oldshurst442

The South Shall Rise Again! Look away! Look away! Dixie land? Oopsies!

From that article: Just by reading that very 1st paragraph, and really not giving two shytes about the rest of the article, still read it though, the only thing I got from it was... AINT IT THE AMERICAN DREAM TO BE AN OWNER OF A CAR???!!! SO WHY THE CONFUSION AS TO WHY PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION ALWAYS SEEMS TO GET THE SHAFT IN AMERICA???!!! Im a hypocrite on this subject though. Im a HUUUGE advocator for public transport but I aint NEVER EVER...EVER gonna give up MY car to ride the damned bus and metro. Even if I worked downphoquingtown. I say I would take public transport if I worked downtown. But that is just a big fat LIE!!! Ever since I had 100% full access to a car, either my dad's because he retired or my very own not too long after he retired, I had stopped taking public transport and I NEVER looked back. I was 20 years old when that happened. I took the bus and metro a couple of times between the ages of 20 and 21, ONLY because I wanted, had to, study for exams, so I studied on the bus because I did not study the night before because clubbing was obviouly more important!!! But yeah. The good 'ole American Dream. Forget Uber and LYFT and all that. Owning a car and the freedom to go where the phoque you want will ALWAYS trump public transport. Which in turn, will also make UBER and LYFT go by the wayside too. The power of the freedom to use YOUR OWN CAR whenever YOU want wherever YOU wanna go without ANY waiting is too damn strong for even a network of autonomous driving vehicles to fail...We all happily put up with traffic and gridlock because the power of the freedom to use YOUR OWN CAR whenever YOU want wherever YOU wanna go without ANY waiting IS that strong...

You folk bitchin' 'bout taxes? Something or other 'bout services? Quebec resident here! We take the cake!!!

I do not know why, but your post reminded me of this classic scene

The Buick Bamboo... The perfect name for a Chinese market only Buick cute ute crossover!

The Florida Keys look gorgeous! I see you have moved around in your life time. And you aint done yet! ? With Montreal weather being frigid the last couple of days and a snow storm to come in the next few, a place with hot, sun kissed beaches sounds good right about now, never you mind when retirement comes!!!

The Continental lacks the smoothness of the concept. Those very subtle touches that differentiates a build quality of a true luxury brand versus a mainstream one. The Continental's body gaps look like they belong on a Ford. Not worthy of a Lincoln and certainly not worthy of the Continental badge. Continental Fusion The gaps look tighter on the Continental. Which is a step up on the Ford. As it should be. But on the concept, from Lincoln itself, Lincoln KNOWS how luxury should be, yet did not follow through on the production Continental... Concept It makes a BIG visual difference for someone spending huge coin on a luxury car. I think a longer wheelbase would have helped too.

Because Europeans are very patriotic towards their cars. The French will only buy French cars. Italians will only buy Italian cars Germans laugh at everything that is not German. Hell, the Japanese are the same way. They only buy Japanese cars Only the Americans, and the British, are not that way towards their automotive industry... Maybe you need to see other places? Germany is a beautiful country. Europe is a must at least once in your lifetime... THAT is what I am sayin...Mercedes ALWAYS built other things in Europe. Mercedes Benz is NOT just a luxury brand. They are everything in Europe. Cadillac is JUST a luxury brand. They dont do anything else but luxury since the 1st day they were makin' cars. Over 100 years ago... Cadillac is not, should not, be about volume...

Yes. But in Europe. Not here in North America. Cadillac was NEVER a full line brand with commercial trucks, military trucks, buses, taxis... There were Cadillac hearses and ambulances, but those were aftermarket outfitters that did the conversions. Not from the factory. Mercedes, if marketed properly, could succeed as a full line brand in North America. They keep slippin though. Cadillac cant. No amount of marketing would make Cadillac a full line brand. If Cadillac succeeded in making an alternative to a Chevrolet Malibu Premier, People would not buy the CT6 Blackwing if Cadillac would succeed to be an alternative to a Malibu Premier. And honestly, do we, the people of North America, really want Cadillac to sell us their version of the Malibu Premier and their competitor to the Mercedes Sprinter? I dont think GM CEOs want that either. Maybe owners of Cadillac dealers want that... I fell in love with the Mercedes Sprinter this past summer on our family vacation to Greece. But its not the Sprinter that inspires me to own a Mercedes one day... Is this how we should look at Mercedes and Cadillac? Boy, that Sprinter hauls so much stuff...I must buy the SL Black Series right now!!! In Europe, there is no disconnect with a Mercedes in every garage philosophy. There is no lapse from traveling in the subway and then getting on a Mercedes city bus and then seeing a rich dude pull up in front of the bus in his SL when you get off the next bus stop. In the US...we havent seen that, have we? Cadillac tried that sort of thing and failed, because Cadillac should ONLY sell to the 1%ers. THAT is how we view Cadillac and we should continue to do so...because Cadillac always sold dreams to us and actually sold those dreams for real to the 1%ers...

Oh...I think Mercedes cares... In Europe they dont. Because in Europe Mercedes has a history of re-building European confidence and sold cars to match a re-building Europe after the war. Hence the W123... Cadillac was never put in a position like that. Well, the idiot CEOs of the 1980s wanted a Cadillac for every American garage with the likes of the Cimarron and look what happened to that Cadillac image... Mercedes tried that too over here... But it did not go too well, they since changed their strategy with the CLA...but its still a cheap econobox. Cadillac has not done that with the ATS but its Cadillac that gets shafted by the badge snobs and the shyte American automotive press... Point being... Luxury cars are just that...luxury cars. Not meant for the masses... Taxis and luxury cars are at the opposite ends of the spectrum. Limo service is to cater to the affluent. And they need the Escalades and the S Classes. Taxis are meant for the masses.

Sure, the old W123 was built like a tank. Especially the diesel. Lots of those in Africa and in Europe. But you know what? The 1977 downsized Chevy Bel Air/Impala/Caprice was also built like a tank. The thing is, today's Mercedes is nowhere near that level...

Maybe they do... The problem with the Mercedes Taxis in Europe is that they are built and sold like Chevrolet taxis here. And...there are trim levels of those Mercedes cars that are EXACTLY how the Impala LTs are over here. In fact, an Impala LTZ is miles ahead in terms of luxury where those E Class Mercedes cars of Europe are... Sure, the E Class of Europe is also sold with the same high end luxurious stuff we get in North America. But the E Class is also bought and sold like an Impala LT as well...

I remember a decade ago, when the politicians and the greenie folk were scolding the Detroit Big3 CEOs why do they keep on producing gas guzzling SUVs and the Detroit Big3 CEOs defended themselves by saying that that is what the consumers want. The politicians and the greenie folk all said bullshyte on that and forced FoMoCo, GM and Chryco. to produce smaller more economical cars... This is how Obamas new mileage standards came to be... THIS is how we got small displacement 4 bangers with turbos in our cars. THIS is how FoMoCo. got the name ecoboost from... https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/business/19emissions.html As you coud see, a decade later and the consumers NEVER gave two shytes about what greenies and politicians cared for...

I do not think its the car manufacturers that are pricing the consumers out of new cars. I think its the consumer itself that does it. Why is it that Ford is cutting its sedans in favor of producing and selling CUVs and SUVs? Why is GM almost doing the same? Why are Toyota Camrys and Honda Accords selling at a slight lesser rate than once before and why is it that Toyota's and Honda's CUVs outselling their sedan counterparts? When was the last time you actually saw or heard a suburban wife talk about how she wants to buy (not lease, because leasing too causes the consumer to out-price himself out of a new car) a base bare bones compact car? It seems suburbanites all want the most recent, option filled truck or SUV and who cares how much it costs... There was a time when down and out folk used to buy pick-up trucks, no options pick-up trucks, because these were the cheapest means of transportation anybody could buy... The consumers DEMANDED fully equipped cars over the decades and have migrated to higher priced CUVs and SUVs and 100 000 doallr work trucks to outshine their neighbors... Even if car manufacturers make and produce "affordable" no frill CUVs, the masses will NOT buy them or lease them. America has become a voracious consumer oriented society that just wants to outdo their neighbor...

LOL! Yeah. I was kinda joking. But I was kinda not. There is always a hint of truth to everything I say. Before I got car crazy, I was an airplane nut. During my teen years, I was more into airplanes than I was into cars (and I was car crazy then too). WW2 fighters. Jets fighters of any era. Commercial aircraft. You name it. This makes for an interesting debate. I did say that modern V8s could power WW2 fighters. I was being serious. (Im going by memory, its been a loooong time since I discussed WW2 aircraft. Im too lazy to google or reach out for my WW2 books on airplanes.) I did know that WW2 fighters had a minimum of 1200 HP. Some reached 1700HP. Some even surpassed 2000HP. Some were inline 12 cylinders while others were 18 cylinders in a radial configuration. Some were in an inverted V and some were supercharged. While others used nitrous oxide to achieve superior performance in high speed or to achieve high altitudes and faster climb rates and what not. OK...the part where I think that a modern V8 could have powered WW2 aircraft and obviously achieve the same performance numbers as those war birds. Those Rolls Royce/Merlin V12s that were in Spitfires and Mustangs, those radial 18 cylinder BMW engines that were found in the Focke Wulf 190s and all the others were huge, big, clunky and heavy. Sure, they produced about double what a Hellcat Hemi or the ZR1 LT5 produces, but I bet you that those V8s weigh less than half of what those old piston aircraft engines weighed. They definitely take up less space. Less space means the fighter could be that much smaller. Less weight means that a fighter needs less HP to propel it through the air. So...could a 840HP Demon Hemi crate engine propel a Mustang P51D to be as fast as the real Merlin powered P51d Mustang? (Which the P51D was the fastest piston engined airplane of the war. I do not know how to answer that. But I will try. I googled this part. Although I knew some things about it... The Red Bull airplane race planes use a Lycoming horizontally opposing 6 cylinder engine. Displacement is 541.5 cubic inches or 8.9 liters. Producing about 300 - 320 HP give or take. I knew that these planes go at about 280 MPH. (I googled-between 252 and 265MPH) Its a smaller airplane compared to a WW2 fighter. But it may be a tad more maneuverable. So...no clear answer. But I would simply say that most of the performance specs of a WW2 fighter would be intact if powered by a modern LT5 or Demon engine V8. So yeah. I stand by what I say. Joking or not!

Its mind boggling how powerful the engines were in the 1960s and early 1970s only to drop off and then sky rocket back. But with 4 and 6 cylinders. The V8s today? By God! They could power WW2 fighter aircraft.

I may need to take a drive on the Pacific Coast Highway sometime soon.

GT350 for me too over this. I like it, but I aint really wowed by it! Only the Hellcat and Redeye really wow me with the over 700 horsepower club. The Vette ZR1 wows me too, but just a tick above wow. The GT350 wows me more than the ZR1. The thing is... Id take the ecoboosted 4 cylinder convertible right about now and I dont care if its only a 300 horse turboed 4 cylinder!

It didnt make any sense to drop billions into a platform and all that metallurgical technology for it and a brand new state of the art V8 just to kill it off a couple of years later... But then again. This is GM we are talking about. It wouldnt have been the 1st time to kill off a brand new billion dollar project car. Hell, it wouldnt have even been the 2nd or 3rd time either after a short time being sold in the market place... So...anything coulda/woulda happened with the news of the plant closures and certain car models being killed off...

The MkIV Supra was also expensive. The turboed one cost just as much as our beloved Corvette. In 1997, when the C5 Vette came out, both the Vette and the Supra were in and around 40 000 US dollars. Performance wise, from a Motor Trend High Speed edition from May 1997, they tested and compared 7 cars. Dodge Viper GTS, Ferrari F355, Porsche 911 Turbo, Acura NSX-T, Mistisbishi 3000GT VR-4, Chevrolet Corvette, Toyota Supra The Vette was sometimes top of the pack and at times mid pack while the Supra was mostly below the pack. All this to say that with the Supra, then, it did not matter how fast it was as compared to its competition. And it was quite the tally of cars... The Supra was finally compared to a Vette. A Porsche... A freakin' Ferrari???!!! A Supra was able to go head-to head with a Ferrari! Sure it came no where near the performnce specs of that Ferrari F355, but boy oh boy did the Supra come a long way from its humble beginnings to be even mentioned in the same breath as a visceral Viper. Just as visceral Porsche 911 turbo (in 1997, the 911 turbo was a freakin' beast). It did fairly good against its Japanese brethren, beating out the Mitsu all the time and hangin' in there with Japan's top dog, the NSX. Remember, the NSX was a mid-engined exotic while the Supra became a wild muscle car that could handle...(this was 15 years before the Camaro and Mustang did the same thing...) It was more or less on par with the Vette. Sure, the Vette always beat it in the performance categories of these high speed tests Motor Trend conducted, but it did good for itself. You know, dont kid yourself, I think with "only" 300 some odd horsepower, I think the Supra will surprise some of you in its performnce specs... OK...it does not look like it will win any bikini contests. Or any wet T-shirt bonanzas...at least it aint a retro designed car with old Supras in mind just to sell nostalgia... And THAT is refreshing. For me at least. And we all know how much I LOVE the Challenger and Mustang I might add!!!

Very similar indeed!

OK then! Try this young sexy lass on for size ?????

PS: THAT is part of the appeal (to some)... To others... They like to laugh hysterically

GM hasnt done crappy badge engineering since the bailout. I dont need to remind anybody about the FWD J Bodies or the FWD A platform or the W-Bodies, etc. Other than GM dumping their 3.6 V6 and their 2.0T in all their vehicles today without any relevant tuned differences between the models, Id say GM is doing a fine job in creating different driving experiences between their cars and CUVs. Kinda. EVs are a lot more easier to be able to differentiate them especially when it comes to steering and ride and road feel due to the fact that EVs are easier to be programmed by computers. Hence why Tesla does this update software thing... The hardware is hooked up to the computer and voila! The internal combustion engine since the 1980s has been able to be configured by computer. Fuel injection was the start of that evolution...As hard as that was to get the ball rolling, the computer controlled ICE is almost perfected today with all kinds of computer controlled mondules and sensors...ICE has been digitized. And with this, ICE can be configured very easily to make an engine as efficient as possible, or that very same engine, as racy and visceral as possible. An electric motor is almost made perfect for computer controlled configurabilty... so there is that regarding your wishes. As far as silhouettes go, as long as the skateboard platform is scalable, its up to GM and how much money they are willing to spend on different body styles and shapes and you got your wish there. You say that EVs are "souless". But that may be farther from the truth. PS: Electricity does make noise. And its possibly the most eerie sound a machine can make. It may not be a symphony like what we are used to with ICE... But Id like to challenge that argument too... How many Average Joes like to hear a Harley Davidson rumble past them? How many Average Joes like to hear crotch rockets scream past them? Alls I know is that muscle cars and all cars actually were muzzled quite a lot sometime in the 1970s because most people regard ICE cars just too darned loud. THAT is a fact! Motorcycles were left alone but zoom by often enough in your motorcycle in the morning or late at night and see how fast your SOB neighbour will call the cops on you...