Robert Hall

Moi, and with a couple of my furkids. I've taken off about 20 pounds in the last year, need to take off another 40. Spend too much time being sedentary...

Surprised also...it has over 30,000 miles and a Tennessee plate. At Hertz Cleveland Saturday night, beside my name it said 'Five Star' on the Club Gold sign rather than a specific spot like they usually do, in the 'Five Star' row there was 1/2 dozen random vehicles--the Escape, a gray Rogue, and some midsize sedans...I picked the Escape as I wanted to haul a bunch of stuff from Home Depot, etc.

Back in Ohio for another week, another Pod to unpack. My rental car from Hertz for this week is a Ford Escape SE, first time I've driven one of Ford's cute utes. All in all, drives pretty well. Lots of headroom, outward visibility ok (though the rear window is small). There is an odd buzz and vibration when stopped w/ my foot on the brake, goes away when I release the brake.. The cab forward design results in a huge, deep dash and minivan like windshield. The base of the windshield seems so far away. Like the Fusion I drove last year, it has the neat retro center-meeting wipers. A few interior quirks, I found the rear wiper controls incomprehensible at first, couldn't figure out how to turn off the rear wiper (was fine having it on Saturday night when it was pouring, but not yesterday when it was sunny). The power port is on the center console, vertical opening. But there is no cubby nearby for the phone/etc. Unless you put it in a cup holder. There is a small coin-sized cubby beside the power port, managed to wedge my garage door opener there. I later did discover a hidden mesh pocket on the passenger's side of the center console; with a long enough cord I could put a phone there I suppose (but it is invisible to the driver). There is an odd loop in the seatbelt (seen in the attached pic). The shifter is on the center stack, at about 45 degrees to the horizontal, was awkward to find gears (kept going into neutral when I wanted reverse). The radio controls are very far away and nearly on top of the dash (I tend to drive w/ the seat all the way back). Plenty of rear cargo space, loaded up on household stuff at Target and Home Depot yesterday.

I don't think I've ever seen a Cadenza or K900 on the road. Haven't seen an Azera in a long time either..

Something like how Jeep uses the Trailhawk sub-brand for it's trail-rated variants...(now across 4 model lines).

Saw a black Bentley Benyagaga in traffic today, in black...looks like it has a similar greenhouse to the Cayenne and Q7.

Yes, the weird pinched trim floating roof trend where it appears the roof panel and rear quarter are separate. Like on the Maxima, Murano, etc. The XJ just has the rearmost pillar blacked out.

Lexus does have nice interiors, though. It's good you can't see the front end from the driver's seat..

Didn't think of the XJ, kind of different because the chrome side window trim loops around, rather than having a gap that gives the floating appearance with the others.

GMC should create their own styling cues rather than imitating Nissan and Lexus.

That's the Citroen/Nissan/Lexus styling cue I was referring to. Trendy outdated nonsense.

The floating pillar trim styling cue is overdone, looks like a 2015 thing now. First Citroen then Nissan and Lexus, now GMC doing it 3 years too late?

Took a stroll in my office parking garage, spotted a new Equinox. Didn't realize these were out yet. Looks good.

Not just rising prices, but also rising quality and reliability across the board. 100k miles is not an end of life figure as it once was. Keeping a vehicle 10 years or more is not that unusual anymore...

I love gray cars, my Mustang LX was dark gray w/ a red interior. I would have bought a dark gray GC if i'd found one, prefer it to black..so appropriate for a gray sky climate.

Not luxury like the Buick, but my sister loves her Trax. I fit in it just fine, and it's quite pleasant to drive, around town and on road trips..subcompact vehicles today seem quite refined compared to '80s models I've experienced long ago..(a new 4cyl subcompact SUV was way more desirable to her than a dying Northstar Caddy). It's a no-brainer that they will sell it here, since they already have the HR-V here.

My '96 M3 wasn't that bad to maintain, but a 7 series is a whole other world of complex....my brother bought a low mileage '00 740iL a couple years ago, looks just like the car in The Transporter movie. I don't think he realizes yet how expensive they are to maintain (he's a life long Chevy/Pontiac/Ford/Mercury guy). After my experience w/ sister's old Mercedes-Benzes and the Cadillac DTS, I have no interest in maintaining older luxury cars.

About the only Lexus models I've ever really liked are the original very unique SC and first 3 or so generations of LS...anonymous, '90s Mercedes-esque styling but w/ Toyota reliability. Today's Lexus models are so aggressively ugly, IMO...

I have some thoughts on cars for specific people here, still fetching the pics when I have a minute here and there..will post something this week.

I'm on my 3rd tankful since buying my GC March 31, almost 900 miles since then. I haven't paid too close attention to the mileage and range, but I'm definitely going longer between fillups than I did w/ the old 4.0. Gas tank is six gallons larger IIRC (like 26 gallons)..

Partially as a means of reducing clutter and the convenience, with a couple of exceptions, I read books and magazines strictly on tablets (mostly on an Amazon Kindle Fire). I love being able to carry around a bunch of books and magazines on the tablet and be able to read in bed, at the airport, on a plane, etc. Though I do have a ton coffee-table type books and car magazines, etc boxed up from my ongoing move...

I do love those mid century modern '50s houses.... I love Palm Springs, even though it is in the desert. I would always stop and do lunch or dinner there when heading from Phoenix or LA or vice versa... My win the lottery dream home would be either an Eichler or Neutra MCM place in LA. But in reality I'm happy in the Cleveland burbs w/ my 1967 split level and am thinking about a vacation beach cottage in Avon Lake, Bay Village, or Vermillion eventually...

Yeah, when I was hunting CPO JGCs in March, it seemed like 95% of them had black or despair gray interiors...after 17 years w/ a charcoal gray interior, I was craving something lighter or high contrast w a sun roof..really liking the black and cream interior, even though it will be more work to keep clean.

Lincoln. Love that movie, BTW..saw it in the theatre back in the day, when I was living in Ann Arbor.

Interesting..no idea how the systems compare across model lines. Looks like my GC has the Quadra-Trac II system (I don't have the air suspension). I figure it will be fine for Ohio snows and occasionally grubbing around on the farm (dirt and gravel roads out there, and lots of mud).