trinacriabob

Wow, this thread has taken on some tangential qualities, so I'll add a little more. I once read this info about the Olds 350 Rocket V8. Whenever they've modified it, either down (260, 307) or up (403), the stroke has remained the same, so it was the bore that was changed. So, when they initially did that with the 260, the space for the cooling jackets in the block was increased. However, the cooling jackets on the 403, since it remained a small block, got narrower and it supposedly ran a little hotter and/or presented some cooling challenges. The 403, if we recall, was the replacement for the big block 455 Rocket V8. (That's another study in duplication - a 454 by Chevy and 455s by both Pontiac and Olds.) Back on track, this trend toward SUVs and trucks sort of became apparent to me the other day as I was driving. I noticed that the center mounted stop lamp no longer sits at the base of most backlites. In the new Malibu and Impala, for example, it is wedged in at the very top of the backlite, where it meets the roof line. The math of more people buying vehicles where they will be sitting up higher probably dictated this design change.

The whole 350 thing was because every division was producing one in those years, so it could fly undetected until ... drum roll ... it hit the service department for some type of repair or service. And there were different schools of thought as to which was better. For one thing, Olds buyers paid more for their cars and wanted an Olds engine, and not a Chevy engine. I prefer an Olds V8 to a Chevy V8. I don't know why ... but right down to the way it sounds and it's laid out. The plugs are not grouped in twos and they sit up higher. The only thing was that, when equipped with A/C, two spark plugs were "inaccessible" on an Olds V8s. If not, then they were all very easily reachable by hand. However, when they're dropping in just one 250 or just one 231, the mix up would have never happened when someone's car needed to be serviced. Any V6 Olds Supreme (downsized version) from '78 to '87 ran with the Buick V6 carbureted engine. No complaints heard. Any mid-70s Pontiac of LeMans and Ventura size that offered a smaller entry level V8 would be getting the Olds 260. No complaints heard. I can't remember. The Pontiac OHC I-6 was a 230 or something like that? That damn Chevy inline 6 was indestructible. Boring, yes, but extremely reliable and easy to work on. Less is more, sometimes ...

I had to laugh at this. My mind wandered over to the many uses of back seats. As for the Pontiac, my dad had a used '70 Pontiac LeMans coupe we bought about 10 years later and with under 50,000 miles. Color: Bimini Blue, IIRC, with black interior. Found it in the L.A. Times. It had been brought down from a small town in the Pacific Northwest. Nice people selling it - none of that stupid L.A. vs. Seattle mentality back then. It had a 250 c.i. L6 (Chevy vintage), no air, and no power accessories (yes to steering and brakes, though). We bought it as an extra car and we joked that it was "the dog's car" because, with vinyl seats, it was the only one she was allowed to ride in. My dad had vowed never to buy a Pontiac, because they weren't as good as Buick and Olds. As it turned out, that LeMans coupe this was, by far, the most reliable car the family had ever owned. The back seat - just great. I cut my teeth on doing small auto maintenance tasks on this car. The engine bay was largely empty and there was a lot of leeway to get it right the first time. This color, more or less, but the base model, sans rally wheels, hood scoops, and a spoiler: early 70s Pontiac LeMans coupe That model could either have a 250 (L6) or V8s displacing 350, 400, and 455 (all Pontiac versions)! Funny how no one ever got pissed when their other GM car brands had inline 6s made by Chevy ... referring to when Chevy 350s were discovered in Olds products and how that enraged those buyers. And Pontiac always dialed in their dashboards better than did their counterparts at Buick and Olds - IMO LeMans dashboard I so miss the Pontiac Motor Division.

I guess it depends on the coupe. On my '84 Cutlass Supreme Brougham coupe, the seats leaned forward quite a ways and left a pretty good gap for someone up to 5'10" or so to enter and exit. I never had a problem getting in and out when I sat back there to clean. I was thinking about this as several cars passed me up today. The whole thing about cars, be they sedans or coupes, is that they offer so much more in terms of design opportunities and to carve out different personalities for themselves. There's a lot more you can do with three volumes (hood, greenhouse, and rear lid areas) than there is with two bigger ones. I find that, unless I look very closely, many SUVs and CUVs seem to blend together. Perhaps it's began these segments don't interest me all that much.

Except for maybe the ATS and the Cascada, none of these could really house 4 adult occupants that well, including having them enter and exit the rear seat. So, even with 6 survivors, none of them are mainstream medium to large sized coupes that 4 or 5 people could pile into day in and day out ... like this ... I think I'm in love ... I had one exactly like this, sans vinyl roof and T-tops, and it was the most comfortable car I've ever owned. I didn't slide around, like the announcer said. I just sank right in. It was reliable, but not as reliable as my W-bodies. That's why, if another usable coupe came along, sign me up.

I know. Three of them are the pony trio and there's three more I'd have to scratch my head about. Yes ... the Cascada, too. Damn, the automotive world needs to wake us all up with a beautifully executed new Riviera.

If it's a Buick, then why not. If it's something of Yugo quality, then heck no! It's highly likely that one's furnishings were designed in the U.S. but built overseas in Asia, and of materials sourced in Asia. Some of these furnishings have turned out to be o.k. Market dynamics in ALL sorts of markets have shifted so much in the last two decades. It's mind boggling.

I'm very mixed on this. That domestic automaker market share would climb is music to my ears. However, if the proportion of sedans and coupes shrinks because of this dynamic and there are fewer choices for my automotive needs going forward, then I'm not a happy camper. I'm guessing I can't have my cake and eat it, too. Even with GM still being the largest domestic automaker, I'm finding the choice of cars they now offer for sale beginning to look more limited, and even dismal. I'm a mid-size and nicely appointed sedan buyer at this point. And, I'm actually amazed to see myself now driving a sedan, given that I've always had a coupe prior to this. I will say that I don't miss the huge GM coupe doors that you had to restrain from scraping the cars next to yours in the parking lot.

Spotted in late February, so I wanted to add this. I couldn't help but photograph it. Had these units sported a 3800 V6, this would be my current sled. I remember how wigged out I was about Chevy's conversion from a regular 60 degree OHV 3400 V6 to the OHV 3500 Chevy V6, but with a new twist - their introduction of VVT done in a then unconventional way ... not by adding another set of cams up top, but by putting the solid state unit that regulated the VVT at the front of the camshaft pulley. As it turns out, over 10 years later, many 3500 VVT V6s are still powering those Impalas and Monte Carlos and doing just fine. I've talked to mechanics and they've told me that they've occasionally seen the actual solid state unit or the sensor up front replaced, but not too often. Also, having driven several 3500 VVT V6s in rentals in the late 2000s, they returned an unbelievable 33, and sometimes 34, mpg on the highway, which is amazing for 3,600 pound cars. They could keep the extra 89 horses that came with the now very common OHC 3600 V6 that came along later ... I'll take the extra 5 mpg on the highway. I'm happy with what I bought but I will have to admit to some cognitive dissonance when I see the very last of GM's venerable personal luxury midsize coupes, having driven a one GM coupe or another since I got my driver's license until now. And it was sad to see them clean up the Monte Carlo so nicely for its last 2 years and then see it disappear altogether. (It was funny when one forum participant here said he couldn't warm up to this car and referred to it as "the white trash car of America.")

It's going to be interesting to see if they will run into problems with using the names, logos, and other appurtenances specific to the Pontiac brand. It has now been ~10 years since it was phased out. I read about it. It's a customization kit set up for the Camaro. However, to crank out 1,000 ponies, that calls for a very specific engine, which it will have. When a new engine gets dropped in, it stops being a "kit" in my book. At any rate, has anyone noticed the recent change(s) in the Yahoo search page? While I prefer Google, this Yahoo page now features photography from its Flickr wing. If you love nature and animal photography, some new and stellar pieces of work are being showcased all the time. I am in awe of many of them.

I've been to Cortina D'Ampezzo. The Dolomites defy description. They don't feel like stereotypical Italy. It's more like being in Switzerland or Austria. The wheels and tail lamps say Pontiac and Firebird to me. When they ran together, I always preferred the Firebird to the Camaro, except in '77 and '78 (owing to the nasty "Smokey and the Bandit" front fascia). It has old school California plates. That is almost undoubtedly the Central Valley.

As I approached this car, I thought it was a Pontiac Solstice. As I got closer, I figured out it was the Saturn Sky. Now, these small 2-seaters aren't my sorts of sleds. However, if I were to have opted for one, it would have come from the GM family. I always thought Saturn had a cool logo. After looking at this again (see the badge on the front of the car), this feeling was reaffirmed.

I'm sorry to hear about this, Dave. All of these shake ups shake us all up. Crazy stuff.

Yes, I remember USD : CDN - 1 : 1 I also remember USD : CDN - 1 : 1.52 (circa 1999 ... Prince said "let's party like it's 1999" in one of his songs )

I cannot believe the prices in Toronto. On my 2005 visit, I drove around Woodbridge to see how much newer brick townhomes with nice finishes with 2 levels stacked above the 2 car garage cost and they were about $325,000 to $375,000 (CDN). I converted that into U.S. dollars (almost always a lower $ amount) and, for some reason, I thought it was sort of high. Given what I've seen in Toronto prices based on the last R.E. magazine I checked out, I'd hate to see what those townhomes would cost now.

I looked up the Post WW2 stucco ranches in L.A. that I grew up in and their prices are scary. I'm constantly scratching my head as to who can afford them. Someone must be able to or they couldn't charge those prices. The supply and demand curves must be intersecting. My parents couldn't buy those same houses if fairly new to L.A. in this day and age. Prices are high, but assessments as a percentage in L.A. aren't as absurd as they are in other major urban areas. As for square footage, 1,200 s.f. sounds like my cup of tea. I had a Southern styled brick ranch with the open carport at one side when I lived in Atlanta that was about 1,300 s.f. I loved it. Not too big, not too small. Driving by it if and when I'm in town breaks my heart because I don't have it anymore. I sensed that it was an up and coming area, and I was correct. They put a spur of their rapid transit system going fairly close by to it because the nearby area turned into a suburban business district. Well, when living near Seattle, I had to downsize into condo/townhome type living. It, too, was o.k., but nothing like what I had in Atlanta. But, OTOH, I had no yard work. Either way, if you want to buy a detached home in L.A. with 3 bedrooms for about $350K to $450K, it will be in South Central or maybe Compton, the latter of which is not in the city of L.A. Also, I've heard that some white folks are moving back into the South Central area, fixing up the homes, and living in them. They'd be smack between downtown and the harbor suburbs, although the area looks and feels sort of banal and doesn't have a lot of trees on the lawn strips. You fly right over it on approach to LAX. In reality, South Central has converted from having an African-American majority to having a huge Hispanic population within the last 2 decades. Let's just say it's still not the optimal part of L.A. to live in for low crime and good schools. As for art deco, the design of homes/buildings and ships cross-fertilized each other in that era, I believe.

Any relatives I've had in NJ have been in northern NJ (Bergen County, right across the GW Bridge from Manhattan) and I could have sworn there is some provision for property tax relief when people get to a certain age and that my relative mentioned. He stayed in his house when he retired instead of moving to Florida! I'm not sure if they have a provision that locks the assessment, like they do in California, so that people didn't get chucked from the homes they bought at 60s and 70s prices, for example. I thought Prop 13-Jarvis was the right thing to do. When those houses in Calif. do sell (the next time), their property tax assessment will jump.

It's interesting how the window of time available to the domestics where they don't heavily discount popular new cars is a short/tight one. The new Cruze is released and you pay close to MSRP. The new Fusion is released ... ditto. The new Malibu is released ... ditto. Then, it goes away quickly, as these cars begin to dominate rental fleets. Incidentally, since I find myself behind a latest-gen Malibu on an almost daily basis, its underpinnings are interesting. If right behind one, you can see the wishbone arms of the rear suspension fairly clearly. These arms have small round perforations in them. And I'm laughing thinking "it's all about the neutral axis."

There are no Guidos in Italy. No open shirts, gold chains, and slicked back hair. Or, if you see some variant of that, it will be more stylish (almost too much so) than pimpish. Italian kids look at their Jersey Shore counterparts (age wise) with amusement and derision. What you will see over there are the wrong parts of town with people that look menacing, so you know that you'd best be moving along. Any more, a lot of the people occupying these districts might be from other parts of Europe, the Middle East/Asia, and (mostly North) Africa. The number of undocumented people in Mediterranean Europe is large and creates tension and social problems.

The dividend yield may be good but the absolute amount is small. The yield always looks better when the price drops, not that that's been the situation at Ford. Their stock just seems to hover between $10 and $12.

F.I.A.T. always meant Fix It Again, Tony while growing up. It was on a trip to Italy, and which included Turin, that I learned F.I.A.T. means Fabbrica Italiana Automobilistica Torino. Their city tram system goes right along the thoroughfare in front of their headquarters. I would have to agree that F.I.A.T. qualifies as an "idiot company" based on their products ... more misses than hits. I'm sure their management ranks must be rife with highbrow Italian pomposity, too.

I'd just like to make $500 in what is now a long-term (oh yes, long-term) capital gain on F stock and call it a day with them, as in whew. Their dividends are paltry. I'm o.k. with their cars. The gap between GM and Ford in terms of product desirability has shrunken quite a bit in my book.

Stocks can be weird. General Motors (GM) has a much higher per share valuation than does Ford (F). GM's price moves up and down, while F's doesn't do much at all. If you went to a chart, you can see that it has been very flat ... for most of its life. I've always sensed that GM experiences these peaks and valleys while Ford seems to sort of chug along. Yet Ford has never needed a bailout. Let's hope they never will.

You're right. I had forgotten all about that. So weird that the Riv and Toro were so different at that time, yet so similar in their last rendition (together). There was what I called the "oval Riv" that continued on for a while after the Toro departed.

There was a lot of dowdy stuff, relatively speaking, going on at that time. This was not dowdy in any way, either on the outside or on the inside. The interior of these was wonderful. And, those vertical headlights that opened up like cracking an egg and then hid away were unique. Looking at this photo, that could only be Florida ... meh, it could be GA or SC or ... Are these rank ordered by gender? It would be interesting to know the relative tilt of the purchases by gender. Some of these don't surprise me. Some of them do. Of all the cars on that list, the only one I like is the Chevrolet SS. And I liked that car before I even saw the list, not that that would do anything to change my mind. Chev SS