Prodigy was my gateway drug to the online world too. They deserve a fair amount of credit for being a lot more user-friendly than a lot of what else was out there in the pre-Windows world (I remember upgrading to DOS 6 and that it was a big deal). My wife actually has met F2F and keeps up with someone she first met thru Prodigy in around 1990.

There was some point when Prodigy changed its pricing structure and the more computer savvy and BBS/Usenet addicted of us migrated to a series of other services. The one I remember best was GEnie. It felt very "techie" compared to the consumer oriented Prodigy. But it worked best as a text based service and really flubbed the transition to the Web.

I do sorta miss Usenet as something useful, before spam and porn killed it.

Yes yes, that's all lovely, but I'd like not to sound like an idiot if I talk about the thing. So how do you pronounce the name? Bruff? Bro? Brow? Bruck? Broog? Tolliver? (Hey, it makes about as much sense as "Taliaferro" which IS pronounced Tolliver).

Dang. That's a panel truck, no question about it.

The HHR panel delivery has some of the looks of the 1948-54 Chevy Advanced Design panels but is really a size or two too small. Without a full set of dimensions for the Nissan product it's hard to say whether it is a return to the type of package represented by the Corvair Greenbrier/Corvan and the Falcon based Econoline.

And I find myself scratching my head too over the decision to kill the Econoline. Did it get a little bloated over the years? Maybe. So, refine it and make it more efficient. When you think about it, Ford has developed a pattern of killing popular platforms by slow neglect -- look at the Panther and the Taurus (the real Taurus, not the entirely different car bearing its name today).

A/C puts the Pontiac into the win column.

Also, although 1954-56 Buicks are generally a beautiful design, the wagon somehow doesn't do it to my eye. The rear roof and tailgate design are too square and clunky for the rest of the car -- almost like it's from a previous design generation. It looks more like a 1950-53 wagon in back, just without the wood.

The Soviet cars and Hongqis have already been covered, along with the Toyota Century. We need some wagons too. How about this one with the gender-confused name Prince Gloria, and looks that will lead people to say "Nice Rambler":

Or a Brazilian Nomad, the Chevy Opala Caravan:

Or, if you can find one, the Brazilian Maverick wagon:

The juxtaposition of the compact competitors (Falcon and Corvair) is interesting. The Vair is so much lower and sexier looking than the Falcon. But McNamara's stodgemobile won the sales race.

Nice idea, poor execution. For 52 large, heck for half that, I want my wagon to be a real wagon. This is more like a big hatchback sedan. Yes, in order to bring the tailgate opening down to cargo floor level you've gotta do more work. The fuel tank and spare tire need to be relocated, and you need to add some reinforcement somewhere to keep the structure rigid with a big opening that wasn't designed to be there. All that costs money. But if you're going to go through the trouble to wagonize a sedan, why not do it right?

I also wonder if the back seat folds down; on the sale listing there are no pix showing it folded, and no obvious linkage or release mechanism.

In terms of dollars (or yen) per second of stupidity, that's pretty impressive. Usually, in order to do something really expensive, like rolling the car or slamming into a wall, you at least have to spend a bit of time getting up a running start.

None of the above! I'll take my 70's personal luxury in the Boattail Riviera edition, please.