SAmadei

As a novelty item. I'm talking about as a real rental... One you can get without waiting 2 weeks. Camaro is not a novelty in the rental world anymore. Well, thats because certain companies stopped giving away cars for cost or less. So the rentals are going to pick up whatever has the lowest cost over the 1~2 years the rental uses them. So initial cost, maintenance and resale come into play. Unless Toyota is dumping Corollas at less than cost, this is a positive for the Corolla. My GF's Corolla is costing her very little, even with a few hiccups. I abhor the darn thing... but I can't fault its reliability or frugality. I'd love to see her get a Dodge Charger... for a bit more comfort... as she can afford it... but she's not interested in anything but the basics... reliability and cost to maintain.

The average age of a new car buyer is 45~50... so 50 is not too bad. Before lowering the demographic on the Corvette, perhaps the entire auto industry has to push its demographics down a bit.

Yeah, but in some ways, that's good. It hasn't turned into a fugly Sentra or whatnot. Sure, its not cutting edge, but its a reasonably attractive, outdated plain automobile. It just has a head start on becoming a "Classic". Indeed... just ask Enterprise. BFD. 95% of the prattling going on here is about cars featured on rental lots at some point. You guys have to get off this rental car bashing thing. As if Malibus, Cruzes and Camaros aren't on rental lots. One day, probably soon, the Volt will be on a rental lot.

They certainly do last longer, but at the expense of shorter rotor life. Luckily, that's not a big deal, as the stock rotors are dirt cheap... but you need to keep an eye on them. A Better reason to switch to ceramic... less brake dust on your wheels. Hardest part is catching all the coolant and finding a place to recycle.

Yeah, but in some ways, that's good. It hasn't turned into a fugly Sentra or whatnot. Sure, its not cutting edge, but its a reasonably attractive, outdated plain automobile. It just has a head start on becoming a "Classic".

Its just typical failure of the internal tire because the trend has been worn so low. Back in a previous life (in the '90s) I used to routinely drive tires down to nearly nothing and saw effects like this all the time. It seems like once you have run the rind down to a certain point, heat builds up faster and bad things happen faster. I always noticed that I would be more prone to flats once the tires where so thin, but I had a few that held air quite miraculously. Used to get a lot of air blisters on the sidewalls at that point, too. Don't see that as much nowadays. I've been told that driving on the cords can produce an interesting light show at night, as well. BV, the reason everyone is up in arms is simply that your tires are one of the most important safety features on a car. Driving on tires this bad is almost as bad as driving with no brakes whatsoever... a situation where things can get dangerous for all involved... and most of us should pick up on things like this before they become an issue, since we're enthusiasts and are more in tune with our cars. But hey, it happens to the best of us. If you want some chilling paranoia next time when you out there driving next time, visualize the person driving next to you, talking on their cellphone in their mid-90s Camry that hasn't seen maintenance in years... they drive on tires like that until the car stops moving forward... along with long wiped rotors, pads, shocks, suspension...

It's a big hobby around these parts, but also an expensive one, having to make repairs after an outing is almost certain. Same down in south Jersey. don't get me wrong, I bought my Eagle for mud bogging... and yeah, every time out seems to result in needing to fix things. But I never felt the need to ford a lake full of muck. It was bad enough fording some big mud puddles and getting high centered on a bathtub somebody dumped in it. Most of my "mud bogging" turned into something closer to rally racing, anyway. The problem with having the biggest truck in the woods, is that you need something even bigger to pull you out when you get seriously stuck.

On the H-body, the belt runs inside of a mount, but one bolt takes part of the mount out without alignment issues, so you can swap belts. Once you've done it once, its not a big deal. IIRC, the last time I was able to do it by just cutting the wheels to the left.

Cat would be my first thought, for the smell... but that don't explain the "No Trac" light, which I imagine would be signaled by a glitch in the ABS computer. Was it a hot day? Did you get a bad batch of gas recently? About the only thing I can suggest right now is to loosen up the bolts holding the cat in and visually inspect the mesh. Perhaps the cat is going, overheated and the mesh is partially melted, resulting in the feeling that the car is not right. Does the exhaust still smell sulphury, or did the smell go away?

Already posted in the Try, try, try, try again thread....

I can appreciate the attraction of some mud bogging, but at some extreme, it seems to make as much sense as getting stuck in the snow on purpose. I also like to try to adhere to the "tread lightly" ideal, so I don't know why that bit of swamp needed to be churned into butter.

I hate April 1st. OTOH, this convertible Volt should have existed, or should in the future. If GM came up with the April fools joke (doubt it), it would a real cheesy way to judge public reaction.

So that it interferes with the Cruze? '87 Taurus is a mid-size, not a full size, so I'm not getting the point of this. I'm also having some trouble seeing how the 190 inch Fusion is on the smaller side of mid-size. With the Malibu shortening, is it going to drop out of "mid-size"? I realize that all this "size" involves interior volume, rather than length, but in theory the two should be somewhat directly related... unless certain manufacturers have severe engineering issues when it comes to interior layout... ...which may help explain why some "full size" cars are getting overtaken in interior space by midsizers... many full-sizers are on platforms that are older than dirt.

Didn't realize Davis passed a few days ago. Most of my reading of Davis E Davis Jr was after 1983 at C&D, and I never really got into it. After he left C&D, the C&D editors were not kind about his idiosyncrasies. I didn't care for the tone of Automobile magazine, and rarely read it. The recent overhaul at C&D brought him back, and his writings seemed more appealing to me, but I wasn't happy with the rest of the C&D overhaul, so I wondered if its just easy to shine there. That said, I still have the deepest respect for a writer with his lasting stamp on the automotive landscape. I can only imagine that I simply was not in sync with his viewpoints or style, and I probably would have fallen in line with a few more years of indoctrination. I had know about much of his history, or so I thought, as I really only was aware of a small portion of it, so I recommend anyone too young to be into Davis to read at least his Wikipedia entry. A quote I from wiki: Davis likened General Motors managers to the piano player in a whorehouse, "aware of what was going on upstairs but unable to do much about it even if they were so inclined." One of my favorite Davis moments was when he send a bunch of C&D writers to drive through Mexico. A total disaster, but also a telling litmus test for automotive reliability in the early '80s. And the final article was entertaining, hilarious and memorable, even nearly 30 years later. Goodbye David, the automotive and journalist world will deeply miss you.

Ah... yeah, I see that it seems slightly raked forward... a throwback to the 2 headlight years... the MC is fairly straight up and down... also the side marker is in a different spot, as well.

Ugh... makes me so mad that my high miler is sidelined. I hate losing ground to you other high milers. ;-) Actually, this does kind push my buttons to get the parts I need soon. Edit: Congrats!

I remember that, but I can't remember what the difference was. I know a lot of people have swapped MC noses on the Caminos... and there are a lot of ChooChoo parts out there... 25 years later, I can't keep 'em straight.

I really do like those ('82-'87) a lot. I'm mad I didn't at least go look at that '85 GMC Caballero I showed you from CL in Philly about 2-3 months ago. Of course the dealer no longer has it. Not too many around on CL that haven't been modified, or the owner doesn't want an arm & a leg for. Though I know the El Camino is 99% similar to the GMC Caballero, it would have to be the GMC version for me to make a move on it. Interesting, so you prefer the quad headlight ones? I've always found the general consensus on '78-'88 'Caminos to prefer the 2 headlight or Monte Carlo nose over the plainer quad headlight years. I imagine there were no Caballeros built with the Monte's snout.

Going out on a limb here, I wonder if that nose ends up on the 6th gen Camaro? I like it from some angles, but not from all. Obviously, my biggest (irony?) gripe is its too small.

A decade and a half! These should have come here in 1997 to replace the Caprice. Of course, I would say they should have been here in 1987, but GM still thought they had a good grip on the market then. What?!? Source, please, I've NEVER heard that. I don't necessarily doubt you, but what to read more.

My two cents, between the GMC truck and the GP... it is true the GP is a nice turnkey ride... but its also in nice enough shape that you may be afraid to get adventurous. Also, in the end, the GP will not be very unique to the average person. Its obviously special, but even with documentation, that might be hard to recoup when it comes time to sell. The GMC, on the other hand, is VERY unique. Assuming its not too far gone and you can get it for a good deal, you can pretty much work on it a little at a time, with little fear of making it worse. However, you have to plan it out carefully, as it will take more money in the long run. That is one cool GMC, though, and it would look sweet even in primer with painted bumpers.

I can understand that. Our local Aldi is in a meh 'hood... not quite that bad, though. During daylight. Still cheaper to break into the neighbor's fridge, though.

One year after the Holden Commodore comes here as a Chevrolet, GM will discontinue Chevrolet just to spite us.

Over 25 years is "historic"... I thought under 25 years was "Classic", but Its actually "Collector". NJMVS has updated the website slightly and it looks like only collector plates have a mileage limit now (3000 miles), and collector require special insurance now. As far as trying to get NJ to accept your targeted '87 GP LE as a collector, I'd say its not worth the fight, as it will be a historic next year. Considering that inspection is not likely an issue, I would look into just registering it as normal for a year, and putting collector insurance on it.

I didn't insinuate that you did. The bottom line on the 500 is that it shouldn't take 20 months to bring that to Chrysler's dealers. 6 maybe... 10 maybe. I'll even give them a year. Its late and at a time when Chrysler/FIAT need to move forward, not stumble. Replaced, reskinned or reconstituted. Caliber sells at roughly one third of the old Neon... and 20% of the planned Cruze volume. The people have voted with their wallets. A reskin can be done in 20 months if they have the will. 200's reskin took less than 20 months, it seems.