Robert Hall

All the seniors in my family drive domestics...my mom drives a spotless '97 Town Car and an '05 Navigator. I have 2 uncles (both past 70) that drive Town Cars, and 4 aunts (over 70) that have a variety of late model GMs--a LeSabre, Park Avenue, DTS, and a Century..

Hmmm....I would never have known that thread was about this topic, though.... it doesn't say anything about 'Chevy Kappa' in the title.

Hmm...Ford has had a named PU for over 20 years..Ranger.... and how about the F-series---Ford trucks have been named F-something for 50+ years (F1, F100, F150, F250, F350, etc)...not to mention the F-series with trim packages like Ranger and Explorer.. Before the Silverado, Chevy had names for trim levels---Apache, Silverado, Cheyenne, Cameo, etc...

The current Motor Trend makes a reference to a possible Chevy Kappa---a V6 Sting Ray. The article on Pg. 16-17 of the Feb Motor Trend says GM is considering a Chevy Kappa--the Sting Ray, with the 3.6 or 3.9 ...priced above the Sky and Solstice, below the Corvette, to compete with the Z4...the article also talks about the '07 Opel GT (Opel Kappa) The concept illustration is fairly ugly..

Hmmm...no GMT900 Silverado, Avalanche or Sierra..I wonder when/where those are going to be shown?

Looks like there is a company in Michigan doing woody kits for the Explorer, Expedition, Windstar, Taurus wagon, etc... Yoostabees

Assertive... I don't hesitate when I make a turn, change lanes, etc.. I like to drive as smoothly as possible...avoiding abrupt movements, jerky shifts, etc. I generally stick to the speed limit or the prevaling rate--if everyone around me is doing 5 mph over the limit, I go with the flow... Pet peeves are tailgaters, people that don't signal when changing lanes, slow down on an freeway entrance ramp, drive slow in the left lane, etc..

Another typical blue-sky sunny day here in Denver. It was rainy in San Diego this morning when I left. Good to be back home in the Mile High City. We set record high temps on Christmas (69) and New Year's Eve (66) but I wasn't here then--was in Phoenix on Xmas and San Diego on New Year's Eve.. The gray, nasty winters is one of the reasons I left Michigan in 1997. When I lived there, I never saw so many different shades of gray..it was routine to go over 3 weeks without sun.

I like the design and the size.... the length, width and weight are appropriate as it is an American car, and we have the biggest & fattest people in the world, so why not be true to our heritage of big and fat cars ?? :D

That's just a rerun of last year's show...BJ 06 starts Jan 14th.

Try parallel parking an older car without power steering..I've done it in a '68 Cougar..manual brakes, manual steering (huge wheel), 3-spd manual tranny... easy enough to see out of, though. I think my worst PP experience was in a '69 Mustang Mach 1--felt like being in a cave trying to see out...(huge rear blind spots, sloping rear window, giant steering wheel, sitting on the floor...), hair-trigger throttle..

The metro area is so spread out, it doesn't feel that big...it's not like New York City which looks and feels huge because of the high population density (i.e. compact and vertical)... LA (outside of downtown) feels like endless suburbia...pretty easy to get around. LA alone is about 3.5 mil, LA county 9.5 mil, and the multi-county area with 17 mil or whatever is about 100 miles east-west and 65 miles north-south (just guessing, a local will have more accurate numbers). I'm looking forward to being back in the LA area for a few days..flying there later today to visit my g/f's folks (Redondo Beach), friends of mine in Irvine and Newport Beach, friends of hers in Manhattan Beach and Venice, and then down to San Diego for New Years.

Yeah... I'm a bit rusty on parallel parking...I probably do it once a month at most normally...most all of my parking is in garages and lots. I'm comfortable parallel parking my Jeep--I know where the ends are and if I have bump up over the curb to do it, no problem (ground clearance).

I have a friend with an '83 M-B 300SD with over 400,000 miles... runs well, looks great. Those W126 S-classes (gas or diesel) will run forever with proper maintainance...they were very solidly built cars (back when M-B overengineered everything, or so it seemed).

USA Today article

A Cobra like Solstice with the Corvette Z06 drivetrain would be interesting...or how about a hybrid turbodiesel 4cyl for an Sky Greenline?

I had an '06 Grand Prix for 6 days in Oregon last week.... a pain to parallel park (with the high belt line and long overhangs), but very enjoyable on windy country roads...maybe the best handling FWD GM I've had the experience to drive. Excellent foul-weather traction, also (I got stuck in one heck of an ice storm on I-5). Though I thought the interior plastics were a bit cheesy, I thought the ergonomics/layout was excellent--loved the steering wheel and liked the faux-aluminum interior trim. The speedometer was HUGE. I'll be picking up something at Avis at LAX tommorow...maybe another GP, an Impala, or a LaCrosse...

Wow...that is very, very GREEN. As far as green Buicks go, though, a nice dark British racing green or something like the Mustang's Legend Lime could work well on the PA, I think..

Those 17-inch wheels look awfully tiny on the H2....why not some factory 20s or 22s?

I think it was a '76 (rectangular headlights). I'll have to add it to my Netflix queue..pretty good movie, saw it when it was first out.

Much, much, much milder...very sunny here, very little snow (except for a big blizzard once a year, usually in March or April), and very dry.... it was in upper 60s with about 20% humidity and sun last week. It's normally sunny and dry at least 6 days out of every week here.. the cold dampness is what I don't miss about Midwestern winters.

I love the '80s S-class face... the old Benzes with the big grilles just looked so much more imposing and 'get out of my way, Big Dog coming through' in the rear view mirror than today's aero-smooth faces...

Limiting it to cars actually in my budget...and it's hard to limit it to just one, as there are multiple contenders that I find appealing in each segment. Small 2-seater: Miata (the usuable trunk and better interior does it for me) Coupe: GTO or Mustang GT 4 seat convertible: Mustang GT Sedan: Acura TL, Audi A4, BMW 3-series, Lexus IS, or maybe a Caddy CTS Wagon/Hatchback: Audi A4 Avant or Subaru Outback SUV: Jeep Grand Cherokee, BMW X5 or VW Touraeg Van: N/A Truck: N/A Used: Mid '90s NSX, '90s Porsche 911 (993), 2001 or so BMW M5, or an '02 M3..

I definitely prefer urban.....I live in downtown Denver currently. I like suburban also, though. I've done rural--my parents loved it--I hated it...lived 5 miles from the nearest town (and it was a dreadful podunk Ohio town of 250). As a child, it was great, as an adult, I'm bored to death there...(imagine places where driving 20 min. to McDonalds constitutes dining out). My mom and my older brother still live there and love it. It doesn't work for me...(no decent job opportunities for me within 100 miles is a big part of it). I've lived in a small Florida resort town also, which was nicer (Marathon, about 3000 people), but still too small for my tastes... I've also lived in a few smallish (10,000-30000) Ohio towns, a Michigan college town (Ann Arbor), bigger cities (Columbus & Cleveland, Ohio), a really big city (Chicago), suburbia (Phoenix, Colorado Springs) .. I loved living in Chicago, though the climate seriously sucked. There are just so many things about living in a major metro area that I like that I wouldn't want to do without....the shopping opportunities, dining choices (I love to experiment a lot with ethnic cuisine like Thai, Indian, Vietnamese, etc), good bookstores, an international airport, entertainment--going to an occasional NFL/NHL/NBA/pro baseball game, local bands, big-name bands, movies, coffee shops, local brewpubs, a good independent BMW mechanic, etc. I don't want to have to drive 20-40 minutes to get to them either... I'm not sure where my next move will be, though..getting restless..thinking either the Denver suburbs (trade my 1200 sq ft loft up on a nice 3500 sq ft house--both about the same money) or maybe Portland (in the city or a suburb like Beaverton). I wouldn't mind owning a weekend getaway someplace semi-rural, though..I've thought about buying a condo up in the mountains.

It will be interesting to see how GM's stock goes... I have been buying more lately...I have some in my portfolio, along with Ford and DCX. (I like to hedge my bets in the market, so I have stock in a variety of companies in a segment---HP, IBM, Dell, Oracle, Google, Cisco, Microsoft, Sun for example).