oldshurst442

E class is bundled with the CLS... In effect, putting the C Class in 3rd place... With the exception of the GLE, what I posted are in effect the models that sell the most in the US... Their bread and butter lease queens... 7600 C Class 7000 GLBs 15 000 GLCs THAT right there, is a LOT (30 000 units) of $38 000 - $43 000 vehicles. And I know those are just starting price points. Id say the avg lease prices of these probably leave the store at 45 000 - 46 000 dollars. Still... If you take a looksie at Buick... https://www.buick.com/ These fall under a Buick level of competition and YOU yourself dont consider Buick as luxury... This little exercise just brings home the points: 1. Mercedes is not entirely luxury...ESPECIALLY to what their bread and butter vehicles selll at IN the USA... 2. Further proof that Mercedes-Benz is akin to General Motors rather than Cadillac. And if we factor in the HOME market of Europe...those A Classes, CLAs and C Class cars are just Chevrolets for Europe...

If the Bruins lose tomorrow... Maybe they should change their pick me up song of Im Shipping Up to Boston... To this: Fits them perfectly... choreography, lyrics and all!!!

Im in hockey/baseball mode...so this would be my version of two Rangers pic(s)

Actually...they ARE a volume brand in the USA. https://www.mbusa.com/en/all-vehicles#vbg-suvs What Im about to post...STRAIGHT from the USA M-B website..are all lease queen specials...meant to get the lessee to spend the least amount of $$$s per month so M-B could roll-out as many of these as possible for volume and market share. The figures YOU love to educate us with when you try to tell us about how LUXURY Mercedes is and how M-B dominates luxury sales and when you talk about M-B in general....

I was out and about today. Had a doctor's appointment in the morning. When I finished with that, I drove. And drove. And stopped at a Dairy Queen. Had a strawberry sundae (with peanuts). Looked at cars driving by. Looked at people walking by. Montreal had a very happy vibe about it today. Not the actual cars, but same colour and wheel combo. Driven by a mid-twenties hottie. Literally 2 minutes later Driven by a very good lookin' middle-aged woman. 5 minutes later. Driven by a young punk. He too in his early to mid-20s. Young punk only because he was a good lookin' guy and he has a nicer car than me when I was in my early to mid 20s I had to get by with a used 1989 red Firebird with a 2.8 liter V6 that I crashed and a new 1994 Grand Am GT also with a V6. The updated 3.1 liter version. With 4 phoquing doors and that aqua blue/teal colour. Both engines not even cracking the 200 HP mark while this punk has 450 of them at his disposal! Phoquer! 1984ish El Camino. This same colour combo. Not the same wheels. It had god awful after markets. I didnt quite glimpse the front end as this is almost the exact same angle I saw it as I was turning right and he was going straight. I didnt see who the driver was. The car was pretty beat up. Had rust wholes in the rear quarter panels. It sounded horrible... Parked on a street looking pretty

I prefer this kind of scenery. Besides, she seems to be smarter and more down to earth. Although I do understand that bimbos exist with all the various car niches...

That is impressive. Seems like too much work for me to get in and out of though. Id rather just do a hood/roof slide and jump right in... faster, cleaner and more efficient. Plus...muscle car!!!

I ranted a tad about this, but Im glad you brought it back to light. This leaves the door right open for Porsche and/or Audi to (Taycan/E Tron GT) to deliver on a 500 range, 1000 HP-ish super EV sedan that does 0-60 in under 2 seconds. Porsche, from what I have learned from their history, is that Porsche does NOT like taking a backseat to ANYBODY... They fell very short with their Taycan as compared to the Model S, but you just KNOW that Porsche is NOT resting on its laurels. They WILL end up out-performing Tesla in the next gen Taycan... GM and its Hummer EV, If you look at the supposed specs, and GM usually sandbags their numbers, the Hummer EV does 0-60 in 3 seconds, has 1000 HP and has a range of 350 miles. Freedom mode engaged. The Hummer EV has also a 9000 lbs weight and is as big as a house... Imagine what that drivetrain will do in a waaaay less big and heavy package. Lets say a Cadillac V EV or Chevy EV muscle car... To say that the regular Plaid is good enough is simply foolish. I know he would prefer to NOT want to admit that his engineers cant deliver... If his engineers CAN deliver this 1000 HP, 0-60 in the 1 sec range and 500 EV mile range, then Telsa SHOULD produce it. In limited numbers if anything. Tesla could solidify dominance. By not producing it, Tesla opens the door WIDE open for another to take EV superiority... When Tesla was the only game in town, Tesla's EV tech seemed impressive and downright dominant. Especially when all others were producing compliance EVs. And rightfully so. But other OEMs are figuring the tech out...and quite fast I might add...

Self inflicted...

I like Tesla. I got nothing BUT praise for Tesla cars. The sedans. A little less the Model 3, but I like Tesla. But I would NEVER buy a Tesla product. My partner has got the Model S. He loves it. He wants to change it for a newer Model S. But Im getting away from what I wanna say. And its got to do with what Balthy just said about the Plaid+ being dead. And the reason of why that Musk said is but one reason of several as to why I would NEVER buy from this guy... No need as Plaid speed is just so good? THAT is what he wants to say? Like go phoque yourself buddy! Your cars WERE good. Your cars WERE faster than everybody else. Technology catches up and OEMs have it figured out. Dodge didnt say we are not going to give you the Demon because the Hellcat is so good. Before Chevy and Ford could answer the Hellcat with their pony car offerings, Dodge went further berserk and gave us the Demon... The newer Porsche Taycan could barely beat the Model S. The Plaid speed probably could bitch slap the Taycan. The problem is, you just KNOW that Porsche is NOT standing still on this. But that is Porsche. Porsche made the boo boo in under-estimating Tesla. But I has a feeling when the next update of Taycan will happen, Porsche will leave Tesla in the dust... Why? In the automotive business, there is no room for cockiness. Musk will find this out soon enough. Porsche might be cocky in areas, but they improve and improve their sportscars upon the next gen. They dont rest on their laurels... Musk, by being this cocky, will get his clocked cleaned. The century old plus automakers have done these battles thousands of times before. THIS is why Dodge has Hellcatted the world and didnt waste time to Demonize it further... THAT is how Detroit does it. Ford has proven that Tesla tech can be replicated and be bettered. GM will prove that soon enough too. End of rant...

But you have it WRONG about fighting... In the NHL....fighting is ALSO NOT allowed. NEVER was allowed... I dont like fighting as much as YOU do... The disconnect is, I UNDERSTAND the place fighting has in hockey... You might not think it has a place. But it does and THAT is why it even happens, quite often, in the European leagues... What I want out of the game...well...read my signature... I posted THAT as soon as the New York Rangers made that statement public... Its the bodychecks you dont want. But it is a physical game. EVEN in the Euro leagues. It looks like you are stuck between a rock and a hard place. No skin off my back if you cease to watch ANY hockey... But please do not tell me that Euro hockey is better. Its slightly different. But to me... Euro hockey is the same thing, only diff is, Euro hockey is hypocritical.

@ykX Ill post 3 videos on this year's NHL playoffs. Washington and Boston. These 3 videos epitomizes not only NHL hockey but hockey itself. It all good of you dont like it. But this is the product that the NHL wants to sell, but lets face it, this is also what hockey is all about. European hockey, which Canada introduced to them, or North American hockey... Game 1. Listen to the commentary...very telling. Please note that Ovechkin is from the Russian leagues and so is Pastrnk. Two Euro stylee league players that found themselves in the NHL Same game a few minutes later. Marchand gets revenge. But is hit by Pastrnk first. All clean hits. With the exemption of that first video. Ovi's hit was questionable. The crosschecks were also questionable. But in the NHL, especially in the playoffs. You live by the sword, you die by the sword. Like I said...INTIMIDATION is part of the game. Always will be. In Europe or in North America. You might not like the NHL style, its all good. But dont tell me Euro hockey is better with all the after the whistle shenanigans and the cheap shots and the embellishments and the lack of physical play to cut down on the bully tactics....

http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=25010 A major penalty shall be imposed on any player who fights. A player who is deemed to be the instigator of an altercation shall be assessed an instigating minor pen-alty, a major for fighting and a ten minute misconduct. (NEW for 2005-06) A player who is deemed to be the instigator of an altercation in the final five (5) minutes of regulation time or at any time in overtime, shall be assessed an instigator minor penalty, a major for fighting, a ten minute misconduct and an automatic one-game suspension. The length of suspension will double for each subsequent offense. In addition, the player's coach shall be fined $10,000 -- a fine that will double for each subsequent incident. Happens all the time...in European hockey. Why? European hockey players in their respective European leagues cheap shot a lot more than their NHL counterparts do. Intimidation tactics. Hockey, whether played in Europe or in North America, is played that way. Why? Bodychecking... Its a physical game. Euro hockey emphasizes less on the bodychecking than in North America and THAT is where you have it wrong... Its NOT the fighting that you think is the difference. Its the bodychecking. Fighting exists on both the Euro side and North American side because one opponent tries to intimidate the other side. And fighting just cancels out the bullying. What you want to see more of is the fancy fast plays. Which is Euro hockey. But the cheap shots even in their game is very apparent. MORE so than in the NHL because well...the NHL, the players have many ways to curb the bullying... Bodychecking is one way. Like I said before. Chirping and after the whistle shenanigans exist. MORE so than in Euro leagues than in the NHL. NHL players line you up and bodycheck you hard when you chirp and cheap shot. In Europe, the only way to counter that is: 1. Fighting. Which they do. But frowned upon. Like in the NHL. But the NHL, the league tolerates it. The FANS LOVE it! 2. Embellishment by the players to get the ref to call a penalty. In the NHL, we got: 1. Fighting. But in the NHL, fighting too, is frowned upon. 2. HARD BODYCHECKS. Please do NOT confuse fighting with lack and less of bodychecks in the Euro leagues. The Euro leagues TOLERATE embellishment. In the NHL, they dont... In the NHL, bodychecks is a FUNDAMENTAL part of the game. In the Euro leagues, they want to believe that they are better than that. In the NHL...we want CLEAN bodychecks. We want a nice hard check to separate the puck from the player. NOT to separate the guy's head from his body. Ill repeat, its not the fighting that is the difference in European leagues versus the NHL. Its the bodychecking. The bodychecking SLOWS down the game. THIS is what YOU dont want. YOU dont want the bodychecks...because it slows the game down. YOU mentioned this. YOU prefer the fancy plays. Its all good. But it aint the fighting that you dont care for. Its the bodychecking you dont care for.

NEVER was. European hockey has a lot of cheap shots. After the whistle shenanigans. A lot of chirping. A lot of bullshyte trash talking. Kinda what you see today in the NHL. You NEVER saw that in the NHL as your words had to back it up with your physical play back in the day. But if you like that, all that nonsense between the whistles...yeah...good on you.

Well...European hockey, there are a lot of CHEAP shots too. Id say MORE than in the NHL. And in European hockey, there is also a lot of faking and embellishing going on to get the ref to call a phantom penalty... Kinda like in soccer. And...oh yeah...there is fighting in European hockey... Its in the nature of the game. I talked about what the North American players DO to intimidate one another and they of course injure themselves doing it. But...its a CONTACT sport. Its a FAST sport. Fights will happen. And its necessary. To let the steam and heat dissipate. In order continue to play the game. In baseball and in football, much much slower sports and fighting happens there too. PS: Fighting in the NHL is also PROHIBITTED. Since the beginning. But the league TOLERATES it in order for the aforementioned heat to dissipate. If you saw though, yesterday's game with 1 minute left and the Jets player took a liberty to hit the Habs player, on a questionable high hit to the head...when it wasnt necessary to hit that player. The Jets player did not go for the puck, but CHARGED the Habs player to prevent him from scoring in the open net, but it was too late for him to prevent that goal... Well...the refs did not ALLOW ANY fights to break out. They ejected the Jets player IMMEDIATELY. If the league is smart and WANTS player safety. They will suspend that Jets player from the rest of that series. If not, the league is kinda making it so that there WILL be a fight or two the next game... But Montreal really does not have any enforcers on their team... THIS is the disconnect. No fights and dirty hits? GREAT! SUSPEND the culprits. Get that SHYTE out of the game for good! If not! Then allow the teams to police themselves. You dont want that? Get the dirty, unnecessary shyte out of the game. Hard, clean hits is not the problem. Fighting is not the problem. Its part of the game. The dirty, unnecessary shyte is the problem.

It was hardy ever about technique, skill and speed. It was always about intimidation (elbowing and slashing) and slowing the game down with either brutal (but clean-ish hits) or hooking. Old time hockey which was referenced in the 1970s movie Slap Shot where the Hanson Brothers talked about it and right after also mentioned Boston Bruins great defenseman Eddie Shore in reality was one tough, mean S.O.B. And therein lies the joke. Paul Newman's character turned the Charlestown Chiefs into a contender by chirping shyte to get the opponents mad, and got his players riled up to back up those intimidation tactics. The owner got the 3 Hanson Brothers to start and finish shyte on the ice. So when pretty boy got disgusted by all that and refused to fight and all that, that is when the Hanson Bros started saying yeah, lets go back to old time hockey. Like Eddie Shore. Well, old time hockey was NEVER clean hockey. Eddie Shore nearly killed a man. Eddie Shore's ear was nearly amputed in the beginning of his career. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Shore I got an anecdote of my own. Before the NHL was started and there was the Montreal Maroons (the English Montreal hockey club) and the Canadiens (The French Montreal hockey club) (and there were others before them but I digress) these two teams HATED each other. One day, after a snowstorm, there was a game between these two, but unlike today, there was no logistics and hundreds of pucks and hockey sticks available so on game time, the guy in charge of the hockey pucks was late, due to the clogged up roads because of the snowstorm. Well one Montreal Maroon hockey player was heard talking to the ref: "Hey Ref!, when are we going to start the game?" "We got no pucks, we have to wait for the pucks to arrive." "To hell with the pucks, we dont need pucks, lets start the hockey game!!!" My dad told me this story. True or not...that was the way things were back then. In the 1970s, fighting and brawling came to a peak. hence the movie Slap Shot. Hence the Flyers being called the Broad Street Bullies and the Bruins being called the Big Bad Bruins. Bobby Orr's knees were finished because opponents kept on slashing his knees. In the 1980s, all that continued but iot started to settle down. Bettman came in in the late '80s or early '90s and started doing away with all those shenanigans. However, in the 1990s, hooking and grabbing was all the fashion because speed and skill was what made the goals happen, but that was how teams defended. And the occasional blistering hit. Blind side or otherwise. Which was legal then, but not so much by today's standard's because the head was ALWAYS the target. And then the 2000s (2004 I think) after that lockout happened when skill and speed was the name of the game by changing up the way the game was to be played offensively by eliminating the center line etc... and the late hits and hits to the head was forbitten and stuff The game today is soooooo different from the 1980s and 1990s. Its faster. Its cleaner. Way waaaaaaaaaay less fights. No line brawls. In the 1980s and 1990s their was a line brawl or two EVERY week. Literally every week. Im all for policing fighters and brawlers on each team so when a player decides to hit dirty, then an enforcer does his job to police the ice. Especially when the refs wont do their jobs properly. But THAT is not what today's hockey is all about. The dirty, unnecessary hard hits need to be gone from the game. But the refs and NHL player safety need to do their job to deter THAT kind of INTIMIDATATION tactics. But they flub that all the time! Hence my signature of what the New York Rangers declared after what Tom Wilson did and the league did nothing. And hence why in these 2021 playoffs, the unnecessary late hits and questionable high hits that have injured players have happened. Yet once more last night!

jawohl herr David!

Yes. Yes. That is EXACTLY me also!!! You said and feel as I want to say and how I feel!

You Italian, Me Greek. We both have a similarity here. Being concise and efficient with our words and a lack thereof. Both Italians and Greeks speak with their hands. Coincidence? I thinks its because Italians and Greeks have soooooo much to say, like ALL the time, with passion of course, that sometimes concise words escape us and with the help of our hands, we get our points across.

Is it me, or are NHL players taking more liberties with each other in these 2021 playoffs? I find it appalling and disgusting with how players are hitting each other. At the end of the Jets/Canadiens game with 1 minute left or so...another shytty, blatant, useless act... And I blame NHL's player safety when they only fined Tom Wilson 5000 bucks instead of suspending him 20 phoquing games (and more) earlier in the season before the playoffs started...

^^^ I always loved the way Pontiac shaped their hoods and front ends into the design to incorporate their arrowhead. Everything comes to a peak and a point. And the center of it all is that arrowhead that is the center piece of that middle point in the hood. And on the front end, that famous Pontiac beak nose would be front and center. And sometimes that beak nose would house that famous Pontiac arrowhead instead of the hood. LOVE IT!!!

For lack of a better word, I used mimic. Ironically, I wanted to shorten my response by trying to use one word instead of a whole paragraph. Me...of all people...wanting to shorten a response with less words used.

I missed, like I literally forgot, that the '68-'69 Skylark also mimicked the Chevy versions of the same years. From the two, year for year, I do prefer the Buick. From the 4, the Chevy versions of any year will always be in 4rth place for me.

Some Winnipeg and Canada love I see! (I wanted to find a fist bump gif to use to fist bump with you, but I came across this one and I saw that this one is funny...and its also hockey!!!) And Montreal just scored a goal to lead the Jets 1-0!!! I guess Im happy...

I hear ya. It looks like it will be Tampa Bay and Colorado in the finals. I do want it to be Montreal versus Boston tho. For several reasons. 1. Boston is my team. 2. If Montreal wins, Ill scream in AGONY! I HATE the HABS! But... its MY city! 3. Just imagine what the games would be like. PURE hatred for one another. Pro sports most longest, heated rivalry and its for THE Stanley Cup. LAST time this happened was in the '50s when Boston played Montreal in the finals FOR the Cup.