dlb: if you read the story, it says these are teh first regular police car hybrids.

they already use some for parking enforcement, which is what you saw.

I try to play nice and you pull that move. So using your logic of proper english I'm moving on to the next "anu cavern!"

That might work, except it doesn't follow established grammatical rules. Livability does, and is, in fact, a real word.

Jimmy its no cop out at all. The thing is, its just not a word period! No matter how you justity its use.

As for the banter I thank you. I was in the darkroom all day so while waiting for prints to come out of the wash and customers coming into the studio it passed the time. I even made some sales through email as people jumped online to see who I was, one guy even stopped by with a dictionary to show me livability was not listed and it looks like his wedding is now on the books too!!

So once again thanks for the entertaining and livable day!! To quote my Grandfather "There's now't as quere as folk"- H. Dyde

Saying there's no such word because it's not in a dictionary is a pretty failtastical way of thinking about English (look that one up). It's a grammatically legitimate construction, so your initial point (that the writer was somehow wrong in using it) is void.

LOL! I assume your on the payroll.

That's a pretty cheap cop-out.

Wheels, now you're just demonstrating a clear lack of understanding of the parts of speech and how they function in English. Yes, the adjective in question is 'livable'. Anything that is 'livable' demonstrates a quality of 'livability'.

There are many other instances of this in English: managable things demonstrate manageability, demonstrable things demonstrate demonstrability, reliable things demonstrate reliability and so forth.

To explain why this is, consider that the root verb here (live) is not being used in its active sense (i.e. it's not being suggested that the car is 'livable' in the sense of actually living) but rather in its passive sense, as in the car is capable of being lived with.

Now that I've had to explain this in such detail (hardly fathomable to a native speaker, honestly), I'll leave you to searching Google for the term 'livability' as evidence of its proper existence, and your own further study - and hopefully edification.

And because I just can't resist, one last example: able people demonstrate ability, such as in the proper use and development of adjectives.

Actually, Wheels, one of those links goes to Princeton.

So you can take you ASSumptions, and stick them, well....I think you get the idea.

And yeah, I think your credibility is pretty much shot.

NaBUru38- I would have to agree the Cruze is definitely a compact car. This new VW would be running in such company as the Malibu.

Also, whats livability? I've never heard of the word or for that matter have these folks, as I did a search for it on their website. http://www.askoxford.com/results/?view=searchresults&freesearch=livability&branch=&textsearchtype=exact

Compact car or not, a quick trip to Google would have answered your second question:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=Jmz&q=define%3A+livability&btnG=Search

:rolleyes:

Ultimate has other meanings...i.e., the last of something.

Penultimate means next to last, and so on.

So in truth, this is the Ultimate S2000.

"it could create a situation where carmakers will have to tailor vehicles to meet the standards of each individual state"

The United States is possibly the only region in the world where carmakers have one set of rules for 300 million people. Even in the European Union, every country has diffferent taxes by fuel consumption.

I agree that there should be worldwide standards regarding cars. But let me remind you that it's United States who follows completely different standards than the rest of the world. The 2004 European Car of the Year (Fiat Panda) can't be exported to the United States because of that.

Actually, those different rules in the EU countries only apply to taxes on drivers. The cars themselves can be sold everywhere.

The California law would prevent the SALE of some cars that don't meet the rules, or fine the automakers for them.

And the EU is actually discussing instituting a new mandatory rule much like the California rule, but for the whole EU. The current EU arrangement is just voluntary.