balthazar

I've seen a few of these commercials and they are rather dumb. Wife agrees. "My Fast likes to drive with the windows down" is of course grammatically incorrrect, which makes one who may be aware of such trivialties even casually ponder it. Can work both ways. The little plastic creature is cool looking- if you're 12, but it's not imagined; it's really sitting there in the back seat. I know I'm being too literal but it's still pretty weird. The other with the dominatrix and the babbling 'scientist' where they destroy a riced honda is also weird, as it spends more camera time with the honda & the characters than the VW it is supposed to be advertising. VW has had some very leading edge and iconic advertising in the past, but 'Driver's Wanted' is one of the worst taglines of all time- it's a hand-written 'help wanted' sign in the front door of a pizza parlour. Awful.

Powell

Egads! that's gruesome!! After seeing pics of JDM vehicles over the years and being convinced they were much too hideous to ever be imported here... here they come. It's like a nightmare you cannot wake up from. Makes the echo look like an enzo (wait- that doesn't work since the enzo is also horrific...)

Menominee

I don't think "failed" is warranted in the least. Never heard that term applied to the NSX and they sell less than 200 per year. And no- that's no intentional; if the demand was more honda would screw more together. Followed a sweet medium blue Goat today- the car continues to grow on me. Someone rip over here in theirs and give me a ride, willya?

Those of you that are looking for a morgage- try like hell to get a bi-weekly. When we got ours the deal was: (for example) instead of paying $500 every month, you pay $250 every 2 weeks. Starts paying against the principal immediately instead of halfway thru the 2nd year as in a monthly morgage. Drops a 30-yr to 22-yrs right off the bat. Prepay the next month's principal at the same time and you can cut that in half (we did: 11 years & no morgage left). We saved $47K on $90K borrowed- you cannot hope to realize a larger savings with any other obstacle in your life.

This is more of an 'insider' BS statement for me: I talked to a guy who stated his '59 Buick had factory prototype dual quads. Very rare, only 4,200 units installed. Problem is, Buick didn't offer dual quads until '64 and BMD was NOT working on them 5 years earlier. That, and 4200 units is slightly outside the definition of 'prototype'. In general, I overheard two women talking and one said she had an acura. The other asked 'why an acura?' and the first replied that they were built to go 300,000 miles.

Dymaxion

Strenuous Randolph Teledyne Union V-Con White Xenia Yellow Zeligson

Jeffery Quad

No: by far it has been the rear that has received pointed criticism- hope for their sake bmw worked that over thoroughly. The pig nostril grilles have long ago gone stale- it'd be nice to see something fresh for a change.

By omission, do you agree that homogenizing displacements is pointless and 'demeaning'? The Northstar is unquestionably capable of more HP at it's present displacement. I would much rather the output be increased at the present CI before unneccessarily boring & stroking.

And toyota and vw have to conquer the fact that a lot of Lucerne buyers would never consider buying a toyota (points to own father). In fact toyota actually has in that the avalon is snidely referred to by a number of journalists and toyota spokespersons as a 'japanese Buick'. But toyta has repeatedly failed to match the appeal, quality & value of the LeSabre, and the Lucerne has improved upon those and many other traits remarkably. toyota's overall image is one of geriatrics; look no farther than scion for evidence of that- the badge-jobs are across the room in the dealership and should be "toyotas" but a new name was vital for any success due to the negative association as 'your father's toyota' (last numbers I saw showed scion cannabalizing sales off toyota) . VW's reputation is a car for service department groupies- people in this consumer demographic are not interested in a known trouble-prone car.

That's just about GD perfect. Give it a front porch and never let a drop of paint touch it. If there's a barn around back with room for at least 5 vehicles, I need to move. I'm already grooming myself to be the neighborhood weirdo, but people around here just can't appreciate art.BTW- doesn't the TV talk to you? :confused:

That would be between $15 and $20M in central NJ. I'm working right now on a $4M house and it's nothing. If we're really good and take our meds, the nurses might let us play checkers in the ward Common Room tomorrow. Dibs on black!

A bit too Georgian in design for my tastes, but does indeed look nice. Secretly I would love to live in a house that looks borderline abandoned. InsulBrick would be a big plus. F**k convention- it bores me.

The 'natural ecosystem' in this millenium is endless housing & strip malls.

Of course, I actually knew that. But how curious to refer to the NA sales arm of the corporation rather than the official corporate name. Or did a succession take place I missed media coverage of?

No- actually Buick tested nothing and when the air bags go off, giant, foot-long, razor-sharp shards of "hard, brittle, cheap" plastic (possibly laced with a chemical byproduct of production with similar affects as those of a lesser nerve agent) will embed themselves in the occupant's face, neck and upper torso, rendering them dead before they contact the airbag. Doesn't matter; Buick buyers are all "dying off" anyway.

Providing 'better use of space' meanwhile providing less overall space is seldom looked upon favorably by those outside of the engineering profession.

The point was not one against more power, but against matching the import's displacements specifically merely to be erroneously considered "competitive". Cadillac 4.4L V8 469HP.

>>'Mike McGrath, chairman of the Acura dealer council, said at the National Automobile Dealers Association convention here. "Maybe Acura doesn't have the brand image" to sell a vehicle at that price.'<< Ouch- not a particularly reasurring admission. Not sure knocking a few grand off is going to do much- it's the value moreso than the actual price that's depressing sales IMO. What is "AHM"?

Good grief that interior is awful, enzora- what's it out of?? I wasn't talking about obvious useage of plant-based materials such as wood interior trim. Ford developed a myriad of soy-based plastics beginning in the '40s- akin to this news piece.

With Siruis, you can sign up for a monthly, yearly or 2-year plan. Naturally, they knock a bit off for longer sign-ups. In a way I agree- paying for radio still sounds so foreign. I guess this is where we'd point to pay TV as an example tho....

Be that as it may, there is no valid argument for "matching the imports" in displacement.