Meet Sheila!

[daveamkrayoguy]

Yes, GM seemed to emphasize style over practicality. They did some dumb things like seatbelts anchored to the front doors. Their rear drive cars had the steering gear mounted in front of the tie rods, and the driving position was a tad off center. The big 3-4 in general did nice interiors.

What bad safety ratings those got…

Consumer Reports sure emphasized how the front seat occupants could get pulled out of those cars that had them & it didn’t help that those were the final model Caprices with the ‘77 bodies in production until 1990, many used as police cars…

Ford was also using those two, and I read the praise CR gave them for discontinuing the old, slow, awkward and unsafe motorized seat belts…

Yes what a dumb idea, and who knows how many cars out there kept up still have them maybe in workable condition…

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

GM has always been a bit spotty on ergonomics... I rented a Corsica last century that had nice clicky power window switches, but the click had nothing to do with when the contacts made. You had to push the switch a bit further to get the windows to go down. They just don't get it... And I think I'd rather have just two or three intermittent wiper settings than the spastic full-automatic version my C Class has, my I think my '24 V60 uses the adaptive cruise camera for that, and it's much better. The Benz has some sort of sensor or camera up by the rear view mirror that can see the drops on the glass. Never has been a "great" feature. And Plymouth sold a Mitsubishi called the Sapporo in the late 70's that I think was the first car to have illuminated keyholes on the doors... It had a plethora of interior courtesy lights and other buttons nobody else had, even Caddy. That should have sold a boatload of 'em, right there!

I rented a Corsica, I wanted a Barretta and didn’t know if a basic white with a red interior, a bright red basic model a gray interior or a metallic burgundy Z-26 with a black inferior, all in cloth, was right for me…

I liked the knobs for the lights on that left part of the dash and for the wipers and washer on the right… It was cool how for a moment something went back to the way those controls used to be placed…

I thought the newer Cavalier was done that way too, but it used stalks like the imports off the steering column and its similar knobs just controlled panel dimming on the left and turned on the interior lights on the right…

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Okay here’s the color box for the ambient strip lighting much like how you do colors for characters or character backgrounds on the computer:

Decided what red I had adjusted it to from the purple it came with was enough and didn’t really want to try or trifle yet with the other colors nor adjust any hue that “lever” was for…

The car was turned off with only the accessories on, such a feature may probably not be used while driving, which I hadn’t attempted but think I may get that warning if I do, which leaves me with the car running and burning gas, spewing out carbon monoxide and perhaps when I’m home from somewhere and want to get in or on my way to quickly go somewhere—so I waste time, my car, and/or my life doing the unnecessary feature of that—forget it!

—need more operable wipers and fewer of those electronic do-dads so my under dash bulb will be placed where it will light or be a bulb and not an LED and light better under there like my jeep cherokee did…

Oh but I love my steering column shift, if only cars went to that instead of just making bulky, intrusive levers or had gone to the push/pull buttons I enjoyed on my old Buick Envision…

My Chrysler 200 had a dial, unfortunately a lot of drivers dislike and gets put on everything even jeeps and ram pickup trucks to this very day!

 

[pstehle]

William8, most every newer engine has at least one turbo. Except thirsty V-8's.
Dave, some transmission sport modes switch the cluster to display rpm's and or boost. Try the buttons and toggle through the settings to

Actually, I've rented a number of V8 4WD F150's that got better mileage than my turbo 3.5L. I sit at about 19 and they've averaged a hair shy of 24. And the power was about the same, even a little quicker.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Actually, I've rented a number of V8 4WD F150's that got better mileage than my turbo 3.5L. I sit at about 19 and they've averaged a hair shy of 24. And the power was about the same, even a little quicker.

Yes, I am missing my 2021 Jeep Cherokee 4WD V-6... Wish I kept...

 

[vacerator]

Dave, my neighbor liked her V6 Cherokee too, but you don't want to won one long term. That Pentastar V6 tears up cam phasers, and it's an expensive repair. The extended warranties are as expensive.
Pesthle the Ford 3.5 V6 was economical when it was in use, but the 2.7 is more so. The internal coolant pump of the 3.5 can fail not leaking externally, and result in catastrophic failure when coolant mixes with the oil. The V8 for an F150 is the way to go. Not perfect, but cheaper to repair than the 2.7.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Dave, my neighbor liked her V6 Cherokee too, but you don't want to won one long term. That Pentastar V6 tears up cam phasers, and it's an expensive repair. The extended warranties are as expensive.
Pesthle the Ford 3.5 V6 was economical when it was in use, but the 2.7 is more so. The internal coolant pump of the 3.5 can fail not leaking externally, and result in catastrophic failure when coolant mixes with the oil. The V8 for an F150 is the way to go. Not perfect, but cheaper to repair than the 2.7.

Arrgh, no wonder when my lease was up, the ending wasn't happy... To the point that I didn't want to drive her those five more years... A few instances along the way, not to be mentioned were a couple of damages I'd done, one hitting my wife's car backing her out and another backed into another before that, months after getting... And somehow some yellow road paint got accumulated along the driver's rocker panel and in summation, owed over $2000 when I had turned her in... But she was the one rugged ride, getting me through a few harsh drives during some winters, though also in a spring and summer needed to replace both front and rear, two flat tires on the passenger side... And a few bugs worked out putting her in the shop during the first week to month of driving--may have also been warranty/recall-related there...