frogger

Does middle class now means 2 cars less than 5 years old, 2 big screen TV's, 2 yearly family vacation trips and weekly dinners out? I grew up what I considered middle class. Didn't board a plane except to move to a different city (my dad got transferred) until I was 20 and supporting myself. We had one car, cable TV eventually, shopped at discount stores. New car every 8 years or so. I always had food on the table, always got christmas and birthday presents, went out for dinner about once a month. No video game machine (this was the 80's). Lots of friends, played sports, rode my 10 speed bike everywhere. It was a very happy, family focused childhood.

LOL many years ago when I frequented it, one of my drunk posts got responded to by Edmunds editors.

Seems less differentiated from the Vectra than the current Aura/G6/Malibu are differentiated

Everyone assumes tech jobs are all gone, all outsourced. But there is a shortage of skilled workers here in many areas of expertise. I can't find good experienced Oracle people for less than $100K. Whats sad is people born here don't enroll in post secondary education for engineering or computer sciences anywhere near like they used to, so our universities accept far more foreign students. Thats not India or China's fault. I was never raised to believe foreign countries are enemies because my parents were born in two different foreign countries. My country will never determine my happiness or success, I am fully responsible for myself.

I know, top 15 usually means a good quality vehicle, I just like things a little less mainstream or quirky.. I.E. Passat over other FWD family cars, Astra over other compacts etc. Reliability and upkeep/lack of resale value costs are the risk you take though.

No sale if: Top 15 on the sales charts Lighter green or gold car Crappy (cheap feeling/hard) leather Ugly/weird patterned cloth seats

I know quite a few 100K income earners, and only a couple of them are the type to be fiscally irresponsible.. i.e. new cars every 3 years, always trying to make their homes look like on the designer TV shows, always going out for nice dinners and buying vacations on credit etc. Most of them are too obessed with paying down their debts, building nest eggs, continuing education etc. So I'm not sure they will be the hardest hit by the recession/depression when it comes. Actually most of these people are first or second generation Canadians.

I thought Edmunds was pretty much "the enemy" on this forum.

Gotta be happy for someone in China and India graduating engineering as I'm sure they didn't grow up with the opportunities we have here.

Not a fan of the bloated looking coupe, this doesn't seem to make it better. The interior is only an improvement if the centre stack is replaced.

White R8 passed me on the highway yesterday at a decent clip. Looked and sounded great. Perfect sports car for Canadian weather.

Not really a car but a Vespa GTS yesterday

I've been pretty happy with my Nuvi 350. I don't really use it when I'm local but for 2-3 weeks a year the last few years when I'm travelling it has come in handy while driving and walking.

First car was a hand me down 86 Gutless Ciera 2.5L Iron Duke. 96hp baby! Yeaaaahhhh

Pretty funny.. Here it is with the original http://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/16/video-n...a-bleep-saturn/

Ah so thats where the stick on fake vents that were going to get used on the 09 Focus went.

I didn't know the DSG was available on the Rabbit. I wonder what the GTI would get in comparison in fuel economy.

Was hoping for some unnecessary force when they arrested him at the end.

Scratch those two cars off my consideration list

Sorry! Next time I'll remember to PM you. Apparently each weekend they're at a different mall in the GTA area most of the spring/summer

Funny they had something similar at Square One Mall in Mississauga this weekend (they did twice last year as well). Drove the Malibu LTZ and Hybrid, CTS, Solstice GXP (automatic! ouch!). There was no course setup, you just drove a predetermined route around the mall.

Zafira should have been brought over instead Saturn having the Outlook.

151mph in C5 Z06 with owner in passenger seat egging me on.

Already have a nice Norco :-) , but 20km each way to work + really knobby tires on non-friendly bike streets is a stretch. No showers at the office!

I can't imagine paying $12-$15 a day in gas money. There are so many things I'd rather blow cash on. A hybrid is suddenly looking like an option within 3 years time :-(. Filled up today at ~$4.70 a gallon.