Robert Hall

Nissan produced almost 5 million vehicles globally last year..not trivial. About the same as Ford globally.

I was able to read it without an issue, without paying.

There were photos of t-shirt and a logo on a truck in Japan some years ago posted on a car magazine site fir KFC—King Fucker Chicken . Apparently it wasn't a restaurant, but a Japanese heavy metal band.

Similarly, I've seen random US sports team shirts show up in European TV shows..like Ohio State, Notre Dame and a high school in Texas sports shirts/hoodies were seen in a Belgian crime drama I watched recently.

Today is his birthday also... Elon is a year younger than me. Other celeb birthdays shared w mine include John Elway and John Cusack.

Thank you... it has been fascinating and strange... from spending childhood in E. Ohio near Pittsburgh, to middle school and high school in the Florida Keys, college in NE Ohio, grad school in Michigan, then over decade on the Front Range of Colorado, almost a decade in Arizona, then back to NE Ohio again.... Living on a farm in the middle of nowhere, living in a beach house, living in the suburbs, in apartments in college towns, living in a Winnebago... and all the places I've worked in my career---startups, Fortune 50 companies, to working from home for 3 years straight.. to the countless concerts I've been to that have likely ruined my hearing... the interesting cars I've owned and have driven...25+ years w/ SUVs, etc. Party on Wayne, party on Garth. Wherever you go, there you are!

10 yr old Sprinters around here seem to be as rusty as 15-20 yr old Econolines and Expresses..

The 11 dogs that have been in my sister’s and my life the last 12+ years have all been rescues. Some well-adjusted, some with issues. At some point, I wouldn’t mind getting a puppy, probably a Westie or Cairn Terrier. Wowza. For that price, I’d want a GC Summit.

A year ago, I wouldn’t have imagined spending my 50th birthday at home, but that is how today turned out. But I’ve enjoyed it, from the Southern ham biscuits for breakfast, to the lemon cake my sister baked, to the nice juicy NY Strip steak I grilled along w/ a bottle of fine French champagne and a bottle of Napa Viognier... And watched a great documentary about the Targa Florio. Sheltering at home w/ the little terriers I love and the one family member that really understands me, made it a good day. What a long, strange trip it’s been to 50....

Supposedly not coming here, but I’ve read that Toyota is adding another CUV for the US of similar size to the C-HR

Yaris Cross

2019 US spec. The US never got the 'new' Fiesta.

The Fiesta ST is supposed to drive quite nicely from what I've read.. this trim looks decent..though regular Fiestas seem to be the usual subcompact gray plastic despair hell inside. I really don't like small cars, but this looks like it could be fun..manual, zippy.

The problem in the US is subcompacts tend to be cheap, nasty and vile inside--gray plastic, and noisy, slow and unpleasant to drive. A larger used car at the same price is always a better buy, IMO. The only ones I can think of on the market that have nice interiors and might be pleasant to drive are the Mini and Fiat 500, but they have a lot of other quality/reliability issues.

They are quite sweet and loving with their humans, but wary of strangers. Yorkies have Napoleon syndrome, I think. As far as take your pet to work, I've never done that...though at a couple small consulting firms I was at people did that...I just wouldn't feel comfortable bringing my 6 to 10 pound dogs in an office w/ big dogs. Wouldn't want to have them sit in a crate all day. Though w/ Yorkies I'd probably be getting attention from the ladies all day probably...

The most recent US-market Yaris was a rebadged Mazda 2, probably drove better than previous Yarii.

Yeah, like the big Mercedes..when she drove the Zs in the 80s, she loved Mercedes S-classes, so bought one years later when it was cheap...but it was a money pit. A great car to drive when running, but a money pit. There are quite a few '70s-90s cars I'd love to own, but I can appreciate them from a distance...

Got a little rust around the rear quarters..the decklid and driver's front fender don't fit that well..it got hit sometime in the past, the rear bumper is lumpy. Per the carfax, the car spent time in Akron and Miami in the past. It was funny, once I got the CD player working, the 6 disc CD changer was full of Akron-area hip hop band CDs, and there was a bag of weed under the driver's seat.

I’ve always liked the styling of that generation STS and the 2nd gen CTS. Crisp and clean. It’s still a smooth, quiet comfortable car when running. She’s had an interesting history with cars—first car was a new ‘76 Pinto my Dad got her for HS graduation, followed by 4 Datsun/Nissan Z cars (from a ‘77 280 to a ‘90 300ZX Twin Turbo (all manuals), a Corsica, a Saab 900 Turbo, Acura Legend coupe, Explorer, Liberty, a couple old Mercedes, a DTS, and now the Trax and STS...

3.6. She's had it almost 2 years. 139k miles. It was a $4000 hooptie for when she had a job on the other side of the state and was driving over and back each week (she doesn't like driving her Trax on the turnpike). Current issue happened right after I drove a couple months ago. The transmission gear position sensor that communicates w/ the ignition failed, so it thinks it's not in park when it's in park, so the ignition button stays in the accessory position and runs down the battery overnight. It also has a small coolant leak and the airbag light is on. It's got new tires, new brakes, new struts/shocks, new fuel pumps, the usual underhood maintenance (belt, hoses, etc). I fixed the 6 disc CD changer, loose inner fender trim, loose underhood trim (got a bunch of those push plugs and a tool to remove them) and a broken glovebox latch. It does drive nicely when everything is fixed. But like every old high mileage luxury car my sister has bought over the last 20 years, something always breaks...she never learns.

It's those funky taillights that are similar..

2011 DTS sounds interesting...my sister's '00 DTS was nice, but lots of electrical gremlins as it aged. The '06 STS has been nice, but another money pit (now sitting dead in my driveway). That shifter is slick, but looks like recall material to me..

I took Henry to the groomers on Wednesday (he's 14) and Ginny (she's 12) to the groomers today. Both now have nice short summer 'dos..lots of gray in their faces..

The ‘67 Ford 2dr roofline reminds me a lot of the ‘65-66 B-body roofline. ‘67 was the 3rd and final year of stacked headlights on the full size Fords

Nash