Robert Hall

I remember about 15 years ago being at a car show in Ohio with my brother and my folks and talking w/ a kid with a clean '77 Cougar XR-7. He swore up and down that it was the first year of the Cougar.. until my Dad pointed out his '68 XR-7 and '67 Dan Gurney Special parked across the way..

SUV liberal. (usually don't see limos in ski towns, but high end SUVs are very common)

Thin crust Fresh mozzarella Tomato sauce Fresh Basil Pepperoni Ground Beef I also am fond of a well done thin Quattro Formaggio (4 cheese) A couple small chains that I know of (Sauce and Il Vicino) do thin crust very, very well, IMHO.

Breckenridge, Colorado (ski town in Summit County that I like)

Their percentage declines are surprising, as their lineup as far as sedans is all pretty new, nothing more than a couple years old. They do have an overabundance of trucks and SUVs, though fewer than the Toyota or the Big 3. Then again, if the 370Z was their only new model to show, and they've already shown it in LA, then they have nothing to debut in Detroit or Chicago.

I've had people argue that Hondas and Toyotas are more 'American' than Fords since (some) Hondas and Toyotas are built in the US and (some) Fords are built in Canada and Mexico..

The MKZ and MKS front ends would have looked very good on the '08 Intrigue and the '08 Aurora..

I wonder if there is a website that shows historical gas prices.. I really can't remember what the prices were in '86 when I learned to drive, or in '92 when I graduated from college, or '97 when I left grad school for the corporate life.

Sweet...I love Traffic.

WSJ Article

Advertising, esp. print and TV, seems to be a dying form in general.

I'm guessing the combination of FWD, torque, and and the slick plastic bumpers enabled the Camry to climb on the CV.. By the way, I posted this one about a month or two ago...

I'm witholding judgement of the new TL until I see one in person. I liked the design inside and out of the previous generation model quite a bit, though. As far GM goes, the SAAB Turbo X seems like the closest competitor to the TL SH-AWD. I think if I was looking for an AWD sports sedan, I'd look seriously at the A4, TL, and Turbo X. For a purely RWD model, the CTS and G8 are the most appealing to me...not sure I'd go back to BMW.

No more Buick ads with Tiger GM Ends Deal with Tiger

This reminds me of a line from an old Don Henley song that was something like 'man with a suit can steal more than a man with a gun'...

Yeah, and the cool thing about turkey day here is it's always a Thursday, so 2 days off. Woo hoo! 4 day weekend.

3 day work week, then a quiet Thanksgiving w/ my sister. We are probably going to get dinner take out from AJs (local gourmet supermarket) to avoid doing much cooking. If the weather is nice, plan to sit outside by the pool for dinner. Couldn't convince Mom to fly out from Ohio. Probably watch some football or or a few concert DVDs (Rush has a new DVD out today, and I have the David Gilmour Live in Gdansk that I haven't watched yet). Should be a nice low-key 4 day weekend. Maybe go to the movies ('Australia' and 'Transporter 3' open this weekend, I think). Going to avoid 'Black Friday' shopping except online (going to try and do my xmas shopping this weekend).

Childhood in the '70s...grew up in a family of car nuts--my older brother always had 2-3 interesting cars--'60s Mustangs, a V8 Vega, a couple '70s Firebirds, a '65 GTO, etc...my parents had 3 '67-68 Cougars, a '69 Mustang, Lincolns...I had Hot Wheels, Matchbox and other diecast from age 3, snap kits at 6, model kits from age 8, subscriptions to Road & Track and Car & Driver from age 7. In kindergarden and 1st-2nd grade, walked past a Pontiac dealer every day on the way to school. Still remember seeing the '76 Firebirds, the arrival of the new '77 Catalinas and Bonnevilles, the '77 Can Am.. I still remember the cars from my childhood neighborhood in Steubenville, Ohio---the black '67 Delmont 88 across the street, the gold '71 Sedan de Ville and black '74 Eldorado next door (owned by the neighborhood mafia capo), the blue '73 Century 4dr next door, the white '54 Coupe de Ville down the street, the dark green '68 Caprice ht down the street...

'What's a Pontiac...is that a kind of Dodge?'. ---overheard at an auto show a few years ago, a woman saying to her male companion regarding the '06 GTO. 'I don't know..I thought Pontiac only made rental cars'---the male companion 'Friday at midnight kill them all.. then replace them..' -- a colleague, talking about a server upgrade. Heard out of context, it could mean something quite different.

It nauseates me that Washington bails out garbage like Citigroup and AIG with very little effort, yet the automakers are treated like beggars...

This weekend, saw a '73 Century coupe today, black, Buick mags, very clean...haven't seen one of those in forever.... saw a couple CTSes--a black one and a dark blue one (hadn't seen that color before). Saw a silver G8. Also, there is a very clean gold '70 Impala or Caprice 4dr ht for sale at the Circle K a couple blocks away, been parked out there during the day for a few days now.,

Yeah, the Charger is a car I like as far as it's specs (in Hemi form), but the stying does nothing for me. I love the design of the G8--clean, subtle and modern with great RWD proportions.

Where is the trunk release on the G8, by the way? My '87 Mustang GT has the hatch release in the glovebox, which is odd..

Yeah, the Ws were platform mates..probably didn't share more than the windshields in any give year as far as external parts, maybe front doors on 4drs. Sky is a platform mate of the Solstice, probably no body panels in common besides the windshield frame.

I've really never been a truck fan or had a need for one, but I do have a soft spot for the mid-to-late '70s Chevy shortbed stepsides. And 'burbans of the '73-91 era.