Harry P.

Japanese Domestic Market, US Domestic Market.

My point is, the distinction between a "foreign" and a "domestic" car has all but disappeared, so the whole "Japanese vs. US" concept (to get back to the original post) doesn't apply anymore. Cars are a global commodity these days, and the old distinction between foreign and domestic doesn't apply anymore.

Is a new Rolls-Royce a British car? How about a new Jaguar? A British car?

Paypal has a resolution center; they have methods in place to help in case of a dispute. I suggest you go there instead of posting this here. This site does not offer any sort of dispute mediation.

These days it's very hard to tell a "foreign" car from a "domestic" car. The labels are almost meaningless, few cars are actually built only in the country that they are supposedly "from"...

My vote is for hydrogen power.

Tamiya and Testors both have transparent red and amber acrylic paint meant for taillights and turn signals. Do a google search for either and you'll find them available everywhere (or try the good old hobby shop if you have one near you). Priming small parts is a matter of personal preference. Some guys will swear that you have to do it; personally I don't bother. I just either brush or spray smaller parts without priming first. I don't see any need to make extra work for myself. Acrylics should be good to go straight from the bottle. If they need to be thinned a drop or two of water works just fine. There are acrylic-specific thinners you can buy... but I use the free stuff that comes out of my kitchen faucet!

This car is one of several that Dr. Porsche "borrowed" from heavily when he designed the Beetle. So much borrowing, in fact, that Tatra sued.

Not many got this one. It's a 1936 Steyr 50 "Baby" from Austria. http://automobilebrandsofthepast.blogspot.com/2009/07/steyr-50.html Who got it right: Stasch Chillyb1 Jim Gibbons Badluck 13 mr moto maltsr

In your hypothetical example, I think if you took a poll, the majority of modelers would prefer a multi-piece bumper with pieces that have no visible mold seams, and joints that would be hidden by bumper guards, over a 1-piece unit that needs to be sanded smooth and re-chromed in order to look good. As far as ejector pin marks in interiors, the molds could just as easily be made so that the pins strike the area that will be hidden under the seat instead of the area that's not covered by the seats and visible on the finished model. Side glass scale thickness is an issue? 99% of kit windshields and rear glass is grossly out of scale, thickness-wise. So why is scale thickness the "reason" that side glass isn't included??? A little more attention to detail in the designing process would make a big difference in the finished kits. Too many times the excuse is "that's the way it has to be," when in fact the real reason is probably "because it's easier/faster/cheaper for us to do it the way we do it."

Uh, no. And if I ever do buy a hybrid, you can bet it won't be one that costs $40K and only goes 30 or so miles per charge!

That's exactly the point. I don't agree with Bill (and whatever source he's found) that the earth is constantly replenishing its own oil supply. I think, like the Exxon-Mobil guy said, that most of the easily-accessible oil has already been tapped. Sure, there's still some left that we haven't yet pumped to the surface... but we're getting to the point now where the remaining oil reserves are of the type that are going to take a lot more effort (and expense) to get at... and there's a point where it won't make any economic sense for us to go after it anymore. I mean, sure, there are potentially billions of barrels in the oil sands of Canada, but if the cost of extracting and refining that oil means $10/gallon gas prices, it's just not realistic. The days of cheap oil are over, and the days of easily accessible/easily refineable oil are numbered. The question now is, how badly do we want to hang onto our oil-based transportation technology? How much are we going to be willing to pay for a gallon of gas in order to keep the status quo going? Is $10 a gallon the breaking point before we get serious about developing another way to go? Yeah, it may seem extreme today to think that gas could ever cost $10 a gallon... but just a few years ago it seemed crazy to think that gas would ever cost $5 a gallon... and we're just about there.

And besides, even if it were... carbon isn't a bad thing! It's the essential basis of life on our planet. All life on earth is carbon-based. It's carbon dioxide that we need to be aware of...

I've read that the unusually high number of tornadoes so far this year is due to the fact that the Gulf of Mexico is warmer than it has been in the recent past... so when the cool Canadian air that rides in from west to east on the jet stream hits the unusually warm and humid air coming up out of the gulf, the storms that result are bigger and stronger than they would typically be.

You might want to shop around for a new nickname...

You can still use rod instead of tubing. All you have to do is drill out the end a little... you don't have to go far. A dab of flat black in there and nobody will ever know that your exhaust pipes aren't really hollow!

If that ever happened, you can almost see it now: the operation of the new federal agency in charge of collecting the mileage tax will wind up costing the taxpayers more than the revenue generated by collecting the mileage tax. In other words... not a revenue gain, but a revenue loss! You just know that's what would happen...

What's your source for that statement?

Obviously your foil is taking the scenic route!

That's the thing... we've gotten so used to gas-powered internal combustion engines and become so reliant on vehicles that use that technology that it will take many years for the world to switch to another technology in any significant numbers. It's not that the current technology is necessarily the best technology... it's just the technology that we embraced over 100 years ago when gas-powered cars won out over steam-powered and electric cars. Back then, gas-powered cars were more convenient to use (and safer) than steamers, and they had the advantage over electrics in terms of range and ease of refueling. Plus, oil was dirt cheap, there was no such thing as OPEC, and we figured we'd never run out of the stuff. The gas-powered internal combustion engine "won" the technology war by virtue of circumstances, not necessarily technological superiority. So now, we're dealing with the fact that we need people who don't like us much to supply us with the oil we need (want?)... the price of gas is becoming a factor for many people, and we now realize that hey, wait a minute... oil is not an endless, cheap resource. We'll switch to something else eventually. The "oil era" will probably be nothing but a chapter in the history books one day, a quaint bygone time that people will read about and think how crude that technology was. The big switcheroo is not going to happen in our lifetimes, and will probably be a gradual thing, slowly taking over and replacing our oil-burning vehicles... but it's going to happen. Like I said, there's only so much oil in the ground, and they ain't making any more of it.

I agree with Jairus' comments on hydrogen-powered cars. That technology was all the rage just a few years ago, and now nothing. What happened???

Are you saying that you know of some secret, infinite stash of oil that will magically never run out? From the story you cited: A geochemist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts says she believes that hitherto undetected gas and oil reservoirs lying at very great depths within the earth’s crust could stave off the inevitable oil depletion much longer than many experts have estimated. What that says is that we might not run out as soon as previously believed... but we'll still run out at some point.

Except the part where he said we'll never run out of oil. There's only so much oil in the ground. It's a finite amount, and there's no more being produced. We will run out of oil at some point. When, nobody knows...but the day will come when it's all gone. It's inevitable.

Yeah, that's fine if you happen to know the radius! But judging by his post I assumed he doesn't... so you fake it with a French curve.

I suggest you buy another bottle of Turtle Wax.