Drew Dowdell

I have to disagree here. What you are overlooking is distributed power generation. Rather than have all of the generation capacity concentrated in a few small places you can spread out that power generation over a much broader area. Additionally the infrustructure required to distribute the electricity would be substantially smaller since most homes could generate most of what they needed for themselves. You have the added benefit of reduced transmission/transformer losses. Personally, I don't think our current grid could handle the load of everyone switching over to plug in EVs. The grid is borderline meltdown as it is without that extra load. Perversely, our current economic conditions have reduced over all consumption so as to be able to hold off on grid upgrades just....a... little.... longer..... and as a country we are working dilligently to ignore that lurking problem.

Because of the portability of electricity.

The beauty of the Volt system is that some years down the road, they can replace the traditional ICE with... well just about anything else that spins efficiently. ICE engines were designed so they provide power over a relatively broad RPM range, but do so at the sacrifice of efficiency. Generators, however, are most efficient when run at a steady speed. By taking the need for power over a broad RPM range out of the equation, you then can concentrate on making the engine extremely efficient at a set RPM. Thinking about this in terms of propulsion technology and alternative fuels; The next logical set for the Volt would be a bio fueled diesel. Diesels have a lot of power, but tend to keep that power to a much narrower rpm band. After that, I could see the Wankle being used for it's high RPM ability, inherent smoothness, high specific output and a narrower power band at a relatively high rpm After that you get to the turbine and then all hell breaks loose. You can burn just about any flammable liquid you want to power a turbine. You can even take the exhaust heat from that and use it to spin a second turbine using steam. This part is interesting in regards to efficiency because Doble steam cars were get 15mpg in 5,000+lb cars that could do 0-60 in ten seconds in 1923.... imagine what they could do today. The reason we don't.... .and won't... have all electric cars is the portability of electricity. Toting around a 15 gallon container of some flammable liquid is far more convenient and at this point lighter in weight.

I will do what I can to help any member of C&G, but Balthazar is right, I'm not sure it would be effective unless you're looking specifically in the automotive industry. Let me know what you have in mind.

He was referring to high fructose corn syrup. Pepsi is selling Pepsi "Throwback" I think it's called, where they use actual sugar instead of HFCS. Waaaaay better than regular Pepsi.

My parents allowed me to drink as long as they made me the drinks. They'd use the nasty, dusty on the bottom shelf liquor that they didn't even like themselves. I had a few over the years because I thought it was "cool" but generally the drink was so foul I couldn't stand the taste of it. As as result, drinking never was a big deal for me. It wasn't until I discovered the good stuff that I started to have a drink with dinner occasionally. I do like the european tradition of a digestif after a large meal. My friend's parents in Germany started me on that when they served me a homemade pear schnapps after a particularly large meal. Talk about good!

Put down some Skinny and Sweet. *extra points for those that get the reference.

Regarding your question earlier about the supercharger. Just change the S/C oil and you'll be fine. They do like at least mid-level fuel. The only issue that I've hear about with the G-bodies is an occasional issue with front wheel vibration that isn't solved with a standard rebalance. You sometimes need to have a road force variance test done. It's more expensive but usually solves the issue. People who don't know about it will keep taking it to Goodyear to for a standard rebalance and get frustrated when it doesn't work. I've heard of it effecting the Riviera, Park Ave, and Aurora. I've never hear of it with the Seville but I don't see any reason it wouldn't be there too.

Yes.

How often would you think I would be in that situation? But again, to assume vodka out of the gate is what gets me. "Vodka or Gin?" or "Which kind of Gin?" are acceptable.

"Vodka or Gin?" would be valid simply because of the prevalence of people ordering vodka martini's these days. How about this? A martini using gin and dry vermouth is the "default". After that, changes or additions should be specified.

note to self: avoid Michelin or Pirelli.

My perfect recipe. 4 shots Tanqueray 10 gin, 1/2 shot dry vermouth, 1/2 shot olive juice, in that order poured over ice. Gently stir with a glass stirrer or the handle end of a icetea spoon. Strain into chilled cocktail glasses. Garnish with olives. Serves 2.

Because a martini... a proper martini ....is made with gin and not vodka. A martini is gin, vermouth, and if ordering dirty, olive juice. Anything after that is a modification and should then be specified in the order. If I ordered a vodka martini, only then would his return question be applicable. Furthermore (since James Bond wandered in here). The reason you stir a martini and not shake it is so that you don't bruise the ice. By asking for his martini "Shaken, not stirred" what James is doing is ordering a weak martini and being snooty about it.

They handle fairly well for heavy FWDers (they have the transverse fiberglass leaf springs) and in 3.4DOHC guise, they can keep up with the V8 Mustang of their day. They do have their issues though. The alternators are undersized and in a terrible location on the bottom of the engine. So in addition to being overworked, the alternators have heat dissipation issues which just kills them all the faster. It was bad enough that GM saw fit to engineer a cooling duct that ran from just in front of the radiator back to the alternator. Step 1 of alternator replacement is "Remove front right wheel assembly." Not good. Once it was time for my second replacement, I spent the extra money and took it to a GM Goodwrentch dealer to get the lifetime warranty. The timing belt is probably the most notorious thing on these cars. Since GM just took an existing CIB V6 and slapped a DOHC valvetrain on it you can imagine the resulting mess. First, in the earlier years of this engine, the tension pulleys for the belt were made of plastic and just plain didn't hold up. By '94 they were metal but the assembly they were attached to was plastic. GM didn't see fit to put timing markers on any of the gears. If you lose the belt without timing marks, you're sunk. You have to open up the engine and manually set the timing. The icing on the cake was that even if you were vigilant and wanted to change your timing belt at the proper service interval, it was virtually impossible to do in your home garage... or even a local mechanic. It requires a special tool to hold the timing sprockets in place and even then the engine is so tightly wedged in there you need to put it on a lift to access the bottom side. Interesting trivia fact: This engine technically has 5 camshafts. GM had to leave the original camshaft in the block because the oil pump was powered by it.... at the opposite side of the engine. It has no cam lobes however. The brakes are severly undersized and though they stop the car ok, they burn up in about 15k miles. I was so used to changing brakes every 15k on the Cutlass that I started getting worried when I was at 30k on the CTS. I took it to Meineki for a free check and they said the pads were a 10 out of 11. There is a minor issue with the transmission that you only find if you are driving VERY hard. If you take a hard left hand turn at speed all of the transmission fluid will slosh to the right, starve the transmission, and it will drop out of gear. Once the fluid sloshes back the transmission picks back up again and slams back into gear. This only happened to me twice. There are actually instructions out there for more hardcore W-Body drivers on how to add baffles to the bottom of your transmission pan to prevent this from happening. Changing the spark plugs is a chore. You have to remove the electric fans, remove the upper motor mount, put the car in gear and have your buddies push the car carefully until the motor rotates forward. This is the only way to access the rear plugs. Now for the good: As I mentioned, the car handles great for a relatively heavy FWDer. There is a lot of aftermarket support for tightening up the body roll... the car's only big handling offense. Mainly better bushings and thicker roll bars. You can also get stronger upper engine mounts if you're really hardcore. This is the only convertible post 1985 that you can comfortably put yourself, 3 friends, and a week's worth of luggage in with the top down. And I mean comfortable. The rear bucket seats are supportive in every way. There is plenty of legroom all around and the ride is soft without being floaty. My CTS's seats were comfortable but the Cutlass easily eclipsed that. With the top up it was just a Cutlass Coupe. There was zero intrusion into the trunk from the convertible mechanism with the top up. Even with all of the issues the 3.4 Twincam has, I'd still never buy a Cutlass without one in it. It revs high and fast and doesn't seem to have that weak spot that some DOHC engines (cough honda cough) at the low end. There is no V-Tech to kicketh in yo. It's just up up up till you hit the rev limiter. It will chirp second if you're not minding your right foot. The only way you ever got the advertised 29mpg highway was on a downhill straight road at 55mph. I never did better than 28mpg even when I was trying hard. The convertible was great. I'm not sure if the roll bar helped with this, but with the windows up I could cruise around with very little wind interference. The result was a rather crazy looking guy cruising around Pittsburgh with the top down wearing a leather jacket and gloves in 49 degree weather. I'd just put the heat up to max and I was fine. The adverts from Oldsmobile stated "From zero to wide open in 12 seconds" Putting the top down became as routine as putting down the windows. As long as you know what you're getting into, and have a AAA membership, these cars can be a real treat (honestly) to own. I'd love to re-add on to my currently non-existant collection some day.

I don't consider myself to be an alcohol snob, but when I walk up to the bar and ask for a martini and the bar tender replies, "What kind of vodka do you want?", I just want to drown him in the bar nuts. I don't do very many drinks, but I make a stunningly good martini. It always gets compliments and even my partner's very Italian father who knows a thing or two about good alcohol said on father's day, "That was the best martini I've ever had!". A martini isn't.... or shouldn't be... very challenging to make, but to find someone who makes a good or excellent one appears to be difficult.

Best fast-ish food I found was at Boston Market. Get the Turkey with no gravy (it's usually juicy enough anyway) Green beans Corn Skip the corn bread. Have ice water to drink. Works out to about 9 grams of fat and 380 calories. Your basic Whopper with cheese small meal is 61g of fat 1250 calories.

Wow! Talk about additional dealer markup.

I have him talked into an '05 CTS

Those first two are steals! The first one is pretty much exactly the car I owned way back when I joined this board as Oldsmoboi. Both of them are 3.4 liters. If anyone is ever shopping one of these cars, bring a philips head screwdriver with you. The front timing belt cover is held on with two screws. Pop the cover off and inspect the belt. This is especially important for any GM 3.4 Twincam over 60k miles.

It's that close to a Special? I would have thought the front fender skirts would have caused more interference than that.

Love those. They have a turning radius of what.... 900 feet?

Catch 22? Probably would have sold more had they looked significantly different.

How is the road noise on those Triple Treads? The CRV needs new tires and being a Honda the road noise is horrible as is.... so I want a quiet tire.

Well it's not out of the question. They're closing NUMMI. They are losing their shirt on the Tundra plant.