Drew Dowdell

Actually, those are perfect examples. I see those more than I do 3ers. They came standard with AWD where as the 3er is an extra charge for it.... in your area, I'm sure that makes a difference.

Most of the interstates are paid for with federal money. Roads are not the most subsidized form of transit... because road taxes are lifted for other transit methods. Yeah, but that 0.001% of linear mileage is responsible for a big chunk of traffic... vehicular miles. Not only that, they spill traffic that are not able to pay the toll onto other, usually overburdened, routes. Sometimes, keeping people off those roads is a form of subsidy. If keeping an extra 5,000 cars a day off of a bridge extends the life of that bridge by 5 - 7 years, that is a huge potential savings. However, even if you put back all the road taxes taken from gas tax to use for transit, the amount of money spent on highway subsidy greatly eclipses all other transportation subsidies. Please don't bring up the per-passenger-mile metric. It is a flawed metric. Explained:

Most of the country doesn't live in rural areas.

European/Japanese cities have been notoriously car unfriendly since the beginning. With one notable exception (Avignon France, surrounded by a city wall) all of the cities in Europe that I've visited are just as drivable as any city in the U.S..... yet at the same time they are easier to drive in because there are less cars on the road in the first place.

Except there is clearly still an issue with the EPA test for a vehicle like the Volt. Highway travel for me in extended range mode yielded over 60mpg and I wasn't being gentle on it.

x4

I think it's just a weird shadow/drip in the first picture where the muffler is visible.

looks like you have an exhaust leak too?

rise

I think that might void the warranty.

Remember, I grew up in the immediate Philly area. While I don't visit Philly much since 2007 or so, there have been points in my life where driving to Phila was a daily event. I think your Pittsburgh bias is showing. ;-) So we'll have to agree to disagree. Remember, I grew up there too. ;-) Pittsburgh has it's pockets of bad that need to be bulldozed, but no where near as much as Philly. However, my point to this is.... if cities actually started bulldozing this stuff and either A) encouraged rebuilding or B) ripped it out and put in a park, it would greatly improve the city. But there needs to be a sustainable plan in place for urban density, walkability, and public transit that doesn't rely on dirty diesel buses. And that city is... a European city? Or are you thinking of someplace in the US? it is many European cities.

They are out there... not too hard to find... most will only add 3/4 to an inch or so. Chevy to BOP is probably more common due to all the BOP people adding non-dual Chevy-only adaptor 700R4s. But I suppose they will work in either direction, reversed, depending on which side you need the starter on, if the starter was too even interfere. A stock LT1 is probably as crazy as you could get on that tranny... beyond that I'd imagine torque steer, traction and reliability would be an issue. Of course, I'd look into TH-425 fitment... and a big Olds 455 mill... but thats getting pricy... and likely would still be a serious traction problem. I guess I would look into converting to RWD if I really was going to go nuts with one of these. I can't imagine its so impossible. Going RWD is sacrilege on these, and there is no torque steer due to the way the half shafts are set up being nearly identical in length on either side. A Roadmaster could be a good engine to start with. It would lead to 0-60 times in the 6.75 - 7.5 range. The Roadmaster sedan was capable of a flat 8.0

much of Philly, outside of the central core, is desolate. It needs a fleet of bulldozers... or an Allied bombing campaign. My trouble is that I've seen what a walkable city with great housing and efficient public transit can be like... and how people can live in such a place and be car free not because they have to, but because they see no point in owning a car. and how vibrant, diverse, and most of all free that city is.

Ah, yeah... which is what I was thinking... then the trouble is digging up a Northstar to BOP adaptor... I never paid attention to the Northstar/Shortstar pattern. I thought they were thinking of swapping a whole drivetrain. BOP to Chevy adaptors are pretty easy to do. Shame the TH-325/TH-425 don't have the dual patterns the 200-4Rs have. I imagine I'll need to figure out a Chevy to BOP adapter some day. I've always wanted one the these Sevilles and to put an LT-1 in it. It doesn't need to be the fastest thing on the block, but I do want it to accelerate with a Cadillac like authorati! Its been eons since I looked over an E-bod... but as I remember it the axles were fairly far forward compared to the modern FWDs... like between the 1/2 and 3/4 cylinders. Of course, I suppose you could move the radiator forward... but then I'm sure the original E-bod drivetrain is better weighted behind the front axle. Your recollection of the axle location is exactly right.

I'm just not paying that much attention to a proposal that 1.) The republicans would never in any way allow and 2.) The Whitehouse said wasn't even included in the debate. It doesn't get much deader than that. I was just being cryptic, Drew. It was the "regressive" debate that I was referring to in that post. For that, I direct you towards the Politics forum. It's down the hall on your... uhm.... left. All fine and dandy... but they aren't going to ever plant all that rail in a place like Jersey without pissing off everybody (NIMBY)... It takes NYC 40 years to get a new subway line put in... and its buried 20-50+ feet below the street. In South Jersey there are two kinds of people... normal driving ones and unfortunate ones that spend 1/4 of their day waiting for bus transfers to travel the 20 minutes the normal people drive. it's really a testament to the desolate places Detroit, Philly, and many other industrial cities have become.

I think he was proposing turning the transverse Aurora by 90 degrees, SA. You couldn't mount anything but an I4 in one of these transversely because they still have a bit of RWD proportions to them. The engine would end up sitting too far forward and would be into the radiator (which sits a good foot behind the bumper). My 81 is a 3-speed, they went 4-speed overdrive across the lineup in '82.

I'm just not paying that much attention to a proposal that 1.) The republicans would never in any way allow and 2.) The Whitehouse said wasn't even included in the debate. It doesn't get much deader than that.

draw your line, but make sure he knows it's there.

much more available in junk yards.

No kidding. The thing is, though, that you and Camino seem unable to think of the other perspective...you know, how people get through life without driving. I grew up with a family where one parent was blind and the other was legally blind. No car. Somehow they managed to survive, and their kids thrived. Ever think of the disabled? Many of them physically cannot drive. Horror of horrors, they must be complete shut-ins, right? No, they find alternative ways of travel. It really isn't that hard and awful, people. You are talking tiny numbers here. America is still a nation on wheels. there is ZERO reason those wheels can't be steel for more people going forward..... except F.U.D.

These all happened in the course of 2 weeks. Left CV joint, headlight/dashboard flicker, A/C dead, AWD malfunction(?) Power steering hoses blew back in the winter. It typically gets less than 150 miles a week, mostly just commuting 7 miles each way through suburbia. He's not rough on it. He bought it new. It has 82,295 miles as of today. Honda released a service bulletin that specifically says if the A/C compressor goes, you have to replace the rest of the system as well since it is impossible to do a flush. The name "Equinox" has already passed his lips with no prompting from me. We'd probably fix all the low hanging fruit except for the A/C and hang onto it as long as we can till it's at least paid off.

apparently the A/C issue is a $2500 fix that is frequent occurrence for Honda's of all models from this year. Getting it fixed at reduced cost requires fighting with Honda Motor America and citing a class action lawsuit.

The XTS went to Cadillac instead of Buick because they are the ones missing two vehicles in the lineup right now since the DTS and STS are dead. The Lacrosse is doing pretty well in it's market.

And the GMC Terrain Denali is on it's way.

Isusu