2QuickZ's

That's almost exactly what my computer wallpaper has been for the last year. I went a little lower key and did the silver wheels with no rear spoiler. Nice car! I don't remember the color green they had for 2020 but it was pretty sharp as well. Not normally a green car guy but it looked good. Found it. It was called Rally Green.

Congrats on the new Pacifica! That is a beautiful vehicle. I think Chrysler (Stellantis?) did a fantastic job on the refresh. I still love our Pacifica. We will probably keep it one more year. After that, the wife said she wants a pickup or an SUV. 😪 I don't get the SUV thing. I'd much rather have this new Pacifica than any SUV. That said, she does at least have good reasoning. She wants to upgrade the camper to something bigger than the Pacifica can tow. The only thing an SUV does better than a minivan in my opinion. The crazy thing is how much more you get for your money in a minivan An SUV with the same level of equipment as our Pacifica would be at least $10k more than ours stickered, and the actual transaction price was much lower than sticker.

I can only tell you what it said on the for sale sign that was in the window. Perhaps it was mislabeled.

I forgot to mention that it was a 1976 so your guess was close.

You are correct. I was thinking in terms of the generations. The second gen Regal started in 1978 but the Grand National didn't come along until 1982. It had a 455 🙂

Should be plenty of room under the hood for a 3.8L turbo setup. 😀 I think '78 was the first year for the Grand National so you would only be pulling it ahead a year or two. The rust would definitely worry me. I would get underneath and see how bad the underbody is for sure. This kind of reminds me of when I was driving through northern Ohio on a business trip back in 2010 and came across this beauty. I had to stop and check it out. I just stumbled across these pictures yesterday while looking for something different. If you had the time, patience and tools this would have been a fun LS swap project in my book. Throw a turbo or supercharger on it even. I was just watching a video a week or two ago where someone did a turbo LS in like and 80's Mercury wagon and kept it looking stock. Even went so far as to have the stock rear wheels widened to keep the sleeper look.

We've put another 5k or so miles on it since we got it back from the repair. Everything has been good. The tire noise is a couple of tires that need to be replaced due to Michigan's heavily potholed roads. The radio was replaced and it did fix the navigation so that is all good as well. That is the only warranty repair issue we have had with it that I can think of. The front suspension does make a creaking/groaning noise upon initial acceleration so I will probably get that checked out before the warranty is up. Covid was an incentive to buy a pop up camper this year as well. This has proven to be an excellent tow vehicle for our approx. 2000 lb pop up. It pulls it effortlessly and stops well. It even gets halfway decent gas mileage pulling it so I can't complain. Thank you!

I still want one of these. My problem is there are too many cars I want and not enough time or money for them all! I have another year on my CTS lease and a used one of these (or possibly even the hatchback) may be its replacement. I have time to figure out what my commute is going to look like, I guess. I was 3k miles ahead of my lease back in March when I started WFH but now I am about 1.5k behind. If it looks like the work from home is going to stick around for a while, even if it changes to 2-3 days per week, it will probably make more sense to get something new to replace our van and buy a cheap, used car to replace my CTS. Maybe a Cruze or a Sonic.

I put a bigger cam and springs in it before the engine was put in the car. Got the car back from having all the major work done. Now its up to me to finish it up. I don't think I will work on until April or so with the goal to have it on the road at the end of May. The joys of Michigan winters! The wire harness was delivered today. I still need to order an exhaust system and get a Y-pipe made. I now have a 3.73 geared 10 bolt that needs to be installed along with the tubular torque arm, lower control arms and panhard rod that are still sitting in my basement. The trans that came with the engine was a mess so my already blown budget got blown even more with a rebuild but at least I know it is fresh and was done correctly. Now I just need to keep my fingers crossed that the engine isn't also garbage. Lots of little stuff left to do before it will run and drive. Left the AC bits in there but don't plan to get it working until after I get the car running and drive it around for a while to make sure the engine is good. Here's a few more pics:

I think we all new this day was coming sooner rather than later but... Chevrolet Sonic Discontinuted I've been weirdly drawn to this car ever since the upgrade and name change from Aveo back in 2012. Never owned one and probably never will but they do have a pull for me for some reason. I prefer the exterior of the pre-refresh version but actually like the more traditional interior of the current one better. If only they would have stuck a 1.6T with 180-200 hp in the RS version! Basically a Fiesta ST competitor. Obviously that wasn't enough to save the Fiesta either but it would have been fun for us enthusiasts.

Well, the stock Pirelli P-Zero Neros are finally gone. I kept the two good ones so I can hopefully sell them to some poor sucker(s) that needs them for a lease return. I was able to get a set of four tires installed with warranty for less than it would have cost me to replace the two Pirelli's with sidewall bubbles, one of which was bad and the other of which was very bad. I always said I would not buy Chinese tires but I did it anyway. My only excuse = Lease. I will say even though they were very cheap, they had surprisingly good reviews. They are Nankang NS-25's. My impression after two days with them: much quieter than the 24k mile Pirelli's that had started to get quite loud before 15K miles, seem to handle at least as well on dry pavement and due to the softer sidewalls of a non-run flat they also seem to take the bumps much better. Only downside so far seems to be that they tramline much more. First drive on the grooved cement interstate had the car squirming around following the grooves. Not severe or concerning but definitely noticeable. It will be interesting to see how they do in rain and snow.

The old L03 305 is now out. Threw a cam and springs in the LS1 and it is now ready to go in. My torque converter finally arrived a couple of days ago after a 6 week wait. It will be interesting to see how long the trans and/or rear end last. My budget is already blown so no money for upgrades this year unless I can find a used 28 spline 3.42 rear out of a 1990-92 F-body.

The van is in good shape now. The replacement radio still hasn't come in due to the COVID shutdowns putting them behind but the only thing that doesn't work is the nav and since it has Android Auto, we just use that when necessary. Only possible after effect of the crash is it seems to make a lot of tire noise now. It had the winter tires on it when it was hit and they replaced both driver side as well as the passenger front since the van was pushed up a curb when hit. The factory tires are the ones that are loud and I don't recall them being loud when we removed them in the fall. Either there is a bad wheel bearing or two or the noisy tires were on the rear of the car and not as noticeable until I rotate them to the front. Too much tread left to replace them, though. I'll have the dealership check the wheel bearings whenever I get to take it back in for the Radio swap. After several COVID induced reschedules, the court case is finally being heard next week via teleconference.

One of the folks at the scene thought they smelled marijuana. There is an active court case against the person but it is for things like too fast for conditions and improper lane use, not DUI. I'm assuming they were either texting or talking to their passenger and not paying attention.

Yep, ripped it right off. The person actually hit two vehicles on either side of a driveway and ours was the second one hit. The first car hit had less damage as it was more of a glancing blow but it is possible that busted the suspension on the Ram and our van finished it off.

Been a while since I've had a "toy" car. Decided to buy this 1988 Firebird Formula for my son and I to work on together. He is almost 13 and not at all mechanically inclined. Not so much because he can't be but because I am one of those picky people that would never let him help me because I wanted to make sure it was done right. It's a pretty clean and rust free all original driver but has more than enough flaws (starting with its anemic 305 V8) that I won't feel guilty doing an LS swap on it. I already sourced the engine and trans as well as a far amount of parts for the conversion but with COVID raging here in Michigan I would feel too guilty to order the rest of the parts I need to get the swap going so it is on hold for now. I don't have the time or equipment to do the engine swap so someone will be doing that for me. My son and I will fix up the interior, replace the little work and broken items and install all the suspension components, though. Should be a fun project once it gets going. I don't want to turn it into a race car. Just a fun, reliable street car. It will be a cam only LS1 with a small stall (2500 rpm) 4L60E. The goal will be something like a 375 RWHP car that will dip into the high 11's in the quarter. Perhaps more mods in future years but no plans to go faster than 11.5 as I already went the roll bar route with a different car and don't want to do that again.

Latest update: All is still well with the car. I really do like this car. I still kind of wish I had just bought a used V-Sport but the 2.0T acquits itself well. I will say if you are in the market for a nice used car, I'm not sure you could do much better than one of these. You can get a 2-3 year old off lease car for half of MSRP and still under warranty or grab a certified one and have another 3-4 years of warranty (6 yr / 100k miles). The biggest issue I have had with this car is the tires. The stock Pirelli run flats are not fit for Michigan's carpet bombed roads. I have already replaced one of them due to a bad sidewall blister and I now have two more that have smaller sidewall blisters. I have lived in Michigan my whole life and in 30 years of car ownership I don't recall ever having a car get a blister in the sidewall before. From doing a little online research it appears these P-Zero Nero's are known for that problem. Due to Michigan's horrible roads I should have done the wheel & tire insurance. At $230 a pop it doesn't really pay to even replace the two bad ones I have now. I'm better off just replacing all 4 tires with a "lesser" non run flat.

Been a while since I gave an update. Unfortunately this is not the greatest update. The wife was visiting a friend and was parked on a residential street and somebody driving a new Ram truck and not paying attention ran into the van. It is about the widest residential street you will ever see as it is a legit 4 lanes wide so you can easily have cars parked on either side and still comfortably have two cars pass each other going opposite ways. Thankfully (or not, I guess, since it wasn't totalled), there was no structural damage. Unfortunately it wasn't fixed before the state shut down so that added a bit of extra time to the repair. Wound up taking almost seven weeks but we have it back and they did a nice job on it. For the most part it looks as good as new. Other than that, we still love this thing. It had close to 28k miles on it when it get hit and between the length of the repair and the fact we aren't really allowed to go anywhere that is pretty much where it has stayed for the past 2 plus months. The GPS failed a couple days before it got hit and they did check that out while it was in being fixed. They ordered a new radio to fix that issue but it still hasn't come in yet.

Congratulations! I really like these cars. I definitely prefer this generation to the Impala. They are beautiful cars. I have never driven one but I am sure I would like it. I tried to talk my Dad into one and he bought a Terrain instead (at almost 80, it is easier for him to get in and out of). I am really sad that all the sedans are being replaced by CUVs. I am holding out, though, as I am still a car guy and envision my next car being a sedan and not an SUV, even if I have to buy used.

Update on the CTS: Not much to update. Everything has been working well. I don't calculate out mpg on this car but going by the VIC it gets around 27 mpg in the summer and maybe 25.5 mpg in the colder months. This is probably around 75% interstate but seeing as this is Michigan and we only have 2 seasons: winter and construction, it spends a fair amount of time stuck in traffic jams. It has never been on a trip since we always take the wife's minivan and I a mileage limited on my lease. The car is very enjoyable to drive, handles very well and the 2.0T is plenty powerful for this car. It does have the occasional weird trans issue when the car is cold where it seems like it is slow to go into drive and then slams into second but that only happens occasionally and only once on a given drive. While I never lived daily with the old CUE system, the times I tried it I hated it. I can report it is vastly improved and actually works very well now. Uconnect is still better but this isn't too far behind any more. Even the capacitive touch buttons work on the first try now for the most part. I do still have the occasional flaky ghost in the machine type problem but that is to be expected with pretty much all modern infotainment systems. Still kind of wish I had bought a used V-Sport instead of leasing this 2.0T but outside of it not having the 3.6TT, I really don't have too many complaints.

Congrats on the purchase! I really wanted one of these instead of my CTS but it was right around they were coming out and dealer inventories were still pretty low so no deals to be had. They weren't even offering GM employee discount! It was easy to predict that in a matter of months there would be great deals out there on them but I got antsy and went with the CTS instead of waiting. While I like my CTS a lot, I think I probably would have liked one of these even more. It certainly would have been much better in the snow.

A few updates on the van. We have had it almost 18 months and it is about to roll 24k miles. We still love the thing. Last spring we drove it from metro Detroit to Orlando, Fl and back with a 2 night stop in Atlanta on the way down and 2 nights in Pigeon Forge, TN on the way back. Even with Atlanta, Orlando and Pigeon Forge traffic I think we still averaged around 26.5 mpg for the trip IIRC. Unfortunately the stop/start battery died in the mountains of Tennessee on the way back. This was right at the 12 month mark of ownership. The funny part is the dealership tried to tell me that the reason the battery died is because we don't drive it enough. I asked him how 18k miles in 12 months isn't enough? 🤣 Obviously he had no reply. The most recent trip was metro Detroit to St. Louis. Great city to vacation in with kids! Tons of stuff to do there. It was around an 1100 mile trip. First tank was calculated as 26.7 mpg - 80 mph and 3 adults and 2 kids in the car. The second tank was 24.7 mpg calculated with 4 days of short, local trips around St. Louis included. Not too bad. The only other issue we have had with the van is the battery covers breaking on both wireless headphones. This is a known issue that unfortunately is not covered by Chrysler's B2B warranty but is covered directly through Delphi (now Aptiv). They were on back order for like 6 weeks but we did eventually receive a set of new replacements in the mail. It is also starting to make a groaning noise from the front end when you first start moving. That is the only time you hear it. I'm guessing something simply needs lubricated and I will have it checked out next time it is at the dealership. Last thing for you Pacifica owners: be careful what windshield washer solvent you put in it. At the very least, run it through a filtered funnel when putting it in. I got a bad gallon of the green Rain-X type (don't think it was Rain-X brand) and it clogged the filter and burned up the pump. My wallet was $300 lighter after that one. I don't know if the stuff was bad or it went bad because I left it in the garage over the winter and it isn't rated to a very low temperature. It was like it separated and left cloudy slime in there I didn't notice until it was too late. Dealership said stick the the standard low temp blue stuff.

I think these are subscription only in China. No retail sales. I wonder if that is what they will do here.

We took ours from Michigan to Florida and back including driving through the mountains on the back roads from Atlanta to Pigeon Forge and I bet it averaged 26 - 26.5 mpg for the round trip. The stop/start did quit working coming down one of those mountains, though. They replaced the battery and reflashed it and it has been good since. The dealership told me I needed to drive it more. I told the guy, more than the 17,500 miles I put on it in the first 12 months of ownership? 😆 On a side note, don't put bad windshield washer solvent in these. Cost me $320 for a new pump, filter and blowing out the lines. Could have done it myself for $40 worth of parts but just didn't feel like messing around with it. Anyway, they said use the blue stuff only.

While I really am not a fan of Toyota at all, I will admit that I do kinda like this version of the Camry. I even kinda liked the interior of it. I definitely feel all dirty and ashamed after admitting it. 😆 I'm not in love with the interior but its alright. I can't get past that giant, gaping maw this sucker has. Not my style at all. Different strokes for different folks, though. If Paolino is going to get one of 'em, he should at least see if he can find a new '18 on the lot somewhere or get a used one. JMHO.