Still reminds me of that weird alien-human hybrid from "Aliens Resurrection".

VW only owns 19.9% of Suzuki, which last I checked isn't most of a company. And Zastava (what was known as Yugo in the U.S.) is owned by Fiat.

John H.: Only because their population is huge. Even at a 61% per capita literacy rate, there are still more than twice as many literate people as in the U.S.

As opposed to Lincoln, which is supposed to compete against Audi, Acura, and Infiniti? There is no point to the Mercury brand. Personally, I think Ford's strategy with Mercury is brilliant. Starve it of product to the point where no one will notice when it is gone. The perfect way to eliminate a brand. The exact opposite of what GM did with Oldsmobile, Saturn, and Pontiac and what Chrysler did with Eagle and Plymouth.

Merlot066 doesn't have to support his argument. Every time you post here you seem to do it for him.

I gotta disagree with you Montoym. The 1st-gen GM Theta CUVs, the GM Lambda CUVs, VW Touareg, Audi Q7, Porsche Cayenne, and the Mercedes ML and GL are widely considered to be CUVs but they are not based on car platforms. In all of those cases, the vehicles were built from purpose-built unibody platforms but all are considered CUVs. Even the Wikipedia link you mentioned lists all of those as CUVs but doesn't identify them as being based off of cars.

It's not the same engine as the Aveo/Kalos, which used a Family I engine. The Volt engine is a Family 0 engine and is being built in Flint, MI.

One thing I haven't heard is if the Volt engine is direct-injected like the turbo version in the Cruze. The use of DI might make the benefits of the Atkinson cycle irrelevant.

What's with the scroll bars?

I'm not so sure the Phaeton failed just because of the VW name and I don't think Hyundai is fooling anyone by leaving their badge off the front of the Genesis. I think the Phaeton failed because of the huge price delta between it and the next sedan in the VW lineup, the Passat. There was a $20k-$35k+ jump to go from a Passat to the Phaeton. Hyundai is doing it right. The have a continuous price and size range going from the Accent to Elantra to Sonata to Azera to Genesis to Equus. The Phaeton would have been a success at $40k.

The Aztek came out in 2001, so it would qualify. But it was not the first unibody CUV. The RAV4, CR-V, Forester, Freelander, and X5 were out well before the Aztek.