regfootball

not raining on anyone's parade here, i'm just saying Pontiac will be really narrowing their focus if they do this, potentially to the point where they could cease to be relevant for the majority of the public. And not be good enough for the folks they still would be trying to attract. They would essentially be surrending their ability to ever be a volume brand, with no guarantees of being able to sell anything profitably. They would just need to make AWD available across the board. Since they don't even make overhead cam available, i highly doubt they would go to the effort to make any of these cars AWD as well. GM never seems to go the distance they need and do what they have to do. They always cheap out and take shortcuts. Their propensity to do that without fail to me means a plan with no margin for error, but a company (GM) with a history of always making errors.

yeah, those half a million Camry buyers a year will flock over to the Pontiac dealer for a RWD pushrod equipped vehicle

Basically, Pontiac can shut its doors in about 20 states if they go to this plan because no one will buy enough of them to keep the doors open. UNLESS they offer all the cars with AWD as well. I wouldn't think another car compnay would be dumb enough to do this, but I do believe GM could be dumb enough to do this because they pull this dumb $h! all the time. "Hey, let's sell the G6 with a manual transmission!" "Great idea! The buff books love that stuff" "Hey, let's put a pushrod engine in it though" "Sure, we need to get rid of those!" "how's about we just stretch the wheelbase of this narrow epsilon so we get at least some leg room in the back" "great idea, but it'll get heavy!" "that's ok, we'll put a 4 panel heavy sunroof with lots of mechanicals way up high above the center of gravity on the thing, THAT'L KEEP THE CAR PLANTED AT DEM HIGH SPEEDS DOSE GUYS LOVE" "Wait, I thought wider was better!" "Not with an Epsilon!" "Hey, the guys from Rubbermaid called. They have some old plastic they want us to use! Can we make our G6's out of em? "Sure, but only if we make all the dashboards pitch black......It'll remind em of the CRUDE OIL!" I am fine with a lot more RWD choices for Pontiac. But most of the car buying public (women, CR readers, liberals with cash, Import Intenders) will not buy a RWD Pontiac....on top of the folks in snow states avoiding them like the plague. Even wonder why BMW quietly sells AWD 3 and 5 series? Ever notice how Infiniti sells AWD versions of the G and M? I think Lexus even sells AWD of their RWD models now. If GM and Pontiac simply would execute their cars right, cars like the Grand Prix and G6 would be fine regardless. But neither the G6 nor Grand Prix has the 3.6, the Grand Prix is built on a 1988 Architecture, etc....and so on. For 07 the GXP G6 gets the 3.6 but no stick. It'll be division suicide if Pontiac goes all RWD and then resorts to its typically absurd level of execution. To top it off, if all they sell is vehicles that DO NOT appeal to women or families, they are toast.

X was decent too. YEAH! sounds good, but why not just sing your own material?

do you have WINGER - Pull? I have it but have never really acquainted myself to it. three albums you might like..... ANDY TAYLOR solo album KANE ROBERTS - self titled and SAINTS AND SINNERS perhaps one of the best AOR albums ever, just at the end of the hair band craze, MITCH MALLOY self titled debut. It was produced by a guy who also produced some Ratt records. It is hard rock but not like Motley Crue, its a bit softer but still in the hair band vein. One example of how there IS a smidgen of talent to come from NORTH DAKOTA. I would highly encourage you to find ANYTHING AT ALL and STRANDED IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE by Mitch. If those won't blow your car speakers, nothing will. Too bad he's more into country now. He actually auditioned for Van Halen at one point before the whole GARY CHERONE debacle.

ASIA - GO from ASTRA GTR - WHEN THE HEART RULES THE MIND

not EXACTLY hair band.....but I am an ENORMOUS DONNAS FAN. the first time I heard THE DONNAS, i obtained all their mp3's within days and subsequently all the CD's not long after. the lyrics are hilarious on the earlier LP's up through SPEND THE NIGHT. the last Donnas album was only average.

Asia ARIA is defintely hair band material. Alias- i have that one. good album. Freddy Curci is the same guy who held the note for like 30 seconds in that song from Sheriff. Bad Company- the hair band version of Bad Compnay is pretty good. HOLY WATER was a great album. Michael Bolton (his first album was "hair band"-ish)- yup.....very Bonham- Jason Bonham is part of the latest iteration of LOU GRAMMless Foreigner. Actually, the Lou Gramm albums are good and most of the 80's/90's Foreinger albums are better than folks give credit for. The Foreinger album with Johhny Edwards (Unusual Heat) is pretty good. Honeymoon Suite- the song FEEL IT AGAIN is definite car candy. I picked up an import version from Canada of the best of Honeymoon Suite. LOVE CHANGES VERYTHING is a rockin tune too. I think they are still kickin. Imeplliteri- they definitely have a following. Nelson- I am ashamed to say I loved their debut album in a big way. CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT YOUR LOVE AND AFFECTION and AFTER THE RAIN are two of my favorite tunes ever. RTZ- from the ashes of BOSTON. I love that song FACE THE MUSIC Saraya- WOW! I have that album. It was underrated. Very rockin. Similar to SASS JORDAN. I know lots of folks would love SASS JORDAN. When I was in college so many of my studiomates listened to so much MODERN ROCK. I like MODERN ROCK like REM and U2, but I got sick of some of them putting up those bands on a pedestal as better than the hair bands I liked. Take away REM and U2, which of those bands from MODERN ROCK are still concert draws like the hair bands are these days? The hair bands can pack folks in at the rock festivals and casinos and some fairs and stadiums.

sounds like something to send in to CCO to plaster their name on the wall.

I love RICK SPRINGFIELD. If you like hair music, check out his album SHOCK/DENIAL/ANGER/ACCEPTaNCE. there are soundbytes on his site. His live greatest hits album is a must purchase 4 u.

Essential Metal my good friend Scot Heinze runs this web site. He is an expert on Metal and hair band genres. I would encourage you to check out his 'best of' and Essential 70's, 80's and 90's links. He is a bit more into the hardcore stuff than most fans I think though.

MMMM, I like Rush. I am a huge ASIA fan. Both versions. Have like 20 Asia CD's. Big news, the original members are reuniting for a tour and maybe a record. and NO, A FRAMED ASIA POSTER DOES NOT MAKE YOU GAY! Hair band fans would like Asia ARIA, AQUA, ASTRA, SILENT NATION and maybe even ARENA. Of course, you all like ASIA and ALPHA.

mustang-was that Ratt with Stephen Pearcy or Jizzy Pearl? I saw Ratt with Pearcy like literally one of the very last times before they booted Pearcy. He sucked that night, but the rest of the band was good. Ratt's albums indvidually were all ok, not great, but their compilation disc RATT N' ROLL is one of the best greatest hits discs I can think of, especially for hair bands. Every song is top notch. Incidentally, their best non GH album was probably Detonator, which by that point was the very end of the hair band popultion surge and that album did not sell well. That was about the time I worked as a music manager at a best buy and it was so amazing to see a 180 degree shift in the buying tastes of music fans right about that time to rap. Literally, an overnight shift like flicking a switch. Any band that tried to get established right around 1990 or so got one chance or maybe two albums and then got dropped in favor of stuff like KRIS KROSS etc. Damn mustang, your hair band collection is much more diverse than mine. Damn Yankees- seen them twice and love their albums. They still might do one more record together. Ted was so bored playing this stuff in concert compared to his solo shows. Danger Danger- Their debut album is tremendous. They should have been huge but they hit exactly as the tide turned to rap. They actually just put out a live album that sounds good, with their old classics. David Lee Roth- people seem to have forgot how good his solo albums are. Some thought A Little Ain't Enough was not very good, but I really like that one as well as the ones before it. Anything after that pretty much is not good. Def Leppard- I tried to address this in a separate topic. Anyone who starts f-king with me, remaking Debbie Harry Blondie songs is gonna have my ire. It is worthy of its own discussion. DEF LEPPARD, where did it go wrong. Dokken- I am very hot and cold on them. They should have been bigger. Europe- kind of gay for me, ? but their FINAL COUNTDOWN song lived on in sports arenas everywhere. Firehouse- the ultimate midwest party band. These guys have a bigger following than folks give them credit for. Their debut album we could literally not keep in stock and everything else they put out was good and deserved more credit. You can almost hear drunken youngsters sream 'wooooohooooo!' when the drum beat and guitar starts at the beginning of the first song Rock on the Radio. Giuffria- sounds like Steve Perry! actually they were good. I heard something recently about Gregg Guiffria joining another band. I usually read my tidbits on www.melodicrock.com Great White- they were so good it was almost like they were on fire. (lightning strike) Guns N' Roses- you really cannot say what has not already been said. Perhaps the best example of the genre. I cannot wait for the CHINESE DEMOCRACY, even if its just axl. Heart- there are two versions of Heart. The 70's freebird kind and the hair band type. The girls don't really like to acknowledge the hair band version of Heart. I still remember listeining to the HEART album with a special girl friend all the time my senior year in high school. She did end up breaking my heart by the way. But all the hair band Heart albums sold well. I finally went to see them a couple years ago and was disappointed because they wanted to play everything else besides their 80's 90's stuff. BRIGADE is a tremendous album too. The riff at the beginning of TALL DARK HANDSOME STRANGER at near full volume in your car, along with some 'air keyboards' is awesome. KISS- I liked the hair band version of Kiss. CRAZY NIGHTS, HOT IN THE SHADE, and REVENGE, all very good. Some folks liked Animalize and Asylum, and Lick It Up but I don't have those. I hear those are good. "Helix, House of Lords, Hurricane, Kidd Blue, Kik Tracee, King Kobra, , Kix, Krokus, LA Guns, Lillian Axe, Lion, The Loudness, Love-Hate, Lynch Mob" wow. that's exactly what i mean. those are some serious hard core hair band fans bands. the ones that didn't score big with commercial songs but had a big following nonetheless. Perhaps they didn't have any BALLADS they sold to women. Night Ranger- one of my all time favorites. Jack Blades is a genius. One of their records, NEVERLAND is one of the later ones that should be checked out. SIGN OF THE TIMES is also a good later one. Poison- all excellent up until the Kotzen album, although STAND is a good tune. The song SO TELL ME WHY from the live/GH album is one of my faves. Some tracks on the CRACK A SMILE album with blues Saraceno are excellent as well. Sammy Hagar- I have many Sammy CD's. Pre and post Van Halen. Some of his most very recent ones have a bit too much filler, but usually every one of his records has some really good upbeat tunes. TEN13, Red Voodoo, live Hallelujah, Not 4 Sale do have some good tunes. I think the Sammy style Van Halen was better. Starship (I would kinda consider them a hair band)- Early 'Jefferson Starship' with songs like Find Your Way Back and Jane were awesome. the poppy 'Starship' with Grace Slick (how high had she have been to sing that mush?) were good too. NOTHING'S GONNA STOP US NOW is a tremendous sappy pop song.! Steelheart- good tune. Stryper- I liked their 'AGAINST THE LAW' album. that was the first album when they went 'bad'. Tesla- one of the best. I saw them live and it was among the best concerts I've seen. their sound is great and what i like about them is they are just straight forward nuts busting rock. As long as their singer dude stays clean.......This band has never gotten anough credit. Trixter (almost ashamed to say so)- and you should be.! Van Halen- I like all of Van Halen but probably the Sammy stuff better. 5150 narrowly beats Unlawful Carnal Knowledge as my favorite sammy album. Balance was a far better album than it got credit for. Winger- I really liked IN THE HEART OF THE YOUNG.

Ferrari red, BTW.

sometimes cars are like women. they just won't say what they want. and then they get upset when you can't figure it out. my advice, if you want to get something out of a woman, you have to get them drunk and find a way to mess with their head. using that anology applied to your car, perhaps get it drunk on some good high octane fuel and rub the inside really nicely with a some armor all to gloss it up and then see if she tells you what she wants.

newsweek feedback from readers wow, you should see how defensive the ecoweenies get why do ecoweenies and liberals get so upset when someone presents a vailid counter view point? or, are they just pissed they blew thousands extra on a car?

just another hybrids cost article what is interesting is how it mentions how the accord hybrid and highlander hybrid are rotting on lots. Mark my words, the Vue will change the perception of hybrids, it will be the first that folks will think is worth the money vs. a non-hybrid.

newsweeek-print newsweek-article

So every year our paper prints the top executives pay here in MN. CEO of Target, 'total compensation' 45 mill. He may be good, but NOT THAT good. and so on, and so on. some guy in charge of lifetime fitness pulled in 40 mill......for renting floor space and treadmills. to top it off some can't afford food and look what these guys make. I wish it were practical to boycott these guy's companies so they go down the toilet and these guys get their salaries 'adjusted'. Problem is, the Target is one mile from my house and its a darn nice store and its handy, and it means I don't have to shop in a Walmart. Having to shop at Walmart is akin to having someone pour gasoline in your butt and then going in there with a large metal file to finsih the job. Still, that's no excuse for one person to make that much. Can we as a nation do ANYTHING to bring these guys down? What's wrong with making say, 2 million in lieu of 45 million?

just not built with the same precision and material quality. and the darn corporate radio and steering wheel.

well, they already had ABS and trac control. now some overhead cams with the manual transmission please?

does the GTP have stabilitrak standard?

since GM has built many different version of the trailblazer, they can keep building the envoy in lesser numbers and still fill the factory with ASCENDERS, 9-7xs, Raniers, etc.