MARCH 2020 AUTO SPOTTERS THREAD

[David]

Kicking this month off with a commercial spotting at the gym.

Why GM is missing the beat with marketing.

Awesome Toyota commercial, they do not have an EV out yet, they admit it as they say EVs today are a great commuter auto. Then they do this:

Wanna go places? Check out the biggest lineup of Hybrid auto's. They review all of them and end with their tag "Let's go places"

Well done Toyota.

[balthazar]

Most of toyoters ‘going places’ is to the Service Department for recall & TSB repairs. 

[David]

Damn, this is a sharp looking truck.

New 1500 sport edition Ram. 

[balthazar]

‘90’s retro, Gen Y, spray-bomb look. 🤪

[Robert Hall]

12 hours ago, dfelt said:

Damn, this is a sharp looking truck.

New 1500 sport edition Ram. 

 

Sharp, but I can’t stand white especially on trucks and SUVs.  So overdone.  Now dark red or dark brown w z bit of chrome is more to my taste.  

[balthazar]

Hudson Hornet Hollywood w/ Twin-H Power. Fiddy-fo.
Gonna see if I can find the owner...

[ocnblu]

Tell him he needs new wiper blades

[Robert Hall]

2 hours ago, ocnblu said:

Tell him he needs new wiper blades

and headlights...those look a bit dim

[balthazar]

I've been by the now-closed business this is parked behind for years, never noticed it there until yesterday. Perhaps there was a section of masking fence, now gone. Car appears pretty solid, and I have a weakness for Step-Down Hudsons. The fact that it's a top-line 2-dr hardtop makes it that much more dreamy, and with the business out of there (about a year now), I worry the car will get scraped.

Can I, in good conscious & stewardship, allow that?

[David]

Even Raptors love to play in the snow. 

Awesome big ass truck with the 6.2L V8

An American Legend! 

[trinacriabob]

I've seen a few in March.  I will try to remember previous ones.

Today, I spotted an interesting GM intermediate.  It was probably a '76 Malibu Classic coupe.  From afar, it looked basic - blackwalls, hubcaps, no uplevel trim.  I thought it might have been one of those rare 250 c.i. inline 6s.

Nope.  As I got closer, I could see two modified exhaust pipes and that it was rumbling - 305, 350, or 454 V8? - I don't know.  It was burgundy.  The body was in good shape but the paint was faded.

Of the '76 and '77 fold, most of GM PLCs got more garish in '77.  This one had the simpler tail lamps ('76) but the nicer vertical bar grille ('77), as opposed to the busier diamond hatch pattern of the preceding year.

It would have been cool to see if it was a purist model with no A/C, where you can better see the layout of the engine bay.

Edited March 14, 2020 by trinacriabob
got my '76 and '77 mixed up

[trinacriabob]

Found this photo of a '77 on line.  The Malibu Classic could sport the stacked rectangular lamps more so than the Monte Carlo could.  Those wheel covers were great, and shared with the Impala/Caprice of the same year.  They often seemed to be missing on these cars - theft.  Anymore, they are tough to find.

That's the Central California coast, with the historic Bixby Bridge in the distance.  So many car ads have been sited here.

[trinacriabob]

 

Good Parthenon

 

 

Bad Parthenon

 

 

(I once read an auto review that likened the grille of the '77-'78 Riviera to the Parthenon.)

[trinacriabob]

Reaching back into the "photo file"

Seen on March 5 - Pontiac GP ('05 to '07, keyless trunk lid) ... spotless ... oddly combination: a sunroof, but with the standard bargain basement wheel covers

Seen a few days ago - Ford Fiesta - this thing jumps out at you ... for some reason, the econoboxes have all the weird colors ... interesting that it has the turn signals in the outside mirrors, which means it's not the base model

[David]

Bet this thread remains quiet for the rest of the month.

[balthazar]

‘70 ‘Stang is still hanging out at my house. 

Edited March 26, 2020 by balthazar

[David]

1 hour ago, balthazar said:

‘70 ‘Stang is still hanging out at my house. 

Nice, Good Project auto.

[trinacriabob]

Was at Dollar Tree picking up some basic items on Saturday.  I saw a new black Hyundai Sonata in the parking lot.  I thought about it.  It was ugly.

[balthazar]

^ Well...

... it's a hyundai, so....

Edited March 31, 2020 by balthazar

[Robert Hall]

I went to my grocery to pick up my curbside order (did the proper social distancing and didn't get out of my Jeep, glad I have a power hatch)..very little traffic on the streets, but I did see a new C8..in red.  First I'd seen on the road, looked great on a gloomy wintry looking spring day. 

[David]

Picked up medicine orders and food for the parents and as I was driving to their house, an AMG 4 door sedan with clearly an aftermarket exhaust due to the noise went flying by me and about a mile down the freeway it was pulled over by Washington State Patrol.

Just cause we are all asked to stay at home and most are, does not mean there is a reduced police presence on the road. Crazy idiots.

[trinacriabob]

Saw two interesting cars today:

In the supermarket parking lot, a guy was getting into an "old" Riv that had temporary plates.  I asked him if it was a '91 or a '92.  It was a '92.  He told me it was sapphire blue metallic (the darker metallic blue) and it had blue leather bucket seats.  He said it had a little over 60,000 original miles and he got it for about $3,500.  He was beaming about it.  It all looked good except that it had the padded blue landau roof that cluttered up the lines of the side rear passenger window and the rear back lite.  These cars looked better without vinyl tops.

At a dealership to look for a part, I saw this classic.  Wow.  It was a 1983 and ran with the 5.0 (307 c.i.) V8.  I didn't get a photo of it, but the Brougham interior was equally in perfect condition.  It was hard to fit this Olds 98 (aka "la cathedrale roulante") into the photo.

 

[trinacriabob]

I also saw this at the dealership.  It's the sticker on a new Malibu FL.  Is this a new model?  FL meant "fleet" and it was being held at the extreme edge of the property, where I found a parking spot.

Check out the better flexibility for fleet ordering - 2 better priced and separate driver confidence packages and the power seat is available as a stand alone item.  It came with the rally wheels.  The only obvious thing missing was a leather steering wheel.  Okay price, I guess.

 

Edited March 31, 2020 by trinacriabob

[trinacriabob]

Spotted this in the parking lot at Lowe's.  It's either a 2002 or 2003 Pontiac GP, the final year for the coupe.  This model was born as a coupe and no one would have imagined they'd make a sedan out of one.

I came very close to buying one in the summer of 2003.  I was in Spokane WA visiting a childhood friend, and had to make myself scarce until the end of the work day.  I go to a Barnes and Noble and then wander over to an adjacent Pontiac dealership.  They had a GT coupe like this and it was discounted beyond belief.  (Had it been a Subaru, they wouldn't have needed to do that.)  Since home was about 300 miles away, I could have driven off in it.  I chose to pass.  Good decision.  But I've got a soft spot for the last Grand Prix coupe.

[Robert Hall]

Always liked the C-pillar shape and rear quarter window shape on those...the 4dr did a good job of keeping the same roofline and pillar shape.    There is a silver GTP coupe of that era I see at the grocery occasionally...paint is shiny, but lots of rust on the doors are rear quarters.  Also see a rusty white early 90s GXP coupe at the same grocery occasionally also, wonder if it's the same person. 

[balthazar]

My friend / customer's '28 Chevy truck. Going to pull it out this year, clean it off, and see if there's any buyers out there.
Only sheet metal is the fenders & hood- entire cab & bed are wood (last year). It's in nice solid shape, tho some of the paint has flaked off / surface rusted. He's had it I would guess 10 years, but doesn't drive anymore. It's been inside since he's owned it.

[David]

1 hour ago, balthazar said:

My friend / customer's '28 Chevy truck. Going to pull it out this year, clean it off, and see if there's any buyers out there.
Only sheet metal is the fenders & hood- entire cab & bed are wood (last year). It's in nice solid shape, tho some of the paint has flaked off / surface rusted. He's had it I would guess 10 years, but doesn't drive anymore. It's been inside since he's owned it.

Cool, but sad as it does not look like it was well cared for based on all the junk put in it and around it.

[balthazar]

It’s fine- a truck with some cardboard boxes and other misc in the bed is not ‘not being cared for’. But more to the point, owner can’t drive and he can’t work on it or probably not even climb into it, so its at least covered & secured. Be happy 😊 

[David]

At costco today and had an MB and Caddy side by side to compare. Neither were impressive to me.

Crazy stupid mods on this 4 banger with a fart can Mustang. 🤣

[ocnblu]

There was no 4 cylinder Mustang at that point.

The roof strakes are fantastic.

[Robert Hall]

6 hours ago, ocnblu said:

There was no 4 cylinder Mustang at that point.

The roof strakes are fantastic.

The rear wing is way too narrow though.