SODDOFFBALDRICKZ28

GM DOESN'T NEED THIS FRIGGIN' STINGRAY!!! NO MORE KAPPA ROADSTERS!!! THE SOLSTICE AND SKY ARE ENOUGH!!! WHY DOESN'T GM GET IT? I don't see Miata's flying out of the showrooms, what the hell is wrong with GM STOP WAISTING MONEY YOU GUY'S ARE PISSING ME OFF! And if the brass at GM knew anything about me they would know that for GM to piss me off they have to be screwing up REAL BAD! Hey Miata's are not flying out of the showrooms but Subaru's sure as hell are, at least where I live. Lets see take the Forester for example. I see a crap load of them on the streets of eastern Long Island a place where a lot of people (not me) can afford to buy just about anything they want. But yet there are Foresters everywhere. Humm you can get it with up to 230 hp, it has 4 wheel independent suspension, side air bags, a versatile as hell interior, less than $25000.00, 4wd and you can get a manual transmission. ITS A TOOL TO GET AROUND IN ALL KINDS OF CONDITIONS! Hey GM how about producing something like that? A family workhorse that’s not boring as hell. Your full size SUV's are not SPORT UTILITY vehicles they are fashion statements for posers and guess what, the fashion is changing. Meanwhile you have left all your customers who need a 4wd tool like vehicle to either buy one of your 5000+ lb behemoths with automatic everything, leather, AND NO UTILITY AT ALL because a bunch of dopes thought they were cool five years ago, or to go somewhere else! Yeah I have a Camaro that I polish and look at in the garage from time to time and don't drive and you need to produce cars like that in several price ranges, but car guy’s have to go to Costco in a snowstorm sometimes too and will have to go year after year and there are a lot of them. BUILD SOMETHING FOR THEM, SUBARU DOES! :angry: AMBASSADOR IS KING Just picture it with drapes inside for the back windows and check out those rims COOL MAN :alcoholic:

Damn shure is, just like all the rest including the Camaro! Nothing competes with: THE AMBASSADOR I hear now with 75HP on tap. MAN!

The MSN home page has a link to vote for your favorite Concept This is the link Camaro concept I cut this after I had already voted (and guess what I voted for, you're right the Hindustan Ambassador) anyway I clicked on it again and I couldn't get to the vote page a second time but that may have been because I had alredy voted. It came up with thumbnails of the concepts but I couldn't get to the vote page. But give it a try and if it doesn't work then just go to MSN autos and vote there.

Ok Guy's and Gal's what do you think? By year and model no customs just as they came from the factory.

I have a 2001 2dr 4wd 5 speed Blazer that is driven on almost billiard table smooth streets and had an oil change with lube every 3,000 miles. At about 55,000 miles when the steering was cranked from almost lock to lock, like when backing out of a parking space, a knocking sound could be heard. I had read a service bulletin on the sound saying it was due to ball joint wear and took it into the dealer and was told the lower ball joints were worn. They were replaced under warranty and the tech who worked on it said most Blazers don't make it to 50,000 miles without needing a replacement and he commented on how well kept and tight my Blazer was. I can't fathom lowers wearing out that fast under those conditions so there has to be one of two things wrong; a design flaw, or the bazaar front alignment settings they leave the factory with. I read that the front alignment is set up differently for four wheel drive to prevent excessive over steer when "Ma and Pa average without a clue" put it in 4wd in the snow and then proceed to drive it like a Honda Civic on a sunny day does anyone know if that is true?. Also I noticed that from new the steering was very numb off center, could this also be a characteristic of the alignment setting? I have also read about Toyota pickups with 4wd eating lower joints. The parts can't be from the same supplier so again I think it possibly points to "safe" alignment settings. I noticed that the Toyotas and the Blazers had one thing in common. When viewed from the front, the front wheels of brand new Toyota 4wd pickups and Blazers were dramatically off from perpendicular to the street with a decided outward tilt on the top. I understand the unequal length control arms and excessively high ride height of a new vehicle before the springs or torsion bars wear in could cause the wheels to be tilted slightly but on these two vehicles the tilt was very pronounced indeed and with the shorter arms on the top shoulden't the higher than normal ride hight have them tilting the other way? Could the alignment be the reason for the wear and if so what would be a more sane alignment setting for those of us driving Blazers who know what we are driving? Please help warranty ends in three months.:(

Very nice and I'm sure it will be even nicer on the street. But the shots of the dark grey interior with white pillars and headliner I'm sorry but to me that screems import. It reminds me of Japanese cars where they use white to save cost. To me the thing that seperates an expensive looking interior is color coordinated things like belts dash and headliner. could it be it was done in an attempt to look more import like? If so I think its an unfortunate step backward. love the stitching on the doors and arm rests though and the rest of it is cool.

Lancia Montecarlos. Rustbuckets :rotflmao:

Well I first have to say the letter was thrown out during a "cleaning" that I wasn't involved in and this was over thirty years ago so I don't remember every detail. The question was about the counter balance vibration dampers, one was missing from the car I had. I was getting a lot of longitudinal flex while driving. What that translated into was if you drove over bumps and looked at the relationship between the top of the console and the bottom of the dash above it, it would appear that the dash would move in a side to side motion in relation to the bumps cowl shake I later found out it was called. I kinda figured it was due to the missing damper but I wasn't even sure there was supposed to be two of them in the front since the one that was missing was on the battery side. I though possibly the weight of the battery did the job on that side. Also ther was the huge vacuum tank and actuator tanks for the hide away lights thrown in to the mix. The dealers parts man couldn't help and the parts book didn't list a number for the dampers. I have to tell you though at that point I didn't even know they were dampers I just knew there were two heavy tanks bolted in the trunk and one behind one headlight and knowing a little about engineering I was guessing that's what they were. Well thats what I wrote and asked Mr Mitchell. He said that he didn't have anything to do with their design but they were in fact vibration dampers and there should be four of them. He had no idea what the part number was for them but for the car to ride properly I had to get the other one. He also said that the cowl shake could be because the car was missing a plate that bolted over the drive shaft tunnel tieing together the two halves of the subframe connectors (it was). That was about it but it helped a whole lot. Just for a goof before I wrote this I keyed in Camaro convertible dampers into MSN search and got a whole lot of information instantly. Now you guys have it a whole lot easier to do resto's, I'm jealous. I have a cunning plan my lord

Holy crap I really do owe everyone an apology. You were 1000% right I really should have made myself more familiar with the site before I responded to your first comment. I want to humbly apologize to all who have read this, My God I didn't know, I would never have entertained your comments if I had! I just went back and read the comment you made about woman and immigrents. :omfg:

Woah, this is way too important to you. I see you must win. You remind me of a Dodge Ram owner on the east bound LIE during rush hour. The posting was a joke J O K E! But this seems to mean quite alot to you so yes you are right I am wrong you are perfect I am bad. Talk about a terrorist. As for Bill Michell, I actually have a letter hand written by him answering a question I had about a 69 Camaro convertible I was restoring way back in High school. It was in the days before companies like Year One and the internet so I wrote to him. It hung in a frame in my bedroom for years so I had alot of admiration for his work. You apparently have gotten really into Bob Lutz where I just know that when he was at Chrysler they made some really nice cars like the Viper and now that he is at GM they are making some really nice cars like the XLR. The observations about 60's 70's and 80's GM quality control are just that observations. I remember the misaligned panels and rattles and squeeks. I distictly remember the man across the street from me bringing home a new black and silver pace car Corvette that I would wash for him once a week and yes you could see through the paint. But I am a GM fan and none of that mattered to me the car was bad to the bone no matter what the finish was like. Bob is in charge now and GM is making nice cars. Thats all the post was about so lighten up. I apologize to you, I'm new here and I though this was supposed to be fun. I'm sorry I made the joke about calling it Lutzwagon although I think its kind of funny. I'm sorry to all who did not understand it was just a silly light hearted JOKE!!! To everybody who did understand, we'll talk. :hijacked:

Thanks. Our hero Mr S Baldrick or just Soddoff to his friends. Know of him and ye shall know of ripping yarns of survival and wo.

Then why all the crap about Pontiac attached to your posts? I used to be like that, American cars were junk and GM was the company of the antichrist. My dad felt the same way and owned everything from Renault to Mercedes Benz to Toyota and Datsun (OK Nissan). But he thought about his experiences with the 18 or so new cars he had owned starting with a 1936 Ford coupe up to 75 Celica GT he got as a second car and he realized the only difference between the ownership experience of an import and an American car was the imports cost five times as much to repair. He stopped with the imports bought a Caddy and stayed with Caddy's till he died. I was a hardheaded kid and continued to live by the rice burner is better rule through a new 80 Toyota Corrola an 84 CRX 1.5 an 86 CRX si then I re-gained use of my brain and got a new 92 Z24. I sold that and have had Z28's ever since and you know what? I found that the only difference between the ownership experience of an import and an American car was the imports cost five times as much to repair. :Toyota:

I'm saying that GM is finally making good cars that can compete with what the rest of what the world offers and I"m happy about that and it makes me a terrorist? What am I assuming and what am I criticizing? Ok yes I"m a terrorist, I like the new GM products and I think Bob Lutz is OK! Beware I'm a mad fiend!!! I"m pro GM!!!! :ph34r:

You are right! Damn how could I have made such a statement "light years ahead"? Have you ever seen the fit and finish on a brand new 60's or 70's era GM product? Not some current overly restored hand-made 69 camaro, I'm talkin about being there my man, the way you brought them home brand new. Did you ever drive a brand new 80's "down sized for better fuel efficiancy" abomonation? Do you remember 175 hp 3800 lb Vetts that in direct sun you could look through the black paint and see the orange primer underneath. Well I have seen them and driven them and boy you are right the new products are not light years ahead, they'er from another planet. They'er from planet LUTZLAND! Thanks Bob! :bowdown:

I"m new here so I have no idea what you are talking about as far as non-stop name changing is concerned but I noticed that you call yourself BlackViper hmmm. Is that at all a reference to the auto my young lad? If so then your comment is particularly interesting since I believe Mr Lutz was part of that project too. :blink: