ShadowDog

LOL 'Like, O...mah...GAWD!' Yeah, that's a tad up there. I always figured my old '95 Monte Carlo was big-boned by appearance; but at 3400+ lbs., I guess it wasn't too bad. Would it be safe to say that a more luxury-oriented vehicle would weight much more as a feature-laden model? I'm impressed with the Fusion, having that mid-sized car image, but working out to be none-too-bad in weight that allows for an I4.

With the latest restyle, I don't see the name 'Monte Carlo' being represented what-so-ever. I simply view it as a Impala Coupe. Monte Carlo of old, weren't too pretty to look at. Monte Carlo of 80's, were nice too look at, but had pathetic output in the attempt on fuel-efficiency. Monte Carlo of 90's, the Lumina Coupe Monte Carlo of year 2000 and beyond, the Impala Coupe There's nothing left to work on. As far as I'm concerned, just get rid of it for a while and start from scratch.

I think it's easier to get through life as GM, since not everyone is quick to be brainwashed into thinking that GM is some sort of automotive Utopia. Their mistakes are accepted because its seemingly based on the law of averages. Toyota has built themselves up on a reputation of infallibility. While the facts of the past can support this, it's a shame that the present circumstances of their operations and media reports can end up placing them in a more difficult position (deep hole) that only well-thought PR can keep them out of. What I mean is, Toyota had better start accepting the fact that they cannot grow at this pace without some setbacks that relate directly to the reliability of their engineering and high-output. If not too simple a comparison, Toyota appears to be on a higher pedestal than GM by way of their customer satisfaction and perceived reliability. The only problem is, that pedestal is a wooden dowel, next to GM's tree-trunk-stump of owners who accept that the vehicle they buy may very well have issues. To me, if Toyota doesn't accept that there is no such thing as perfection, and chooses to market their vehicles in the same manner they do today, it won't take much to see that pedestal snap beneath them. Really, the salesmanship of their vehicles that borders on complete arrogance that 'nothing goes wrong with our cars' has to stop, or they're in for a world of hurt.

Was it not the Series II 3.8 Litre V6 that was always used? At any rate, the concept engine that made its way into the first generation W-Bodies was the 3.4L DOHC - basically, the variant of the Quad-4 with two extra cyliders. It was tested in a FWD Camaro as speculated to being the program drivetrain the whole time. Thought existed that the odd-body Camaro was used just as a tactical diversion to offer a collective sigh of relief when the engine and 4T60 tranny were actually intended for the W-Body all along. ...but this is GM we're talking about, so they probably meant to have a FWD Camaro with this V6 as its top engine, only to scrap the whole idea and shoe-horn the huge beast into the engine bay of the W-Body.

Jon Moss made a concept Monte Carlo before this was even thought of, and it had RWD. This doesn't mean much, since the LQ1 3.4 DOHC (rumored to have had 275 hp) that the 3.8 Series II replaced was originally tested and intended for a Camaro mule in the late-80's...and it was a FWD car.

The design of the LX cars leads toward the more aggressive nature. The majority of the cars listed are all in the luxury/sports arena. This article might have been more credible if it had listed the Magnum as a vehicle best representing the practical sense of RWD on a mainstream/everyday vehicle. If not for just the 'fun' factor, what practical benefit is there to the average consumer who knows no difference?

Sorry, I'm originally from the Kootenays in B.C., but this is in Swift Current, Saskatchewan... ...where the people are neither 'swift', nor 'current', in any way, shape, or form.

Can't anyone understand the positive implications of having a domestic manufacturer shipping North American made product OFF its shores? I don't care if it's just a toaster, it's a move that opens economic doors for healthy profits...that is, if the overall expenditures don't eat them up first...sheesh.

Bar-none, the stupidest and tackiest novelty item one can put on a truck. Hell, people in the States have been putting them on their cars. ...I wonder what people would think if you hung half a female blow-up doll torso out from the bottom of an vehicle?

We are currently under renovations at work; however, they don't have anything to do with what just happened this morning. There are two elevation changes off the street up to our building. One is the sidewalk with another strip of pavement to the right of it. Then there's another step up to another sidewalk along our windows. A senior lady didn't lift her foot high enough and caught her toe on the upper sidewalk. She went down and bashed her eyebrow on the concrete. An older gentleman had noticed her go down and immediately went out to help her; I saw the commotion and followed. There was a bit of blood on her brow, a bloodshot eye, and she complained about side pains, so the old feller offered to take her in his van to the hospital (to avoid the expensive ambulance fees). I called the hospital to inform them off an arrival at their emergency, and was heading out to tell the driver where he should pull up at the hospital. Just then, another senior lady was crossing the street and caught her foot on the first sidewalk, and went down face first. The first thought I had was, "What the f@#k is going on here?!" The old man rushed to help me prop the next lady up. She had scraped knuckles and bent glasses; otherwise, faired better than the first lady. I really had to work to keep myself from laughing when the old guy said, "Well, might as well toss her in the van too, since we're taking the other one to the hospital." The second old lady was bewildered by the sudden rush to put her in the van to go to the hospital, saying, "Oh, well...uh...well, okay." I thought it was pretty amusing. Then I hear someone shout from above. I look up to see one of the construction workers ask me, "Did my grandmother just fall down?" I told him she was heading to the hospital. He got on the phone with his mother to let her know her mother was heading in. What's even more funny was that before the worker's mother got the call from him, she had been in and saw the first lady sitting in a chair being tended to. When she got the call saying her mother had just fallen and was being taken to the hospital, she argued with her son that it was another woman who'd fallen. There was such mass confusion through that first fifteen minutes that I decided to go do something that would keep me the hell away from people for a while.

Use the song, don't use the song, I don't care... ...just get RID of that damned boring-ass goof doing the pathetic voice over. He sounds like a dentist trying to make you feel excited about a root canal.

Now THAT I would watch.

screws

I've seen episodes. Honestly? They should tell the plastic drama-queens that there's an episode on some deserted island. Fly them out, drop them off, and forget all about them. ...and there was peace in the land.

80's rock

BOF and he'd wet his pants.

husk

I'll see your bet, and raise you. "This thing needs side ports, otherwise people won't know it's a Buick!!!" I'll have to say that the new Santa Fe does look better than it did previously.

To me, I see a performance version of an Aztek in that rendering. Sorry.

The model introductions reveal they are all relatively the same, so I won't bother placing my opinion in all the topics. The lines on styling between the brands are relatively blurred. This one doesn't do anything radical, but it does do the most appreciable aspects justice. I particularly like the stance from all angles, as well as the subtle crease-lines that make their way around the car 360 degrees. I like the greenhouse with the low beltline at the front cabin...but wow does that cowl look tall. I see a lot of cars in its design, but that doesn't mean anything negative. If anything, it takes great elements of design from many sources with its own blend of aggressive lines and contours. The interior appears relatively unique, but the two-tone split seems wonky with the brushed aluminum dash trim that doesn't seem to have any visual place with that scheme...and black seatbelts with a beige interior? IMO, the black/beige split just has too much contrast in areas. It strikes me as odd to see a black rear-deck directly behind beige headrests. Eh... Is it the lighting, or is the carpet in this image another tone altogether?

"Ma'am, you're under arrest." "What?! Just what the heck for, sugahpiiiie?" "For impersonating an attractive woman." "Well, well, well, hunnybuuuns. How'd I do?" "You're going to need a good lawyer." "Oh poo! How's about I, uh, make it UP to you, officer?" "Save it for the judge ma'am. You're gonna need all the help you can get."

HA! I've always admired Vancouver's stance against Wally World. Maybe, one day, they'll actually win...and maybe they won't. In any case, enjoy the lack thereof.

I recall typing this one somewhere...anyway, pizza-delivery guys. The Pizza Hut near where I used to live had two delivery drivers. One in a Sunfire GT and the other in a Cavalier Z24. The guy in the Sunfire GT had a clean car, with the only thing suggesting "rice" was his fartcan muffler that you could hear for miles. The Cavalier was riced up to the nuts: huge wing, fart can, body kit, rubber-band tires on oversized wheels, aftermarket head-&-tail lights and clear corners all around, Recardo buckets and racing harness, and an interior that the local Canadian Tire catalogue puked in. Engine? Well, of course it's bone-stock...with a lot of dress-up goodies. These two guys enter the street and can only drive no more than two-and-a-half city blocks before an intersection with a stop sign. By the time they get to the sign, they're in fifth gear. When they leave the parking lot, they row through the gears so fast that, by the time they hit fourth, the fart cans emit a sound that suggests the engine is trying out for a baritone-armpit in a blue-grass symphony. They're more annoying that anything. At first, it was quite funny; however, after a couple years of listening to them fart-around every evening, you feel the need to turn up the sound system to drown them out. I'll be sure to edit the picture of the famous armpit-Cavalier later.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13862689/ Woman allegedly called 911 for ‘cutie’ deputy ALOHA, Ore. - A woman who called 911 to get "the cutest cop I've seen" sent back to her home got a date all right -- a court date. The same sheriff's deputy arrested her on charges of misuse of the emergency dispatch system. Washington County Sheriff's Sgt. David Thompson told KGW-TV of Portland it all started with a noise complaint called in last month by neighbors of Lorna Jeanne Dudash. The deputy sent to check on the complaint knocked on her door, then left. Thompson said Dudash then called 911, asking that the "cutie pie" deputy return. "He's the cutest cop I've seen in a long time. I just want to know his name," Dudash told the dispatcher. "Heck, it doesn't come very often a good man comes to your doorstep." After listening to some more, followed by a bit of silence, the dispatcher asked again why Dudash needed the deputy to return. "Honey, I'm just going to be honest with you, OK? I just thought he was cute. I'm 45 years old and I'd just like to meet him again, but I don't know how to go about doing that without calling 911," she said. "I know this is absolutely not in any way, shape or form an emergency, but if you would give the officer my phone number and ask him to come back, would you mind?" The deputy returned, verified that there was no emergency and arrested her for misusing the 911 system, an offense punishable by a fine of up to several thousand dollars and a year in jail. Thompson said Thursday it was the first case he knew of in which someone called the emergency line for such a personal reason. "That's taking up valuable time from dispatchers who could be taking true emergency calls," he said. The Associated Press.

They are our company's main competitor in this region. They just completed a new facility that doubled their former size. Optioning to get into the grocery business, they began their operation with a bargain-basement fire sale pricing strategy to grab everyone's attention as the shoppers strolled in just to see what-was-what. General merchandise, home & garden and hardware departments were certainly better equipped with variety inventory that most consumers could appreciate; however, I test them from time-to-time against our operations, in order to find out if they have the most basic of products, and they've failed 7 times out of 10. In their Grocery department, they combine a great deal of national-brand products with their own 'Made on the other side of the moon' private-labels. The quality difference is astonishing; however, it seems consumers are so brainwashed, they might as well eat dirt if Wal-mart packaged it for the right price. Our operation was zoned for much of their pricing. For example: staple dairy products were priced 2¢ cheaper than our regular price. I often must discuss a problem with a customer who is under the impression that Wal-mart has substantially cheaper prices. This was true during their grand re-opening period; however, week-by-week, they incrementally raise their pricing on the key, staple-needs products to the point that they are making more than we are on a regular priced item by volume because people are simply too stupid to recognize that they've been had. To answer the earlier question...that's why people keep going to Wal-mart. Their recipe for success is to fish for the less-than attentive consumer. They will always fail at customer service and value..."always". As their direct competitor, our success has always come from doing what they don't: freshness in every day categories they don't even deal in, namely Bakery, Deli, Meat and Produce; customer services like phone-in, home delivery orders; well-trained, full-floor staffing to handle virtually any request; and specialized member-services with annual benefits (since our operations are a Co-operative where all profits are distributed to the member-shareholders based on a percentage of their annual purchases in all department categories). Wal-mart takes care of the people who don't know how to take care of themselves...and don't know the difference. Honestly, the government should just send the welfare check to Wal-mart as a credit for those shopping there.