Robert Hall

1970 was a great year for cars...hard to pick just one. Maybe a '70 Mustang Mach 1, Challenger, Charger, Camaro, Mercury Marauder, Ford XL, Cadillac Eldorado, Lincoln Continental, Porsche 911, Porsche 917....

At one time I was. Now it has no meaning to me, reliability is everything...I've had a 5.0 V8, 2.9 v6, 3.2 6 in the past, and a 4.0 6 for the last 15 years...my sister had cars w a 5.0v8, 3.0 6, and a 4.6 V8...all unreliable money pits of pain and frustration, all gone--replaced w a car w a 1.6 turbo 4....pragmatism.

I'm not sure which engine..didn't have any engine badging that I noticed and I didn't open the hood. Seemed smooth overall..

I'll admit I'm not a small car guy, but the Trax seems very well put together...loads of headroom, cubbies for storage everywhere, etc. Seemed smooth and plenty of power around town for a 4cyl.

This followed my sister home today...we were just going out to lunch, but... she got a 2015 Chevy Trax LT, pretty well equipped w/ sunroof and the Bose sound system, XM radio, etc. Since she started working locally again in August the DTS has become too unreliable for a daily driver, going to the shop every week or two weeks for repairs. She needed a new car. Our neighborhood Chevy store is great, I was looking at the Colorados and Equinox, may be tempted to trade my Jeep on something sooner than later...

At 6'0", 240lbs, this one fits fine. Loads of headroom. My sister brought this home today, a 2015 Chevy Trax LT, replacing the DTS.

You must live in my neck of the woods (Phoenix). I'll be glad when it dips back into the 90's next week. Yeah, I live in Phoenix..moved here from Denver in '08. Long story..don't like the climate and the desert, but the tech job market is solid, and lots of good restaurants around the valley...

After my iPhone 5s died in a freak accident (fell off the roof of a 6 story parking garage), I replaced it with iPhone 6 a couple of weeks ago...happy with it so far, more battery life, bigger screen, more space (64gb).

About the only exercise I get in the long hot summer here in the Valley of $h! is swimming in my pool....got to get back into morning and evening walks once fall gets here in a month or two...

I did ride a 21spd mountain bike the 5 years I lived in Colorado Springs...best shape I was ever in...lots of dirt trail riding..alas, that was 15 years and 60 pounds ago. Haven't ridden my bike in close to 10 years. Too sedentary...

Or someone who likes fitness and exercise. Esp. if they are spandex clad and out on a 105 degree day...

Picked up a gray Sonata w/ two tone gray interior at the San Jose airport Friday evening, drove through late rush hour traffic down the 101 to Salinas. Drove from the hotel to Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway on some twisty roads Saturday and Sunday, and then back to the San Jose airport Sunday afternoon. Impressions: Smooth, quiet, reasonably powerful, good on gas, well put together, good outward visibility. Kind of an anonymous midsize, pleasantly styled but not particularly memorable. I'd driven a rental Sonata 2 generations ago, this definitely felt bigger and more solid. Seemed to have more space inside than the Malibus I've driven in recent years. Dash design and control layout worked, a lot of hard plastics but not cheap looking. All in all a decent way to get around for a couple days.

Over the weekend I saw Porsches..hundreds of Porsches of every type and variation. Street Porsches and racing Porsches. I went to Rennsport Reunion V (I went to IV 4 years ago) at Laguna Seca Raceway near Monterey, California. Great weekend. Still tired from all the walking. As far as non-Porsches, I did see a sharp red mid '50s Ferrari of some sort, an Alfa Romeo 4C in red and black, a dark red '61 Chevy Impala ht lowrider, and a bright green '63 Chevy Impala convertible lowrider.

On further review, the headlights do kinda look like afterthoughts. But it's relentlessly square-ish as well. As far as the glass-covered headlights: I'm pretty sure there were laws against them. The Ferrari Daytona and Jag E-type had to change their look to sell over here. Dodge got away with the clear headlight covers years later on the original Magnum because they opened when the lights were on.

The '65 300 also had those neat clear headlight covers..the Imperial had similar covers then also. One detail I love on the 64-66 Imperials is the offset rear license plate, as with the '71-72 Riviera..that's a detail I love... As far as light up grille emblems, Mercedes has a light up 3 pointed star grille emblem on some models today, albeit a bit bigger than Chrysler's emblem...I'm surprised that trucks don't have such an option with their huge grille badges...

Good to hear they have a suspect.they have linked him to 4 of the shootings...I've heard speculation on the radio that there may be copycat shooters responsible for the other shootings..who knows at this point.. I'm not on the freeways w/ my current commute across the valley, but I've been following it in the news closely...

Saw one of the rare Nissan Murano CCs today, in taupe w/ the top down...still too hot for convertibles (102), but it's a sign convertible season is approaching...

Saw a clean white w/ white top '75-76 Cadillac Eldorado convertible, followed by a dark blue Ferrari 348...followed the 348 for a mile or so wondering why it looked different. Pulled up behind it at a light and noticed the horizontal bars over the taillights were missing. Looks quite nice w/ the taillights exposed, they kind of remind me of a typical '80s horizontal Buick taillight.

Well, it took around 9 years to get to 100k and another 6 to get to 160k, I don't think I'll keep it long enough to get to 300k...

Still rolling...hit 160k today...15 years, 1 month, 5 days....

That's that super deep purple, right??? I love that color! Yeah...looks gray or black in some lighting...

Random thoughts are plenty after a night of insomnia and very little sleep. Good thing I'm off today for the 4 day holiday weekend. Work has been very strange the last 2 weeks, been stuck in a conference room with a vendor and conference calls to their Chinese developers as we work to install their very-no-ready-for-enterprise-use application on our servers...8-10 hr daily conference calls in Mandarin with one of their people in my client's conf. room translating. At least the OT hours have been billable....

Yeah, me and my older brother are very opposite personalities. He's the laid-back charmer, while I'm the wrought iron fist of the family. We sometimes don't even understand how that even happened. We both went to the same schools, sure he's 5 years older than me, but still. My brother and I are waaaayy different too, but it was pretty obvious growing up. He was popular in high school and gave my parents hell, I was book smart and dorky, my parents barely had to try. My older brother and I may as well be from completely different families...very different personalities and tastes, different culture, polar opposites as far as politics. The 21 year age difference is part of it, I'm sure. We barely are on speaking terms. My older sister and I are much closer, much more similar in interests and tastes.

My next door neighbor traded his burgundy '12 Infiniti QX56 on a new Escalade ESV in Majestic Plum Metallic...great looking beast..

Not in the least. If nothing else, MKC and MKX are currently enough to preserve Lincoln. A new aluminum Navigator is coming (none too soon), and a refreshed MKZ (also a bit past due). That puts Lincoln at least on par with Acura and Acura isn't going anywhere anytime soon. The MKZ came out in 2013 model year, it needs a refresh already? And how do you refresh it, it is still a Fusion. The GLC should put the hurt on the 2 Lincoln crossovers, now that Mercedes doesn't have an ugly c-segment crossover, they can actually get sales, and the yuppies can buy Q3s for less than a Lincoln. Why buy a Lincoln and have to explain to your neighbor why you did it, when you can buy and Audi or Benz and be proud. Does that include being proud of those obscene maintenance bills down the road (which will happen with the MB and the Audi)? The key to German car ownership is to trade it before the free maintenance period or warranty expires. Most are just leased anyway..I wouldn't buy one used. Anyway, regarding the Continental, I'm interesting in seeing what the production version looks like..it's a rather striking design.