Sixty8panther

Still better than the K-cars and J-bodies that were imported. As a kid, I mean knee-high to a German Sheapherd, I was walking along in some Slovakian city with my mom, & I looked over to a big, mostly empty parking lot at a major bus stop and something insanely unique and flamboyant caught my eye... it was a burgundy (1st gen. N-body) '85? Skylark four door. That one piece brake light was forever etched into my brain. If I even get one for a $100... like a real $h!pile winter beater, I'll save that big rear tail light when the car goes to be crushed. It was probably the US/Slovakian consulate or whatever but that tri-shield, flashy styling and fancy interior were so very out of place in that dark, communist era vehicle population that consisted of like 40% Skoda, 20%Trabant & then various Russian/Easter Bloc $h!buckets. To think now I don't even think twice when I see one at a junkyard... but to that 5/6 year old child of Socialism that unabashedly American little FWD, 2.8 L V6 (if that!) econobox was like most of you guys seeing a Ferrari Testarossa or Lambo Countach.

Here's a nasty recipe I'd love to try: 1961 Cadillac Long-door Hearse, not combo, I mean a blackout panel in the rear with the giant landau bar, chisled greenhouse, tall windshield, but a full width & length glass roof, 2nd & 3rd row seating, modern brakes & a killer stance on lowered suspension for the ultimate 8/9-passanger family hauler.

Government Mule? This is the image I get:

Gorgeous like a nice rack on a bubbly blonde.

Please explain to me which bus or train I can get on at 3:00am to go from the Tewksbury/Lowell line to the corner of Billerica & Chelmsford (UPS) and then do the same at 9:00am to get to No. Andover by 10. Or perhaps I can figure out how to get by on a bike, one hour to go 18 miles on a bicycle, NO problem. Your approach of (with all due respect) "sure prison r&pe sux but what can I do about it?" is a huge part of the problem with this country. No one want to be bothere to REALLY speak up, no one is willing to go the extra mile to hold these scumbags accountable, most of us in the USA, being lazy & uninspired do not want to be bothered. The general population is right where the Romans were in like 300ad. Our Circus Maximus/Coloseum is the TV. Water cooler talk revolves around a complete NON-event like freekin' American "Idle" or one of the other 348,506 reality shows, instead of REAL events. So what? So WHAT can I do? Well I'm almost at the point where I'm ready to march to D.C. with a pitchfork and torch like a few of my friends have been talking about. It's time to wake up America!!! If we all start making waves and yell & scream then there's only two things that can result: Either the politicians REALLY start listening to the people that ELECTED them and make positive change and do it ASAP, or..... We kick their teeth in and start over with USA Version 2.0 If you're not ANGRY, you're NOT paying attention!

There's some wisdom in that article, and it hits more than a few RAW nerves with me, but I just want to touch upon two things: First, G.W.B is NOT the freeekin Devil, and is NOT the root of all problems for the USA. There's a few reasons why I think he sucks and one of them is that he is a poor excuse for a Republican. But in the long term he has not done any LESS good than Clinton & certainly has NOT caused any MORE harm than that administration. I think 100 years from now people will have mixed feelings about both but they will certainly remember Clinton as the on that dropped the ball on job outsourcing, Communist China gaining our military secrets and many other hot issues. Aaaaaand SECOND. I will be against the USA raising trade barriers the second when the rest of the world plays fair, safe to say NEVER in my lifetime. If WE do not look out for our own safety, economy & stability NO ONE ELSE WILL!!!!

The Riviera IS very cool, what with a fire-engine RED nailhead. I personally would love to have that Delta-88 though... needs wheel covers BAD, that's not a car that looks good with black steelies, a set of hubcaps/wheelcovers/ARs/Cragars would go a long way to making that car a winner. Great example of a 4dr hardtop. A NY/NY cop car Ford in deutchland? wacky!

THE V8, in and of by itself is not what makes the G8 200% more car than the Acura is. 1. RWD 2. RWD 3. RWD 4. nicer styling by a mile 5. availability of V6 AND V8s.

Gotta love craigslist... one photo & mssing about 45 pieces of information that should be posted when someone is trying to get that amount of money$7500 for a classic car. It certainly is very cool though. What drives me nuts and makes me wonder about people's IQ are the really stupid listings, at least this one has a phone number. The other day I saw a listing that litterally said nothing more than: no phone number (don't even BOTHER with email unless you want 2843 scam emails a DAY) no photos no model year, mileage, trim, model, body style, condition, price.... People like that must wear a helmet in order to walk & chew gum at the same time.

Any way you slice it, or make up excuses for this or that the Rigeline is a stinking pile of $h!. I was disgusted by its styling and more so when I sat inside one we got in trade at the dealearship last summer... the customer who traded it for an Avalanche could not stop talking about how poor the truck performed for him and the fact that he was more disapointed in it than any other vehicle he has owned ever. There's plenty of "ergonomic" or practical or even logical excuses for the Aztek's styling but in the end they are both ugly as sin and there's no way you can talk yourself out of that paper bag.

Looks like something from 1996. Look at Chrysler concepts from the 1990s!

DF: ooooooooo-kay!? That's pretty sad to have such a leze-fair attitude. I work WAY too hard for my money to say "oh well" and not really care. I get up between 2:45 & 3:30am every weekday to go load packages at the UPS, not to blow my money without thought. If gas was $2.50 instead of $4.00 I would probably have gone to |North Conway NH last weekend to the Thomas Tank Engine even for kids, Sofia would have LOVED it and I've been promissing her a road trip for months and I can't afford it. It makes me mad as ^@#$*&ing hell that I have to tell Sofia that we can't go on a particualar roadtrip because we can't afford the gas. My memory banks afe full of hundreds of roadtrips that my parents took me on, EVERY SINGLE weekend, without fail, we would go somewhere, if nothing else we'd venture the 30 miles south into Boston but often times it was NH, ME, RI, CT, VT or NY (NY) and some of those memories are the best ones I can recall. Back when I was 9 (10/88) our '89 Chevy Cavalier still had the tireshine from Bob Brest Chevrolet smeared all over the 14" Uniroyals & the window sticker in the glovebox when we packed it up with a cooler and picknick basket & drove about 150 miles north to the White Mountains of NH through the amazing foliage. I remember standing on the edge of the road on a mountain road oeverlooking a huge valley with about four or five towns; or "villiages" below us poking up through the colorfull leaves, each one had a unique church steeple as the focal point of their little community... I remember wearing my super-cool "Air Force Pilot" jacket that my mom & dad had just bought me that resembled the metallic space suit SR-71 pilots wear when doing Mach-7 in the upper atmosphere. The fun of that roadtrip, & many, many more like it that I treasure in my memory banks forever are the biggest reason why gas prices are pissing me off to no end. If I crack and buy a $hitty ULTRA-MPG "econobox" (Sixty8 translation: BMW 318i 5-speed) it will be so that I do not deprive my daughter of these fun memories, the open road, cruise set to 70, good conversation or perhaps even silence while the radio/cd player plays Pink Floyd, Eagles, Boston, Johnny Cash or some other timeless music. Better in a 4-cylinder economy car than not at all! -

If I had the time, energy & a copy of photoshop I would do up a true hardtop version of a (Camaro-style retro) '71 Boattail.

I'm not saying 2.50 by years end (although I'm hoping) but I think another year or so of this recession could help to push (pull?) prices down to $25 range.

HAHHAHA! Maybe we can translate "let them eat cake" to 2008: Honda PR: (in response to complaints about this hideous zit-shaped Acura) "Let them buy MDXs"

I suppose in a world where a yuppie nerd driving a FWD, 4-cylinder Acura calls it either a 'sports-sedan' or, worse a 'luxury car' I can let a V6 Camaro with 300-horses be called a 'muscle car', prior ot this instance the only other cars that were true muscle cars but lacked a 7th and 8th cylinder were the GN(x), T-Type and it's rare cousin the '89 TTA, but the Euro-mustang for instance... NOT a muscle car. It was a pretty cool low-buck GT car but it was NOT a muscle car.

Yeah, local firetrucks, police & ambulances have that tech. Now as far as my car talking to traffic lights, even for my benefit, I'm NOT for it. Smells of big brother! This is the slippery slope! Besides, if I had an S4 waiting for a green light would be half the fun of my commute. You payall that money for awd & turbo-charged 5-valve tech. might as well put it to work in a 0-50/60/70 mile an hour sprint. You gotta admit though, only the Germans would come up with something this insanely cool and over-enginered. I do love German cars, but sometimes they go too far to show off technology that would, honestly be better left in a Buck Rogers comic book.

I've only converted two cars to Mobil-1 synthetic... - my 1968 Camaro (GM perforamance catalog crate ZZ350) - & the '84 Datsun that died a violent death from a head-on with red-light running BMW. In most of the cars I drive there are minor-to-moderate oil leaks & the milage is so high that synthetic does not make much sense.

EXACTLY. The doors were slammed hard 2 million times on a test-jig before the car ever went into production, brakes were overheated, motors were tested as if they were going to power a 5-ton truck, not a 2-ton sedan, suspension was tortured, and add to that HAND cut wood trim, over-the top convenience features and killer proportions and you have one of the best cars in the world, even at the price they demanded, they were said to be overpriced. I do love these cars' styling but Mercedes made these cars with 95% of the effort going towards engineering, 5% to styling.

fish eye? pr image? dude, Acura is loosing it. This thing looks like a buck toothed beaver. It's ugly-ugly, not like a BMW-ugly that sometimes grows on you with time, or that kind of BIZZARE-UGLY that turns you off at first because you just can't find a good focal point or good viewing angle but over time it grows on you. The Ridgeline is STILL ugly, and this will still be ugly (to me anyway) no matter how much time passes. A 1978 Ford Granada is an ugly POS same as it was in 1978!

Three quick points: 1. smk/nos: I will gladdly give up .3 sec in the 0-60 sprint to have a REAL manual* * in fact that is a challenge to learn that clutch & shifter so damn well you beat the auto! 2. So weight savings blah-blah-blah... need a b-pillar yadda-yadda & now they put in curtain airbags? I guess GM is still afraid of Nader, huh? 3. I still have a love/hate thing going for this car due to it's ONE and only flaw, that damn ugly B-pillar & all that black RTV that makes a fat border on the glass of all modern cars that have glued in windows. Cheap, ugly & a major detraction... very much a: "dries up a wet dream" scenario for myself. Kind of like the Patriot's perfect season and then dropping the ball in the super bowl. Or, if you will, a tacky, pastel colored "I love my kittens" themed frame aroud Van Ghoghs' "Stary Night" complete w/ kitten paw prints. ...... all that having been said this car is hotter than a black top parking lot in Phoenix on the the 4th of July. The production car addresses some of the slightly awkward angles in the concept's headlight-grille area while retaining all the DNA that made it a true CAMARO. Long live the Camaro! GM: My sawzall is on order, do the right thing and make me a hybrid of the ragtop & sedan. Please. Yes I'll pay extra.

Dude, I HEAR ya. Every day (m-f) I do 4.5 - 5 hours at UPS, then another 6.5 - 7.0 at my new job. I've shown up 15 min. latee to UPS three days in a row this week. This am I had a talk with the two bosses, it went on for like 7 min but thje synopsys is: boss(es): why so late? me: I'm tired boss(es): set your alarm earlier then me: did that, still tired & body is unwilling to wake up... boss(es): you've got to show up exactly on time, to the minute me: I'm tired, can I go WORK now? End of lecture please?

I'm working on this theory that links children who eat (lead) paint chips & Toyota drivers. Honestly, I've come to realize that trying to reasn or rationalise Toyopet humpers is absolutely futile. So now I just either avoid them, or sometimes, I try to piss 'em off. The other day, like a week before my now sold, beloved Banana Boat went to live in the rough neighborhoods of Boston, I was taking an offramp off rt.495. --- Now I must interject for a sec. I am NOT a slow or extremely cautious driver, I have 28.75 hours worth of $h! crammed into a typical day (i think they're still 24) & I drive my big, heavy, couch on wheels cars more like they are german-spec. whale-tail turbo 911s, & less like the BOF, land yachts they are. If on 100% dry pavement my Roadmaster can negotiate a particular on/off ramp at about 50mph with minimal understeer & tire chirp, or 55 with tires squealing & heavy but semi- controled oversteer, I will hit it at 45-48. If it's a wet, miserable day with heavy fog I will natrually cut it down to the 30s or less but my point is, and I want to really stress this, when alone I drive like I stole it, esp. on turns. Now with Julie and/or Sofia in the car I'm often reminded by either to go-go-go because I set the sruise at 70 in a 65 & drive with more care & respect. --- now back to rt.495: I'm alone and going along pretty damn quick, as I take the off ramp wide and start to cut in to carve a good line without tire noise I see in my rear-view a toyota sienna minivan (current gen.) that is coming down on the Banana's chrome bumper like it's a freekin' Mad Max movie. I could tell that if it was not for his ABS the car (box on wheels) would be in 4-wheel brake lockup, drifting sideways and about to rear end me & then bounce off the guardrail. If I had wanted to I could have just tappped my brakes and his insurance would have paid for those cracked rear bumper fillers, along with an extra $1400 since the Banana would have been totalled. He came close to rear ending ME on an off ramp as I am already going way faster than I should be. That Sienna was yawing and bouncing on its suspension like a Plymouth Fury II police car in a 70s Hollywood car chase. I know there's exceptions to the rule, I myself know a few cool people who drive Toyotas, but by in large many of their owners are complete idiots that need a prosthetic head!

I hope it settles in the $2.50 range, still enough for us to rush alternative energy but not so much that I want to put a hollow point in the back of my skull every time I pump 20+ gallons into one of my V8 powered full-size cars!

ohhh... and as far as the structural rigidity of these MBs this car is far more confident than an average 2-decade old sedan, including the Banana Boat. Those long doors do not hang even a fraction of a millimeter, they close with a solid, blunt strike like a bank vault & the hood has two strikers, pins & redundant releases... just in case you leave it open while driving 150mph.