balthazar

No way- Pontiac over Olds every day! Just look at that GTO (thru the windshield) vs. the Cutlass: Fwoom! BaBAM! Then up the game by going to the GP and it's game over! I swear; there must be 90% of the '67 GP converts left- they are everywhere! And every seller plays up the "great significance" of the '67 GP, like it was some sort of GP standout "PLUS!!!" it's a convert. Enough already with the wrinkled canvas roof. BTW : cheers.

LOL - "i" still stands for fuel injection. BMW welcomes you to 1975. An I8 would really stand out in the field (not that being the only brand still carrying the '1954 inline torch' isn't, already). They bolt 2 more cylinders on & market it as a 'big brother' to the 6.

wouldn't it make more sense if a model called I8 was powered by an I8 engine?

400/400, A/C, dual tanks = NICE. Cheers!

^ Right on; steering wheel is very likely a Mooneyes 15" unit, and the rims are Radir, back in production after being gone a few decades. They're right on, period-wise (tho I personally hate WWs with 'mags'). OEM steering wheel is FAR classier, with the clear acrylic sections & more proportional 17" diameter.

Ranger was at least from this millenium, appearance-wise. If folk didn't need the full-size capabilities of a truck, they'd be far better off with a Transit Connect than a small open pick-up. More versatility.

There used to be a few Gak-wagons rolling around here, but the seem to have all been traded in on Enclaves or something, because they've disappeared. Abysmally & amazingly ancient, from a self-claimed 'leader' in the lux segment. It was dated when it was brand new.

Hmmm.... what's the current average GM incentive??

Or the Impala.

Tho those dealers are few & far between, ocnblu makes solid marketing sense. 'International' would be a great move, tho the styling needs a complete do-over for it to get anywhere, sales-wise. Selling a 1980 pickup in 2015 does not a business plan make.

^ There it is; the prototype FWD Packard. Had you heard of it before, Hudson? The clue to the alert-eyed is the splash apron below the grille- it's asymmetrical shape. Packard did a nice job keeping the RWD proportions, eh?

It's a 40+ year old vehicle. The turn signals are still externally-screwed to the fenders with a fat, exposed rubber gasket, like a VW Thing from the '60s. In fact, it bears more than a passing resemblance to a Thing. What an anachronistic waste.

Well, you know me & my preferred frame of reference... My '64 GP has a real nice, natural texture on it's American Walnut trim. Dash, steering wheel, shift gate. Nice. To answer your question; from the cars & pics I've seen... the '60s is the last time there was a tactile feel to automotive wood. '66 Eldorado had it, but I believe Cadillac went to plood by '67. Pontiac did too, I believe. Most today are as plastically-smooth as glass- defeats half of the purpose of wood in a car, which is look & feel. There's more attention to the feel of plastic in an interior today than of wood. Ass-backwards.

For Pontiac at least, the THM became standard in March of '71, IIRC. In '71, 174 Catalinas had the manual, 30 of those being Cat Safaris. There were 116 manual GPs, 4 manual Bonnevilles, and 2 manual Grand Villes (!!). IMO, column-shift manuals in these cars would be a major detriment. Interesting historically, yes; but a downer to drive.

I've been bitching about the 'buried in plastic' wood in modern cars for a decade now- so nice to see actual texture making it's way back! I like a number of the details here, but I would vote for more separation of features/details before using the nameplate Imperial again.

The beauty seen here is a 1931 Packard. This singular vehicle is highly notable (both with regard to the year and the marque) for what unexpected feature? The discerning, careful eye may find the answer below.

Boy, Buick sure was lax on the dash design in '58! Clean machine, but I'd always have Limited envy. Cheers.

Checked this WRT to Chevy and its correct. Partial reasoning, perhaps, is that by '75, only the Impala & Caprice lines were left, the last Bel Air is '74. Even then the brochure says the 350 was standard in the '74 Bel Air. Frankly I'm surprised to learn this, as I never put it past Chevy to stuff a 6 in cars way to large for one (then).

I would go for either the White Horse or the Pak-Age-Car- both are so much slicker than the (still intriguing) Jeeps.

My educated guess would point to the contributing factor as our comparatively low population density, quite a bit less then even than now, coupled with an even more rural based population at the time. In Canada, especially then, the "next town" was not as close by or handy. Same reason there was a Mercury truck line. Small farming communities often could not support two franchised dealerships and these standalone dealers complained to head office about not having a complete product line that they could offer that met a greater amount of the needs of their rural customers. That meant cheapo Mercuries and expensive Fords, a bargain-basement Desoto, Mercury trucks, a Nova clone for Pontiac dealers, and of course, a gussied up Plymouth sold as a Dodge. I guess they could afford the overlaps. There was also a trade barrier / high import tax that ended around '70 IIRC. Prior to it's end, there were a host of 'shuffled' brands in Canada: Pontiacs on narrow Chevy chassis's with anemic 1bbl I6s (and a few hairy 427s), and such. Once that/those barriers were removed, the nonsense stopped. Makes sense- if your U.S.-built Plymouth gets heavily taxed crossing the border, mix-n-match Corporate parts, assemble it Up North, give it a new model name and BAM!, a 'Canadian' car.

40K for replaced rotors sounds like they're rooking you. Never replaced rotors that often on anything. SAmadei- I would've thought it more likely a clueless owner would let rotors go that far much easier than a 'professional' shop, but who knows. Just replaced the front rotors on the Silverado @ 99K. My truck seems susceptible to wearing the backsides moreso that the fronts of rotors, this was the case with both the rear discs & the fronts. Not sure how common this is.

Isn't the top buggy a Willys by badge? The cutsey van I posted is the Stutz Pak-Age-Car. Stutz bought Pak-Age-Car in '32 and built these out of Indianapolis until filing for BK in '37. Diamond T took over and continued production until '41. There are only approximately 10 of these left today.

^ Has to be.

Trying to imagine the story behind this : must've been all owner-changed brakes, but the outside pads only... cause there's a decent pad on there now. Wow.