Harry P.

Manufacturer's licensing fees have basically caused kitmakers to stop releasing any current drag and race car kits. Heck, model companies don't even put the lettering on the tire sidewalls anymore, because the tire mfgrs. demanded too much $$$.

That's what I mean! Big Gary said the only advantage that FC vehicles would have from a pollution standpoint is that the pollution would be limited to the assembly plants. But that's the point! Better to have millions of cars on the road with zero emissions.

You're right, they weren't forced. They were "encouraged" to do so by the government loosening standards and deregulation of the financial industry. Banks began writing sub-prime loans by the millions to people who would not have qualified for the loans under the old rules. And Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac invested hundreds of billions of our money in these risky subprime loans. We all know what happened next. So you're right, it's not that the government "forced" the banks to offer risky loans... they just did everything possible to encourage that type of lending. They deregulated the industry, allowing lenders to make loans to unqualified people, then everyone jumped in and began investing in these bad loans. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac invested hundreds of billions of dollars on the subprime loan racket. Instead of keeping a tight rein on the rules and regulations, government relaxed the rules, let the banks and investors do things and make deals that had previously been not only financially unsound but even illegal, and then they jumped right into the game themselves.

So which is better: Having the pollution coming from the production sites and NONE from millions of individual vehicles? Or having the pollution coming from the production sites AND from millions of individual vehicles, too?

Ok... let's remember how this is done. The idea is to try and figure out if the car is real or a model, based on what you see in the photo. The point is NOT to try and find the photo and then tell everyone. Also, if you know for sure whether it's real or model (maybe you've seen the photo before or know where it's from), do NOT tell everyone. If you say, "oh, I know! It's real because the photo is at xxxxxxx and I know it's real!" then you've just ruined it for anyone else who wanted to play. Real or model? The answer: REAL!

Canada and Venezuela do have vast amounts of "oil sands" reserves, but the "oil" in these deposits is not liquid, but a very viscous semi-solid, much like tar, which is both expensive and environmentally unfriendly to extract. Basically, the way to get at these deposits is via strip mining, then using one of several processes to separate the oil from the rock and sand. Strip mining is obviously very destructive to the environment, and the processes used to extract the oil from the sand are also environmentally unfriendly. The oil sands deposits are sort of a "last resort" as far as oil production goes. When the price of gas was around $4 a gallon, the cost to extract oil from these deposits was justifiable, but with "conventional" oil prices now back down from the stratosphere, the extraction of oil from these deposits is probably cost-prohibitive.

Too bad the government doesn't offer a "Cash for ex-wives" program. I could use the money!

Remember when the government thought it would be a great idea to make home ownership available to more people... so they forced the banks to make loans to home buyers who really didn't qualify and really couldn't afford the payments? And remember how that lead to massive home loan defaults all over the country? That plan really worked well, huh? Well now... I have to wonder how many people who owned old beaters and clunkers, and who can't really afford car payments, were lured into buying a new car under the "Cash for Clunkers" program? How soon will it be before many of the cars bought under the program begin to be repossessed by the banks?

I agree with you. Now, I don't have any problem with foreign cars... in fact, I think it's a good thing when consumers have a wide choice, foreign and domestic. And I also like to let the free market work on its own, without government interference, which is why I opposed the bailouts to GM and Chrysler. But if the government is going to spend OUR tax dollars in the form of rebates to car buyers in an attempt to spur auto sales, shouldn't those rebates only have applied if you bought a domestic car??? Just seems like it would have been the right way to go about it...

Yeah, it stimulated car sales alright... foreign car sales! Of the top 10 cars sold under the "Cash for Clunkers" program, eight were Asian makes, two were Ford. GM and Chrysler had none in the top ten. So much for helping out our auto industry. Our government just spent billions of our tax dollars fattening up the bottom line at Honda, Toyota, Nissan and Hyundai.

According to the CIA's "Fact Book," the ten countries with the most proven oil reserves (as of 2008) are: 1. Saudi Arabia 2. Canada 3. Iran 4. Iraq 5. Kuwait 6. United Arab Emirates 7. Venezuela 8. Russia 9. Libya 10. Nigeria Apart from Canada, that isn't exactly a list of our ten biggest buddies in the world, is it?

Wouldn't that sponsor be more appropriate for a car that has a back seat??? :lol:

Uh... are you sure about that? Being a service manager at a Chevy/Cadillac dealer doesn't in any way have any influence on your opinion of foreign cars? You brought up "Cash for Clunkers," so here's an interesting wrapup to that program. The top 10 best selling cars bought under the program were: 1. Toyota Corolla 2. Honda Civic 3. Toyota Camry 4. Ford Focus 5. Hyundai Elantra 6. Nisan Versa 7. Toyota Prius 8. Honda Accord 9. Honda Fit 10. Ford Escape Eight of the ten top sellers were Asian cars, Ford had just 2, and GM and Chrysler had none. No political statement intended here, but the results are not exactly a pat on the back for the US car industry, are they?

Back in the fifties, styling reigned supreme. Huge fins, gallons of chrome, wretched excess... But back in those days nobody ever heard of OPEC... nobody ever considered that oil was a limited resource. All that mattered was that your new car had more chrome and higher fins than your neighbor's car. Cut to the present. We now realize that oil is not an endless resource, and most of the oil that the Earth still has left is buried beneath the ground of nations that don't particularly like us all that much. There's only so much of it left, and Mother Nature ain't makin' any more... not in our lifetimes, at least, and what is left is controlled mainly by America's enemies. And the price of a gallon of gas, which was relatively stable and relatively cheap "back in the day" has now risen to the point where it has a rather large impact on many people's budget. So what do we do about it? Well, the "American lifestyle" doesn't really embrace the idea of cutting back on our personal freedoms... one of which is the freedom to hop into our car and drive wherever the heck we want to drive. We as a society are, for the most part, unwilling to cut back on our oil (gas) consumption. So the Feds instituted mileage standards for cars to force us to use less "Texas tea." And one of the main ways car designers/engineers can cut fuel consumption and meet government mandated fuel efficiency standards is to design cars that are aerodynamically efficient. The most aerodynamically efficient shape in nature is the raindrop. There's no getting around the laws of physics. If cars today must be as fuel efficient as possible, let's face it, more and more of them are going to look more or less alike... like a horizontal raindrop. Today's stylists are slaves to the wind tunnel... there's no getting around that. The days of the '59 Cadillac are gone and they're not coming back. Maybe if alt-fuel vehicles ever gain a foothold, and we're no longer so dependent on the "bad guy's" oil, a new "golden age" of style over function could return. We'll have to wait and see, but that day isn't coming anytime soon.

I think you'll like it here. We have quite a "cast of characters"...

Nice to see you over here! Welcome to the asylum...

That's exactly right. Like our tastes in music, our automotive tastes are generally formed in our childhood/teens... in other words, we like what was on the street when we grew up. That's why so many people today are into 60s muscle cars.... because those were the cars on the street when they were young. And that's why some people today think that today's cars are bland and boring–because they don't look like the cars they grew up liking. But the kids/teens/young adults of today are growing up with today's cars, and 30-40 years from now they will look back with nostalgia and admiration to the cars of today. It's a generational thing. Kids today are just as "car crazy" as the "old guys" of today were back in their day. The love affair with the automobile isn't over... it's just moved on to the current generation. Andy is exactly right–automotive "appliances" were a staple of the industry from the beginning. Back in the day, you can't get much more basic, unadorned and "unsexy" than a Model T. But they sold in the millions for two very good reasons: they were bullet-proof, and they were affordable. Those selling points worked in the teens and twenties, and they still work today.

That's a pretty ambitious project! Can't wait to see it finished, it should be pretty impressive. BTW, here's what the initial Charger concept looked like... and what we all thought the "new" Charger was going to look like: When I saw this, I was pretty excited about the Charger coming back. In fact, I decided then that my next new car would be this one. What a disappointment it was when what we actually got looked nothing like this, but more like it was styled by the same people that gave us the new "gangsta" 300... I did a couple of different renderings based on what Chrysler actually did put into production as the new Charger, including this one: Why Chrysler didn't put the concept version into production is a mystery to me!

I think Cadillac's days as the "Standard of the World" are looooong gone (assuming they ever even were the "Standard of the World," that is). As far as FWD vs RWD shouldn't be an issue... I don't think I understand your point. Are you saying that FWD is somehow inferior to RWD? Or that Cadillacs should, for some reason, be RWD only?

The reason that many "family sedans" look fairly sedate is simple: A 4-door sedan is the type of car that most people DO think of as an "appliance." And a 4-door sedan is the type of car that most buyers want/need. Let's face it, people who need a car to haul around the wife, kids and mother-in-law generally aren't looking to make a "statement"... they just want a reliable and affordable car that will get them from Point A to Point B with minimun drama. The automakers know that... so why spend money unnecessarily coming up with sleek, sporty, flashy 4-door sedans? There's really not much reason to do so. Flashy, sexy, stylish cars? That's what coupes and sportscars are for.

Pretty simple: If kitmakers thought they'd sell, they'd make them. Obviously they don't think there's enough interest out there to justify the cost of tooling up new truck kits.

You're not picking up some bad spelling habit's, are you?

I'll try to come up with a real good one for Monday!

"Designed by Bruno Delussu from France, the Bugatti Stratos is a retro-futuristic concept study that draws inspiration chiefly from the Bugatti Type 57 Atlantic which is considered by many as one of the most beautiful cars of all time. Bruno states that he also used some design cues from the Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Mille Miglia for the styling of the front end. To be completely frank, the first car that leaped into our mind upon seeing the Strato's fascia was the BMW-powered Weismann MF4 Roadster. The French graphic designer said that his goal with the Bugatti Stratos was to create a pure fantasy vehicle clearly focusing on the design aspect of the concept without taking into account the technical restrictions and the resulting styling limitations of a model intended for production."

ok, Bugatti Stratos Concept... http://www.autoblog.com/gallery/bugatti-stratos/