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-Real World figures for the Hybrid SUV's will be about 23 all around mpg. unless you have a heavy foot like myself. :P
Rocky
Aaah the old bias argument again. It's not the products, no really!
--end quote--
Not sure about that one. They gave front page to the new X body cars of the future, and the new FWD Chevy Citation like it was the car of the decade, or something! Maybe that is why they are so mad.
Loren
-Real World figures for the Hybrid SUV's will be about 23 all around mpg. unless you have a heavy foot like myself"
I am interested to know how you came up with this conclusion, especially that the very same issue of C&D gave the Cadillac SRX top honors as the best luxury SUV for the third consecutive year. Besides, C&D reported 26-28 mpg only for such hybrids like the Lexus RX400h (31/27 city/highway), Ford Escape Hybrid (33/29) and Honda Accord Hybrid (30/37). So how is C&D biased?
With fewer features and weaker performance than either Toyota's Avalon or Hyundai's Azera, Buick's Lucerne is outmatched among full-size sedans. If all you want is a roomy, quiet car with a V8, it's worth a look, but most buyers will be better served by its more capable competitors.
Pros
Extremely quiet and comfortable ride, available V8 engine, supportive front seats, huge backseat, easy-to-operate controls.
Cons
Subpar brakes, sluggish handling on CX and CXL models, weak V6 for this class, lacks expected convenience, luxury and safety features, inconsistent build quality.
What's New for 2006
Buick replaces the aging LeSabre and Park Avenue with a new front-wheel-drive, full-size sedan called the Lucerne. Based on the Cadillac DTS platform, the Lucerne seats up to six and can be equipped with GM's Northstar V8.
***
Basically, they say what IU say - the base models stink.
Review the V8, or better, yet don't look but test-drive the V8. They also forget to mention THE DTS COSTS 10K MORE. A working-man's DTS isn't a piece of junk. They should be saying "I can't believe you can get a DTS with a Buick emblem slapped on it and a little different bodywork for $35K!"
As for speed, the V8 won't win any dragstrip contests, but then again, neither did the old Mercedes S420s. Japanese and Korean engines make power with high revs, so if you flog it like testers are wont to do, you get fast speed and wonderful performance... and loose all of your MPG and refinement while doing so.
99% of the time, we don't come close to this sort of behavior. How fast do you need to go anyways? 99% of the time, we press the pedal down maybe halfway and go 60-70% as quickly as on a track. 0-60 in 6 seconds on a typical onramp gets you a quick introduction to your brakes as you overtake everything else. 10 seconds is much more realistic.
The way to test the V8 is, well, like a V8. Check out how you can go from 30-50mph or 60-80mph seamlessly without having to downshift or wring the thing to death. Better yet, is how the entire car doesn't lurch from you having to rev it hard off the line to get from 0-30. Gentle pressure on the throttle - presto - 30mph floated by. It doesn't need 5 or 6 gears, because it has enough torque and doesn't need to shift as often for 10-20mph changes.
It drives like a Buick used to drive. Really good power and smoothness up to any legal speed limit in the U.S., and at a decent price compared to the Cadillacs.
Absolutely that is what the mag is about. That is what the writers look for and like. They are a bunch of gear heads, not our normal every day buyer. They will bias toward a harder ride than a softer ride if they get some handling out of the car. Most buyers want the better ride and could care less about handling since every car built today has excellent handling for everyday driving.
I wouldn't catagorize every writer who can tell the difference between a wallowy Buick ride and the precise handling and steering of a 5 series as a "gear head".
And I wouldn't catagorize the consumers who prefer cars with such driving dynamics as abnormal. After all, Porsche and BMW both make a boatload more money than GM this year.
It's true that, in general, car magazines don't gush over cars that are boring to drive, unless there is something else unique about them. But neither would I expect to pick up a copy of Architectural Record and see a rave review over subdivision track houses with a brick front and vinyl sides. Unfortunately, in many arenas, what is considered "normal" or acceptable by the masses is a sad commentary on poor taste.
Now the masses have poor taste?
Yes Porsche and BMW make more money but they are low volume makes and sell more for appearance than handling.
Rocky
Rocky
Indeed they do, shown in every leviathian SUV sold to poserfied sub/urban cowboys....and in the fact that there is still a market for Caddys decked out with carriage tops and cheesy wheels.
Rocky
Loren
No, it's a sad commentary on what normal folks can afford. Subdivision tract houses with brick front and vinyl sides is all most people can afford.
This is just the beginning:
LOS ANGELES - Nissan North America Inc. will drop comprehensive health care coverage for retired manufacturing employees age 65 and over.
Instead, Nissan will pay retirees an annual stipend starting at $2,500. The stipend will rise 3 percent each year. Retirees who turned 65 before Jan. 1, 2006, will keep comprehensive coverage.
Employees at company headquarters in California and at the technical center in Michigan are not affected.
"When I retired, Nissan said they would continue our current health care plan," he said. "Twenty-five hundred dollars won't go very far."
http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060206/SUB/60203104/1003/ne- wsletter22&refsect=newsletter22
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
(Your co-pay and so on should be roughly the same)
Do you think it will be? I have a bridge in Brooklyn... LOL
Do you think next year the plan that $2500 paid for this year will be $2500? Think it might be a
littlelot more!!! LOLNotice this does not apply to retirees from the headquarters and technical center. Think there's a reason for that?
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
He's only something like 32-33, though. He's been with the company long enough now though, that he was eligible for a better plan than what they initially offered, so he picked it up.
I wonder if the union will realize that age discrimination is at work here? Ooooops, the workers chose not to have a union because they were being treated so well. "Oh well," as my 14-year old says. They got what they wanted, didn't they? No union. Think the current employees in their 50s will see a light bulb for their future treatment with the company? Doubt it.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
It's really kind of ostentatious though, pretending to be something you aren't. Like big blingy wheels on some boring old car. The money could be better spent on other aspects of the house (or car). But people want it.
Now they are pretending? So they get a little good looking brick instead of vinyl on the front they are ostentatious? Now I am confused. Are you saying they should have bought the cheaper vinyl siding in front instead of what, maybe better insulation? I do not think you have to be "ostentatious" to want a nicer looking house.
http://e.ccialerts.com/a/tBD5mIpAG-rD9AbQXcDAHQBmwTZ/and1
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Perhaps the money from the vinyl plus the brick could have been used to purchase better material for the whole house. Of course, I guess it doesn't matter when the place is just cardboard 'n plywood anyway. Maybe the money for the whole tract development could have been used renovating an entire existing neighborhood, as many of these new cheap houses will be ready for the bulldozer in 25-30 years anyway. I guess the new car disease might apply to houses as well. Some just have to have something new, no matter how disposable it may be.
I lived in 4 houses growing up...one new, and the others were prewar. There was an inverse relation between age and quality.
I wouldn't get excited about claims of exec paycuts either. Wasn't Wagoner (or Lutz?) just whining awhile back about how it takes top money to get top talent? Of course, GM can show a nice record of spending top money with very little top talent to show for it.
"I wouldn't get excited about claims of exec paycuts either. Wasn't Wagoner (or Lutz?) just whining awhile back about how it takes top money to get top talent? Of course, GM can show a nice record of spending top money with very little top talent to show for it."
If GM was a Hollywood studio, they would be paying for Robert DeNiro and Tom Hanks and getting Pauly Shore and Rob Schneider.
The current finance. area that I read doesn't have many of the news links mentioning the executive pay "cuts". It's primarily the divident cut and the seat for York. and GMAC sale to help them raise their debt rating.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
It was lutz and he is the Product guy. The Board makes the decisions.
The house I'm in now has wood shingles for siding. They look cool, but damn they're a pain to paint! Sometimes I'll get pissed and start thinking about just going to vinyl siding, but I've got so many eaves, odd angles, etc that I'm sure that wouldn't exactly be a cheap route to go!
There's an old house up the street, a 1920's Cape Cod/Bungalow style that was recently remodeled though, with vinyl siding all around. It actually came off more tasteful than I would've suspected. It has a full front porch though, which adds a bit of visual interest up front.
When my Mom and stepdad had their garage built, I think they paid like $2000 extra for a brick front. They wanted it to match their house, which has a brick front. With my garage though, I just kept it simple, with cheap T-111 wood siding. I figure it's my way of sticking up my middle finger, architecturally speaking, at the $600-700K McMansions that are sprouting up all across the countryside and slowly encroaching on my neighborhood. :P
do not know if you can see the link but Hummer/Buick just upped their warranty to 4 years/50,000 miles
"This is something the dealer council had been asking for," says Conrad Darby, a Buick dealer in Sarasota, Fla. "It's definitely a selling tool."
Conrad is one of the biggest Buick dealers and is on the dealer council.
10 other brands provide bumper-to-bumper and powertrain coverage for four years or 50,000 miles. They are Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lincoln, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Saab and Volvo.
Three other automakers - Hyundai, Kia and Mitsubishi - offer bumper-to-bumper coverage of five years or 60,000 miles, and powertrain coverage of 10 years or 100,000 miles.
Toyota and Honda provide bumper-to-bumper coverage for three years or 36,000 miles. Toyota's powertrain is 5/60,000 while Honda is 3/36,000
Add Cadillac to the 4 yr / 50000 mile crowd too.
Mike
Loren
GM must really be getting serious :P
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Well, they'd do it if they could afford it. Cadillac can do it because of the higher profit per unit within its line, I'd guess.
Thinking about health plans and Nissan, I pulled up the premium chart for BCBS Tennessee's "BasicBlue" plan. the base premium for a man in his 60s are a little over $238 a month, while a premium for a woman would be $207 (www.bcbst.com). A Nissan retiree would pay a minimum of up to $30 a month for the coverage. Not much, but depending on how well s/he is, that's $356/year that isn't going to shore up the retirement, fix that nagging roof leak, pay for the blood pressure meds, pay the property taxes, etc.
The premium would probably be less with a PPO or a HMO, but anyone in that position better arrange to never require treatment outside of the plan's network.
Becoming an old retiree is gonna suck. If you're a GM worker, you don't have to get to that point to know that something bad is going to happen to you within the next few years.
I hope GM does fix its problems. It has taken small steps, like its pseudo-wagon Maxx and its mad scramble toward hybrid gas/elctric passenger vehicles, to right itself.
-d
It should be interesting to see how this affects the company's directions.
Second, the latest Business Week has an interesting article on the U.S. Auto Industry. The upshot: 1. North American Auto industry is in great shape, there is just a shift going on from union to non-union jobs. 2. Foreign car makers have added 33,000 jobs in the US since 2000. 3. Japanese auto makers have been upping productivity, and the competition is hitting the American nameplates because they have not kept up with that productivity. The layoffs were inevitable.
The article uses a particular lady at the Nissan plant as an example. In a region where average manufacturing jobs pay $12/hr, Nissan starts workers at $14/hr and after five years they top out at $23/hr. Her Nissan job has provided stability and a much higher standard of living than typical unskilled jobs.
In the past year, Nissan, Toyota, and Hyundai have enlarged their US design and R&D facilities in the US as well. They mention that the designer of the Buick Lucerne left GM for Hyundai, with a nice raise. His quote: "Other companies are burdened by cost and overhead. We can do things they can't do."
With the new system you just tell the live advisor where you want to go or ask where something is and they download the directions to the car. It then gives you turn by turn directions as yo drive along. No need to try and input directions as you drive down the road. No need to buy updated software every year or so. No need to take your eyes off the road.
Many OnStar subscribers now can get turn-by-turn directions from an adviser. This technology is different: The subscriber gives a destination to an adviser, who then sends step-by-step directions directly into the car.
At that point, the adviser disconnects and the vehicle takes over. It will emit audio directions through the stereo. For example, an automated voice will say something like, "Turn right in 500 feet at Maple Avenue."
"We know customers like knowing that if they get lost they can get directions and routed somewhere," says Chet Huber, OnStar president. "We know the frustration of cost and usability of the screen GPS systems. This should be another opportunity to differentiate GM vehicles and OnStar in the competitive marketplace."
The technology will debut in the 2006 models of the Buick Lucerne and Cadillac DTS and STS sedans in March, Huber says. GM will start producing those vehicles this month. The technology will be available on nearly 1 million 2007 models across most GM brands and expand for the 2008 model year. GM will begin building its 2007 models this fall
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Similar to a number of other companies, we will cap GM’s contributions to U.S. salaried retiree health care on January 1, 2007 at the level of our 2006 expenditures. This means, after that date, any increase in health care costs will be borne by the eligible retirees. We will develop health care plan alternatives to try to mitigate the impact on retirees, and the benefit that GM continues to provide is substantial.
This decision was made after great deliberation. When these benefits were conceived years ago, no one could have foreseen the explosive inflation in U.S. health care costs that we have experienced in recent years. The costs are simply not sustainable. This action will put GM on less disadvantaged footing versus global and domestic competitors, reducing our salaried post retiree health care obligation by $4.8 billion, and reducing pre-tax annual expense levels by about $900 million.
We will substantially alter our salaried pension benefits for current U.S. employees. While we will announce specific details early next month, we intend to freeze accrued benefits in the current plan, and implement a new plan which may include a defined contribution or cash balance plan. This decision will not impact current retirees or surviving spouses.
The Board of Directors elected to reduce our quarterly dividend by 50 percent from its prior level of 50 cents per quarter, or $2 per year to 25 cents per quarter, or $1 per year. GM shareholders, which include many of us, have already suffered from our stock price decline in recent months. But, this move is necessary to enhance GM’s liquidity. It will reduce our annualized cash outflow to fund total dividends from $1.1 billion to $565 million.
The Board voluntarily reduced board member compensation by 50 percent.
Finally, the GM senior leadership team will cut its salaries, in the spirit of shared sacrifice. My salary will be reduced by 50 percent, our vice chairmen John Devine, Bob Lutz and Fritz Henderson by 30 percent, and executive vice president Tom Gottschalk by 10 percent. While our executive compensation system is already structured to significantly reduce total compensation when the business and stock price are underperforming, we all agreed that this is the right additional step to take at this time.
These are among the most challenging times in General Motors’ almost 100-year history. I’m convinced that we can get through this period, and come out as a strong competitor, with a bright future for our company and our people. But, that bright future isn’t just going to happen. The measures announced today and over the past six months are necessary to position GM for future success.
Take rate will be higher than what the Nav screen is selling now. People are just not buying the $2000 Nav screen, primarily in vehicles under $35K. It is almost impossible to find a nav screen in any Honda or Toyota yet they always show them in their advertisements. Dealers just do not order them because the buyers do not want to spend the big money. It's almost 10% of the purchase price!!!
The OnStar is also not so scary of a system. Just push the button. The nav screens are very difficult to figure out and most buyers do not want to even try. Yes the nav screens are very pretty and there are buyers who want the looks but the preponderance of the buyers just do not want to mess with them.
January sales of the first SUVs on the GMT900 architecture – the 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe, GMC Yukon and Cadillac Escalade – were strong. Dealers say the redesigned SUVs are selling at or near sticker price.
GM executives have acknowledged that the high-margin SUVs are critical to GM's financial success this year.
Dealers sold 3,000 new 2007 model Tahoes in January, says Paul Ballew, GM's executive director of global market and industry analysis. That's twice as many as GM had hoped for, he says.
http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060206/SUB/60203060&SearchI- D=73234935806247
I hope there's a missing zero in that figure, because a rate of 36,000 Tahoes a year will have GM bankrupt by May.
I guess those salary cuts are better than nothing, although 10% is kinda weak, and it is still hard to argue that these guys are worth it. I wonder how bonuses are impacted, not to mention any potential golen parachutes, and if their own retirement stuff is impacted.
They'll pick up in sales. I think the first month the Chrysler 300 was out (March 2004?) I think they only sold like 2-3,000. But in January it sold almost 13,000 units.
FWIW in January, Chevy sold 13,093 Tahoes (I'm guessing combined '06/07 sales). The next most popular SUV was the Suburban, at 5,507. The Expedtion only moved 5,316 units. I don't think GM has too much to worry about with these new SUV's.
No bonus's this year (payable on last years performance) and I doubt there will be any for this year.
Do not know of any golden parachutes. Pensions have not been decided yet.
Yeah, they will sell without a doubt. Even if gas prices spike...there's enough of a captive market for a new model, and these new ones look so much better than the previous ones. Now if they let the design age too much (as GM is so skilled at) there might be some backlog at the end of the model life.
"No bonus's this year "
Good, nor should there be. I guess baby steps are better than no steps at all.
A golden parachute wouldn't be seen unless someone is cut or walks...and even then they'll fight to the end to cover it up, no doubt. Not that they aren't worth every penny they make.