[irmati]

 http://www.2sportscars.com/buick-riviera-concept-car.html

What do you guys think?

[Imaginos]

Looks like something turned out by an art center grad. Pretty typical for art center.

I'm not really in awe of it. Outside isn't bad. I think the interior is kinda ugly, well the center board is, steering wheel seems ok same with dash behind it. Not terribly thrilled with the side doors either and I would most definitely want door handles on the outside with a mechanical not electric lock, same with mechanical ways to turn on / off the car.

As nice as total computer/electronic control is, there are too many things that can go wrong with them to not have a backup. Perhaps in 5 years we'll have purely computer/electronic problems with interference etc... hammered out

It does look aerodynamic and if it's a hybrid then it'll get great gas mileage and look nice doing it.

[Zealot]

"Gull-Wing" doors are overrated.All in all I'm not impressed.How's it handle?Is it comfortable?What happenes in an accident?

[Lovesquirrel]

Hybrid cars are overrated. The Toyota prius gets forty mpg while a small diesel will get you about seventy mpg.

[Imaginos]

My best friend has a hybred and gets around 55ish miles to the gallon for less then diesel will run you Of course gas prices out here in california are insane so YMMV

Yes I'd like to know myself how that car handles, is it comfortable, do the seats support extreme hours of driving, is stuff easy to get to, how strong is the frame and what kind of safety features does it have? Pretty much what Zelot asked

[Lovesquirrel]

I assure you gas (although we call it petrol) prices in Ireland are far worse than in california. It's 1.10 euro's... per litre which is abit more than a quarter of a gallon.  

An no offense but, and I quote, "Americans can't make cars"- Dr. Jeremy Clarkson

There cheaply made and use obsolete technology
For example the most recent Mustang has a live rear axel, a leaf spring suspension system and can only muster 250bhp from a whopping 5 litre V8 engine... Like the mitsubishi lancer evolution VIII gets 320bhp from a tiny 2 litre engine.

An at the moment I'm big into the X-files an I always laugh when the cars pull up cos the wobble to and fro like a big bowl of jelly! I dred to think how it would handle a corner!

[NotElvis]

Well, I certainly won't deny you the price of gas comparision, but I imagine you've got a much better public transportation system than we do in the US.

Quote:

An no offense but, and I quote, "Americans can't make cars"- Dr. Jeremy Clarkson

There cheaply made and use obsolete technology
For example the most recent Mustang has a live rear axel, a leaf spring suspension system and can only muster 250bhp from a whopping 5 litre V8 engine...

You seem to be talking about the previous gen Mustang for the engine.  And besides, it's not about total bhp, it's about useable range of bhp.  And of course feel.

As to the leaf springs, I have no idea where you get that from.  Coils as far as I know on that generation.  Further, they'd had live axle, and then later gone to IRS if I recall correctly.  The new ones actually went back to live axle because it was cheaper and seemed to make no notable difference in handling.

Quote:

Like the mitsubishi lancer evolution VIII gets 320bhp from a tiny 2 litre engine.

Yes, but at what RPM range?  How much torque and power does it get in the lower RPM range, you know, where you might be under most normal driving circumstances?


Point of fact, a 1988 Thunderbird I have has the standard (not high-output) 5.0L V8.  It gets only 150 net horsepower.  But that peak occurs at a mere 3200 RPM, and peak torque is 270 ft-lbs at only 2000 RPM.  The car is quite happy to lug along at speeds just over idle, and a light touch of the gas will have it accelerating contentedly.

The motor's really a heavy-hauler type of thing, meant for luxo-barges, but it does the job fairly well.  And I'll admit that with mostly highway driving, (still a bit of traffic though), I've on 4 separate tankfuls gotten 29.1, 29.1, 28, and 27.2 miles per gallon.  Of course, they're interspersed with tankfuls that got notably less, but that tends to happen when you get stuck in stop-and-go traffic.


Horsepower numbers can be quite illusory without more detail.  Another vehicle I've owned had a 7.5 liter V8, and was rated at only 225 horsepower... but enough blistering torque to be pretty much unstoppable.  Can't wait to put that motor in a much lighter-weight car I have, after doing a few minor mods to up the power a bit.


Not to say I don't respect the impressive power that's been achieved from small displacement motors, but looking at just the peak horsepower numbers without taking anything else into consideration isn't helpful.

That mere 225 horsepower 7.5 liter engine was in a vehicle that weighed in at a whopping 4800 lbs without driver.  Let's see how that 320 bhp 2.0 liter will do moving that vehicle.  I guarantee that the engine's life expectancy will be dramatically reduced.

[pedonbio]

Quote:
An no offense but, and I quote, "Americans can't make cars"- Dr. Jeremy Clarkson

There cheaply made and use obsolete technology
For example the most recent Mustang has a live rear axel, a leaf spring suspension system and can only muster 250bhp from a whopping 5 litre V8 engine... Like the mitsubishi lancer evolution VIII gets 320bhp from a tiny 2 litre engine.

An at the moment I'm big into the X-files an I always laugh when the cars pull up cos the wobble to and fro like a big bowl of jelly! I dred to think how it would handle a corner!

They handle terribly, which is one small reason (of many big ones) why, beginning in the 1960s, a growing fraction of the US population started buying foreign cars. Our motto is:

"Buick: For VW quality at BMW prices."

[3deroticer]

my very first car was a buick LeSabre! enough said!

[Cutter]

You pull the restrictor plates off our engines and one that is rated at 250 HP will snap to almost 800 HP but then your fuel mileage will also drop like a stone.

[NotElvis]

Quote:
my very first car was a buick LeSabre! enough said!

Outta curiosity, what year LeSabre?

I remember a conversation with a manager at a previous job.  He grew up in Germany, and learned to drive in Berlin.  His father, however, had always been a fan of American luxury cars... so this manager of mine learned to drive, on the narrow streets of Berlin, in a 1972 Buick LeSabre.

But, he said, he figured that if the buses could navigate it, so could he!

At one point in the late 90s/early 2000s, I had, at various times, a 1970 Chrysler Newport convertible (with 8-track!  W00t!), a 1972 Olds 98, and a 1972 Olds Delta 88 Royale Convertible.

Fun cars, all of 'em.....

[gOOber]

 

[3deroticer]

It WAS a 72 buick LeSabre and I refered it to being a boat. I did invest in a sound machine, had put in a 3X9 speaker and a 100 watt booster and a cheap Bass in the trunk. Park in the college parking lot and played the "who" and Phil Collins real loud. I paid less than $200 for the car from a Japanese exchange student who was returning to his country. Otherwise I usually roller skated to work and school.

[Lovesquirrel]

Yeah I don't know where I got that leaf spring thing either... Maybe I was thinking of the holden monaro.
Anyways the here's the stats if you're interested:
BHP: 337bhp @ 5,800rpm
Torque: 320ft/lbs @ 3,500rpm

Quote: All model years of the S-197 Mustang retain a live axle rear suspension providing the benefits of reduced cost and weight over a heavier, more expensive and complicated independent rear suspension, at the expense of more efficient handling.

This is what I mean by American cars being made down to a price. Of course having an independent rear axel will make for better handling. Why else would european car manufacturers put in a more expensive and complicated system if it didn't make a difference? That doesn't make sense.

[rtpoe]

I want one of  these:

 

No, it's not the Batmobile, but it could have been.