Every time I see a Buick Encore I always hope it's named that becuase it's the last car they'll ever make. Saturn and Saab deserved to live on, Buick should have died. They already have Caddy for their elderly/"urban" market and Saturn was in the buisness of bringing VXhall/Opel to America already. The Turbo Regal AKA…

If it has actually happened it was probably because they could either wait 2 years for the Ferrari or have the Vette in a few months - either that or they figured out they weren't quite as rich as they thought they were.

Very weird - it is a whitish colored composite mineral... I guess it just sounded cool.

I wonder if the character or the car came first or were related in either way - thanks for the answer, I'm off to google the origin of the word to see if British Leyland was blacksploiting their funny little car in the 70's!

My evening ritual right there... That, and local news/ jalop/ io9 in the a.m. By the way, is your username a reference to a small, old English car? I very nearly owned one - endearingly terrible is the way the current owner describes it - that was enough for me to want it but the $$ fell through :(

I think most of us would be that way if we ever got rich - we would appreciate what it's like to not have money. I'm pretty sure he's a "self made man" - he seems too down to earth to be from old money. Although this is El Paso so it doesn't have to be legally made money...

I am putting my daughter through private school at one of the most expensive schools in the city and when I drop her off / pick her up I get to see many, many exciting, exotic or opulant cars every day. I also get to see or meet many different kinds of owners of said cars. I say it's a 50/50 mix of D-Bag and Nice Guy.…

As a Focus owner, I would personally like them to stop catering to the kind of people that enjoy this segment and spend the extra cash on a Fusion/Mondeo ST or bringing TDCI to the masses.

At least you won't see any mismatched tires, cracked windshields and unrepaired body damage models being driven by ultra low income folks trying to look like "ballers" for at least 5 years. That should be just about long enough for it to depreciate roughly 85%.

Kind of funny how everyone in the US says people don't know how to merge in their city/state - El Paso is freakin awful too. I wonder if there is anywhere in this great country where nearly everyone knows how to drive properly? If there is I want to move there!

Yup - also, the stat on crash statistics not improving where bans exist is completely meaningless because police will not enforce it so people do not comply. El Paso has a cell phone ban and 1 out of every 3 vehicles I see still has a distracted driver on the phone haphazardly wandering around 3 lanes on the freeway…

I really miss it there - I'm from the Pocono's and I live in El Paso now... People - even the cops - are much nicer there. In a genuine, deadly honest kind of way that is. My wife says she doesn't like the people in the mountains because they are too rugged (like me) and speak too frankly (also like me) - not sure why…

Wow, one little detail left out and look at the ShitStorm you started! I too have felt the wrath of a Jersey speeding ticket twice - both were around $300 for less than 20 over. Yet in PA I paid about $150 for 115 in a 65 (empty Turnpike NE extension at 3 in the a.m.). St Trooper could have taken me to jail and towed…

It needs to be an immediate $1000 fine and enforced often - you people are the reason accidents happen - proper lane discipline would eliminate 90% of the dangerous maneuvers on large highways. Far too many people think they are "safer" by being farther from on-ramps thus being able to blissfully ignore all other…

Sorry, I forgot the point of my last post and rambled a bit. Big, slow comfy cars good. Little, fast minimalist cars good too. And ne'er the two shall meet in between!

I completely agree - my favorite luxury car of all time is (feel free to laugh) the Ford Scorpio. Not the Mercur we got in the US, but the European one with the odd, ahead of its time headlights and the most comfortable seats ever made. It was a true diamond in the rough, using the cologne V6 - never attempted to be…

I don't know if it's just a pipe dream or actually buy-able, but the TrackSTer has a Quaife LSD. I'm sure with a few phone calls/emails you could get the specs and install one yourself if the car isn't for sale.

As a fellow military member you will probably understand what I'm thinking. Whenever we write award/commendations we tend to make the action sound as exciting or courageous as possible, right? I think he most likely just tried pushing first and if it wouldn't have worked he most likely had plenty of time to extract…

I'm sure people would compromise quite a lot back then to be free of the tyrannical rule of the train companies, much like how we would most likely if there was something more convenient than flying. On a less related note I wonder if they install seatbelts in those ancient classics or if that's considered…

Great point - even Hank Jr and all the old country legends smoke or smoked weed. Willie Nelson has made a pretty comfortable living doing it (and dodging taxes). I guess the real moral of the story is: Everybody enjoys it - from the innercity to the country and back to Wall Street, so why not make it legal? I'm…