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Wishing a Happy Thanksgiving to the folks of the Cheers and Gears forum as well their loved ones and friends. Have a great day!

Found this pic of a model of a Japanese train engine. The front seems inspired by some mid 60s American car headlight and grille arrangements... Googling turned up a Wikipedia article on the JNR EF66. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JNR_Class_EF66 The locomotive prototype was finished in 1966, production started in 1968 and 39 are still in service hauling freight in Japan.

Old school: 2 springs and a leather piece where you'd stick your 'papers' (registration, ins)- more used in '30s roadster with no glove boxes. I was looking for a vintage one for my '40 (tho that does have a glove box)- they make repros but it needs to be OLD.

Helping the wife and listening to K-Pop!

Guy at work has a circa '07 Ram 4X4 regular cab shortbed with 20" wheels and Hemi engine. I mentioned to him that if I wanted to, I could still order a '19 Ram 1500 Classic in that same bodystyle. He immediately said "my truck gets 13.5 MPG, it is so bad I stopped checking it". I replied by saying I would get the 17" wheels, now the Hemi has V8-4 operation, plus an 8 speed automatic to help real world economy. And I would get the 3.21 rear end. LOL but then I thought all that prolly adds up to about 4-5 extra MPG... why are my heart and my head in constant disagreement?

it WAS at 800 North Glebe Road, Arlington VA. Bob Peck Chevrolet: built in 1964, demolished in 2008. https://www.arlnow.com/2012/08/01/ballston-building-adds-bob-peck-historical-marker/ Can't figure out what/how that marker is an "authentic" Chevy tailfin.

No- I 'grew up' on smaller, car-sized filters. AC PF47s and such- about the size of a balled fist. This is about a 1 qrt filter, WIX 7202. Not sure offhand what my recommended change interval is, I only get a 'change oil soon' message if it runs that long, but that's only happened once (when I didn't reset it). I change it around every 6000 miles. With 10 qrts & a 1 qrt filter, it should be a nice long interval. EDIT :: just looked it up: recommendation is 10,000 miles.

just another probable point that the EPA cycle doesn't do a good job of showing real world gas use. and another that any company can claim the cycles aren't representative.

Question is going to be how it holds up.... Good for the soccer mom I am sure, but what else can you do with it?

They probably should dump Fiat. Even in the 2nd world countries, I imagine VW, Skoda, Seat, Nissan/Renault or Toyota do way better and Fiat probably doesn't even do well in counties that crave cheap small cars. I don't really see the need for Maserati either. As a high dollar car it should have good margins, but it doesn't because they can't sell enough and you still have some amount of fixed costs to cover. Really you could transform the Ghibli into a mid/large Alfa Romeo sedan then Alfa has 2 sedans, give them another SUV and they have 2, give them an 8C $100k sports car as a halo product and that makes Maserati pointless. Jaguar to some degree is in the same situation. Just because Jaguar and Maserati are storied brands, doesn't mean they are relevant today. Blockbuster Video and Sears were successful, segment leading brands are one point, irrelevant today. I don't see any path in which FCA competes with the German luxury car brands. They are too good at what they do and too far ahead.

Hm, where to get the money for better product? May I suggest ending FIAT and funneling that cash towards upgrading Maserati? Makes a lot more sense than wasting a dime on FIAT.

Their problems are 100% product and not any pairing with Alfa Romeo. Maserati cars have poor build quality, low rent interior plastics and their whole deal is supposed to be performance, and any of the Germans will sell a better performing car and at less money. Case in point, Levante Trofeo is $170,000 base and the GLE63 which is dated itself is just as fast at about $125,000. Or get a Cayenne Turbo or the new X5 M. The most powerful Ghibli has 424 hp, you can get more than that in an E53, and the top Quattroporte has 523 hp, you get 630 in the AMG GT 4-door and the AMG GT is your Nurburgring lap record holder for a 4 door car. Maserati is just a disaster, only way to fix it is better product, and clearly they don't have the money or resources or engineering know-how to do it.

I have to say $36k is way too much for this. Regular Crosstrek gets 29mpg combined and hybrid is 35mpg with almost $10k premium price.

Ken Wilson Chevrolet dealership, built in '64. An example of the period-popular 'hyperbolic parabola' roof, it was demolished in 2016. ?