Travis

@huisj203 - One thing to note is that there aren't always MINI dealerships around. I live in the state capital, with a population of 460,000 and the closest MINI dealer is 65 miles away. The nearest Chrysler dealer is in town, though, and I'd definitely be fine checking out a Fiat there...

@Matt - You know that a bailout refers to GOVERNMENT money, not the $26 billion that was raised PRIVATELY by Ford in 2006, right???

Wait, did you just make a joke using the letters F.I.A.T.?? As in, they're Italian (so the guy's name is Tony) and they always break down?

BWwwwwaaaaaahahahahahahahhaha.

Oh my god, you're so original!! I've NEVER heard that joke before, especially not on this website. Did you spend all night thinking that one up? I mean, that is true quality joke-writing right there.

Aaaaahahahaha, I'm still laughing my ass off over that joke, I mean, I'm really, really still literally rolling around on the floor. I never thought that I'd ever literally be doing the ROTFL, but that joke was just SO F'ING FUNNY I can't even breathe anymore.

Wow, I just can't believe that we got such originality and quality humor from this little automotive blog site...

Unfortunately, it's as easy to determine a solution as it is hard to implement: Reduce the number of dealers, and just have GM dealers instead of separate outlets for Pontiac, Chevy, Buick, etc. There's no cheap, crappy Lexus because the dealer also has access to Toyota (and probably Scion as well). If you streamline the dealers to only offer 3-4 brands, and have each dealer at LEAST have access to the plain-jane Chevy's, then you won't need G3s, G5s or any other plain nondescript rebadged vehicles. If GM wanted to have Pontiac be the "performance" category and limit those vehicles to certain performance dealers, fine, but the constant rebadging is getting them nowhere.

I know that it wouldn't have the upgradable possibility of the 355 or 415hp turbo'd versions, but I'd rather see the 2.0t putting out 265-280hp in the base version since it's lighter and more powerful.

But yes, I'd probably put my entire gambling budget of $20 into the slots below this car...

wait, you want a 2.5l diesel (heavy) dumped into a B-segment car? why not just ask for a 1.4 turbo similar to that in the Fiat 500? ~135hp, and when combined with a 6sp tranny I'd bet that it would get 40+ mpg.

WANT!! With road tires like those, that has got to be amazingly fun to drive (illegally on the road)...

@Ken - +1000

"States using or planning to use California emission standards include California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Florida, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massacusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania."

Right, go ahead and not sell cars in any of those states and see how long you can stay in business.

As I posted above, the # of cars sold in states that abide by CAFE outnumbers the rest of the cars sold in this country. If automakers really want to give up more than 50% of their sales it would be financial suicide...