trinacriabob

@balthazar Pontiac worked some wonders with the usually horizontal tail lamp assemblies of their cars. This really ratcheted up the design quality of their vehicles from big to small. So, every now and then, I might wander into a Costco's "Cafe 1.50" for a hot dog and a drink, having to consume it outside. This leaves me wondering if and when there will be a return to a "proper" Costco Lunch.

I think there are hot springs or mud baths in the world that bubble and look dirty, but are good for you. This is what this reminds me of. I thought the people would be evacuating that pool. A prolonged thunderstorm saves you the cost of having to drive through a car wash.

I was looking forward to this weekend and then, all of a sudden, some moron shaped like a bowling pin had to wimpily (red, not a valid word?) utter the words, "He almost walks on water." I'm sure this dude will go do down in the annals of televised interview history. Nonetheless, I hope everyone is having a great Labor Day weekend, the last official holiday weekend of summer.

I'm totally with you on this. I, too, would prefer a higher displacement N.A. engine over a small engine with a turbo. I know that there's CAFE and all these benchmarks the automakers have hurled at them and the turbocharger was one route toward compliance. However, ten horses and 1 mpg don't mean much to me when you can have simpler and more hassle free powertrains in the engine bay of your small or medium-sized car.

I was doing some photo purging. This one is not timely enough for a spotting thread. It made me think. And it made me sad. Talk about a leapfrog from the version on the left to the version on the right (in terms of exterior styling, interior appearance and comfort, and ride and handling) ... they got it dialed ... and then ... it's gone.

This would be yesterday's spotting for me, except I couldn't get a photo. It had the same grille and size of the lower photo, but it was a dark blue convertible. It was definitely a Catalina, per the badge. This is a Canadian ad and, yes, Pontiac Parisienne sounds cool. But so does Catalina if you've lived in SoCal. The French badging sure entrenched the Pontiac brand with (Eastern) Canada.

What a hoot. Is this a downmarket one or one with more trim? It might also depend if it was an earlier MY or a later one. With them being so basic, say with a 6 cyl., no air, and no power gizmos, it would be easy to imagine driving a maintained one cross country without much going sideways. Usually, people who are driving an old Maverick, Comet, Nova, etc. today are characters. I just watched the trailer. It might call for a rental. St. Augustine is okay. While Daytona Beach is famous for budget vacations and being able to drive on the beach, the county it's in - Volusia - tends to repeatedly hold a record for a not so great thing.

Every once in a while, I see a Maverick. Most of the ones I see these days are somewhat kept up. I think that all the ones that were subjected to ordinary use went to the scrap heap. Very mixed on Savannah. It's nice, laid out in a grid with all these squares. Sort of like the French Quarter but without the rowdiness. It's checked off the list. I'm indifferent to returning. There's a noted novel written about Savannah's underworld and illicit side. They may have even made a movie about it. Hilton Head Island SC is right there, too. I'm sorry I missed that. Charleston SC is also in that general area. I was more interested in getting to Florida, so I only visited Savannah for about 4 hours.

* can't put this in spotting since it's a "lot" behind the 8 ball * Here I am, walking through Savannah's historical district, minding my business, and a toad decides to cross the road in front of me ... and then turn at the corner ... I might add that it was a "healthy" looking toad.

Seeing the name LaSalle brings one thing to mind. Cadillac's significant new downsized car of the mid-'70s was displayed in sketches and where write-ups indicated it might be released as the Cadillac LaSalle. I guess the down to the wire marketing research decided on Seville. Oldsmobile's successful (but sadly too late) Intrigue sports sedan was moving through development as the Antares, though that name was not assigned to the final production vehicle.

I, too, could not sit through an episode of "The Sopranos." I have an acquaintance who can probably recite all the lines from the three Godfathers, Goodfellas, etc. owing to how many times he has watched these shows and it can be irritating. Working class (no judgment here) Italian-Americans who think this is cool stuff need a paradigm shift something fierce. @David Your observation is very West Coast! Probably more Pac NW. You probably didn't know that in the early 1920s or so, Seattle's Rainier Valley section was nicknamed Garlic Gulch, probably when Seattle was a rougher logging town without all the genteel PC-ness of today. You are right. "Goombah" is a bad bastardization of "cumpari." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eh,_Cumpari! Some truncate it to cumpa', but most don't. It means "mate," "friend," or "buddy" but it also rarely used to imply someone's Godfather in Sicilian or someone in the Godfather's extended family who is now a "friend" or a "buddy" by annexation. There is no "g" at the beginning this word. That's a North American thing. It sounds dumb. Another awful Americanization goes like this: Your background is Italian? Yeah, my grandparents came from Italy. Where in Italy did your grandparents come from? I'm tinkin' they were "Nah-boo-lee-dahn." This means Neapolitan. Correct Italian would be Napoletano. (Not quite the same as Janet Napolitano.) Southerners with more guttural pronunciation might say "Napulitan," but in no 'effin way is there either a "b" or a "d" in the pronunciation. But, since Jersey Shore type dudes are fairly idiotic, a bastardization of the term such as "goombah" would suit THEM just fine. * end of rant *

Learn something new everyday. And, here, I would have assumed that an Italian tune-up is what happens to a person when they get the wrong folks, who tend to live inside lavish walled compounds in New Jersey, mad at them.

@David Costco still has them. I saw the tire on some ranking where it used to be called the Bridgestone Turanza Serenity or something like that and the asymmetrical tread design was weird, considering they'd be rotated going forward. I then saw the old design at Costco when in for service. Later, Costco informed me it's carrying the Bridgestone Quiet Track as an update to that tire. The guys who work there do their best to seem impartial and the impression I got is that the Michelin Defender and this new Bridgestone are neck at neck, and they mentioned that the Quiet Track rides very well. I see what you mean about the siping and I don't have an answer for that. However, the Defender's current warranty goes to 80,000 miles, so their warranties are equal now. You can always drop in for "Cafe 1.50" and check out the new tires. I do that 2 or 3 times a year.

I am currently about 55,000 miles into a set of Michelin Defenders bought at Costco. They are taken in for their rotation and balancing every 5,000 to 6,000 miles. They told me they are wearing right on schedule. At the time I bought them, they were given a 90,000 mile warranty. What I generally do is drive on the OEMs, then buy Costco Michelins, and then buy Costco Bridgestones (to save a little bit of coin). However, Bridgestone has put out a substantial new tire called the Turanza/Quiet Track that is right up there with the Defender in ratings and treadwear. The price gap has gone away, though. It's priced very similarly to the Michelin. ( I'm not at this fork in the road yet.) But, yes, the Michelin Defender is a great tire that lasts, is quiet, and might even help deliver slightly better fuel economy.

Interesting! How the Eldo, Toro, and/or Riv waxed and waned over the years, sometimes together and sometimes apart, while hitting some high notes along their journey.

@Robert Hall $29,999 special for me. Incentives added, too.

I've been hearing all this '70s Pandora music at merchants. Could it be that the young people working at these places know a good thing? Check out the tuxedo Billy Paul has on. I hope they put it in a glass case. If not, it could have been recycled into Brougham level seating. Smooth ... not really like any other song! Beautiful.

@David I'm only on board with the looks of the car ... and NOT the $ 100,000 price tag!

This is a little stale dated for a spotting thread, so I'll put it here. Since the owner probably both has a sense of humor and doesn't mind the attention, here's something I saw in the desert at Joshua Tree National Park: Clever.

I'm not up to date on the latest Volvo wagon configurations. I'd have to see that blue in person. It would also depend on the interior color. Yes to New England, though. Most of it. When people say they like N.E., it's usually Boston and MA, VT, NH, and ME. Most people aren't big fans of CT and RI. I also just recently read that many N.E. states have a high outbound move rates because of cost of living and tax burden ... less so for weather.

Also spotted later on August 26. Is it any wonder that LA fitness members also use this parking structure? I bought a few things, came back, and, sure enough, an LA Fitness dude opened up the Ford truck to get into it. I asked him if this trio was staged. He said it wasn't. Of these three, the prize for the front grille (without all the added on stuff) goes to Ford.

Two people with masks + 1 plexiglas(s) partition = lots of repeating oneself and/or mistakes in orders

I like some things about it while others not so much. The roof line is traditional and safe ... if that's what you want. The rear tail lamp arrangement is attractive enough ... it has enough going on. As for the dash, I don't like the little knobs on the air conditioning vents. They remind me of something American, sort of ungainly, and from decades ago. I will have to hand it to Volvo for one thing. It was once upon a time America's hippie car. THIS was the car you drove off to UC Santa Cruz or Smith College in ... and put lots of counterculture stickers on. Thankfully, Volvo has passed that baton to Subaru (which is probably now quietly trying to shed that image with larger and more up-line cars). Said another way, "You've come a long way, baby."

Spotted August 26 on yet another trip through Arby's drive through, this time to get a Reuben sandwich: Looks ominous - don't know what it is, what year it is, or what engine it might have had A true "getaway car" - it got away from fitting snugly inside my photo