trinacriabob

No, Drew, not really. I've always shopped for a very specific type of car that GM served up...offering me numerous choices, actually. Of course I would buy from GM again. However, at this juncture, I don't like their offerings. Their mid-size sport sedan offerings have withered into nothing. I've complained on the Buick thread about the new LaCrosse with its ridiculous and not-so original profile...and am in the minority. In the last gen model, the LaCrosse kicked ass on the Taurus. In this go-round, the tables have turned. That's what I'm talking about. And I'm not happy that I have to acknowledge that.

flattery

Awesome, Joseph. Electra: I remember when the bigger 4.1 V6 with a 4-bbl was brought on to power the bigger cars in the early 80s. I believe you could opt up in the mid-size cars, like the Regal Grand Prix: that dash, that dash Monte Carlo: I hardly think the dude in the suit across the street from what looks like Central Park West could get these chicks if he drove around Manhattan in a Monte Carlo

If that next round were right now, ditto. I'd be looking at a new Mercury Milan* or the 2010 Ford Taurus, a notch up in price point. *right, ocn, I too don't like it when you can configure a base engine (2.5) with some nicer interior trims (wrapped steering wheel, wood inserts) nor alloy wheels...that's nuts...

insults

In bucket seat and console form, with alloy wheels and a decent color, it is affordable, economical (up to 33 mpg) and reliable. I could live with one, but a few other GM cars would be ahead of it.

Wow, it's amazing that capital intensive businesses can't seem to operate without government intervention (airlines, now automakers)...

roller coaster

I'm curious about this - Houston doesn't show up on anyone's list. I like Houston ok. But everyone bitches "oh, it's so damn humid." With Austin being slightly west of Houston and at a similar latitude, is there THAT much difference in the weather? I've only passed through Austin in early summer once (to check out UT for grad school - too effin' big at 50,000 students) and I recall that it was pretty damn hot.

I remember that. Rented Cadillac DTS, right?

now

It was weird that I got there by "accident." With the company I had applied to, I had "checked the box" for Miami. I was told that they didn't have a position in South Florida, but that I could work in Atlanta. Coming from LA, I had no frame of reference. Miami looks "kind of" similar. So, I got to take a trip to Atlanta, interviewed and then drove around. I drove inward from the Perimeter (I-285) on LaVista Road, through the Emory area, and then onto Briarcliff into downtown. It was like driving through a forest. I thought: OMG. Sign me up. And that's I how I got to live in the ATL for a couple of years. Should have never left.

My Dad had a '70 LeMans coupe with an inline 6. Far and away, the most dependable car he ever had. For me, that collector car is the 75-77 Cutlass Supreme (or Brougham)(or Salon) coupe. It kills me when I see one in mint-condition driving down the street.

Yeah, 'blu could be his "bitch" in the white-collar jail they're gonna put him in. Awesome.

Ok, Billi, I see your logic.

...and how do you know this?

BOOOOOOOOOFFET! Response to thread (*calming down*): Buffet

You and I can't like the same cities...it just can't be...

Brown

I really liked the physical layout of the East Side. Where I lived, it wasn't "as Eastside," where Woodinville/Kirkland/Bothell come together, so the neighbors were ok and downtown Woodinville had some coffee places and a B&N...though too many of the neighbors had Subarus. I think the real East Side "problem" is in Medina, Bellevue (west of Bellevue Way), Kirkland, and "new" Issaquah. All one has to do is set a foot in Bellevue Square.

I didn't know what to expect with this one. Gee, some things never change. I'll comment about the college thing. A couple of things: business is the major for the masses...unless it's specific, like accounting or IS or a niche like hotel management. Guilty as charged. It was what I majored in. One friend said that a lot of business majors don't know what they want to do, but don't want a liberal arts degree, so they land in the business school. Also, those who flunk out of the sciences or engineering go to business, not the other way around. So what happens later? The beautiful people, with their low GPAs, get a job in sales or financial services...because attractive people like to hire other attractive people. That's right. I know that some of the "way cool" full-of-$h! people in my class eclipsed me monetarily (and I graduated cum laude) because they became stockbrokers or sold real estate in SoCal at the right time. I wouldn't want my livelihood to be rooted in being glib and superficial. My advice to anyone -- if you're going to bust your ass to get that high GPA to get to where you want to be, do it early on (in undergrad) because it will be behind you and you can then do what you want (doctor, lawyer, whatever). I went to grad school in a completely different field. The people I most admire are 2 that I know of that finished the business degree, did the coat-and-tie crap for a couple of years, did not like it, backed up to take the pre-reqs and are now doctors. Both of these people were really smart, but not really business types. They were smart enough to take a more "secure" path. I seriously doubt that anyone who bartends (or who works in a casino or entertainment venue) has the discipline to sock away a lot of money for a great future. I may be wrong, but that's generally not the profile.

I don't know how you'd like Seattle (or PDX). If you are a minimally outspoken Northeasterner, you won't like these places. The So Cal folks and Northeasterners who move to the PNW don't complain about the weather, they complain about the smug people. Up north, other transplants liked me but the locals never warmed up to me...don't know why. I know you like San Diego. As for Corpus Christi, I know two people who lived there (after-college jobs) and bailed out because the intellectual level was frightening...if one could reconcile the fact that they would be on the beach and close to SoPad, then it could be ok...

Right, I wonder what the expanded list looks like...with my parameters, Charlotte or Tampa should have come up as well...and they didn't So they have Austin and Portland, but they don't seem to have Charlotte or Sacramento which are similarly sized.

My list was similar, with Atlanta coming out ahead...

Funny, even when I put "West" in as the location, I still got Eastern locations. The only variables I messed with were: (a) air (b) crime © region I still got the same Eastern locations. I wonder if requiring the ocean and indifference as to ownership will bring up PDX, SEA, LAX and SAN...