The O.C.

I'll second that.....hahahahha Ya know....there's a ton of you on here that are certainly doin' pretty well on the official "Hotty Scale...."

Turbo..... Grrrrrrrrrrrowl...... Be still my beating heart.....! (just messin' with ya....at least now I'll know how to find you at LAIAS....!) I'm tryin' to figure out how to paste pics in my posts.....

OK....someone on here tell me (Mr. I Don't Know How To Use Computers) how I can put a picture in one of my posts..... aarrrrggghhhh!!!!!!

Geezus Criminy.....what makes you think it was anything related to an "enthusiast" comparo? :angry:

Actually, it's not the dash top...it's the main dash panel below the woodgrain that has the hard, rough, brittle stuff.... Check it out next time you are in a Lucerne.....

Not according to the democratic polls. EVERYTHING I've read, and I've tried to REALLY keep up to speed on this, shows Hillary as an extremely dominent front-runner for the democratic nomination. No other democrat is even close......(that is IF she decides to run.)

(sorry Evok...I know I'm beating a dead horse...) But Future...the whole point of LISTENING as opposed to just what you read, is that the majority of the piece revolves around actual UAW workers giving their opinions and insights into the situation....and as Evok said...they are NOT from Michigan or the midwest. You get to actually hear those peoples' take on the situation.....the negativity (or reality) comes directly from the horse's mouth....NOT from the media in this case....

And those same damn bastards kill the cars just as they get in the prime of their lives.....Fiero with new suspension, electric power steering, etc. Reatta with 4T60-E tranny, upgraded interior and dash (w/o CRT) and elegant convertible version. Allante with NorthStar, new seats, and an analog gauge package.

OK....here you go. We had a 3800 SC Reatta ready to go to market. We even had the new electronic 4-speed to go in it (which DID make it to Reatta eventually.) I drove the cars, helped road-test the cars, and I can tell you the motor was a perfect match with the Reatta. The problem? Our 3800 SC Reatta handily outran the (MUCH more expensive) Cadillac Allante with it's then heavier and slightly less-powerful 200hp 4.5L V8. That it! Cadillac (or GM...or whoever) "forbade" Buick from coming to market with the supercharged Reatta because it would have been quicker than their precious Allante. Corporate politics, my friends. That's the kind of crap that we had to deal with in those days.....and based upon what we see with Lucerne versus DTS (275hp versus 291hp) they are still at it. SO because of Cadillac and GM's short-sightedness.....Reatta was doomed to fail in the market against less-expensive and more-powerful and sportier competitors. AND gee.....keeping the SC 3800 out of the Reatta really helped Allante's success....didn't it? As an aside.....we did NUMEROUS Reatta project cars. It was a fun time. We even converted one (an expensive proposition I might add) to RWD using a Corvette rear suspension....and plugged in a longitudinally-mounted GN turbo 3.8litre. I also drove that car...and it was a monster....and DID outrun the day's Corvette. We also did a GN-turbo'd FWD Reatta.....but that one was too unruly to be liveable. In the end, we all determined that the SC3800 Reatta, with it's FWD, and 205-225hp (at the time...from what I remembered) was a perfect match for the car.....and it was relatively inexpensive to engineer and bring to market 'cause you really didn't have to change anything else....and the powertrain slipped right in under the hood. Damn shame.....isn't it? <_<

Everyone's forgetting.....the only "true" Hummer is the H1. H2 is basically a modified-Tahoe architecture.......H3 is a modified-Colorado architecture. GM's tuning and tire choices have made H2 and H3 competent off-road.....but they have none of the legacy of the original Hummers other than exterior styling.....and are really no more competent with any comparable Jeep model. Jeeps have remained consistent to their core image since day one. This may change with the Patriot and Compass....but up until now, a Jeep has been a Jeep....and nothing else. (unless you count a couple of DCX-sourced engines.) This includes Wrangler, Grand Wagoneer, Liberty, Cherokee, Grand Cherokee, and even Commander.

Great....I can just see you guys turning this post into another "Ridgeline-bashing" thread.... Fact of the matter IS.....the Ridgeline FAR deserved to win this title....whether you like it or NOT. Try pushing your biases aside for once and look at the significance and uniqueness of this vehicle versus its competitiors.....there is simply not another "pickup" out on the market like the Ridgeline. Even the Sport Trac is based on a traditional "BOF" architecture. In FACT, the Ridgeline deserved to win even more than Civic did in its contest. Let's look at the competition in this year's contest....... Dodge Ram/Mega Cab - Too insignificant of an upgrade to make any sort of real difference. Isuzu i-350 - It's a Colorado, for goodness-sakes.....'nuff said there..... Lincoln Mark LT - It's an F-150. In fact, you can get F-150s that are as luxurious as the Mark LT (King Ranch, Lariat) so what's the point of this truck? To have the prestige of the "Lincoln" badge? Like "Lincoln" means anything to anyone these days.... Mitsu Raider - It's a Dakota. They are nice trucks....but their underwhelming V8s help to let them down. How is THIS truck significant, unique, or overly impressive in this segment? C'mon guys....I want to see the "Anti-Honda" guys try to "spin" THIS one..... ^_^

Too tough to tell as it's obviously a computer-enhanced image. HOWEVER, the image DOES look really good....really aggressive. You can bet the new 7-series will be more attractive. One of my FAVORITE things? BMW is moving the transmission shifter BACK to the CONSOLE!

Is anyone going to San Diego? I'm totally excited.......while it certainly won't have the impact of L.A. or Detroit, it is the first auto show of the season for me (I was out of town on business during the O.C. auto show.) I'm sure the GMT-900s will be there......as well as Lucerne, DTS, etc. The show runs from Wednesday, 12-28-05 until Sunday, 1-1-06.

Great story.....and so VERY true...... Thanks Evok....

That's WHY you have to travel far past upstate NY and Detroit! Have you ever been to Florida? Atlanta? Charlotte? Austin or San Antonio, Texas? How about the Tennessee hills and Appalachian Mountains? How about Chicago or Minneapolis? Ever been to Denver and the Colorado Rockies? Salt Lake City? Phoenix and Tucson in the desert southwest? EVER been to Seattle? Seattle is absolutely just as beautiful as Vancouver. Then go down the 5 fwy to Portland, OR. That's not to mention San Francisco and the Bay Area, L.A./Orange County and southern California, and San Diego which is one of my absolutely favorite cities in the entire USA. You'll see a HUGE diversity of geography, cities, and cultures throughout the United States that unfortunately is not very well represented by border crossings in Michigan and New York State.

I think there's alot of people like me that are in total disgust with the current administration......and I'm NOT a democrat by definition. I'm a republican....but a moderate. I'm fiscally-conservative and socially-moderate. The problem today IMHO is that there is too much momentum from the far-right conservatives and I think that has ticked off Democrats AND a good number of republicans in this country. Bush SQUEAKED by in the last election....and it wasn't just Democrats that fought him....it was alot of republicans like myself, my parents, etc., that fought against him as well. I think in the next election, 2008, you'll see a Democrat (obviously) battle it out with a more moderate Republican. Current polls are leaning towards Hillary versus Rudy Guilliani. McCain has a shot, but many people think he won't get the republican nomination.

OK....so I have an advantage 'cause I was working in Buick Product Planning at the time....but here's some Reatta trivia..... HOW come the Buick Reatta never garnered a more responsive powertrain than the 165hp 3800 V6? Considering it was one of GM's few 2-seater sports/GT/touring cars....obviously a stronger powertrain could have been fitted......in fact, the lack of a more performance-oriented powertrains was one of the eventual downfalls of the vehicle....

I believe it was something FoMoCo did......and they were the LEDs in the mirror....for people driving behind to see.....

I noticed one thing about Canadians when living in Michigan........ Most of them (that hadn't travelled the U.S. too much) based most of their opinions on the U.S. on the two cities that are nearest their borders....(talking about people in Ontario here)...... Detroit....and Buffalo..... No offense to anyone living in those two areas.....but they are, to put it mildly, not the most beautiful or clean examples of U.S. cities.... Originally being from Dallas myself, I was continually defending other parts of the U.S. when out with Canadian friends in Michigan or Ontario.

I saw a SMART ForFour on Laguna Canyon Road.......it went past me, but I couldn't tell if it had a MFR plate on it (I'm sure it had to.)

Oh, OK....yeah....my parents live in Tampa. From skyscraper.com........ City - Highrises - Number over 150meters high Tampa - 112 - 4 St. Petersburg - 63 - 0 Clearwater - 51 - 0 That's one of the things I like about southern California compared to, say, Florida.....there is almost a complete lack of highrises along our coast. Some say it preserves the beauty of the coast for us.....but then again, I don't think people vacation at our beaches the same way they do in Florida (the Pacific is NO where near as warm as the Atlantic.) Also, our mountains and large percentage of hilly terrain (e.g...Laguna Beach) also probably makes it harder to plan highrises along the coast. Long Beach is the only city to have any number of coastal highrises but some of those are corporate office buildings. We are getting so crowded in The O.C. that there is a big move to residential and commercial highrises inland.....which helps to break up the monatony of Orange County housing tracts and shopping malls...... City - Highrises Long Beach - 50 Irvine/Newport Beach - 45 Santa Ana/Costa Mesa - 23 Anaheim - 17 I really am intriqued by urban planning......and if I were to go back and do college all over again, I'd probably choose that to study.......

However the 3.6L HF is a way more refined and quiet engine. The ShortStar Intrigues I've driven were quick.....but sounded and thrashed like an old 3800....in fact you could think you WERE driving a 3800 if it didn't rev a little cleaner... The 3.6L I drove in a LaCrosse CXS was almost Lexus-quiet even at redline...with a nice, expensive-sounding growl.

I have a feeling the CXS is the only way to go.......if you stay light on options, you can stay a bit away from $39K.... CXS has the firmest (of three) suspension setups.....and ya gotta have the NorthStar (over the 3800.)

Where are you at again, Fly?

Aww c'mon Turbo.....the interesting part of this is that you have to pick just ONE vehicle per category....that makes it more difficult. I don't think Corvette would be considered a "small" 2-seater....or else THAT'S what I would have chosen.