Robert Hall

Yes, beautiful machines...they are a car that look even better in person than they do in pics, IMHO. There are a couple around here, incl. one in a goregous wine color w/ a cream interior. The QP is my favorite of the 'big dog' luxury sedans..

Sounds like a good move for GM.

Yes...a quality interior and Lexus badge would make the Prius way more desirable, IMHO...the vile gray plastic interior of the current model is a big turn off, IMHO.

It is 20+ years old...the VW China Santana is based on the 2nd gen Passat, which was sold in the US in the '80s as the Quantum.

It does seem odd that one would take pics of all those regular, everyday cars.. I usually take one pic of my rental car when I'm on a trip, but that's it for the ordinary.

Lexus should offer a version of the Prius...with different taillights, front end, Lexus interior trim and goodies, and the big L badges...now that would be hot.

Right.. I'm hoping JL does some more '80s Gs...they did a Monte SS years ago, but it wasn't that great (had a blower). Maybe they will tool up an MC Aerocoupe and GP 2+2...

The TSX isn't bad, but I prefer the TL...nicer interior, more power. But more $$$.

But Europeans like manuals..the percentage of manual transmissions in Europe is much, much higher than it is in the states...probably only 5-10% of US drivers know how to drive a manual, let alone buy one.. (personally, I can go either way...I've had cars and SUVs w/manuals off and on for over 20 years now, but prefer a manual in a performance car and an automatic in a luxury car or daily driver (when I'm in stop-and-go gridlocked freeway traffic, or city driving with lots of lights and traffic, I like to put it in D and forget it)).

Yes... I'm out of that company now, working as a contractor on a 6-to 12 month gig now... for the last year at that company, I was working a straight 40 hr schedule, and now at my contract I'm doing straight 40 so far... if things get heavy towards the end of the project, I may have some OT, but at least it will be at $75/hr rather than for free...

Not really a vacation, but I did a nice little Northern Colorado loop (about 200 miles round trip) on Saturday...drove up to Ft Collins to visit a friend for breakfast, then over to Estes Park and down to Boulder for lunch then on home...some great twisty road driving in the M3 on US 34 and 36. I counted 25 Priuses (very popular in Boulder)... saw 2 Insights (don't see those often)... a number of bar-coded rental Auras and a couple G6 convertibles. Lots of rental cars in the Estes Park / Rocky Mtn National Park area.. I saw a couple M5s (an E39 and a newer one)..... As far as oldies, I saw a sharp silver blue '64 Caddy 4dr ht, a goregous dark green '71 Buick Centurion convertible, a clean white '68 Mustang coupe, a clean white '68 Cougar, and a very clean red '69-70 Suburban. That sounds like a fun trip... I've been to Oregon just on short trips, mostly in Portland. I want to take a couple of weeks some summer and drive out from Denver through Idaho to Oregon and Washington, sight see and visit friends there, then drive down the coast to see friends in the SF area then either back across the 80 or on down the coast to LA then back to Denver via Vegas....but I'll need a convertible for that trip, I think.

I've been to two funerals in the last two years..both were for coworkers that were my own age...which is a bit disturbing to see 35 yr olds dying. One died from a car crash and the other died last year of a heart attack. One odd thing about the second one was the # of people that I later also saw at my best friend's wedding earlier this year (my coworker that died last year had been my best friend's roommate in college). A Jewish funeral and a Jewish wedding within 6 months of each other...both were very interesting and memorable experiences for me. When my father died at home of cancer in '99, it was both sad and a relief (he had been fighting cancer for 2 1/2 years)..

IIRC, Chevy briefly offered a diesel Caprice at one time also. Speaking of the Olds diesel, my buddy in high school that had the '81 Delta 88 diesel replaced the engine in '87..he and his dad put in an SBC w/ a 4bbl carby....I remember it having a tough-sounding exhaust note.

And people who have to deal with heavy traffic every day... I could definitely see a paddle-shift or full automatic version of the CTS-v being viable... I love manual transmissions, but can certainly understand the preference for an automatic when sitting in traffic in the daily grind. Sticks are great for the weekend fun drive in the mountains, but in the daily grind..ugh.

Same here.. I've never been drawn to buy a product because a celeb is in an ad for it. I've never done the named shoe thing either..I can't even think of who I've ever seen in ads for my favorite brand of shoes (Ecco).

Nah..it's an Italian restaurant in Greenwood Village (Denver suburb).

Speaking of texting, for some reason a couple of weeks ago I got a series of messages like 'Ill pick up the dry cleaning' 'see you at 6', 'dinner @ Venice?'... I looked closely at them and realized they were from my former manager...he was texting his wife and sent them to me instead. Maybe her phone # is similar to mine (I know they use Verizon also).

I don't recall getting pure spam, but I do get messages from Verizon occasionally trying to get me to upgrade my plan...

I think mine (US model) had a 2.0L and was rated at 52hp. It got a steady 55MPG at 55MPH. I remember I really liked the steering and handling, compared favorably to a friend's VW GTI (of course, I was a teenager then, before I had discovered the joy of old-school RWD V8 cars...(I got my first 5.0 Mustang when I was 17).

Interesting..I'm not sure if I can recall ever seeing one of those.. I know they did a diesel Ciera, but how about the other A-bodies? Were there diesel Celebs and Centuries? I had a couple friends in high school that had full-size GM diesels..one an '81 Delta 88, the other an '80 Fleetwood Brougham. I had a Ford Escort diesel (Ford supposedly used the Mazda diesel in the Lynx, Tempo, Topaz and Ranger also, never seen any, though).

I would assume the next generation of Cobalt and G5? (Delta II or whatever?).

I miss the guy in Mass. that was into Saabs (was that Budman?), chromium steel was interesting... remember the crazy guy from the UK that wanted 4cyl Corvettes? I don't recall his name. I remember Razorsedge, don't really miss him, though--he was so negative and whiny about everything... I definitely miss the GM insiders that had secret inside rumours and stuff..

I'll probably wait until Netflix has it.. I usually like Adam Sandler movies. The two I'm looking forward to seeing on the big screen in the next couple of weeks are the Simpsons movie and the 3rd Bourne movie.

Yes...I'm amazed GM got away with selling such carbage...

Yeah...I wonder if that was due more to driver demographics (younger, more reckless drivers than the 4drs) than structural inadequacies..though based on what I've seen of crash test videos, the S-10 Blazers were as crummy as the Astro or Chinese cars..