Robert Hall

Maybe not by a 1959 standard, but in today's market the S-class is a definitely big car...124.6 wb, 205 length..a bit narrow (73.7 inches) though..but definitely heavy enough (up to 5000lbs for the S65AMG). I like the Town Car quite a bit, but I do wish Ford had updated the interiors..it seems rather old and underequipped inside compared to the MKS or S-Class..of course, the S-class is twice the price..but compared to the MKS, the Town Car seems very dated as far the cabin tech. Still, I like the size and quiet of the TC...

Agreed about the Lucerne. But disagree with the Panthers. Panthers don't feel exceptionally big to me because I always felt like I was too close to the windshield. Another reason the final B-bodies seemed so much more spacious. Panthers I've always found spacious..I slide the seat way back and it's quite comfortable..though the door armrest seems too far away. I never cared for the huge minivan-size windshield and deep dash is last B-bodies..

Out in rural Ohio my Mom has a water softener that takes big bags of some sort of crystals..but it's water coming from an underground well...no water bill, no gas bill, only electricity and dish TV out there..

Well, they aren't building cars for the morbidly obese, but for normal sized people. What I do like about center consoles are solid, fixed cupholders and cubby holes for stuff...I've found the cupholders in cars w/ bench seats tend to be weak. Column shift for automatics is nice, though...would rather see it there than on the console in non-performance models. The Lucerne doesn't seem very big to me, it has the weak FWD design w/ the intrusive front wheel wells and is rather narrow for it's size. I like the Panthers as they are the last of the real full size cars. Alas, with the demise of the Panthers the only serious big cars any more are seriously expensive (S-class, 7-series, Ghost, etc).

Nice land yacht...though I prefer the '71-72 B-body design.

I get flats of 36 bottles at the grocery, drink a lot of bottled water in the desert..the tap water isn't very good here. And get my San Pellegrino in glass bottles..

Went to a Thai restaurant last night that was beside a car wash (the restaurant had great food but lousy ambiance--it was a former Wendys)..but what was really interesting were the 3 gorgeous shiny land yachts at the back of the car wash parking lot--- a medium blue w/ white vinyl top and white interior '69-70 Coupe de Ville. a white w/ black vinyl top and black interior Lincoln Mk III. a white w/ white vinyl top '72 Plymouth Fury 4dr ht. No for sale signs, so I don't think it was a car lot, but still unusual...

I suppose it's true, though, that the uniformed masses are more likely to buy the hybrid hype rather than the real advantages of diesels.

Sounds nice..weather has been great here this week..great sunsets, breezy, cool for July (highs only around 100 the last couple days). Great pool weather in the evenings.

With diesel you get gas mileage and torque...good for larger, heavier cars...and Cadillac needs larger, heavier (over 4000lb) cars..

Saw a CTS-v wagon at lunch today, black w/ tinted windows and black wheels. Hawt.

One of the local PDs used those as undercover cars - that could explain it. Certainly, GM never put a "COPO" sticker on anything. Yeah, 'COPO' was sort of a secret handshake thing...not something that would be badged...

When I drove a diesel regularly, I usually went to truck stops or small town gas stations (I was in Eastern Ohio and S. Florida then). But that was over 20 years ago. Around here in the big city the gas stations that I normally go to (Shell, Chevron) seem to all have the green pumps...

I remember doing that as a kid...my Mom finally got a modern refrigerator w/ ice cuber in the door in 2002 when her 35 yr old GE died.

2012 Versa starts at $10,990. Will GM respond? There is room for the Spark below the Sonic price point...

They will have more diesels here eventually I'm sure. It's the diesels that get the good mileage. And they have Smart and the A- and B- class models for mileage (A- and B- coming to the US soon). Now now... if we're not allowed to count "coming models" in the plus column for Cadillac, then one must treat Mercedes the same way. Well, the coming models for Merc already exist in other markets. Little is known of Cadillac's coming models which are not yet in production..

Smart can be included in the same sense that GM has Cadillacs and also the Spark and Sonic at the entry level.

They will have more diesels here eventually I'm sure. It's the diesels that get the good mileage. And they have Smart and the A- and B- class models for mileage (A- and B- coming to the US soon).

Not really..AMG models are luxury-performance cars. The hybrids and diesels have the high mileage covered.

I like Crown Vics, but that donk sh*t ruins it...

I was given a TV and a VCR once..when I went off to college 23 years ago. I've bought my own TVs, DVD players, Blu-Ray players etc since then. About the FIOS, for some reason, I thought you had dialup (300 baud modem?)

As far as I can tell, FIOS isn't offered here...I have Cox cable and internet currently..but the cable modem is about 5 years old, probably needs upgraded... I replaced the wireless router earlier this year, but sometimes (esp. on weekends) the connection can get laggy when two people are online w/ 2-3 laptops..

Saw a white Solstice GXP coupe tonight, the first Solstice coupe I've ever seen...pretty sweet. Also saw a Volt on the road for the first time, sort of...was a white one on a flatbed, looks like it had been in a pretty hard front offset crash.

I've thought about ditching the cable...I don't watch a lot of tv, what I do watch is usually always time-shifted w/ the DVR. I like having a big screen HDTV for movies and some sports (though F1 is not in HD yet).. been a Netflix customer for over a decade, watch a couple movies a week from them..started w/ DVDs then Blu-Ray...done Netflix streaming occasionally also. I also often hook up an HDMI cable from my laptop to the tv to watch clips from Motorsport Retro/You Tube, etc...I've streamed TV shows via Boxee to my laptop and watch them on the tv also occasionally.

You mean Gen Y and the Millenials...plenty of 30-something and 40-something Gen Xers in the luxury market today.. Yes, but may 30 somethings are not yet in the luxury market. Most luxury car brands do attract people in their 50s and up. But from 2015-2030 those 30-45 year olds today will be nearing that age. I was thinking at the entry level...lots of 30-something 3-series, C-class, A4 drivers... But true, the higher end lux domain is definitely the 50+ crowd..