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Ram asks $4995 for their 3.0L TD in the Ram 1500, while GMC is asking $2390 for their 3.0L TD.

I don't see many of these anymore. Most are in the car graveyard in the sky somewhere. Or, hopefully, recycled. This is an Olds Silhouette minivan from GM's first whack at minivans ... the ones with the long snout. In reviews I've read of these, it said driving one seemed like you were driving them from the back seat! I'm guessing early '90s. It's in incredible condition - the body, the hardware, an original paint color, and it's badged to have a 3800, probably a Series I. No wonder it has been around for so long. Of the GM minivans, I'd give the nod to the Olds Silhouette, followed by the Pontiac Trans Sport, and then the Chevy Venture/Lumina.

This is erroneous / mis-representative. GM has been gutting their displacement ("big engines") chart for decades. Chevy truck still had a 7.4L and 8.1L engine in the '90s and '00s- both those are long gone. And there was no Trump administration in the early 2000s ("on the other hand GM..."). Automakers CONSTANTLY reexamine plans, as markets are constantly wiggling. Anyone watching Tesla blow thru tens of billions in a long span of profitless years fraught with production & quality issues was only playing it smart by not immediately jumping on that tiny train. ALL future truck EV makers' success is completely unknown at this point.

excellent video.... "Only idiots hate the Tesla Semi...."

Why in this age of 6, 8, 10, 12 megapixel cameras abounding, do so many dealerships still photograph their cars to 600 and 800 pixel photo sizes, on shit cameras from 2009? Or maybe they just post the photos at that reduced size for space reasons.....when monitors these days are 1900+ pixels.... Those crappy photos on the dealer website do not make me want to go look at your 50,000 dollar car. Even worse, many don't even photo their cars anymore. They leave up those stock animation quality rendered images of the manufacturer. Many photograph their vehicles in a weird space with completely heinous and unflattering fluorescent lighting as well. Vroom's photos are like the vaseline on lens images of penthouse from the 70's and 80's. I realize prepping cars for sale takes work and cost is involved (i have worked at a dealership); but take some more time and care to photograph your inventory well, it makes it more presentable. You don't need 80 pictures.....20-40 will work if they are high quality photos and capture each image to show relevant things.

Haven't seen a dustbuster van in ages...I remember the product placement they did in the movie 'Get Shorty' when John Travolta's character drove one, and boasted it was the 'Cadillac of minivans'...

Right, the leisure and discretionary sectors have probably been the hardest hit. People need that stuff to keep their heads screwed on straight. It's weird to be inside an airplane or public transit with so many seats blocked off. The airlines have to fly planes that are, more or less, mostly full to be profitable. I have a feeling that, if normalcy comes, there will be a huge surge in travel and it might be difficult to find airplane seats and hotel rooms at times. Pent up demand can work in strange ways.

I think if EVs (BEVs) with a decent range are available in the $25-45k range---which is where a typical vehicle is today at the heart of the market---and comparable in size and features to a typical Corolla, Camry, Rav4, Highlander, etc---and look like a typical mainstream vehicle---not a tiny potato on wheels-- then they may take off.... The only things available new for $15k are horrid subcompacts for which a 5 yr old used car would be infinitely preferable.

Seems Car & Driver has stepped off the Helium Hypertrain and breathed in a few lungfuls of critical thinking. Of course, you've read these same points from yer pal Balthy for a few years now, right here. Interesting reading : 5% after 25 years of family car EVs being available... and some locales are sabre-rattling they're going to mandate 100% in a scant 10 years more?? It is to laugh. Politicians have little connection to either critical thinking or reality. Mark my words; those mandates WILL fall.

Few people understand perspective, composition, proportion and lighting, Manufacturer photos always look better than dealership photos.

As one with a photo degree, I have wondered many times about that and in thinking, it is about the bottom line of having an employee take pictures cost hourly wages and honestly, I think many dealerships are still stuck in the 70's on how to sell auto's. That is why Tesla, Rivian, etc. scare the dealerships. They are ignorant about changing with the 21st century. Your right, a little time to make a basic template of how to take photo's and which ones to show off the auto you could easily reduce it to 10 to 20 photo's at most of high quality that would show off the auto and then post it to the web. I expect over the next decade a number of dealerships to disappear as shopping via Costco, online or direct from manufacture to you with quality pictures will change the way people shop and what they expect. Waste time just staying old school of attacking and pressuring every person who comes on the lot will fail for those dealerships. With the Pandemic, many are shopping online and only when truly ready to look at the auto in person will they go shop. I talked with my sales rep at the Cadillac dealership via Zoom to see how he was doing. He said over all sales are down about 1/3rd of what they normally have been at this time of year. He also said far less looky loos and as such greatly reduced test drives of people just looking which has made the average auto sale of the purchased auto be under 15 miles when sold on the odometer. Interesting.

Thank you! I had forgotten that nickname ... a "Dustbuster." Perfect. (Probably one of those things that didn't resonate with GM's marketing department)

USA......?

Happy Halloween

I drove in the Bethel Park Halloween parade to hand out candy to kids instead of them having trick or treat. A nice selection of other classics.

Phoenix, 1940 :

Minority Report had some very cool EV's that could be driven or used in autonomous mode for those that did not care about driving.

By the way, Happy Halloween, C&G folks. Stay safe and healthy ... and HAVE FUN!

I read that 5 minutes ago. It almost seems surreal ... Sean Connery was a larger than life persona. He appears to have gone peacefully and may he R.I.P. It has been an incredible thing to grow up with and mature alongside the timeless franchise of so many great 007 films.

R.I.P. Sir Sean Connery who passed in his sleep overnight at age 90. The best James Bond 007 we ever had. https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-54761824

Strange times.. I bought gas last Friday for maybe the 3rd time since January.

LOT of people worldwide working from home now or out of work. Tourism, hotel and entertainment industries have been decimated. Fuel demand is way down. Exxon-Mobil reported in June that fuel consumption in ‘20 was down... 11%.

The trim on the Century helps ... somewhat. They put so many of these cars by the beach in California or on mountain roads up above Los Angeles and rely on that a little bit for appeal. As for the LeSabre, I didn't like how these looked with the very angular lines of the greenhouse. Ditto for the Catalina. It was a little nicer as an 88. When the Riviera shared the platform with the LeSabre, the Riviera made a much better impression with how they handled the greenhouse. However, it's obvious that the visibility in this car was a strong point. That's because there isn't any. I like the mid '70s ('74, I believe) burgundy Camaro and the fact that Jimmy John's sponsored one of the vintage cars. I can almost always use a Jimmy John's sandwich.

U.K. ... or U.S.A.?