Robert Hall

My late father and I had our differences but some things in common...definitely a cultural gap because of age differences (he was 50 when I was born). We both strongly valued education and learning (he had a masters degree, was a teacher, then a principal, and then a school superintendent for many years). We both love travel and living on the ocean...(we lived my high school years in Marathon, Florida, he had lived in the Virgin Islands, Miami, Guam, Saipan, Hawaii and the Phillippennes before I was born). I learned to enjoy some of the music he enjoyed (ranging from Frank Sinatra to Johnny Cash), and I grew to enjoy some genres of movies and tv shows he liked (westerns, '70s cop shows and movies)... He was fiscally conservative, very good with saving and investing...we owned 3 homes when I was a kid and lived comfortably on one salary-- and he always paid cash for his Town Cars and Mustangs. I'm more spendy, I wish I had more of his discipline with money. He had a love of the land and open spaces--we owned a weekend/summer home (not a farm, but a country home) with 150 acres in rural Ohio for 30 years (my mom still lives there). I enjoyed the time I was there growing up, but rural life doesn't hold the same attraction to me..I'm much more of a city critter. Though he long held suit-and-tie desk jobs, he loved working with his hands---whether it was tinkering with his tractor, doing body work on an old Mustang, doing a brake job, digging a ditch, or putting up drywall and installing a bathroom, he was always handy with tools.. alas, not much of that rubbed off on me..I don't really have mechanical skills..

An ad for the Aspen in the new Road & Track has the tagline 'A lot more bling for your buck'. Ugh.

It's the kind of car one can only hope is in Pontiac's future..something with serious hardware--RWD, V8, IRS.

Make the nose pointy, leave off the rear wing and front airdam, and the Commodore/Lumina SS would make a great Grand Prix, IMHO...

Cool...interesting techology, interesting design..very modern and futuristic.

I don't have a problem with plood if it looks realistic and fits well...adds a little color and warmth to an interior, IMHO. I'd rather have it over fake aluminum or faux carbon fiber trim (real carbon fiber is hideous, fake is worse, IMHO). I've never owned a car with plugs for missing buttons or dead buttons, so I can't really say anything about them.

I don't know, some of them are pretty interesting..I like the old Q45s and today's G35 and M series... No different than people having an interest in GM's J-bodies, FWD A-bodies, N-bodies, W-bodies (which are much, much duller cars, IMHO)..

Not related either, similar shape, though. The Altima was FWD, the J30 larger and RWD... Now the I30 was retrimmed Maxima, though.

The front end looks too tall and narrow..I don't like the flared fender treatment..

Do you have the facts to back this up, or is this just your usual BS?

Part of it probably is that the Impala and MC were reworked for '06, while the GP is in it's 3rd year since its last redo, the LaCrosse in its 2nd..

A port in Australia? Being shipped off to the Middle East?

The G20 was based on the Primera,not the Sentra..though some Sentras used the same engine as the G20.

It would make more sense (and easier and cheaper for the automakers) if the US could standardize on a single, uniform set of regulations for all states...

Part of the smoking clique at my office are some of the senior players--the top 3 product architects, the director of QA, director of product development, the director of professional services. I go with them on smoke breaks occasionally and stand downwind so I can catch up on the underground gossip...(at a smoke break a few weeks ago is where I first found out the company was being sold). And some of these same people are part of my Friday happy hour clique (I've been working and drinking with many of them for 4+ years now). Though instead of a smoke break I usually try and take a 10-15 minute walk around the outside of the building and through the surrounding office park once or twice a day (when the weather is nice) as a mental break from meetings and working on the computer...

I opened 10 tabs on the forums, and it's very sounding very strange and disturbing..

One of the British magazines (Car or Top Gear) had an article this month on it...one of their writers came across the pond, bought an '88 Town Car for $177 and drove it to New Orleans... I'd LOVE to compete in something like this..get an '80s B-body or Panther cheap, get a co-driver with tools and mechanical skills, and some spare parts.. On a similar but different theme, a couple years ago my buddy Steve and I looked into doing the Player's Run cross country event (either in his NSX or my M3) but it would have been outrageously spendy.

I liked the Stratus name...maybe they felt Avenger went better with Caliber and Charger (all violent, agressive names). Stratus went better with Neon and Intrepid, I guess....

Back when I did my research last winter, I compared the specs, read a lot on line, talked to alot of audio/video phile buddies, and went with a Toshiba 62-inch 1080p DLP rear projection. I've been very happy with it...looked closely at plasma, but everything I've read and heard indicate they have a short life span (5-7 years) at this elevation (over a mile). My previous TV was a 36 inch Sony Wega flat screen CRT that still looks good (7 years old). I don't know yet what I'm going to do about the DVD player, though (HD vs. Blu-Ray?) I'm still using my 7-yr old Sony 5-disc player (still works fine). I have a first-gen TiVo, but I want to upgrade to something that records in HD.

It looks pretty good... the proportions de-emphasize the FWD nature, I think... I like the rear fender kickup--so many modern cars have almost no defintion to the rear quarter..it's strong and distinctive and looks nothing like it's Sebring sibling...the grille and quad headlight treatment is a retro touch that reminds me of the '80s Dodge Lancer (which was one of the better looking '80s FWD Dodges, IMHO)...

We have emissions testing (every 2 years) here in Denver, though I don't think it's uniform across all of Colorado. I have no problem with adopting the California standards on new cars....cleaner air is healthier and a good thing!! (obviously) As far as old cars go, you keep them maintained, it shouldn't be a problem---my '87 Mustang GT passes emissions inspections every 2 years (still has the original catalytic converters)...

That's good to hear the Cobalt is making money..pretty good product from what I've read.

GM's past problems contributed to them getting where they are now...

So what if they do? How many GM products share windshields (W-bodies?).

I thought the argument that the big 3 have always made about building good compact/subcompact cars in NA is that they can't make a profit on them..