CARBIZ

Have YOU seen the real estate mags in Toronto lately? $250k will buy you a closet downtown. There is nothing decent within the city boundaries in the way of a house for under $300k. The way I see it, Toronto is resting on its reputation from 25 years ago and that is still driving real estate prices. Well, that and the fact that about 40% of the 300k immigrants to Canada every year end up in the Toronto area. Toronto keeps calling itself 'world class,' but having grown up here and travelled a lot, all I see are world class headaches without any of the real amenities. The city is broke. It would rather build palaces for the 'homeless' than highways and sewers. There are more and more neighborhoods you wouldn't want to be in after dark. The streets are dirty. Beggars are everywhere. You need an SUV to navigate potholes (and speed bumps) on the streets. We have a park system that is dying, literally. We have London traffic, with New York prices and Swedish taxation. We have an Instanbul subway system with Seoul highways and Moscow weather. Come to think of it, Toronto is world class!

The Ramada on Vermont. Not a great place. Awful 'free' breakfast, but we didn't stay in the room much. Just showered, and left. The price was right, the location was good. I'm glad the dollar is at par now. Gas was cheap - that was kinda nice. The Mustang cost less to scoot around in than my Optra back home - a lot more fun, too!

....ah, don't get too slap happy just yet. Japan Inc. has just finished the main course in North America and Europe will probably be desert.

Hey, I'd trade that over a 70 year old woman, lifting one plate (10lbs), then scribbling in her note pad, adjusting her water bottle, doing 5 reps and then wiping down the machine! I'm thinking: hey, lady - stay home and lift some dishes in the kitchen - you'd get a better workout! And those 'personal trainers.' Yack, yack, yack. Good Grief: don't you realize that the lonely old cow is just sizing you up? Let me see: 23 year old university student in a black T-shirt and shorts, showing a 90 year old with major cottage cheese thighs how to lift 10 lbs! I'm thinking: ya need an hour a day of walking (if you can!) before you even think of lifting weights. These clubs should be ashamed of themselves fleecing these old bags for their 2 week or 4 week or whatever packages. I've seen the same woman off and on for 4 years and she could still have her own zip code! I guess these old folks need somewhere to hang out, other than the food court at the local mall. And my gym isn't a dump, either. The trouble is, there is a 52 storey luxury apartment building on it, and I suspect they have some kind of a deal with the tenants, who must get reduced memberships or something. Frankly, I hate my gym, but I have a 32" waist at 6'2" and 46 years old - that doesn't come free.

I belong to a gym where I am the youngest person by 25 years! I pay $45 a month and go first thing in the morning, after the downtown office crowd has left. Just me and the geriatrics! There are better gyms around, but this one has free parking. Yeah, I know: drive to the gym that is only 6 blocks away, but those 10 minutes each way that I would walk is time away from walking my dog. I get plenty of time walking him. There are better, more expensive gyms around (one charges $70 a month and is a palace), but it really boils down to the parking. I got at least 3 times a week (gotta keep buff - Mother Nature has no use for us once we hit 30!). I'd love to have a Class of '80 Reunion! All those highschool jocks with their beer bellies and 4 screaming brats!

Okay, all you SoCal posters, I've taken up the challenge. I rented a Mustang convertible (wow!) in Vegas, drove to the Hoover Dam (well, I was a tourist!), then sped (where 80 mph is slow - God love Americans!) along highway 15 into L.A. to West Hollywood (no smart remarks, girls) where I spent 4 fabulous days cruising the streets of L.A. MY CONCLUSION: The more I travel around the world, the more I realize how much Toronto sucks. Expecting the worst, I found navigating the freeways and highways of L.A. to be a snap. Even a 7 a.m. truck roll-over on the eastbound hwy 10 could not stop our return trek to Vegas on Wednesday morning. Why? Because despite L.A.'s bad reputation of congested highways there are two things that Los Angeles has that Toronto does not: 1) alternate highways 2) 6 and 8 lane arterial alternate routes Even the PCH is 10 lanes in some parts! Everywhere I drove - Santa Monica Blvd, Wilshire Blvd, all through Long Beach, I found traffic a breeze. It is all relative, of course. I drove along Mulholland Drive, having a great time until some a-hole in a Tahoe (!) was tailgating me. I was doing the speed limit, jerk! I pulled over as soon as I could to let him pass, and he still gave me the finger. I also took route 2 up the mountain, passing the Mt Wilson observatory and loved the switchbacks until it got dark. That road is a blast! New asphalt. 45 mph speed limit? Are they kidding? If that road was in Ontario, we'd be lucky to get a 45 km/hr speed limit on it!Then I turned around and came back down - with the top up because at 6,000 ft it was cold! And anyone who thinks they can f$#k with America oughta take a drive through the berths and rail yards of Long Beach! Coming up over the bridge off the south end of the 110 hwy is a sight to behold. What I came away with most from my trip to L.A. is the sheer size of it. I've flown over Sao Paulo and peered at it from the roof top of my partner's downtown condo, and although Sao Paulo has a much bigger population, both it and New York are so much more dense. The maps of LA that I was using belied the distances we had to drive. On Sunday night, I thought a short drive from our hotel along Sunset Blvd would take us to the Santa Monica peer, until I realized 30 minutes later that pretty much the entire city of Toronto would fit into that distance alone. New York, Sao Paulo and Chicago are all impressive, but L.A. is just UNENDING. And most of it is very, very beautiful. The Ford convertible was awesome: quiet on the highway, with the roof up or down. No windshield rattling, like the last convertible I drove (a VW.) The only negative: the oily haze over the valley. We could see it Monday morning as we stopped at a park in Malibu. To a 'foreigner,' I could smell the almost deisel fumes in the air. The only other city that I've experienced that in was, surprisingly, Rio de Janiero. I guess all the oil derricks and tanks have taken their toll. Oh, and the Queen Mary is tacky, but the Russian submarine beside it is way cool. Forget about Hunt For Red October: how the hell could anybody fight a war in one of those??? I got stuck in traffic yesterday at 2:00 on the DVP in Toronto. Not even rush hour. 3 lousy north bound lanes and Toronto's only northbound highway.

On the surface, it is a great idea and gives OnStar yet another song to sing; however, I am somewhat wary on where this technology is heading. Clearly, we are going to see the day when the 'authorities' will demand access to this technology. Alas, I am afraid we will have no choice but to acquiesce. There are too many nutjobs out there and eventually the public will demand more and greater powers of surveillance for the 'authorities.'

....and some of us have been there, done that: spent $2k (back when $2k was a lot of money) having Alpine speakers, a cross-over, amps and bazookas put in my car, only to have someone spend the night in the back of it, ripping everything out of it. No, thanks. Give me a solid factory unit any day. Even the Cobalt LT's base stereo is decent, and for $300 the Pioneer upgrade is pretty damned good. Not likely to attract the curiousity of crack addicts or jealous kids. The integrated units give a lot of easy upgrades, like speed compensated volume, XM and steering wheel controls, all at a decent price. Works well for the majority of people who lease said vehicles, too. Warranty troubles? No. Dash fires? No. Sudden electrical gremlins? No. Maybe I was more patient when I was 26 than I am at 46.

...not necessarily stupid, but certainly guilty of not being able to think for yourself. De Lorenzo's rants (which I read every week) are usually spot on, but yes, he is guilty of hyperbole and does get a little over 'passionate' at times. Still, his articles are generally more researched and have fewer glaring errors and omissions that the usual crap from, say the New York Times or Toronto Star. For those of us who are old enough to have been around during the 'heyday' of Detroit, the unerring, gradual, relentless slipping of Toyota from a fringe player to mainstream is both awe inspiring and horrifying, in my opinion. I find myself equally awe struck at how cleverly and deftly Toyota has played this game as I am gravely concerned about the future of our countries; indeed, Western civilization. The 'average' person is too overwhelmed and underconcerned to give a crap about our future, while the PC culture infesting our Univesities, newspapers and media is allowing a huge rot to take root. We are too selfish and greedy to think beyond our next pay check, or next purchase and only give a damn about what is in it for ourselves. How else could a giant like Toyoda walk in and rip the industrial heartland out of North America with not only our consent, but our blessing?

145k 2007 sales. I guess they'd better have 60,000 '07 Tundras kicking around to make their target.

Don't forget to do the mental 'Canadian conversion.' In my first two tanks of real world driving, I am averaging just under 30 mpg (Imperial gallons) with my Optra 5. Interestingly, that is exactly the same as what I used to get with my '87 Shadow ES with the 2.2 turbo and 5 spd. My Caprice wagon, however, used to give me 23 mpg. Ouch.

I have been saying this for years!!!!!! The high (?) horsepower/low torque Japanese engines suffer badly under real world conditions, especially when someone like Dodgefan is driving them If you drive like my great aunt, then the Civic and others look great, but of all the cars I have driven (and I drive pretty hard, too), the Malibu (same engine as the Cobalt) has given me better gas mileage than the Aveo, Optra, Cobalt, G5 and any other 'small' cars I have driven in the past few years. Gearing, programming and the tranny itself are everything. See how much the Prius' numbers have dropped with the new rating system?

The market today is vastly different than it was 30 years ago when GM was the largest corporation in the world and had no peers. Toyota, no matter how well it appears to be doing at this point in time, will never EVER enjoy that kind of world dominance. At best, there will be 4 or 5 major world players, who will all be jockeying for 12-15% piece of the pie each, with another 3 or 4 smaller players nipping at their heels. What I find simply astounding is the degree that this culture of entitlement is engulfing the dealer community. There are many players out there, who are being sucked into spending a lot of money to build massive new dealerships, almost as if it has been pre-ordained that Toyota will be #1 in North America. Toyota runs the risk of developing the kind of arrogance the poisoned the culture of GM and GM's dealers 20-30 years ago. Frankly, I doubt Toyota will be #1 in North America - the world, maybe, but not in this market. I am betting my future on it. Ever hear the adage "what goes up, must come down?" The market is changing daily, and the consumer is more capricious than ever. If there is one thing that can be learned from the teenagers of today, that is that they are very much in the 'moment.' I would not want to be 'forced' into spending millions on a state of the art facility, with restaurants, TV rooms and all the rest, because someone from 'over there' has spiked my coffee and convinced me that they are destined to be #1. The smart manufacturers, along with the smart dealers, will continue to be the ones who are lean and mean; those who can react to market demands quickly, and those whose overhead is low enough that they can weather the downturns while waiting for the 'next big thing.'

Almost $23k and 115 hp? The Optra is $3k less and has more horsepower!

In my experience, the 3400 is better, both from a fuel mileage standpoint and longevity. If the vehicle has been maintained properly, the 3.1 is a fine motor. The Century is one of the safer used car bets, both from the standpoint of the vehicle's reputation, and for the demographics of who buys them. Contrariwise, a Z24 would be one of the WORST picks IMO, for the latter reason.

I'm going to get flamed for this, but there is nothing WRONG with the new Accord. Just like there is nothing wrong with the Camry or the Sonata. All are decent cars. I think this is probably the tightest packed market segment. Whether one likes the Aura, G6 or Accord would largely depend on one's preference toward an 'American' look or a 'Japanese' look. I drove a Sonata for a couple days while my car was in the body shop and it was decent enough. I can see why people would like these cars, but they just aren't my taste.

I dunno: perhaps the Eskimos have nothing to talk about for 9 months of the years BUT snow. Seems to me, if I had to talk about snow every day, I'd want more than one way to describe it. Don't we have more than 15 ways to describe getting screwed by our manager/owner/boss/union/whatever?

I'm no actuarial analyst, but wouldn't it be newer hires that have the potential to get screwed here? I mean, it's not like someone who retired 15 years ago is suddenly going to see his/her pension disappear tomorrow. If the union was corrupt and if they mismanaged it, I would think it would take at least 10 or 15 years to burn through that kind of money. No? It will be the younger guys/gals who retire, say, in 10 years FROM now who stand to lose the most, I would guess. But then that is reality, is it not? I've seen studies on other pension plans, including government ones that prove that basically anybody in their 40s or younger had better plan to work until they are 80 because if they rely on government pensions they will get something like 60 cents for every dollar they put in it. But what is really being said here? Is the UAW corrupt? If that is the case, VOTE THEM OUT. Geesh. Stop whining about what the big shots are doing and run for election in your local yourselves! Or has reason totally abandoned union halls these days? Just wondering, is all.

Isn't it amazing how so many iconic shows had gay people in them? Bewitched, Brady Bunch, all the Doris Day movies with Rock Hudson.. Isn't it ironic that in Wil & Grace they couldn't find someone queer to play the lead? America in the '60s was in the same head space that Iran is today. Gay people? Not here. Just good, wholesome people.

Wow, I hope you guys own shares in Exxon! Me: brand new (one month old) Optra 5 - now in the body shop, thanks to a dumb who can't drive. Sister #1: Grand Caravan (work) & Silverado Ex Cab, ex husband has Saab convertible Sister #2 Grand Caravan & ancient Ranger (current husband) Mother: Grand Caravan (I think - haven't talked to her in 5 years)

....on related news, Toyota stock in Japan dropped 13% on news that GM was now ready to kick its ass. [Well, I just woke up and its my damned dream!]

The Islamic world reminds me of Victorian England: some of the best porno in history came out of that country in that era, yet all was prim and proper on the surface. In my day, I have [ahem] had 'relations' with more than one hottie from Iran and Iraq: I have it on first hand account that there are more than a 'couple' gay people in those countries. These Muslim coutries are so hypocritical and two-faced. In some respects, forcing women to be chattel and all the public chastity has made these countries a hot-bed for gay sex. After all, if the women are supposed to be a virgin at marriage, there are only two ways a man can have sex before marriage: anal sex with a woman or anal sex with another man. A former assistant manager of mine, who emigrated from Paskistan said that gay sex is common, just not talked about. These countries don't realize that by supressing all forms of freedoms, they are destroying their futures because their brightest and their best are leaving. There are a lot of Iranian expatriates living in the Toronto area - more than a 100k by some accounts. Most of these people are doctors, architects and other professionals.

Yeah, that is why tourism in 'poorer' nations like Portugal and Greece have been hit since they converted to the Euro. However, manufactured goods that are from the States (like the Malibu or Colorado) that have had a 'sticker' of $C26k for, like, the past 4 years, should have dropped at least a bit! I understand that the 'sticker' wouldn't necessarily drop 50% (which is how much the Can. dollar has gone UP in the past 4 years, BTW) because, among other reasons, some of the parts are originally sourced from Canada - but c'mon: we're getting stiffed.

Yeah, the brass on both sides probably sit around, drinking beer, talking about the latest baseball game for 8-9 hours, then pshyche themselves up to storm out in a huff!

Personally, I would be all for standard ABS, but I am tired of arguing with customers (very often older people, I might add) who claim that ABS is unnecessary. The gas mileage on the Aveo is disappointing, but that can be said of all the small cars, especially if the consumer is used to a V-6 and then drives their 1.6 litre engine as such.