PurdueGuy

Which Mobil1 product are you comparing to? This is a synthetic blend, so it's likely that GM is pushing to get better quality oils in the cars, and thus get better longevity from their cars, but without the cost of going full synthetic.

Of course, you assume the worst, instead of waiting for the facts.

I had a '90 Grand Marquis. A $5 plastic retainer broke, locking up the trans while I was driving. Other than that, and the 15mpg pretty much no matter what I did, and the trans being super slow to shift, I liked the car. Super comfy land yacht.

You miss my point, and make it at the same time. How are people so unable to separate fiscal conservatism from the Republican Party, Fox News, etc? One is a reasonable concept, the other are screwed up organizations.

Am I the only one that thinks it's pretty stupid that a disaster has a "conservative" and "liberal" side to it. I'm for fiscally and sometimes for socially conservative government, but I still think BP should be nailed to the wall for this.

I like the concept, but I do wonder about the cost of motor-driven accessories. Let's see, typical belt-driven accessories that would need to be motor-driven; water pump, AC, Power Steering. Depending on the setup, that could mean the cost & weight of 3 electric motors, which is likely more cost & weight than an accessory belt system. As mentioned, though, the water pump could be run mechanically, unless it can be depended on in a location outside the engine, which might ease maintenance and simplify the engine block. It might be possible to still have an accessory belt, not attached to the engine, with the AC and power steering both attached to a motor via belt (or perhaps a long-life chain instead?) Anyway, seems like a good idea, but the details of implementation would be critical.

I was in my senior year of high school ('99).

Can't beat it, but I did drive to Vegas just over a week ago, and it was 112* and the AC quit in my Suburban.

looks decent, but has a strong nissan vibe

Yeah, it needs to either be left illegal for now, or be made a regulated industry, none of this convoluted halfway crap. I personally don't/won't use. I do know some people that are *mentally* addicted to pot (used as an escape from a life with a lot of issues that stem from poor choices - sadly, the money they spend on pot could be spent to repair some of those mistakes, but they'd rather have the relief than put the effort into making things better it seems). But, this same kind of thing happens with tons of legal substances, or even hobbies, so pot can hardly be blamed.

The mindset (at GM) is most likely "how do we keep up or increase our decent sales levels of the vette, as well as keep our good profit margins?" While the ideal of the car is a performance car, fact is the average age of buyers is pretty high, and a solid percentage of the buyers don't push their cars hard at all, but they instead love to bask in the image of the car. At the same time, they may very well find a car built for all-out performance harsh and unpleasant to cruise around & look good in. Personally, I think trim level management can take care of making the car appeal to those who already are interested in the car, as well as potentially reach new buyers. Design the platform to be very much performance oriented, but then offer a trim with a more forgiving suspension and more lux goodies. Other trim levels can offer a blend of performance & lux, or go all-out on performance at different levels.

Well, here's a question that perhaps should guide the answer to the original question: Who is the customer? Is this car being mainly targeted at performance enthusiasts? Baby boomers wanting a penis extender? Those with both a mullet and a fat wallet? Or do you aim at each of the above with different trim packages?

Glad it worked out for ya, I was elated with mine as well.

I didn't do it, but I will say that I hope you have stock in a foil hat company, since you're pushing their sales so hard.

Nice sketch! I really like the headlights & front end. I'm not sure if the proportions would allow for MINI size and the roof be high enough to hold a person, though. Still, you have skills, nice work!

The original post says "use any method you choose". Go for it.

Implementation would be a major hurdle. Most people couldn't just run out & buy a new car so that they would have the self-driving tech, so it would be around 15-20 years before you'd have a vast majority of drivers with self-drivable cars. Then there will be people that refuse to buy into the new tech. I'm not personally against it, but I do want to be able to drive my own car, as that is something I enjoy very much. The benefits of such a system are questionable until a decent number of the cars on the road have the tech, unless it's going to involve building special new highways for the self-driving cars, which would result in some nasty imminent domain issues in urban areas. Then there is the efficiency issue - rail is vastly more efficient than individual vehicles running around. Perhaps the automated highways could involve some kind of 3rd rail system to deliver electric power to cars travelling on it? That would potentially make the individual vehicles more efficient than rail, but would increase infrastructure costs, and the added complication would add to vehicle cost & complexity. The cars would probably still need batteries so they could travel on normal streets. I think the day will come, but there are a lot of things to figure out first, and rail passenger travel could still have a place.

Then definitely check out the vid I posted. The Saturn head in the vid is DOHC. Not sure how well it'll work with the head on the engine tho.

OHV? This is how I do it on Saturn 1.9L

I'm going to go with "that's retarded" with a side of "props for the skills".

Diesel hybrid Lancer = yes, good idea calling said diesel hybrid an Evo... not so sure about that one. Need to see performance #s, not sure I'll be thrilled even then. Evo's a tuner car - the complication of a hybrid system will work against that.

Don't see too many of the dustbuster minivans around anymore, unless I'm just not noticing them.

$800 1997 Saturn SW2 ~200k on body semi-rebuilt engine (new head, lower end inspected & in good condition) interior needs work body is good some performance parts seller included all his s-series specific parts, which somewhat fill both the wagon and the suburban (not crammed full, but all floor space is taken up), including a couple full sets of wheels and some nearly brand new studded snow tires, and a ton of other stuff. Still deciding if I'm going to fix & flip the car, or fix it up & do up some vinyls for my business (web design, computer repair, etc).

I can never seem to remember Peugeot or Citroen when I'm doing that, but I get all the others very quickly.

Nice incomplete sentence in the VW recall...