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I spotted an (insert obscure car name here) classic car today! (Archived)
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For some reason, I'm thinking my old '82 Cutlass Supreme coupe was made in Canada. Would that have been possible? Wikipedia mentions an assembly plant in Quebec. But would that have only been for Canadian-sold cars, or would they have sent some of them to the States, as well?
I wonder if your Cutlass Supreme might've been built in Oshawa, Ontario, which I think was/is a very big GM assembly facility.
I'd seen Oshawa-built Chevelles and Monte Carlos at my hometown dealer in NW PA starting in around '73, so Canadian-built cars did come to the States.
I'd never heard of Ste. Therese until the '75 Monza 2+2, Starfire, and Skyhawk. They were all from there. It was supposedly a small plant. I remember reading in a Popular Mechanics' Owners' Survey of '75 Monza 2+2's, owners reported being happier-than-the-normal than most domestics, for fit-and-finish. When the Vega started selling like crazy in '74, Ste. Therese was the overflow plant beyond Lordstown in the States.
Not sure, but I think Ste. Therese is gone. I know that Camaros and Firebirds up to the '02's were built there.
I know most of my Honda and Acura products were made in Ohio. Mavericks made in Mexico. No clue about others but I think Chrysler and Nissan were US. And Subaru. Mazdas were Japan.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
US assembly - new car purchases
'77 Cobra II
'97, '99, '01 Accords
'08, '11, '17 X3s
I think that's it.
Pretty sure my two CR-Vs ('98, '02) were Japan or England
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The MINI came from ol' Blighty.
And the Subaru was put together in Indiana.
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2015 Subaru Outback 3.6R / 2024 Kia Sportage Hybrid SX Prestige
My mom's XV30 Camry is a Japan-built car, I remember pointing this out to her before she bought it.
Either the Tempo (85) or Taurus (93) were built in St. Louis or maybe Kansas City (?) - I want to say St. Louis. I remember the UAW sticker had a typo or misspelling that amused me when I was a kid.
Neighbors get the same end of driveway warranty. Convenient since it already parked at the end of the driveway.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
Got your forums mixed up.
The E90 3er and C43 were built in South Africa.
The E83 X3 came from Graz Austria.
The '74 Monte Carlo was hastily assembled in Doraville GA.
The MS3 was a Hiroshima product
The Club Sport was built in Munich
The M6 was a Dingolfing native.
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
BMW is America's largest exporter of vehicles. Most of the SUVs sold around the world are made here in SC
2021 VW Arteon SEL 4-motion, 2018 VW Passat SE w/tech, 2016 Audi Q5 Premium Plus w/tech
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
Euro delivery still exists, you get a free hotel stay and breakfast with it IIRC. The last time I visited the MB Customer Center, I saw the room where customers take delivery.
My old '63 Lark Daytona was picked up by the customer at the South Bend plant, and the build sheet says "Service for Retail Delivery", but that's different I know. I guess the advantage was saving the cost of destination charges, and driving it home.
Did someone at the factory drive it, then it was sold to a U.S. dealer at a good price? Sort of like the old "Brass Hat" GM cars sold through dealers.
Seems surprising that there was recommended service at 300 miles; wonder if it was in for an adjustment of some sort.
I've probably mentioned this before, but I was originally planning on museum delivery on my C8 when I thought I'd get the car in spring or early summer '24, before I switched dealers. But on a '24, museum delivery cost $1,400 on top of the normal destination charge of $1,595. Insane. They do not put you up or buy a meal. People, including my friend, say it's great, and it's all a benefit to the museum there. But yeesh, that's some $$. I'm told you get treated like royalty, get someone who personally goes over your car with you more than a dealer does, and some think the factory make-ready-for-delivery is done by people who know the car better than a dealer. But I just couldn't justify that cost, plus my car was scheduled for production the last week of Sept., and who knows what the weather might've been.
I toured the plant for $5 in 2006 and visited the museum then.
My plan is to go see Graceland to get it off my bucket list. Wife still works and not interested. I see I'll drive right past Bowling Green so will probably do a museum stop. I remember they had a display about styling head Bill Mitchell there and it mentioned he was from my hometown of Greenville, PA.
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The service is an option code on the build card, so the car was ordered with it - it could be Euro delivery and the paperwork was lost to time. I don't have an original invoice or purchase documents. The factory service was at 300 miles, which seems pretty soon. The next service was at ~1800 miles, at the dealer in Santa Monica.
Speaking of Graceland, I was slated to have a work conference in Memphis in a couple weeks, but didn't really want to go, as I knew I would be blowing money on side trips and have some other bills this year. Fortunately, my director said only one person from my group wants to go, and the rest of us don't have to - Graceland will have to wait, as I probably would have done it.
And speaking of factory delivery, this is the room at the MB Customer Center in Sindelfingen where new owners take delivery, I took this pic during my last visit (where you can do a factory tour, I have done it several times):
kyfdx, did you like Graceland? I know that was a long time ago.
By male standards of my age group, I'm not mainstream, that I know--I love seeing historical spots, and places of pop culture. I watch zero sports, and am bored s******* at a beach. I like a fair amount of women musical artists and actors but aren't afraid of '"losing my 'guy card'", LOL.
Wife and I are planning on driving out to Seattle to visit the daughter in the summer. No, not taking the C8, but probably renting a smallish SUV to take stuff out to her that's still in our house. We plan on visiting an old school friend of mine in Wisconsin en route, which we've never done although have been invited for years. If I could, I'd drive up to Plainfield, WI to see two or three sites related to Ed Gein, the inspiration for Norman Bates in 'Psycho', as well as some others in later horror movies. I'm not typically into true crime, but his story is fascinating to me, LOL. Quiet, soft-spoken farmer who was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1957 of murder (and other bad stuff) and lived until 1984 in a Wisconsin mental hospital. Supposedly he never needed medication and was a model resident. Wife is like, "Absolutely not!".
If you are in the Madison area, a tour of the capital building and on Saturday Farmer's Market might be more palatable to your wife.
A little west of there in Verona is Epic Systems where you can do a self directed tour.
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60349-d25408332-Reviews-Epic_Systems-Verona_Wisconsin.html
We had other things to see and do in Memphis (plus, it was sort of on the way to my mother's house in Arkansas, at the time). I would certainly never take a special trip to Memphis just to see it. Not even if you're already half-way there.
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Downside: It was literally 100 F.
There is nothing around Graceland, that's for sure.
The Lane Auto Museum is in Nashville. That's worth a stop.
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I worked in Nashville for six months in 2006, and I did see the Lane Museum, Bowling Green, and Jack Daniel Distillery. Enjoyed them all, although my coworker from OH and I were concerned that Jack Daniel took a group tour pic to post on their site and we had played hooky to go there, LOL.
Another place I wish I could get back to is Dealey Plaza and the SIxth Floor Museum in Dallas. I was there in 1994 but would like to get back. The museum is top-notch and covers his presidency as well as the assassination. My wife wouldn't be interested unless we could tie it into seeing the Chip and Joanna Gaines stuff in Waco while we were there.
It's hard for me to believe that someone could be in the Dallas area for an extended period and not go there. But, I know a couple married-couple friends who didn't.
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
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2015 Subaru Outback 3.6R / 2024 Kia Sportage Hybrid SX Prestige
and 11 through 20
Oh, and in obscure cars, yesterday I happened to be looking out the window towards the road, and saw a Pontiac Solstice drive past. Silver with a black roof. And this morning, out running errands, I saw a first-gen MR-2. It was red, with a thick black stripe down the hood, that took up most of the hood area.
Hummer H3 Sport Utility Truck
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That Cutlass was a very good vehicle for us and too whatever we threw at it. It was to be our last domestic as it was traded on a 1993 Toyota Camry and we never looked back!
2023 Hyundai Kona Limited AWD (wife) / 2025 VW GTI (me) / 2019 Chevrolet Cruze Premier RS (daughter #1) / 2020 Hyundai Accent SE (daughter #2) / 2023 Subaru Impreza Base (son)
I'm totally drawing a blank on how much they wanted for it. But in the end, my Granddad took me to a local junkyard, and we found a 1981 Malibu that was the same light blue color as mine. We bought the header panel/grille/headlight cluster etc, for $210 with tax, and Granddad put it on for me.
That said--ever try to actually rest your arm on those carved-out armrests?
They're pretty forward of the seat, and it's not at all a natural resting of the arm!
I remember my Dad just shaking his head at those rear-door windows, and also how the spare was suddenly a 'donut'. I get it. The mid-sizes were downsized even more in-your-face than the full-sizes the year before. Still, they're all probably the last GM cars I liked a whole lot.
Your post made me realize that the Malibu went away after '83, while the B-O-P sedans and wagons continued.
As for those stationary rear door windows, on the earlier models, the ones with the big "picture windows" that had the vents in the C-pillar, there was hardly any room at all for that window to roll down inside the door. One of my friends had a '78 Malibu Classic 4-door. One night leaving work he cut a corner too close and snagged a guardrail with the rear passenger door. It gouged it deep enough to tear through the sheetmetal. I found a back door off of a '78-80 LeMans in the junkyard for something like $50 or $75 (can't remember which now) and got it for him, and helped him put it on. Well, tried to help. I couldn't get it to line up right, and had to get the help from the neighbor in back, who was a guru when it came to cars.
The LeMans was a pale yellow with a bucksin interior, whereas the Malibu was dark blue with a light blue interior. We swapped the interior trim, so it would line up. And eventually, my friend's wife got tired of seeing a midnight blue car with a pale yellow back door, and took a spray paint can to it.
I held onto that damaged '78 Malibu door for awhile, and remember pulling it apart enough that I was able to get the window glass out of it. I do remember noticing that, inside the door, there really was very little space, so that big window would have only been able to roll down a couple inches, at best. Plus, with roll-down windows, I believe the glass extends much further under the window sill, to attach to the lift mechanism. With these stationary windows, the amount of glass below the sill was smaller. I forget now, how exactly it was held in place.
Now on wagons, and the later 4-door models with the more formal roofline, which had the flip-out vent in the rear part of the door, I have a feeling they could have made those windows roll down about half way, if they really wanted to.
As for the recessed armrests, I haven't been in the back seat of one of these models since my grandparents' 1982 Malibu wagon, so I don't have much memory of it. But I've heard that, that their placement is really awkward. One of my friends has a 2020 or so Nissan Kicks, and one time I rode in it, and noticed the same thing about its armrest...
GM takes a lot of flack for those fixed windows, but I can sort of see the rationale at the time. When they downsized the big cars the year before, some versions did lose about 3" of shoulder room. I think it was mostly the B-bodies, but the C-bodies had thicker door panel padding, so they probably stayed about the same. But I think something like an Impala or Caprice dropped from around 64.3" to 61.5". BUT, that was still comparable to existing full-sized cars on the market, so they were still competitive. They could still hold six passengers if needed, and actually had a bit more trunk space than the cars they replaced. The only thing they really gave up was towing capacity, but still could be equipped to tow something like 5,000 lb.
Meanwhile, I think most midsized cars, sedans at least, had about 59" of shoulder room. I think GM's Colonades had around 59.6" up front, slightly less in the back. So, the downsized B-bodies were still bigger inside than the typical midsize.
But, most compacts were around 56-57" I think (although the Maverick and Granada were narrower). So, when the Malibu got downsized, many of its dimensions were closer to that of the existing compacts than they were the existing midsized cars. So, it really had to prove itself, that it really WAS still a roomy, midsized car.
Funny thing though, even if they gave it normal rear doors with roll down windows, I think it still beat out any existing compact, or "downsized intermediates" that were based on compacts, like the '81-82 Granada, '83-86 LTD, M-body Diplomat/Gran Fury/5th Avenue, K-car derivatives, etc. So even without taking into account the recessed armrests, they still would've been the roomiest midsized cars around, once the LTD-II and the Monaco/Fury went away. I think when the '86 Taurus/Sable came out, they were the first car to beat out the Malibu and its variants in shoulder room, after downsizing set in.
However, I don't know if they compared air flow of the vent to a window that rolled all the way down or even half way, or to the big "picture windows", which would not have gone down much at all?
And, that really only applies to higher speeds. On a hot day at lower speeds, and stop and go driving, you're going to roast in the back seat with those stationary windows. It almost makes air conditioning mandatory. I'd imagine the majority of cars in this class were ordered with a/c by 1978 anyway, though.
I'd have to think though, that if enough people got fed up with those stationary windows, they would have complained and GM would have done something about it. But, people kept buying the danged things, right up until the last Cutlass Supreme sedan in 1987!
Towards the end though, I imagine that most Cutlass Supreme sedans were bought by older people who rarely needed the back seat, unless they had the grandkids, or were going out on the town with another couple. I think a lot of them ended up as rentals, too. One thing I've noticed about older people is that they tend to prefer air conditioning, to fresh air, and are less willing to deal with opening windows on a hot day. So they probably didn't care that the back windows didn't roll down. And I even notice it with myself. I'm less tolerant of heat/humidity as I get older, and I'm pretty quick to turn on the a/c.
The X-cars, introduced about 18 months later, did not have fixed rear door glass.
I believe the first K-cars had fixed rear-door glass, but that got changed at some later point.
Now that I think about it, the four-door Chevette was also introduced for the '78 model year, and it had roll-down rear windows. (My wife was driving a '78 when we got married in 1989. Bought her a new 4-door Corsica 5-speed in spring '90 and you'd have thought she was driving something expensive.)
However, one other possibility, is that the Dodge 400 and LeBaron debuted in 1982, and I think it was mid-year. They had roll-down windows in back. So because of that, it was probably easier to just make them all roll down, rather than have some fixed, and some roll-down.
One nice feature would have been to have a roll-down window in back AND a flip out vent.
I think with compact cars and subcompacts, air conditioning was much less likely to be ordered, so fresh-air ventilation was more important in them, than it was in larger cars. That's most likely why many smaller, cheaper coupes back then at least had flip-out windows in back, while the larger, more expensive ones were fixed.
Also, in 1978 inflation was pretty bad, and I think that's one reason why GM did things like making the V6 engines standard in the downsized personal luxury coupes, and making automatics optional again. That way they could advertise the base price of a 1978 Monte Carlo as not being that much more than a 1977. Even if it was, once you equipped it to be more comparable.
So yeah, things like the stationary windows in the 4-doors, and compact spare tires were done with cost-cutting in mind. But, if inflation hadn't been so bad and buyers were worried about sticker shock, I wonder if some of those cost cutting/weight reduction measures wouldn't have been so extreme. There were also those CAFE standards they had to worry about, where they had to get the fleet average above a certain MPG, or face fines. Most of the masses wouldn't recognize a 0.1 mpg increase, but the auto makers would sell their souls to the Devil himself, to avoid those fines.