trinacriabob

Merry Christmas OR Happy Holidays ... and a Happy New Year ... to all of C&G. May Santa have succeeded in getting down your chimney and being able to fit the car of your dreams into your gift stocking.

Yes, lots of crying over spilled milk with all that looking in hindsight. I can name 5 Seattle area based companies whose stock would have lined someone's pockets in a big way if they rode the wave upward - Boeing - Costco - Starbucks - Microsoft - Amazon

I just went to the pharmacy. And, as usual, I am pissed off. When you have lived in tree hugger land and you ask the pharmacy to recycle the lengthy instructions, with all your personal info, because you've taken these meds before, they just do it. This pharmacy looks at me with the deer in the headlights look when I ask them to recycle this paperwork. And it's every cashier. And it's every time. End of rant.

I see your point and I know they've penciled all this out. If people want a sedan, they now need to look to the Japanese, Koreans, and Europeans. It won't be within 18 months, but, for my next purchase, I intend to again get a sedan. I like the way passenger cars look. I've sat in Acadias in showrooms every now and then and think, "Hmm ... nice," but not to buy. Also, with SUVs and CUVs, the price goes way, way up if you want a quality one, and so does the price of repairs and maintenance for tires, AWD, electronics, etc. This whole shift is sort of strange when single occupant households in America are increasing. Also, people are living longer, and there is expected to be an upward swell in senior Americans. Those two things would point to at least keeping the demand for conventional passenger cars going. - - - - - At any rate, I'm posting because I was going through photos and found a "Sicilian" Regal in wagon form. Obviously, it's an Opel Insignia wagon. I had an econobox during this trip but had one of these Opels before (as a result of an upgrade because there were no automatic econoboxes) and it drove damn near flawlessly.

One of the most "demented" but also entertaining and irritating songs in existence:

Interesting analogy ... sort of. Oldsmobile offers up the Intrigue, an instantly popular sedan that the public embraced, and GM drops the division a few years later. Buick offers up a sports sedan that's made in GERMANY, and, one by one, they drop their car lines, with this foreign Regal being the last passenger car they have on the market. SMH.

Right, some just had plastic panels over them. In the Cutlass, and some of the quadruplets, there were 4 vents. They had these round tabs you pulled from under the dash to open and close ventilation. Must have worked wonders in Phoenix! On the Cutlass, the ones on the driver's side were just like the ones if the car had A/C. The spheres on the passenger side were vaned, similar to the ones by the driver, if you didn't have A/C. However, if you had A/C, they had the adjusting knob in the center to open and close the spheres. I recall the loss leaders. It was a hoot to raise the hood on a mid-70s Cutlass Supreme to see a 250 c.i. L6 ... and NO air. That car could probably run forever.

Dave, you have always struck me as a person who does not create and does not enjoy drama. Believe me. I get it. Anyway, I was surfing for a specific photo I once saw and came across this. This is what the climate control panel looks like on a mid-70s Olds Cutlass if you DON'T have A/C. And, if that's the situation, under the hood, it becomes a Saturday mechanic's dream.

Well, the check engine light that came on sporadically during cold weather and yet did not affect drivability is GONE. I was getting that code that the thermostat and the ECT (engine coolant temperature) sensor were talking smack to each other. The thermostat was replaced, as was the upper radiator hose, for a fair price and my dash is free of warning lights (once driving).

What is the colloquial term given to those finned backlites specific to GM mid-size cars in the mid- to late-60s? Saw this on the road when stopped in traffic a few days ago. In perfect condition, with a nice exhaust grumble, and its driver waived. I

Love to be driving down the freeway and seeing clean and perfectly balanced alloy wheels on an adjacent car either - appear to be spinning forward in slow motion, or - appear to be spinning backward in slow motion Don't remember much about physics and science, and therefore can't explain why it happens or appears that way, but I like seeing it when I do.

It went down that low?! The company's value is diluted over such a broad base of shareholders. Still, being under $10 per share when the Dow is at 28,000 is weird. I remember when I was a young, there was a recession (oil crisis), the catalytic converter had just come out, and GM was offering substantial rebates. It was a great time to buy a GM car. Their stock was trading at about $ 34 per share. Then, within 1.5 years, when the bicentennial came around and they sold over 500,000 Oldsmobile Cutlasses (over 1,000,000 Oldsmobiles across all lines), and not even counting their successes withing other GM brands, GM stock was trading at about $ 65 per share. The problem is that the most affluent are the ones to more readily have the loose cash and the wiggle room to take more routine chances on the upside when the light at the end of the tunnel looks very dim or is nowhere in sight, like it was in the somewhat recent Great Recession. Dang, that was ugly.

Ford stock (F) ... get the F up there ... sheez ...

For a split second, I was thinking East St. Louis. Then I saw the rowhouses on each side. You wouldn't want to go in there and look around "out of curiosity." Heck, there is some "funky" scenery to be seen on the SEPTA train from Philly airport into Center City, and this was within the last year.

Saying I heard: "A poor Republican is like a cow that is pro-leather."

The preeminent musical artist of the genre, and that decade, and "MacArthur Park," probably her best song. She eclipsed Richard Harris's original rendition in a big way. Criticize disco/dance music all you want but it had it all - vocals, big band, complex instrumentals, and "driveability." Today's pop music is mostly crap. She belts out the lyrics and holds the notes effortlessly, the band is going strong, and the audience is pumped. African-American artists and groups seemed to dominate this genre in the '70s but the baton got passed in the '80s to a modified kind of pop/dance, the likes of the "4 Bs": Blondie, Branigan, Benatar, and the Bengals, among others. MacArthur Park is a real place and is in what was probably a decent neighborhood in L.A. some decades back. Not so now. Wilshire Blvd. cuts through it as it runs from DTLA to the ocean in Santa Monica. My parents would take us there when we were little to see the ducks, pedal boats, and all that. And it was safe to do that. For a city of 4 million people, the downtown skyline isn't as impressive as you'd expect. Cylindrical 73 story US Bank tower is the tallest in the photo. Wilshire is seen to the left, complete with parking meters once you're a ways west of downtown. RIP, Donna Summer. You left us too soon.

@dfelt Wow, that SS of yours looks like it just came off the showroom floor. Burgundy is a yes / no depending on the vehicle. On yours, it works. I've liked it for vehicle interiors since I was a teen and it sold well.

Before the weekend, I put in a bottle of Techron fuel system cleaner with a fill-up. Got 30 + mpg on a 120 mile stretch of highway on Saturday. Tonight, I had the tires rotated and balanced at Costco. They're 90,000 mile Michelins. I'm 48,000 miles into them, and still have almost half of the remaining usable tread life.

I am rarely looking at a new car as in terms of "right now." But I am always looking at new cars in terms of "near to medium term" future. I, too, hate car payments. (I'd rather go to Europe more often.) My current sled turns 12 fairly soon. And, from when I came onto C&G when the redesign of my current car was a hot off the press topic, it took another 3 years for me to actually buy it. What's on the market that I like right now? NOTHING. I also want a sedan. I am waiting to see what the new Charger looks like. It's currently the only vehicle I like ... and in purist form, as opposed to pimped out form. Chrysler dealerships either know nothing or are hushed on any info on the next version, which they'll start producing in about a year at the Brampton, ON, Canada plant. And, if and when the Charger hits the ground, I will have my fingers crossed that it won't be yet another vehicle with the "laptop left open" info/audio center on its dashboard and I will probably wait 3 years to see that the powertrain, if new or just revised, is debugged. So, as the saying goes, "just because I'm on a diet doesn't mean I can't read the menu."

Got a Mannheim Steamroller Christmas CD in a white elephant gift exchange. I remember the name of 1 or 2 name hit songs they recorded and made it onto American Top 40 lists. In listening to this CD, there are some good cuts and this is one of them. It has some remote vestiges of Christmas but new age and action movie soundtrack typologies also shine through.

Bingo. (Probably a little bit more art and architecture than music.)

Agreed on both counts. First, what was a midsize 20 years ago is still mid-sized to me - an '80s Cutlass Supreme would be a mid-size, but a mid '70s Cutlass Supreme might not be. I was amazed at how they were able to keep the interior creature comforts and ride quality in that downsizing. That was a well studied change. As for their putting THM 200s behind the engines, that wasn't. I'm not offended. I agree, within reason! When I go to rent a car, I always ask what they have from domestic manufacturers. The thing is that almost everyone is fully loaded up on Japanese and Korean iron in their rental fleets. The only category where you'll have a high likelihood of driving domestic is full size, which would be a Malibu.

Photo gallery of sorts (labels beneath photos) 1. Side view 2. Front 3/4 view 3. Rear 3/4 view 4. Overall look at front of passenger cabin 5. Comfortable enough and sturdy cloth seating 6. Spacious rear seating area with integral headrests which aren't that intrusive 7. Overall view of dashboard and console 8. These are the more pleasing dashboard volumes I was referring to, in contrast to those of the similarly sized Toyota Corolla; I prefer a dashboard where the upper part cants back toward the windshield 9. Good info in the middle square (time, temp, gear, range, and odometer) but I was not able to get or find the digital readout on the current speed which is better than the speedometer (for me) 10. It looks like a geared automatic but it's not. It's a CVT. 11. The trunk control is the easiest one to work with I've seen to date 12. But, then, why do they put the fuel filler door release that far down, next to the hood release? 13. Inverted logic (for me) - sound controls are largely to the left 14. Inverted logic (for me) - cruise control is at the right 15. (a little blurry) Audio and info center screen is easier to use than in most cars and kudos for the climate control panel that is simple to operate 16. Rear visibility over beyond the passenger side is excellent, as is the visibility if you look over your shoulder on the driver's side End of photos

Nissan hasn't gotten the best press and the best sales numbers lately. I recently had a Nissan Sentra as a rental. This was a one car bump up in category from what I rented on line. I had driven one once before. Surprisingly, this is now considered an intermediate car. To me, it's a compact car. The Nissan Sentra is more likable than one might image, but it's also sort of boring and predictable. It's likable because it does everything fairly well for its size and price point, while not excelling at any particular thing. On second thought, it excels in terms of fuel economy when on a highway jaunt. Also, the Sentra is a very easy car to get accustomed to once you get behind the wheel. The controls of this Nissan are fairly straightforward, with the two big circular dials in the IP for the tach and speedo. In between is a square box for messages. The alignment and simplicity of things in the center stack is also easy to work with. The info audio screen and climate control are easier to operate than they are on a similar sized Toyota product. The console is about the size you'd expect in a car of this caliber. The demerits are that, in the center message box, you can't get one that displays the speed in digital form. Or, maybe, I couldn't find it. I kept trying since I much prefer a digital read on m.p.h. The other not so clever thing is what happens on the steering wheel toggle controls. In my mind, it makes more sense to have speed controls on the left side and audio controls on the right side, given that they are closer to the center stack. So, when I thought I was upping or lowering my cruise speed, I was actually changing the track on my music. Lastly, while the trunk remote is perfectly placed and feels great to the touch, they put the fuel release door way, way down ... by the trunk release. However, overall, the entire dashboard and its controls are very satisfactory, even if the materials of the vinyl covering swaths of the dashboard are slightly downmarket. Compared to the vertical nature of the Toyota Corolla's dashboard style, the dashboard of the Nissan Sentra is more nicely shaped, particularly from the passenger's viewpoint. It seems to give the front seating area more room. Also, the trunk is roomy and usable. The seats are conventionally but nicely shaped. In the base cloth, they look tough and like they're in it for the long haul. The rear seating in the cabin has abundant leg room. The visibility all around is excellent, even in the C-pillar with the inset opera windows of sorts. The Sentra's styling is now a familiar sight. The side profile has some swoops but is fairly simple, resembling a Buick Verano hit with an ugly stick. I'm exaggerating! But the volumes are much the same. The front fascia is the typical one worn by Nissan products. Here, I prefer the Toyota Corolla for having the horizontal and identifiable front bumper area. This is placed underneath the busy plastic grille in the Sentra. The rear lights have gotten more refined over the years and the rear 3/4 view is among one of the Sentra's better looks. On the road, the 1.8 liter 4 cylinder engine is adequate. It has served this car and Nissan for quite a while. It's enough for most applications but I wouldn't get overly confident with what it can do ... and what situations it can get you out of. Also, in true Nissan form, the transmission is a CVT. It works okay most of the time but, on a merge or a pass, it does something a geared automatic would not do. It seems to spool down in rpms when it decides to and does not seem as linked to what you dish out to the throttle as it would in a geared automatic transmission. This situation felt unusual at times, as if it the CVT had a mind of its own. Steering feel is adequate. Road noise is reasonably controlled but, with most cars of this size, some wind noise and tire thum intrudes. It could be quieter. Its dimensions make it easy to maneuver and park but it's not as frisky and nimble in its handling as, say, a smaller Hyundai Accent. The engine compartment is fairly straightforward. The battery is easy to locate and probably easy to replace when that is needed.I found dipsticks and openings for the critical fluids except the transmission fluid. I believe this is sealed on CVTs. The winning points of this car are the fuel mileage. On most segments, I closed in on 40 mpg. On one trek, I exceed 40 mpg, and this was cruising along at close to 70 mph. That's impressive. The car is also a good value and should last a good while if maintained, and that means taking care of that CVT with the recommended fluid changes. Between the Sentra and the Corolla, I think I like the Sentra more and, if the Corolla is now running with a CVT, then that would reinforce how I feel. (However, between a bigger Altima and a bigger Camry, I would more quickly opt for a Camry.) This is a car that can work for a lot of people who have reasonable demands of a vehicle, don't want to spend too much, and value excellent fuel economy. (photos forthcoming)

Suburban looks nicer than the Tahoe. With that little bit of extra chrome, it looks more Escalade grade. I like the photos of ones that contain some sort of identifiable horizontal front bumper strip. I'm guessing the independent suspension will also improve the ride on suburban roads and freeways. History repeats itself. We're back to transmission buttons up on the dash, adjacent to the driver. Could a little kid reach over and push "R" when it's going down the road, just for fun, or are there any redundant safety catches? (I guess the same could be asked of the round dial that sits on the console of Ford Fusions and Chrysler 300s.) As for the interior, the console is massive, the stitching on seats in some models is always a nice thing to look at, the blend of dark color pieces is less ominous with a lighter interior than they tend to have on lower priced vehicles, the graphics on the IP (slightly slanted speedo and tach numbers) carry on unchanged like those of an '06 Monte Carlo, and, as usual, I don't like the "laptop left open" on the center stack. I like the center rear graphics ... where they've placed the model names beneath the bow tie. Good that a 5.3 V8 is standard. That's a respectable amount of horsepower for the base engine. But, yes, overall, it's improved.