z28luvr01

As long as I can get water to flow through a garden hose, it's warm enough for me to wash the car. So, yeah, I went out there and washed it today of course. Since I did the wax/vacuum/armor-all/windows last week, I just did a regular wash, plus I had to take down all the X-mas stuff and get the water out of the pool cover. Tomorrow, the dog gets a bath.

I do have some emotional attachment to Olds, with my father (himself an Olds mechanic for a few years) owning a '00 Intrigue, having two G-body Cutlasses spend time in our driveway (and my continued lust for a 87-88 Cutlass Supreme Classic), and almost sealing the deal on a new '01 Alero for myself a few years back. I was sad as anything to hear they were going away, especially given that 1) The Oldsmobiles of the time were some of the greatest cars in the brand's history, and definitely the best, most sophsticated, nicest looking cars in all of GM at the time and 2) Saturn seemed like such an easy target for the axe, with an aging S-series and an L series that sucked. Perhaps it was the right decision for the GM management at the time, but had GM's current management structure been in place during that time period, Olds would still be here. The bright spot for Olds is: it went down fighting. Compare Olds' death to Plymouth's or Eagle's, and you'll understand what I mean.

D'oh! Looks like you can't get the manual (or the 4cyl for that matter) with the crew cab in any trim level. Figures, because every time I price the truck out, it's with the extended cab.

How about an example for those of us that don't watch soap operas?

Cort, You can get a pretty well equipped Colorado with the I5 and the manual. Last time I priced one out on chevy.com, nothing stopped me from loading the truck to the gills while still keeping the manual. I think our good buddy ocnblu had one equipped just like that. It's probably not in any dealer stock, though. You're better off going on www.gmbuypower.com and locating one yourself, then going to that dealership and saying, "I want this one!". Of course, there's always the factory order option. Sad to say, but salesman prey on women. They automatically assume that women don't know that much about cars and can be talked into taking something they don't want. I think your sister is a victim of this, rather than Chevy's inability to provide her with what she wants.

I hate this - we see all this nonsense come out every time the weather gets abnormally warm. Here's a novel thought - it's cyclical, and nothing anyone says is going to do anything about it. IIRC, the past few winters have been abnormally COLD and snowy. The jet stream and El Nino have a lot more to do with weather patterns than anything we do on our own.

So far Im pretty happy using my IPAQ with a 4GB SD card. I could easily fit 1,000 songs on it if not for a few half-hour long epics by Dream Theater. Right now I have 315 songs on it and it's about a third of the way full. Filling it takes some time since the card for some reason doesn't work in my card reader. and I have to transfer the MP3s via ActiveSync. It's a trade off, but it's nice having one portable device that can play music, surf the internet, remind you of your next meeting, create Word documents, and keep you from getting lost.

I dunno Dave, I have some doubts as well. The chrome trim is suspicious. From some searching, it looks like some T-types had much of the chrome blacked out except for the bumpers and the borders of the grille, while other T-types looked just like base Regals. This one has some black-out trim and some chrome trim, which means one of two things: either this car is a base Regal that is halfway through being converted to a Grand National, or it is a T-type/GN that was in an accident and the previous owner replaced the trim with base Regal trim. You might want to get the VIN on this car along with the RPO information, which on the G-bodies I think is located on a sticker on the inside of the trunk. If the RPO codes match up to ones belonging to a T-type or GN, then go for it and put the correct trim on it. Otherwise, it's a base Regal and possibly a rolling Pandora's box.

Ya know - tt may have been the particular In-n-Out I went to, but given the amount of time I waited for my burger, I really wasn't all that thrilled with it. It only tasted slightly better than your average McD's hamburger. I'd rate Jack-in-the-Box over In-n-Out.

It's ugly as sin, but it's at least functional on the Av. It's a lesser evil than touching up several chips after an off-road excursion. Lots of hardcore Av owners are pretty pissed about the lack of a body hardware option on the GMT900 Av.

Ive had some veggie burgers that taste great (almost meat-like), and I've had others that tasted like compacted grass clippings.

I can see why this segment is dying - noone even tries to make a good looking minivan anymore.

There's a TSB out for the peeling finish. I believe they've revised the door pulls to have a more durable finish. By all means take it to the dealer.

Well, there's no way that front fascia is the real deal, not with that fit and finish. The headlights look as though they're protruding out from the bumper (i.e. "tacked on") , and the gap between the hood and bumper is pretty big.

Without knowing how the GTO fender is made, that looks like it could be a fairly easy one for a PDR specialist to get out. Try this: jack the car up, and take the tire off and inner fender out. See if you can get your finger to touch the ding from behind. If you can, it should be child's play for an experienced PDR guy.

Nothing from the Asian manufacturers. Nothing from Europe, save for Porsche and Ferrari. No DCX. No Ford cars. No full-sized SUVs from anyone From all that's left, exterior styling is pretty much the biggest dealbreaker. It doesn't have to be expressive, overstated, or extroverted, but it has to be pleasing to me at all angles. If the car in question is a sedan, it has very little room for error in my book. Next comes the powertrain. Given that I've weeded out the Koreans, DCX, and Ford cars, I'm guaranteed to get a reliable engine that doesn't sound like I'm killing it every time I step on the gas. For my daily driver I probably won't always go for the hot motor, instead opting for the one that gives the best compromise of performance and gas mileage given that I mostly do stop and go driving. Also, the car should have a minimum level of utility. If it can't fit a bike inside with therear seat folded down (or can't support a hitch-mounted bike rack), then no sale. Finally, for my next car a stick is a must, since I don't feel like learning how to drive a stick on a 435hp big block Corvette. I'll wait till I've lived with a car with a stick for a while before I decide to make it a dealbreaker.

Doesn't look too tough - think of it as a 24,375 piece jigsaw puzzle. Did you do the bodywork, or the previous owner?

If you install it yourself, you'll only have to pay if they find that the problem you're bringing the car in for was directly caused by the installation. For peace of mine let the dealer install it, and it definitely won't void anything. The only bad thing is that the people who install those things usually are outsourced, and if something goes wrong turnaround time isn't as fast because you have to wait for someone from that company to show up. If she ends up getting a GM, see if you can talk her into that new deluxe remote starter. For all the NAV nuts - I have a PDA-based navigation system, and the map is as close to useless as can be. I'd never look at it if I didn't hear the voice telling me a turn was imminent. So I'd agree with those who say that OnStar turn by turn is more than sufficient, and that a NAV screen offers little in the way of substance. back on topic - I'm becoming more and more impressed by the new Bu with every new bit of info from Fly. I can't wait to see it in person at NYIAS.

Most of the time I eat turkey burgers. And I don't make a habit of going to fast food restaurants because their prices have gone up to the point where I can get a bigger, better, helathier burger for almost the same price at a diner or sit-down restaurant. When I make my own I sometimes - here's a shocker - sprinkle some garlic and/or onion powder in my meat, roll it up like a meatball to distribute the flavore, then flatten it before I grill it. I'm still getting the hang of this George Foreman grill that I've been using since the BBQ ran out of gas for the winter, so they sometimes come out a tad too well done. In any case, a wheat bun straight from the toaster, two slices of deli-sourced yellow American, and a slice of turkey bacon, and that's my burger-gasm.

Right - especially since the old numbers were more than attainable in the real world, at least on my car. It's more semantics than anything else, but I can see this introducing a perception problem that won't go away until everyone rates their engines by the new standards.

We're celebrating Christmas! Here's the short story: My mom spent a two-and-a-half weeks in the hospital recovering from a bout of diabetic ketoacidosis. She spent ten days on a respirator and woke up Christmas morning. She just came home this morning. She's still rather weak, so we helped wrap the gifts and will be opening them later tonight or tomorrow sometime.

You usually don't see them like this anymore: 1983 Buick Regal Like just about everyone else here, I have a soft spot for the G-body coupes of the 80s - especially the Cutlass and Regal. We owned a 1984 Cutlass Calais, a 1985 Cutlass Supreme, a 1981 Regal, and a 1986 GP. If I didn't live in salt-n-sand country I'd pick this thing up right now.

I would think that an O2 sensor would trip the Check Engine light if it was a problem. I'd check the basics first - make sure the plugs look good and are gapped properly, and make sure the wires seat correctly on the plugs. Also, do a compression test on all 6 cylinders and make sure one cylinder isn't significantly lower than the others.

Nice news there. I like the idea of not tying one engine to a particular trim level. I've always thought that was stupid. Some people actually want a barebones V6 or a fully loaded 4cyl. Doing it this way means there's no need to sacrifice anything or buy anything you don't want. :thunbsup: Oh, and the car is amazing inside and out. It's by far the best looking American mid-sizer, and it really makes the new Camry and Altima look disgusting.

The 73-87 full-sizers are awesome, from a time when trucks didn't have to be anything other than trucks. My father has a 1983 Silverado with the 350 V8 that he put TBI and A/C in with factory GM components. We've used it to pull down trees and gazebos. It almost got a big block transplant when we had a travel trailer and it actually broke a sweat pulling it through the mountains. We ended up selling the trailer, so now the big block sits in our garage.