GM kills two of its own birds with one Buick
Posted: August 7, 2012 Filed under: INDUSTRY TALK | Tags: ATS, Buick, Cadillac, fail, General, GM, GS, Market, marketing, Mind, motor, Motors, obsolete, Over, Regal, turbo, Verano 6 Comments »
When the Buick Verano Turbo was announced, Jalopnik proclaimed “The Buick Verano Turbo just slapped your grandmother in the face.” While that was my favorite headline of the day by far, it is more accurate to say that GM is really slapping themselves. The Verano Turbo looks promising in every way, with 250hp, a manual transmission, a price likely to range from around 26k to 32k, all a little too promising for the likes of the Buick Regal GS and Cadillac ATS 2.5.
Test Driven: Chevrolet Sonic LTZ Turbo
Posted: May 11, 2012 Filed under: Green & Economical, TEST DRIVEN | Tags: 1.4, 1.8, Abarth, back, Chevrolet, Chevy, Compact, Cooper, Drive, Fiat, four, front, General, GM, Hatch, Hot, Inline, LTZ, manual, Mind, Mini, motor, Motors, Over, review, RS, S, SONIC, Test, Transmission, turbo, wheel 1 Comment »
Chevy Sonic LTZ Turbo
The Chevy Sonic comes from a line of shamelessly terrible econo-boxes. The first generation Aveo made car lovers cringe every time they saw one, and the Sonic is its replacement. So, things don’t look good for the Sonic if its family tree is anything to go by, but thankfully it seems the Sonic was adopted. Up front I will tell you that this car is a vast improvement, and tangible evidence of GM’s improvement over the last few years. I had seen the Sonic at a few car shows, and I thought it was pretty cool for what it was, but other than that I never gave it too much consideration. Then I recently started seeing comparison tests in magazines pitting the Sonic against the Fiat 500 Abarth and the Mini Cooper S, which peaked my interest big time. Read the rest of this entry »
GM: Greatness is just a few good decisions away
Posted: April 30, 2012 Filed under: AUTOMOTIVE INSIGHTS, INDUSTRY TALK | Tags: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 3.6, 6.2, America, Australia, Caprice, Car, Charger, Chevrolet, Chevy, come, Commodore, Dodge, G8, General, GM, Holden, HSV, Impala, LSA, Maloo, Mind, motor, Motors, Muscle, new, Nick, Over, Pontiac, Supercharged, to, USA, Ute, V6, V8, Walker 3 Comments »
It's a Pontiac G8, but with a Chevy badge
Ever since Pontiac was killed off as a result of the financial crisis, GM has not had a proper American sedan to compete with the successful Dodge Charger. The Pontiac G8 had been in this segment, but it came out right as many people became wary of buying GM products, due to their economic uncertainty at the time. A replacement for it has not yet been seen, although there has been talk of it coming back as the Chevrolet Caprice. I think this would be a great seller now, if GM’s lineup were structured properly, because they have basically recovered at this point and have been doing great things. Read the rest of this entry »
Buick: Diesel is a Must.
Posted: October 24, 2011 Filed under: INDUSTRY TALK | Tags: American, Astra, Auto, Buick, Cruze, Diesel, ecotec, General, GM, Industry, Mind, motor, Motors, Opel, Over, Problem, turbo, Verano 4 Comments »
Buick Verano
I was watching an Edmunds video on Youtube where they tested the new Buick Verano, a Chevy Cruze in makeup and a cocktail dress. Overall they liked how smoothly it rode and all of the effort Buick had put into making the car as quite and serene as possible in the cabin. All of this seemed great until they voiced their complaints about GM’s engine choice for the car, the shouty and strained Ecotec Inline 4. Evidently it will ruin your relaxation anytime you decide to accelerate with a loud, unrefined groan. It is sad that with most Buicks there seems to be one large flaw somewhere in the design of each of their cars, but I believe there is an easy solution for many of their problems. Read the rest of this entry »
Main Street In Motion, a great experience for anyone to try
Posted: July 19, 2011 Filed under: TEST DRIVEN | Tags: accord, Acura, Buick, Camaro, camry, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Civic, Corolla, Corvette, Cruze, Dodge, Drive, Ford, Free, General, GM, GMC, grand, Honda, Hyundai, In, Main, Main Street In Motion, Mind over motor, Motion, Motors, Sport, SS, Street, Test, V6, V8, Volt Leave a comment »
Corvettes at Main Street In Motion
Main Street in Motion is a free promotional event put on by GM where anyone can come test drive their cars and some of their competition on a closed course. It is a bit of an automotive traveling circus that travels to cities all over the country. As I said it is completely free, even the refreshments, so all you have to do is sign up online and go to the event to take part. Al and I went to their recent event in Philly, here is what I have to say about it. Read the rest of this entry »
Cadillac CTS-V Coupe, losing doors changes the game
Posted: June 10, 2011 Filed under: INDUSTRY TALK | Tags: Cadillac, Car, Cars, CTS, CTS-V, General, GM, LS-A, LS9, Mind over motor, Motors, Northstar, Supercharged, Test Drive, V, V8 Leave a comment »
The filthy triple black CTS V Coupe that I drove
Recently Al and I both had the chance to test drive Cadillac CTS-V Coupes. Cadillac was doing some promotion at the Greenwich Concours d’ Elegance and it turned out they were happy to let two 21 year old car nuts get behind the wheel of their 556hp monster without any qualifications other than being over 18 and not intoxicated. As many of you may know, this is not at all how things are done at dealerships. I myself have tried to test a V series at a dealer and was told they don’t offer test drives of such cars for insurance reasons, so understand that this experience was quite surprising and exciting for us on a somewhat abnormal level. This whole experience of the CTS-V made me think though… Read the rest of this entry »
