Exactly, just poorly built British crap...you know its bad when being bought by Ford IMPROVED their build quality. British cars had a lot of charm, but build quality was not one of their strong suits

 

Reliability was arguably worse.

 

Yep.

But what I was saying to you and Jill is that regardless, that's a nice feature on GM cars.

My Dad had a few Sevilles one a 1987, it had a trip computer or whatever that would give you the coolant temp down to the degree, volts, the whole 9 yards. Very advanced for the time.

I thought the 2003 gone Yukon was awesome when it was new because it had all of that and personalization customs all through the display that Japanese companies didn't. Business trip settings, hourometer, all the lighting down to specifics, extremely comprehensive etc. GM has always been good at that.

We also had a 1988 Toronado (lovvvvved that car) which was all digital, it had auto lamps but I just thought it was awesome "Headlamps Suggested" would pop up if you had auto lamps off. Auto headlamps, for that matter, that stayed on after exit, used to be an American thing pretty much too IIRC.

Those are American traits, sorta like how horns and cigarette lighters still work, or they did in older ones when the cars are off.

 

Steve, for Kia try Kia of Muncie. It may be a little too far from you in Indiana but these guys are pretty good.

They were doing Costco pricing on the Telluride since it went on sale. ($1,000 off MSRP). Naturally, they have a very long waiting list on orders. They may have deals on the Carnival. The guy's name is Lucas. I remember they were picking up people from the airport if the buyer flew in from an another state.

 

I can ship it and it would still be cheaper than paying an ADM lol. Theres also a dealer in WV that doesn't charge an ADM, I'll find somebody. I appreciate that!

Dropped the Mercedes off to have the front tires put on. Really nice shop where I have that done, they gave me a nice little Nissan loaner. Nothing fancy but free and super clean with a nice cold bottle of water in the cupholder. Mercedes' loaners are filthy and no nice touches like that.

World's smallest backup camera lol





Spotless inside

 

I see some interesting cars discussed. My uncle had a 2002 Jaguar X Type. He generally liked the car and was quite pleased with the V8 until we were coming home from dinner. My brother and uncle decided to have some stoplight to stoplight fun and my brother was in his 2000 GS400 with my folks in his car while I was riding with my uncle and aunt. The GS delivered a savage thrashing on the X Type after which my uncle conceded, the V8 sounds good. He had lots of issues with that car such as random warning lights and a seatbelt buzzer that would buzz randomly, yet incessantly at those times, all while all passengers had their seatbelt fastened.

The Lexus SC430 is a car I really wanted to like. It has so many good and well executed ideas, but falls flat on the actual appearance of the car. If I look at the car, I picture a country club / golf course crowd buying them and that’s largely who did buy them, but not in huge numbers iirc. I don’t know if the trunk was even big enough for two golf bags . I did see one at the unveiling of the LS460 in 2005 (for the incoming 2006 redesign) in Torrance. It was lowered and supercharged. Completely bad ***. The owner was a visionary.

They are not really comparable cars, but I will compare them anyway. The LC500 does not need a visionary. It is dead sexy. It doesn’t meet any of my needs but I want one.

 

Yeah. SC430 was really nice.

I always liked Cadillacs leather they were using in the mid 90s. They had a branded name, I loved it in beige.

I agree they are nice features. It is something that GM does well. But Japan does a few things differently, for example...compare the Chevrolet Trailblazer in the 2000s to my 4Runner of that era. The Trailblazer lacked a choice of V6 or V8 (Envoy eventually had a V8) Lacked full time 4WD feature that was offered on V8. Lacked a 5 speed transmission. Lacked side curtain air bags. was about 1100lbs short on trailering capacity. Lacked a 3rd row seat option (had to pony up for the EXT version) where the GM body on frame model made up for it was interior features and more options of drive axles etc. Japan can easily add these interior things if they wanted to.

Looking back, I think the SC430 is the nicer car than the LC500. The best version of the SC is the end of cycle models with the updates. Both cars suffer from no AWD option and the big flaw is the idiotic rear seats when it should be a 2 seater. And there is the remote touch debacle

 

LOL, in high school my friend had a 1989 Oldsmobile Trofeo (this was in 1996) that he bought from his grandfather (!!). He drove that thing so hard - most 16 and 17 year old boys do the same, but I mean he drove it HARD on a different level and it would really cruise at high speeds. It had those huge comfortable leather seats, a pretty decent sound system, and as you mention the all digital dash. The abuse that thing took was really unreal and it just kept on going - we used to joke that the Trofeo would never die. He ultimately handed it down to his younger brother in the early 2000's and it survived another couple of years.

 

The leather was very nice, and the zebrano wood was very nice...it was the padded dash material that would lose its shape and the overall build quality that was really the issue. Then there was the switchgear and ergonomics that really were from the 80s. My Dad's STS interior looked like this, you can see the really ancient radio head unit and the HVAC controls right up next to the small gauge cluster where they could only be operated by the driver, and were blocked by the steering wheel



An overall shot, his had the newer 4 spoke steering wheel like in the first picture



Always have a soft spot for that though, thats the car I took my drivers test in.

 

Oh man, that car. Ours wasn't a Trofeo, but completely loaded $25,000 Toronado. Grey with red leather. As a child that was the coolest car in the world to me. Remember the shifter? Lovvvvvvved the headlights, especially the Trofeo's.

Great car, that was back when people bought coupes (I spent most of my childhood climbing in and out of the back) even with kids.

And yeah, my Dad drove it gently but my Mom ragged it out. Replaced an alternator and I think that was it, one of the passenger seat motors and of course the power antenna broke but that was it. 3800 was great, felt plenty fast for the time considering everything else was so slow then in general.

Dad sold it with 175k miles and still saw it driving around town for several years after. GM isn't perfect but I hate when people just blindly hate them when they clearly are capable of building good cars.

 

That generation STS eventually got updated to a more modern display radio HVAC. Leather seats were updated as well. Same with the shifter. Northstar engine was also added mid cycle. What year did you have? I am trying to remember the name of the leather they had but I can find it now

 

It did, in 96 was a huge upgrade. Right after he got his 95, he was not pleased lol. His had the Northstar, I think it was added in 93? Maybe 94. I can't remember the name of the leather either, but it was thick beautiful leather.

This is the 96 upgrade:



His was black with chrome wheels like this, super great looking car:

 

my dad had a 96. I remember it fondly. I
loved the leather seats. It was a bad money pit. EVERYTHING broke. And I remember my telling when the transmission was stuck in 3rd gear, he couldn’t get past 50mph. Utter garbage. The engine was solid for this experience. Just everything else was pathetic

 

Oh yeah, it was not a good car lol. My dad's was a lease, but he drove a lot back then and it had almost 70k miles on it after 3 years and **** was falling off the interior, rattles everywhere...trading it in for the LS400 was like a revelation. That car finally was what made him say enough was enough with American cars.

Then the northstar and head gaskets basically totaled them...

 

I'm not disagreeing with you. GM's build-quality left a lot to be desired in the 1990s....but the STS had one of the best GM interiors of the period. They just weren't all that well-assembled.