Robert Hall

I'd like a NAV screen that uses Google maps... would be nice to be able to key in the from and to and get a Google map, or Google street view, etc on the display. If I'm driving to a restaurant I'm unfamiliar with, I print out a Google map before leaving, would be nice to be able to do it in the car.

Cool..on the way to the airport this afternoon, I saw a '65 Pontiac Le Mans 2dr ht, faded lt blue w/ some surface rust. Probably the original paint. Looked straight and solid.

Nah, serious...it's a concept car from over 50 years ago...can't be that many people left that were involved with it's development.

As far as Nissan in the '90s, that's probably more opinion than reality.. I don't recall anything majorly negative in the magazines about '90s Nissans, and anecdoteally, I've known several people that put 150k or more on '90s Nissans---a couple Maximas, a Sentra, a pickup, a Pathfinder, and a first gen Altima..they seemed happy with their cars.

Ya, I recall reading that in Collectible Automobile a while back..the wierd canted taillights on the '60 Comet look similar to the '60 Edsel lights (which are vertical).

A couple gigs back I had a manager that was a huge NASCAR fan, and her husband works for NASCAR in marketing. They drive an Accord and a Tacoma.

Ya, that would be cool. Wouldn't necessarily need 2 4drs. SUV, sports/luxury coupe, luxury sedan, convertible. That would be a nice foursome for me (for years, I had an SUV and 2 sports coupes). I'm currently rotating between an SUV, older luxury coupe, and an older luxury sedan as my daily drivers. (I also have 2 vintage Mustangs in storage). I'm thinking of keeping the SUV for winter (the '00 Grand Cherokee has been my daily driver for 8 years), maybe adding a late model Town Car for a daily driver in the next couple of years (they depreciate too much to buy new), and/or maybe a CTS sedan or coupe. I'm thinking about a '10 Mustang GT convertible for my 40th--- I want a V8, RWD convertible w/ a manual, and I don't see the Camaro convertible happening anytime soon, and love Mustangs.. maybe wait until my 50th for a Corvette convertible. Of course, if gas prices go through the roof, I'd consider a diesel daily driver. Mmmm...diesel CTS coupe. Would be nice.

Heh-heh...my ideal garage would have both a CTS (w/ a manual) and a Town Car. One for modern sports sedan lux, one for old school land yacht lux. Both appeal to me.

Ya, it's a bad name, IMHO. They could have called it 'Fred' or 'Elmer' which would have been equally nerdy. I've read that they hired a poet to come up with possible names--they came up with a long list, some were pretty outlandish like Utopian Turtletop. In the end, they chose the name of Henry's son. In keeping with the planet name Mercury, maybe 'Saturn' would have been a good name. (Though I think Mercury was named for the Greek God more than the planet). Edsel did have some good model names, though--Pacer, Ranger, Corsair, and Citation, all of which have been used elsewhere since then. Also, I would assume the decision to create the brand was made around '55 or '56, when the middle market was quite strong...then it was launched just in time for a recession. Update: The Wikipedia entry on Edsel has a pretty decent analysis of the failure and some backstory...makes for interesting reading while I'm sitting at the airport waiting on my flight.. Edsel story

Well, the official EPA classification of subcompact/compact/midsize/fullsize is based on interior volume + cargo space, not overall length or wheelbase, so there are cars within the same category that can vary quite a bit in length or wheelbase. Fuel Economy Classes I'm not sure how rental car agencies categorize their cars, but I know in the past they've categorized a Grand Am as a midsize and a Taurus ('00) as a full size, so who knows.

Best post of the week nominee.

Heh-heh...sounds like the eastern part of Colorado...anything east of the Front Range is just a dull Kansas-like empty red state void.. the Front Range has the Denver metro area and Boulder which are pretty cool and blue stateish, the mountains run down the center and western half of the state, but to the south of the Denver area is Colorado Springs, which is part of the Bible Belt... I used to live in the Springs-- it does have some nice qualities (great scenery, great bike trails, etc but far too many evangelicals and neocons for my taste).

No idea, but at that time, Chrysler and GM each had 3 mid-priced brands, so someone at Ford must have felt Mercury wasn't enough...

True...though the Jetta's plastics look better...the previous gen Jetta's interior was much nicer than the previous gen Malibu, IMHO...

Cool..I'll be there again this year...will try and take some pics and post them.

Well, considering Ford launched a new division/brand range and folded it less than 3 years makes it a pretty big failure. Imagine if GM had folded Saturn in '94..styling was part of the problem, but there were plenty of ugly cars in '58...my folks bought a '58 Mercury that year...I've seen pics of them, they were pretty dreadful looking, IMHO.

Ugly gray plastic interior and lack of a manual availability puts the last Malibu down pretty low on any list..

Comfortably Numb is probably my favorite PF song...and I've seen it twice in concert, on their last tour in the mid '90s and a couple years ago on Gilmour's solo tour. Gilmie is incredible live...

I remember The Firm...Paul Rodgers and Jimmy Page. I have both their albums (neat '61 Cadillac w/ fog lights on the cover of their 2nd album). After seeing Queen + Paul Rodgers in concert in '05, I started getting into Rodgers past bands...Free, Bad Company, The Firm, and The Law.. I didn't realize Asia existed beyond 1985 or so...I remember them from the early '80s.

Cool...I'll make a note of that. Stelvio pass from Switzerland into Italy is also on my to-do list...after seeing it on Top Gear, it looks epic...and Motor Trend ran some pics of the Challenger SRT8 on that road in their Europe road trip.

Who knows... the only people that really know the formal name of that concept are probably long dead or over 85. I had never heard of it before this thread...you and I are probably the only people under 40 that have heard of it..

See my first post above...

I remember that....Bob Roll is hilarious...I read his book a few years ago, there are some hilarious passages in the book, about his crashes, having to stop and make mad doo while on a ride, etc.

Ya, I did my young and dumb stuff in my teens and 20s, when my '87 GT was new or a few years old... luckily, I didn't do anything too stupid like several kids in my high school did (3 new GTs and one Grand National were totaled my junior and senior years, one Monte Carlo SS and one Trans Am GTA were heavily damaged). Mostly for me it was going fast and power sliding/drifting on Ohio back roads. I've never been hard on the '69, since it's kind of a family heirloom (my late father bought it new, he and I restored it when I was a teenager). I never did anything really stupid with my M3, except for a few late night 140-150 mph drives on deserted freeways that I pretended were autobahns..

I can only imagine how much worse the anti-big 3 talk would have been with the bailout, etc had gas prices remained at $4.xx/gallon.