Robert Hall

My mom still lives in the house I lived in off-and-on from 1970 to 1988.. a place in my family that we call 'the farm', though we never did any farming per se (150 acres of land, a large stone 1850's vintage farm house, two barns, ponds with fish, various outbuildings.. I have happy memories of living there.. it was our primary residence at times and at other times our weekend or summer place (we had 2 and 3 houses most of my childhood--2 in Ohio and one in Florida). Though I live 1200+ miles from there now, I still enjoy my visits back there a couple of times a year, to sleep in my old bedroom, walk around over the grounds, eat breakfast in the familiar dining room, drive the cars she & my dad collected ('69 Mustang Mach 1, 3 '67 & 68 Cougars), etc.. There is still a lot of me in that house--my car magazines from childhood, my Matchbox cars, etc... I'll have to go get them eventually when I get a bigger house.

Looks truckish.

Riiiiight....believe what you want to believe. The reality is car buyers are happy what Toyota, Nissan, and Honda are providing... GM isn't going to woo back buyers with the same old, same old...

That's obvious... in the luxury market, you have to have a multi-valve OHC solution to be class-competitive.

Of that group (as far as current, production models) I'd have to pick the FX for the exterior and the Touraeg for the interior. I'm looking forward to seeing the Enclave in person.

Whatever..all the competition is using OHC V6s in their midsizes....GM is still using old school engines and 4spd automatics... the reality is that the market percieves them as outdated and uncompetitive... (the market beyond Avis).

I haven't been there yet or worked with any one from Oz, so I haven't had a chance to pick up the distinctions.. after working with a group of Canadians for the last 4 years, I find myself saying prOcess, prOject, aboot, agAIN without thinking about it...

It's very nice..silver w/ black top.

The automatic setting is great... my Jeep has them--they come on when it gets dark or cloudy, when I go in a tunnel or parking garage, and shut themselves off 60 sec after I shut off the engine.

'Interceptor'...it's the Crown Vic police package. CV= Crown Victoria. So you stole a state police car? Riiiiiiiight...

I saw a very clean early '70s Audi 100LS today... I haven't seen one of those in years. I've also seen 3 '66 Mustangs in the last 2 days--one a very clean gold coupe and 2 rough beaters.. it's always strange to see 40 yr old cars in daily traffic (i.e. not at a car show)... around here, it's uncommon to see cars older than 15 years.

I took 2 yrs Spanish in HS and 2 yrs in college..I can read Spanish better than I can speak it... I need to brush up on it, as it is fast on it's way to becoming the unofficial second language in the US. I want to learn Italian..I've learned enough phrases to get around (I've been there twice) and I want to learn more as I want to go back again...same with French. Besides American English, I can also speak British English and Canadian English..

What is this one?? Front end looks like a 510 sort of...never seen a coupe like this. By the way Sixty-Eight, did you see the excellent recent Hemming's Import car mag with the article on the '70 or so Datsun Bluebird SSS? It looked like a 510 coupe but with a sportier roofline than the 2dr sedan that was sold here... I kinda like those '70s Datsuns, Toyotas, Mazdas also..

Old-school BOF construction like the CV is probably more so the differentiator for curb hopping and other police stuff like driving off loading docks, jumping railway crossings like the General Lee, etc... :) BOF cars (like trucks) seem to be more rugged for abuse. Here in Denver, the PD uses CVs pretty much exclusively, along with Expeditions and Tahoes. I think most of the 'burbs around here use CVs also..

Funny you should say that... Revell did a 1:25th scale plastic model kit of an '05 Impala police car.. I have a couple of these kits, I plan to build one as a stock Avis version.

Dreamers... this venture will never get off the ground, I suspect.

Yeah, remember, this is the same GM that said they could compete effectively with the the new Mustang with the Cobalt SS and the Monte Carlo SS...

One of my favorite hardtops of the last 20 years--a Merc 560SEC. A clean, elegant yet massive luxury coupe.

Of course... I've owned V8s before ('84 Chevy Caprice, '87 Mustang GT). Currently, I have straight 6s (BMW M3, Jeep Grand Cherokee) but I'm sure I'll have another car with a V8 in the future... probably a sporty coupe or convertible or a luxury sedan.

A good deed indeed. I'm a softie with dogs, I donate to no-kill shelters, terrier rescue organizations, the ASPCA, the humane society...I've done volunteer work at a local shelter a couple of times. My sister also is pretty active locally in Phoenix and nationally in the terrier rescue organizations..she's adopted a couple of dogs through them. My g/f and I adopted '10 pounds of terror' a couple of years ago--Nauti P, a retired Australian Terrier national show winner.

I'm fairly ambivalent about Toyota...I view them as a builder of quality, reliable but souless cars that have good resale value. I can't see myself owning a Toyota, but I could see myself content with a Lexus GS430.

They don't want competition for the G35/Skyline coupe... though the current Japanese-market Silvia would be neat to have here.

The biggest mistake GM made with the current 9-3, IMHO, is the lack of a hatchback..a Saab with a trunk is just another sedan....Saabs need hatchbacks.

Considering that Ford is still building the CV/etc, I bet GM could cheaply ressurect the B-body chassis/etc (if they didn't scrap the tooling), update the '96 Caprice/Impala body (make it look more 2006 than 1996) and it would sell quite well--to fleets and consumers alike..

I wish GM had a compact RWD (w/ optional AWD) luxury/sports sedan with a manual transmission.... something 3-series sized, available in a coupe and convertible also...Cadillac branded or not. Something like the BMW 6-series. Something like a BMW 7-series or Merc S-class. A compact, cheap, fun AWD sports sedan like the WRX or Evo. A compact FWD 3dr and 5-dr hatchback like the Focus or Mazda 3 (yeah, the Vibe is there, but it's not as cool looking as an Astra 3dr..) A cheap RWD V8 sports coupe like the Mustang A RWD, V8 mainstream sedans like the Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger. A RWD, V8 wagon like the Dodge Magnum.