Robert Hall

While in traffic behind a burnt orange C6, saw a black '64-67 Corvette coupe go by in the opposite direction, while passing a Le Mans blue '68-69 Corvette coupe w/ luggage rack parked in a driveway. At the airport tonight I saw a very clean, all original looking silver '79 Ford Bronco.

I suppose they could really cheapen it by putting the Volt hardware in another, existing model like the Cruze or Sonic..

Realisically, if I had garage space--for the practical daily driver I'd cross-shop the new Chrysler 300C, Charger R/T, Grand Cherokee, or CTS. Realistically, for a #2 fun car if I had garage space, a new Mustang Boss 302 or GT. Or a Camaro SS. Or a Challenger R/T. I find all of them appealing. Would have to do a number of test drives before picking one. (I'd really like to go buy a new car today, but am holding off until I take care of the big issues..i.e. new house in a different state, moving, etc). For a money-no-object sell-your-soul new dream car, maybe an Aston Martin DB9, Merc SLS, Merc S65 AMG, Porsche 911GT3RS, Caddy CTS-v, or Audi R8 V10 Spyder. For a money-no-object insane-with-no-practical-use car, I really, really want an Ariel Atom.

Most of the developers on Macs (incl. myself sometimes) I know use Macs because of the pure UNIX goodness inside of OSX. They didn't pay attention to the old Macs, but embrace the newer ones as an alternative to a DIY Linux on a Windows laptop approach.. I like my Mac Book Pro and my Dell Studio XPS, but every other dev shop I've worked in over the last decade has used laptops (HP, Dell or Lenovo) running Win XP... having used Windows, various UNIX flavors (Solaris, HP-UX, Digital, several Linuxes) and Mac OSX over the years as development environments, I can see the pros and cons of each.. At that startup, the civilians (management, testers, support, etc) used Windows laptops, but the developers all used Macs..it wasn't even a web app but more of an infrastructure technology that was deployed on UNIX or Windows servers.. Sounds totally cool, the small company I am building a storage division in, my QA team uses all windows or linux multi monitor desktops, yet dev's all use mac's to work on the linux kernel of our storage appliance. So I totally understand where you come from on the Mac. Some can handle the change between setups and others cannot. What type of product what this that you worked on? Mine is a storage accelerator. you can see it at storage.dataram.com That company was building fraud detection algorithms and plugins for e-commerce, credit card processing and banking applications. I've spent the last 2 years in banking systems at a big bank, am now doing a contract at a health care services company working on software for pharmacy and drug company communication.. The storage accelerator sounds interesting..

Most of the developers on Macs (incl. myself sometimes) I know use Macs because of the pure UNIX goodness inside of OSX. They didn't pay attention to the old Macs, but embrace the newer ones as an alternative to a DIY Linux on a Windows laptop approach.. I like my Mac Book Pro and my Dell Studio XPS, but every other dev shop I've worked in over the last decade has used laptops (HP, Dell or Lenovo) running Win XP... having used Windows, various UNIX flavors (Solaris, HP-UX, Digital, several Linuxes) and Mac OSX over the years as development environments, I can see the pros and cons of each.. At that startup, the civilians (management, testers, support, etc) used Windows laptops, but the developers all used Macs..it wasn't even a web app but more of an infrastructure technology that was deployed on UNIX or Windows servers..

I'm not sure if I believe the whole 'Don't be evil' mantra of Google... agreed on Skynet, and who knows, maybe it will evolve from all the 'cloud' initiatives that are going on these days..

Not much outside of my own family...my brother gave me grief over driving a 'Kraut Rocket' or a 'Nazi car' when I had my M3, and gave me a hard time over driving a Chrysler product w/ my Jeep. But I just ignore him. My Prius-driving friends and colleagues never gave me a hard time over my Jeep, except when I briefly worked at a startup 3 years ago where almost everyone drove a Toyota product--they constantly ragged on me for driving an American car and why didn't I embrace the perfection that was Toyota (oddly, it was the same place that was a very strong Mac fanboy environment). Not a negative comment, but a confused one that made me laugh years ago...I was driving my Mom's silver blue '68 Cougar back around '92, stopped at a convenience store and as I was walking in, some teenagers came out, and one exclaimed 'wow--what a sweet Camaro!'. LoL.

Those were built by Travco starting in the early '60s. Dodge was one of the main providers of chassis and powertrains for Class A motorhomes up through the late '70s, until they dropped the 440...then GM w/ 454 chassis and powertrains became more common.... there never were too many Ford-based Class As back in the day (though Ford, Chevy and Dodge all provided cut-down van cabs for Class C motorhomes..) Today, the vast majority of Class As are rear-engined diesels, using Oskosh chassis, etc.. The GMC motorhomes were pretty cool, I remember seeing many of them on the road and in the RV parks when my folks and I were RVing from the late 70s through the late 80s..

Looks good...the front is definitely evolutionary from the current model, fits in well IMO w/ the rest of Chevy's current international models..

Maybe he will go to work for Cyberdyne (aka Google) and work on Skynet development..

Yeah, I've never cared for the '73-74 front ends on most B- and C- bodies (other than Chevys)...much prefer the '71-72 and the '75-76 rectangular light front ends.. The '73 P-O-Bs esp. looked awkward as far as the front bumper shapes, compared to earlier and later models, IMO..

WTF was that? Wierd, incoherent dude..

Good to see it has new barks, though.

It took over 10 years before I discovered I could adjust the brightness of the gauge and dash lighting in my Jeep by turning a ring on the left stalk.

Yes, it's a standardization thing...can use the same mechanism across multiple models, and it simplifies LHD or RHD usage.. As opposed to being on the doors Yes, since door lock controls are usually different for the driver and passenger (driver's side unlocks all doors, and might have an additional passenger lockout button), and passenger door unlocks only the passenger door..

Yes, it's a standardization thing...can use the same mechanism across multiple models, and it simplifies LHD or RHD usage..

Maybe they have no way of determining which units have the wrong wheel so they will install the correct one instead on all..

The aftermarket tuner SLP did make a ZL1...but this is a production(from GM) ZL1. Different cars.

This evening parked on one block in downtown Scottsdale I saw: A pale yellow early '40s Packard woody wagon, w/ twin side mount covered spares, a cream leather top, wooden roof rack, wide whites. Beautiful. A bright red Mercedes SLS. First I've seen in person. Beautiful. A very clean '77 Olds 88 4dr, dark brown w/ tan top.

Saw a red Pontiac G2---subcompact Excitement!!! Saw a white Honda CR-Z, first one I've seen on the roads. Saw two Chevy Tahoe police trucks parked in downtown Scottsdale w/ 'Policia Federal' graphics...Mexico National Police...WTF?

It sounds like you are setting yourself up w/ unrealistic expectations given what is available in your area at your price point. A bit of advice-- it's better at this point to be pragmatic--put your money into something that is above all else reliable so you can can get to work, and save some money towards your dream car in the future. Otherwise, your drama of wasting money on unreliable money pits is going to continue to repeat ad infinitum. Sorry to hear the Z wasn't what it appeared to be..keep looking, something will turn up..

Other than the headlights and lame rear door handles, I like the design of the Giulietta...I esp. like the proportions and how they avoided the A-pillar window that so many FWD models have been going to... Though I definitely prefer the design of the 159, Brera, and Spyder...I'm wondering--is there going to be next gen Brera and Spyder? Those would be nice to see in the US...would be distinctive and wouldn't overlap w/ any Chrysler models.

bank

Saw a T-bucket hot rod, yellow w/ orange flames...swear the driver was holding his toupee on (breezy afternoon). Saw a very sharp dark red '11 Camaro convertible out driving around w/ the top down...

What I love about it is that it's RWD, has a V8, IRS, and is big and heavy in a world of characterless FWD generics...and has bold, brash yet elegant styling.