Drew Dowdell

You can swap out center caps very easily.... could have just been a dealer switcheroo

I've wanted to go to that every year and I've NEVER made it! I think it's usually over labor day weekend.... and as such, I'll be in Germany! :doh:

Had Chas broken up with me in an honorable way I wouldn't hate him the way I do now. Chas had an affair with a 68 year old retiree and then got mad at me for being upset and depressed about it. He doesn't even acknowledge that he did anything wrong. I am still friends with all of my other past relationships because they ended on good terms. I am only on the most limited of speaking terms <e-mail only> with Chas only because some of our finances are still tied up together.

I'll be around. Anyone who is traveling that wants to stop by is welcome to look me up.

I blame walmart because walmart has force manufacturers to China in an effort to bring you "Everyday low prices! " This ended up effecting products at ALL stores. If a toy manufacturer was force to begin producing in China because of Walmarts imposed price cuts, that same manufacturer is going to sell that same product to Target.

This is where Toyota does it's cost cutting. NPR did a story months back about the domestics <basically a bash piece> saying how GM had something like 27 rear view mirror designs while Toyota has 4. They were praising Toyota for it, but in my mind I was thinking to myself... well, at least GM's look right.

I blame walmart.

Think fast... what is each car? I bet you had to spend more than a second to decide.....

I'll still be on here all the time.

diesels are only more expensive to produce because there isnt the scale there that gasoline engines have. I'm not saying for GM to build the engines in Europe and ship them here, the exchange rate prohibits that. I'm staying take the design and build it here. The reason the small Ford crossover was too expensive was because they were going to build it in Europe and ship it. Had they built it in Atlanta at the old Taurus plant, the result may have been different. Still there wasn't going to be enough of them produced to justify a whole plant for a single model Lincoln.... they would have needed to share the line with Mercury, Ford, and probably Mazda..... like Ford *needs* another crossover/cute ute.

The advertising would be so much easier if each division had a full line up great vehicles. Here are some of my ideas: Rip off of an older Ford ad: New Silverado and New Tundra are getting ready to pull boats out of the water. Hot guy with hot girlfriend in the Silvy. Average Joe with no girlfriend in the Tundra. Silverado goes first.... show a line about the automatic locking rear diff that helps with towing even without the 4WD engaged. Tundra tries the same thing and spins his left rear tire. Joe looks frustrated and tries again..... this time you hear a loud boom and the hood on the Tundra busts up a little with smoke coming out. Hot girlfriend looks back and says "Oh SNAP!"

Grand Prix with Mazda headlights and an anyone in the world grill

unfortunately, I already have plans to be in Cleveland this weekend, otherwise I'd be there.

Always helpful to post the dates of the event..... but using the little gray cells, I've deduced that it is at least partially on Saturday.

yikes..... I often express myself through the lyrics of the music I listen to. When I first heard Enrique Iglasias's "Do you know...."<Ping Pong song> I completely lost it. For those of you who don't know the song, the main lyric goes "Do you know what it feels like loving someone who's in a rush to throw you away?" yeah... I've pretty much stuck to instrumental since.......

I will be in Cologne Germany from August 22 - September 5th.

Thanks guys. This is what I alluded to in one of my "for sale" threads where I stated that this was part of my master plan to be a 2009 CTS-D driver.

So here's the deal. In November 2006 my partner started having an affair with a 68 year old rich guy. Those of you who know me well enough know that I'm not exactly hurting for money. After a few months of painfully trying to reconcile Chas and I finally split in the middle of February 2007. This, in effect, devastated me. I can't even look at an ad for a retirement home without wanting to vomit. Not only did I lose Chas, but I lost the family that came with him. I was very close to his parents.... his dad especially. I have no family here in Pittsburgh. I also lost a number of friends in the "divorce" leaving me feeling even more isolated. In the meantime, Chas "Nicole Smith" and his sugar daddy are regularly seen out together at various gay gathering places. I can't seem to go to any of the gay bars without someone who vaguely knows both of us coming up to me and saying "Oh Chas and his BF were just here" or "You should have seen the two of them together, it was just gross". So I've stopped going to such places completely. I've stopped dating. I don't see the point. I have been traveling a bit recently both for work and pleasure. I try to get out of the city almost every weekend. I've found that I am happiest when I'm not here.... so I began looking for places to move to. The answer came in a friend I made in the springtime. A German graduate exchange student and I became good friends. He and his partner are getting married in August. I will be attending their wedding in Cologne, Germany. This is my first step in moving to Germany. They have invited and encouraged me to move to Cologne with them and start a new life there. They think they can get me an I.T. job at the Bank of Cologne if I decide I need one. I've analyzed my finances and I found out that if I just didn't have the cars, I could quit my job and live just off the rental income from my portfolio of apartment buildings. My intention is to sell both of the cars and use a combination of public transit and my Flexcar account. This alone will save me $12,000 a year. If I run into a very very nice 79-85 Toronado, I'll buy it, put a trailer hitch on it for maintaining my buildings, and put it into storage once I move to Germany. My company pays a very generous bonus on Feb 15th of every year. I want to wait for that bonus and in the meantime tie up as many loose ends I have here in Pittsburgh. I won't be selling any of my property. The house I live in will be rented out for additional income. I've always wanted to live in Europe. I see this whole situation as an opportunity, a motive, and a solution. Germany isn't a permanent move. At this point I am thinking I'll be there about two years and then come back to Pittsburgh. But I need time to get away, heal, reflect, and explore. So there you have it..... how Oldsmoboi crashed and how he's going to be put back together again.

I'm not. I'm parting with both the CTS and Avalanche and not replacing them right away. ...... I suppose I should post a life update and let you guys in on what's happened and what will be happening over the next year.

I'm going to have to disagree with F-O-G on this one. It wasn't that Ford was healthy... it was just that the money hadn't run out yet. A healthy Ford doesn't bring out the 1996 Taurus then only give it a mild makeover to try and correct things. A healthy Ford doesn't let Mercury and Lincoln wither on the vine. A healthy Ford doesn't bring us a production Thunderbird but leave the Continental in the "concept" stage. A healthy Ford doesn't bring out the Excursion only to cancel it 4 years later. A healthy Ford.... well.. you get the point.

The Swap-a-Lease listing is now up.

I think he is suggesting that if GM has to build the diesels for Europe anyway, why not sell them here also.

love it!

supply and demand....... but as you can see, these pics are of substantially higher quality.