trinacriabob

O.C. speaks! So listen!Yeah, it's true. Those new subdvisions in Victorville and Moreno Valley look like utter $h! in no time. Why is that? Gee, it's WHO decided to buy in there. Sorry. I can think of nice manicured middle- to upper-middle class subdivisions in ATL that still look great 10 to 15 years after they were finished. Right. I think about "the APPROACH" to LA. Yeah, if you come in from the east (IE) on 10 or 60 and then see the backside of the downtown high-rises through all the warehouses, it is gross. Even 10 west of downtown is gross, for that matter. On the flip side, drive someone on Sunset from Hollywood to the Ocean, or Sepulveda through Sherman Oaks and into Westwood, or PCH from Playa del Rey down to the South Bay, or Ventura Blvd. from Encino to Calabasas and it's..."wow...this is nice." You didn't mean to rant? Why not, you're good at it! :AH-HA_wink:

Now, now, Moltie, I know you're a cutting edge techno kind of guy...but it's hard to diss a sled that, in base form, costs $ 20,000 out the door before taxes and fees AND can can easily last 15 years and/or 250,000 miles on its ultra-reliable all cast-iron base engine. Those kind of numbers sing to me.

I like what you have to say. One thing that could have softened it is not using such pronounced vertical bars; instead, they could have been thinner. The other thing with designing any object is that small dimensional differences make for a world of difference in final appearance. The previous grille was vertically too wimpy. On the current one, they could have made it a tad less tall and it might give the more "correct" appearance you might be referring to.

Thanks for stacking the images. Talk about how a minor adjustment can make a world of difference. I think I have about TEN posts, at least, to my name saying that the grille needed to taper back in or be sloped to get it away from that 2000 Le Sabre vernacular that was way too frumpy. Well, they made such a change. And it looks way better.I agree that they could have changed the lamp combo into a more striking and contemporary design; however, they probably didn't want to fuss with the hood and the front fender much, leaving us the little bump for the inboard Jagauresque lamps on top of the hood and the tear-drop shape at this side of the fender. Oh well, what they did is a marked improvement, though they could have inched a little farther along. Yep, the interior is still kind of eh. I don't like the austere clustering of the dash. Now, I don't expect all the dashboard panache of the GP (which I had last week on vacation), but something a little more exciting with more sculpted volumes might have worked. I would probably be kicking myself had I purchased a 2005-2007 LaCrosse!

couch potato

Yes, the Malibu, in any form, is attractive. I, too, will look at it but I think on too stuck on the W-bodies. At any rate, it's great to see that this change once again makes LaCrosse a contender!

No doubt, especially for the CX. All I really wanted from that big extra cost package was the leather wrapped wheel (really changes the feel of the driving experience for the better, IMO) and the telescoping feature.The only options I now see getting are the alloy wheels and the split rear-seats. Nice. So now that this way better looking grille is coming down the pike, let's you and I both get LaCrosses in 2008 since we've been drooling for about...what...3 years.

Most definitely. It was their boulevardier...one notch up from Bonneville, though much the same. And, like Bonneville, it has a "place" connotation.

Anna Nicole Smith

I'll defer researching that until later...My response to thread: crocodile

treadmill

diamond (a "marquis" cut)

I completely overlooked this, but you are about 90 % right. Some guys do label other guys this way, but not as often.Very observant of you, "Mr. Vahn-koo-vair."

tugboat

Please tell me how this even begins to be nerdy... :AH-HA_wink: we then have several "offenders" on this forum for this infraction alone!

pier

sleeper

rocking chair

I've heard both arguments. However, I will go with Axel on this one.When Olds went away, I turned my attention to Buick and, to a lesser extent, to Pontiac. I think that, if people really liked the brand and had a good rapport with GM, they would stay within the family and go Buick. I don't think Toyota Camries and Honda products have the same feel and packaging as an Oldsmobile, so Buick is the logical choice. At any rate, on this ladder you speak of, the offerings and price points differed by very little.

musician

Well put. The "pie" got smaller. Had the pie remained larger and there were fewer cannibalization issues, Olds might have survived...and today I could be salivating over ordering my Intrigue.

whip

LOL. I was going to do another thread on this topic alone.TRANSLATIONS: Man says about woman: "she's a good woman" - meaning: she's not particularly attractive or makes my blood boil, but I had to settle down and we get along well. Woman (or woman's family) says about man: "he's good to her" - meaning: yeah, he's not the bad boy that gets her wet (did I just write that?), but it could be worse, so I guess he'll do, ...or he's a nerdy Jewish doctor who doesn't make her blood boil but the Neiman Marcus credit card bill is taken care of. I like Satty. He's got a good dose of "street smarts." OK, back to nerdiness.

Ninety-Eight Regency will hate me, but I see Satty's point. And I absolutely love Oldsmobile -- I grew up with them, they were my first cars and I was hoping that there would have been an Intrigue around for my next purchase. $h!, when the announcement came out on TV, my stomach sank and I thought "no sitting at the dealership checking the boxes on an order form to get a sexy Intrigue just the way I want it." A very glum feeling, indeed.I maintain that the problem was duplication. Yes, as Bobo says, Olds was the purveyor of innovative design. That ceased by the time the 70s rolled around - purveying a POS diesel conversion did not help much, either. But, by the 70s and 80s, they duped virtually every Buick model on a 1:1 basis....Toro to Riv, 98 to Park Avenue, 88 to LeSabre, Intrigue to Regal, Ciera to Century, etc...you get the idea. Mind you, I would say that each Olds model was always better looking than its Buick counterpart and I would always opt for the Olds model handily. However, they must have done their research and concluded that the curtain would fall on Olds and not Buick. I think all of the other divisions are readily identifiable - Cadillac is clearly the top of the heap, Buick is upper middle class luxury and quality, Pontiac is sporty, Chev is the "apple pie" baseline and Saturn is the brand with Japanese sensibilities and styling cues (more so than the others, anyway). If Olds was around, it would have been just like Buick (upper middle class luxury and quality). Now that is duplication. I think GM is getting better. I can forgive them for the demise of Oldsmobile....sad as it is to acknowledge.

Ok, so I'm in L.A. last week and, like I used to do when I was growing up there, I would go to LAX to see planes land and take-off. As some of you know, the runways are perpendicular to the ocean and the communities of Westchester and El Segundo are to the north and south of the airport property, respectively. The Westchester side has no viewpoints per se but, on the El Segundo side, there is a knoll with a viewing park and telescopes. So I take my rental car there. It never fails. I always get into a conversation with somebody up there about planes and an hour has gone by...easily. They, too, know all the models, how much thrust the engines have, which airline has which aircraft on order, and even the timetable when certain carriers arrive and depart from Europe, Australia and the Orient... and on and on and on. As I drove away on Friday pm after watching a couple of '47s climb to the sky, I realized "I'm somewhat of a nerd." So be it. I love my planes. So, what's your nerd factor? Why so?