balthazar

General Motors has a long & storied (and sometimes convoluted) history of involvement with railroading. Most know that Electro-Motive became a Division of General Motors, and thousands of locomotives & engines were built under the GM banner. One early strong connection to General Motors was instrumental in the development of an important safety system on trains, which was the standard for that system for decades upon decades. Name the person and the system involved.

I've seen numerous pics over the years, tho my source says only about 300 were built. Brewster was originally a full manufacturer '15-'25 (where production was again but about 300 units), tho those cars looked unrelated to the '34-36s. The 2nd gen, if you will, was a coachbuilt car, as they used (primarily) lengthened Ford chassis' & engines, tho some Brewster bodies were also on Buick & Olds chassis. As such, the '2nd gen' Brewsters are not a 'make', but akin to LeBaron, Fleetwood, Bohman & Schwarz, etc. Most of the times I see '34-36s, they are called 'Brewster-Fords'. I've been lukewarm on these all along. I don't dislike them, but they are a bit overwraught for some.

The maybach ALREADY IS an "expanded range" badge-engineered s-class (with a 1970's 2-tone paint job)... mercedees already plops $15 grand on the hood of s-classes; they are not going to add a handful of maybach features to the s-class and jack the price back up to $375K - it's already failed. I strongly suspect the cheap platform is at fault. mercedees need to put the money into their core models and stop chasing every niche known to autodom. They've lost the vast bulk of their lead in the core segments due to frittering away funds on pipe dreams & ego strokes.

Take it real easy Cort, and wow- what a lot to go thru. I had really minor surgery in March of '10, and in a perfect storm of conditions, I 'slipped over to the other side' for a peek. In that it was so completely unexpected, it did change my outlook in some instances. No recollections from the experience, but it sure makes you think. Glad to hear you were in good hands.

Yikes and double yikes!

>>"So, what will replace Maybach?"<< Why would they strive to replace a segment failure with another? Oh wait- it's mercedes, where no segment shall go unoccupied. "A car for every purse or purpose", ALA General Motors... just 90 years later.

$60 million just to lobby workers?? Get ready for the Occupy Union Movement !!

'Rebadging' doesn't work, and neither does using the platform of a car that costs 25% of the model you're pushing. Or so it's been said.

When a buddy bought his used older Outback this spring, I looked over a forester in the showroom and found it's interior quality shockingly cheap and world's away from the new Outback also on display. It was like they were built by 2 different companies (one of them Chinese).

'70 Eldo had 550 gross TRQ, CTS-V has 550 net TRQ, or around 650 or more under the gross rating method. Just thinking the car would need the weight transfer inherent with RWD launches to hook that up to the street. Tho perhaps tractions control & other electronic nannies could be incorporated... Sure, it definitely could be built as a FWD car, but like I said; from the performance standpoint and the personal vibe I get off it's lines, I'd rather it got RWD in this fantasy.

LOT of stuff in here I think is overrated or I just plain don't care for... but the Interceptor isn't one of them. Va-voom.

"Does anyone really believe that?"

dude, it's a cheap black plastic triangle in the A-pillar area. Whether it's attached to the door or the pillar, it looks like hell. You're splitting hairs. And you're telling me the 'grille inset' is designed to be floppy? No speed-sensitive carbon fiber shutters on a $192K car, just a floppy chunk of cheap black plastic? Wow. Such EXCITEMENT!! and VALUE!!

Think this: Front fascia insert looks laughably cheap here, too. So does the plastic sill...

It's a ferrari-thing, so by association; EXCITEMENT!!, right?

Agreed on Dion, but Aerosmith wasn't actually in the ad you linked, just the song. The woman above, although the same of course applies to J-Lo. Don't care about the bad ads, I just care about dat bad ass. Hopefully she's keeping regular business hours after leaving Fiat then. I'll show her things about f@#king inappropriately she couldn't even dream of. Horsey, IMO. To each his own.

Yes, as you've stated 800,000 times. Try staring at any OTHER spot on cars for a while. Yes, no flat floor for you. And no, I don't think it would be "just as fun". THM425 could easily handle the power- the internals are THM400, which can handle just about any power level with a competent rebuild.

If the s-class sells as few as it does, stickers at $90K but averages $13K less than that, AND it's the "the most profitable sedan in the world" (which I doubt), it must not cost all that much to build. Then again, building quantities of stripper fleet models and massively overcharging for them based on the list price of regular retail models may certainly tip the profitability scale. I don't directly hate the car itself, but it's without question overpriced for what you get and the hyperbole gets chokingly thick.

For some reason this design always telegraphed 'RWD' to me. And it's not the longitudinal engine layout, for me it's the design emphasis toward the rear. CTS-V powertrain means converting this to RWD, if the purists would allow such blasphemy...

Again- if sales were the prime determination, the camry would be the finest mid-sized car money could buy. S-class averages $13 grand on the hood to move, obviously it's not "worth the price".

It would be awesome to take a primo 2nd gen like pictured above and stuff a CTS-V powertrain under it.

'rental car without a tag' - meaning no license plates??

^ Are you guys talking about the woman above, or someone else not pictured here?

Ilk- looks like a big, cheap, rubbery toyota. There are a LOT of comfortable, solid cars out there- my question is; how is the pic I linked worth anywhere near $90K?? Some really lackluster & confusing design & cheap bits in there.

Too bad so many buyers have no idea and totally don't care. • • • What is that solid block of black plastic in the bottom center of the grille for? Looks pretty cheap & noticeable. • • • Here's the interior of the current s-class: This is NOT what I would expect of nearly $100K. Oversized plastic vents you can look right into with the same thumbwheel a $15K car has, a glued-on instrument hood with a strange double-hump design, an ugly swath of black plastic surrounding the gauges, and a pregnant swell in the center of the dash reminiscent of an older Quest minvan. OK for $30K, a complete rip-off for $90K. I know I've seen that exact same vent design on something from the mid-90s... just can't place it. And is that FOUR stalks coming off the column??