trinacriabob

Parking structure spotting - today A coupe made by Hyundai in a lime color - not sure of the name of this model Chargers look great in a lot of colors, though I wouldn't necessarily want to own a red one.

Here, you have corroboration of the legitimacy of schemata: a Volvo wagon, a Cal (Berkeley) sticker, a pro-Hillary sticker, and, the car was spotted in the Bay Area before the last election, possibly inside the San Francisco city limits.

They made one of these with that same sloped back lite and an opera window. I liked it a little more. Even better, they made a few Buick Century coupes with the canted grille and also with a formal notchback rear lite and an opera window. Those were rare, since most of them also had the triangular window like you've shown above. I am now lamenting the loss of rear wheel drive being the norm. All these boulevardiers on a ladder type chassis/frame rode so well. It was a bullet proof platform and they were easier to service.

Right, her Coupe de Ville (this lady was a character) was an extra cost Firemist color. With that color, a burgundy landau, and a burgundy leather interior, she had every reason to be proud of it. It would have been nicer if it had alloys - and Cadillac had them - instead of the wire wheels, which I've never really liked. Okay, you steered me in the right direction. It was a 1959 color on some Pontiacs. Every once in a blue moon, I'd see one that was hanging on and being pampered to be a classic. There was no color like it. Here are some examples of those Pontiacs, across various body styles: convertible coupe sedan station wagon (this had to be the original paint) It would be neat to see one in this "coral" color, as you mentioned, in excellent condition. What would not be neat is having to drive one around in wet conditions with drum brakes at all 4 wheels.

Okay. But toward the late 50s, GM put a weird color on some of their bigger Olds and Pontiacs - a no cost option resembling the extra cost metallic paint that Velma had on her '78 Coupe de Ville that she beamed about - shown below on a Sedan de Ville of the same year. GM used to go all out with changing trim frequently back then - either they sold many more cars, they didn't pencil it out, or both.

This one here is a freakin' dream. Probably even slightly better if in Salon trim. (Not doable at all in Brougham trim.) I think firethorn was a '77 color (more like a candy apple red). They used the term mahogany for their burgundy in '76, with a super dark one that looked great, especially for Brougham seating. For '75, it was cranberry. Our neighbors bought a '75 coupe - silver with cranberry interior. My parents bought a '76 like the one above, but certainly not in that color - swap out the lime for metallic blue. That's why I remember all this - it was the years they were in the market and nicely done brochures were on people's living room coffee tables, where they belonged! '75 - cranberry interior - Supreme - buckets, no air based on panel and round vent vanes '75 - persimmon (metallic rust) exterior deserves honorable mention - Salon - tan inside, missing hood ornament; this one has a 455 V8! 76 - mahogany interior and exterior - Supreme - a waste to have metallic mirrors on both sides when it has rally wheels ' '77 - firethorn - Supreme - had to have had the 260 V8 to have a stick (5 speed) and bucket seats, very rare; after 4 years of round a/c vents on the passenger side, they went to rectangular ones (meh) for this last hurrah for the platform - this was the B-O-P and Chevy burgundy/red for this year across the board, maybe even Cadillac Motor Division

That Pontiac color is very cool. They put out some weird similar colors on some big GM cars in the mid to late '50s. As for the Monte Carlos on that platform, I only liked the last 2 years when they stacked the rectangular headlamps. Ditto for the Malibu Classic. That GM metallic lime is inimitable. It was as '76 as the day is long. That was the only year it was available and it was a hoot to see ... usually trimmed out with white vinyl interiors and lime colored dashboards, seat belts, and carpeting. Once in a lifetime. I'll pass on the black '73 MC. That nice Floridian ranch home in the background got my attention instead. @Robert Hall Agreed ... they dialed it for the new Corvette with that Zeus Bronze color. It looks great and so does the interior ... not a pale and wimpy beige color. When they get a good metallic bronze/saddle/copper color, it really helps a car stand out. I liked the '75 Canyon Copper (Olds's name) they put on Cutlass Supremes back in the day, as well as on many other GM cars.

My order has arrived

Yellow - no (agreed) Orange - in rare instances Rust (metallic) - often very nice on the right car

Oh, yeah, back to my random thought ... backed up by a photo: You RARELY ever see something like this ... the ultimate car for progressives (cough) with a rosary hanging off the rear view mirror. Very funny ... at least to me, who sees the incongruence in it.

I know. The closing of an era. As long as the laptop is NOT left open, I'm ok with nicely integrated digital and touch screens.

Either way, given that I'm not a truck customer and never noticed this before, these are nice dashboards but then there's a lot of width to use as a canvas. There's some good symmetry going on, they're logically laid out and the controls are probably easy to get used to (compared to some messy set ups), the bump up and curvature for the center stack is nice, and there are 4( ! ) gauge bezels between the tach and the speedo (don't know what they indicate, but more is better in this case). We need to stay here, when the trend is toward idiot lights and away from gauges. The only thing I see is that the left pod is sort of chunky.

As I drive around, I think it is obnoxious for dealerships to have placed a decal or emblem on the trunk lid or rear door of a vehicle you may have bought from them. I don't want their decal or emblem on my vehicle - on the paint surface - doing free advertising for them. They can give me their dealership license plate frames. I can then decide what to do with them. I typically decide not to put them on the car at all. Less is more.

I will have to admit that I always watch those "bear in someone's back yard" videos ... more than once. It's probably the only dangerous animal for which people minimize how dangerous it is. We idealistically think it will go on eating its berries from the berry patch and leave us humans alone. This was in a Boston suburb. Bears seem to like pools and hot tubs, too. This was a younger bear. That's why it scampered off the way it did. (note: look toward the end, the bear seems to come back for a while)

It's a decent enough blue. Weird that, with those blues, of which there are quite a few these days, they do not allow a tan interior. That combo looks good. I was going to say the dashboard and cabin look good. A lot going on in that pod over at the left with the air vent. But, overall, nice.

@David No apologies for being a carnivore. Have a tough time with ribs. Strange consistency and aftertaste. Better than most lamb, though. Have never ordered them. Will accept them upon entering and exiting a supermarket when they will give out free samples (going forward, that'll be the day). Great photos, by the way. For meat, I'm all about the types they serve at Brazilian steakhouses (the different sirloins and the filet mignon) but that's a quarterly event, at best. I'm learning to eat more poultry and I now enjoy fish a lot, which I detested as a kid.

Random thought ... ... a very random thought.

Coronavirus (a bigger problem for them ... the "boomer remover")

Good eye! He told me he put it in for old school, memory lane purposes. What a sweet ride, though. If it were in a nicer color combo, I wouldn't mind having one. And the price he paid!!! They want big bucks for those old Cutlasses and Regals in good condition.

The Accord has become ungainly and bloated. Between the two of them, I think the Camry is nicer, even though they should do something about its grille.

When it rains, it pours ... within 5 minutes at each other, and on the same major street, 2 very cool older Buicks. Here's a '76 Buick Regal S/R. The badging is gone and modified (the S/R badge is gone and a 350 badge was added where they used to put a V6 badge, but this was a V8.) The guy (in the car) told me he picked it up for between $3K and $4K. That is amazing. I pulled out my phone and explained to him that S/Rs were fairly rare and Buick's late answer to the upscale Cutlasses with buckets of those same years. He didn't know about the S/R designation, but knew of Salon and Calais trims for Olds. When they took the Regal from horizontal to "baby Eldorado" tail lamp treatment, it took the appeal of this coupe way, way up. I asked him if I could take photos. He was cool with it. The Superman floor mats have to go, but check out the trestle shifter on the console. We will never see these kinds of automotive interiors again. Sad. Then, a few blocks away, I see this. A '91 or '92 Riviera. This was the best color for it, IMO, and for its sibling, the Toronado. Olds called it Light Driftwood Metallic. Either car looked great in it, provided it had alloy wheels and not wire wheel covers. I'm probably partial to the Toro. With this rear pillar and the rounder rear fenders, along with the notchback rear window and long trunk, this run of Rivieras was unmistakable. As the Riviera downsized, so did its "Parthenon" grille. Amazing sights, within just 5 minutes.

Bingo. Ditto. For the most part. My parents believed in spending a little more, not a ton more, to get quality and make things last. I had to be cheap to be able to go back to grad school and change course. It changed how I view spending money. My last car went 16 years, but in a moderate climate, though. My current one is up to 12 and then some. The only "vice" I have is travel, and I'm cheap there, too, checking and rechecking the web for airfares, lodging, rental cars, and frequent flyer account promotions that rack up miles for things you'd have to pay for anyway on a trip.

Again, if I was rich, I'd probably opt for the very latest mid-engine Corvette in silver with the maroon leather seats ... and drive it on the weekend as a hobby or novelty car. But, since I can't, I mentally scour cars and the literature, live in them vicariously through rentals, and then return to my steadfast though not necessarily boring car that people don't notice. I take that back. The only people who have noticed my previous cars were gang bangers because, when the Cutlass Supremes and Regals get older, it was gang bangers who adopted those "old schoolz," as they call them. @David Yes, with thorough maintenance, my previous car hit almost 275,000 miles without ANY work on the powertrain. Could it have been that I was taught to do break-in oil at about 1,000 or 1,500 miles before going onto the conventional schedule of oil changes? I've latched on to that old school mentality about break-in oil.

Right around '74 or '75, there was a really cool blue color that the Vega had. It was an enamel color, not a metallic one. A family friend had bought one. I remember riding in it up in the Los Padres National Forest north of L.A. Who would have thought that Vega engines were prone to meltdowns ... literally?

I guess I'm the exception here. I don't want super expensive iron because it costs more in every way - to purchase, to insure, to feed, to repair. And, it's probably extra traumatic when you get a door ding. Very expensive and exotic cars are for those who are ridiculously rich and those for whom they are "must have" items. I guess my maximum "allowance" for a car is adjusted each year for current purchasing power. I look for a car that both appeals to me, since I don't care what others think, and is durable. (I got flack for driving GM cars in CA when I was in college and right after it while in the workforce in that same area, as in "eww," but expressed middle finger sentiments to critics in a more roundabout way.) Right now, I'd say my top end for a (new) vehicle would be about $ 29 K.