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Regards,
OW
I don't believe the names Impala, Malibu, and Camaro would have returned if they had the big negative equity so many seem to say. But as is so exhaustively usual here, only GM name changes are a negative....Toyota's aren't even mentioned, until I do it.
Perhaps not sales but surely profits in a company so diseased it basically failed years before the final curtain.
Like most discontinued models, GM's business model was.... :lemon:
Regards,
OW
Come on pal, they've been making Caprices for a couple years now...my city's police force uses them. They're at least as available to you, me, and everybody else as those Captivas, and the SS's you told me were available last fall ;.
Camaro - '11
Cobalt -'06, '08
Cruze - '11
Equinox - '05, '08
Impala - '02; '04 - '08
Malibu (4-Cyl.) - '05
Malibu (V-6) - 02; - '07 - '08; '11
Let me know if anyone wants to see the Pickup/SUV categories.
Buyer beware.
Regards,
OW
Drove a non-turbo EX yesterday, it exceeded my expectations. Check the Chronic Car Buyers for details as it is off topic here.
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
Again, I doubt an '11 Malibu V6 is less reliable than the '08-10. Why would it be?
Geez, guess I shoulda bought an '07 or '09 Cobalt--LMAO. Still waiting for that damn cheap OEM Cobalt battery to die yet...but the dumb thing just keeps turning right over, even sitting outside all the time in single-digit temps. You literally cannot tell it is running at idle...all for under $10K new. It may be the smartest new-car purchase I've ever made (I'd much-rather spend extra $$ on an old hobby car over a new daily driver though).
I will say this...it used to be that you could tell when a battery was going by the way the car cranked. Seems like the last couple or so batteries I've replaced just crapped out without warning.
Back to believing I did the right thing buying the Cobalt new....I've bought four new Chevrolets since April '02, and paid cash for all of them. I've loved having no car payments. That's been the right thing for me. The affordability has been a good thing.
I got a jump and then replaced it.
I financed my '91 Escort but paid it off early and since then I've saved up and paid cash each time.
I think that's a fair statement. Why start out with a hindrance?
Certainly, the marketing types (which I assume did marketing tests) understand the value of name equity, which is why we haven't, nor will we ever again, see a Chevrolet Vega, at least, in our lifetime.
Chrysler demonstrated there was a niche market for cars like the Challenger to return, to compete with the Mustang. Seems to me it was natural for Camaro to return to the same market segment, too. Lots of Boomers that have $$$ now that couldn't afford a muscle car back when the originals were out.
If Chrysler had been in better shape over the last decade, maybe we would have see Road Runners and GTX's, too.
Which car was it in? Seven years is good for your environment somewhere in the DC area--hot, hot in summer and cold in winter. Our battery in the leSabre made it 5-7 years, but it's under the rear seat in a moderate environment compared to the engine compartment.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I wonder if a certain unnamed regular here will go over to the Ford forum and post in capital letters, "CR SAYS NEW FUSION NOT RECOMMENDED".
No doubt, low-information or no-information consumers chose the 2005 Cavalier over the world class and benchmark Civic.
Here is what Edmunds said about each:
Cavalier:
Despite various revisions, there's no hiding the fact that the 2005 Chevrolet Cavalier was engineered more than a decade ago, leaving it hopelessly outclassed by nearly every other car on the market.
Pros: Low price, torquey four-cylinder engine, optional satellite radio and OnStar.
Cons: Ancient design inside and out, cheap interior materials, poor build quality, low resale value, poor side-impact and front-offset crash test results, ABS no longer standard.
Civic:
Still the head of its class, the 2005 Honda Civic is the most refined, solidly built economy car on the market.
Pros: Fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly engines, roomy interior, reputation for durability and quality, impressive crash test scores.
Cons: Top-of-the-line models are pricey, antilock brakes not available on DX or LX.
Again--phenomenally arrogant to tell someone why they should or shouldn't have bought a certain vehicle. I doubt the Cavalier was out of the top ten the entire 24 years it was built. My much-younger B-I-L drove our '97 at 105K miles. He was man enough to say, "I expected it to be a POS but it wasn't at all". Of course, he needed to borrow a car because whatever ancient import he was driving at the time was down.
But I doubt I'll do any convincing. You're the guy more than one person here tried to show that even the creators of the Mustang said they were influenced by the Monza, but they didn't know as much as you. :lemon:
BTW, I'm surprised certain models of the Civic could not be had with ABS at any price. While I remember being disappointed that GM took it off the standard equipment list that late (both my base Cavaliers had it as standard equipment), GM was an industry leader in providing ABS standard, for years, on even its cheapest cars.
Smart consumers consider a variety of input in making their buying decisions, whether for cars or refrigerators. Input would include from those such as Edmunds, CR, Car and Driver, Motor Trend, Road and Track, Automobile and other publications whose job is to test and evaluate and give opinions on cars and other motor vehicles.
Of course, after reading what those who make their living testing cars say, then visits to car dealer showrooms, inspection of car, test drives (plural) on a variety of roads of 2, 3, 4, 5, etc cars in the market segment one is considering is prudent.
Now, given this regimen, if price or low price alone is not a criterion, what percent of consumers who did "due diligence" before purchase actually chose a Cavalier over a Civic?
That said, crowd wisdom can break down. And it probably breaks down more frequently than new cars do. :shades:
People who live in my city, and who live in my old hometown, both worked at the plant my Cavaliers were built in. I like that, and there's no bad in any of that.
Always one of the mantras of the crowd. If you want high resale, I suggest the smaller Mercedes or BMW's to have a high resale. Or a Corvette.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
OK. Don't know that would add up to 18.
But in the old days, we had a print Edmunds, blue books, and dozens of car mags. So maybe it's just the delivery that's changed. And you don't have to wait a month to see the corrections.
Frankly, reselling the car is the last thing I'm thinking about when I buy it.
I buy each of my cars as if its the last one I'm going to ever buy, and I get it equipped the way I would want such a car in that position to be equipped.
Jump started it, and the battery actually worked by the time I got home, but I just didn't trust it at that point, so I replaced it.
I looked the vehicle over closely and couldn't find any rental car identification, but that doesn't mean it couldn't have been a business fleet purchase. The tag showed it was licensed in Rutherford County, TN.
I waited a few minutes for the owner to show up, but finally left after a no-show. I was curious to ask him/her questions about the vehicle, and how they liked it.
It was a nice looking, smaller -sized SUV, IMO.
I hope the faults they found on the Fusion are sorted out by the time they move production out of Mexico.
The hybrid still scored high and appears to be a good value. I'm just not going to be the first guy on the block to buy one.
I think that is good advice for anyone interested in a new model introduction, regardless of manufacturer.
I'm of the opinion that those who simply must have the "latest and greatest" new design/model also assume a large part of the "debugging" process that cars go through when they finally hit the market.
That's Murfreesboro TN's county, which may include the Nissan plant area there.
Are you in TN?
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I think Avalon might have replaced a middle range Buick :shades:
To be fair, Echo was just the US name of what was the Yaris elsewhere, for many years. I'd blame marketers for that one.
Scion is a very cynical marketing exercise, and it warms my heart when I see older people driving them.
There are certainly SOME consumers who fall into other categories:
* The person who will consider many manufacturers but has a few they won't consider.
* The person who will only consider one manufacturer no matter what.
I think we have all three types on this board.
I think that's a fair statement. Why start out with a hindrance?
I don't. Why drop a name and spend the money building up a new one unless the current one has become a liability? Especially Impala and Malibu, which were out of action for a LONG time.
As for not saying "boo" about other companies' name changes, I already responded. Toyota has a decent list of retired nameplates. GM has a much longer list, and this is a GM forum. So while Toyota has retired the Corona, Cressida, Celica, Echo, Tercel, arguably the Camry Solara, and the MR2, GM has retired the Vega, Corvair, Caprice, Citation, Chevelle, Chevette, Cavalier, Cobalt, Metro, Tracker, Beretta, Corsica, Blazer, Blazer again (the S-10 version), and this is just Chevy, without getting into the entire Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Saturn, and Hummer lineups of nameplates. The Caprice PPV, of course, is a separate name from Caprice. :shades:
Anyone still want to compare Toyota to GM? Thought not.
It's a nicely sized SUV isn't it? Interior looks reasonably nice too.
Let me know again which dealers you knew had SS's in stock last fall.
It's OK, Fonzie, to say that you were wr....wr....wr...!
Go to your nearest Chevy dealer and look in their new car inventory stock, or in their brochure rack, for a Captiva. Let me know what you find out.
And you don't consider "Caprice PPV" to be a reintroduction of the name "Caprice"?
I think I've stepped into a Monty Python episode.
I didn't realize that the Malibu was such a "world car". I wonder if that's one reason why it's a little under-sized for the domestic market?
The Kia they tested was in the high $21s, for reference.
Price cut sounds like a good idea. Though I think it also simply had more equipment (thus helping its score).
So, do you think it will help? According to cars.com the base price of the Malibu compared to cars that sell in similar amounts, like the Sonata and Optima is higher, while being down on Standard hp, city fuel mileage, while being a few ticks better on the highway. The price drop might make it a bit more of a bargain than the other 2 competitors.
Comparison
My gut feeling is that the Malibu was always discounted more at the dealership level than the others. But that's merely a hunch based on what I've experienced, and heard over the years.
The price cut is a good thing for the buyer, and as a buyer instead of a pretend auto executive, I think it's a good thing.
There is only one model below a Malibu LT, and that's an LS, which isn't fleet-exclusive like the Captiva and Caprice PPV, but I bet more go there than into retail hands. Merely a guess. I don't know much 'equipment' an LT would have. As has always been the case with GM, with a few exceptions, I think nobody pays sticker price. I haven't paid sticker price once in 32 years.
Funny, the Fusion Titanium (isn't that the uppermost model?) scored only 76, seven points below a Malibu LT. Now, you won't even see me defending the Malibu Eco, which scored a couple points below the Titanium. (They thought the Sonata Hybrid sucked too.)
The Ford hybrid scored very high, though. And price isn't bad - closer to the Malibu's MSRP than the Optima they tested.
I still say let 'em work out the bugs, and maybe wait for a Made in the USA Fusion, rather than getting a Mexican built one now.
Which GM cars have a panoramic moonroof? Prefer something fuel efficient, and under $35k. For mostly city use.
On paper the C-Max was near perfect but I took the family to the auto show and all 3 of them said no. That back seat is a travesty.
They hate MyFord touch so that may have dragged the score down if the 1.6T model didn't have it.
Also, keep in mind this is the kind of magazine that determines what car you should recommend to your Aunt Edna - big tires = harsh ride and those get dinged, too.
http://youtu.be/JaPGPUv64UY
The only nit pick was fuel economy, but if you're familiar with their reviews, that's about as good as they get.
One reason could be that different market segments react differently to how products and services are marketed.
A great example is cellphones. Try to market a full-featured smart phone to the above 65 crowd and you're probably not going to see record sales. Take the same phone and market it to the teenager crowd and you'll see the opposite happen.
Now, offer a simple, large button flip-phone with large text display to the over 65 crown, and you'll most likely sell more phones... Phones which would totally be rejected by the teenager crowd.
I think older Americans place much more credence in an old car name than one under 25-30 years of age. At least, that's what I've seen in my experience. I doubt few young buyers are looking at Impalas or Malibus (the Cruze is probably more their style).
The Camaro is attempting to capitalize off the same market as Mustang and Challenger, so it makes sense to use the same old name. In a car like that, which appeals to more than one market segment (both boomers and young,sports oriented buyers), keeping a "heritage" name can help generate sales, at least from the boomer crowd.