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Nothing will change. As soon as this will blow through, everyone will go back to the usual routine.

See now, I had a suspicion you might be full of it/ #youwalkedintothatone

Think you meant to respond to ocnblu bud.

Absolutely, I agree we all should take it seriously and always think about ways to stay safe from diseases.

And I bought this - I think it'll look 'boss' in the '59. I believe this design came out in '64 : 'Dis is the plan :

Where in the World is @Drew Dowdell

Ive had my share of warnings and bans and trolling posts and enemies and foul language. Here and the other automotive forum I posted in a long time ago. But hey...we are here to try to figure out where in the world is Drew and not about MY posting habits...God Dammit!!! So @Drew Dowdell Where in the hell are you?

Knew his old job ended and maybe got new one, but not able to jump on later at night or early morning even? Maybe just sick of babysitting. We know @oldshurst442 is a handful!

True. That is why I said it. But arent we in a much safer place for better preparing for the...worst? Rather than just ignore it all and say its all media driven hype?

The Prime Minister of Canada, his wife,...got a virus that has KILLED thousands in a matter of weeks. And YOU are saying look at the numbers!! I AM!!! The Prime Minister's DOCTORS...Im assuming HIS doctors are the best in Canada...because HE is a MILLIONNAIRE and HE is the PRIME MINISTER is ADVISING HIM TO SELF ISOLATE!!! Boy...are YOU dense???!!!! YOUR President... shut YOUR borders to Europe BECAUSE of this... I thought YOU trusted YOUR President's words?

Contrasted against previous sweeping illnesses, there's little question that some of the response is fear-driven, and some of that is unquestionably pushed by the media - even if it's just continual doom-y coverage.

Yeah...I know! I just wanted to justify myself to you. I wanted for you to see where I come from. I wanted you to see that I wasn't against you for quoting you, but how frustrated I could be with some humans on our stupid assed planet!!!

I tend to believe and trust the top doctors in the U.S.A. myself and they're saying wash your hands with soap for 20+ secs. is one of the best way to fight it. Creepy as it sounds, the little invisible bugs get in your mucus membranes if you touch your eyes, nose or mouth when your hands are dirty with bacteria and viruses. That's one Fugly Ford! ?

Guess that pretty much destroys their credibility for whatever EV promoting deal they had going. Boy was THAT a waste of time & money!

Mercedes sells a ton of high priced Chevrolet (Im trolling...BUT, Mercedes DOES sell a ton of "entry level" bullshyte cars and CUVs) These are badge snobs that wouldnt be caught dead in lower badged cars, especially from Detroit and really couldnt afford the high dollar M-B cars. These are the cars Mercedes has pushed on us for the last 20-25 years. From the late 1990s. You are what you market and sell. Ive said this before about me not wanting Cadillac to move downmarket... Mercedes has made its bed. Its time for Mercedes to sleep in it. That Celestiq...with a 200 000 dollar price tag. It will be handbuilt, right? That is REAL luxury territory. At that price point and manufacturing process, that equates to Cadillac KNOWING what it NEEDS to do NOT to phoque it up. THAT means that the technology behind it WILL be state of the art. The build quality and quality of the luxury materials WILL be worthy of that 200 000 dollar price tag. How do I know this to be true? Because MY guess is as good as any other's. Well... 1. Seeing how the Corvette engineering team was focused on the project at hand and gave us an unbelievable C8 Stingray to start with and other trims to follow. I see Cadillac engineers to do the same with not only the Celestiq but withb the other models too. 2. Seeing the new CT4-V and CT-5-V in person and how the interior is tight and the materials are worthy of REAL Cadillacs, I KNOW GM and Cadillac FINALLY got the message...and things are only going to get better with the EV Cadillacs going forward. 3. Maybe some of us are not really feeling the new Escalade on the outside, but on the inside, its very worthy of a REAL Cadillac. I think it even surpasses the high dollar Mercedes cars. Side note, at the Montreal Auto Show...the new CT4 V and CT5 V cars were there, but NOBODY was interested in them, (which points out that sedans are dead) but there was a line-up at the Escalade. Millennials, middle-aged like myself and boomers... I think the Escalade UNITES us all. To which I will assume the Celestiq will do the same as in... North Americans are starving for a high priced Cadillac. We have seen the effect with some very desirable concepts Cadillac has shown us but havent got the balls to actually give us. Im betting the Celestiq wont dissapoint. Just my gut feeling.

Blast from the past (since @USA-1 's post made me and several others laugh) Things I remember from Police Academy...and sequels... Trans Am!!! Which reminds me...about customers. "Now Im a people guy." I use that phrase all the time when a customer pisses me off. I play that phrase in my head and I dont lose all my shyte with them... EDIT: Ive come to realize...playing this back...the beginning of death metal? (His voice and the way his song goes on his 1st album)

The top comes off, HE MIGHT FIT! ?

The "custom" locking lug nut seems like a brilliant idea but what happens when Joe Jabroni loses his key? Bring the vehicle in and they pull the VIN and order a new one and you get it in 7 weeks...for $200?

I went yesterday to Costco to do some shopping. Usually Wednesday is very quiet day to do that. Yesterday I had hard time finding parking space, the store was full. There were NO toilet paper, No paper towels, NO packaged chicken, NO ground beef. I see people buying 4-5 cases of water. Simply crazy, people are going completely nuts and it is only the beginning.

Upon seeing that auto, the only thing I can say or do is

In the U.S. tho, mercedes cannot seem to stay above / put distance between their ATPs and those of the 'Acura-competitor'; Cadillac. "Mercedes fans should be outraged." - - - - - RE the post above mine; what happened to "6.2" billion??? Note also that not only did Q4 profit drop by a massive 22%, MB is stating it will likely be years before they return to previous margin levels. AND that one way they intend to achieve that is to 'build less complex cars'. "Mercedes fans should be outraged."

https://www.hagerty.com/articles-videos/articles/2020/03/09/gm-responds-mat-blackwing-v8-deal-up-in-air-for-now GM responds: MAT’s Blackwing V-8 deal is up in the air for now

Since the CT4 and the CT5 are already out, will there be a replacement for the CT6 and make it at least as good as the Escalade? (Yes I know that CT6 production ended about 60 days ago.)

Oh...That is coming shortly. Be careful what you wish for. Its called the Corvette C8 with trims and performance levels higher than that of the base Stingray. And of course a higher price tag. And seeing that the highest priced C8 Stingray reaches almost 100 000...you just KNOW that the other two projected C8 Corvettes will reach and probably surpass 130 000. And yes...those Vettes WILL sell at that price. GM aint phoquing around anymore. You aint seeing that? Im giving you a heads up. Maybe you should look into it more closely.

because the CT6 was said to be a high priced Cadillac. And a top dog Cadillac at that. The potential buyers and fanbois all thought that this was THE Cadillac. But it wasnt. The interior quality of materials were underwhelming. THAT is why Johan right away said that this was NOT a top dog Cadillac. It was not his project car. He inherited it. It was a project car done at the time of the bankruptcy and whether the bankruptcy had an impact on the cheapened interior or was it business as usual bean counting...the CT6 was NOT that vehicle. And the fans and the buyers saw it right away... But they will. The Celestiq...for the LAST time...does NOT look like a project going down the road of what made Cadillac fail... 1. Seeing how the Corvette engineering team was focused on the project at hand and gave us an unbelievable C8 Stingray to start with and other trims to follow. I see Cadillac engineers to do the same with not only the Celestiq but withb the other models too. 2. Seeing the new CT4-V and CT-5-V in person and how the interior is tight and the materials are worthy of REAL Cadillacs, I KNOW GM and Cadillac FINALLY got the message...and things are only going to get better with the EV Cadillacs going forward. 3. Maybe some of us are not really feeling the new Escalade on the outside, but on the inside, its very worthy of a REAL Cadillac. I think it even surpasses the high dollar Mercedes cars. Side note, at the Montreal Auto Show...the new CT4 V and CT5 V cars were there, but NOBODY was interested in them, (which points out that sedans are dead) but there was a line-up at the Escalade. Millennials, middle-aged like myself and boomers... I think the Escalade UNITES us all. To which I will assume the Celestiq will do the same as in... The people crooned over the Ciel...and the Ciel would have been a 200 000 dollar price tagged car. if not more. People are STILL talking about the Ciel. The Ciel was a concept that was 15 years ago... Shyte..people still croon over the Sixteen 20 years ago. All the Ciel and Sixteen had to do is just be...Cadillac and they'd sell like hot cakes with Bentley and Rolls price tags... All the CT6 had to do...is just be a WORTHY Cadillac. It was not. The Celestiq WILL be a worthy Cadillac. Nothing shows that Cadillac in 2020 will NOT be doing things right. This is a game that Cadillac finally ended. Cadillac just started a new game. YOU got to get off this habit of yours. Worry about Mercedes. Because Mercedes in 2020 is going down a road that Cadillac once took.

#eatwellpoopwell #bigamericanbowelmovements Speaking of toilets, when I remodel my main bathroom I’m going to get one of the high end Toto toilets w/ the bidet, lid that rises to greet you, heated seat, WiFi, remote control app, etc.

It’s always good to stock up on toilet paper, though. I always like to keep at least a dozen rolls on hand in each bathroom, and a couple dozen extra stashed away.

one could answer that way. LOL I wasnt looking for that answer, but sure. Yeah. I see it with him. Yeah...I thought so. But you also confirmed your bias once more that I accused you of by downvoting @Robert Hall's post...

But its not. It never was overblown. Not then. Not now. SARS or H1N1 These also had the potential to be like Covid-19. It never went that way. We have to have warnings. The media NEEDS to report. Our governments HAVE to respond. WE need to protect ourselves. WE need this information to do so. WE as a society do either of two things. 1. We PANIC and dont get proper information and panic some more. 2. We are very lax and dont get proper information and become even MORE lax. 3. BOTH scenarios and we as humans ALWAYS seem to get this conspiracy thing on our minds... Im not panciked. Nor do I take this very lightly either. But Im prepared for the worse. I see what it has done globally and Im ready to close the restaurant if I need to for a couple of days, weeks, months. We all do not know how it will end. What if tomorrow..Covid-19 goes away. Will we say the media over hyped it? I Will we say Italy panicked for nothing? What if this truly becomes the new bubonic plague? Do we know how it will end? We dont! But are you saying that the media should NOT report it and just report hockey scores? We should as a society go bat shyt crazy for the postponed NBA and NHL seasons because this Covid-19 thing is false panic and riot our streets? Or should we just take proper precautions?

True... https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/prevention.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Fabout%2Fprevention-treatment.html There is currently no vaccine to prevent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The best way to prevent illness is to avoid being exposed to this virus. The virus is thought to spread mainly from person-to-person. Between people who are in close contact with one another (within about 6 feet). Through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes. These droplets can land in the mouths or noses of people who are nearby or possibly be inhaled into the lungs. Take steps to protect yourself Clean your hands often Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds especially after you have been in a public place, or after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing. If soap and water are not readily available, use a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol. Cover all surfaces of your hands and rub them together until they feel dry. Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands. Avoid close contact Avoid close contact with people who are sick Put distance between yourself and other people if COVID-19 is spreading in your community. This is especially important for people who are at higher risk of getting very sick. Take steps to protect others Stay home if you’re sick Stay home if you are sick, except to get medical care. Learn what to do if you are sick. Cover coughs and sneezes Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze or use the inside of your elbow. Throw used tissues in the trash. Immediately wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. If soap and water are not readily available, clean your hands with a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol. Wear a facemask if you are sick If you are sick: You should wear a facemask when you are around other people (e.g., sharing a room or vehicle) and before you enter a healthcare provider’s office. If you are not able to wear a facemask (for example, because it causes trouble breathing), then you should do your best to cover your coughs and sneezes, and people who are caring for you should wear a facemask if they enter your room. Learn what to do if you are sick. If you are NOT sick: You do not need to wear a facemask unless you are caring for someone who is sick (and they are not able to wear a facemask). Facemasks may be in short supply and they should be saved for caregivers. Clean and disinfect Clean AND disinfect frequently touched surfaces daily. This includes tables, doorknobs, light switches, countertops, handles, desks, phones, keyboards, toilets, faucets, and sinks. If surfaces are dirty, clean them: Use detergent or soap and water prior to disinfection. To disinfect: Most common EPA-registered household disinfectants will work. Use disinfectants appropriate for the surface. Options include: Diluting your household bleach. To make a bleach solution, mix: 5 tablespoons (1/3rd cup) bleach per gallon of water OR 4 teaspoons bleach per quart of water Follow manufacturer’s instructions for application and proper ventilation. Check to ensure the product is not past its expiration date. Never mix household bleach with ammonia or any other cleanser. Unexpired household bleach will be effective against coronaviruses when properly diluted. Alcohol solutions. Ensure solution has at least 70% alcohol. Other common EPA-registered household disinfectants. Products with EPA-approved emerging viral pathogens pdf icon[7 pages]external icon claims are expected to be effective against COVID-19 based on data for harder to kill viruses. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for all cleaning and disinfection products (e.g., concentration, application method and contact time, etc.). Complete disinfection guidance

^ So if you practice good hygiene AND stay at home if you feel sick, it still doesn't make any difference?

There may well be a 'sidestep' if it's declared as only for off-road. Kinda like road-tax free fuel.

Not the sharpest tools in the shed. They post videos of diesel trucks they've modified rolling coal and think it's not going to go viral?

Yesterday. Italy closed shop. Literally. Nobody allowed out. No businesses open. Only pharmacies and grocery stores are allowed to be open and only 10 people at a time in the stores shopping. European soccer teams were strongly advised, along with North American sports teams to play in their arenas without spectators. The European soccer teams followed that advice while in North America we pretty much ignored that advice. Only the California hockey teams were to oblige. Still with yesterday. Many American cities canceled their St. Patrick's Day parades including New York and Boston. The two biggest in North America. This morning, the NBA halted and postponed their season. This afternoon. The NHL followed suit. MLB has also postponed preseason and will delay the start of the season. President Trump has closed its borders to European travel to and from. (If Canada does not follow suit, I think President Trump will close its borders with Canada. Although Canada is still a low risk country. For now... Id say...things have ALREADY changed...and DRASTICALLY I MIGHT ADD these last 24 hours or so... Id say things are going to get much much worse...with people infected and borders closed and life halted in the next week... For one...lets see where Canada stands with Covid infections in the next 5 days as Coronavirus has a tendency to double its numbers every 2 days. Canada was at 118 this morning. Now we are at 140. Quebec was at 8 this morning. Now we are at 13. Italy started off slow too. Before we balloon, if it aint too late...we will close down our cities in North America...soon enough. NO! Not because Covid-19 is sooooooo deadly. But its a virus that spreads QUICKLY. And has the potential to be very deadly if got out of hand. And in some places on the planet, like Italy, it HAS gotten out of hand as there arent enough medical staff to care for the infected. And THAT is where the dangers lie... Common guys...get your facts straight. And NO...this will not just blow through....

@balthazar Here is your next truck I found for you. Only $10,350 is the asking price with an 8ft bed. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/292036065087669/ https://www.thedrive.com/news/32563/this-ford-e-series-dually-is-the-pickup-you-drew-in-elementary-school

Oh yes they are!!! Cadillac is selling in nice numbers. Even in North America. Cadillac has/had many sedans in their line-up and not too many CUVs. Now that they culled a few of those sedans and upped their CUV line-up...numbers will go up. Wel...yeah! But the sentence before...those two words asking rhetorically and stupidly "are they?" well... YOU SAID IT YOURSELF!!! That is because Cadillac hasnt really given the people any high priced products to buy to begin with... And the very few that had high price tags, Cadillac botched them...this is true. BUT...the Escalade is 1 high priced Caddy that is NOT botched. The "V" cars are not botched either. And enough "V" product has entered the market that people have taken notice. Except these are sedans... People dont buy sedans in high numbers anymore. Mercedes has seen those sedan numbers drop too... But.. I repeat my post And funny though... you seem to defend Mercedes by NOT caring about ATPs...but ATPs DEFINE the luxury market... If Cadillac sells higher priced vehicles than Mercedes does on a whole...what conclusion do YOU have? YOU already answered that... THAT is luxury to you? Dude...is or isnt Mercedes luxury? (IN NORTH AMERICA) Because if these are the kinds of cars Mercedes wants to peddle to North Americans and people are buying these...and Cadillac ends up selling MORE higher priced cars than Mercedes does...than YOU already have your answer. YOU may not like the answer and be blind to reality...and THAT is OK too... but you or Mercedes aint foolin' me. PS: I saw a family get out of a Metris the other day. The first thing that came to my mind is this: Yup....PURE luxury... That would be a Ford van Chevy and GMC have versions of those too. Again...if YOU think selling vehicles where the market has Chevy and Ford as competitors is selling luxury...IVE GOT SOMETHING TO SELL YOU

I know. Especially as a daily driver. For rented wheels with an automatic on the cheap in a less populous area in a foreign country, it was fine.

Shooooooot, Linocln has higher ATPs than Mercedes... I honestly never would have guessed.

@smk4565-No offense but you seriously have to know when to walk away. You started this nonsense with you weak trolling (which is probably because Benz keeps delaying their EV offerings) and now you have backstepped so many times, offering excuses for Daimler that you simply won’t do for domestics, you don’t even know what your core argument is anymore. Fact is that Benz has had just as many flops and failures as Cadillac and they have been costlier to boot (see Maybach). Maybe offering something of actual substance would be the best course of action for the future here. All that R&D spending yet delay after delay on the future EV investment. See the problem there yet? Like I said, just endless excuses.

Photos taken during this 5 day rental Here's the Toyota Aygo at a filling station and Autogrill adjacent to the highway. That's it - and the one on the left is a roll-aboard that you can't roll aboard into the cabin when you stuff it to the gills. The cheap rear compartment cover was flailing with the wind (a small vid would have been better) and did not engage into its slots that easily. Here's the IP - speedometer (kms), tach to the left, idiot lights to the right, and a decent steering wheel set-up (stitched, but probably still urethane). Here's the center stack - the infotainment screen was easy to use and the climate control cluster was even easier to use (less is more). One big windshield wiper for this little windshield - note that the trees and bushes kept their leaves during winter. This is the automatic gear selector - no console, armrest, or anything like that ... if you look to the bottom right, you can see the "E." There's not much in the way of rear leg room and you push out the rear windows like you would vents - they don't roll up or down. Here's the split rear seating and you can see the cover over the small rear trunk/storage area. Even with a thicker rear sail panel / C-pillar, visibility is very good, largely because it's a small car. - - - - - End of photos

?? https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/06/washington-state-coronavirus-kent-motel https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2020-03-05/seattle-area-officials-buy-4-million-quarantine-motel Only 2 confirmed cases in AZ and one was over a month ago and the guy recovered already. Definitely have a handle on it here, our Governor, Doug Ducey, already has emergency relief plan ready to go if need be. We all need to not panic, that's the worst that can happen and that has been relayed from our top doctors in the nation. MSM has blown this up and made this virus very political. Lets not forget that in 2009-2010 that 61 million Americans got Swine flu (H1N1) and nearly 12,500 in total died from it with 1,000 passing away before DC did anything about it at the time. This flu season CDC estimates that there have been at least 34 million flu illnesses and 20,000 deaths have occurred so far this year. Some pretty eye opening statistics.

Seems no GERMAN BRANDS can be cost effective to own either. @smk4565 Seems your favorite brand is no where to be found in the top 5 most profitable auto companies in 2019. In order from #1: Toyota Motor Corporation with $17.5 Billion Volkswagen with $15.6 Billion General Motors Company with $9.0 Billion Bavarian Motor Works (BMW) with $5.6 Billion Honda Motor Company with $4.8 Billion https://www.investopedia.com/articles/company-insights/091516/most-profitable-auto-companies-2016-tm-gm.asp EVEN WITH A STRIKE, GM WAS MORE PROFITABLE THAN MERCEDES_BENZ

Current info on ATP's and Hyundai seems to beat the heck out of Mercedes-Benz. TO QUOTE: Average transaction prices (ATPs) in January started off 2020 much like they ended 2019: rising. The market saw a 3.5% year-over-year gain in January, to nearly $38,000. The gain was driven mostly by a heavier truck/SUV sales mix, as car share fell to 25% in January, down from 30% in January 2019. Both trucks and SUVs gained, as trucks rose to 19% of the market (up from 17% from January 2019), and SUVs climbed to 52% (up from 48%). Had the sales mix remained steady from a year ago, the year-over-year increase in ATPs would have only been about 1.5%. https://www.coxautoinc.com/market-insights/average-new-vehicle-transaction-prices-up-3-5-year-over-year-in-january/

They had a sad, dumpy design and they couldn't hold the line on quality- it was built worse than the s-class. Catastrophic failure.

Only thing Daimler 'got right' on maybach 2.0 was a staggering price cut and a massive parts bin raid. There may not be a bigger downgrade in automotive history... but mercedes cannot pull down Bentley/Rolls customers. Catastrophic failure.

Yes- from what I've seen the pre-war lights worked like modern lights (bulb vs. housing). I know the Plymouth lights- I think it's the Graham about the same time had sharply peaked headlight lenses. And others. Ruxton lights: Edmund & Jones Type 20 (aftermarket) :

Well, my Masters degree is in Computer Science. It's served me well the last 25+ years...degrees that are relevant to growth fields are always a good idea..

I see you're still maintaining the 15-year time buffer in your infrequent pics, Bill. A+ for consistency. - - - - - Nice SS. Customer of mine has a '70 Malibu coupe done up as a SS, tho it retains the Malibu beltline trim. Crate 350/4-spd. Says he wants to sell it this year, so I'll give him a hand with that/there'll be some pics.

Me standing next to my brother's numbers matching 1970 SS 454, about 15 years ago. I still have that coat.

The pack is doing well... Zo is doing fine, he is on 4 different medications daily for an enlarged heart and spleen issue. But eating well and lots of energy for a 13 yr old. Here's a recent pic of the pack exiled to the back patio while I was cleaning the living room...