killrwheels@autogeek said:
unfortunately its YOUR INSURANCE COMPANY that demands this of cars, not the manufacturer. They would much rather offer a base or low optioned car (less warrantied items) but insurance companies want these items so that idiots are less likely to crash their 1.5 million dollar Enzo at a club function.
And those discussing big horsepower and large cubes under the hood. We are going back into a decade of mini's if gas prices and OPEC keeps this up. Between gas prices, and now the demand by your congressman and president for economic changes and hybrid (ie. fuel alternative cars/trucks) we will be out of this horsepower war before we can believe it. I dont believe the new Camaro was designed to sniff hydrogen and run on batteries, so enjoy the LS3 while it lasts.
What alot of you fail to realize is we have a stringent guage of gas usuage across the entire line of cars (CAFE standards). Those numbers get smaller each year, even though bigger engines and horsepower are being designed. Thus if you dont make and sell a bizillion Chevy Aveo's you must sell a million 6-cylinder Camaro's. GM to my knowledge is still one of the few that has even allowed a Gas Guzzler tax to be added to its line, since it can no longer meet the standard. (CTS-V, STS-V, XLR-V)
Oh I know, hell my families main business was in insurance lol. I just wished everyone else thinked like me
. I don't know if their doing it with the ZO6 currently, but next Viper is apparently going to have a mandatory drivers class for the idgits who buy the car to cruise and don't realse that sucker can bite your ass fast with one little mistake, heard the s/c'd Vette if it comes out will have the same thing. The statistics are sad, the large chunk of Vipers that have crashed/been in an accident are shortly after leaving the dealership.
You may remember years ago when the 996 Porsche GT2 came out and the hoopla it caused here when that kids parents here went to the Porsche dealer to buy his first car, they didn't know the difference between a boxter or GT2, just said give me the best car on the floor. About a week later kid totals it in a bad accident almost killing himself and whomever he hit. GT2 as a 1st car for 16 year old is about the dumbest thing you could do lol, totally different animal from the regular borring awd TT. It was all in the papers and about the time talking about how manufacturers should have driver classes for performance cars etc.
Yeh Cafe standards have hurt us, and they keep raising it but not easy when the majority of your volume is trucks. Plus if I recall teh Japense and outside makers have points/credits built up that they can apply to so even if they don't really meet the stadards they can "buy" their way.
Guess I'm going to be stuck buying old cars. If the next Viper has traction control we've officially gone to hell
. I wish GM did the same thing for the C6Z performance is on another level compared to the C5, I bet if idgits bought that car w/o any of the save your butz gizmo's we'd have less gold chainers running around
.... I think they should all have a track experience requirement, I know I'd pass lol.
I think others on here were talking about cheap interiors, not sure if any of you have sat i nthe new GM trucks but they are quality inside. IMO even teh regular Tahoe is right up there with our Lexus LX470.......only took GM 10+ years but they did a good job. At the same time kinda makes me wonder what took so long to make great driving trucks. Our LX is an 05' but the platform dates back to over 10+ years, really outdated. Yet this truck drives smooth and solid. You can even pick up one of the older like 96' trucks with the inline 6 and it will drive smooth with nary a rattle. EX-gf's brother had a bad ass lifted 96' on 35's that even when off roading the truck would barely emit a groan or creek, now that is what quality is imo, and why could Ford or GM never do what Toyota did with a truck that was outdated? The new trucks are great but I don't know what took GM or Ford so long when the Landcruiser/LX quality was so high back even 10 years.
