Hudson

SixtyEight:There was a joke that Billy Crystal used to tell about feeling old. He said that his kid was asking if Paul McCartney was in a band before Wings. I feel that way, but I'd have to explain who Wings...AND Paul McCartney....is.

I think we have a winner!

No automotive fan with ANY automotive knowledge (even VW fans) would "call 4 bangers V4" engines for any reason unless it was actually a V4. Saab offered a V4 back in the 1960s, but since then, there have been virtually no V4s. A V4, for clarification, would have two banks of cylinders offset at an angle greater than 0 degrees and less than 180. Most four-cylinder engines sold today are I4 or L4 (both mean the same thing) engines. And A VR6 is still a V6, just with a very narrow angle and a single cylinder head. "L4" or "I4" is just as easy (and actually much more correct) than "V4."Sorry for the topic detour.

GM has sold most, if not all, of their holdings in Suzuki. In any case, their peak holdings in Suzuki was only 20%.

Your analysis was brilliant. Just to prove how automotively educated you are, name one current car (or truck for that matter) powered by a V4 engine.

So some tuner company converted a vehicle related to a longitudinally-engined Chevrolet (since no Chevrolet models in the 1970s had transverse engines) to a transverse setup and detuned it (since the longitudinally-engined vehicle in your question was the "high performance" version)?

Oh, if we're talking "tuner" versions the Ford Focus was offered that way as well. But in the 1990s, the Chevrolet S10 was offered with in RWD/4WD configurations and also transverse/FWD configurations. But neither of these are what you're going for.

In the 1990s? In THIS decade, there was the MG ZT/Rover 75 which sent all of its power to the front wheels in the regular versions and all of its power to the rear wheels in the V8 versions.

It was YOUR argument that Minis are not built in Germany which removes them from being BMW products. There are BMW products that aren't built in Germany, which was my point.

I don't like this analogy. I don't know about you, but I'm filling my 300gb harddrive VERY quickly. And too much harddrive space will not kill someone...too much horsepower in the wrong hands will.I'd rather see the comparison between horsepower and processor speed. Making a faster computer is great, but are you using the same technology as a 286 in your current Pentium IV? A modern CPU works faster and more efficiently than the old design. A modern V6 is doing a better job of moving a vehicle than that of a V8 just a few years ago. The smaller engine has less friction, fewer moving parts, etc, making the engine more efficient and still generating more than usable power. Computers haven't reached (at least not in my hands) the point where the additional speed doesn't show up in my applications, but V8 engines may have. When a six-cylinder engine or four-cylinder engine can do the same job and return better gas mileage and fewer emissions, why do we need the V8? As was pointed out, does every car need to do 0-60 (0-100kph to our metric friends) in under five seconds? Seven, eight, even ten seconds to 60 mph is more than adequate for 98% of the drivers and driving situations out there. I'm sure someone could take a 286 chip and make it run at 3ghz, but wouldn't a modern Pentium IV make more sense?

Is the BMW X5 built in Germany? How about the Z4 or Z3? Except for the Mazda, Porsche and Ferrari comments, they're all true. I haven't studied the components of a Mini and I can't say that there are NO "BMW" symbols on that car, but "Mini" is part of BMW. Mazda is only partially (about 1/3) owned by Ford. Porsche is not part of the Volkswagen empire. Ferrari is owned by Fiat SpA, not Fiat Auto...it's similar to saying "Opels are really Chevrolets."It's not that "it just so happens BMW is their parent company," it's that BMW engineered, designed, and produced the Mini.

Let's talk truth in advertising... If I walk into many BMW dealerships, I can buy a front-wheel drive BMW product. It may be badged as a Mini and built in the UK, but it's still a BMW product.

Please forgive my late entry into this conversation. I have not read all of the 178 posts that preceded me, but I still wanted to add my thoughts. Evok makes sense. There is only so fast or quick a vehicle can go. Honda's attitude that they don't need a V8 may be premature since luxury vehicles and big trucks still require a V8 in the marketplace, but even that desire might not be long for this world. A six-cylinder or four-cylinder engine fills the power need for almost all cars (and many trucks) on the market today. To Evok's point, how much quicker is the 303hp Impala SS compared to the 3.9L Impala in real world driving? Just as important today, how different are their fuel economies in the real world. Comparing EPA estimates doesn't really show the actual differences in these two engines. Most cars today do not need anything more than front-wheel drive. Sure, we all want our sports cars and luxury cars to be rear- or all-wheel drive, but when you get down to it, the average vehicle is fully capable of being transportation (and even FUN transportation) with just front-wheel drive. And a front-wheel drive platform cannot adequately handle more than 300hp...which can be delivered by four- or six-cylinder engines today. I don't see the V8 going away anytime soon because too many stubborn buyers won't even try a six. There's also the big profit that manufacturers make on many V8 engines. Did you know that the Chrysler 5.7L Hemi costs less than half as much to make as the 3.5L V6...and yet the V8 takes a HUGE premium over the six? I don't see any threads on C&G complaining about "gouging" at Chrysler, which seems to mean enthusiasts are willing to pay the premium. If your cash cow has that kind of demand, are you going to stop production of it?

It's just that EVERYONE hates me. And I don't know why...I'm such a nice person.

So you'll just believe whatever the Big3 say?Sure the Big3 employ more people...they're required to by the unions. The Big3 have to have all of these extra (and they are extra) people making their cars so the Big3 have made lemonade. "We employ more people to make our cars than they do." Automakers are not benovolent organizations...if they could shed the extra workers, they would do so in a minute. You'd see the pink slips fly by so fast it would make your head spin. But they can't. If these extra workers were let go, they'd find employment elsewhere. If you don't look at the big picture, you'll miss it.

I think it's most interesting that they've stopped saying "go away, we have people who do this." This is the first sign that I've seen that GM's PR machine might actually realize that the public pays their salaries. And if you piss off the last of GM's core fans, GM's sales will all but dry up. This is a positive thing. The "red tape" (and I agree that it is just that) is a legal thing. If anyone submits ANYTHING and it gets used in a production vehicle (even if GM themselves thought it up), someone could possibly sue for compensation. But by allowing "fans" to submit ideas by this method, it allows the public to stay connected to GM and it allows GM to seem (whether or not they actually do) like they care about the public's interest. In the past, they'd just tell you, in a nice way, to go pound sand. "We have people who do this kind of thing"....I got one of those letters when I was eight.

I don't believe so. The Accord was sold as the Isuzu Aska in Japan...after it had stopped being a rebadged Subaru Legacy.I don't think Honda and Hyundai have any tie-ups anywhere in the world, especially with how popular the Sonata has become in so many markets.

Yes...the "all-American sounding," albeit with a French pronounciation of the brand's Swiss namesake. That's as "all-American sounding" as they get.

I vaguely remember when Sass Jordan had a hit song in the early 1990s..can't name it though. I have "Walk On" as well as "Don't Look Back" and "Third Stage" (oddly enough, I never bought "Boston"). "Walk On" did nothing for me...and while "Third Stage" was good, "Don't Look Back" is still my favorite.

I was going to defend "Yeah!" until I saw this post. I do NOT think that "Yeah!" is anything like pre-"Pyromania" Def Leppard. "High 'n' Dry" is one of my all-time favorite albums. "Pyromania" was far more mainstream and marketable...but I still prefered the second album.I have all of the Def Leppard albums except for "X" and I enjoy all of them (including the import songs I have) for what they are. I have Def Leppard's versions of Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix songs....and, my favorite cover, "Release Me" (the actual WORST cover I've ever heard...and still quite fun to listen to). "Yeah!" is good. It's not "High 'n Dry" great...but it's good in its own right. Def Leppard started getting soft with "Pyromania." Each album after that was softer. This happens to most of us as we get older. The Rolling Stones aren't breaking ground like "Let's Spend the Night Togehter" anymore. Rush hasn't released "2112" or "Moving Pictures" in decades. Are Aerosmith's "Pump" and "Permanent Vacation" as good as their early stuff?

I've got the Sheriff album as well. That's the one I have. I had to get it for "Fool's Game." There are certain bands that NEED certain people (even though they've tried). You can't have Judas Priest without Rob Halford. You can't have Extreme without Nuno. You can't have Iron Maiden without Bruce Dickenson (even though he wasn't their first singer). And you can't have Foreigner without Lou Gramm. I have "Unusual Heat" and it's not bad...but it's not "Head Games" or "Inside Information" or even "Agent Provacateur." And even Lou Gramm's "Ready or Not" isn't bad...but still not quite a Foreigner album. Find one of their complete albums: "Racing After Midnight" or "The Big Prize" (even better) or their self-titled debut...all good. How about Orion the Hunter? I actually prefer Orion the Hunter to RTZ. I have their first TWO albums...both excellent and very underrated.

I didn't think that Asia (I have four or five Asia albums) and Ted Nugent were "hair bands," but I can see that Heart had a "hair band" period (after their arena rock period and before their acoustic rock period). I've got music (actual CDs or LPs) from: Alcatrazz, Alias, Angel (pre-Giuffria Gregg Giuffria), Aerosmith, Bad Company (hair band period), Michael Bolton (his first album was "hair band"-ish), Bonham, Jodi Bongiovi (oddly enough, I don't own a single CD from your cousin Jon), Contraband, Joanna Dean, Deep Purple, Def Leppard (nearly everything), Dokken, Extreme, Femme Fatale, Giuffria, Gogmagog, Great White, Guns and Roses, Sammy Hagar, Hanoi Rocks, Helix, Honeymoon Suite, House of Lords, HSAS, Imeplliteri, Kingdom Come, Kiss, Kix, Kraaft, Krokus, Living Colour, Motley Crue, Mr. Big, Nelson, Night Ranger, Poison, Queensryche, Quiet Riot, Rainbow, Ratt, RTZ, Saraya, Skid Row, Billy Squier, Stryper, Tesla, Thunder, Tommi Gunn, Van Halen, Vandenberg, White Snake, and Zebra...and those are just the ones I remember off the top of my head. Some of these are not technically "hair bands" but when Ted Nugent and Asia are mentioned above, I figured I could stretch the definition a little as well.

Giuffria's first album (I have both of their albums) was one of the most underrated rock records of the 1980s. And I can't believe that I'm not the only person who has some House of Lords (I have all three albums) and Kix (I have all of their albums).

You can put DOHC on a OHV block or you could make a 4-valve OHV engine...both have been done. When GM needed a DOHC engine for the Corvette for the ZR1, Lotus had to design an engine from the ground up for size reasons. Putting a DOHC head on an engine the size of the small block makes it rather large. One of the reasons why the Northstar engine doesn't have 350-400hp is because it had been limited by the vehicles it was put in. FWD cars cannot take substantially more than 300hp, which is why FWD Cadillacs had no more than 300hp (305 by European standards). I'm sure the engine can (and is being) developed for more, but until the advent of the Sigma chassis, there was no reason to go above 300hp.

Not in the Philadelphia area in the 1960s...both his parents are probably of Italian decent. I know his father (personally) but I can't say I've ever met his mother.