Camino LS6

Why I am still a GM fan. I wonder because even some of GMs notably excellent recent efforts don't appeal to me personally. Examples: CTS The Lambdas Malibu It's not that I think the competition is better, I simply don't care for these cars. Then I remember: The 900s The Kappas Zeta Corvette Still, I'm not salivating over anything which I could go buy tomorrow. So, as my sig still says, I'm still waiting.

I'm glad about a couple of things on this. Namely that the car is being so well received in so many circles, and that I am not the target audience for it. I say that second part because, while the car is easily more appealing than the competition and the profile view is extremely attractive, I can't make myself like the front or rear styling. There. I admitted it.

Toyota

I hate to say it but,

I don't think the Fairmont-based truck was Ford built. I believe it was an outside conversion.

Looks like crap to me.

Yuck.

Hmm. Let me give you a little input here. - Generally, when I buy an older car, I go through the whole thing before I put it into daily duty. I check all of the major systems and replace marginal items ahead of the game. I usually replace all ignition parts, check all suspension and brake components and replace all vital fluids. - Very often, on carbureted cars, I will rebuild or replace the carb to avoid some of the issues you are dealing with. - On a car of this era, the carbs were especially difficult to get just right due to a great complexity of emissions-related devices and hoses. Because of that, I would likely just toss the stock carb and go with an Edelbrock were it my car. Remember, not all carbs are created equal. - Another issue with cars of this vintage is that they have TONS of vaccuum hoses running everywhere. As the cars age, leaks can happen all over the engine compartment - causing major diveability issues. I would urge you to replace any marginal hose, if not all of them. Just be careful to use one of equal or greater strength in each location so that they don't close when suction is present in the line. - Other vaccuum-related items can also fail in this way. The advance on the distributer comes to mind as well as the HVAC system - both use vaccuum. My Chevelle restoration is just an extreme version of my approach to old car prep when I buy one. I have never been disappointed with a car I have done this to. Your Cutlass is good enough to deserve this treatment and should reward you with decent reliabilty and performance if you give it what it needs.

You are playing my tune, Hyper! I agree completely. Funding NASA fully is high on my list of things the federal government should be doing. In addition to the gains in technology, it gives us the frontier that humans seem to require in order to continue prgressing in a positive way. Done properly, the psychological boost sould be as valuable as the tech we would gain. Then maybe we could ease up on tearing ourselves apart for a while.

I can't comment any farther on the comment by Northstar as I am constrained by C&G rules - so we need to leave that alone. I can comment on the GTO program, however. I'd say that Northstar and I likely know quite a bit more about those changes made to the Monaro to bring it to the US than most here do. - Holden took a very basic platform from Opel and changed everything they could to create the Commodore line (including the Monaro). The Catera was a great example of not doing the platform right, while Commodore was the polar opposite. That's why the GTO is a great car (setting aside the success/failure debate a moment) and the Catera is remembered as the POS it was. - The cost of the GTO conversion was also lessened byr the car's export (in LHD form) to other markets (GM Middle east). That fact spreads the single greatest expense (conversion to LHD) over a larger number of units. This is in addition to the fact that the car sold on every continent except Antarctica in one form or another. - Holden operates on a much leaner budget than say, GMNA for example. The entire cost of creating the GTO from the Monaro cost less than the front fascia refresh on the '98-02 Firebirds. - No, the car did not meet its sales goal of 18k/year. But it was a decent seller in the face of some very tough market conditions, not the least of which was the initial dealer misconduct. - The 2004-2006 GTO outperforms any other GTO ever made in all objective ways. - The car easily had the best fit/finish/interior of any GM car available at its debut. - The car proved that sourcing cars from Australia could be done. - It gave Pontiac a reason to exist for a time (admittedly an all too short time) I could go into detail on all of this, but I think that you get the point. History will remember the 2004-2006 GTO as a watershed moment in the move by GM to globalize its business, leveraging the strengths of its facilities and talent around the world. This effort continues to this day, and it began with the GTO.

That will be tough to do since Opel doesn't make anything I'd want. They certainly don't have anything to compare to Holden's obvious talent with desireable cars. :AH-HA_wink:

Interesting notion.

The one critical determining aspect of the GTO program that you don't get is that the car was already approved based upon the business case for the Holden Monaro alone - automatically making every GTO a bonus sale. GM certainly made some mistakes concerning the way the program was handled (primarily bringing it here so late in the life-cycle of the platform), but to call the car a failure is absurd. GM failed the GTO more than the other way around. The declaration made by Northstar, while unsubtle, does not cross the boundaries into the level of threat in my view. I would call it a warning. Bannings only happen after a discussion in the mod forum. Not evenhanded? Please. I regularly defend members I honestly can't stand personally in our official proceedings. Those who complain to you are frankly wasting their time, they would do better e-mailing one of the staff to address any concerns they may have. I regularly recieve sincere messages of thanks for handling troubles here in fair fashion - so excuse my discounting of your assessment. You would likely be surprised to see exactly what positions I take in the official discussions amongst the staff. I'm afraid that I can't tell you what those are as that is a banable offense - even for me. A PM is the best way to address any concerns you or anyone else may have regarding the way the site is run - an open forum is not an appropriate place to discuss issues like this.

Wow. Where to start? 1) The author of the article called the GTO a failure, Lutz just admitted to the mistakes GM made handling the program. He did not call the car a failure. 2) No one has been banned as of this point, in fact we rarely ban anyone. 3) Oldsmoboi is not a member of the staff. 4) The site is not being ruined by anyone (although some members may be a net minus for the site's well-being). 5)The "critical voices" as you call them are free to return and post their thoughts as none of them have been banned. They have simply had little to say in the face of so much recent good news for GM - they thrive in the negative environment we are seeing come to an end. 6) Even mods are free to express their views here, so what's the complaint? 7) Correcting misinformation is something all of us should be glad that someone like Northstar or Oldsmoboi are willing to take the time to do.

The pics turned out to be crap - so we'll have to wait until the car gets cleaned-up and take some good ones. The two I took aren't worth posting.

About time someone said all of this.

GTO was not a failure - period. GM made a profit on every single one. And it is the best sport coupe they have ever offered. I'm tired of hearing this BS about GTO - it simply isn't true.

Why do these people insist on making me hate my own country? Raising CAFE won't do a damn thing at this point. Where are the proposals to encourage alternative fuel and infrastructure development? The problem with asking folks to sacrifice is that too many of us just don't believe there is much left worth sacrificing for. And that is a problem these politicians won't even acknowledge, let alone face. They are all bastards.

Ugh. What a whirlwind! Only had time to take 2 pics which I'll post later. Yeah, somehow I tried to strangle myself to death with my own sheets. Sleep deprivation does bad things to me it seems. Oh well, all's well that ends well. BatmanGTO has a fine new ride! :AH-HA_wink:

The what?

Kids!

I really like it, but the cost must have been obscene.

He hesitated - I didn't. :AH-HA_wink:

I'm guessing that we will be on I-70, but I haven't even looked at the route myself.