Croc

Cincinnatti isn't that bad. They have some nice topography, and a pretty cool Old Town area. Some good bars too. That said, there are many, many other places I'd rather go.

Because as we have clearly seen from Sarah Palin, when a complete unknown is running for office, they receive a very speedy and thorough vetting. Obama isn't an unknown. Anyone telling you or believing otherwise just has not been paying attention. Obama has been running for 2 years, and many could legitimately claim he has been running since 2004. He has already been a public figure for years, and his roots as a community organizer seem to preclude him from being some kind of Al Quaida plant. Do you think Al Quaida would have been invested in this man for all of the years he has been in the public eye on the gamble that in 20 years he'd be running for President? Really? Seriously? Also, if you don't think he's a Christian, and doesn't have a Christian bone in his body--which by the way, is extremely hypocritical for a Christian to accuse another Christian, not to mention against many, many passages in the Bible--how do you explain the Rev. Wright mini-saga? Do you think a Muslim would forgo services to go to church in order to take part in a multi-decade charade? Really? You worry about this? Ask your doctor if Xanax is right for you.

I agree with the reviewer that this should also be available with a 4. Honestly, GM is so backward in their hybrid thinking with regards to product segmentation.

My Jesuit HS did. It was the only "religious" class in the religion department, so I got lucky on that. It was great...8 classes were offered, and you had to complete 5 (1 per year + 1 elective). 9th: World Religions 10th: Making Moral Decisions (basically the whole class was determining if something was a moral, immoral, or amoral decision based on Judeo-Christian morality concepts) 11th: Social Justice 12th: Religious Theology and Philosophy OR Ignation Spirituality OR The Hebrew Bible Elect.: Relationships (MBTI, Enneagram, other personality type studies) OR Values in the Media (how things are represented on TV) Pretty secular for a "Catholic" school, huh?

Or Chevrolet, or Buick, or Cadillac. Pontiac isn't necessary. Don't get me wrong, I don't want Pontiac shuttered, but I'm just pointing out the realities present.

Which is ironic because the Japanese Super Mario Bros. II (Famicom Disk System--Japanese-only) was the best of the platforming ones IMO (released in America as The Lost Levels in Super Mario All-Stars, a modfied version appears in the Game Boy Color game Super Mario Deluxe as Super Mario for Super Players, and the original is finally available on the Virtual Console for Wii).

Wow...I'm pretty sure that was really just good-natured ribbing on stereotypes, not to be taken that seriously at all man. PCS lived in Texas, so I'm fairly certain he's aware of everything you just said. And before any Texans come at me with some crazy misplaced vitriol, I'M NOT TEH SERIOUSNESS FOR REALZ

My main issue with the cupholders are that the bottom of them doesn't catch condensation, so they can drip, and they drip right on the heated seat buttons. Otherwise I like the design...though if you have two full drinks in them, the cupholder mechanism does have a tendancy to flop back and forth a bit at acceleration/braking. Agreed on the interior storage...that center stack storage is CAVERNOUS!!! And the coin holder box under the trip computer/dash lighting dial is a great touch. I actually sought out the V6 for fuel economy reasons, and also because it drives better than the 4.0 due to weight distribution issues. Not only do you get more front weight from the 4.0, but to reduce weight, the 4.0 got the lighter, cleaner-looking aluminum decklid, as well as a 1-gallon smaller fuel tank...all of which further shifts the weight distribution to the front. And IMO, the V8 doesn't offer a significant performance upgrade at all over the 3.5. My father has bought various Devilles over the years, and I swear my 3.5 is just as fast as his Northstars have been (I know this is likely due to weight), but it is still one hell of an engine. I also like the throttle progression of 6s over 8s in general, too. ------------------------- gm4life: If you go with the Bonneville, you're still getting a great car. The 2000+ Bonnevilles are very similar in interior layout to the Aurora, so you can't go wrong with that. Both are excellent cars.

I actually don't really have the highway vibration issue, just read about it. I'm also in LA, so all the freeways have vibration. She rides pretty smoothly overall, though. I agree, it is a beautiful car, and a fantastic performer as well. So much thought went into the interior and ergonomics (save the cupholders) that it is such a satisfying car to drive. Question: does your armrest still have the spring in it? Apparently broken armrest replacement parts did not include the spring, so my armrest does not "catch" open. Previous owner replaced it. And are your interior buttons scratched? Oh the joys of an early model...mine was built November 1999, what about yours?

Sweet, so you can have an excuse when it comes to not using deodorant, but you still have a unibrow problem.

Yeah, but you're not Scandinavian or British.

No I'm a member, and I've read up on a lot of those. That's how I figured out I needed a new solenoid...what, you think I'd go to a dealership and trust THEIR diagnostics? No way. Really, the main issues the car has are the Secondary Air System (design defect), window regulators (design defect), PCS solenoid (hard-to-access sensor), and an out-of-the-ordinary need to keep the alignment near-perfect. The trunk leaks affect V6 models and 2003 V8 models, as it is caused by the plastic insert on the rear decklid, same issue Caddy CTS had in 2003. Steering shaft just needs to be lubricated periodically, and I'm not aware of widespread air shock problems. I know the load leveling system can get out of calibration after the car has been lifted, but otherwise I don't know what you mean, nor have I seen it over at ACNA.

Hmmm your mileage is really close to mine, Brougham-Holiday. Honestly the only non-standard maintenance I've needed to perform was the solenoid replacement. All the other work I've had done to it was either collision repair, or due to personal anal-retentiveness about my car. I got the car pre-owned, so initially I had to do some upgrades to get it running well, but that's kinda to be expected with a used car.

I'm resigned. This isn't good, but I'm not going to let the economy get me down. As long as the CTS coupe is available as a graduation present May 2010, I'll be happy.

Thank you, I'll give it a shot...yea that wasn't intended.

Dude, shave the unibrow. That's almost like not using deodorant or brushing your teeth. C'mon.

Point taken. I will say, though, that in my travels abroad, particularly in Europe, I have seen nary a Chrysler or Dodge branded vehicle. Exports may be their only source of growth, but what kind of growth is it? Is it the kind of growth that Cadillac has seen in Europe? By that I mean, is Chrysler's growth the result of having little else to go but up? Kinda like Suzuki in the US...sure, they have a presence in the physical sense...but they have no real presence in the marketplace--Suzuki definitely goes in the "Wait...they still sell those?" column.

I think it will be Brasil. That's my prediction.

Really? Are you sure you want to stand by that statement? Say what you will about The View, but Barbara Walters has won more than enough awards for her investigative journalism to be considered one of the greats, and she was quite the pioneer for women, too. Don't belittle her work. And she still does put together the occasional special report for 20/20.

I honestly think this whole thing is just absurd. At this point, I don't give a $h! what happens because at the end of the day I'm still going to be in LA, driving my Aurora, and there will be a bottle of Maker's Mark and some cigarettes waiting back at the apartment. I'm not surprised Chrysler's going out; that's been a long time coming. They have no presence outside of North America, they have had to partner up with Mitsubishi for decades to develop bread and butter product, the quality has been $h!eous, and the whole thing with D-B was just a huge clusterf@#k. GM is a whole different story, except it isn't. I just don't see the actual value of two incompetent companies joining...it's almost like the worst of both worlds.

+1

No, Stossel's delivery is pretty lacking. I've yet to see anything of his that had much substance to it...he tends to approach topics with more of a slant and more of an outcome in mind, and then talks about conclusions without getting into the details of why. As an investigative journalist, he sucks. Add to that I find his persona off-putting. Now if Barbara Walters were doing the segment, I'd be more apt to watch because I feel she takes her job VERY seriously and tries to actually explain the details to viewers. She isn't as sensationalist as Stossel (vast understatement), and as far as her persona, I find it pleasant.

Tell me about it. LA is everywhere. You want to know where that car commercial was shot? If it's in a tunnel, it's the 2nd St. tunnel downtown (Cadillac CTS). Several of the recent Saturn commercials? 2nd St. tunnel, 4th St. "freeway," 4th St. viaduct, 6th st viaduct. Ford Edge was shot downtown, too...but I forget which street. One of the biggest tell-tale signs of LA is the presence of red curbs. LA paints their curbs red for no parking zones, yellow for loading, green for permit parking only, and blue for handicap only. Other cities do this too, but LA has a LOT of red curbs...sometimes blocks and blocks of streets. Also, LA curbs tend to be a bit higher than usual (consternation for front passenger unloading), especially in older areas. The biggest nitpick for me, though, is CSI: Miami. Not only is "Miami" really LA (they look nothing alike, especially with the predominant design aesthetics of the housing stock), but the whole show is filmed with a yellow filter on the picture. Honestly, why is everything so damn orange in "Miami"? Trying to turn smoggy skies into "sunny" ones? Or is "Miami" stuck in a perpetual twilight? Anyone who has ever watched Miami Vice (TV show, not the awful movie) knows what Miami looks like, and how bright and vivid everything is, especially the BLUE sky.

That really is pretty hot.

Yeah, I was gonna say...I mean you wouldn't be the first gay man to hit on me, but no dice.