LordStafford

LOVE it...might get Caddy to resurrect the Fleetwood to keep in the Town Car/Imperial game! Seriously...those measurements are sweet...I don't have the article in front of me but wheelbase of 123 or so, overall lenth over 214..."LOVIN' IT"! Plus, as noted, suicide doors and pillarless. I don't mind the height because I know that will tranlate into awesome interior comfort. BTW, the Challenger in the same issue is WHAT GM SHOLD HAVE BEEN DOING these last 18 months for the Camaro. Again, with the "new" retro mustang and the "new' retro Challenger, mabye Gm will finally feel compelled to compete with a resurrected Camaro. Sigh...always chasing and never leading recently.

Back away from the bong...

This sounds eerily familiar... Oh yeah, when Buick sent me that big @$$ poster of tiger woods with the Lucerne taking a decidedly "back seat" position; smaller and to the side. In a fancy letter, they proclaimed the Lucerne would be coming out in the winter of 2007 (2 years from then). They then sent a followup letter saying it would be 2006, not 2007. I wonder how much it cost to send all those correction letters for a car that wouldn't even be available for years down the line... (It's the attention to detail that puts people behind the wheels of Lexuses, to whom the Lucerne strives to appeal. Let's start by getting the mere dates right, okay? LOL! ) GM, hello, I'm available for proof-reading! As for being a potential customer of Buick, (I was a big fan of Buick some years ago) I have a simple request. Build a car (Riviera?) that would be comparable/better than my current Mark VIII. That means coupe, RWD, big, comfortable, stylish and with a powerful V8. I'm waiting.

Excursion doesn't deserve 'props.' Its truly the 1959 Cadillac of the SUV era - a big, wallowly, inferior conflagration of uselessness. ...

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Ah, but that's my point..the 59 caddy was the epitome of the styling craze of its day...and a beautiful example of mid-century auto design because of that. Yes, now, it looks completely overwrought, but at the time I'm sure it was very modern, sleek and up to date. I can hear the salesmen now "the fins help stabilize the car at high speeds, much like the mustang I piloted in DubyaDubyaTwo..."

While the design (or lack thereof) of SUVS is dull, I doubt they will ever be remembered/restored as those 50s classics, I do respect them for taking the craze of the day and taking it to its craziest extreme.

It's the epitome and a hallmark of its era. Trucky at its most truckiness.

Escape
Explorer
Expedition
Excursion

it's almost surprising they did not snatch up the Escalade and Equinox names too.

I do not dislike all Fords but I truly do think the Explorer is one of the worst vehicles to have been put on this planet. I hate every single one of those $hitboxes... though the 02-up ones are a hughe improvement. However when I buy an SUV I want a solid rear axle not a IRS.

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Ug, the explorer. I think I hate it too due just to the volume of them. Was never fond of that first Jeep Cherokee, either, with its obnoxiously small rear doors...the way the bottom of the door was shaped made it near impossilbe for anyone with big boy feet to fit in the thing!

The two door version was...ehh. Okay I guess if you have to drive the rubicon to work. Me? I drive a glass smooth 6 lane interstate with almost no traffic. So no truck for me.

It was a response to my signature. I had rotated photos of several 50s/60s GM cars (see below) in my sig for a couple weeks with this text underneath the photo:

Let's start a petition for GM to bring back Hardtop Coupes and Sedans.

Then some smart a$$ prompted me to change it to "pillarless" hardtop and then Croc made up this silly SSR signature and argued it was a pillarless hardtop even thougth it has only one piece of glass on each side of the greenhouse, how the hell would there be a pillar to begin with? Then when I mentioned it was a BOF truck not a car he said the SSR is more of a "sports car." :huh:


I had this one cut down a bit.... one of my favorite Google finds as of late.

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Of course you're right on about what a pillarless hardtop is. You said it all!

GORGEOUS PICS!!!! That Caddy is (IN MY OPINION) a great example of what to me was the near the pinacle of GM design; before the dark times, before the gas crisis.

BEE YOO TEE FULL!

A $40,000 retractible hardtop 2 seater traditional coupe on a truck chassis with a p/u truck bed and '49 Pickup styling has NOTHING to do with my old sig about Hardtop cars with pillarless windows fixed roofs. A true enthusiast wolud understand that.

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Oh man, and I thought he was being serious; maybe had seen the light and expanded his view of the automotive world. I read that sig and was like "NOW you're talkin'..."

So much for giving people the benefit of the doubt and taking what they say at face value!

Hi, LordStafford!!
You mean Excursion.

Expedition is sized between Tahoe and Suburban.

I don't think the Excursion is bigger than an H1.

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YES, Excursion. When I wrote that I knew it didn't sound right. I always get those two model names messed up. Thanks for setting me straight!

I hate trucks in general, but like I said before, if you're going to go "truck", go full tilt and buy the biggest, most obnoxious lump of a tank you can. And I do think the Excursion is longer than the H1. Surely not girth but definately length (anyone buying these things must be compensating for something! LOL!) I seem to remember a bunch of green freaks protesting the production of "the biggest SUV ever"...on the other hand, they make up so many statistics, I probably should't believe them on this one either. LOL!

Welcome back, Lord Stafford.  I was asking about you the other day.

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Thanks! I've missed the forum, but work has conspired to interfere with my leisure time! LOL! Hopefully things are calming down so that I can get back in the groove.

I'd have to put it in terms of "the SUV I hate the least". LOL! I think I prefer the ones that were pure and real, not gussied up badge engineered wannabes built just to say "we have one too'. The good ole Chevy Suburban is good for what it is, a cowboy cadillac, but I think I have to give top props to the Ford Expedition, the largest ever SUV (and possibly mass market vehicle?) ever built. If you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly the saying goes. So if you're going to buy an SUV, buy the biggest and meanest, preferably with a "I'm tough" diesel engine, not some FWD, 4 cylinder car -based "cute ute". IMO!

I went to a concert last night, one of the big rock groups of the late 70s. Well, turns out, that the first 3 hours was bull riding!!!! So, needless to say, I saw LOTS of interesting people. Those who think that nascar fans are "country", just check out the fans of rodeo "sports"! LOL Imagine this happening in a blue state...they made a call out for patriotic young people to young the armed forces, and they got dozens and dozens of them!!! They swore them into the military right there and marched them out of the arena. That wowed me. While I wondered what was going through their heads and the heads of those who went with them, just planning on watching rodeo and end up having their special someone join the army! Thank God for them though. Anyway, the big belt buckle crowd stayed for a few minutes of the rock concert when it finally started, then promptly took their kids and girlfriends with big teased up country hair and pink cowgirl boots and left us music lovers to enjoy a great band.

I admit that I can't NOT watch that show when I stumble on it, and the I admire the craftmanship they put into the car, even if some of it is "ghetto chic". But I don't ever recall them ever saying, even briefly, "oh , btw, we also did a valve job and replaced the oil pump". But I also agree that it's unlikley that they would put so much money and effort into a car that might not be able to drive out of the garage, so...hmmm. I also don't get the X box thing. They must be the big sponsor of the show. I've even seen the "guest" get a puzzled look on their face when they proclaim "and you got not two, but THREE xboxes in your trunk dawg!" The guest looks like "um, ok, but why? I guess it will keep my younger brother away from the gear shift..." HAHA! Cool show though...amazing work. I'd like to have them do a thing or two to my cars...but something a bit more, subtle?

No register Croc. I must have heard a song or two though. You are correct however I do not like mainstream music much. I do appreaciate it but I cant diet on it, like not even a coffee break. I have had this problem throughout the decades theres some stuff that just never registers as more than background noise to me. Its most likely a syndrome associated with being a guitar player. The 90's had me shutting the radio off and pulling out my CD's and tapes. I even aquired a taste for country which was were the guitar players and story tellers were by that time.

Stafford - welcome back, I do on occasion run around the house on a Vontage rampage, its perhaps early senility or just plain fed up with maturity for a moment  :rolleyes: Its actually more self destructive than homicidal. I have a dog here whos life is based on hoo hoo, hoo hoo hoo. Quite a character.

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OMG you have to tell us about the yoo hoo hoo dog!!! LOL!

(*I apparently didn't use the quote function correctly...I was quoting my good friend 68Panther in the first paragraph.)

... I'm a bit LED obsessed myslef as you can see form the 70-bulb LED STS "chimsl" (3rd brake light) in my Camaro & Brougham. I just sold the Brougham and the brake light you see in the rear window of this photo is now in the Datsun. I'd like to do some "LED augmentation" to the Mark. I saw at the auto store what looked like direct swap-out LED lights that fit in factory sockets for tailights, etc. Had any exerience wit those? Also, Since the Mark has that long, narrow, horizontal taillamps, I am seriously considering going the "sequentiall flashing" route. That would be so cool! Now, I need some powerful driving lights, as the headlights are also narrow and horizontal, and while they look cool and have superblue bright bulbs, just aren't big enough to light up the night like the trusty caprice does with its monster peepers. Oh, also going to do the neon undercarriage thing...I don't care if it is "high school, circa 1995" or not. LOL! Also want to do neon here and there on the inside... So many lights, so little time. HAHA!

I never bothered before, but since the new Mark has a computer to figure it, I have been. If I drive very carefully (hard to not dip into that 300 hp once in awhile), I can average 29-30. I'm finding more informative the function of "gallons used", and trying different routes to work and seeing how much fuel it takes. I actually found a route that reliably only takes 1 gallon! (Also, have been using the metric function since litres are smaller units, you can get more accurate and detailed "fuel used" data.) It's fun.

When the song for "beep beep, dot com" comes on, I DIVE for the remote. It's like teeth grinding and nails on chalkboard all mixed together. Also that "yoo hoo, yoo hoo hoo" from the vontage commercial. It's just evil music to "obey the voices in your head and commit multiple justified homicides" to.

"Happy Birthday to y'all, Happy Birthday to y'all!" :)