Project Cars--You Get to Vote on "Hold 'em or Fold 'em"

texases

Olds 98: "This would make a great car for the summer" translation-"You'll never get this started in the cold weather". I guess I'm just an 'engine' guy, but why not take 15 minutes and a roll of paper towels and wipe down the engine compartment? Especially when they're trying to get some extra value from the engine option?

Mr_Shiftright

Guy's dreaming on the price I think. It's an Olds 98 for gawd's sake, practically a sale-proof car.

andre1969

kinda reminds me of a '69 Bonneville I once had, in that it had a really nice interior, but the body was getting pretty ratty. That Bonneville was a $400 car, and I'd be willing to part with that much for this 98. I don't think this particular car looks very good as a hardtop coupe. The 4-door hardtops were much more attractive, IMO.

I think that '65 Bonneville limo is cool, though. I imagine it would be a major undertaking to restore that interior back to original. I guess the best you could do is just some authentic looking custom fabric?

toomanyfumes

The middle seat on the Bonnie looks like an afterthought. You'd probably be better off just removing it, unless you have a bunch of people to haul around.

benjaminh

I think this guy is fooling himself on the price, but otherwise it looks nice....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1988-OLDS-TORONADO-EXTRA-CLEAN_W0QQitemZ230174854- - 504QQihZ013QQcategoryZ31865QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

PS Shifty: How is it going with your new car purchase? I've bought a 2008 Accord EXL, white with ivory leather, with the navigation and a 5-speed manual transmission. Since there was not a single car in the country like this, my dealer has special ordered it. The Honda factory in Ohio will probably built it in late October or early November...

steine13

If you talk to him, tell him Mathias says Hello, and here's a fresh supply of exclamation marks:
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He seems to have used up all of his.

-Mathias

xwesx

"but appears to have been garage kept and hasn't seen much fowl weather !"

As is evidenced, of course, by the lack of bird droppings on the paint. :P

texases

'88 Toronado - in name only, sad end to an interesting model. Gotta love "The 3800 V6 is by far the best engine that General Motors has ever built !" All you Corvette owners, yank out those small blocks and get a 3800!!!

andre1969

a sad ending indeed, but I kinda like it. Probably because it's in such nice shape. I've always liked hidden headlights. Unfortunately, with this car, when the headlight covers get stuck open (and they probably will, eventually), the car looks almost like a Calais. And that's what killed these things, sales-wise. Most people figured why get a Riv or Toro when you could get a Somerset Regal or Calais for half the price. Sure, these E-bodies were much nicer, upscale cars, but at a quick glance they still looked too similar. I'm guessing these cars either sent buyers over to the Mark VII in droves, or got people to face the fact that the personal luxury coupe was a dying breed.

I really liked those final Toronados, the style from around 1991-93 I guess, where they tacked about a foot onto the back of the car to try to make it look big again. Didn't work for sales, but I thought it made for a cool looking car.

Mr_Shiftright

Congrats on the new car. I'm just waiting until my decks are cleared. Too much going on to think about buying a car! Since it's my only car, the process can be very disruptive to my work. I'll let you know.

One problem is the COLOR for the new MINI.

black is really too dull
white with a black top is....okay....
oxygen blue w/ white is nice, and unusual, but (I fear) a bit girly-man as Arnold says.

red with a white top looks pretty good but is very common

yellow with a black roof looks kinda cartoony

lt. blue metallic with white or black is not bad

BRG with white type is classic but not very flashy

maroon is (to me) ugly on this car

british_rover

Mine was Chili Red with a black top. If I get another one it will probably be either a Dark blue with a white or black top.

qbrozen

You were saying?

texases

Great rack :P

andre1969

Is this color the Oxygen Blue?


I actually like that color. I always called it "75 LeSabre blue", mainly because it seemed a common color on them. And if I were to buy a '75 LeSabre, I'd want one in that color with a white top and white interior. I think they called that color "Arctic Blue" on Pontiacs, but I'm sure they gave it other names for the other GM divisions. Seems like GM only used it in '75, though.

Maybe they should have just given it a better name? When I hear "Oxygen", I think of a tv network geared towards man-bashers that airs nothing but made-for-tv movies starring Valerie Bertinelli and that dude that did the voice for Johnny Quest!

I remember a few years back, here at work I saw a Mini parked next to a '75 or so Buick Riviera. Interestingly, they were both almost the same color. The Mini was British Racing Green with a white top, and the Riv was a GM approximation of BRG, with a white landau roof. Kinda interesting, seeing two cars at opposite ends of the spectrum, with the same color scheme.

Mr_Shiftright

get thee behind me satan!

That MGB-GT (or a "MEGUB-JUT" as we like to call them) is SOOOOOO tempting.....it's got everything (except maybe the color)...overdrive, sunroof and it's a '67.

MINI--I can't tell from the photo...I do know that oxygen blue is not a metallic color.

Here it is. I think your picture is oxygen blue but is in a strange light. ">

british_rover

I think that picture is Electric Blue.

Indi Blue was always my favorite blue but they discontinued it a while ago.





That is a better picture.

andre1969

Yeah, it could just be the lighting, or how the pictures were played with graphically, after the fact. I like the color the way it shows up on that computer rendering better than the way it did in the pic I posted. In the computer rendering, on my monitor at least, it seems to have a bit of green in the blue, whereas the pic I posted seems blue-er.

Mr_Shiftright

Oxygen in real life is a somewhat flat color. It's like a pastel.

british_rover

Lightning blue seems to be very close to the old Indi blue.

Mr_Shiftright

I feel so stupid: "Should I get the blue, or the red, or ???"

british_rover

You sound like about half of my women clients and a third of the men.

:P

Mr_Shiftright

oh god help me. What have I become?

qbrozen

When the mini was first coming out and they put up the build site, I automatically picked BRG w/ white top. I mean, what else is there? It is just what it was meant to be. Just like when I ordered an '02 WRX. The guy asked what color and it seemed silly to me. What else but Subaru Racing Team Blue? Some vehicles just NEED to be a certain color.

fintail

Such great styling

I guess it has a little character

qbrozen

that '60 lincoln has a line I don't believe I've ever read in a car ad before:
Not interested in newer cars and I don't need any more guns.

british_rover

One of the reasons I didn't go BRG with a white roof when I got my MINI is that I think that color only really looks RIGHT with tan interior.

The only way to get tan interior back then was to order leather and no way was I paying 1,300 dollars for three square yards of Leather when BMW leatherette is nearly as good.

Now I am in the same situation with the C30. I really want the calcite interior but that only comes in leather for 1,200 dollars. :sick:

qbrozen

Good god, the C30 is just a crazy phsychological experiment in self control. The color options on it are pretty extensive. I really liked the red carpets option, personally.

british_rover

I don't need any more guns.

I don't know about that you can never have too much firepower.

What if the Necronomicon in unleashed again? :shades: :surprise:

qbrozen

yet as soon as you pick a 2.0 car and give it those red carpets and black leather, you've got yourself a $28k car. Ouch! You could do without the leather, but its still like $26k.

Edit: OH! But you can get a 1.0 car and NOT have to take leather to get the red carpets! nice! Passion red outside, black t-tec inside with red carpets and floormats. Pretty sharp! $23.8k.

british_rover

I do like that contrasting carpet vs the seats but my wife doesn't really like it. We both like the Brilliant blue so that is a good compromise.

Brilliant blue with Calcite Leather in the 2.0 version with xenons and heated seats.

Don't ask me how much cause I don't know and it really doesn't matter. My buddy the sales manager is keeping an eye out for employee lease deals and when one pops up I will just get added to the Volvo dealership employee rolls for a week to take advantage of it. :shades: :P

qbrozen

can i be your buddy's buddy, too? ;b

british_rover

Well I am already an employee of the company since the volvo dealership is part of the same organization that my Land Rover dealership is a member of.

Its just a matter of a few key strokes to make me an employee of that dealership.

Mr_Shiftright

$1,300 for leather? I think you can buy an entire live cow for that in some parts of the country. You could skin it for the leather and still have the rest to eat.

andre1969

Heck, those people that live in the woods behind me, the Geins, are always giving me leather stuff for free...just being neighborly I guess. So I'm guessing leather can be had pretty cheap. But there's something oddly...familiar, about the texture of this leather sofa they just gave me. I tell ya though, they make a mean beef stew! :surprise:

british_rover

English and Swedish cars are more expensive they are Union you know.

Mr_Shiftright

I think the best hides come from countries where they don't use barb wire.

fintail

The price on this Andre-mobile has to be an error

benjaminh

It's in rough shape, and yet already up to 10k. If it could be fixed I think it'd be a very nice car...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1958-ALFA-MOMEO-MILANO_W0QQitemZ170155099142QQihZ- 007QQcategoryZ5356QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

british_rover

Agreed.

Do they have Barbwire in France? I would think not [non-permissible content removed] animal rights oriented as France is.

Mr_Shiftright

Why is he calling it a Milano?

The bid is plenty already. You can buy these already done for $25K

210delray

I don't think it's an error, rather it's a fantasy on the part of the seller.

I can think of few cars that regressed so badly in styling than the early 70s large Pontiacs (compared to their early-mid 60s predecessors). This one's brown even -- gag! :sick:

andre1969

I can think of few cars that regressed so badly in styling than the early 70s large Pontiacs (compared to their early-mid 60s predecessors). This one's brown even -- gag!

I'm starting to gain a new appreciation for the big '71-76 Pontiacs, but I agree, their styling went downhill REAL fast! I think part of the problem was trying to apply that neoclassic Grand Prix style to the big cars. Those tall, narrow grilles just don't work on a large, wide car IMO. And the headlights mounted so far inward just make the car look fat.

In comparison, I think the '71-76 Buicks are gorgeous, except maybe the '74 models, which I think looked a little overdone with the headlights separated the way they did. I like the Oldsmobiles too, although I never cared for the peaks between the headlights on the '71-72 models. Chevies were good looking too, although there's something about the front-end of the '73's that I didn't like.

I think the big Pontiacs might be one of those rare styles where they got better looking with each year's facelift. While the '72 is nothing to crow about, I think it looks better than the '71. And the '73, which had more of a full-width grille and the headlights mounted a bit further out, better still. The '74 was kind of a mixed bag. I liked the fact that the headlights were still mounted pretty far outward, but it was again saddled with a too-small, too-tall grille that just seemed out of place. By '75-76, I thought they finally got the front-end right, with a properly sized grille.

And when they downsized for '77, the Pontiacs were my favorite of the GM cars...especially the Catalina. But by then, I think the damage had been done. The Bonneville sold tolerably for 1977-79, but they almost could have retired the Catalina on the spot. I think it sold about 60K units for 1977 and was down to around 40K for '79. I think the people who would have ordinarily bought big Pontiacs had dispersed to the Caprice/Impala, Delta, and LeSabre. The Catalina used to be a lot of car for the money, giving you a standard 389 or 400 V-8, whereas the Impala over the years had as its standard engine a 6-cyl, 350, or 305. The Catalina was also a bigger car, which mattered to people at one time. But by 1977 they were about the same size. I think some trim odds and ends made the '77 Catalina a couple inches longer, but it rode the same wheelbase. And it was reduced to a standard 231 V-6. The Impala had a 250 straight-six, which ended up being the better engine!

210delray

Good analysis!

I agree with you that the Buicks overall were the best-looking GM large cars in the 1971-76 period. As for the downsized next generation models, I preferred the Chevys over the rest.

andre1969

Thanks. There's a pretty good spread on the big '71-76 Buicks in the current "Collectible Automobile". Kinda got me jonesing for one! I remember when the downsized Impala and Caprice came out. I really liked them alot, especially the coupe models with that wraparound rear window. And they looked really sharp in 2-tone combos.

Back in high school, my English teacher had a '78 Catalina, 2-tone burgundy, with a 400 that she wanted to sell. Only wanted $500 for it. I would've snatched it up in a heartbeat, but I was only 17, and my Mom & stepdad wouldn't let me have it.

Another big car from the 70's that I thought was really good looking was the big Dodge Monaco/Plymouth Fury from around 1974-75. The style with the quad headlights and the simple, uncluttered grille. They looked like they were heavily influenced by the '71-72 Buicks. I really didn't care for 'em as much when they went to the hidden headlights (Royal Monaco) or the big single headlights (Gran Fury). These Dodges and Plymouths were sold mainly as police cars and taxis, so I imagine they'd be pretty rare today. Seems like the '74-78 Newport/New Yorker had a good survival rate, though.

fintail

For the money...what the heck

Rare, but apparently once lived at the bottom of a lake

Mr_Shiftright

Rare, but who cares?

andre1969

I remember Louie the garbage man having one of those in "Chico and the Man". There was an episode where they were trying to sell it, with no luck, and Chico says "It ain't easy trying to sell a Stoodiebaker in a Chebby neighborhood!"

benjaminh

This isn't a project car, but a new Cadillac. I think it's a nice looking car, although a bit over the top. It got me to thinking, though, about which of the big 3 has had the best styling over the years. For me it's GM. Ford and Chrysler did some nice cars, but over the years it seems to me GM came out with more true winners than the other two. I even think that bloated Pontiac was ok in its way. Anyway, a bit nicer than the Fords and Chryslers of the era, imho. Any thoughts?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/NEW-2008-Cadillac-CTS-V6-Luxury-Perf-Sedan-Crysta- - - l-Red_W0QQitemZ110174226174QQihZ001QQcategoryZ43903QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZ- - - ViewItem

Mr_Shiftright

it is kind of over the top. I peeked in the interior of one recently and it's trying too hard. But all in all, Cadillac is putting a lot of juice into improvements and it shows.

Not sure about that V-6 engine though. I've heard it's not very impressive.

oregonboy

I think the tires are too shiney :shades:
james