"Bareback that thoroughbred?" Might want to rephrase that one (or maybe you meant it exactly as it sounds?).

Their tower is made of ivory AND pearl? Swank.

Perhaps you meant "fraught" with danger?

The correct formal 2nd person plural address is "Messieursetdames"

Fun word.

Good timing with the link; just this week the Clio Sport got a scathing review from Jeremy Clarkson: "It's the new champion of Formula Plonker"

http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,12529-2435722,00.html

I can't say the name bodes well. In economics, "arbitrage" refers to buying things low in one place and selling them high in another...

And this doesn't have a GSXR600 motor in it because....? Bored out to the kei-car limit of 660cc, maybe turboed... Easily double that horsepower figure, and it'd eve still be a Suzuki engine.

Wow, this is nothing to do with some debate as to the existence of a perfect free market or the government's place to regulate such things. In economics, this is called price discrimination, where two people are charged different prices for the same thing. Sound familiar? Think cable internet or airline seats. When cable first hit an area, mailers were sent out advertising its "low low price" of $60 a month. A couple months later, once everyone who is WILLING to pay that much has, they send out new ones advertising $40, and so on. This also explains why two people sitting in identical seats on an airplane can have paid $400 more or less than one another.

This is exactly what happens, and SHOULD happen, when any good faces high demand. Otherwise you face an excess of demand. For example, the GT500; dealers were marking that up around $10K+, because if they DIDN'T, there would be 2 year long waiting lists. Any time you see people who WANT to buy a good at its current price, but who cannot due to the excess of people wanting to do it, that means the price is, in fact, TOO LOW. I won't go into the way this increases efficiency and, in fact, fairness, as I have already expostulated too much.

Just because someone has raised the price of something doesn't mean they are some evil profiteer, that the government should step in, or that they are part of some philosophical argument against the horrors of the free market system.

1987 Volvo 240, 5 speed, rusted beyond belief from too many Minnesota salt seasons, no AC, barely any heater, no e-brake, had at one point in its life possessed heated seats but not by the time it came into my possession. Near as I could figure its grand total of horsepower was somewhere well south of 100, and 0-60 took... well never mind that. It was my all time vehicle from the day I got my driver's license to about 1-1.5 years later when we finally scrapped it. At the end of its life every time I parked a piece of trim would fall off, and it had developed a pre-cat exhaust leak that was slowly poisoning the occupants with CO. I drove her to a recycler who gave us $20 a ton, and sold it for $38.

My best memory of it was just the ride. For what she was, it was a nice smooth ride, and even though it was a boat it had nice easy steering and a crazy small turning radius; once somebody I was following in a 95 Accord took a wrong turn and had to make a U in a small residential street. She had to make it a 2-point turn, I managed in my land barge in one swift motion.

Ever since I've driven the next family hand-me-down, a 5 speed red 92 2 door civic with about 110k miles. It's reliable, a manual, manages north of 30mpg, and does the job. Plus if you really hoon it around you can imagine its actually going fast! (before you clock the speedo at nowherenearlycloseenoughto60yet)