thegriffon

Castillian Spanish, unlike English, retains different declensions for nouns based on how they are used. Depending on the way you use it (subject, object, dative, genitive) you might use either Camaron or Camaro. You can easily find instances of Camaro actually used in this manner in Spanish restaurant menus. There are seperate words for prawns and shrimp. In Australia you can't get shrimp (they're just not locally available), but there are several species of prawns caught locally or imported from Asia. Camaro is also a fairly common family name in Catalan. In the South and West of France many people still speak languages closer to Spanish and Catalan than French. The typical word for yes is Oc, rather than Oui, so they are often labeled "Oc" languages. There is some overlap and hybridization, for example there is Gallo-Iberian Provencal (closer to Spanish), and Gallo-Rhaetian Provencal French (more like Standard French), both spoken in Provence and some degree of mixture between the two. Camaro is probably an Oc word picked up by French speakers (at least in Provence) just as English speakers use Amigo.

Not built by Porsche, but designed when the ex-Porsche guy (Butz?) now running Aston Martin was the chief engineer at Daewoo.

Note the inherent disclaimer "It is said". Nothing to say he saw one , or that one has been mentioned by GM, merely that he may have heard the samne rumor you all heard previously.

Assembly may soon expand to a JV in Taiwan. Now, y'all go down to your local BPG dealers and tell 'em if they want more models, Buick has a compact sedan in China.

It's the same underneath too, except fo the Chinese engine. LIke the CSVs the GL8 Firstland gets the updated GMT 201 platform, longer and a little wider than the Montana-based GMT 200 GL8 2.5.

(Sigh) The Grand Vitara is significantly smaller than the Equinox - a small C-segment SUV, rather than a large D-segment crossover. The midsize Suzuki previewed recently is based on the Equinox.

Suzuki has not stopped GM expanding in India. Rather it is lack of capacity and the right product. Now that it has GM Daewoo it has access to it's own A-segment model which should be a big hit in India, but with bureaucratic shambling destrying the old Daewoo India plant, have not had a place to build it. Their current plant just hasn't had the capacity, and it will take time to expand. As it is they have had to outsource engine production.

Frog

Ah, you have to realise one is the Swift, the other is the larger Swift+.

Dear God. There is no 2.4 with 260 hp, it's a Turbo 2.0 L with GDI and CVVT, and there will be no turbo 2.4, there is a reason they use the standard-bore 2.0 for forced-induction applications. OPC, VXR and HSV go beyond GMPD in that they are directly involved in engineering and/or running race cars. Could OPC/VXR squeeze more hp out of the 2.0 Turbo? My guess would be a Twin Turbo system like the previously developed 1.9 L diesel, or the latest Twin Turbo 2.8 L V6 in the Aero-X.

Technically all Isuzu's light diesel engineering capability and much of the production capacity outside Japan is owned by GM already. Isuzu talks like they are doing it, but when you dig down you find out that it is all GM now. BTW Suzuki would still be a major shareholder in GM Daewoo, so no reason to think supply of Forenza's would be disrupted. There never were any plans for GM to bring in the Swift, although Suzuki was considering it for the next generation. GM may have simply decided the strategic shareholding is redundant—any future co-operation can be done without it.

"Dana cited general industry financial deterioration and its inability to renew or expand credit facilities in a timely matter." Businesses generally rely on discounted bonds and other loans to finance day-to-day operations. Much of the money may be sitting in a bank account as cash on hand to pay wages and suppliers etc. While cashflow may pay any interim payments the bulk of the repayment will be financed by a new bond issues. The reliance on the good will of financial institutions has forced many small supplers (and manufacturers) into liquidation when they can't raise money to pay for continuing operations, even if they have positive cash flow and are making a profit. Dana will probably find new lines of credit and come out of bankruptcy without much trauma.

Blue

Read what they are collaborating on. No one automaker can go it alone in these systems, not because of the expense, but because they only work when everyone is using the same systems.

FYI the current Statesman (as sold by Daewoo) is the same size as the Lucerne, but narrower. The new model to be released this year is very Audi-esque.

The Danes would be confused, since it's Viennese pastry to them, and the common scroll type is a Berliner.

It's not rwd, it's awd, albeit with a longitudinal engine. It can't really be considered a new Sonnet, nor a Saab Camaro—it's far closer to exotic 2-seat front-engine supercars such as the Ferrari 575 and Aston Martin Vanquish. Note for all those screaming for turbo 3.6, this is a twin-turbo GDI 3.2 with a projected 400 hp (on 100% alcohol). The previous figure given for a maximum output turbo 3.2 was a potential 370 hp (then again GM has done just as much with the old cast-iron 2.0 L turbo).

GM's newest engine plants are in the US and Canada. A new plant to expand production of the Global V6 is being built in Flint. Of the other "new" plants, a new plant for small diesels has been built in Korea, natural since it will be for Korean built-vehicles, the majority not sold in NA. SGM-Dongyue Powertrain is building smaller Daewoo engines for the Chinese market. SGM itself is building smaller-capacity OHV V6s solely for the Chinese/Taiwanese market. It's not GM's newest engine plant, nor is the investment for export. Toyota also has invested heavily in engine capacity in China.

Unless you say GM has only three V6s and Ford has two, then Toyota has many more than one V6.

The fashion for tanning really took off after WWII, particularly in the '60s. Partly it wwa life-style changes—more people getting to places like Florida, Acapulco, Rio etc. and spending time on the beach made getting a tan a status symbol, and also the growing popularity of naturally darker-skinned Latin women in movies etc. (Mediterranean or Amerindian). The popularity of thin, even boyish women is a post WWI phenomenum, after almost all young men of a certain generation spent long months in the trenches without female company.

Snow white, fairest in all the land, hair as black as night, skin as white as snow …

Australian emissions regulations have been far more lenient than Europe's. Australia only required compliance with the Euro3 standard beginning in January 2006. Europe is transitioning to the Euro4 standard which many vehicles already meet, and a Euro5 standard is not far off. US Tier 2 standards are somewhere between Euro4 and Euro5 and are also getting stricter (a state of the art Euro4 diesel would not meet imminent US standards).

over and out

Don't forget the pedestrian safety issue. Under many vehicle design codes any protruding element such as a hood ornament is no longer allowed.