danup

The interior isn't my cup of tea at all, but I like that at least one of the pony cars doesn't have "looks like an old one" as its primary exterior design theme. (Speaking as someone who prefers the 99 Mustang to the current one.) Then again, I am not and probably never will be in the pony car demographic.

For what it's worth, the Yaris has a well-defined market segment: women--girls, even--think it's cute. And in the subcompact section that is a big deal. The Fiesta might have a chance to be the first b-car ever purchased by a heterosexual male bachelor in the Midwest.

Nissan might as well facelift the current Titan and given it a bizarre name that mates it with the rest of its fleet--Titanima?--because this seems like a Windstar situation. Decent product about to be overrun by new models, declining market, no point in sticking around.

FNA is in charge of the design of the next Focus but not the next Fusion? What kind of bizarre switch-up is that?

I can see that "recent research" meeting now...

The Tahoe/Silverado/Durango hybrid system is a different one, but I'm pretty sure it's also a full hybrid system.

That, to me, looks disturbingly like a Fusion interior with a nicer center stack. Which is not a bad thing at all.

I wasn't comparing the Fusion to the Malibu, only the Fusion-Taurus to the Malibu-Impala. The Impala getting better mileage than the Malibu is a different scenario than the Taurus getting better mileage than the Fusion.

As a Fusion owner let me say, for the record, that the difference there is that the V6 Malibu has the superior engine, whereas the Fusion loses in horsepower, refinement, and mileage.

There are some mules with revised front and rear fascia driving around, but it's a mild refresh and the interior is supposedly the same. I like the styling of the G6's interior pretty well, but it's got the same brick-stack problem as the Fusion and considerably worse materials, not to mention the bizarre reasoning behind the Sporty, Aggressive G6 having the worst powertrains of all the Epsilons. What a waste of a gorgeous coupe.

Those seem a lot clearer now, thanks. Anyway I was hoping they'd make the interior a little more dramatic in design but the center stack--the weakness in the old one--looks much classier in those pictures anyway, with or without the display. The materials weren't the problem, so keeping them is alright. Anyway, a solid B-/B unless they're going to be really aggressive with that nav, in which case my grade could go up. Better than I was expecting, but worse than I was secretly hoping. At least it's not the poor G6's refresh, which, from the spy photos, is looking to be even less aggressive than the 05 Focus.

Since I wasn't old enough to drive go-carts when it came out, I've only seen the Lincoln Sentinel--everyone's favorite polarizing, ridiculously angry-looking concept from 1996--in the same press shots everyone else has seen, where it looks a) made out of papier-mache and B ) completely ridiculous. For reference: So I was very surprised when I saw and actually liked the Sentinel in the "flesh." I thought, if nothing else, it would interest some people here. The other inspiration of this post: I saw the MKS commercial yesterday and I loved it--just a great luxo commercial. The interior and the gadgets are all great; the gauges and the hidden passcode pad, in particular, are awesome. I just wish, whether it was the Sentinel styling or something else, it looked more distinctive on the outside.

Now that is how you relaunch a brand. Here's hoping there are similarly excellent ads on the way for the refreshed MKZ and the MKX.

For what it's worth, the Taurus didn't become the best-selling car in America until the gen-2 model, in 1992, and the gen-2 Taurus was one of the all-time fleet darlings. My university still has a few puttering around, mediocre transmissions be damned.

pcsario, when can we expect your exposé on rampant jury-bribery to appear on 60 Minutes?

I like the matte finish of the new grille--given this and Explorer America, is it safe to say that was going to be the new Dave direction until the Global Design Police showed up?

That dealer lamenting the disappearance of the Continental reminds me of when Buick dealers declined a RWD replacement for the Lucerne--what's good for the dealer isn't always good for the brand. That said, the MKS seems to be good for both parties.

It should've been called Verve. It'll sell no matter what, but Fiesta sounds cheap and connotes the Festiva, two of which still putter around Columbia. Verve sounds newer.

The SHOs were a little more exotic than this model; a turbocharged D35 is a little less interesting than a tiny V8 or a high-revving, unshared V6. That said, I think more people here in the states would recognize SVT than ST, so I still don't get this naming reconvention.

Wow, GM might have a worldbeater on their hands.

It looks like someone pulling on a Pontiac G6 coupe's cheeks.

Heh, the front end is starting to grow on me a little but that rear just looks Hyundai-y to me. The greenhouse slanting in like that reminds me of the hideous execution of the PT Cruiser ragtop, which is admittedly an odd comparison.

Still not a big fan of the Kuga.

Cutting costs is great, but you have to have some product too. I can't believe Chrysler managed to leave itself without a real compact car like this, not to mention the mediocrities they turned out in the midsize segment.

The air dam helps on gas at highway speeds, whereas--if I remember correctly--the six speed is geared so that it's basically identical to the four-speed at highway speeds. Presumably the 2.5 and the six-speed are what bump up city mileage.