PurdueGuy

I can do ya one better - I don't trust the government, republicans, or democrats, or, well, any politicians.

now for the often critical questions: How much does it cost to build? How long does it take to pay for itself and become "profitable" (or does it)? Sounds promising, though.

+1

is your grand prix a complete piece of crap? Why would anyone accept $200 for a decent working car? If it's in decent shape, you should be able to get $1000 for it easy selling it yourself. In general, any car that runs pretty well and doesn't have major body damage can bring at least $1000-1500 in most areas. Are you so busy you can't take a little bit of your own time to sell your own car and get a reasonable price for it? *scratches head*

Sometimes you can get a better deal at the Chevy dealer, but sometimes it only seems that way. I recall a situation when I worked at Saturn (for a week... sales isn't for me) where a guy wanted to trade in a vehicle on a Relay minivan, but felt that he wasn't being offered enough for his trade-in. So the guy goes to the chevy dealer, and decides they're giving him a better deal. Turns out, they gave him 2,000 more for his trade-in... but they charged him 3,000 more for the same van (with a chevy face) with the same features. It's not about the trade-in, it's about the total cost. Sometimes Chevy comes out ahead... sometimes they don't.

I should really go drive a Prius sometime, just to know more about how it actually performs. I have to somewhat agree with turbo - people on here bash the prius like it's a total piece of crap that doesn't have any benfit, and that's not true. Sure, it doesn't regularly meet it's numbers, and that's a good thing to toss in the face of someone who wants to get pious about their Prius, but it is a decently sized, economical car. Does the hybrid technology pay for itself? Barely, if it does, but it does get good milage, and the break-even point gets lower with every gas price hike. I look forward to the Volt hopefully blowing the Prius out of the water, but I'm not counting on it - Toyota won't sit on their butts and leave the Prius unimproved. It will be an interesting race, and it'll be great to see GM being a serious contender in it. Hopefully they can be profitable with the Volt at the same time that they're competitive in the mpg & sales numbers game.

...but dress codes are usually created & implemented by a business, not the city gov't (aside from "indecency" stuff).

...but it's not being established by the bars. It's being established by the town (aka government). It seems awfully fuzzy to me, though there are already laws for "lewd behavior" in public, so this is kind of stretching already existing laws. It sounds like the town is trying to give the police some easier ammo for dealing with rowdys, but way overdoing it.

yup. Tears like a tundra tailgate under... well, just about anything.

though people often mis-identify what cracks. It is not the frame, it is the body. Though the body cracking results from the body flexing due to the frame flexing.

Camino, you are fined one credit.

some of them hadn't ever jumped, though they had been off road. I spent way too much time reading that thread...

of course not. lol It just makes it look that much MORE pathetic. lol

I have to agree that looking at the wrangler 4-door sales that it's probably a smart move to offer it that way, but I hope they don't ruin it and offer it ONLY with 4 doors. That thing is sweet. FJ what?

interior looks excellent!

Provoq looks way better than the X3, not that that's saying much. lol

looks good to me

If a 500lb man gains 50lbs, do you notice much? Neither do the drivers of these vehicles. They're already ignoring weight.

Well, we know GM's main answer to the Prius is the Volt. I guess the question is whether GM should do a 2-mode small car first, just to get a high mpg small car out the door sooner than 2011. Maybe they've done the math and a 2-mode small car wouldn't get the mpgs it would need to justify the price tag it would have to carry? I don't know. It would be interesting to know what a 2-mode Cobalt-sized car (Astra?) could get in mpgs. From what I understand about the 2-mode system, it adds possibly as much as $10,000 to the car's price tag. I'm quite sure GM would have trouble getting another $5-10,000 for a Cobalt if the only change was adding the 2-mode and getting 40mpg. They would have to add features, make aesthetic changes, and address a lot of build quality issues. Those things take time and money, which is maybe better spent on a next gen. The Astra might be a more suitable car due to its higher features and what are apparently generally better dynamics, but it's not made here, it's not being sent over here in high enough quantities to meet demand as-is (probably), and the exchange rate would further destroy any hope for break-even or profit on a 2-mode version. I guess it seems like GM doesn't have a good small car to just throw the 2-mode into, and by the time they will/would, it wouldn't beat the Volt by much, if any, time. Of course, GM needs to invest in their small(er) cars anyway, so...

I generally agree.

$100,000 will be a steal for the ZR1, and they will probably instantly be worth at least half again as much as people who couldn't get their hands on one directly seek to buy them secondhand. Especially if CAFE and whatnot kills the car within the first few years, this will be an ultimate collector's car.

who the heck is Alan Keyes? lol Of the names I know, Romney was first, but I'm not voting for him, and I'll leave it at that.

I get it too. Seems like maybe the site gets too much traffic for a short burst and it cuts it off for a minute or two.

+1 I'm kinda tempted to watch for one to drive when I'm tinkering on my project saturn. Very good looking cars, would be fun. I imagine the mileage is decent.

Knew a lot of you would enjoy.