regfootball

saweet! (the caprice wagon)

a couple of thoughts here. yes, social security, health care, wars, national security....everyone seems to take this stuff for granted but there are some major problems down the road with this stuff because of how badly the baby boom generation / fem. movement has screwed us, they created an economy that is out of whack vs the ozzie and harriet days and now their numbers retiring are far greater than the generations after that were culturally and economically forced into 'breeding responsibly'. Previous poster who advocated no more new children doesn't seem to get that those younguns will be pumping money into the health care and social security machines that the numerous boomers will be sucking upon en masse. Plus all the younguns we need to get working and filling needed jobs to support our blue haired and entitled population.....driving ambulances, cleaning up floors in the rest homes etc. the 'anti-sprawl' / walk everywhere crownd, simply put, is fking clueless. mobility = freedom = what our country is based upon. It was the engine of our postwar greatness. I do feel mass transit is part of the solution but all the idiots seem to think one has to come at the expense of the other. Pull your heads out of your brainwashed liberal urban arses long enough to understand a few things. If you had no car and the bus and train was not running, how pray tell would you get a sick kid to the emergency room at 3 am. Walking in a cold zero degree night? How would anyone drive up to their precious fricking summer cabins in the middle of nowhere? How would families coexist in communal properties? Not very well. People always seem to forget with high density housing comes social costs (not gonna discuss those here) but building costs as well. If you think condo living means cheaper living, think again. Does your single family home in a nice suburb bear the cost of an expensive steel or concrete structure, fire sprinkling system, elevators, commercial mechanical system with elaborate pressurization, communal rooms, emergency generators, stories of exit stairs. Who pays for all that? What sort of resources were wasted making those elaborate structures when simple stick frame houses would do? Where does that expensive condo fee go every month? You gotta pay someone to maintain those big buildings. Window washing crews? You don't need to do that on your house. If maintenance slides, can you all agree on whether to pony up more bucks, or do advocate letting it slide? If the city comes knocking on your door and mandates that you need to spend 6,000 per resident to upgrade the mechanical to code, how do you feel about that? Still like living with the guy three stories up whose toilet you hear flushing through the floor? How bout that vietnamese family that stinks up the whole building with their spicy cooking? You wanna bear the smell of that all the time in many parts of the building? You like being trapped on floor 27 with only a tiny balcony and no connection to the earth? You think there is any incentive for large rental properties (especially low income ones) to be kept up? If resident 23 trips and breaks their leg because maintenance guy your association hired didn't mop the floor right and he sues the condo association, did you ever think that cost isn't gonna nail ya? Who's gonna pay the settlement and legal fees? You think whitey worked his whole life to live in a cramped urban setting with other income groups? nuh uh. whitey wants the boat on the lake and no density. whitey writes the checks. Yes, whitey buys expensive condos too but you better bet he still doesn't want to walk and he defintely wants premier parking space for his SUV / suburban, even if he lives in a downtown condo. So get down off this 'walk everywhere' high horse. Our lifestyles are mobile and dynamic and requires mobility. How limited would you be if you had 3 kids and each one went to a different private or charter school and each was like 10 miles away. Oh yeah, WALKING your kid to school everyday like Laura fricking Ingalls Wilder would be productive. They don't build schools every four blocks these days. Kids would be walking 8 miles to school. Mom walking the kid to school, by the time she gets home by noon, she has to turn around and go back to pick them up and walk them back home. that doesn't leave empowered mom the freedom to look for a job, does it? Now mom is resentful because she lost her mobility and does not have the freedom to work if she chooses. i think i said this in another thread. the govt would be better off to offer eye popping incentives to companies for pushing new tech and high mpg cars instead of CAFE. For example, waive a (US based) automakers need to comply will all CAFE if they sell x amount of qualifyiing innovative, hybrid, alt fuel or otherwise beneficial cars each year, and give them a 3-5k tax break per type car for doing so. IOW, let them sell all the suburbans they want, but if they build 50,000 bioethanol aveos (stipulation that it is designed and built here in US) a year in the US and sell them that get like 50/60 mpg and zero emissions, then waive cafe for their entire lineup and give them a huge tax break on each type of car like that they build. Or, GM builds 100k volts with zero emissions and can run on elec. waive cafe for the rest of the GM lineup. and let the public decide. there is no benefit to reverting to tribal living (i.e. highly cramped forced living arrangments and no mobility). Mobility is one of our countries greatest assets. It keeps us on top. It makes us happy. We simply need to push more and newer techonolgies to facilitate that way of life. One other thing that needs to happen. all the old boomer bosses in middle and upper mgmt and ceos need to change our work culture and arrangements so they don't feel like they need to have us chained in a cube 5-6 days a week. internet alone means we could work part week at home and by simply staying home 1-2 days a week, we could cut our energy expenditures a lot. But many people in charge can't function as bossmen unless they think they have watch over us like little kids. that is a culture/generational thing that needs to go away and get osme of these old folks to change their thinking.

to me, it's just that the galant with a crosshairs grille would be incredibly believable as a dodge (invitation for someone to chop that). new interior in that, and its a better entry than the avenger. dodge and chrysler ought to retreat and refocus the avenger and sebring as 'large compacts'. sell them at prices not far off from typical compacts and equip most of them with fuel friendly 4 cylinders. keep them lightly optioned and watch them sell to folks who don't have a lot of money to spend and want good mpg of a compact, with more space. to try to pass these cars off as desirable midsizers is not believable. speaking of 'outlandish', rebadge the outlander as a dodge too, while your at it. and the lancer would make a good dodge too. dodge would be better off with all those rebadged mitsubishis for car, except for the charger and challenger obviously.

i like it, except the interior is snooze inducing. not badly done, just way to dull styling wise. CMON PEOPLE..... GIVE IT UP FOR THE OLDS CUSTOM CRUISER....WITH VISTA ROOF!!!!!!!!!!!! next M6 wagon is nice.

i am totally fine with those results. myself, if pressed, might pick the honda over the BU, (only for space reasons really) but I am glad to see they treated the cahmree appropriately. Where was the Altima?

Lutz is on my sh1tlist because the Zeta and G8 wagon will not have AWD. Not NOW or anytime. A new Saab 9-5 sportcombi with cross wheel drive and 300hp turbo might redeem him, but come on, where is my AWD G8 sportwagon with 3.6DI and stick or small block and stick? audi was onto something with the allroad quattro. air suspension to raise the car when needed. instead, they put out the oinker Q7 and its 3 ton weight. and i guess its selling well. Go figure.

its as bad as 'big duh'.

ask britney's mom. she might be able to answer that.

oh that would be cool......!

i bet she looks terrible when she's 30 but right now, man, she is ti-te. and cute as a button. yah baybay

how's this. a complete blanket exception from CAFE for the bulk of their lineup if they also sell say, 250,000 alt fuel / hybrid / zero emissions / cars that demonstrate new techonologies like electric hydrogen biofuels etc. and while we're at it, tax credit of their IRS bill of 3 grand per car for each green car sold.

so california can set new self important rules and cause the whole cycle to start all over?

x2. also, families don't want "Zafiras". let's rip off the writer's head and poop down the throte.

one of the best posts I have ever seen. thanks.

exactly. Average joe consumer doesn't care if electrics make RWD a bit more drivable, and they do somewhat, but people still want the total solution and for most folks writing checks, it's still that FWD or AWD is a better solution in their mind. you basically cannot change it. so why force RWD only down the dealers throat if they cannot sell them in 1/3 or more of their dealers?

quite honestly i cannot comprehend why anyone wrangler shopping or any jeep for that matter would choose to buy a 2wd? help me with that one.? (besides the compass)

you mean a good contemporary new in line 6.

i thought the steering and suspension were decent on the rav (not exciting, just merely good for a majority of drivers) but the refinement and heft and quality of construction and korean interior were a big letdown. to have to drive that thing with that interior every day for the duration of one's payment book is a disgrace. the cheap crashing tinny thunk when you close the ridiculous tire in a door was the icing on the cake. Aside from all terrible noise and vibration from the motor through the seat and floor. i've driven previous gen vues (4 and 6 cyl.) i do not think they were up to par with the rav4 overall, although the 6 cyl vue was a much better driver. i'd like to take an equinox sport out. i think they will have it sorted out. the equinox's interior is nicer now, and even if it's plastics are not as good, the design of it is not as creepy as the RAV4. i suppose its possible that women buyers and the press have taken and destroyed this segment as well. make everything light and tinny. throwaway. I like solid vehicles myself.

avenger buyers can move up to a similarly ugly charger and sebring buyers can move up to an equally offensive 300, so i guess their move up strategy is pretty good

AMEN! actually, me and my BIL were talking about this today. cafe? fk em. global warming? fk em. 'urban sprawl'? oh fk em. politically correct? fk em!

I definitely think you might enjoy an Edge. I wonder if the VUe Redline is a better drive.

From Canadian Driver.com about the Vue http://www.canadiandriver.com/testdrives/08vue.htm so you'd think a vehicle like this would get higher than SIXTH.

well the rav is junk and it won. i seriously wouldn't wish the rav an anyone. the thing will be a pile of junk in 5 years. it's flimsy and it won't even maintain engine idle with the A/C on. not to mention no mention of the terrible noise and vibration from the engine through the floor and seat. where was that? 9. Liberty. they are testing crossovers, which never are supposed to get much off road use vs. real SUV's, but then they design the test so it is criteria that they slog them all through the mud. Then, the vehicle that is supposed to be the best in the mud, they put in last place. what the f? choose what the fk you want your test to be about! 8. Tucson. I can't say much here other than they dieify the honda because of its cute interior but reality is the Tucson has a decent interior as well yet they say the whole vehicle feels old. 7. The Escape. best cruiser, open and airy cockpit. real seating space. decent off road. 'honest suv'. it's only bad mouthing was for brakes and lack of 4th gear. But the toyota wins with only 4 speeds too. WTF? oh well, the 09 escape is supposed to get a 240hp v6 and a 200hp four i think. at least its not a chick wagon. 6. Vue XE 3.5......big dings for weight and mpg. OK, the mpg is a legit concern. But mpg is mostly a function of weight in most cases. The RAV is pretty light, and boy its pretty flimsy. If I could get a more solid vehicle for this class and money, its a nice choice to have. I bet the vue's tailgate doesn't sound like its going to come off the vehicle and make a loud clink noise when you shut it like the RAV's does. The Vue also has a tremendously upscale interior, not a yucky Korean interior like the RAV does. 5. Grand Vitara. Suzuki must not be writing big enough checks to C/D. What i have encounted before is a little SUV with good interior space, nice layout and plastics, and good price. It has real offroad capability and cannot feel toylike like the RAV4. What it does lack is real engine power and that can be corrected. They had no reason to bash this vehicle like they did, considering they were supposed to be weighing highly for off road capability, which this vehicle has in spades. 4. Outlander. this was the vehicle that got the shaft. it's got a better tailgate/rear hatch than the RAV. It has a larger cargo area with more fleixibility and more comfortable seating with as much space. The interior is nicer and more normal. It's better priced has good handling. It even has optional paddle shifters. It has good styling. 3rd row seat. If there is any vehicle that out RAV's the RAV, it's this one. Yet mitsubishi does not write big checks like toyota does. that is why it does not beat the RAV. 3. Rogue. they pretty much come out and say its the best one but that they can't give it the title (because its not a honda or toyota). Ghosn should be fuming. "Somber" interior? My God did they sit in the CRV or RAV 4 for any length of time? I guess not because they would slit their wrists if had done so. 2. CRV. despite having terrible styling and no 6 cyl option, it is godlike. The interior may have good 'fit and finish', but from what i have seen before, the plastics are pretty average. Not worth accolades. Let's just chalk it up to this. You can put a purse on the floor by the shifter. So I guess girls like it. Just like buff books did with family sedans, they have reduced a popular class of vehicles to wussy, feminized 4 cylinder flimsyboxes and have glorified these fragile feminine characteristics into godlike status. 1. Simply put they gave the RAV #1 but they weren't driving what I drove (see RAV4 steaming pile topic). To put this bland and crappy of a vehicle at the top shows sheer volume about their journalistic focus. What is funny is the as tested price of the RAV and CRV you could have a 3.6l 3 row suzuki XL7 which no doubt wuld probably be a superior functional vehicle all around. Or an Equinox sport. Or pocket the 5 grand of the rav or hoyotha and get an equinox.

i had a RAV4 for 2 days and if that was the best........ i'd say more like their comparo was trash.

car and driver has a 9 chick ute comparo. the steaming pile RAV4 won and the super cute girl rav4 takes 2nd. to match the size of the paychecks. 1.rav4 2.crv 3.rogue (depsite best handling and performance and power and cheapest base price) 4.outlander 5. grand vitara (where was the xl-7?) 6.vue 7.escape 8.tucson 9.liberty (why not patriot?) where was the equinox?