balthazar

'I'm pretty, that nails it.' <-- Oh look, another one. -- -- -- -- If you only knew how well you have proven my point.

enzl ->>"Ever think that this type of behavior frustrates guys like FlyBrian who just disappear one day? To me, that's glaring evidence that a general attitude problem spills over into other aspects of the site and rots it from within."<< Flybrian - 12-13-07>>"Toyota can bite my ass with their inferior, poor-running, unreliable, bland, useless abominations."<< Flybrian - 12-04-07>>"Unfortunate, because the ES is a disgusting car."<< Flybrian - 11-17-07>>"'Hyundai sucks' isn't bias; its fact, beeyotch."<< Um, yea. Thanks for straightening me out. No, I think it was another sort of rot altogether that might have prompted him to spend his time elsewhere....

>>"...after a while, you get to know someone like you would by any other means of communication."<< I agree, which is why I always carry a backpack of emoticon signs to explain to the guy standing in front of me what I mean.

>>"didn't your mother ever ask you about your friends jumping off bridges?"<< >>"You recommend Corollas to your grandmother"<< Are you currently drinking? >>"who cares what they say? It makes us look petty and bitter."<< Then it also makes them look petty & bitter. Maybe moreso, since it's arguably less 'legitimate'. Most GM fans get satisfaction over mishaps at toyo, most toyo fans get satisfaction over mishaps at GM. Meanwhile, you seems to be standing on the sidelines, pleading for everyone to just... hug. We here don't want to hug.

This is AFTER they announced they were pulling out of the U.S. market, correct? No doubt firesale pricing is in full effect, not to mention a 13% YTD increase over a few dozen vehicles... is not much.

Ugh, in the best state in the Union for fuel prices and I'm sitting on a quarter tank and looking at 3.99 diesel price at the cheapest station around. Talked to a guy with a beautiful brand new Sierra (crew cab 1500 4x4, black), said he had the 5.3 and tho he only gets around 14 around town, said he does a lot of highway driving out of state and gets 24-26 over the road (cylinder deactivation). That's fantastic for a full-size, 6-pass 4x4 truck.

I should be out in the shop hammering on the B-59, but my days are so sliced up I pop in here every evening in between doing other things... I don't really feel much in the way of personal connections- none of us are anymore than 2-D text on a screen here; that's not real in any sense of the word.

The humpers will never admit it, but the tundra is a prime example of 'too little, too late'... and we were all led to believe that stumble-footed short-sightedness was impossible from the Great Master. enzl ->>"Toyota will lose Billions and shrug it off--the glee with which the posters here attack them is astonishing..."<< 'Astonishing'?? How can you still not get why we come here ? You must read the toyota boards- plenty of high-fiving glee over there, too, much of it a lot more over-the-top/unrealistic than is ever posted here.

Govinda ~ Jai Uttal

So what do you think is possible: Moon colonization, or space station condos? Those 2 aside, space to me looks like going INTO the jar. You know what I mean- the next galaxy is completely out of reach, what space offers seems, conservatively, to be very little, esp compared to the billions involved. What are we possibly going to get out of the Mars rock samples... beyond a new chapter in geologist's textbooks? I'm all for optimism as long as it's tendered with reality (does that make me pessimistic?)

Well, yeah, but at least he acted instead of doing nothing.

I'd say he was rather effective. Constructive, now that's another matter. But no one can say he didn't 'grow a pair' in response to a situation he recognized.... EDIT: I have to say that overall I'm not in favor of space exploration because the ROI is so utterly dismal. I recognize the image contribution, but unless we were going manned to Mars or another rock, which is so scientifically & logistically formidable, I don't think even the ROI on anything like another jaunt to the moon compares to the '69-era trips' pep rally. I would immensely prefer actual ET contact, now that would truely be new and would certainly refocus the trivial. Or, more feasibly, increased Earth exploration, such as oceanic. Your energy point I can get behind.

Someone knew ahead of time...

Right- which is why I didn't mention them while asking for Ford's 2-dr competition to the GM-10 coupes.

>>"Regarding coupes...are you kidding? The Thunderbird and Cougar were some of the most popular and nicest-looking cars of the 1980s."<< But the T-bird/Cougar were about 20% higher in price, hence not in the same segment as the Taurus/Celebrity. They were also positioned differently, as personal lux coupes as opposed to 2-dr versions of 4-drs. The GM-10 coupe was certainly a nicer design than the Tempo, Ford's nearest (yet downmarket) 2-dr offering. RE design- sure, the Taurus trumped the GM-10s, but it also trumped everything else out there then.

I'll side with some of the opinions posted there: that these are at least 3 different junkyards in markedly different locations. The bottom shots certainly look like what I would think WY looks like, but the severly rusted shots in the woods looks just like Jersey/NE to this junkyard dog. Love the closely-grouped-by-marque pics: I'll take those 3 B-59s lined up nose-2-tail, please!

>>"In 1986, Ford brought out the award-winning, and critically-acclaimed, Taurus. Two years' later, we get three GM-10 coupes. We had to wait ANOTHER, what 3-4 years before we got a midsize 4-door sedan to compete with Taurus, Accord, and Camry?"<< So the Celebrity sedan (and it's siblings), out since well before '86, wasn't a mid-size 4-dr sedan? (BTW- available w/ a 4-spd auto!) Question might be better worded: where was Ford's competition in a 2-dr coupe?? >>"Doesn't change the fact that the best-selling car today is a 4-door sedan....and way back in 1988, GM decided to introduce three coupes......(WTF????)"<< You want to re-read your statement above ??

>>"Gas prices at the pump rose overnight to a record national average of $3.2272 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. That’s a tad higher than the previous record of $3.2265, set last May."<< What the flaming hell is this new &#036;h&#33;?? We already have to deal with the utterly unique (and assinine) instance of tenths of a penny at the pump, a holdover from the dawn of the industry, and now here's HUNDRETHS OF A PENNY !!!!!????!!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! .2272 would round to .22 & 7/10ths, and .2265 rounds to.... .22 and 7/10ths. Friggin enough, already.

>>"Older BMW 3-Series cars with four-cylinder engines and manual transmissions get respectable mpgs. Even the six-cylinder models get mpgs that aren't too shabby. No, they're not soaring above 45 mpgs, but they do get around 25 mpg or better in mixed conditions."<< Early '50s Cadillacs were known to return into the low 20s MPG. They weren't as heavy as later '50s Caddys, what with the option list being comparitively small, but they were miles bigger & heavier than an old 3-series.

So if this is true, the G8 is going to suck the market out from the -what- 5-series, right? Much better value, almost as fast (faster??), but a lot cheaper, with much better styling. I guess we'll see....

OK, so peering underneath is not going to turn on many lights for you: a FWD/transaxle car is going to look like... I don't know what as far as determining the logical mechanical progression of things. Too much gobbily-guck. Crawl under a full-size RWD (if there are any non-4WDs in NH) pickup if you get a chance- lots of room to see the basics. I'll say this, tho- most vehicles built after -say-1980 are more a hinderance to learning automotive mechanics than something built earlier. More & more are FWD, and the emissions & electronics alone, not to mention downsizing, just hinder understanding. Case in point: you have to remove one rear wheel and the inner fenderwell on the 911-esque porsche just to get at the oil filter. Not exactly the same thing, but as XP715 once stated (and I agree 100%) : There is zero pride in working on a new car because it sucked before you started and it'll suck when you're done.

Enclave is certainly no "rebadge", but you've ignored this countless times already- I suppose yet another reminder here is likewise wasted on such a knowledgable "GM fan". Even if it was (sorry), when developed concurrently and centrally, one cannot technically be a "rebadge" of another; the 3 were developed at the same time for each specific division. And it must just KILL you that you cannot call it what you so clearly want to: a "rebadged Chevy". Dead Horse #46: Where & when have you ever seen SUVs drag racing each other? Does the quickest SUV always have the highest sales- because inevitably that's what you always come down to, no matter how irrelevant to the segment: 0-60.

OK. Transmission is in the same spot- the engine must transmit power thru it (the only mainstream variation of this is a transaxle: in a RWD car, the transmission is integral with the rear axle/differential (nee: Corvette)- but ignore that for now). Floor-shift and column-shift merely uses different linkage to control the trans under the floor/behind the motor. P-N-R-D gear changes are accomplished by the linkage, 1-2-3(-4)(-5)(-6) shifts are controlled internally when in D/OD. Auto transmissions are simple in theory, but complex mechanically. What make/model vehicle are you daily driving?

I guess if one was really into certain 'journalists', JJ in particular, this might seem akin to 'selling out', but to the majority of readers/viewers, she is interchangable with 5 dozen other writers as to ability/quality... therefore, the Jeep/Compass vids are no worse that any other manufacturer-sourced advertising spoken by an unknown. Ad to that the fact that she is not particularly visually attractive (so here's numerous facial close-ups, yer welcome!), and you get yet another disposable, forgettable 'testimonial'. I've never particularly cared for her writing, even back under the Lindamood surname.

PCS- you're closer to a grandchild than pushing another child out the door- hold off Mrs PCS a few years and you can have selective/limited parenthood and still have time for travel/life-when-U-were-22 at the same time. Me, I built a 3 bedroom house as a reminder I did not wish Mrs. B & I to be outnumbered (I have 2 sons).