Sixty8panther

Good thing the dropped that antiquated Town Car.... er, wait that's right the Town Car WAS their high volume seller. FoMoCo is a joke. All that "We didn't need a bail out" talk and yet they're poised to go no where. GM & Chrysler are making some awesome products and have both taken large bites of Ford's fleet sales. Ten years ago 95% of the local law enforcement used Fords exclusively and now a large portion of that market has turned way from Ford. I have not seen a SINGLE cop car Taurus in all my travels all over New England & the North East and yet about 25% of local police departments have turned to the Dodge Charger while another 15% or so have been buying Chevrolet Impalas & Tahoe squad cars & the new Caprice PPV is about to take a large percentage of of the market locally. I talked to a police officer high up in the ranks in Lowell's police department about six months ago. he was driving the first Caprice PPV and the first NON-Ford that Lowell has bought in over two decades and his reaction to my questions plastered a huge smile on my face. He said most people who know police cars are turning away from Ford and that the AWD Taurus is not even being considered, The motor's sideways placement & delicate AWD is said to be useless for he police application and he made it clear that Ford is losing 100% of their business to either Dodge or Chevrolet. He said he Caprice was fantastic and indicated there was a strong possibility they might go with the Caprice. Since then they're bought two more, so that answers that question. Also, the Ford Expedition was replaced by a Tahoe. I for one and very happy my tax money is being spent wisely, in this one particular instance anyway.

Friday: 44.0 Monday: 47.4

Well, good....I'm gald hes okay. Just seems odd (slightly irrsponsible) to stop all communication like that. I had my fears since he's been in and out of hospitals for as long as we've all known him. (8+ years)

Best of luck... things are just beyond depressing all arond. WTF happened to his country? I wake up some days thinking that maybe the bad dream is over but it's NOT. On the automoive front I am repulsed at all the micro cars on U.S. roads today. This is NOT Paris or Tokyo, we do no need nor should we aspire to drive these POS micro-cars like the Fiat 500 & Smart cars. This is the freekin' U.S. of A. for God's sake! Florida alone is bigger than the whole UK, New Englad is almost as bg as all of Western Europe! Why he hell are we driving around cars so small they make Golf carts look spaceous!?

More crazy over-the-top insanity from Stutgart.

Usually this sort of stuff happens to Ferraris and other overpriced exotics. RIP little 4-wheeled serpent.

Honda

1. Bringg it here ASAP, it's about time!!! 2. offer both wheelbase versions, the long one as the Caprice Classic.

The Escalade is an awesome vehicle but it's a TRUCK. I will never have the grace of a big, long, low, wide American land yacht.

WMJ: you should really replace the GT-R with a Lexus LFA. The Toyo-Duh wannabe Corvette is far more lame, esp. bang/$ wise.

LoL Even better than the iFone ferzion.

Lie Detector Robot John was a salesman's delight when it came to any kind of unusual gimmick. His wife Marsha had long ago given up trying to get him to change. One day John came home with another one of his unusual purchases. It was a robot that John claimed was actually a lie detector. It was about 5:30 that afternoon when Tommy, their 11 year old son, returned home from school. Tommy was over 2 hours late. "Where have you been? Why are you over 2 hours late getting home?" asked John. "Several of us went to the library to work on an extra credit project," said Tommy. The robot then walked around the table and slapped Tommy, knocking him completely out of his chair. "Son," said John, "this robot is a lie detector. Now tell us where you really were after school." "We went to Bobby's house and watched a movie." said Tommy. "What did you watch?" asked Marsha. "The Ten Commandments," answered Tommy. The robot went around to Tommy and once again slapped him, knocking him off his chair once more. With his lip quivering, Tommy got up, sat down and said, "I am sorry I lied. We really watched a tape called Sex Queen." "I am ashamed of you son," said John. "When I was your age, I never lied to my parents." The robot then walked around to John and delivered a whack that nearly knocked him out of his chair. Marsha doubled over in laughter, almost in tears and said, "Boy, did you ever ask for that one! You can't be too mad with Tommy. After all, he is your son!" With that the robot immediately walked around to Marsha and knocked her out of her chair.

Yup.... been there. Five years ago I had my 3-season daily driver 1959 Buick, my rainy day cars (rotating collection of Cadillac coupes, antique Buicks & the occassional Datsun) and I was sharpening my teeth in hopes of scoring a drivable & unmolested pre-war car. These days I'm happy that between he two of US both me and my wife have one reliable vehicle each. The Mercedes Benz just turned 300,000 miles (1991 M.B. 560SEC) and my low milegae 1991 Suburban R2500 with a 454 big block only has 109k on it even though I bought it a year ago with 106K. I only drive it when I can't drive the coupe because thesegas prices make the Burb expensive to roadttrip.

Yeah, I miss the days when Cadillac and Lincoln offered cars that dwarfed an S-class Mercedes Benz. Now it's the other way around.

Sweet. You're never too old for Hot Wheels.

Who cares...? I don't. I'm so sick to being told to be excited about some mid-size, middle of the road, bland family car. It seems "quite nice" & while overall the styling is unoffensive it's sort of lame that the rear end tries so hard to make a Camaro connection. GM needs to bring us all the variants of the Holden Commodore and Ute. This Malibu product is just another cookie cutter FWD sedan.

Ford is so fu*ked. They had it made in the shade after the B-body got axed. The Crown Vic. / Police Interceptor was the only car used by about 92% of all police departments and other law enforcement authorities in North America for about a decade and a half, the F-series trucks as usual sold like hotcakes because the fact that 20% of their mechanical components were made like crap did not prevent every municipality and 40% of contractors from buying them since OMG it's $800 cheaper than a GMC or Chevy! Now they are at the end of the line, they rode the Panther chassis, Ranger & Econoline products till the wheels fell off and now it's going to COST them for their greed and complacency. The Caprice and Charger will OWN the police car market for many years to come and the next gen. Colorado & Canyon will hopefully decimate Ford's small pickup sales while the Taurus police car becomes a lame joke. This is why I hate most post-war Ford products. Ford gives American cars a bad name. The only innovative thing they've done as of late besides the low volume Mustang is the Connect & Edge, both of which have the potential to do well sales wise.

Yawn....

That gorgeous baby blue Olds Vista Cruiser is why I can NEVER ever buy a Minivan and I think most of today's "family cars" are uber lame! Seriously, those cars are so damn hot, look at all that glazing, the scoops, the hood, those stripes, the curves, the rally wheels, that chrome roof rack.... damn I need a cod shower!

So very true. P.S. Hey Toyota... if there's ONE problem with the LFA it's that it's def. not that the car is too CHEAP!!! Most any Japanese car guy I know thinks the LFA is a waste of time and money. Who in their right mind wouldn't just buy a Corvette ZR1 AND a Nissan GT-R for that kind of money and still have enough to also buy a Porsche 911 GT3 all while spending less than the cost of ONE Lexus Carbon Fiber Coupe. Also: just something to think about for Toyota & Lexus: Yamaha, the designer & manufacturer of your LFS's motor also helped out with the 1st. & 2nd gen. Ford Taurus SHO and they both had some pretty annoying issues.

it will be the 21st century Skylark. Either in a good way (1961) or a bad way (1996-98)

Wow, crazy stuff. At least you don't need to worry about a pest infestation in the barn. On a related note Camino... you still got the BiTurbo?

Good luck with your son, just remind him that some of the best drivers in the world have wrecked a car or two. It happens. Sometimes when it rains it POURS. That being said I'm going to sound heartless and cruel here but I think it's important: Let go of that car. Miatas, just by their nature and their "economy convertible sports car" origins are not exactly high on the safety scale. Now that first wreck put stress and invisible damage on the car's delicate crumple zones and chassis. Think about it, by the suspension, engine mounts & cradle do not break easily, by the time they sustained major damage their contact points, the uni-body rails and pretty much entire chassis flexed and the torsional rigidity of the car was FOREVER compromised. Period. You ever bend a paper clip back & forth a few times only to have it snap? I mean I don't want to talk down to you Chris, you know all this. All I'm saying is after accident number two I would NOT keep that car if the insurance company tried to ram it down my throat. No amount of welding, splicing of metal, bolting on of NEW parts, pulling of frame rails or alignment by an laser-guided chassis straightener will make that car 100% okay. I just got home from a three day, 700+ mile roadtrip in our venerable, 1991 Mercedes Benz 560SEC that has just turned 290,000 miles where about a third of the driving was through the back woods, up and down mountains and through the entire length of "Moose Alley" and we even went down a few dirt / gravel roads and logging trails, usually just for a good photo op. Trust me, I'm not some "Nervous Nelly" and I'm not trying to be a wet blanket about this: dump the car. It's an issue of safety and peace of mind. P.S. Seriously, with the amount of auto-crossing you do & such, get a roll cage!