balthazar

Benz has 383. The way I look at it- GM sells vehicles to dealers. They get their money up front, they get the destination money to ship it... and the longer a dealer has a given vehicle on their lot, the longer GM takes to give that dealer it's sales kickback ('withholding'). Having a quantity of "under-performing" dealers is no skin off GM's back. But undoubtedly there are more subtleties to it; perhaps simplification of logistics and record-keeping, IDK. But a dealership's profit/loss has no direct impact on GM Corporate.

When I first got my house, I had a manual reel mower (big surprise with me, right?). A Clemson, out of Middletown NY, and an excellent machine for it's time (it's probably from the '40s-50s- still have it). I blew it apart, painted/lubed/sharpened it. They cut grass better than any rotary mower because they scissor it. However, they do not like crabgrass or other heavy weedy stuff. Then I borrowed my FIL's corded electric. Corded mowers are a really lousy compromise. It wasn't exactly 'quiet', but it's main drawback (besides the cord) was it was weak- it didn't process the heavy stuff any better than the reel mower. Since then (I've been in my house 28 years), I've had 2 Craftsman B&S mowers. I put 1 blade on the first one, but eventually the deck rusted out. This 2nd one I put one new blade on it, and the pull-cord broke so it's only like a foot long. No problem. I should add I have a fairly shaded lot and I don't mow all that often.

1. Pontiac - familiarity / TRQ 2. Buick - same reasons 3. Olds - neutral impression 4. Chevy - too common

My uncle Stanley’s list of autos. Back when brand loyalty was fairly common & strong. He passed in ‘86; the ‘76 was his last and the only one I saw. Wish he had kept the ‘58 & ‘59.

• I don't happen to know random GM '60s paint colors except for a bunch at Pontiac. • 1961 is the low point of Cadillac styling from '50-70. '62 is far more stylistically refined. I think that's it; 98, Electra & Cadillacs got the one roofline, Bonneville & Impala got another.

To me; the '62 better reflects a traditional Cadillac with the more formal greenhouse. I LIKE the '61 roof just fine; interestingly- tho similar, it's unique from the other Division's 2-dr hardtop greenhouses. It just doesn't seem 'Cadillac' to me, despite feeling that the '59-60 coupes are perfection.

But that's not what's happening with this buy-out offfering. - - - - - Both Caddys above are NOT Eldorados- the Big E was convertible-only from '61 thru '66. - - - - - I am getting a little sick of all the colorization of vintage B&W photos. I may start an 'Unimbibed' effort that de-colorizes colorized photos back to B&W. It's just one person's guess/opinion on what the colors were, anyway. 'Graininess' has nothing to do with color vs. B&W. Some of the best quality photos are turn-of-the-century silver gelatin prints; WAY better than color photos were for a LONG time. This pic is 1910 :

Miss Belvedere :

9 quarts... DuraMax takes 10.

Don’t know if you’ve been in one or not, but you’d also have to agree it’s much noisier than an IC vehicle.

'57 Star Chief, began barn slumber in 1968.

Had a ride in a lexyoter UX250h Sunday. Ugly little spud; I think the Bolt looks better here. Very cramped inside. Super-loud whine in reverse & taking off from start in electric; C&D stated both the gas engine & the electric motor have 'poky' acceleration & makes 'course noises'. So much for 'electric = silent'.

Well, I'm sure GM encourages dealers to inventory what SELLS. Base models don't, much. I expect the future is going to see less & less lot inventory, even tho the guy I talked to expressed frustration at the level it's at now.

You're in Jersey too, yes?

Just talked to the finance manager at my local GMC dealer (called 2 mins before closing)- after a bit of conversation he told me what Horsey told me 'just order the truck'. Also said they'll go 250 miles to get a vehicle; no farther. And Employee pricing (running thru 1/4/21) isn't good on ordered trucks. 8-10 weeks to come in.

Daimler.com says there's 383 mercedes dealers in the U.S., BMW has 348. If it's logical to compare sales volumes vs. dealer outlets (and I'm not convinced it is) Cadillac may be over-represented. However, I note; mrcedes & BMW are usually corporate stand-alones, whereas Cadillac is commonly paired with another GM brand. Per a mutli-brand GM dealership, Cadillac may not have to 1. sell the same volume/store, meanwhile 2. provides more convenience to buyers by being more plentiful. It may to be tough to reach a true comparison there.

Saw online that about 150 Cadillac dealers (out of the total of 880) took the 'opt-out' package from GM to NOT be a future electric Cadillac dealer. These opt-out packages varied from (IIRC) $300K to $1000K. It would be interesting to see a case study of the reasons these dealers decided to get out of the Cadillac game. Obviously it will reduce the number of Cadillac dealers to around 730 locations.

This is a 4300 SF, $1.3m home. By my vast observation, they're not built ANY better than more mainstream-priced homes. Case in point: the face of this kitchen island cabinet just FELL OFF. Cabinet boxes were rather thin particle board, and the face was glued on. ALWAYS use mechanical fasteners over chemical, where possible. Had to take the 3 faces apart, clean all surfaces of old glue and a prior attempt to silicone it in place, tweak the cabinet boxes, reattach the individual faces then screw them together. Had all the doors off & drawer slides out. Some blocking inside, 2 face screws to hold it (behind drawer fronts), and a bunch of colored finish nails in the face. Took about 2.5 hours. 2nd pic is the 'after'.

So I see this thread really should be titled "How often do you pay someone to change your oil?"

Of course; that's FINE. You, as a representative of the market, have 'spoken' with your purchase. And that's how a market is composed; of millions of individual choices. But no consumer market is composed of a single product (that I can think of). Where I come in is; not everyone can afford or WANT to pay 'the extra price' for what they get.

It's not that I have an 'issue' with a gas mower maintenance, it's simply that there's basically none to do. They run forever. A can of gas lasts me all year. A spark plug and blade last 10. And gas mowers "leak fluids" about as often as electrics 'leak acids and spew ozone' from the arcing motors. It's a lot of nonsense. But you go ahead and justify your $1000 push mower any way you need to. Model 3 was initially promised to be $35K, but the bulk stickered at $47-54K. A couple years later and an 'off menu' stripped 3 is available, if you know about it, at $35K, but is dropped after about 6 months. Meanwhile, Tesla slips the low-priced Model S & X off the menu, raising the ante' there. Most of the recent EV introductions have centered around the 'LaLa land' $70K tier. OEM costs are irrelevant if they're not passed on to consumers.

Googled; the $200 battery mowers are 12-in to 17-in, and didn’t see any self-propelled. Might have missed them, if they’re out there. Still an obvious non-competitive price disparity, feature-for-feature.