balthazar

Look, I know it's uber cool and all, but occasionally I do like to swap out my sig. Ummm, I'm not finding the box that allows that anymore- where is it?

Audis are too simplistic and plain design-wise- that's not going to pull anyone in. Boring. Pontiac had a hammerlock on #3 in U.S. sales in the '60s because they had their own engineering department and they operated autonomously. The guys involved were car men & engineers, and the innovation poured forth; far more than at the supposed innovation Division, Olds. But you're just not going to see that again. Then again, Cadillac got it's Engineering Department back..... one can hope. The receipe is clear, PMD just needs the ingredients and the leeway. A dated Aussie transitional nose-job is not the answer (and I like the GTO).

You didn't ask me but here's my take anyway. The article is far too vague & meandering to coherently respond to. Flint, as usual, throws disharmonious facts against the wall: some stick, some fall flat on the floor, and some are 'picked up' by readers in agreement, who then blanket-endorse the entire piece. He damns GM & Ford (Chrysler, possibly because it's German, is conspicuously absent from his darts) for not having the same-speed transmissions and number of new product (and here he inflates toyota's count by mentioning vehicles not out in the immediate future), yet he states GM & Ford shouldn't try to match them, because they "can't". >>"Poor GM and Ford still haven't figured out how to build a winning minivan."<< And toyota still hasn't figured out how to build a winning truck... and they had the class leaders to ape all along. Flint is as relevent & sensible as a '58 toyota. He's a revisionist and a factual cherry-picker. His drool cup runneth over and his diaper is loaded.

OH NO YOU DON'T! Not the party; go have fun, but you said you'd post who had what wrong in #58, and unless I missed it meanwhile being on this blasted timewaster of a site every day, you haven't done that yet. C'mon now, first things first....

Well, a plate in the bumper is a lot cleaner of a design in most cases... not that BMW is necessarily going towards cleaner designs lately....

Lots of superficial people in the U.S.. Only toyotas among my family & friends has been: my father-in-law had a corolla and my aunt has owned 2 camrys to date. Oh, and a friend who moved out west about 14 years ago currently has an old camry wagon. Most of my family & friends own domestic (a lot of trucks, tho), and I live in the wealthiest state in the nation. They are a well-grounded bunch overall, however; they seem less likely to fall prey to empty admonishments such as 'you make too much money to drive domestic' -- I would laugh out loud in the face of whomever said that to me.

The Efijy is stunning. THIS is what you should be getting for maybach/bentley/ferrari money, not the junk they put out. I don't believe it would sell well enough to offset the required investment; I can't get behind the business case for that, but I would love to see it in limited production anyway.

Well, you've stated nothing but facts as I see it. There is a generation based largely on snobbery, but it transends that- I've seen numerous retirees in g35s, for example- that is even more puzzling. There is a subtle social undertone of self-loathing in America; nothing built here is ever the best- there's some sort of 'mystique' about foreign lands and their goods. Sure, sometimes the item is better, but more often it's just different and many times it's outright inferior. But it has that damned mystique ('I picked them up in Italy' - says nothing factually but everything image-wise.) To some. This goes back way farther than the present era. I have a working theory (based on research) that it can be traced back to colonial days when we as a nation were peasant farmers from 'civilized' Europe. I've read accounts of discrimination and insult within the early automotive industry alone, where American-based manufacturers and individuals were 'not capable' of matching European standards/ practices/ innovation. Nevermind that it was the American industry that shaped the rest of the world's auto industries. Read accounts of Cadilac's '08 DeWar Trophy win for interchangable parts- the world's amazement was equally based on the feat as well as the origin of the feat. We have adopted the snobbery of other countries, and re-directed it back upon ourselves. Regarding today, I am again forced to turn & point towards the media, where the tidal wave of imagery that wretched excess is an aspirational life goal is crushing & incessant. It's not common to find people immune to suggestion, capable to thinking for themselves.... couple this with the above 'foreign is automatically better' Pavlovian predisposition, and seeing a 75-yr old WWII veteran driving a rough-riding, 140-mph japanese sports sedan is best described as a sad wonder.

Sixty8: One-offs are always a possibility, but I've never heard tell and I strongly doubt it. LaS used V-8s and I-8s in regular production. Capriceman: there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of defunct automakers from the first third of the industry. I've been inserting those that have a span of years.... there's more that didn't even get beyond initial organization...

Zimmerman Manufacturing Company, Auburn, IN, 1912-1915

NOS- care to take a whack at putting an SS-rear cove on the quad-round-lamps Malibu rear??

No V-12 LaSalles, Sixty8; only 8s. Wisconsin Motor Truck Works, Baraboo WI, 1912-1926

I'm not drooling over the 'bu's taillights. We should all be used to them by now, that illogical amorphous shape has been on a number of cars: old 3-series, toyota (avalon??), plus at least one other vehicle. I think I agree with reg here- the quad round lamps look a bit 'lost' in the rear fascia- a bit cheaper. Now.... add at least some sort of cove panel, ala the SS concept and the quad rounds would be perfect. Would also like to see thin chrome rings around the quads- would pick up the border of the license plate nicely.

Fascinating: here in Jersey (and there's a toyota dealer a mile from me) I have only seen about 3 on the road, and I am fairly certain 1 was on a demo drive from the dealer, as it was getting on the highway right downroad from the place. Thankfully, they've not taken off here (yet)- they are not at all pleasant to look at.

That's the honda ad gimmick, right?

In this case I am sure the intent was that most other cars on the road look alike (aka: as do jelly beans), while the Solstice is very unique & distinctive.I for one would never choose the Sky over the Solstice; relatively, it's too conventional.

Actually, it doesn't. Howie Long is the celeb, and the other guy I assume is from Chevrolet, I haven't caught the opening to know. The 2 together are natural & believable, IMO.

"truck styling" seems to work well for BMW & mercedes.....

Yeah- that infomercial (I think it's 2-hrs long) has been running for about a month, and on different (satellite) channels. It's not at all stiff or forced; nicely paced & watchable. I've seen portions of it a few times- watching maybe 20-minutes at a stretch (I am not a big TV watcher). The program does a good job in showing up the innovations & features of the Silverado- there's a whole lot more to these trucks than everything else I've seen on them (not brochures, tho) has told me. I wonder if the program is available on DVD or anything thru Chevrolet...

WTF is daimler thinking??

My bad: then will there be nothing between the 'BRX/SRX" and the Escalade?- that's an awful big size jump.

Well this is confusing. Which is it; an SUV or a sedan or a coupe? Oh wait, I get it; because they say so, it's all three. How much longer before manufacturers call vehicles with sunroofs "convertibles"?? If this dime-store magic trick is attracting even 1 new customer, I'll eat the lug nuts off my COE. Seems an utter frivolity in the lineup- yet another SUV??? Shouldn't bmw focus on their problem areas first??

Oneida Motor Truck Company, Green Bay WI, 1917-1930.

No: evok is talking about his own personal SRX. The Escalade is no more a 'tarted up Tahoe' than a Tahoe is a decontented Escalade. Completely different sheetmetal & interiors and different engines makes for 2 different vehicles in my book.

Grass-Premier, Sauk City WI, 1923-1937