Robert Hall

The mainstream consumers (or 'idiots' as you label them) are the 99%.... the mainstream automakers and dealers have no reason to waste time on you....that's just the way it is. Who do think is buying all the FWD 4cyl automatic appliances? The mainstream consumers. I have no interest in them or their car choices, but the automakers and dealers can't ignore them.

Like a modern Monte Carlo or something? The 'personal luxury' genre seems to be pretty dead today...

Well the 307 is a very common engine used up until 1992... Did the FWD installations have a different starter than the RWD ones?

Nothing, apparently....Plymouth used the Suburban name on wagons for nearly 30 years...

Happy Birthday...

Wide trackin'...

Sharp!

Given how many trucks GM sells in a given year, whether they have option packages or not seems a moot point..whatever they are doing is working...

I saw a few of them last month at the Indy Car race at Sonoma. Sat in a red one w/ tan interior. Seems quite nice at first view. I didn't take a lot of time to study it, it was parked next to 3 CTS-vs (one in each bodystyle, all metallic black). I like the styling, not sure if I like it over the current CTS, though.

Lots and lots and lots. I honestly see more Captivas of all trim levels and colors in Philly on any given day, than new Equinox's or Terrain's at times. I see a fair number of them around the PHX...

LoL... I have also sorts of weird automotive trivia stuck in my head.. too many years of reading car magazines, surfing car websites, building models I guess....

That's when they roll out the Eco model w/ a 1.4L engine...

Bingo...it's the Monza 2+2 and wagon I was thinking of..the wagon had a dash that looked pretty much the same as the Vega. Also, the 1978-only Monza S hatchback which was a Vega w/ a Monza nose. I'm sure there are others, but the Monza came to mind.

I've driven a 300 w/ the new V6...it was fine. I haven't driven one w/ a Hemi, definitely want to....but the rentals are V6s. I like pushrod V8s and OHC V8s...have a lot of experience w/ the classic Ford 5.0 engine and more recently the Northstar for an OHC engine. GM and Chrysler went to DOHC for their V6s, so why not for the V8s? It's just curious because both companies have built OHC V8s, but still build pushrod ones. Chrysler had their 4.7 OHC V8, but seems to have let it fall by the wayside and GM quit evolving the Northstar years ago. Very strange.

Those all sound like typical repairs any modern car would have as it ages....expenses an economy car or premium car would have... how many miles does the Astra have? Some things that likely impact the cost of repairs for the Astra are that it was a low volume model in the US, that it was imported from Europe, and that it's out of production...

Riiiight... How about all the Crown Vic taxis, etc w/ hundreds of thousands of miles or the Merc Taxis in Europe w/ hundreds of thousands of miles? Or Ford F-series trucks from the last 15 years? Those are all OHC engines... Mercedes Cabs (when not diesel), Crown Vics and F-150s are SOHC not DOHC. So? Still OHC. SOHC or DOHC are equivalent for this discussion which is OHC vs pushrod. And Merc diesels are OHC, aren't they? Bottom line, 99% of the worlds' automakers long ago moved on from pushrod to OHC engines...GM has for everything except V8s. What's holding them back? inertia? stubbornness? myopia? Can't use the truck excuse as Ford has built a hell of a lot of OHC trucks over the last 15 years. It's interesting how people keep defending an obsolete approach when the world clearly has moved on. It's all a moot point, though, because the future is clearly 1.4L 4 cyls...

Riiiight... How about all the Crown Vic taxis, etc w/ hundreds of thousands of miles or Ford F-series trucks from the last 15 years? Those are all OHC engines... I'm sure Ford had good reasons for going away from pushrod 20 years ago...

Yeah, he's going to have to find something very old and very basic...maybe a Model A or something from the 50s. Ugh. Or something really old-school like this:

The examples I'm thinking of the whole dash is different, not just the instrument cluster. Like the '73 Grand Am vs '73 Le Mans, but within the same model.

Yeah, the early Saturns always had an Olds look to them, IMO...

Similar to my other thread about different models in the same family, there are some examples of two different dash designs being used in the same model in the same year, either because of trim level or bodystyle. I've got one particular example in mind, but I'm sure there are others. Hint: '70s

Bingo! True for '72 also. Monterey: http://www.flickr.com/photos/37573576@N06/4051631234/ Marquis: http://www.flickr.com/photos/that_chrysler_guy/5108981528/

Good one..that's a correct answer, not the pair of was thinking of. The pair I'm thinking of are larger...

Today, I discovered an example of two models in the same range by the same brand of the same year that have pretty much completely different dash designs. It's the only one of it's era ('60s-70s) that I can think of. I'd read about these cars in Collectible Automobile but didn't realize they had this distinction. By 'two models in the same range' I mean two names in the same brand that are both, for example, B-bodies--i.e. like the Biscayne, Bel Air, Impala and Caprice of a given year..--all basically the same car with trim differences. Or Bonneville and Catalina--trim differences, maybe wheelbase differences depending on the year. Or Chevelle and Malibu. Or Galaxie and LTD. Or Polara and Monaco. And I don't mean just differences in the gauge cluster or woodgrain/ no woodgrain trim, but a different overall dash shape and design. A hint: It's a pair of models by an American Big 3 brand that is now defunct.

The Merc had a 4 inch longer wheelbase and was about 10 inches longer. 49 Ford 226 CID (3.7 L) L-head I6 239 CID (3.9 L) Flathead V8 100 HP Wheelbase 114 in (2,896 mm) Length 196.8 in (4,999 mm) Width 71.7 in (1,821 mm) [2] 49 Mercury Engine 255 cu in (4.2 L) Flathead V8[4] Wheelbase 118.0 in (2,997 mm)[4][5][6] Length 206.8 in (5,253 mm)[4][6] The Mercury body was also used for the junior Lincoln from '49-51.