Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

ab348

After 1981 GM began to designate those 2-door models as G-bodies. They changed the designation from A-body in '82 because that is when the FWD Celebrity, Ciera, etc were introduced and they got the A-body moniker.

Because even the most powerful factory engines in them were pretty anemic by todays standards it is becoming a thing for hot-rod types to drop a LS crate engine in them these days.

bwia

Death by suicide
A wild turkey flew into the windshield of a car traveling on Interstate 495 south in Norton MA on Saturday. The driver, a 30-year-old Saugus woman, sustained only minor injuries from shattered glass and was treated at the scene by emergency medical personnel, police said..

roadburner

roadburner said:

oldfarmer50 said:

Help me out here. I'm watching a Mecum auction and a lot of late 70s sports cars like Cameros are up for sale. What's the alure of a 79' Camero? It had under 200hp in the Z28 that year.

Do people buy them and swap out the engine or what?

I'd like a 1980 Z/28, but I'd either drop in a crate motor or else seriously massage the stock 350 SBC- a cam, intake, carburetor, and a true dual exhaust would wake things up considerably.

The SS is another car I'd like to restomod; 400 hp crate motor, discs at all four corners, Bilsteins and some decent rubber- it would be fun.

abacomike

tbirdmarco said:

 Agree on the George Washington bridge being a mess all the time few times I’ve gone with parents and whatever it’s a big-time mess in traffic like crazy 

The last time I drove across the GW Bridge was in 1999 (round trip of course).  I remember that you paid a steep toll going from Jersey to Manhattan but no toll back to Jersey.  At that time, IIRC, the toll was $6.00.  The road surface on the bridge was so full of cracks and potholes that I had to circumnavigate some parts of the roadway.

abacomike

roadburner said:

Help me out here. I'm watching a Mecum auction and a lot of late 70s sports cars like Cameros are up for sale. What's the alure of a 79' Camero? It had under 200hp in the Z28 that year. Do people buy them and swap out the engine or what?

I'd like a 1980 Z/28, but I'd either drop in a crate motor or else seriously massage the stock 350 SBC- a cam, intake, carburetor, and a true dual exhaust would wake things up considerably.

The SS is another car I'd like to restomod; 400 hp crate motor, discs at all four corners, Bilsteins and some decent rubber- it would be fun.

I bought a brand new Monte Carlo in 1973 - first year they debuted - a dull yellow with black interior and black coach vinyl roof.  It resembled the Cadillac Eldorado at the time.  It drove really lousy and the V8 engine was quite underpowered.  I do remember having to pay sticker price due to the lack of availability.  Bought the car in Illinois where I bought my 1967 Corvette Stingray fastback Coupe (427 ci with 435 hp).  Could not get a discount on either car.

tbirdmarco

 See were all little cool in here we are even old farmer and G Munro and everyone that’s why we will get along so good 

tbirdmarco

 That is all crazy like mentioned in prior comments ha ha 

tbirdmarco

 Happy Easter to those who celebrate also happy [non-permissible content removed] over to those who celebrate I know it started the other day pass over 

tbirdmarco

Lol lol lol 

oldfarmer50

abacomike said:

roadburner said:

Help me out here. I'm watching a Mecum auction and a lot of late 70s sports cars like Cameros are up for sale. What's the alure of a 79' Camero? It had under 200hp in the Z28 that year.

Do people buy them and swap out the engine or what?

I'd like a 1980 Z/28, but I'd either drop in a crate motor or else seriously massage the stock 350 SBC- a cam, intake, carburetor, and a true dual exhaust would wake things up considerably.

The SS is another car I'd like to restomod; 400 hp crate motor, discs at all four corners, Bilsteins and some decent rubber- it would be fun.

I bought a brand new Monte Carlo in 1973 - first year they debuted - a dull yellow with black interior and black coach vinyl roof.  It resembled the Cadillac Eldorado at the time.  It drove really lousy and the V8 engine was quite underpowered.  I do remember having to pay sticker price due to the lack of availability.  Bought the car in Illinois where I bought my 1967 Corvette Stingray fastback Coupe (427 ci with 435 hp).  Could not get a discount on either car.

I was working in a car wash at the time and always loved when a MC would come in. I think that version was the best looking.

driver100

tbirdmarco said:

 See were all little cool in here we are even old farmer and G Munro and everyone that’s why we will get along so good 

Only I get offended....because I am a super sensitive kind of guy.

driver100

Did we report another Tesla crashed while on auto drive....March 23rd?



Now, however, Tesla’s semiautonomous driving system is coming under new scrutiny after the company disclosed late on Friday that a fatal crash on March 23 in California occurred while Autopilot was engaged.

The company said the driver, Wei Huang, 38, a software engineer for Apple, had received several visual and audible warnings to put his hands back on the steering wheel but had failed to do so, even though his Model X S.U.V. had the modified version of the software. His hands were not detected on the wheel for six seconds before his Model X slammed into a concrete divider near the junction of Highway 101 and 85 in Mountain View, and neither Mr. Huang nor the Autopilot activated the brakes before the crash.

On the TV news they said they were fixing the concrete barrier in the middle of the road after a previous crash, and the Tesla did not pick up the break in the wall.

FULL ARTICLE - ONE OF MANY PROBLEMS FACING TESLA

abacomike

Happy Easter to all you guys who celebrate.  May peace and grace allow you to absorb the true meaning of this most holy day.

Mr_Shiftright

Autonomous cars haven't been test-driven for even a remotely adequate number of miles for anyone to determine if they are "safe" or not. If anything, given how few miles they've been test-driven, and the accidents they've had in relation to those number of miles, one could conclude that they are anything but safe---compared to deaths per million miles driven for regular cars.

houdini1

bwia said:

Death by suicide
A wild turkey flew into the windshield of a car traveling on Interstate 495 south in Norton MA on Saturday. The driver, a 30-year-old Saugus woman, sustained only minor injuries from shattered glass and was treated at the scene by emergency medical personnel, police said..

Wow, looks more like someone threw a bottle of Wild Turkey !

houdini1

driver100 said:

Did we report another Tesla crashed while on auto drive....March 23rd?



Now, however, Tesla’s semiautonomous driving system is coming under new scrutiny after the company disclosed late on Friday that a fatal crash on March 23 in California occurred while Autopilot was engaged.

The company said the driver, Wei Huang, 38, a software engineer for Apple, had received several visual and audible warnings to put his hands back on the steering wheel but had failed to do so, even though his Model X S.U.V. had the modified version of the software. His hands were not detected on the wheel for six seconds before his Model X slammed into a concrete divider near the junction of Highway 101 and 85 in Mountain View, and neither Mr. Huang nor the Autopilot activated the brakes before the crash.

On the TV news they said they were fixing the concrete barrier in the middle of the road after a previous crash, and the Tesla did not pick up the break in the wall.

FULL ARTICLE - ONE OF MANY PROBLEMS FACING TESLA

Good example of the shock absorbing collapsible front end !

bwia

driver100 said:

Did we report another Tesla crashed while on auto drive....March 23rd?

I'm not surprised. As I reported last November, my son-in-law has an identical color Model X. The ride is fine (I didn't get to drive it though) but the self-driving or autonomous driving capabilities are still in the beta stage at best. Every time he lifted his hands off the steering wheel the car would move violently to the right and did not brake as it is supposed to. It was an uneasy feeling on the Washington DC beltway. Too much traffic for this kind of experimentation

Frankly, the money being spent on this technology should be employed elsewhere such as a substitute for the internal combustion engine and non-petroleum based fuels.

imidazol97

http://abc7news.com/automotive/i-team-exclusive-victim-who-died-in-tesla-crash-had-complained-about-auto-pilot/3275600/

I suspect we're seeing the start of a lot of who shot John, as Judge Judy would say, about whether or not the autopilot was on or if the driver were responsible.

Either way, the autopilots can be fooled as alleged in this case and there's nothing like the intelligence of the human being to make decisions to keep safe. I just saw a Cadillac system demonstrated on Motorweek that does not change lanes but is actually hands free.

Txt:
http://www.motorweek.org/reviews/road_tests/2018-cadillac-ct6

Video of program:
http://www.pbs.org/video/2018-cadillac-ct6-2018-honda-accord-7u9wl6/

jmonroe

houdini1 said:

bwia said:

Death by suicide
A wild turkey flew into the windshield of a car traveling on Interstate 495 south in Norton MA on Saturday. The driver, a 30-year-old Saugus woman, sustained only minor injuries from shattered glass and was treated at the scene by emergency medical personnel, police said..

Wow, looks more like someone threw a bottle of Wild Turkey !

If this was the Fall I'd say the turkey could have been drunk. I have heard from several nature folks over the years that in the Fall when berries and other fruits become over ripened they have higher concentrations of alcohol. Therefore, when eaten by birds and squirrels they get drunk and that is why you see more low flying birds hitting windshields and more squished squirrels on the roads at that time of the year.

If that is true, I think deer get drunk from eating everything no matter what time of year it is.

jmonroe

explorerx4

Guessing the driver of that Tesla could have been sleeping, which is why they didn't respond to the warnings.

abacomike

Mr_Shiftright said:

Autonomous cars haven't been test-driven for even a remotely adequate number of miles for anyone to determine if they are "safe" or not. If anything, given how few miles they've been test-driven, and the accidents they've had in relation to those number of miles, one could conclude that they are anything but safe---compared to deaths per million miles driven for regular cars.

Totally agree!  The couple of times I engaged “autonomous park assist” on my car, I was unconvinced the system is safe.  Once the car tried to parallel park in the shopping mall garage because there were three pull-in straight spots available.  I hit the brakes quickly that time.  Another time, it backed into a pull-in straight spot.  My blood pressure must have risen 30 systolic points.

No, this autonomous stuff is not ready for prime time! 

fintail

Tesla needs to be forced into renaming the system something other than "autopilot", as the overmonied book-smart street-stupid drones who buy them will take it literally, and in several cases now, have seen unfortunate consequences.

ab348

Looks like the Tesla burned for a while after the crash too.

Mr_Shiftright

Tesla's down 83 points in one month.

imidazol97

When things are being run by artificial intelligence, they're only as intelligent as the code that's been written. As Microsoft has shown, code never anticipates all the possibilities. Does anyone remember a version of Windows that was error and bug free? Version 1.01, 1985? Have there been any since then that didn't need an update to fix bugs or problems?

That's what I see after viewing the California TV stations story about the vehicle wanting to veer to the wall perhaps because of a contact line between the concrete and asphalt paving that fooled Government Motors Tesla version 1.99 into thinking it was a white line?

imidazol97

abacomike said:

Mr_Shiftright said:

Autonomous cars haven't been test-driven for even a remotely adequate number of miles for anyone to determine if they are "safe" or not. If anything, given how few miles they've been test-driven, and the accidents they've had in relation to those number of miles, one could conclude that they are anything but safe---compared to deaths per million miles driven for regular cars.



Totally agree!  The couple of times I engaged “autonomous park assist” on my car, I was unconvinced the system is safe.  Once the car tried to parallel park in the shopping mall garage because there were three pull-in straight spots available.  I hit the brakes quickly that time.  Another time, it backed into a pull-in straight spot.  My blood pressure must have risen 30 systolic points.

No, this autonomous stuff is not ready for prime time

My park assist is very consistent. When I hear the muffled squeak as she tries to speak, I'm too close to something.

pensfan83

oldfarmer50 said:

Now that I understand, I have a similar fondness for early 90s Chrysler Lebaron convertibles. Certainly not for performance but for the body style and for weekend cruising.

Exactly, I'm not going to take it to the drag strip or track. I would just want something the family and I can jump into on a clear spring/summer evening and go for a drive, ice cream, whatever we want.

pensfan83

driver100 said:

Is this an example of a sought after GM G Body?


That was when GM was riding high.
I had a 79 Cutlass that was pretty good, and then an 81 that was a great car, but the smaller V8 was pretty anemic.
Note, the large windows and low hood...I was into visibility even back then;

@driver100 that's it down to the color I want and though they could be problematic I think I'd want a t-top roof as well.

An older brother of a friend of mine had an 84 Cutlass as his first car, looked like the one here except it was silver. It was probably 15 years old by the time he got it through his dad who was a sales manager at a dealership that held primarily GM brands but it still ran well.

bwia

abacomike said:

Happy Easter to all you guys who hicelebrate.  May peace and grace allow you to absorb the true meaning of this most holy day.

Hallelujah! Christ is Risen. Happy Easter to all.

cdnpinhead

Apropos to many of the past posts -- there's no accounting for taste.

qbrozen

Couple of thoughts on the autonomous accidents.

1. There are fatal crashes every day. I think focusing on those that may have involved autodrive systems is sesationalistic reporting at its best.
2. Folks who are putting their lives completely in the hands of these half-baked systems are already overdue to be removed from the gene pool anyway.

isellhondas

Yes, but the question begs....had those cars been driven by a human would there have been a crash?

qbrozen

isellhondas said:

Yes, but the question begs....had those cars been driven by a human would there have been a crash?

I bet those idiots would have crashed at some point. Right then and there? Not likely.

ab348

Looks like Lexus has pulled the GS model from sale in Euroland:

http://www.autoverdict.com/toyota/lexus-toyota/report-lexus-gs-sales-stopped-in-europe/

It seems the Japanese brands are not as beloved there as they are here.

driver100

houdini1 said:

driver100 said:

Did we report another Tesla crashed while on auto drive....March 23rd?



Now, however, Tesla’s semiautonomous driving system is coming under new scrutiny after the company disclosed late on Friday that a fatal crash on March 23 in California occurred while Autopilot was engaged.

The company said the driver, Wei Huang, 38, a software engineer for Apple, had received several visual and audible warnings to put his hands back on the steering wheel but had failed to do so, even though his Model X S.U.V. had the modified version of the software. His hands were not detected on the wheel for six seconds before his Model X slammed into a concrete divider near the junction of Highway 101 and 85 in Mountain View, and neither Mr. Huang nor the Autopilot activated the brakes before the crash.

On the TV news they said they were fixing the concrete barrier in the middle of the road after a previous crash, and the Tesla did not pick up the break in the wall.

FULL ARTICLE - ONE OF MANY PROBLEMS FACING TESLA

Good example of the shock absorbing collapsible front end !

Not good enough though....the guy died.

driver100

bwia said:

driver100 said:

Did we report another Tesla crashed while on auto drive....March 23rd?

. As I reported last November, my son-in-law has an identical color Model X. The ride is fine (I didn't get to drive it though) but the self-driving or autonomous driving capabilities are still in the beta stage at best. Every time he lifted his hands off the steering wheel the car would move violently to the right and did not brake as it is supposed to. It was an uneasy feeling on the Washington DC beltway..

Tesla says the guy had 6 seconds of warning bells and lights flashing. It could take longer than that to figure out what is going wrong...and you can travel a few 100 feet before you even react.

driver100

Probably the best driver is an alert person with the ability to drive defensively.
Next best is an autonomous car.
Worst is a human who is inattentive, sleepy, or drunk.

In this Tesla accident the car misread that portion of the cement barrier was temporarily missing. A human probably wouldn't have done that. The driver missed the sound and light warnings that came on 6 seconds before the crash. I know when I get a warning....a bell rings and a cup of coffee shows up saying I have driven for 2 1/2 hours and should stop for a coffee. It takes me more than 6 seconds to realize what is happening....let alone get my hands on the steering wheel and start braking.

People are too overconfident when driving these cars. The system is only as good as the way the information is interpreted. I gave up horseback riding...which I never liked too much anyway when the horse did what it wanted to do......like run to a tree and try to scrape me off. I said to myself...I am not trusting my life to an animal that is dumber than I am..........same with a car.

tbirdmarco

Monty  started in 1970 have an buddy that’s had one since. New

tbirdmarco

Wow mike  think not much has changed since with the bridge 

tbirdmarco

Driver that is ok   Not everyone   Can just take it   Everyone  is different 

qbrozen

driver100 said:

Probably the best driver is an alert person with the ability to drive defensively. Next best is an autonomous car. Worst is a human who is inattentive, sleepy, or drunk. In this Tesla accident the car misread that portion of the cement barrier was temporarily missing. A human probably wouldn't have done that. The driver missed the sound and light warnings that came on 6 seconds before the crash. I know when I get a warning....a bell rings and a cup of coffee shows up saying I have driven for 2 1/2 hours and should stop for a coffee. It takes me more than 6 seconds to realize what is happening....let alone get my hands on the steering wheel and start braking. People are too overconfident when driving these cars. The system is only as good as the way the information is interpreted. I gave up horseback riding...which I never liked too much anyway when the horse did what it wanted to do......like run to a tree and try to scrape me off. I said to myself...I am not trusting my life to an animal that is dumber than I am..........same with a car.

It may take you longer than 6 secs (although I'd wager it only feels that way), but you aren't about to have an accident in those instances. I know when my caddy would flash because it thought I was going to hit something, I about jumped out of my skin each time and took maybe 2-3 secs to assess everything around me and decide it was a false alarm. The one time it was right, not even a second went by before I reacted and slammed on my brakes (car in front of me had no brake lights!).

oldfarmer50

qbrozen said:

driver100 said:

Probably the best driver is an alert person with the ability to drive defensively.
Next best is an autonomous car.
Worst is a human who is inattentive, sleepy, or drunk.

In this Tesla accident the car misread that portion of the cement barrier was temporarily missing. A human probably wouldn't have done that. The driver missed the sound and light warnings that came on 6 seconds before the crash. I know when I get a warning....a bell rings and a cup of coffee shows up saying I have driven for 2 1/2 hours and should stop for a coffee. It takes me more than 6 seconds to realize what is happening....let alone get my hands on the steering wheel and start braking.

People are too overconfident when driving these cars. The system is only as good as the way the information is interpreted. I gave up horseback riding...which I never liked too much anyway when the horse did what it wanted to do......like run to a tree and try to scrape me off. I said to myself...I am not trusting my life to an animal that is dumber than I am..........same with a car.

It may take you longer than 6 secs (although I'd wager it only feels that way), but you aren't about to have an accident in those instances. I know when my caddy would flash because it thought I was going to hit something, I about jumped out of my skin each time and took maybe 2-3 secs to assess everything around me and decide it was a false alarm. The one time it was right, not even a second went by before I reacted and slammed on my brakes (car in front of me had no brake lights!).

First time I drove a car with blind spot monitor I thought it was a turn signal light. Second time I thought it was a neat feature. Third time I realized I was relying on it too much and worried what would happen if the next car didn't have it or it broke.

Now I don't use it.

stickguy

As we say in Jersey, it's free to get in, but you have to pay if you want to get out! But at least you don't have to pump your own gas.

Mike, the GWB is now $15 if you pay cash. A few bucks cheaper with EZ pass.

driver100

Have you ever made a left turn when there are two lanes turning left, and you are on the 2nd lane over....and your blind spot monitor beeps because you are turning left and there is a car on your left side also going left? It took a few times to catch on to why the alrm was going off.....I know I am turning OK but am I turning into someone? Then I realize all it knows is I am going left but the cars in the next lane are beside me. I don't know how long it takes to figure that out and to decide what to do, but, probably at least 6 seconds.

driver100

tbirdmarco said:

Driver that is ok   Not everyone   Can just take it   Everyone  is different 

Yeh, Mrs D likes the fact that I am such a sensitive guy, and that I am such a good pickleball player.

abacomike

driver100 said:

Have you ever made a left turn when there are two lanes turning left, and you are on the 2nd lane over....and your blind spot monitor beeps because you are turning left and there is a car on your left side also going left? It took a few times to catch on to why the alrm was going off.....I know I am turning OK but am I turning into someone? Then I realize all it knows is I am going left but the cars in the next lane are beside me. I don't know how long it takes to figure that out and to decide what to do, but, probably at least 6 seconds.

Happens to me all the time - left turn or right turn.

abacomike

stickguy said:

As we say in Jersey, it's free to get in, but you have to pay if you want to get out! But at least you don't have to pump your own gas. Mike, the GWB is now $15 if you pay cash. A few bucks cheaper with EZ pass.

New York isn’t worth $15.00 to get in.  On the other hand, I’d pay $30.00 in a second to get out!

driver100

abacomike said:

driver100 said:

Have you ever made a left turn when there are two lanes turning left, and you are on the 2nd lane over....and your blind spot monitor beeps because you are turning left and there is a car on your left side also going left? It took a few times to catch on to why the alrm was going off.....I know I am turning OK but am I turning into someone? Then I realize all it knows is I am going left but the cars in the next lane are beside me. I don't know how long it takes to figure that out and to decide what to do, but, probably at least 6 seconds.

Happens to me all the time - left turn or right turn.

The question is....the 1st time it happened, didn't you think you were doing something wrong? Or did you realize it was because there was a car beside you?

driver100

oldfarmer50 said:

qbrozen said:

driver100 said:

Probably the best driver is an alert person with the ability to drive defensively.
Next best is an autonomous car.
Worst is a human who is inattentive, sleepy, or drunk.

In this Tesla accident the car misread that portion of the cement barrier was temporarily missing. A human probably wouldn't have done that. The driver missed the sound and light warnings that came on 6 seconds before the crash. I know when I get a warning....a bell rings and a cup of coffee shows up saying I have driven for 2 1/2 hours and should stop for a coffee. It takes me more than 6 seconds to realize what is happening....let alone get my hands on the steering wheel and start braking.

People are too overconfident when driving these cars. The system is only as good as the way the information is interpreted. I gave up horseback riding...which I never liked too much anyway when the horse did what it wanted to do......like run to a tree and try to scrape me off. I said to myself...I am not trusting my life to an animal that is dumber than I am..........same with a car.

It may take you longer than 6 secs (although I'd wager it only feels that way), but you aren't about to have an accident in those instances. I know when my caddy would flash because it thought I was going to hit something, I about jumped out of my skin each time and took maybe 2-3 secs to assess everything around me and decide it was a false alarm. The one time it was right, not even a second went by before I reacted and slammed on my brakes (car in front of me had no brake lights!).

First time I drove a car with blind spot monitor I thought it was a turn signal light. Second time I thought it was a neat feature. Third time I realized I was relying on it too much and worried what would happen if the next car didn't have it or it broke.

Now I don't use it

.

Oldfarmer.....embrace the blind spot monitor...it is one of the great inventions of our time. I am not saying rely on it entirely.....do your usual checks, BSM is just a confirmation you can change lanes and no one is there. If used wisely it is reassuring that nothing is where you can't see it. Also, nice, when it blinks, car goes by, then you can start checking to see if it is good to pull out....if it is lit up don't signal and don't bother checking.

abacomike

driver100 said:

driver100 said:

Have you ever made a left turn when there are two lanes turning left, and you are on the 2nd lane over....and your blind spot monitor beeps because you are turning left and there is a car on your left side also going left? It took a few times to catch on to why the alrm was going off.....I know I am turning OK but am I turning into someone? Then I realize all it knows is I am going left but the cars in the next lane are beside me. I don't know how long it takes to figure that out and to decide what to do, but, probably at least 6 seconds.

Happens to me all the time - left turn or right turn.

The question is....the 1st time it happened, didn't you think you were doing something wrong? Or did you realize it was because there was a car beside you?

Yes, at first - when I had the 2016 E400 with all those gizmos on it.  I still get a bit startled when the chime warning goes off when turning.