Croc

That looks really nice.

Doesn't have one for the Aurora... By the way...anyone who is electronically-minded. I bought this a year or so ago and got stuck on what exactly I'd need to get this installed in my 2001 Aurora. At minimum, it sounds like I'd need a different cable than the one attached to my factory setup, but I couldn't discern which one out of the thousands of GM radio cables available online.

Nice! Sounds yummy! I haven't been doing much cooking lately because work has me worn out, but I will be doing Thanksgiving for my friends and me this year. I'm going all out, and should have food for an army.

Ford just doesn't have the balls to take Lincoln to a level where it will shine. Lincoln styling is downmarket, materials quality is downmarket, and interior design is downmarket. This would be fine if it were priced against VW, but it isn't. Until Ford gets its band positioning under control, they will flounder with Lincoln. Anyway, now that Ford's unloaded the PAG, WHERE'S THEIR LUXURY BRAND?? Lincoln's about as "luxury" as Acura.

wait... there are interior updates? Exactly.

Oh, it's very relevant...all you talk about in LA is traffic, "secret" routes, shortcuts, and armchair engineering. Unless it rains, there's no point in talking about the weather...and even when you talk about the rain, you're really talking about the traffic. He lives up here now. And has an unenviable commute.

I can't even fathom. I slog it out on the 10 every day to Santa Monica, and I get up at 6 to hopefully get on the road before 6:30...just so I can leave work by 3-3:30 and avoid the evening crunch. LADOT Commuter Express? I've been using it to get from PV to downtown most mornings... takes about an hour an 20 minutes... not too bad for rush hour. Yea well it takes me an hour in heavy traffic, but 15-30 minutes if I just get up early and go to work early. Another side benefit: leaving at 3-3:30 in the afternoon means I still have a day to live my life after work. TDM, yea! Honestly...my takeaway is a little different; the Santa Monica Fwy needs a continuous, non-auxiliary #5 lane from La Brea thru to the 405 in each direction. Caltrans pretty much needs to eliminate auxiliary lanes in general, as they do nothing to facilitate merging/diverging--and in my observation, clearly impede it (see Bundy/Overland lane striping interfacing with the 405 interchange)--but the viaducts thru Culver City are the biggest bottlenecks. I mean, yea, LA has 9 million people in the metro area, poor/nonexistent off-street transit throughout most of the city...but there's traffic, and then there's traffic caused by bad design...bad design with infrastructure engineered in 1960 to be functionally sufficient for 30 years yet still in use relatively unchanged 20 years after the intended design life.

I can't even fathom. I slog it out on the 10 every day to Santa Monica, and I get up at 6 to hopefully get on the road before 6:30...just so I can leave work by 3-3:30 and avoid the evening crunch. LADOT Commuter Express? I've been using it to get from PV to downtown most mornings... takes about an hour an 20 minutes... not too bad for rush hour. Yea well it takes me an hour in heavy traffic, but 15-30 minutes if I just get up early and go to work early. Another side benefit: leaving at 3-3:30 in the afternoon means I still have a day to live my life after work.

I like the front a lot, and especially the headlights. Rear just looks like the latest BMW style--good, but exactly what I'd expect. The side profile, though? I agree with SoCalCTS--it sure looks like it's been sideswiped. Interior, like all German interiors, leaves me a bit cold.

Welcome back! I can't even fathom. I slog it out on the 10 every day to Santa Monica, and I get up at 6 to hopefully get on the road before 6:30...just so I can leave work by 3-3:30 and avoid the evening crunch.

If done right, the 2.0T Verano could be that car. The HYUNDAISONATATURBO does 34 mpg and 274 hp. But the 2.0Ts on the Regal have been quite disappointing so far. There's something about that car that saps power from the wheels. Even the GS has slower acceleration than a similarly porky 211-hp A4. The base Regal is slower than every other midsize car apart from the Prius. Exactly...and some people like me aren't really interested in curing cancer with my tailpipe emissions or purifying greywater with my cooling system, and thus do not want a HYUNDAISONATATURBO. Honestly I'm just a really cheap bastard who has incredibly high standards and impeccable taste.

Daddy likes

There should be a Verano offered with mpg's within 1-2 of the Cruze. Not everyone wants a bigger engine with more power in a Buick--some people just want a better style/interior. Also: is e-Assist going to eat up all of the trunk like with the Regal? Because that's bad. At least I'm this Buick will get e-Assist eventually because didn't they just say a few months ago that every Buick would be getting it?

The Cruze is 26/38, so I really want to know where the huge drop comes from if your Verano figures are correct.

I also like "Heartbeat of America" and "American Revolution"...and I'd use both of them at the same time--Chevrolet Cars gets "Heartbeat" and Chevy Trucks gets "Revolution."

Surely the steering weight is adjustable like it has been on Cadillacs and Oldsmobiles since 2000, right?

And what, are you so specific in your equipment that you can't find 90-95% of what you want on a dealer lot? Remember, September/October has the best deals as they try to clear new late-model inventory. That makes it a lot less money.

The lack of differentiation between Lincoln and Ford hurts Lincoln, and the styling of the Lincolns is frankly cheap-looking for a "luxury" brand even though the actual product has not had much of a resemblance to anything "luxury" in a good 10-15 years.

Well I love the rear of the Verano, and can't wait for LAIAS to roll around so I can properly check one out.

Of course...and that's why the Cruze is a great car for the Chevrolet brand. Verano is a Buick, so it needs to offer a little more content to justify the higher pricing and its presence in a luxury brand's lineup.

I agree, but if what Paulie posted is true regarding the lack of basic premium options (power passenger seat), then I'll be more cautiously optimistic. As far as I'm concerned, I don't care what size class it is, a luxury brand should offer power seats for both seating positions standard. But to not even offer that as an option? I'll just buy a Cruze and save a few grand.

Weather and seismic activity have nothing to do with one another. Mostly. There does appear to be some kind of link between large subsurface radon gas releases and brilliant red-orange sunrises/sunsets shortly before a quake, but nothing definite. Just prior to the Japan quake, atmospheric radon levels skyrocketed over Japan.

You need the earthquake strength and duration to put sufficient energy into the system to start the liquefaction process. Otherwise, you would get liquefaction without an external source... which isn't happening, as everything is still standing. I agree soil type/groundwater is very important. Beg to differ: when you have soft, uncompacted soils (landfill, sand) and you add water, objects on top of them settle when there are vibrations. The more compacted/less water, the stronger the quake needs to be...but even minor temblors have been known to cause it; early residents of Manhattan Beach, Calif. would sometimes wake up to find the early sidewalks had disappeared overnight, and all that was left was sand.

If it went on long enough, certainly. The gamble is that we don't get quakes strong enough to cause it. Most of the strong quakes have epicenters outside NJ, but what kills me, though, is that we've had 173 quakes that have epicenters in NJ, 40 in the last decade. This list includes none of the 3.0~4.5 quakes I recall from 1984~86, 90, 94 or the two 2010 quakes. The quake, as most know was centered just NW of Richmond, VA. I wonder if its related to all the rain we got in the last few weeks... its likely Richmond has received as much as PA or NJ. We're certainly overdue for a big one, hope this was it for a while... as liquefaction, or not, our buildings are not built for even mild earthquakes. Of course, at this point, we're kind of distracted by staring down the gun at Irene... who looks like a lot like 1985's Gloria, if you ask me. We've weathered storms pretty good, but forget that in the past, partial (1/3 of Longport) and whole towns (South Cape May) have been washed away during these storms... such as 1916, 1944, 1962. Where my house is was ocean in 1916. 8-0 Liquefaction has nothing to do with quake strength and has everything to do with soil types/groundwater.