A Horse With No Name

Just put that dark green on a 1950's cadillac, a mid 60's Mustang Fastback, or a first gen Jag E type and we are good. Best green ever for the car was Verdero Green, on the 68 GTO and Firebird. We had neighbors growing up that had that color on a Bonneville...beautiful car.

My friends Burt and Kathy have a white first gen, that shares a garage with a 40,000 mile pristine first gen MR2. David, the librarian at the library where my 18 year old daughter tutors underprivilaged children, drives a white second gen. It may be a regional thing, white Prius cars are common here in the midwest. Chris

I'd say go for the Pontiac. I've found a few F bodies I like, but they always seem to come automatic. I would prefer a non T-Top car, was out of town and went to look at a T top Firebird during a rainstorm...it was perhaps the one car on the planet that would make a mid sixites Mustang convertible seem watertight. If you must have T tops, you could always make arangements to park the car upside down, of course. Seriously, I don't like the loss in ridgidity with a t-top car. Chris

This is one of the biggest marketing problems for the domestics. Certain demographic groups just won't be caught dead in a domestic... From what I've seen...Hispanics tend to buy Asian cars, young and upwardly mobile gen Y types like you said, people on the coasts, elderly people who got fet up with Detroit in the 70's and 80's... Who am I missing? Chris

Oh, and +1 for the Buick Park Avenue and the Reatta. Chris

Actually, I like the Celebrity Eurosport the best of that era GM cars...they were a cleaner, simpler design that just seemd to flow and be right for the era. Chris

The original OMNI wasn't a bad car for its era...I owned one, once...and would still like a GLH. While were talking about FWD Mopars, I'd like one of the Shelby FWD cars, pref. a two door, in silver thank you. Those were neat little cars. Chris

Your right about the location thing. Here in Columbus, most of the domestics have dealerships in rural areas or urban, working class/poor neighborhoods, while the suburbs are dominated by (mostly Japanese) import stores. Hadn't thought of that before, but it makes a lot of sense. Chris

Wow, glad to see you are O.K..... +1 for the idea of a hitch...a buddy had one like that on a Jeep and managed to puncture a few radiators... Chris

Agree, love the color... Chris

Like she said...wow... Chris

I thought you and Jessi Chan were toing to get the F out of Craphole Lawrence, mAssachusetts? Chris

Like I said, keep us posted. Looking forward to drooling over whatever you get to replace the G5. And if your ever in Columbus, bring it (your new baby) out to the SCCA or Buckeye Miata Club autocross. We need to show the local Honda boys all the tail-light they can stand... chris

I insure two cars, full coverage with towing, rental car, glass breakage, etc, $250 deductable, no deductable for glass breakage, new car replacement, etc... For $104 per month. Yay to being married, having kids, and living in rural Ohio. Chris

http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/showflat.p.../fpart/all/vc/1 Enjoy! Chris

I've lost interest in it... Chris

Actually all of the big thee supported the Cali Crusher laws IIRC. Get ready, I'm sure Clunker laws will be here soon. Chris

Besides...with a cheap car...living in Michigan...two words....ICE RACING!!!! Chris

Actually I think for the first time in about 20 years we have the product to go after the import buyers. Chris

Actually, you could own a second car cheaply... Chris

There are great church people as well as terrible church people. I just find the evidence for God lacking, and therefore am not theistic. Chris

This is why I've always tried to own multiple cars. Chris

What I have been thinking... Level the playing field by making wages the same across the board. You could make all carmakers pay their workers the same wage, say $20 or so per hour, with the same bennies. That way you get the best people building cars, and carmakers are forced to focus on design rather than low cost to sell cars. Also, you could Unionize all of the plants in the US, domestic or foreign. Make everyone fund retirement, and overfund the retirement funds, like the railroads do. That way the legacy costs are spread out over everyone, and if say Honda or Mazda leave US production, their retirees are still covered. I would unionize the plants in Mexico also. Instead of making the wages the same $20 or whatever, invest a certain amount in the community in Mexico where the vehicles are being built. This will make the investment a "long term" investment in the community, and will provide education, housing etc for workers. Kind of the old "company town" ethic. If you unionized all of the plants and wages were set, then you could redefine the unions role as educational and safety oriented. Union dues could be used to educate line workers, and could also be used to set up scholarship funds for promising designers and engeneers. Actually, this would work better if you unionized white collar workers also. Given that you would have a large amount of $ to fund education, we would then train more workers to design cars, and this would help both the domestics and the imports. Honda has a huge design center here in Ohio, the Nissan 350Z was designed partly in California, IIRC the Miata was designed partly in California, etc. Having a "slush fund" to pay for education would keep the highest value added jobs here in the USA. Out of this educational effort I would force the UAW and the carmakers to have programs at the elementary, middle school, high school, and college level. I would give them a lot of liberty to design the programs, but I would want them to find the best minds young and develop them so that we could have the best possible technology and design for our automobiles. Something as simple as say the "Pinewood Derby" would work for elementary kids. The Pinewood derby is a Cub Scout activity where the kids build cars out of wood and let gravity race them down a ramp. For middle school students we need to identify people talented in art, math, and science and steer them towards an automotive career. For high school students we need to find the best and brightest and give them scholarships to automotive oriented colleges. I would also start a national level automotive museum, administrated by the Smithsonian, to preserve and present our automotive heritage. This museum would have two parts, one focusing on our heritage and another full of "hands on" exibits. Here in Columbus we have COSI, a science museum where kids can say learn about computers by taking one apart. This national level/Smithsonian museum should be a joint effort of the UAW and all of the carmakers, imported and domestic. This would put a positive face on the automotive industry, which of late has had a rather negative view from Joe and Jane sixpack. Cars built overseas could have a tarrif or tax put on them, and then those collected funds could be used to fund retirement, research, etc. The Tarrif should be used to level the playing field also...if it takes say 100 hours to build a particular car, and they are paying the overseas worker the equal of say $14 per hour to build the car, then $600 needs to be put in as a tarrif/tax to keep things balanced. I would also tax gas, and use the money collected for energy research. Think of a "Manhatten Project" level effort, as has been proposed by several people. This would create more jobs here and eventually get us off of foreign oil. Also, I think drilling here is a good idea, but we need to continue to work on alternative fuels. Biofuels from alage have great potential, as do several other biofuels. I would have a rational national energy policy that focused on conservation...home, industry, commercial, government, etc. We started this in the 70's and kind of gave up on it. Methinks it is an idea whose time has come again. I would also change the US emissions standards to match those of Europe, and encourage diesel cars. This would be infinitely more simple than the whole hybrid thing, and everything from the 300 to the PT Cruiser to the Astra to the Cadillac CTS is already sold as a diesel in Europe anyway, so we are using existing technology. I would also make everyone take continuing education classes that offer behind the wheel training in emergency situations for ALL drivers. Also, make everyone take a road test when ther lic. comes up for renewal. This seems to work for over the road truck drivers...it might make driving here more safe. Also, make penalties tougher for drunk driving, etc. Sorry if this is incoherent, I have an ear infection and am on four medications including codine for pain. But this is what I would do. Chris

How much work does the Jag need? Chris

IMHO, we can't get rid of our current administration fast enough and get actual adults running our country. I think Pelosi, Obama, and company get it and will give the North American auto industry the help it needs to survive. Sorry to be political, but I really don't think Bush gives a rats ass if the carmakers die. Chris