Croc

This thing is DOA. Seriously, it blows.

Eh, I think it looks kinda cool. Gotta see this in person...

The In-N-Out "Animal Style" fries don't have pickles per se...the "special sauce" is Thousand Island with a little relish, though. Those fries are incredible, though...even better than Steak n Shake cheese fries.

Now THAT was funny!

No I didnt...it made little sense and the whole "your mom" thing is pretty played out...

When did you get one? I just got a Pearl and love it!

Excellent post...and now I am off to the store to buy some IBC root beer! I don't think I've had any in years...

Whoa there, evok...you sure you want to call Turbo200 out? He might call you a "louse"!

Agreed. Fatburger let's you put egg and bacon on the burger...which I definitely do.Still, this is my favorite:

C'mon Fly...I know you can be funnier than that!

Satty: Zelda is out there if you look for it. As for the people who say Zelda II: The Adventure of Link sucks...don't listen to them. It's different, because it is an RPG and features a lot of side-scrolling 2D scenes. A lot of classic Zelda characters come from this game, and it is pretty challenging. Again, different doesn't equal bad.

It isn't a soap. It's an ironic comedy with dramatic elements.

You don't think Ben McKenzie is? Every girl I know drools over that guy...it's disgusting.

Yup. And America has a massive savior complex, always getting into other nations' business. Heh, like on The O.C.--America is Ryan and Canada is Marissa...and we all know what happened to Marissa :AH-HA_wink:

Bingo.

Cherry trees have survived it before and will survive it again. This isn't the first winter in my lifetime where warm weather confused the flora.

Hey, I'm not anti-enviro. I think we should cut pollution as much as possible. At the same time, I'm not gonna freak out over nice weather in winter...it's a blessing.

YESSSSSSSS I LOVE DIESELS!

Turbo: I have said my piece, and Northie redirected the thread. If you want to continue, PM me...but I think at this point it should be dropped. Dodgefan: A CTS wagon IMO doesn't render the SRX redundant as the SRX is closer now to the current STS in pricing and target demographics...as well as offering a higher driving position. My mother loved wagons until she got her XC90...now if it isn't high up she isn't interested!

"Global Warming" is a huge myth. The planet isn't warming due to man...geologically, we are still exiting an ice age. No $h! the climate will gradually get warmer. What man is doing is eating away the ozone layer, which causes greater incidences of skin cancer.

Woops, Northie, I was replying before you posted yours. Agreed...back to the CTS: It rocks! ETA: As far as the wagon goes, am I the only one having a hard time picturing what it will look like? I hope it is sportier than the BMW and M-B wagons (which IMO are rather staid-looking) but I also don't want something too ridiculous-looking like the Magnum. Cadillac has a somewhat aggressive design vocabulary, yet the wagon needs to convey elegance. If Caddy designers can pull this off, I will be very impressed.

Actually, there is quite a bit to back up what I have said. If you search back through the forums, you will know I have always said the GTO was too jellybean and dated-looking...but that doesn't change the fact that the people this vehicle was aimed at, nostalgic baby boomers with $35k to blow on a Pontiac coupe, weren't that nostalgic when the new car paid zero homage to the old. Retro cars are supposed to be nostalgic. VW did a New Beetle that was a thoroughly modern vehicle, yet it still captured the nostalgia because they didn't slap "New Beetle" on a car looking like a Passat. GM took one of its most valuable names with a lot of strong history and nostalgia and put it on a car that looked like a RWD Grand Prix coupe. That was the mistake. The problem was that you were stereotyping me and my friends, while putting on some kind of false air. You rubbed me the wrong way buddy when you claimed without knowing anyone I associate with that we are too stupid to know there's better stuff than Ramen. Not cool. Anyway, how is the truth "damaging" your reputation? A lot of people on this forum (the vast majority, actually) do not drive nice cars. There's nothing wrong with driving a vehicle that isn't brand new. I even said that in the last post. It sounds to me like you are the insecure one here, especially with the spoon-fed line. I have NOT been given everything I have ever wanted, I have worked in some very "unglamorous" (but fun) jobs, and growing up if I ever wanted something that was expensive, my parents made me do odd jobs and raise up a high percentage of the cost of the item because they wanted me to appreciate everything I got. And I do. You don't know me, so please don't act like it. My friends' parents are mostly well-off. My friends are actually pretty deep into student loans. Honestly, I don't get where you are coming from at all on this. Whatever cars I may buy in the future will be bought for ME, not to prove anything to anyone else, or show people I have "arrived." No, Camaro was never second when it came to performance. It suffered from a lack of refinement and perceived quality. Turbo, interiors are not the end all be all, and I've never asserted that. Interiors do go a long way in conveying an image of quality, though. That has been my point all along: quality vs. price. The Camaro's plastic interior with unusable back seat and mouse fur carpeting did not give it the image of quality. The F-bodies were pure muscle cars for better and worse, and by that I mean they had all the performance possible, but refinement and quality of materials took a back seat in a major way. When Ford built a more refined and practical muscle car with their newer Mustangs and GM did nothing to update the F-bodies, the F-body popularity waned and the Mustang's soared.

And it has been fairly well-established that the biggest problem with the GTO was the expectation that came with the name. We have seen on multiple boards comments like "I won't buy it because it isn't a true GTO." The name was what was wrong...had it been called a Grand Prix or Tempest it prolly would've sold much better. As it was, though, it proved to be quite popular in California.Lexus isn't stylized. Lexus shares the same styling themes with the Toyota brand. The SC and Solara. Camry and ES. Avalon and GS. The styling vocabulary is the same...fairly bland, but strange proportions/details. Yet they sell well because the interiors are very plush and more than what consumers expect for the price. Honda makes another bunch of bland, sedately-styled cars with nice interiors. The new Civic is the only real design breakout from that company, but I wouldn't classify it as beautiful at all. VW/AUDI have the same styling vocabulary. Very minimalist. Elegant. But also very bland. Very few styling adventures in this company. MB does indeed take styling risks and has a cohesive lineup. This is a good example of a company that sells well and has some style. Of course, I would argue that these vehicles sell mostly on the mystic aura that comes with the tristar logo. The reliability has been in the trash for several years now, and even long-time M-B fans have started looking elsewhere. Well, looks like you thought wrong. Also, you don't need to be so snide. You make a lot of assumptions here, and frankly, most of them are pretty wrong. First of all, you assume they are all paying for their own cars. Not happening. Most of them get them from their parents, just like most of the kids at USC. This is Southern California we are talking about, you should know that--you live there! Does Torrey Pines mean anything to you? We also don't really eat Ramen, nor do we find it top notch. It isn't healthy. We tend to eat a lot of organic fruits and vegetables as well as sushi. SoCal is a pretty health-concious place...again you should know that since you live there. Why do you think style doesn't mean much?? HELLO! We are all men between the ages of 18 and 23...of COURSE we want the coolest-looking vehicle on The Row! Get a high paying job of their own? Yes...that is something most of us don't have (but not all). Needing to refine tastes? USC tends to be fairly wealthy since it is a private university. These people have plenty of good taste as they grew up around it. The last part of your paragraph I cannot disagree with, except that you use "we." Sorry, but I've ridden in your early 90s Nissan with the cracked windshield and dents. You drive a beater, and there's nothing wrong with that. I do object to the condescending attitude toward me and my brothers (whom you have never met) when you don't have anything nicer than a beater. It's a bit pretentious, to say the least. Duh, it was left to whither on the vine without any real improvement or refresh. Yea, it was a performance value, and it even commanded pretty good curbside real estate. But the perceived quality was missing, and Ford updated the Mustang. At similar pricing as the competition (coupled with a shrinking pony car market), the Camaro and Firebird were seen as second rate, and sales fell accordingly until the plug was pulled. The 1st-gen Escalade was a Yukon Denali with a Cadillac badge on it and some Zebrano thrown in for good measure. It sold because it was a Cadillac, not for any other reason. A consumer could get the exact same vehicle (save the badge) as a GMC Yukon Denali...why pay thousands more for the Escalade? Styling was the same...it had to be an emotional connection with the brand. The Thunderbird was generally considered by the buying public and automotive analysts as beautiful and an excellent design, hence why the concept was greenlighted for production fairly quickly. What killed it was its $50k price, about 10-15k over what most were willing to pay. The Phaeton is a gorgeous piece of machinery with an incredible interior. Unfortunately, the public's perception of the VW brand does not include luxury vehicles so it loses on the prestige factor. Coupled with the pricing it had (a little on the high side, but not too bad), no one bought it. Mostly, though, it was brand equity (or lack therof) that killed it. Most people I know can give a lot of reasons for liking something. Even more people can tell you why they DON'T like a car. You seem to be referencing a statistic in that last sentence...where's the source because you need some proof to convince me that Accord buyers rate style as an important factor in the decision. Quality? I can see that. Reputation? Most definitely. But styling? Unless they mean interior design, then I'm not really seeing it. The Accord is bland, but well-made.

Really... Take a business class or two and maybe you'll have a better idea of how the market works. Perceived quality vs. price almost always trumps styling when it comes to sales. Consumers respond favorably when they think they are getting some kind of deal, and are almost always willing to pay a premium for something perceived as premium.A good book you should read to understand this better is called Trading Up: The New American Luxury by Michael J. Silverstein. It has since been updated and retitled from when I purchased/read it and is now called Trading Up: Why Consumers Want New Luxury Goods... And How Companies Create Them. Excellent insight into marketing and consumer behavior.

Maybe someone can explain this to me...I saw 4G iPod Nano going for $250, while a 30G iPod Video is also for $250. Am I missing something here?