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I put a bigger cam and springs in it before the engine was put in the car. Got the car back from having all the major work done. Now its up to me to finish it up. I don't think I will work on until April or so with the goal to have it on the road at the end of May. The joys of Michigan winters! The wire harness was delivered today. I still need to order an exhaust system and get a Y-pipe made. I now have a 3.73 geared 10 bolt that needs to be installed along with the tubular torque arm, lower control arms and panhard rod that are still sitting in my basement. The trans that came with the engine was a mess so my already blown budget got blown even more with a rebuild but at least I know it is fresh and was done correctly. Now I just need to keep my fingers crossed that the engine isn't also garbage. Lots of little stuff left to do before it will run and drive. Left the AC bits in there but don't plan to get it working until after I get the car running and drive it around for a while to make sure the engine is good. Here's a few more pics:

We've put another 5k or so miles on it since we got it back from the repair. Everything has been good. The tire noise is a couple of tires that need to be replaced due to Michigan's heavily potholed roads. The radio was replaced and it did fix the navigation so that is all good as well. That is the only warranty repair issue we have had with it that I can think of. The front suspension does make a creaking/groaning noise upon initial acceleration so I will probably get that checked out before the warranty is up. Covid was an incentive to buy a pop up camper this year as well. This has proven to be an excellent tow vehicle for our approx. 2000 lb pop up. It pulls it effortlessly and stops well. It even gets halfway decent gas mileage pulling it so I can't complain. Thank you!

It's already a major want for their first real car with most of the students I deal with on Campus, even the more politically conservative ones. ICE has already lost, it just doesn't know it yet. More of Hybrids becoming more mianstream...again...conventional ICE has already lost the battle. ICE in the thread though....this is badass....

Yeah, that Vortec 4.3L V6 is a bulletproof engine with tons of aftermarket parts, makes sense being it's based off the venerable Chevrolet 350 V8, with two cylinders lopped off.

Might have to go down to the old Dham plant and get some pictures.....

One year CARVERSARY today. WOOT.

coming up on one year. Love this ride. Yes, it's not an SUV..... this rogue little ride has not been getting the use due to COVID and as such, when i purchased almost a year ago to the day as new demo with around 4,000 miles...I am now at only about 12,000 on the odometer. Lots less family travel with father in law passing away and not taking many trips to see mom. But did just get the oil changed at a Buick dealer last week and then drove about 500 miles with it. The gas mileage really took a jump, post oil change. I averaged about 33 mpg over two long legs of the trip and even in town its been pulling higher in the twenties. This may just be an anomoly as it mostly has returned 24 mpg over the vehicle life so far (trending towards 25). For a fuel sucking turbo AWD this is not bad. I've fed it premium fuel exclusively since i have had it...most fill ups at Costco with their top tier fuel, including one at about a 1.50 a gallon earlier this summer. This 2.0 is being retired on many GM vehicle lines now....but I will enjoy the 250hp and 295-lb ft of torque while i have it. It's not a burner but is still perhaps the quickest vehicle I have owned (except for my v-6 89 Taurus SHO...its faster than my v8 SHO). Still yet I would always enjoy more speed.... Everyone who sees this car for the first time thinks its really cool, and then they ask what the hell it is. Then i get the 'I didn't know Buick made that car'. Or the 'that's a wagon...a good looking wagon!'. Even the service manager who assisted me the last week said, 'I've only ever seen 1 other one', shaking his head as if to imply, that is a good looking car why didn't they sell more? I explained to him that i felt they overpriced the car and that the option packaging was terrible. I said trying to find one with all options or at least the way you would accept it was near impossible. I could have gotten into it more that the whole Regal line was botched from a price and marketing / packages perspective....but its a waste of time since the model was cancelled here. Such a shame, because the enthusiasm people get when they see it tells me greatly that if promoted and packaged correctly, it would have seen many more buyers in the market. I visited a completed job site a couple weeks ago to view an apartment tower our company completed. One of my fellow team leader coworkers whose project it was also has a Regal...a Sportback in the same Smoked Pearl Metallic. As we both pulled out of the parking lot at the end of the tour, with some of our other coworkers looking on they made the remark that managers drive gray Buick Regals apparently. Clearly they were making jokes but they all thought our cars were cool. Sometimes its fun having something unique in a market flooded with the usual compact CUV suspects. I just read on another site about the 2021 Regal refresh in China. A 1.5 is standard on the Regal there but the new LSY 2.0 motor is now available on their Regal. It's the same 2.0 with 237hp and 258 Lb ft that is available on many North America GM vehicles. I would be interested in seeing how that compares to the 2.0 in mine. I do know the LSY gets better mpg, and although it is for sure slower, I imagine its a very good match for the Regal, and it should be put in the Malibu here as well. Here's some pictures of over the last few months.....

Been a while since I've had a "toy" car. Decided to buy this 1988 Firebird Formula for my son and I to work on together. He is almost 13 and not at all mechanically inclined. Not so much because he can't be but because I am one of those picky people that would never let him help me because I wanted to make sure it was done right. It's a pretty clean and rust free all original driver but has more than enough flaws (starting with its anemic 305 V8) that I won't feel guilty doing an LS swap on it. I already sourced the engine and trans as well as a far amount of parts for the conversion but with COVID raging here in Michigan I would feel too guilty to order the rest of the parts I need to get the swap going so it is on hold for now. I don't have the time or equipment to do the engine swap so someone will be doing that for me. My son and I will fix up the interior, replace the little work and broken items and install all the suspension components, though. Should be a fun project once it gets going. I don't want to turn it into a race car. Just a fun, reliable street car. It will be a cam only LS1 with a small stall (2500 rpm) 4L60E. The goal will be something like a 375 RWHP car that will dip into the high 11's in the quarter. Perhaps more mods in future years but no plans to go faster than 11.5 as I already went the roll bar route with a different car and don't want to do that again.

I still want one of these. My problem is there are too many cars I want and not enough time or money for them all! I have another year on my CTS lease and a used one of these (or possibly even the hatchback) may be its replacement. I have time to figure out what my commute is going to look like, I guess. I was 3k miles ahead of my lease back in March when I started WFH but now I am about 1.5k behind. If it looks like the work from home is going to stick around for a while, even if it changes to 2-3 days per week, it will probably make more sense to get something new to replace our van and buy a cheap, used car to replace my CTS. Maybe a Cruze or a Sonic.

Saw the new pics of the Hummer EV. Looks slick. I like the T-top and targa top combo and the big frunk. https://www.autoblog.com/2020/10/20/2022-gmc-hummer-ev-reveal/

I will say that GMC has done allot of awesome work on this EV Pickup truck compared to the Tesla Vapor ware Cyber truck.

It’s pretty cool; GMC put a lot of engineering into it... but the 3 motor version will be priced for the millionaire class, not everyday truck owners.

For those that want to see the Reveal of the Hummer EV SUT by GMC you can watch it here:

Good review... One more for today and then I am done, gorgeous old Ford truck. gorgeous video.

RAV 4 prime has interesting tech, is hugely ugly. I kind of like the new Escape, nice and simple...even if ti does resemble a bar of soap left out in the rain a bit too long. This is fantastic news.

GM has announced another $2 Billion in investment in their US assembly line plants and that a total of three plants will now be dedicated to building EV's. Investment is as follows: GM said the investment in the six U.S. facilities will total more than $2 billion. Here is how it breaks out: GM will invest $2 billion in Spring Hill Manufacturing to build fully electric vehicles including the Cadillac Lyriq. Spring Hill’s paint and body shops will undergo expansions and the general assembly will be upgraded with new machines, conveyors, controls and tooling. The renovation begins immediately. Production of the next-generation GMC Acadia will move to Lansing Delta Township Assembly, an investment of more than $100 million. GM will invest $32 million at Flint Assembly for future production of heavy-duty Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups. GM will invest $17 million in the Romulus, Michigan, propulsion plant to enhance automation and increase capacity of GM’s 10-speed truck transmission, used in full-size pickups and full-size SUVs. GM will invest $3.5 million at Orion Assembly and invest $750,000 at GM’s site in Brownstown Township. Both investments are related to additional production of the Cruise self-driving test vehicle at Orion Assembly. The three plants that are dedicated EV plants are as follows: Former Detroit Hamtramck assembly center now known as Factory ZERO - Production of Hummer by GMC to start there for EV Trucks / SUV full size. Orion Assembly plant will continue to build the Chevrolet Bolt EV, Next generation version as well as a new Chevrolet EV and the Extended length Bolt EV. Spring Hill Tennessee assembly plant, home of the XT5 & 6 plus Acadia. Will move forward with building the Lyriq upon renovations and continue the XT5 & 6 till EV replacements are ready. Then the plant will be full time Cadillac EV's only. https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/general-motors/2020/10/20/gm-invest-billions-michigan-plants-converts-another-plant-ev/5983749002/

GM has announced another $2 Billion in investment in their US assembly line plants and that a total of three plants will now be dedicated to building EV's. Investment is as follows: GM said the investment in the six U.S. facilities will total more than $2 billion. Here is how it breaks out: GM will invest $2 billion in Spring Hill Manufacturing to build fully electric vehicles including the Cadillac Lyriq. Spring Hill’s paint and body shops will undergo expansions and the general assembly will be upgraded with new machines, conveyors, controls and tooling. The renovation begins immediately. Production of the next-generation GMC Acadia will move to Lansing Delta Township Assembly, an investment of more than $100 million. GM will invest $32 million at Flint Assembly for future production of heavy-duty Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups. GM will invest $17 million in the Romulus, Michigan, propulsion plant to enhance automation and increase capacity of GM’s 10-speed truck transmission, used in full-size pickups and full-size SUVs. GM will invest $3.5 million at Orion Assembly and invest $750,000 at GM’s site in Brownstown Township. Both investments are related to additional production of the Cruise self-driving test vehicle at Orion Assembly. The three plants that are dedicated EV plants are as follows: Former Detroit Hamtramck assembly center now known as Factory ZERO - Production of Hummer by GMC to start there for EV Trucks / SUV full size. Orion Assembly plant will continue to build the Chevrolet Bolt EV, Next generation version as well as a new Chevrolet EV and the Extended length Bolt EV. Spring Hill Tennessee assembly plant, home of the XT5 & 6 plus Acadia. Will move forward with building the Lyriq upon renovations and continue the XT5 & 6 till EV replacements are ready. Then the plant will be full time Cadillac EV's only. https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/general-motors/2020/10/20/gm-invest-billions-michigan-plants-converts-another-plant-ev/5983749002/

The Primes will be great for Uber/Lyft if they survive the Pandemic. The Rav4 Prime makes more sense than this tight car IMHO.

So many comments could be made and so many observations about the people. Yes some good ol truck fun with plenty of backsides to enjoy!

Driver lost control. Worthwhile video.

Some good old fashioned American trucks having fun here...

Does not hurt that she is hot! Formula E...electric racing is already here and is badass. More ICE love in this thread

Check out their real world version of their AR HUD rather than that crazy everything in the sky version that was in the story. Have to say it looks good when you look at what they are more realistic about. https://www.digitaltrends.com/features/envisics-ar-windshield-technology/ https://envisics.com/ Envisics has investment from Hyundai, GM, SAIC and Van Tuyl all of who have committed to using their Retina Grade AR HUD system in their EVs. ICE is already lost, ICE Racing is still cool, I think as we get solid state batteries that can handle Rapid 800V or higher recharging, we will see EV racing take off more too. Course she is very attractive too!

Totally agree, as more people drive them and experience the Torque they will change to liking Hybrids / EVs.

If you actually watch the RAV 4 prime video, they really like it. Methinks people test driving Hybrid and electric vehicles will like them much better, accelerating their acceptance.

Hyrids and plugs ins becoming more mainstream. Anti electricity cartoon from 1900....some ideas about electricity are 120 years out of date...

That truck is just killer...makes the hair stand up on my arm. I had a regular S-10 of this era and loved it. I would own one, for sure.

Loved this edition of the Jay Leno Garage.

One wonders how a company that got that much right alter would get so much wrong, dead wrong. But in their era, they were stunning. Seriously. Which brings us to this movie..

Love this Ford Ad..... While we are on the subject of Ford. The 68 Torino pace car convertible at the beginning of the last video is just to die for. Seriously. Love it.

Favor Have you seen the Meow "RE" Mix commercial with cats meowing a country song? Was LMAO when I first saw it.

An extra scoop of ice cream or gold star if this is an original factory color. Wow. Look at the tiny window for the rear quarter. The colonnades of the next decade (even if this Eldo is B-pillar-less) were obviously derivations and the way GM put the PLC in the everyday American's driveway en masse. Those were the days.

I realize it's a 'full bells & whistles' from the vendor, but that's nightmarish as shown.

That would have been cool. I circled out and back using Minneapolis (airport) ... ridiculously good Southwest fare. Stories, indeed ... having people wave to you or pointing at you, pulling your hair out looking for parts, haggling with people to restore the rust spots, etc. but you're right about living only once. Would prefer a colonnade coupe with either the 260 V8 or the inline 250 6, and no A/C, to toy with. I know those engines. I periodically look for those. If there was a cheap "even firing" V6 in excellent condition from the late '70s or early '80s that could be swapped in, that would make this more attractive. I had a feeling this unit would rumble like an earthquake if I cranked it over ... but then I could have been surprised. The lady's husband needed to be around for me to ask more questions and look at it more carefully.

Me too!

From some vantage points, without badging, it looks very Mazda-like.

Very cool improvement that Cadillac will get first with their EV Lyriq. https://electrek.co/2020/10/19/gm-cadillac-lyriq-electric-suv-crazy-head-up-display/

Amazing how much aftermarket has done to tune these trucks to over 600+ hp and some truly single digit quarter miles.

Interesting...

Crab Walk mode displayed. Pretty cool. GMC Quadrasteer or similar to it is back! https://www.gmc.com/electric-truck/hummer-ev

Improved battery technology and much lower costs to build EV's are definitely the driving force here. GM has the cash and engineers to move fast when they want to and Tesla top execs know that, and I don't think Tesla has even made a real profit yet. Used to be that they lost $2.5k-5k per vehicle sold depending on the the model and trim. The interior of their $50k-$100k cars and EUV's are so drab with a lot of cheap hard plastic, for that much it should be all leather, real wood and carbon fiber or aluminum trim everywhere like the new Cadillac's that are around $100k-$110k, Escalade and CT6 come to mind, but even the $75k-$85k ELR fit and finish and gorgeous interior blew away the interior of the Model S in 2014, wasn't even close. Hopefully Tesla gets their QC Dept. together as strong leadership and competition are key to building quality vehicles, like most of us on here know. The Tesla Cybertruck is a joke compared to the GMC Hummer EV truck that's coming out.

Man, and my wife thought I was crazy for looking for a car for my 12 year old! Very nice car....love the color too... Thanks to me finally working on my cars again, it has started interesting my kid. He is tech crazy, but loves to take things apart . Perfect hobby for him... Enjoy this!!! ?

Sorry. Had to take another photo.

I like the Tour X in this dark red.

I guess since reg gave an update, I should as well. ? I still love this thing. I don't get the hate for minivans. I now understand why my Dad was so infatuated with them when I was younger. They are just an all around great vehicle. It essentially does everything an SUV/CUV can do but it does it better with the exception of towing. Both of my kids love it and think it is the best vehicle ever. I'd blame that on the entertainment system but we don't let them use it unless we are going to be in the car for more than 30 minutes and even on short trips they would rather take the van than my CTS. That's no knock on the CTS. More of a testament to the van. It now has close to 12,000 miles on it. No issues to speak of. One oil change and other than that, no trips to the dealer. It gets pretty good gas mileage for such a big vehicle. See the attached pic. Note that this is not typical but it can do this in the correct conditions. Having calculated other tanks, I'd say you can knock 1 MPG off what the VIC is showing but still impressive none the less.

I would sure like to know why the Toyota was going full speed across the divider?

Toyota drivers spoil everything....person killed was a friend of a friend... https://www.heraldbulletin.com/news/fatal-crash-shuts-down-traffic-on-i-69/article_7274f6fe-1251-11eb-9742-8b19733cfa3d.html?fbclid=IwAR1NKn_kVbB7lZ5okJRSO4fU8bn2objfAZyjvqiehE9o6phWYgVaueXNmqI