APRIL 2020 CAR SPOTTERS THREAD

[Robert Hall]

First trip out this month today, had to go to the vet to pick up some prescription refills.  Traffic very light, beautiful sunny day.   Did see a clean black w/ black top mid '90s Cadillac Brougham in the vet parking lot. 

[balthazar]

Got to walk around one of those lil BMW converts, Z4 maybe; I didn't notice. I would say it was over 10 years old, tho clean. I opened the trunk, wanted to find something that said 'this is a superbly-built machine from a high quality company', but nothing- body assembly, hinging, trunk push-button lift handle - all decidedly pedestrian & mainstream. Could've been a nissan.
One thing that was curious- the sheetmetal around both door handles was dented inward, and the door handles are 'inboard' of the curve of the doors. IE; if someone swung the doors open hard, say in a garage, the apex of the door would hit the wall, not the (flush) door handles. Not sure how it would've occurred, but certainly seems like sub-standard strength sheet metal.

EDIT :: It was an ‘01 Z3. Junky lil car.

Edited April 9, 2020 by balthazar

[G. David Felt]

Took the SS in for service today at my Cadillac dealer and got a 2020 Escalade ESV as a loaner, only 1,185 miles on it. Have to say I love the interior color, the Mocha Brown with black dash. 

Disappointment was that I thought it had Android play and nope that comes in the 2021 model. Have become so used to it in my SS that not having it in the Caddy was a disappointment.

Someone had traded in a cherry First generation Subaru STI with 16,000 miles on it. Was nice for such an old bug eye sports car.

XT6 CUV's are everywhere there. They had 30 of them in their loaner fleet, another 15 were Escalades and I got the newest one since they had so many.

I now wish I had taken the time to walk the lot and snap pictures as the used auto section was a who's who of the German CUV kind. It was very surprising to see so many German auto's there. The other auto that was there, 7 to be specific was the Italian Alfa Stelvio. All traded in early and when I asked the sales Manager who was there to close the CT6 V deal, he told me they were all being shipped out to wholesale as they just have way too many broken issues and reliability was terrible. They would rather deal with the BMW and Mercedes-Benz issues over Alfa.

Makes me think that Alfa will end up in the grave again by 2025.

[G. David Felt]

Here is the Escalade ESV I have. ?

[balthazar]

My buddy's '77 Malibu ( I think it's a '77, but unfortunately I don't care). Was a 6-banger, now it's a 454 with an 850 Demon. Plans on some shakedown runs this week.

[G. David Felt]

Old car find at.the local home depot.

[Robert Hall]

15 minutes ago, dfelt said:

Old car find at.the local home depot.

'72 Ford LTD...love that era of big Fords..

[ocnblu]

While I was walking through the cemetery, one of these in perfect condition drove by on the main road, only a nice deep red in color.  Jaw dropped.

[Robert Hall]

On my way to the grocery yesterday saw a clean salmon w/ black top '56 Thunderbird out driving. 

[G. David Felt]

Senior run day of shopping and delivering to the senior parents. Out and about, saw a cherry silver 2nd gen CTS V coupe. So nice.

Also saw a 1980's Z28 Camaro still running.

[balthazar]

Circa ‘80 Chevy fenderside pickup, creme color, survivor, collector plates.

[ocnblu]

1 hour ago, dfelt said:

Z24 Camaro

Z24 Cavalier?  Z34 Lumina?  Z26 Beretta?  Z28 Camaro?  Not sure what you mean

[G. David Felt]

1 hour ago, ocnblu said:

Z24 Cavalier?  Z34 Lumina?  Z26 Beretta?  Z28 Camaro?  Not sure what you mean

Yup, meant the Z28 Camaro. 

[Robert Hall]

When I went to the vet Monday saw the red mid 70s Lamborghini Jarama out in it's driveway (seen this car a 1/2 dozen times in the last few years, in traffic and in a driveway..pretty rare/obscure car to see in Parma, Ohio).   Also saw a very clean beige '68-69 Ford F100 shortbed pickup. 

[balthazar]

Buddy picked up this fire-victim '72 parts car for his '71 Gran Sport project. Not much on it, but reselling the frame alone should have him break even on it.

Wasn't sure whether to put this in the 'spotters' thread, or the 'beautiful cars' thread.
Tossed a coin :

[balthazar]

Took a road trip into the Commonwealth of Ocnblu today. Saw TONS of stuff randomly scattered. Beaut of a day today & folks have to be getting itchy. I've never had such a good sighting day. Unfortunately I was drivin / GPS'in, so only got 1 pic :

'41 Ford convert, med blue, mint restored, top-down cruising
'60 Cadillac Series 62 convert, white, exc shape, top down, gassin' up
'68 Olds 442, primer grey, done up drag car/gasser style, rumbling down road
circa '70 Chevy C-10 pickup, fenderside, restored stock, light blue, pulling trailer w/ lawn tractor
'63 Sport Fury 2-dr hardtop, white, mint restored, cruisin'
'72 Torino 2-dr hardtop, medium-dark green, solid but unrestored, parked next to barn
circa '60 Studebaker Champ pickup, black, unrestored/tired, parked as advertising by antique dealer
'57 Chevy 4-dr wagon, medium-light blue, mint restored, crusin'
circa '40 Pickup, grey/teal color, didn't get the make, parked at business
'69 GTO 'Judge' convert, looked restored, likely a clone, Orbit Orange, parked at repair shop
'69 Dodge Polara 2-dr hardtop, rust & orange, sitting at hot rod shop, tired but still lookin mean
'67 Ford Fairlane 2-dr hardtop, dark green, very clean, parked in driveway
70-74 Challenger hardtop, red, saw for a distance but recognized the quarter panel gas cap
'55 Chevy gasser, getting pizza in same shop I did :
 

Edited April 26, 2020 by balthazar

[balthazar]

 

Reason for the foray was to buy some B-59 bits from a guy who's selling / has restored a number of '59s. He had a job he restored about 20 years ago, but the owner passed so he is going to touch it up and put it on the market : 
'60 Buick Electra 225 convertible, red w/ red & white interior with A/C. Still in very good restored shape, but needs a bit of attention.
 

He showed me his personal car too, a gorgeous lavender '59 Buick Electra 225 convertible, again with A/C (only 10% had it), and buckets. Highly optioned, show car condition. No pics, he was reluctant to show it to me (we'd never met before today), but I can talk any American car with anyone, and I'm charming. In turn, respecting his privacy, I didn't ask to take any pics.

[trinacriabob]

On 4/25/2020 at 3:58 PM, balthazar said:

Took a road trip into the Commonwealth of Ocnblu today

That's a good name for it.  That was adventurous of you.  Similarly, Virginia could be the Commonwealth of Katie Couric.

At any rate, I saw this earlier in the month.  I see it a lot.  I believe it might belong to a higher level store employee, someone kept in bon bons, or the pharmacist.  Not sure.

These Pontiac G8s were, and still are, nice sports sedans.

 

[trinacriabob]

Saw this one yesterday.  In very nice condition.  The rear badging says it's not a 1998 or 1999.  We are then talking about an 18 to 20 year old car nonetheless.

I like the alloys the Intrigue migrated to.

The size of the badging says 2000 to 2002.  The color and trim level might allow one to zero in on that.  Check out the excellent condition of the metallic paint.

Look over yonder, there's another W-body I could drive off in.

[caddycruiser]

On 4/7/2020 at 6:08 PM, dfelt said:

Took the SS in for service today at my Cadillac dealer and got a 2020 Escalade ESV as a loaner, only 1,185 miles on it. Have to say I love the interior color, the Mocha Brown with black dash. 

Disappointment was that I thought it had Android play and nope that comes in the 2021 model. Have become so used to it in my SS that not having it in the Caddy was a disappointment.

Someone had traded in a cherry First generation Subaru STI with 16,000 miles on it. Was nice for such an old bug eye sports car.

XT6 CUV's are everywhere there. They had 30 of them in their loaner fleet, another 15 were Escalades and I got the newest one since they had so many.

I now wish I had taken the time to walk the lot and snap pictures as the used auto section was a who's who of the German CUV kind. It was very surprising to see so many German auto's there. The other auto that was there, 7 to be specific was the Italian Alfa Stelvio. All traded in early and when I asked the sales Manager who was there to close the CT6 V deal, he told me they were all being shipped out to wholesale as they just have way too many broken issues and reliability was terrible. They would rather deal with the BMW and Mercedes-Benz issues over Alfa.

Makes me think that Alfa will end up in the grave again by 2025.

2020 Escalade has Android auto, and CarPlay, but that can be a finnicky head unit and it doesn't always work super easily. It is there, though.

[G. David Felt]

5 minutes ago, caddycruiser said:

2020 Escalade has Android auto, and CarPlay, but that can be a finnicky head unit and it doesn't always work super easily. It is there, though.

That is weird as the loaner I had DID NOT have it and when i INQUIRED the Dealership said it was coming in the 2021 model.

[caddycruiser]

On 5/3/2020 at 12:48 PM, dfelt said:

That is weird as the loaner I had DID NOT have it and when i INQUIRED the Dealership said it was coming in the 2021 model.

And the dealer has no clue what they're talking about...par for the course. Standard feature since 2016:

https://media.cadillac.com/media/us/en/cadillac/news.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2015/jun/0609-cadillac-car-play.html

Edited May 6, 2020 by caddycruiser