ocnblu

Shoot I never heard of Buick or Olds 400s, only Pontiac. Pontiac's was the most famous GM 400 CI V8 for good reason, imo. And a Chevy big block 400? I must be having a brain fart, I never heard of it. I know 396s were bored out to 402 later on, but I never heard of a 400 rat. I think there was a Buick 401 and an Olds 403, the latter of which was slipped into some Can Ams and Trans Ams...

This is unconscionable. Back in the day we had very lively sketching and photoshopping contests. And that was BP (before prizes).

Oh it was my regular home location. I'm still home. I didn't think to ask and neither of the two credit card chicks offered to overnight me some cards.

Yeahbut not Rube Goldberg torque. Real torque.

Camino, shield your eyes! A late model, silver and gray El Camino in beautiful condition... except the entire front end was destroyed in what appeared to be a recent head-on collision. In a local tow yard. Followed a rumbly, beautifully preserved '77 Electra coupe, silver/silver landau/red velour and Buick Road Wheels into the Lowe's parking lot today. Talked to the guy as he got out. He seemed amazed I knew what it was, said he loves the way it rides, that his daily driver is a VW Golf and he's getting "too old for small cars". Dude was like 32 and cute. Also... the "black" Studebaker sedan I posted about up above is actually dark green... sawr it again today in the same spot in the sunshine (its driveway).

Black '63-'64 Studebaker sedan in great shape. "Frosted Glass" (I think that's the colour) '12 Focus hatch.

Cool to see those, KF.

Happy Birthday, I hope Kermit the bad-ass Kamaro is treating you well.

Stopped off at the gym this morning. Was on treadmill for 25 minutes, felt good, got off and went in for a shower. Found my lock busted on the locker, twisted so I couldn't open it. Got an employee to cut the lock the rest of the way off, but the latch on the locker was also broken. After using a screwdriver to open the busted latch, I went through my stuff to find all my cash missing from my wallet, but everything else intact. The shift manager called the local police. In the meantime, I had to call and cancel my two credit cards and, to be safe, order a new bank card. After the officer interviewed me, two other customers walked over and told me of similar events happening to them in recent weeks at that gym. So now I am starting a week's vacation unable to use my credit card account, and out about $18 that I had in my wallet. Not to mention being plenty pissed off and feeling violated.

ocn's vacation, day 1: So, one or two of you may recall a thread on my first service visit with my Fiesta. It was to get a second key programmed for the car. That key was incorrectly cut by someone at Ford, so round two was necessary. This morning was round two. I got to the dealership at 7:50 for my 8:00 appointment for something that should take about 3 minutes. At about 8:40 I started doing the bad customer thing... I started walking around outside the shop, looking for my car. Found it. Tech was in his bay, at a desk on a laptop, looking up info on how to do the programming. He was stumped. I walked in and introduced myself as the car owner. He said the key worked, but he could not get the transmitter to program. He had a procedure printed out, laying on my front seat. Part of the procedure was to lock the doors electrically using the control inside the car. He said he couldn't do that because my car must not have a lock button. I calmly pointed out to this Ford Certified Technician the lock button in the center of my dash. After complaining briefly about Ford "always moving things", he tried again a few times. He pulled the key apart to check the battery inside. Battery good. I jumped in the car, read the 3 paragraphs of instructions he had printed, and promptly programmed my own transmitter on the first try. The Ford Certified Technician thanked me and I was on my way. Fiesta's been out now for what, almost a year? And I'm sure the new Focus has similar electronics. Should I trust them to change my oil?

It's rolling around to my original hire date (July 3rd), and I still have 2 weeks vacation time coming that I have to use before then, or I lose it, per written company policy. So I took next week and the last week of the month, which means I'll be off one week, work two, then off another in June. I earned this time, and I think I need it, although there are no big plans. Yesterday, my boss pulls me aside and says if I "want" to, he can make arrangements with the BIG boss that I can take one week off, then for the second week, I can take the vacation pay but come to work, or I can push the second week off past my hire date, which means I will have 4 weeks vacation coming after my hire date (it will be starting my 6th year with the company, normally we get 3 weeks plus the spillover week.) I love what I do, but everybody needs to recharge once in a while. Would you give up earned time off if your boss "sort of" asked you to? Or would you take your time away from the grind to rest and relax?

All these quotes... and one word sticks in my head after reading them all... "coupe". Are you serious?

infant

Nah, I'm looking at sales figures. Patriot, even though it has all but gone invisible in Jeep ads, still outsells the Compass, which has been crammed into every Jeep advertisement, it seems, this year. No sarcasm. These tiny twins can be compared and used as an example of what Jeep buyers are looking for.

So glad Chrysler's huge, hilarious marketing effort for the revamped Compass has been a waste... when it comes to tiny, faux Jeeps, Patriot is still the favorite. Good for you, Jeep buyers... no wool over your eyes!

Further proof GM knows these things are going to remain a small part of the market... a small, money-losing part of the market. If hybrids had been so hot, they'd have pulled out all the stops to get one out there.

Just paid $3.55.

There's a new thread for the month, Roger. Called "SUN SPOTS", it's our June Car Spotters thingy.

The sun's gettin' high in the sky, time to break out all the summer toys. Post your interesting vehicle spots here, between sips from your umbrella drink of course.

Extremism from any corner is a detriment.

stoolpigeons

$3.56, from what I've seen.

bay

It's been scorching in my part of the world the last few days, and the trend is due to continue for the next few. Is anyone else hangin' low? *whew*

sauna