vonVeezelsnider

Biscayne Meteor Niagara and Meteor Rideau Corisca

For those interested in seeing, the dealer where I saw the white/black 1SL has some pictures up as there aren't many pictures out there of the black interior. One thing I'm just noticing now, and I have to give Buick and GM mad props for this, is that they have finally learned that one grain/style of woodgrain doesn't go best with every interior color choice. Here you see a darker, driftwood/dark brown looking grain which is different than the they use in the Cocoa/Cashmere and Chocochino trims (more of a traditional walnut). I believe the Gray/Black uses the same wood as the one pictured here.

IMHO it suffered in the market because people didn't see themselves in the market for a midsize hatch/wagon. Most people in the market for versatility at that price were shopping CR-Vs and Equinoxes. Also, it wasn't very versatile at all. The cargo space is shallower than the sedan mostly because you can't get taller items in due to the raking of the rear roofline. Also, pushing the wheels to the corners made the cargo area significantly more narrow and less usable. I mean it's got the biggest back seat of any car its size and I think my parents recognized it wasn't the most versatile car, but bought it based on how roomy it was.

The big flat seats in the Lucerne and the 2006-08 Impalas have always been supremely comfortable for me, so yeah I'll probably like them on the Verano too LOL. Not sure what that says about the average guy my age who would then probably complain about the lack of side bolsters LOL. I actually finally managed to see one up close today although it was just on the lot so I can't comment on the interior. It was a loaded Leather model with White Diamond Paint and Sunroof as well as the top-spec wheels. Looks really nice up close and I lke the satin texture of the greenhouse trim. Low point would be the ventiports which I believe look really cheap and tacky as they are. If you're going to use them as trim you really should make them look like more than afterhought.

Modifications not in the spirit of the car itself, so I'm going to have to go thumbs down on this one...

At least you didn't have to crawl through the vents...

Happy Birthday Paulie!

That coupe is ahead of its time, I'm seeing certain aspects of the C2 Corvette in it.

^ ^ New Escape or Focus C-MAX?

I think the interior pallette is one of the reasons I would prefer this car over the Regal, even if the plastics, as you'd expect, aren't quite as good. I've lived with an all black interior in my Impala and Cavalier and I am so sick of it. I don't like all black, to me it's really drab and dark. I don't like being there. I would say that maybe 10% of the Regals on the ground up here have that nice Cocoa/Cashmere colour which I really love, the rest are just black. Now that they use a brown or black carpet with the lighter colored interiors the argument that it's easier to keep clean is out the window too. In a midlevel Verano, I am assured not to have to deal with all black, which would sadly be a deal breaker for me, especially in the Regal where there isn't any woodgrain or brushed steel accents, just more "piano" black as accent trim. By this metric, even the Gray/Black, while not my favourite choice, is much more ameanable than the alternative in the Regal which actually loses points with me for being too germanic for my tastes. Just by looking at the seats as well, I can tell they'll fit my form better than the ones in the Regal, which between the few of them I've been in at any given time since they came out, I found hard to adjust in a way in which I was comfortable. The thigh support especially has always felt off in that car for some reason, a sensation that of all the GM vehicles I've driven at least semi-regularly (W-Impala, Epsilon Malibu, Cobalt/G5, Cavalier, U-Body Venture, W-Regal) I have never experienced. Then again I've always kind of preferred a puff cruiser myself so my opinion is probably skewed, isn't it?

They're being built in Ramos IIRC. My mom is actually interested in picking one up when the rental fleets start to divest them to replace her Malibu next year.

There are many tranny issues on many GM cars of this era if someone has messed with the programing. Some tuners like to leave the full power on at the shift points and it can lead to tranny failure in many cases. Leaving the full power in at the shift points picks up a lot of easy performance but if you drive it hard it kills the tranny,. This is also a big issue on the V8 W-Body Impala SS / Grand Prix GXP / LaCrosse Super I've heard.

I don't think so... Wouldn't it run crappy after it finally got going again? Once I got it to turn over finally, it ran like it was supposed to do normally and continues to do so on the same gas that was in the tank when it happened. Usually buy gas from PetroCan where there is gasline antifreeze built into the mixture during the winter months.

Well.. As quickly as this issue arose it seems to have almost completely rectified itself. Returned 21.5MPG on the last tank with the same driving mix, up from 12.4MPG on the same tank from two weeks ago (when the weather was actually twenty degrees warmer than it was during this tank worth of driving). I have no idea what caused the problem or why it went away so suddenly, but I'll take it. Of course, this really is six of one and half a dozen of the other as a new problem has just arrived on the horizon. I was driving it around on Friday and parked it at the mall and went into a store for five minutes, came out and it wouldn't start again. Plenty of electical power, just kept cranking and cranking with no inclination to turn over. Knowing that on occasion the 3.5L Epsilon cars develop a 'mild' case of not wanting to start when the engine is warm, I left it for 30 minutes and went back to start it again, this time it would crank and crank and eventually *try* to turn over, engine power crept up to just under 500RPM and the whole thing starts shaking quite acutely. I gave it a little throttle to see I could trick it into turning over but that didn't work and it just deicded to stall out. Left it for another hour and came back, more of the same but eventually, with a little throttle input and a couple tries it roared to life. I tried to replicate the problem this weekend by driving on a circut and returning home, replicating the circumstances and it won't repeat itself. Strange.

I have to say I'm a little bit surprised that the hearse only ended up going for like 160k. I was expecting double that, easily; especially considering that the 1963 Pontiac Naval Ambulance that they tried to sell last year which was proven to be a fake went for 120k in its own right. That Adventurer is also possibly one of the most gorgeous designs of the era. I've always been a fan.

The 2.0T will be getting a 6-Speed. Nonetheless I would argue that the size would be a benefit, lots of people my age and somewhat older who are otherwise unattached, like Drew said, see even cars like the Camry and Malibu as too big.

I've definitely seen them on the upper-spec Grand Am GTs of the 1992-1995 vintage, not sure I saw them on the GP ever, but I could be wrong.

Yeah, I'd echo Balthy's sentiment here. Beyond the powertrain this particular unit does nothing for me.

It's a VW-based kitcar called the Kelmark. Besides, the wheels are from a FWD 1990s Grand Am, not a Fiero.

I see that Captiva has already been in a rear end collision too... Can't be that old either.

When I was in Arizona for a couple weeks last month I went to two dealerships (Liberty Buick and Henry Brown Buick) in the area where there indicated these cars in stock and was told the same "in transit" story (expected to have them in within 14 days), that didn't prevent them from trying to sell me one sight unseen anyway LOL. When I got home I noticed that there seem to be more of them on the ground in Ontario. I'm sure if I talked to my salesman he'd be able to give me more accurate information and whatnot but I don't want to dangle the carrot too soon so to speak considering I'm not going to be ready to buy for a year or so.

Still haven't managed to see one myself or get my hands on one for test drive. Various dealers in town list a couple here and there in their inventory but they aren't there when I go looking. Must still be in transit.

I wanted to say Muntz Jet but the cladding is all wrong.

Now that the HHR is discontinued, the Malibu is the last with one without direct injection, yes.

I consider my '04 Focus 3-door to have "lots" of cargo space. I can fit more inside my compact hatchback than I can fit in a CTS sedan. I've proven it multiple times. It's difficult to appreciate the cargo space of a hatchback or CUV until you experience one. I'm sure the same is true with a wagon. Our Malibu Maxx is worthless in this department. I mean really worthless. Then again it's got that sloping rear which just cuts into the cargo space and makes it uselessly shallow.