trinacriabob

I'm almost sure my '84 Cutlass Supreme Brougham is no longer in existence, but wonder about my '92 Regal that I gave to charity while still running like a champ. A friend of mine told me he later saw it being driven around, given its less common silver and burgundy combination. I'd like to know how long it stayed on the roads after the donation.

Reader Reviews are submitted by our readers of vehicles they test drive or rent. If you would like to submit a Reader Review, e-mail [email protected] I recently had a current-gen Nissan Sentra as a weekly rental. I had driven one before, but it was the last-gen model, and I’ve reviewed it on this forum. This rental unit had slightly over 30,000 miles on it. I gave the last-gen model a mostly positive review for its “can do” aspects and excellent fuel mileage. Now, looking at this new one, it almost makes the last-gen model look a little dowdy. You’ll notice a couple of things with the new model rather quickly in addition to its more aesthetically pleasing exterior. First, as you drive off, this Sentra handles more nimbly and corners more flatly. The ride is also controlled, and, for the price point, road and tire noise isn’t too intrusive. The interior is nicer in a lot of small ways. My rental had the leather option in the SR trim with contrast stitching in the seats. However, the seat shape is very comfortable, and so are the adjustments, which are electric for the driver. That said, the fit and finish throughout are nicely done for the price point. The Sentra’s dashboard is also an exercise in logic and simplicity. It is very symmetrical. The toggles for instrument panel functions take some exploration, but the settings are easy to work with once you figure it out. Settings on the steering wheel-mounted controls are also easy to decipher but could be inverted from the car you may be used to driving. The connection of a phone is much easier than on many other vehicles and having the Bluetooth eagerly reconnect upon returning to the car seems better than in other cars of different sizes I’ve driven. My only complaint would be the climate control panel. It may look simple, but I could never quite get the air conditioning right. Again, this new Sentra’s hallmark features are its connected handling, a decent enough ride, good fuel economy, and generous room for its size, including the trunk’s capacity. I especially liked the excellent visibility all the way around. Gone is the “opera window” in the sail panel of the last model. Rather, the division of the rear door is done with vertical trim, and the views out back are excellent with a pillar that doesn’t intrude much and a backlight that curves subtly rather than too flatly. In the engine bay is a 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engine that is normally aspirated. In both this Sentra and in the Altima, Nissan is going with familiar normally aspirated 4-cylinder engines and CVTs, the latter of which they’ve commonly offered for at least a decade. Hopefully, their CVTs’ service life and sturdiness have improved. Mostly, the CVT behaved well with some quirky and episodic subtle lags picking up speed from a stop, especially when cold. The engine is up to the task of everyday driving, but it gets rowdy when pushed. For the money, the Sentra offers a lot of features, and that’s a good thing. Safety features such as numerous alerts and emergency braking are included. The rear-view camera goes without saying and it’s a decent one, save some murky views when it’s too moist outside. They also have releases for things grouped on the driver’s side of the dashboard and going toward the floor –trunk release, hood release, and fuel door release. The gap cap was a conventional pressurized one. I really like having a secured fuel filler door. One “neat” feature is the lane departure and traffic sensing side sensors. Rather than being on the exterior mirrors, they are now inside and just inboard from the exterior mirrors, and, if things get too close or you get too close to things, they will chime. That means they are work beautifully with one’s peripheral vision and this was much appreciated. There are more pluses than minuses here. This new Sentra has more “personality” than before. I think that the current Nissan Sentra has improved quite a bit. Its competitors would be the Toyota Corolla, the Hyundai Elantra, the Kia Forte, and the Honda Civic. These would be in the same category if being rented. Since its most lauded competitors would be the Corolla and the Civic, I’ll address those. First, I have not driven a Honda Civic, which has gotten more attractive and more like the Accord over the years. However, compared to the Toyota Corolla, in my opinion, the gap narrows. The interior is more appealing than that of the Corolla. In terms of styling, its exterior side view and rear view are sportier and more attractive, but less so up front, where the overused Nissan design vocabulary is up against the overused Toyota design vocabulary. Where the Toyota might shine brighter is in its legendary reliability and longevity. However, if a person foresees a shorter holding period or plans to keep it no more than 100,000 - or 150,000 - miles, this distinction may become moot. I enjoyed spending a week and several hundred miles in this compact and practical mid-sized sedan. View full article

Dealing on Craigslist - primarily when a seller - is guaranteed to take a person toward having a GLASS HALF EMPTY view of humanity.

Some Subaru jokes: - - - - - Q: What's the difference between a Subaru and the principal's office? A: It's less embarrassing if your friends see you leaving the principal's office. - - - - - Q: What are you if you are driving a Subaru backwards? A: U R A BUS

Good morning ... How about a brief Italian lesson in Subaru speak from these brochures I picked when I had my rented SEAT Tarraco SUV that I reviewed when I got home? For this Outback, the bold type means "an unforgettable new journey." For this Forester, the bold type means "ready for everything."

Is it possible to know the disposition of a vehicle a person once had? By the VIN or other information? I'm not expecting an obit, but maybe the date (and geographic location) where it was junked, scrapped, etc.

It is happening more or less DAILY: Whether I am right behind the car waiting at the signal, or three cars behind it, that first car seems to have a "problem" pulling away from the signal. It takes me and/or the others to tap our horn(s) and that driver then starts to move. If behind them, you might see a cell phone being put down. If not, and you end up alongside them further ahead, you may see a phone in the picture. I'm not trying to be sexist, but most of the time it's women/girls. Statistical studies support this. Some guys do it, too. I'm not talking about polished professional women. I'm talking about teenagers who haven't been driving that long, ones who might have been in a sorority, ones who may be into Oprah or similar, and Karens. Every f***ing day? Every f***ing day?

It seems like I am always cleaning my inbox from surveys querying any customer service or similar interaction you just had. Dang. Anymore, it seems like you get sent one anytime you wipe your a$$.

Just thought about this because I just saw this: I saw an early 2000s Impala and saw how they still had the rubber bumper strips integrated into the body-colored bumpers, which are now how bumpers are designed/made in their entirety. It's much easier to see a severe dent or ding in a polyurethane bumper. It makes me think they changed to this to create more work for body shops. Ya think?

Stretching the dollar (in addition to Cafe 150): I don't really like Burger King, but, on Whopper Wednesdays, their regular and meatless Whopper are $3 through the app, so I went in, used the app for an Impossible Whopper, and it adds points to my account for future redemption. Bonus offers can kick up the points faster, so those need to be penciled out in my head. I last went in to redeem most of my points for a customized BK Big Fish sandwich. That was free. I saw their slice of chocolate pie that looks way better than a Mickey D's apple pie and got one. Because I had to wait a bit, I picked up my 2 bags and saw that the kid had put a small order of onion rings in there. I looked perplexed and he sort of motioned not to worry about it. This was starting to look very caloric, but I ate those onion rings anyway because I rarely do. I put the small balance I owed on my credit card, where lodging and restaurant purchases (obviously in addition to airline ticket purchases on the airline sponsoring the card) get twice the miles.

All funny, but this stood out. Interesting. Were they first-gens born in the Northeast and then transplanted down or were these kids born in Florida? They probably understood the language more than they spoke it ... and they might have even understood wooden spoons! Rossi was the first name of one of them? That is Italy's most common surname. I just looked it up - Smith is the most common last name in the U.S.

Don't get me started on the lists above. I will come back around to take a swipe at those. One of the things that sort of irritate me is how people name a kid with a foreign first name a few generations down as if to culturally appropriate or channel the culture. I've seen kids with names like Enzo, Giovanni, and several others. These people do not speak Italian, they probably have never been there or their going there is brief, and their connection to the country is tenuous. It's just recent trendy stupidity. Enzo comes from Vincenzo, so name that kid Vincent. And give that Giovanni the name John. (I know I can't tell people what to name their kids.) I find this a little insulting since Italian-Americans went through discrimination up until the last few decades and this is when their parents who had come to North America named them Michael, Joseph, Louis, Mark, and other "normal" names. And it's likely that these types described above were more connected to the culture. So, it's ludicrous that people who are removed from the culture have the foreign names. And it's also these people, who with a great grandfather on one side, clutter the consular channels to get dual citizenship for God knows what. * end of rant *

Do you get a kick out of different types of names? And wonder why kids' parents gave them those names? I had a guy named Supreme help me at a business in the Toronto area when I was there over Canada Day weekend. He said it was more in synch with the Motown group than with the Oldsmobile product. There was a guy who worked at one of the hotels I stayed at in Portugal last summer. He was very cool. Portugal has a huge diaspora that includes Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde, Goa (near India), and more. His name was Majeek, and I think it was a spin on Magic. He was definitely not from Goa, nor South Asian, so it wasn't a name from India. But, coming back around to the U.S., there was a guy who worked at a big box retailer who would bring out my on-line orders. He had a great name: Daejohn. It made me think of dijon mustard ... or that he could be John by day, but someone else at night. If you're going to name a kid, be sure to ask yourself how you would like going to school and into the workforce with that name.

I was wrong about the SS United States' speed on the Blue Riband winning crossing. Maybe you don't give a rat's a$$, but I'll still correct myself and tell you. I believe it was averaging around 35 knots, which might be 41 mph. It was NOT 41 knots. I wouldn't want a transatlantic crossing on any great ocean liner to be over in 4 days or less. Since there are no ports of call on the route, you can settle in for 5 or 6 days and take in all the different and interesting things there are to do on board.

Fall color in the ~at sea level parts of the Puget Sound B/basin (WA) and in the Portland area/Willamette Valley (OR) does occur in early November, so it's nice that it's "deferred." That way, a person can head to Eastern Canada, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and a few other places to also see peak color about a month earlier. I'm very much taken with autumn color.

On this first Tuesday of November, elect to join me in wishing Drew @Drew Dowdell an especially excellent day. Happy birthday, Drew!

Some "good news," I guess. The SS United States was America's flagship and is the fastest ocean liner ever built. It clocked the North Atlantic run between the typical lighthouse checkpoints of New York and Southhampton (UK) in a hair less than 4 days, doing some 41 knots per hour (which is insanely fast for a ship). It has been sitting at a pier on the Delaware River in South Philly for some 30 years. It has been under the purview of a non-profit conservancy. It's still there, but it supposedly looks kind of haggard. It also looks like it might be getting evicted. However, they have some interesting plans for it. S.S. United States could leave Philly after more than 25 years for redevelopment project (msn.com) Here's the site of the conservancy: SS United States Conservancy (ssusc.org) Here's a photo of the rendering for the project on the Hudson River in Midtown Manhattan:

Good morning ... ... a good morning indeed.

They can see that by running the plate or talking to you to see your documents. I don't feel that the general motoring public needs to know, even though it is sometimes interesting. Florida used to have counties on the plates, and I'd always get a kick from seeing one that said Monroe, Escambia, among others. Of course, the quintessential Florida plate should say "Palm Beach." That little "circle" * in the middle always brings to mind a place I wouldn't want to be swimming. * Lake Okeechobee

Good morning ... This lowers my blood pressure. Hope it does yours too.

Some other good plates are New Mexico, Arizona (they once had a deep red background that was unique, but the current one is also nice), Washington (though I liked the quasi-cursive font I once had there for 4 years at the very end of their having 3 numbers and 3 letters), Florida (good thing that they got rid of the county names at the bottom of the plates), and Rhode Island. The putting of counties on there is mostly a Southern thing, with few exceptions. Georgia, which has started to lean blue/progressive, still puts county names at the base of their plates. That does not help travelers, even within their own state. When they're parked at a hotel or a restaurant, it tells people they're out of towners. Agreed. That is the most unique plate in North America. Other interesting Canadian plates are Nova Scotia, Quebec, and British Columbia, where they spell it out as "Beautiful British Columbia." My cousin from Europe got a kick out of that and took a photo of a BC plate.

Sometimes, foreign countries have it over North America in some things and, then, North America has it over foreign countries in others. When it comes to license plates, we rule. I got over the idea of having a personalized license plate when I was about 25. No thanks. So, what I'm referring to is the latitude and creativity the various states and Canadian provinces have in coming up with designs for their license plates. A few are boring and they keep them, a few got to a good spot and they are hanging on to them, some keep getting better and better, and, with a select few, they landed on a great design and then moved on to a crappy one. An example of the latter would be Nevada, which, in my mind, had one of my all-time favorite license plates, seen below: Simple design, using two colors - dark blue and gray (approximating UNR's school colors), excellent Western themed font in the word Nevada, and a subtle but detailed desertscape with indigenous animal life and plant life and a mountain backdrop. Nevada's current license plate is sophomoric garbage. Do you have any state or provincial license plates you are a fan of?

When I need to put myself in a good mood, I might listen to this, which is in my collection. It never ceases to be amazing. Within this genre, there are a lot of musical artists, many of whom were African-American (some still are!) who had some one hit wonders. Andrea True and "More, More, More" make me chuckle because she was a good Catholic girl that went wild: daughter of European immigrants to Nashville, Catholic high school graduate, got herself into Vanderbilt, left it to become a porn star, and then became a disco singer. However, Donna Summer rules the roost through that incredible voice that is consistent across her work, but this song is her pinnacle. I was in a funk when I learned she passed away. R.I.P. Donna. This lady owned this genre of music in the '70s and the late Tina Turner, with a very different sultry and spirited voice, owned the derivation of that pop genre in the '80s. R.I.P. Tina. - - - - - When we were little kids, my parents would take us to MacArthur Park at Wilshire and Alvarado to walk around, feed the ducks, and ride the pedalboats. Today's MacArthur Park in Los Angeles is far from the wholesome place it once was.

How did I not see this? Perfect score on the driving portion. Possibly 1 or 2 wrong on the multiple-choice written portion. This was in California and the lady I did the driving test with reminded me of a Hispanic Diana Rigg lookalike. I couldn't believe how nice she was for being a bureaucrat. Some DMV employees can be surly. I was ready. I had had my permit for 6 months to a year. Driving meant freedom! I've driven myself across the U.S. and back in my 20s, so I put my license to good use rather fast.

Saw this walking into a supermarket and it interpolates Halloween and Thanksgiving fairly well ... Q: What do you get when you cross a turkey and a ghost? A: A "poultry-geist"