Because of all the doom-sayers and the gutless politicians hoping to win votes from the kook squad, GM is putting on hold the launching of rear drive autos. I was getting all excited about the rear-drive Impala SS with a possible 400 hp engine. This car is based on the Holden from Australia. Looks like I am going to have to buy import again.

 

I'm just curious (blame my mechanical ignorance)....but what does rwd vs. fwd have to do with any environmental issue?......

 

We had a report in the Calgary Herald that GM was putting on hold production of rear-drives because they were not sure they would be able to meet possible changes that would be required by the government to meet emmissions standards that will be proposed in the future. It may be too expensive to get the V-8 high out-put engines to meet the standards. There are some provinces that are looking at California standards and more of the states in the US are doing the same. It looks like the 70's all over again. All this because of the "sky is falling" mentality. Excuse my rant but I have been waiting for years to get rear drive back again because of the superior handling, better power-trains and cheaper repairs.

 

Agreed (on the rear-wheel drives).....Just curious what the problem was......

 

So you believe the environmental issues we have are false?

 

Mentality!?! Actually it's reality! Over two thousand scientists from various country's have come to a consensus that our worlds climate "is" changing for the worst. Another words, the party's over! It's now past due time to wake up and to quit hitting the snooze button even though it's possibly too late.

If you'd have been doing research on global warming and other issues closely associated with it, instead of wasting your time waiting for shivy (the leader in polluting vehicles) to come out with a rwd vehicle with a v8 you would have seen that there is plenty of evidence, facts, and data that proves our planet is giving us signs that it's not a happy camper.

IMO Were all real close to seein just how unhappy mother Earth is, as the excrement is about to hit the oscillating device in regards to devastating weather patterns, ocean current changes, and all the little unforeseen goodies (figure of speech) that come with it.

Hang onto your hat and good luck!

 

I really dont like coming across as a doomsday kind of guy, but I actually think that our enviro issues are worse than what's being leaked or reported to us collective lemmings. After all, the worlds economy is built around how efficiently and quickly we inhabitants can rape our world. Confirming yet again that $$ is, as some of us have learned, the root of all evil!

 

We should be hearing more about carbon capture in the near future. Collecting co2 emmissions a sending it back into the ground as a liquid. One of the biggest problems is; all of the old coal fired power plants that exist all over the world. Most of these plants are more than 40 years old and little has been done to improve their emissions output. That's the same almost everywhere. That will do a lot more for the enviroment than killing the auto industry. I think the next twenty years will bring about some big changes. I think it will get a lot worse before it gets better. It's too bad that it seems that most of our elected polititions are puppets for special interest groups instead of being real leaders. That also is true most anywhere.

 

"not sure", "be able", "possible"

Those all sound like excuses instead of facts from Chevy (good grief, I just spelled that correctly and no lightening hit me).

As for global warming being the cause of a cars demise... not likely (Hummer would be a much more likely candidate if that were the case).

As for global warming in general, 2,000 scientists forming a consensus is not my idea of concrete proof, just a bunch of people in white coats looking for power over us "lemmings", not to mention the BILLIONS of dollars in studies (global warming reports), grants (EPA impact studies), etc. A consensus, by definition, implies there are those who dissagree with the general opinions. Science is not based on consensus, it is founded on proof, and it appears that not all scientists have seen qualified proof.

Interestingly enough, I believe there is natural global warming on a cyclical scale (compare archeological studies of European agriculture in the early centuries and you'll see what I mean) but I find it extremely arrogant for humans to claim responsibility for it and even more vain to imagine we can stop it.

The Earth warms and cools as a function of it's creation, not by the hand of insignificant man..

For what it's worth, it's currently 15 degrees below the average right now and has been for the past 3 weeks.... but that's just a lemming talking.

 

And how many scientists are there in the world who aren't joining this consensus?...........And how many have been trying to come out publically to call B.S. on the "global warming" debate who have been either a) ignored or not reported, or b) receiving death threats..........

 

Regarding man's impact on cyclical warming?.....yes.........Regarding mega-pollutors worldwide?........There are issues, but it ain't the U.S.......It's China, India, and the old Soviet Union that's mostly to blame..........

 

One word,, consensus. Science cannot be a consensus, it's based on facts. That would be like someone saying the earth is flat without any proof, but because they're well spoken, people buying into what they know really isn't entirely true.

Yes man has an effect, there's no argueing that particular point, is it all based on cars, I highly doubt it. Do I think we need to look at the whole picture yes, but there again, the number one contributor to global warming is the sun,,,, let's all send the sun an email and tell it to chill out, we're getting hot down here.

 

This issue can not and will not be fixed, whatever is going to happen, then so be it. As I have said many times, it would take the world working together and that isn't happening, China and India will continue to pollute away with thier growing economy's. I just heard on fox news that there's a coal burning power plant comming on line every 23 minutes or something like that in China. It's an over population problem that translates to a pollution problem. Man didn't do anything to start or could we stop the 1st iceage, nomore than were going to stop up and comming climate changes. You might as well jump on and enjoy the ride. What GM does or doesn't do with thier rear wheel drive cars will have little effect on whats comming. The real problem is over population and no ones willing to address it, they want to fix the leak in the dyke with a piece of gumm. A few years ago there was a huge hole in the sky that needed to be fixed, now they don't mention that anylonger, now it's on to global warming. Thier destroying the rain forests, cutting down trees at an alarming rate, which trees produce oxegen, just to make room for the growing population. Untill thier willing to scale back on the population, it's a lost cause. All is not lost however, the earth has certain build in safeguards that will control the population if we don't. To worry about what Callie or GM is doing is sorta futile, it's like throwing a cup of water on a forest fire. They want to dance around the real problem, over population by trying to fix the effects of it, don't think it's gonna happen.

 

Indy_G: I was just thinking that 2000 scientists (and most of the population at the time) once thought the earth was flat...

Consensus =/= truth, even among scientists.

Jason

 

And that's true jr, but you're also talking about at a different time in history. Hell, even the scientists used in Al Gore's " movie " have come out claiming he inflated the research findings just to induce panic.