Robert Hall

Yeah, I don't mind the humidity (lived in Ohio, Illinois, Michigan and the Florida Keys). Sometimes I speculate on what other parts of the country I would be happy in..just kind of 'what if' scenarios (I've thought of moving to Portland, Seattle, Phoenix, San Diego, San Jose, etc.) I like the Denver/Boulder area---lots of tech jobs, lots of highly educated professionals... I'm a liberal and an atheist, therefore have a fairly low tolerance of red state/heavily religious areas (Colorado Springs 50 miles away from me seems like it is straight out of the Bible Belt)... and the mild climate (dry, lots of sunshine) is a plus.. Maryland seems more like part of the NE to me than the south, since it borders PA and DE... Critieria for me as far as a good place to live include having a major airport (hub for at least 2 airlines, international service) within a 30 minute drive, lots of the basic amenities within 15 minutes (Target, Best Buy, Borders, Starbucks, Chipotle, a good bagel place, major grocery chains, etc), a technical bookstore, computer stores (Frys Electronics, Microcenter, or local equivalent), plenty of software companies and IT shops (with six figure jobs--I have that in Denver), diverse dining options (plenty of Indian, Thai, Chinese, etc restaurants), good local microbrews, a thriving downtown nearby, BMW dealers, Jeep dealers, i.e. basically suburbia in a major metro area is where I'm at home. Having fun places to drive nearby (mountains, hilly areas) is a plus, as is the ocean.

I could never live there...Va is part of the Bible Belt and the South, can't do either.. Maryland, though, could work (there a ton of tech jobs in the DC metro area).. don't know if I could adjust to the climate, though..

Strange that Subaru is so behind... of course, the previous WRX was painfully ugly, the new one still is also, now with a hatchback version...

As the article says "Youth love hybrids," ...maybe they can come up with a Prius Junior model for the kiddies...

Hilarious..the tc is a just a cheap econobox..nothing special.

The hobby has been dying out for the last two decades or so.. I know virtually no one my age IRL that builds models besides myself..it's mostly older (40s, 50s, 60s) men. I've been building since childhood in the late '70s, probably have about 1500 unbuilt 1:24/1:25 scale kits, and 300 that I've built. Kids today just aren't into a sedentary, tactile hobby like building models..they have way more sports, video games, etc...

The mid-engined Corvette idea has been talked about since the early '70s..the idea of a Corvette brand (like Porsche or Ferrari, w/ multiple models) has been talked about since the late '80s.. . nothing new here.

Pretty harsh law.. I'm used to the 75mph limits here, even then, in heavy traffic, it's 80 or more in dry, clear weather...(4 lane freeway, clogged with commuters up and down the Front Range).. in the metro areas, it's 55 or 65 (6- or 8- lanes), though at rush hour it's more like 20..

I would assume so...and the Miata/MX-5 has been through 3 generations over 17 years...

Smarts have been sold in some areas in the US for a couple of years now, imported by ZapCars (which has since moved on to importing tiny Chinese electric cars since DC is now going to be officially bringing the Smart).

Nice neighborhood, Custom-S. I like all the trees... I'm a fan of gated neighborhoods... keeps the riffraff out.

Great band... I remember going to see them in Jan '97..in of all places, Toledo, Ohio... I drove down from Ann Arbor w/ some of my fellow grad students..was a fun show.

The internet made everyone stupid? It seems with all the text messaging, IMing, etc the kiddies do these days, they are incapable of proper spelling, capitalization, and punctuation..

I like it...I wonder what the US price range is going to be? Starting under $30k?

I've seen a few around here, in Douglas County and Greenwood Village livery...haven't seen any in the city of Denver yet.

So what happened to it that made you decide to part it out (rather than sell whole)?

I know what mean about the factory black...I used to rent from Thrifty, and I had probably a dozen Intrepids, LHSes, Concordes and 300Ms from them from about '99-04... at least 6 were black, and the black did look like a metallic gray... sweet cars... I always enjoyed driving them.

IMHO, the worst of some FWD cars proportionally are a long front overhang coupled with a very short front door to front wheelwell distance... I just don't like cars where it looks like the front wheel is almost in the interior (which unfortuately is also common with mid-engined cars).. w/ RWD, I'm fond of the classic long hood/short deck designs, long hood/long deck and cars with plenty of door-to-wheelwell distance (also referred to as firewall to front axle distance also, I think). Speaking of well-proportioned FWD cars, the Intrepid and Aurora are two of my favorites... the Intrepid is one of my favorite domestic designs of the last decade--they are so sleek and look great in black. I also liked the proportions of the last Riviera (love the roofline and rear end) and the last two generations of Sevilles and the last Eldorado..

Thanks, all... it was a good birthday...went out to a new pub (Baker Street Pub, a British-themed place, apparently a chain) near my old office w/ a bunch of my ex-coworkers...(I left my corporate cubicle job June 15th and started a new contract gig last week)... I miss the people, but don't miss the work (deadly dull). I didn't drink too much, just a few beers and a couple shots..slight hangover this morning. Coincidentally, my '00 Grand Cherokee hit 80k yesterday. The M3 is good, thinking of selling it.. going out to dinner for Thai tonight w/ some of my closest friends.

I've thought of doing that with my '00 Grand Cherokee.. it's got almost 80k miles now, but still is in great shape. I think I'll keep for winter and off-road use and buy something else in the next year for a daily driver..

My Escort had a badge that read '5-speed' on the rear hatch, with the cool, tiny 'diesel' badges on the front fenders. My pet peeve w/ badging are the cars where the model name is on the left side of the decklid/hatch and the brand name is on the right side... don't see it as much anymore, but it just looks wrong, esp. in English where you read left-to-right. This reads correctly--'Toyota Camry' but this is just plain wrong, reads as 'Grand Marquis LS Mercury'... I've never understood why so many automakers made this mistake...

Yeah..I've seen a lot of rusty F-series when I'm in Ohio..and the Rangers..the old Rangers rusted like crazy...Fox Mustangs were known for rusting decklid/hatch edges, doors...haven't noticed any of the SN95 ('94-04) era cars with rust, though... I saw a first-gen Taurus when I was in Cleveland last year that was the rustiest Taurus I've ever seen... rust holes around the door handles, rust all over the doors, fenders, quarters, 1/2 inch or more of the decklid bottom edge missing, etc.. Rust is such a rare sight here, even surface rust..faded or peeling paint I see occasionally, but the only rusty vehicles I see are probably from out of state like my Bronco was (I brought it to Colorado with 9 years of Ohio/Michigan/Illinois rust).

Maybe some of those are Katrina salvaged? I rarely ever see rusty cars except those brought in from out of state (too dry here, no salty roads).

Which they already have...Equinox, Vue, Torrent...

Good to hear..some positive news for Michigan.