Robert Hall

Yeah, it's hilarious, the idea of a Republican caring for the environment or natural resources is an oxymoron..those guys only care about exploiting people and resources so that a few old white guys get/stay wealthy...

So we have a new Malibu out now, have seen what the next Aura will likely look like (Insignia), seen a preview of the LaCrosse replacement (Invicta concept), heard that SAAB will get Epsilon II-based 9-3 and 9-5 replacements, but what about Pontiac? When is the second ever G6 coming?

It would be nice if Buick gets something for the US competitive w/ the Genesis....a V8 RWD luxury sedan to replace the Lucerne.

I use the CF bulbs.. but admit using the paper cups at Starbucks and work.. I use Simple Green--good stuff. I keep the plastic bags from the store and use them to bag up doggy doo..

True..but again, I'm not sure if the 4cyl is the right image for Buick. A 260hp turbo 4 would be great for a Pontiac, though.

That seems like a pretty optimistic rating, considering how heavy the Lambdas are.

3.6DI/6-speed standard. No 4cyl models, those would overlap with Chevy and Saturn.

I've been a fan of public transit for ages..I take the light rail here in Denver whenever I go downtown. Phoenix is just now building their's, we'll see how it does there. As far as gluttony goes, well conspicous consumption and the relentless pursuit of more stuff has been an American value or pastime for as long I can remember...i.e. people have always wanted to do better than they are doing today and move forward, onwards and upwards..unfortunately, a lot of people live beyond their current means and overextend themselves.

Hopefully they will get the drivetrain right for the US market..no more 3.9 and 4spd automatic.

Cool..sometimes I regret not finishing my PhD at the U of Michigan..I left the program after 3 years due to being burnt out and depressed (1997).

As an atheist, I definitely don't believe in heaven and hell or afterlife, judgement day, all that stuff...but the American Empire is definitely on the way out...I don't know what country or region will rise to be #1 in the 21st century--China? India? the EU? But the US has been for a while eroding into a second rate power, IMHO...and the war mongering corrupt administration in the White House currently hasn't helped (weren't the Repubs supposed to be about fiscal conservatism? Not these guys--cut taxes but massively increase spending!). But we are still #1 in certain areas, esp. high tech. Alot of the commodity back office work was outsourced to India, etc but a lot of the innovation is still happening here, in the Silicon Valley and other high tech areas around the country, incl. Denver, Boulder, Scottsdale and Tempe (areas that I'm familiar w/ the tech market). These are definitely interesting times... As far as big plasma screens, I've been content with my big rear projection HD TV for the last few years....not sure what I'll get next, probably LCD. With tiVo and cable, I actually don't watch a lot of TV, but watch specifically what I want and not surf too much. Big clear screens w/ surround sound are great for watching concert DVDs, sports, and action movies. I'm content with my 8 yr old JGC for now, nice not having a car payment..but over the next few years, I definitely want a convertible (as a winter car for AZ) and a luxury sedan of some sort (it's wierd..I like both old school luxury cars (Town Car) and the modern style ones (CTS, 5-series)...

Spring summer plans. Work and life: Starting new job in Scottsdale next week. Will be busy with that. Getting used to living in AZ. There is a huge cruise-in classic car show every weekend at the Scottsdale Pavillions...I want to start going to that when I have time. Enjoy my vacations. I have a week off the first week of July (up thru the 4th). Not sure yet what I may do...maybe go back and visit family in Ohio, and do some sightseeing in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh (I have this idea of renting a convertible and driving along the river on the backroads between the two cities). Or instead go to Maui for the week. Or San Diego (done that before for the 4th) or Santa Monica. I'll be taking a few days in mid July to go to my 20th HS reunion in Marathon, Florida..should be fun to be down in the Keys and see how everyone has changed since the 10th one. I'm going to a software conference in Phoenix in late July..good for networking and staying up to date w/ industry trends and technologies. Music: Went to a bunch of shows this winter and early spring..only one scheduled for summer so far--Rush at Red Rocks in June. Cars: Keep the Jeep maintained and running, use it for daily driver. Almost 90k miles. Probably will drive my sister's old Benzes some in AZ. Will drive my Mustangs when I get back to Ohio (hopefully a couple times this summer and fall). Nothing new on the horizon...maybe in a year or so after I'm settled in AZ and the new job I'll treat myself to a new car--a CTS maybe (that would be a good turning-39-crisis-before-40 car).

Update: as of Friday I had 4 offers. If I had kept up the search another week, I probably could have had a 1/2 dozen more interviews..the market for my thing is very good in the Phoenix area right now. Still strong in Denver, nothing like the awful downturn of 2001-2002 where no one was hiring. 1 a 12 mo/ contract (W2) with a major bank. The downsides were the 28 mile commute from central Phoenix to Chandler. Ugly during rush hour. Context: big IT shop, big production enterprise high-transaction, highly visible production systems to work on. 1 was a 4 mo/ contract (W2) to hire with a company that runs online universities. More laid back, working on internal course scheduling systems, student processing systems. commute not to bad (to Tempe). 1 was a perm job with a small, public company that builds infrastructure for streaming video and other content (think CNN videos, etc). Seemed like a fun place...the commute wasn't too bad, to Tempe. The $$$ were good for a perm, stock options, benefits competitive (health, dental paid in full by company, but only 2 weeks vacation (which isn't competitive for senior-level software engineer positions). Their offices were converted warehouses..I wonder how effective the AC would be in 115 deg heat in the summers. Did some research on their stock, they recently lost a major IP lawsuit with a competitor, stock tanked..that kind of bothers me. 1 was a perm job with a small, private company building software for online fraud detection. They have some big name clients, very nice work environment (all laptops w/ big flat screens, comfy chairs, catered lunch every day, company softball team). They do have a R&D group besides product development, which is attractive to me. The $$$ were what I was looking for, stock options, benefits competitive (health, dental paid in full by company, pet insurance available, and 3 weeks vacation). They are in a nice office park in N. Scottsdale, right down the street from where the Barrett-Jackson auctions are held every year. Shortest commute, and against the usual morning flow. I ended up accepting this offer, and am starting next Monday. I'm back in Denver this week to put some stuff from my condo in storage (probably going to rent it out to a friend) and take a bunch of stuff back to Phoenix this weekend.

I know it costs money, but it gets old to see GM introduce a new car then do nothing to change the styling for 4-5 years...the Japanese update their designs every 2-3 years with usually taillights, headlights, grilles, fascia changes, as do the Germans. With GM, once they release a new design it's largely unchanged year after year until a new model is released...

Actually, other than the shape of the headlights and the missing doorhandles, the show car concept looks much the same as the spy photo of the Invicta on the truck..I don't see much difference. The roofline may be a bit lower/sleeker on the concept, though.

I would think within GM, Cadillac wants to maintain a certain distance between itself and the other brands...i.e. don't let Buick or SAAB get too close. (just pure speculation, of course. I do wonder what Cadillac insiders think of Buick and it's positioning relative to Cadillac...Buick certainly at one time overlapped with Cadillac as far as cushy, old style luxury cars..)

Interesting...from your posts over the years, I've always thought you were in your late 50s or 60s, you are very knowledgeable about automotive history.

What will be interesting is to see what my generation (X) gets into restoring as they get older...my old car interest is definitely the cars I grew up around from the '70s and '80s...I like many '60s cars also, but the '50s and before are just too far out of my context for me to really get interested in...they are fun to look at at shows, but I don't think I'd want one. My old cars are my '69 Mustang (which my dad bought new and is one year older than I am) and my '87 Mustang GT that I've had since new...I need to drive them more (and not be 1300-2500 miles from them..

I like the interior design...I figure the exterior also is pretty close to production design--add door handles and maybe tweak the wheels and lighting.

What else would it be built on??? SAABs have always been FWD, and the Epsilon II is the newest GM FWD platform.... Wake up. SAAB is too small to get it's own dedicated platform.

Driving from Phoenix back to Denver over the last day, I did see occasionally some oldies...I saw a car hauler near Las Cruces, NM with a load of oldies--red '59 Caddy 4dr, a Metropolitan, a '56 Ford 2dr ht, a late '50s black Corvette, and a lt green '60 Dodge 4dr. Along I-25 in NM, I saw many interesting old cars from the '50s-70s in various states of decay, either in people's yards or abandoned in fields. There is an interesting Shell gas station in northern NM that has a little roped-off car display in it's travel shop with a '51 Chevy Bel Air convertible, '57 Chevy Bel Air convertible, '59 Ford Skyliner, and '53 or '54 Chevy hardtop. Out back they have a purple '51 Chevy sedan delivery.

Well, the # of folks into the 30-40s-50s cars is dwindling (since that crowd is older than the baby boomer muscle car crowd), no doubt, so the shows are going to be reflecting what people are into.

That would have been nice, but I suspect Cadillac would have prevented Buick from having anything that would intrude on it's turf..strong, RWD models from Buick can only hurt Cadillac.

For more trunk space, maybe GM should consider the radical idea of offering a wagon bodystyle on some of the midsizers...maybe Chevy and Saturn (since the Insignia will no doubt have a wagon for Europe).

Yes, I've read that..the wierd thing is in Mexico currently they have the Malibu and the Vectra. And the Astra and Optra, but not the Cobalt...