Random Thoughts Thread

[ccap41]

How is there not a post reporting on the new Lincoln Aviator???

400hp/ 400tq plus a plug-in version promising at least 30 miles of range(which gets you 450hp and 600tq). 

 

Edited November 28, 2018 by ccap41

[Robert Hall]

29 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

How is there not a post reporting on the new Lincoln Aviator???

400hp/ 400tq plus a plug-in version promising at least 30 miles of range(which gets you 450hp and 600tq). 

 

There is, but I think it's not published yet. I saw all the pictures come through earlier.  It seems like Gallery images often appear before articles, I guess it's part of the publishing process.    Or maybe I thought I saw them...I have been reading articles on Jalopnik and Autoblog today, they all run together after a while.

Spoke too soon..it's there now.

 

Edited November 28, 2018 by Robert Hall

[balthazar]

That's relatively attractive.

[balthazar]

Trunkage.

[balthazar]

Workage.

[trinacriabob]

Chief Pontiac crowning a spire on that Pontiac dealership on Long Island is very cool.  I'll take their old logo or their new logo.  When I was a kid, one of my friend's parents had a full size Bonneville convertible.  Commanding presence and over 400 cubic inches guzzling fuel under the hood.  The last American car in their family was an Oldsmobile Aurora.  Now, all the cars in their driveway are Japanese.

As for that dealership in Hot Springs, AR, that has become a destination for retirees and/or people looking to stretch their equity dollars.  A friend knows a retired municipal employee from California who moved there and got herself a custom built home amidst the pines.

Edited November 29, 2018 by trinacriabob

[balthazar]

1 hour ago, trinacriabob said:

As for that dealership in Hot Springs, AR, that has become a destination for retirees and/or people looking to stretch their equity dollars.  A friend knows a retired municipal employee from California who moved there and got herself a custom built home amidst the pines.

I's confoosed. The lower pic is the current street view- it's a parking garage now.

[balthazar]

'Grocery Getter' ~

[ykX]

33 minutes ago, balthazar said:

'Grocery Getter' ~

I think I would prefer this grocery getter

[balthazar]

The pair would be excellent to garage. Hmm... which one's quicker? ?

[A Horse With No Name]

34 minutes ago, balthazar said:

The pair would be excellent to garage. Hmm... which one's quicker? ?

Hmmmm...that 64 Wagon you posted a few years back...a Nomad...maybe a 40 Ford Woodie to bring a bit of diversity...I think I just found myself another dream car garage.

[A Horse With No Name]

 

I think I just found another car I would love to own....!

[A Horse With No Name]

 

I have a real soft spot for this era of GM products.

[balthazar]

Dozens of these efforts thru the last 50 years ~

[A Horse With No Name]

 

On a better note...

[A Horse With No Name]

 

1200 × 800

[balthazar]

Prototype for the production '69 Trans Am. Fully documented, sold for $310K recently ~

 

And what it led to ~

Edited December 1, 2018 by balthazar

[ocnblu]

Good times, when a reasonable person could easily expect greatness from GM.  Total antithesis of what is going on today.

[ocnblu]

5.3L Trail Boss handily beats Raptor and e-torque Rebel in real world fuel economy test.  What now, eco-weenies?

Edited December 1, 2018 by ocnblu

[trinacriabob]

Since balthazar likes his Pontiacs, I thought I'd post an image of one I like and found on the web:

I remember that the first cars I liked were the 1975 "Rockford" Firebird, a pony car, (even they started to slope the front end in '74) and the Cutlass Supreme coupe with a landau roof and the stock rally wheels from about the same time.  The above was really the only full-size car I liked when I was a kid. 

I've already described the one I saw in Yosemite when there with my parents one cool and comfortable November, mid-week.  Back then, California wasn't as populated so it was actually possible to be in Yosemite and not have people crawling all over you.  One of these Bonnie coupes with Pontiac alloys was confidently taking on the roads of the otherwise silent valley floor in Yosemite Valley.  As the French say, "Je me souviens."

[balthazar]

In working on my Pontiac dealer code project, I have been neck-deep in Pontiacs of all stripes online. My amazement at the streak of top tier appeal they executed over decades has been renewed- the Division really did have a stellar, perhaps unmatched run of product that hobbyists/collectors continue to embraced with great enthusiasm. My son & a few buddies here have been on me to do something with my sleeping '64 GP- perhaps I have grown jaded toward it and they see it fresher than I do.

[G. David Felt]

4 hours ago, ocnblu said:

5.3L Trail Boss handily beats Raptor and e-torque Rebel in real world fuel economy test.  What now, eco-weenies?

Why should you even care about the eco-weenies or should anyone when this is about off road capabilities, not efficiency. Great that it beats the Raptor and e-torque Rebel, but how did it stack up against them in the off road actual use? Any reports yet on what it should be able to do better than any others? ?

[ocnblu]

4 hours ago, dfelt said:

e-torque Rebel

I seem to remember you were in the group that was a bit gaga over the e-torque system, and look at it now... worse real-world fuel mileage than a good ol' small block without ancillary BS...

[balthazar]

[G. David Felt]

6 hours ago, ocnblu said:

I seem to remember you were in the group that was a bit gaga over the e-torque system, and look at it now... worse real-world fuel mileage than a good ol' small block without ancillary BS...

E-Torque offers lots of gain, not the fuel efficiency but the torque from zero on the truck. It is a great system to increase the bed capacity and trailer capacity.

Ram is behind Ford and especially GM in making efficient lite trucks, so they went this route especially since they have no real small cars.

[balthazar]

[balthazar]

[Robert Hall]

I really liked the signage at my neighborhood Chevy store in Phoenix.   1962 photo and recent years.

[daves87rs]

5 hours ago, Robert Hall said:

I really liked the signage at my neighborhood Chevy store in Phoenix.   1962 photo and recent years.

Need more cool signs like that....

[balthazar]

[balthazar]

[G. David Felt]

 

Gotta Love Hazee Beer! 

So many Micro Breweries and such little time!  

[trinacriabob]

Albertson Oldsmobile, corner of Sepulveda and Washington, on L.A.'s West Side.  Drove past it daily when commuting to college.  My parents also bought 2 new cars here.  

Before we were ever customers of Albertson,  Dolores's had the corner.  Eventually the dealership modernized and took over Dolores's property at the corner.  Dolores had modernized in the meantime, too.   Normal people lived in this neighborhood.  People could purchase their homes.  Per the funky thing at the right, the Albertson license plate placard said "Home of the famous Red Rocket" until you were sent your license plates by the DMV.

This was after we moved away.  I found this.  And I did know they went from Oldsmobile, to Oldsmobile-Chevrolet, and then to just Chevrolet.  And then they closed altogether.  However, the foreign brand dealerships in the area remained.  That's why it's hard to go back to my old neighborhood and look around.  So many of the institutions I grew up with aren't there anymore.

 

Frank Sanders Oldsmobile - corner of Wilshire and La Brea (yes, think "tar pits").  Look at their billboard with the floodlights hearkening to 20th Century Fox!  Too funny.  That was on the placard until you got your plates.  Our next door neighbors bought their Cutlass Supreme here.  We weren't keeping up with the Joneses ... my parents just wanted a Cutlass Supreme as well, as did everyone else.  This photo was taken in 1976.  Check out the Regal of the same year by the curb and the massive Ninety Eight Regency coupe in silver/burgundy in their service drive.   Look beyond in the distance and see Carnation.  Yes, that was their headquarters until they were acquired or merged.

 

 

 

On a different note, I watched "Midnight Run" for the first time last night.  It was insanely funny.  One of my friends who is mad about gangster movies brought it over.  I will have to watch it again.

[balthazar]

A LOT of 'spires' on mid-century architecture- really cool.

[Robert Hall]

The mention of a movie brought to mind some holiday movies I've watched in the last couple weeks.  A couple Christmas movies (National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation--my all time favorite Christmas movie), 'Daddy's Home 2' (some funny scenes), and a Thanksgiving movie--'Planes, Trains and Automobiles'--another favorite.

[trinacriabob]

Have yet to see "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" ... that theme works in "Midnight Run."  For those who saw the latter, Las Vegas to Los Angeles is a short flight.

18 hours ago, balthazar said:

The transition from a manufacturing economy to a service/information economy is in evidence in these photos ...

[balthazar]

Stumbled over this building- Brookhaven Miss. How cool, esp that slightly curved 'porch wall' under the overhang. I would love to have a derelict commercial building like this.

[ocnblu]

 

[G. David Felt]

WOW, such small minded narrow thinking, keep things static, socialist, live in the past. That video is so full of crap. Too funny that they talk about how great blah appliances from Honda are and they call consumers dumb, your an idiot, go buy something else.

This ignorance shows of these two morons that say nothing has ever changed at GM and they are burning Taxpayers money in continuing to waste on idiot pipe dreams that have no use or place is just amazing. People who clearly have no desire to learn and grow to be better. They sound like seniors that just want to hear themselves and keep things static.

Idiots ?

[Robert Hall]

So if the new Silverado isn't ugly enough, they are trying to one-up themselves with the new Heavy Duty version...one ugly ass mofo.

 

[G. David Felt]

8 minutes ago, Robert Hall said:

So if the new Silverado isn't ugly enough, they are trying to one-up themselves with the new Heavy Duty version...one ugly ass mofo.

 

What idiot in design thought this looked good?

[Robert Hall]

2 minutes ago, dfelt said:

What idiot in design thought this looked good?

I wonder if GM hired some former Ford designers?  It reminds me of the garbage front ends they had on the E-series vans over the last decade or so...putting the headlight clusters vertically below the parking lights is never a good look. 

Edited December 4, 2018 by Robert Hall

[ocnblu]

It brings to mind the tall, strong front ends of 1950's Chevrolet trucks.  You guys have no sense of history or ancestry.  n00bs, every last one of ya.

10 hours ago, dfelt said:

WOW, such small minded narrow thinking, keep things static, socialist, live in the past. That video is so full of crap. Too funny that they talk about how great blah appliances from Honda are and they call consumers dumb, your an idiot, go buy something else.

This ignorance shows of these two morons that say nothing has ever changed at GM and they are burning Taxpayers money in continuing to waste on idiot pipe dreams that have no use or place is just amazing. People who clearly have no desire to learn and grow to be better. They sound like seniors that just want to hear themselves and keep things static.

Idiots ?

Mary Barra is ruining the company.  That much is plain.  Like smk said here... GM has been in retreat for a long time now.  They do not put product first, and it will surely kill them in the long run.

Edited December 5, 2018 by ocnblu

[G. David Felt]

36 minutes ago, ocnblu said:

It brings to mind the tall, strong front ends of 1950's Chevrolet trucks.  You guys have no sense of history or ancestry.  n00bs, every last one of ya.

Mary Barra is ruining the company.  That much is plain.  Like smk said here... GM has been in retreat for a long time now.  They do not put product first, and it will surely kill them in the long run.

WRONG, She is saving it and planning for a bright future and even bigger profits. The days of a single company being everything from eco entry to ubber luxury are over and focus products is where the profits are and more importantly jobs that are supported by profits.

[ocnblu]

LOL bigger profits building what exactly... money losing electrics? 

Edited December 5, 2018 by ocnblu

[Drew Dowdell]

The check engine light for the economy just came on. We've had a volitile market this year to be sure but today a bad signal just showed up that makes today's stock market plunge different from the others in 2018.

The Treasury yield curve inversion has predicted nearly all of the prior economic recessions. It appeared today.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-funds-doubleline-idUSKBN1O3244

 

 

[ocnblu]

So dfelt is THANKFUL for this?

[G. David Felt]

10 hours ago, Drew Dowdell said:

The check engine light for the economy just came on. We've had a volitile market this year to be sure but today a bad signal just showed up that makes today's stock market plunge different from the others in 2018.

The Treasury yield curve inversion has predicted nearly all of the prior economic recessions. It appeared today.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-funds-doubleline-idUSKBN1O3244

The charts are amazing to look at when you review the last 40 years here in the US.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/04/the-same-bond-market-move-happening-now-occurred-before-the-last-three-recessions.html

[Drew Dowdell]

5 hours ago, ocnblu said:

So dfelt is THANKFUL for this?

No, I think @dfelt was thanking me for posting the alert. 

[balthazar]

Gov't couldn't even help the guy they made the face of the War on Poverty.