riviera74

CAFE is a big problem. Weight is the real problem. Abolishing CAFE will not prevent gasoline from rising further than current levels. Ending CAFE will simply mean more people buying more gas as carmakers (somewhat) walk away from greater fuel efficiency. No real winners here, unless you own an oil refinery and a gas station and the oil under the ground.

According to the Free Press article, only Daimler, BMW and VW are doing well in Europe. It is past time for GM (and Ford) to shutter plants and get out of that economic pit that is Europe. Western Europe seems bent on preserving socialism at the expense of sound economics. Automakers are not charities: dump the plants and insource the engineering to the USA right now.

All I see are precentages. Where are the actual sales numbers?

So when will the automatics be released? Then we will see if the Dart is actually competitive.

It would be better if the Volt were $30,000 MSRP and the future ELR be about $50,000. High entry prices are why the Volt has 84 days in dealer inventory.

I do not miss SAAB. My mom had a 1995 SAAB 9000 CSE that I recommended because I had a summer job at that dealership at the time (Said dealership was shuttered in 2009.). That 9000 CSE was little more than a piece of junk. Worse yet, when the dealer shop found that there was a major engine problem, it was sent back to Sweden never to return. I have hated SAAB ever since. Good riddance. Instead of buying SAAB in 1990, GM should have corrected their financial and product issues instead!

Since the new CAFE standards are quite high, automakers in general (and GM in particular) should stop focusing so hard on hybrids and focus on something more valuable: cutting weight. Remember the old Geo Metro from 1989? That little car had high MPG for one reason: it was a bantamweight. Diesels would be great for trucks, but current and especially future GM cars need to ditch the tonnage right now. Too many GM cars could stand to drop 500-1000 pounds right now and GM would become the MPG leader almost immediately. No GM car or truck should be vying to weigh as much as my 99 Park Avenue Ultra (about 5000 lbs.). Smaller engines and e-Assist will not correct the original problem of too much mass.

QFT.

An 84 day supply of Volts is unacceptable. They should not even consider making more until that inventory clears. As for the 2014 Impala, a lot of people (me sort of included) cannot wait, especially given the lack of truly large cars out there these days (XTS, Charger/300, Taurus aside).

How does that CTS 3.0 compare to the CTS 3.6?

Wise decision by both GM and Chrysler, especially since one party wanted them both dead.

Dfelt, I could not agree more. I would go one step further. Close all Opel plants for at least one year, then open those that are economically viable. This will require breaking the overpampered unions in Europe. Other carmakers in Europe should do the exact same thing. (BMW and VW don't need to for obvious reasons.) Times have changed and European unions must adapt to the new economic reality imposed by bad economies and worse banks and the Euro.

Good news all around about the Cruze. Now if only they could straighten out the Malibu. . . . .

Perhaps they were thinking that few would noticethe Eco model and then forgive them once the regular 2013 Malibu came out. #Fail on that strategy. Wrong market, piss poor timing too.

Unfortunately, stupidity does not respect state lines. We have quite a few Ohioans living down here in FL. Then again, we have plenty of home-grown stupidity too.

That is disappointing. The only silver lining is that the Chevy SS and El Camino replacement are (or will be) built here in North America. Australia is great and all, but we need the jobs and work here.

Seems like a rush job to me (the car, not the review). I wonder what would happen if this were delayed six months. . . . .

I am not sure about that, given the near-worship of DOHC in the last 30 years or so.

I would say that in certain latitudes solar is good for electricity generation (especially down here in FL, as well as TX/AZ/CA/NM). The problem is that solar power is not good enough for baseline power. Only fossil fuels, geothermal, nuclear and hydroelectric are good enough for baseline power to power entire cities. Solar can be good for an electric car, if said car has enough battery to handle long days without sunlight. (Also, can an electric car survive a Detroit winter?) How does Germany get its electricity during the dead of winter, when sunlight is relatively weak? Most likely nuclear power, which they should keep. Should more homes in the Sunbelt have solar power? Yes, because it makes economic sense, not because of some misplaced love of the environment.

Yes, electricity can come from anywhere. We should ditch coal for nuclear right now, particularly generation IV plants. Transpotation is the real issue of course. Currently, there is no energy source out there with the portability and energy density of petroleum and its distillates. Solve that and you can deliver the USA out of fossil fuel dependence, perhaps forever.

Rear-drive is still unappreciated by the masses. Jaguar is making a turbocharged 4cyl? Brings back memories of the late unlamented Jaguar X-type.

So the new Malibu has issues. OK: given that GM has vehicles in other segments where they are class-competitive or class-leading, this is a non-issue. Of course Honda, Toyota, Nissan and VW will push out their best efforts in the midsize market. Why? Because that is where 50-75% of their revenues and profits come from. If GM were VW USA or Honda of America, I would be very very worried. Does GM need to push out a better Malibu? Yes, preferably right now. Is a poor showing on the Malibu going to kill GM? No, but Europe can. If this were 2006, where product overlap was rife, I would be very concerned. Does GM need more car people, especially in the executive suite? Absolutely. But GM needs profits and cash flow more. Right now, that is where GM is putting its emphasis on. Besides, the Malibu is not even the most important vehicle in Chevy's lineup for families: that is reserved for the Equinox and Traverse.

Any type of fuel based on foodstuffs is patently stupid. This is even before the drought that is affecting farm yields here in the USA this year. Corn-based ethanol is stupid and the EPA should scrap the mandates that require it to be blended into our gasoline. If you want ethanol (read E85), then use something else that humans (and livestock) DO NOT consume. There are plenty of alternatives to corn. If ADM cannot adapt, that is their problem. Also, we should completely end all farm subsidies because they are a waste of money. If it were cheap to convert all vehicles to natural gas, then it should be done. Or do we have to have all of our refineries shut down and/or on fire for that to happen? Current technology is designed to burn fossil fuels and nothing else. Short of a real game-changing technology, CNG is currently our best alternative.

I can see Hyundai focusing efforts on one V8, but just the R-spec? Is that wise?

Whoever can do this on a wide-scale could become rich. I'd love to cut out the middle-man and order a vehicle online, only to see it a couple days later. A flat rate for each trim line, all with the same options could make things less expensive. Yes many Americans would love to skip the dealer experience entirely, but strong franchise laws in each state prevents such a transition. Ideally, buying a car would be more like buying something from Amazon.com, but state legislators need their daily bribe and kickbacks.