Blake Noble

Eleven bucks an hour? Ha! I worked there from February to May of this year and only made $7.20 an hour, a nickel below minimum wage. I'm lucky that I earned what money I did while I worked at the location in Richmond. I know having a Wal-Mart in Berea has pulled a few pins the holding smaller businesses here together completely out and thrown them aside. Superior Food Market shut down, was reopened by IGA, shut down again, and was reopened by a local owner who worked there as a teenager, only to struggle and be shut down for the last time. HFH opened a Re-Store (its like a Goodwill) in its place. The store just couldn't compete with Wal-Mart's prices and loyal customers wound up driving a few miles to the other side of town to shop cheaper. Bait shops have shut down as well because of Wal-Mart's sporting goods department. There's no hope for an alternative when Wal-Mart shows up to a small town. Local businesses are smothered to death before they eventually close their doors for good. Competitors only come to larger cities and they still have to put up a fierce fight to withstand Wal-Mart's corporate funk. I know I had plenty of co-workers eagerly awaiting Meijer's debut in Richmond, hoping that it would put a stranglehold on the store. I was, and still am, one of those people. But I also know better. It will take a devastating blow to the U.S. economy to see Wal-Mart rupture and go down, at least from a consumer standpoint.

I'm not a fan of white by choice, more so by fate (the Sonoma and Firebird were white and the Monte is white; also, the Cutlass was pearl white before it was repainted). That said, this car looks great in white and the black SS stripes add the needed contrast to make the design really "pop."

Yeah, I should have been more clear on what I was saying. Sorry about that. I was just using the F-Body as an example of a "hatchback coupe," not necessarily meaning the F-Body and the Astra 3-door coupe are in the same size class. That's exactly what I was thinking. An Astra coupe along the lines of the CRX or the Scirocco/Corrado.

Congratulations on the new 'Bu, balt. As far as mainstream sedans go, you picked the winner.

The reason I asked that is because, judging from the sketch, it looked like a coupe versus a traditional 3-door hatch, i.e the last generation Opel/Saturn Astra. Indeed. A Cruise rebadge would be a fatal mistake for the new GM and the new Buick to make.

If GM is expecting to retrieve Pontiac customers, they should consider it. I know you're pretty much spot on the money with your post, though. Four-door automatic sedans, yeah that's going to give Buick an edge in the market. Even Lexus has a C/C. Buick should have at least one coupe.

Three-door? Is this supposed to be a hatchback coupe, i.e. third and fourth gen F-Body?

Once you start, you'll never go to a mechanic again.

You know, I will admit, a small turbocharged Buick coupe would be kind of cool.

Ouch, baby. Very ouch.

I'm proud to be a counter to the tired rhetoric that my generation has shamefully embraced. All of my cars have been American made. That's the way it's going to stay.

Mullethead, methhead ... I think one goes in hand with the other anymore.

Would you forgive me if I started calling you Johnny or John Boy?

"Just" suck? Well, no actually. I have far uglier words in my vocabulary I could have used. As far as people knowing what a real car is like, I don't think 3/4 of the American public has known what a real car is like for the past two decades plus.

Is it ironic that a sport whose fanbase has a good percentage of methheads has a methhead driving around its racetracks?

Can I play Captain Obvious in my rant here? Hyundai sucks. The Genesis coupe is only good for making me limp, honestly. The credentials are right as gospel but the styling ... no, I could never love the styling. Whoever trades a Cutty Supreme Classic in for an Elantra needs to have their balls removed.

You got the joke, right?

Dug around in the dash earlier and still no connector. I guess I'm just stuck with my rigged up stereo with the ability to light cigarettes. However there is one more issue with the Monte I have to sort out and I'm grinding my teeth over it: it's the A/C system and it makes a high pitched squeeling sound, like you're getting really bad feedback from an old radio. I'm thinking the compressor is shot ...

Link please. You have caught my interest.

I don't pity her at all. She deserves what's coming to her.

If the other videos haven't enraged you to the point of blood-thirst, watch this video: I hate our f@#king government.

I gave the asshole who owned the Roadmaster a piece of my mind. Some nerve he had to post a "farewell" video for a car he willingly destroyed.

66: That's exactly what I planned to do: do all of the prep work myself and sand the car down to bare. The panels are straight as an arrow so I probably won't find any nasty suprises. I am slightly concerned about the doors, though. Since the Monte's doors were so heavy, I've heard about the sheetmetal around the top edge of the door near the window actually cracking.

Thank ya Camino. I'll probably wind up removing the license plate holder if I don't find a nice "SS" plate. In a way, I'm afraid to remove it because I know I'll have four ugly holes in the nose of my car. I gotta say, I love this car just as much as I loved my Firebird.

That yellow wire has one prong in the plastic casing and it doesn't seem to fit in any of the slots for the fuses. For now, I tied the 12V lead into the positive wire leading off of the cigarette lighter and it seems to work ok; I have to turn the stereo on manually each time I turn the key though. The previous owner already had the insulation off of a section of that wire stripped and probably for that exact reason. It'll do until I figure out the cleaner, less "jerry-rigged" approach, i.e. where and how that yellow adapter plugs in and where.