Off-topic thread - talk about anything

[nordwulf]

Still not sure if she looks like you..

[rpiereck]

Still not sure if she looks like you..

Well, he's got two eyes and a nose... LOL

[Hirsch]

She definitely favors her mother.

Neither Sarah nor Erika look like me, they both look like Karina. I guess I just don't have dominant genes.

Not a big surprise if I've produced nothing but girls. My dad has two sisters, no brothers and my mom came from a family of 4 girls.

[Hirsch]

Just checked the DNA results.

99.99999% match. 15 of 15 alleles match.

No doubt that she is my kid!

[nordwulf]

You may have seen a message yesterday saying SaabWorld exceeded the limits of its resources and it was unavailable for part of the day. An attached image in one of the posts in the http://saabworld.net/f16/whats-your-poison-1336/ thread was linked on a Russian website bringing the online visitor count to more than 850 at the same time. Regular online count is 50 - 150.

Our hosting plan just couldn't handle that large number of visitors. I deleted the image and there was no other way to block this excessive traffic. I haven't seen that happening in the 2 years SW has been online.

[Dave T]

I read in the paper that modern cars have electronics that are sensitive to flooding so that even slightly flooded cars affected by the recent hurricane may be totaled.

Another source has a different angle to the story. Sandy likely to hit car buyers in the wallet - Bottom Line

Early estimates suggest that tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of vehicles were damaged to the point they will need to be replaced. And that is likely to drive up prices for both new and used vehicles in the weeks and months ahead, experts warn...In fact, the impact will have a “ripple effect in other parts of the country” as dealers and customers in storm-damaged regions race to find replacement vehicles.

The first measure of the impact, suggests Beggs, will likely become apparent at the 62 wholesale automotive auctions covered by the Black Book each week. He anticipates that dealers on the East Coast will significantly increase their bidding and likely grab vehicles that would have otherwise gone to the Midwest, South or even to the Pacific Coast....

[SaabKen]

I read in the paper that modern cars have electronics that are sensitive to flooding so that even slightly flooded cars affected by the recent hurricane may be totaled.

Another source has a different angle to the story. Sandy likely to hit car buyers in the wallet - Bottom Line

Early estimates suggest that tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of vehicles were damaged to the point they will need to be replaced. And that is likely to drive up prices for both new and used vehicles in the weeks and months ahead, experts warn...In fact, the impact will have a “ripple effect in other parts of the country” as dealers and customers in storm-damaged regions race to find replacement vehicles.

The first measure of the impact, suggests Beggs, will likely become apparent at the 62 wholesale automotive auctions covered by the Black Book each week. He anticipates that dealers on the East Coast will significantly increase their bidding and likely grab vehicles that would have otherwise gone to the Midwest, South or even to the Pacific Coast....

With the economy the way it is (ie: in "limp-home mode"), IMHO new car prices may not go up per se, but incentives and discounts may not be as generous, lease rates may go up. The biggest question is, will some damaged/flooded cars end up in the hands of seedy/unethical hands and eventually end up on used car lots, like what happened after Katrina.

Good thing we drive SAABs ..... we're familiar with electrical/electronic gremlins and ghouls even without having to have gone through natural disasters ;-)

[Dave T]

Too bad. If I were in the market for a new small car, I might have chosen a Suzuki. If I were in India, it would be more likely. Maruti Suzuki is big in India, probably more common than Toyota. Indian made 3 series BMWs cost double the US price despite the average white collar wage being roughly 10% of the US

[Shazam]

Too bad. If I were in the market for a new small car, I might have chosen a Suzuki. If I were in India, it would be more likely. Maruti Suzuki is big in India, probably more common than Toyota. Indian made 3 series BMWs cost double the US price despite the average white collar wage being roughly 10% of the US

I was amazed by this! Their cars have been getting so much better recently. The Kizashi (or however it's spelled) has gotten very favorable reviews from all the ones I read. Still hard to stumble across one on the road though. It's a bit disappointing there will be even one less emblem on the road now.

[Dave T]

Joe Queenan on Skyfall," Daniel Craig and James Bond | Moving Targets - WSJ.com

excerpt:

Invade the Houses of Parliament for the specific purpose of assassinating the head of MI6? Cheeky, but well within the ethical parameters of top-flight espionage. Ravage the London Underground, destroying a dozen subway cars in the process? All in a day's work. Murder one of Bond's best friends and send a dozen other British secret agents to their deaths? Good God, Javier, you were only doing your job. No one could hold that against you.

But then Javier goes one step too far and destroys Bond's beloved Aston Martin. To which 007's reply is, "Meet your maker, scumbag."

Bond's infatuation with his car underscores how little the average man has in common with 007 anymore. When the Bond movies first appeared in the early '60s, the average guy might not own a Lamborghini or a Porsche or an Aston Martin, but it was still quite possible that he drove a car exuding a certain measure of style: fins, a convertible roof, a two-tone leather interior, fancy hubcaps, perhaps even wood paneling—inside and out. Because of this, he could deceive himself into thinking that there was a little bit of James Bond in all of us. Even if, like me, he was only 11 at the time.

But that was back in an era when men were men and cars were cars. Now all cars look the same. You can see it when the men come pouring out of the multiplex and pile into their automobiles. Honda Civics. Toyota Corollas. An assortment of vehicles that are putatively Ram-tough. And maybe, for the really daring, a Lexus.

In the 1980's, the Saab 900 turbo was really different. Turbo, unsurpassed supportive seats, fishbowl windshield, location of key, flat and large trunk when the seat was folded down, hatchback (some models), dashboard design surrounding the driver, fuel injection (not unique but not that common), larger wheels at 15", four wheel disc brakes. etc. Later, 16V came out. Of course, it wasn't perfection, like the cracked dashboard and sagging headliner.

The latest 9-3 is nice but not so far ahead of the rest. I like it.

Still, even in the past, I'd never kill someone for destroying my car.