SAmadei

Wow... that's just nothing but a bad idea. To me, it wouldn't get you a Magnum wagon... but it would create a Dodge Crosstour and lots of fleeing customers. Dodge just can't abandon the midsize car market like that.

I'll take just a Slim Jim, the quasi-food one I've sworn off of, over a Cruze any day. I prefer mechanically separated and rendered mystery meat over mechanically separated and rendered automotive styling.

Technically, Chevy, Buick and so on are not current brands of the GM Corp. we all loved, either. In any case, Pontiac is still trademark and intellectual property held hostage by the General Motors Company, and would only logically be discussed on a GM site. Yawn. Same as Chevies and Buicks. Please prove. Most current physicists seem divided on the issue. Did your time using the LHC result in some newly discovered, unpublished scientific evidence that helps you prove a negative? Proving a negative would be Nobel Prize territory for sure. Some of us are perfectly fine with many of Pontiac's offerings of the last 20 years. TAs, G8s, GTOs, Solstices, B-villes, GPs. And anyone can relive the relevant days by buying a classic Pontiac. It is the new Cruze or the Impala that has suddenly propelled you into the fine wine and cheese tasting high society set?!?

I'm confused... how do long hours at work translate into stacking the deck against you financially? If you are hourly, you get more hours... hence more pay. If you are salary, you knew your salary when you signed for the car note. In either care, hours spent at work normally are hours you aren't at the mall spending money. BTW, whatever happened to your idea that you got such a good deal on the Challenger that you could sell it and break even (or make a profit) if it proved too much of a strain?

Big Wheels were a craze of the '70s, when many manufacturers made competing products, due to weak copyrights. '90s music is fantastic compared to everything made after 2000. But it was terribly depressing compared to the '60s, '70s and '80s. Grunge was awful, and the copycats and derivatives were worse.

No. I've seen that one quite a bit. Mine seemed like a cross between that dune buggy, but with muscle car clues... but it was a totally fictional car. The fact it was not based on a real car, IMHO, is what makes it hard to Google.

So, I recently found a possible lead/clue to my query... I came across these photos... This is apparently made by Empire Toys. Its not what I had, but its getting REAL warm. The tires are dead-on... note how wide they are compared to most pedal cars. Also, the presence of silvered stickers is something I had forgotten... my car had several of these. The rectangular steering wheel with the red horn button also seems VERY familiar. However, this is not exactly right... my pedal car was orange... and it had more prominent headlight/parking light detail. Also, it had larger tail lights which looked like muscle car lights. I also recall it being a big wider... but my memories could be off. I would say my pedal car was likely an Empire Toys car... but with a slightly different mold. Unfortunately, the pictured car is still very much non-documented online, so I only garnered a few clues.

Quick! Bury it! No discussions of the embarrassing, once top selling brand that reminds people that once GM had swagger and testicular fortitude. We must only idolize our Toyota-emulating GM masters. Discussions can only include comparisons to other appliances, interior plastic quality, fit and finish and me-too styling. Bury! Bury! Bury ANYTHING else! Seriously, though, I kinda hate the thread necromancy.

In general, its about low compression. It took a while before machining, sealing and metallurgy would allow for more horsepower. I'm sure the pistons are super heavy, too, but part of that is due to the huge displacement, necessary to get horsepower with its low compression. I think its interesting that it looks like a cross between the brass era and a stealth fighter. Like a 1915 Lamborghini Reventon. The name also cracks me up a little... like something Hunter S. Thompson would write about, when hes not writing about Vincent Black Shadows.

Besides unemployment and still not having the chance to put the transmission in my car, I got railed while in my buddy's van the other day. In a rare case , I never saw him... he claims he had no brakes, and since there was no brake lockup, I didn't even hear him coming. Pushed a loaded van 15 feet, according to MY skidmarks. Luckily van held up well... his fullsize SUV didn't fare as well. How well I fared is still up for debate... sore and tight and debating a trip to the doctors. Fun fun.

When I first saw the subject, I thought it was going to be video of that chopper going down in the water near NYC. Grand Theft Auto has all the helicopter flying sim in it for my needs...

Is the guy chasing the Econoline with his carport on top shooting at the van?!? I also think its funny when the "Chevy II is alright" when it starts up and blows a ton of exhaust smoke on start up.

Sure, used cars will fall in price when the economy comes back enough that the average person's recovering credit can buy new.

A Ford rear can be put into a Chevy with the right parts. By your argument, Ford and GM are like fraternal twins. However, that is an invalid argument... most cars share similarities to their contemporaries... and have similar part "units" that can be interchanged if someone, either in the aftermarket or the OEM wants it to interchange. Humans share 99% of our DNA with Chimpanzees, but for some reason, we're not letting them vote. Following somewhat along with your cake analogy, putting frosting on a loaf of whole wheat bread does not make a cake... even if both are made with wheat flour and eggs.

Demon won't be coming back as a nameplate because Dodge killed the name in 1973 due to Christian groups' complaints. I doubt today's bible thumpers would let it be used. Trivia... Dodge almost named used the name "Beaver" instead of Demon... but then learned that Beaver was a slang term for a certain female part. I actually preferred the fastbacks, but they did start off very good looking. Unfortunately, I think Chrysler gets an award for "first automotive line left to rot on the vine" because by 1976 the Dart and Valiant were FAR overdue for replacement.

LOL, got me beat by 6 days.

I prefer the 67-68 _8_ door Pontiac limos for strange factor.

What happened to the old Chinese technique of buy one and take it apart and reverse engineer it? China having problems buying a $40K car, putting it on a boat back to the China, Inc. Labs or simply too lazy?

Meh. The new Vette was getting visually stale by 1986... most Fox Mustangs were not very cool off the showroom floor... How good was the 5.0 when people were drooling at the SVO turbocharged 4 popper?... the '80s 911 simply had more plastic cladding than the '70s one. But it was getting faster. But to some of us, it still looked like a Beetle. GN and GNX were virtually unobtainium. The rest of the RWD A/G bodies were stifled by 305s and 307s, which got no economy boost relative to the 350. Had GM just put Chevy 350s in all this stuff, the '80s would have sucked less. You could improve the 305s and 307s by disabling some of the emissions junk, but it wasn't much. All except the Supra were too small to have the slightest interest. The Supra had size, but soon was fatter than the Camaros and Firebirds it was competing with. SUV craze hadn't hit, but the Minivans one did. Sure, we had wagons, but they suffered from the same problems as the A/G bodies... 307s. The wagon really didn't come back until the 350 was put back in it, by then it was the eve of the '90s and the rare wagon was grossly outdated. I feel the '90s B-bods would have been received better (since they aged VERY well) had GM designed an styling step between the Boxys and the Bubbles. The fact that muscle cars were cheap meant that people burned through them faster. The unleaded gas ruined the heads faster. Movie companies crashed them faster. This is why 30 years later, original parts have become very hard to find... therefore the '80s sucked, car-wise.

SAmadei, I agree with that statement of yours. I can't believe Ford would give up on the commercial market with the E-350 chasis cab (for example, my fire dept took delivery of a new Ford E-350 ambulance in June). I can't see the Transit Connect becoming Ford's ambulance answer! Okay, I know the Transit may fit that role much better than the Transit Connect, but the Sprinter never really seemed to capture any of that market. I was in Wildwood Saturday for the NJ Firemen's Convention Parade and all of the ambulances there were either Ford or GM (more Topkick & Kodiaks than Expresses/Savanas). Not one Sprinter in sight, and in my part of Burlington County only one hospital runs Sprinters - Lourdes Hospital in Willingboro. I can't see Ford making an exit with the Econoline just yet. Which is odd to me, as I would think the stock high top Sprinter would be a big plus on an ambulance. I just don't see the Transit taking over like Hino and the other cheap imported medium duty trucks took the TopKick/Kodiak market... because that was driven by cost... and the Hino buyers got what they paid for... junk trucks. I see them for sale pretty cheap now, as a lot of local companies have switched to higher quality makes. In any case, I think Ford thinks the Transit is a premium product. People like the E-series for being relatively cheap per its abilities. So Wildwood survived another Fireman's Convention, huh? I can never believe how nuts some of those were in the '90s.

Sometimes I wish I had a RHD vehicle... then I could use the other drive thru lane at Checkers. ;-) Edit: Morning fog typo.

I wouldn't say that. I'm sure it wouldn't take too much effort to pull a hood strut apart... its probably the weakest in that direction. Besides, I've seen many hood strut attachment points snapped right off on cars. Granted, more on the older stuff than new. well yes, but it's still more of a reinforcement against that sort of thing as opposed to just a hinge and the windshield. Ah, true. I thought you were comparing struts to springs. I've had few cars without either struts or springs... Only ones in the "family"... "Dad's" van and the Sunfire.

I wouldn't say that. I'm sure it wouldn't take too much effort to pull a hood strut apart... its probably the weakest in that direction. Besides, I've seen many hood strut attachment points snapped right off on cars. Granted, more on the older stuff than new.

Yeah, but that's because it can win its class. Electric Production car class or something like it. Whats it up against? The Volt, Leaf... EV1... some GEMs... a 1915 Detroit Electric Brougham. Probably wanted to get the Prius in the record books before the Volt or Fisker surpassed it. (I doubt Tesla has the cash to bother with Bonneville... right now).

The old vans ride can vary. Some people prefer the "people friendly" vans, which are softly sprung and can lean badly during turns. While comfortable, its very dangerous, IMHO. This is why Ford issued a recall on 15 passenger vans in the mid '90s to remove the rear seat. I prefer hard sprung work vans... because the ride height doesn't change much loaded or not, and because they can actually handle pretty good if your load is low. But these can get awfully bouncy when unloaded... but at least you can plan for that. Sprinter I drove had no power, handled by leaning all over I felt like I was sitting in a high chair. It could, and I would be thrilled if GM got an iron grip on the market for 20, 30 more years. Its also very "Crown Vic" in the idea that the inferior product survives longer than the better one. I'm shocked that Ford would kill off the E-series considering how much work they put into making the vans the strongest work vans you can get... just like GM killing the Caprice just as they got it right. GM has kinda let their top end full size vans languish behind Ford top vans for the last decade. I still prefer GM vans, however, as the basic GM van is better. I expect Ford to get a lot of bad feedback from E-series buyers, as they are talked into Transits. Dodge didn't get this because their last full size vans were so outdated and sold in low numbers... mostly to church groups, it seems. I think when working folk are asked to trade in the big, powerful vans for Transits, it will be like telling F-350 people to start using Ford Couriers.