vonVeezelsnider

Happy Birthday, Fearless Leader!

There's a whole website devoted to the Mercury Pickups http://www.mercurypickup.com/ If memory serves me, one of my grandmother's brothers had a patina-ed late 1960s Mercury M100 on the farm up in northern Alberta when when I was much, much younger.

To the best of my understanding... 1950s - 1962 Ford Mainline = Meteor Ford Customline = Niagra Ford Crestline/Fairlane = Rideau 1962-1969 Mercury Montclair = Rideau Mercury Monterrey = Montcalm

Also found a couple of rare Blue Oval products sold only in Canada. From what I understand the Meteor brand was much like the Canada only Acadian brand which was paired with Pontiac dealers except this one was slotted between Ford and Mercury. Here are two examples, the first is a 1958 Meteor Rideau, and the second a 1968 Meteor Montcalm convertible. I like the Canadian-inspired names of these cars (The Rideau Canal and Rideau Hall in Ottawa and General Montcalm was the French General who led that side in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, the Acadian Canso from GM got its name from a couple places in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia). 1958 Rideau 500 http://alberta.kijij...QAdIdZ317098094[] 1968 Montcalm Convertible http://alberta.kijij...QAdIdZ318982422

http://alberta.kijij...QAdIdZ324105450

A blast from my past, our old 1994 Pontiac Trans Sport van that was sold in 1999. Stuck in bumper to bumper traffic and it makes its way into the lane in front of me. Immediately noticed the dealer sticker in the bottom left of the hatch and the small notch on the bottom of the back bumper that my dad caused by backing over a rock like fifteen years ago. I guess those old 3800 U-Bodies just go forever. I ran a Carfax on the VIN number from the old service records and found it was last re-registered with over 350'000km on it. Go figure.

-Citroens especially the C6 -Cadillac CTS -Buick LaCrosse -Ford Taurus -Volvo S60 -Saab 9-5

Realistic window for me to buy a new car is probably around fall 2013, I'm really only considering Cruze LTZ, or a Verano but for the price I think the Cruze LTZ maybe offers more content than the Verano base model for the price (I've been going back and forth on that one constantly). Still looking for the right 94-96 FW to tide me over if a more tidy one should present itself for the right price but because of where I live that has the potential to take a while so that little side project sits on the back burner until such a time as the right opportunity presents itself. I've been doing nice little mods to our cars here and there to keep me sane. I put a 2012 Impala LTZ leather shift knob on my 2007 LS, feels a lot less cheap now and matches my leather steering wheel. I don't understand why that wasn't done to begin with. Two minutes and a Phillips screwdriver is all you need. I've been thinking about adding the Auto-Dim mirror from the Impala SS to my '07 also as that's also a fairly simple and inexpensive swap one type for the another type of change-up. I've done some other little stuff with our other cars that I'll have to post about here and there when I have time.

Classics: '56 Packard. What a strange way to evoke a '57 Chrysler, by using iconic tails from a completely different car. The only bits worth saving on it. I know, right? I had to do a double take because at first that's what I pegged them as- 57 Chrysler lights.

Good Luck Cort! Talk to you when you get back!

Review can be found here: http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1067591_2012-buick-verano-first-drive If you blow up the images on the 2nd page gallery and look closely you will get a few good pictures of the cloth/leatherette combo. Looks to be a high quality execution, not poorly executed or sore thumb out of place like I had feared it might be.

Idaho... Why am I not surprised?

Bosch apparently does work well with the 3800, I've heard that too.

Yeah, that "Choccachino" color scheme is very rich looking. Like something you'd find for 2,500 calories on a Starbucks menu. Yeah and make the exterior that brown color as well, it's a really rich colour, moreso than the brown they use on the LaCrosse.

That would make sense and I've considered that as a possibility but honestly we park the Regal and my Impala out there right next to it and this hasn't been an issue on the other cars... Makes you wonder if they would steal gas from just one of three cars. My mom really only uses the thing to commute and she has secure underground parking where she works.

I would want mine in that same Brown Exterior/Tan interior combo from the show car.

In the last couple months the Malibu has become an absolute fuel hog. Went through the last tank of gas @ about 14-15MPG with about 70/30 City/Hwy. Less than 170 miles last time from full to the fuel light coming on. Absolutely absurd. For comparison in about 60/40 driving I'm pulling 25-27MPG consistently in the 07 Impala. Both have the 3.5L engine and 4 Speed so I don't get it. The last four or five tanks of gas have been progressively getting worse and worse. Can't be bad gas as all our cars are filed at the same Shell station. Injectors and MAF were serviced last summer and I've run thru some of the Techron stuff to no avail. There are no warning lights and the engine isn't missing, no fuel leaks under the car at any time... No change in tire pressure, driving habits etc... Any idea what would cause fuel economy to almost go in half? I have to admit that hot on the heels of the strut mounts being replaced (first time) along with the Intermediate Steering Shaft (3rd time - on its fourth ISS) recently to make it stop clunking around, this is a bit of a pain in the behind. If it means anything the car has 69000km (~43000mi) on it right now.

Buick-Oldsmobile-Pontiac from that 1961-1963 vintage I just don't get unfortunately... I like the Chevys and Caddys of that era but that's about it. Given this is a super clean example.

It's just typical MotorTrend... the 2.4 SIDI has been on Ward's 10 Best Engines so it's not like I buy that. Also contrary to what the review says, the 2.4L engine in fact has TWO balance shafts, not zero. Note that with the isolated oil pump the production models will have their complaint wasn't there, so why bother even writing about it?

Really like this car and seriously considering it as well as Cruze LTZ in 18mos-2yrs or so when I'm in the market. Interesting that for almost the same price the Cruze LTZ has Leather, AutoDim Mirror, Ultrasonic Parking Aid, Power Seats, Heated Seats. The Verano has a much more balanced powertrain and standard Intellilink. All of the stuff the Cruze has is optional of course, and much more. It's a toss up for me but I lean towards the Buick's more classy styling, softer suspension tuning, and most importantly more power.

Mainstream: Chrysler then Ford Upmarket: Volvo and Jaguar

So I ended up not buying this car. Why? When I drove/saw it I noticed a couple things that gave me pause.

Or some combination of the three a-la CFM or IAE... None the less, it's a heaping serving of awesome. Sort of like Jay Leno's ecoJET turbine powered car.

Congrats on the Regal, I'm sure your stepson will love it as much as my brother loves his 2003 Regal LS. Seeing the pictures there just reminded me that I need to re-glue the rubberized part of the drivers armrest to the door panel as it's peeling off and the power window switch won't seat properly in the door like the one on yours does. It seems that even for a 39k mile cream-puff, ours has some rattles that felt tape, a dab of teflon grease and some Dynamat will fix when I get around to it. They're a good first car methinks, It's really forgiving, and pretty reliable.

Congrats 'blu- make sure you let us know what it's like to live with, I'm considering one myself in a couple years.