PurdueGuy

nope, that's the "energy crisis" one.

I know! Let's all panic!

Saturn: my college studies included a lot on lean manufacturing and business management, and I heard a lot about Saturn breaking the mold & doing things right. Later, I bought a used one because I wanted a car that looked good, got good fuel economy, and had a manual trans, plus the reputation of the company as already stated. The car treated me very well, and was fun to drive, and the other Saturn enthusiasts for the most part were very cool, down to earth people. Bought my 2nd one, which was a twin cam, more power, fun to drive, easy to work on, etc. Still not sure how I feel about where the brand is now, mixed feelings.

I've been wanting to do similar with a guy a couple houses away with a '93-'96 Saturn SC1 that just sits there all the time. Would love to buy it cheap, do DOHC & 5spd swap on it, and enjoy it as a daily.

Pretty cool feature, even if it is later than hoped for.

I agree - we need to find a responsible exit to some of the situations we're in now (iraq), then cut back on our overseas military dealings and get our own home in order a little better.

Yeah, the "this weekend" stuff was a full day, with some prep work done beforehand, with both of us guys working on it. I was going to do it the weekend before, but Tony (the other guy) wanted to install stuff for our Saturn meet, so I held off. The car now handles awesome, despite being on the all-season ziex 512s. Went out in the hills & threw it around, trying to push the limits to know where they now are, and it just held on tight through the corners, essentially no tire slippage, and just a little oversteer. Gonna have to go out again sometime & push it just a little more to see when the tires start to squeek on me.

This weekend installed: -KYB GR-2 struts with H&R Sport lowering springs (~1.5in lower) -stainless brake lines -rear disk brake swap (buh-bye drums!) -all fresh brake fluid -new pads/rotors all 'round (Hawk pads front, WearEver Gold rear) -rear strut bar -upgraded adjustable rear swaybar Have already done: -auto to manual trans swap -short shifter -front strut bar -aftermarket wheels (not yet identified, manufactured by Enkei) -suburban overhead console w/working homelink module -all-aluminum radiator -AEM cold air intake -clear corner lights -Chevy Corsica rear view mirror with map lights -passenger seat lumbar support adjuster -Falken Ziex 512 tires My wife & I on the right, and our '99 SC1 and SC2s, middle and right. Left is a fellow Saturn tuner and his wife, with their Ion QC.

Step 1: remove all road-rail crossings. Make the freight railroads help pay for it, as they will reap benefits of increased speeds and decreased accidents. The increased speeds across the entire rail infrastructure will make rail in general more competitive (want to relieve our highway system? Take a gazillion semi's off the road.) Increased rail system speeds will also result in increased passenger rail speeds on shared rails. Also: encourage states/cities to work with the railroads to allow for yard/line expansions where needed. Incentivize construction of high speed rail lines. Another thought... maybe the gov't should sell Amtrak once it becomes profitable/sellable? They pretty much have to run it for now, because it's not yet to a point where it makes business sense, but once it's a profitable business, I'd prefer the gov'ts hands be out of it.

Part of the issue is how the gov't has pandered to the airline industry with various bailouts and such. And yet, airlines still go bust on a regular basis. IMO, airline ticket prices don't reflect the true cost of airline travel. If they did, it would make rail travel much more competitive, and Amtrak might be able to bring in the funds to become even more competitive. As-is, they generally have to borrow freight lines' tracks, and sometimes get stuck on the siding while some coal or whatnot rolls by. That's baloney, but that's how it works when the freight company owns the lines, why should they care about Amtrak being on time? It's not the business they're in. The transportation industry needs to be allowed to re-balance itself (read: minimal gov't interference with the market), and we may very well see a passenger rail revival. My wife & I plan to take Amtrak from Salt Lake City to Lafayette, IN for our visit home for Christmas, and maybe on the way back (or vise versa). A friend of ours from home came to visit on Amtrak, and loved it. Took 2 days instead of 1, but he enjoyed the travel just as much as the visit.

Apparently I am too...

43 British mpg = ? US mpg?

Yes, it would probably look better without the b-pillar, but for most (if not all) of the rest of us, it doesn't ruin the car. It still has a sexy body, powerful engine, hopefully good driving dynamics, etc.

When it comes to the fine details, it really is a much looser theory than most people realize. Good luck finding someone who's observed a graviton.

Sixty8, do you have to pollute every single Camaro thread with your whining? It gets really, really old.

Interestingly enough, while gravity is easily observed, measured, and predicted, we don't know how it works...

nice. If we say 50mpg, then that translates to 39, 55 translates to about 43. I'm not trying to be down on diesels at all, they're great. It's the cost of diesel that stinks right now.

lessee... right now, fuel prices for my area are: gas (regular): $3.70 diesel: $4.50 about a 22% difference So, economically, a 40mpg diesel car is equivalent to a 31.2mpg gasoline car... Just a random thought/calculation. Not like the above won't change constantly.

Weather and Climate are young sciences. How to respond to weather and climate IS politics.

Increasing the min wage pushes inflation (yeah, cuz we need more help increasing inflation...) and increases unemployment. It is not a solution. Regional minimum wage adjustments can be appropriate, but nationally increasing the minimum wage just pushes inflation.

yeah, and how the look to make further use of the e-flex platform could determine how they dilute the investment costs across each sale, too. An electric version, an Opel version, etc could help spread the costs & bring the price tag down (or the amount of the loss, or how quickly they are no longer taking a loss), but they have to be careful that one model doesn't cannibalize another too much too.

True - it could be the better product and still fail if the market doesn't buy in. Good marketing will be vital.

from what I've read, there are notable technological differences between the 1st Japanese model & the 1st US gen. I don't know that for sure, though. At any rate, the Volt is based on a different paradigm that will hopefully make it notably better than the Prius anyway.

and technically, it'll be the 4th gen (1st gen was Japan only).

Wanna see: Iron Man I Jones seems like there was one or two more.