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Automotive News article
I rarely carry passengers, but often drive around town with the windows down. It's quite handy to be able to briefly hit all four switches (five counting the moonroof) and immediately have both hands back to the steering wheel and/or shifter.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Reply:
I just read that at Detroit news. Seems actual market share continued to go DOWN, and the increase was largely fleet sales. Isn't it something the way the numbers get reported and twisted in the Auto business? Reminds me of the Bush presidency. What's wrong,do they think we can't handle the truth or they've been living in 'spin' so long they actually believe what they are saying? Bill C.
Tilt telescoping sheels without predetermined positions are on cars as cheap as Focus. .there is no excuse for not having them on a 30k car.
Igor
US buyers need Diesel engines... we all need diesel engines.. mature - reliable technology, that actually delivers 50+ mileage... TDI would actually be the only reason I would consider a VW...
Once diesels finally come this or next year, they will take a lot of hybrid sales... and poor GM with their brand new system in the full sized SUV will be weeping again..(not hating on GM.. just stating that they might be coming too late to recoup their R&D costs)
Hybrid-gasoline engine is just not a good idea... Hybrid-diesel.. is a better one, but it will still be lacking in long term reliability due to its complexity
Igor
I was really impressed to see a hidden trunk hinge on the new Fusion.
However, I'm looking at it from a taller driver's perspective. Having that entire column drop down would make the car undriveable for me. Usually in those cars I have to adjust it up as far as it'll go. And with smaller cars I can still bang my knee when going for the brake. A shorter driver might like having the whole column adjust downward, though.
I would rather GM had a Duramax Tahoe in the late stages of development instead of a hybrid one. When we finally get ULSD in the US, I think we will see some of the interesting diesel engines that the rest of the world currently enjoys.
Most of the tilt/tele wheels I have seen are not the same as the GM tilt. GM tilts the wheel and upper column only and you can easily tilt it everytime you get in and out of the vehilce which many users do. Ou do this with a convenient lever on the side of the column. The other tilts actually tilt the entire column and the lever is not as convenient. You tilt once to adjust to your preference and then never touch it again. LaCrosse does have the GM tilt and tele.
My preference would be the GM tilt/tele, then the GM tilt and then the other tilt/tele design.
Those need to be automatic wipers so that people don't have to adjust the settings as drizzle rate changes or spray amount changes while driving. I have automatics on my car. They should be on all cars $20K and up.
And all cars over $15K should have HUD because it's much safer when you don't have to look down to check your speed. I can look in the windshield on my car out on the ground in front of the car's hood to see my speed.
Now which I these do you think is more important?
1. Intermittent wipers
2. Automatic wipers
3. HUD
4. Express rear power windows
I'll take #2, #3.
It's all whichever floats your boat or spins your wheels in this case.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Catch one of the rare subsidized leases. If he's trading every three years, he'd be a perfect candidate. In the alternative, find a one-year-old program car and buy that--it's already taken a huge depreciation hit. The last time I looked at the GM auctions, it was pretty easy to find an SLS or Deville, but the STS and DTS were almost non-existant.
If you can't maintain control of your car for the tenth of a second it takes to glance at the speedo, you have no business driving. Also, that HUD is fun until you get a crack in your windshield and your $15k car becomes a $11k car.
The HUD is not "in" the windshield. It reflects off of it.
The time it takes to put up or down windows while you're looking out the windshield by pressing the button can have the same logic.
It's clear we have different items we'd pick. Yours are fine; I'm okay with mine.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
The HUD is not "in" the windshield. It reflects off of it
There is a special film in the windshield on HUD cars. A bit more expensive but not that much. Besides usually I carry insurance that covers windshields.
They gotta be able to fight this kind of thing.
Thanks for the link. An excellent source car photos at every possible angle (including tire treads), posted by commission hungry salesmen.
Check out eBay if your tired of the same old marketing approved photos found at some sites.
Are you saying that this is how it is in USA Toyota jobs?
BTW, yes East Germany was a Socialist/Communist part of the Soviet Block. Once Germany reunified they poured tons of money into East Germany to bring up their Socialist standard of living. But they way underestimated the costs. 15 years later they are still paying the price. The East German workers had gotten lazy and weren't working hard; they had little incentive since jobs were guaranteed. These were bad habits that were very traumatic to change.
Seems like for about 5 generations of cars the "next model" is going to compete with the Accord and Camry. "It's gonna be a home run"!
See my post #991.
So familiar. 2008. Comfortably far into the future. It's always blue sky that far out, isn't it?
See my post #991 - How to kill a car company.
he actually got or gets now..............
But he sometimes gets on a "jag" and talks about it!
Not to mention most of his savings will be lost if Delphi
goes BK..............
I do know my mom gets a stout $1400 a month GM pension
plus SS so I can only guess what he got/gets now.......
WOW........If its 1/2 of that..........
OR if Delphi goes BK and he gets pushed into the govt. run retirement takeover plan. He will get even less! BUMMER!
He sez he should of stayed the blue collar routine and
took the golden parachute buyout like my mom and uncles
did instead of going white collar and transfering with
Delphi !!!!!!!!!!
BTW: GM has cut med. bennies, raised deducts./co-pays
etc.and are pushing the retirees off to Medicare/medicade
where ever they can to slash expenses.............
Beyond that given that by summer 2008 the prediction is that most automakrs will have diesel offerings in most of their models, I think Hybrid Full Size SUV will sound like a nonsense compared to Diesel full size SUV...
Igor
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
PBGC Is a good place to look if your interested.
My FIL had 31 years in at LTV when they went bankrupt. I think his original pension was around $2200 and because he was only 55, his PBGC payout is around 60%.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
A diesel-battery-electric Escalade could do it (two electric motors bolted directly to a double-ended pumpkin, and a 2.0 turbodiesel as a onboard electrical supply), but that would require boldness from a company that didn't get where it is now by being even slightly bold.
Igor
They had to have x amt. of years in plus be 55 years old
to collect the GM $$$$.
Plus they got x for each year service........
My mom had 20.
And believe me SHE was pushing the guys outta line to be
the 1st to sign the papers to get outta that place......
CHUCKLE!
Not quite sure of the exact amounts tho. (15 years ago!)
The word Socialist where I come also means "Socialism".
Communistism and Socialism have a (few) similiar quality's but are much different.
Actually East Germany is one of the biggest technology leaders in Europe from what I've read.
My 2 cents.
P.S. fintail I love the STS, but wouldn't wanna own a car that has a non retractible convertible top. It's UGLY !!!
Rocky
an Escalade can't deliever 30 mpg on the highway, unless GM has a magic formula that will make Toyota guys drop their jaws. Anyone with me here?
Read an article a while ago that said GM's system is different than the others and will improve highway mileage.
Anyway it was automotive news estimating the mileage, not GM. They are not talking yet.
Rocky
My other GM grandfather whom is dead I guess is lucky he never saw the "doom and gloom" (Dubya days) at GM and Delphi.
Rocky
(2nd part) The more hours you put in, the quicker you get your pay raised. Leave and come back a decade later? No problem - get work within days again.
The first part I understand. The 2nd part I'm :confuse:
The first part is clearly wrong on a 3-4% wage increase structured contract which is the average they get now. It would take more than 2 decades or better to even get back to 2006 wages of $26-27 an hour if they start at $12 bucks an hour. I'm not sure where you pulled that one from because that's not even close to the contract has laid out on the table now ????
Dad was making $13 and an hour as a job setter in 1985
Rocky
There are 4-5 pay steps, with 12-14 or so at the bottom, which quickly rises to the $20 range, and then once you become a full journyman, it's comparable to the UAW wages.
Part 2? Simple - it's not by years but by hours worked. Put in 1000 hours and presto - next pay grade, simple as that. If you want to work 6 days a week at two sites for 10 hours a day, that's not even half a year to get into the $15+ range. People have gone through the program in as little as 3 years, though 4-5 is more common.
Or you can put in hours on the weekend! Get in a couple of thousand hours over a couple of years, while keeping your GM job. If you work in a machine shop or do electrical work or something simmilar, in a nearly identical union, you can often get them to count that as up to two years. That's how you retrain painlessly. Work in the machine shop at GM? Work as a machinist in a union. Not $26 an hour, but $18-20 to start isn't nearly the kick in the teeth GM will give you at the end of the day.
It's definately better than Wal-Mart. Sheesh. You'd think nobody ever actually did some serious job searching when times get tough.
How about: Baby Duramax diesel with cylinder deactivation powers the rear wheels through a six-speed automatic, there is none of that heavy 4WD hardware, and instead the front wheels are each powered by an electric motor.
Rocky
Now what would one of these suckers weigh? Maybe about 5 tons empty? And more, once loaded up for camping? Seems to me that if a rig like this could get 16 mpg, then with a little help from modern technology, something that weighs about half as much and probably cuts through the air more easily should conceivably be able to get 30 if driven conservatively.
Heck, even those old full sized GM wagons with the Olds Diesel and a 3-speed automatic could get 30 mpg on the highway. They weren't 5800 lb, but were still pretty heavy at around 4200 or so.
of the hybrid vehicles sold in the United States are designed and built in
Asia.
Just read this in another article. Automotive News took this and got the 30 highway. Hey, if it got 20 average that would be great. My minivan only gets about 16 average but is mostly short city dirves.
GM said its two-mode hybrid system, unlike the gas and electric engines found in the Toyota Prius and other hybrids now, provides improved fuel economy in stop-and-go driving and at highway speeds.
"We believe the two-mode system will become the industry standard," Wagoner said to workers at a presentation at GM's Baltimore transmission facility, where GM already builds a hybrid transmission for a small fleet of
heavy-duty trucks and buses.
GM's hybrid system will use two electric motors – one to power the vehicle at low speeds with light loads and the other to assist during highway speeds and while towing or on steep hills.
"This is a competitive advantage for GM now because they're the only company that can use a hybrid system in a full-size SUV," Pratt says. "From that perspective, it's also their most profitable segment, so they're
beating Toyota to the punch in the full-size SUV segment."
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060202/AUTO01/602020339/1148- /AUTO01