SAmadei

How many foglamps does a car need nowadays? Otherwise, cool.

Reportedly, the engine compartments of the sedan and coupe are completely different sized, and its unlikely the V8 will ever get installed by the factory. I was disappointed by that, as well.

Wow... that battery box in the trunk really cramps its space. If that's going in every Buick, they need to put it somewhere else... it virtually negates the pass-through... and that tiny trunk needs all the help it can get.

There are lots of art cars built every year, they certainly don't look the same, but they usually don't look attractive, either. The Europeans and Asians can make some awful cars, style-wise. Even Detroit's worst (Aztek?, 2nd gen Sebring?) don't come close. Don't worry... there are plenty of not-so-great-styled '50-60s cars... early '60s Mopars, for example. Oh course, I imagine the Juke, even with its styling handicap, will still just blend in with the rest of the appliances.

Nah... the rear of the car has too much "wierd French car" influence. I like the headlights and grill... I don't care for the lights on the hood.

Yeah, I knew about those... but that gets too pricy... and I get too carried away with detail on models I build myself. When I was looking at hundreds of dollars to build a fully detailed, lit, customized model, I figured I was better off working at 1:1. I didn't know MPC/AMT made the promos, as most of their normal kits are not curbsides. I got my hopes up when I found out that they made Geo promos. I thought there may be a few oddballs out there that didn't require building. Lack of affordable model choice is what drove me out of the hobby. Granted, there is a lot of model choice out there if you look (and spend), but its gotten to the point where many of the kits are worth too much unbuilt to make one actually want to put it together.

Well, I roughly know what to expect with promos, but I don't generally look at the promos for the newer cars, so I wasn't sure if the hoods opened or if the details were crisp. You wouldn't happen to have a '90s Caprice wagon or a late '90s Bonneville, would you? ;-) Maybe a '81 Bonneville coupe? Again, had my economy been better, I would have bought both of your lots... I'm not that into Geo Storms, but I like oddball stuff.

LOL, I'm glad you got the Pontiac sign, GMTG. Had I been in better shape financially, I would have bid that into the stratosphere. Once I'm back on more solid ground, I may have to make you some outrageous offers on it later. ;-) I have quite a few 1/24 and 1/25 scale Pontiacs that need a dealership sign to park at. ;-) Automobiaman, you had some other interesting auctions going on. Those Camaro promos where pretty interesting... I was surprised the Geo ones didn't even get a single bid... they will be hard to find one day (like the '60s fullsize Pontiac promos are today). Do you sell a lot of promos? You should probably let us know when you do. Also, I'd take photos of at least one promo, as I was very curious what level of detail they would be at.

...and the amount of money shaped beans required is related to the number of hours required to make the repair according to the mechanic's labor guidebook. Harder to work on... more expensive for mechanic to work on. Several people commented that in respect to the luxury foreign makes, if you can't afford them new, you can't afford them used. Well, some Cadillacs will find themselves in a similar position, due to labor. There is a reason I see perfectly nice late model Cadillacs in the junkyard on a regular basis. Those gnomes wanted too much money to perform regular repairs. Besides, this is BV we're talking about. It was my understanding he did most of his own work,

As I said, "or so he claimed". He likely got a crazy price at an auto parts place or dealer, not having our internet resources at hand. I only witnessed the holy hell he was having trying to get it out. Granted, with the right tools, pushing the engine over is no big deal, but in the junkyard, you're kinda limited... sort of like when your starter dies in the Staples parking lot and you decide to swap it right there.

Sorry, I call BS. Holden is/was building 4-5 different bodystyles in a market with virtually just as much government regulation and similar economics as NA with only about 100K annual sales as its target for the entire range. So GM knows how to do this IN HOUSE! And BTW, you like to accuse us all of living in the past, but I think when most of us here lament the 1972 Malibu... we are not expecting GM to start stamping out 1972 Malibus again. We are expecting GM to give us a Holden-like Zeta lineup with a touch of nostalgic styling. Something that took GM about 9 months to do ('04 GTO) after 8 years of demand and GM has done it half-heartedly 3 times (assuming they actually sell PPVs). GM, just grow some goddamn balls and do it right. The shareholders they F'd over in the BK? Or the new shareholders they will screw over with the "business as usual" that new GM has fallen back on? Dude, you are giving the GM brass WAY too much credit. If GM brass was doing its job, GM would still have 48% market and wouldn't have had a BK. You don't see Hyundais' C-level people falling on their swords during this last downswing, like some of GM's did. GM has perpetually made the mistake by letting perfectly good platforms sell in other countries for 15 years... and when brought here for VERY short periods, they didn't bother to market them, due to the "Not Made Here" management mentality. Have you worked closely with C-level people that answer to shareholders? I have. Several batches of them. They don't do any "work"... they BS, schmooze and pull numbers out of their asses all day. Some succeed if they have the right stolen idea at the right time... otherwise, its like a lottery. No better than the Monday morning quarterback here. And just like Dan "I'm not as car guy" Atkerson, most of the CEO's I've worked with couldn't tell you crap about how their products actually worked. All these C-level personal are supposed to surround themselves with people who can handle the details. There are management and design methodologies that remove errors from the system, but only if you have full buy-in from the top level. Which, apparently, GM doesn't have... when you consider that the BK auditors reported the GM had no idea where money was coming from or going in the years leading up to the BK. GM brasses' problems summed up in one name: Susan Docherty.

Agreed. I think GM has caused itself a major diservice by now offering, essentially, 5 levels of sedan... Sonic, Cruze, Malibu, Impala and Caprice PPV. Obviously, you guys know how I feel about the PPV and where it should have gone to differentiate it from Chevy... I also feel that GM need to slash the number of Chevy sedan sizes to 2 or 3 max. When I go to a Burger King, you don't have 5 sizes of drink or fries. You have 3. I don't think people go into the dealership with a ruler and buy a 177" car or a 184" car. Unless they live in a major city, people buy as much car as they can, as 4" of car is not seriously affecting MPG. If Chevy wants a car between the Cruze and Impala... make people but a fully loaded Cruze or a stripped down Impala... that way you have less sheetmetal to design and crash test. And you get to brag that your Cruze AND Impala sold better than have the Cruze, Malibu and Impala all sell so-so. GM seems want to have Chevy have an answer for everything the competition has... and that is just muddied Chevys purpose. GM used to have the answer for this... but you have to share the good stuff with those other brands. Agreed.

I used to feel the same way... however... After watching the trouble some dudes were having getting a Northstar starter out of an Eldo in a pick-a-part, I'm not such I'd want to rock a late model Caddy so much. The starter was outrageous priced new (or so he claimed) and I could see no way of getting it out of the car without moving the engine about 3-4 inches. Even in the Pick-a-part where he could destroy whatever needed to be destroyed, they went home empty handed and had to come back with bigger prybars and hammers. Overall, the Northstars looked like real PITAs to work on.

Which, IIRC, can be rectified with some W-body and F-body parts you can upgrade to monster F-body rotor/caliper combos.

Not necessarily. I've always been amazed how soft of a touch the junkyard guys can have forklifting cars around, usually with little to no damage. Sure, I've seen lots of damage caused by forklifts, but usually on purpose (like opening locked trunks and broken hood releases. In any case, the forks are fairly wide, 4-6", to spread out the contact and there are covers available for the forks that will protect the undercarriages. A buddy of mine uses his forklift to pick up his late model Audi all the time... puts a couple 2x6s on the forks... no damage. And honestly, in an emergency situation, its probably the only way to move the cars quickly. If they get slightly damaged, that's what insurance is for... the owner took the risk by driving out in a blizzard.

Not necessarily. In fact, I imagine anyone trying to get out would have upset the car and gotten injured in the process. I'd say that the car was hit/pushed/whatever after the driver had gotten out of the car. Here's a bit more about it... Here.

Its harder to get the wagon top reattached once you sawszall it off. Actually, sometimes I wish they made a kit for turning a wagon top into a Bed Cap, of sorts. ;-)

If you're considering a Bonneville, you may want to go with a H-body one over the G-body. I'm not hearing good things about the G-body holding up too well.... premature rust issues, water leaks. Just general issue with things not being build right from the get go. I have considered adding a G-body Bonneville to the fleet, and I just like the older H-body ergonomics better. Obviously, if you want something based on age, this won't fly... or if you want the series III supercharged or the V8. If you do go with the G-body Bonne, check it out VERY closely.

They may have been boring when 90% of the cars on the roads were relatively stylish late '70s models... but now in a sea of Meh, the '78-'83 Malibus look downright cool... and even the Celebrity is starting to look pretty good. Of course, the Celebrity was available as a coupe and wagon... and that makes it more desirable to me than most of the current lineup (Camaro, Caprice PPV, Corvette and Impala excepted).

Yes, yes. Get off your high horse. I was limited to 116 mph... on the mostly empty major freeway... in the middle of the night. It was a fairly unique situation... but I had to act to avoid the situation getting tremendously worse. It took the police about 30 minutes to show up. It took me 4. The rubber on the car was rated at 130. Under the circumstance, I would have probably not gone over 125... but for anyone who ever done it, banging off the speed limiter is a fairly disruptive when you are trying to drive as smooth and controlled as possible. Oh, and since my sin is up there with mass homicide, I find it awfully strange how many people over the years have asked me about "Why does my car stop accelerating?".. two of them are senior citizens, LOL! Must be Grand Ma Night at NJ Motorsports Park. Back to the 300, I would think a premium car would come with H-rated rubber and a H-rated speed limiter. Whereas we disagree on the sanity of hitting the 118 limiter, by 130, I am in agreement that there is few places one can even approach that on public roads outside of Montana.

Last time I hit the speed limiter, during an emergency, I had some a$$hole actually pass me, so people DO drive that fast. 118 mph is one of the speed rating break points, so they set it there because the car came from the factory with T-rated tires. Unfortunately, without a PCM editor, you can't undo that easily, regardless of what high rated tires you later put on. Personally, I'd like to see the limiter put a little higher, or make it easier to remove. I don't condone driving 120mph on public roads, but during an emergency it happens... and its not the best time to find out the speed limiter is there.

Venting is an important requirement, and is on virtually every other container of dangerous liquid or gas that might explode. Old style fuel containers had vents, but they also had little caps to close the vents... these caps could pop off to let out pressure. Is it a perfect system? Probably not. So back to our scenerio... since you can't stop stupid, you have 6 year old pouring gas on a fire... somehow the flames make its way to the inside of the gas container. Whats worse... 1) On the old vented gas container, flames shoot briefly out the spout and vent like a flamethrower... luckily, there is not much fuel and in a few seconds it burns out before the plastic melts completely... or 2) constricted or blocked vent and smaller spout prevent gas container from venting quickly building pressure and the container ruptures in a fireball of igniting gasoline, setting everything within 10 feet on fire. You like the new style gas container? Great... it should have some type of vent that bleeds off pressure before the container ruptures... but the CARB people seem to have insisted against it. As far as gasoline vapors go... sure, they aren't good for the environment. But if you think that these gas containers are even making a dent in the environmental situation, I have a bridge to sell you. Before gasoline got used in the automobile, ALL gasoline used to be purposely vented to the atmosphere. It was a waste product, dumped into ponds and streams to evaporate. Then we had 80 years of vented gas tanks and containers. Now its a big push to stop gasoline vapors when it will take decades before every lawnmower, weedwacker, chainsaw, etc. is unvented somehow. Meanwhile, big industry continues to buy pollution credits so they can pollute as always... and when they can't... they'll move more of the pollution to the third world... where it will go into the same air and water we eventually use.

Wait a second? You have a beef (pun intended) with the food supply infrastructure? You terrorist, are you planning on poisoning us or destroying our ability to package food? ;-) Actually, I think tin is too expensive to waste nowadays. Anyway, this is also not passing my smell test. I think we have some confused cops trying to scare/intimidate kids. I don't think we'll see the politicians elevate their images to protected status until at least the next decade.

Big time. Plus, GM has to quit it with this "release it outside of NA for two years to get the bugs out", as it will just lead to tired, dated cars. You could do that in 1960, when most people in NA never saw a photo of a European or Asian car... but not in the era of the Internet. Once the Cruze was shown in Europe, the clock was ticking and the competition was getting ready for it in NA. Meanwhile, people in NA likely held off buying a Cobalt, hurting sales. Not only that, but how does Europe or Asian feel about getting to beta-testing cars for two years? If the Cruze had been full of faults, that reputation would have quickly filtered to NA via the Internet, as well.

I wanted to quickly tell the story behind my noticing that Gino's was back... Well, one of the big things about Gino's was that they held the KFC territory for the mid-Atlantic. So for lots of people, Gino's=KFC, which wasn't really the case, but in any case Gino's was definitely associated with Fried Chicken. In 1982, Marriott, who owned Gino's started to sell locations (mostly to KFC, who were now free to open locations in the area) and convert other locations into Roy Rogers. Some hung on longer than others, but for the most part, Gino's has been gone for 28 years or so. However, that don't remove it from the mind. My mother was going to visit a friend a few days ago who apparently was craving fried chicken... and out of the blue asked her to pick up something from Gino's or something. Of course, that led to a discussion about how long its been since Gino's has been gone, and some web searching which led to the discovery that Gino's was now back. Makes me wonder if another childhood fixture, Two Guys, will make a comeback... ;-) I don't think so.