Ah, new drivers. Let them buy a car - something BIG, OLD and not all the same color! Airline pilots call them their work cars - one they can drive and park at the airport and not care what or if something happens to it. Too bad they can't get an Abrams M1.

I still like the idea myself of what I think about doing when my now almost 5 yr old daughter reaches driving age - arrange for her to spend a Friday evening in the nearest level 1 trauma hopsital's ER (I shouldn't have to say a word) and send her to one of those driving schools for chauffers where they teach you how to spin out, skid, do the full throttle reverse 180's and such. Something tells me I'm gonna pity the poor guy who gets out of line with her on a date too.

I'd be in for another too, Keith, but that decision isn't mine to make.

In the meantime, I'll just watch this space for round four of the car-boys' debate. So far it's "the old veteran" outscoring "the young buck" by a margin of 2.5 to 1, with bonus points to the veteran for originality.
Most entertaining.

68 Chevy PU--350 four bolt main with a 4/11 gear--runs pretty good but no top end and the wind blows those imports off the road

Glad you're enjoying the show!

"Lord I pray to not be lead into temptation so how come I get this???"

[youaskedforit]Sigh, another gasoline-refined testosterone kid.....

Okay, Jonathan, I highly suspect that, even as a professional student, you're still too young to have any context for American cars from the 50's and 60's. I don't have much context for an old Dusey but I can appreciate what it was at the time. Detroit didn't sell cars in the 50's and 60's - they were Madison Ave. pros back then and conned....er sold us on the driving "experience" and with gas at 3-4 gallons a buck, they had us eating out of their hands. They gave us the land whales for those who wanted the "luxury" experience, the "I'm on my way up" sedans for us boomers getting started with new families and "muscle" cars for the young snots who hadn't settled down. Everything was mechanical so you could tinker, twiddle and duct tape to your hearts content if that was your thing. Customizing was a viable option to most anyone who got the urge.

Then in '73, reality hit and it's been a tragedy ever since. I won't say Detroit hasn't improved. They have, just not far enough. I mean I don't have to worry about feeling that sitting in the front seat driving down a freeway is just like being in the no-tell motel's vibra-beds these days. How else could a 4-cyl. VW keep up with a Buick 442 special that's trying to lose the VW? Oh Detriot's never had a monopoly on mediocrity. My brother drove a Fiat Spyder in college. I thought he enjoyed tinkering with it every weekend and engineers do love to tinker. Truth was, he didn't have a choice. German stuff isn't in much of a position to brag these days. Mercedes has nothing on Detroit these days and that awful merger only made it worse. If German was your only choice, the smart money would be on BMW. Every brand has a chance at a decent model, even the worst models have individual cars that the owner raves over because everything keeps working right. My Dad would still admit regretting trading in that 55 Ford after driving it for 13 years. Then there's the VW Jetta diesel too from back in the 80's. I'm sure I could appreciate having a Ferrari or Lamborghini or even a high-end Porsche but where could I REALLY drive that here? It's not like you can go open 'er up on those Montana highways any ol' Saturday you feel like it. Must be nice sitting in Boston's well-known traffic doing the 5MPH tap and grind in such a powerful car. Kinda like Capt. Kirk doing the Earth-Moon shuttle run in the Enterprise.[/youaskedforit]

([gunner], this one's gratis. Enjoy!)