Robert Hall

The world wants fuel efficient small FWD cars...that's reality..it's only the US that's obsessed with 6000lb trucks and SUVs..

In the US, though, we usually only get one bodystyle per model from the US automakers....

Went out to lunch today...saw a silver Porsche Carrera GT, a 993 Carrera 4, and 2 current-style M5s (one black, one gray)...lots of cool cars in Scottsdale.

I'm spending $50-60 a week or so now, which isn't bad at all...I figure it's about 2 gallons a day to get to work and back (about 19 miles to work, 19 mpg). Now if I could a reasonably sized and well-equipped car (i.e. something like a CTS diesel) that gets 40 mpg or better, then I'd consider something smaller than my Jeep for my next daily driver...

I definitely want to check out Atlanta some day...I've only been through the airport about 10 years ago once and recall going around it on the freeway in family trips in the '80s..Memphis is on my list also, I'm interested in checking it out for it's music history and food... about the only part of the South (and it's, IMHO, very different from the rest of the South) that I know very well is the Miami area and the Florida Keys (lived there 6 years).

Since a lot of the V6s will probably be fleeted, an automatic makes sense. The more I see of the Challenger, the more I'm liking it..it really stands out amongst the sea of FWD generics of today...it's been a loooooooooong time since Chrysler has had a stylish, RWD 4 seat coupe, in mild or performance variations.

Kind of an end-of-quarter tradition.

Hmmmm....many favorites, lots of places I want to go but I haven't. 1. Favorites--this is tough...several favorites, for different reasons. The mountains of Colorado, esp. around the Breckenridge area and down around Silverton and Durango. Great get away close to home. Northern California, San Francisco itself, the coast from SF down to Big Sur, the Mendocino coast to the north, and the Napa Valley/Sonoma County area. A favorite long-weekend getaway of mine, great driver's roads away from the city, scenery, food. Oahu and Maui. Eastern Ohio...where I'm originally from... not much dining wise and culturally, but the backroads of Tuscarawas, Coshocton, Carroll, Holmes, etc counties are incredible for driving... For big-city experiences, besides SF, my favorites are San Diego, LA,Chicago, and Boston. 2. Haven't been to but want to go: Pacific Northwest....I've been to Portland and the surrounding area a few times, but I want to explore Seattle, Puget Sound, the Washington coast, the Cascades, Crater Lake, Snowqualamie. Big Island of Hawaii, Kauai, Lihue Alaska More of Arizona..I know the Phoenix metro area quite well, and have been to Sedona, Jerome, Flagstaff, and the Grand Canyon, but I want to explore the rest of the state. More national parks...I've seen all the ones in Colorado, but I want to explore those in Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota. Blue Ridge Mountains, Smoky Mountains. Have passed through long ago but want to go back and explore..heard there are a lot of great driver's roads there. 3. Outside the US. I've been to Mexico, Canada, England, France, Italy, Switzerland, but want to travel more extensively throughout Europe (more of England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Spain, Germany, in particular). Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, China, Brasil and Argentina are all on my to-do list for the next decade or so.

Yes....scratches, nicks, dings, wax buildup... I gave up long ago (after it was paid off) on keeping my Jeep minty looking..

Hmm....my Jeep is dark blue and definitely shows dirt easily...in the winter with the slush and spray, it's light gray up to the door handles (and it even has gray lower door/rocker trim and bumpers). I still think black is worse, though.

I saw one of the U-Haul ones on I-40 in NM last Friday. And I still see many of the early '70s mini-motorhomes w/ Toyota cabs in Colorado. In dry climates like Colorado and AZ, they run forever. I certainly don't see very many '80s S-10s or Rangers still being driven compared to Toyotas...

That's good... I've always been impressed with the mileage my '87 Mustang GT gets on road trips...I used to get 26-28mpg regularly cruising along in 5th gear...impressive for a V8 from the '80s.

Yes, until monsoon season (late July-early August)... ugh. But I'll be in S. Florida for a few days in late July..hot and humid.

85 octane is a high altitude thing..that's regular in Colorado (I think Wyoming and Utah has it also).

About $3.50 a gallon for 87 here in Phoenix (odd to not see my usual 85).

Interesting..there was a dissapearance and death in Breckenridge, Co last winter that was a similar MO....young guy from the East Coast was last seen staggering drunken out of a bar, was found in the snow a few months later.

That's good mileage....IIRC, on a drive from Reno to Denver on I-80/I-25 a few years ago, I was getting over 30 in an Avis '04 Impala...not sure what engine that would have had (3.1 V6?).

I plan to walk and swim alot this year...now that I have a house w/ a pool, I'm going to try and use it as much as I can.... and park at the edge of the parking lot at work so I have a long walk out and back to the car (we'll see how well that works when it's 120, though).

Those insurance numbers are scary...age and location inflate them, I presume... I'm paying $350 for six months for full coverage for my '00 GC now.

Agreed..... the events of the last 60 years particularily the Cold War are some of my favorite to read about, both fiction and non-fiction.

I love reading...lately, I've been reading Robert Ludlum spy novels. A few years ago, my favorite genre was crime fiction, so I was reading everything by Michael Connelly, James Ellroy, Robert Crais (mostly all LA-themed), James Patterson, Donald Harstad (very interesting Iowa police procedurals), the Minnesota guy (can't recall his name--the 'Prey' series), and Ed McBain. In the past, I've read 1984, most everything by Ayn Rand (The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, The Virtue of Selfishness, etc). I enjoy auto-industry and auto adventure (The End of Detroit, Comeback: The Fall and Rise of the American Automobile Industry, Cannonball, On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors, etc), computer industry historical and themed books (The Soul of a New Machine, The Devouring Fungus, Dreaming in Code, Hackers and Painters, Where the Wizards Stay Up Late (since I'm in the life, I like reading about the life)...also, anything by Thomas Friedman (Lexus and the Olive Tree, Lattitudes and Attitudes, The World is Flat)...and economics related books (Freakonomics) and books about the rise of suburbia (Edge City, etc).... also travelogues--anything by Bill Bryson (In a Sunburned Country, I'm a Stranger Here Myself, etc) or William Least-Heat Moon (Prarie-Erth, River-Hose, Blue Highways), Larry McMurtry (Roads: Driving America's Great Highways).

Good luck... I'm trying to get serious about losing weight....I'm an even 6'0", weighed 185 when I was 30, 240 when I was 35, and am down to 225 now.. want to get back under 200 by 40 (a little over 2 years away). In my 30s, I've been less active (in my 20s I rode my mountain bike, snowboard, play racquetball, in my 30s I've spent way too much time in front of computers or hanging out in the pub drinking brewskis and doing shots).

Some beauties there...my favorite style of deVille is probably the '67-68 followed by the '69-70... and as far as Eldorados, my favorite is the '67-70 (esp. the '67-68).

I have a big dent in the rear quarter panel of my Jeep from about 2 1/2 years ago, never fixed it since it was my own damn fault (backed into a concrete parking garage pillar while on the phone after having a few beers.. )

I guess if it were my Jeep that was hit, assuming the doors still open and close ok, I'd either let the insurance take care of it or do nothing (since I have 90k miles now and it's 8 years old, I don't care about dents or scratches any more).