riviera74

Camino, I think that sketch is unlikely for the next Riviera.

Sounds OK I guess, but where is the replacement for the once-flagship Q series?

Can someone explain to me why Opel CAN be fixed when it needs to shuttered for at least a year or three? I personally doubt that Opel is salvageable at this point as a separate car marque, but the IP can be salvaged in newer Buicks and Chevys. As for the European (especially German) unions, tell them that they will be frozen out until the market recovers, which may not happen until 2015 at the earliest.

Are you sure it will be that small?! I am thinking at least the '95-'99, if not the '79-85 Riv (RWD of course).

Wrong. The beancounters decide, not the majority. They are the source of the bland, as beancounters are not creative. In a world with too many manufacturers, this is a losing approach. It is a slow death instead of a quick one, but a death just the same. Fewer platforms and more bodystyles is the way to go. Only the manufacturers who stand out by offering more variety will advance. : All sayeth Camino LS6 Explain Toyota's and Honda's success in the last 40 years. Neither make exciting cars.

A diesel ATS is mandatory in Europe, as is a diesel CTS. As for here, not so much. A question: why does Cadillac NOT have its own dealer network in Europe?

That is rather intriguing.

Natural Gas may not stay cheap forever though, especially if the oil companies find a way to export it to China and/or Europe since both locales are paying 4-6 times as much. It was not that long ago that regular gas was about $1 a gallon, compared to now.

That future SS should have its own name and NOT just SS. I will believe it when it is at least at an auto show and ideally at the local dealership. Why should it be called Chevelle when GM has explicitly stated that it will NOT carry an old name? Call it a Commodore instead, and the Ute instead of the El Camino. Why? No baggage here in NA.

Europe will not close much overcapacity without long painful strikes and some economic unrest. Some more automakers may have to go into liquidation for the European car market to right-size itself.

Good questions. Time to let Isuzu die.

Take the Lucerne (and get a slightly lower price on it). Ever since Buick discontinued it, demand for that large car is still fairly high. Second-gen LaCrosses are great, but expensive right now. If I were to replace my 99 Park Avenue Ultra with a Lucerne, it would be fairly tough down here in FL since they are surprisingly hard to find these days.

57K in sales for Mini. Wow. I am without words.

People buy Corollas and Civics now just like they have for the last 40 years for the same reasons: habits and perception. It certainly sounds like this is not the POS the '81 Escort was. Ford will need to get more aggressive in getting more compact buyers to get into the Focus.

500,000 Fiat 500s sold in Europe in two years?! Wow, no wonder Opel is desperate (or smart) to follow Fiat. I do hope they can pull that off, over there. BTW, does anyone know how many Mini Coopers and Fiat 500s sell here in the USA in 2011? 2012?

$29,995 for a base ATS makes sense. Once established, Cadillac can raise it to $34,995 to start.

The ATS will probably be priced at current CTS prices (with a small discount, maybe). Once the ATS is out, the 2013 CTS will be priced similar to a BMW 5 series (maybe).

Good luck to Opel for selling that car in Europe. Anything that small (especially the Fiat 500!) will not sell all that well here in the good old USA. Why do Mini Coopers sell here anyway?

Early '60s Corvair, since it was a rear-engined car.

Cadillac Cien

I do hope that the ATS AND the CTS are not just price-competitive with the 3 and the 5 series. Both need to be better than those BMWs just to get luxury buyers into them.

That would be great except for two things: where are the CNG stations if you lack the land to have a home fueling station AND how much is it to convert cars from gasoline to CNG?

$5000 to convert a gasoline engine to CNG? How will that work with, say, a supercharged engine such as the 3800 Supercharged in my Park Avenue Ultra? More importantly, conversion will have to be cheap and CNG stations would have to be plentiful in order for me (and most of the USA) to convert gasoline cars to CNG. Automakers would instead have you buy NEW cars instead of converting old ones.

Not quite true: Scions are sold as Toyotas in Japan. Example: the xB is sold as the bB in Japan's domestic market. Saturn started as a far more radical proposition than Scion ever was, even though at the end that was no longer true. Scion is more like Mercury in the last decade or so.

Given that the 2012 model 300 (all but the 300C) have 8AT instead of 5AT, there should be no problems here. Too bad GM has not done the same thing in a sedan yet.