76ChevyTrucker

From what I can tell though, if you take any of the N-body cars, Alero, Cutlass, Malibu, or Grand Am and weigh them on scales with the exact same options and packaging, then the Malibu for some odd reason will weigh about 480-520lbs more. And I know what you mean about the pads being made out of silly putty......I sell enough of the 727-series pads fill up an entire junkyard.

Direction of Chrysler. On WMJ's previous question 67-72 for looks/style, 73-87 for dependability, and longevity. Catepillar or Cummins?

Saw a Lexus that the driver decided to see how well he could drive on the roof with.....(oh yeah, this was after he played bumper cars with a 1980 Peterbuilt), umm....more 07 Tahoes, first 06 Impala 9C1, the same red Solstice that's been around a few times with the same MILF driving it, and my neighbors '83 K5 Blazer looks like it ran into a fight with a bulldozer and won....

My thoughts are the same as Purdue on this one, what if something happens (akin to an EGR valve sticking open) and you get an endless stream of water in the engine....then you end up with a chocolate milkshake in the oil pan and a seized motor, sounds like a wonderful idea to me.....lets do it....to the imports!

to heat sanitize them?

One thing is true, if the intake manifold gasket has been replaced, and if it was replaced by a shop other than typically a dealership shop, there's a good chance that you'll get a good car without problems, its the ones that get that particular repair done at a dealership shop (not denouncing their work or parts at bad, but it just seems that way in my neck of the woods) that end up having the same trouble again. The only other problem I've heard with the Malibus is the fact that they eat brakes....and by eat them, I mean three times a day. From what I can tell, its because the car is too heavy for the front brakes that are on the car, but I could be wrong although a set of scales don't lie.

Nice car and I think that spot is right outside Gatlinburg.....at least it looks the same as a picture that me and my parents took there a few years back, I could be wrong though (damned sure won't be the first time)

People on here I respect.....Camino, WMJ, Sixty8, Fly, Josh, Blu, Viper, AH-HA (you're gonna be missed man), griffon, Variance and all the others that have given me the chance to get a word in edgewise and not completely blow me out of the water. Cheers to you all!

Its been good to see your posts on here AH-HA and I'm sorry to see you go, but there are sometimes things that must be done.

I have no clue, other than thinking that its Spring Break for most of the country so the gas stations are jacking the prices up to wring every cent they can out of all the Breakers out there.

I glad that someone mentioned the old Rock Crusher tranny, I'd compeletly forgotten about it (don't ask me why/how I did it). And the Allison and Duramax are definitely a great combination.

no problem at all, like I said on here before (at least I think I've said it) I'm a parts guy and I like to diagnose and help out anyway I can when it comes to parts and problems.

To me, Roadmaster always gives me the image of the Roadmasters of the early 90s, Electra brings up bile wretching moments of that stupid movie, AND hearing people call the car a Deuce and a quarter....Invicta doesn't really light a fire under my ass either, and Statesman DOES sound like a brand of luggage......pick something else.....like I dunno....Park Avenue!

Roush is probably tuning out Solsti for people who are willing to spend the cash, or they're going to be special edition Roush Racing Solsti, which by all means is great.

Thanks for the peanut gallery comments FOG, they helped out a whole bunch on bringing some comedy in the article. This is good news, I keep seeing more and more new Tahoes rolling around here in Alabama, so I know they're selling well.

Thanks for putting this up Variance, good article to see that GM at least has a heart to donate vehicles to those that need it the most like the Red Cross.

I don't know what it is, but I've always like the Colorado and Canyon pick ups, my store (CarQuest) has two of them as delivery trucks and if I get a chance to move from slinging parts every day as a parts sales guy and get to drive, then I always go for them. I dunno what it is about those two trucks, but to me, everything fits like its supposed to with them, they're great little trucks, and even for a delivery vehicle, they're very reliable, much more so than our two Rangers that we have (somehow they always seem to break).

I've heard that comment too before from some female friends of mine and the wife's. They want a sport coupe, but the G6 just doesn't strike their fancy. I like the car a lot and if I weren't as upside down on the Impala as I am and I didn't want a truck next (sorry I'm a truck guy at the heart), I'd definitely look into a G6 as my next car. By the way, great article and review, well thought out and very fluid.

I've seen a lot of the cloud cars still going, but kinda like what you said, they have some pretty big faltering spots too, but overall, they're fairly decent cars.

Blue, I agree with you, that's why for years there was a 262 (4.3L) V6, a 305, and a 350 because they all shared a great deal of common parts with one another and in the overall scheme of things, the engines were cheap to build, and powerful for what they were at the time. Of course that means absolutely nothing now with the 350 and 305 retired and the 4.3 going to hit the retirement pen pretty soon too. Although I've always been a fan of sharing technology and parts to the greatest extent.

All right, since this is completely opinionated here.....I personally believe that a bulletproof engine/transmission combination is the Chevrolet 350 strapped behind a THM400 transmission. Great power, reliability out of this world and simplicity all day long. Now y'all take a swing at it. What do you think is the best engine/transmission combination to be used by General Motors so far?

All right, lets see where I can start with this one. Chevrolet, with the small-block architecture that was used in the 350cid engine made a powerplant that was a) adaptable b) dependable c) modify-able d) powerful e) long-lived-able f) cheap parts to modify it HIGHLY findable. And most importantly, it is the one single engine that you can spend only about a grand on and make a powerful little booger with. Try doing that to a Ford 302 or 351, much less a DCX 318 or 360.

Another thing is the closer tolerances that engines are built to today as compared to say, my Chevy 350 in the '76 pickup I have, now I admit that its a powerful monster (385hp to the rear wheels), but the tolerances are a LOT larger than on a car of today. Although I will admit that my truck ran for 196,587 miles before both head gaskets gave up the ghost and I rebuilt the engine, bored it .040 over, put a hotter cam in it, did a little magic to the Holley Street Dominator 600cfm 4bbl, along with a few other modifications, but the basic block hasn't been really touched, nor has the crank, and I still have the original cam stored and ready to rock and roll in another engine if need be. I have to admit that the engines will run forever if they're properly maintained. My granddad has a 4.3L in his '89 Blazer that gets the oil changed every 3 months (doesn't do enough driving to work the 3,000 mile limit) antifreeze flushed and refilled every 2 years, transmission flushed and refilled every 100,000 miles and he's currently got about 180,000 on it and hasn't run into problem #1 yet, unless you count a finally burned out distributor cap and rotor button and a Coolant Temp Sensor as major, stop-the-earth's-rotation problems.

I'm very glad that she slapped down CR, and like y'all said, they take a base model domestic vs a fully leaded import and expect the domestic to perform.....yeah, right.

All right working in the parts business, 3-years at AutoZone, and now a little over 6 months are CarQuest, I can say that there is a HUGE difference in the parts. NAPA and CarQuest both use basically the same suppliers, and those suppliers are the people that normally manufacture the parts for the dealers as OEM parts, that's where the price comes in. Now don't get me wrong, a Wells manufactured part (normally a "value" priced part) CAN last as long as the Standard Electric part, but I'd put my money in the Standard simply because that's what 90% of your OEM parts really are.