Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

driver100

I should have known that for sure, because my 2nd company car was the newly downsized comparable 78 Chevy Malibu. I liked that Malibu at the time, it was small, agile, yet had lots of power with a V8 engine.

ab348

stickguy said:

that blue wagon is the series that ended in 1977 (the "big" ones). the 78s were the first of the downsized models. I'm thinking that is what Abs folks got, if they ordered sight unseen.

Yes, it looked like this, same color, only with full wheel covers, not wires:




The dealer had taken two of these as part of his initial model year order for stock. Red interior, in nice soft leather-like vinyl, 305 V-8. Turned out out to be a lousy car, very early production out of the GM Baltimore plant, was a real mess.

PF_Flyer

Now we're throwing around some IRON

With all those square corners and chrome strips, our freezing fog this morning would have had some interesting places to grow

imidazol97

PF_Flyer said:

Now we're throwing around some IRON

With all those square corners and chrome strips, our freezing fog this morning would have had some interesting places to grow

Thanks for the great picture.

The growing of crystals is a fascinating science. Here we've just been having freezing fogs that leave a layer of ice on the windshield. Really aggravating to try to melt off without wasting lots of fuel warming the car up.

iluvmysephia1

Dodge Omni/Plymouth Horizon twins. Mrs. Carnaught had a red Omni way back when. Car was a great little workhorse and carried a good amount of cargo with the back seat down, loading readily through the hatchback. Car was reliable, sluggish and buzzy with a VW Wabbit engine, yet still fun.

Sounds dreamy! One time in late 1983 I was at a car dealer in Tacoma, WA, making an emergency trade. Our '65 Ford Mustang suffered catastrophic tranny failure. We test-drove a AMC Gremlin. I believe it had a 6-cyl. automatic transmission. That little punk was quick off the line. Not that quick - my Stang must've really been slow with it's 200 c.i. 6 cyl.engine with 4-speed stick. It was that light green color AMC had back then.

But it surprised me - I think we both figured it looked too weird to actually drive and own. We decided on a fairly well-running 1970 Chevy Suburban 350 V8 automatic...bus. About 8 mpg but steady.

abacomike

PF_Flyer said:

Now we're throwing around some IRON With all those square corners and chrome strips, our freezing fog this morning would have had some interesting places to grow

Ahhhhh, freezing fog - brings back memories of how dangerous it can be to drive a car in the winter up north.  Great pic.  Every year I was forced to come up with a science fair project in JHS and HS,
WHERE WERE YOU AND YOUR PICS WHEN I NEEDED YOU?  

js06gv

ab348 said:

stickguy said:

that blue wagon is the series that ended in 1977 (the "big" ones). the 78s were the first of the downsized models. I'm thinking that is what Abs folks got, if they ordered sight unseen.

Yes, it looked like this, same color, only with full wheel covers, not wires:




The dealer had taken two of these as part of his initial model year order for stock. Red interior, in nice soft leather-like vinyl, 305 V-8. Turned out out to be a lousy car, very early production out of the GM Baltimore plant, was a real mess.

I can relate to both of the recently posted pics. My parents got a new 1981 Malibu Classic Estate wagon in the same color scheme as the LeMans you posted, also with a 305 but had the Chevy "rally" wheels that had a center cap and trim rings (anybody remember those?)

And the LTD II reminded me of my first car, a 1974 Gran Torino. No Clint Eastwood version for me though, as mine was a hideous lime green color 4-door with a dark green vinyl interior. Not a bad first car, though 9 mpg out of the 351 Cleveland was about as good as it got. Fortunately, gas in Houston was relatively cheap at the time (in 1986 it was well under a buck a gallon). The LTD II was just a disguised Torino that Ford let linger on for a couple of years, also nearly identical to the Thunderbird and Cougar of the time. The redesigned Granada, itself just a tarted up Fairmont, replaced the LTD II I believe, and then Ford did it all over again by rebadging that car as the LTD in 1983 when the big one was renamed the LTD Crown Victoria. My Grandparents had one of the "little" LTDs, a 1983 wagon that wasn't a bad ride with the 3.8 V6.

abacomike

All the computers went down in the hospital at 9;00 AM this morning.  Everything works on computer - doctor's orders, test results, medications and doses, orders from pharmacy, patient vitals, etc.  All the nurses are having to pass meds like they used to years ago in hospitals.  It's a prime example of how dependent humanity has become on computer programs and operating systems.

Mr_Shiftright

Computers down? Not so bad. Power outage, that's a real problem. I presume they have all sorts of huge backup systems, hopefully not in the basement like that Japanese nuclear plant.

carnaught

iluvmysephia1 said:

Dodge Omni/Plymouth Horizon twins. Mrs. Carnaught had a red Omni way back when. Car was a great little workhorse and carried a good amount of cargo with the back seat down, loading readily through the hatchback. Car was reliable, sluggish and buzzy with a VW Wabbit engine, yet still fun.

Sounds dreamy!

Ah, memories of the old cars.

oldfarmer50

henryn said:

Mike, hang in there, we are all pulling for you. I am in agreement with the consensus here, they probably have you on too many different medications. I admit that I’m not a doctor, but I did watch one on TV once. Marcus Welby? Dr. Kildaire? Something like that!

On the subject of Mustangs, older Mustangs with the older V6 engines. Back around 2008 or 2009 I purchased a used Mustang GT convertible. It was a 2001 Model, with the 4.6L V8 engine. It was in beautiful, garage kept condition, and had an aftermarket exhaust that made it sound really loud and tough. My wife (now ex) drove me over to pick it up, and on the way home I was getting frisky until my ex got impatient and blew the doors off my new Mustang GT with her Passat 2.0T. Rather embarrassing, actually.

I didn’t keep that car for very long.

Jeep Liberty with the 3.7L engine – back about 2 years ago, a friend had the engine go out on her Liberty. I advised her to junk it, but she didn’t listen, spent nearly $5k on a rebuilt engine for a car that was worth about half that (high mileage, not that clean).

That's odd that your Mustang was slower than a VW. It had 260hp. Must have been the rear end. My Mark VIII with the 4 valve 4.6L puts out 280hp. but isn't that fast off the line because it has a 3.09 rear end. The LSC model had a 3.73 rear and was a screamer I hear. Maybe your Stang was built for economy.

My SIL's Jeep is worth $4-5k according to the books. Getting even a used motor into it just doesn't seem worth it. I suggested trying to sell it to a mechanic for $1000 who might be able to get a motor into it and sell it.

oldfarmer50

driver100 said:

Mr_Shiftright said:

Grand Lemans Safari---that's a mouthful of rather unrelated concepts, I must say.

That Leman's Safari was probably the best one of the bunch though. I think it looked like this.....

My favorite was always the Vista Cruiser.

ab348

oldfarmer50 said:

My favorite was always the Vista Cruiser.

With a 3-tone paint job no less!

suydam

Ah the early 70s. Not my favorite time period for cars. My Mom had a '69 Toyota Corona.

And we had a hand me down '66 Dart in a hideous brown color.

My Dad, of course, probably had one of the many MGs he drove in those years.

verdugo

graphicguy said:

So, finally made it home late last night from a marathon set of business that took me from Cincinnati, to Orlando, to Denver in the span of 4 days.

Last car I rented in Denver was a Jeep Grand Cherokee. I'm noticing that the more I rent from Hertz, the more likely they are to put me in a "step up" model for the price of the company preferred "compact".

Anyway, pretty darned impressed with the JGC. I'll assume mine was a base model as it wasn't all leathered up and there were plenty of hard plastics all around. But, the V6 Pentastar motor moved it smartly and didn't sound like a John Deere knock off. Assuming the trans was Chrysler's 9 speed, it performed admirably. No hunting and searching, mostly shifting without me noticing it much. And, it kicked down a cog or two when I wanted it to.

Seats were comfortable, and again, I think they were the base seats. Suspension was solid, even though it was clear I was driving a relatively heavy vehicle. It did push through the corners, but not as badly as I expected.

The ride and handling is what I'd call giving a very solid feeling. No thumps, twists, skips, just solid feeling overall pavement types. Base "uconnect" was simple and easy to use, especially given I had never used such a system....EVER! Screen didn't have Nav and was small, but connecting my phone was easy. Speedo, tach etc were clear and easy to read, even with sunglasses. Might have even been a digital number. Good information shown between the speedo and tach....MPG, tire pressure, DTE, radio station, etc.

For the 3 days I had it, and 1/2 tank gas, I got 22 MPG in mixed driving, and I wasn't easy on it.

Pretty impressive. Last real SUV I had driven was my much loved Tahoe, but that was a decade old. If I were in the market for a luxury SUV and didn't need a huge one, I'd put the JGC as a "must consider" with the likely candidates from Lexus, Acura, etc.

Totally agree with you. You should see the Overland trip with the V8. It's awesome!

verdugo

henryn said:

@graphicguy, thanks for the mini-review, well written and informative. I have to admit, though, based on all of the reports I have read about problems with the Jeep Grand Cherokee, most particularly that new transmission, I would be very leary of owning one. Very, very leary.

There do seem to be a lot of brave people here in these forums, though. Witness @qbrozen buying that used Land Rover. The very thought is enough to give me the heebie jeebies!

People without problems don't complain on the internet. Some early models had issues (never buy any car on the first model year is the advice I got here.) Whatever bugs it had, have been worked out by now. I haven't had any problems.

verdugo

Mike,

I hope you're feeling better and that the hospital takes care of you better than it takes care of its IT infrastructure and systems.

suydam

Me too. It sounds like you need to be there.

iluvmysephia1

I actually sort of like (d) this early Corolla from Toyota

The admiration for the Omni/Horizon wore off fairly quickly and I was off to the mini's - Ford Festiva/Chevy Sprint from the late 80's. Never bought any of these - went from driving that Chevy Suburban to a white '66 Ford Fairlane to buying Dad's '73 Plymouth Gold Duster from him. Slant 6 automatic - wife and I were pretty happy to have that rig when we got it. The Fairlane's motor was smoking (literally). And coming in the cabin!

From the '73 Plymouth Gold Duster I bought a 1986 Mercury Lynx station wagon. That car blew a head gasket and a timing belt. I let the 60,000 miles roll over and gain another thousand or so - the car broke down about a block from our north Everett, WA, house! The Lynx SW stayed with us for about 5 years, actually, before I became enamored with the '94 Ford Escort SW. Bought that in the spring of '94. And the story continues on and on.

Mr_Shiftright

69 Corona (that particular model came to US in '68 I think) was a very good car. It was the warning bell that Detroit never heard.

PF_Flyer

oldfarmer50 said:

driver100 said:

Mr_Shiftright said:

Grand Lemans Safari---that's a mouthful of rather unrelated concepts, I must say.

That Leman's Safari was probably the best one of the bunch though. I think it looked like this.....

My favorite was always the Vista Cruiser.

Just kinda looks like a sedan with a pickup cap stuck on the back.

ab348

PF_Flyer said:

Just kinda looks like a sedan with a pickup cap stuck on the back.

The outfits that made caps copied the Vista roof!

suydam

Yep. It lasted over 200,000 miles and got passed down to other family members like a well worn baseball glove. My mom wanted a small car and couldn't find an American-made one. She drove 3 hours to an LA dealership to get it.

driver100

suydam said:

Yep. It lasted over 200,000 miles and got passed down to other family members like a well worn baseball glove. My mom wanted a small car and couldn't find an American-made one. She drove 3 hours to an LA dealership to get it.

That old Toyota looks great. I remember when they first came on the scene and people said if you scratched the paint off of them you would find they were made from old tomato soup cans. Ha ha...the laugh was on those doubters!

I forgot about those Vista Cruisers....they were great looking wagons!

driver100

Remembering these old cars is pretty interesting. One of my favorite cars was my 1965 Ford Galaxie 500 that looked like this.


It was a pretty solid nice riding car. Probably would have lasted a long time, but some moron went through a stop sign and my car was a write off.

berri

Boy, there were a ton of Vista Cruisers back then in the Chicago area.

I like that 65 Galaxie coupe (were there any bad looking 65 cars?), but I really liked the changes they made for the 66.

ab348

I was just about to say the same thing. There was a '66 Galaxie 2-door HT at a show this summer and I think it was one of the Fords I would have picked ahead of the similar model Chevy in those years. The change to the greenhouse and roofline for the Ford in '66 really was well-done. It was that non-metallic baby blue that lots of Fords had back then with a blue interior and looked great.

graphicguy

Mr_Shiftright said:

69 Corona (that particular model came to US in '68 I think) was a very good car. It was the warning bell that Detroit never heard.

My sister had one of those Coronas. I think it was a '69. She bought it used with over 100k miles on it. She drove it another 80k. I was young, but don't remember having any particular trouble with it ouside of the routine maintenance any car would need.

Pretty basic car but as reliable as an anvil.

nyccarguy

I've liked the Grand Cherokees A LOT ever since the current body style came out in 2011.  The interior of the Limited & above models are gorgeous.  They' did a fantastic job with the facelift in 2014.  I could definitely get comfortable behind the wheel if a GC with a HEMI under the hood like @verdugo .  In fact, if his lease residual value is normal (not inflated), it would make a very nice home somewhere here on the east coast;)

abacomike

My room is directly across the hall from a large room where they have displays of 85 patients hooked up to heart monitors.  I was talking to one of the guys who watches a set of monitors.  There are 5 techs in there.  Each large screen displays 20 EKG displays.  The displays are labeled by room number, bed number and patient name.  

If there are any irregularities in the heart beat, rhythm or a problem with the heart's functioning, an alarm goes off and pulls up a blow-up of that patient's EKG.  The tech then calls the nurse's station where that patient is assigned to inform the charge nurse and attending RN of a potential problem.  They've been in to see me several times due to disconnected leads.

He said that at least once a day, a patient goes through an episode that they have to alert the nurse about.

Those monitors probably save lots of lives throughout the year.

This time I have been lucky.  I have two great nurses (each works a 12 hour shift).

iluvmysephia1

Nice!

ab348

Interesting article about VW and its dealers in Automotive News:

http://www.autonews.com/article/20151207/RETAIL/312079962/frustration-flares-for-vw-dealers-as-sales-nosedive?cciid=email-autonews-weekly

Ryan Beene
Automotive News
December 7, 2015 - 12:01 am ET

WASHINGTON -- Volkswagen brand dealers are bracing for another month of pain after seeing U.S. sales tumble 25 percent in November.

The question now: When will it end?

VW withstood the initial fallout of its diesel emissions scandal, holding sales flat in October, the first full month after revelations of its cheating. Dealers, too, seemed hopeful they'd be able to sell their way through the crisis with the help of emergency aid from the factory, help that earned VW of America CEO Michael Horn a standing ovation at VW's national dealer meeting.

But as Volkswagen drifts into a third month of a seemingly unbound scandal, that tone is changing and dealer frustrations are bubbling to the surface. The absence of a ready-to-go fix, plus continuing inventory shortages and the prospect of more new-car sales pain, is stirring angst and even anger in VW's dealer network.

"This thing isn't getting better with time," said Alan Brown, co-owner of two Hendrick Volkswagen dealerships in suburban Dallas and chairman of VW's dealer council. "We don't have a fix. We don't have a timeline." The unknown, he added, is "what makes the anxiety of this even worse."

Guarantee gone

Undermining dealer faith is the drip-drip of confusing signals from Germany, none of them reassuring.

Volkswagen's internal probe has yet to reveal details about the scandal's origins or who was involved. Meanwhile, the churn of German executives continues, with Ulrich Hackenberg leaving his post as Audi's chief engineer last week after his reported suspension in the scandal's wake.

Stateside, VW is awaiting regulatory approval on its plan to get its diesels back into compliance -- a plan filed just hours before a California deadline on Nov. 20. In a statement to Automotive News, Horn said VW continues to cooperate with regulators and is working "as quickly as possible" to get a fix in place.

Meanwhile, an information vacuum has put the value of affected VW diesels under a cloud of uncertainty. Competing brands' dealers won't accept the used TDIs on trade, and VW dealers feel pressure to absorb them at depressed prices to reflect their more than 15 percent price drop at auctions since the scandal.

A VW offer to repurchase used TDIs from dealers at guaranteed pre-crisis prices turned out to be a one-time program for vehicles in stock as of Oct. 22, and customers looking to unload their TDIs now are seeing offers that leave them "very frustrated," Brown said.

"It's scaring [dealers] because we don't know how long we're going to sit on the cars," Brown said.

Meanwhile, low inventories of salable gasoline vehicles could continue to hamper sales.

Fred Emich, general manager of Emich Volkswagen in Denver, says he began December with just two Tiguan crossovers among his vehicles in stock, though he has more than 40 on the way. Overall, inventories are slightly better than last month, when limited product drove away deals despite showroom traffic being on a par with October, he said.

"You're selling from empty shelves," Emich said.

Steve Kalafer, owner of the 17-franchise Flemington Car & Truck Country, says his VW store in Flemington, N.J., has fewer than 50 salable new VWs in stock, compared with the more than 100 he would normally stock ahead of the year-end sales push. His December sales prospects look "bleak," he said.

"We would be hopeful that Volkswagen would ship these cars on overtime," Kalafer said, but during the holiday season, "the auto business from the manufacturer side basically shuts down."

'Crossed off the list'

VW's 25 percent November decline was the steepest for the VW brand since the start of the Great Recession. One reason for the falloff: VW scaled back the hefty incentives that fueled October demand. The $2,000 cash bonus for returning VW owners in October has been reduced to $1,000 to $1,500 depending on the model.

Emich says he hasn't sold any 2016 Passats since his shipments of the re-engineered car began arriving last month.

"The 2016 Passat, unfortunately, is missing some incentives," Emich said. "It's essentially a face-lifted car that they're treating like a redesigned or new model."

Horn urged patience. "In October, Volkswagen presented plans for continued dealer support at the national dealer meeting," he said in his statement. "We remain committed to supporting our dealers."

Brown, the dealer council chairman, said that to keep and attract customers, Horn should demand enough money from VW headquarters in Germany to offer new-car deals that are the best in the industry.

"We cannot be arrogant and higher priced," he said.

Kalafer says VW is already being "crossed off the list" by customers who no longer trust the company.

"Volkswagen of America has their head in the sand," Kalafer said. "It's not just going to be another incentive or another bonus that gets Volkswagen out of this. It's going to be the dealers who get Volkswagen out of this. The reputation of Volkswagen is spiraling towards worthlessness."

The reader comments at the end are also interesting, with several pointing out the German culture as being a part of VW's woes here. If VW loses the hearts and minds of their dealers, they are really in trouble.

imidazol97

I found this comment after the article from a reader especially stinging to the virtual image of VW's quality: "And Volkswagen is losing the China market that they've come so much to depend on. Though the diesel scandal was minimal in China, the consumers there, burned by shoddy (cheap) DSG and rear axle engineering, has been all ears about the deceit surrounding the global dieselgate scandal."

We'll see if the MSM supports VW's resurrection or if they pan the process with negatives.

More:

"I don't think VW will ever recover 100% from this. Maybe 60 to 70% tops. Nobody at VW knows what to do,because they are still uncovering more BS. VW has gotten to big,to many name plates and to many mouths to feed. They need to sell off some name plates for money they are going to need."

imidazol97

abacomike said:

My room is directly across the hall from a large room where they have displays of 85 patients hooked up to heart monitors.  I was talking to one of the guys who watches a set of monitors.

Are they giving you physical therapy to help build your stamina?

abacomike

imidazol97 said:

My room is directly across the hall from a large room where they have displays of 85 patients hooked up to heart monitors.  I was talking to one of the guys who watches a set of monitors.

Are they giving you physical therapy to help build your stamina?

Not yet.  Hopefully today!  

carnaught

Mike, those cardiac nurses can read monitors and EKG's like nobody's business.

How's your low BP?

abacomike

carnaught said:

Mike, those cardiac nurses can read monitors and EKG's like nobody's business. How's your low BP?

In a lying down position, it's running 105/58 to 110/68.  I don't know what my standing BP is yet as they haven't gotten me out of bed yet.  Should know by later this morning.

suydam

We are all pulling for you!

abacomike

suydam said:

We are all pulling for you!

Thanks suydam!  

sda

ab348 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

My favorite was always the Vista Cruiser.

With a 3-tone paint job no less!

Our neighbors had a Vista Cruiser just like this one, same color but without the white roof. They had it for years. I got to ride in it from time to time, don't remember if it had the third seat. I think the third seat was an option, or they always had it folded down.

That is also the same color as my parent's 69 98 LS sedan. Only it had a black vinyl roof and black cloth interior. I found that car to be optioned up somewhat oddly. It had power windows and 6 way power seat, tilt/telescope wheel with rim blow horn, a/c, am radio, Olds factory 8 track stereo, remote trunk release. Yet no power locks, AM radio no FM (really?) no cruise control or rear window defogger. Dad bought it used in 71 to replace mom's 63 Olds Dynamic 88. The three of us kids loved the 98--it was huge inside and we were not used the luxury of the 98.

One thing I always thought was strange, is in most GM cars at the time, if you got the AM/FM stereo, or 8 track it only had a front and rear speaker. True stereo should have been left and right speakers, not front and rear. As such the stereo imaging was not correct. We had that in both our 69 98 and mom's 72 Cutlass. I know that Cadillac offered a 4 speaker stereo at this time, but lesser GM cars not so much. My 70 Cadillac DeVille convertible had 4 factory stereo speakers, 2 up front, 2 in the rear.

sda

driver100 said:

suydam said:

Yep. It lasted over 200,000 miles and got passed down to other family members like a well worn baseball glove. My mom wanted a small car and couldn't find an American-made one. She drove 3 hours to an LA dealership to get it.

That old Toyota looks great. I remember when they first came on the scene and people said if you scratched the paint off of them you would find they were made from old tomato soup cans. Ha ha...the laugh was on those doubters!

I forgot about those Vista Cruisers....they were great looking wagons!

I like the red and the sport wheels on that Buick Sport wagon, very sharp!

sda

driver100 said:

tjc78 said:

My Dad had a Horizon and my mom it's sportier cousin an 85 Dodge Charger.  I remember them both being new and constantly broken.  My dad's was a stick and moms auto.  My moms even needed a head gasket under warranty and both of them the A/C died at least once .   I believe both of the were the 2.2 L.

  My dad got rid of his early on and had a Shelby Charger and then an 87 Shadow ES turbo (anyone remember those?).  Mom held onto the Charger until 93 or so when my Stepdad got her a 92 el strippo Caravan (which for some reason was bulletproof).  

85 Charger was actually a pretty smart looking little car in it's day.


Talking about Omni's, Horizons, reminds me of Vegas, Falcons, Citations, Cimmerons, and a host of other cars that maybe helped the upstart foreign car makers to make inroads into North America.

Anyone remember in the late 70s Ford wanted to make a more gas efficient car, so they made a smaller LTD called an LTD II. It was still enormous and heavy, but was supposed to be more fuel efficient. It had about all the worst styling cues any car could have including excess chrome and lots of lines and creases....plus enormous front end with not much interior room.


</Wasn't the LTD II just a face lifted Gran Torino? I think it was on the same platform. A weak effort at best.

sda

abacomike said:

@sda said;

"As you qualify for discounts for your car purchases from USAA--have you tried them for a quote for car insurance? I have found them to be very reasonable and their service is top notch."

I try them all the time - USAA wanted $2100+ a year for auto insurance.  They are the most expensive of all the insurance companies here in south Florida.  They are just not competitive here.

Wow, that surprises me. I wish you a quick and complete recovery. Steve

abacomike

sda said:

@sda said;

"As you qualify for discounts for your car purchases from USAA--have you tried them for a quote for car insurance? I have found them to be very reasonable and their service is top notch."

I try them all the time - USAA wanted $2100+ a year for auto insurance.  They are the most expensive of all the insurance companies here in south Florida.  They are just not competitive here.

Wow, that surprises me. I wish you a quick and complete recovery. Steve

Thanks for your well-wishes.  Hospital computers are still down so test results are not available.  The have to be pulled manually.

I am still waiting for PT to come down and walk me.  

You mentioned USAA - I also get $500 a year discount from the Mercedes Benz Club of America.  It costs me $39 a year for membership and I've used their $500 discount 3 times.  Definitely worth the membership dues as are our dues to Edmunds.

tjc78

abacomike said:

My room is directly across the hall from a large room where they have displays of 85 patients hooked up to heart monitors.  I was talking to one of the guys who watches a set of monitors.  There are 5 techs in there.  Each large screen displays 20 EKG displays.  The displays are labeled by room number, bed number and patient name.  

If there are any irregularities in the heart beat, rhythm or a problem with the heart's functioning, an alarm goes off and pulls up a blow-up of that patient's EKG.  The tech then calls the nurse's station where that patient is assigned to inform the charge nurse and attending RN of a potential problem.  They've been in to see me several times due to disconnected leads.

He said that at least once a day, a patient goes through an episode that they have to alert the nurse about.

Those monitors probably save lots of lives throughout the year.

This time I have been lucky.  I have two great nurses (each works a 12 hour shift).

I have a family member who does that job. She always says it is very rewarding when she reports something that in the end has many times saved a life.

robr2

Mike - couple of things:

good luck with your health struggles. My 49 YO brother had a heart attack 4 weeks ago and had a stent implanted. Luckily, no permanent damage per the MD's. Luckily, he had lost about 40 lbs. in the past year but many years of being overweight, a desk job, poor eating habits, and smoking (he's been reformed about 10 years now) finally caught up with him. His PT involves slowly getting into an exercise and low fat diet.

thank you for your apology many pages back. I think we can both be a little bit the same and often that leads to blow ups.

I'm still going to just be a lurker here for the most part as work is taking up much more time.

Peace, Out.

Kirstie_H

graphicguy said:

Twice the cool factor. Like them both. Big ups. When did you add them to the fleet? Can we add them to the punch list this year?

VW purchased July 28, 2015, and the Camaro purchased August 2015. The Camaro purchase came after our Crossfire died at the top of an interstate off-ramp. Cost to repair was going to be close the the vehicle's value, and having owned it (purchased used) for 7+ years, it was time for something else.

After trading in the Crossfire, a good friend of ours was dismayed because he said he would have wanted it. He ended up working with the dealership to purchase it back from them (still broken) for what they gave us on trade-in. That's still a work in progress, but we hope he can get it running again soon.

roadburner

oldfarmer50 said:

My favorite was always the Vista Cruiser.

In 1970 Oldsmobile actually built two 442 Vista Cruisers with the W30 engine package. Read about it here.

ab348

sda said:

One thing I always thought was strange, is in most GM cars at the time, if you got the AM/FM stereo, or 8 track it only had a front and rear speaker. True stereo should have been left and right speakers, not front and rear. As such the stereo imaging was not correct. We had that in both our 69 98 and mom's 72 Cutlass. I know that Cadillac offered a 4 speaker stereo at this time, but lesser GM cars not so much. My 70 Cadillac DeVille convertible had 4 factory stereo speakers, 2 up front, 2 in the rear.

Yep, my '68 Cutlass is like that. I have the optional 8-track stereo tape player and you got the speaker in the center of the dash up front, and a speaker in the right side of the rear parcel shelf. Interestingly there is a punch-out in the metal under the parcel shelf on the left side for another speaker, but it is empty.

roadburner

Good news! I finally found a new properly equipped Mustang GT that I could afford- and I bought it!!!