2QuickZ's

1966 Chevelle

1966-67 Chevy II

1964-67 Sunbeam Tiger

So I saw an ad for a Fiat 500L Urbana Edition the other day and while I can say it is not my cup of tea at all, it got me thinking about cars I do like that I am at least a little bit ashamed to admit to.  I thought it might be a fun and interesting topic.  To keep it timely, lets say it has to be a vehicle that was produced within the last 5 years.  It does not have to be sold in the U.S. market for you to post it.  Here are a few of mine:

Fiat 500X Trekking

This is the one I was thinking of when I thought of this topic.  I'm not sure why and I can't explain it, but I actually like these little buggers.  I'm ashamed to admit I actually like it better than its Jeep Renegade sibling.  I know it tends to be thought of as somewhat of a "chick" car but I dig it.

Chevrolet Sonic

Another little runabout that I am a little ashamed to admit that I really like.  For this one, though, I am not really sure why I am ashamed.  They aren't bad little cars.  The current gen is a bit oddly styled I guess.  Give me the last versions exterior and the current versions interior and I'd have a winner on my hands.

Buick LaCrosse

Again, I won't say I am horribly ashamed to admit it, but I am a little ashamed.  As a middle aged man, I don't think I am supposed to be drawn to this car until I am 15 years older than I am now and yet here I am really liking this car.  I would take it over the Impala.  Seriously considered buying one of them last year when they had some huge rebates on them but wound up not pulling the trigger.

Congrats on the Ram.  Chrysler did a heck of a job on that interior!

Looks like you should consider changing your name to Mopar Guy. ?

I wouldn't say no one likes colors.  Here is most of what we have had in the last 15 years:

• Midnight Blue Saturn
• Ruby Red Saturn
• Granite Gray Saab
• Mediterranean Blue Metallic Ford Flex (there may still be a picture of it on here somewhere - very cool teal color)
• Redline Red Dodge
• Jazz Blue Chrysler
• Blue Ray Metallic Chevy
• True Blue Chrysler
• White Chrysler
• Velvet Red Chrysler
• Radiant Silver Metallic Cadillac

As you can see, it is mostly blues and reds.  Have never had any problem selling any of them because of the color either.  That being said, you sadly are correct that most people don't want colors.  My inlaws only buy white vehicles.  Doesn't matter what they get, it has to be white.  Never really understood it.  To me most white vehicles make me think rental or commercial vehicle unless it is a somewhat sporty car.

It's in all those places plus under Apps on the 18 Pacifica

16 hours ago, regfootball said:

ah, now that i have to try.  thanks for the tip.  otherwise, if you just click on the climate app, you have to do four touches to get back to the radio screen.

You don't have to go into the climate screen either.  Both heated seats as well as heated wheel are directly under the "Apps" icon.  If when you go into Apps they are not on the first page, you can drag them and drop them from the first page to the second.

In regard to getting back to the Radio screen, why don't you just tap the "Radio" icon on the bottom bar??

I personally am not a fan of silver but when you are getting a good lease deal on a courtesy car, you have to go with the color they have.  I generally am not a fan of grey either but I did like the grey that was on my Saab 9-5.

Otherwise, give me a nice metallic blue, dark red (like our minivan) or black (the XT4 Sport for example) and I am happy.  Pearlescent white looks great as well such as the white diamond tricoat.  I do think the silver looks good on the CTS for some reason, though.  Also, while not normally a fan of green, I really love the Carageen Green on the Buick Regal.  I also really liked the pearlescent orange on a VW Jetta they had a NAIAS.

I'll throw out a quick update on the CTS.  It has around 9k miles on it now.  It is a very enjoyable car to drive.  Plenty quick even with the 2.0 and handles great.  I do still get a little sad that I didn't buy a used V Sport instead but overall I can't complain.  It is exactly what I expected it to be.

I have had two minor problems with it so far:  1) sometimes on start up the radio is muted for unknown reasons.  The only way to get it unmuted is to go to the Radio screen and it unmutes without doing anything else.  A software update did not fix the issue and it still does it intermittently.  2) We got a "Service vehicle soon" light for maybe 5 days.  Did the OnStar diagnostic and there was no issue found.  Called the dealer to set up an appointment and they said it was an issue with an OnStar update they pushed to the vehicle and was not an actual problem.  It self corrected after those 4-5 days, possibly after a background software update.  Other than that, no issues.

Lastly, the stock Pirelli run flat tires are pretty poor in the snow.  Way worse than the Firestone Firehawks that came on both our Charger RT RWD and 300S RWD.  They do okay on packed down stuff but I almost got stuck in an unplowed parking lot with 5" or so of virgin snow.  I'm currently looking for a good set of used winter tires and wheels.

On 1/22/2019 at 9:33 AM, Drew Dowdell said:

I thought you could customize the row of buttons at the bottom of the screen.  Make it so the heated seat button is always there. 

You can absolutely do that.  You just drag it from the app screen down to the button bar at the bottom or the screen and it will replace whatever you drop it on top of.  Here is what the screen on our Pacific currently looks like.  We'll dump the heated seat and heated wheel buttons for something else once it warms up.

Name: 2018 Cadillac CTS Luxury
Category: Vehicles
Date Added: 2018-08-05
Submitter: 2QuickZ's

2018 Cadillac CTS Luxury

Name: 2018 Chrysler Pacifica Touring Plus
Category: Vehicles
Date Added: 2018-08-05
Submitter: 2QuickZ's

2018 Chrysler Pacifica Touring Plus

We took this on a 2200 mile family vacation road trip in early July.  Here are my comments:

• The seats are supremely comfortable!  Way better than the old T&C and better than my 200S as well.  I have neck and back issues and usually take ibuprofen before hitting the road but it was not necessary in this at all.  No complaints from the kids in the back seats either!
• Turns out you can play a different movie on each screen off the same USB stick.  The kids were quite pleased with this!
• The built-in WiFi worked like...... well, WiFi.  As expected I guess you would say.  The downside is that it is a 5G system so it was useless with my kids 2.4G Kindle Fire's
• The factory Nav worked well on the whole but checking it against Google maps there were a couple of instances where Google maps had a more time efficient route
• I did not try Android Auto on the trip but I did use it last weekend for a 2 hour road trip and it connected easily and worked flawlessly with Google maps navigation
• I have the gas receipts and did calculate each tank.  Most the time the VIC was optimistic by 1 - 1.5 MPG over actual but I did have one tank that calculated out a little higher than VIC predicted.  I did not calculate overall trip MPG but I would guess it was around 26 MPG including a lot of remote starts (it was smoking hot weather) and a fair amount of in town driving at each stop including in the mountains in Tennessee
• Rain-X is awesome!  We hit rainstorms in the Kentucky and Tennessee that had people pulling over with their flashers on and we never even had to turn the wipers on!  I'm a long time but occasional Rain-X user and what I applied came out of a 10-15 year old bottle and still worked flawlessly.

Overall I rate this van very, very highly.  If it doesn't have any reliability issues, it's going to be an awesome vehicle!

10 hours ago, Drew Dowdell said:

I'm just done with lag. I know they aren't slow.

 

Yes I've been to Michigan, I just didn't remember where you live.

I know you have.  You come to NAIAS every year, don't you?  I was just giving you a hard time. ?  Sorry if it came across differently.

I appreciate your feedback.

8 hours ago, Drew Dowdell said:

I've already started my on boycott of all 4-cylinder turbos that are meant to replace V6es. The CTS is a great driving car if you have good roads. The roads around me are very poor, so with the stiffer suspension, it makes the car a bit too jumpy over road imperfections. 

So if those two things aren't issues for you, I'd say go for it. 

?  I thought you have been to Michigan before.  We have almost nothing but poor roads.  Government at its finest.  One of the highest gasoline taxes in the country and some of the worst roads imaginable.  My brother-in-law just had to borrow the spare tire out of my 200 last week because he hit a pothole big enough to badly bend his rim and his Dart did not come with a spare.  Thankfully it held air so he was able to drive it home and double thankfully he had spent the money on wheel and tire insurance.

I hear you on the 4 cyl turbo's but almost every car magazine review I have read on the ATS and CTS has said that they actually prefer the turbo 4 over the V6.  They aren't slow either.

I am looking to replace my 200S soon and have been seriously considering a used ATS or CTS.  I almost pulled the trigger on a CTS V-sport a couple of months ago but didn't and now the used prices on all CTS's (not just V-sport) seem to have rebounded since then. Good for Cadillac that they found bottom and are climbing again but bad for me.  Sooo... after driving this 2016 ATS Luxury 2.0T and mentioning to the salesman about the CTS, when I got back to the dealership after the test drive he started talking to me about leasing a "new" courtesy vehicle with 4-5k miles on it already that would count against the lease.  He didn't do any official calculations or put anything in writing but lets just say the number he through out was quite attractive.

So do any of you have any thoughts you would want to share on these?  It is a 2018 CTS Luxury RWD 2.0T.  I have not test driven it yet but I did test drive a 2.0T performance model a year or so ago and felt the 2.0T was perfectly fine in it.  What do you think?  The only down side I can see so far is that it is a 39 month lease.

Funny aside: When I was talking to the salesman about the CTS he was pointing out the ventilated seats as one of the features and how nice they are and I said "I know, I have them on my 200" and he was shocked!  He said "You could get ventilated seats on a 200?  You can't even get ventilated seats on the ATS!"  Haha

Hey Reg, I forgot but did you buy or lease your T&C?

The reason I ask is because I was shocked what I was able to get for ours when we sold it.  We had bought our 2013 used off lease and we got a pretty good deal on it but not spectacular.  There were others around in the price range.  After 2.5 years of ownership I was able to sell it for only $3.5k less than what I paid for it!  And at that the guy that bought it was very happy with the price.  Most of the comparable ones in my area were listed for at least $1500 more than I listed mine for and I live in metro Detroit so there is no shortage of them around.

On 6/8/2018 at 7:45 PM, regfootball said:

Give Sergio 2-3 years to sort out the hybrid powertrain glitches and maybe then they will offer lease deals on them.

 

LOVE YOUR S PACKAGE BY THE WAY!

I am going to get my six month review of our Pacifica up soon.  I am even wondering if we shouldn't get a second Pacfica, and I would get an S package too.  I think they should offer S package with cloth.  They should do a special console with the S  package too.

 

Now if they would just turbo that pentastar too!

The T&C was purchased for me to drive because the wife refused to drive a minivan.  We only had that for a week or so before she took it over and it became hers.  She sadly is still stuck on the minivan stigma so she seriously considered an SUV instead this time around.  We were looking at GMC Acadias and Chevy Traverses but at the end of the day, we just got way more for our money with the Pacifica.  And she does love the convenience of the minivan.  All that being said, I would say there is a 99% chance that when we replace it in a few years the kids will be old enough she will switch to an SUV.   Our shot at the hybrid has come and gone.

The S package is nice!  It looks pretty good on all colors I have seen with it too.  I saw a dark blue S-package yesterday and it probably looked better than our red one.  I also saw an orange S-package and even that looked good!

I personally think the Pacifica looks great in pretty much any color or trim save for maybe the base no chrome models.  Weirdly enough I am very drawn to that Cordovan brown color.  If we had not found this S-package, that is probably what we would have bought.

On 6/8/2018 at 8:31 PM, regfootball said:

SIX MONTHS IN REPORT

10,000 miles + on odometer

 

LOWS

-I would like a little improvement in the console design and the amount of storage available in front for cubbies within reach.  Small glovebox is a step back from the two tier glovebox in the T&C.

-That 9th gear, it takes pigs flying and planets aligning to engage.

-having to go through 2 or 3 screen on the touch screen to turn heated seats and steering wheel on and off is ridiculous.  They need to add the switches for these on the  main panel.

 

 

Some of my comments having had ours for 2 months and not quite 2k miles:

- I agree with you on the Console.  It went backwards from the T&C in terms of storage.  Glovebox as well.

- I haven't noticed 9th gear.  I need to go through the menu and see if you can add the gear count to the display like you can on my 200.  I will say my 200 is in 9th gear a lot so I am surprised to hear you say this.

- You are probably aware of this but you know you can drag and drop app icons to the main menu bar, right?  Anything new you drag there will replace whatever icon you drop it on top of.  I plan on adjusting the menu bar by season so in the winter the driver heated seat and heated SW are right on the menu bar.

I will also add one more Low:

- They took away the pop out vent function on the third row windows.  This is also a step back from the T&C

Overall it is a fantastic vehicle, though.  I really enjoy ours.  We did a 300 mile or so trip last weekend that was 40% interstate (80 mph), 40% two lane highway (60 mph) and 20% city and it was showing an indicated 28 mpg and I would only expect that to get better as the engine breaks in.

13 hours ago, ocnblu said:

Is it sad that I would drive it with all the seats folded into the floor and use it as a really fancy cargo hauler?

Not at all.  They are basically an enclosed pickup truck but without the towing capacity.

On 5/10/2018 at 8:55 AM, regfootball said:

Congrats!  you get a 2017 or 2018?  

yep, i don't like the less storage and yep, the seat mounted screens my kid loves too.  

pacificaforums.com is a great place for all the minutia of what is going on with those vans.

2018.  Thanks for the tip!  I'll have to check it out!

I bought these tires for the Saab 9-5 I used to have.  They were a great tire.  Light years better than the noisy Falken tires that were on it when I bought it.  I liked them so much that when it was time to put new tires on the T&C, I switched it over to Conti TrueContact DWS tires.  I just replaced two of them tonight after about 30k miles but that was my fault due not fixing the alignment quick enough combined with not rotating them.   It wore out the outside tread blocks prematurely. 

The back tires still have the S even after 30k miles!  For those that don't know, Conti embeds a "D", "W" and "S" in the tread blocks with the idea that when the "S" is worn off, the tire is no longer good for snow, the "W", no longer good for Wet and the "D" ... well, its time for new tires.

19 hours ago, Drew Dowdell said:

You know what, these drive so nice.... and they finally made a mini-van that actually looks good. This is really the best crossover alternative out there that can still do all the hauling a crossover can do and more.  I know @ocnblu would make fun of me for it, but I'd get the plug-in version... if only because it adds a bunch more scoot to the pentastar. 

It's funny you say that about the hybrid.  My wife is the primary driver of this and she only has a 5 mile commute to work.  We STRONGLY considered the hybrid.  There are no deals to be had, though.  Yes, the $7500 back from the government but dealers are giving hardly any extra markdown and there are no rebates.  The lease deals are horrible.  We were originally going to wait until fall to see if they would blow out the MY18 hybrids that they didn't try too hard to sell/lease during the model year but got a good enough deal on this gas powered one to pull the trigger now.

One thing they need to fix if they want to sell/lease the hybrid to your average Joe, the dealerships need to keep one charged up for test drives.  We didn't try too many dealerships but none of the ones we did try kept one charged.  It would be nice to know how they drive on pure electricity if that is how you are going to be driving it 95% of the time.

7 hours ago, ccap41 said:

I'm sorry..

No need to be sorry!  These things are awesome.  You are the one missing out. ?