trinacriabob

On 2/1/2024 at 8:54 PM, David said:

A Saab 

Q:  What's the difference between a Saab and a porcupine?

A:  A Saab has its pricks on the inside.

I had meant to chime in on this.

The Malibu production line may be ongoing at Fairfax/Kansas City and it looks like the 2025 model may be much the same as the 2024.  Sales are sales, even if it's a "rental (agency) darling." (Great term.)  I think GM needs one bread and butter sedan.

With the new Camry fetching a very favorable reception, Chevrolet is probably taking some extra time so that it doesn't introduce it alongside a new Camry and can also fine tune the final product.

I can only hope that this doesn't turn out to be another Charger-like scenario.  That would mean that everyone is prognosticating and sketching and then we get treated to the news that it would be retired.  The difference is that the very last Charger/300 would have been a tough act to follow while the Malibu can improve and become a more attractive and refined vehicle.

A random thought that sometimes goes through my head:

Does TikTok often come across as a low budget, low skill, white trash alternative to YouTube?

Today would be Michelangelo's birthday.  He lived to be 89.  This was unheard of at that time, and probably almost double the longevity of most people.

I only remember this because I know two people with this birthday, one of whom points out this tidbit of info.

(I am almost sure Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, hence tax day in the yet to be established colonies which would become the country I hope we all know and love.)

2 hours ago, David said:

Consdering the Toyota Frame failures and now axel failures, I agree sad if anyone gets hurt, but way to funny that peeps think Toyota is this perfect company.

The Beverly Hills Cop series is still great to watch even today. Yup some politically incorrect moments in the films, but they were part of that generation.

Since I'm a spelling fanatic, I was just picking up on the aXLe transpo.  And capitalized on it to incorporate AXEl Foley. 

I only saw the first one. 

Every one knows all the lines to this skit.  Inimitably funny.

I almost forgot:

Happy Leap Day, folks.

This buys us more time, if you catch my drift ...

They "sent" me this article.  It was a wake up call and I didn't know how good we had it, so to speak.  This is sad.

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/the-a340/index.html

It contains a lot of great information.  I came to realize that pilots and passengers alike very much like them. There's the earlier 300 with the 4 "skinny" engines and I flew on one by Swiss in the recent past.  However, I haven't flown on the 600, with its 4 large engines, in a long time.  Since the 600 is longer and carries a lot of passengers, those 4 large engines "might" pencil.

Currently, only Lufthansa flies the A340-600.  They also have a small number of the earlier A340-300s, as does Swiss.  Lufthansa brought the A340s back while temporarily mothballing their ginormous A380s, which are being put back into service (out of Munich and not out of Frankfurt).

Here's one coming into LAX.  Beautiful.

I would really like to fly on an Airbus A340-600, so I'll be looking on the schedules to get routed on one.

I have to listen to this absurdity just about every morning ... it's a station that has music, news, etc. 

This is their jingle.  Now locals I've brought it up to find it funny that I've reacted to this so strongly.

This is f**king random and ridiculous as hell!  There has been a huge erosion of the language here, largely as a result of mass media.  So many words have been imported from English and they had Italian words for them before:  meeting, feeling, jogging, and many words for things automotive.

OTOH, the French are safeguarding their language according to an Italian prof. I knew in the U.S. - a computer is an "ordinateur" in French, but, in Italian, it's also a "computer" - pronounced "com-pooh-tear."  Kudos to the French for having a pair.

"Very Normal People" is just nuts.

What I had really meant to say:

It's not news that we're living in ways that are more and more disconnected.  

Cell phones are great, especially in public places and on transport.  However, some people, and even "older" people, now think that "conversations" can be carried on in their entirety on a cell phone.  It's so bad that a sibling's kids couldn't call their grandmother (my mom) for her birthday because, well, it was relayed to her that 'they only text.'  (They have to use a phone at their jobs.)  Have I mentioned that I don't like most millennials?

So, what I've got with a few people is that they want to have conversations this way.  It turns out that their texts dribble in over a 4-hour period on a given day or evening when I'm not expecting them.  If you decide to have a phone call, you can consolidate what you have to say across the span of those 4 hours by thinking about what you need to talk about and getting it down to 30 minutes or so.  And then it's done.

The most normal friends I know text briefly for 1 or 2 iterations and then we set up a time to talk every 2 weeks to a month apart.

* end of rant *

On 2/28/2024 at 7:11 AM, David said:

OUCH Major recall as Toyota axel can separate from the auto causing a crash.

Toyota Announces New Recall: Over 683,000 Vehicles Affected In A Week (msn.com)

I didn't vote laugh because of the content, which is serious and sad.

I voted laugh because ...

There's an axle ...

... and then there's Axel Foley

Ok, so I'll say something about this video.

It's mostly pros: 

- nice cabin; they even did the Malibu thing with the fabric on the dash

- unobtrusive touch screen in terms of its placement and sensibly placed controls 

- the hideous diagonal for the cubby under the center stack is gone

- much nicer treatment of the rear passenger window where it meets the C-pillar - it no longer looks like a '72 Caprice 

- better side profile and rear taillights

- we know the 2.5 liter 4 cylinder, assuming it stays the same

Neutral:

- well, with the hybrid, a CVT comes onto the scene ... if it lasts at least 200,000 miles with diligent maintenance, I can't complain

 Cons:

- the console height between the bucket seats is a little too high for my taste

- the front grille continues on as an appliance; whether in base model form or aggressively styled sporty model form.  It can very easily be "fixed" - thicken the center cross-member where the bumper supposedly is and raise it up a little from the ground.  It's still too much - less is more.

There are some people who do speak like this.  There used to be a lot more of them!  Goofy little song.

Instead of "what are you listening to?" it would be "what are you watching?"  This showed up and I saw a Pontiac.  (Pontiacs and Oldsmobiles tended to have twin symmetrical split grilles, while Chevys, Buicks, and Cadillacs tended to have a centered single one.) I had never heard of such a film nor its chase.

So, we've got a Pontiac Ventura, hopefully with a V8, chasing the largest of Pontiacs with bad guys in it.  Roy Scheider is in the Ventura.  The footage over the GW Bridge is well done.  How this ends is surprising and highly unlikely.  I might have to look at this film.

On 2/16/2024 at 8:32 PM, surreal1272 said:

Chevy van

These two words automatically bring this to mind:

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=ry59qsl2R8c&si=LydZ5y8B5RoeF-gm

Definitely not in my collection ...

I didn't even look for this.  It was suggested for me, so I watched it.

Well, here it is.  They have apparently put some thought into this car and want to remain major player in this niche.  It looks like the entry level LE will be starting at $30,000 (US).  Also, only hybrid 4-cylinder engines (which make respectable horsepower) will be powering this latest generation of Camry.

It's probably like a wild animal knowing that they will be parting ways with their young, but it could be that dogs project their relationship with their human onto their offspring.  The parents probably get a decent sniff test on the humans looking at their pups.  Dogs can read a person's character fairly accurately.

I'd be interested in knowing what the experts would say about this situation.

18 hours ago, David said:

 

I'm going to go out on a limb here:

At first glance and because of that angled and slightly curved panel behind the rear passenger door, I immediately thought of the Taurus/Sable wagons that were hewn from the very jellybean Taurus/Sable sedans of the mid to late '90s.

8 hours ago, Robert Hall said:

It's too bad the US is so fixated on trucks, SUVs and CUVs..there are many wagons sold elsewhere that would be nice here...or wagon versions of US market sedans.   I loved the looks of the CTS wagon 15 years ago, a modern CT5 wagon would be sweet... 

I agree with this.  While not a bumper crop, there have been some attractive wagons.

- - - - -

What I was really going to say:

I think about this every now and then.

When I was a teenager and we went to pick out a dog from an ad I found in the L.A. Times, I look back on that and remember how the puppy's parents weren't that fazed by our handling, picking up, and walking away with her ... after paying, of course.  You're essentially walking off with their offspring.

Then, when our dog had some pups, she was not too weirded out by people coming into our backyard, accompanied by us, and checking out, buying, and leaving with her pups.

I was wondering if this is sort of normal.  Dogs are so damn smart that I wonder how they process these "transactions."

43 minutes ago, Drew Dowdell said:

I tend to go the other direction. I like when there are modern takes on older songs.  I recently stumbled onto this new version of Clocks, even more chill than the original.

I actually agree.  I like Donna Summer's version better - it was her best song, IMO.  I am also giving credit to Richard Harris and his getting a Grammy for it.  I didn't know that.

Similarly, mostly country singer Ray Stevens took the song "Misty" to big hit status - even more popular in the UK than the US - from its more staid initial version(s).

It's always interesting to go back and listen to the version of a song prior to a reboot, as in what provided the inspiration for Donna Summer's "MacArthur Park."

That would be Richard Harris's version of it.

Donna Summer ratchets it up some with that second "again" refrain, where she can hold those extended "again" vocals, when he instead follows it with "oh no" because of his low voice.

The disco version has those big band instrumentals in its entirety, which is consistent for that genre, whereas this song kicks into similar instrumental mode at about 5 miminutes.

The Richard Harris version would be considered a classic or romantic standard.  You have to respect it for that.  The Donna Summer may just be more relevant only because it's more familiar.

I wonder what sort of arrangement needs to be worked out for a rehash after about a dozen years.  I hope Mr. Harris was flattered by the imitation.

16 minutes ago, Drew Dowdell said:

The Jetta will be the comfort king here. They're the most spacious of the bunch, ride really well, have a pleasant powertrain, and I wouldn't even mind rowing my own gears for once.

Yes, it does ride well, per a one week rental, and looks deceivingly more uptown for that price point.  I'm on board with the 8 speed automatic.

On 2/5/2024 at 8:23 PM, David said:

Plenty of good options for a first car for people.

Thankfully so.

However, the only one I find interesting is the VW Jetta.

The Jeep is just a "baby" .... barely broken in.

The Stang looks good for its years!

Ah, yes, an inland ocean with Canada (the province of Ontario) on the other side.

Good morning ...

... be damn careful if you run into this rich, twisted Berkeley educated novelist who doesn't wear panties, has a side dish named Roxy, and wields an ice pick.

I'm not up to speed with the different platforms and sizes and they almost confuse me because I'm not that analytical with this niche. I just know that, of all these 2 volume vehicles, the only 2 I have ever liked have been from GM - the Acadia and the Envision.  They seem to strike a good balance.

So, is this 2.5 4 cylinder the one that came standard on the last Impala, but now with a turbocharger plopped onto it? Is it the same in terms of its specs? I liked the Ecotec 2.5 when I've rented a car with one.

Also, the 2024 Acadia photos are almost certainly taken at Acadia National Park in Maine, probably the only state on the American Atlantic coastline where mountains meet the sea, which is the norm on the Pacific.

Flattering photos of this 2024 model!

FYI

Punxsutawney Phil's accuracy rate is only 39%.