trinacriabob

I wondered the same thing. There was an awful lot of hardware taking up engine bay space with yesteryear's turbocharged engines. - - - - - Happy Father's Day to those who have taken on the challenge of raising a rugrat or two ... or three ... and giving it their best.

Photos - rented Fiesta - smack in the middle of the winter season I was wrong! It was a hatchback ... and not a sedan. The bezels are oddly shaped and information in the middle is sparse, with temperature shown by vertical bars. Not so nice: the upper lid, the amount of storage space ... somewhat nice: easy audio controls, easier A/C controls, and central locking control located in the middle on the dashboard and not on the driver's door. Its shared heritage and design with the Ford Focus is apparent. The shifter was more nicely detailed and finished than much of the car's interior. Here's another wintry view of the Fiesta. The illuminated console at night with the purple option! Y You will have no problem figuring out where to put your drink cups. - - - - - End of photos

Bingo. This is one of the few times I've rented an economy car and got the exact car shown on the icon. I rented a car for one day and was given a Ford Fiesta. I have rented quite a few slightly larger Ford Focuses in the past but never a Fiesta. Also, the only times you get the "icon" from what you rented is if you rent a really high priced luxury car where the car is specifically named. And it's a large enough airport location. I've never done that. The other extreme is when you want an econobox mini with 2-seats and an automatic trans overseas to keep costs way, way down. I have done that. In that case, you'll usually be handed the keys to a Smart for two. I have always been a little curious about the Ford Fiesta, given that it looks like a slightly shrunken Ford Focus and is a popular nameplate overseas. But, at the end of the day, is it? While this might keep you from reading on, the verdict is mostly NO. The Fiesta I had was a basic sedan with the 1.6 liter 4 cylinder engine and the (6 speed) dual clutch automatic gearbox that Ford likes to use in their small cars. In the less than 100 miles I drove this car, I did not notice any quirks with its automatic transmission. Perhaps they've refined it "a little" as time has passed. I did have a Ford Focus with this automatic transmission that I once drove around Vancouver, Canada that in fact had the shudder between gear 1 and gear 2 in automatic D mode. The level of confidence driving the Fiesta inspires is much like the Focus. They are both nimble. The Focus seemed to be better planted, owing its longer wheelbase, wider stance, and bigger tires. In this regard, it was similar to the Hyundai Accent, which I surprisingly liked. However, in the Fiesta, the ride was slightly less settled than that of the Focus and it was also not as quiet, either in isolating the engine growl or in isolating the road. The interior environment of the Fiesta had more demerits than I thought it would have. First, when I've see them at dealers (locked, after hours), I'd see that cool little pod rising up above the dashboard and aligned with the center stack and thought it looked, well, "cool." When you get inside and sit down, it looked less so. It pops up too high from the driver's vantage point and, in adjusting the seat upward for my average height and frame, I couldn't find a seating position that gave me a vantage point over that little pod that I liked. For that matter, I didn't find any seating position I liked, while I was able to do so in Focuses. Then, the materials are on the cheap side, and touching them (pre-COVID 19) tells the driver this. The seat fabric, similar to that in the Focus, is also not soft-touch but, then, so many other models in the subcompact/compact sizes have gone to cloth seating surfaces that are a far cry from what they are in larger cars. Others, such as the last Chevy Cruze and the Japanese brands, have followed suit. In other reviews I read, people sounded off that they didn't like the Fiesta's seats. I would agree with them. (This makes me lament my long gone Cutlass Supreme Brougham coupe!) With the car being narrower than the Focus, the space between the front seats makes for a smaller console and they sneak in a little bit of storage here and there. Control stalks operate much like they do in the Focus except that the Fiesta doesn't have the nifty information center where the driver can select 4 main items of information to be displayed in a small tidy graphic box between the 2 instrument panel bezels. I liked that about the Focus. Instead, with the Fiesta's tighter 2 instrument panel bezels, they didn't have room for this. However, kudos to Ford for still including a temperature gauge. The Ford Fiesta is basic transportation. If in the market for a low priced Ford and they were still offered, I'd opt upward for the Focus in a heartbeat. I liked the Ford Fiesta a little bit better than the Nissan Versa, which was way too baseline of a subcompact, but did not like the Fiesta as much as the Hyundai Accent, which made sense all the way around and was very easy to live with. The latter has been changed in that they've done away with a 6-speed automatic transmission and are featuring a CVT unit for those who don't want to shift gears. I drove the 6-speed automatic. In closing, there are a couple of other things to note about the Ford Fiesta. I don't know if it's standard or optional, but the illumination of the console's cup holders and other cubbies can be blue, purple, and possibly one other color when it's night time. My rental car had the purple option. It made for a chuckle. Also, the car was easy on gas, just as the rented Ford Focuses have been. I guess the Fiesta was the entry-level way to get into both a Ford and a conventional passenger car. The current Ford website does not display the Fiesta anymore.

It was. And it was odd. Obviously, it required bucket seats. I think they did that for 2+ years and I heard it wasn't an ideal combination. Given that they still used the THM 350 trans at first before the maligned THM 200 replaced it, it was better to go automatic. Found this - '76, basic Supreme, buckets, 5 sp. manual, crank windows, and no A/C I'm sure they are rare and people are hanging onto them. If you look at how much some of these mid '70s Cutlass Supremes cost today, if in great condition, the price is in nosebleed territory.

Great link. Our family had both Olds V8s - the 350 and the 260 - at some point. Weird that the latter initially propelled 4,000 pound Cutlasses! (Weird that Cutlass and LeMans used it, but not Regal/Century). I'll never forget how smooth they were and their great rhythmic sound. Their very last V8 (307) was also of heirloom quality, given that Cadillac used it to power their RWD cars, just like Cadillac previously chose Olds to modify their 350 to incorporate fuel injection to power their first Seville, another success story.

It was dumbed down, but there will still some left that were created or used in the '70s. The 455 was definitely a big block. Lifting up the hood on a "cathedrale roulante" and seeing that Rocket 455 stare back at you definitely said "big block." Yes. But small blocks proliferated at the end. From the reliable Olds 350 came the also reliable 260, 307, and 403. The only negative I remember is that, by doing this, the cooling jackets in the 403 became narrower than optimal as the cylinder diameter was bored out. I guess the 330 was the predecessor to the Olds 350. I wonder if it was as good of an engine ...

waterfalls! (couldn't resist)

I'm going to guess that the 396 was a big small block and not a big block, just like the Olds 403 was a big small block. Probably so. Those were cool in their own weird way. Just like the first Grand Ams were cool in their own weird way and had to be white. They seemed to occupy the same derivative niche from the model they were based on.

Thanks. Right. Now I see those differences. Also, I don't like shifter knobs that look like the round Union 76 gizmos that people put on their antennas ... when they had antennas.

Went in to get some coffee last night. Walked out a little later. WTH! Saw this: Mostly stock, I guess. Not sure about the steering wheel and the gear shift handle. Didn't want to poke my head inside the window too much, but it had manual windows and no A/C. Think of unleashing 396 cubes of a pre-1970 EPA regulated emissions controls engine. That's a lot of horsepower. Kudos to its owner for his (her) immaculate upkeep of this 52 year old (1968) Camaro.

liberal

The emblem was indeed Renault. This thing is goofy. (At least its rear lights are very much at eye level.)

This could be a sighting, but it's also something I saw quite a while back when I was across the pond, did not and do not know what it is, and found odd

snake oil salesman

"all nighter"

With all the horse and buggy combos in your neck of the woods, they can definitely consolidate the GM brands.

^ Atlantis?

Sounds like a definite (un)planned stop. Probably thin in terms of inventory depth since they are spread across all the brands.

Single brand GM dealerships were the norm in SoCal in the '70s, though there was already some pairing up. Perhaps because domestic cars were still popular enough and because of the population density. Frank Sanders Oldsmobile - mid-Wilshire - that image with the spotlights is what you got inside your temporary license plate Albertson Oldsmobile - Culver City (home of the famous red rocket) - it was stand alone Olds into the '80s - it was just a car lot behind the rocket Stan Chazen Pontiac - West L.A. Bay Buick - Torrance (enormous with huge L.A. TImes ads with loss leaders ... i.e. the token Regal with crank windows and no A/C) Majestic Pontiac on Imperial Highway in Inglewood-Hawthorne (they ordered their cars in a weird way) Livingston Pontiac and Guy Martin Olds right next to each other on Topanga Canyon Blvd. in Woodland Hills (in the Valley), selling lots of Firebirds and Cutlass Supremes, respectively. Buick-GMC (per sign) was added later and the Olds dealer was to the right ... and, yep, there was curbside free parking on the boulevard! And the list goes on and on ... Bonus: Most of us should know whose Firebird this was!

Wow. When CA had 6 digit license plates and when Lauesen Buick (per plate frames), a single brand dealership that was located on Sepulveda Blvd. immediately north of Santa Monica Blvd, existed. Single brand GM dealerships ... those were the days!

expensive (because it now is)

Vancouver!

I have no problem with these observations whatsoever. If enough people see them, they are reality. When you drive in Italy (I'm talking mostly about Sicily), the autostradas have 2 lanes, with the more developed areas in Italy having 3 or 4, which ameliorates the bad traffic situation. When it's two lanes, the right lane is for trucks ... and tortoises ... while the left lane is for those who want to go the national limit of 120 kmh, which is about 73 mph. If you are going to drive in it, then you have to go with the flow. What I don't like is when the well heeled but still classless local is on your ass, with 1 car distance, at 140 kmh, which is about 86 mph, flicking their brights. Their car might be a large Mercedes or BMW that the typical local cannot afford. Over there, you are supposed to move over for these turds. Over here, you don't have to if you are at the speed limit or slightly above it, you don't have to. They do. I tend to look in my rear view mirror a lot and, based on who's coming up behind you, in Europe or in the U.S. (if it's a Ram or F150 truck, for example), you know how it's going to play out. So, I don't like sugarcoating. This is reality. One fine Sunday morning, listening to Maria Lopez spinning tunes on one of S.F.'s jazz stations, I encounter a city bound Bay Bridge coming in from the East Bay with surprisingly very little traffic and people are doing 60 to 65 mph on its 5 lanes. I clock myself going 62. In the middle lane is a tiny Toyota Corolla and I couldn't see who was driving it. I clocked it going 47! As I pulled around it, I had a feeling about what the demographics of the driver might be. It was a diminutive Asian girl who was grabbing that steering wheel like it was going to fall off and who could barely see over the dashboard. My thought: "Please take BART! Please don't drive ... or get with the program." So, once again, we know how a lot of these road manners situations are going to play out and they usually do play out the way we think they will. It's called "live and learn."

British

British