mustang84

I don't know about anyone else, but we have had quite a winter so far. Usually you don't see much in the way of snow or ice around here before Christmas, but so far it has snowed much of the week and we had two days of freezing rain / sleet that left about 2 inches of ice on the ground. It iced again last night and now it has changed over to snow; I had to go out last night and scraping it off my windows was a task since it was just a thick glazing over everything. We used to have really bad winters like this in the first few years of the 90s, then it was mild for the rest of the decade until about 2003 when we've been having monster snowstorms and earlier snow. A couple winters ago my hometown had four feet of snow on the ground, something it hadn't seen since the blizzard of 1979. I kinda like it though because I grew up with a lot of brown Christmases so it's nice to finally get the snow back!

Christ, that thing probably weighs as much as a medium sized dog!

A Cavalier is no match for the strength of this kitteh.

Inspired by Dodgefan's gif thread, these things have been making the rounds lately. I saved some of the more humorous ones. The one that started it all And some other random funny pics

Man, that's pretty much Buick territory. What is Buick at these days?

More fuel for the fire, this time from the founder of the Weather Channel SOURCE: http://icecap.us/index.php/go/joes-blog/co...global_warming/

Please tell me they're kidding.

I swear to god, Toyota must have a little basket of cliche sound bites they recycle for each sales release. I'm pretty sure I have read "one-two punch" and "down for the count" from them before.

Jeebus, the Accord really jumped. Looks like CR-V sales are starting to slow. Honda seems to be doing better in the car segment, but trucks are still down quite a bit. Acura is almost becoming irrelevant; even the MDX is way down.

Definitely. One of the cool things about the Dodge Avenger (Caliber too?) was that it comes with a USB drive that you can play MP3's directly from. I have a CD player in my car that reads MP3 discs, but it's getting to the point where I get tired of making a new one every time I get new music, and I don't like toting a bunch of CDs around in my car. The advertising was effective too...it simply showed a USB cable plugging into the rear of the Avenger, and instantly understood what it was all about. For youth market cars like the Focus and Avenger, this stuff can make or break a sale for those that are just looking for something that drives and is compatible with their iPods, Zunes, etc.I don't understand why the Taurus isn't selling...although I have yet to see any type of advertising besides the lame-o ad from a few months ago showing the dad letting his kid drive for the first time or whatever the hell it was. Talk about forgettable.

http://www.pressroom.toyota.com/Releases/V...YT2007120318703 Toyota Reports November Sales 12/03/2007 December 3, 2007 -Torrance, CA - Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A., Inc., today reported best-ever November sales of 197,189 vehicles, an increase of 0.3 percent over last November. "Rising fuel prices and sliding home values delivered a one-two punch this month," said Jim Lentz, TMS executive vice president. "But the industry's not down for the count. Demand for fresh, more fuel-efficient products continues to show strength." The Toyota Division posted best-ever November sales of 172,341, an increase of 1.4 percent over last November. Toyota Division Toyota Division passenger cars recorded best-ever November sales of 98,749 units, up 6.2 percent over last November. Passenger-car sales were led by Camry, which posted best-ever November sales of 35,409, an increase of 3.6 percent over the same period last year. Camry Hybrid reported sales of 5,118 units in November, up 65 percent over November 2006. The Prius hybrid gas-electric mid-size sedan posted best-ever November sales of 16,737, an increase of 109 percent over last November. Corolla reported November sales of 25,012 units. Toyota Division light truck sales were down 4.4 percent, with November sales of 73,592 units. Light truck sales were led by the all-new Tundra full-size pickup with best-ever November sales of 14,988, an increase of 43.2 percent over the year-ago month. The RAV4 compact sport utility vehicle reported November sales of 12,354, up 8.1 percent over the same period last year. Highlander and Highlander Hybrid posted combined best-ever sales of 12,312 in November, up 10.9 percent over last November. The Highlander Hybrid gas-electric mid-size SUV reported sales of 2,577 units for the month. Scion posted November sales of 9,619 units. The tC sports coupe led the way with November sales of 3,845 units. The xB urban utility vehicle posted November sales of 3,842 units, an increase of 10.4 percent over last November. Lexus Division Lexus passenger cars reported November sales of 14,892 units, a decrease of 7.8 percent from November 2006. Passenger-car sales were led by the ES 350 luxury sedan with November sales of 5,902 units. The IS 250/350 luxury sport sedan was up 6.9 percent with sales of 3,849. The LS 460/460 L and new LS 600h L luxury sedans reported combined sales of 2,668. The LS 600h L hybrid luxury sedan posted sales of 170 units for the month. The GS 350 luxury sport sedan had sales of 1,989, up 19.5 percent, while the GS 460/450h posted combined sales of 216, an increase of 10.2 percent. Lexus Division light trucks reported November sales totaling 9,956 units, a decrease of 5.7 percent from the year-ago month. The RX 350 and RX 400h posted combined November sales of 8,038 units. The RX 400h hybrid luxury utility vehicle reported sales of 1,674 units for the month, an increase of 26 percent. TMS Hybrids TMS calendar-year-to-date hybrid sales totaled 253,466 units, an increase of 45 percent over the same period last year. In November, TMS posted sales of 26,376 hybrid vehicles, up 85 percent over last November. Toyota Division posted sales of 24,432 hybrids, up 91 percent over November 2006. Lexus Division posted sales of 1,944 hybrids, an increase of 29 percent over last November. There were 25 selling days this month and last November.

Once again, Mercury is up...27%. The Milan is now outselling the MKZ. Taurus really isn't taking off at all...it's higher than the 500 was at this time last year but not by much. The Mustang is way down. Good performers: Edge, Focus, Fusion, and Escape. F-series, Explorer, Expedition down in the dumps. Sales Chart: http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=27313

Here's a couple cool Formula videos I found...some ear candy

Yeah, I prefer the spoiler lip to the big WS6 wing thing. Here's a cool bit I found on a website about Formula history: If I could have any of the Formulas, this would be it. And as big of a Mustang fan as I am, if I were offered the choice between a '93 Cobra and a '92 Formula, I would probably take the Formula.

Gotcha. It sounds like what Ford did with the LX notchback Mustangs...lots of people opted for them over the hatchbacks and GT's because you still could get the 5.0 as an option, but you don't have all the extra weight from the ground effects, so it makes for a better drag strip car.I like that stripped down look too, especially with a shiny set of Cragars and some beefy tires. Were these cars limited production since they are so rare, or was it just an option that not many people chose (and therefore making them rare today)? Also, what years were these produced?

I like the shape of the wheel arches...they have a classic look to them. These LeSabres were pretty cool for the time.

I guess I've never really known much about the Formula Firebird and how differentiated it was from a Trans Am. Someone in my hometown has a '92 Formula Firebird that I believe is supposed to be pretty rare. Could someone give me a quick history lesson on what the focus was for a Formula Firebird vs. a Trans Am (performance, suspension, options, etc)? Maybe like how the IROC was geared toward power while the Z/28 was geared toward handling? I'm assuming they were situated below the Trans Am in price and performance, but what was it that made them so special and some like the '92 so collectible? I tried looking up some info but didn't really find much on them (and didn't have time to read the whole Wikipedia article). Thanks for the info!

1" of ice, followed by sleet and snow here. This is the second snow we've had so far this year, the first being a day before Thanksgiving where we had whiteout conditions and lots of trucks and cars in the ditch. People never seem to know how to drive when the first snow hits.

I was wondering why I didn't see any post from Oldsmoboi..

That's what bugs me about "idealism" and "utopia"...it simply will never happen. I visit a skyscraper board often where you get a lot of the anti-car, pro-urban attitude. What they don't understand is that this "urban utopia" will never, ever happen. Never in the history of the world have these utopias succeeded; the idea of everybody living the same is always tainted by corruption of a few at the top. Look at what happened with the Soviets. They had good intentions of this utopic society of government housing and economic equality, but with the lack of competition and disparity there was no innovation, and quickly the living conditions in the USSR deteriorated and stagnated compared to the rest of the world that continued to advance and invent and innovate.As $h!ty as it is to say it, the world progresses because of disparity and strife. We only look for solutions when we feel threatened. The people who have little see the people who have a lot, and if they truly want that, they will work to get it. That's what this country was founded on...people that had nothing and did great things because they had the determination and drive to change it. All I see with this anti-car, anti-corporation, anti-technology attitude is failure of people to learn from history.

There was an article a while back that only .2% of the CO2 released into the atmosphere worldwide comes from cars and trucks (article from The Car Connection). So let me get this straight...we are spending all this energy to regulate something that contributes a fraction of less than 1% of the "pollutants" in the air.Personally, the first place I would be looking is China and all the coal-fired plants and factories that cause smog alerts 8 out of every 10 days. Living in Shanghai is the equivalent of smoking two packs of cigarrettes a day.

Ha...reminds me of how I dropped my environmental studies class earlier this year because I had too many credits and the instructor's teaching style was too aloof for me (she had no focus whatsoever). People in that class that are kinda fanatical about the subject of global warming and used to talk to me don't ever since I dropped it. Not much of a loss since I tend to chill will the "regular" studio crowd.

Now that was a scathing review. Ouch. By the way, WTF is up with the center stack? The main HVAC/radio cluster and the lower storage/iPod bin aren't even on-center! Talk about crappy attention to detail.