Would you trade your Monte Carlo for this ?
Would you trade your Monte Carlo for this ?
[align=center][:-]Monte Carlo ends production ina few days. GM states that FWDCoupe's[/align][align=center]are not selling,but Nissan must think that they will? Check out[/align][align=center]the new Coupe by Nissan & give your opinions.[/align][align=center][/align][align=center]Full Test: 2008 Nissan Altima Coupe [/align][align=center]
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The Passionate Front-Driver
ByErin Riches, Senior Content Editor
Date posted: 05-20-2007 [/align][align=center]Conventional prejudice says you can't put a transverse V6 in a big front-drive car and call it a sport coupe. But after 600 miles with the 2008 Nissan Altima 3.5 SE Coupe, we're going to rise above our car-geek heritage and do just that.
Of course we're speaking of passion, not precision. This is still a 183-inch-long, 71-inch-wide, 3,290-pound car with 67 percent of its weight riding over the front wheels. Said wheels are wrapped in unassuming 215/55R17 Bridgestone Turanza tires.
But there's a vitality to the Nissan Altima 3.5 SE Coupe that defies clinical assessment. It likes going around corners. Its VQ-Series V6 likes being matched up with a continuously variable transmission (CVT). Even if the Altima coupe isn't dynamically perfect, we like driving it.
Minus Two Doors, Plus One Mustache
Nissan's starting point here has been the Altima sedan, already an athlete among family-friendly sedans. Instead of dropping a coupe body onto a sedan chassis and installing a set of really long doors, Nissan lopped 4 inches off the sedan's wheelbase (now 105.3 inches) and designed a fresh set of body panels.
With its 3-inch drop in stature and fastback roof line, the Altima coupe draws immediate comparisons to Infiniti's G37 coupe. From the back, it looks a bit too much like the innocuous Pontiac G6[b], but wheel around front and there's a wisp of a chrome mustache to reassure you this car has the evil, funhouse flavor of the Altima.
We Choose Torque
As usual, there are degrees of evil. Not so threatening is the 2.5 S Coupe, which is motivated by a 175-horsepower 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine and priced around $21,000. Nissan says this car will account for 60 percent of Altima coupe sales.
We're speaking here to the other 40 percent, however; the fiends who will spend upward of $26,000 on the Altima 3.5 SE Coupe. It has a 3.5-liter V6 rated for 270 hp at 6,000 rpm and 258 pound-feet of torque at 4,400 rpm.
Although a six-speed manual is available, most 3.5 SE Coupes will be sold with a continuously variable transmission (CVT), with which our test car has been equipped. Most will also have the $3,200 Premium Package — good for xenon headlights, leather upholstery, Bose sound and automatic climate control.
Our test car did without the premium luxuries. Antilock disc brakes and all the expected airbags were on board, but stability control costs $600 extra.
Quick by Numbers, Quicker by Feel
The lack of amenities went largely unnoticed, as the Nissan Altima coupe has other ways of making its driver feel energized.
It's not with overpowering speed, though. A[color=#990000] 0-60-mph time in the 6.0-second range and a quarter-mile time just under 15.0 seconds no longer make anyone feel entirely specia
[/align][align=center][/align][align=center]The Passionate Front-Driver
ByErin Riches, Senior Content Editor
Date posted: 05-20-2007 [/align][align=center]Conventional prejudice says you can't put a transverse V6 in a big front-drive car and call it a sport coupe. But after 600 miles with the 2008 Nissan Altima 3.5 SE Coupe, we're going to rise above our car-geek heritage and do just that.
Of course we're speaking of passion, not precision. This is still a 183-inch-long, 71-inch-wide, 3,290-pound car with 67 percent of its weight riding over the front wheels. Said wheels are wrapped in unassuming 215/55R17 Bridgestone Turanza tires.
But there's a vitality to the Nissan Altima 3.5 SE Coupe that defies clinical assessment. It likes going around corners. Its VQ-Series V6 likes being matched up with a continuously variable transmission (CVT). Even if the Altima coupe isn't dynamically perfect, we like driving it.
Minus Two Doors, Plus One Mustache
Nissan's starting point here has been the Altima sedan, already an athlete among family-friendly sedans. Instead of dropping a coupe body onto a sedan chassis and installing a set of really long doors, Nissan lopped 4 inches off the sedan's wheelbase (now 105.3 inches) and designed a fresh set of body panels.
With its 3-inch drop in stature and fastback roof line, the Altima coupe draws immediate comparisons to Infiniti's G37 coupe. From the back, it looks a bit too much like the innocuous Pontiac G6[b], but wheel around front and there's a wisp of a chrome mustache to reassure you this car has the evil, funhouse flavor of the Altima.
We Choose Torque
As usual, there are degrees of evil. Not so threatening is the 2.5 S Coupe, which is motivated by a 175-horsepower 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine and priced around $21,000. Nissan says this car will account for 60 percent of Altima coupe sales.
We're speaking here to the other 40 percent, however; the fiends who will spend upward of $26,000 on the Altima 3.5 SE Coupe. It has a 3.5-liter V6 rated for 270 hp at 6,000 rpm and 258 pound-feet of torque at 4,400 rpm.
Although a six-speed manual is available, most 3.5 SE Coupes will be sold with a continuously variable transmission (CVT), with which our test car has been equipped. Most will also have the $3,200 Premium Package — good for xenon headlights, leather upholstery, Bose sound and automatic climate control.
Our test car did without the premium luxuries. Antilock disc brakes and all the expected airbags were on board, but stability control costs $600 extra.
Quick by Numbers, Quicker by Feel
The lack of amenities went largely unnoticed, as the Nissan Altima coupe has other ways of making its driver feel energized.
It's not with overpowering speed, though. A[color=#990000] 0-60-mph time in the 6.0-second range and a quarter-mile time just under 15.0 seconds no longer make anyone feel entirely specia
RE: New Competition for the Monte Carlo : )
Follow-Up Test: 2007 Pontiac G6 GTP Coupe
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Vehicle Tested:
2007 Pontiac G6 GTP 2dr Coupe (3.6L 6cyl 6A)
MSRP of Test Vehicle: $28,020 Price It!!
What Works:
252-hp engine, quick 0-60-mph times, confident handling.
What Needs Work:
Brakes need improvement, coupe doesn't come with panoramic sunroof, slightly too-feminine styling.
Bottom Line:
Pontiac's GTP version of the G6 is an affordable midsize coupe that can bring some spirit into your everyday commute.
Ever since its debutantelike entrance on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2005, the Pontiac G6 never had a chance to be anything but a chick car.
When Winfrey jumped up and down on the stage shouting, "Everybody gets a car! Everybody gets a car!" the prospect of ever marketing the Pontiac G6 to the American male went out the window. The Oprah seal of approval might have made the G6 world famous overnight, but it instantly lost any hope of street cred.
Not a lot has changed for the 2007 Pontiac G6.
Enter the GTP
Men dig performance cars, so Pontiac has beefed up the G6 with a new GTP model that features a DOHC 3.6-liter V6 engine capable of 252 horsepower and 251 pound-feet of torque, plus a six-speed automatic transmission with a manual-shift mode. The package is completed by a sport-tuned suspension with 18-inch wheels that carry 50-series tires.
But trying to compete with V6 versions of the Ford Mustang, the all-time leader in American cool, and the Honda Accord[b], a consistent American best seller, is a hard road to travel. Our GTP coupe tried both to be interesting enough to drive fast and civilized enough to just drive, but it hasn't been an easy trip.
Carmakers know that a good sound system is important to the American male, so the optional Sun and Sound Package adds a premium Delphi audio system with six-disc CD player along with a power sunroof. The premium options package includes leather-upholstered heated seats and remote vehicle start, and other options include OnStar and adjustable pedals.
Frameless windows in the long coupe doors help create a sleek exterior look with sexy lines. Our car's manliness is hindered by its metallic Blue-Gold Crystal paint, which looked very pretty but also very feminine in a kind of girly nail polish way. A little mani-pedi-Botox goes a long way.
All of this combines for a total price of $28,020, considerably more than a Mustang V6 and just about on the money with the Accord V6.
Straighten up and fly right
Despite the GTP coupe's feminine glamour, it drives with a swagger. Its 252-hp V6 has plenty of torque down low in the rpm range thanks to variable valve timing and it throttles quickly to 60 mph in 6.2 seconds during our performance tests. That's a full 1.5 seconds quicker than an Accord V6,
RE: New Competition for the Monte Carlo : )
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RE: Would you trade your Monte Carlo for this ?
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[/align][align=center]2008 Honda Accord Concept[/align][align=center][/align][align=center][/align][align=center]The absence of any of the usual concept-car glam such as hidden door handles, trick lighting, or oversize wheels, and the fact that the release date for this vehicle is this fall, leads us to believe that, in typical Honda fashion, the Honda Accord Coupe concept is less a concept than a production prototype.Appearing to have been styled as a coupe from the beginning, the Accord concept has a much bolder, more distinct look than its predecessor, a car that merely looked like a truncated sedan, an afterthought. A strong, upright grille and front fascia on the concept are flanked by long headlamps that wrap around deep into the fenders, seemingly stretching all the way to the center of the wheel opening. The roofline begins its descent almost from the A-pillar, meeting the abbreviated, sloping trunk atop a moderately bulging rear fender with the rear-window beltline kink that seems to be popping up everywhere.
Quadruple exhaust outlets set into the bumper signal the performance potential of the coupe, which Honda says will be offered with a more powerful and fuel efficient V-6 than the mill in the current car -- possibly a version of the new, 300-hp 3.7-liter V-6 that's in the Acura MDX -- as well as Variable Cylinder Management, Honda’s cylinder-deactivation system.[/align][align=center][/align][align=center][/align][align=center][/align][align=center][sm=feedback.gif][/align][align=center]What do you `think ?[/align][align=center][/align][align=center][:-]Click Images 2 EnLarge[:-][/align][align=center]
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[/align][align=center]2008 Honda Accord Concept[/align][align=center][/align][align=center][/align][align=center]The absence of any of the usual concept-car glam such as hidden door handles, trick lighting, or oversize wheels, and the fact that the release date for this vehicle is this fall, leads us to believe that, in typical Honda fashion, the Honda Accord Coupe concept is less a concept than a production prototype.Appearing to have been styled as a coupe from the beginning, the Accord concept has a much bolder, more distinct look than its predecessor, a car that merely looked like a truncated sedan, an afterthought. A strong, upright grille and front fascia on the concept are flanked by long headlamps that wrap around deep into the fenders, seemingly stretching all the way to the center of the wheel opening. The roofline begins its descent almost from the A-pillar, meeting the abbreviated, sloping trunk atop a moderately bulging rear fender with the rear-window beltline kink that seems to be popping up everywhere. Quadruple exhaust outlets set into the bumper signal the performance potential of the coupe, which Honda says will be offered with a more powerful and fuel efficient V-6 than the mill in the current car -- possibly a version of the new, 300-hp 3.7-liter V-6 that's in the Acura MDX -- as well as Variable Cylinder Management, Honda’s cylinder-deactivation system.[/align][align=center][/align][align=center][/align][align=center][/align][align=center][sm=feedback.gif][/align][align=center]What do you `think ?[/align][align=center][/align][align=center][:-]Click Images 2 EnLarge[:-][/align][align=center]
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RE: Would you trade your Monte Carlo for this ?
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These quick spy shots expose the new Honda Accord coupe. (Source Unknown)
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The Accord coupe is expected to go on sale in late 2007 as a 2008 model. (Source Unknown)
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The Honda Accord coupe concept made its official debut at the 2007 Detroit Auto Show. (Photo courtesy of Honda)
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Spy photos reveal the production coupe's styling is extremely similar to the concept car. (Photo courtesy of Honda)
[align=center][/align]First Spy Photos of 2008 Honda Accord Coupe
Date posted: 05-13-2007
Date posted: 05-13-2007
SANTA MONICA, Calif. — The first spy shots of the new 2008 Honda Accord Coupe have made their way to the Internet, and they appear to confirm styling very similar to the Accord coupe concept that debuted earlier this year at the Detroit auto show.
Technical details have yet to come from Honda, but a more powerful V6 engine is anticipated. An all-new Accord sedan is expected to debut later this year as a 2008 model, so expect to see the coupe around the same time or shortly thereafter.
What this means to you: If you thought the Accord coupe concept was just for show, these spy photos confirm that it closely resembles what we'll see in Honda showrooms soon.
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Technical details have yet to come from Honda, but a more powerful V6 engine is anticipated. An all-new Accord sedan is expected to debut later this year as a 2008 model, so expect to see the coupe around the same time or shortly thereafter.
What this means to you: If you thought the Accord coupe concept was just for show, these spy photos confirm that it closely resembles what we'll see in Honda showrooms soon.
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 222
RE: Would you trade your Monte Carlo for this ?
no....i love my monte too much. the accord looks too much like the Infinity coupe.
i dont know about you guys....but i think the G6 and Altima look like they aregonnabe appealed to the female population.
i dont know about you guys....but i think the G6 and Altima look like they aregonnabe appealed to the female population.
