Can you imagine what kinda guts it took to make the Met in 1954 and sell it in the US? This was the era where, if you didn’t offer a V8, you were dead in the water. Fins were growing, chrome was abundant, and interiors were designed by Wurlitzer. Willys, Kaiser, and Hudson’s compacts were trickling out of showrooms,…

Moght qant to double-check the year. The last 400-some Mets were built in 1961 and shipped to the US for the 1962 model year.

I see. You get the Lotus APX concept with the grille blanked off.

Well, depending on how long after his last drink he was tested, 0.086 could be indicative of significant drinking.

The Zeta Camaro shared very few components with the Commodore/G8 and Caprice. It made money because it was made in America and sold in profitable volumes at profitable prices.

No. Pontiac, by the end, was the car you rented at the airport. That’s where much of their sales went. Stuff like the Solstice and G8 weren’t selling worth a damn.

Well, the other factor is that, because the product launched half-baked, it gains a tarnished reputation and loses sales. By the time the product is fixed 3-4 years later, no one trusts it. All the goodwill is destroyed.

Maybe GM is bad at everything? Sadly, it took me way too long to arrive at this conclusion. I was caught up by the hope from the Bob Lutz era, but it’s clear that, as soon as he left, the balance of power shifted away from the folks that love cars to the folks that love making money off manufacturing.

Chicken. Tax.

It looks like hell on toast, but it’s not a bad idea in concept.

Also, the front side grilles have a new trim piece at their lower edge.

I wasn’t saying that at all. My point was that bad city planning and road design is partly at fault.

Well that truism is going to stop pedestrians from getting mowed down, isn’t it?

I mean, sure, I bitch about Portland drivers all the time. But it’s tough to put too much of the blame on that when people cross 82nd or Barbur or especially 122nd at night without streetlights or crosswalks and then get hit.

I meant to say “requiring a quarter-mile walk” rather than half in that last paragraph.

What the US Census Bureau considers an “urban area” for that 80.7% statistic may surprise you:

It’s got a new grille, new wheels, and new door frame/pillar applique trim.

I’m not the type to keep a car that long. I’ve been driving for 20 years and have had 12 cars in that time, most of which were what kids these days call “hoopties.” I’m the type that thinks about what his next car will be about 6 months after buying his current whip.

In many urban centers, yes. Most anywhere else, they’re rare. I live in Portland, the most bike-friendly major city in the country and one of the most public transit-focused. Even here, just 3 or 4 miles outside the downtown core area, crosswalks are rare and people still get hit every single day even when they use…

Cannot star this enough. Thank you.