Hi Tom,

You won't get any argument from me. For me the new Town Car is a 'Compact car'. I wont drive a V6 and have a penchant for vehicles over two and a half tons.

I have watched the auto industry slide into the abyss alongside the government regulations and have given up hoping for good full size cars being produced new. So instead I am content to restore old big Cars and maintain them as new.

The airbag issue is scary. When young kids crawl into the front seat - as they are wont to do from time to time - you have to tell them it's dangerous - they may be killed and they have to stay in the back.

I'll tell you too - here in Phoenix those freon-free AC systems aren't worth a tinker's dam. They aren't as cold and when it's 111 degrees you NEED cold - it's life and death for many folks.

Global warming be damned - give me some freon!

There was a military contract which developed a moderately inexpensive additive set of chemicals for freon free military ac systems - just to get them up to par with the old freon vehicles/systems.

How is that for spending taxpayer dollars to correct Congress' bass ackwards legislation. Of course the private sector won't see these things at first - only goverment folks!

No REAL hard science has ever proven how freon and aerosol vapors lead to global warming and destruction of the ozone layer. I have read dozens of papers which 'link' it to these things and all are piles of rubbish.

As for legislating small cars - this too is a death sentence for many folks who will inevitably have accidents in them. Mandating big cars off the road won't help because most of these little jobs end up around a tree or telephone pole. I have SEEN it - and it is NOT a pretty sight.

So what to do? Have you noticed Oil companies and other folks have been paying folks 500-1000 bucks for the old (pre-1984) cars in Crush-enviro programs sponsered by the state?

These old cars are not gross polluters and there are not nearly enough of them to make a dent in emissions - so why do they do it?

They want to destroy PARTS. By eliminating spare parts for older cars and crushing as many as they can they force folks to buy the NEW plastic-bumpered piles of rubbish the dealers keep in the showrooms.

What they don't tell you is that there are FAR, FAR more people today driving 1970's cars than there were in the 70's driving 40's cars or in the 80's driving 50's cars.

More old vehicles are on the road and are:

A) saving insurance premiums
B) saving DMV taxes and fees
C) saving lives in accidents
D) saving the environment - since old cars don't deplete new resources.

E) Preserving the American dream! ;-)

This angers the 'econazis' and bureaucrat types. They want you out of your old car and into a Neon or somesuch coffin on wheels.

So by slowly destroying the spare parts for old cars - they figure they can speed up old car's demise.

I was teed off when GM pulled the plug on the full size models in 96. I was even more ticked at Ford/Lincoln for downsizing a year and a half later.

It's a real crime - and each new generation of kids doesn't know what a 'full size' American car even is...and so how can they MISS it?

Time aids and abets the destruction of the automotive landscape.

Well, I think I am going to give another coat of wax to my 65 Pontiac convertible - and revel at the real sheet metal, real chrome bumpers and real chrome dashboard - (which may blind me and other motorists when the sun strikes it! Verboten!)

Best wishes,

SDAI-Tech1