trinacriabob

Within an hour in the Post Oak-Galleria area and the River Oaks section of Houston ... Crown Victoria and Grand Marquis have big Texas written all over them, seen here at one of the entrances to River Oaks, possibly the nicest neighborhood in H-town. TEXAS and TRUCK both have 5 letters; love the palm trees in H-town that you don't get in the "Big D." Here's a REAL classic! And, as a bonus question, why the heck is my car parked next to the Greyhound station? (This one has the nicer alloys.)

I didn't know where to put this. I started looking at the VW site to "build" something. In terms of sedans, there is the Jetta and there is the Arteon. The Passat is now gone. That's sad. That was their best looking sedan. The Arteon's styling is very derivative and it costs too much. One can spend a little more and get something more "prestigious." As for the Jetta, it looks like they pumped it up with "steroids" over the years, looks wise, so they could eliminate the Passat. Now it all makes sense. It was planned. In recent years, I've found them difficult to tell apart. The problem is that the Jetta seems to have gotten a smaller engine over time, now at 1.5 L, but with a turbo. Its saving grace might be that it keeps its geared automatic transmission. I had grown to like the very last rendition of the Passat. It had road manners that were both refined and planted, with better road and tire noise control than the Jetta.

My "random" 10,000th post. (some 16 1/2 years later)

Spotted two days ago, VW's Passat has come a long way and is now a fairly substantial car ... Spotted yesterday around the Houston Galleria, I also saw another Porsche (Panamera 4 door, maybe) in this exact same new color (a lot of enamel paint jobs on expensive cars lately) some 5 minutes earlier ...

I'll say that the Subaru Legacy sedan is sort of acceptable while the Outback is not. As for the two Buick/Opel products you've posted, they are substantially more attractive than the Subaru or any Asian brand econoboxes. This stuff is tricky. Business schools teach that stock price stems from a formula more or less discounting future cash flows going to the stockholder. I'm not so sure I believe in the "theory of efficient markets." One day, HPQ (Hewlett Packard), which had been hovering around $ 35 to $ 37, jumps up to $ 41 or $ 42 because an event like Warren Buffett buying some up made it spike. It came right back down and is back in the range it was in before, even before this latest market tumble.

Spotted on Cinco de Mayo. This Sedan de Ville had less than 100,000 miles on it. And, being a 1977, this car is 45 years old! While I appreciate the car, it's not something I'd want. I didn't even crank the key to hear what the engine might sound like. Almost all of the boulevardiers from this era tend to lose the quiet exhaust notes of when they were new(er), which is too bad. The downsizing from 1976 helped this model, but maybe less so for some of the other full-sizes like those by Pontiac This car sure has a balanced profile. I like how they raised up the rear wheel well without putting a skirt on it. It could have used a piece of chrome on the B-pillar. Looking over these sorts of lines and through a hood ornament is a thing of the past. The padded vinyl roofs looked great on almost all GM full-sizes of this era, and some mid-sizes as well. Fairly nice looking dashboard with a protruding center stack and a cowl ridge at the top of it. Circular gauges would have been nice, but that time hadn't yet arrived. This is a view of the interior of the cabin. Cadillac seemed to have ditched some of the really gaudy cloth interior choices from years before to go with simpler mono-color ones like you see here. Cadillac always paid attention to their interior lighting, like the one you see on the rear sail panel. This is some generous legroom in the rear of the cabin. Bottom line: what a majestic vehicle.

In the first few days of the month, I went to get some strawberries on the cheap and saw this in the parking lot ... ... early '90s Ford Tempo coupe in "LL Bean / Eddie Bauer colors" that were popular for cars in that decade ... plastic manual window cranks ... it was nighttime.

Q: Why are Saturday and Sunday the strongest days? A: Because the rest are week days.

So, yesterday I was near a Subaru dealership in a suburb that is salt of the earth and not uptight. So I went inside. (This is sounding like a joke, but it's not.) I wanted to look at their sedans. They didn't have any ... just wagon-CUV type vehicles. I learned that they do NOT have a sense of humor about the tropes and stereotypes. And this is even when said in a manner that was diplomatic and circuitous.

The uplevel sportier model is the one which I believe had this (^) engine. I've rented about 5 of them across 3 or so years, and my rental cars always had the 2.4 liter 4 cylinder. They put out 180 hp. Acceptable but not fantastic for highway fuel economy for a 4 cyl. They are very quiet and smooth riding cars.

Saw this Buick Verano 2 days ago, in the evening, after walking out of a store. These Veranos are now 10 year old cars, are usually kept up, and their owners seem to like them. In a way, the situation reminds me of how compact Olds Aleros are still seen on the road many (~20) years later. And here I thought I'd be cashing in my GM points on whatever the latest rendition of the Verano might be, albeit on some updated platform. I guess that's not going to happen.

This spotting has somewhat of a "deliberate" aspect about it. And BOTH vehicles look "familiar."

Seen the first weekend of April. This dealership seems to have no shortage of new Chargers. However, most of them feature the higher priced trim packages, and higher MSRP prices. The interesting thing is that they won't tell you whereabouts - vis-a-vis MSRP - they will sell you a new one. The prices for used ones a few years old on the lot were absurd. They weren't interested in discussing the topic of prices unless a person was a "here and now" buyer.

Seen on April Fool's Day: After renting several, I've come to have a soft spot for the little Ford Fiesta. It was probably meant to compete with the Chevy Sonic and Spark. The Chevy have some shared accessories, such as switches, with the upline GM models, so that's a nice aspect about them. However, the Fiesta is more fun to drive than either of the Chevy econoboxes, not to mention having a reasonable amount of rear overhang compared to the small Chevys, which seem sheared off toward the rear.

This car has gotten cleaner looking over the years. As a result of C&G members owing one or liking them, I now notice them more. I'm not a 2-seater buyer, but, of this genre, my nod goes to the Saturn Sky, followed by the Pontiac Solstice. Seen in a metallic blue I've not seen before and that works well on this vehicle.

I have seen this situation - the exposed windshield washer fluid bottle - often. Bummer. This photo has a March date.

@oldshurst442 Yes, I know Centre-Ville fairly well from so many trips. I've walked around most of it on foot, thanks to the Metro and bus pass that I typically get. It's a very walkable city. The first time I went, I even took the foot trail from Avenue des Pins, I think, up to the Chalet's Belvedere from Parc Mont-Royal over the city, which was an ascent of almost 1,000 feet. Now, I just drive the rental car to it, or take transit! And, yes, they do clean up and they certainly do a great job of it at the airport. I was nervously watching the weather reports and, yep, it would be snowing upon arriving from Lisbon. But I read that, among major airports, YUL is one of the best in keeping its runways open. Snow drifts and all, the landing was a smooth one, as was going through customs and getting luggage. I much prefer YUL to YYZ, for both the city AND the airport!

And, finally, an unusual way to get home - by changing planes and laying over in snowed upon Montreal. A transit system (STM) Dodge Charger in front of the main bus station (modern and in a nice neighborhood) This looks familiar, except that it's in another country! Just in time. - - - - - All this not too far from @oldshurst442 ... don't they shovel the sidewalks (trottoirs) over there? ... even curbside at the airport ... what little walking around I had to do was no fun!

Wrapping up Lisbon (PT): A funny looking vehicle at the National Palace at Queluz - - - - - An even funnier situation ... who says "lighting doesn't strike twice," so to speak? Seen one evening near the Metro yellow line's Picoas station Seen the following day near the Metro blue line's Laranjeiras station while coming back from my Covid-19 test so I could board the plane home When I got home and looked, it had the same license plate. Amazing coincidence!

In Lisbon (PT): Opel Insignia there ... Buick Regal here. Brochure quality? You tell me. I liked how this photo turned out. It was in an alley behind some condo towers.

Also in northern Portugal: Their Mondeo by Ford ... I wonder what powers it and what sort of gearbox it has. A new type of Smart I haven't seen before. The owner saw me photographing it and we exchanged thumbs up gestures. (In some countries, you DO NOT gesture with a thumbs up or give someone the OK sign.)

Goofy car sighting in northern Portugal: Old school Fiat with an "ancient" squarish black and gold license plate, too.

When in Rome ... ... go Brit (but NOT Brexit) ... you may wonder if these are identical or fraternal twins ... the nod goes to the one on the left, for its grille

I saw this "car" meandering through Rome's main Termini Station for passenger trains ...

Also seen around these same days was an older Lancia Thema that bears no resemblance to the current Chrysler 300. It reminds me more of the jelly bean-like Kia Amanti, which looked like something out of a cartoon.