Robert Hall

We will see..I think these standards are aimed at trucks and SUVs which is where the problem really is..they roll over easily and collapse easily.

Of course, if you look at "reality", you will see that Americans buy Camrys and Civics more than pretty much anything else. That's where the sales are.

The A6 is AWD.

Well, it is a Volvo..they have always taken safety seriously, so I'm not surprised. Same with Mercedes.

The big '80s, followed by '90s and '70s, with a bit of the late '60s. I'm 38, a teenager of the '80s who misses his MTV. But two baby boomer older siblings, I got hooked on classic rock (Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, The Who, The Beatles, Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Bad Company, etc) early. My tastes range from the blues (Buddy Guy, Stevie Ray Vaughan, BB King, Albert King, Muddy Waters) to classic rock to alternative to new wave to techno to ambient/electronica to R&B and soul (Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, etc), jazz, classical, and a tiny bit of country (Johnny Cash, Lyle Lovett, Willie Nelson) and hip-hop (NWA)or trip-hop (Massive Attack). For the '80s, U2, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, The Cure, The Alarm, Depeche Mode, Bauhaus, Guns N Roses, Def Leppard, The Cult. From the '90s, which was dominated by my college and grad school years, I never got into Nirvana, but liked and still like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, The Foo Fighters, Tori Amos, Moby, Dave Matthews Band, and dance/electronica from Paul Oakenfold, William Orbit, BT, etc. As far as the current decade, I've liked the work of Audioslave, U2, Coldplay, Velvet Revolver, Radiohead, Moby, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Franz Ferdinand, The Killers... For an all time favorite album--probably U2's 'Achtung, Baby'.

If Cadillac wants to compete in the big leagues, they need RWD sedans. FWD is for small cars, midsize sedans, and the occasional entry-lux (TL, ES). Not big league luxury cars.

QUOTE(!!!TED!!! @ Aug 7 2008, 04:06 AM) [snapback]417737[/snapback]Awesome thread! Brought out a bunch of posters I havn't seen post in a while! I have yet to see a facelifted Oldsmobile Firenza (not many Jbod Firenza's around, but I did see a mid 80's one not long ago). I didn't even know these got a Ciera-style facelift!? That I don't remember..I can't recall the last time I saw a Firenza or later Skyhawk. But I did see a late 1st gen ('87-88 or so) Sunbird convertible in decent shape recently..

I'd ban myself for spending too much time surfing the web in general.

I can't imagine much of a market for a 55k FWD car...FWD is fine for subcompact, compact economy cars and midsize family sedans, but inapropriate for luxury cars beyond the entry level.

I didn't get anything.

The roof crush on rollover issue is more of an issue with trucks and SUVs, though, most of which have a high center of gravity, are obese, and lack upper body strength--they roll easily and the weight of the obese lower structure collapses the weak roof structure. It's less of an issue with hardtops, because of the low CoG, they are less likely to roll. A bigger issue for hardtops (and convertibles) is side impact resistance--without a B-pillar, the doors and quarter panel are more likely to collapse inward on impact.

I can't recall when I've seen ANY early '60s Olds or Buick compact... years. I did see, though, a sharp red '62 Le Mans ht in traffic about a week ago.

Hmmm...I don't think I've ever seen that roof either...I believe Buick and Olds C-bodies used it also. The '61 de Ville in my neighborhood has the regular4dr ht roofline.

For his repetitive, delusional, narrow-focus rants: 68

Yes, not to mention the billions (trillions?) that have been pissed away over the last 6+ years on 2 pointless wars..

That's been the reality for the most part for the last 25 years...GM has been predominantly a maker of mediocre FWD generics.

QUOTE(VenSeattle @ Sep 15 2005, 06:52 PM) [snapback]14914[/snapback] The GM EV1 The only time I have ever seen them was about 5 years ago, in Sacramento in a downtown parking garage--4 of 'em in a row. I assume they were probably state government vehicles of some sort.

Cheapness and settling on 'average' rather than building 'outstanding'. Instead of building segment leading world class products, they built too many mediocre generics that sold only on price.

Yes, they pissed away untold development $$$ on the trucks and SUVs, right before the market for them fell off a cliff...brilliant. I can't believe no one saw that their wasn't much of a future growth potential for 5000-6000lb bloat beasts.

Looks custom..massive perimeter frame, probably home built from 2x4s. Packard Website

I wonder what the prototype is based on...the windshield and A-pillars look like an '80s full size of some sort.

Also, there are income cutoffs...people that make above a certain amount got nothing, which excludes a lot of people and two-income households. * For a single individual, the income cutoff level is $75,000. * For a married couple filing jointly, the cutoff is double that: $150,000. People who earn in excess of those amounts may receive reduced stimulus rebates according to a sliding scale which cuts the rebate $50 for every $1000 they receive in income over the established top income limits.

Speaking of people confusing cars, my buddy with the '91 NSX has had so many people over the years think it was a Fiero, a Ferrari, or a Corvette. Ironically, his next door neighbor has 4 Fieros, in various conditions.

I'd still rather have the new car...and to build something like that out of a '69 would be more like $50k, not $30k. Old cars are neat, I like looking at them at car shows and driving mine occasionally ('69 Mustang, '87 Mustang), but I'd rather have a modern car..

The problem w/ something like that, is it may be fast, but it's still a crappy worn-out Fiero.