BigPontiac

Hopefully that's some sort of camo on the nose! Yuck. The last "update" fixed the nose, it's the back of the car that still needs the reworking at this point. That and the crummy iDrive interface. The Bangle mangles continue...

The strange part is that it's dated Monday, Feb 14, 2005 Feb 14, 2006 was a Tuesday...so either this person's PC clock settings are off by 1 yr or this information may not be that helpful... Agreed the font info is much more "ingrained" in the document and harder to eliminate than the basic properties. Do you still have the original e-mails? Can you validate the mail headers in the messages to see if the originating e-mail address was forged? If you received it at your C&G address, you should be able to ask your ISP to look through the maillog to validate the originating source...same for Postfix or Sendmail.

User id as in the user id on the author's local Windows OS (XP, W2K, etc). Office products like Powerpoint will take a user id or initials (depending how you set it up) and include it in the properties of all your office files.

The attached file was a native powerpoint document, not a pdf file. For insight, I'd suggest looking at the document properties. The interesting ones are as follows: General Author: VRosas0271 [likely the person who created the original ppt template] Statistics Created: Monday, February 14, 2005 9:41:47 PM [original creation date of the file] Last saved by: Chris [the local user id of the ppt application user] So Josh, if you didn't save the file once you copied it to your local harddrive, this user id could be a possible link to your document author...

Except that the CTS is the size of a 5-Series, not a 3-Series. Hence the BLS to compete with the 3-Series in Europe... The CTS is huge compared to my 330i.

Any idea what that grounded AC plug hanging out of the front lower grille is for??

I'm hoping for chrome bumpers and mirrors as well. Easier to clean off the bugs and less susceptible to damage... I think AH-HA said we had to wait until Sept to see them unveiled though.

With all the hype surrounding the new Tundra, I guess I was expecting more. I like that they used some chrome accents on the mirrors, but I truly HATE the forward hinged rear doors (a-la Dodge Ram). The body to glass ratio makes it look kinda pudgy too. Dimensionally, it's about 2in WIDER than my Sierra and about 2in shorter in length, so I hope they plan on offering power-folding side mirrors as I have to be careful pulling into my garage bay as it is! Overall, I think the Nissan Titan was more "revolutionary" when it was introduced than this Tundra.

GM halves dividend, slashes top salaries Tuesday February 7, 9:07 am ET DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM - News) on Tuesday cut its dividend for the first time in more than 13 years as it struggles to save money after a year of billions of dollars in losses. GM's board of directors cut the dividend in half, to an annual rate of $1 a share, saving about $565 million a year. At the same time, Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner will see his salary cut in half, while Vice Chairmen John Devine, Robert Lutz and Fritz Henderson will see their salaries cut by 30 percent. Article continued Full URL: http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/060207/autos_gm.html?.v=5

Actually, my original post DID contain a link. The post was updated around 5:00 with more detail (not by me, Josh?) and the link to the original article was deleted.

GM cuts $200 million from ad budget Automaker will concentrate on product launches By JAMIE LAREAU | AUTOMOTIVE NEWS AutoWeek | Published 02/06/06, 8:14 am et DETROIT -- In the wake of its financial disaster in 2005, General Motors is cutting its 2006 national marketing budget by more than $200 million, sources close to GM say. The cuts come in a year of crucial product launches and renewed attempts to promote GM's new price strategy. GM's national ad budget will be about $1.3 billion this year, sources say. Older vehicles and brands such as Buick and Pontiac will suffer as GM concentrates its spending on product launches, including the critical full-sized SUVs and pickups. The cuts are aimed at improving profits after an $8.55 billion net loss in 2005, says an informed source who asked not to be named. In a Jan. 20 interview with Automotive News, Mark La-Neve, GM's vice president of vehicle sales, service and marketing, declined to disclose GM's marketing budget. He acknowledged, "We're trying to get costs down throughout the company. I would say one of the last places that we cut is marketing expenses, but we're trying to push down costs in the entire company." As is normal at GM, LaNeve said advertising support will be based on the potential for revenue from the various vehicles. "So we're spending more on the (full-sized trucks) than we would on the (Pontiac) Solstice launch," LaNeve said. GM executives say marketing for its redesigned full-sized SUVs and pickups remains substantial. A separate source familiar with GM's advertising strategy says GM's major divisions face varying prospects: Saturn will get a budget boost. This year, Saturn will launch the Sky roadster, the Aura mid-sized car and the Outlook crossover. Pontiac and Buick will get marketing budget trims. Cadillac and Chevrolet marketing budgets remain flat compared with last year. Article continued Full URL: http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti...1041/LATESTNEWS

York elected to GM board DETROIT – The General Motors Board of Directors today elected Jerome York to the GM Board, effective February 7, 2006. He will serve on the Board’s Public Policy Committee and Investment Funds Committee. “Jerry brings years of business experience and knowledge of the automotive industry to the GM Board,” said Rick Wagoner, GM chairman and chief executive officer. “We are pleased to welcome him to our Board.” York is a consultant to Tracinda Corp., the beneficial owner of approximately 9.9 percent of the common stock of GM. Tracinda Corp. is owned by Kirk Kerkorian. In his past business career, York spent 30 years in the automotive industry, having worked at General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. He spent 14 years at Chrysler Corp. in a variety of executive positions and served as executive vice president and chief financial officer of Chrysler from 1990 to 1993 and as a director from 1992 to 1993. York currently serves as a director of Tyco International Ltd., Apple Computer, Inc. and Exide Technologies, Inc. He has been chief executive officer of Harwinton Capital Corp., a private investment company that he controls, since 2003. From 1993 to 1995 he was senior vice president and chief financial officer of IBM Corp. and served as a member of IBM's Board of Directors in 1995. From 1995 to 1999, he was vice chairman of Tracinda Corp. York was chairman and chief executive officer of Micro Warehouse, Inc., a reseller of computer hardware, software and peripheral products from 2000 until 2003. He also served as a director of MGM MIRAGE from 1995 to 2005. Wagoner also announced that GM Board accepted the resignation of E. Stanley O’Neal, chairman and chief executive officer of Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. In submitting his resignation, O’Neal cited increased time demands resulting from the expanded schedule of GM board meetings which were difficult to accommodate given his responsibilities at Merrill Lynch, as well as limits on his ability to act as a GM director because of potential conflicts with matters in which Merrill Lynch is involved. “Stan O’Neal has been a great asset on the GM Board and to General Motors management over his 5 years of service as a director,” Wagoner said. “We are grateful for his many positive contributions to General Motors and wish him the best.” General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM), the world’s largest automaker, has been the global industry sales leader for 75 years. Founded in 1908, GM today employs about 327,000 people around the world. With global headquarters in Detroit , GM manufactures its cars and trucks in 33 countries. In 2005, 9.17 million GM cars and trucks were sold globally under the following brands: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Holden, HUMMER, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn and Vauxhall. More information on GM can be found at www.gm.com.

The Good News About America's Auto Industry Sure, Detroit is hurting. But in the Sunbelt, foreign carmakers are expanding, hiring, and stoking local growth Nandra Barnes knows about dead-end jobs. For seven years, the single mother of three labored as a welder at an air-conditioning factory in Grenada, Miss., a gritty job that, at $11.50 an hour, left her living paycheck to paycheck. Job security? Forget it. With every dip in orders, the factory would lay off more workers. "It seemed like there were always cutbacks," she recalls. Barnes was fearful of the day she would get the tap on the shoulder. So when Nissan Motor Co. (NSANY) opened a sprawling $1.4 billion assembly plant in nearby Canton, Barnes jumped at the opportunity and was lucky enough to snare one of the 4,200 jobs at the plant. Today, Barnes makes bumpers for Quest minivans and the four other models Nissan produces at the factory, where she earns more than $20 an hour -- a princely sum not just for rural Mississippi but for almost any U.S. blue-collar worker these days without a union card or a college degree. Barnes, 39, even has enough money left over after paying the bills to give her three kids things that she never had -- including, she hopes, a college education. "With this job I finally feel secure that I can take care of my family," she says. "I plan on retiring from here." This uplifting auto industry tale is the one you're not hearing these days: the good news story. It has been drowned out in the past year by the relentlessly downbeat headlines coming out of Detroit. Bankrupt parts makers. Massive job cuts by General Motors Corp. (GM ) and Ford Motor Co. (F ). Enough red ink to make the Rouge River truly rouge. It's easy to get the impression that domestic car manufacturing is headed toward the same inevitable extinction as American textile, apparel, and consumer-electronics production. But the reality is more nuanced. Look past the trouble in Detroit, and the auto industry is anywhere but in decline. In a growing number of Southern hamlets such as Canton, Toyota (TM ), Honda (HMC ), Mercedes (DCX ), and other foreign car manufacturers are providing nonunionized jobs -- 33,000 since 2000 -- that pay almost as much as United Auto Workers earn farther north. Consumers are enjoying more choice than ever, while the market as a whole is humming. Car sales in the U.S. inched up last year, to 17 million vehicles, the third-highest ever. Article continued Full URL: http://yahoo.businessweek.com/magazine/con...07/b3971057.htm

Here's a few: MarketWatch Reuters

THE VERDICT Highs: Uncluttered dash with big knobs, hushed interior, La-Z-Boy comfort in the front buckets. Lows: Ancient five-position tilt-column, legacy four-speed automatic, heritage Camry body shape. The Verdict: Watch the Gray Panthers pounce on this one. Other interesting quotes: "Apart from the reinterpreted portholes, the wedgy shape seems familiar and tired, a repeat of a 90's Camry; only the big-eye look in front saves it from being a complete cliché." "You'll have to live with GM's ancient tilt column that gives only five positions over a wide angle range; choose between not quite right or hopeless." "From a standing start, you get an initial jump off the torque converter up to 7 or so mph, followed by a sag as you wait for the twister V-8 to take over, which it does at about 28 mph; 60 mph comes up at just a tick under seven seconds (6.9), followed by the quarter-mile mark in 15.3 at 94 mph."

That was a weird review. Bedard complaining about tilt-wheel, port holes...and my favorite...that the DOHC V-8 had no low end torque! Yet, if he had tested the 3800 engine, he likely would have complained about it being a pushrod...can't win. I also found it odd they only compared it to the Chrysler 300C and the Ford 500 in the article and had no comparisons to the Toyota Avalon. The only Avalon comparison was in the chart at the end of the article. I used to enjoy his reviews, though lately they've gotten tiresome. He complained a lot about the HHR the previous month...which interestingly they keep calling the "me too cruiser" (and let's not forget the window control placement!) and yet the Honda Ridgeline, a copy of the Ford Explorer SportTrac, got a free pass as being "innovative." Hmmm...

While not Flint, this BusinessWeek article from Feb 1999 was kind of interesting to read now... Reviving GM Full URL: http://www.businessweek.com/1999/99_05/b3614001.htm

Bankruptcy, Shmankruptcy Jerry Flint, 02.13.06, 12:00 AM ET Enough already on General Motors and Bankruptcy. I am tired of the B-word. GM isn't going bankrupt this year; GM isn't going bankrupt next year; 2008 is so far off that even Bill Gates could be bankrupt by then. It's dangerous to go three years out, but no, I wouldn't expect GM to go bankrupt in 2008, either. Why not? The company has $19 billion in the kitty and just about $100 billion in the pension fund. But there's more here than the balance sheet. When I was a boy, there was one reason companies went bankrupt: They couldn't pay their bills. GM can pay its bills, so that's not a problem. The new reason for bankruptcy is to break a union contract. That works with airlines because there are always some Navy top guns who owe on their Corvettes and will replace your striking pilots. And there are lots of women left to replace your striking stews. Article continued Full URL: http://www.forbes.com/columnists/global/2006/0213/023A.html

There was a piece on GM's Fastlane blog last year about them tearing down a couple year old Silverado with 460,000mi on it...so, they may to a limited extent. Fastlane article Full URL: http://fastlane.gmblogs.com/archives/2005/...w_miles_on.html

BusinessWeek Online Toyota Builds A Truck Even Bubba May Love Friday February 3, 3:59 pm ET By David Kiley When Toyota Motor (NYSE:TM - News) Corp. engineers visited South Texas to ask locals what they wanted in a full-size pickup, the out-of-towners got a quick education in priorities. Sure, the truck had to be big and powerful, but it also needed Texas-size brakes to stop three-plus tons of horses, hay, gear, and trailer from taking out a corral fence or barn post. Toyota listened and learned. And at the Chicago Auto Show on Feb. 9, it will fire its boldest shot yet into the already wobbly defenses of Detroit's auto makers -- taking the wraps off the first full-size Toyota pickup that's large and tough enough to win over the NASCAR and big-belt-buckle crowd. The new Tundra, which will be built near San Antonio and arrives at dealerships early next year, spells big trouble for Detroit in the red-state Bubba-truck market, the last reliable profit redoubt for General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM - News) and Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F - News). Yes, this marks Toyota's third attempt to get a work truck right. And Nissan Motor Co. (NasdaqSC:NSANY - News) beat it to market with a legit full-size truck, the Titan, by nearly three years. But according to John Matthews, a San Antonio dealer who advised on the Tundra's development, Toyota has corrected mistakes made in the current model and its '90s predecessor, the T100, both of which were too small and light to go bumper to bumper with the Big Three. Hint: It's big. How big? "When other truck owners park next to this Tundra," says Matthews, "they'll feel like they're in a solar eclipse." Article continued Full URL: http://biz.yahoo.com/bizwk/060203/b3971060.html?.v=1

The Teardown Artists First, buy the hottest new car on the lot. Then rip it to pieces. Inside GM's chop shop, they take (apart) the competition very seriously. By Carl Hoffman A silver Lexus RX 400h hybrid SUV is suspended on a lift in a room the size of a soccer field at the General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Michigan. It was purchased off the lot just a few days ago for $49,000, loaded, which seems a waste, since it's already a carcass. Mechanic John Klucka has removed its tires and engine and doors and seats and dashboard and, well, just about everything but a few wires and the windshield. "This is a complicated vehicle," he says, unbolting the engine from its frame, "and I've got no manual, so I'm taking it apart blind." Within a few weeks, GM engineers will unravel the Lexus' every secret - down to the weight and production cost of each nut and bolt - just as they've done with every other Toyota hybrid model. The latest Prius lies in on a table in the corner, gutted, tagged, and spread out like a frog in a high school biology lab. Article continued Full URL: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.02/teardown.html

I stumbled onto this today. These guys seem to question the validity of vehicle reliablity scores from Consumer Reports, JD Power, Strategic Vision, etc. Seemed like a slightly different approach anyway. I also didn't see ANY GM cars listed on their comparison page... http://www.truedelta.com True Delta site

Maybe Kirk is re-trying his original Chrysler idea now that GM's share prices are so low? Lutz claims it was intended as an LBO at the time... Original C&G thread Direct URL: http://www.cheersandgears.com/forums/index...?showtopic=1741

60 Minutes had a piece on that a few weeks ago. They have the video posted on their website...was pretty interesting. 60 Minutes Scroll down to the article entitled The Tar Sands Direct URL: http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/ma...hannel=60Sunday

GM replaces top spokesman after run of bad news Tue Jan 31, 2006 04:21 PM ET DETROIT, Jan 31 (Reuters) - General Motors Corp. (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) on Tuesday replaced its top spokesman with his predecessor, a seasoned auto executive that analysts said would be charged with repairing the image of the world's largest auto maker after a string of losses and missteps. GM said Steve Harris, who ran the company's global communications operation from 1999 through 2004, would take over on Wednesday from Tom Kowaleski, who said he was resigning, effective March 1, to pursue other opportunities. The announcement comes less than a week after GM posted an $8.6 billion loss for 2005 -- its largest annual loss since 1992. "GM has suffered from image problems for several years now and they just had to do something," said Peter DeLorenzo, publisher of a closely-watched industry Web site, Autoextremist.com. "Tom is an outstanding product guy, but GM is in crisis mode right now, and what they really need is crisis PR leadership, which is something that Steve is very good at," he said. GM has been struggling with high health care costs, loss of market share to foreign rivals and sluggish sales of the sport- utility vehicles that had been its profit generators. GM shares lost 50 percent of their value in 2005. The company's troubles have sparked concern the media attention on GM's financial problems, including the risk of an eventual bankruptcy filing, could keep potential customers from dealer showrooms. Harris, 60, began his career at GM in 1967, and went to American Motors in 1979. He has also worked at the U.S. operations of DaimlerChrysler AG's (DCXGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) Chrysler unit and most recently ran a communications consultancy based in Birmingham after retiring from GM. "Steve has long enjoyed an outstanding reputation in this industry and is one of the top leaders in his profession. I know he will hit the ground running," GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said in a statement. Jim Sanfilippo, executive vice president of AMCI, an auto marketing firm in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, called the change a "good move." "You have blue skies and you have gray skies and you deploy talent appropriately to suit the situation," Sanfilippo said. "Harris will offer exceptional counsel as GM navigates its way out of its gray skies. He knows what to do." Kowaleski, 54, said he missed being involved in the product side of the auto industry, where he had spent much of his career. He said he would work with Harris to ensure a smooth transition. Direct URL: http://yahoo.reuters.com/financeQuoteCompa...31173188_newsml