Blake Noble

And Camino dies happy. What can I say? I really do like the ST. This sort of truck would be the most welcome direct replacement for my Sonoma. Let's hope we see more trucks in the same vein as this new ST.

Worst Car Showcase Presents: The Chevrolet Vega The Vega could quite possibly be one of GM's worst efforts in the sub-compact car market in the history of the company. When GM and Chevrolet introduced the Vega models, which were a coupe (Hatchback), a sedan (Notchback), a two-door station wagon (Kammback), and a sedan delivery (Panel Express), all the way back in 1971, it was their poorly concerted answer to Volkswagen ass-engined Beetle, Ford's cheeky pint-sized rolling fireball, known as the Pinto, as well as the torrent of bland and dreary econo-boxes being shipped over from Japan by the bushel full. Yes, when it came to the era of disco and bell-bottom jeans, the Vega offered a level of downright crude horrors previously not seen at GM, as well as paving the way for the equally mediocre Vega-based Monza (not surprising), and it's eventual replacement, the Chevette. Sure, the Vega looked like a sub-compact car suitable for the enthusiast on paper when it was new: it was rear-drive, it had a manual transmission available, and was relatively lightweight for it's era. It's because of those three credentials alone it has attracted many hot-rodders over the years wanting a cheap project to get them into the weekend drag races. But, make no mistake, when this car was new, it was about as far from an enthusiast model as you could get. The Vega, for starters, had a four-cylinder engine, known as the 2300, notorious for it's poor fuel frugality, it's constant thirst for oil, it's tendency to self-destruct partially due to it's oil-a-holicism, and it's cooling troubles. And, above all else, there wasn't any version of the 2300 that could break the 100 net horsepower mark, meaning that even a rat running an exercise wheel could produce more brake horsepower than you could. As a result of this lack of any sort of real power, or lack of a real engine for that matter, you could crawl inch by painful inch to sixty miles an hour in a whole 12.2 seconds, which made rocking out to Europe something of a dreary task to tackle. And even GM was aware that the Vega was no spring chicken, so they brought in Cosworth to fix the car's anemic acceleration woes. But not even mighty Cosworth with their racing expertise could fix this car's motivational deficiency. The Cosworth Vega managed to get-up-n-go in a scant 8.7 seconds, about a 3.5 second improvement. It was also about 500 dollars cheaper than a base Corvette at the time, which meant that, with what little money you had saved, you could go down to the gun store and buy a gun to shoot yourself in the foot with for not buying the better car. Because it was still too slow and now much too expensive for most anyone to afford, sales fell about 1,500 units short of the projected 5,000 units GM was hoping to sell. To add insult to the already lengthy list of injuries, reliability was virtually nil and it was more prone to body corrosion than an Alfa Romeo sitting at the bottom of the Dead Sea. The styling of early Vega were meant to mimic the early second-generation Camaros, then new at the time of the Vega's debut, with their Ferrari-inspired body lines and design cues. The 1974 update also attempted to continue this big-brother-little-brother relationship. But, in all honesty, given the Vega's bastardly tendencies, this relationship is anything but rosy red and should be view wholly as an insult to the Camaro. It's hard to fathom that GM found two-million suckers that actually wanted to buy this car. You would've had a much better option in walking or taking the bus. To quote (and paraphrase) Mr. John Z. DeLorian on the car, it was a horrible product forced upon Chevrolet by GM management and had an engine that "looked like it had been taken off a 1920 farm tractor."

f@#kin' goddamn sweet (sans the retarded slogan).

wax

They're all short? :AH-HA_wink:

Oh, they're ... 'round. I just came back from Taco Bell. Grande Meal and a Mexican Pizza, oh so good. Still not over 165. I thank my father's side of the family for it quite graciously.

Only in America.

weeds

Shame, because it seems Audi might be mostly at fault for them.

That was your freshman high school photo, correct? Hyuck, hyuck. :AH-HA_wink:

Nope. Just the neighborhood-friendly credit union here in town.

Oh where, oh where, could that little place be, my Euro-American friend?

Smart ForFour? (Well, the ForFour wasn't based on the ForTwo, but it and the Groove are somewhere around the same size, correct?)

You forget my state is well known for being anti-gun control as well. I've been shooting rifles since I was just a young kid myself. No, I haven't shot one in quite sometime, but it's like a bicycle, yes? You never really forget how. :AH-HA_wink: But, no, on a serious note, if I have any business in Europe, it'll be strictly related to my career after college. Leave the vigilante assassination missions to a delusional Sixty-8 after they build that B-pillared Beretta-in-spirit Camaro from Satan smallchevy mentioned. Trust me, after the Camaro, BMW will probably earn my business, and, given the current turn of rate of things, probably what scrap of talent I can offer. Damn pity, too. It would have been fun at GM.

Sounds like I could be making plans to clean one of the guns here at home and then making a trip to Europe.

"Beautiful" - 10 Years

I think I'm going to perhaps start a brief series based on this thread for The Random Car Showcase, since it's all but dead. It'll give us all the chance to reflect on all those horrible, horrible cars we had almost forgotten.

I've got my "sources" on speed dial. :AH-HA_wink:

Look no further than Toyota for what result that any sort arrogance and/or a "total domination" mentality brings you. The only difference is that Hyundai will come crashing down much quicker than Toyota will; they don't have the millions of brainwashed morons who buy their products repeatedly.

Remember that Yellow House? :AH-HA_wink:

I'm about a hair away from losing my sanity and actually humping this car when I get it.

Can't argue here; I agree whole-heartedly. To be honest, rear-engine, rear-drive cars are just front-engine, front-drive cars flipped around 180 degrees. Sure, I like the 911, of course. But I'm just not balls-out wild about that particular drivetrain layout. Older BMW 3-Series cars with four-cylinder engines and manual transmissions get respectable mpgs. Even the six-cylinder models get mpgs that aren't too shabby. No, they're not soaring above 45 mpgs, but they do get around 25 mpg or better in mixed conditions.

Not much time left to go ...

I'm talking about a much smaller Yellow House. :AH-HA_wink:

I remember you using the word "Holden" and the term "product evaluation" in a previous post or has that gone and past? Someone stop me before the mental pictures of a certain Yellow House with a certain purple Pontiac sitting in the parking lot drive me to espionage at GM Europe headquarters due to all this mention of G8s, PCS, and product evaluations .