regfootball

right, that sort of thing goes on in other places, and all it is is sport for those who derive entertainment from rating people on the internet, if you don't get out of the house much and can't score with your friends and such, its too easy to just sit and take your frustrations out by rating people on the net. you know, it shouldn't be rating a poster, either. it simply should be, do you like that particular post or not? Agree or disagree? Well, that's what 'reply with quote is for'. We're not in the business or sport of rating people. Someone says something, its either something you agree or disagree with, or its something you can expand upon, or learn from. In some cases its another point of view that makes you go, 'why yes, that could be the case as well'. But to give people a points system for simply not liking someone, is all it amounts too. While I understand the desire to have some sort of self moderation, a point system is not going to get it very far I don't feel. Instead of Johnny negative thinking its making a world impact by docking points on someone because they either don't like them personally, or thinks differently about something doesn't accomplish anything but to foster division. If you don't agree on someTHING, deal with that notion that opposing viewpoints do exist and yours may or may not ultimately be wrong, and if the other person bothers you that much that perhaps instead of clicking points to get back at them maybe you would rather engage in a critical debate about the issue or whatever and resolve it in adult fashion. I really had no plans to use or recognize this feature at all myself....although if I do end up using it it will generally to complement someone for something.

the whole rep thing is cheesy and accomplishes nothing. if you have a disagreement with someone, you respect that they have a disagreement, a decision had to be made whether the disagreement is detrimental to the whole group function in any way. If its merely a difference of opinion that can be validated either way, then all you are doing is promoting group think and a popularity contest of the larger group. its one thing to have a disagreement with someone, debate it, and both learn something from it. its another to simply say you don't like it and throw a number at it and be closed minded about having multiple viewpoints. or shall i say DIVERSITY. it becomes nothing less than like those websites where you rate people based on their looks. hard to say your a website of biggest critics when you are going to slam people for being critics. and besides, this is not a discussion forum about video games and gaming with that whole immature set of folks. the only thing a rating systems does within this group is just a way to create more division and promote divisive attitudes.

my 95 tbird lx was nose heavy, like 58/42 or something. non drivable in winter. between the porky nose, rwd, and firestone $h! tires, you couldn't get anywhere. not helping matters was a first gen traction control system and abs that was unresponsive and actually made things worse. so I did the 120+ pounds over the rear axle with concrete blocks, occasionally when we traveled my wife would sit in the rear seats while i was in the front to get more weight bias on the rear. basically the rear end the suspension didn't like and wasn't designed for that much weight. the second winter i got 4 blizzaks on steel wheels from tire rack. it improved it, still wouldn't do inclines etc. but it did cut down on the fishtailing, it helped with traction from a dead stop, and it helped with braking. i hated getting the tires and wheels swapped each spring and fall. i hated having to put dead weight in my trunk to cut down my trunk space and fuel mileage. driving on ice or in snowstorms and blizzards, i hated the car. the rest of the time it was a nice car. the last couple years I owned that t-bird, was when i got my 89 SHO. with fresh all season tires, fwd, the manual trans, and a very tractable engine, the SHO was perhaps the best winter car I have owned. it was a goat in the snow, odd considering it did not have snow tires. in fact it was high performance Eagle GT all season. that was also my first front drive car. at that point i decided to give up on being a snob about the drive wheels and was fine with the front drive getting me around in winter, and in general. the SHO was faster and ran smoother than the tbird too. if the tbird had had a turbo 4 that was like 350 pounds lighter and much narrower stickier tires, it might have been ok in snow...it was such a large car, huge wheelbase and track. once you broke that rear end loose or even if it just started to get slightly out of control, you were done. one of the times that was the straw for the camels back was when i was trying to get out of the parking lot at work/incline drive/snow, stop and turn right sharp.....took about an hour and people pushing to get it up the incline first of all and then pray to GOd it didn't get going so fast you couldn't stop and go over into the ditch on the other side. plus to have any front traction to turn. You see about 15, 20 other cars leave the parking lot and decide, this ain't worth it. the blizzaks on all four corners kept me from having to sell the car and were quiet tires mostly too. they saved wear on my OEM's, which made it to 75k on the odo when i sold the car it still had some tread left...i had prob put 15k on the snows. changing and rotating the tires extends the life. you can justify a snow tire purchase if you keep the car a long time because it saves the tread wear on your originals. a female friend who bought a 3 series and ignored my warning to her to get an AWD one, she calls me one days and said her and her dad went to put snows on it after she had issues getting around especially with her driving skills. To me, you buy a rwd car where there is snow, just add the snow tires to the budget. some of the most venom you get from other drivers is when you are out driving in wet icy conditions or snowy conditions and you in line at a stoplight that turns green and the first car or car in front of you is rwd and they cannot even make it through the intersection and light goes red....you lose a whole traffic cycle because some guy has no traction and is drving a rwd vehicle. so there is like 10 cars behind that want to kill the person who couldn't make it through the intersection in their little cute spunky ford ranger with sandbags in the back and makes it about 8 feet in 2 minutes on a 5% incline or some craziness like that. I guess i would say snows are a worthwhile investment and will do the most to make winter driving better. I don't think more than 100 pounds on the rear end does much other than to really change the handling characteristics of your vehicle so much you won't be familiar with it. actually parking ramps with a sleep slope and need to stop quick but with an icy glaze on them from melting and refrozen water......incredibly dangerous with the rwd car. the corkscrew ramps or steep ramps where the weight distribution of your car becomes hazardous or changes quickly....i didn't like that. the taurus x is our first AWD vehicle and the first time i had it out in a snowstorm last year, it was amazing how easy i could maneuver the vehicle and gain traction at in town speeds. I hate the mpg hit but those 10 days you need it in the winter, its a great thing to have.

perhaps not but it will shut the ecoweenies up.

yes. you know. this car is actually starting to grow on me, i think i am changing my mind on this one. the gas version should top 45 mpg highway and over 50 in turbo diesel guise i would guess. the car i see this competing with the most...SMART car.

dress codes tend to follow the POV of the owners or people in charge. and that's why its not entirely in sync with what's really happening. my theory is that good people who have self esteem will take care of themselves better. That's who you want working for you. i used to enjoy the jeans at work thing but honestly jeans at work in cube land looks like crap. there is nothing wrong with a decent pair of dress pants and a reasonably dressy shirt, and dressy shoes. even the cotton dockers / khakis look cheap and tattery. although if everyone consents to wearing them then its probably ok. I used to have to wear ties, which I thought was extreme. For most people and their positions, suits are extreme too, although its good to mix it up and dress up once in awhile like that to keep your coworkers guessing. I never wear polos, they look cheap too. It doesn't hurt to shave, keep your hair groomed, etc. People give you lots more credibility and respect when you keep your appearance up and clean cut. Some think it shouldn't matter but the simple fact is it does. You don't have to wear expensive clothes, just decent ones. If you do wear jeans, at least wear good ones that are close to new and haven't lost all their color or have frayed edges....and with jeans, the black long sleeve mock tee really does work well. A quarter zip fleece over that in the winter when its chilly. i think oldsmoboi summed it up best actually. don't make others uncomfortable. What I hate...people who wear 'golf wear' to work. You know, the windbreaker or golf polo, the really nasty golf pants, etc.

A less stuffy dress code is among GM's changes fortunately the jeans still keep the pcs fuzzy legs under wraps....it's still the workplace ya know

blu has some good ideas, all have merit, but i don't see ford granting more than 3-5 unique bodies for mercury. i think ford will try for the minimum with the mercury brand, and to me it means at least 2 of 3 models that have decent volume potential aside from their ford stablemates. i think mercury falls back on escape/fusion clones via mariner (or other name) and milan. i see them both getting 4 cyl and 4 cyl turbo only. although a mercury coupe of some kind could revive emotion in the brand, we are talking some form of capri (convertible) or cougar. with solstice and sky gone i could see merc trying to claim the 2 seat convertible realm but with what? then to me they end up doing it fwd. i don't see them as having the gumption to try a coupe. the people mover is a great idea, and while i don't think it has volume potential it might be something they can market to women which they seem to want merc to be.....ford for chicks. it would make more sense to me to simply let mercury offer the wagon version of the fusion. i would like to see lincoln still do the MKR. ford is going to have so much fiesta and focus based product, i am not sure if adding more mercury variants those similar sizes can work. my fear is they get lost in the shuffle, even if they are unique.

JimMay

the forum looks pretty good on the iPhone......its fast too.

when harry met sally has too many quotes, i don't have time to mention them all. spinal tap too. friends tv show, as well.

got my stuff. the t shirts are just a tiny bit undersized in girth (most tees i buy XLT but these I bought XXL) and they are thin. but its 'organic' cotton. big deal. actually they are not so thin that its not worth five bucks, but i would have felt ripped off if they were 15. they definitely are not nice white mountain trader type tees. the 3 dollar bistro mugs rock! i should have got more than two. I may get more. Very cool. the cheap pens and journal are cool. the little two dollar keychains are cool too. one blue, for my ford, one red for my pontiac. when i get my saturn, i will have a red one for that! i haven't looked closely at the caps yet but through the bag they look ok for five bucks. the bistro mugs are cool.

it's just nice to get rid of Fritz's porn star stasche......

Lutz' voice does not match his badass persona.....

women in medicine have stable jobs and make good income and benefits as well. for that reason alone almost gets me bothered.

was in a meeting a cpl weeks ago with my kids teachers....i just sat in the room thinking to myself....'yes, yes, yes, not that one, yes, yes....' last par/tcher conferences, it was cold in the room.....

i needed to take advantage of the punchline opportunity.

my order was 62 bucks. shipping was like 12. but, i got like 6 t shirts, 3 hats, 2 mugs, 2 key chains, some pens. i was torqued because some of the polos and water bottles i wanted were sold out. i waited far too long. i also like some of the jacket / sweater stuff they still have, but i am waiting for more markdowns on that.

no Ghosn, we don't need that attitude. I don't think Penske would or should. especially after the Saturn debacle. the deere or cat guys might be good, but their businesses are not as vastly global as the car industry. The Ford guys I don't think will, they will want their shot at Ford jobs. And some of them don't have the chops yet. I think Whitacre should just be a defacto boss until the IPO at a minimum, and give some extra load to Lutz to help. In that interim time of a year to two, they should find and groom successor candidates. Lets not make fast decisions here. I have no issues plucking someone from another auto company, outside the US even. I just think they really need to think future, think globally, think a little outside the box, and try for a long term selection. The important thing for the next two years is to get the new product in place to sell like nuts when the buying boom comes around again. Now is the time to make market share gains, and really expend on that when the boom hits. The other thing that may not hurt is to get someone in there who is skilled in union matters. Even though GM now has the parasitic union owning part of the company, it would be nice if they could shed them more and more over time so this whole mess doesn't happen again. I am just wondering why PCS / OOD was not on that short list........ is Ron Zarella available?

'that's harsh. i'm a writer, i know dialogue, that's particularly harsh' what a potty mouth little lady. i suppose she has da tongue rings, and is into sexting too....... lol

ordered some stuff last night. shipping was pricey i thought but i did get a LOT of things.

no cost AWD on the 300 and charger.......maybe chrysler is starting to 'get it'......

i'd be more than happy to be a road tester, send any and all vehicles my way, including those in development. can you even put me on the payroll? the things i am seeing out of Buick will help blunt the Pontiac loss. And even then, Pontiac.....who knows what will happen. I'll miss Saturn also, but if Chevy becomes better as a result, then maybe that's ok too. Some folks are getting pretty emotional about A car, or A brand, thing is its just a car. In the grand scheme of living and dying, we already have tons of cool cars on the market. Its not worth investing that much emotion behind it as a consumer or fan. If you are one who makes and sells these vehicles, it does matter on another level. i bought some stuff (t shirts mugs etc) from saturncollection.com last night. i wondered if i would look stupid with all that saturn wear now that the brand is dead. i decided i didn't care, i wanted to have it. at the same time, i realized i still have chevy, ford, buick, etc. i wonder if pontiac will be selling all their old apparel and stuff ....i got me 2 astra t shirts for hopefully that time when i can find that lightly used white XR five door with all options and stick. if i don't then a new Buick or Chevy or Ford will be just fine. Pontiac had to put on pause because they couldn't bring the big prices, saturn is similar, new saturn was to sell cars with similar capabilities of opel and saab but at low low prices. Buick will deliver the pontiac level performance at higher prices which is what GM needed. It is fair to rip on GM for mishandling pontiac and creating the parameters on which to rip them (i.e. cladding, G3's etc.) its ok if we have fun with it, i feel. Some take it too far. there is a middle ground here we all can coexist on. its ok to take a friendly jab at GM for messing pontiac, and at the same time we should understand why someone might feel bad if pontiac or olds or whatever has gone away. there is a middle ground.

i'd be more than happy to console Susan over a few martinis.......

to me this car has all the AURA of 'Corsica, part 2'. the corsica sold, everyone had one. but it never felt like a substantial piece.