Robert Hall

I like the Traverse name...they need a name different from TrailBlazer to distinguish it from the old-style BOF SUV. A 7 passenger spec makes sense, as they already have the 5 passenger crossover market covered with the Equinox...

Interesting..looks like a retouched photo, but I like the rear quarter creases and the decklid treatment...not so sure about the front door upturned crease, seems like an afterthought...

Exactly...I'm amazed that some vehicles still have the old style lock posts on the door tops... I always notice them in rental card and it seems anachronistic. (my Jeep is 7 years old and doesn't have them).

Exactly... I raise my hoods and check the oil, add washer fluid, etc once in a month or so, otherwise, every 3 months it's at the shop for the regular service interval. Most of today's cars are just a mix of black, gray and silver tubes and boxes under the hood, so it's not like there is much to look at...

I've driven a previous generation A-class...interesting little car, even with the diesel and an automatic it had enough grunt to move along quickly on the autostradas and around town. I like the Golf (Rabbit in US) quite a bit, esp. in GTI form... the others I'm not familiar with beyond what I've seen in British magazines and seen on the roads and in parking lots when in Europe as a tourist...I'm looking forward to seeing the Opel Astra when it comes to the US as a Saturn.

I did my driver's ed class in a brown '84 Celebrity and a maroon '82 Delta 88 (my school had a couple DE cars). I took my test in my dad's '84 Escort Diesel which I drove my junior year in HS until I got my '87 Mustang GT. IIRC, my sister took driver's ed in a mid '70s Maverick. She took her driver's test in my dad's '69 Mustang Mach 1, then got her first car--a '76 Pinto. I believe my brother took his driver's test in my dad's '66 Galaxie then got a '66 Mustang GT convertible for his first car...

I saw a Queen + Paul Rodgers concert last year, pretty good.. it was interesting to see Rodgers (whom I like from Bad Co) doing Queen songs and vice versa... Brian May is a heck of a guitarist. I wasn't much into Queen growing up in the '80s, but I've grown to like them..my favorite song is probably the one they did with David Bowie, 'Under Pressure'. I never got into vinyl or tapes back in the day, from 1987 on I've bought CDs.. but about 7 years ago, I bought a record player and added to my home theatre after my sister bought me a bunch of '80s U2 albums (which I have on CD) on vinyl for my 30th birthday, since I'm such a fan(atic). They sound pretty good, not the same as CDs through 5.1, but still fun to listen to. I've picked up a few more vinyl records, mostly for the cool cover art... Though while growing up my tastes in music were rooted in the '80s and later '90s, I've developed an appreciation of a lot of '70s music---from rock (Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Who, AC/DC, Springsteen/ESB, The Rolling Stones, Deep Purple) and other music like The Band, Bob Dylan, Brian Eno's ambient work, Tangerine Dream, etc. But I still really can't get into disco or punk.

Hmmm..well, it's a design studio..they are obviously going to have images on the walls of things that may or may not represent future production designs..

Good riddance...it would be nice to see more EOWGs (Evil Old White Guys) like Pat Robertson, James Dobson, and Donald Wildmon go away permanently... all they have done is spread a message of hate and intolerance disguised as religion.

Speaking of Dirty Dancing and Patrick Swayze, I watched Black Dog on cable the other night in my hotel... a cheesy Patrick Swayze movie..interesting truck driving sequences. I've been here in Portland since Tuesday night for RailsConf 2007, a very cool, very geeky computer conference... been riding the MAX light rail around, sampling the local beer and cuisine, and enjoying the nice weather (no ice storm like my last trip here).

So they are trying to target the subliterate gangsta moron market segment, eh? They should have set up a display at Rails Conf, where I'm at now.. a lot of intelligent people here..

Of course, when gas gets to $4-5/gallon, 31 mpg will look pretty good.

Congrats... I got 3 degrees in my 20s (BS in Computer Science, MS in Computer Science, MS in Computer Engineering) and was well on my way to my PhD before I burned out---too many hours, too much Prozac, Jaegermiester and vodka... I have thought about going back to school to get an MBA with an IT focus...not sure what I want to do, though...I'm looking down the barrel at 40 and am wondering if I want to get out of the cubicle into something different...

I've never seen Tommy, but I do remember watching The Wall while stoned in grad school about 15 years ago. Though I grew up in the '80s, there is a lot of '70s music that I love....esp. Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac....never got into disco or punk, but I like new wave/post-punk late '70s into the '80s... (Elvis Costello, The Cars, Joy Division, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, etc) along with lots of '80s music.. If I could live in any other era than the present, I think I would like to have been in my 20s and in the UK from about 1967-1975 or so..

The G8 looks good in the red....but I'd take it in a dark gray...I like subtle colors more, not much into loud colors..but that's just me. No way would I drive a bright green Charger, though it would be a fun drive.

I could see this coming as an entry level Chevy, below the Aveo (it looks much smaller). Or maybe as a replacement for the Pontiac G2 in Mexico.

I'm sure they have plenty of rust from salt air, though...when I lived in the Florida Keys, there were rusty cars everywhere....

Looks like they have moved the pwr window controls to the doors..good move, I never liked the Benz-style console location of the pwr window switches before..

A few of my Canadian coworkers have been to Cuba..they say it's a really interesting place...has a strange time-warp feel with all the old cars around.

Auggghhh....I remember that movie too well..it came out right before my senior year in high school. It's theme song '(I've Had) The Time of My Life' was the main song at my senior prom.. I remember for a while that that song, 'Hungry Eyes' and 'She's Like The Wind' were on the radio constantly. I can't believe it's been almost 20 years since Dirty Dancing...but I've had my 5.0 almost 20 years, and my 20th HS reunion is a little over a year away..

I saw a Tundra Crew Max ad today that was interesting... the truck was shown pulling a large metal cargo box (like a shipping container) out of a canyon where it was dangling... I wonder how that ad was filmed..I assume it was done with CGI and green screens? Interesting location also, looked a bit like the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park..

Yes...both the front and rear gray plastic bumpers on my Jeep GC are scuffed and cracked..too many times of driving into the wall or backing into posts in parking garages over the years...should replace them I suppose but no big deal. It's too bad the raised bumper guards aren't separate, one of the rear ones is mangled, and both the front ones (and the license plate bracket) are scuffed..

Interesting...never noticed Chrysler products with DRLs...a Canada thing? Speaking of DRLs, one thing I've noticed about late model Chevy Silverados/Tahoes/Suburbans with DRLs is that usually only one side is on, the right or the left, not both...

A friend of mine has a '93 Seville with the 4.9..he's had it for 7-8 years, commutes 100 miles round trip it..has almost 200k on it...still looks great, drives smoothly and quietly.. the Caddys were amongst the best of the '90s GM cars, IMHO..

Italian festivals are fun... I haven't been to one in a while, but when I lived in Ohio I regularly went to the Ohio Valley Italian Festival (Steubenville, Ohio) and the Wheeling (WV) Italian Festival.