balthazar

More old vehicle recycling :

I'm not offended by your posts; I get frustrated by the journalistic swill out there. 1970s-1980-1990s there was a MUCH larger range of quality & amenities out there, and the comparison terms were justified. Today, there really are no 'shit' vehicles out there, but God forbid a review (now that there aren't just 4 or 5 reviews sources, but 200-300), the published result is 'Meh, these 3 are pretty great and we can't find much negative to split them over. Everyone ties for 1st place." How does a reviewer 'get heard' that way? Where's the clicks?? 'Sweaty & greasy' is pure horseshit/garbage commentary. - - - - - I remember the Magnum- looked at one on the showroom floor for the wife years ago. Loved the exterior design, loved the innovative lift gate that extended into the roof... but even then when brand new, neither of us liked the interior.

Well, I bought one of those interiors, and trust me, it's neither "greasy" nor "sweaty" - those are bizarrely inapplicable terms here. And even if they were (tho they're NOT), that seems to be what buyers want, seeing as how General Motors sold more of those interiors than Ford did last year. The bottom line is the interiors are 100% competitive with each other, and the minor subjectives get blown out of proportion due to the current nature of 'screaming' journalism. To wit; the nonsense terms quoted here.

I completely disagree, the GM truck interiors have been absolutely competitive (aside, as I stated; from the top trim).

Yes; it's a lot. And it's good.

Ram has 2 parallel truck liness: Rebel / TRX, and Tradesman / Tradesman HFE, Big Horn, Laramie, Limited Longhorn / Limited. Ford F-150 Lariat : $45,045 Ram Big Horn : $37,390 Laramie would be closer to Lariat @ $42,080.

A-Bodies should've just gotten B-Bodies brakes. My brother still has his first car, a '71 GTO hardtop. He's too busy working to work on that project (body off frame, lots of rust repair), plus he has 2 other Pontiacs.

^ I'm pretty sure the Sport still had the Endura nose as a separate option, so; nice set-up. My brother & I once tried to go in together and buy a pair of white '71s- he was after the Judge hardtop (1 of 357 built), and I was after the LeMans Sport convert, which was wearing the Judge's Endura nose. They had been just sitting behind a Pontiac engine-builder friend of ours for years, but once we started the conversation going with the owner (another guy), he apparently 'fell back in love' and declined to sell them. I'm not really into A-Bodies, but I've chased a few. Another was a white '68 GTO hardtop with a bright red interior, hide-aways and a hood tach, but the owner sold it out from under me to someone else.

Doesn’t have to be ‘nicer’; it has to be competitive. There is a range there, but the narrative nowadays is ‘If you ain’t first, you last’. Of course, opinions vary and the sales figures almost never bear out the ‘journalists’ opinions. Kinda why I put more stock (if much of any) in sources that stick to one segment, like TFL truck. I don’t want to read a reviewer’s opinion on a -say- Buick SUV- when he just climbed out of a bentley the week before.

High Country; yes; more opulence is needed there (I drove one, I didn't think it was terrible... but it's not up to the competition via pic comparisons). The middle-road trims interiors are very nice for the price tier, IMO. People forget how wretched the Ram Tradesman interiors are.

^ You're NOT WRONG! ? and ?

What's this referring to? [quote]now car dealerships are using those old laws to prevent automakers who never had deals with third-party franchise dealers, like Tesla, from selling their vehicles to the public[/quote] Existing dealerships have no power or authority to prevent anything. State officials disallowing Tesla to sell directly are merely enforcing existing law. Perhaps Tesla needs some lobbyists- Big Gov't seems to respond, Pavlovian-esque, to lobbyists... BTW- I know GM had company stores (a handful) as recently as 1970.

Saw an ID4 (I guess) today, also blue & white (must be an initial production limitation). VW SUV, not the usual type. Doesn't say 'VW' design-wise, not sure if that's bad or good.

Interior looks hella busy, but the 'leather-fondlers' will probably like it. Too bad about the console shifter, but I'm reading elsewhere that the lower trims keep the proper column shifter. Console-shift in a pickup is a deal-breaker for me; takes up too much real estate. Also makes no sense. That's the XR2 front end above, I get the skid plates but I'm not liking the grille texture. Sales battles primarily spur discounts & rebates.

Oh- you didn't say 'Chevrolet', you said "GM". Silverado outsold Ram in Q4 2020 and ALL of 2020. GM outsold Ford by a 59K units in Q4 2020. I don't know that the Silverado will ever pass the F-Series... GM is doing very well / just fine (chip issue aside), and I don't think GM is "tired" on this. - - - - - These 'Chevy vs. Ford' sales battles really amount to a lot of nothing.

??????

Sobering historical tidbit : the U.S. did not manufacture any Purple Heart medals for 25 YEARS after WWII, due to having a stockpile on hand for the possible invasion of Japan. Read that, researching this : Seems to be the right size, weight, quality... but it's either a repro missing the enameled front, or it's a production reject- the hole for the loop to attach to a ribbon is not drilled thru- looks like that operation damaged it and it was rejected.

She was really hot in that left pic era.

Another installment of 'Time Sucks' :

Have passed 2500 miles- no problems or issues to report. Suspension settled down, MPG is edging upward. Still : ?

A lot of ANY group, no matter how you segregate/slice them, are net negatives.

^ I doubt that info has been tabulated, as it would be so amorphous. The only place I believe there'd be a tangible 'halo effect' is within a model line; a 1LE Camaro selling V6 Camaros, for example.

Elvis's last ride was in a downsized '77 Miller-Meteor Cadillac.