El Kabong

"Nearly as fast?" I can live with that too. Well, it's been a surprisingly pleasant night. You gave GM props for truck sales, and I explained why I'm not concerned about Mustang sales too much. It's good when things turn out well.

At last we agree on something. ...I can't see GM truck sales slowing either.

Now, you want to talk about sales... how 'bout them GM pickups? WOOT

Eh. All I know is that once innovation happens in a segment, the incumbent needs to scramble to catch up. So, as I said, I can live with a once in a blue moon sales spurt.

Laziness in updating platforms rarely ends well.

Steady sales victories over the previous years are just fine. Like I said, it's not like Ford is exactly punctual with doing new Mustangs, so a once every decade and a half sales spurt is ok.

The last time it sold in those numbers was also the last time it had a new platform. That was back in 2004. Once every eleven years is pretty thin gruel for bragging rights.

Unlike the other two, it's a standalone platform, so it had better sell.

I voted today. Viva Prime Minister Steve.

Interesting stuff. Thanks for the link. What makes these findings different IMO is that the scale of the overrun is smaller, plus the admitted fact that NOx resting in Europe is more lenient. In other words, what we are seeing in the real world is a scaled-up version of the difference between claimed and observed mileage claims. Upon further analysis I suspect that the public health claims once again gloss over the fact that there are polluters out there that operate at far more relaxed levels, but the car is the convenient target for tree-huggers.

I disagree, there are plenty of batteries now with high enough amps to support longer range and I see no reason why a suburban could not have a 400-500 mile range as you have all the space on both sides of the drive line and behind the rear wheels so you can have enough battery for a long distance drive plus cost is always coming down on the auto's. And that's fine. But it ain't cheap (yet).

Thanks, man. I'll also admit that there's a certain part of me that enjoyed seeing Toyota get the thrashing, more so than most other automakers.

It will be interesting to see how much pizzaz the production model has compared to the concept they showed in New York. I suspect at that point we will get a much more realistic assessment of what Lincoln can do relative to the potential competitors in its size and weight class.

Speaking for myself I have pointed out elsewhere that passenger cars have been regulated for pollution much more closely than things like commercial transportation or power plants. Similarly, Drew's point is also valid-the resulting threshold for cars is so low that even a fail that is orders of magnitude above what is allowable is still quite small. Is there a political aspect to attacking VW on this issue? Probably, in the same way that it was for GM and Toyota when they had their recall woes lately. But what's good for the Americans and Japanese is also good for the Germans. And again, it's not like the technology to meet the regs didn't exist, because it did.

To be fair, this win was as inevitable as the tides. GM came to the segment loaded for bear and whatever players were still hawking product were doomed to be cannon fodder. Still, a 27-point win for the GM product is proof that excellence of execution is the only way to succeed in today's car biz. Half-assed hype just gets you funny looks and a bit of ad copy. I also struggle with the description of 115,000 units in a startup year as niche numbers. But I suppose one person's niche numbers are another person's market segment gainers.

And let's not forget that Duramax. The early reviews have been promising.

Ah well. They need to pay the price.

(The joys of wrestling with uploads)

It wasn't even close. The Chevy straight-up annihilated the facelifted Tacoma (217 points to the Taco's 190). Dead tree media again, so go buy the November '15 magazine to see, or wait until it goes online.

Not everyone did. But hey, it ain't mine-I stole it from David E. Davis. If you're gonna rip off someone, you rip off the best.

Tell that to my wife after a Camaro and a Corvette

Meh. Ban the trolls. They ruin forums.

I am going to belly up to the bar and buy Leafs tickets this year. I have grave doubts about it being money well-spent.

Ya, I don't really see the logic of that myself. But it would probably look cool.