trinacriabob

Yes, much room to improve, and that's even the situation with the Camry I had a rental and swapped out ... after one day. It wasn't because it was a Camry as much as it was about how this newer rental unit shook at idle with the A/C on ... and, in Florida, your A/C will be on.

Give some of the credit to UK folks who have to have their "fish and chips" wherever they go - the Canaries, the Balearics, Portugal, etc., etc. Some streets in beach towns in the south of Portugal may as well have been transplanted from the UK - pubs and "fish and chips" ad nauseum ... But, best of all, the Athens Metro now goes all the way into the airport and there are no train changes to get into the historical center. I was last there before they completed the Metro into the new (opened in 2001) airport.

The problem in Greece is how many places actually do serve french fries, especially in tacky tourist venues. If I can and do get seasoned, lemon soaked Greek potatoes on this side of the pond, I want them in Greece, too. That "go to" gyro place in the tourist books that's near the Monastiraki Metro in Athens served up french fries and the Greeks looked as happy as clams eating them with their gyros. I was not.

@oldshurst442 I've had Greek food in Greece, Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver, and in each corner of the U.S. plus in the middle. The tzatziki sauce that comes with pita or to slather on your meat is not at all like dressing. It has a thicker consistency. It's a sauce and it's good. @balthazar Beautiful location for that commencement. Is that the Delaware Water Gap or somewhere else?

I went into a store chain that features odd batches and stumbled onto some Greek cucumber dill dressing. I bought a bottle. Unbelievable stuff. I then wanted more of it the next time I went in. They told me they only get it in from time to time. The next time I see it in stock I will have to buy at least half a dozen bottles. It was priced at about $ 1.50 per bottle.

@frogger Very true. Corolla sales have been strong but flat, and they have even declined slightly.

Okay. Everyone has something that doesn't resonate with them. In our house, most everything was topped with tomato sauce. I'm guessing that when you get pasta you probably order it with another type of sauce, such as pesto, mushroom/garlic, clam, etc. I tend to get sick if I eat anything with curry, for example. I brought this up because Wishbone made this dressing in the '90s and I'd buy it regularly. Then, it started disappearing from the shelves but they'd still feature raspberry vinaigrette. Why? That doesn't sound appetizing. At any rate, I was buying cases of the sun dried tomato vinaigrette toward the end. Twenty years later, Kraft is making it. I never saw it at my regular supermarkets. I just found it at a new supermarket. Score. This market will therefore become a regular shopping stop.

I'll arrange some photos and put them up.

I rented a car because I got a good deal. AAA was giving a 3rd weekend day free if you paid for 2. Not only that, I got bumped up from a compact (because they didn't have any) to an intermediate. The car assigned to me was a 2019 Toyota Corolla LE. It was bronze with a black cloth interior and wheel covers on what appeared to be 15" wheels. Its styling is acceptable. The signature "angry appliance" grille isn't as bad as it is on some bigger Toyota's and Lexus products and an identifiable front fascia/bumper is welcomed. The greenhouse is sort of dull, as is the rear fascia. The small slats at the edges of the front bumper are odd but sort of grow on you. I think they're more stylistic than functional. So be it. Within the first half hour of driving it on the interstate, I made up my mind about this car. It's competent and easy to live with but it's boring. The last time I had a Corolla was in Montreal about a decade ago. It was a 10th generation Corolla. (I cheated and looked at Wikipedia to figure out its generation.) What I remember is how vague the steering felt but that, with that, the road was fairly well isolated. It was a trade-off. The current Corolla provides more steering feel and, with that, more of what is going on with the tires is transmitted through the steering wheel. There is more road feel but there is also more tire and road noise that is sent into the cabin. It's not significantly more, but I noticed it. For its genre, acceleration is fine for everyday situations. It's not the best car to get out of the way or merging onto the freeway when dueling with an aggressive V-8 equipped Ram/F-150/Silverado/Tundra driver. I'm almost sure the engine is their ubiquitous 1.8 litre 4 cylinder that has been around for eons. Kudos for how nicely the engine bay is laid out. It's very logical. Fluid checkpoints are easy to identify. It would be a snap to change the battery. And, of course, there are what appear to be hard plastic manifolds that are an everyday occurrence on price leader Asian imports. Since a person spends most of their time inside the car, the Corolla's interior is worth talking about. The seats are nicely contoured, have decent looking stitching, and don't tire you out after a long interstate jaunt the way small car seats used to. The dash is fairly sensibly arranged in most aspects. There are the 2 large dials with the tach and the speedometer with fuel and temperature gauges inset into each of these dials. Thankfully, there is a temperature gauge. On econoboxes like Chevy Sparks and Sonics, the temperature gauge is now gone. I want the redundancy of a temperature gauge backed up by a warning light. What was irritating is that the Corolla has square information area between the big round dials that tells you all sorts of things. The A and B trip odometer is easy to set and reset. However, while you might get range and current fuel economy, I could not find a simple setting for a digital display of the speed. I find this to be an excellent thing to have and one that is easier to work with than the speedometer dial. I therefore had to rely on the dial. Maybe I couldn't find the setting. On Cruzes and Focuses, for example, the easily located digital speed display is much appreciated. There are three stalks on the Corolla. One is the turn signal, the one at the right is for the wipers, and the cruise control is on a stalk set in as a downward angled protrusion on the right. I don't like the appearance of it but it's easy to work with. There are some other things worth mentioning about the Corolla's interior. There is a somewhat chunky and tall horizontal band at the right of the instrument panel for the driver. With this, the audio screen, which is fairly large, is set within it and avoids what I call the "laptop left open" look. In the upcoming 2020 Toyota Corolla, the "laptop left open" is overly prominent. I think I'll pass. The screen is fairly easy to navigate. Two horizontal air conditioning vents and a separate digital clock are above it. Below it is the climate control. What was unique and likable here was the use of toggles instead of dials to regulate the temperature. You just tap them upward or downward to get the desired Fahrenheits. That small panel is also easy to work with. The glove box is fairly spacious. However, the center console has a few demerits. The cubby hole in front of the shifter with the USB ports and lighter is small and not optimal for larger phones. Also, the armrest and the space inside the console are underwhelming. In larger Toyotas, these become more capacious. There are a few more things about the interior's ergonomics. I like that Asian cars are retaining floor tabs to release the trunk AND the fuel door from inside the car. A secured fuel door is a good thing to have. Surprisingly, the Corolla also offers good visibility. I dislike rear headrests but it appears they are here to stay. The two principal ones are integral with the rear seat while the center one is adjustable. If they weren't there, visibility would be even better. While not a religious diatribe, a revelation came to on the third day ... of the rental, that is. I was out of town with the car on the first two days and used it locally on the third day. A friend of mine was in the car on the third day I had it and was going on about how all these Toyota Corollas now had CVTs. I was convinced that mine had a geared transmission. As it turns out, it did have a CVT. It's a modified CVT, though. It shifts from first to second gear the "normal" way before operating as a CVT. This is probably to pacify those who would otherwise detest CVTs ... and there are many. However, I should have known better. In situations where I had to pass or pick up speed, the rpm's spooled upward and then wound down slowly and haphazardly. With a step gear transmission, the shifting of gears would have been crisper and identifiable. The plus side of the CVT is that, on freeway jaunts with some minor amounts of stop and go traffic, the car was pulling in about 38 mpg. I believe that, on a highway jaunt that has no gas stops and the like, the Corolla 1.8 + CVT can get 40 mpg. The Corolla appears to be about the same size as a Chevy Cruze but can't touch the surprising refinement of the Cruze. Instead, it almost drives more like a Focus. It's also priced more like a Focus while Cruzes cost a few thousand dollars more. For those seeking value on a budget, you really can't go wrong with a Toyota Corolla and its legendary reliability. However, if someone needs to drive a car that they also really like, this may not be the car for everyone. I give the Corolla a strong B+.

Random thought: sun dried tomato vinaigrette dressing is downright delicious.

@ocnblu Love those Pontiacs I see in your post from the car show at Ocean City, MD. I'm guessing the first one is a GP (don't know which year) and the second one is a 1977 Can Am variant off the LeMans (so many engine offerings in all lines of that car in '76/'77 - I think one 6 cylinder and about four V8s). Must be nice to live somewhere where going to the beach (MD, DE) can be done as one long day trip.

Auto parts stores can be like candy stores ... at least for me. I was looking at the bottled oil. Both Castrol and Valvoline offer a "higher mileage" oil which they recommend using when you're over 75,000 or 100,000 miles. It's $ 1 more per quart. I asked if it was worth doing if the car has been pampered and the counter folks said 'not really.' I also took a close look at the bottle and it said synthetic blend. You can extend your oil change intervals with the full synthetic but I was told the synthetic blend keeps you on the same oil change interval as conventional oil. I've also read debates on Castrol versus Valvoline multi-viscosity oils. These debates rage on and on. What I was able to take away is that, in colder climates, the Valvoline formulation runs "thinner" while warming up and the Castrol formulation offers better protection at very high temperatures. Since most of us live in moderate climates (ahem), I think this might be more applicable to people living in the Upper Midwest (MN, ND) and the Southwestern desert states, respectively. That is, if this finding or rule of thumb even holds true. When I first started driving and had my own hand me down cars I had to take care of, I used Castrol GTX oil religiously and loved that product.

I know! Since my current car's spec sheet called for conventional 5W-30, I'll probably just do that until I get rid of it. (The dealer charges me $34.95 for a LOF with conventional oil and even offers to wash the car.) This sort of vigilance got me close to 300,000 miles on my last car ('90s vintage) without having a wrench taken to the engine/transmission/axle for anything other than spark plug changes and transmission fluid changes. I have a feeling my next car will be technologically very different so I will act accordingly.

On Sunday, I saw one of these. I was driving, so I could not take a photo. It was the exact same color as this one in Wiki ... that pale ivory offered in those years. Unbelievable. I believe it was a 1966 Bel Air. I surfed the web and found the Bel Air and the Biscayne. The Biscayne had 2 segments in the rear lamps but the Bel Air had 3 segments in the rear lamps, as the Impala did, and the one I saw had 3 segment real tail lamps. I am guessing it had a 283 V8. However, the stripped down version came with the 250 inline 6 standard. Both were indestructible. The full size Chevrolet modified its front grille and rear fascia ANNUALLY back in the day. It made for a great sighting. Oh yeah .... the guy driving it was not even middle aged. It was a hipster who looked just like the guy who is the spokesman for TD Ameritrade these days ... same glasses, but with a bushier beard. That also made the sighting humorous.

I change my oil every 2,500 miles. (I know the rule of thumb for conventional oil is every 3,000 miles.) I do it every 2,500 miles for the math. That is, I end up on even 10,000s. So, every 5,000, I put in a bottle of fuel injector (and system) cleaner. And, every 10,000, I change the air filter. That means I change the oil 1 time more per year than if I did it every 3,000 miles. At $ 35 extra per year, I don't view that as a big deal and it really helps me stick to my maintenance schedule.

@dfelt I am on board with Cadillac returning to names. As a result of the letters and numbers, I no longer know what's what. As for the name Calais, it was on a Cadillac product at one time before Oldsmobile picked it up as a type of Cutlass ... and as a stand-alone name plate. French names and Cadillac go hand in hand. Cadillac is a French word. It's even one of the stops on the Montreal Metro's green line!

Buick's price point has risen dramatically. It's too close to that of Cadillac. As for the Verano, I guess it depends on the dealership's catchment area and its demographics. At the dealership I use, people have been asking for the lower priced Buick cars and CUV/SUV products. Some of them want to only spend about $25 K on a new car. In wealthier markets, this would be a non-issue. I see a lot of Veranos and last-gen Regals on the road. I also see way more last-gen LaCrosses (2010-201?) on the road than the current one ... a lot more. GM, as a whole, should address its vehicle hierarchy and price points. Its offerings feel slimmer and more confusing at the same time.

@ocnblu Nice try. The word "coiffed" has 2 f's. Regarding the car, it's a nice try. It is sort of boring. Maybe it won't be boring to drive. A proportionately long wheelbase is often a good thing to have for ride quality. As has already been mentioned, the front overhang, or lack of it, could be a problem. In terms of the side/rear, I do not like that kink in the belt line where it meets the C-pillar and the heavy handed chrome there. I'd like to see what this car looks like in rear 3/4 view before judging it more firmly. I'm all for people scooping up Cadillacs. I'm not one of their customers. Buick has failed me and others by not offering a new Verano. The dealers have told me this ... that people are asking for it.

How did I miss these? I like how you summarize highs and lows. Pictures are worth a thousand words and you've sequenced them nicely. I find it interesting that you liked the 2.0 T over the naturally aspirated 3.6, or seemed to. I wouldn't know. I haven't driven this car but have driven vehicles with 3.6 engines in way different applications. Today, the 3.6 would be my "go to" engine at GM, probably followed by the 2.5. I would imagine AWD would make this car heavy. For being smaller, they sure pack on the pounds. You can tell when you slam the doors. The build quality is there. I have "test sat" in these new Regal sportbacks while in service. I am getting used to the more horizontal dash over the previous more vertically arranged dashboards. What is bizarre in this car is how, once you sit down, looking back feels like peering into a tunnel. In most wagons, the back lite feels much closer, and this is not even a big car we're talking about. GM has really gone on the cheap with interior color choices and base models come with next to none (choices, that is). If a person were to "build and price" a base Malibu or LS, the only interior color that can be had with many exterior colors is black. That's it. The only Buick that is currently selling well is the Encore. That's what salespeople have indicated. I feel that this car's sticker can climb too high and too quickly for the niche it's intended to be in .... the entry-level Buick passenger car. Were you okay with the "new" console height in Buick products? So true. It seems that the Midwest and the Southeast are the few American regions that are feeding the domestic manufacturers in a much bigger way. It's all about attitude and perception. The West Coast seems to have been brainwashed that having a foreign car is indeed better. When I see what some service items cost for some foreign cars, the idea that they are superior makes little to no sense. What seems to eventually go south in most American cars is power equipment and electric gizmos, while the powertrain keeps going strong. And when these items go out and begin to work intermittently, it is very annoying.

@frogger This is all true. It's weird, though, that, when growing up, it seemed there were more larger coupes chosen by families than there were sedans. Families were able to get the capacity of a larger proportioned American car in a more attractive silhouette. Then, when Americans began learning how to design sedans correctly, and which grabbed people's attention, they increased in popularity and the demand for coupes waned. That's what I think happened. The Intrigue, released as a 1998 model in late 1997 to mark Oldsmobile's centennial, took the market by storm ... relatively speaking. I use this as an example because I can't think of many better examples. https://consumerguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/00128991990003.jpg https://file.kbb.com/kbb/vehicleimage/housenew/480x360/2002/2002-oldsmobile-intrigue-rearside_olintgls02b.jpg

Saw that gen of Monte Carlo that was based on the Lumina, IIRC. So it would have been a 1995 or so. It was on the freeway in the fast lane and cruising along nicely. It was a metallic dark green color. It was in very good shape, considering its age. I had almost forgotten about this generation of Monte Carlos. The very last version (2000-2005 + 2006-2007 refresh) seemed to have been more popular than the one I saw today. Who the hell said we don't need midsize and full size personal (luxury) coupes?

I could be o.k. with that. Sort of. Also, David Beckham can't drive for 6 months. Great to see he's not above the law.

@Robert Hall I hope it's a good direction, whatever it may be. They are keeping the lid on this next design real tight. Meanwhile, the prospective solutions for Lordstown (previous home of the Cruze) will certainly not be a "one size fits all" solution. Some do not know and/or do not trust the possible new tenant, a manufacturer of electrical "mobility" products.

Right. I may have even test driven this car (road hum, if I recall) when it was released. They can work with this and the 1999 concept and bring it forward to 2020 or 2021. If they plan to keep the law enforcement market, the size and shape of the greenhouse will be critical.

Is that an armrest I see in the front seat? The exhaust looks modified. I had a small metal model of this car when I was a kid. I remember the sculpting above the wheels wells. The first Riv may have been better proportioned but the first Toro made a bolder, sleeker statement. It's amazing how many people will ride your tail when you're on the freeway and have the cruise set at 5 mph above the speed limit AND you're one lane inboard from the fast/left lane. Is that not fast enough for them? Too fastback to retain to police cruiser segment. Will need some modification. Front headlamps are too 04-07 GP, one of the few but big styling demerits of the last Grand Prix.