balthazar

Nothin' like tellin' it like it is. "intellectual, Harvard-educated, candy-assed, soft-handed bribe-takers" - Dead on the money.

>>"these were campaign promises, and will be acted on"<< Boy, have you 'blues' got a rude awakening coming !!

DE DOES have helmet law if you are under 19. DE's current compliance rate for seatbelts is 84%, or 2% over the national average. Seems pretty well embraced. DE upgraded their seat belt law to a primary offense 5 years ago in '03, so the base seat belt law is obviously older than that. Back to point: sobriety checkpoints are NOT related to the Patriot Act and they are NOT going away. The only legitimate objection to answering a few questions for 30 seconds is if you intend to drive drunk. You will spend far more time and at more occurances going thru vehicle inspection than you ever will going thru sobriety checkpoints. I think I've been thru 2 in my licensed life- BFD.

Can {cough, partisan politics, cough} actually cause blindness ? Obama is NOT going to strike down sobriety checkpoints (and if the Patriot Act is stricken, nor will it) because only drunks and the righteously obtuse oppose them, and there's not enough votes there to cater to. Do you also advocate to your superiors, the removal of all automotive seatbelts because they're 'freedom restrictors' ?? >>"Just standing up for my individual rights as a US citizen..."<< You do not have the "right" to have a driver's license nor operate a motor vehicle. The police / the court DOES have the right to pull your license if you disobey the laws you were granted your license under in the name of public safety.

Listening to an interesting account on oil elsewhere...... question: What was gas in CA in Oct of '07 ??

>>"Not to worry, I have a feeling the Patriot Act is about to go through a highly needed revision, come January 20th. "<< The only thing I see to worry about from your standpoint is your apparent belief that roadside sobriety checks have anything to do with the Patriot Act. RSCs have been around a lot longer than 2001.

Oh good; glad we've established this is another rant about absolutely nothing other than obtuse behavior & the opportunity to slam an entire country over a 1-minute exchange between 2 indivudals.

>>"I really can't remember what the prices were in '86 when I learned to drive, or in '92 when I graduated from college, or '97 when I left grad school for the corporate life. "<< Today, the one station near me I noticed was 1.63 for 87. Logbook: '94 F-150: 10-07-06 : $2.11 (87) 10-09-05 : $2.75 (87) 10-08-04 : $1.95 (87- apparently circa $2 was enuf to pull the chip) 10-10-03 : $1.73 (93- had a chip in the truck) 10-08-02 : $1.55 (93) 10-04-01 : $1.47 (93) 10-xx-00 : $1.71 (93) 10-04-98 : $1.19 (93) 10-12-96 : $1.17 (87) 10-12-94 : $1.12 (87)

Perhaps, just perhaps... they have learned from doing these checkpoints for -oh, decades- that "yes" and "water" are not quite enough to 1. accurately gauge the truth of the answers, and 2. accurately gauge the possible drunkenness of the respondant. Perhaps you'd consent to a roadside lie detector test, should only take 30-40 minutes, so you won't have to tell them you just had the combo special at the CrackWhoreHouse Emporium.... Just so you can "feel free", some &#036;h&#33;head gets to mow thru someone's living room picture window in his 5300 lb BMW SUV and kill a family of 5 because all you would have them say is 'Have you been drinking?" and "Have a nice night".... because it's all about... you... and your fweelings...

>>"Drop GMC Saab- Keep it, because it's still profitable and generates positive cash flow"<< Problem here WRT consistancy of reasoning is: GMC is also profitable & generates cash flow, with far less investment vs. saab. >>"GM had 50% market share in 1960"<< GM had 46% marketshare in 1960 (2,792,480 units vs. the domestic market total of 6,029,943), and only if you include the domestic brands only; that percentage would be slightly less if you include the smattering of imports. GM also only had 34% in 1930 (990,442 vs, domestic industry total of 2,928,064)... the '60s were the spike vs. the overall history of GM's marketshare. >>"The problem is how well Buick is doing in China, so do you make Buick the luxury flagship and drop Caddy or keep both."<< But Buick China & Buick U.S.A. share nothing but the nameplate- they are autonomous to each other. Offing one would have nothing to do with the other. I'm certainly not in favor of discontinuing Buick, but this is not a legitimate reason to base any decision on, either way. 'Dropping Cadillac' is ludicrious to even consider. >>"...Cadillac. After all, it's not exactly a huge success"<< Source ??

People can praise the BMW 6-series all day, they sold 493 in June '08 - down almost 40% from the year before. Like some dolt erronously said; 'Great cars still well in awful times', so this obviously means the 6-series is a piece of sh!t. 7-series only sold 814 units in June '08 - down close to 25% from the year before- more sh!tty numbers. S-class sold almost 1400 in the same period. BMW has lost marketshare since the CTS debuted, they should just invest the 7-series budget into the 5-series and make that a clear class-leader and drop the 7 ('no one buys them anymore') ; 5'er class is getting very crowded at the top. BMW's june '08 sales dropped 170 times more than mercedes' (0.1% vs. 17%).

Right-O, NLX; the Star Chief became the Star Chief Executive in '66, and the plain ol' Executive for '67-70.

2 housefraus, overheard: "Why did you get an acura?" "Because they're built to go 300,000 miles." Like any acura owners keep their cars long enough to even see 100K...

Correct; there's nothing wrong with a 364.... it's just not all that many cubes....

I was talking to another B-59 owner on the phone. He stated his car had the extremely rare factory prototype dual-quad set-up on it. Buick didn't offer 2x4s until '64. 'Ah; you installed a '64-65 set-up?' 'No- it's '59 but extremely extremely rare.' {already dismissing this misinformation...} 'They only made 4200 sets.' How the hell is 4200 even remotely close to "rare", not to mention still being within 100 miles of being "factory prototype" equipment ????

Best haircut I ever got was from a real old schooler on a shadowy side street in Detroit- he cut it wet and it turned out awesome. I suppose he's been gone for years, now. Basically, it's a (product-less) pompadour. Low-maintenance (it's trained), long in-between intervals.

While gas was cresting, then slowly sliding, I recall seeing with note that nissan's sales declines were out-of-step with toyonda's and closer to domestic's slides- what that says about nissan's buyer pool, I'm not sure; I always equate nissan with cheap econo-based, rental-grade cars... cars that consumers should be turning to in a wide shift for fuel efficiency, but seemingly not so this year. In light of the percentage declines, pulling out does not come as a surprise to me...

Fascinating how these oh-so-close vehicles are written about in terminology that implies yawning gaps between them: >>"3rd Place: The BMW 335i... wheels almost needed to be straight before the throttle could go all the way to the floor. The throttle response from its twin-turbo 300-hp inline-6 is only happy and snappy in the upper rpm range, and the steering feels indirect and slow in comparison. Great brakes, but this wasn't enough to make up the 2.7-second gap to the TL. It's just too slow to react. 4th Place: BMW 335xi... only further snubbed the responses of the sedan. The steering became less direct, the throttle response grew worse and the understeer became more pronounced. The added weight of the car was obvious, especially in a high-speed corner with an apex at the crest of a hill."<< What- Why no CTS competition, honda ??

He had a very heavy accent on the phone, India-n-esque. I had to close my eyes (shut down one sense) to try and understand him, I'm decent at that task, yet still lost 30% of what he said. Wierd, because he said his name was 'Bruno' - guess that was a nickname for something with 29 letters starting with 'Bru'... From the pics- yea; the car is a good starting point, but it would cost a bit to do it up to even presentable. Almost zero in the way of repro parts for B-59s, naturally. If it was an Electra with A/C, we'd be talking another story...

I never thought he was worth the extravagant price tag; IMO he came off as somewhat aloof and of questionable sincerity. I also never felt the connection. I also believe a marque should spread it's advertisment/endorsement buck around. I've seen numerous of his ads, too.

The gold LeSabre coupe is up a week early vs. what he told me. Total project- interior & all pot metal looks in need of replacement. I would not consider a LeS since it only came with the 364, and I'm not into V-8s with less than 389 CI. B-59 on eBay

Supposedly, I told my Mom I didn't think Santa traveled in a sleigh, that he used a car. I was drawing cars around 7 or 8. In Jr HS, I sat near 2 clowns on the bus who knew every car they saw and had some sort of crack or sound effect about them- how did they learn them all? One car we passed everyday was a slumbering '58 Series 75 limo, so when I got access to a huge stash of Nat'l Geos in history class in 7th grade, I started slicing the ads out, starting with a '58 SdV ad. That there is likely the catalyst. 5000 ads & thousands of books, magazines & pics/later, plus countless trips to car shows & junkyards cemented my appreciation for the detail and construction of '40s-'60s cars. It'll never grow old for me, even tho I sometimes feel like I've seen 98% of everything already.

Having 13 or 14 over here at the Ranch, have to build a quickie 2nd 8' table to get everyone in the same room. I've already spend 3 days last week working outside, trying to spruce up the place, winterizing and tackling 25 billion leaves; looks like at least 1 more day Mon finishing the same.

Like how -say- BMW looks to its past for how present & future cars/trucks should look ? There's nothing wrong with retaining a few key design elements; dropping the -say- split grille for a '1-hole' grille accomplishes nothing, says nothing, is change for change's sake, yet also pisses off the Pontiac faithful. Kinda like if BMW took the divider out of the pig nostrils on the front of everything they build. Minus 1. No one is saying we need wheelwell spats & flip-up headlights and flaming chickens... but that does not mean throw out the baby w/ the bathwater. There's precious little distinction in modern design; so if you can lay claim to anything, you need to hold onto that and nuture it and make it work for you. Seemingly, it is the superficial in Pontiac's past that catches hyper's vision, but not mine. At issue here is; there were specific, distinct general elements of classic Pontiac design that CAN INDEED be incorporated into modern 'language'. If it works, GREAT, use it; don't dump it because some tenuous link can be drawn to 1965 or whathaveyou. Fender air extractors, ala the last GP? - No! Not a language, just a scrap. A subtle yet notable 'Coke bottle' ariel silhouette? Could really work well. I once had a bystander ask me how I got that dent in the flank of my '64 Catalina, when what the dolt was seeing was the Coke Bottle flare of the rear quarters. Yes, the upcoming Camaro has a very similar feature, and it looks like money there. It highlights the wheels, it's agressive, it's fresh, it has attitude. It was Pontiac. Why would this be bad on a future Pontiac, again?

GXT- you need to stand back & re-read the piece. It's not a brag-sheet; it's written to answer outdated & erroneous perceptions, and it does than handily. For instance: the charge was 'Detroit builds gas guzzlers', when in fact the malibu equals the perceived gas sipper and ubitquitous 'efficiency' sedan, the accord. Perception disproved.