trinacriabob

I think Toyota will do fine, but could do better ... numerically. Their product, which felt and, even smelled, "different" from American cars a long time ago now offers a feel that Americans can feel at home with in no time. However, what puzzles me, is how, when other automakers - VW, SEAT, Hyundai, Kia - are making their sedans and coupes more attractive, Toyota's are becoming uglier.

Yep, new habits ... or stick to resolutions that I always put off. Happy Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving to the folks of C&G. Give thanks for whatever you have to be thankful for. In most cases, we underestimate or underappreciate when it comes to this sort of thing. At the very least, 2021, thus far, has better than 2020. We can be thankful for that. Enjoy the day and the long holiday weekend.

Great! Shouldn't the instructions be the other way around, if you catch the gutter-like drift?

I can't believe the one on the left is a 1991. It almost looks like something from the '70s. As for the one on the right, I'm not so sure I like the tall grille with a lot of chrome. I preferred it when Jeep(s) canted their front grilles rearward. It gave them a sportier look.

Really heartbroken over this decision. More so for the Charger than the Challenger. (This would also mean the Chrysler 300 will go away.) So many people have been mulling over what the next ones will be like. I guess this decision spares FCA, or whatever it's now called, from expending engineering and design effort on a new Charger and Challenger, hoping they get it right, and curry favor with these models' prospective buyers.

Spotted in early November. On I-44, between St. Louis and Branson, MO, you see these billboards for a place called Uranus Fudge Factory. "Is this for reals, man?" Well, it is. It's a roadside attraction and a person can get off the freeway and buy candy, kitsch souvenirs, shirts, hats, stickers (all overpriced), and, yes, fudge. Their parking lot was also full. It's a freak show of sorts, but here's a photo of their "police car." I thought the town this attraction is in might have been Uranus, MO, but that's not the name of the town. (There are towns named Mars, Neptune, etc. in this country, but I think most states would skip on naming one Uranus.) @balthazar will probably know the year, make, and model of this car from which the engine and all that have probably been removed.

Not such a big fan of the 1992 through 1999 Bonn(i)e. It was too rounded and one person I know said it looked like either an upside-down boat or bathtub. I definitely liked some versions of the very last-gen Bonn(i)e, which debuted in 2000 and had that unusual but interesting dashboard. I also liked the first FWD Bonn(i)e, which ran from 1987 to 1991, preferring the 1990s models with the block pattern (instead of striped) taillamps. I never warmed up to Pontiac's orange dashboard illumination (at night). I found it annoying. Also, Pontiac seemingly did well in garnering Quebecois customer loyalty over the years, with so many French names across their product offerings. People are going to respond favorably to names that are familiar (and local) to them, such as Tacoma, Biscayne, Park Avenue, Telluride, Texas edition Silverado, and, for Italian buyers, possibly Monte Carlo, even though it is technically wholly surrounded by France.

Classic! (LOL) Good morning ...

Oh, yeah, random thought: One of the funniest people on the planet!

And, as you already know, and for anyone else, no wallets in back pockets and leave the Rolexes and fancy jewelry at home. That's all of Southern Europe, even Paris, and, while I'm at it, New York in North America and all the big cities in South America.

Bingo! Thank you.

Axel Foley just got 2 EXTRA doors.

That would sure beat where I was taking this, and a few other, photos!

EXTERIOR Side view - guess where? Three guesses and the first two don't count Angled front view Angled rear view It took on the two-lane roads nimbly given how narrow its stance looks They did a nice of incorporating the Fusion and Focus design lingo into this smaller, more wedge-like package "Aerial view" of the car INTERIOR Dash, which I think is fairly nice looking for an entry-level car, as seen from the driver's side Dash as seen from the passenger's side Speedometer, tach, and fuel use gauges - temperature is shown by a bar digital readout - steering wheel controls are more spartan than in up-level cars The hutch is funny and sort of "cute" in a weird way - some Andrea True on Bluetooth to motor along to This is the vertical expanse of the center stack and automatic gear lever Kudos for a very simple climate control panel Not too spacious in the rear for tall or big people, but fine for "smaller" people I really liked the visibility out the rear backlite The trunk was very roomy - it's that it's tucked in under the raked roofline - and this has an obvious 60-40 split rear seat MECHANICAL Everything looks accessible and there is even some spare space beyond from where you can see the pavement, with the only thing I couldn't find being a transmission fluid dipstick This has 1.6 liter 4 that is naturally aspirated, was built in Mexico, and fetched 42 mpg on its best, all highway tank of gas The ABS system control box is at the rear left and there is a big cover over what is probably the drive belt There are drum brakes at the rear, behind those respectable looking alloy wheels, and, of course, disc brakes up front That's all, folks - - - - - End of photos

Photo(s) I've forgotten to slot in to their respective month - Pontiac Solstice seen in late August:

It is an '87 Olds Toronado Trofeo. What a nice cabin environment all the way around!

Look at that, t-shifter, full instruments, and manual windows! Boo to the strip speedo. As for the Jeep photos, that's a nice spread of them @regfootball. "Oil change showroom time" ... ain't that the truth. As for the vehicle, up-market fit and finish, "boxier" looking bucket seats (which I like), but obnoxious infotainment center (TOO much). With all this talk of different shifter possibilities, no one remembered to mention the trestle shifter? I love these:

Y'all take note that the A-380 is in the deck of cards again. Some Asian and Middle Eastern carriers have put some back into service. Of the Europeans, British has put some back into service. British has woken a few of them up with short trips. They have or are flying them from LHR-London Heathrow to Madrid and Frankfurt. If the price is right and a person happens to be across the pond, what a fine way to start and end a 3-day weekend, for example. Flying on the A-380 is big time on my "to do" list.

Yes, Azzurri. But, back to the livery, the stupid stripe on the ITA tail doesn't work. When you get close to the blue graphics, they're dumb. And, yes, seeing the Sistine Chapel is an incredible event, as is going to the top of the cupola and seeing 360 degrees of Rome. I haven't done either in a long time. This is what a good livery looks/looked like:

This new livery for the airline replacing Alitalia is sophomoric and a disappointment. The Italians can do better. This looks very "11th hour." However, it has just been announced that ITA joined Sky Team. That means your Delta miles will work on Air France, KLM, and now ITA to get you across the pond.

It's too bad when stuff like this happens; however, it lasted a long time. When looking through the photos, the first thing that caught my eye was that robin egg blue house across the street. What were they thinking? You sometimes see wood sided ranch homes in this color or apple green in the West. Do people consider subsequent buyers ... and curb appeal?

I forgot to mention fuel economy for this car. I rarely forget to do that! My composite mpg for mixed (mostly highway) driving was 38 mpg. The one all highway tank that I calculated brought in 42 mpg. That's impressive.

Very true about the cabin environment of the last-gen Impala. The dash is great and a big improvement over the last W-body's dash. However, while the window is actually sort of large, it's the rake of the roofline and the thick C-pillar that screw up the visibility. Interesting about the Iron Duke. Well, they were around for over a decade. Maybe it was a hit-miss with years and manufacturing batches of them that had quirks and reliability issues.

With some scouring and luck, I was able to get a weekly rental at a price folks were more accustomed to seeing. This was at the end of last month, right around when fall colors peaked in some places. I was booked for a "mid-size," for which the icon showed a Nissan Sentra. Once I got to the rental agency, there was indeed a Nissan Sentra. However, I saw a Ford Fiesta - a "compact" - toward the edge of the lot and asked if I could have that, instead. The rental agent obliged. It was interesting that this was a 2019 and with miles that were low enough to allow it to remain in the rental fleet. For some strange reason, I get a kick out of the Ford Fiesta. It looks narrow from the outside and with a "Focus on tippy toes" look. It incorporates the shared design vocabulary of Fusion-Focus-Fiesta and does it in a jellybean package that rakes sharply downward toward the front of the car. Most angles look fairly good, with a few that are clunky. Let's start with the interior and the creature comforts. The seats have a normal enough shape, are finished in a durable cloth with a cheap looking pattern you might see in a European econobox, and, over a week, I did not encounter any discomfort or too much fatigue from being in them for a long time. The seats sit fairly low and I had to ratchet that lever to move them up so I had the visibility that suited me. The dashboard is mostly simple. Two big "mostly" circular pods jut out at the driver, with analog speedo, tach, and fuel gauge, while temperature is shown as a digital bar. The center stack is really easy to work with - the climate controls are logical and the infotainment center resides in that funky little hut jutting out at the top of the dashboard cowl. It was fairly sensible to operate its touch commands, too. The geared transmission lever is smartly placed and the feel of moving it indicates its assembly is good. The only thing that took a little bit of getting used to was the operation of the stalks. The left one has all the info settings and the right one has a extension that you push in for a quick wash and wipe from the wipers. The buttons on the steering wheel are fewer than most cars have today, making them easier to learn and operate. The car had excellent visibility, especially toward the rear, which is important to me. In terms of the comical, Fiestas tend to have colored lighting in the front footwells and the console cupholders. I've had purple and blue ones before. This time, I got one with gold lighting. That completes experiencing all 3 of these schemes! Also, this one had a urethane steering wheel. I'm not aware if the packages for this car allowed for a leather steering wheel, but, even if the ride and handling qualities are the exact same, a leather wheel strongly changes that perception for the better. There were a few demerits for the interior. The first is that, while there was a 12V lighter slot, the USB ports were inside the console box. There was a little passage beneath the latch that let you put the cord outside the console box. No USB port was near the lighter. Another issue is that there are no interior latches to release the trunk and the fuel door. I would like both, but, if I had to pick, would want the remote fuel door. The car had a normally aspirated 1.6 liter engine. (That translates to almost 100 cubic inches in old school terms.) This engine worked well with the Fiesta, and even works well in the slightly larger Focus. You hear what it's doing at almost all times, with a slight exhaust hum at freeway cruise. It rarely gets grainy, but, at certain rpm ranges, it might. The transmission was a geared 6 speed automatic unit. (And that's part of why I chose it over the Nissan Sentra, which has a CVT). The Focus-Fiesta 6 speed automatic has seem some bad years, per the reviews, and even in one with under 20,000 miles I rented about 5 years ago. There was a shudder in, at the very least, the 1-2 shift. This one had no such issues at almost twice that mileage. I will say that the shifts are kind of unusual and, again, resemble those of European econoboxes with automatic transmissions. There is an audible spooling up of the rpms followed by an audible drop in the rpms, which tells you that the transmission has changed gears. That finely tuned bump-up you sense in more finished car is just not there. You don't feel much of anything in ordinary driving but, of course, do so when you've gotten into the accelerator to merge or pass. As for passing, be very cautious when doing so. This car is adequately powered, but doesn't have power to spare. The handling and road manners of this car are what would be expected. Like professional and consumer reviews state, the Fiesta is fun to zip around in. It's nimble. It sort of reminds me of the Hyundai Accent, which also had a geared 6 speed automatic until just a few years ago. They are both adult go-karts. For being so small, the ride was acceptable. It rides nicely enough on interstates, good city roads, and especially on rural 2-lane roads. If rough roads are encountered, this car will "speak up." The car isn't overly noisy, but the ride can get a little buzzy and a long trip would require breaks. This was confirmed when I got home and got behind the wheel of a car about 10 years older than it, and with over 100,000 miles, and the quieter and smoother ride was all too apparent. Keep in mind that this is/was an entry-level car within the Ford family. Under the hood, it's fairly well organized with reachable dipsticks and ways to see if you have the right fluids and oils. The only one I could not find was a dipstick for the automatic transmission. Perhaps it's a sealed unit or it's measured from a less conventional place. The battery is up top, slightly to the right, so not at all a challenge to replace. There is even an area behind the engine where you can see through to the pavement below. I believe that final assembly for these Fiestas is at a plant in Hermosillo, Mexico. While that won't bring on a snicker for a Focus, it does bring on a snicker for a Fiesta. I never made that connection before. - - - - - Photos forthcoming