A Horse With No Name

Exactly. The CTS, the Bu, the Astra, the Aura, the Solstice, the Sky...GM is on a roll here, keep it coming GM. Oh, yeah, and off topic but every day brings us closer to the Camaro! Chris

My pics of what I no longer see on the road: 1. Buick Riviera. Yeah, I know I'm the small car fan here at C&G but for some reason I've always lusted after the Riv. Almost bought a silver 65 with dual 4v carbs when I bought the 66 Mustang fastback. Used to be several running around my old home town. I also miss the later 60's design and the sweet 70's boat tail design. Actually, I seldom see the sleek 90's version on the road either. 2. Olds Cutlass Vista Cruiser. When we were talking about the what year thing I thought about how many of these there were running around when I was a kid. Still lust after them, and if I could have GM build me anything from the past brand new, this just might be the car. 3. Flame me for this one, but 70's (second gen) Camaro's. They used to cover high school parking lots in the midwest with the same intensity that snow covers Vermont. You still see them, but they are no longer common. My son Joel is into 70's and 80's rock, and someday I'm going to rent/borrow/steal a second gen Camaro with T- tops and cruise around all night with him listening to Led Zepplin and AC/DC...with a little Boston and Rolling Stones thrown in for good measure. 4. Buick full size convertibles. My grandfather owned a 69 (yellow with a black top and a white interior) and the woman he dated after my grandmother died drove a 70 (gold with blakc top and gold interior). I have a lot of boyhood memories of these cars and I miss seeing them. What do you all miss the most? Chris

I learned this when my younger son was born a premie and was touch and go in the ICU. My wife put his photo up in the house with the logo "Carpe Diem" which means sieze the day. Wish I could have known your grandmother, PCS. Chris

We haven't had a good car movie since Bullit, IMHO. The Dukes of Hazzard movies were almost passable, although there was a strait to video "prequil" that was utterly the worst movie ever made. At least they (warner bros/dukes) are destroying Chargers instead of Camaros. But the F&F movies are like the low point of American culture. Chris

There is a difference between small and micro. Micro makes a lot of sense if you live in Rome or Paris. It is a piss poor choice to drive on a rural interstate across say, Illinois. Chris

The best years of my life have been the 23 since I met my wife... Chris

An assload of trees would help... Chris

While I agree it will sell on style alone it would still be nice to be able to get the car with a stick. Chris

I couldn't agree more, Camino. Chris

...just waiting for the second Clinton presidency for this to happen... Chris

My buddy Steve was looking at a very clean low mi CTS-V in the low 20,000 range, sweet car... Chris

Actually I really like the Astra. For what it is, and its price, it is hard to beat. Don't faint, I actually like it much better than the Civic and the Mazda 3. Car handles well and is very well built. To me it is really worth the premium over a Cobalt. Chris

We have an old Nash like that driving around the South end of Columbus. Cool car, keep us posted. Chris

Random thoughts... Actually, I've had a few good deals with car salespeople, but what burns my ass is that you get an 18 year old kid with no product info and about no people skills when you walk into most dealerships around here. It also burns my ass when people lie about things. My sister bought a Honda minivan and was shown a clean carfax by the Honda dealer. Told by the dealer that it had never been in an accident. After they had it six months they found issues relating to a previous accident. The people that fixed it...the body shop at the Honda dealership they bought it at. I do kind of like the Saturn approach, more of an educational approach. Worst dealer treatment I've gotten-being asked "what the hell are you doing here?" as a customer greeting in a local dealership. (not kidding about this one. I was wearing work boots and and work clothes, but they were clean.) When I told them I wanted to look at a car for my wife they replied that they were too busy to deal with me. Other funny thing happened when we went to our local MINI dealer to look at a MINI. I asked the salesperson if he owned one, salesperson said "NO" Sales person then told my wife that his own MINI had been so poor in reliability that his wife had never forgiven him for buying it. Way to sell my wife on a car, eh. My local Chevrolet dealer "lost" my work truck for three days and couldn't find it until I drove over there and showed them where it was sitting on the lot. (right in front of the showroom). They then lost the key, and I had to drive over yet again with another key when they locked my keys in the truck and they couldn't get them out. As I was leaving, I got a hard sell from a salesman about how I really needed to buy a new truck and how I really needed to trust their first rate serivce department. (not making this one up) That being said, there are only 2-3 dealers here in the Columbus Metro Area that I would do business with, and none of them are GM dealers. Every time I think about buying a GM car I get halfway serious about driving to Toronto to buy it from CARBIZ or going to the GM dealership near my parents in North Carolina. Yes, my local GM dealerships are that bad. I enjoy going to look at cars with my family, and I am honest with the salesman when I am "not in the market." Sometimes I just like to browse. However, between the hard sell buy a car today and the being treated rudely I almost dread walking into a dealer showroom anymore. Sorry about the rambling rant. Chris

...don't know if he does but it is on my short list. As soon as I can pay off the Scion I plan on buying another car. Joel had his appendix out, which was $23,000+, even with decent insurance it was $4500 out of pocket for me. Christina (youngest daughter) Ear surgery, 45 minutes in the operating room was almost ten grand, about $2,000 out of pocket for me. Elizabeth, oldest (17) just had her wisdom teeth yanked, about $1500 out of pocket even with dental insurance. Pretty much shot me out of the water for a new car this spring, hopefully fall. Chris

Ditto. You know it's what you really want. Chris

Just be glad the Duramax has decent fuel economy for a fullsize truck. I've often thought it would be cool to build a medium sized truck like a Colorado/Canyon with a diesel. Chris

+1 Chris

Was higher than that coming home from work tonight. Chris

...wasn't saying it couldn't happen, was saying that it would be a sad day in mudville if it did happen. IIRC Oldsmobile had one hell of a heritage also. Chris

Which is why we have people like enzl, CARBIZ, and the like...to be the C&G reality police. Seriously, that is what I like about this place. Once someone starts with an irrational line of BS, someone politely calls them on the carpet. Chris

Sweet. Chris

Seriously, CARBIZ is right. When this thing goes to the Euro expect oil to hit $150 a barrel. Reality sucks but it never stops being reality. Chris

They aren't selling cars...no wonder with the price of fuel. Viper, 300C, Charger, the discontinued Magnum, the Jeep Wrangler, the Grand Cherokee, the trucks..all cool vehicles...with an average fuel economy of about 14 mpg if one is lucky. Chrysler needs to replace the lackluster Caliber/Sebring/Avenger/et all with world class product. Until they do they will keep loosing customers and market share. They need to bring in the guys that did the Intrepid/Concorde and give them free reign in the design studio... Chris