"Government Motors" returns to top of world's auto sales

This makes a lot of sense. I guess the design for the Tundra was from an ancient Japanese cave drawing?

 

and the Aztek was designed by a Kettering freshman after a night of binge drinking and enough acid to kill a rhino

 

Not that we should ever get homework assignments from this site, but if you ever think to watch and take note (something I've been doing for about three years now), I've noticed that a great majority of cars on the shoulder of the freeways (as in, "broke down") are GM or Chrysler cars. You almost never see a Toyota or Honda on the side of the freeway.

 

Hondas never run out of gas? Wow. Who knew?

 

I've found the majority of cars on the side of the road are old beaters that appear to be pooly maintained.

 

I think a lot depends on region. In my area I rarely see Toyota's or Honda's at all. Off the top of my head the top brands / vehicles I see are Mercedes, BMW's, Chevy Suburban/ Tahoe, Jeep- Grand Cherokee/ Wrangler in most parking lots.

GM must finally be realizing that Volt was overpriced to the market. When you can drive off in a car like the BMW 328 X drive that will get you 35 - 40 MPG on highway for the same of less, it would be hard to justify a Volt other than for the novelty.

 

http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/07/25/autos-consumerreports-impala-idINL1N0FU1F320130725

 

Something overlooked in the Impala hoopla is that despite the car's high marks by CR . . . it's still not a recommended vehicle by CR.

Reliability. Reliability. Reliability.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't CR always give new vehicles three or five years before they'll recommend it because of just that - they can't judge its reliability until it's been on the market for a long enough period of time?

 

Not sure if the time frame is quite that long. Good question, though.

The 2013 Buyer's Guide lists reliability for 2011 models. So perhaps 2 years.

 

That's correct. It's like the NFL draft. Can't judge reliability for a few years. Looks good on paper but.....

Problem with the Impala is that the dealers were not prepared. I was actually considering
one. Great looking car but dealer I went to only had one base model and was not sure when they were getting some with bigger engine, ect . I did not want to wait and went
another direction.

Also not bringing out all wheel drive version yet.

 

Whatever happened to Tim?