Leaderboard

You realize gas then was like 25 cents per gal. Cadillacs in the mid-century got surprisingly good mileage. Early 50's cars could get up to 20 MPG... but back in the late '30s, gearing was higher to offset the lower power-weight ratios of the day. At least (from a MPG standpoint)- they were all manuals in '38. Of course, MPG was of no concern then in general, and especially to Cadillac owners specifically. Much like a 15-MPG mercedes was in 2015.

Very disappointed with spec and trim choices for vehicles ... Would like to avoid the following: - lack of a remote release for the fuel filler door (capless nozzle system is fine) - vertical and fragile "laptop left open" look of infotainment system - black as the only cloth interior choice for seats - urethane steering wheel 2 or 3 trim levels up (Chevy LT trims have urethane steering wheels as standard) - 3 cylinder engines ($29K Buicks with THREE cylinders, not for me) Would rather not have: - turbocharger, prefer naturally aspirated - CVT type transmission Come on, GM and automakers, get your act together.

Spotted November 8 You crawl up and up in a parking deck and you find more parking spaces. You also find nicer or more interesting cars their owners chose to park there. This one was quite the sighting ... it had temporary tags and, after wondering what year it was, it turned out to be a 1986 in stunning condition. Proud looking Regal Limited coupe ... any millennial driving by wouldn't understand why'd I'd be photographing it Less is more with the simple Buick alloys - they did the trick without being overpowering. Of the quadruplets, the Cutlass Supreme took first place from 1981 through 1987, with the Regal and the Grand Prix probably tied for second. It's in perfect condition ... look at how the landau top meets the sheet metal A Limited model with manual windows! Buick went with a tic-tac-toe set of squares for their bezels in the IP. My dad had an earlier '80s model sedan, also in Limited form, and it's a nice cabin environment. This one is air conditioned. We will never again see tufted velour seating in upline American cars. Or, maybe things do come full circle. This is taken from the rear of the notchback styled window treatment. While this wouldn't "make" Clint Eastwood's day, seeing this near perfect Regal Limited coupe from an era gone by sort of made my day that day.

Tesla put up it's 20,000th supercharging station. The times are a changing....

That’s ‘German engineering’ for you.

So like compliance EV's less than a 100 miles! Got it, Thank you for playing the game and realizing early ICE auto's had limitations too. 5.7L V8 with just 140 HP, single digit fuel economy as to why it needed a 26.5 gallon fuel tank.

Yeah, but the Chevette was a proper longitudinal-oriented, RWD Scooter ( see what I did there, ocn?), whereas the escort was a disposable appliance. I understand sentimentality; occasionally I think back to the family Safari I started driving on... but I think there’s a clear line between sentiment and enthusiasm.

Well, they do have Yugo and Ford Tempo clubs ? While I can question taste, any love for cars at this point is a good thing........

There CANNOT be 'love for an Escort' out there in the car world. I refuse to believe it.

Encore GX. Sized between the Encore and Envision. Buick version of the Chevy Trailblazer.

DRIVEN: 2020 Chrysler Pacifica AWD Launch Edition: Well, the lease end is approaching soon and time to get into market to see what the newest is in the family haulers. We currently lease a 2018 Chrysler Pacifica and its been fantastic. But as you know, the market never stops. And, my curiosity was piqued, to find out that the 2021 Pacifica coming out soon was to arrive with an all wheel drive option! Not that is it always needed, but living in a snow state, all wheel drive can always be a benefit, especially on those really tough stormy days or when you need to get up a slick driveway and need the traction wherever you can get it. And best thing...no functional compromises for the all wheel drive...the Sto N Go seats into floor system that has made FCA vans famous remains in tact and fully functional with the all wheel drive. No sacrifices! Have we finally hit family hauler holy grail? (The Sienna all wheel drive has had run flat tires). So much to my surprise, one day, surfing my local Chrysler dealer who is 2 miles from home, I found something strange. They had listed some ---2020--- Pacificas with ALL WHEEL DRIVE. WUT? That's not supposed to be till 2021! Well, a trip to Chrysler.com confirmed....Chrysler snuck in a late end of model year trim package for what they are calling the all wheel drive 'launch edition' Pacifica. It will be a unicorn among Pacifica's with the 2020 design and not the upcoming refreshed body of the 2021. Well, figuring my wife has suggested that maybe she doesn't want another minivan (while full well admitting she loves the function and space), I figured I had to at least drive the all wheel drive Pacifica to see how it compares from a ride and drive standpoint to the current front drive only Pacifica, which is a great driving minivan. IS anything sacrificed in the ride and drive? Here's my prior review of the 2017 Pacifica for prior notes, so i won't go deep into the review other than just comparing the new all wheel drive vs the current: And the thread on the vehicle we lease currently, the 2018 Pacifica. soooooooo DRIVEN: 2020 Chrysler Pacifica AWD Launch Edition: HIGHS -The all wheel drive pricing is not expensive. Chrysler is keeping it within reach for budget conscious family buyers. A decked out Pacifica AWD still comes in less than similarly sized and decked out AWD crossovers. -eye catching looks still there, the "S" package of tested unit even looks sporty as heck, for any vehicle. Inside, as well. Our van has the tan interior, but this one with the black interior, makes it feel sporty inside as well. -no functional compromises. Chrysler has in fact pulled off a great effort here. The Sto N Go was not sacrificed to incorporate the all wheel drive. -Pentastar v6 remains strong, although it bit slower off the line...unless you stomp the gas. Then it snarls and takes off just as the current van. I imagine maybe 1/2 second is lost in 0-60 if i go on feel. -The transmission shifts the same / similar. So no noticeably different transmission behavior. -No changes to the seating floor or cargo floor, either. No one would suspect this car has a driveshaft going underneath to the back. No clues at all. LOWS -There is a 2-3 mpg hit on the fuel economy. But when gas is closer to 2 bucks a gallon, that is not a huge deal. Plus the gas mileage was great to begin with; when the snow flies, the minor loss of fuel economy is well worth the trade in traction on bad days in this case. -The extra weight of the AWD system can be felt. Probably not by most casual observers unless you mentioned to them on back to back test drives. Still, the Pacifica was car like....the AWD dulls the agility of the vehicle some. It doesn't feel ponderous or anything, though. -The addition of all wheel drive doesn't transform the van into a crossover (the cool group). It's still genuinely a van...maybe they should have added cladding. LOL. -Let's see if the newly engineered AWD system is reliable. Some folks avoid AWD vehicles due to their occasional penchant to break down and cause problems more often than their FWD counterparts. -New dual level full console with real armrest and place to put phone is only being made available on Pinnacle trim in the 2021 refresh. SUMMARY This is a full win for Chrysler here. They turned their successful Pacifica van into a better competitor to the crossover market by adding the all wheel drive option, and did so without a compromise to the core assets of what drivers look for in a van. All the function is preserved with no sacrifice, and the performance penalty is not much. Most drivers would never even know whether they are driving the all wheel drive version or the front drive only version, unless you told them. And with the plethora of trim and appearance packages Chrysler offers, it is possible to get a luxurious van with AWD, or a sporty looking van with AWD. Chrysler was supposed to die...maybe this keeps them on life support. Here's some photos...

My high school car was a chevette scooter. Performance machine!! https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a30468937/toyota-gr-yaris-photos-info/?utm_medium=social-media&utm_campaign=socialflowFBCD&src=socialflowFBCAD&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR2GgAt126IdedS2dNe4t8qKKjDkYJh6TdI5kf-5HlnAFlfq7itW6nKCtFQ ocnblu’s next ride !!!!

Sad but true

Yeah, it seems like less choices too. I was told starting this year we will see much less of the lower trim levels than before. I was more than happy with what my Equinox LS has, plus it has a nice buyout option at the end of the lease. (Thanks to Covid I will up up taking) My local GM dealership only has 1 LS trimmed Equinox, as that is pretty much all the choice they had to order. And this seems to be holding true with order models as well. Sucks, as i like having different from everybody else. ?

In reference to the T-car's '70s Opel origins?

On one FB car group I’m in, there is a guy w/ 3 diesel Escorts, restoring one. And this is a Millennial, someone that wasn’t even alive when they were new. I don’t get it, but there are so many angles to the old car hobby... Speaking of Scooters, before the getting the Escort as the dinghy for the RV, my Dad had an ‘81 Chevette Scooter for a couple years as the dinghy. It was a real shitbox..I remember shutting the door and the glass falling off the track. Another time the shifter came off in my Dad’s hand, leaving it stuck in 2nd..

For every car, there are enthusiastic fans. I sort of enjoyed my Dad's '84 Ford Escort diesel--5dr, 5spd manual, 52 horsepower. It was the car I did my driving test in as a teenager, my first taste of mobility and freedom...and it did get 55 mpg on the highway, long before the hype about hybrids... it was my first road trip car....Ohio to the Florida Keys and back.. between my Dad and I, we put 140k on it...it never let us down, took many a family road trip with it on the back of the Winnebago... The mid 80s Escort was definitely a more modern, refined product than the ancient Chevette that GM was still peddling then.

Proud little moment. My neighbor somehow found a 1986 Escort wagon for a winter beater . Car is in great shape, with 118k on it. And rust free. His son is almost 15, and likes cars like his Dad (who is in to Camaros, has an 80s Iroc Z in the garage) So while talking to him and his son, the kid decided he would really like it for his “classic” car. Told his dad about the radwood scene- now the little Escort sits nexts to the Chevy in the garage. ? And the winter beater is now a 17 year old civic....... People might laugh that is just and Escort, but it will bring us another person with a love for cars......

Nah, these appliances have 1.2 and 1.3 turbo 3 cyls...

Spotted November 7 while parking to get a haircut; with some of the trees displaying autumn foliage, this car and its rust color, for the first time, reminded me of an autumn color, too. It's a Buick, an Envision, I believe, and a recent color for them. I don't know what I think about these. I'm thinking ...

trimester

Had a teacher who had the Pontiac 4.3 V8 in an '81 Grand Prix Brougham coupe - metallic navy blue, lighter blue landau top, honeycomb wheels. Very attractive coupe. And much nicer than the '78 to '80 equivalents with that clean-up of the sheet metal - the quadruplets were nicely freshened up in 1981. I think that CCC was the weak link on those early '80s GM coupes more so than the lower horsepower of their engines. On a stand-alone basis, the engines themselves were strong. Indeed it did. I've never heard of that model. Having had a 305 V8 in a low mileage, second hand Camaro I had for a while as a second car that, most likely due to not being broken in correctly, had issues, it has taken me a while to forget that and a time when Chevy produced batches of V8s with problems. Our family had incredibly good luck with Chevy's 250 c.i. inline 6 but, then, what could possibly go wrong with those units ... 7 main bearing crank, cast iron head and block, and a simple, proven design? If talking about that span of years of F-bird, I'll readily take the Pontiac 301 (4.9) over the Chevy 305 (5.0).

301 came out in ‘77 at PMD, but would have to look up availability in the Firebirds.

The Cragars were definitely a thing on muscle cars and pony cars in the 60s-70s... still popular on those types of cars today for the retro Day 2 look. I'm not a Baby Boomer, but I do like the period muscle car look. The 301 N/A was available in '80-81 in all trim levels I've read..155hp..not quite the low point, but pretty close. there was a Turbo 301 available (210 hp) n the T/A and a Chevy 305 (150hp) also, and apparently in '81 the Pontiac 4.3 (265) V8 w/ 140hp. '80-81 were pretty dreadful years for Pontiac performance...and for performance in general.

I can do without the Cragar part. I can almost hear some of the low riders in SoCal describing how neat they thought their cars were with those wheels and sounding like Cheech Marin while doing so. Hard pass. Did they even offer Formulas and TAs with 301 N/As at any time? If I recall, the 301 had bore and stroke dimensions with no fractions, which I may remember because it's so unusual. It would probably last a long time, with more room for its cooling jackets than a Pontiac 350.

The black Trans Am is an '80-81 w/ the 301 and automatic...pretty weak sauce, compared to the nearly-identical looking '79 which was still available w/ the 400 and a 4 spd manual IIRC. (some '79 T/As came w/ the Olds 403 and an automatic, IIRC). The maroon '75 has the Formula hood, would be a 350 or 400..not sure if the 455 was still available in '75. This one is very similar to one my brother had in the late 70s--his was a '75 Formula 400, dark blue w/ the white interior. He had wide Cragar SS wheels on it.

I'm still waiting for the (Star Trek) Replicator. Where's the work being done on that??

Good looking F series always liked these. For Balthazar One more for Bill...OCN... Random truck pic for today. The end! One more in Green...

For Olds Hurst... For CCAP For Bill/OCN

That's how it is currently pronounced in southern Europe. First heard it some 5 to 10 years ago across the pond, when pointing and laughing, "Look, there's a Subaru dealership."

Notice pronunciation of "Subaru" in these adverts. From now on, I am going to say it like this.

(*memo to self: don't rely on other ppl's sarcasm sensors. More often than not, they are non-existent.)

Robert lives in a Star Trek HoloDeck; a 'construct' I believe it's termed, where neo-futurism details convince the participants they're in an alternate reality, and the commonplace is 'strange'. It's a form of escapism.

Ford LWB transit converts as well with LWB camper.

Here is a church I was the head electrician on. They did something similar. It's really rather cost effrective.

Still ain't got no ass, I'm afraid. Hey Cadillac, I know the bustleback Seville, and YOU AIN'T NO BUSTLEBACK SEVILLE!

aftermarket decal? The base engine in the Mustang was a 4.0 V6 from '05-10.

Did I miss a Ford press release on mustang engines?

yeah, we've done ok with ours front only, except when the OEM crap Michelins wore out early. We put Toyo all weather snow rated tires on it for last winter and it improved it. But to me to provide the buyer a choice and let them decide is the best thing. The sales guy i worked with for this test drive said another woman had purchased the van i did come in to look at first, she saw it had all wheel drive and jumped on it fast. They had had 4 of the AWD in stock and 3 of them got sold fast, right away. People are responding to the AWD availability. I wish the Camaro had AWD available. I totally would be ok with an AWD Camaro as a daily driver, v6+AWD would sell well and help keep the Camaro line profitable in order to keep making the big RWD v8's. Not having that option means it not a daily driver choice for someone like me in winter climes. The van having AWD available makes it a legit option compared to crossovers for many now, I assume.

*rolls eyes*