Robert Hall

I'm starting to get the old-school RWD BOF V8 American land yacht itch myself lately...I'm thinking an '03-04 Mercury Marauder, P71 Crown Vic Interceptor, or late model Town Car would be fun to have..

The Roadmasters of Europe Great article about an interesting man and his collection....the idea of Buick Roadmaster wagons in Rome is mind-blowing... though I did see a Tahoe across the street from the Colloseum when I was in Rome.

Ideally, I'd like to see the coupe/convertible called Riviera and the sedan called Electra. But obviously Buick marketeers want a new, fresh name with no history..to go after new buyers.

Cool... it would be nice to see a family-sized convertible again..been a long time since there has been one. A coworker and I have been talking about this this week---about the lack of family-sized convertibles..he and his wife want a convertible, but they have 2 infants..they've looked at the Mini, 4dr Wrangler, Eos, G6, Sebring, Solara, and a used A4. The Solara was the only one they have found that had a big enough back seat to accomodate two rear-facing child seats and big enough trunk for a stroller, etc.

Wild...no structural integrity at all..that video must have inspired GM with to make the Astro and U-vans so collapsible.

Least favorites-- white, bright yellow, orange, bright green (i.e. I don't care for the current Charger's 1970-style colors), bright red. Favorites--dark blue, dark charcoal gray, dark red, silver...though the biggest frustration with dark colors is how they show every scratch.... I do like some greens--there are several olive greens that Jeep has used in recent years that I like, and a really sharp bright apple green that was on the Avalanche a couple years ago that I like. I like copper and bronze colors, I esp. like the color the Enclave prototype was shown in. I also like light silver blues that I usually see on BMWs and Mercedes..not much of a fan of teal, esp. after Ford overdosed on it..it seems like 75% of all Fords from around 1993-1995 were teal. I do like black, but probably wouldn't own a black car for the maintainance issues..hard to keep a black car looking good. I like black specifically on performance cars and luxury cars.

They won't need one, since the BPG dealers already have the Enclave and Acadia.

Yeah, it can definitely get gray, cold and damp there in the winter...I spent 6 years in the Cleveland area, 3 years in Ann Arbor, Mi and a year in Chicago, so I know gray and damp...but still, sometimes I miss some things about Ohio, esp. in the spring and fall, the roads, and being geographically closer to family...

Heh-heh...I did the Speedo on the beach thing in Italy a few years ago, but I'm not tanned, ripped or chisled...I'm pale and have a physique like a slightly thinner Tony Soprano..(no hairy back, though)

I went to Ohio for the holiday weekend to visit family...hot and humid (felt more like July weather than May!), lots of sun, some heavy thunderstorms. Some highlights-- I really liked my '07 Mercury Grand Marquis GS rental from Hertz... it was a lot of fun driving a V8, RWD, BOF old-school American land yacht...both on I-70/I-77 and on eastern Ohio's fantastic smooth, low-traffic winding hilly backroads (state routes and county roads around the Amish country of my youth)... it handled better than I thought it would on the rolling, twisty roads... (At the rental car counter, the guy tried to persuade me to take a Montego or Five Hundred, but I had specifically reserved a Grand Marquis). Hertz at the Columbus airport also had two Mustang Shelby GT-Hs on the lot.. I had my Mustangs ('69 351 Sportsroof, '87 GT) out for a few drives, but had to do those early or late, not much fun driving without air conditioning (esp. the '69--black vinyl interior). Went to a Tim Horton's for breakfast. After years of hearing my Canadian coworkers talk about them, I had to check one out...pretty good donuts. Spent some time in downtown Columbus yesterday, hadn't been there much in years except for the airport. Downtown looked good...also went out to the 'burbs and met an old friend for lunch in Dublin (Columbus suburb). Home prices around Columbus were eye-opening (much cheaper than the Denver metro area)...

I like the Traverse name...they need a name different from TrailBlazer to distinguish it from the old-style BOF SUV. A 7 passenger spec makes sense, as they already have the 5 passenger crossover market covered with the Equinox...

Interesting..looks like a retouched photo, but I like the rear quarter creases and the decklid treatment...not so sure about the front door upturned crease, seems like an afterthought...

Exactly...I'm amazed that some vehicles still have the old style lock posts on the door tops... I always notice them in rental card and it seems anachronistic. (my Jeep is 7 years old and doesn't have them).

Exactly... I raise my hoods and check the oil, add washer fluid, etc once in a month or so, otherwise, every 3 months it's at the shop for the regular service interval. Most of today's cars are just a mix of black, gray and silver tubes and boxes under the hood, so it's not like there is much to look at...

I've driven a previous generation A-class...interesting little car, even with the diesel and an automatic it had enough grunt to move along quickly on the autostradas and around town. I like the Golf (Rabbit in US) quite a bit, esp. in GTI form... the others I'm not familiar with beyond what I've seen in British magazines and seen on the roads and in parking lots when in Europe as a tourist...I'm looking forward to seeing the Opel Astra when it comes to the US as a Saturn.

I did my driver's ed class in a brown '84 Celebrity and a maroon '82 Delta 88 (my school had a couple DE cars). I took my test in my dad's '84 Escort Diesel which I drove my junior year in HS until I got my '87 Mustang GT. IIRC, my sister took driver's ed in a mid '70s Maverick. She took her driver's test in my dad's '69 Mustang Mach 1, then got her first car--a '76 Pinto. I believe my brother took his driver's test in my dad's '66 Galaxie then got a '66 Mustang GT convertible for his first car...

I saw a Queen + Paul Rodgers concert last year, pretty good.. it was interesting to see Rodgers (whom I like from Bad Co) doing Queen songs and vice versa... Brian May is a heck of a guitarist. I wasn't much into Queen growing up in the '80s, but I've grown to like them..my favorite song is probably the one they did with David Bowie, 'Under Pressure'. I never got into vinyl or tapes back in the day, from 1987 on I've bought CDs.. but about 7 years ago, I bought a record player and added to my home theatre after my sister bought me a bunch of '80s U2 albums (which I have on CD) on vinyl for my 30th birthday, since I'm such a fan(atic). They sound pretty good, not the same as CDs through 5.1, but still fun to listen to. I've picked up a few more vinyl records, mostly for the cool cover art... Though while growing up my tastes in music were rooted in the '80s and later '90s, I've developed an appreciation of a lot of '70s music---from rock (Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Who, AC/DC, Springsteen/ESB, The Rolling Stones, Deep Purple) and other music like The Band, Bob Dylan, Brian Eno's ambient work, Tangerine Dream, etc. But I still really can't get into disco or punk.

Hmmm..well, it's a design studio..they are obviously going to have images on the walls of things that may or may not represent future production designs..

Good riddance...it would be nice to see more EOWGs (Evil Old White Guys) like Pat Robertson, James Dobson, and Donald Wildmon go away permanently... all they have done is spread a message of hate and intolerance disguised as religion.

Speaking of Dirty Dancing and Patrick Swayze, I watched Black Dog on cable the other night in my hotel... a cheesy Patrick Swayze movie..interesting truck driving sequences. I've been here in Portland since Tuesday night for RailsConf 2007, a very cool, very geeky computer conference... been riding the MAX light rail around, sampling the local beer and cuisine, and enjoying the nice weather (no ice storm like my last trip here).

So they are trying to target the subliterate gangsta moron market segment, eh? They should have set up a display at Rails Conf, where I'm at now.. a lot of intelligent people here..

Of course, when gas gets to $4-5/gallon, 31 mpg will look pretty good.

Congrats... I got 3 degrees in my 20s (BS in Computer Science, MS in Computer Science, MS in Computer Engineering) and was well on my way to my PhD before I burned out---too many hours, too much Prozac, Jaegermiester and vodka... I have thought about going back to school to get an MBA with an IT focus...not sure what I want to do, though...I'm looking down the barrel at 40 and am wondering if I want to get out of the cubicle into something different...

I've never seen Tommy, but I do remember watching The Wall while stoned in grad school about 15 years ago. Though I grew up in the '80s, there is a lot of '70s music that I love....esp. Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac....never got into disco or punk, but I like new wave/post-punk late '70s into the '80s... (Elvis Costello, The Cars, Joy Division, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, etc) along with lots of '80s music.. If I could live in any other era than the present, I think I would like to have been in my 20s and in the UK from about 1967-1975 or so..

The G8 looks good in the red....but I'd take it in a dark gray...I like subtle colors more, not much into loud colors..but that's just me. No way would I drive a bright green Charger, though it would be a fun drive.