Hudson

I don't understand where the shuttering of Pontiac and selling the nameplate are mutually exclusive. Waldron only wants to buy the nameplate...I didn't hear any mention of production lines or vehicles, just the name. GM can ax Pontiac as a produced marketing brand and Waldron can buy the name (which I imagine he and his investors can't afford). A dealer bought one model line (and the modelname) from Studebaker back in 1964....and it lasted 25 years beyond the production life of Studebaker! Pontiac COULD BE purchased, but I can't imagine that any "small" investor could afford to re-launch the brand with actual competitive products without MAJOR help from large vehicle manufacturers. Pontiac isn't Saturn. Pontiac has a long and storied history as a GM brand. Spinning off Saturn (which has worked, until recently, to be separate from GM) could work with other manufacturer(s) supplying product. It would be a tougher sell to the buying public to do that with Pontiac. Not saying it couldn't work, but it would be much tougher than with Saturn.

When Chrysler had its problems 30 years ago, they had radical new products in the pipeline. Today, they don't have that. When they were building low-gas mileage, low-quality RWD cars, they returned with economical, relatlively high-quality FWD cars...one after the other. How would they do that today? Their cars are reliable (albeit, relatively low quality) and, by design, what the market wants (FWD/AWD small cars, RWD/AWD large cars, big trucks, minivans) with nothing radical in the pipeline. Chrysler is a network of dealerships and assembly lines ready for a large company to revamp (read: take down the unions). Fiat and Citroen-Peugeot are just about the only companies who could fully take advantage of this situation.

I agree with Caddy. People's livelihoods are at stake...in the current economy. Just because their unions have pushed and pushed doesn't mean they deserve every dime they've won over the years. And, sure, car companies were making money in good times...but that money should be able to weather the bad times, like now. When you make a few billion in the good times and lose tens of billions in the bad, isn't something out of kilter? Chrysler will collapse without the help of someone like Fiat. And if the unions aren't willing to negotiate, they will lose their jobs. The comment "We want them (Fiat) to walk away ... I don't see any benefits in this deal" shows the lack of understanding of the situation. Fiat walks away, the union members lose their jobs. You'd have to be blind not to see the benefits of the deal.

Just like when the last generation was shown at the New York show a few years back, this is an impressive car in person. It's prettier than pictures make it out to be...and it's big. With the Hyundai range stretching across 6(!!!) sedans, I think they're pushing it but as long as the Genesis is a success, I don't see why they can't try this as well.

No. From his bio on the Huffington Post: "San Francisco Chronicle columnist Mark Morford was raised by nubile long-eyelashed callipygian wood nymphs and spoon fed dark chocolate and raw pomegranate seeds and 18-year-old Scotch until he could fly. With bones still forming, he attended Musicians Institute in L.A. during the mid-'80s when the jeans were tight and the hair was big and Eddie Van Halen was still God. Life gyrated and spit him gently into the halls of U.C. Berkeley, where he investigated the pagan influences in Milton's "Paradise Lost" and discovered how Eve taught the serpent to use its tongue. He has worked in book publishing. He work has appeared in many magazines. He wrote headlines and blurbs for sfgate.com for three years before becoming a full-time columnist, in 2000, via a strange cocktail of serendipity, sheer nerve, good timing, oddball mentors, and divine cataclysm. He has almost been fired -- twice -- for the contents of his award-winning column and his raw, licentious (and now defunct) Morning Fix email newsletter. He also teaches yoga. He is tattooed. His girlfriend has a large parrot. He believes in divine mystery, good lubricant and beautifully designed small European cars. And dogs." It would seem he loves is Mini Cooper to death.

Fuel economy, performance, reliability, durability, safety, value for the dollar...not much left to put a 30-40 year old car ahead of a modern car. I just don't see the CAFE regulations as being detrimental to the automobile. I don't think that CAFE is the way to go...but it's also not the end of great cars.

I'm sure someone said something like that in 1975...and the cars today are far superior to cars built at ANY TIME in history. I'm betting something similar will come about for 2015 and 2020.

If you thought the six-cylinder Pacer was slow...

I've got two. This one is my favorite:

KNAC.com is good for hard rock YROCKONXPN.org is good for alternative PANDORA.com is interesting to find music that you might not hear otherwise, but could possibly like Those are my favorites.

When on your computer, check out knac.com.

Yes, but unfortunately I'm just out of range for my HD radio to pick up 88.5 HD2.

Good NEW music. A band I really like had a new highly-anticipated album out a few years back. The local rock radio station didn't add it to their playlist, stating that it was reviewed and they chose not to play it. My argument was that it wasn't on a major label (it was on Rhino), therefore the record company didn't push it on them (read: payola). There was a time when you could hear new music on the radio. There were whole radio stations that made their name by breaking new artists. There were radio stations that could introduce old records as new and revive careers. Today, there aren't any radio stations, terrestrial or satellite, that have that kind of pull, so they tend to play what everyone else is playing. How many stations play "the new song from [name any over-hyped band]" every hour on the hour? How many of those stations actually try something untested? There's a local morning show that is entertaining, but after that my CDs tend to take over. I'm too far away from the city to actually get good stations with my HD radio and even Sirius XM is leaning on old standards too much. Oh, how I miss the days of WQZK (Keyser, WV), WDRE (Philly), or when MTV actually played music.

Back in the 1970s, this car came to my home town as a side show to the travelling carnival. It was, at that time, painted gold (as I recall, it was "painted WITH gold"). It is a 1925 Rolls-Royce Phantom I Aerodynamic (Jonckheere) Coupe.

It's just like believing the "Level Playing Field Institute." The data is purposely bias to promote the story being told. I agree and I'm all for HFCS being removed from recipes in the US. While Coke and Pepsi are tough to find in the US made with sugar, there are other excellent sodas offered. Brands like Jones, Boylan, and Dublin Dr. Pepper offer sodas made with sugar instead of HFCS. In my area, there is a local soda manufacturer that make a variety of flavors of pure cane sugar sodas at reasonable ($0.99 for a 16oz bottle).

Ford's rebuttal (with Denis Leary) is better, though.

I drank TAB back in the days before Diet Coke came along. It had Saccharine (the old cancer-causing stuff before NutraSweet came along) and it was an acquired taste. I haven't seen the old Tab in years but I did have a can of Tab Energy a few years back (free at a car show, I think).

Just because Suzuki (and Mitsubishi/Isuzu) is small in the US doesn't mean they're on the verge of collapse around the world. Suzuki makes quite a few vehicles for Japan and is very popular in Japan as well as China and India. I don't see Suzuki just suddenly going away as a four-wheeled vehicle maker. If anything, they're among the best positioned if oil prices ever shift higher more permanently than we saw recently. As for the top automotive manfacturers in Japan, I don't think Mitsuoka was even on the radar as the "ten" companies. My count would include the Big3 (Toyota, Nissan, Honda), the small car players (Daihatsu, Suzuki), the smaller mid-range players (Subaru, Mitsubishi), and the truck makers (Isuzu, Hino, and Nissan Diesel). In Japan, the local manufacturers have multiple dealer networks selling (primarily) one brand of vehicles. In the US, it doesn't work that way so manufacturers need to come up with unique brands for each dealer network. Where GM in America has Buick-Pontiac-GMC, Chevrolet, Saturn, and Cadillac selling distinctly branded vehicles, Toyota in Japan has Netz, Corolla, and Vista all selling Toyota-branded vehicles (plus Lexus' own network).

Lots of good choices in there, but I can't believe it took 11 posts before someone mentioned any Boston song! There was a time when I didn't consider a radio station to be worthy of the name "rock" unless it played Boston. Picking from some of the bands mentioned above: Boston: More than a Feeling; Foreplay/Longtime Led Zeppelin: Kashmir; Rock and Roll The Who: Baba O'Riley Traffic: Glad (while I prefer "Low Spark of High Heeled Boys") Jimi Hendrix: All Along the Watchtower; Little Wing Def Leppard: High 'n Dry; Another Hit and Run Deep Purple: Smoke on the Water; Perfect Strangers; Highway Star Iron Maiden: Flight of Icarus; Wasted Years; 2 Minutes to Midnight Krokus: Our Love Metallica: Whiskey in the Jar; Stone Cold Crazy; Fuel Nazareth: This Flight Tonight (another vote); Holiday; Shanghai'd in Shanghai Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here; Shine On You Crazy Diamond Police: Can't Stand Losing You Queen: Headlong; Hammer to Fall Rush: YYZ; Limelight; Red Barchetta; Tom Sawyer Santana: Oye Como Va ZZ Top: La Grange I've got many more (Queensryche, Aldo Nova, even a Prince song or two), but these are the ones you guys are most likely to agree with.

"A Wish for Wings that Work" (a must-see) "Year Without a Santa Claus" Chuck Jones' "Dr. Suess' How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and of course... "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer"

I agree, but for some reason Toyota doesn't.

The coupe. The sedan and convertible were entirely Chrysler designs.

Except that Ford has NEVER owned a majority stake in Mazda...33.4% is a controlling stake according to Japanese law but a majority would be 50.1%. And while the Mazda3, Mazda5, Mazda6, and Tribute share platforms with Ford Motor Company vehicles, those three platforms (C1, C/D, and U204) were primarily developed by Mazda. GM was never the majority stakeholder in Subaru (only held about 10%). GM did, however have a 49% share in Isuzu, and while they were the LARGEST share holder, they were not a majority shareholder. Mitsubishi floated along fine with or without Chrysler's help. As for platform sharing, Chrysler had a handful of vehicles but never near half the lineup. Today, Chrysler provides the Raider (assuming it's still in production right now) to Mitsubishi but they don't share any other engines. They did share the development (with Hyundai) of the Global engine family but each company builds its own. NUMMI, the Toyota/GM joint-venture in California does NOT make the Toyota Matrix. The Matrix is built in Canada in a Toyota plant.

You mean it wasn't Hank G6? Or Pedro Aztek? Or Joe Montana...wait, he didn't race cars.

Oh, get a sense of humor. First, Obama was going to win with or without SNL. Second, the Big3 skit was SO over the top that only people with blinders on wouldn't get the joke. The biggest problem with the skit was that it went on too long. Put the three execs in a car and drive them to Washington...good joke. On-going loans...good joke, but a little too close to the truth. There's so much discussion on threads around here about the overwhelming conservative nature of the posters and how politically-correct speak has gone overboard, but then someone pokes fun at the Big3 and everyone's up in arms! If it weren't a funny skit, that's one thing...but poking fun at the Big3, especially their executives, is not taboo.