trinacriabob

Thank you. I was surprised by my experience. I also forgot to mention that the seats were a little on the hard side, but not too bad. It was funny that, afterwards, my 10 year old LaCrosse felt almost like a luxury car.

I had always known Hyundai Accents were in the compact category for rentals and I've seen so many on the road, but I had never driven one. I had one of those ridiculously low rental rates for a couple of weekend days, and it was actually for an intermediate. Upon arrival, I was told that this off-airport location had very few cars and that I'd be upgraded ... to a Buick Encore. Well, I really didn't want one. I asked if they had regular cars. I was told they had a smaller car in the way of a Hyundai Accent. I told the agent I'd take it. He seemed sort of surprised. First, the car was not an Accent sedan, but a hatchback. As I got in, I looked around and adjusted things. The dash in this car is one of the easiest to get accustomed to, as are the switches in the door panels. The materials are not high grade but they manage to look respectable and feel durable. The Accent's main panel has two round gauges with an analog tachometer (left) and a speedometer (right). In between are bar type gauges for temperature and fuel. I have to have a temperature gauge and a few economy cars have done away with them. Boohoo. The fuel gauge has twelve bars and, per the specs, the fuel tank has a capacity of 11.9 gallons, which will take you quite a ways in an Accent. Below that is an area where the odometer, temperature, and transmission gear are always displayed while whichever tidbit of info selected from the trip monitor varies (trip A, trip B, instant economy, etc.). Not only that, you can't miss the trip setting button. It's at the right of the main gauges and sits by itself. The center stack is also tidy. This car did not have Bluetooth and did not have steering wheel audio controls. But, hey, it had a CD player. One doesn't see those too often lately. Boz Scaggs, anyone? And, in the center stack, the audio features might take a minor amount to get used to them while the climate control features are easy to work with. None of this setup lacks the cohesion that I found amiss in the driver's area of the Mazda 3, both the last car and last economy car I've had at a rental place. Then, gaining more points with me, was a small release tab on the floor for the fuel door. I also like, and want, this feature, and some more expensive cars I've rented have had a fuel door that you just manually flip open. That doesn't work for me. What the Accent has does. The first thing that one notices about this car is how nimble it is. Sure, one expects this in a small car. However, there is both a lightness in the steering and a connectedness to the road that just works well. Just as with the dash and controls, one quickly adjust to and feels comfortable driving this entry-level Hyundai. The engine is a 1.6 liter 4 cylinder that is not blown. In old school numbers, that's about 100 cubic inches. If a person lifts up the hood, the plastic shroud covers most of the area, so there isn't much to see. However, that's the case with most small cars today. The transmission sure made a good impression on me. You can hear the rpms spool upward and the transmission then marches into the next gear with almost no physical sensation whatsoever. For the price point of the vehicle, I found this to be remarkable. I then figured out the jaunt on which I'd calculate the fuel economy. I set the cruise at 64 mph and still managed to piss some people off ... those wanting to go 70 or more, and I was in the right lane of the interstate. I could do 65 to 70, too. I just like to see a car's fuel economy at its best. While probably accurate enough, I reeled in 43 mpg. I love high mpg numbers, so I was a happy camper. I also once did that same thing with a 6 cylinder base RWD Dodge Charger and pulled in a little over 31 mpg. Both of these numbers were higher than the respective EPA highway estimates. The difference is that the Accent was spinning at about 2,100 rpm at a cruise speed of 64 mph while the Charger's 3.6 liter was practically loafing ... to the tune of about 1,500 rpm at 62/63 mph. The Accent is an econobox, so not everything about it is perfect. Road noise does intrude as would be expected in this category. Lately, the only small(er) car that filters out road noise in an impressive manner is the new Chevy Cruze. However, that's more of a baby Malibu than it is an econobox. The car stays composed on the highway, and does nicely on fresh asphalt, and zips around city streets with confidence. However, bigger road imperfections send some jolts into the cabin. That said, the Accent is nicer to putt around in just about every way than comparable cars like the Chevy Sonic, the Mazda 3, and the Nissan Versa. I have never experienced being behind the wheel of a Ford Fiesta or a Toyota Yaris. I will add that the right rear blind spot in the hatchback model was no fun. I exercised additional care when changing lanes because of it. I believe the sedan configuration makes for better visibility. I think this little car is the most likable in its category. The powertrain really impressed me. The warranty Hyundai offers is also impressive. Of course, one has to hold up their end of the bargain and prove that the car was maintained. The Ford Focus is a little more car but it's also up a notch in terms of category. Now, if only Ford could put an automatic transmission that shifts so nicely in their Focuses. Then, getting to the Chevy Cruze, the compact/economy entry level segment cars just can't compete. Entry level compacts are also priced about $5,000 lower. With over 30,000 miles on it, this rental unit was last year's. The 2018 Accent is now on the showroom floors. The site shows it as being a more sophisticated and better equipped small car. And, with that, I'm sure they've even improved the driving experience. It will continue as a sedan, while the hatchback has been shelved. The pricing of the new model is also very competitive and, if I, as a consumer on the street, am in agreement with the professionals who test them and write about them, then the 2018 Accent is likely to be very promising and I'd sure like to take one for a spin. The Hyundai Accent would probably be my current car of choice in this segment and price range.

Euphemism works well in this context! Yes, it's the 2 words translated separately and then said "word+word." I think the owner must have been one hilarious individual and it would have been interesting to know the type of car the plate was attached to. Too funny.

Many states now have linguists on board to help decipher personalized license plate requests. There are even sites showing which plate requests have been rejected. They feature some funny sh!t. In 2008, I was visiting a friend from college in San Diego and we were going through the DMV site to look at plate possibilities. Before the interwebs, we always thought "BREAD 8" would make for a humorous plate and we could have sworn someone in SoCal had dibs on that plate! I might add that he was Mexican-American ... and still is. It turned out to be N/A on the website, as in "you can't have it, yet not taken." It was enough to spit out the morning coffee over.

Interesting on their crossing the 10 million mark. It sure is interesting how GM stock can take bigger hare-like leaps while FoMoCo (F) stock takes leaps that are more tortoise-like. And Opel would be included or excluded from the 10 million number? That said, they're not making a lot of vehicles I would consider buying at this point. At other points in time, trying to figure out which GM car to buy caused major cognitive dissonance.

THANKS! I thought the 1976 Cutty looked better than the 1977. The 1976 had the circular dash vents at the right. I'm guessing sales went up because people warmed up to the 1976 and then made the decision to buy. I could have sworn Buick was second. It probably was in the urban West Coast. I would attribute Chevy coming in second because of loyalty from the country's interior. The Regal, and Century, were better looking than the Malibu, albeit with an odd-firing 231 c.i. V6 engine that many people would prefer not to have in that large of a car. The fin taillights were a definite ode to Cadillac Motor Division, one step up. Also beautiful, but where's the hood ornament? Very innovative rear treatment compared to the year before; almost more interesting than that of the Cutlass - great color combo on first one (from B.C.) / thumbs down on the after-market wheels on the second one: And does anyone the recall the S/R version, in plump (could be) corduroy buckets and trestle shifter, meant to take on the Cutlass Salon concept? This one is from British Columbia. Check out the climate controls. No A/C! I miss the cars from the 70s and 80s. A lot!

I found something. This is for 1976. Paragraph 5 mentions that, through early December, Cutlass sales had gone over 488,000. So, 512,000 seems credible for the whole year. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1977/01/02/cutlass-to-cap-a-5-year-sales-rise-as-1976s-best-selling-model/4fa6ff5b-163e-407b-818d-afdd5c8691e5/?utm_term=.b49067a83029 Does this then mean that this number picks up the 1975 model, which did not have the then jaw dropping waterfall grille and quad lamps but was still a good looking car? If so, how many Cutlasses were sold for MYs 1976 and 1977, their last 2 years configured like this? It mentions that 76-ish Chevy Malibu and Pontiac Lemans sales paled by comparison, and that the Buick Regal/Century also ran behind. I think the Buick was second, while the Pontiac LeMans was last of this quartet. Olds and Buick went for the formal notchback roof in the coupe, with the rear window creased at the midpoint. One only has to look at these photos to see why the Pontiac Grand LeMans lagged. (Monte Carlos and Grand Prixs were on a different wheelbase and a slightly different category from these 4 intermediates) Nice front end - very Pontiac! https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:'76_Pontiac_Grand_LeMans_(Auto_classique_St-Constant_'13).JPG The rear was sort of a fail, even though the light assembly is nice enough. Had it been squarer and more traditional, they would have sold more of them: https://goo.gl/images/6u8w3G The dashboard was incredible, with or without console (this was actually a GP, same dash, and in LJ form ... buckets would be trimmed out much the same way, except that the console merged with the dash): https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2014/07/02/hemmings-find-of-the-day-1976-pontiac-grand-prix/#&gid=1&pid=2 You folks probably know how much central and eastern Europeans are taken with these cars. I have seen so many websites paying tribute to these cars with the suffixes de, pl, ch, cz, ro, etc.

I had completely forgotten about their feeble attempts with both a smaller V8 and a "larger" V6 diesel.

I'll say one thing - I forgot which year the Olds gas-to-diesel (not from scratch) 350 V8 came into being, but that was a serious black eye for Oldsmobile. I don't believe any of those engines could possibly reach 100,000 miles without a major problem. I forgot what exactly went wrong with them, but the compression ratio was too high for an unmodified cast iron block. I do remember over half a million Cutlasses sold in one year, and the number 512,000 sticks in my head. I'll have to look. Sales of all other Olds products dropped sharply in the next two decades, and the only popular car of theirs seemed to be the Supreme coupe, up until about 1985. Sadly, a competent Aurora, Alero, and Intrigue finally showed up, but it was an eleventh hour thing. I still see many of these on the road, some 14 to 16 years later.

I don't believe I have seen any of the movies that were nominated for Oscars. I did see "The Battle of the Sexes," but that didn't make the list. Great casting. Steve Carell is very effective in making a person really dislike Bobby Riggs. It was the first time I'd seen Emma Stone in anything and she did a great job, with Billie Jean King giving her the seal of approval for her rendition of the role. With a name like Emma Stone, I figured she was from England. She's native to Arizona. Also, the movie is supposed to be sort of accurate but also sugarcoats some goings-on that were a lot more contentious. I also saw "Wonder," where Julia Roberts plays a NYC mom to a kid with some outward birth defects that makes the transition from being home schooled to the classroom at a regular school and all the drama and even a little bit of comedy that ensues. It really showcases what a-holes kids can be. But it also has some feel good aspects that are unrealistic vis-a-vis the "real world." Has anyone seen any of the movies in the Oscar race? Any thoughts on those?

Amazing. I don't know any stats like that. The only one I recall is that the Oldsmobile division sold over 1 million cars in 1976, and 512,000 of them were Cutlasses. Those were the days. I could probably better answer how many GM vehicles have resided in the family's driveways. And I'd still have to think about that and do some counting.

Absolutely to the 260 in 1975 - our next door neighbors opted for a Cutlass Supreme of that year with that engine. I know that it ran at least 140,000 hassle free miles without giving up the ghost, and then some Absolutely to the 403 in 1977 - it replaced the 455 in the newly downsized Ninety Eights and Eighty Eights, alongside other similarly sized BOP products that were also downsized that year. I think you're right as to the 307 - it might have come on board at that time to power the Toro or the full sizes. However, the 260 was still available in the '82 Cutlass Supreme/Calais, with the 307 being the V8 option beginning in 1983 for the remainder of its life as a RWD.

Wow, this thread has taken on some tangential qualities, so I'll add a little more. I once read this info about the Olds 350 Rocket V8. Whenever they've modified it, either down (260, 307) or up (403), the stroke has remained the same, so it was the bore that was changed. So, when they initially did that with the 260, the space for the cooling jackets in the block was increased. However, the cooling jackets on the 403, since it remained a small block, got narrower and it supposedly ran a little hotter and/or presented some cooling challenges. The 403, if we recall, was the replacement for the big block 455 Rocket V8. (That's another study in duplication - a 454 by Chevy and 455s by both Pontiac and Olds.) Back on track, this trend toward SUVs and trucks sort of became apparent to me the other day as I was driving. I noticed that the center mounted stop lamp no longer sits at the base of most backlites. In the new Malibu and Impala, for example, it is wedged in at the very top of the backlite, where it meets the roof line. The math of more people buying vehicles where they will be sitting up higher probably dictated this design change.

The whole 350 thing was because every division was producing one in those years, so it could fly undetected until ... drum roll ... it hit the service department for some type of repair or service. And there were different schools of thought as to which was better. For one thing, Olds buyers paid more for their cars and wanted an Olds engine, and not a Chevy engine. I prefer an Olds V8 to a Chevy V8. I don't know why ... but right down to the way it sounds and it's laid out. The plugs are not grouped in twos and they sit up higher. The only thing was that, when equipped with A/C, two spark plugs were "inaccessible" on an Olds V8s. If not, then they were all very easily reachable by hand. However, when they're dropping in just one 250 or just one 231, the mix up would have never happened when someone's car needed to be serviced. Any V6 Olds Supreme (downsized version) from '78 to '87 ran with the Buick V6 carbureted engine. No complaints heard. Any mid-70s Pontiac of LeMans and Ventura size that offered a smaller entry level V8 would be getting the Olds 260. No complaints heard. I can't remember. The Pontiac OHC I-6 was a 230 or something like that? That damn Chevy inline 6 was indestructible. Boring, yes, but extremely reliable and easy to work on. Less is more, sometimes ...

I had to laugh at this. My mind wandered over to the many uses of back seats. As for the Pontiac, my dad had a used '70 Pontiac LeMans coupe we bought about 10 years later and with under 50,000 miles. Color: Bimini Blue, IIRC, with black interior. Found it in the L.A. Times. It had been brought down from a small town in the Pacific Northwest. Nice people selling it - none of that stupid L.A. vs. Seattle mentality back then. It had a 250 c.i. L6 (Chevy vintage), no air, and no power accessories (yes to steering and brakes, though). We bought it as an extra car and we joked that it was "the dog's car" because, with vinyl seats, it was the only one she was allowed to ride in. My dad had vowed never to buy a Pontiac, because they weren't as good as Buick and Olds. As it turned out, that LeMans coupe this was, by far, the most reliable car the family had ever owned. The back seat - just great. I cut my teeth on doing small auto maintenance tasks on this car. The engine bay was largely empty and there was a lot of leeway to get it right the first time. This color, more or less, but the base model, sans rally wheels, hood scoops, and a spoiler: early 70s Pontiac LeMans coupe That model could either have a 250 (L6) or V8s displacing 350, 400, and 455 (all Pontiac versions)! Funny how no one ever got pissed when their other GM car brands had inline 6s made by Chevy ... referring to when Chevy 350s were discovered in Olds products and how that enraged those buyers. And Pontiac always dialed in their dashboards better than did their counterparts at Buick and Olds - IMO LeMans dashboard I so miss the Pontiac Motor Division.

I guess it depends on the coupe. On my '84 Cutlass Supreme Brougham coupe, the seats leaned forward quite a ways and left a pretty good gap for someone up to 5'10" or so to enter and exit. I never had a problem getting in and out when I sat back there to clean. I was thinking about this as several cars passed me up today. The whole thing about cars, be they sedans or coupes, is that they offer so much more in terms of design opportunities and to carve out different personalities for themselves. There's a lot more you can do with three volumes (hood, greenhouse, and rear lid areas) than there is with two bigger ones. I find that, unless I look very closely, many SUVs and CUVs seem to blend together. Perhaps it's began these segments don't interest me all that much.

Except for maybe the ATS and the Cascada, none of these could really house 4 adult occupants that well, including having them enter and exit the rear seat. So, even with 6 survivors, none of them are mainstream medium to large sized coupes that 4 or 5 people could pile into day in and day out ... like this ... I think I'm in love ... I had one exactly like this, sans vinyl roof and T-tops, and it was the most comfortable car I've ever owned. I didn't slide around, like the announcer said. I just sank right in. It was reliable, but not as reliable as my W-bodies. That's why, if another usable coupe came along, sign me up.

I know. Three of them are the pony trio and there's three more I'd have to scratch my head about. Yes ... the Cascada, too. Damn, the automotive world needs to wake us all up with a beautifully executed new Riviera.

If it's a Buick, then why not. If it's something of Yugo quality, then heck no! It's highly likely that one's furnishings were designed in the U.S. but built overseas in Asia, and of materials sourced in Asia. Some of these furnishings have turned out to be o.k. Market dynamics in ALL sorts of markets have shifted so much in the last two decades. It's mind boggling.

I'm very mixed on this. That domestic automaker market share would climb is music to my ears. However, if the proportion of sedans and coupes shrinks because of this dynamic and there are fewer choices for my automotive needs going forward, then I'm not a happy camper. I'm guessing I can't have my cake and eat it, too. Even with GM still being the largest domestic automaker, I'm finding the choice of cars they now offer for sale beginning to look more limited, and even dismal. I'm a mid-size and nicely appointed sedan buyer at this point. And, I'm actually amazed to see myself now driving a sedan, given that I've always had a coupe prior to this. I will say that I don't miss the huge GM coupe doors that you had to restrain from scraping the cars next to yours in the parking lot.

Spotted in late February, so I wanted to add this. I couldn't help but photograph it. Had these units sported a 3800 V6, this would be my current sled. I remember how wigged out I was about Chevy's conversion from a regular 60 degree OHV 3400 V6 to the OHV 3500 Chevy V6, but with a new twist - their introduction of VVT done in a then unconventional way ... not by adding another set of cams up top, but by putting the solid state unit that regulated the VVT at the front of the camshaft pulley. As it turns out, over 10 years later, many 3500 VVT V6s are still powering those Impalas and Monte Carlos and doing just fine. I've talked to mechanics and they've told me that they've occasionally seen the actual solid state unit or the sensor up front replaced, but not too often. Also, having driven several 3500 VVT V6s in rentals in the late 2000s, they returned an unbelievable 33, and sometimes 34, mpg on the highway, which is amazing for 3,600 pound cars. They could keep the extra 89 horses that came with the now very common OHC 3600 V6 that came along later ... I'll take the extra 5 mpg on the highway. I'm happy with what I bought but I will have to admit to some cognitive dissonance when I see the very last of GM's venerable personal luxury midsize coupes, having driven a one GM coupe or another since I got my driver's license until now. And it was sad to see them clean up the Monte Carlo so nicely for its last 2 years and then see it disappear altogether. (It was funny when one forum participant here said he couldn't warm up to this car and referred to it as "the white trash car of America.")

It's going to be interesting to see if they will run into problems with using the names, logos, and other appurtenances specific to the Pontiac brand. It has now been ~10 years since it was phased out. I read about it. It's a customization kit set up for the Camaro. However, to crank out 1,000 ponies, that calls for a very specific engine, which it will have. When a new engine gets dropped in, it stops being a "kit" in my book. At any rate, has anyone noticed the recent change(s) in the Yahoo search page? While I prefer Google, this Yahoo page now features photography from its Flickr wing. If you love nature and animal photography, some new and stellar pieces of work are being showcased all the time. I am in awe of many of them.

I've been to Cortina D'Ampezzo. The Dolomites defy description. They don't feel like stereotypical Italy. It's more like being in Switzerland or Austria. The wheels and tail lamps say Pontiac and Firebird to me. When they ran together, I always preferred the Firebird to the Camaro, except in '77 and '78 (owing to the nasty "Smokey and the Bandit" front fascia). It has old school California plates. That is almost undoubtedly the Central Valley.

As I approached this car, I thought it was a Pontiac Solstice. As I got closer, I figured out it was the Saturn Sky. Now, these small 2-seaters aren't my sorts of sleds. However, if I were to have opted for one, it would have come from the GM family. I always thought Saturn had a cool logo. After looking at this again (see the badge on the front of the car), this feeling was reaffirmed.

I'm sorry to hear about this, Dave. All of these shake ups shake us all up. Crazy stuff.