trinacriabob

Agreed on both counts. First, what was a midsize 20 years ago is still mid-sized to me - an '80s Cutlass Supreme would be a mid-size, but a mid '70s Cutlass Supreme might not be. I was amazed at how they were able to keep the interior creature comforts and ride quality in that downsizing. That was a well studied change. As for their putting THM 200s behind the engines, that wasn't. I'm not offended. I agree, within reason! When I go to rent a car, I always ask what they have from domestic manufacturers. The thing is that almost everyone is fully loaded up on Japanese and Korean iron in their rental fleets. The only category where you'll have a high likelihood of driving domestic is full size, which would be a Malibu.

Photo gallery of sorts (labels beneath photos) 1. Side view 2. Front 3/4 view 3. Rear 3/4 view 4. Overall look at front of passenger cabin 5. Comfortable enough and sturdy cloth seating 6. Spacious rear seating area with integral headrests which aren't that intrusive 7. Overall view of dashboard and console 8. These are the more pleasing dashboard volumes I was referring to, in contrast to those of the similarly sized Toyota Corolla; I prefer a dashboard where the upper part cants back toward the windshield 9. Good info in the middle square (time, temp, gear, range, and odometer) but I was not able to get or find the digital readout on the current speed which is better than the speedometer (for me) 10. It looks like a geared automatic but it's not. It's a CVT. 11. The trunk control is the easiest one to work with I've seen to date 12. But, then, why do they put the fuel filler door release that far down, next to the hood release? 13. Inverted logic (for me) - sound controls are largely to the left 14. Inverted logic (for me) - cruise control is at the right 15. (a little blurry) Audio and info center screen is easier to use than in most cars and kudos for the climate control panel that is simple to operate 16. Rear visibility over beyond the passenger side is excellent, as is the visibility if you look over your shoulder on the driver's side End of photos

Nissan hasn't gotten the best press and the best sales numbers lately. I recently had a Nissan Sentra as a rental. This was a one car bump up in category from what I rented on line. I had driven one once before. Surprisingly, this is now considered an intermediate car. To me, it's a compact car. The Nissan Sentra is more likable than one might image, but it's also sort of boring and predictable. It's likable because it does everything fairly well for its size and price point, while not excelling at any particular thing. On second thought, it excels in terms of fuel economy when on a highway jaunt. Also, the Sentra is a very easy car to get accustomed to once you get behind the wheel. The controls of this Nissan are fairly straightforward, with the two big circular dials in the IP for the tach and speedo. In between is a square box for messages. The alignment and simplicity of things in the center stack is also easy to work with. The info audio screen and climate control are easier to operate than they are on a similar sized Toyota product. The console is about the size you'd expect in a car of this caliber. The demerits are that, in the center message box, you can't get one that displays the speed in digital form. Or, maybe, I couldn't find it. I kept trying since I much prefer a digital read on m.p.h. The other not so clever thing is what happens on the steering wheel toggle controls. In my mind, it makes more sense to have speed controls on the left side and audio controls on the right side, given that they are closer to the center stack. So, when I thought I was upping or lowering my cruise speed, I was actually changing the track on my music. Lastly, while the trunk remote is perfectly placed and feels great to the touch, they put the fuel release door way, way down ... by the trunk release. However, overall, the entire dashboard and its controls are very satisfactory, even if the materials of the vinyl covering swaths of the dashboard are slightly downmarket. Compared to the vertical nature of the Toyota Corolla's dashboard style, the dashboard of the Nissan Sentra is more nicely shaped, particularly from the passenger's viewpoint. It seems to give the front seating area more room. Also, the trunk is roomy and usable. The seats are conventionally but nicely shaped. In the base cloth, they look tough and like they're in it for the long haul. The rear seating in the cabin has abundant leg room. The visibility all around is excellent, even in the C-pillar with the inset opera windows of sorts. The Sentra's styling is now a familiar sight. The side profile has some swoops but is fairly simple, resembling a Buick Verano hit with an ugly stick. I'm exaggerating! But the volumes are much the same. The front fascia is the typical one worn by Nissan products. Here, I prefer the Toyota Corolla for having the horizontal and identifiable front bumper area. This is placed underneath the busy plastic grille in the Sentra. The rear lights have gotten more refined over the years and the rear 3/4 view is among one of the Sentra's better looks. On the road, the 1.8 liter 4 cylinder engine is adequate. It has served this car and Nissan for quite a while. It's enough for most applications but I wouldn't get overly confident with what it can do ... and what situations it can get you out of. Also, in true Nissan form, the transmission is a CVT. It works okay most of the time but, on a merge or a pass, it does something a geared automatic would not do. It seems to spool down in rpms when it decides to and does not seem as linked to what you dish out to the throttle as it would in a geared automatic transmission. This situation felt unusual at times, as if it the CVT had a mind of its own. Steering feel is adequate. Road noise is reasonably controlled but, with most cars of this size, some wind noise and tire thum intrudes. It could be quieter. Its dimensions make it easy to maneuver and park but it's not as frisky and nimble in its handling as, say, a smaller Hyundai Accent. The engine compartment is fairly straightforward. The battery is easy to locate and probably easy to replace when that is needed.I found dipsticks and openings for the critical fluids except the transmission fluid. I believe this is sealed on CVTs. The winning points of this car are the fuel mileage. On most segments, I closed in on 40 mpg. On one trek, I exceed 40 mpg, and this was cruising along at close to 70 mph. That's impressive. The car is also a good value and should last a good while if maintained, and that means taking care of that CVT with the recommended fluid changes. Between the Sentra and the Corolla, I think I like the Sentra more and, if the Corolla is now running with a CVT, then that would reinforce how I feel. (However, between a bigger Altima and a bigger Camry, I would more quickly opt for a Camry.) This is a car that can work for a lot of people who have reasonable demands of a vehicle, don't want to spend too much, and value excellent fuel economy. (photos forthcoming)

Suburban looks nicer than the Tahoe. With that little bit of extra chrome, it looks more Escalade grade. I like the photos of ones that contain some sort of identifiable horizontal front bumper strip. I'm guessing the independent suspension will also improve the ride on suburban roads and freeways. History repeats itself. We're back to transmission buttons up on the dash, adjacent to the driver. Could a little kid reach over and push "R" when it's going down the road, just for fun, or are there any redundant safety catches? (I guess the same could be asked of the round dial that sits on the console of Ford Fusions and Chrysler 300s.) As for the interior, the console is massive, the stitching on seats in some models is always a nice thing to look at, the blend of dark color pieces is less ominous with a lighter interior than they tend to have on lower priced vehicles, the graphics on the IP (slightly slanted speedo and tach numbers) carry on unchanged like those of an '06 Monte Carlo, and, as usual, I don't like the "laptop left open" on the center stack. I like the center rear graphics ... where they've placed the model names beneath the bow tie. Good that a 5.3 V8 is standard. That's a respectable amount of horsepower for the base engine. But, yes, overall, it's improved.

What? It's December 10th? Ain't no one seen any cars? Tonight, I saw a metallic charcoal '06 or '07 Monte Carlo in damn near perfect shape. It had the more vertical spoiler as opposed to the overlaid flatter spoiler, meaning it was most likely an LT and definitely not an LS. And, in December, it's especially heartwarming to see that some people still treasure the large American coupe, something that used to be a staple of our automotive culture.

I knew this would happen at least a year ago. All one needed to do is go into the Buick showroom when their car is being serviced and see the now lone LaCrosse and Regal over in a corner, or maybe just one of them. When the LaCrosse was on the chopping block, I knew the Regal would be, too. It's weird because, from the dim days where even Buicks had marginal build quality, the brand had come a long ways. At this point, ALL of General Motors will be offering only ONE passenger car that is mid- to full-sized and mid-priced, and that's the Malibu. Would I have thought this was possible as a teen or in my 20s? No. This is just sad. I am now wondering if GM will recant along the way and start expanding their sedan or coupe line in the future because some customers will want them, even though the Asians and the Europeans seem to be content to address North America's demand for sedans.

@oldshurst442 A lot of good info there! As for video 1, someone needs to inform the person or party who uploaded it that they've misspelled the title. It should be "C'e' La Luna Mezzo Mare" - apostrophe and accent over the e; no h. They way it's spelled, with Che, means the person was thinking it would be pronounced like it is in Spanish. It's not. Instead, "che" would be pronounced as "keh" in Italian.

I know that Cadillac used the 350 V8 in the first Seville but I kept it to four divisions because, in that case, they were very forthcoming that Oldsmobile had produced the engine specifically for them, but with (then rudimentary) fuel injection instead of a carburetor. It still looked like a carbureted engine when you lifted up the hood of a Seville with a 350 V8. Good move on Cadillac's part. That's probably why you sometimes still see first-gen Sevilles on the road today. What a success story for Cadillac.

Very, very close to what I thought: 1. Olds (by a fairly wide margin) 2. Pontiac (I prefer the under hood layout to that of Chevy, as well as its sound) 3. Chevrolet 4. Buick Also, weren't there THREE 455 big block V8s at one one (Olds, Buick, Pontiac), all different from each other, while Chevy had a 454 V8?

After the holidays, most likely ...

I was having this discussion with a few people on Friday. GM essentially bought up some independent motor companies (Olds, Buick) to create their large entity and kept their strong divisional thinking for decades after that. Up until the 1970s, FOUR divisions of GM made a 350 small block V8 engine. Essentially, it was each division except Cadillac. Rank these 4 (Chevy, Pontiac, Olds, Buick) in your order of preference: 1, 2, 3, 4 - for whatever reason, such as longevity, materials, intake, exhaust, general configuration (for repair, access), whatever you decide ...

@frogger So, then 2 center stack areas would need to be pulled out - the CD player up above and the area near the cigarette lighter down below. I'll have to look into this. There's a shop that does great electrical work and I will need some small dash lights redone. He has done work for me. The important thing is that, if someone went this way, they should hopefully be able to toggle through their music with their steering wheel controls.

Haha. There's a lot of truth to that. Greeks have left an indelible (still standing!) mark on Sicily and the southern provinces of Italy, at places like Paestum. I haven't been to Greece as many times as I should have! I've been to Athens and 3 islands. I'd like to go to Athens and then to Corfu (Kerkyra) and get back to Italy from there ... on an overnight ferry ... that way, the passage is just a little bit more in $ than a hotel room and that includes a cabin. It would nice to get up early and see the ferry approach the Italian coast at Bari or Brindisi ... both on the heel of the peninsula. There's no place like the Med!

100 pages of music discussions ... fine with me ... Have always liked these ... over the years, I finally came to know the name of the artist and the songs. I don't care how much you like "Stairway to Heaven" or "The Immigrant Song," the craftsmanship in these compositions is still way up there. Vince Guaraldi, the jazz musician who composed them, died at a fairly young age and is interred in the same cemetery as Joe DiMaggio. Colma, CA is the "cemetery suburb" used mostly by Catholics and Italians immediately south of San Francisco.

Impossible to tell. I think that birth order and gender order among a brood of kids, which are not pop psychology topics, have something to do with it. There are the classic expectations of the first born. There is the lengthened leash given to the last born. There is also how closely spaced apart kids are and whether or not there are jealousies as older kids are confronted with younger siblings they have to share with. Then, there is the parenting style and whether the parents were functional, dysfunctional, or a little of both. And it goes on and on and on. I think I'll stop now.

"Fatal Attraction" had Michael Douglas and Glenn Close. I forgot who the other stars in it were. "Play Misty for Me" had Clint Eastwood, Jessica Walter, and Donna Mills ... and was filmed in the Monterey, Carmel, Big Sur area along the Central California coast. "Misty" was another great song, where its originator was outdone by country singer Ray Stevens in 1975. It ripped up the charts in the U.S. and even in the U.K.

I'm guessing you are referring to the one by Roberta Flack and which was featured in the movie "Play Misty for Me," sort of the "Fatal Attraction" of the previous decade. Roberta Flack and this song are symbiotic even though, technically, it's not hers. It originated in 1957. And, after Roberta Flack, many other musical artists have taken a whack at it.

Gotta be in the mood for this one ... sometimes yes and sometimes no. I looked up the year of its origins - 1979.

I just saw this thread in the "sidebar." My friend has a 1994 SS that he uses during warm weather in addition to his daily driver. His 1994 has less than 100,000 miles. It's black with a gray interior. He bemoans not having an "operating console," thus a 1996. However, with a 1996, he'd lose the cool digital speedometer and the 4 symmetrically arranged gauges for fuel, temp, volts, etc. and get analog dials. We all have dream garages! And they change ... as we add one car and drop one car. They also mean ka-ching - ka-ching. My wallet looks better after getting back to basics - one daily driver. But I've had that extra Camaro and extra Cutlass Supreme Brougham coupe here and there and have learned to accept that that habit had to be expunged ... at least for me!

Most likely a 100% polyester-nylon blend to make the velour go the long haul. The burgundy cloth bucket seats in my last car held up unscathed over a dozen years, including the driver's seat. Either way, you have a rolling bordello. What I like is the "craftsmanship" and detail in those "old schoolz," the cool street name for those sorts of sleds. If you've experienced them at some point in your life, you'll never forget them. If you're a millennial or born even later, this whole discussion might be meaningless.

My dad was the opposite. Ford-Lincoln-Mercury or Chrysler? No way. For him, Buick was his first choice, with Olds being a close second. Cadillac was not in his price point and would not have worked well with the crustier aspects of his personality. That "deuce and a quarter" in coupe form looks surprisingly nice and the vinyl top appears to be a full one. What a beauty! I'm taking that to mean just velour and tweed, but that other types of cloth seats are acceptable to you. Once a person has burned their legs on vinyl/leather seating while wearing shorts and driving in a desert climate, vinyl/leather are no longer an option ... for me.

It's great to get new windshield wipers. Instead of waiting them to become obnoxiously noisy, I just head to the auto parts store right after Thanksgiving every year and throw on a new set, ideally after scouting a deal. I have Bosch wipers on this go round.

The fact that they chose the Olds 307 (5.0) V8 to power some of the latest and biggest Cadillac Fleetwood Broughams speaks to how good the engine is. When I would drive my parents' cars with 5.7 liter and 4.3 liter Olds V8s over those concrete bridges in California with all the balustrades, I would lower the passenger window to hear the beautiful sound those engines made echo back at me, providing it was a rural road and there wasn't much/any traffic. @oldshurst442 I once saw a '91 or '92 Toro in a small town on the coast and it was the base model in that color called Light Driftwood Metallic (or something like that) and it had the vaned alloy wheels to sporty it up some. Maybe it had a trestle shifter, too, if I recall, but couldn't look since it was moving. Granted, it was V6 equipped by then but, of the final set of personal luxury coupes by GM, that one would have worked for me.

Solid in which way? Cast iron block-heads? Are there 3 variants of V8-6-4 which start out with those different displacements? I always assumed the numbers would look "different." I could have sworn I saw some late Eldos with this body style with a rectangular badge saying 4100 toward the end, maybe 1983 and 1984. There was a Lebanese guy who had a beautiful Eldo of this vintage in tri-dark/medium blue: body color (metallic) - vinyl roof - leather seating. @Robert Hall For some reason, the burgundy leather interior in an upscale white GM convertible just worked. That combo sort of owned that era.

Of the 3, the Riv had a nice real tail lamp assembly. The grille, called the Parthenon by a reviewer of the '77-'78 model, was too much. The Toro was clean looking and its price point was more "reasonable." The Eldo was definitely a big improvement for being a nicely proportioned Cadillac, and also one with clean lines. I'll agree with you there. The issue was the price point (higher). Also, some funky engines that turned out to be problem children found their way into the Eldo during this body style run and that didn't help the car. When I see a nicely kept one on the road, I really appreciate looking at it.