the_yellow_dart

FYI on the Marquette: The Marquette was an automobile manufactured by General Motors' Buick Division for model year 1930. Along with Pontiac, Viking and LaSalle, the Marquette conceived to span a price gap in General Motors' market segmentation plan. Marquette was placed below Buick, but above Viking which was to be sold in Oldsmobile dealerships. The Marquette "arrived" in dealer showrooms on June 1, 1929. The Marquette line rode on an 114" wheelbase and was powered by an "L" head six 212.8 in³ producing 67hp. Marquette was built to sell in the $1,000 range, and was available in six body styles. Unlike Harley Earl's total LaSalle design, the Marquette's most unique styling feature was its herring-bone patterned grille. Reviewers at the time the car was released described it either looking like a small Oldsmobile or small Cadillac. Compared to Oldsmobile's Viking, which only enjoyed a total production run of 7,224 over three model years (1929, 1930, 1931) Marquette produced 35,007 vehicles in the U.S. during its brief one year life span; additionally, GM Canada turned out another 6,535 Marquettes. Despite its promising first year sales, two factors worked against the Marquette. The first involved Oldsmobile, which lost sales to Marquette; the second was that Buick executives didn't feel that enough Marquette's were sold to warrant the extra burden on the bottomline given the state of the economy. Buick gave no advance warning of the termination of the Marquette; just four months before the shut down 4,000 Marquette signs were shipped to dealers in the hope of better days ahead.

Ding ding ding... we have a wiena.... Now, what about #10... I've given some pretty good hints, specifically in the first post on this page.

Nope. Note the italics.

#10. No. Nothing that exotic. More of a people's car. #11. Yes! They are specifically, Golf R32 gauges. #14. No. This Marque no longer exists.

I bet the US waits until they have the nuclear missile defence system up first. Otherwise, I bet they would have already done something. I'm fine with that. If New York or Washington gets nuked, Toronto's not going to look so hot.

I tried one out at the Ontario Science Center. I felt really unstable at first - you tip back slightly, the Segway moves back to compensate. This tips you forward slightly, and you rock a little bit. Apparently you get more used to it, and your body's stabilization instinct gets more in tune with the Segway's automated stabilization. It was only when standing still that it felt a little off. Once I got moving it was OK, surprisingly easy to drive.

Yahoo News Threatening to take away iPods and Segways? I bet he's shaking in his wittow booties... This is so dumb!

When I need to move big things with the Cobalt, I just put 'em in the back. TV? takes up one back seat. Air conditioner? Same. My bike, I just take off the wheels, fold down one rear seat, and stick it in the trunk. That's one thing the trunk opening IS big enough for. I've never known a car with a big trunk to compare. My parents and friends have always had SUVs, pickups, sports cars or compacts. I think the thing with the most practical true "trunk" that I've really known would be my mother's '93 T/A...

Not sure which generation these belong to, so I'll just give MYs. '77 Toyota Corolla (Valve job at 10,000 km for my father, to which Toyota service said, WOW! You made it to 10,000 km without a valve job??) '85 Hyundai Pony (General crappiness, and a hastily-closed door led to driver's window all over driver's lap)

Oooh! Closest one yet! Still wrong though, sorry...

I know the Echo's ugly, but what makes it a bad car?

The bi roommate was a stripper... My godmother's ex is quite pretty for a 45 year old. The rest are fairly manly.

hmmm... maybe my descriptions are lacking? I thought most of them were good. #1 especially caught my attention -- pushes the love of driving. You get off work so you can drive. #2 was probably the least inspired, but did do a good job of pointing out the new warranty. #3 was kind of a "picture yourself here" ad. Could be good if they show the car well. #4 was odd, and it would really depend on the acting and directing to make it work. I hope, if they make any of them, that they make #1. Even though they don't show the lineup, it's still a good "feeling" to associate with Chevy, I thought. I came away from them all with a positive feeling. Certainly better than the Johnny.ca ads that they're running now. #4 and the Johnny ads have pretty much opposite messages.

...but, you know you'd like it if both the women are hot.

You kind of look like Leo with a goatee...

So, a company called me up last week to ask if I would like to give them my impressions of car commercials - 1 hr, $65. I said sure, why not. So I went today, and they showed me four basic ideas for commercials. They were black and white drawings, some crudely animated, with voiceovers to give me the feel of what the finished commercials would look like. They were all part of a new campaign: "Let's Go: Chevrolet". Included in all of them was the new URL letsgochevrolet.ca, which for now, redirects to gmcanada.com. I'm assuming that they would develop it if they use these ads. Ad #1: Shots of people in an office. A man pops his head into a woman's cubicle, and says, 'let's go'. Somebody else gets an email with that as a subject. A man excuses himself from a meeting after seeing it on his Blackberry. A woman says it to a friend in a bathroom stall. A man in the next office building holds up a giant sign with 'let's go'. They all start to leave (mid-day) and you see some Chevy keys in someone's hand. Tagline, "Let's Go Chevrolet" and the bowtie appear. A brand-wide ad. Ad #2: An Equinox is sitting in a driveway. A man puts a car seat with a baby girl in the back seat. A voice says, "A lot can happen in 5 years". Then a 5 year old girl emerges from the Equinox, and the commercial talks about the 5-year warranty and the safety of OnStar. Tagline, "Let's Go Chevrolet" and the bowtie appear. A brand-wide ad, semi-specific to the Equinox. Ad #3: A driverless Cobalt is driving around. People wave to the "driver". A woman flirts with "him". The car passes somebody on the highway and gets a glance. Then you have a driver-side shot of the car, stopped. The door opens and it says "Are you in?". Cobalt, and the base price are shown. Then, the "Let's Go Chevrolet" tagline and bowtie appear. A Cobalt ad showing both the coupe and sedan. Ad #4: Two women and a man in their 20's are swimming in a quarry. The man says "Are you ready?" and one of the women replies, "Let's go". They hop into a Cobalt coupe still in bathing suits. They start to change as they drive, and get some awkward, funny looks from passing, older drivers. The man (driving) realizes that he can't find his shirt. Shot goes back the quarry, where it's hanging from a tree. The Cobalt drives by and a hand grabs it. Then, the "Let's Go Chevrolet" tagline and bowtie appear. A Cobalt ad showing the coupe.

#2: Yes. It's a Laser. My mother had one in this colour. Maybe that's why it seemed more obvious to me. #6: No. It's bigger than that. It is a Mercedes, but you picked the wrong class. 2. No (see above) 4. Yes. That was a tricky one. 8. Yes! Good eye! Amazingly bland when you take it off the rest of the car, isn't it? 10. That is the closest guess yet. You still have the wrong manufacturer though. 11. No. Again, nobody got the manufacturer here. THey are two closely linked models (not rebadges) that share these gauges. 14. No. You are two years and half a continent off.

Headlights look like they came straight off the Camaro concept.

I've never personally met a disagreeable lesbian. There are two lesbian couples in my "extended family" (through my godmother). They are some of the people I enjoy spending time with the most at holidays. I had a lesbian friend at one of my former jobs as well. One of my female roommates was bisexual - not sure if that fits. They were all interesting and outgoing, if a little too outspoken at times. That tends to amuse rather than annoy me though. For some reason, I haven't met all that many gay men. I know one, again through my godmother. He fits in with my comments about the lesbians above. Very interesting and agreeable to be around. Other than that, I haven't really known any. I mean, I live in a building with a lot of gay men, but I haven't had the opportunity to say more than a few words in the elevator. So - I guess it all just depends on personal experience.

There was a while back in August when I found out what my insurance payments were where I seriously considered selling the Cobalt and just relying on transit. My parents talked me out of it.

Good eye, tmp.

Nearest thing to you that Google Maps is giving me is in Pittsburgh.

Hints added to remaining questions in original post.

Ben Affleck

Thanks Fly! Sorry, but both your answers are wrong.