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Grew up doing road trips in a 1976 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser station wagon. The 3rd rear facing seat was all mine.

A true throwback to the 70s and the vans that made that decade.

Precisely. It's not a flea market or Turkish bazaar. I don't haggle over the price of a Mac Book Pro at the Apple store or the price of a washer and dryer at Home Depot. Why should buying a car be different? Cars are saddled with the ancient, obsolete dealer franchising shit.

Fresh off of Carvana: where you can buy a 2020 Sierra Elevation that originally stickered for $51,250, now has 7,000 miles, and you get to pay $56,990!! There's your set price! It's not "fair", but at least you didn't have to haggle!! ??? You'd be better off paying a confident friend who's not paralyzed to talk to someone a grand to go to the dealer and save you... I don't know; 6 or 8 grand.

I really would love to own an Olds wagon of this era.

DREAMY :

I'm struggling with the presentation that this is accurate; size-relation-wise : This too:

And this is just plain old nuts, dangerous, and all those other bad things and I also want to drive it.

Screw the dealership model, is all I have to say.

You. Don't. Have. To. Haggle. At. The. Dealership. You're free to pay sticker price all day long. ? I strongly suspect it's just me on this one.

Guess that is one reason auto purchase services has grown as a business. The Best Car-Buying Services in 2021 - Clark Howard Crazy to you and me, but for others, they just want to pick an auto, be told what to pay and go on with their life.

True, I find it very easy to know all the details including the holdback amount to the dollar so you can negotiate a fair price. That research and time spent talking is not what others want to deal with as they would rather just pay a set price as to why GM Saturn division with set pricing on the auto's at the time was very popular with that type of buyer. Good thing we have variety of ways to buy.

You are not forced to "haggle". Frankly, in the Age of the Internet, all the guesswork is taken right out. I just bought a new vehicle, I didn't do any 'haggling' on the front end (I did on the back end due to my situation's unique turn of events- to my benefit). My sales guy hardly seemed surprised I knew the specific GM holdback amount on my truck, to the dollar. If you can arrange for a licensed electrician to come to your house and install a 240V line to your garage for your BEV charger on wall X, you can buy a vehicle in person and civilly discuss (or NOT) a number on a piece of paper. It's not worth saving yourself a FEW GRAND and test-fitting a vehicle in person; talking numbers is that frickin' burdensome?? I don't understand how some adults navigate the world they're in, I really don't.

Those '70s clam shell wagons were something else... what beasts. A neighbor at my family farm had a '71 Brookwood that was quite the beater, a farm wagon...he drove it until he died in 1987 at age 82. And in Steubenville, the parents of one of my classmates from kindergarten through 2nd grade had a '74 Olds Custom Cruiser...I remember riding in it as a kid. Something like this..

I think only the grille and bumper (and hood?) differed as far as the front end between the Caprice, Roadmaster, and Custom Cruiser. The Buick also had the Vista roof. It was odd that Buick also got the Roadmaster sedan (with a different front end from the wagon) but Olds didn't get an equivalent sedan.

Agree. This reminds me of a kid from NJ who was in the undergrad part of my grad program. I didn't know him that well but he was of smaller stature, looked like he was still in high school, and had a turned up nose and freckles and, whenever I would see him driving around in the full-size Pontiac station wagon he probably got from his parents and from which he could barely see over the dashboard, he looked more like a kid that the car didn't belong to and like he was taking it for a joy ride. Quirky times ... school. - - - - - Back to the early '90s Olds full-size wagon. It has an attractive front fascia. The rest of it can get a little bloated but I do like the glass roof treatment that Olds used to call a Vista roof. The front of the same M.Y. Buick Roadmaster looks like a sperm whale that is grinning at you. As far as the Olds front end, it looks like it could even graft on nicely onto a mid-size or full-size coupe or sedan.

More wise advice for today....

I got a really decent deal on the Ranger, would be tempted to use them again.

Costco's auto program is extremely limited in its scope IMO, and the 'online' vehicle purchase entities I've looked at (carvana & amazon)- there's no deals to be had there. You can do better at a dealer, and get far better purchase service. The online services have a long way to go.

I can respect that and yes I agree it can go politics, but from just a basic business sense, the Prime Video will be interesting to watch as I am a HUGE James Bond Fan of the books and all the movies even the cheesy ones! Yes, An Amazon Prime household here too and so many use cases. Was interesting to see that Amazon has done the same as Costco with Auto Purchases for those that hate dealerships and just want to shop, buy and move forward. Amazon.com: Vehicles

Yeah, the one on the left is an '80s Hilux, which is a bit smaller than the original '90s Tacoma..but still quite a size difference.

It’s okay though. According to one person here. Elon is rich beyond words so he can afford that “measly” little fine lol. That is also extremely dirty pool by Tesla.

For those that remember, Apple did a software update about a decade ago that throttled the battery. The Apple story was that it was to protect the battery pack. Apple lost in court when it was proven to degrade the phone, to force owners to upgrade to newer phones. Tesla now finds themselves in the same situation. 2019 under the guise of protecting battery packs, Tesla pushed out two updates and the older the Tesla, the bigger the battery range drop you saw. Tesla has now lost big time in Norway, one of their biggest European markets as the software update reviewed by independent software consultants finds it had nothing to todo with protecting the battery pack and everything to do with forcing the owners to do one of two things, buy a pricey new battery pack or buy a new auto. Tesla did not count on Tech savvy owners who actually monitor their battery packs and the degradation over time. One of the plaintiffs who has a 2014 Tesla S has tracked since about 38,000 kilometers his battery degradation. Clearly you can see what the software update did to his battery pack and his speed at which he could recharge at a Tesla supercharger station. Tesla failed to challenge or respond to the Norwegian court and as such 10,000 Tesla Owners were immediately awarded $16,000 dollars each. Now Tesla does have a couple weeks to appeal but if they do not respond, Tesla will be responsible for paying out $160,000,000. Tesla has identical lawsuits in other European and Asian countries as well as here in the US over the same sort of Battery protection software update on auto's older than 3 years. Could this be what forces Tesla to change or end up being bought out? Tesla is found guilty of throttling charging speed, asked to pay $16,000 to thousands of owners - Electrek Additional Tesla News Seems GigaFactory Texas is already in production as they are building a ton of the new all in one Tesla Y castings which are sitting on the ground around the under construction factory. One has to wonder about the long term quality of the so called new Tesla Y that are built from this stock pile of parts sitting outside. Tesla Doesn't Need Giga Texas Online To Start Model Y Production (insideevs.com) Here is a local fan that does daily fly by's to check out the site and status of construction.

All this talk about haggling reminds me why I think it is going to be better to just buy my lease........ I happen to mention this someplace else, but if anyone wants to send some positive vibes or even prayers our way I would be grateful. My wife is dealing with a medical issue that is going to require some tests in the next few weeks . Have to be prepared for any news. I am happy that she is at one of the best hospitals in MI that can take care of her issues. So if I happen to disappear here and there, with her is where I will be. Adding to the fun is trying to interview through all this as well. But I am doing my very best to be positive...

I could see myself doing that..I don't really like dealing with car salesmen, they waste so much time. I have no interest in haggling, prefer fixed prices for products.

That is interesting...wasn't aware of that.

I've wondered about that before...Amazon is involved in so many different businesses.. I was thinking about it--- I'm an Amazon Prime customer and purchase a lot of products from their site, I have Amazon Prime audio and video streaming and listen to/watch/read a lot of content from them, and I use many of their AWS tools and services at work. 3 very distinct use cases.

This has the potential to drift into politics, so i am going to lay low. Looking at Audio amplifiers. Want to upgrade amplifier in my home system, and add a better guard to one fo my table saws. Other than that, I want to simplify and get rid of things I am not using. This looks interesting. https://www.stereophile.com/content/schiit-audio-aegir-power-amplifier

Makes one wonder when the monopoly Anti-trust will happen against Amazon.

Kind of unreal how they seem to now own everything.

Sorry, I thought you were talking about the press released pictures.

Got it, yes I mention it, but did not post a picture of it. This is from the web site. They call it Cosmic Steel (Matte Gray)

Thinking I could use a Jag, a Pint, and more music.

Bad spelling or a twisted mind, not sure which...

Be careful what you do....funny.... There is a reason I bought a Ranger rather than a ful size truck. Although the Chevy trail boss is still lust worthy

Surprising as I have not checked like forever, but I would say collectible is the limited yearly run of the Chevrolet Trailblazer SS in AWD and RWD models. When I bought my 2008 SS as a CPO I paid with tax and title $24,000. I am seeing on Autotrader that they are still in that area depending on condition and miles.

I see low mileage 2015-2016 Chevy SS already going for mid-50k On the other hand Pontiacs G8 are dirt cheap now. Cadillac V-series at least for now hold their value very well 2016 Shelby GT350 is selling for the same money when it was new

@balthazar At one point a guy at my work had 1st gen Tacoma and he parked next a new one. The size difference was staggering. I didn't save the picture but this represents it pretty accurately.

I guess that movie wouldn’t have been the same if they had been driving a current LeBaron convertible.

Always been a fan of these wagons. Have a major love for those early to mid 70s GM wagons... ?

On a Red Hot Chili Kick as I get caught up on work after cleaning up my sewer backup problem.

Now, in a completely different direction in genre and in mood I LOVE the music part of this song. The guitar parts and the drums (although subtle) are just... incredible! The vocals are awesome. I just dont like the lyrics.