Summer Cruiser

It is supposed to be a pretty neat system. Everyone can use a little better fuel economy! Especially when government is making requirements quite a bit tougher in the next few years.

The Cruze is doing the same thing Jeep did with the diesel Grand Cherokee a few years ago when it too was relatively testing the market - it has pegged it as a very premium option, with many other miscellaneous options to go with it. A base Cruze is $17,000, it's not the diesel engine alone that makes that version nearly $10,000 more. You get some in the hands of consumers and try and set it up for the future as a desireable premium option. Why bag on Cadillac, it could transform like Audi did, but it takes time. Audi did not have to go through bankrupcy as a stumbling block. I don't necessarily agree with the extent of Euro lust of its cars tuning, but opinions differ. Make Cadillac just be great and people will come. If it's performance, make it great, if its a smooth ride, make it great but don't dilute one to try and get the "best of both worlds". Just make a stand and stick with it.

If the public does not seem to mind CVTs on the new Accords and in the Toyotas in the next 2-3 years, I would not be suprised to see Ford take a good look at them again. If you look at Nissan you cannot get an automatic Altima without a CVT. The latest iteration of it has done quite well here in the US.

Cheers to that! :beerchug:

For size it does, but if they are two completely different cars, unlike the Avenger/200C, it does not. Chrysler did not do too bad on exteriors, but interiors... Maybe they go a different route too, like a C-Seg hatchback.

I think the move makes fine sense, you will not have all of that product overlap that they had a few years back when the lineups (Plymouth, Dodge and Chrysler) all had a minivan, midsize, and fullsize and you could buy a Neon as both Plymouth and Dodge which did not even sugar coat the likeness. I think they are headed in the right direction. Especially if they have a plan to bring in a similar size Fiat or Alfa one day.

I went last fall. Highpoints for my kids were dinner with Cinderella at the Grand Floridian and Breakfast with Mickey at the Contemporary as far as meals went. Epcot was cool for Mom and Dad - we also went in October and they had a "taste of the world" event going on where there were booths with snack-size foods from the different countries that were not the normal restaurant fare there. Magic Kingdom was a 2-day event for us. Also try and see one of the parades at night there. I would second the going early to extra magic hours for the parks. The extra hour does not seem like much, but it is nice.

I'll have to look for that. I always did like the ominous looks of the GN's. BTW - nice Mustang!

I would be curious to see if that holds true. I imagine a lot of the VW diesel fans are that way because nobody else sells an affordable, non premium market diesel in the last 20 years (in high volume, a side note for all diesel Liberty/Grand Cherokee people out there)

I agree - it's real tight for a rear-facing seat. Popping the seat on the base isn't hard, it's getting the seat out when you're at the destination. I test drove one for a day and the passenger seat did need to be all the way forward (or 1 click back if the seat-back is bolt upright!). The solution for the whole getting the seat in/out - buy the convertible.

I was thinking that it was just some odd thing with my machine. Nice to know it's more of a widespread issue.

That was my thought too, the compacts that have been coming out lately are so good they probably did not want to include those older models. They also may not want to have been seen as Japanese car bashers.

This is cool. I can only imagine trying something like this someday.

I am looking forward to this response - I have an 08 and was wondering the same thing. I know the transmissions are the same. I believe the main differences may be the additional trans cooler, the 5-pin harness, not sure if different springs...

Some of it made sense and some of the criticizms that were struck were sheerly subjective. The profile of a loggerhead turtle I may not agree with. In general the styling is better than the Sebring IMHO. But I certainly do not thing these things should have been edited after the fact based on an advertiser's feedback. He has given many good reviews of other Chryslers, he just did not care for this particular model. Most people will read it and either agree or just say - awww...he's just an import lover or some such general argument. It is an interesting chain of events.