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Comments
When we picked my wife's ring out many moons ago, we ended up with a center stone with smaller ones on each side, but at a diagonal to the ring itself, with adjacent gold-leaf clusters. Amazingrace, the sneaky girl that she is, went back to the jeweler to design & build a matching man's ring with 3 diamonds, diagonal, and gold leaves. I never saw it until she put it on my finger at the wedding (told you she was sneaky!)
Cheers!
Paul
Brenda: I think the first photo had the Town Car and it would not fit on my 21" screen. Too big. ;-)
That ring barely fit, too! Congratulations.
Choosing a ring was easy for me - "I'll have the second cheapest ring you have for sale, please." ;-)
-juice
MNSteve
In order to be licenced to drive a manual trans you have to take your test in one.
I taught my wife to drive, plus her sister, and I taught my daughter when she was only 11 years old, I used to take her out weekends up at the lake and let her drive to her hearts content.
Nice Ring Brenda, definitely good taste but then he picked you,so that says it all.
Cheers Pat.
Hope your daughter is doing well :-)!
tom
That's how it is in Japan too. If you take you exam on an automatic, you get a limited automatic-only license. But that was only instituted in recent history. Prior to that, EVERYONE had to drive manual.
I'm glad you're able to talk cars again!
Ken
I'm going to go pick it up tomorrow afternoon!
Wooooo hooooo!!!!!!!!
I got up at 5AM to run a half marathon today (new PR 1:40) but I'm going to find it hard to sleep tonight!
Ken
Congrats Ken, I'm happy for you (for your own PR too)!
tom
Get any sleep last night?
DaveM
Great time too in the half-marathon. Too bad it's not an Olympic event!
-Frank
Then again, we'd all have to learn how to drive unique automatic systems like on the BMW 7 series.
Nah, just ban such dumb ideas. ;-)
Ken! Whoa, you're slipping off The Fence...hang on to my shoe laces! My shoes are getting untied! AAAAAH!
-juice
-Frank
Dr. Tom - welcome to the club!
Serge - eating pizza on a friday night? Should have been in Shul!!! (just kidding...)
Proposals: Beth & I dated in college, but she kind of thought it might be over when I accepted a job in Dallas, and she (2 years younger than me), was thinking of transfering colleges and heading to Boston. I got my new company to bring her down with me on a house hunting trip, where I proposed over a lobster dinner. She cried and couldn't eat a thing, ruining a very expensive dinner! The worst part is that she said 'yes', but with conditions - we had to wait a year until she was 21. So she came to Dallas and we lived in sin for 16 months, then returned to NY for a big wedding. That proposal was in April, 25 years ago....
Steve
You walk, I guess. ;-)
-juice
I believe the total wait time was about 6 weeks. I placed the order back at the end of May and first got confirmation around June 24th for a week of July 12th delivery. So technically, they were a little early.
My dealer quoted me about a 6-week lead time.
Ken
Greg
Cheers Pat.
-Frank
A few pics in the Photo Gallery and a short write up of the delivery experience in the 05 Legacy topic.
Ken
-Dan-
Now I gotta get mine so we can revive the East Coast/West Coast rivalry. ;-)
-juice
Brenda - very nice ring.
Juice - You're the main stay of the Fence, you have to wait (the hardest part).
Yesterday I finally received my IMBA materials, so I have 6 months to go to qualify for their discount. I was delayeed because my bike club never sent in my registration. I also have to wait because my family is like "but your car is only 3.5 years old, why do you need a new one?"
I did promise my wife to wait until January, but it is going to be a long wait.
At least I can use the time to take lots of test drives and figure out which model I want.
Mark
Greg
Serge (sitting in shul in fervent prayer)
-Dave
Think of it as six months to load up on Subaru Bucks with your credit card!
Jim
http://www.autoweek.com/cat_content.mv?port_code=autoweek&cat- _code=carnews&loc_code=index&content_code=06650667
It seems like a classic example of losing sight of your core competency.
Jim
That's what I'm trying to do. Anything to help reduce cost. I have time, though it's hard after hearing about the new models.
Mark
Subaru can accomplish that goal, but IMO it would take the better part of a decade and would come at the risk of alienating, even losing, its current core constituency. I won't beat a dead horse here - many others have said it much more concisely than I could - but AWD alone no longer distinguises Subaru from the pack. Neither does/will perceived luxury touches like more chrome accents in the interior trim and a better grade of plood.
I've come to consider Subaru as, if not the budget alternative to Audi, Volvo and BMW, then the alternative to those marques for people who have better things to do with their money than impress others with a badge. Throw in a dose of high performance for good measure - as Subaru is already doing - while maintaining that strategy - and I think you have a formula for sustainable success.
Ed
Steve
My even bigger concern is this - how can they move upscale if Saab becomes the upscale Subaru? 9-2x getting the AWP, moonroof, and leather basically prevents SoA from offering those on the WRX wagon.
So basically FHI has purposely NOT allowed Subaru to go upscale to leave room for Saab. And you know what? To me that makes sense! Keep Subaru where they are now - the value niche brand.
IMHO they are setting up a rather obvious VW/Audi clashing. Too much overlap, high fixed costs, crisis for VW today. How will it be different for Subaru in 5 years?
They can't price the 7 seater where the Saab will end up, they just can't. $33-40k is too high a price for the lower-end model of the two, could the Saab really command $38-45k?
Then again, Legacy prices are a lot higher, especially transaction prices, yet sales are way up. I just wonder how long they can sustain this momentum.
I just hope Subaru doesn't bet all its marbles on the $30k plus arena, because a lot of us won't even be shopping in that price range.
-juice
IMHO they are setting up a rather obvious VW/Audi clashing. Too much overlap, high fixed costs, crisis for VW today. How will it be different for Subaru in 5 years?
I'm not entirely sure that's going to happen. I understand GM is forcing the 7-passenger platform to be shared with Saab, but I've read in several European magazines and trade papers that the 9-2x is a one-time-only stopgap measure and that the next small Saab will be on the next Opel/Vauxhall Astra platform. Not a major issue unless the next Impreza is forced to share that platform as well.
(edit: IMO the 7-passenger should be a direct competitor for the Honda Pilot. Had it existed 8 months ago I may have had a two-Subie household.)
Ed
If Subaru sales have grown 86% since 1995, why change directions now?
Here's an idea, we're incredibly successful, let's have a radical change in strategy and give all our customers sticker shock.
Yeah, that'll work.
-juice
I think adding some Premium-ness to Subaru is a good thing. And I think they can do this without leaving value in their lineup. But I'm not about to spend 50K on a Luxury Subaru any more than I would a Lexus (50K Toyota- albeit a nice one). I have better things to do with my money.
If Subaru goes too far upmarket, I guess all we're left with is Mazda for fun and value.
My $0.02
tom
Yeah but... I can see why Subaru thinks they need to change direction. In '95 AWD was still pretty rare so Subaru stood out in the crowd. Now that AWD has become common place, Subaru is at risk of being rendered irrelevant by the other Japanese brands. Just being "over-engineered" and/or having a more sophisticated AWD system probably isn't enough to keep Subaru viable, much less enable them to reach 250k units per year.
I can't say that I'm thrilled with FHI's decision to push Subaru upscale and I have serious doubts on whether the strategy will work but I can sympathize with their plight.
-Frank
Seriously, don't count on 250k sales, sustained, if most models cost over $30 grand.
If you learn from VW's lesson, they are more likely to end up with 150k sales per year if that's what they do.
Subaru can increase sales with new models. Baja flopped but I think the 7 seater has more potential by far. I predict it'll sell at about a 50k/year rate, which would put Subaru sales at around 230k. To hit 250k they'll need more models, not higher prices. Think about it.
-juice
A 7 Seat SUV would be nice but if gas prices keep going up, my guess is it will be just a little bit too late (and I don't want a 7 passenger Subaru-Trailblazer!)
Frank- I like Subaru's overengineering. It's the way I would design and build a car if I had too. It makes it different from the other Japanese cars and again, makes it more 'upscale.'
I seem to remember when Volvo was a car most people could afford, now they've gone upmarket and it's no longer an affordable car. I don't know if their move could be considered successful, and they are certaily not equivalent to BMW or Mercedes IMHO. (I'm slowly figuring out all of these abbreviations!)
tom
http://www.rideanddrive.net/
Subaru is "the most overengineered among the Japanese," says George Peterson, president of AutoPacific, a consulting firm in Tustin, Calif. He says Subaru has one of the most sophisticated awd systems on the market, and other systems, such as its antilock brakes, also are among the best.
Engineering, performance and safety should remain their core compentencies. I hope the whole upscale push doesn't distract them.
While I appreciate the creature comforts of my 05 Legacy, the main reason why I still bought it is because at the very heart of the vehicle, I know there's solid design and engineering.
Ken
~c
This is in marked contrast to the awful scenario in which we made this trip, we fly out of Austin in the morning and then we have to pick up the threads of our own quiet life again.
Thank God for our place at the lake, we need to have several weeks doing nothing.
Now as to Subaru going upscale and premium, if they do they will lose me as a customer on economics alone.
Like Loosh, I would be perusing low milage used as there is no way I could afford to pay more than what the present lineup costs.I will not be posting again until I get home.
Cheers Pat.