balthazar

Uhhh- it's obvious that the "two 3.xL V-6s together on a common crank" is a figurative, not literal statement, right? Guys?? Displacement can easily vary beyond 'a + a = b'. We need to forget the engineering basis for this engine and address it as what it will be: new engineering and a fresh casting with unique major components, or we'll all get caught up in relentless comparisons to a relatively paltry V-6, which will only taint the image of the V-12. Trust me, I've seen the very same thing happen before. The '76 Seville is still heavily burdened by those who will swear it's a badge-engineered Nova. You've been forewarned.

hm-mmm- no cruise-ery underhood. Could've been removed, but looks pretty damn original there. Evidence points back to it being a dummy knob. Does it turn or push in at all?

Raven- if you look just to the right of the '80 MPH' mark on the black interior Electra, you can see a small off-white dot. That's the tip of the Electro-Cruise needle- same as in my '64 GP. What's different from my Pontiacs is there does not appear to be any warning lamp for the system; in '64 Pontiac had a 'CRUISE" lamp, and in '65 the system got even more complicated, with 'SPEED" 'AUTO" and "CRUISE" lamps. For some reason I don't see ANY lamps for Buick '66, and this just isn't right IMO. Your needle may have broken/fallen off or be stuck out of sight. And the possibility still exists that it IS a dummy knob. Underhood will show cruise components or not.

http://forums.aaca.org/showflat.php?Cat=0&...ge=0#Post452592 In '67, the same placement & styled knob is optional Electro-Cruise. Buick may not have used a speedo-pointer by '66, maybe it was just 'press at speed' and it would engage. '65 Pontiac owner's manual states E-C works at 30 MPH and above- Buick's should be the same. The earlier styles with the speedo pointer were fun: you could be in cruise at say 35, whip the knob to the right and the car would downshift and rocket forward under near full-throttle. A pic underhood of the carb with the aircleaner off, and the firewall area would show me if the cruise components were on your '66. Here's the (very large) pic from the '67 brochure- look at pic 6: http://tocmp.com/brochures/Buick/1967/Full...ge%2055_jpg.jpg

And what is the thickness and beam height on the SD vs. the tundra? What part did the open frame on the toy play in it's crash rating? My '40 Ford has a C-channel frame, but I'll bet the toy doesn't match it's .42" thick steel or it's towing/cargo capacity. Point is- with the class leaders (Ford & Chevy/GMC, not sure what Dodge is packing) having boxed frames, toyota needs to at least match this feature if they want to begin to make serious inroads into the segment.

Deville was never the flagship- it's been the traditional entry-level car price- & heirarchy-wise (with the exception of relatively short-term lines such as the Series 61 and Calais). I do not see validity in calling the DTS 'faux-luxury', it is far moreso luxury than the aforementioned mercedes hatchback. At least it has presense, not to mention content and materials, and is relatively close in price to the rest of the lineup.

I think WMJ has it, tho GMC also had a 305 CI V-6 (5.0L) in the '60s.

So Axel- are you saying 104-yrs is nothing, but 110; now we're talking 'commitment'? Just curious...

C'mon BV; stop hiding inside shooting pics of yourself in the mirror and get agricultural!

Wow- I missed this thread until tonight. There are old tractors all around me, but none in my immediate family. A friend of my brother's stores his fleet there, a '37 International, a circa-'50 Deere 1-lunger, and another job I cannot recall at the moment. The pride of his fleet, tho is his '12 J I Case steam tractor- what a monster. I haven't seen that one run yet, hopefully this summer. Another friend has an Allis-Chalmers (haven't seen him or his tractor in a long while), another friend has a real nice Farmall Model H (another 'red' tractor), and I helped another guy sell a smaller Farmall last year. Personally, I had and passed up the opportunity to buy a Ford 8N or 9N; I like them and it'd look fantastic up on a flatbed (not that I'm installing one) behind my Ford COE, but I really have no use for one.

Well, I've heard of formaldehyde off-gassing from new household carpeting- modern cars are wall-to-wall plastics and synthetics; this is no surprise.

I cannot believe toyota brought a C-channel frame to market under the tundra! 15 years of reverse-engineering the class leaders and they still cut corners. No wonder it got lagging crash test results!

I don't buy that the DTS hurts Cadillac's image to any great degree. If a $25K hatchback mercedes, flagging quality, the market ker-flop of maybach, and the passing the sales torch to Cadillac last year doesn't hurt mercedes, a $45K DTS shouldn't hurt Cadillac. What may be telling is a comparison of how much Cadillac prices vs. mercedes' prices have risen in the last 10 years; if Cadillac rose by a larger percent, and Cadillac's sales rise year after year, then clearly 'buyers perceive Cadillac to be worth paying a price premium'... (depending on your defintion of "premium"). BTW- don't forget the XLR-V @ $100K.

Well, that IS a puzzle then. It's extremely unlikely it's a 'dud' knob for non-existant Cruise. General Motors just didn't do things that way in this era. I'm going to find out what this is.....

I built a body dolly for my '59 Buick and mounted the shell on that; there was enough room to roll underneath it from any side while on a creeper, and I could sit upright on the creeper under the rear axle area, and easily reach the rest while laying down. I wire-wheeled the entire underside, welded rusted areas, and painted the underside 2 coats this way. I would've liked to have had a rotisserie, but the prices for ready-made ones were more than I wanted to spend. I suppose I could've built one of them myself...

Absolutely agree (interior, too).

Do you have a trip odometer? Did you check to see what your dash warning lights read with a bright light? Or... you could go ahead and buy an owner's manual off e-Bay or Faxon's and find out egg-xactly what it is/does.

Good one. Does the 225 have a trip odometer? If it does, and it reads 00000, the knob isn't going to 'do' anything because it already did. It reminds me of Buick's safety Buzzer system: on my '59 there's a small knob and a tiny window to the left of the speedo where a drum rotates with the knob to show speeds from 20 to 110MPH, and the speedo buzzes when you surpass that. It also reminds me of my '64 & '65 Pontiac's Electro-Cruise knob, but both those years also have a needle that swings across the speedo to choose your cruise speed. Besides the needle, the knob also won't 'do' anything when the car is not running at speed. Clean the speedo face off and shine a strong flashlight on each warning lamp- look for one that says 'CRUISE'.

I've advocated a very similar thing here before, PC-S; give Chevy the 'people mover' trucks & smaller SUVs and keep all pick-ups & their SUV siblings (Suburban & Tahoe) and all HD trucks as 'GMC's.

Winning a design contest is a far cry from designing a brand-rejuvenating vehicle, which is what Buick needs and what the chinese Buick CLEARLY is not. IMO it proves nothing. And considering the other automotive design efforts we've seen from China, I would without hesitation say they've disproven themselves.

Moving Upscale beyond your image 101, lesson 1, chapter 1, section 1: See volkswagen.

I think moreso it's not the non-hits, but that the Mitchell hits were such towering drives into the parking lot that anyone following in Earl's & Mitchell's footsteps is a by-fault dubious heir. And it's X-400, not XP400.

I've read it before, very jealously. >>"an unbelievably wild Pontiac show car called the "XP400." It started out as a Nassau Blue Pontiac Bonneville convertible that had more of a '50s custom look to it (complete with a stowable hard tonneau cover that was way ahead of its time)."<< The car was the Pontiac X-400, there was one for '59, '60, '62, '63, and '64. With a 421 it was only one of the later 3, and being the summer of '64 it must've been the '64 (tho the pic I have of it, it wears a dark burgandy color). The '63 was yellow and I believe the '62 was red, but many of these show cars were repainted during their tenure. Oh, and the hard tonneau I take it to mean a hard cover for the convertible top (the X-400s were all convertibles) and not a traditional tonneau (a snap-down soft cover over the passenger compartment- none of the X-400s had this to my knowledge).... sometimes a hard cover for the convertible top is called a 'parade boot'- something that ws standard on the Eldorado beginning with the '53, and I believe all the early 'vettes had one, too.

>>"Why wouldn't they let the Chinese have some say in how the brand progresses globally. They've proven themselves, don't discredit them before they are even given a chance."<< Again, when was this exactly?

No- of course I've heard of those; but I've never heard the term "M-car" used by bmw.