OCTOBER CAR SPOTTERS!

[ocnblu]

I guess I'll start this month off.  1977 Caprice Classic sedan in light green, perfect condition, driven in traffic yesterday.  I remember how excited I was in the autumn of 1976, (I was 12 years old and a complete car FREAK) to see the brand new, smaller and very good looking GM B, C and D-bodies hit the streets.  First one I saw on the road back then... was a yellow Electra 225 with tan vinyl top.  I think I freaked my grandparents out with my hoops and hollers that day.

[balthazar]

^ You certainly are... unique. ;)
I vaguely remember the '77 intro's (I was around 10), but I was already grooving on the much more tasty mid '50s to mid '60s stuff.

- - - - -
3 cars lengths ahead of me this morning, enjoying a nice top-down cruise and 'gettin on it' from every stop; a dark blue Shelby Cobra 427 replica. Sounded great even from that distance.

[David]

Been an interesting start to October.

Chevy Luv, Isuzu built with manual trans.

Subaru with BF Goodrich AllTerrain tires. Interesting, never seen this tire on a car before.

[David]

Yesterday on the Freeway, old Porsche zooming buy! Liked these 1980's versions.

[Robert Hall]

That looks like a '73 911 Carrera RS or an RS replica.  That ducktail was exclusive to the RS IIRC.  Those are worth serious coin.

Looks a lot like this one

http://fantasyjunction.com/cars/770-Porsche-911 Carrera RS-2.7 litre Flat 6-Cyl

Edited October 2, 2018 by Cubical-aka-Moltar

[David]

This morning at the Lynnwood Park n Ride, got to see a brand new 2019 Chevy next to a 2019 Ram. The owners were exchanging info and while each complimented each others truck, they of course loved their truck they bought.

With that said, I am now solidly in the RAM is way better looking than Chevrolet this year. The cardboard bailing front end of the Chevrolet is even more of a mess in person than in the pictures. PASS on Chevrolet, Ram for the Win!

[trinacriabob]

On Thursday, I saw two identical black Cadillac CT6s.  One was in a valet situation at the curb and the other one was driving by.  Both had 3.6s and the one at the curb had AWD.  I will say that the rear lights which slope slightly outward are one of its best features.  It's a departure from the always too vertical Cadillac finned look.  I like the CT6 from the side and the rear.  The front is okay but that long extension of the front lamps into the fender is a little odd.

Today, I saw a black Range Rover.  Never mind the vehicle.  The driver, an Italian looking heavy set thuggish type, had a small white poodle in his lap while driving and with its tiny head out the window.  In addition to being an atypical sight, it's not a good situation for the dog.  What grade did this guy get in driver's ed?  I wish dog owners would let them look out other windows in the car and not sit in the drivers' laps.  He was perpendicular to me at an intersection.  Had I been walking in the intersection, I would have told him something.

As for the OP, I think it was hit and miss as to which '76 to '77 GM full size conversions I liked.  I know that I liked the smaller Pontiacs and Cadillacs better after that refresh.  Probably the Buicks, too, with that Riv hatched from the LeSabre platform and for which its grille was referred to as the Parthenon.  I will always love the '75 and '76 Bonnevilles and Grand Villes in big coupe form, though, with a landau roof and base Pontiac rally wheels.  They were the only division that could pull off the big coupe.  I would love to know what driving one of those would feel like. I once saw one in Yosemite in November back in the day and it was beautiful.  So was Yosemite!

I think that the '77 to '78 refresh of the GM intermediates was sort of lame.  The GP and MC needed to shrink, with the GP looking okay and MC looking cheap afterwards.  The Cutlass Supreme and Regal were so-so, with the fastback sedans being a total styling disaster.  It wasn't until 1981 that all 4 of those were fine tuned and looked a lot better ... a lot better.  Even the entry division MC looked great when outfitted in buckets/console or with the 60-40 LS seating, full instrumentation, and the unusual "racing flag" alloy wheels.

 

Edited October 7, 2018 by trinacriabob

[balthazar]

Had no time; as soon as I got set up to take the pic, the truck turned into a driveway. Square body Chevy, RC/LB, I believe it was a K30 1-ton, excellent matte green paint, silver bumpers with a quad of tie down rings per end, off-road tires, super clean & sweet all-business truck:

 

This is the wife's '16 Malibu- so far so good. Still leery of a 240-some page owner's manual; the one for my '64 is only 36 pages:

Edited October 10, 2018 by balthazar

[ocnblu]

BLACK 2019 SILVERADO LT TRAILBOSS IN MY FAVORITE HIPPIE DRUG STORE PARKING LOT.  I DROOLED.

[Robert Hall]

Saw a rather sad looking rusty, dented silver 1st gen Caddy CTS-v at the grocery tonight, parked next to a very clean dark red 1st gen Olds Aurora. 

[balthazar]

Bentley 4-dr in the lil strip mall at the end of my street. Hard to miss- it was entirely painted matte nuclear orange. I'll assume the owner lost a high-stakes bet on that one, because it looked hilariously bad.

[ocnblu]

Spotless black Rolls-Royce Phantom in the approaching lane on a country highway.  Delaware plates.  Shocking to see this on way to visit mom.

[Drew Dowdell]

 

[balthazar]

^ I agree in principal; would be a nice change of pace. However, the majority of modern stuff has little in the way of a 'natural divider' for 2-tones. The Lincoln looks a bit off above/below the headlight.

[ocnblu]

Odd I was camped at the Chevy dealer yesterday studying the '19 Silverado for natural paint break lines for two-tone schemes.

[David]

Yesterday was a weird day, driving on the freeway and no time to snap a pic but saw an AMC Javlin kind like this one off the web.

Have to say I kinda like the body design. Maybe just a nice big change form the over abundance of the mustang and camaro everywhere I look.

Also as I was exiting I saw an old metro van like this:

Wife asked what it was as she had not seen anything like it before.

Weird day with old iron that you rarely see anymore.

[Robert Hall]

While out and about this afternoon--a cool, breezy sunny Fall afternoon--saw a variety of Pontiacs.  Saw the gorgeous black '69/70 Grand Prix again (have seen it maybe 1/2 dozen times in the last year+),  a green w/ green top '72 Bonneville 2dr (seen it several times in the last year+), 3 clean G6s--a silver 4dr, a black 2dr, and a red convertible--rarely ever see them), and the rusty white G8 again.   All on and off of the same 2 mile stretch of major street paralleling my subdivision. 

Edited October 17, 2018 by Cubical-aka-Moltar

[David]

Perfect side by side, Bolt and Saturn Vue. So much more interior space in the bolt compared to the Vue.

Thanks Cubicle for spotting the difference. Fixed above.

[Robert Hall]

13 minutes ago, dfelt said:

Perfect side by side, Bolt and Trax. So much more interior space in the bolt compared to the trax.

That's not a Trax, that's an old Saturn Vue.  Much larger than a Trax.

[frogger]

Yeah and the Vue is a foot and a half longer than the bolt, the perspective of the photo is making the Bolt look larger.

 

[David]

@Cubical-aka-Moltar Thanks I saw it and snapped a pic real quick on my way to the bus yesterday. Thought it was the trax.  Your right Vue is bigger, but the interior space on the bolt look more spacious.

[trinacriabob]

Believe it or not, Javelins had decent looking dashboards for being products of funky AMC.  As did the Firebird and Camaro, the base engine for the Javelin was an inline six, though not many were ordered for any of these pony cars.  Then they went up to the usual V8 numbers that AMC put out, such as their 360 V8. 

Any more, seeing any AMC vehicle on the road makes me laugh ... or at least chuckle.  I don't know how they lasted so long with so many ugly cars such as the Gremlin, the Pacer, and the Ambassador.  Yet, now, we're sitting with a GM that only offers 5 passenger CARS (sedans and/or coupes, excluding niche coupes) that normally sticker out somewhere between $20,000 and $40,000 MSRP.  I'm less and less optimistic about the future of the automobile as we know and love it.

Edited October 18, 2018 by trinacriabob

[Robert Hall]

Javelins had a neat dash design, esp. the 2nd gen models.  Haven't seen one in forever..plus they were quite successful in the Trans Am racing series back in the day.  Haven't seen one on the road in forever.   One did pop up on TV recently in 'Better Call Saul'. 

 

[Frisky Dingo]

I don't usually post in here, as due to the nature of my work, and where I live, I see a fair amount of exotics, supercars, high-end luxury cars, oddities, etc, etc. Had to make an exception for this one.

 

Wednesday night there was not one, but TWO McLaren P1 GTR's at my dealership. One of them belonged to Ken Griffin. Made for quite a spectacle out in the parking lot. Even customers who had no idea about cars knew they were watching something special. 😂

[trinacriabob]

On 10/18/2018 at 4:42 PM, Cubical-aka-Moltar said:

Javelins had a neat dash design, esp. the 2nd gen models.  Haven't seen one in forever..plus they were quite successful in the Trans Am racing series back in the day.  Haven't seen one on the road in forever.   One did pop up on TV recently in 'Better Call Saul'.

I believe one of the later models of this coupe had the circular air conditioning outlets on the passenger side that surely inspired the same in the Pontiac Grand Prix of 2004 to 2007.  (When I first drove the last gen Grand Prix, it was deja vu.)  That very last Grand Prix could have been just a hair better in styling and creature comforts, but I sure miss it.  There are MANY teenage Grand Prixs still on the road, meaning 2006 and slightly older.  They seem to be doing fine.

[balthazar]

13 minutes ago, trinacriabob said:

I believe one of the later models of this coupe had the circular air conditioning outlets on the passenger side that surely inspired the same in the Pontiac Grand Prix of 2004 to 2007.

Googled around- didn't see any Javelin / AMX's with the circular vents. Pontiac started doing that in '73 in the GP & GA.

[Robert Hall]

The 68-70 Javelin had a pair of circular vents in the center of the dash.  

[balthazar]

I see 'em now.
I don't think that inspired Pontiac- who was running with 'rounds' well before ~

[trinacriabob]

On 10/20/2018 at 10:25 PM, balthazar said:

Googled around- didn't see any Javelin / AMX's with the circular vents. Pontiac started doing that in '73 in the GP & GA.

I was referring to the right side of the dash.  One AMC product handled the right side of the instrument panel / dash almost identically to this, decades before, but I can't remember which AMC car it was.  It was seen from the passenger's vantage point.

It was definitely at home in the '04 to '07 Pontaic GP.

Grand Prix last-gen dash favoring the passenger side of the vehicle

[ocnblu]

?

 

[Robert Hall]

1 hour ago, ocnblu said:

?

 

Pacer and a Javelin.

 

Here is a '70 AMX, round dash vents.  Though I don't see much correlation to later Pontiacs. 

 

[trinacriabob]

On 10/20/2018 at 10:25 PM, balthazar said:

I will say that, of the shrunken down intermediates in 1978 (and on into the mid-80s), the Grand Prix easily won the dashboard contest and the Monte Carlo was the loser (rat-tat-tat, for one - poor build quality).  The Cutlass Supreme dash wasn't the best and had to have the gauge package, although the new front end in 1981 made it the best looking car of the quartet.  The Regal had the distinct pods with squares and silver dials, so it was in line with that brand's image.  It was actually o.k. because the finishes on it were the nicest.  I liked driving around my Dad's mid-size Buick Limited sedan (bought with 47,000 miles) with the plush seats and that pod dash in which the Computer Command Control was still in its teething stages and later caused headaches.

Edited October 22, 2018 by trinacriabob

[balthazar]

Pontiac usually had the best interiors, and for decades. No '78-87 intermediates in my family/friends circle, other than me test driving a Buick GN once.

[Robert Hall]

I had a bunch of friends in high school w/ the '78-87 A/G coupes.. a couple Grands Prix--a two tone green '78 and a dark blue '80, a blue '83 Monte Carlo SS, a maroon '86 Monte Carlo SS, a couple early 80s Cutlass Supremes, a faded blue '78 Regal, an '87 Grand National..rode in several of them back in the day.    Good looking cars for the most part.  

One car of the A/G coupes I liked that I haven't seen forever is the '78-80 Grand Am coupe..

 

Edited October 22, 2018 by Cubical-aka-Moltar

[balthazar]

I'm partial to Pontiacs, so I would agree on the Grand Am (Also test drove a first gen 400 GA).

Early-mid '80s HS friends ran : '65 Corvair, '53 Merc, '68 Deville convert, '67 Malibu, '69 Firebird, '69 Mach 1, '68 Catalina, '65 Catalina, '59 Star Chief, '63 Galaxie, '70 Torino and my '64 Grand Prix. One guy had a VW Dasher. Our crowd wasn't into the anemia of the '80s at all : no guts, no glory.

[Robert Hall]

In my high school in the mid 80s there were some 60s-70s cars ('65 Coupe de Ville, '65 Mustang coupe and '65 Mustang convertible (brother and sister), '67 Mustang 2+2, '68 Camaro, '69 Chevelle,  '69 Charger, ''70 Chevelle, 71 Road Runner, VW Beetles, a VW Thing, '72 Gran Torino, '69 Porsche 911, '76 Electra 225 coupe).   Even a couple 50s cars--an Austin-Healey convertible and a '57 Bel Air 4dr.

But there were a lot more late 70s and 80s cars--hand-me-down parents cars like an '81 Olds 88 diesel (he later did an SBC swap), '80 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham d' Elegance diesel (triple silver!), '81 Pontiac Bonneville, '82 Caprice wagon, etc.

 And also a bunch of kids with new cars like the Monte SS, Grand National, several Mustang GTs and LX 5.0s, several Camaro IROC-Zs and a couple Trans Ams/GTAs, a Chrysler Laser, a Chrysler Le Baron woodie convertible, a BMW 3 series convertible, and a Mercedes 560 SEC AMG and a Ferrari 308 GTS...

Edited October 22, 2018 by Cubical-aka-Moltar

[trinacriabob]

3 hours ago, Cubical-aka-Moltar said:

But there were a lot more late 70s and 80s cars--hand-me-down parents cars like an '81 Olds 88 diesel (he later did an SBC swap), '80 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham d' Elegance diesel (triple silver!), '81 Pontiac Bonneville, '82 Caprice wagon, etc.

I believe that for '81/'82/'83, the mid-size might have been the Bonneville and the full-size became the Parisienne.  (They had been using the name Parisienne in Canada for many years.)  Then, they undid that.  The Bonneville "Model G" in the early '80s was essentially a Grand Le Mans with some more formal styling effects.  Also, the uptown seating options (though not in bucket seat form) found in the Grand Prix were also available in these smaller Bonnevilles.

There's a lot to be said for embracing someone's culture when selling cars to them.  The more extensive use of French names in the Pontiac line-up made them solid sellers in the province of Quebec.  I used to see so many Pontiacs over there.  French-Canadians can be ethnocentric ... and why not?  They've got a lot of things in their corner in my book.

Here's a car I recently saw ... Ontario plates ...

I like this car a lot.  This is what I'd be buying if in the market today, albeit with the base V6 to get that 30+ mpg on the highway.  I hope the next rendition of it is plausible.

Edited October 23, 2018 by trinacriabob

[balthazar]

Bonneville Model G (mid-size) came out for MY '82.

[balthazar]

Saw a McLaren 570GT driving today, black. I had to google it; I don't follow this segment of cars but for some reason I did think 'McLaren'.

[Robert Hall]

Whilst enjoying a bowl of pho for dinner I looked out the window of the restaurant and saw two dark compact crossovers parked nose to tail that I did not recognize.  One looked kind of like the Trax or Encore in the rear quarter, the other had a slash rising through the doors into a short rear quarter w/ Volvo-like pointy taillights (from the side).  I couldn't see the front or rear, only the side profiles and didn't see any badging.  I wasn't sure what either was, but I assumed Japanese.  Very disturbing to not recognize a new vehicle immediately; I'm usually better than that..I guess I haven't been paying as close attention as I did for the last 40+ years of new vehicle releases.    I went out and walked around them after dinner, turned out they were the Nissan Kicks and Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross.  Interesting..

Then I went over to the Shell station to procure some petrol for my Jeep, and saw a new black Honda Civic Type R pull up.  Everything black--windows, wheels, etc. Very sinister.  What cracked me up was how the driver was dressed--young Asian guy in flip flops, shorts and a t-shirt. It's 45F outside...

[ocnblu]

LOL I shouldn't say this but although I gave my mother a down payment to lease a Kia Forte, she still mentions... every time I am with her on the road... the Kia Soul and the new... wait for it... Nissan "Chinx".

I told her it is called Kicks, but she keeps forgetting.

She likes weird cars, what can I say.  Although the Kicks seems cheerful and kitted well for the price point.

[Robert Hall]

I wonder if Route 66 Nissan in Tulsa uses the old song 'Get Your Kicks on Route 66' in an ad for the Kicks..

[trinacriabob]

On the freeway today, a last rendition ('18 or '19) Dodge Charger base model was in the lane to my left.  It was in purist form - white exterior, black interior, alloy wheels, no spoiler (needed), V6, and spotless.  Never would I have thought I'd like a Chrysler product.  Having been put in the driver's seat of a Charger a couple of times by rental agencies, I know that this is a car that I like a lot and one that is super comfortable at that.  I'd choose one identical to the one I saw.

[Drew Dowdell]

[ocnblu]

You went to New York to look at tiny houses/backyard sheds?  Nice ol Caddy.

[ocnblu]

LOL I just got home from visiting Dad... it is dark out.  Sawr a Nissan Leaf driving with no lights on... too far from home perhaps?  #electriccarlife

[Drew Dowdell]

2 hours ago, ocnblu said:

LOL I just got home from visiting Dad... it is dark out.  Sawr a Nissan Leaf driving with no lights on... too far from home perhaps?  #electriccarlife

Have you ever noticed it's almost always Japanese brands that are the ones driving without headlights on? Mostly Toyo/Lexus but some Nissans...

[David]

33 minutes ago, Drew Dowdell said:

Have you ever noticed it's almost always Japanese brands that are the ones driving without headlights on? Mostly Toyo/Lexus but some Nissans...

I thought by now everyone had daytime running lights? 🤔

[Robert Hall]

On 10/28/2018 at 10:16 PM, dfelt said:

I thought by now everyone had daytime running lights? 🤔

On some vehicles they can be turned off.   They can be turned off on my Jeep, for instance.  

Edited October 31, 2018 by Robert Hall

[ocnblu]

6 hours ago, Robert Hall said:

On some vehicles they can be turned off. 

To save precious lectricity.  Real safe.