mustang84

Welcome back! Where were your layovers?

I was in band and played trumpet too, but I only did marching band, concert band, and pep band. Pep band was great...we used to play Crazy Train, Smoke on the Water, We're an American Band, Hey Jude, and a few others. You really take on more of an appreciation for music being in school band I think. Like you said, the trumpet is not an easy instrument to play and you get the melody a lot, so learning technique is important. Same thing with recorded music; if there's no technical proficiency, I get bored.

I think the reason GM's truck sales were down was that they weren't playing the incentive game with the other boys until this month. When you have Toyota, Ford, and Dodge dropping between $3K-6K on the hood and GM with like $2000, people are going to go for the good buys with the way gas prices are. I applaud GM for holding out and still managing 60,000 units moved for that month, even if it was down. It's unfortunate that everyone else is pushing them back toward discounts, especially Toyota and Dodge's whoppers on the hood (5K and 6K respectively for June).

Yeah, I'm thinking about breaking out my Italian CD and just brushing up over the rest of the summer. I definitely plan on going back someday!

Oh come on Bob, I'm sure you've heard of Led Zeppelin and AC/DC at least. I've started liking jazz more ever since we went to a few jazz bars in Rome. It's amazing what a live performance will do to your perception of something. My grandpa's an avid listener of WNUA Smooth Jazz out of Chicago...it's more contemporary jazz though, but not bad. I hear it every time we're driving around the Northwest Suburbs in his Grand Marquis. It's one of my fond memories as a kid.

I had a lot of problems at first when I was learning Italian because I would remember the Spanish word instead. Now it's flip-flopped...I remember Italian better than Spanish even though I took 4 years of Spanish (five years ago) and only three weeks of Italian (but lived there for four months, so I was around the language).

I broke away from the hairbands today Deftones - Adrenaline Korn - Follow the leader Led Zeppelin I Rolling Stones - 40 Licks Lynyrd Skynyrd - Thryty Marilyn Manson - assorted NWA - Straight Outta Compton AC/DC - Highway to Hell

So, basically it's rice out of the factory. Gotcha.

I read a post a long time ago of somebody who used to do regular runs across AZ and NM doing 80 mph and got 38 mpg a couple times in an '86 V6 Camaro.

I'm immortal. :AH-HA_wink: I actually kinda like Creatures through Crazy Nights...but the stuff before (Unmasked and Elder) and after is very hit and miss. I was listening to Hot in the Shade today and it's pretty a pretty generic and uninspired album....it sounds like KISS was just putting out a record to put out a record. None of the songs are very memorable (except for "Forever") and the band just sounds tired. "Hide Your Heart" sounds like the lyrics were stolen straight off "Livin' on a Prayer"...the whole played-out Johnny down by the docks / Rosa on the shady side of town diatribe. ------------ Listening to that Sleeze Beez album again...man, this is a gem. Compared to some of the other stuff coming out in 1989, the cheese factor is pretty low and they sound like a mix of LA Guns, Skid Row, and Great White.

They're just now learning about flexible manufacturing?

KISS's entire 80s collection (except for Music from the Elder and Unmasked...both terrible) Also, the Peter Criss solo album from 1978 is awful...I got it from a friend and couldn't even get through the first three songs

Welcome to the boards, Micah! Like others have said, the Astra will be here shortly, there is a new Focus coming later in the year (still not as good as the ones in Europe), the Ford Fusion is a good choice (V6 is a better engine than the I4 though...much smoother)...but yeah, you're going to find it hard to find many small cars here that are on the same level of quality as small Euro ones. Americans haven't been shifting into small cars in large numbers until recently, so we're playing catch up. Alfa Romeo is being reintroduced to the American market in 2009? I believe, and I also think I heard Peugeot was looking at coming here. I lived in Rome last spring for a semester and got to travel around Europe and see all the different cars there that we Americans never really hear about. I love the Alfas over there, especially the 159! I'm glad GM is bringing the Opel stuff over here, because they seem like stylish little cars. Euro Fords are also very nice, especially the Mondeo. We rented a Renault Clio when we were in Greece...it was a pretty peppy little car for only having 136 hp.

(Pull over, $h!head, this is the cops) Full tank, pockets lined with cash Full throttle, gonna rip some ass. Drive all day, and through the night, Romance the road, winding left and right. The stars above guide me, the moonlight is free. A feeling inside me, and the whole world to see. Driving fast makes me feel good, The speed of light trapped under my hood. Breaking laws, 'cause there's nothing to do. Driving the interstate, stopped for a 502 Hundreds of miles rolled off today. Signs lose their meaning, minutes tick away. Dirt roads to interstates, I must have drove them all. Cigarettes and burgers, caffeine and alcohol. Drive until daybreak, always on the go. Life on the freeway, night shift till dawn patrol. Driving fast makes me feel good, The speed of light trapped under my hood Breaking laws 'cause there's nothing to do. Driving the interstate, stopped for a 502. Stopped for a 502, next time it's gonna be you. Stars above guide me This feeling inside me. I drive until daybreak. Life on the freeway is Hell. I'm coming through.

Tesla - The Gate / Invited

I don't think I heard a word she said.

A cockroach in the concrete, courthouse tan and beady eyes. A slouch with fallen arches, purging truths into great lies. A little man with a big eraser, changing history Procedures that he's programmed to, all he hears and sees. Altering the facts and figures, events and every issue. Make a person disappear, and no one will ever miss you. Rewrites every story, every poem that ever was. Eliminates incompetence, and those who break the laws. Follow the instructions of the New Ways' Evil Book of Rules. Replacing rights with wrongs, the files and records in the schools. You say you've got the answers, well who asked you anyway? Ever think maybe it was meant to be this way? Don't try to fool us, we know the worst is yet to come. I believe my kingdom will come. Chorus F is for fighting, R is for red, Ancestors' blood in battles they've shed. E, we elect them, E, we eject them, In the land of the free, and the home of the brave. D, for your dying, O, your overture, M, they will cover your grave with manure. This spells out freedom, it means nothing to me, As long as there's a P.M.R.C. F is for fighting, R is for red, Ancestors' blood in battles they've shed. E, we elect them, E, we eject them, In the land of the free and the home of the brave. D, for your dying, O, your overture, M is for money and you know what that cures. This spells out freedom, it means nothing to me, As long as there's a P.M.R.C. Put your hand right up my shirt, Pull the strings that make me work, Jaws will part, words fall out, like a fish with hook in mouth. Rewrites every story, every poem that ever was. Eliminates incompetence, and those who break the laws. Follow the instructions of the New Ways' Evil Book of Rules. Replacing rights with wrongs, the files and records in the schools. I'm not a fish I'm a man with hook in mouth!

While her former husband was a scoundrel, it sounds like she was a pretty nice and tolerant person that didn't get wrapped up in the fiery inferno talk of some of her peers. RIP

Yeah, I miss Harley and Razor's posts. I thought mightymouse still posts here...or at least I think I've seen his sig recently?

Yeah, that's pretty much the thinking by all the Toyota fanboys as well. Some seem to think Toyota is only capable of exponential growth and the domestics will quietly just crawl into hibernation never to be heard from again. It must be nice to live in a Cloud 9 fantasy world like that.

Sleeze Beez - Screwed, Blued, & Tattooed

More http://autos.yahoo.com/articles/autos_cont...-hybrid-dilemma

TTAC does make a point with the new Malibu which kinda worries me. Right now the 'Bu went 58% to fleet through June, out of 64,000 sold that means there were only 26,000 retail sales. Divide that by six months and you're talking about 4000 per month retail. Even at the Malibu's peak in 2005 when it sold 203,000, if you take that 58% into account it only sold about 84,000 Malibus...more or less depending on what the actual fleet percentage was at that time. The reason Ford's sales were so terrible in 2006 due to the death of the Taurus and the amount of brand new cars they had out that weren't being allowed to be fleeted above 20% (most were at 10% for a while). All the trolls at BON called the Fusion a failure because it wasn't selling at Taurus levels even though it was getting more retail customers than the Taurus had been since it became a fleet queen. Now, thanks to Ford's continuous stream of new and refreshed vehicles, the sales slide has slowed and actually looks like it will be reversed next year. The thing that TTAC forgets about the Malibu is that they are keeping the "Malibu Classic" around for the fleet companies. They can keep '08 Malibu rentals low to maintain resale, but the numbers aren't going to approach anything near what they have in the past. If they keep fleet low, I predict the '08 Malibu will sell about 120,000 next year. I think GM will come back big by 2010 when all the new vehicles debut, but they haven't transitioned as much as Ford from fleet to retail and if they are truly serious about cutting fleet to levels like 30% rather than what they have on the Malibu, Impala, Grand Prix, etc...it's going to hurt the numbers until all that new and refreshed product is out.