trinacriabob

I don't know. It's got ~2000 written all over it and the front and rear fascia cosmetics are not convincing enough.

Axel (Akmed) Foley alert ... I've put up this car before and it's still there ... more or less in the exact same place! Seen on March 21. And here it is with a gentleman walking his Australian Shepherd on the sidewalk about a minute later!

Seen March 20 slightly north of Balboa Park in San Diego We saw the progression of Datsun/Nissan from 240 (to 260) to 280 to 300 Z(X). If this thing was sporting a red cloth interior, this must have been relatively "old." Let's not forget the chunkier looking 2+2 they did with this model for a couple of years. It's not like the extra seats were all that usable. - - - - - I can't omit some Subaru spotting - also on March 20 in the San Diego area. This one belonged to one of the big museums in Balboa Park This one was plated somewhere far away (no front license plate) but certainly competed for attention with the runway behind it in the distance at San Diego International Airport.

MORE Dodge Chargers ... March 15 Spotted in CA's Inland Empire (that's a nicer way of saying "the 909") Here's a Dodge Charger in these new enamel grays I like, except for the real dark one. - - - - - March 18 I was driving down the highway toward the house I was staying in and I just assumed these would be used Chargers. Wrong. They were brand new. So, it's a white one and a charcoal metallic one sitting under the desert sun. The one above appears to be a V6 - MSRP $43,600 The one above appears to be an V8 - MSRP $54,265 I wonder if they'd part with these at MSRP and/or just how much more above that they'd want. Maybe the latter is why they haven't flown off the lot and sold "like hot cakes."

Beautiful. I have driven one Chrysler 300 as a rental (for one day, and reviewed it) and several Dodge Chargers. I love both cars. While the appointments are different on purpose and the Dodge is slightly more athletic, the decibel range of what was going on while driving them was about the same to me. I was expecting the 300 to have a slightly quieter cabin. @riviera74 I, too, look upon I-6s favorably. They operate very quietly. They'd have to tweak them to get better mpg out of them. When the Chevy Trailblazer of the 2000s went to a Vortec 4.2 L I-6, the rated mileage was far from stellar. That could have been the upright nature of the vehicle. It might have fared better in sedans and coupes. The one inline 6 we had when I was growing up was almost more reliable than our Olds V8s. @oldshurst442 I appreciate the possibilities you are posting, but I'm hoping car designers can do better than cranking out more and more retros, whether ICE or EV. When Chargers and Challengers had that vertically short inset rectangular front fascia and a similar treatment for the rear fascia, I did not like them at all. That's a chapter in Mopar history I want to forget. But that's just me. People who have those cars and go to car shows will disagree with me.

Seen in San Diego, baby ... an overcast and cool San Diego ... thumbs down to that. I'm seeing red ... This Dodge Charger is at a traffic circle near the linear Prado that crosses a good part of Balboa Park - - - - - I'm seeing double ... It's the same Charger across San Diego Bay in Coronado, later in the day. - - - - - Based on the way it's outfitted, it looks like it may be a rental and one of the last of this genre that will be in a rental fleet. I would have gladly traded with him and given him my rented Accord.

Just saw a Chrysler Concorde from the mid-'90s, so a 30 year old car. It was in perfect condition and had a "Happy Days" type lady driving it. It was forest green metallic with a gray interior. This car's treatment of the greenhouse is very generous compared to today's passenger cars. Apparently, they had a more rounded model that kept the same name and followed this body style. I think the rounded one is more attractive and the grille references the forthcoming Chrysler 300 a little bit. I have no clue what the engine in these cars was. I have never known if these cars - including the Eagle Vision and possibly a Dodge version - were any good, so I bought the Regal coupe that time around ... and am so glad I did.

March 18 Southern California's desert areas Saw this 1978 Cutlass Supreme for sale along CA-62, the highway toward Joshua Tree National Park. I don't believe it was a Brougham. All of the upholstery was sort of covered over with an upholstery that wasn't factory. The paint looked a little faded. It had a license plate from Plaza Motors - the Cadillac/Olds dealer in Palm Springs back when it was a "kinder, gentler" place, meaning reasonably priced ranch homes in the flats. It probably had a 260 V8. I wasn't interested enough to call, and not for $10,500. Was driving down a street in Palm Springs with some dated mid-century modern (or knock off) housing and saw this, a circa 2000 Grand Prix GTP coupe, in bright red. It had USC Trojans license plate frames! You're always bound to see interesting cars in and around Palm Springs and its neighboring towns.

True. Another questionable moniker is PLC - personal luxury car. Would a $5,000 MSRP Monte Carlo or Grand Prix from 1976 be a "luxury car" if outfitted in basic trim where vinyl seats are paired up with black seat belts if the matching seat belt option was not checked off? And, since they could seat up to 6 people if the armrest on bench seat versions is up, how "personal" would the space in these coupes really be? Meh. I can roll with this one. At least we know what is implied.

I will miss this car a lot ... not the Hellcat or other tricked out versions, but the basic car and what it represents. I'm perfectly fine with 292 hp to the 717 hp of the car shown here! At about 3:30 in the video, it hits that 298 kmh. That is ~185 mph! While watching this, I was hoping no one would change lanes on this guy. Not only that, with the evergreen tree cover on both sides of the autobahn, I was hoping no deer would come jumping across the roadway. When he's transitioning from one roadway to another, I like how nimbly this 4,000 pound car appears to handle. I guess my love of this car will have to be relegated to 5 to 10 rentals of one as opposed to actual ownership. @oldshurst442 It indeed has some German DNA. The transmission is sourced in Germany, the engine is American, and final assembly takes place in Brampton, ON, Canada. But it sounds like you know that. This car has more than enough German DNA to outrun Irma Bunt and her evil cronies with ease.

Good morning ... ... well, not really.

Look at this car. Malaise era Mopar. And all those GMs seen in the vid. And in yesteryear's Los Angeles! The world we know/knew has steadily been losing its personality.

That's way lower than I would have guessed. It looked to me like it might be higher. Maybe because the automakers are publicizing EVs disproportionately the cars with ICEs. I used to get a kick and also get annoyed by how Italians, and many Europeans in general, seem to rag on cars with automatic transmissions. All the EVs being sold over there are indeed automatic. They will be going electric. And automatic! I'm going to stay with a conventional car a little longer. When the calculation pencils out or is moot, I wouldn't mind have an EV.

I was going to go to the auto show this year and then didn't. The industry is in such a state of flux. And I'm not an early adopter, if that hasn't been obvious on this forum for a long time ... lol. So, I'll put forth a simple question: With just the domestic automakers, what percentage of their offerings at this very time is "EV : ICE?" 30 : 70, 40 : 60, 50 : 50, something else? Just an approximation, and not in numbers of units sold, but just by models/trims available to consumers.

I always assumed China and its cities were crowded and compact (with sprawl) and that that would not incentivize owning large cars. I guess I'm wrong.

What is this? It's not badged. It has some reference to the "Police Caprice." Is that a tri-shield logo I see in the center caps? Mostly, I like it. It's the sort of sled I could see myself driving. - - - - - As for the new Encore, there is styling improvement both inside and out. I don't know how much I like it. Wow ... 1.2 liters? That's 72 c.i., more or less. And that's all the MPG it gets? I like the way Buick is inscribed on the rear, below the new tri-shield logo. It doesn't look bad. They photographed it in some sunny location. I still don't know if it's for us, the Chinese, others, or some combo of the above.

Yes, interesting. Thanks. The Lincoln Versailles piggy-backed onto the Ford Granada while the Cadillac Seville was designed from scratch and had a much better standard engine upon being released. Then: - 38 minute video - typical - that's longer than an episode of "The Brady Bunch" or "Bewitched" - the initial sequence where he pans around it at night when it's illuminated is sort of cool ... sort of ... and, best of all, he's NOT talking - he admits that he had his "covid whiskey" ... why am I not surprised? - it takes 22 minutes to learn that it has a FoMoCo 302 c.i. V8 under the hood, though it was probably a coin flip between a 302 and a 351 ... but we did learn that the trans was a 3 speed automatic and one that probably lacked the lock-up feature - the dashboard and instrumentation are hideous - he definitely seems to be biased toward GM, given that he gushes over the colonnades and such ... which is fine with me. That said, he doesn't seem to like this car very much. - whose house is that that he's always doing these YouTube vids from?

Funny! Yes to all that Greek grilling. Portuguese food is simple and delicious, but I don't like the chicken piri piri you might be referring to and which seems to have become trendy in short order. I don't think it's authentically Portuguese, but might have come into their cuisine by way of Brazil, Angola, and/or Cape Verde. If you like chicken piri piri, it will be easy to find on the Plateau Mont-Royal, a neighborhood I struggle with (cough) ... haha.

Yes to a select few of those (chicken paprikash, chicken lo mein, sesame chicken) since I will not go near anything spicy. Ever. My nose runs the entire time and that's not fun. Adding chicken teriyaki, lemon chicken, chicken fricasse (Cuban), chicken enchiladas and burritos, chicken souvlaki, etc., etc.

All I can say is bring it on: chicken parmigiana, chicken piccata, chicken cordon bleu, cashew chicken, chicken tetrazzini, etc., etc.

Rattlesnake? "It tastes like chicken." Alligator? "It tastes like chicken." - - - - - Hard pass on both.

He wouldn't be the true-to-form @oldshurst442 we know if there weren't those occasional rants.

NIFTY !

Let me be the first to wish one of our more unique and active members @oldshurst442 greetings on his special day, per the site's daily "news feed." Happy birthday - Charoumena genethlia - Bon anniversaire And many more ... enjoy your day!

I like the photo on the right and its caption. It's both easy and difficult to explain, with the latter applying to someone not familiar with the state's educational landscape. In addition to the good private schools like Stanford, Cal Tech, and USC, there are 2 state university systems. There is the UC system (more prestigious and geared to research and preparation for graduate studies) and the CSU system (less prestigious, with a few exceptions, and more applied and vocational). When I finished high school, they flat out told you that a certain GPA and SAT score would get you into the UC system, and that formula included Berkeley (the mother campus) and UCLA (sort of the co-flagship). Move forward 2 or 3 decades and the landscape is very, very different. Now, Berkeley and UCLA admit less than 15% of the freshman applicant pool. Some of the other good UCs admit about 25% to 35% of their applicants. That's less than Montreal's McGill, which I think is a better school. Except for the 2 polytechnic universities within the CSU system (San Luis Obispo and Pomona), the others admit fairly liberally, with some as high as 85% to 90%. SLO and Pomona are good at engineering and architecture, which may not be found at the other CSUs, so the admit rate is lower. Now, if we're talking the Bakersfield, Fresno, San Bernardino, and Chico campuses, just show up with a pulse and, at Chico, a strong penchant for partying. I knew this chick who looked like Rachel Ward's lost twin sister and who graduated from CSU Sacramento. She said, "If a resume from Chico State lands on your desk, just put it in the trash can." That's a stretch, but I laughed. I'm sure a few capable scholars end up at CSU Chico, but not many. Sorry for being slightly pedantic, but I keep tabs on this sort of stuff. California is a weird but interesting place. It has about the same population as Argentina. Within the last few years, less people are making it a destination. But when my parents got to this country, they bolted from the greater New York area when the opportunity to live in Southern California presented itself.