trinacriabob

I remember that the venerable bicentennial Olds Cutlass Supreme, of which over 500,000 were sold, came on a 112" wheelbase if a coupe and a 116" wheelbase if a sedan or wagon. When Pontiac last ran both a Grand Prix sedan and coupe (in 2002, I believe), the wheelbases and lengths were unchanged for the 2 configurations. That said, Electras could be either an exercise in Buick as a boulevardier or in Buick as bling.

I think Buick made a concerted effort to rid themselves of that name and the associated slang. By the mid-70s, Electras had turned into mostly Limiteds, with the top of the line having the branding "Park Avenue" appended to it. Here's a "Park" of 1976 vintage: Buick Electra Park Avenue (interior) Amazing, on various levels.

Every once in a while, I go onto eBay or craigslist and look for these Caprices ... in base form and with the 4.3 liter V8. If you think they come by cheaply, they don't. Far from it. What you'll see is one that is in dire straits and on its last legs sitting in a corn field in a small town in southern Illinois where there are fewer teeth in the town than there are cubic inches in the engine, and they're asking $795 or less, and it has been sitting there for a long time, looking like the Andrea Doria accumulating plankton. Then, you'll see one in immaculate condition with 60,000 miles and they want anywhere from $5,500 to $7,000. Within the past 4 months, I was at a light next to one. I rolled down the window and so did the passenger. It was burgundy, had whitewalls, factory spoke wheels, and a burgundy leather interior. The husband beamed that it had less than 45,000 miles. I asked which engine it had. The wife, the passenger, looked at her husband and he said it had a V8. I knew that. The light changed, so I couldn't ask more questions nor ask if he'd sell it. I'm betting it had the 5.7 liter V8.

I think that sounds about right, given that my current car is about 198 inches long. However, what I learned in a basic college sociology course, IIRC, is that primarily one demographic group used that term. And, when I've heard it said, it has been said with gusto!

To me, Riv, Park, Stang, and Toro are just abbreviations. "Deuce and a quarter" is what I call one fine automotive nickname! Some of you may not know what it stands for nor its etymology.

Sorry to hear that news. I was not aware he was ill. It's weird how these situations can change. My mom did fine through her birthday, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. She had blood work in mid-December that was normal (her creatinine was normal). She felt terrible in mid-January and the doctor said to take her to E.R. because something was up that she couldn't diagnose there. Her E.R. blood work was NOT normal. Her creatinine had gone up 9-fold. It was a trek from E.R. to ICU to med floor to hospice ... all in 3 weeks. You would have never known from her birthday party photos 3 months prior. It appeared she was going the Betty White route. And you know there has to be one jerk, a fat lifer lady from her parish, who had to opine that her not going onto dialysis was not the "right" thing to do. What ... for an extra month or two of misery?

After a while, past Super Bowls tend to run together. However, I will have to say that I enjoyed the big spread in the score that Seattle enjoyed throughout the game in one Super Bowl within the last 3 to 5 years. When it's a team's first time to win and it's a team you like, you don't mind the big spread. Also, looking at the list on winners on Wiki, I was really glad when New Orleans won it within 5 years of Hurricane Katrina. They needed that! And they earned it, too.

Ok. so I'll try this approach the next time and then might return to "drop pan, drain, change filter, and refill" as the car gets older. I think I'll try this. It's been an available service for a long time. Thanks.

I wanted to randomly add that I'm glad that the Philadelphia Eagles took the Super Bowl. New England has won it too often lately, with last year's game being absurd. I left the place I was chowing down that evening and watching the game ... and learned that New England had turned it around on Atlanta (it would have been their first win) at the very end as I was looking at my phone while going through the checkout stand. Philadelphia has gone a time or two over the years, but has never won. Now they have. I am not a huge fan of sitting around an entire sports season and spending three and a half hour clips of time to watch all the games. However, I manage to get somewhat interested toward the end. I tend to root for the underdog, unless it's a place and/or a team I very much dislike.

Seems like a hybrid job (flush and drain/fill). They sound like one of those stalwart shops. So, then, I guess you've had these flushes which also involved a machine and you've motored along some 20,000 or 30,000 miles after the fact without any hassles !? That's great.

I actually heard of that shortcut jargon first in SoCal, though not in O.C. In "Los An" itself.

LOF = lube, oil, and oil filter in old school parlance. That's how they code the invoice at writing up the order.

I've got the GM 4T65-E transaxle in my LaCrosse. Whether on this car or my last car (4T60 transaxle), I've never had a transmission flush, where they leave the pan/gasket/filter alone. I've always had them drain and refill the transmission, and have them change the filter and check the pan and gasket in the process. I am aware that that leaves some old fluid in the torque converter. However, an old school GM advisor told me that doing "drain and fill" with the pan and gasket dropped every couple of years - 25,000 or 30,000 miles - is as good as doing the full flush with the machine less often. He said the "drain and fill" is easier on the transmission. I've had coolant, brake fluid, and power steering fluid flushed and that's done by a machine that they hook up to the car. I haven't had problems from those flushes. At least not yet. The transmission flush also uses a machine. Because transmissions are real complicated (from seeing the cutaways), I am concerned that the flush could be harmful to seals, servos, and whatnot. But, then again, the machine should run at a speed and pressure that is correctly calibrated and does the job since they've offered this service for years. I've actually heard that the flush is harmful when an automatic transmission has been neglected, the fluid is in bad shape, and, finally, someone gets around the flushing it when the car is older. My car is "older," I guess, but has low miles and the fluid has been changed a few times. Which method do you use and do you have opinions about either method? Have you tried both, or switched? If you've done the flush, how has that worked out? Thanks.

Got a LOF this morning. Nice people at a new dealership I tried.

I don't know if it's possible to pull up the packaging, as in "build and price," for the departed Verano. I could have sworn that the most basic Verano came with a 4 way adjustable seat and that power came via one of the most basic packages. Not sure. However, yes, it should be standard on Buicks. A good way to tell might be to look at the order specs for an Encore, though I didn't do that. Reg, you are right in that, even though FoMoCo is after GM for me, they group their options more sensibly. On the Focus, you can get just the power seat or just the door combination code thing on the SE. You can also get a fairly minimal and minimally priced cold weather package. On the Cruze, you can't get the power seat by itself. Not only that, you have to go up to the Premier level on the Cruze to get the leather wrapped wheel. You should at least be able to opt for that on the LT level trim, if not have it be standard. People who like cloth seats might still want a leather wrapped steering wheel. If in a blistering or frigid climate, I don't want leather seats.

Thanks. I wish they offered it here. I tend to get edgy when there's a model I really like ... and I'm not in the market. I've told myself that, when I will in the market, there WILL be a model that I will like. That's what happened when the Olds Intrigue was released in '98. I wanted that car badly. I wasn't ready. Ten years later, I bought the LaCrosse ... on the same chassis and with essentially the same engine. As for this new Chinese Verano ... Pluses - attractive silhouette; obvious family resemblance to the Cruze platform - nice attention to detail inside and nice stitching on the seats; must mention that the seats on the outgoing Verano were fantastic to look at, to seat in for extended periods, etc. - rear fascia makes it look like a baby LaCrosse - opera window type set up embedded in the C-pillar as seen from the inside Minuses - don't like such vertical grilles on small(er) cars; it should taper back some - from the side view, the tail lamps look like those of a Hyundai Accent as they wrap around - I don't like the dash ... it looks dated, boring, and has become the current Buick boilerplate ... I really liked the more vertical look in the last gen Verano and Regal with the defined center stack I like it more than I do the 2018 Regal.

I don't expect a return to pricing options individually, as was the case some 20 years ago. However, considering that they sell so many damn accessories via separate line items, I'd sure like to see power seats being offered as stand alone items on many entry level cars which already have power windows, power locks, and power mirrors as standard equipment. The other thing I'd like to see is a lower priced security package instead of casting a much broader net called a "convenience package" ... and costing some one thousand dollars. By a security package, I mean the trio of forward collision alert, lane departure alert, and rear traffic monitoring. I'd opt for that. I guess the Verano won't be coming back anytime soon. They cite sales figures. Given that the recently departed Verano was based on the last-gen Cruze, I can only imagine what a good car it could have been when built off the new Cruze platform and bumped up a few notches with Buick's better chassis tuning, insulation, and attention to detail. I'm guessing Buick doesn't want to be associated with anything that starts out at under $25,000.

A couple of weeks ago, my sled, a 2008 Buick LaCrosse CX with the base 3800 V6 engine, turned ten! Both then and today, it had and has less than 70,000 miles on the odometer, respectively. I remember driving it home after being pushed by friends and family to replace its predecessor, another W body with over 270,000 original miles and reasonably hassle free service, and savoring the new car smell. Part of what pushed me was the impending cessation of Buick Motor Division’s production of the 3800 V6 engine, which I had in the previous car, albeit of Series I vintage. I had been extremely pleased with everything about that “little” engine. The other impetus was the combination of incentives from GM and the dealership that, when aggregated with the GM Card earnings, took $6,000 off the MSRP for what was then the lowest priced Buick. In short, the big pluses are that this LaCrosse weighs 200 to 300 pounds more than my Regal coupe of the 90s. This comes across in the ride and even in the noise isolation in the cabin. In the previous car, the steering was more vague than that of, say, an equivalent Pontiac and that also holds true vis a vis its the LaCrosse's stablemate of the same period, the Pontiac Grand Prix. However, the steering is more nicely weighted. Fit and finish are also some notches up from the previous car, with a leather wrapped steering wheel, better build quality, nicer stitching and faux wood appliqués, and more standard bells and whistles. In looking at it for over a decade, the layout of the instrument panel is straightforward and pleasing to the eye, especially with the canted shape of the center stack coming down and curving to merge into the console. As for the automatic transmission, I believe I graduated from the GM 4T60 to the GM 4T65E, a slightly modified and electronically chipped version of a reasonably common transaxle. And only 4 gears work just fine for me since my first car had a 3 speed GM Turbo-Hydramatic 350 transmission! The icing on the cake would be the 3800 Series III V6 engine with cast iron block and heads. Highway jaunts with cruise control fetch 29 or 30 miles per gallon, which makes me feel somewhat environmentally conscious. It’s all relative. Not only that, this engine features various improvements through powder coated metals, better designed pistons, and an upgraded metal intake manifold compared to the Series II version. This stalwart would soon be bowing out and be the last “simple,” “old school” engine that GM would build in big quantities. The minuses are few and mostly about convenience items. The car’s styling is somewhat timeless. However, I only wish they had put in more blackened out bits and pieces to downplay the slightly oversized and overly chromed grille. Along those lines, the exterior color choices weren’t particularly vast, with weak choices in metallic earth colors and metallic blues. In the interior, the same was true. Only pale gray and pale tan cloth seats were available on the CX. It was obvious that, compared to the previous decade, GM had moved toward reducing choices to manage costs. The cloth seats are firmer and have held up very well; however, they collect lint and it comes back quickly after removing it. Finally, there is no lamp in the engine compartment. The under hood lamp came in handy on the previous car. The problems I’ve had with the car pretty much mirror the problem areas displayed for the base 2008 Buick LaCrosse in Consumer Reports. While not listed as a problem area, the engine requires the addition of some oil between oil changes. I’d say it requires a little more than half a quart every 3,000 miles. The TSB GM released for these engines cites even more leeway than that, which I find ridiculous. At first, this torqued me because the previous car’s engine was tighter, all the way to almost 300,000 miles. As long as this level of consumption remains constant, I guess I can live with that. I thought it would make it to ten years without any seepage under the car but that hasn’t been the case. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the car was parked for over a week and there was a cold snap. I always check the concrete area where I park it. It had always been free of spots. The apron finally showed some minor drips of pale pink fluid when I backed the car out. I’m hoping it’s just the gasket in the transmission pan, which is supposedly meant to be reused at fluid changes. I’ve already done this service twice. Let’s see what this is all about. The car is known to have some issues in the suspension department. While they can occur in several areas, I believe that my intermediate steering shaft has a minute amount of play. I have read that many GM W-body owners have this issue and that, in most cases, it’s not much more than a small annoyance. Knowing how the steering felt beforehand, it bothers me. I think that it will be replaced when I change the struts all the way around. I understand that GM has put out a better designed intermediate steering shaft to replace the OEM unit. The car also has some known demerits in its electronics. First, I have what I believe is called a “soft code” issue. The check engine light comes on intermittently when the weather is very cold. When it warms up again, the light goes off and may continue to stay off, even as the next cold snap comes along. There is no change in drivability and fuel economy when this occurs. The possible culprits that go with the code are cheap fixes and I may look into it sooner than later. Internet searches reveal that other owners also experience this same issue. One of two instrument panel lamps has gone out on one of the small gauges. The bulb is inexpensive. However, replacing it is not a simple task. I can’t reach from under the dash and replace it. The gauge can still be read at night, though. Lastly, the biggest annoyance has been the failure of not one, but two, power door lock transponders. The power door locks were hassle free in the old car, but then there was no provision to operate them remotely. I work around it by lifting those door locks manually. It sure makes me wish for the good old days when there were more exterior locks on car doors and on the trunk lid. All in all, I can say that I am very satisfied with the purchase. On some days, I beam and give the car an A. On others, I give it an A-. And, when I’m grumpy, I give it a B+. However, all I have to do is look at what else is being offered in the market that addresses my automotive needs and price point and it makes me happy that I bought this entry level Buick LaCrosse over ten years ago. On its 10th birthday, I decided to celebrate. I think the car wanted to go for Brazilian churrascaria food that kept on coming. And so did I! So that’s exactly where I pointed its steering wheel. - - - - - The sled wanted to drive me to a Brazilian styled churrascaria for lunch on its 10th birthday. Here it is:

I'm not happy with the latest bumper crop of fastback sedans that have next to nothing in the way of a horizontal surface on their trunk lids. And this is yet another one. I know that market research dictates this sort of stuff. Or is it the whim of the designers who want to steer design trends? I just don't like it.

Avalons seem to have waxed and waned in their looks, from being safe to being ugly. I remember how ungainly the early 2000s models were, especially in their side profile and rear ends. However, they had a better than o.k. dash, when the "ravine look" was popular. Buick used it quite a bit in the 90s. This new Avalon is a fail - in its frontal look, C-pillar/opera window, dash, and console. Toyota really needs to regroup. If they can dial in on all red dot Consumer Reports rankings for reliability, then they can dial in on better styling.

I'd like to drive one (a Mazda 6) once, if not just for a day. I already know I don't like the dash. I was once given a Sonata as a rental. I don't like its overly safe and generic exterior styling, but it drove surprisingly well. I wouldn't buy one, though.

It seems like many folks are either in a state of disbelief or a state of indifference with regard to the breaches, namely the Equifax breach, among others. So, 143 million were impacted and our population is now probably around 325 million. When you remove the under 21 crowd, the elderly on limited incomes who aren't doing much with credit, and folks who don't have much input into their credit reports because they don't use it, that's almost all Americans between 30 and 70. Their investigating the situation was big news at the very beginning but I haven't heard much about it. I don't believe that the company's stock took much of a hit. Then, on the heels of that, there's a bunch of marketing of credit surveillance products. There are two big names which come to mind are LifeLock and ProtectMyID. And I'm sure there are others. Any thoughts or theories about this? Most homeowner and rental policies offer a baseline of protection. Ones with higher levels of indemnification require a monthly fee. The timing of it seems weird, as in "for every action there's a reaction." What are most people doing? What do financial professionals recommend? Is one of these companies sort of the gold standard over the others? And, then there's the option of locking and/or freezing credit. This sounds simple but really isn't, since there are 3 major bureaus. The FTC has a webpage dedicated to the situation. What do you all think?

I mentioned that I liked the looks of the Mazda 6. I never really noticed it and, then, after having rented Camrys, Altimas, and Sonatas, I took another look at it. It is the only one of their cars that I find appealing. However, I've never driven one. I'm sort of curious but I don't think it would bowl me over. It's a good looking car ... especially in the dark metallic blue with a light tan interior. The above was the first and only Mazda I've ever driven and I'll have to say it didn't make for a good introduction.

I was going down the freeway and a beautiful burgundy apparition came my way. It was a '92-ish Buick Riviera coupe in near perfect condition. It was being driven by a studious looking bespectacled African-American guy. As I drove next to it, I could see that it had the burgundy leather interior. It had whitewalls and what I recall might have been the stock alloy wheels with the thin vanes radiating out from the center. He seemed very proud of this fine sled. He was in the fast lane, so he pulled forward with the flow of traffic. That rendition of the Riviera with the somewhat upright but curved back lite offers up a beautiful rear 3/4 view. That's it's best angle. However, when everything is taken together - the front fascia, the dash, and right down to the trestle shaped shifter - I'm more of a sucker for the Toronado that ran alongside the Riviera in those same years.

I haven't seen many movies lately but the last one I saw was "The Commuter." Blame it on bargain Tuesday. I looked at the reviews and they were lukewarm. I went to see it and enjoyed it. It was sort of like "Unstoppable" (2010). It was probably also like "The Taking of Pelham 123," which I never saw. Has anyone seen it? The review said that it was predictable. I disagree. I didn't know who it could be until the very end. In fact, it's one of those movies you have to analyze backwards, sort of like film noir "Body Heat," where the pieces all make sense when looked at in the rear view mirror. If you've seen it, did you feel that more fleshing out of the details such as the motives was needed? I did. I think I need more hand holding. The whole set up was pretty weird. I saw the recent Oscar nominations. I haven't seen any of them. The last time around, one of the few I saw was "Manchester by the Sea" and I liked everything about it. I didn't think I would.