balthazar

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).

>>"There are 2 new 500,000 barrel/day refineries getting built in the Atlantic Provinces to sell directly to the US. Not to Mention there are 9 Upgraders getting built in Alberta."<< Then, much like a weekend storm shuts 1 refinery in the U.S. = a price/barrel spike, I expect to see radical price declines in gas & diesel once they come online. Not.

This 'model' takes a bit more than Testors cement. Sigh... perhaps moltar has the better approach...

smk4565- >>"I was aware of the G500 at the time I made that post, but it isn't something that commonly sits on M-B lots because of it's $89,000 base price. It's more of an old school Range Rover style vehicle than a military Hummer."<< Were you? g-wagon was ancient when designed in the 1970s, mercedes painted a few bits, added more plastic and alloy wheels and sells the same '79 model 30 years later but overcharges by $70K. Price is not an excuse, at $89K it's right in league with the aforementioend s-class. And IIRC, this thing was indeed often used as a military vehicle, so no; it's not an 'old school ranger rover', it's a plasticy Army vehicle with plastic vents. Just think how many more s-classes mercedes could sell without wasting the money on building this time-warp and focusing on the s-class's design instead of straight cribbing the fenders off mazdas.... not to mention the negative image the g-wagon casts on the s-class merely by sitting next to it.

I knocked the correctness, but I see the model has one minor detail right: the frame is so massive it hangs down about 2" below the rockers in real life. Why not glue a B-Pillar in there, molt, 'it's not like anyone will notice'. :AH-HA_wink: I haven't built a model since I was in my teens.

I had both a '59 Bonneville convertible friction/promo & a '59 Invicta hardtop promo.. but I sold both after I realized I had pulled them out of the box about 3 times in 8 years. Paid $90 for the B-59 and sold it for $120, put that cash right into an UltraBell for the TH400, which I'll install this weekend (have to cut the factory bellhousing off the TH400). Is that 2-tone the previous owner's job, because the factory 2-tone would've had the roof/decklid in red also (not that these models every worried about techincal correctness...)

smk4565 - >>"I don't care whether GMC goes or stays, if they stay and price them higher than Chevy, there is at least some differentiation, and they could be paired with a car only brand to round out a dealership line up."<< Yea, that's a great idea, wonder why GM hasn't thought of that before?? :rolleyes:

smk4565 - >>"How come when you go to a Mercedes or Lexus dealership, there isn't an army looking vehicle with an all plastic interior and Pontiac Aztec vents sitting next to the S-class."<< What the F do you call this ??

>>"...if the trend seems to be moving away from "chrome-ish" wheels, and none of your competitiors are offering them, then ditch 'em."<< B-but... if everyone else is offering 'something else', and you then move to offer the same 'something else'... isn't that thing then 'already over' ?? I seldom ever...(OK: never) worry about what others may think is fashionable, I like what I like and everyone else can F-off, IMHO.

Sometimes I wonder the same thing about those 'scientists' that believe it is TRUE.

Did this refer to actual testing of the Jetta / Ram, of just compare curb weights vs. the federal roof strength standard? Why I am thinking: the latter. Most cars have far more raked-back A-Pillars/windshields than trucks, and more than enough weight to crush this weak design feature as opposed to trucks which have more vertical A-Pillars (not to mention dead-vertical pillars everywhere else). Almost all of the roof crush problem can be traced to markedly thinner structural & sheetmetal,... and more & more raked-back windshields, so no surprise the standard needs updating. I'll happily point to the triple-wall, vertical A-pillar on my '59- the best design for crushproofing (AND visibility!). Leave the aerodynamics to the windshield and keep the structurals doing what they're there for: protection.

The gt-r could use a complete rebody, IMO; wings (already has a large factory one) & flares might just distract the eye from a seriously unflattering design. In profile, the front clip & the rear look like they're from 2 different makes and the nose is flat awful. Interior sucks, too.

Guilty of Being White - Minor Threat

I doubt there was any direct influence there, classy. The CTS's is more fluid, too. Maybe there was an influence from the Cadillac sedanette bodystyle of the '40s:

>>"I heard on the news today that scientists believe the world will end in about 7 million years (earth will burn up from solar radiation)."<< Did you also catch that we have plenty of time to address this, "but we need to start now"? Some poor dumb Fs will actually be giving donations to the 'Correct the Earth's Orbit Fund'. I need to come up with a scam of this magnitude...

GM transmissions have probably been used in more makes/models over more years than from any other source.

Apparently this "never made it out of committee", but here's what was proposed: >>There is a bill that the Washington State Legislature is trying to pass in Olympia that, if successful, will directly add huge costs to our vehicle license fees. The bill was SB 6900 and it adds an "engine displacement" fee to the vehicle license tabs upon renewal. Engine Size (liters) Rate Schedule Up to 1.9 : $0 2.0 - 2.9 : $70 3.0 - 3.9 : $225 4.0 - 4.9 : $275 5.0 - 5.9 : $325 6.0 - 7.9 : $400 8.0 or over : $600 Here's the web page for the bill where you can read the text: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summ...6900&year=2007<< Oooo... it's so European..., it's gotta be 'right'! No doubt this will crop up again at some point in another state...

http://www.dailytech.com/Temperature+Monit...rticle10866.htm >>"Twelve-month long drop in world temperatures wipes out a century of warming. Over the past year, anecdotal evidence for a cooling planet has exploded. China has its coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad sees its first snow in all recorded history. North America has the most snowcover in 50 years, with places like Wisconsin the highest since record-keeping began. Record levels of Antarctic sea ice, record cold in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile -- the list goes on and on. {this morning the national weather predicted 36-degrees in central FL -balth} No more than anecdotal evidence, to be sure. But now, that evidence has been supplanted by hard scientific fact. All four major global temperature tracking outlets (Hadley, NASA's GISS, UAH, RSS) have released updated data. All show that over the past year, global temperatures have dropped precipitously. The total amount of cooling ranges from 0.65C up to 0.75C -- a value large enough to wipe out most of the warming recorded over the past 100 years. All in one year's time. For all four sources, it's the single fastest temperature change ever recorded, either up or down."<< How's it go... oh yea: What goes up, must come down.

'So Obscene' - Rollins Band

Well, that fender flare in yer pic ain't metal, von, and in pic #1 & #3... metal just does not break apart jagged like that. Are those pics of a fender flare? The other pics (#2, #5) do look like metal cracking, but it's so inconceivable to me that automotive sheetmetal would do this (keep in mind my frame of experience: trucks and vehicles older than 1965), I guess I am having trouble believing even toyota could build something so sh!tty... that I was borderline defending it...

I'm with ocn: that's plastic, not sheetmetal. Aren't there 'fenderside' tacomas- they'd only be plastic. Doesn't excuse it in the least- &#036;h&#33;ty plastics and bad engineering as far as securing it are still at work here. This shouldn't happen in 20 years, nevermind 3.