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Here’s my trusty ‘64 Sprunger drill press, made in Topeka IN. Works great, use it all the time. Switch went bad so it got a new switch, new grounded cord, and cleaned up/waxed the vertical post & table. Maybe I’ll restore it when I no longer need to put holes in things.

Cadillac sales peaked in the late 70s and were in steady decline in the 80s and Mercedes and BMW were on the rise. With the Japanese coming in the 90s the sales drop continued. The 1981 Seville had the 135 hp 4100 V8. The 380SEL had a 200 hp V8 with a 230 hp V8 in the 500SEL, more powerful than a Corvette of the day. Mercedes didn't have to benchmark anyone, they had more power, they invented airbags, ABS, crumple zones, stability control, they used real wood trim, while the Americans used fake. The 1954 Mercedes 300SL was the first car with direct fuel injection, and the fastest car in the world when it came out. Mercedes has the fastest car in the world in 1900-1909 decade as well. Always been a pioneer in the automotive industry since inventing the freaking car in the first place.

With all the horse and buggy combos in your neck of the woods, they can definitely consolidate the GM brands.

I worked at a Chevy-Pontiac-GMC-Oldsmobile-Buick-Cadillac dealership for 10 years.

The fuel injection was problematic, requiring dedicated mechanics to keep it operational. But Daimler -as usual- wanted sales volume first & foremost, and they quickly sullied the SL nameplate with the 89-HP 4-cylinder 190SL, killing off the 300 coupe early in the '57 MY, then killing off the cheaper-to-build convertible after '62. For a 4-banger with 89 HP. That's closer to HALF the horsepower the Corvette had 10 years earlier! Daimler basically did the opposite trajectory that the Corvette did. With the tri-carb inline 6, the Corvette in '54 alone outsold the entire run of daimler 300s, coupe & convertible combined, from '54-63. The early SLs sold terribly; most years were around 200 units.

The F40 was also very very cheap on the inside. Same link https://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/first-drives/reviews/a5975/1990-chevrolet-corvette-zr-1-drive-flashback/ But is it, as Chevy hopes, a world-class car? (The envelope, please!) Yes. The Corvette ZR-1 acquits itself well amidst some very fast company. Yet it does so with a level of sophistication and comfort be­yond what most exotics (but not specialty cars such as the Porsche 959) currently deliver. Throw in availability and serviceability (the GM-CAMS computer diagnostic system, man­datory service equipment for all ZR-1 dealers), and you have a car that offers the best of the old and the new world. https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/comparison-test/a15114543/1989-chevrolet-corvette-z51-vs-porsche-911-archived-comparison-test/ Let me remind you , Road and Track, Car and Driver, and sometimes Motor Trend...were NEVER that friendly towards American cars in the 1980s and 1990s. And here you got, R&D and C&D...with VERY FAVOURABLE reviews for the ZR1 and Z51 of 1989 and 1988(9) respectively from articles of the day... I said this before, NEVER BAD MOUTH THE VETTE. Ill say THIS again. REFRAIN to bad mouth Cadillac. Im getting sick of it. Believe it all you want. Stop printing it on here...I dont wanna read it anymore. I dont want to become bulimic...

The F40 was also very very cheap on the inside. Besides...different car. Besides...Vettes also, albeit Callaway and Lingenfelter Vettes did over 200MPH, much like the F40...and those Vettes retained Corvette motors... Besides, the 1989 Vette ZR1 was more in line with Ferrari 328s , much like how the Vette today is in line with a F8 Tributo... I cant find the Motor Trend cover with big bold lettters...but here is a R&D mag link from 2014... https://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/first-drives/reviews/a5975/1990-chevrolet-corvette-zr-1-drive-flashback/ "Truth is, most European automotive enthusiasts have little regard for almost any automobile America has produced in recent memory." sounds like you... Get a new angle going...its 2020. Move on from it or just stop posting this shyte. Hey...continue believing in it if you want to...I just dont feel like listening to this shytty rhetoric any more...Its getting tiresome...

Have you noticed how rarely you see DeLoreans on the road? Apparently their owners only drive from time to time.

And some one pointed back than also - there is NOWHERE where it says that CX-5 is rated at the bottom while saying that Mazda is rated well above average.

We had a stand alone Pontiac Dealership for many years...then they added GMC I want to say in the late 80s. It now sells Buick/GMCs.....

wrong wrong true. But so has Ford. Chevrolet. Dodge. Oldsmobile. Alfa Romeo. Buick. Renault. Among others. Oh...I forgot. CADILLAC Wrong. They even benchmark Jeep...on many occasions i n the 1970s. Including when they merged with Chrysler... wrong. So phoquing wrong. Chrsyler, Ford and GM all experimented with airbags in the 1960s and 1970s and GM was the first domestic manufacturer to offer airbags in their cars in the early 1970s and Volvo actually beating them to the punch... wrong (that comes from the aerospace industry, but it aint even M-B that used ABS first on cars either... Chrysler, Ford, Oldsmobile and Cadillac all had ABS in the early 1970s. Ill give you that one wrong. That would be Toyota... Are you phoquing kidding me? Ford had its own phoquing tree farms for Christ sakes... Early 1950s....sure. But by the time 1959 rolled in, that 300SL was on the decline while the Corvette took flight. It took 40 years for Mercedes to outdo a Corvette. In 1989...this was M-B's pride and joy that stemmed from the original Gullwing. A gold diggin' trophy wife car. In 1990, the new SL came out and THAT is when Mercedes started to be on a roll in the US.... NOT before... In 1989...A Vette was King of the Hill. Mercedes wasnt talked about in 1989... The Vette got that in 1955. The following year. But in 1957, the Bel Air had it too... So did Chrysler. I think in 1955 also. Fuel injection was a German invention, sure. But fo aircraft engines in the 1920s and diesel engines. Not a Mercedes Benz invention... Its amazing...of all of that .only ONE thing was correct. Now...do you care to see what General Motor's contributions to the automotive world are? Electric starter AIRBAGS. Yes..its a GM invention... automatic transmission parts interchangeability the standard of how we drive the damn car today and for the last 100 years. ie. Brake pedal on the left. Accelerator pedal on the right, etc. Catalytic converter highway speed and safety barriers Crash Test dummies ON STAR (for in-car communication and collection of data and satellite connectivity in a car, etc) First car radio synchromesh manual transmission power adjustable seats rear window defroster heated seats first turbo in a car. Although that too is an aerospace technology. traction control. (different form stability control) Touchscreens first to offer Head up displays (although that too, is an aerospace thing) first to offer Night vision (military tech) Magnetic shocks

Like I said- Seville was the highest priced and never an 'entry' model'. S-class & Seville were routinely compared in the press. Despite the MB's higher price, it was a poorer, far less luxurious value. Seville ate into s-class sales in that era, having never competed in that segment; what was then called 'international-sized' sedans. Mercedes continued to benchmark Cadillac, coping numerous amenities & features; a lo-ooong road of 'catch-up'. By the '90s, after 30+ years in the market, they finally got it right. Well.... except for the value portion. It's hard to lose more money on a mainstream brand's model than at mercedes. That, they still ahve to work on, but in order to do so, they'd have to pump the brakes on the production lines (which they'd never, ever do).

What self-respecting luxury car refers to itself as most economical fine? Luxury cars are all about SELF-INDULGENT, EXCESSIVE, NARCISSISTICALLY ARROGANT purchases. Contrary to what that advert is trying to convey, aint it? And THAT is a W123 Mercedes... A "luxury" car in the USA, but an econobox everywhere else in the world. Hey...dont hate on me, dude. THAT is a MERCEDES BENZ advert for that car.... Ive done this argument sooooooo many times on car forums (and in real life with my dumb ass Greek friends) that its easy to dig up material like this... Mercedes Benz...is more of a common man's car than it is a pure luxury car. Blame a certain mustachioed short man from the 1930s-1940s for that... And you could thank good 'ole Yankee and British subsidized money for resurrecting Mercedes from the dead while you are at it...

You are right, for a change. Cadillac was ALWAYS a true luxury brand. Mercedes sold and still sells to the common man.

Growing up we had Cadillac, Buick, GMC and Pontiac in one dealership and showroom and Chevrolet, Oldsmobile (Geo added in the 90's) in the other dealership across town in the 70's and 80's. Same setup today minus Olds, Pontiac and Geo of course. Cadillac has always worked to separate itself from the other divisions and has been pushing it for the past decade. I'm told by my Cadillac dealer buddy that any new Cadillac dealership built is required by GM to be a stand alone dealership that meets or exceeds their build quality and/or GM Corp. high-end standards for Cadillac to further differentiate the luxury marque from it's sibling divisions. It's pretty obvious with the new or remodeled Cadillac dealerships now. This reminds me of a Summer job during college in the late 90's when in my early 20's at a large dealership in the East SF Bay Area Crown Cadillac, Chevrolet and Isuzu known by many as "Crown Dublin" in Dublin, CA, where the Cadillac dealership was of course a separate building and showroom from the Chevrolet, Isuzu. You had to get certified with GM to sell Cadillac's even back then. An older salesman (like mid 70's) Don, was the Big Kahuna Cadillac guy and used to say, "If you can fog a mirror you can sell a Chevrolet", basically saying they sell themselves and you don't have to be certified. Pretty funny none-the-less! Fun Summer job, and I'll never forget when Don took me for a ride in a new loaded '99 Seville STS. I'll tell you what that thing was quick for a FWD 300hp V8, then he showed me how good the brakes were. We took an off-ramp off the 680 Interstate he checked behind us and said you ready? Gripping the Oh sh!t handle good I said yep, when he anchored the brakes and the auto seat belt tensioners simultaneously activated and the girl just stayed straight as an arrow, literally squatted down (no reared up back end) sunroof shade slammed shut and I swear we stopped on a dime with 9 cents change from at least 60mph, pretty damn good for late 90's ABS tech. Then he stood on it and the electronic traction control took over squealed the fronts a bit, but it launched pretty hard with almost zero torque steer with equal length drive shafts that the Caddy's had and she was off. It was a blast! Never had a salesman "test drive" a new car like that with me and probably never will again!

Single brand GM dealerships were the norm in SoCal in the '70s, though there was already some pairing up. Perhaps because domestic cars were still popular enough and because of the population density. Frank Sanders Oldsmobile - mid-Wilshire - that image with the spotlights is what you got inside your temporary license plate Albertson Oldsmobile - Culver City (home of the famous red rocket) - it was stand alone Olds into the '80s - it was just a car lot behind the rocket Stan Chazen Pontiac - West L.A. Bay Buick - Torrance (enormous with huge L.A. TImes ads with loss leaders ... i.e. the token Regal with crank windows and no A/C) Majestic Pontiac on Imperial Highway in Inglewood-Hawthorne (they ordered their cars in a weird way) Livingston Pontiac and Guy Martin Olds right next to each other on Topanga Canyon Blvd. in Woodland Hills (in the Valley), selling lots of Firebirds and Cutlass Supremes, respectively. Buick-GMC (per sign) was added later and the Olds dealer was to the right ... and, yep, there was curbside free parking on the boulevard! And the list goes on and on ... Bonus: Most of us should know whose Firebird this was!

Leonard Nimroy on set of Star Trek with his 1964 Buick Riviera

About all that's left of me once daily '64 Catalina; both rear door sill plates. They are rough - not good enough for driver quality (besides I believe repros are out there). Since my disease doesn't readily allow me to throw out automotive pieces older than me, I came up with a plan. Kept the center section, and radius-cut the 2 bad ends off. Some steel wool and Poof! another wall hanger.

And yet there are so many left on the road after 35 years.