Blake Noble

Calm down, calm down. I can hear you stain the fly and soil the seat of your Levis all the way over here. Don't be sure it's my wallet speaking, by the way. :AH-HA_wink:

Mainly arguing. And plenty of it. She's also becoming increasingly paranoid about me leaving her. That paranoia is pretty much unwarranted because I have never done anything to give her any sort of impression that I was going to break things off with her in the first place. I've also been noticing she's been giving me a lot of negative attitude lately when I'm usually in a good mood about things. (That really troubles me.) She also tries to ... "over take" me at times. For example, and I know it's a little thing, she never lets me listen to any radio station on my own radio in my own truck. It's always pop station after pop station after pop station and I get really sick of it because they play nothing but the same $h! over and over. She uses the whole "if you love me, you wouldn't care" excuse and it's ... a bad form of emotional blackmail and it really gets under my skin to no end. I should start using it on her when I want to listen to a few decent local rock stations. And I know that there is an increasing chance of a possible conflict between her mom or step-dad and myself. She gets treated quite unfairly when her brother gets in trouble and this really upsets me. She has no self-confidence to stand up for herself and defend herself and it does get a bit tiring at times because I always have to convince her to do whats right and speak up for herself when she's being punished for doing nothing wrong. And I'm also sick of her parents using me as an ultimatum when there is a conflict between them and her. I want things to last another six months, I really do. But sometimes I fear it won't last much longer. And that sort of mentality isn't good for any relationship.

Good to hear that everything is going great for you, O.C. My relationship, however ... is starting to sour around the corners a bit ... yeah.

I'm going to go back to Saturn of Lexington and drive that black 3-door I looked at ...

In memoriam ...

I've covered a little of Europe, a little of America, so now it's time to pick on the Japanese a little. Well, I could list the Toyota Cressida here, but that's way too obvious. So which car can I add to my list from the Land of the Rising Sun? Say hello to the Nissan Pulsar NX. Quite honestly, this little car was jut all around bad. Totally foul. It had about fifty-nine pavement-pounding ponies on tap from it's base four-banger and could do zero to sixty in around the fifteen-second range. And you thought your four-cylinder Mustangs and Camaros were bad. These were performance ratings that were best left to the 1930s. Then there's the styling of course. It's painfully boxy and the nose of the car is an unsuccessful emulation of a Porsche 924 Turbo. It was also a compact car that horribly looked the part. Just by looking at the exterior, you know there is no way in hell you'll be able to sit in the backseat for a long trip without purchasing a series of contortionist lessons on tape. It was also dreadfully cheap and honestly unreliable. My mom owned one of these cars when I was a small child, traded her first car in on it (a '76 Nova), and I can say that, from what I remember about it, the four-banger under it's boxy little hood sounded like a Hamilton Beach blender being raped by a fork. I also remember that the interior was an unpleasant place to sit in as a small child: it was brown, it was boxy, and it was, like I already mentioned, quite loud. I decided to bring up the subject of the little car tonight, and my dad talked about how a lot of stuff on the car usually broke down and needed to be replaced, the heater core just to name one. Japanese quality, what?

Good lord. Eight-eight raging stallions from an angry iron hornet's nest. Not one of the worst cars of all time, but my god, it was worth forgetting, you're right.

Well, it comes here as a Pontiac, so whatever. True, the Bowtie is a better fitting badge for a ute, but this "look at what might have been" is just a rubbish attempt at making a few select individuals stark raving mad. Better luck next time, Borger! What the American car industry builds best are mid-sized to large rear-drive coupes and sedans* with solid, powerful engines. It's just what the American auto industry was born to build. *I would have also said the wagon, too. But most Americans don't want a wagon anymore because they would rather avoid anything resembling their grandparents 1981 Country Squire (except if it's jacked up five feet and looks as if it were based on a moving truck). It's not "viable" anymore.

Well, I tried to avoid this car as much as I could, but, I can't resist temptation any longer. It's that epitome of automotive monotony: the Chrysler K-Car. The fact that the large slew of cars Chrysler introduced on the K-Platform saved the company from bankruptcy in the 1980s would be enough to make you burn away brain cells at larger rate than drinking trying to figure out exactly why that was. They were slow, they weren't the most reliable thing ever built, and Chrysler almost drove down the final nail in their bankruptcy coffin upon introducing them because they never built the base model cars they were advertising at launch. (Let's not also forget how they got all excited and glued Hemi badges onto the fenders of early Aries K models, just because Mitsubishi built their thrashy little four-cylinder engine that went into those cars with hemispherical combustion chambers.) Then there's the styling. In the history of the automotive world, we have seen some bland cars. The Toyota Camry is the reigning royalty in this case, staying bland and boring since the time of it's introduction all of the way to today. And the GM A-Body, previously mentioned in this thread, is a nightmare of forgettable styling as well. But, my god, this almost takes the Camry's crown. If there has ever been a car you could vote to be most likely designed by a committee of senior citizens all juiced up on Metamucil and tapioca pudding, the K-Car would probably be that car. It is devoid of all emotion. It's devoid of any appeal. It's a downright appliance if there has ever been one. And it's a purebred appliance at at that. On a more personal note, my mom worked in the service department (worked the computers) of a Chrysler dealership in the late 1990s, and quite a few of these would come in for service, usually because something broke or it was making a strange noise. And I remember I was with my mom after getting off from school one day when she had to return an Aries K back to it's owner (it was part of whatever job she had at the time). I was young at the time, and I don't remember too much about this particular car, except it ... felt as if would just dissolve on the trip back to it's owner. It didn't feel too solidly built at all. But they tried to make it more than just a bland appliance. Most K-Car models had performance models tuned by Caroll Shelby with turbocharged four-banger engines that some would even call "perky" or "sporty." Yeah, sure. If you say so. At the end of the day, I bet even Caroll Shelby himself wants to forget his association with Chrysler in the 1980s. And the man mostly responsible for the K-Cars would be Mr. Lee Iacocca. That would be the same man who was involved in the development of the Ford Mustang, first-generation Mercury Cougar, and the minivan (a pretty revolutionary product based off of the very K-Car I'm talking about; it too was bland, but you can't argue when a car opens up a brand new segment of the market). But he was also the same man who had a key role in the development of the Ford Pinto, so I guess for every good idea he had, a horrible one had to follow it up eventually.

You know, I'll have to say that the front-drive A-Body Buick Century/Olds Ciera are just as worse as the Celebrity, too. I mean, I can't get past the styling of those three cars, the ultimate trifecta from boring automotive hell. The only thing that could make it worse is if you throw in the crown king of boring blandmobiles in with it, the Camry. I can't get past how every single one of them on the road today look exactly like they did over two decades ago: like a fat, bloated, disposable appliances on wheels. How in God's name they managed to sell the Century and Ciera into the late 1990s without some sort of major overhaul is beyond me. I can only imagine the pains many designers went through when they designed the first front-drive A-Bodies. Good thing they replaced the Celebrity with the Lumina when they did, or else Chevrolet would have dropped off most buyer's radars completely. Out of all of the cars GM has produced over it's century-old run, they are by far some of the worst cars they made. Of course, you have Jack Smith to blame for it. When you have put a man who knows little to nothing about driving and virtually nothing about cars in general in charge as your CEO, what can you expect to be approved but disposable and insignificant blandmobiles? I'll give credit where credit is due, however. The Celebrity, the Century, and the Ciera were reliable and safe cars during the 80s. They were affordable and they had some interesting "performance" models like The O.C. mentioned. But, you know, all this talk about bland cars from GM during brings me to another particular car I have little love for: the Chevrolet L-Bodies (Corsica and Beretta). It's never a good thing when you sell the first examples of a particular car to a rental fleet. And it's especially never a good thing when you decide to up and replace the Camaro with a bland front-drive coupe based on a even more bland front-drive sedan. (Thank god, that never came through.) The styling on these cars are like ... Mr. Rodgers. Neighborly, not offensive in any sense, and plain. Plain, plain, plain. If it were a food, I think it would taste like ... stale crackers. It's honestly geriatric (although no where near as bad as a Chrysler K-Car). On a personal level, I've had two different aunts own examples of the Beretta. One aunt had two, the other just stopped the insanity at one. One car lasted until 160,000 miles or so when it was traded off for an Isuzu Rodeo, the other two cars wound up eventually as one, with one car with a bum body donating it's good transmission amd engine to the car with the bum transmission and engine and good body. Then, after that, I think it was sold for next to nothing, the money going towards a low mileage example of a 1993 S-10. I know that the Beretta wasn't exactly the most reliable car GM built, either, as my aunt who managed to live with two of them at the same time was always having problems out of one when the other wasn't good for anything at all. But, I have to say, in spite of GM's blandmobiles, I love the good old company with all my heart.

Makes me feel proud of my old Sonoma. Over 100,000 miles, and four different owners, and it has very little sheet metal damage. And I also take comfort in knowing that, 100,000 miles later on down the road, there will be nary a crack on the sheet metal still. Mainly because my truck has actual metal in its bodywork, and it isn't made from recycled old newspapers and baby diapers. Like Joe was saying, I look forward to Toyota's excuse for this one. What are they going to say this time?

It only gets better from here, I'd assume. Sheetmetal cracking and splintering like plastic. It's just gold.

Let's see, what was another horrible car sold in the U.S. during the 1980s? The Ford Bronco II was most certainly one of them. Sure it's a real, rear-wheel drive compact SUV with two-doors. But I had an uncle who had one of these (and a first-generation Ranger, too) and it was a nightmare. I remember riding with him in it and it rode like a manure cart with square wheels. Yeah, I know it wasn't made for comfort, but, at that same time, my grandfather's Blazer was brand new back then, and it rode like a cushy old Cadillac compared to it. And it wasn't exactly made for comfort, either.

And some at GM want to kill this superior product. Right. If people don't buy the G8 to GM's expectations, then they are stupid. Quite simple as that.

Hmmm ... yeah, I guess I can put this on my list as well: the Chrysler LeBaron. My aunt had one of these, actually. And one of my earliest childhood-related memories is of my mom and myself following my aunt in her little LeBaron up a winding mountain road in our Cavalier. I think it was about ten or fifteen minutes into the trip going up that road my aunt had to pull off on the side of the road and let her LeBaron cool off because it had started to overheat quite badly. And I also know she had, in addition to the mechanical problems, horrible electrical problems as well. Makes me think Chrysler let the British build it. And then there's the styling. Makes me think of Bermuda shorts, golf, really old men, retirement homes, and Florida.

For Sixty-8: Jeremy Clarkson does us all a favor. I only wish the American press could deliver Prius reviews like this one.

How about we all do forget about the Renault 5/Le Car. Good lord, it and the Fuego both have faces only a drunk mother could love.

I was gonna say Long John Silver's but ...

You know, I almost came close to posting the Chevy Celebrity instead. I don't think you could ask for a more dreadfully boring looking American car. It generates all of the excitement of red hospital Jell-o or retirement home tapioca. When you're giving the Toyota Cressida of the same era a good run for it's money in terms of how boring you are, that's not a good thing at all.

What is, in your opinion, one of the worst cars from the Eighties era? For me, it's the Renault Fuego. Rather looked much like a bloated pig and tended to sound like one too after a few years age. Gotta love it when someone makes a five minute video tribute to their car that becomes utterly redundant after fifteen seconds.

Excuse me while I dig my eardrums out with a spoon covered in hydrochloric acid.

... Because, well, that name, for one. Sounds sort of like "scrotum," huh? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_Xk_tw5ZbU Can't argue with the music selection during the tear-down, either.

Knew I'd eventually hear your opinion on everything. Well, I'm a Libra, and, thusly acute indecision is a disease I'm apt to battle with from time to time. So don't blame me, blame my nature. But, oh, I don't know, the Astra and Camaro are apples and oranges and I don't suspect that the eventual, possible back to back test drive will have the Astra come out on top.