Leaderboard

Another Sunday drive. Out in Ashtabula County again, saw two more covered bridges…cooler, wetter weather but scenic. Not much fall color. Crossed the Pymatuning Reservoir into Pennsylvania and went to Conneaut Lake. Nice roads, great scenery. Saw a CJRD dealer in the middle of nowhere with probably a dozen new Jeep GC Ls on the lot. Saw a red and white ‘64 Dodge Custom 880 2dr on a small town used car lot.

I should be checking out this thread more. It's cool so that one doesn't have to create a new thread nor feel they have to put something in Random Thoughts - - - - - "ODE TO THE FIRST GM COLONNADES" This "catalogue" is all about how much I like this series of intermediate cars sold by B-O-P and Chevrolet from 1973 to 1977, with special emphasis on 1975-1977, which aged like a fine wine. With their long hoods, shorter trunks, and opera windowed greenhouses, set off by landau or full vinyl roofs, not to mention the typically creased backlite, I thought these were a stroke of genius. With rear wheel drive, weight coming in at close to 4,000 pounds with V8 engines, many exterior colors to choose from, and many interior schemes in terms of seating arrangements, dash configurations, and such, they conceptually seem like dinosaurs today. But for anyone who experienced these cars, and even got to drive them, they probably have a place in your heart and are a source of good memories. They were also, for the most part, reliable, and people kept them for a long time. Today, buying one in good condition does not come cheap. * the photos were obtained from the internet - with some of them coming up toward the top of searches - and are fully intended for fair use to share with our small community of like-minded folks * Mostly, I am focusing on the coupes with 112" wheelbases, which had sedan versions running on 116" wheelbases CHEVROLET Malibu Classic, Malibu, and Laguna The 1977 Malibu Classic was probably the best looking of the coupes, which looked better after receiving rectangular headlamps in 1976. The 1977 head the cleaner vertical grille over the diamond pane effect of 1976 grille. Chevy did a good job with handling the stacked lamp effect on these cars. The Malibu had the safest dashboards and interiors, and the dashboards were very logical. They could be boring with the strip speedometer (seen here), but circular gauge packages were also available for this same pod. A large clock, or blank, was also seen in the top RH bezel in the dash. Seating was usually bench seating, though this one indicates the novel swivel bucket seats that were available for a few years. PONTIAC Grand Le Mans, Le Mans sport coupe, Le Mans, and Grand Am This is a sleek 1976 Grand Le Mans coupe sporting the trademark Pontiac rally wheels. I'm showing this 1975 Grand Le Mans coupe because, for being the last year for round headlamps, it sported a nice front grille with those inset turning lamps. Every discernible car in this photo is a GM product! This is a 1977 Grand Le Mans coupe, with a similar rear fascia to the M.Y. before. The Le Mans series had fastback lites, as did the Malibus, leaving the creased ones to their slightly larger Grand Prix and Monte Carlo cousins. You either liked the pinched rear trunk effect or you didn't. The same would apply to PMD's unique offering of optional rear wheel opening skirts on these intermediates (shown above). Pontiac probably had the most interesting dashboards of the quadruplets. This vehicle was up in Canada and has NO A/C. Check out the climate control panel, but it does have a rear defroster toggle. This one has the instrument gauge cluster, with a tach that would otherwise be a clock, or blank. Here, a clock was placed low, right above the shift lever and the cursive emblem "Grand Le Mans." The top of the console is slightly slanted toward the driver. Here's a full view of the dash. It's shared with the Grand Prix, where the telling feature might be the steering wheel and especially GP's larger armrests that carry across and sweep upward on its larger coupe doors. Bench seating and 60/40 seating was available. This is what the most up-level seating in the Grand Le Mans looked like. Here, the armrest implies 60-40 seating. This same scheme, in different colors, could also be had with very "plump" bucket seats up front in the GLM model. This is really interesting: base Le Mans and Le Mans sport coupes were treated to a more sedate dashboard. There would be no strip gauge, but much less of the circular effects. Many of these option choices could have been viewed as wasteful. OLDSMOBILE Cutlass Supreme, Cutlass Supreme Brougham, Cutlass Salon, Cutlass S, Cutlass 4-4-2 While not a great color, in my opinion, and '77 not being my favorite year, this photo really captures the great stance of the Cutlass Supreme (this is a Salon) that made America fall in love with them. This is a 1976 Supreme and the year in which over 500,000 of these were sold. For 1975, designers worked some magic with the grille of the Cutlass Supreme and Salon (this is a Salon) so that it leapfrogged the 1973 and 1974 models in terms of looks. The turning lamps inset into the grille look great. This is a 1976 interior for a Salon coupe with its bigger and more comfortable bucket seats. The tiny seat belt warning pod atop the dash meant this had the full instrumentation package. This is also a 1976, but in a Supreme coupe, where a bench seat with an armrest was the norm. There were many velour and vinyl choices. White vinyl seating was seen with many trim colors, including the once only lime green of 1976. It would appear that the swivel bucket seats might have ended in Cutlass the year before, in 1975. These don't swivel. This is a 1977 with the Brougham interior. You can see the cushions attached to the seats. Broughams were set up in 60/40 mode up front. With all the money they made the year before, I guess they had enough in the piggy back to make some final year changes to the dash - you see rectangular A/C vents for the passenger, as well as the clock placed between them. There is also a bull nose type ridge defining the top of the IP for the driver. I'm not so sure I liked these changes. I liked the 1976, and 1975, Cutlass Supremes more. BUICK Regal, Regal Limited, Regal S/R, Century, Century Limited, Century Special Here's a 1976 Regal coupe (no fender badge, so 350 V8) from a still from a movie from the '70s. The front end was simple and nicely done, as were the subtly finned rear tail lamps possibly taking cues from the Eldorado. This was a big enough departure from its 1975 predecessor. I'm only showing this because of the V6 fender badge. Throughout this series, the use of V6s was the out-of-the-crate "odd firing" versions. It was always fun(ny) to see these, especially when on an even larger sedan. Some people bought them - I don't know who well they fared. Had they been converted to "even firing," they would have been much more compatible with this caliber of car. Outfitting the car with a V6 shaved off about 200 pounds. While this may be a 1975, this is a sweet photo. Again, the front grille is nice enough, with the Regal crest in both the hood ornament and the front fender. This has the Limited interior and the landau roof works great with this car and its rally wheels. Their use of enamel dove gray showed it was the division right below Cadillac, and Buick was the only one to have a finely upholstered gray velour 60-40 interior showing that, again, it was the closest to Cadillac. Compared to the Cutlass Salon, very few Regal S/Rs were made. The idea was the same as the Salon, as seen from its nicer, bigger bucket seats, steering wheel, and console. Kudos to this car for the very unique trestle shifter in the console. In the very basic Regal and Century, the base dashboard was a little weak for a Buick. It was closer to the one in the Chevrolet in both finish level and statement it was making. Compared to Chevy, there was more chrome and some nicer switches. It detracted from the car's being a Buick. - - - - - SEPARATE MENTION More so than intermediates, the next two cars were more personal luxury coupes than conventional mid-sizes. Since Olds and Buick had Toronado and Riviera, respectively, these could be seen as more reasonably priced Chevy and Pontiac personal luxury coupe options - on 116" wheel bases - to put a "pocket Toronado" or a "pocket Riviera" into the driveway of Chevy and Pontiac buyers. These two cars had even longer hoods and could only be had with V8 engines. CHEVROLET Monte Carlo This is a 1977, which I thought had slightly nicer details in grille than 1976. They didn't cost much more than a Malibu and, for the money, were a substantial car. Whether or not you bought one had to do with whether you were comfortable with a Chevrolet or instead wanted one of the higher priced GM marques. PONTIAC Grand Prix This is a 1976 Grand Prix LJ and, in its changeover to rectangular lamps, did a fairly provocative job with its front end. In my opinion, it looks a fair bit better than the 1977 Grand Prix, where the turning lamps are inset between the two rectangular lamps. An interesting fact is that 350 V8 engines (by the four divisions!) were the norm in all the 112" wheelbase mid-sizes and the Monte Carlo. Grand Prix was a latecomer to this stable, finally bringing on a 350 V8 in 1976 and even going with a 301 V8 in the similarly sized 1977 version. There were never 6 cylinder engines in these 2 cars from 1973 to 1977. - - - - - The V8 engines in these cars: All divisions produced a 350 V8 for their respective cars. From 1975 onward, bigger V8s for Chevy were the 400 and the 454. For Pontiac, they were the 400 and the 455. Oldsmobile had the Rocket 350 and the Rocket 455, with the Rocket 403 only available in 1977. Buick never had 3 V8s for these cars - just the 350 and the 455. In terms of smaller V8 engines, Chevy brought in the 305 in 1976. Oldsmobile brought in the smallest of the bunch, the Rocket 260, in 1975. Pontiac shared the 260 that Oldsmobile produced, putting it in some LeMans models. Pontiac added their own 301 V8 in 1977, and it was available in both LeMans and Grand Prix models. All of these smaller engines stuck around for downsized models that would be forthcoming. The six cylinder engines in these cars: Some divisions stuck to their roots. Chevy used only 250 c.i. inline 6s in their Malibus. Buick used only their 231 c.i. V6s in their Regals and Centurys. Oldsmobile and Pontiac paralleled each other with engine usage. They both used the Chevy inline 6 as the base engine in 1975 and 1976 for cars as nice as Cutlass Supreme and Grand LeMans, but they switched over the 231 V6 for 1977. - - - - - There's a lot here because this covers half a decade, hundreds of thousands of GM cars sold, and models of cars that strongly spoke to Americans at that time. I hope you enjoyed the photos and verbiage in this chronicle of the colonnades that initially took America by storm and for which Americans quickly signed on the dotted line.

DRIVEN: 2017 Cadillac CT6 Luxury 2.0E Plug in hybrid RWD (Used vehicle review) HIGHS: Always love driving the CT6, it's a nice size for me, nice ride height, car rides and handles lighter than it is. My other CT6 that I have reviewed you will see I really think its a great package. Quiet interior, once again. So quiet, that I couldn't discern electric operation vs gas, most of the time. Both modes very quiet. Comfortable seats as I have noted before. Some minor bolstering but wider and well padded cushion. Not many cars have this anymore! I have always liked how well layout the gauge cluster is on the CT6, it seems like it crowds the driver, but it is right in your face in a good way. ----repeat comments from before apply----- How does such a big car with such a long wheelbase feel like a mid size car? It doesn't feel heavy and ponderous in any way (it's a light car, actually). And it's fairly nimble, turns tightly. Outward visibility, you see a short hood, and looking out the rear view mirror, the car seems shorter than it is as well. Ride was just the sweet spot balance of cushy and firm for most driving. The steering had nice heft, but not too much. Steering quickness about right for most of the time also. I'd have no problem with a quicker rack in a sport model, but otherwise this was great. ----------------------------------------------- Electric powertrain had some delay and lagging at times but honestly for the duration of the drive it was little and didn't bother me. Maybe on a longer trip it would, although for highway driving in theory its not transitioning between gas and electric like it does in town. I think once you own the car, and learn its driving style, you will know how to work the throttle and drive it so the transitioning is less of an impact. There are a lot of ICE only drivetrains that have transmissions that react similarly slowly but more often. Apart from that, great torque and power. It really is a nice powertrain! Most of the drive was in electric mode but it was a nice; felt like it had turbo thrust without the turbo lag at times. Speed in electric mode built quickly when the drivetrain was not laggy. Would be a great road car, just like the other CT6's. LOWS: Since the battery takes up half the trunk, it makes the trunk fairly useless, and pretty much a deal breaker if this is your main car. The other deal breaker is RWD only; but if you consider California (this car's origin) was the primary market for this, I can a little bit understand not having it set up for AWD. But for me in the north, I would need AWD. GM interiors can look nice in places and cheap in others. Even though most of the CT6 interiors are good overall, at times the dash trim looks not like a luxury brand. Can we project the reliability and the battery life? And for 2017 the plug in range may have been good......... but for today its not great. The plug in hybrids were made in China. I don't think anything seemed different vs a US made car, but some may not like the location of build. SUMMARY: Someday I believe I will own a CT6....question is what year, trim,....and powertrain? After driving this, I could say the powertrain apart from some laggy behavior at times, is wholly good and fine for this car. It was smooth like the 3.6 but with more gusto. Quieter and more Cadillac like character than the 3.0t....that motor is a great motor but is more racy. I would wait over time to find a good 2019+ CT6 with the 10 speed transmission (and of course with AWD). But as for this hybrid, it is not out of place being in the CT6 engine family. And, it has the unicorn factor. Rare....unique. So I totally could enjoy and live with this version of CT6, it's great like the others. Just the trunk and RWD only are deal breakers for me if its as my primary vehicle. Now on to find a couple CT6 RWD only with the 2.0 motors, hard to believe there were more CT6 with 2.0 turbos than v8 engines. I sure hope someday to find an 8 cylinder CT6 to drive...

Saw a nice gold-brown '71-72 GP cruising.

As I bid farewell to my '04 Silverado, I reflect on some of the vast interface changes between it & the '21 Sierra. • I thought I'd dislike, or at least find useless; the A-Pillar grab handles. Nope- I love them. • On the other hand I haven't made much if any use of the rear bumper corner steps. • The backup camera / image is pretty good/clear, has the 'angling lines' on screen, but I still back up using side mirrors. The camera I use basically the last bit of backing into a spot. • Inside storage is a significant improvement. • The keyless entry thing (which the wife's '16 Malibu has); you sure get used to in a hurry. ? • Went for a local ride today, wife's comment was 'I love how much room there is in this!' About 3450 miles, 400-mile average is hovering around 22.7 on the dash.

Wonder

Sale concluded today- thanks for 159K basically trouble-free miles and a ton of work/money-making. Chevy- you built a helluva 2500HD!

Largely my assessment as well. I would own one along side my Avalanche and commute in it on all but snowy days.

Another installment of 'old car recycling' :

Did the 22 Jetta get more HP? From C/D 158 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque. 8 speed auto

I'm sitting at a light last night on the motorcycle. A few guys on Harleys pull up next to me, revving their engines and being loud and obnoxious. One of them leans over to me and says "You ain't got pipes, but you can do this too!" and revs his engine. Me with my innocent face on... "Oh.. thanks... no need.. my bike actually runs fine." Light changes green and I'm off before he can reply.

I prefer the Alero as you could tell. LOL But I do agree that the front clip on the Alero looks small and odd. I like the way the back end looks. The over all shape of the Alero coupe appears to be more sleek then the G6 so I do prefer that. However, they both seem to have the same roofline. Or very very similar. I like both equally in that regard. When I saw this (Alero) concept I fell in love with it immediately. Hence why I bought one in 1999. I prefer the way the front end clip ended up being in the actual production car. It doesnt look weirdly small. But I was disappointed that the actual car did not look like the concept. It became bulkier in the back with a higher belt line. (Or the illusion of being) I preferred the sleeker, slimmer look of the concept (Or the illusion of being). But I do think the actual production Alero was one of GM's best designs of the 1990s.

Ill give a long...long...very long answer. GM's A Body muscle car is just sublime fir me. So...GTO for me. But... (I did say Id give a loooong answer) I do prefer the '70 version. I LOVE this version. My dad had one. But his was not "The Judge" trim. Kinda like this one. An even BIGGER but though... since we I are am talking about GM A bodies...then there is the ONE GM A Body that I totally want over the others...and THAT would be a 1970...OLDS 442 W30

They neutered it by 1968. They squared off the look in 1969. But went back to the bladed front end in 1970 like you posted. @ykX The 1st gen Toronado was a looker. Any year. But in my opinion, the 1st year was THE masterpiece and Oldsmobile/GM just kept on messin' it up year after year after what they had created in 1966!

Watched over the weekend movie Wander on Amazon Prime. The movie is a bit weird but actors are great. They had 1970 Olds Toronado, which I think looked pretty cool.