A Horse With No Name

I was more interested in learning about what type of people you guys were attracted to...rather than just making it a thread about nekkid people. Akso, I was being a little bit sarcastic because it's not in the rated R forum. Chris

If it's solid...dammit man...I think I'd be $1800 poorer. So I'm assuming the interior gets redone in Pink in a Barbie theme when you finish the resto... Chris

GTD gets the 170 HP diesel...which we won't get. However, the Golf TDI does get the sport suspension from the GTI, so we are good! Chris

...and closing the door on a GTI VS. closing the door on a Camry is why my next non GM car will probably be a GTI or a TDI...if I can talk myself out of a Cooper S first. Thinking a gently used Astra three door with a five speed might well be my next GM car. Close the door on an Astra and close it on a Camry. Hell, close it on a nu Bu and close it on a Camry. And it's not like I'm a Total Toyota H8R from the Toyota H8R's club. My wife drives a first gen xB and I know a lot of local Scion and Toyota guys. I just prefer reality to fiction...and the reality is Toyota is pretty much wildly over rated. Okay...as a TDI VW fan...maybe I enjoy H8ing on the Prius a little bit. Admire the Prisu fuel efficiency...but it isn't a drivers car like the TDI Golf or a whole bunch of other cars. Chris

Actually Mercedees Benz is one of the longest lasting vehicles on the road...properly maintained they will run forever. Friend of a friend runs a garage that is specialty mostly older Benzes...lots of cars from the 80's still rolling along like it was still the Reagan era... ...and don't tell the VW reliability thing to any of my VW TDI friends...the ones with 300,000+ and 400,000 plus miles on them. Were you in Ohio right now I could take you to a bunch of high miles VW TDI's that still run great. To these guys, 150,000 miles is just getting broken in. Chris

Actually I think Toyota is going to loose customers as a result of its getting so deadly boring. My middle daughter goes to high school at a school for the arts, and the principal, Paula is a very artistic, creative, thoughtful woman. She drives one of those edgy last generation Celicas. (Paula the principal, not my daughter) she has 160,000+ on the Celica and is going to be looking for another car. She's not a car person but she has a brain and a creative side. She's really turned off to everything Toyota is building right now, and will probably be looking outside of Toyota for her next car. Even though the Celica has run flawlessly for 160,000 miles. Chris

I think we are seeing a huge shift in the automotive market...and that the GMW 1 series isn't well matched for the curent market. We have one that's part of our local autocross group, and a few more that come out to play once in awhile. Kind of a neat little car. And remember, I'm grading on a curve. I'm not saying I would rather own it than a 65 GTO or a 57 Olds, I'm saying it's better than a Cube, Crosstour, Soul, Camry, Avalon, Sebring, et al. Chris

I dropped by a local Toyota dealer to check out the new Venzia or whatever the hell it is when I was in North Carolina. It felt as craptastic in the details as a Corolla. When you think about it, driving a Toyota is sort of like sleeping with a fat woman who's really not into the whole sex thing. Chris

Depends on the era of the car, I think. The older GM stuff isn't as well built as some of the "New GM" era stuff. Chris

...and sweet car, Rocket! Chris

Utter automotive lust material for me, my friend. LOVE that bodystyle Olds. One of the best looking GM styles ever, IMHO. Chris

They need small cars as part of the puzzle. Cruze will help, but not enough. Chris

....one last post...and then I'll shut up. Why should we trail the Brazilians of all people in biofuels and alternative energy? Nothing against Brazillians, they are great people...but aren't Americans supposed to be leaders in this world? Never thought we'd given up our need/seeming natural calling to be leaders. Chris

Ummm...I have a wife and three daughters...and I'm kind of in the protective male mode. ASs I said before, we do electrical service for several body shops, so I see these cars being fixed. I've also spent more than my fair share of time in salvage yards. MUCH prefer most of the GM and Euro stuff when it comes to safety. Agree with your brother, caddy cruiser. And actually the car that suprises me is the Cobalt. I've seen a bunch of them hit hard...and they don't have a very good safety rating...but all of the ones I've seen in body shops and salvage yards seem to have protected the passengers/Driver VERY well. Chris

I bank with Chase and am not happy with them. I'll never do another loan or credit card through them. Chris

Fair enough, Camino.

Amen brother. Think of how sweet an LS1 TA would be, tuned to run on ethanol...with a turbo on that nice high octane ethanol. Or how nice it would be not to have the Saudi's own ten percent of our nation. OR how nice it would be to drive a one ton crew cab dually truck with no guilt about future generations, money going overseas, or blood for oil. Chris

Yes it is good news. But we need to not put off other sources of energy. The denial people have been in denial since the early 1970's, it's time to do something. Chris

Like I said, in 5 years cars like the Camaro and CTS-V may well be out of production. I would bet that Arizona will be really interesting in about seven to ten years. LOTS of nearly new or late model airplaines parked out in the desert, never to fly again. I remember Trains magazine from back in the mid 1950's, from when railroads went from steam locomotives to diesel. LOTS of nearly new steam locomotives sitting lined up on rail spurs, waiting for the scrap man. The same thing happened at the end of the Ocean Liner age...sister ship of the Titanic, the Olympic, tied up in a scrapyard alongside the Mauritainia, the sister ship of the Lusitania. Same thing will happen to our air fleets. The 787 really will be the dream liner, because most of the fleet of them will be put to sleep soon after they are flying. Kind of sad, really when you think about it. Trinacriabob was talking about how beautiful the 747 is. Bringing my daughter home from high school past Rickenbacker air field...747 Cargo plane is sitting there and she is like "wow...that is one huge plane. And it's beautiful!" If we don't do something soon, regfootball is going to be road testing rickshaws before his kid is out of high school. My two cents, Chris

Balthazar>>> That answers my next question as to why the 1-series, 6-series, Z4, X3 and X6 are still in production over @ BMW !<<<<< I actually like the 1 series....but I will never own one. Neat little car, actually. The Z4 has become a bloated pig...and the X3 and X6 production needs to be recycled into something more useful and better looking, like beer cans. Chris

Like I said...I hate banks. Hopefully yours gets whats due them. Is your loan through US Bank? Had a terrible experience with them. Chris

...since the Buick is dormant that air compressor needs to pump SOMETHING up, eh balthazar? Chris

I can see a bunch of 'blu produced porn movies with "automotive" themes. "Hammer and Dolly" is the sequel. First movie should be cast in the south during the glory days of stock car racing and be called "Bumping and Grinding"

It did during the parent teacher conference, that's for sure. Chris

That would explain a lot about our culture. Chris