ocnblu

Don't you have a sister?

I've had the A/C on in the Fiesta for about 10 minutes total since I've had the car. I almost always ride with the windows down. I guess I'm old-skool when it comes to A/C.

Whoa, look at that green interior... make him an offer!

I need to check for any noise ordinance, good idear. And no, I have not recently spoken to them about their ongoing noise problem.

I went to bed at like 9 last night. I have the windows open in the house. Around 10:25 I am awakened by a freaking basketball being dribbled and smacked against a backboard... next-door neighbors are standing outside with a bunch of friends talking, and two young girls (about 8 and 10) are playing with this basketball in the dark (one of them repeatedly remarks that she can't see the ball!). WTF. This went on for at least a half hour. And the adults are oblivious to the problem. I live on a cul-de-sac, and none of the rest of us here ever makes noise, let alone at inappropriate hours of the night. I really wish I could use a Jedi mind trick to get them to move out of here... they've been this way since they moved in like 5 years ago. But he's spent a lot of money on improving his house... so I don't think they're going anywhere anytime soon. What would you do? If I put an A/C unit in, I can shut the window which will filter out some of the noise, but it would also drive my electric bill up, and I haven't needed the A/C otherwise (so far I am holding out). I hate feeling like a prisoner in my own home, and my neighborhood is decent, except for (my luck) the house next door.

The Earth has not fully reclaimed that Dodge Shadow yet? Good Lord son.

Whoa, you waxed that thing to within an inch of its life. Good luck finding a 3.5L HO for it. I have a perfectly good mower in my shed, all apart, because I could not get the starter coil spring to hold together in an attempt to replace the broken starter rope. I gave up, went to Sears and bought a new mower. This happened like 3 years ago.

Yes, apparently it is very "selective" in its appeal. Suddenly I feel like Spinal Tap. I guess one had to be there, as it were.

I disagree that the MKS and MKT (stupid alphanumerics lead to unending confusion) are too big. I think they are just styled wrong. The MKS is there for people who want a tinier Lincoln (and remember there is supposed to be a micro-Lincoln on the way too, instead of looking like an electric shaver in the front, it will closely resemble a nose hair trimmer). One of Lincoln's troubles is, they have no consistent design heritage to cling to like BMW, Benz and Cadillac. They went for baroque in the 70's, and those cues just will not translate as well as Cadillac's fins and eggcrate grille, BMW's kidneys and kink, or Benz's ribbed tails and massive shield grille shape. Like hyperV6 says way too often, "let's face it", Lincoln's design pinnacle was the 1961 Continental. Some of the cues from that car showed themselves in the first-gen MKX front, and the MKT's straight beltline with uptick. But so much of the rest of the MKT is wrong. That sloped rear end and high, narrow taillight band do not help. The band is a worthy Lincoln cue, but it should have had some more definition, maybe some sort of drop along the bottom line toward the outer ends or something. Of course, the MKX and MKZ too closely resemble their Ford counterparts in profile and general shape. People are not blind, generally. So the more unique Lincolns are blah and the clones belie a laziness that just will not cut it for a luxury brand. Plus the powertrains are mostly identical to a Ford, something that has hobbled Lincoln, imo, for many decades. What to do to fix Lincoln? I would have the designers study the '61 Continental, bring some of that beautiful, pure cleanliness, broad horizontals and chrome-capped, razor-sharp beltline into the future without copying it to the point that it becomes a New Beetle. And I'd stick them on a RWD/AWD platform out of Australia (if it can be brought up to true luxury status with NVH and ride quality). Then I'd design an engine family that starts with a basic Ford architecture, but adds displacement, horsepower, quietness and smoothness.

Northstar is dead. The highest-performing Cadillac has a smallblock under the hood. Timeless. The best engine ever.

Booooo on the mandatory rear spoiler.

The car buff magazines tried to compare the Genesis favorably to the Camaro and Mustang and everybody laughed. Don't get me wrong... I love RWD on the right car, but the looks of the Genesis coupe (especially the front end, for me) just don't cut the mustard.

So yup I was behind a mighty tall, spotless black, '02-ish Silverado crew cab with a finned aluminum differential cover and crooked dual exhaust pipes out the back. As we approached an intersection, the road divided into two lanes at the stop light. I went into the left lane, pulled up next to the truck and yelled out to the driver "hey, your left one is hanging a little low." He said "Wut?", kinda nodded toward the back of the truck and said "Oh, thanks." At which point I drove off. Last week I ran up and told the girl in front of me while we were at a red light that she had no brake lights on her Elantra... but it wasn't as fun for some reason.

Current Impreza has framed glass, just checked. Which current Subaru has frameless? It was cool but I think it's been gone a while. I imagine it's harder to keep the door glass sealed properly with a frameless design, because adjustments might be necessary from time to time. Still a nifty feature though.

I really like the tin-top Roadmaster with tailpipe extensions, but if he doesn't like the car now, being forced to drive it will only be bad for the car, as it will likely get beat. The green Bonneville appears to be in decent shape, maybe he'll go look at it with you before he gives his verdict. The black Regal, imo, is the best choice out of all the ads. If it's been taken care of, it should be golden, plus, it is not much of a fogeymobile.

Makes me think Chevrolet is actively giving all those small, affordable coupe customers DIRECTLY to Hyundai. Not to mention Ford and the late, lamented Pontiac as well (there are plenty of G5s around here that will eventually need replaced). I see new Elantras EVERYWHERE. I was afraid Hyundai would try to pass off the ugly Veloster as their Elantra coupe, but this bit of info is encouraging for folks who want something simple and sporty enough without giving up practicality.

It's kinda cool though, when the door is open and the window's down. Reminds us old timers of hardtops.

That Caprice is the new mack daddy of patrol vehicles. I remember when the new-for-'91 Caprice went into police service. The chintzy plastic wheel covers (same as the base model civilian version) would not stay on the rim at high speeds, necessitating a return to the circa 1990-style stainless pie plates, and even small center caps on the steelies. At least this new one appears to have bolted-on plastic covers.

I like these with the chrome package. My green '09 had it.

Nice vehicle, Leo. Thanks for showing us.

Congratulations, tmp.

I only have one word for you people on this subject: LIGHT DUTY DIESEL. Likely more fuel efficient than this tack-on hybrid system, and more reliable (certainly more simple and inexpensive to repair in the long haul).

Would love to see a chop of this with a darkened, slightly larger Buick grille and Verano-style ventiports on the hood. This would make a sweet little Skyhawk... or even Verano GTC, if we can't have an appropriate heritage name.

A good thread, thanks for the Four Hundred eleven. I had forgotten about the Skylark GS400 (even though technically it was not), and never knew Olds had a 400 CI (I always heard it the way Drew did, 4bbl, 4 speed, dual exhaust, at least until the awesome 4 cylinder, 4 valves per cylinder, dual cam N-body 4-4-2)