ocnblu

Yes, remember, I work in a bodyshop, I know about the door bending trick. It's still under warranty, I need to run it through the proper channels. It has to be approved by the Chevy service manager before I can open an R.O. I just noticed it yesterday. Please don't get me wrong, I appreciate the suggestions, WMJ! :)

The XLR is sweet but I cannot stand the new SLK, with that huge schnoz.

Yeah, I checked all that. Not sure if it's the top corner of the windshield, or an open seam at the drip rail flange. It's annoying though. At least the fuzzy headliner hasn't allowed it to drip onto my knee.

Let's see... combined sales of the LXs and the Mustang will top 400,000 units. So much for Croc's "niche" claim. More like a canyon.

I had a new '86.5 Nissan Hardbody 4X4, it was a good truck except it had poor corrosion protection... stone chips on the hood rusted and grew to the size of quarters before I got rid of it after 3 years. I had a new '92 Golf GL 2 door. It was a good car except the clutch linkage fell apart once and I had to jury rig it to get it running. I was an hour from home. I had 2 new '98 Beetles. The first, a sharp silver one, had the loudest squeal in the brakes I've ever heard... it was embarrassing to be the center of attention with people ogling the car for being cool looking... until I had to stop. The second Beetle was a total POS. It overheated the second day I had it because the engine cooling fan wasn't plugged in from the factory. The hood got so hot the VW emblem flew off at 60 mph on the highway... all I saw was a flash... the diagram on the shift knob fell off. I sold it at a profit after 3 months and bought an S-10 ZR2. It was ok, kinda rattly. When I crawled over a small incline and over a curb at like 1 mph, the shock mount welded to the frame in the rear snapped off... LIKE A ROCK. The longest I ever kept a vehicle was my new '94 S-10 regular cab 4X4... 4 years and 125k HARD miles. Things replaced: clutch throwout bearing, alternator, exhaust, and tires, once. We've had some very hard rain over the last 2 days here. My Colorado leaks water somewhere... the headliner gets soaking wet at the top of the left A-pillar. I haven't seen this because it's usually parked in the garage, so it's not out in the weather all the time. I know GM has problems, but all-in-all, I prefer them for their overall goodness.

The SSR was designed as a niche vehicle, price and bodystyle-wise. What Sixty8 and others are proposing is the return of affordable RWD performance CARS, like 4 and 5 seaters. Your example doesn't fit that description.

Why would the SSR have a pillar? It's designed to resemble a regular cab pickup truck. Like I said... bad example.

:rolleyes: whatever... http://www.cheersandgears.com/public/style_emoticons//AH-HA_wink.gif

That's her! That's my old baby peeking out of the dark. That blue coupe is pimpin', man. Imagine that car wit some 17" Torque Thrusts and nice fat blackwalls. Now that's rollin'! You just cannot beat the smoooth ride, the feeling of limitless torque, and the song of an unfettered V8 under your foot. The B-body was, and is, Detroit at its finest. Can GM find her way again? Will they let Chrysler and Ford ride this wave alone? I pray not. BTW, I love Napoleon Dynamite. And that ragtop is awesome! It's a '72, I believe.

Where is that hottie LS anyway?

Do what? :huh: :P

No Monte Carlo will recapture the excitement of the original until it is put back on a RWD chassis. The car is just not real without it.

Planned obsolescence certainly kept the excitement level up year after year with annual design changes. The 50's, 60's and early 70's were great times to be a car enthusiast I'd imagine. Before someone makes fun of Sixty8 once again for his above post, remember, he is placing you in that time period, not looking back from today. Today, more people view the car as an appliance, how else would Toyota be where they are, really?

I find it funny that Croc has chosen to make fun of Sixty8's sig (with a flawed example in the SSR). Croc drives an M-class. The Mercedes CLK is (as far as I know) the only pillarless hardtop coupe with retractable quarter windows left on the market. I wish the G6 coupe had retractable quarter windows, it would look so cool cruising around with all four windows down.

I like the roofline of the '95-'99 because it evoked the first gen. Otherwise, you're right.

I am a sad individual. At my age, I still daydream about so many different vehicle scenarios all the time. Vipes is just like me that way. Trust me, Vipes, it doesn't get any better, so you may as well enjoy your obsession and don't let it destroy you. I know this isn't what you want to hear... but I'd keep the GA if it lives, until you're out of high school. When I was your age, I wanted a 4 speed 305 Malibu in that Cinnabar orange color, a Chevette with Keystone Classic rims, a Dodge Mirada CMX, a Z28, a Firebird Formula, a Cutlass Salon, a Century Turbo Coupe, a Cavalier Type-10 hatchback, a J2000 coupe with rims, a Chrysler LeBaron (RWD then) coupe in black with Cragar S/S rims, oh man... the list goes on and on. These were all new cars back then. I was driving my grandfather's green '73 Catalina four door hardtop at the time... with the windows up and the fan on "high" in the summer to make people think I had a/c sweating my balls off and the AM radio turned up loud, single speaker squeaking its poor guts out. I begged and nagged my poor grandfather until he bought me a brand new '81 Grand Prix, and you know what? I still wasn't happy. That was the first year for engine computers, and the car never ran for crap. I was so spoiled. Looking back now, I should have kept the Cat because it ran like a top with a 400 and a 2 barrel carb.

Sigh... yeah, I had two college professors tell me I should be published. To all the high school and college people here: if you've got something good, hold onto it, nurture it, develop it... go for it!

I do like the dogleg windshield and the pushbutton gear selector (like an old TorqueFlite) on the Dodge. I also like the general upright shape because it makes for a roomy cabin.

Perhaps if the Thunderbird had sold better we would have seen the Forty Nine on a dealership lot. Thunderbird's performance also may have indirectly nixed something like the Bel Air from Chevy.

I stopped by our new car just-off-the-truck lot this evening. We got an '06 Cobalt SS/SC, silver/all black. A very solid looking little car. $23k with sunroof and side curtains. Instead of those two options, I'd spend the same money and get the Performance Package, with Recaro seats and limited slip differential... haven't seen any yet with that package.

I fully admit the Forty Nine puts the Bel Air to shame. I agree the front end is not the most attractive on the Chevy, but I like the sides, rear, interior, and the fact that it's RWD. Since it was supposedly built on the GMT360 platform, it should be a simple, tough car, and relatively cheap to manufacture. With the inline 5 as a base engine and with the proper gearing, it should be economical to run. Of course, it would need an LS V8 with DOD as top engine offering. It may be an old idea, body-on-frame with an inline engine, but it seems to me it has been fully updated and could still be viable, perhaps even preferable, for Americans at large and for rugged service applications. Side note: I recently read somewhere that one of the leading proposals for a fullsize Chevy RWD sedan takes some styling cues from the 1966 Impala... a handsome car, imo.

Nah, but I am intrigued by the prospect that what we eat for supper influences our dreams. I usually have wild ones if I have shrimp, but last night I had a delmonico steak, garlic mashed potatoes, bbq baked beans, and a salad with bleu cheese dressing, so I'm wondering... wtf?

In addition to the convertible, we need a coupe, sedan, wagon, and El Camino. There's your full-size Chevrolet lineup, plain as day.

I only eat natural peanut butter. Just stir and refrigerate to keep it from separating.

I am usually never awake at this hour. I dreamed that I became friends with an inner city kid. Somehow I ended up being asked to drive vehicles for him and his other buddies, from one place to another in the city. It was winter time, there was snow on the ground. He was driving an Escalade, I was riding with him. Throughout the dream, I could feel a growing awareness of what was really happening. He was part of a drug gang and I was an unwitting driver, parking these blingy vehicles and leaving them in rundown, unfamiliar parts of town. We park the Escalade and I ask him something through mind waves (no talk) like "what do you want me to do next?" (with an ever-growing sense of dread). He "says": "What did you think? That's all I have for you." We leave the 'Slade and go our separate ways. He disappears, but I go into a house that I somehow know belongs to a reverend. It was like he dropped me off there, but it's 2:30 in the morning, the house is dark, I know everyone is sleeping, so I turn and open the old, dark-stained wooden front door and head down the sidewalk in the snow. I am wearing duck boots. Now it's early morning, I am still walking, but it's now murky early daylight. I am lost in an unfamiliar part of town. I turn left down an alley, trying to get out of the 'hood, trying to find a familiar landmark so I can orient myself to go home. I look right and see the front end profile of an early '90s white Jetta parked between small outbuildings in someone's backyard. I keep walking, looking ahead to the end of the alley. I become hopeful because I see a building straight ahead on the main street intersecting the alley that looks familiar. I get to the end of the alley and there is a small parking lot to my left. Everything is in shades of black, white and gray, winter. I look over to the lot and see an early-'90s white Jetta with two young guys sitting in it. They both stare at me, so I quickly turn away. All the time I am feeling more uneasy, with a growing sense of urgency. They get out of the car. The kid in the passenger seat throws two long, soft cases of some sort on the roof of the Jetta. They look like pool cue cases... then I realize in horrified slow motion that they're gun cases. I am at the end of the alley. I quickly turn right and start running down the main street. I have a quick thought: the thugs will check my footprints in the snow... I won't be able to get away because of my distinctive footprints. They want to kill me and all of what I've been doing with my "friend" (I am a driver, nothing more) becomes crystal clear... he never really liked me, he was using me because I look innocent, and I was innocent... and now they're after me... BAM... I wake up from my dream. It's raining here. I can't sleep, so I thought I'd type this out.