balthazar

A/C in '57 Buicks only saw installation in 6% of production; I would not expect to see it.

Bel Air, as a series, first appeared for '53. '57 was a great year. The old Consumer Guide vintage car book series (among them; Cars of the 30s, Cars of the 40s, etc) even put out a (I believe unique) 1957 Cars book. There's simply no clinkers in '57. Even hoary Rambler had tri-tones and a fuelie 327 V8. RE the article ... the Adventurer's late intro circa November '57 was just in time for the last of the holdout states to legalize dual quad headlights, and the A had them standard. The other 3 series initially had them optional when they bowed in September. And while the economic downturn of '58 is entirely accurate, I can't agree with the assessment that DeSoto's '58 facelift was 'unsuccessful' in & of itself. Now, if you were talking 1961.... In today's market, I can see the Adventurer's expected price being that low- because A converts have traded over 200K or right near it in recent years. The '57 Adventurer is one of my top 5 favorite styling exercises. A buddy had a Fireflite coupe once. '56, '57, '58, '59, '60, '61 - lots to love. The Impy, IMO, is a bit.... unfinished vs. both '56 and '59. I think it's the '57 grille texture and the '57-58 front bumper- something about it seems less than ideally integrated to my eye. A hiccup, if you will. Still a great, interesting car, lots of neat touches. In this era I think I would still gravitate to either a '56 or a '60. A real shame you could not devote more pages to these 2 beauties- their stories are worth it.

Government = No. concept. of. financial. responsibility. whatsoever.

hyperv6 ~ >>"Th problem for the Big Three is the truck engines really do little to help with the car engines. People here do little to connect them..."<< I disagree. In the late '70s/early 80s, these were just 'diesels', but the modern trucks have uber strong identities with proper-named diesels (IE: DuraMax), and this fosters brand recognition. If a play off of the respective names could be swung, the strong consumer recognition with the trucks would readily transfer to car diesels. A lot of non-truck folk know these diesel names after a decade's time, and they are not viewed as 'all the same' anymore. The ball is in marketing's court on this one- done right it could be spun BIG.

Offering a Granite pick-up would have to fall under the 'sport truck' category- no degree of 'bed extenders' is going to offer any sort of utility worth marketing. The Granite concept is 161" long. If it went to a regular cab and gained a foot at the rear, you'd maybe get a 4' bed. You have to be an idiot to buy one and look to get utility out of it. Look, I'm all for various body styles & trying things out, and I'm likewise not against GMC expanding, but common sense says a Granite pick up is another SSR as far as truck intent & utility goes. And that's fine, if there's enough sales to support that. But talking about this fitting the professional grade reputation of GMC and using this as a truck instead of solely as transportation is naive, IMO.

While my grandfather & father both had strings of Pontiacs over multiple decades, as did I, it was not direct influence there because the Pontiacs they had that I remember were from the mid '70s, and I generally abhor '70s vehicles (not all of them). They also weren't what I'd call 'car guys'. I spent a number of years voraciously reading about cars before I got my first one. Initially it was Cadillacs that I was understandably attracted to (still am), but once it came time to buy & work on something, the cost of Cadillacs & restoration work was too much for my pocket. So in a way by default (and with the typical car guy's attraction to performance), it was Pontiac's Golden Era (the '60s) that caught my eye, even tho those cars were before my time. So I've had 7 Ponchos. Will always greatly appreciate & have a soft spot for this period Pontiacs ('55-67, basically), so I consider myself a Pontiac man. If the situation presents itself again, I will pick up another period PMD. GF : '55, '57, '63, '66, '69, '72, '75 F : '63, '70, '77 me : '64, '64, '64, '65, '65, '65, '66

Hey - it's got 3 VentiPorts per side ; must be a 6-cylinder! :rotflmao:

Like the late '70s B-Body Magnum better.

I'll tinker around with these: > work out a bit & drop a few lbs / remember to take vitamins > work more hrs/day, sleep more @ night and somewhere between: learn how to relax > do SOMETHING on that damned Buick & decide whether or not to sell the GP > make a big score, either thru work or an investment property > network more

Ran on the travel channel this morning.

I would've said the old stigmas about diesel autos were buried with 3 decades of time and the excellent Big 3 truck diesels, but I just saw a BMW commercial where they had a hoary old volvo wagon chuggin up a hill, the rear 3rd of the car black with soot & the tailpipe spewing. Then they show a clean, shiny BMW doing a sporty powerslide, then passing said volvo in a swath so wide the driver must've been at least 85. I don't think bringing those very old stereotypes back is helpful to ANYONE trying to market diesel cars. Disconnected. Add to that- Bowie is horrible. EDIT: here it is : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gan-BYQdGDk

$90K for a subaru ??

I only made it out to Macungie once, but enjoyed it immensely. It's on my 'return list'. Lot to love with the Stude trucks : Transtars, M6s, even the Champs. Taking the trip to IN isn't in the cards for me, but someday I sure would like to make it out to the Studebaker Museum. Hopefully, you can squeeze in that tour, too. Think of me when you see the Predictor- love that beastie.

You usually hit the Macungie show, right? 3 Studies on the poster, an obvious nod toward South Bend- nice.

Wheels I've pulled have usually had a keyway, so they can only be installed degreed one way.

Going from a 17x7 to an 18x8 can be done easily enough: you need the same bolt circle and a relatively close offset (I would guess that a +/– 20mm difference should work fine). The concern is how close the tires are to anything behind them in the wheelwell, especially the front thru it's turning radius. As to the speedo- what is usually done here is to get a correspondingly lower profile tire, so the overall tire diameter remains as close as possible to factory. I wouldn't sweat an inch diamter difference- but beyond that is worth considering getting the speedo corrected, IMO. Somewhere, no doubt there's a formula that can tell you 'going from Tire X to Tire Y will change speedo MPH by Z'. As for that, on the vintage stuff- there was a speedo gear in the side of the trans case : it was merely a process of determining & obtaining the new gear, and installing it. Not sure if the modern stuff is more involved (of course it must be, they always are).

Length 195.67 in Width 78.11 in Height 51.57 in Height is nice & low, width is great, length isn't quite what I call 'long', but it's getting there. Good dimensions.

>>"Well having first hand account of 3rd door hinge sag on my 1997 Sonoma should count for something."<< Anecdotal, of course. Have had zero door hinge issues on my full-size 2-dr cars, no issue on my crew cab Silverado either. Only vehicle that ever had a hinge issue was my RC F-150, somewhere around 135K tho. Anecdotal, again. Hinges do wear over time, but I'm not going to assume GMC is going to release a substandard hinge when specific engineering effort was expended for this unique application.

Electrics not for me. If they had been in production alongside IC since the dawn of the industry, I'd rethink the answer. Right now they're too unproven, esp long-term ownership expenses. And the rethinking assumes there's a reasonable, and fitting my needs, choice available AND there's a readily available recharging option outside my garage. If it's a puddlejumper with no charging infrastructure, forget it.

>>"I just hope they get it so they hold up long term."<< It's these typically 'hyper statements' that always give me pause. 'I hope GMC can design a door hinge that will last...', to me says '...with all their full-size truck door hinge problems in the past.' I don't get how such a thing would even occur to you.

Review comes off as well balanced. I supposed mercedes wants consumers to think of this as a tall station wagon/CUV, ALA the Flex perhaps, but I cannot get away from the obvious minivan proportions here, and the folding flat seats (while no doubt useful) only reinforces that. The low sales (they're not that bad at 18K) seem to bear out my theory that most consumer look at this as a minivan that lacks sliding doors. Really- they'd fit the vehicle and be more functional... but I assume mercedes wanted to avoid the accompanying stigma- therefore, it's compromised, IMO. That, and the mileage is pretty low.

blackviper8891 ~ >>"I just want to throw this comment in... The A8 interior is not overrated in the least. I've sat in it and it easily bests its competitors in design, content, quality, and materials."<< Being as objective as possible, I simply do not see anything from a design aspect that would justify superlatives. So 'easily' doesn't wash, IMO. But to each, his own.

Offset may possibly be OK, but the bolt pattern makes checking it impossible. >>"6-bolt, 17x7.5, 31 offset, bolt pattern 6x139.7"<< '17x7.5' is a 17" rim that's 7.5" wide. -- -- -- -- -- Offset (31 vs. 50) is best illustrated by the below link: http://www.infinitig37.com/images/tech-offset-image2.jpg Offset gets tricky. Hypothetically, if 2 rims were the same width but had different offsets, they would have the bolting surface located in different locations (in vs.out). You can get an idea of this in general by noting how the Envoy rim is relatively flat faced, but the Sierra is 'dished' (and picturing the respective shift in where the bolting surface is located in each). These measurements all start from the surface where the rim seats against the brake rotor. Most modern rims are close to being 'flat faced' (not an industry term ), as opposed to this old school, heavily-dished Cragar: http://www.v8americancarclub.com/images2/cragar%20ss.jpg If you were dealing with rims potentially this deep, you would get into negative & positive offsets. Not a common factor with modern iron. -- -- -- -- -- '6x139.7' is 6 bolts in a 139.7mm circle. You can visualize how this is not going to line up to a 127mm bolt circle. -- -- -- -- -- I agree with your taste here- those Sierra rims are definitely a sweet design. I wish these were available for the 8-lug trucks- not enough choices there.

Can't miss the visual reliance on the sassy Exner-era Chryslers used to illustrate confidence & style... Great ad.... not entirely sure, yet, I'm seeing what they're talking about in the 200 & 300 tho.

^ BMW not remotely matching the wood grain on that console door is just 1 glaring reason these are NOT $100K interiors, IMO. For cripes' sake- if that's real wood- what did they do with the piece they cut out to make the hole?? One can pick at every one of the above interiors, and audis continue to be way overrated.