balthazar

FINALLY a woman answers the door to me in a bra….. but she's NINETY. A cute 90, but still….

What year is that Gran Prix balthy? '64. 56K, PS, PB, PW, AM-FM/PAnt, cruise, tilt, A/C, triple black.

No relation. No sure if the fact they live like 10 minutes from me is a good thing… or too much like 'salt in the wound'.

^ Hence; thou keen observer! - - - - - Sold some misc flotsam to a local father/son last night, so they got a tour of my shop. This morning the son, I think he's about 25, called me up and started serious conversation RE buying my first car, which has been in storage now for 25 years. I have never advertised it, nor really evaluated what I would ask, tho I did throw out a number. He threw out a close counter-offer… and I am torn. LOT of sentimentality tied up in that car. Have to ponder deeply...

Huh; so Lincoln is selling right at Jaguar numbers for the U.S.. That's either really pathetic for Lincoln, or really pathetic for Jaguar.

Wow : A4, A5, A6, A7 and A8 all down big Y-t-Y. The big increases were the bottom line A3 & Q3. That's a downmarket push right there… not good for image.

This one is a 'match em up' : see if you can match the names & the faces of these early GM figures! Try and not google them; challenge yourself, or just guess blindly (why not, most of the U.S. Government does )! A.) B.) C.) D.) E.) F.) - - - - - • Ransom Olds • David Buick • William Durant • Henry Leland • Edward Murphy • Louis Chevrolet View full article

All righty then, let's wrap this one up. 1.) Cadillac built 1,482 single cylinder units in 1908 over 3 models, this out of a total model year production of 1,689. There were (2) 4-cylinder models that year also. A single Model M 1-cylinder was listed for 1909, but production is "questionable"… so the top answer here is 1908. dfelt is correct. 2.) William Maley is correct on #2. 3.) dfelt has this partially correct. The move to 12 volts in such a short timespan (all domestic autos were 6-volt in '52, and all were 12 volt in '56) was a.) to improve starting power for cranking larger engines, b.) improved ignition power for higher compression, and c.) cost savings due to smaller gauge wiring, smaller connectors and less windings in starters & generators. 4.) Sealed beam headlights became a 1-yr industry standard WELL before there was a Federal voice to require them, in 1939. 5.) William Maley is correct also on this one; Pontiac set a goal of 5000 GTOs sold in the first year. You can see how everyone got on the bandwagon in a hurry once 32K sold. 6.) GMTG74 is correct; this gentleman was buried in his 1973 Pontiac Catalina 2-dr hardtop.

So tired of 'long hood/short deck'.

I would love to take something like this : And build something like this from it :

circa '48 Plymouth sedan, medium blue, good shape, parked at business. And this, a '49: Early car, had functional VentiPorts: This would make a GREAT candidate for some radical surgery… IF it could be gotten for somewhere between $300 and free, but delusionally they were asking $2000. No one is going to restore a rotten Super 4-dr sedan; it's only possible future is the crusher… so they might as well just give it to me.

Agreed. On the flip; if it doesn't turn a profit at SOME point- that DOES mean it won't. A much money as Musk may have, there is still an (unspecified) level where he would walk away. The company still NEEDS the stock revenue to run the machinery, also. It's tenuous at best and like I said; if the 'romance' was blooming as hard as it is, Tesla would already bee gone. 12 years losing money is a near eternity in business.

Very, very few of the customers I see have their vehicles long enough to pay them off... That's because the people who DO pay them off don't go shopping nearly as often!

Have an 1892 Springfield Trapdoor rifle, currently at a high end gun shop on consignment. Striking story; my wife -as a kid- took it to grade school for show & tell. No problems, no lockdown, no police… it was certainly a different time!!

Doesn't matter to them, they're going to want a new car in 2 - 4 years anyway. Those people already were lease-ees. I don't think I understand someone who is going to complain about how much they are spending but then enter into a perpetual infinite monthly expenditure cycle.

Is there not a disconnect where people looking for lower monthly payments IGNORE the fact that lease payments never end, whereas purchase payments do?

That 2nd one is awesome!

I never advocated against the Model X. I'm not questioning the validity of the model, just the order of products. Since the beginning, multiple company persons (including Musk) have stated the goal was to build "affordable" compact electrics… but the one in the pipeline has been delayed repeatedly (so has the X). From a business case scenario, the company needs to make a profit. Wikipedia breezily states TSLA made it's first profit Q1 2013. That was also it's only profitable quarter, IIRC. $5000 reservation fee is a decent indicator, but it IS fully refundable for whatever reason (company or client desired). The wait time is unprecedented; it remains to be seen how many of those depositors are willing to wait to see their order filled AND what level of rejection happens once the price is announced. If the M X comes out the door priced like an S-class (according to interviews), where will a quantity of 12K buyers come from in that price class? - - - - - I'm not in the 'down with electrics' camp, and as a fledgling domestic automaker, I would like to see Tesla succeed. So far, they are defying tall odds. The Model S has impressed, and I personally see them daily. But there's a void between 'feel good' / image and the tally sheet. My concern is that it's taking billions to prop up the company and I've read numerous op-eds starting to 'turn the tide' against the stock as a questionable investment. If that gains traction, the capital pullout could be tidal (market cap: $32B). Model 3 isn't (currently) slated to hit the market until 2017… but we know how intro dates from TSLA work out. As it is, that may mean fall 2017 as a 2018. My point: I don't see NEARLY the profit potential from the Model X as the potential is for the Model 3, and TSLA desperately needs profit to keep the stock price up. Right now, it's mostly romance doing that.

Read some 2013, company-hinted info that stated the Model X was going to be priced slightly higher than the base Model S. If that's the case, the Model X is a HUGE gamble… not due to the pricing, but WRT the company's bottom (red) line. Model 3 is the future/ hope/ savior for the company, it should have arrived before the X and been here already. The clock is ticking loudly on Tesla...

Whatever you want, just maybe try and make it make at least a little sense for the brand that you're resurrecting to do it. OK then : Doble. Someone years ago tried to do a modern Doble powertrain in a first gen Taurus. A key Doble engineer (I would have to look his name up) was involved with General Motors's 2 steam experimental projects circa 1969. Interesting, because the final Doble was 1925, IIRC.

You blink your eyes, on average, between 16 and 20 times per minute. This equates to around 16000 blinks per day. Yet some things we can take DECADES to open our eyes to.

Whatever you want, just maybe try and make it make at least a little sense for the brand that you're resurrecting to do it. OK then : Doble.

^ They make 6V LEDs? This is for automotive use. Why don't you just drive over here and help me re-wire my '40.

In that IMO the RANGE of cars available today has compressed (IE; you can get full amenities in a nissan versa it seems) AND design is growing increasingly homogenized due to outside factors (IE: CAFE), I would like to see a truly unique brand return. Something that goes off in as much of another engineering direction as is possible today. Like a flash boiler steam turbine driven streamliner… can I haz that?