Drew Dowdell

I'm mostly kidding BV. Mazda's Miata and RX series were great, the rest were kind of G.A.S. also rans. The 3 is one of the best in the compact market.

Mazda has to start making them first.

My concern with the 300zx would be a car like that is most likely to be beaten to hell simply because it's a much more fun car to drive. The other two can be found in excellent shape in greater numbers simply because they were more likely to be grocery getters. As with any Chrysler FWD car, take your transmission to the local Cathedral to be exorsized. If you're looking at cloud cars and LH cars, you might also want to consider W-bodies or G/H bodies. They have about equal excitement as the Chryslers without the "transmission surprise"

Size queen

Media bias? MSNBC report Small car Honda Civic Hybrid 49 51 Famly sedan Toyota Prius 60 51 Large sedan Toyota Avalon 22 31 Sports car Mazda MX-5 25 30 Station wagon Pontiac Vibe 30 36 Pickup truck Ford Ranger Pickup 2WD 24 29 SUV Ford Escape Hybrid FWD 36 31 Minivan Dodge Caravan 2WD 20 26 when clearly listed on the fuel efficiency by car class page you have Best Large car Hyundai Sonata automatic ................24/33 Best Small Wagon Honda Fit .manual ....33/38...... automatic...31/38 Best Midsized wagon Ford Focus Station Wagon .. manual .....27/37.. automatic ...27/34

Redneck Rampage

are you sure it's dropping all the way from 4th to 1st?

Get them a car with usable torque?

there ya go, the AMD Semprons are good.

More appropriately, the power needs to be there that you expect to be there. If I was driving my CTS around very conservatively, then needed to gun it to merge and the engine responded with all the oompf of an '83 Benz diesel with a busted turbo, I'd be in trouble. If I was driving an '83 Benz diesel with a busted turbo, at least I could plan ahead..... because I'd have time to.

why not an AWD Magnum?

Bravada is probably one of the best deals on the used SUV market.

Chinese Smart Car Copy Outrages DaimlerChrysler Chinese company CMEC has begun production of a new two-seat city car that appears for all the world like DaimlerChrysler offshoot Smart's six-year-old Fortwo. And its appearance has DaimlerChrysler executives hopping mad. Even the name of the Chinese car is daringly close to that of the original: Electric City Smart. Smart's original two-seater was christened the City Coupe before adopting the name Fortwo in 2004. Aesthetically, there's not much separating the two cars. Only the door handles, exterior mirrors and fuel tank of the CMEC-produced car display any discernible change from the original Smart design.

Camry glitch In four-cylinder Camrys, the software allegedly learns the driver's style, and those drivers with a frugal right foot get less response over time. Sudden demands for power – like a quick shift into the passing lane – can confuse the system and leave drivers with less power than they need.

Civic Si = 139ft/lbs. @ 6100 MazdaSpeed 3 = 280ft/lbs. @ 3000 RPM Volkswagen GTI = 207ft/lbs. @ 1800 RPM Interesting comparisons 3.8 litre Regal GS = 280ft/lbs. @ 3600 RPM 3.6 litre Cadillac CTS = 252ft/lbs. @ 3100 RPM 2.5 litre Subaru WRX = 235ft/lbs. @ 3600 RPM 6000+ RPM to get to peak torque? That's the reason you have to drive the snot out of the Si to get anywhere while all the others can turn a more leisurely RPM and still feel fast.

The point you're missing is that 128 or 256 would be just fine for Windows 98/ME, but insufficient for Windows XP.... which is what would come with your laptop. you also don't want to get something that won't be able to run the next version of Windows. Those desktops I pointed out will do fairly well with Windows Vista when the time comes.

bet mom is pissed when she has to change the tires with each fillup

Well built, reliable, fuel efficent, comfortable and more premium looking than an Accord or Camry. *shrug*

I think my biggest <obvious> swing was my utter disgust at the Avalanche when it first came out. I was a huge SUV hatre. Later, I became interested in them for their unique versitility, then once I suddenly needed a truck, I looked at them closely and found them downright attractive. Now, I own one. The Lucerne has grown on me a lot. I think when I first saw it, I called it a Mercury Sable-Pheaton. That comment is probably on this board somewhere. These days, I wouldn't say no to one.

I used to think that the '06 Camry was an '06 Hyundai Sonata that was beaten with an ugly stick. Now I think that the '06 Camry is an '05 Mazda 6 that was beaten with an ugly stick. what.... it's an improvement in opinion... isn't it?

you can boot any Intel Mac into Windows XP and game from there. you get the best of both worlds.

Macbooks and MacMini Duos are far superior to the G5. As far as everything else, all the DVD and graphics stuff can be done on the mac <some say with superior performance>, and with a MacBook or Mac Mini Duo, you can also boot into Windows XP natively.... so you can game. As far as versitility, you can't beat the intel based Macs right now. The Macbooks also price out cheaper than an equivilantly equiped IBM, Dell, or Toshiba.

DOHC does not automatically make an engine great and pushrods do not automatically make an engine suck. Examples? Ford 3.0 litre DOHC, just about any mitsubishi sourced Chrysler V6, S/C 3800 <you'll poo poo this, but it's performance numbers are *still* on par with the "modern" V6s>. I have in fact seen "Steering wheel too thick" and "Cruise on the stalk" in the 'Lows' column for GM cars. I want to know how either of those are quality issues. I want to know why parts of the dash that you never touch unless cleaning have to be Serta soft to be considered high quality. The 4-speed, 5-speed, 6-speed is mostly a penis waving contest. In most applications, you'd never notice the difference. I have a both a 4-speed and 5speed and they both work equally fine. The one I love most is the 3-spoke steering wheel "being sportier" and gaining a car points with the car-rags.

Chas's iBook is about 3 years old and still runs just fine.