Robert Hall

The World is Turned Upside Down--Billy Bragg and Stuff is Messed Up- Offspring. Two songs that are spot on thematically for these troubled times

Yesterday--- Saw a 'BMW 050i' ---some lunatic took a new Scion xB, replaced the Scion badges w/ BMW roundels and made a '050i' badge from other BMW badges. Madness. Saw a red/orange '68 Olds 442 2dr sedan w/ black front fender stripes. Had a patina of age, paint fade, bent front bumper, missing grille...looked solid and restorable overall. Saw a clean lt gray '75-78 Ford LTD 4dr sedan. Saw two '75-77 Pontiac Venturas ( a white 2dr, a blue 4dr) in someone's driveway, with a bronze 2 dr Nova of the same vintage. Saw a sharp dark red '89 or so Camaro IROCZ w/ 18 inch or so 5-spoke wheels w/ aluminum rims and gray spokes..very subtle and clean. I love to see 3rd gen F-bodies in good shape.

Americans

Dude...I'm pretty darn white, but I also have Eminem AND Enya on my iPod. And Johnny Cash and NWA. And U2 and M83. Moby and Nine Inch Nails. Enigma and Miles Davis. Tori Amos and Duffy. Led Zeppelin and Massive Attack. etc

That's pretty funny...I saw this on CNN a few weeks ago. Lots of those I specifically do like-- New Balance (love their shoes, worn them for over 20 years), Apple products, hummus, living by water, coffee, Barack Obama, Netflix, traveling, #33, sushi, asian fusion food, The Onion, The Wire, dogs (terriers under 25 lbs), The Onion, San Francisco... not so sure about the Prius, though.

I just can't see it working, even in 10 years. Pontiac the brand doesn't have the cachet or image to command the big bucks. I can't think of a car brand that has always been a mainstream brand that has successfully gone premium.

I'd love to see Pontiac get out of the 'me-too' thing with Chevy...a lot of that comes from the dealers, trying to compete w/ Chevy, no doubt (rebadges like the G3, G5, Torrent)..

Yeah..not too many characters (at least visibly) in the auto biz these days.. too bad Lutz isn't 20 years younger...

Me too.... I like Grabber Green and Calypso Coral also.... the '70 Boss 302 & 429, Mach1, Torino Cobra and GT are some of my favorite Fords of that era..

clotted (clotted cream, the cream of the crop of cream)

Interesting that the polymer panels never found wide adoption outside of GM.

I like the amber rear turn signals..don't see them often anymore on American cars...they were semi-common in the '80s and somewhat in the '90s. My '86 Mustang had them.

Meh...you do realize some of us do buy performance cars and SUVs (and luxury cars). Not everyone wants or buys economy cars...GM has to build a broad range of models, to support a variety of consumers.

Wind blows loose shopping carts across mall/Target/etc parking lots. Sloppy parkers park too close in parking lots or parking garages. Stones/gravel/etc get kicked up on roads by large trucks, etc. Wind whips up grit, etc that chips the front of the hood, windshield, etc. After 8 years, I have plenty of small nicks and scratches on my Jeep from the world...

It's not just California, though....sprawl is a nationwide phenomenon..exurbs have been a trend in the US for years. 'Edge City' is a great book that analyses the phenomenon.

Dents can happen through other means than driving. I've recieved dents due to runaway shopping carts, people that park too close and open their doors poorly, etc. Reality is complex.

The new Camaro would look good in that color, I think.

I had to put a couple new car smell ones and leave the sunroof open and windows down all day on a Saturday a few weeks ago after the Yorkie puppy made poopie in the passenger seat on the way to the airport..

For the same reason as the narrow trailer..to fit on narrow roads.

Maybe a sailboat...some of them are narrow.

I wonder if the truck that towed it originally was just as narrow.

Speaking of '60s Cadillacs, the owner of the local pub where I hung out from '02-06 had a '67 Caddy Fleetwood 75 limo, dark blue w/ the pub's logo on the rear doors. I rode in it a couple times w/ some of my buddies...fun big beast.

Or a boat/yacht.

From what I've read, a big factor in the LA smog is the fact that it's in a basin..leads to air inversions. Phoenix has a similar problem, on a smaller scale. Lots of sprawl also.

It must have been a widget that was lowered onto the trailer, I don't see provisions for a rear ramp. It if had a 40s military truck cab I'd say it was used to haul UFO parts from Roswell to Area 51 in '48 (under a tarp, though)..