rocky
Rocky
Can't get much more tacky than that garbage... The blower is a bit much, but I think it accompanies the wheelie bars in the rear.
Rocky
http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061102/AUTO01/611020375/- 1148/AUTO01
Rocky
Billionaires at the gate
Auto suppliers draw big-bucks investors
http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061101/AUTO01/611010403/- 1148/AUTO01
Looks like billionaire investors want to play corporate bingo with peoples lives. We've lost all morale values in this country !!!!!!!!!!!! :mad:
Rocky
http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061101/AUTO01/611010363/- 1148
I wish somebody would wipe that smirk off his face !!! :mad: :sick:
Rocky
Throw the key in the Detroit River :mad:
Rocky
:mad:
http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061101/AUTO01/611010354/- 1148/AUTO01
Rocky :mad:
Rocky must've FINALLY gotten his computer fixed!
I must admit, it's been pretty quiet around here without Rocky. We missed you dude!
Do y'all think Rocky is really a secret Edmund's staffer who singlehandedly drums up forum posts? :P
Rocky
I sincerely appreciate it pal. I missed you guys perhaps even more though.
Do y'all think Rocky is really a secret Edmund's staffer who singlehandedly drums up forum posts?
These forums would have less specific topics "the old way" and the discussions would be broader. However we need to make the best hand out of the cards dealt to us. Perhaps a re-deal lies sometime in the future ? :surprise:
Rocky
· Buick: LaCrosse and Lucerne
· Chevrolet: Impala, HHR, Malibu, Malibu Maxx, Tahoe(new one) (GMT921)
· Cadillac: CTS, CTS-V, DTS
· GMC: Yukon(new one) (GMT922)
· Pontiac: G6, Torrent, and Vibe
· Saab: 9-2X and 9-5
GM models dropped from “Recommended” list
· Rendezvous (performance test scores lapsed)
· STS (reliability dropped to below average)
· Monte Carlo (insufficient reliability survey responses)
· Avalanche, Suburban, and Yukon XL have been replaced by new models with no reliability data
Overall GM's volume vehicles did well. Cobalt is the big one that is missing. Any others that stick out?
Vehicles added to the Average or Better Reliability list
· DTS & Lucerne - better than average reliability
· HHR – average reliability
· Malibu – average reliability
· Tahoe and Yukon (GMT921/922) – better than average reliability
· Torrent – better than average reliability
· VUE, TrailBlazer and Envoy improved to average reliability
That's odd. If they dropped those models from the "recommended" list due to a lack of data, why is the all new GMC Yukon (GMT922) on the "Recommended" list?
Yukon was out months before the extended versions
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
He already has over 2000 miles on it, and will have 500 more by Saturday(his works requires a ton of driving, 500-600miles or more per week).
Overall, very nice, indeed. Best Suzuki Yet!
It is on par of the better Hyundai/Kia(and maybe others) crossovers.
Price? well, less than 15K for AWD(FT) AWD(PT, lo-gear, up through 36MPH) or FWD(FT).
He avgs over 28+ MPG(mixed).
Said he figures low 30's if he did all hwy(and drove normally, versus hitting 80+ MPH ,on back roads ,during his demonstration of his SX4 to his guests last weekend).
Corners sharply, if needed. Brakes are above avg. Comfort is good.
Up front, my brother inlaw(6'4", 275lbs) had 1/5 inches(or more) of headroom, leg room was great, no qualm about seat comfort. either.
There are some mid-sized sedans he is not as comortable in!
Unless you're a giant, or something, you can easily, and comfortably, fit 4 people in this thing, 5 for a (very) short trip to town.
Rear seats flip, then fold "flat"(almost) against the back of the front seats(they should have included something to take them out completely, or is that some TM of Chrysler's PT, and other vehicles?).
If Suzuki continues to improve the whole line-up this way, they will do fine.
I am hoping they improve the Reno(or do their own version of one) as wella sthey "fixed" this Aerio replacement.Like night and day!
take care/not offense.
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=117435
Rocky
Rocky
P.S.
Our economy is doing so great I've never seen so many bankruptcy's and lay-offs in a years span in my life :surprise:
Another positive note from GM.
Rocky
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061107/AUTO01/611070345/1148-
Rocky
Rocky :surprise:
Rocky
Rocky
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061106/AUTO01/611060318/1148- /AUTO01
Rocky
I am very curious to see if Toyota can get to its eventual sales target of 250K annually for the next-gen Tundra. It out-dimensions the Chevy and Ford, and out-tows and out-hauls them too. But Nissan already accomplished that and it didn't net them much of the segment. Of course, I am betting that Toyota won't build the next Tundra with the miserable reliability and constant problems that the Titan had, so the Nissan experience might not be a good gauge.
Tundra is at about 120-130K per year in sales now, in its sixth year, so the 250K target represents a healthy bump percentage-wise, but not a huge portion of the segment overall.
GM sold just shy of a million 1500-type full-size pick-ups last year, including GMC and Chevy. I think GM has every reason to remain confident. I am rather rooting for Tundra sales to surpass Ram sales in the next few years though.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)