What gets me the most are the "capitalist" "free market" anti-federal aid types who then turn around and embrace Hyunkia. They wouldn't exist today if not for their own federal aid.
Was it on this forum where 'buy American' was equated with racism? It's only a sin to have pride in where you are from and what your area makes if you are from a few areas.
About 5 years ago, I was nearly run off the road by a prick in a Chevy Avalanche. Then I was told that my car (a Honda Accord at the time) was not allowed on the roads and that I should go back to China)...
Ya, no racist undertones there....
BTW, surf a few of the pro-GM sites, or the Ford sites, or the Chrysler sites. There is plenty of similar goons trying to make the same statements.
Btw, my post was in regards to the new Camry which will have 100% built in America sold in America. My comment was that even the most racist (extremist) goons should see that as a positive.
Dang! That's even older than the average age of cars after WWII which I believe was around 7 years-old. WWII interrupted the production of civilian automobiles from around February 1942 to July 1945. My Grandpop told me demand for cars was so great, new cars would often be missing bumpers in order to keep up with demand. Your new 1946 model car might show up with a wooden plank in lieu of a bumper until a bumper was later shipped to and installed by the dealer.
I imagine today's age of cars has more to due with the average car's greater longevity and the current economic depression. Unemployed, underemployed, and folks afraid for their employment don't buy new cars.
Too bad we aren't as proud of our industries as Koreans are theirs. Domestic brands should also outnumber imports by a similar margin as they once did decades ago.
Wow. 6,076 cars. Here's a recall on 168,275 Audis and VW's from yesterday. I'll have to check over on their boards to see if you mentioned this there...
>Too bad we aren't as proud of our industries as Koreans are theirs. Domestic brands should also outnumber imports by a similar margin as they once did decades ago.
Right on point. If we were supporting our local, actually manufactured, assembled, and sold in the USA (and Canada) autos, we would be a lot better off in this country. Instead it became chic to continuously downgrade the US company products and [non-permissible content removed] and moan about what happened 25 years ago or even 15 years ago with this or that--instead of supporting and building up our US financial base. But that's okay. I'm sure the Japanese and Chinese will contribute to the Soc Security funds to pay for the retirements of those who downrate the US company products.
Odd, the same people kvetching about the US products with always some terrible awful story, don't notice the long term problems the invading manufacturers have had with their products, from the rust-to-rust of early examples to the sludge and oil use problems and the transmission terrors of late for the certain foreign manufacturers who assemble their cars here of parts which are perhaps actually built in rather than just assembled in the country here.
It's pretty easy to see where the extremism is on this board. Besides the 'racist' comment, we had the comment from the other poster about it being too bad that GM fans weren't in the Twin Towers on 9/11.
Sick. I mean, really.
2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2LT; 2019 Chevrolet Equinox LT; 2015 Chevrolet Cruze LS
A 9-11 comment is distasteful even ten years after the incident. Seems the import fanboys forgot about another certain dastardly sneak attack about 70 years ago.
I've had my experiences with VW in the past. For one to own a VW, you must either be a masochist or have the patience of Job. Don't know so much about Audi so I can't really comment on them though I would greatly fear owning an out-of-warranty Audi. Somehow, I think I'd be more comfortable with an out-of-warranty Benz than an Audi.
BTW, surf a few of the pro-GM sites, or the Ford sites, or the Chrysler sites. There is plenty of similar goons trying to make the same statements.
I'll never forget this one dude I came across about 21 years ago. I hadn't had my '57 DeSoto for very long, was living with my grandmother at the time, and had taken her to the grocery store in it. When we got back to the house, a pale blue '63 Plymouth Fury out on the street slowed down, as if the driver was casing the house.
Well, about an hour later, the guy came back, pulled up into the driveway, and introduced himself as Arch. After listening to him talk a couple minutes, I was thinking that he should've tacked an "-ie Bunker" to his name. Well, he went on and on about how he's a big Mopar fan and he'll look out for other Mopar owners. If he saw a fellow Mopar owner broken down along the road he'd bend over backwards to help them out, but if he saw a Japanese car owner broken down, he'd stop and laugh at them and say "should've bought American"!
A couple years later, he caught an attitude with me when he found out I bought a '67 Catalina. His attitude wasn't just buy American, but "Mopar or nocar!"
But, as time went on, I guess karma caught up with him. I ran into him about 7 or 8 years ago at a local classic car show. He asked me if I still had the DeSoto and I said yeah. I asked him what he was driving these days, and he said a Toyota Corolla! In fact, his whole family was driving Toyotas by that time. He said the old Mopars just kept breaking down too often!
Over the course of the summer, I always go to an all Ford show, all GM show, and then an all Mopar show at Carlisle PA. It's always amusing to hear each crowd talk about how awesome their car of choice is, and how bad the others suck!
In the Studebaker hobby, there are still folks who bought them new or worked at dealerships. Most hate GM first, and Ford second, and in their minds those two contributed to Studebaker's decline. The price wars and dumping of cars on dealers by Ford and GM in '53 and '54 didn't help, but a lot of it was economies of scale, of course. I think Stude did great to survive into the mid'60's, unlike most independents (except AMC, which really was the bones of Nash, and not-so-much Hudson).
2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2LT; 2019 Chevrolet Equinox LT; 2015 Chevrolet Cruze LS
Well, I absolutely love my DTS, so this XTS must be absolutely mind-blowing.
That XTS is probably a better car than the DTS, with regards to performance, fuel economy, handling, luxury, etc, but I'm not so crazy about the proportioning. The passenger cabin is just too big in relation to the tiny hood and rear deck, IMO. I think the DTS has much nicer proportions.
I think a lot of the American blather about US industry can't do it is really just an excuse for their buying on the cheap while government subsidized foreign companies pick up volume at the expense of American jobs. No problem with the transplants, many do much of the work and parts from the US, but I do try to stay away from an actual imported vehicle (and that includes Europe which tends toward socialistic practices).
I liked the four headlights of the '70 Chevelle better than the front end of the '71 and '72 models, but I do remember when the '71 Chevelle came out, liking it a lot better overall because of the (new) wheel opening trim, new wheel covers, and revised "Malibu" nameplates, as well as the new round taillights. In hindsight, though, I think some of the '71 colors were the worst (!), and the green inside that year was pea green!
2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2LT; 2019 Chevrolet Equinox LT; 2015 Chevrolet Cruze LS
Again, missing the point that GM is not the World. They advertise that but we are ALL lucky GM is not the only car company in the world.
GM is not the only American products company! We're talking pride in GM CARS. Stick with GM for this discussion.
The cars GM made in the "Dark Years" were worse than the competition if you only go by the market share decline. Who cars if VW were junk or Toyotas had sludge? GM was worse than all of them put together, afaic. Why? Because they were once the best. Once upon a Long Time Ago....
You do not loose that much market share for that many years and then blame the price of oil or the economy for utter failure.
When I go to a car show, anything presented by GM owners after 1970-1972 when compared strictly against GM pre-1970 shows the unequivocal decline built right into every GM car. That continued until 2007 for GM, afaic. The CARS got a little better each year but not enough to prevent utter failure in 2009. That is a long time to keep the blinders on at GM.
Reflects exactly what goes wrong when greed prevails in industry. Not saying any other country was better, just that the GM reflects the US decline of the recent past.
I guess you could be proud that GM failed and was brought back to life. They are FINALLY making products you could be proud to own.
My Aunt Cheryl and her husband Charlie had a 1972 Malibu two-door hardtop they purchased new. It was that dark green metallic that was popular in those years with a black vinyl roof and dark green brocade and vinyl interior. They traded a 7 year-old beige 1965 Chevrolet Impala four door hardtop for it. Three years later, it was totalled by a drunk driver who managed to hit three cars on their street and replaced with a tan 1975 Malibu sedan.
A '96 is currently my oldest GM and it went up for sale this week. It turned 184k a few days ago. There is a nearly identical one for sale in autotrader near Chi for $5250, except it is a '98 with only 78k miles. I got 96k out of mine for about 6k spent. The most expensive repair was $168 for a new starter/solenoid. Never even put a battery in it. Didn't fix the trans or paint, but if I could reset by 106k miles for $3k of difference, why put that much into those 2 items with 184k on it?
GM for me: Almost always easy to fix. Easy to find parts for, parts are cheap.
My BIL has a Kia Optima circa 2000. A nightmare to buy parts. Ex: nearly $300 for a 2 foot section of PS hose, that could only be had at the dealer.
Was getting 4 new tires for my '98 Astro Thursday and realized it will take $11,455 worth of gas to use up the 60k mile warranty on the tires if the current $3.29 gas price were to hold for about 7-8 more years. The van will be at 194k if I still have it when they wear out. All 4 tires total were about $50 more than that Kia hose.
Is gas mileage independent of tire pressure? Is mpgs measured by wheel revs and therefore a mile is just longer if the air pressure is higher?
Those foreign car parts are much better made, don't we all know, so that's why they cost so much more! And it's that better engineering they use with their foreign engineers! :P
I don't think the tread on the circumference of the tire travels a noticeably shorter or longer distance with the difference in air pressure between 29 and 36, e.g. I tend to run at the higher pressures. Drives my tire store crazy.
The tire tends to start traveling less when the pressure gets low to the point where the tread starts squirming as it hits the ground and releases. Then the odometer would read that more revolutions were traveled for the same real distance and the apparent, calculated MPG would be higher than it should be.
Those foreign car parts are much better made, don't we all know, so that's why they cost so much more! And it's that better engineering they use with their foreign engineers!
Oh, good. imid's coming over to the dark side!. :P
2015 Mazda 6 Grand Touring, 2014 Mazda 3 Sport Hatchback, 1999 Mazda Miata 2004 Toyota Camry LE, 1999.
If we have to listen to repetitve rants about GM in the long ago, I think we need to listen to how it took a coworker's garage 6 weeks to get a starter for his 940GL Volvo--that's back in the days where it was chic to have a Volvo in some circles. His was one. I had more fun reminding him of how expensive the parts were, when you finally got them. All the while I went to my GM shop or the locals parts box and picked up what I needed, if anything beyond regular maintenance, for my GM products. I still laugh at the other worker whose Volvo had to have a new battery in one year for $250 and the local Sears sold $50 diehards. But those Volvo batteries were "special." (Real "special": first one hardly lasted a year!) :sick:
Found this over in the 2011 Equinox Problems blog. Any one know if there is any wide scale validity to these problems?
GM's bread and butter 4 and 6 cylinder engines are now the 2.4 and 3.6 liters respectively. They are prevalent in most compact to midsize vehicles, cars to sport utilities. The problem is GM is having horrendous problems with both of them. The 2.4 has problems with the actuators and the 3.6 with its 3 timing chains
concerning the complaints on the internet about the Equinox in comparison to other cars:
Referencing arfc.org which I would consider the one objective source for complaints about different model and year vehicles.
I respect this site because it is a government site and it is pretty much immune to trolling in that it requires the VIN# and address of the people registering the complaints.
I realize the number of complaints is relative to the number of vehicles sold; in that the total number of complaints is not necessarily the complaints per vehicle sold. In addtion the number of complaints is miniscule compared to the number sold.
However if you look at the complaints per vehicle: year/model/# of complaints:
Those dirt cheap domestic parts got my old 1989 Chevy Astro to 360,000 miles. I quess those foreign cars with their expensive and better made parts should go 500,000 or more.
I thought that the height of the vehicle was changed by air pressure, therefore the radius of the tire at the point of contact changed with pressure. But if the transmission counts axle rotations to give an odometer reading, then you can't improve calculated mpgs by adding air. You can lessen the squirming and friction by pumping up the non-drive tires and help mpgs? So by adding air, the odo might say the mpg went down when it actually went up? If this is true, then new tires add the 1/4 inch tread thickness to the radius of the wheel, but the odo doesn't see the change and also no mpg improvement from new tires.
My 2.4 has been doing fine. delivering better than EPA numbers even with 10% ethanol (unavoidable). Also, my 4.8 in my truck is 10.5 yrs old and I never an issue with it. Same displacement per cyl.
I heard the Equinox sells very well. I drove a 3.6 Enclave rental last year and it ran great. I'm sure GM got to the bottom of the issues and has solutions long in place for both engines. Some people never stop talking about old problems. My friend dumped his Avalon over the sludge issue and talked about it endlessly.
In the past year we've had both the Acadia and Traverse as rentals and really liked them. Also got a CTS with the same engine as a rental upgrade. They drive quiet and smooth, and are very responsive like a Toyota so we're considering buying one of those CUV's down the road. However they are a bit pricey compared to some of the competition and sometimes I wonder if its just best to rent one when you need it.
nationalist: used by you 3 times and fintail once, none in an anti-domestic context.
protectionist: used only once by the import side, 3 times by domestic side, in one context accusing trading partners of doing it.
unionist: just once in a pro-import way, twice pro-domestic.
socialist: 24 times, but regarding Europe, Japan, China, "competitors", China, others, Korea, bank bailouts, etc.
redneck: 5 times, only once in a bad way and referring to 2 guys in an old beater pickup, not the domestic auto industry
racist: just once, and that one incident is mentioned 6 times in pro-domestic arguments, LOL
***
So, you see those terms, yes, but not used in the way you describe, for the most part.
In fact, reviewing the way the term "Socialist" was used, some 90% plus of the criticism is actually targeted the OPPOSITE way, i.e. at other governments.
Purely in terms of styling, I think the XTS looks great. Better than the CTS, even. Something about the proportions that just lends itself well to the crisp edges.
due to the following two reasons, I hope GM does succeed.
1) because if they don't, they will expect a 2nd bailout since Chrysler got multiple, various, and several chances as well.
2) More competition is always good, if only so that the suckers can overpay for the inferior products so I can still get a good deal on the superior stuff!
'18 Porsche Macan Turbo, '16 Audi TTS, Wife's '19 VW Tiguan SEL 4-Motion
There won't be another bailout - it would be political suicide. Have you shopped cars lately? Those Honda's and Toyota's are a far stretch from what they were a decade or so any more. Lots of cheapness in them just like everyone else. Most are made in the US with US parts vendors just like D3.
It's hard to beat the handling and interior on many German cars
That's why GM woke up and tuned the opel platform for Regal/Verano and the Cruze. No U.S. sedans or coupes handled like the Germans...and GM is now in the game afaic.
CTS was first and Buick is catching up. Finally. Now they need to boost the turbo up and tweak the suspensions. (We already know that Chevy missed the boat by not using the G8 for the Impala and the Malibu needs a few years to develop a performer version).
By the way, found a nice tidbit regarding the Regal GNX. Here is the license plate for the front: "I brake for Corvettes" back in '87. The GNX was faster than the 'Vette that year.
By the way, found a nice tidbit regarding the Regal GNX. Here is the license plate for the front: "I brake for Corvettes" back in '87. The GNX was faster than the 'Vette that year.
I remember they kept the actual HP of the GNX secret for years, and people speculated it was north of 300. Eventually, I think the truth came out and it was really 276. Pretty impressive, considering the regular Grand National was only around 230-240 hp.
C&D or MT actually managed to get a regular Grand National to go from 0-60 in 4.9 seconds in one of their tests, but they did add the disclaimer that it probably couldn't be done on a reliable basis. For one thing, they did that test in the winter, and supposedly cars perform better in cold weather. Maybe because the cold air is heavier and has more oxygen in it, or something? I think they said most people could expect around 6.0 seconds. I don't think I've ever seen a test of a GNX, but Wikipedia mentions a 0-60 time of 4.7 seconds. I doubt too many automatic transmission cars can do that!
Comments
Was it on this forum where 'buy American' was equated with racism? It's only a sin to have pride in where you are from and what your area makes if you are from a few areas.
About 5 years ago, I was nearly run off the road by a prick in a Chevy Avalanche. Then I was told that my car (a Honda Accord at the time) was not allowed on the roads and that I should go back to China)...
Ya, no racist undertones there....
BTW, surf a few of the pro-GM sites, or the Ford sites, or the Chrysler sites. There is plenty of similar goons trying to make the same statements.
Btw, my post was in regards to the new Camry which will have 100% built in America sold in America. My comment was that even the most racist (extremist) goons should see that as a positive.
GM Recalls 2011, 2012 Chevrolet Corvettes Over Hatch Hinges
Oops :sick:
I imagine today's age of cars has more to due with the average car's greater longevity and the current economic depression. Unemployed, underemployed, and folks afraid for their employment don't buy new cars.
5 years (2007 Cadillac DTS Performance)
7 years (2005 Buick LaCrosse)
7 years (2005 Mercury Grand Marquis LS)
23 years (1989 Cadillac Brougham)
Averaging all my cars, I'm right around that 10 year mark for the average car age.
nationalist
protectionist
anti-free trade
unionist
socialist
redneck
racist
http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/recalls/results.cfm?rcl_id=11V490000&searchtype=qui- - cksearch&summary=true&refurl=rss
Right on point. If we were supporting our local, actually manufactured, assembled, and sold in the USA (and Canada) autos, we would be a lot better off in this country. Instead it became chic to continuously downgrade the US company products and [non-permissible content removed] and moan about what happened 25 years ago or even 15 years ago with this or that--instead of supporting and building up our US financial base. But that's okay. I'm sure the Japanese and Chinese will contribute to the Soc Security funds to pay for the retirements of those who downrate the US company products.
Odd, the same people kvetching about the US products with always some terrible awful story, don't notice the long term problems the invading manufacturers have had with their products, from the rust-to-rust of early examples to the sludge and oil use problems and the transmission terrors of late for the certain foreign manufacturers who assemble their cars here of parts which are perhaps actually built in rather than just assembled in the country here.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Sick. I mean, really.
ROFLMAO. Of course, they weren't mentioned. Those cars are perfect. The problems are just people in error trying to "hate" on the brands.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
2012 Chevrolet Sonic Bungee Jumps in Publicity Stunt (Inside Line)
And we don't need any cracks about what country all those cargo containers came from (ok, too late :shades: )
I'll never forget this one dude I came across about 21 years ago. I hadn't had my '57 DeSoto for very long, was living with my grandmother at the time, and had taken her to the grocery store in it. When we got back to the house, a pale blue '63 Plymouth Fury out on the street slowed down, as if the driver was casing the house.
Well, about an hour later, the guy came back, pulled up into the driveway, and introduced himself as Arch. After listening to him talk a couple minutes, I was thinking that he should've tacked an "-ie Bunker" to his name. Well, he went on and on about how he's a big Mopar fan and he'll look out for other Mopar owners. If he saw a fellow Mopar owner broken down along the road he'd bend over backwards to help them out, but if he saw a Japanese car owner broken down, he'd stop and laugh at them and say "should've bought American"!
A couple years later, he caught an attitude with me when he found out I bought a '67 Catalina. His attitude wasn't just buy American, but "Mopar or nocar!"
But, as time went on, I guess karma caught up with him. I ran into him about 7 or 8 years ago at a local classic car show. He asked me if I still had the DeSoto and I said yeah. I asked him what he was driving these days, and he said a Toyota Corolla! In fact, his whole family was driving Toyotas by that time. He said the old Mopars just kept breaking down too often!
Over the course of the summer, I always go to an all Ford show, all GM show, and then an all Mopar show at Carlisle PA. It's always amusing to hear each crowd talk about how awesome their car of choice is, and how bad the others suck!
In the Studebaker hobby, there are still folks who bought them new or worked at dealerships. Most hate GM first, and Ford second, and in their minds those two contributed to Studebaker's decline. The price wars and dumping of cars on dealers by Ford and GM in '53 and '54 didn't help, but a lot of it was economies of scale, of course. I think Stude did great to survive into the mid'60's, unlike most independents (except AMC, which really was the bones of Nash, and not-so-much Hudson).
Aging clientele? I'm a youthful 46!
That XTS is probably a better car than the DTS, with regards to performance, fuel economy, handling, luxury, etc, but I'm not so crazy about the proportioning. The passenger cabin is just too big in relation to the tiny hood and rear deck, IMO. I think the DTS has much nicer proportions.
Click me!
Wise move by GM IMO. Getting a diesel should be a priority for ALL automakers at this point.
As for the 50 MPG goal, I'll be surprised (and disappointed) if Chevy doesn't meet or exceed it.
GM is not the only American products company! We're talking pride in GM CARS. Stick with GM for this discussion.
The cars GM made in the "Dark Years" were worse than the competition if you only go by the market share decline. Who cars if VW were junk or Toyotas had sludge? GM was worse than all of them put together, afaic. Why? Because they were once the best. Once upon a Long Time Ago....
You do not loose that much market share for that many years and then blame the price of oil or the economy for utter failure.
When I go to a car show, anything presented by GM owners after 1970-1972 when compared strictly against GM pre-1970 shows the unequivocal decline built right into every GM car. That continued until 2007 for GM, afaic. The CARS got a little better each year but not enough to prevent utter failure in 2009. That is a long time to keep the blinders on at GM.
Reflects exactly what goes wrong when greed prevails in industry. Not saying any other country was better, just that the GM reflects the US decline of the recent past.
I guess you could be proud that GM failed and was brought back to life. They are FINALLY making products you could be proud to own.
But so are the competition.
Regards,
OW
GM for me: Almost always easy to fix. Easy to find parts for, parts are cheap.
My BIL has a Kia Optima circa 2000. A nightmare to buy parts. Ex: nearly $300 for a 2 foot section of PS hose, that could only be had at the dealer.
Was getting 4 new tires for my '98 Astro Thursday and realized it will take $11,455 worth of gas to use up the 60k mile warranty on the tires if the current $3.29 gas price were to hold for about 7-8 more years. The van will be at 194k if I still have it when they wear out. All 4 tires total were about $50 more than that Kia hose.
Is gas mileage independent of tire pressure? Is mpgs measured by wheel revs and therefore a mile is just longer if the air pressure is higher?
I don't think the tread on the circumference of the tire travels a noticeably shorter or longer distance with the difference in air pressure between 29 and 36, e.g. I tend to run at the higher pressures. Drives my tire store crazy.
The tire tends to start traveling less when the pressure gets low to the point where the tread starts squirming as it hits the ground and releases. Then the odometer would read that more revolutions were traveled for the same real distance and the apparent, calculated MPG would be higher than it should be.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Oh, good. imid's coming over to the dark side!. :P
If we have to listen to repetitve rants about GM in the long ago, I think we need to listen to how it took a coworker's garage 6 weeks to get a starter for his 940GL Volvo--that's back in the days where it was chic to have a Volvo in some circles. His was one. I had more fun reminding him of how expensive the parts were, when you finally got them. All the while I went to my GM shop or the locals parts box and picked up what I needed, if anything beyond regular maintenance, for my GM products.
I still laugh at the other worker whose Volvo had to have a new battery in one year for $250 and the local Sears sold $50 diehards. But those Volvo batteries were "special." (Real "special": first one hardly lasted a year!) :sick:
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Heck, alot of them are made in the US and Canada these days.
GM's bread and butter 4 and 6 cylinder engines are now the 2.4 and 3.6 liters respectively. They are prevalent in most compact to midsize vehicles, cars to sport utilities. The problem is GM is having horrendous problems with both of them. The 2.4 has problems with the actuators and the 3.6 with its 3 timing chains
EquinoxForums.net
Recall11195a seems to work along with some reprogramming in some cases.
Regards,
OW
Referencing arfc.org
which I would consider the one objective source for complaints about different model and year vehicles.
I respect this site because it is a government site and it is pretty much immune to trolling in that it requires the VIN# and address of the people registering the complaints.
I realize the number of complaints is relative to the number of vehicles sold;
in that the total number of complaints is not necessarily the complaints per vehicle sold. In addtion the number of complaints is miniscule compared to the number sold.
However if you look at the complaints per vehicle:
year/model/# of complaints:
2010/Equinox/71
2011/Equinox/38
2010/Rav-4/111
2011/Rav-4/15
2010/Sante Fe/81
2011/Sante Fe/6
Chevy Malibu vs other models:
2010/Malibu/58
2011/Malibu/15
2010/Accord/96
2011/Accord/43
2010/Camry/246
2011/Camry/59
2010/Sonata81
2011/Sonata/391
2010/Prius/1617
Referencing the actual number of compalnts filed to the NHTSA it seems GM is doing very well in comparison to the competition
Those dirt cheap domestic parts got my old 1989 Chevy Astro to 360,000 miles. I quess those foreign cars with their expensive and better made parts should go 500,000 or more.
I heard the Equinox sells very well. I drove a 3.6 Enclave rental last year and it ran great. I'm sure GM got to the bottom of the issues and has solutions long in place for both engines. Some people never stop talking about old problems. My friend dumped his Avalon over the sludge issue and talked about it endlessly.
The popular GM 3.6L DI, 2.4L EcoTec and 1.4L TwinPort are the winners in the recent 3 years.
Here're the complete lists. Ward's 10 Best Engines
nationalist: used by you 3 times and fintail once, none in an anti-domestic context.
protectionist: used only once by the import side, 3 times by domestic side, in one context accusing trading partners of doing it.
unionist: just once in a pro-import way, twice pro-domestic.
socialist: 24 times, but regarding Europe, Japan, China, "competitors", China, others, Korea, bank bailouts, etc.
redneck: 5 times, only once in a bad way and referring to 2 guys in an old beater pickup, not the domestic auto industry
racist: just once, and that one incident is mentioned 6 times in pro-domestic arguments, LOL
***
So, you see those terms, yes, but not used in the way you describe, for the most part.
In fact, reviewing the way the term "Socialist" was used, some 90% plus of the criticism is actually targeted the OPPOSITE way, i.e. at other governments.
Surprise. :P
1) because if they don't, they will expect a 2nd bailout since Chrysler got multiple, various, and several chances as well.
2) More competition is always good, if only so that the suckers can overpay for the inferior products so I can still get a good deal on the superior stuff!
That's why GM woke up and tuned the opel platform for Regal/Verano and the Cruze. No U.S. sedans or coupes handled like the Germans...and GM is now in the game afaic.
CTS was first and Buick is catching up. Finally. Now they need to boost the turbo up and tweak the suspensions. (We already know that Chevy missed the boat by not using the G8 for the Impala and the Malibu needs a few years to develop a performer version).
By the way, found a nice tidbit regarding the Regal GNX. Here is the license plate for the front: "I brake for Corvettes" back in '87. The GNX was faster than the 'Vette that year.
Regards,
OW
I remember they kept the actual HP of the GNX secret for years, and people speculated it was north of 300. Eventually, I think the truth came out and it was really 276. Pretty impressive, considering the regular Grand National was only around 230-240 hp.
C&D or MT actually managed to get a regular Grand National to go from 0-60 in 4.9 seconds in one of their tests, but they did add the disclaimer that it probably couldn't be done on a reliable basis. For one thing, they did that test in the winter, and supposedly cars perform better in cold weather. Maybe because the cold air is heavier and has more oxygen in it, or something? I think they said most people could expect around 6.0 seconds. I don't think I've ever seen a test of a GNX, but Wikipedia mentions a 0-60 time of 4.7 seconds. I doubt too many automatic transmission cars can do that!